Dons trading journal GBP/USD

[Don4 10]

I would like to start a journal to keep track of my trading. My system is completly mechanical. And there is no technical or fundamentals involved.

when i get a signal i take it no matter what!!!!! My money management is always 2to1, based on a risk of 2%.So when i enter a trade im in it till SL or TP is hit.I either lose 2% or make 4% of my account for that day.I only make 1 trade a day and some days there will be no trades.with this said here is my first trade with live account for this system.

 

 

 

Short-1.9622

TP-1.9564

SL-1.9651

TP Hit +58pips or +4% - commission

[Don4 10]

Well,its good to get that first trade out of the way! Today was perfect, placed the trade before I left for work and by the time I got to work it was closed out for profit. Even though I know this is going to be a long journey I honestly feel prepared this time. I know through backtesting and forward testing what to expect with my system so I just need to be realistic,and stick to the plan.Even though this is a very simple system it could also be one of the hardest,there will be many days where it will be well into profit just to have it turn to take out my stops.(but i know this in advance)I feel very confident that I have put myself in the best position that i could possably be in. I know the losses will come more than the winners and im well prepared for this. So all i can do is take it day by day and focus on the big picture,long term.

[torero 10]

Is there any chance we can see the equity curve of the backtesting results?

[Don4 10]

Torero,im at work now ill post it as soon as i get to the house.

[Don4 10]

12hr shifts and the 1hr drive home is a killer:D

[torero 10]

Take your time, Don, no hurry. Your system is off to a good start, best of luck. What platform did you build the system on? Are you using the same broker or is it route through another broker?

[Don4 10]

Torero, all my backtesting was done on metatrader manually from two different brokers with same results.All my data is on excel, yea I know not very good way to backtest but sometimes you have to work with what u got. I am now using EFX as my broker so I will have to do a little tweaking.instead of sending my excel file i thought it would be better to do this.My win% was 42% at 2to1.and here was my equity curve

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1126&stc=1&d=1174526592

[torero 10]

Very nice, Don! Looks good to me, I can't see the drawdowns so not sure what's the percentage of drawdown to equity. What criteria/formulas do you use to filter out good from bad strategies? Does EFX have connection to metatrader? Or you have to enter the orders in manually? I've been testing out some strategies on metatrader but stopped when I found out neither EFX or MBTrading have direct automatic routing to orders. If you do have that, I may just start again.

[Don4 10]

Torero I do enter my trades manually,no there is no connection to EFX,but the reason I say it is mechanical I have certain list of rules once i enter a trade everything is set from the start SL and TP ,so once im in thats it.

[steveshutts 10]

Don,

well done mate, that is the way to go. Make it as mechanical as you can and try and trade the same way all the time. It will free you from the emotional stress and as you say, you know that it will work for you if you monitor it over a series of trades.

I hope you have found your edge, the win/loss and risk/reward calculations are good. I have come to realise that unless you have balls of steel or have been institutionally trained or have been mentored then this is the way to go.

Trade like a casino, with no hope or fear placed on individual trades, knowing that your edge will play out over time.

The fact that you have created a system that allows you to either take profit of get stopped is great. There is no room for emotional torture as you decide whether to pull the trade or to let it run.

I will be keenly monitoring your progress, good luck mate.

[Don4 10]

Thanks steve for your comments,each trader has to find what works for them this seems to work good for me. Even though backtesting is not a guarantee

It does help build confedience and it gives u an idea of what to expect. There is only one true way to test a system and that is what im doing now!

[Don4 10]

Man this one happened quick!!!

 

 

Short

Trade#2 +44pips or 4%,-commision

Total- +102pips or 8%, -commision

 

 

I know I will catch alot smack for the way Im posting my trades,and I understand,but u have to understand where I am comming from to.

