My Friend the Trend

Did a guerilla counter-trending as you can see on the above image. My step by step thoughts on how i did the trade.

1. Identified the trend to be a down one.
2. Notice a shift in momemtum, a retracement is coming.
3. Get in trade and TP level at purple circle with stop loss 40pips away.

As time passes by, my desired result is not achieved yet.. Major market is opening and realize the ball isnt in my court anymore. It is taking too long. Felt uneasy as im going against my friend the trend. I entered the trade while major markets are closed. Market was quiet. But now the market has awaken and so is my friend... I backstabbed my friend the trend while he is asleep!

I felt guilty and exit my position with a +5pips.

After which, i went on to sell the pair right after my signal appears. Retracement over, time to go back into the supposingly downtrend that i think it is.

Entry on that red arrow... exit circled in green. Around that area which i cant rmb exactly where. Just rmb i got a tidy +60pips.

I hug my friend again~~~~

All my plannings and thinkings and assumptions of the market may not be right. It maybe laughed upon by the experts. But at least i do what i know and plan what i know. Im trading with a plan.

It rrrrreaaaaaalllyyy feels good to plan a trade, carry it out... best of all, end up with a profit.

Bottle
Trade to trade well.

Judgment Call

Gbp/Usd: Short trade.... long yellow lines are my imaginary support and resistance lines. Consolidating for a while and pooof.....

I closed the trade 10 pips short of my take-profit.. and one of those times my gamble is correct. The further it went was 5 pips short of my take-profit.

Orders for Aud/Usd at 1.0200 did not hit.

Very tired from work..

Black.

Gbp/Usd

Been watching the drop for a while but didn't have the confident to enter trade. Came back home "early" after knocking on Tuesday for U.S market. "Felt" the fall of this pair might reach it's "max", there long this pair and closed my position during Asian market today when it hit the 20 SMA. Took this trade & closed it out solely on daily timeframe. Bagged a +220 pips, so happy for a come-back trade!!

As you can see this pair is continuing to go up, which gives me an "urGhh.. what if I held!?!" feeling. But feels good to be back in action especially winning. Memories of previous trades were all losing lol.

Been away for quite some time as like I said previously, I'm still working in this brokerage firm. Working almost like 11-12 hours per day. I'm tired to the max after knocking off. Went home bath and slept. Basically there goes my trading days.

What to do, need to earn to make a living. Cost are rising, monies are depleting - part of the reason why some of us are here too. Time to turn in, have a good weekend people!!

Black.

Some Hope

Held this trade more than 2 days, bagging 145 pips to end the week. Went to 2 job interviews this week.

There is hope after all.

Black.

Chicken Pox, Poker & Trading

It's been a month! So fast. Just a quick update on what's up with us. I am still jobless, spending hours every day job searching but outta luck (sad). I been on poker bug once again for the past month. I withdrawn most of my bankroll out of stars and left a bit for leisure grinding. But I still got stuck, busto and decided for the firstime in my poker career to go on a infinite hiatus. 

I been neglecting this site, trading and Bottle for some time.. leaving the lone spartan fighting against the armies of Xerxes himself. We still catch up every week, Bottle and I, he is still actively trading, but I caught chicken pox a week back and had been stuck at home miserably. Yeah, what an age to get infected. I'm sure most of you don't even remember the time when you had it. I've seen the western doctor and they gave me anti-viral pills and didn't mention about not eating anything. 

My mum, on the other hand, is a classic eastern style believer. During my days of infection, she said I was not allowed to eat chicken, beans, nuts, egg (yolks), and seafood!

Not sure how closely I obeyed, but I just tried. Can't wait to go to seafood buffet soon.

Anyway regarding poker, I think spreading my focus between trading and poker is not working out. Poker, recently to me has been tedious experience. Making it short and simply, the joy of winning could no longer compensate the pain of losing. When that happens, that's when I think it's time to move on from certain venture.

