BRM's Manual Trading Journal and Adventures

[Big River Man]

Week 3

Start of Trading Week 3I made 4.62% this month so far (with a 1.42% drawdown) which is close to twice my 2.63% target and I have decided to take next week off due to thin liquidity, sort out some personal things and as a reward. I will actually be taking off the last week in August every year. And 1 or 2 weeks in and around Christmas also. Anyway December 7th is my cut off to see whether I can be profitable as a trader so I am focused on even having the privilege to be able to make that decision.


Results.
W3Mono.png
W3Solo.png


W3Gain.png
W3Growth.png

Best trade of the week.
GC long - Asian trade idea again.
W3BT.png

Worst trade of the week.W3WT.png

Biggest Mistake of the week.
Will have to think of a strategy if SL or TP is close just prior to news, as quite likely to get whipped on most occasions or even to have SL missed (or TP) as it blows right through.

Biggest Success of the week.

[ace]

BRM good initiative! it will help you to keep your trading plan if it's public -> works like public commitment.
I see that you have a few years on forex now. I am active on forex since december 2014 when i found Forexsignals...
Right now i tried to trade on my signal account (i am running viper, smart trader, beta, goldstar....) but unfrotunately when i added to my account my trades it messed up a little bit I opened separate account for my trade only and still looking for a way of trading for me that could give a few green pips from time to time.

I admire Viper, goldstart, Smart trader for their consistency in their trading plan. Right now my trades are more RANDOM, like I feel the market will go, or when other trades affect me... Like Viper -> he sees EU much lower, so 2 week ago I opened a few additional massive shorts and than we saw EU at 1.17 when i shorted at 1.11.. i almost blow my account, fortunately I hedged in last moment... that was a lesson for me to not mess with profesional signals provider and my own trades till I have a TRADING PLAN and STRATEGY that has positive return. I opened last week another real account with XM -> they gave me a free depo, so on this acc i gonna trade and found my trading style.

one more time - All the best, and many green pips!

btw: can you share your trading plan, or entry/exit rules?

[Big River Man]

BRM good initiative! it will help you to keep your trading plan if it's public -> works like public commitment.
I see that you have a few years on forex now. I am active on forex since december 2014 when i found Forexsignals...
Right now i tried to trade on my signal account (i am running viper, smart trader, beta, goldstar....) but unfrotunately when i added to my account my trades it messed up a little bit I opened separate account for my trade only and still looking for a way of trading for me that could give a few green pips from time to time.

I admire Viper, goldstart, Smart trader for their consistency in their trading plan. Right now my trades are more RANDOM, like I feel the market will go, or when other trades affect me... Like Viper -> he sees EU much lower, so 2 week ago I opened a few additional massive shorts and than we saw EU at 1.17 when i shorted at 1.11.. i almost blow my account, fortunately I hedged in last moment... that was a lesson for me to not mess with profesional signals provider and my own trades till I have a TRADING PLAN and STRATEGY that has positive return. I opened last week another real account with XM -> they gave me a free depo, so on this acc i gonna trade and found my trading style.

one more time - All the best, and many green pips!

btw: can you share your trading plan, or entry/exit rules?

Hmmmmm it sounds like you indeed have some problems there, but if you were to read your own message through objectively you could probably realize exactly what your doing wrong. You pretty much summed it up yourself. I have done the same as you in the past for sure. IF you trade on your signal account then you MUST take into account the extra margin that you will use and reduce the risk on the signals accordingly. If you have Viper, Gold, Smart and Beta on a single account plus your own trading then you have essentially 5 signals on that account. But your trading sounds quite poor due to it being RANDOM!!! So maybe it's best to NOT trade on the signal account at all. I wouldn't recommend putting Viper more than 1x risk if you are running all those other signals on the same account.

Good luck with it thanks for the well wishes.

My plan is simply this.

