BRM's Manual Trading Journal and Adventures

[Big River Man]

Herein lies the official journal and general adventures of BRM the 2nd.

big_river_man-640x540.jpg

Why am I doing this?

1) to make myself accountable.
2) to improve my reasoning and thought process
3) as a public record which hopefully will help me to be the best that I can be
4) some other reasons that I've forgotten

I have thought about having some form of blog for some time now to do with Forex. Be it my own journey of trading, or be it to help others not fall into the traps that I have along the way.
For now I will record some thoughts on here, hopefully weekly. I do not trade full time but the more I do this the more I have decided I need to take this seriously and treat it like a job. It's time to get ****ing serious now. First thing is to become profitable then to start my blog. Journal will suffice for now. I will endeavor to constantly edit and add to this front post.

I have been a member here for years, in fact I had an alternate name when I first started I can't even remember what it was now. But at least 3 years I have been here. While there have been some successes there have also been failures. Until now the failures more than outweigh the positives if I'm brutally honest. BUT luckily for all you buggers that have only been here since 2015 then you've come to the right spot as you are able to literally walk and trample over the skulls of the many that have fallen before you. There are a few of us that are still around from the beginning days. But not many. RIP unknown trader friends......<minutes silence>

I have copped every single loss via signal that connectforex.com could line up, that forexsignals.com could line up, and to top it off I have been a really shitty trader now for going on 3 years. Consistently OK and quite profitable but essentially never been able to trade with SL's or to add to trades etc etc. What happens is that a small loss quite often becomes a large loss. I thought I was done with it after 2014 but I did have another loss this year a couple of months after the CHFbomb (where my account was margin called by following TA and Smart). I got hit and basically knocked out by Smart Scalper and DayFox @ the end of 2014 which I thought was going to be the end of my Forex days but I have dug in, and despite this loss midway through 2015 and the CHFbomb of 2015 I am determined. In fact that DayFox escapade was sadly worsened by a copier issue on a few accounts which really hurt. I basically lost almost everything to my name, and not only that but I had lost the love of my life at a similar time. Needless to say that there have been some immensely dark days. Sometimes you need to hit these deep lows to appreciate life. Sigh.

I have excelled at everything that I have ever put my body or my brain into in the past, so I see no reason why this cannot continue.

Failure to me is not an option.

That being said I have strict trading cut off date this year. If i cannot show myself that I can be profitable from now until that date then I will have to walk. If I am profitable in signals but not in manual then i will stop manual trading and just become the boss of EA's and signals. No shame in that.

The site seems to have some great traders for now. Vijay, Jeff and Phil look solid. Steady Capture obviously we need to watch as of course we all got hit there. Yet, looks good. Sorry to see Tony fall by the wayside. Just goes to show you how hard this game is. I want to be the 5% and NOT the 95%. This site hopefully is going to make that a reality via signals. BUT why not see if I can actually make money myself while I am at it.

I have been through the RINGER so many times that this thick head of mine doesn't want to feel those emotions again.

So can a bad trader become good by learning his lesson? We'll see.

Tune in and subscribe if you have any interest, all good to me, I don't care so much either way, I am going to try out this journal for my own productivity anyhow to see where it takes me.

Much love to all.

[nhen]

Week 13 - No trading due to flying during FOMC (can't take the chance of another computer malfunction!!!!!)

Good thread mate. Looking forward to following your journey!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Big River Man]

Week 13 - No trading due to flying during FOMC (can't take the chance of another computer malfunction!!!!!)