I have neglected many books and I am going to catch up with them too. We have recently stopped Diablo 3 for a while, but will be bringing ourselves back together soon. I have decided to take these time clearing my books. Some have already grown mold before I even started reading. Recently found an app TED.com, they have it on android and iOS devices, on many insightful talks from experts of many fields. Very interesting.

Finally break my losing streak (8 straight losses) with a very small win. Nevertheless, still a win. Booking a small win during losing streak is a necessity to slowly build back your confidence and focus. I have to admit the previous trades were reckless. There are many habits of me that does not fit a trader, I'm sure I'm not alone, and that is what we are trying to change.

And that habit, comes from your mind. Whatever you punch into your keyboard, the words, the lot size, your take-profit and stop-loss, whatever you think the market is doing, comes from your mind. You think you should execute the trade now, you think you should book the win, cut the loss, the let loss run (familiar) because closing it means surrendering and admitting your defeat.

From my experiences of trading, gambling or poker (there are similarities and difference between them in certain aspect though), trying to win every single hand/trades (battle) ironically, causes the (overall) defeat in our war. I am a very good example. 

Previously, I can't go to bed with a loss (sometimes even now). I don't stop trading until I have a win. And 8 out of 10 times I drag even more losses trying to do it. And ironically, the 2 out of 10 times you succeed in trying so, spells the doom to your next trades. Because you think that since you succeed in trying to force a win, you can do it again. And every 10 times you do it, you will fail most of the time trying to do it, but your mind keeps flashing back to that only few times you succeeded. So you keep doing it, still. Just like a lottery.

As I always have the [loser] habit of abandoning my trade journal during losing streak, I now plan to write more regularly and simply add into the comment section of myfxbook.com for every single trades. I still love the detailed and service myfxbook provides and its free. I'm not endorsing it, but I think it provides more extensive information than any brokers' statement themselves. Usually for such service in the poker industry costs you money. 

It's Friday now, last trading day of the week. Good luck if you're trading, if not, happy weekend!

Black

Trade No.2

A little recoup from last night trade when price break cloud, cloud support held and strong buying momentum in Eur/usd and I went long. Only made-up yesterday's loss.

Looking to put buy-stops for Aud/Usd once resistance is broken.  

Black.

Eur/Usd Downtrend & Trade Interceptor

Following my last trade there were indeed some decent downward movement to the Eur/Usd. IF ONLY!!! Very smooth downtrend along with the Ichimoku indicators. Now we'll see if there are any reversal to the trend, whether the price will pierce the cloud? I'm placing my order above the lines, if it doesn't break, so be it.

Been trying out a charting software called the Trade Interceptor. Quite a decent software so far, it does provide live trading for a couple of brokers like FXCM, but not for Oanda, which is the one I'm using. The indicators are clear and accurate. I started using it on the iPad, and now my Android phone, primarily because of the Alarm system that is built in. So that I could set price alarm, and if it sound off, I can still decide whether to enter the price or not base on the context and momentum of price when it triggered.

I wouldn't say the software works that great for me as much on the iMac though. The alarms aren't sync (or I don't know how?), and it could be confusing. One thing about the trade interceptor is the feature-packed trading system and it could be intimidating for a start. Mobile & iPad version is great. I still stick to Oanda web for my desktop for now.

Black.

BACK! Diablo & a Trade

Been such a long.. long....... time since we last blogged, in fact for me, even traded. Ever since 15th May Diablo took our soulstones, my iMac has been serving to save the sanctuary from evil. Bottle and I both went for the collection that day in Funan IT Mall. The crowd was crazy, I wondered for other countries if it was the same. If not for the physical box or possible posters to come with it, I would have bought it online instead. In the end we only got the mouse pad as an addition as the posters ran out of stock.

 This is the event stage, where there were lots of selling of Diablo products, like their official Mouse, Earphone etc. which was damn costly.

