getting out of everything butchered my account on what started off as a good trade.. top account value was 22,200 but in an out of trades and bid offer killed me [/B][/QUOTE] ok out of everything -- account took a little beating but still above 20k (20,200).. noticed that instead of just respecting my stops I respect them too much! The market SPEEEDS up towards my stop and worried about a gap above my stop I get out too early only for it to go in the completely different direction.. I talked about this earlier in the week and decided that I should just use a real system stop or not trade at all -- i have no excuse I knew the market was shaky... I think the poker analogy is when the market gets really shaky it's like playing with fish and I have to tighten up and just play premium hands (obvious breakouts or overextensions) instead of being in every hand (trying to trade every up and down).. I also relied too much on correlations vs. other markets.. usually it serves well as to guiding me on overall direction but can't really count on other markets at the 1min level (which is where I reside).. Finally -- when these correlations break down and I get confused -- I should just let it go.. and so the learning journey continues as well as my real-life journey.. heading to airport in 15 mins.. p.s. I tend to trade worse after big trading gains gotta work in a solution for that as well..
Resuming the journal -- as a reminder to myself -- here are my goals as originally stated: I am starting this journal for me. Anyone is of course welcome to comment but the main purpose is for me to track my trading, hold myself accountable to my stops, and allow me to think out loud about the state of the world. I am defining my goals as follows: 1. I WILL HONOR MY STOPS 2. Will close my positions at the end of every day (defined as the point in time at which I am no longer able to monitor the markets closely) 3. I will strive to shorten my duration in any on trade to under 30 mins 4.Trading only EUR - occasionally dabble in other currencies 5. I will not add to a losing trade. I will accomplish that goal by initiating a trade using 95% of the margin available to me. This will also allow my position size to grow/decrease with my account size. 6. I will stop myself out of trading for the day if I lose more than 10% of my account value 7. New objective: WILL STOP TRADING SESSION AFTER A 10% account value loss Still trading with CitiFXPro. Account Value: $21,988
Took a short 250k EUR at 1.4497 -- looking to tweak my goal of being 100% invested in all margin available -- but will not average in any losses.. stopping myself at 1.4507 -- targeting 1.4477