Joe's Journal

[Joe T]

Some activity this evening...

No newly opened orders.

CLOSED TRADES:
0.2 cadjpy long @ 81.73 / closed @ 84.06 / +233 pips / +$495.16 / +$0.00 swap
0.2 chfjpy long @ 86.90 / 87.25 / +35 / +$74.45 / -$0.78
0.2 audjpy long @ 71.00 / 74.99 / +399 / +$848.94 / +$5.64
0.2 audjpy long @ 75.14 / 74.99 / -15 / -$31.91 / +$3.41
0.1 eurjpy long @ 132.36 / 132.23 / -13 / -$13.83 / $0.00

CURRENT REALIZED BALANCE:
$9,338.71

Orders PLACED:
buy limit 0.2 audjpy 71.00 / tp = 77.50 / ts=99

[Joe T]

Orders OPENED overnight:
BUY 0.30 audcad @ 0.8990 / tp = 0.9350 / ts = 68
SELL 0.20 eurusd @ 1.4150 / tp = 1.3850 / ts = 94

Oders CLOSED overnight:
0.40 audnzd long @ 1.2350 / closed @ 1.2415 / +65 / +$167.02 / -$1.72
0.20 nzdusd short @ 0.6500 / 0.6464 / +36 / +$72.00 / -$2.72

CURRENT REALIZED BALANCE:
$9,573.29

Orders PLACED this morning:
BUY LIMIT 0.10 audnzd @ 1.2350 / tp = 1.2750 / ts = 78
SELL LIMIT 0.20 nzdusd @ 0.6500 / tp = 0.6250 / ts = 74

[Edward Revy]

Nicely done, Joe.
Beautiful profits and well managed small losses.
Congratulations on approaching the 10k!

Regards,
Edward

[Joe T]

Thanks, Edward. It's fun watching the account go up. I'm realistic enough to know that one month cannot indicate whether or not the account will continue to advance at this pace. (Would be pretty cool if it did... can't help but punch the numbers in the calculator and dream a bit...) But it's nice to see it working so far. At this point I'm still planning on letting this run for a few months before jumping to any conclusions. If it continues to succeed, I will share fully what I am all doing after a few months.

As for now, discipline, money management, and being very picky on reviewing potential entry points is very key. A little success can get a person carried away. If anything, the drawdown last week served as a very good reminder how key money management is. Being able to absorb a sizeable hit and sticking with the plan seems like a critical element to long-term success. It also made me review my entries to make sure I was being selective enough. Perhaps one or two of those hits last week could have been avoided, maybe not. But review is good. I just want to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater in my review. Losses will happen, and it seems that it just needs to be accepted. You do what you can to increase probability of success, and you do what you can to try and limit losses. But bad trades just flat-out will happen no matter what you do. The strategy needs to be able to absorb this - even a string of such losses.

As for today's activity:

OPENED positions:
SELL 0.20 usdmxn @ 13.5085 / tp = 13.1500 / ts = 1123

CLOSED position:
0.20 xauusd long @ 910.00 / closed @ 932.86 / +2286 pips / +$457.00 / -$0.20 swap
0.20 usdmxn short @ 13.5085 / closed @ 13.6351 / -1266 pips / -$185.70 / $0.00 <==speaking of one of those "bad trades!"

Current Realized Balance = $9,844.59


PLACED orders:
BUY LIMTI 0.20 xauusd @910.00; tp = 980.00; ts = 914

[Joe T]

No orders opened overnight.

Closed:
0.30 audcad long @ 0.8990 / closed @ 0.8951 / -39 pips / -$104.12 / +$1.42 swap
0.20 usdchf short @ 1.0900 / closed @ 1.0791 / +109 pips / +$202.02 / -$2.04

Current realized balance = $9,941.37

Orders PLACED this morning:
BUY LIMIT 0.2 usdchf @ 1.0900 / 1.0700 tp / ts = 79

[Joe T]

No positions were opened, nor were any closed between Friday morning and the end of session. So, nothing new to report on that front.

I did my weekly review of trailing stops and lot sizes. I can't change any orders until things kick off on Sunday, so I'll get to that later. But here are the trailing stops/lots I will be using on all newly placed orders this week.

FYI - I don't go back and adjust previous orders. It's just another way of being conservative on money management. So, if a buy limit or sell limit order was placed 2, 3, 4 or more weeks ago at 0.1 lots, and the current lot size indicated is 0.3 lots, I will just keep the 0.1 lot order in place. Part of it is because I just don't feel like canceling and resubmitting every order outstanding every week, and part of it is just a way of keeping a more conservative eye on money management. At my discretion, if I feel like some orders are just way out of date, I may occasionally go ahead and update. But so far, I'm just letting it ride. This is true even though I will go through and adjust many of those orders for new buy/sell prices or take profits. But that's just a modification. To change the lot size requires either adding another order or deleting and resubmitting. I haven't been doing that step. More aggressive traders may opt for that, but due to some correlation in trading all pairs, I'm looking for ways to make sure I don't get myself into too aggressive of a position on a single currency.