 

 

Queue a few loops throughout the whole width of the shopping mall entrance.. for hours. In some ways me and bottle got past that lot and went in to get our verification ticket quickly LOL. 

The Koreans killed Diablo (normal level) in just 6 hours, when I was barely home and halfway installing the game. A time-consuming good though, primary objective is to find as much and as good item as possible, to clear level or sell them in what they call the Auction House with in-game gold or REAL MONEY. Not much luck so far for me, only earned a $2usd.

Besides trading, my poker volume have also dropped drastically, rendering a downgrade of vip level back to bronze star. I been taking the day to search for job, been out for half a year now and I'm think its too long. I either need to quickly find one as soon as possible or I have to make full use of my time learning more trading and poker.

Bottle reminded me not to steer away from our trading goal. We always remind each other and keep each other on track, though I supposed he's the one who remind me more often. I must stop wasting my time surfing social networks and reading about other people's life.

Back on a trade today. A very simple set up, crossing down and breaking below cloud. Target right above previous cloud. (if only it works all the time....)

Happy Independence Day to US friends!

Black.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Antonie de Saint-Exupery

Many Many Pairs

 Aud/Jpy - Stopped out real quickly after entry.

-31 pips

Aud/Usd - No trade. But I notice the support level that the Chikou Span of Ichimoku indicator is quite accurate in this pair.

Eur/Aud - 3 signals were hit, therefore a strong sell signal. Cross-over of Tenkan-sen (red) below Kijun-sen (blue), below the Kumo (cloud). Price breaks below Chikou Span support.

+52 pips

Eur/Chf - This trade I held since last week. Thinking price wouldn't break below as maybe SNB were "on it". First position was stopped out last week. Today when I saw CHF CPI m/m bullish, I closed my last position after a pull back, which was a good choice seeing that long candle after that. Tired of holding this position as it used up my margin to trade other pairs.
-28 pips

Gbp/Jpy - Another strong sell signal I noticed from this pair. This one did not hit target (missed by 2 pips), after seeing a weak yen going into New York session I decide to bag it, before it really retrace so much.. another lucky escape.

+71 pips

Usd/Jpy - Sell-limit for this pair. But it was not a very good entry though, still within Chikou span support. Seeing the weakened Yen like the Gbp/Jpy, I decided not to gamble and closed it out 20 minutes before USD unemployment claims which forecast a bullish USD data.

+1 pips



Black.
can't think of any decent title for the post.

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo

Decide to try out a new indicator this time round, called the 'Ichimoku Kinko Hyo'. Before I went to study a little of this indicator, a glance of it is like so complicated. It is still complicated to me, trying to memorize all the Japanese name for the individual lines. I will write more details and the uses of it when I am more familiar with it. There are quite a number of blogs and sites that explain the use of Ichimoku though only a handful of books that specialize on it. Right now I am still trial running this indicator for my trading, pip size are almost halved in the following trades I under-taken.

..way of the samurai.

Besides having a change of "clothes" to my trading chart, I have also created [yet another] Trading Journal excel. I used to think, hey all these transactions are indicated in my broker's site, and hell, now that myfxbook.com gives a free and even more detailed transaction history of your trading, why need a journal? Looking back at those transactions doesn't explain why I enter/exit a trade, what happened and how I traded, I need to account for my every trades and take it like a business from now. I may even hire an auditor to check there are no fraud trading. Just hope I don't caught another losing streak and then abandon everything!

An embattled March result is not fun. I need some serious re-work, while juggling poker at the same time. I have decided some change in my approach in both areas, will update in my poker site blackdeckpoker.blogspot.com soon.

Aud/Jpy - I think my exit makes more sense than my entry. Entry was just a moderate bearish signal and was almost ranging after I entered.

+34 pips

Aud/Usd - Hit my target upon FOMC minutes. Target hit because of the help of fundamentals, a double-edged sword in trading. Missed another short-entry when aussie report trade deficit. I wanted to enter but was there ehmm.. err.. and then it spiked down.

