Taking a long long break

For those who have been following my blog, you're probably wondering what I've been doing. I haven't been trading since August. I was in a messy state of mind then, taking care of numerous tasks at the same time. As a result the demo account also ended up in a big mess. As such I decided to take a long break and come back later, starting afresh again. So till then, take care!

Summary of July trades

July has not been a very good month for me. Overall I hit a % lower than the norm. Both Strategy 1 & 2 ended up in losses for this month. I've checked with my trainer, KS, on my losing trades and result. Most of the losing trades were genuine losses, i.e. not a mistake on my part. The result was also partly due to the fact that I've not entered some of the winning trades.

Lesson learnt for July:
It is possible to lose money even for a month. Like every investment, Forex also depends on your time of entry or what I like to think of as, luck. But I still believe that Forex can make us money (definitely not big bucks) in the long run. I shall continue to persevere in my journey with the Naruto spirit!

Live account

I entered a trade at 117.50 on Mon when market dropped responding to the drop in stock market. Meant it to be a carry trade if it didn't hit my PL. The trade closed at my PL of 118.50 later in the day, a 100 pips gain. Recovered back part of the large loss in the live account. Way to go!

Results for the past week

I haven't been updating my results for the last week. Have not had much time to do trading as I'm into some big renovation project now. Anyway, here's the results of my past trades.

Open Date: 07/31/2007 00:44:19
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Sell
Open Rate: 118.86
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/31/2007 03:03:25
Close Rate: 119.16
Gross PL: -$125.91

Open Date: 07/31/2007 11:17:58
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Sell
Open Rate: 118.99
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/31/2007 14:35:45
Close Rate: 118.89
Gross PL: $42.06

Open Date: 08/01/2007 02:31:59
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 117.88
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 08/01/2007 03:27:17
Close Rate: 118.00
Gross PL: $50.83

Open Date: 08/01/2007 23:22:21
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Sell
Open Rate: 118.7
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 08/01/2007 23:37:00
Close Rate: 118.6
Gross PL: $42.16

Open Date: 08/05/2007 20:03:49
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 117.68
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 08/05/2007 21:00:54
Close Rate: 117.38
Gross PL: -$127.79

Open Date: 08/06/2007 05:47:05
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 117.78
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 08/06/2007 06:47:55
Close Rate: 117.88
Gross PL: $42.41

Open Date: 08/06/2007 12:15:55
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 118.13
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 08/06/2007 12:40:22
Close Rate: 118.26
Gross PL: $54.95

Beginning Balance: $1,000.00
Ending Balance: $1,075.44
Profit: 7.544% (reduced)

Back into action!

I'm back into action with my practice account once again. Closed 2 trades yesterday. The second one was a loss due to the fact that I've entered the trade too early...hmmm...so that can happen for Strategy 2 as well. Another lesson learnt.

Open Date: 07/30/2007 01:26:59
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 118.59
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/30/2007 02:59:48
Close Rate: 118.69
Gross PL: $42.12

Open Date: 07/30/2007 10:23:57
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 118.69
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/30/2007 11:35:59
Close Rate: 118.39
Gross PL: -$126.7

Beginning Balance: $1,000.00
Ending Balance: $1,096.74
Profit: 9.674% (reduced)

An expensive mistake!

I made a drastic mistake yesterday night in my live account. I had one position opened for carry trade. Seeing the downtrend, I wanted to short the market. But when I placed my Short trade, I forgot to hedge it. Due to the nature of this trading platform, my carry trade was closed. As a result, I lost not only all my previous profit, but also dipped into my principle amount. All due to a pure human error! On top of that I had 2 consecutive losing trades from entering the wrong time using Strategy 1.

Under my kind of emotions yesterday, there was no way I can make a right judgement. So I made a correct decision to off the PC and went to sleep. It was a good decision. I woke up this morning and realised that if I had entered the market again, there is a huge possiblity that I could lose another one.

I am back to my normal self today. After checking with my trainer, I realised that I had missed a few good trades for Strategy 2 by focusing too much on catching Strategy 1. It was an expensive but good lesson learnt.

What my trainer said was right. When it's going to stop (referring to the downtrend yesterday night), nobody knows for sure. Just trade as the system and see. Losses are inevitable in Forex. They serve as good lessons for us to reflect upon our mistakes and make us grow, hopefully, into a better trader. The important thing is not to lose your direction after losses and to move on from there.

Same early worm again

The classic "entering a market too early is no good" example happened again yesterday night. As a result, I lost another trade using Strategy 1.

Open Date: 07/25/2007 06:10:37
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 120.33
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/25/2007 06:37:27
Close Rate: 120.43
Gross PL: $41.51

Open Date: 07/26/2007 06:16:04
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Sell
Open Rate: 120.27
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/26/2007 07:06:34
Close Rate: 120.17
Gross PL: $41.61

Open Date: 07/26/2007 07:29:58
Instrument: USDJPY
B/S: Buy
Open Rate: 119.97
Lot: 0.5
Close Date: 07/26/2007 09:06:00
Close Rate: 119.52
Gross PL: -$188.27

Beginning Balance: $1,000.00
Ending Balance: $1,181.32
Profit: 18.132% (reduced)