Since this bog is all about honesty and discipline, I have decided to post statements at the week-end, so that I know, that you know, that any bad trades cannot be secreted away.
Unfortunately my attempts to achieve this have, thus far, failed... but there must be a way.
If I had succeeded, you would have been able to see how grim Monday was, and you would also have seen the recovery.
You would have seen that the bad results were followed by more conservative trade sizes, indicating - to me at least - that I am finally countering the instinct to 'get even' with the Market. This has taken a while to master...
Overall, I'm proud about how things have turned out and it wouldn't have happened without my trading partner, Tom.
I am quickly learning that when it comes to live trading, accountability to a trading partner - together with that 'on the spot' second opinion, is worth much. Thanks mate - I owe you.
Bottom line; this week the account has grown by a shade over 2%. It's very early days but we're on the tram.
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From Tom,
ReplyDeleteThis has been a great week; the trades we took were great, but the trades we didn't take were greater.
Talking over the weekend we discussed our strategy and were then eager to get stuck in to the markets on Monday. we weren't wrong, just premature and we exited independently at our agreed stop loss levels; risk was managed, and I believe that is acceptable. What was better was what happened Monday night. We re-evaluated our pairs and agreed that the trades were still there. At this point, we had potential Flagstaffs on GBP/JPY(Yippon) and Cable and a Tombstone on GBP/CHF. In the past we would have tried to trade them all, but instead we chose our best, the Yippon Flagstaff with the option of adding Cable if it still looked good. That approach was significant, as it demonstrates the ability to exercise restraint and select the best trade available, with the best backtested proven profitability, rather than trade every trade we see. as it turned out, both Flagstaffs completed, with GBP/JPY being the major and the Swiss failing to tombstone. In the order of 123, we were right.
Learning to live and trade in the post-coital phase is new to us, but again back testing came to our aid. Eager to get back in again and trade any retracements, further breaks or just make huge numbers of pips in the general mayhem could have tempted us back in. We would have been wrong.
Both pairs set up 1 Hr surprise boxes and we should have been rubbing our hands. Instead, a look at the higher timeframe and knowledge from our backtesting suggested it was best to sit on our hands and pips. The trades opened, and whilst one was up 200 pips at one point, traded correctly in the state of Arizona, it would have exited at a loss. We did dip a toe hoping that the Swiss was going to complete its tombstone, but that was not backed up by definitive backtesting and we graciously left when it wasn't going our way. Already I feel easier about letting bad trades go, as I know where to find better ones...
What a week then, I will not forget watching our trades open on Monday night, following them through the day and closing them on target. I will also not forget walking away from other trade set ups which in the past would have quickened my pulse.
Our communications were good this week; we do differ in opinion and approach which is healthy, but we are definitely pointing in the same direction, we have purpose and are pulling together.
This is going to work and I wouldn't be anywhere else.