Learning after the lesson

After the 9% lesson, i have to rebuild and re-grow my portfolio again. Its kind of disappointing when you got the setback during the period you thought you were on the ascending path. It was a hard lesson. These are the 12 trades after the 9% lesson. The first few trades were doing well and i was rushing to recoup the losses when i started to take bigger risk. And today i shorted 3 trades on GBPUSD, GBPJPY and USDJPY. Even my trading buddy said i was not my usual self as i rarely take so much risk. Got to stay calm and stay focused.

The 9% Lesson

Last week on the Tuesday, I entered long GBP/USD and GBP/JPY just before the UK session. Then during the UK session, at the Treasury Select Committee hearing, the BOE Governor Mervyn King said the MPC is considering lowering the remuneration on banks' reserve. This means the central bank will even lesser interest on the bank reserve, thus increasing the money supply. I had closed the GBP/USD with small losses but left the other position open. And the news was detrimental to my position and I adjusted my SL to 5% from initial of 3%. The price swiftly moved towards my re-adjusted SL and I was contemplating my position of whether to let it hit SL or make another adjustment. I was making progress on my portfolio for the past two weeks and do not want to end up with loss, so i make another adjustment to my SL to 15% hoping it would rebound later in the US session. It proved to be a stupid mistake as the price never recover but keep plunging. I closed it with a 9% loss thus erasing all gains i made since the start of the month.

Learn to accept small losses and celebrate winning.

Profitable Monday with Sterling Pound

Shorted GBP/JPY with only 1 pip gain after 3 hours of ranging market. Also shorted GBP/USD with initial target of 64 pips but closed half of it with 35 pips gain in order to secure the profits. An hour later it closed with re-adjusted PT of 60 pips. Later in the night, long GBP/NZD at 2.3679 after it reached year low with small lots to capture potential reversal, however I closed it with 16 pips gain after re-considering the trade setup. Overall i managed to gain close to 3% on my portfolio. One step closer to my goal. Yay.

Trade Result Year 1

It's been one year since I started trading forex. And I've learned a lot from my mentor, my trading buddies and from myself. What was once I thought would be the easy and fast track to wealth has been a very challenging one. Perhaps I underestimated the market and overestimated myself. But I am glad I have found my passion and working towards my goal. I have always believed that i would be a trader, if not in forex, perhaps in stocks or options. The chart on the right tabulated my total trades since my first trade.

My winning to losing trades is approximately 5:3 with few trades breaking even. My target till end of the year is to increase the winning ratio to 7:3 and making 500% return in order to win my mentor's challenge. Although my current portfolio is sitting at -23% and its quite a big goal but i believed its possible. Stay positive, disciplined and focus on my goal and game plan. I will do it.

Trade Result 2009_09_08

Entered a total of 3 trades yesterday. Long GBP/JPY, GBP/USD in the Europe session making a total of 32 pips and later in the US session i shorted EUR/USD with a 25 pips loss. Ended up the day with BE. The USD was under pressure for the whole Europe session with Gold trading at year's high and concerns over the dollar's long-term status as the world's reserve currency also weighted on the greenback after a UN report called for a new world currency.

Europe session 2009_09_07

Today i long both GBP/USD and GBP/JPY a bit too early as i had to go out for a viewing. Both trades were positives when i was back from the viewing although it has retraced a bit and both ended up break even after i adjusted my SL to my EP level. I entered another long on GBP/USD after it retraced to below my initial EP and i gained 25 pips from the trade. Though the pair moved beyond my initial PT level i set as i closed it manually after running out of patience.

Discipline and patience. Important ingredients in successful trading.

101 pips from GBP/JPY

Yes...i managed to get 101 pips from GBP/JPY yesterday trade. Long the pair early with initial target of 120 pips but later changed it to 101 pips. And it managed to hit PT. Its been more than 2 months since i last get more than 100 pips from a trade. My portfolio is climbing back up.

Today will be quite volatile as there is few key speeches by French Gov, ECB President and the G20 meeting also start today. Think i will avoid today's session.

Good trading.

Trade Result 28 Aug - 02 Sept 2009

After the reflecting on my trade result and setup the last time, i managed to improved a bit on my trade entry and controlling my emotion. The next 2 trades ended up with break even as i monitor the trade closely and adjusted the SL level once it moves in my direction. The third trade is on Monday which, is the UK bank holiday. At one point it moved to about 40 pips, about 10 pips away from my target but then the market had a correction and i closed it with only 12 pips.
The next day i tried the same setup and this time managed to get 39 pips from GBP/USD and managed to add 1.9% to my portfolio. On Wednesday I entered a short on GBP/JPY with smaller SL level and small lot size as i had to be away from the screen and it hit my SL of 35 pips.