Thread: Lows Journal

Hey everyone,

I've decided to start my very own private thread, mostly as a place to call home, and put my charts, instead of reposting them across the 5 threads I respect/follow.

Some people have asked me for my opinions/analysis, and so that is now where you are going to find it.

This isn't an eduional thread, and it might be fraudulent for me to maintain any standing that gives me the best to teach anyone, it is exactly how I view the market, and what interests me.

This may or may not be a diary, I'll list some trades here, but likely not all, but I also want a place where I can indulge in any and all random dialogue associated with the markets in general, or instruments specific. I set where I can vent when things go poorly, and take pride when things go well.

As a warning, if too many noobs start asking questions I can not /won't answer, I'll put a vouch limitation on the ribbon, and use the buddy-list feature to permit sub-limit posters to join the dialogue.

Overall, I am tired of clogging other up, perfectly helpful threads with whatever crap crosses my mind, so take the liberty of creating my very own little ditch. Your garbage is welcome also.

I'll devote the next few articles outlining my history, to give you all some notion of where I started, and where I am at. I am not a profitable trader . We'll discuss the numbers when I expand in my background, but until I have taken back in the market, the sum I have donated, I consider myself a losing trader. And the day I break even will be one hell of a celebration.

Unrelated to anything else...I had the coolest time last night, employing a lot of things I have heard from trading to win a local pool tourney.

I will hold my own on the desk, but generally there's a lot of players better than me. I was not really that interested until I saw that the RR on positioning. It had been a $5 buy-in, first set was 60, next was $35, and third was $15.

Understanding I could at least take third, that's a 1:3 payoff.
2nd is 1:7, also 1st 1:12. If it was a trade 1:3 could be just fine, so I figured that the risk was easily worth it.

I played regular, and partly through my 3rd game I grabbed myself becoming cocky and taking stupid shots. The same as trading....overconfidence reared it's ugly head. I put a stop to this right there. Calm, cool, collected. In control.

After that, I went undefeated for most of my games up until the previous 2. My opponent was better than me with a long shot, about the next to the last game I broke, it had been open, and he then proceeded to run the table. I didn't even get to shoot again. Having made it that far and understanding I had been outmatched, I took a deep breath, remained focused, and played the best game I could.

And my competitor succumbed to his overconfidence.

1st Position for me personally. 1:12 RR.

It is really amazing just how much of it all can be mental.

It was soon after that that I stumbled onto FF, and spent most of my time between the ribbon of Jacko, and Chris' Silent Service thread.

I really wanted Jacko's way to work for me, also spent a lot of time there, but in the end I simply overtraded it. Only 1 pair? Really? I have observed other traders use his principles into other pairs with good results, and applaud their efforts, but in the end, trend-following doesn't mesh well with my own personality.

I then became a regular on Chris' thread, and it was not so much that the method , as it was his point of view which I appreciated. It was the simple fact that he had been ( and still is) a painter. A blue collar guy. A guy who would rather spend time with his loved ones, than appearing at 5 min charts all day. This had a lot of appeal.

It was during that time that I eventually began learning a bit about markets, from a big picture perspective, and within the subsequent 8 months my PL confirmed I was indeed improving. I was not making the massive monthly gains so many traders hunt, but 2%-4% a month compounds well, and bears a lot less risk than the usual 10 percent target.

As my confidence improved, I decided it was worth it to throw a bit more money into the account, and deposited $100 USD per month for another three, bringing my entire balance around about $320. Including the intial $100 I dropped, I have risked approximately $420.

Things went well before the final day of November, last year. For the month, I had been down 3% or 4%, but on this last day, late at night after a couple of beers, I set 2 limit longs on gold and went to bed. And behold, the next day that my floating PL was just over $410. I had won back almost everything I'd lost. I had been $10 shy of BE. That $10 meant everything to me.

Now that gold had confirmed my boundless genius, I was bulletproof. Certainly I would be wealthy beyond my wildest imaginings in short order.

Over the next 2 weeks I traded away 30% of my equity hoping to reproduce the results of that which was really, just luck.