The other way I'm a bit conservative is that I don't round the lot size to the nearest tenth. I truncate. So, if the calculated lot size is 0.38, I use 0.3. As lost sizes get larger, this will have less of an impact on a percentage basis. Also, on my live account, it's a micro account so I go to the hundredth - so this only applies on the demo account I'm showing here.

Currency / Trailing Stop / Lot Size
audcad / 66 / 0.4
audjpy / 95 / 0.2
audnzd / 75 / 0.5
audusd / 78 / 0.3
cadjpy / 85 / 0.3
chfjpy / 77 / 0.3
euraud / 110 / 0.3
eurcad / 88 / 0.3
eurchf / 42 / 0.6
eurgbp / 47 / 0.3
eurjpy / 112 / 0.2
eurusd / 86 / 0.3
gbpchf / 108 / 0.2
gbpjpy / 152 / 0.1
gbpusd / 117 / 0.2
nzdusd / 67 / 0.4
usdcad / 81 / 0.3
usdchf / 76 / 0.4
usdjpy / 62 / 0.4
usdmxn / 1066 / 0.3
xagusd / 29 / 0.9
xauusd / 806 / 0.3

[Joe T]

I've gone through and made my modifications to pending orders based on my review of hte charts. For those keeping score at home:

currency / order type / execution price / take profit price
audjpy / sell limit (sl) / 77.50 / 71.00
audnzd / sl / 1.2750 / 1.2350
aud usd / sl / 0.8050 / 1.7500
audusd / buy limit (bl) / 0.7600 / 0.7750
cadjpy / sl / 87.00 / 79.00
chfjpy / sl / 90.00 / 84.00
euraud / bl / 1.7100 / 1.8000
euraud / sl / 1.8700 / 1.7250
eurchf / bl / 1.5100 / 1.5300
eurchf / sl / 1.5350 / 1.5100
eurjpy / bl / 127.50 / 135.00
eurusd / bl / 1.3950 / 1.4150
gbpchf / bl / 1.7200 / 1.7900
gbpchf / sl / 1.7950 / 1.7350
gbpjpy / bl / 148.00 / 157.00
gbpjpy / sl / 158.00 / 148.00
gbpusd / bl / 1.5850 / 1.6550
gbpusd / sl / 1.6600 / 1.6150
usdcad / bl / 1.0850 / 1.1600
usdcad / sl / 1.1650 / 1.0900
usdjpy / sl / 97.00 / 92.00
xagusd / sl / 15.50 / 12.50
xauusd / sl / 990.00 / 915.00


Newly PLACED Orders:
SELL LIMIT 0.4 audcad @0.9350; tp = .8900; ts = 66
BUY LIMIT 0.3 cadjpy @78.50; tp = 87.00; ts = 85
BUY LIMIT 0.3 chfjpy @ 84.00; tp = 90.00; ts = 77
SELL LIMIT 0.3 eurcad @1.6300; tp = 1.5450; ts = 88
SELL LIMIT 0.3 eurgbp @ 0.8650; tp = 0.8500; ts = 47
BUY LIMIT 0.4 nzdusd @0.5950; tp = 0.6500; ts = 67

Now set for the start of the week.

It's kind of annoying that I can't place limit orders over the weekend, and have to wait for the action to start on Sunday afternoon.

[Joe T]

Orders opened overnight:
sell 0.2 audusd @0.8050 / tp = 0.7750 / ts = 78
sell 0.2 nzdusd @ 0.6500 / tp = 0.6250 / ts = 67
buy 0.5 xagusd @ 13.71 / tp = 15.50 / ts = 29

Orders CLOSED overnight:
0.2 eurusd short @ 1.4150, closed @ 1.1459 / -9 pips / -$18.00 / -$0.90 swap
0.2 audusd short @ 0.8050, closed @0.8128 / -78 pips / -$156.00 / $0.00


CURRENT REALIZED BALANCE = $9,766.47

Orders PLACED this morning:
SELL STOP 0.2 eurusd @1.4159 / tp = 1.3950 / ts = 86
SELL LIMIT 0.3 eurusd @1.4350 / tp = 1.3950 / ts = 86
SELL LIMIT 0.3 audusd @0.8200 / tp = 0.7800 / ts = 78

[Joe T]

No new orders opened today.

Orders CLOSED today:
0.2 nzdusd short @ 0.6500, closed @ 0.6570 / -70 pips / -$140.00 / $0.00 swap


CURRENT REALIZED BALANCE: $9,626.47


Orders PLACED:
BUY STOP 0.3 audnzd @1.2428 / tp = 1.2750 / ts = 75

[Joe T]

Orders OPENED overnight:
0.30 eurgbo short @ 0.8650; tp = 0.8500; ts = 47
0.30 audnzd long @ 1.2428 / 1.2750 / ts = 75

No orders CLOSED.

Current REALIZED BALNCE: $9,6262.47

Orders PLACED: none.