Cory2679

GBP/USD has come up on a level of potential major resistance...

FWIW, I'm currently long the GBP/USD.

That's for sure...I was planning on making a post about that later. This is how I began my week last week...I began by trading like this, taking a hit, and then finally stepping back, learning some patience, and taking only what I saw as "obvious" and did a lot better.

"A day trade is just a buy and sell (or short sell and buy to cover) of the same stock in one trading day." -- a quote from brownsfan's link...

I would imagine buying and selling is buying and selling, no matter what order you do it in, as far as the SEC day trading regulations are concerned... Just my .I'm honestly not 100% sure, though.

Just took ANOTHER hit...I am really off to a rough start this week... Still, just one winning trade could make up for all this, but it's hard not to get a little frustrated at this point... Pulled it for -15.4...

It is somewhat subjective...no indicators...my rules aren't extremely iron clad. Basically, if I get ticked in, it maybe gives me a couple ticks of profit on my screen, and races the other way, I pull it and wait for it to come back and break the high/low... Also, if, say I'm short, and I get ticked in, and price makes a low, comes up, makes a higher low, then breaks the high created between the two lows, I'll likely pull it...and what I'm talking about is not 15 minute bars...it's action you could probably see better on a 1 minute chart...I'm watching what price is doing in real time so I don't necessarily need to switch to the 1 minute chart in the moment. And make no mistake, I am in the same boat as you (rookie!)...so take what I say and do with a grain of salt!!

Possible long on the EUR/USD...

Just took another loss... Pulled the ripcord for -5.8 ticks. NOTE: When I say something like, "pulled the ripcord" or "pulled it," that means that I manually exited early rather than waiting to be stopped out.

Just because price didn't get very far before it came back through my entry...I decided to pull it and potentially re-enter if price broke the new low (which it hasn't yet)... ...you actually can't tell by my charts, but I did this on all 3 of the trades...pulled out before my stop-loss was hit...for the same reason...just no steam behind any of the moves before price came back through my entry...

Here are my three trades from tonight... I should mention, blue line is the entry, red line is the stop-loss. Not shown: dotten purple lines are a point where I'd get to break-even, and green lines would be profit targets. ^^ I pulled the ripcord on this one for -12.5 ticks. ^^ I pulled the ripcord on this one for -19.6 ticks. And finally...pulled this one for -14.8 ticks...I was considering re-entering this one on a break of the low, but price has kind of died out for the time being...and I'm tired and going to bed soon! Finished the night down about 1.26R. Even though it wasn't a great night, I don't have any huge regrets or anything...just didn't go my way!

Pulled it for -14.8...I'd be prepared to re-enter on a break of the low...

Current look at the EUR/JPY...

Thanks, but no need to apologize. Please don't think I was angry or anything just because I replied with a big post...it was just an effort to explain myself to you or anyone else who might take a look at my thread...I may not have been very clear in the beginning. I appreciate you taking the time to contribute to my log and hope you will continue to follow along.

How do you figure? After all, I'm trading demo!...with the logic that if I can't be net profitable demo, I can't be net profitable live. My initial high 5% position size decision...which I've now changed to 2%...was just because of a misconception on my part of what is big when it comes to position sizing. The purpose of this thread has little to do with money...and NOTHING to do with ego...believe it or not, it has everything to do with improving my "skills!" This is a trading journal...not strictly a P/L log...and the reason it is public is so that others here at TL can follow along and that I can perhaps get feedback, help, advice, etc., in order to help continue to improve myself. I'm not sure how it would be an ego booster...this is an anonymous forum...I don't know anyone on this forum outside of cyberspace. I can see maybe if I were posting P/L on facebook or something (which I'm not!)... I think my usage of the term 'infinite yield' may be part of the problem...I was basically just alluding to a post thales made here with an attachment. I think reading that would help clear up a lot of the confusion...I should have posted it to begin with. I agree with this, but I think you've misinterpreted me if you think that this thread is focused on making a lot of money right now. It is! Read back through this log in detail...the entire reason I created the log was not to post P/L...I could do that on the P/L thread...the reason was for an area to post all of my trades!!...I want to log ALL of my trades in order to keep track for sake of review and possible feedback/advice from TL members from whom I've learned a LOT and have great respect for...and continue to learn from... I think you have misinterpreted me and my intention for this journal. When you asked your initial question... ...I was a little confused and thought you may have missed something. I thought I had already explained... Maybe part of the problem is that thus far, all I've talked about is returns/position sizing/etc...but that's just because it was the weekend...not trading, yet...I'll be posting charts, discussion, etc. this coming week. I just wanted an initial game-plan for position sizing, account size, demo/live, etc., because I wanted some structure/consistency. I appreciate your contribution and I'm not trying to argue...I just honestly thought you may have gotten the wrong idea from me, so I wanted to do my best to clear it up!

