For the background, I have been trading on and off for two years, first equities then moved to FX. I have been interested in automated systems for about a year and developed one for EURUSD. I will be trading the final version of the program on this currency pair and I will be clearing through IB. The purpose of this journal is to keep me focused on steady performance and to keep clear of wild discretionary trades. I will post try to post results at least weekly. My goal is about 10 to 20% a month on an account that is about 3200, depending on where the markets open today.
Ok, so yesterday I closed out my -60K position for a loss of about -480 and turned on my prog, I am trading a trend following system on 15 min bars for the time being but i might change it to 30 min bars. My size is 25000 dollars per trade. So far I had three trades: (exact prices are on blotter) LONG @ 2:15 AM @ 1.5577 (+2 pips) SHORT @ 6:45 AM @ 1.5575 (+ 68 pips) (manually exited) LONG @ 2:45 PM @ 1.5513 (currently up 10 pips) ACCT is at about 3400 and change.
Thank you I forgot to mention that all stops will be 25 pips. And for a little more background, (since so far this looks boring as hell to read), I started trading with 5K last Aug, and had some ups and downs since then, I jump started prog trading before the prog was completely ready and then started trading on my own discretion. I tend to trade well for a period of time but often get bored and swing for the fences with 2000 dollar swings in PnL in this tiny account, hence this journal which I will use to scrutinize my trading. I had to bail myself out with a 1000 dollar deposit in Dec. So overall i have had to put in 6K and now I am down $2600. But I am 1600 off the lows. Lets see if I can break even .
Here are last night's trades: SHORT @12:30 AM @ 1.5510 - 5 pips for closed long STOP OUT @1:05 AM @ 1.5535 -25pips LONG @ 2:00 AM @1.5545 120 pips (closed out manually) SHORT @ 9:30 AM @ 1.5643 STOP OUT @ 9:58 AM @ 1.5668 -25pips Net pips= +55 Net profit= 146.25 ACCT is at 3540 I will also try to attach a chart with my trades today so that these numbers have some meaning.
This evenings' trades thus far: Well we are trading in a range for some time, this being a trend following system and all, there isnt much money to be made. I also put on a small discretionary short since I couldnt resist a few easy pips with small risk. DISCRETIONARY SHORT: SHORT @ 1.5667 @ 2:30 PM COVERED @ 1.5649 @ 7:15 PM for +18 pips PROG SIGNALS: LONG @ 1.5685 @ 9:15 PM (-22 pips) SHORT @ 1.5663 @ 1:00 AM Total: -4 pips So far I am happy with the results, but I am thinking of switching back to 30 min bars to cut down chop and have fewer trades, FYI if I had been trading 30 min bars since Sun I would have had just three trades, -30 pips, 50 pips, 131 pips and an open positive short at 1.5658. However, which time frame is more positive depends largely on market conditions and sizes of waves and I am happy as long as both time frames work as they should. Hopefully, now 15 min will start overtaking 30 min bars for profitability.
I am using only one indicator to trade and it is a proprietary type of MA that me and a friend came up with last year. Last night's results: Whippy night with that 100 pip bar at 4AM. On 15 min I had 3 trades: SHORT STOPPED OUT @ 4:05 AM @ 1.5690 -25 pips LONG @ 4:15 @ 1.5721 +15 pips SHORT @ 9:15 AM @1.5738 -25 pips STOPPED OUT @ 10:45 AM @ 1.5773 Total pips= -35 ACCT is at 3400 I have noticed that there are some issues with greater than expected slippage to the tune of about 20 pips so far and thus I have reconsidered using the 15 min time frame. I am going to start using 30 Min bars to cut down the noise and reduce my trades.
Actually the best idea is to finish the week on 15 min bars and I will switch to 30 min the start of next week.