[Big River Man]

Week 12 - 0.95% loss

Week 12 - 0.95% loss

Oh God another frustrating week. With a big lesson learned.
This week I was selling EUR, selling AUDNZD, and up around 0.5% shorting USDJPY.
And if you look at the charts you just have to wonder how on earth I finished negative this week.
Well this one came down to both stupidity and inability to connect to MT4 via my mobile!!! God I hate you rice paddies with no internet connection!!!
There are literally hundreds of pips here left on the table. Devastated!!
Sold EURCAD on Tuesday but stop was too tight. That’s OK. It happens. However it has happened A LOT, thus there may be a slight change to my trading approach on the horizon. Will brainstorm this during this week as have been thinking upon it for some time.
Sold AUDNZD and same thing just in too early. This pair since dropped so many pips. yes I know easy to say but again I have to look at these ATR’s more closely.
It left me down 1% for the week. With my EURNZD short and USDJPY short I was up about 1.4% prior to Draghi. the intention was to move both SL to even and to take away the TP to let any big moves run. I literally could not get a connection on my phone for an 90 minutes prior that would let me change so my 1.4% profit turned into a 0.1% profit. When I got back to internet and saw EURNZD 400 plus pips down from Draghi speaking I could of cried and then when i saw that I got slipped another 50% of pips on my UJ short I just had to laugh.

Jesus.

So decision was made that with FOMC next week occurring whilst I am flying back home and smack bang in the middle of my trading week then I just have to take the week off. Can;t afford to not be connected again for such a high impact news event.

Tradingwise a VERY FRUSTRATING holiday. All other things of the holidays. Amazing. It was also good to see Viper get out of drawdown and for Smart to make some really good money too. I was adding my own shorts on my signal account on EURUSD of which the gains dwarfed this trading accounts losses, BUT I don’t care I want to be able to make coin by myself manually following a discretionary system. So the happenings on the holiday have put a dent in that and now put me behind my scheduled 2.63% a month target. I have been wanting a drawdown to see how I cope, but I would rather it was because of shitty trading than technical difficulties!!!

So back to work on the 2nd of November then.


Results.
2015-11-11_08-19-39.png

So far…….
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Best trade of the week.
EURNZD short (unable to remove TP or SL) - so had to manually close.
2015-11-11_08-17-34.png

Worst trade of the week.
AUDNZD short. Too tight all over in 2 hours, was a rare market entry, could easily have waited for a usual sell limit but the setup looked good, the trade since dipped well past intended TP (of course)
2015-11-11_08-16-24.png

Biggest Mistake of the week.
Taking technology for granted

Biggest Success of the week.
Even though I had many directions correct to not get %%% or $$$ out of this week is a shocker.


So close.....

[Big River Man]

Week 11 - 1.58% loss

Week 11 - 1.58% loss

Well this is a frustrating week. I am away on holidays for 3 trading weeks. This being the first, and low and behold whilst I am am the plane with trades set up I have VPS shutdown with multiple MT4’s affected.

As I was on flight and arriving very late at night in a country with poor internet then you can imagine the hassle this has caused. So needless to say it wasn’t the greatest start to the holiday. I ended up having 3 trades. 2 hit SL almost straight away, 3rd trade was hit SL to the PIP and then went on to hit full TP. And due to VPS issues I cancelled 2 trades that also would of hit TP. So I finished the week for a 1.58% loss, rather than a profit of approx 2%. So a 3.5% turnaround is an absolute killer and caused me to be pretty pissed off (not with my trading but more with both my broker and VPS provider).

Which does raise the question in forex of liability. With IC Markets I will be chasing up $$$ for lost money (not on this manual account but on my signal account). But clearly my VPS provider isn’t going to pay me anything for their screw up. The irony behind the whole thing is I have had almost 100% up time this whole year and the only time I have been down is when i am 25’000 feet in the air for 7 hours!!! TYPICAL!!

Anyway as my ideas and entered trades for the week were still “profitable” I just had to take this in my stride and not let it bother my holiday once I got everything back up and running. Still. Gah! I like my winners and I like my stats! As the win % is around 50% I need those winners to count not get lost in the netherland.