Well, if "you and I would disagree," then to me that's a red flag...you have "20ish" years experience and I basically have < 1. Sooo...change of plans! I will risk 2% per trade!! Hopefully I can average at least 10% (5R) per week trading that size...but like I said, I'm truly trading for "infinite yield." I guess for the sake of my "plan," I won't count the week as "profitable" if I don't make at least 5% (2.5R). I'm glad I made my initial post on Friday...there've been some serious changes to my plan over the weekend!

Well, I've thought about it a little bit... I think for phase 1 of my plan ($5,000 demo account), I'm going to stick with the 5% position sizing. I'm basing this decision on what I said here: And it wasn't that 25% was necessarily my goal in the first place...it was more like "5R" was my goal...so whether that's 25% with 5% position sizing, or 5% with 1% position sizing, it doesn't matter to me...and if I can make 10R, that's great! 50%! Also, I don't mean to limit myself to 5R or 10R or whatever...my true "goal" is infinityR...I'm trading for infinite yield. Although, knowing me, now that my trading is "public" and I'm beginning my new plan and everything, I'll end up psyching myself out and losing big money my first week! :o When it comes time to move from phase 1 to phase 2 ($500 live account), I will reconsider my position sizing. Also...on another note...scratch this... ...just to be clear, what I now plan to do is calculate my position size for each trade based on whatever the current closed equity is on my account...not the beginning of the week balance.

You've given me something to think about (thankfully I have the weekend). Whatever I do, I need to stick with (at least for the duration of whatever "phase" I'm in of my plan). As long as I'm consistent, I'm happy. That way I can get a better grasp on what I can expect from my trading (whether it's 10R or -10R per week). Thanks, will do.

Thanks, MK. Yeah, when I said game plan, it's more to do with goals/milestones/consistent position sizing/etc...not so much to do with my way of trading...I'll just be doing the same old things I've been doing. It will probably be more like a journal...definitely not strictly pnl.

I should probably mention...I'm primarily trading off of 15 minute charts on the EUR/JPY, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, & USD/JPY. I will, however, use other timeframes to view the market from different perspectives and degrees of swing, to see major support/resistance, etc.

Slight change of plans... Cory2679's Log From the log, concerning this thread...

Cory2679's Log

I plan to use this thread to post all of my trades from each day, after the day is over, and also my weekly P/L. The log is also open to anything else I feel like sharing...I'll basically use it as a journal. I will continue to post real-time charts over at the Reading Charts in Real Time thread, but only when it's convenient and doesn't hinder my trading in any way. I will also continue to post my weekly P/L over at the Trader P/L 2010 thread.

Based on some advice from Dinerotrader, in jonbig04 fashion, I've decided to start my own log thread! If anyone is curious about what type of approach I'm trading, just check out my history of posts over at the Reading Charts in Real Time thread. I'll begin with my post from the Trader P/L 2010 thread that lead to me starting this log...

Well, I actually posted my plan here, on the P/L thread, for anyone who's interested. As far as this thread is concerned...