[Don4 10]

Ok, while I was driving home from work today I was thinking, You guys dont know me,u dont know what im up to or anything,there are so many people on the forums that blow hot air,say how much money theyve got and all that good stuff!!! So ill just put it on the line,I have blown 1 account added to that and finished off the rest of it off in less than a week. From that day on I promised myself I would not go live again until i had a decent game plan to follow so here I am 2 years later after jumping on every bandwagon around in the search of the holygrail having more indacators than u could imagine and couldnt even bring a demo account to a positive level.Yes I worked my butt off everyday reading, demoing,and searching. I would stay up till 2am(eastern time) get up for work at 4am go to work and get back on the computer at work for 12 more hours come home and do it all again, the days when I was off guess where I was you guessd it back on the computer.And get this I am married with 2 kids,So was I being selfish, well to me I was determined to make it to give my family a better life.Like most of us here or at any forum for that matter. And then I relized something Why do 95% of us fail at this or anything else in life. Look above even though I was very determined guess what, I didnt have a plan!!! So now Im back with a plan and a very strict set of rules. I opened up to accounts with $600 dollars in each of them because sometimes 1 trade will last longer than a day and the next day I will have signal in the oppisite direction. So do I think Im going to get rich with what I have in those accounts no, its got to pass the live test for at least 6 months before I add to it.So please if any one has any constructive critisism for me let me have it. But there is something that i feel I owe the ones that will help me along on this journey. From the way I place my trades to let u know I am a honest guy here is my statements from both accounts.Look at the dates and times and compare them with my previous posts.

[Don4 10]

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1130&stc=1&d=1174616184

My Pictures.zip

[Don4 10]

Wow funny thing,been trying to buy at 1.9659 but the order keeps getting rejected all the lights are green but cant get my order out!!!

[Don4 10]

I never expected this out of a ECN:rolleyes:

[Don4 10]

ok lets see my TP would be at 1.9693 ST 1.9642 lets see what would have happened

[Don4 10]

Ok just got to work checked the highs,looks like it made a high of 1.9690 so I would have been stopped out, but I still wish the order would have been accepted :mad: So for now Im done till next week!!!!!

 

 

 

Today-No Trades

Total- +102pips or 8%, -commision

[Don4 10]

Ok I have a question,is it common for order rejects on ECN? There wasnt any big news going on, the spread was even,the market was hardly moving at the time I tried to place my order. Just wondering.

[Don4 10]

well i have three days under my belt now with two perfect trades not because they were winning trades but because i stuck to my plan,but after analizing todays trade i found a problem that could have cost me big time. i will not sugar coat any thing I will tell every mistake that i make (as well as i can remember) during this process and if you see anything else let me know!!! here was my first mistake. I got my signal i was ready and waiting just a few more pips ,i was pretty calm ok (buy) i was following my plan to a tee (order rejected) im thinking in my head what just happened i hit buy again(order rejected) so price went above and turned back down 1.9652 im thinking in my head great i can get in at a better price with less risk but i got to be quick this is where i made my mistake!!! so i reclicked my quotes, so i could place my order (market rejected) and that was it. so what was my mistake? later on i realized i had no stops in place on my third trade.wow, i broke one of my main rules and didnt even realize it! yea price went back up and it wouldnt have heart me but it could have just as easly went down. so i was really lucky today and it was a free lesson, in this big world of forex a simple mistake like that could cost ya big time.

[Don4 10]

I would just like to say that while i post my journal (for u that are following)the way that i trade and my thought process is not for everyone it is only what feels comfortable to me. If you trade a different way great in no way am i saying that i am right and u are wrong ive only been in this live for 3 days (other than my blown account:) ) there are many skilled traders on this site with different opinions than mine and i dont want anyone thinking that i am trying to take away from them with what i post.

[Don4 10]

ok guys need a little advice, I just got home from work looking at my accounts and noticed a open order on my hedge account for -94.50,remember the orders that i placed friday morning,where all my orders were rejected, some how the orders was placed on my second account!!!! (my hedge account) and remember I placed a market order with no stopploss well there was well aparently there was 2 of them. how could they be active orders when they were rejected!!!!

[Don4 10]

The trades in question are under advice in zip. then refer back to post date 3/23/07.

 

 

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1156&stc=1&d=1174873787

My Pictures.zip

[Don4 10]

Ok just got to work checked the highs,looks like it made a high of 1.9690 so I would have been stopped out, but I still wish the order would have been accepted :mad: So for now Im done till next week!!!!!

 

 

 

Today-No Trades

Total- +102pips or 8%, -commision

 

Be carefull what u wish for it might come true!!!

[torero 10]

Great job, Don! Thanks for keeping this thread, I'm reading with keen interest to see your progress. Excellent so far. Don't think that we don't respond doesn't mean we're not reading it. Kee it up!