Results.
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So far…….
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Best trade of the week.
The ones that got away!!! Grrrrrrrrr

Worst trade of the week.
GBPUSD. Sold too close to support. Simple as that. Trade was over in 4 hours.
2015-11-04_14-48-03.png

Biggest Mistake of the week.
This has to be a lesson learned here that if I am flring and literally unable to be connected then i will not put trades on in the future. I was unable to be connected to Twitter thus positive GBP news stories quickly made my setup redundant for the timeframe they were entered.

Biggest Success of the week.
There was no success this week, bar the fact that I didn’t fly into a fit of rage once had 10 emails notifying of VPS shutdown. Sigh.

[Big River Man]

The updates will be coming. I am away for 2 weeks with some pretty basic internet if indeed it even works.

Needless to say been 2 shocking weeks due to VPS failure, no internet and big events timing in with flights or boat trips.

Frustrating but this is also kind of what I was looking for, I want to see if i can fight my back to equity highs within next 3 weeks. Will be flying again this week during FOMC and NZD rates. This week I am trying to short the EU and AN. Also looking towards shorting E against one of the commodity pairs. And possibly long NC. Just trying to find the right entries but as this big news events are right smack bang in the middle or a flight lus in middle of my trading week I will put less amount of orders on. Bear in mind i am also likely going to leave trading the yen pairs as ECB messed up my UJ short last week. So FOMC will have an effect on yen pairs plus this bloody JPY press happening on Friday makes it almost untradeable (for my mid term length trading)

Hope all your trades fared better last 2 weeks

[brokeMike]

Good trading Journal BRM!
Thanks for sharing, good luck mate!

[Big River Man]

Week 10

Week 10 - 0.22% gain

I found this the most difficult week to trade since I started my trades with a stricter set up. I only had about 4 or 5 pairs that fit my trading plan and most of those pairs involved the GBP. With some sketchy reports coming out of Japan mid-week in regards to more QE and some generally dodgy reporting on Twitter and various news feeds about this I decided to steer clear of shorting any yen pairs as the risk of yen weakening (that is exactly what happened) on these rumours just weren’t worth the risk.

But overall not much to report. Found it very frustrating, as what I thought were some good opportunities to short the commodity pairs would have actually gone sour on me. Again this is a perfect reason as to why to stick to a fairly strict entry protocol and match that with a sound money management plan from the onset. And the from that strict onset is where the discretion with trading can come from.

To basically trade what I see, not what I think.
I am really hoping for some more set ups this next week and will actually be trading whilst travelling the world so the next 2 weeks it’s all about the laptop and setting up shop in a coffee stall and finding some trades between surf sessions and bus transfers!


Results.
W10A.png
W10B.png

So far…….
W10Gain.png
W10Growth.png

Best trade of the week.
Man this trade was the little trade that could! Within a few pips of my SL I had set on multiple hourly bars, so I brought my TP down about 15% as it was within resistance levels. Amazingly had a huge turnaround and finally got that GBP weakness I was looking for. Nice!
W10BT.png

Worst trade of the week.
GBPUSD short, I actually entered at market here rather than set a pending limit order. Didn’t work out. In fact was way off. Thank God for SL’s…….
W10WT.png

Biggest Mistake of the week.
I moved my TP on my profitable trade…..yet as I am discretionary and not a robot I don’t see this as a bad thing. My R:R is intended to be 1:2 yet this hasn’t been the case recently as markets have been choppy. I have both lost and gained money by taking profits when I can over the last few weeks. Some trades will be allowed to run with a target higher that 1:2 if the opportunity arises. So it will work both ways.

Biggest Success of the week.
Listening to the story that the charts told me and not the Big Bad Wolf that was nagging me to trade!!!

This cover is probably even better if know the original....

[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.