Trade WITH the trend but not BLINDLY.
for example this week (first week of September) I was looking for long EUR and JPY but only really against something weak like AUD and not against USD.

I have entry rules that are based of what I deem as support and resistance levels (or you could even say supply and demand levels - I don't care about the terminology used) and fibonacci levels. I have 1 or 2 other confirming factors that i take into account. However, mostly this is about proper money management and the exit rules can be quite fluid in nature.

Hope that helps. But ace please if you trade make sure its not random. It doesn't work. I unknowingly tried it for years.....nothing but pain.

[ace]

indeed, i have/had a problem but I realize what I have done wrong and I have plan to make it stright.

make two accounts - one is for signal only, second for my own trade to find my trading strategy...
i have still some DD, so i need to make it clear. Right now i want to trade it. If i won't make it i next 2 months i will accept the loss.
and i have goal to make my trades regular not random.

let see what the results will be in next 4-5 months be end of 2015.

cheers,
Ace

[Big River Man]

End of month report

Trading Week 4

Well, well, well Black Monday. How happy I was to not be involved;
- 1 because I no longer trade on Mondays (open trades)
- 2 because I didn't like the feel of the markets previous week so decided to take the week off.
- 3 because I already made a lot more than I wanted for the month.

Instead I spent the time wiping my laptop and setting it up to become a second desktop computer. Essentially a mirror image so that I can be mobile with my trading and do my weekly analysis anywhere. Was a great time to really refocus on my day job.

As a side note NZD pairs have become pretty messy and may be unable to trade as a single 1M candle completely ****s up some of my analysis. Likely will be affected for some weeks. Will see how things pan out but will be cautious on Kiwi pairs for now and only trade what I deem to be a superb set up.

END OF MONTH

I made 4.62% this month (with a maximum 1.42% equity drawdown)

big_river_man.jpg

[Big River Man]

Week 5

Week 5Results.
W5Mono.png
W5Solo.png


W5Gain.png
W5Growth.png

Best trade of the week.
AU short. This entry actually was good as an extry 3x this week. Just missed TP the first time, so when it got close the 2nd time prior to Mario Draghi speaking I was happy to take most of the pips. Had placed another trade slightly higher with a bigger range but it just missed entry. No problem.
W5BT.png

Worst trade of the week.W5WT.png

Biggest Mistake of the week.
Well, really none. but is easy to look back on it and see what could've been. Quite easily 5% up for the week with 5 trades and monthly goals would be been hit already. Probably would of taken next week off.
HOWEVER, I am being as risk averse as possible. As mentioned earlier I want to trade this account the same as if it was a $2k account or a $100k. That means if I've made my weekly goal already and Draghi will speak or potentially the most important NFP for years comes along, then I step the **** aside.

Biggest Success of the week.
Sticking to my guns again. Being risk averse. 4 green weeks in a row.

[Big River Man]

Okay I have finally caught up and moved my notes online to this thread. So may be more active from hence on in.

Hopefully if anything someone can find some music that they like in the process even if the rest of it is boring to read.

[Big River Man]

A bit of analysis a paralysis this week. Risk ON through the markets. Was looking to sell the yen pairs. Pulled a few orders yesterday. Was a good idea as I would be close to some stops. However now the entries for short CJ, AJ, and NJ look even more juicy. Very close to entering the CJ short actually. We will see.

Currently short NU and AU. London open seems to be hitting the ComDolls nicely. However, there has been quite a move during last few sessions.

This last couple of weeks has got me thinking again to reduce the risk per trade to 0.25% rather than 0.50%. Last few weeks I have pulled trades because I didn't want to much exposure to JPY or AUD. It highlights the risks if I am short 4 yen pairs simultaneously and there is a large move them BAM 2% down. For the moment I am cherry picking 1 or 2. But it's quite possible the "basket" approach would be more profitable and I diversify my positions......

Well for now still finding my feet....just musing I guess.