+45 pips

Eur/Usd - Entry is kinda late though, took the whole day for the price to break go down to support when I exited. Still traces of bad habits when I move take profit closer by 5 pips.

+44 pips

Fine start, let's see how it goes Black.

Stars, Spiders, Long Legs bla bla bla

Spotted some bearish candlesticks on 4H chart.. not sure if it means anything. But it does seems like bearish bias. So, action speaks louder than words! IM IN TRADE! LOL. Did a Short @ 1.3328. SL @ 40pips away & TP @ abt 40 to 50 pips away. Shall amend if there is difficulty in achieving it.

So, will TP or SL be hit first... anybody betting? LOL...
Results will be posted after it ends.


-UPDATE- Fail... Stoploss hit. Market is too choppy and kinda ranging.
-40 pips , +100 experience.

Bottle

Teardown Week!

These are some last week's trade.. some massive tear down once again.. sigh. I seem so good at making exactly the opposite trade from the market. Both positions did not went +10 pips. All the way down!

Gbp/Usd -49 pips.

Usd/Chf -120 pips (stop loss moved, serve u right Black)

Losses Along The Way

Looking for a continuous downtrend yesterday before London session. But when New York session arrived it started going up, from +20 to a -68 pips stop loss less than an hour. 

Black.

Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go~

Interesting trade above for the Aud/Usd. Went long in view of the cross-over sma lines. My target was at 1.07, risk:reward of about 1:1. Price went up thrice towards a good 50 pips for me to bag (which I usually do), but I just waited for it to break it up, it didn't. So I closed it at +11 pips prior to the Non-Farm Payroll announcement.

Just a short scalp for about +18 pips on the announcement, on Eur/Usd. Eur/Usd quickly reacted to the news, falling from 1.319x to 1.316x right before I tried to click the sell button, more brutal than the 10 pip-spread during the actual minute of the data release. 

I supposed some of you are still trading at the moment, this is it for me for the week. Have a great weekend!

Black.

Meat of the Move

Aud/Usd. Smooth downtrend, but we can't always get the full move, good enough to get the "meat of the move", or it could probably be just a bite, we never know. +51 pips.

A close call here for Gbp/Usd. Went against my trade, but did not close my position before stop/loss because I am trying maintain discipline, I told myself my stop/loss was placed before resistance so trust it! Went back down and close it out one half hour into New York session at profit. +51 pips.

Black.

March First Week

Just one trade last week, which took one day to materialize. Netted about +63 pips.

Black.

Grinding Chart & Tables

Aud/Usd: +65 pips

+50 pips. (screw the analysts, I'm back into my position in Eur/Chf)

Finally hit the positive region for the first time this week (graph since November). Been grinding for more than 4 hours today. Could have been higher but that last slope down was due to my pocket aces getting cracked by cow boys. Variance variance variance.... I hope it continue its upslope!

Black.

Ride It Up & Stop-Hunt

Eur/Usd: +50 pips.

Gbp/Usd: +28 pips.

Usd/Chf: +17 pips.

Before the opening of Asian session, my trades were all green. But after the Aussie unemployments news were out, Aussie fell drastically and I supposed the sell-off (sell Aud and buy Usd) made all my positions into RED. But I held it there and I closed out all after my Eur/Usd hits the target.

Last week I still messed up, before the market closes for the weekend, my Aud/Usd got triggered and hit a very quick stop/loss. Woke up see my twitter and wow.. gift from god. Here is something that looks a little like "stop-hunting" to me. 50 pips gone !

Black.

Scraping Back A bit

Managed to scrape back to break-even for the month. This is it for the week.

Lucky escape here for Aud/Usd.

Frustrating exit on Eur/Aud. Wasted 20 over pips.

Same for Eur/Usd.

An impatient exit.

Decided to screenshot this from myfxbook.com, easier! 

Happy weekend!

Black.

Probably...

..about -200 pips and above. One of those days!

Black.