[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 8

Week 8 - 1.41% gain

So this week was a lesson in flexibility. Thankfully I passed. I have been looking for long GBP set ups. Specifically against AUD and NZD. I managed to time a long perfectly, getting out before the Pound dive bombed. If I am too rigid with my system then I can take losses that are so close to the TP….which becomes annoying. it also works the other way around, but my philosophy is that i should never let a 150 in profit trade close for -100. Never. Also as you all well know, sentiment changes if your set ups are on hourly or 4H charts, so we need to be mindful of this and not just follow RULES blindly. Or...you know...whatever, you could just follow rules too if you want, but I am more fluid than that. Not a bad thing or a good thing, but it is my thing.

Again double my target for week. To be honest slightly pissed off with myself for closing my AJ short waaaaaaaaaay to early. I only closed as my overall profit was above targets. But that AJ short would taken me to +2% for the week. I need to book these full TP’s more often.
For now as it is I am happy with my trading. This could easily be traded on 1:20 margin account also. By that I mean that it is frigging SAFE!! And yes, I know I could still lose money for the year….but the way I am trading I am not losing any sleep over it. Not adding to trades. Not increasing risk. Not fighting the market.



Results.
W8Solo.png

So far…….
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.

[FX Magician]

Keep going Big river, I like reading your updates

[Big River Man]

Week 7

Week 7 - 0.4% loss


Was sick and off work for most of the week. As mentioned earlier in my intermittent post I was thinking to have the week off or at least not trade the USD pairs.

Actually saved a lot of time not analyzing these pairs so made for a bit of an easier week analysis-wise. That’s pretty much where the term easy for the week ended though. I had what I would consider and B+ or A trade go straight into SL (only for it to then turn around and hit TP). Frustrating, yet thought process still OK so not bad.

That was an EC trade, and then again even though I was VERY cautious of yen pairs I saw a really good set up shorting one. That didn’t pan out either, however I cut the trade early to reduce loss, which is the first loss I have cut prior to SL. It was a good decision.
But most importantly I only traded half risk this week. The idea being that if 1 of those great set up hit TP then I’d hit my monthly target. Anyway didn’t work. The week was hard to trade unless you're in and out for 5 pips which I’m not. So I move on.

Happy to have booked a loss if I’m brutally honest, After 6 greens weeks in a row it was “nice” to see some red. Loss minimised. Very keen to take some good opportunities next week. Will be back at the gym and hopefully markets can digest this FOMC fizzer.


Results.
W7Gain.png
W7Growth.png

So far…….
W7Mono.png
W7Solo.png


Best trade of the week.
Unfortunately…...I got nothing!

Worst trade of the week.
I don’t believe I had a bad trade this week. I took my 2 best set ups on half risk and cut 1 of them early. Stop losses are part and parcel of the trading strategy.

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!

[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 6 - 1.59% gained

Week 6


2 trades only this week. Had 8 trade set ups I liked. Unfortunately 6 of them hit full TP. 1 only got about halfway there before I closed it. And 1 hit SL. Anyway I ended up cancelling 6 orders so only 2 trades went live. I am still struggling with the idea of not taking on multiple trades for risk reasons. But the problem is that I am missing some beautiful trades. For now it’s OK but if I am in a good zone then I want to be making money when I’m on. So a 6% gain for the week from my planned trades didn’t eventuate. For now still just trying to pick what i consider to the best.

I will run with my current take on of risk for now as why change what i am doing, nothing wrong with being cautious. But I may start another account (maybe even on demo as i have my funds tied up in signals and on this manual account of mine) which takes ALL my trades but risks 0.2% or 0.25% per trade. Just to see the comparison. I might take trades that I rate a C- rather than the A+ trades, however I have had A+ trades hit SL multiple times already in my practice weeks.

I decided to close down an AU short prior to a real plethora of AUD and China news on Thursday and closed out for 0.6% rather than wait for the full 1%. Was a great idea as the trade would of gone on to hit my SL which I had moved to BE.

Still training. Run over 20km’s this week. So body and mind are feeling strong.


Results.
W6Mono.png
W6Solo.png

So far…….
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!