That is when I first became aware of the defects in my personal trading plogy, and to this day I still fight them.

Good for you. It is great to put your head out there.

Originally Posted by ;

Good for you. It's nice to put your head out there.

Thanks Calderone,

I will be putting up several charts later, and if you prefer I will put them in your own thread too, I've just recently realized I do not swim with the current, I pick tops and bottoms. An expensive habit which is....lol.

Anyways, more meaningless babble to follow...

Entertaining, Low. It is brave of you to place it out here. I too had some wild equity swings when I first started in Forex but I could honestly say I have just had one margin call, which was deliberate. Deliberate? You may ask. Well my early account was quite little - #500.00 and before funding properly as a part of my egy I moved in with my little account just to see if I was lucky enough to creep it up in the market's expense.

Persistence pays and so does positivity and I respect both. I really do read your posts whenever I see them and I expect a fantastic read here.

Garbage? I've got lots of this and I will add to yours if you would like. Trouble is, for me anyhow, most folks on these forums don't appear to get a clue what they're doing. It requires a little sorting - the garbage in the fantastic stuff. Talk about the blind leading the blind. But there are a number of great guys here and I have heard a lot.

Originally Posted by ;

Thanks Calderone,

I will be putting up several charts later, and if you like I will set them on your thread as well, I've only recently realized I do not swim with the current, I pick bottoms and tops. A costly habit that is....lol.

Anyways, more meaningless babble to follow....

Haha!! The current is for do as I say not as I do to assist new people. There's not any help for us my friend. hehe!! I frequently pick tops and bottoms . Most of my entries are counter tendency pa signals. Should I get an IB with the current I am pleased but....you know how it functions. lol

Originally Posted by ;

Interesting, . It is brave of you to place it out here. I too had some crazy equity swings when I first started in Forex....

Thank you for the kind words Smikester, at the time you hear the end of my narrative, you're going to be delighted with your results. I can't believe I'm still thrashing around with this little to show for myself. Technically my live account is going to be 2 years old in April 2011, so perhaps I'm being too hard on myself, but I thought I'd be a lot further along by now.

The next series of failures are not really that apparent to me. After doing sufficient damage over-trading gold, I quit trading until the new calendar year, as December is pretty lame anyways.

Time passed, transactions were shot, some winners, some losers, nothing substantial. At the time the kiwi had lately published double monthly bearish pin bars. There was a lot of debate about the brief of the calendar year, it looked great to me and that I pulled my funds to the mix. Made a simple 500 pips per week.

This 500 pips was the only profit I would see on that pair, as I felt so confident of it's eminnent dip, which I started incorporating shorts as it retraced.

This part is for all you noobs:

As every succesive brief was threatened by increasing price, I (foolishly) transferred my ceases. Do not ever effing do so unless it's part of your plan (state by using just 1/2 your customary risk, allowing you to double the stop size afterwards without impacting your MM).

Not only was it moving against me, but it had been grinding against my rankings. For 2 long months. When it was all said and done, I'd 7 shorts, all but the first underwater, and having transferred my stops, I had been left without a reason to shut the transactions but exhaustion/fear. That was unacceptable. I drew up some point studies, to make a specialized arrangement by which I would exit. A set of parameters, that if fulfilled were reason enough for me.

The purpose of this was plogical. Because when I shut emotionally, and price then went in my favor, I knew I would lose it. So instead I defined solid reasons to depart, and when those conditions arrived, I lost another 30% of my equity.

6 times after price turned (flash crash), although I felt terrible about what I got to, I felt fine about how I got out, reduction and all.

There is not much ethical to this part of the story, but it was a significant hit, and I am putting it here for the same reason I am aloging the rest of my most-massive failures.

Since a lot of individuals ask me for my input, and all they see are such large shiny V's by my name and talk to me like I am some sort of super-trader. I hate to burst everybody's bubble, but I am still only Clark Kent, and there is not a phone booth in sight.

And thanks to everyone who has wasted their valuable time reading this drivel.

There are two more stories, then a post-game wrap-up/conclusion.

And then I'll be moving this thread in the current, in which time and price will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about me.