I also feel that we may have a bit more ranging movements prior to Fed rate coming up. I plan to go into that day with no set orders or open orders. Hopefully....

Happy trading all.

[Big River Man]

Week 6 - 1.59% gained

Week 6Results.
W6Mono.png
W6Solo.png


W6Gain.png
W6Growth.png

Best trade of the week.
AU short. Closed this little bugger as my spidey sense told me to. Was a great decision. Not the most profitable trade but was the best managed.
W6BT.png


Worst trade of the week.
None.

Biggest Mistake of the week.
Again not sticking with my original trades placed on account or placed in my trade journal (little book at home on my desk).

Biggest Success of the week.
Making weekly goal again and making monthly goal of 2.65% already (remember 2.65% is going to make me 40% per year the ultimate goal!)



Man I LOVE these guys!

[Big River Man]

Well have been waiting for this week for a few months now.
I have decided NOT to trade and USD pairs this week. There are some good set ups however I am thinking that we may have some "silly" moves pre FOMC but essentially more or less be range bound until then so i don't want to be a) stopped out unnecessarily or b) stuck in a trade pre-news and get spiked out of a winning trade.

That leaves the yen pairs or the crosses. But yet again we have some important JPY news and press conferences this week where my bias would be for a long trade from a market surprise POV, yet looking at the charts I am mostly looking for shorting opportunities, and with the correlation between stock markets and risk ON OFF I actually don't really want to be involved in the JPY pairs either. If I see something that I have strong conviction on maybe I will take it.

So for now mostly looking to go long EUR against a mix or currencies and short NZD against a basket of currencies.

Also I am seriously considering taking the week off as I have already reached my monthly goal. Might be best top avoid and pre FOMC fake outs.

To be continued....

Good luck to all those trading this week!

My personal preference? Well for a USD rate hike of course so that we can make some money on short EU Viper trades!

[Big River Man]

Week 7

Week 7 - 0.4% lossResults.
W7Gain.png
W7Growth.png


W7Mono.png
W7Solo.png


Best trade of the week.Worst trade of the week.Biggest Mistake of the week.
In hindsight I could of taken the week off as I intimated at the beginning of the week.

Biggest Success of the week.
Reducing risk when it was decided that I liked a set up.


FOMC get outta my WAY!

[FX Magician]

Keep going Big river, I like reading your updates

[Big River Man]

Week 8

Week 8 - 1.41% gainResults.
W8Solo.png


W8Gain.png
W8Growth.png

Best trade of the week.
GBPNZD long. Pretty simple trade here. Just bought off support that has been tested previously many times, looking for a bounce in a longer trend. Got it nicely and closed out about 80% into profit target. Was a nice executive decision as GBP has just dived bombed since.
W8BT.png

Worst trade of the week.
I cut what I thought was a fantastic trade too early.
W8WT.png

Biggest Mistake of the week.
Cutting a great trade too early. Need to hit these better R:R trades to offset the losses when they come.

Biggest Success of the week.
Bouncing back from last week's losses.

This is a FRIGGIN good song. Listen to it. I get in the zone when I listen to this for some reason.

[Big River Man]

Last day of the quarter so won't be trading today, the chance of getting whipped out of a trade is too high, which may mean that i won't bother trading this week.

I have set some orders to sell a few GBP and AUD pairs on charts just to see how they would do rather than to curve fit it afterwards.

3.87% for the month so far (target is 2.65%) so may just call it quits for month or trade reduced size on Thursday seen as we have NFP the following day. Either way will only trade if I get an A level signal.

Hope everyone had a profitable month.

[Big River Man]

Week 9

Week 9 - No Trading

Just decided to take the week off. I had some friends in town as it was holiday season over here. So took the time to go to BBQ's, party's and to visit friend's new babies.

Profit targets met and markets a bit screwy recently so don't won't to book some losses with end of quarter trading.

More opportunity to be provided by October.