Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Wednesday 5/7/08 Update

Sometimes a winning trade isn't enough


Today there was only one trade. I got in, got out, and made a profit. Excellent right? WRONG! This was a trade where I was supposed to make 252 pips! instead, I pulled in 102 pips. Why? The answer to this question come in two parts:


1- The fact is that I am hindered by the necessity to sleep. My initial target was hit a 2:51 am. My alarm went off at 2:50 and 45 sec. Now I don't know about you, but 15 seconds when you've been fast asleep is not enough time for me to even remember who I am, let alone change a limit order, and wait to see if a currency makes a clean break.


2- The second truth is one that I will apply from now on. I set my alarm to go off 5 pips before my target. The speed at which this currency moved would not have allowed my even under bright eyed and bushy tailed conditions to change the limit order.


So with that in mind from now on, I will still set limit orders, but my alarms will be set at a further distance so that I can have time to react.


Today's Trade:


1:45am EST- There was a moving average crossover for a short trade. RSI was less than 50, stochastics were trending down, and MACD was positive and losing value. This was a valid entry. The entry was at the close of the candle at 1.9684 with a stop at the most recent swing high at 1.9713. Since I was 33 pips away from the nearest 50 or 00 level, I decided to put my initial target at 1.9650.

Entry: Short at 1.9684

Stop: 1.9713

Initial Target: 1.9650


2:51 am EST- My initial target was hit. This is where it made a clean break, and I should have moved my target to 1.9600. Instead I got filled and took my 34 pip gain.


Result: 1 trade....+34 pips...3 lots.....+102 pips


So here are the charts for today showing how this trade should have been. It includes the second target which I didn't partake in.


Still 102 pips is not bad.


Talk to you soon.


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