Monday 2nd Feb - Early Triggers...

Overnight all the GBP pairs had gapped down and by 0600 short trades were building on all of them...

GBPCHF

Sold short on 5 minute close below 200 sma AND horizontal support. Based on backtesting, risked 0.5 % of the account, targetting 5 minute 800 sma.

Stayed with it through one nasty reversal at London open and finally got cold feet as pair rose to re-test resistance at 1.6586 for the 3rd time.

Closed trade for 111 pips profit.

Looking at chart now I would have done better to shut down the lap-top and trust to my back-testing as the pair regathered momentum and made it, not only to the 5 min 800, but right the way down to the 1H 800 - a further 250 pips away ! ...

... and exactly what I had strategised at the weekend. Hmm.

Against that, there was a risk (in my mind) that the trade was turning bad so it wasn't wrong to have taken the pips. QED.

GBPUSD

Ordinarily I wouldn't risk a second, concurrent, trade on a pair containing the same base currency but my backtesting has indicated that a breech of the 62 ema, following a failed attempt to regroup at the 1H 800 sma, results in a very high probability of a move back down to the 1H 200 sma...

...So I was happy to enter short on the 1H close, again risking 0.5% of the account.

I'm particularly happy with my tactics on this trade as I pre-set a profit target at a support level just above the 200 sma, aiming to take the easy pips.

You can see from the chart that this tactic was spot on as the pair never made the 200 sma on this occasion, but my trade was closed for a profit of 196 pips.

What next ? Well, clearly I want to see how my pairs move from here, but I also need a pause to clear my thoughts as I am determined not to give these hard won pips back cheaply.