Taking a break

Have decided to have a break from blogging for various reasons but sometimes it can be a bit much completing my journal as well as a blog as my journal is very detailed with pics and all as Im a visual person.
I wasnt too sure what direction to take the blog when I 1st started so used it for more of a journal so Ive decided 2 journals are a bit too much work. Call me lazy!
There are so many good blogs and sites out there these days on FX Trading but there also are so many bad ones and hacks!

Some of the ones that Ive always liked are:

www.tradingwithdeadlyaccuracy.com
www.forexleechalert.blogspot.com
www.nobrainertrades.com
www.innerfx.com
joetradingplace.wordpress.com
explorefx.tumblr.com/

All the best in your trading!

J

Charts

GBPAUD

Took about 80 pips out of this one as was clearly stalling at a strong resistance level.
This pair has been extremely good to me ;)

NZDUSD

Was looking for low to hold as support. Had target set to close out 1/3 of position at level marked but was 5 pips shy of level before going to sleep. Decided to close out 1/3 and move to BE. Got stopped on remainder of position at BE. I normally dont like fiddling with my orders i.e. closing out early as I think it can sometimes be a bad habit but sometimes as I can cut my profit a bit short sometimes but if price doesnt look good I would rather get out with some pips rather than none.

All in all has been a good week and am holding a couple new positions from Friday into the new month. Am currently sitting on EURGBP long for a long position (lots of room to the upside), NZDUSD short and GBPUSD short. All positions in profit and GBPUSD has had 1/3 scaled. Heres hoping for a good open and new start of month!

J

Charts

AUDUSD

This is my 1st trade in over a week. There was too much important data last week that I felt if you werent already positioned it wouldnt be worth playing as you could've got done by a news spike plus I couldnt find an entry that meet my rules. Seeing all the volatility and movement was good to see come back into the markets but truly I didnt feel like I was missing out on anything whereas previously I would have been itching to try and catch some of the big moves.
Got stopped on this pair this morning for -60 pips. Entered this trade looking for trend continuation. In hindsight there was a few stronger things playing against me like the level that price formed its high with those wicks is in line with a historical high so I guess a deeper retrace could be expected as there would be plenty of sell orders there from traders that play historical levels. The daily candle from Friday was also a pin so fighting that probably wasnt my best move. Another lesson learnt which Ive always been aware of but I guess sometimes overlook which is look for the bigger level to hold.

J

Charts

 AUDUSD

This is 1 of 3 trades taken in the last couple days. I wanted to post this one 1st and review it as I got stopped out on this trade but there was a great lesson in it for me.
I dont normally fade levels but it is something Im working on. I entered 2 orders on this trade fading the level. The 1st on the high of the box and 2nd on the low. I put my stop overnight way too tight as it was about 5 pips below the bottom of the box I defined. During the day got whipsawed by AUD employment figures and of course if you see where AUD is now you will see that my thinking was correct. This one stopped me out for about 35 pips for both position which Im more than happy to pay for the lesson I learnt.
Lesson learnt: Place stops in a place where price shouldnt go and if it does it completely invalidates my thinking. Of course different methods would have different stop placement but seeing as I was initially looking to build a position and capture a larger move to the upside a super tight stop just doesnt seem smart at all.

GBPAUD

Well I closed out my long where I said I was looking for a short. Because of my 1st trade I was looking for AUD strength, when I saw the H4 bar close and come smashing down I took the trade. Closed out this morning for about 80 pips.

NZDUSD

Seeing as I was bullish on AUD Im definitely going to be bullish on her little sister (Kiwi's hate being known for this but they know its true. I know cause Im married to one). There was this setup thats one of my favs as its so easy to define risk but was also a little cautious as there was a clear trend line there acting as resistance. Was monitoring it all night due to ECB and everything else happening but once she broke it was all good. Set my target at the gap and target was hit by the time I woke up this morning. Nice way to start the day.

All in all solid start to the month and am flat going into the NFP's. Gonna have the night off so hope you all enjoy your weekend and make sure you spend some time outside getting the fresh air not being stuck in front of your charts all weekend.

J

Charts

Update

Have closed out final position for 800 pips as price is approaching a level I was planning to short from.
This is the longest Ive held any trade for and most amount of pips Ive banked from 1 trade!!!!

GBPAUD

Took this trade last Thurs. Was hunting for the trade on Wed but decided to pass as there was major news on GBP. On Thurs there was another opportunity to take the trade, my entry wasnt the sharpest as price pretty much went against me from where I opened the trade but the reason I was happy to take the trade was my target was well defined.

Have scaled out of this position and will be watching closely to tighten up my stop on the remainder of the trade. 

Ideally would like to see a trend line break and price start forming support, if this happens I will be looking to build on a position. See what happens in the coming days.

J

Charts

GBPUSD

This is just a simple SR play. This is my trend continuation setup. Price acted as res so I marked the zone and once it broke the level when price came back it acted as support.
Have scaled out 1/3 pos and stops are at break. 2nd target will be most recent swing high.

J

Charts

EURJPY

So Im a little bit behind today as this was my trade from last week and I was meant to update over the weekend but decided to take it easy on the weekend and finish all loose ends today.
Took this trade as price has been making HH and res turning to support. Missed the 1st entry when price went straight into level (I think there was a FOMC meeting or something) but when we had a bullish bar the next day looked like level was holding and I was looking for continuation. Not much happened and eventually got stopped out on Friday.
Down 40 pips on this one and that was all I did last week.
Last week of the month this week and data looks quite light so will be interesting to see how this week plays out.

J

Master The Method

Theres many ways to skin a cat and with all the fancy whiz bang indicators these days multiplied by the currencies and different timeframes there are so many different options/styles on how to trade. This is where I believe most people get lost. They hear someone on twitter or a blog post some winning trades and maybe that individual is using a 7, 31 and 79 moving average (I just used numbers from my birthday but hey who knows maybe they are the holy grail....lol) or someone else is using the MACD with different settings and so the aspiring trader thinks this person has the answer or the SECRET. Well the truth really is that the only difference between the successful trader and the unsuccessful one is that the successful one has mastered their method/strategy. The successful trader has defined their edge and know what they are looking for and when it happens they strike. The reality is from my experience all strategies work some of the time and it is your job as the trader to figure out how to make the strategy work most of the time. This may mean sitting doing hours of testing and finding the nuances to the method but in the long run it will be worth it.
Once you understand what defines a high odds setup then just hunt them. This may mean sitting there for days waiting for a setup to form and if you struggle with this its not methods/strategies or setups you need to work on its you PATIENCE! Ive heard WMD aka Will Hunting ask a very valid question which is "Whats the minimum number of trader to take a day?" Think about it for a second and if your answer is greater than 0 this could be where you are getting in trouble. If you trade on timeframes like the M15 or higher I do not believe you can get really high odds setups every day or at least this is the way that I see the charts anyway.
Ive noticed common patterns/setups occur on the chart regularly but they dont occur every day so when the pattern/setup happens then I know what to do and this is what Im hunting.
Remember the key to successful trading is "MASTERING THE TRADE NOT BEING A JACK OF ALL TRADES"

J

Charts

GBPCHF

Took this trade yesterday once I saw old resistance holding as support. Simple but effective.
Have to admit price was in and out of profit since I took the trade so was unsure how could go but had more confidence in trade once yesterdays candle closed a bullish pin.
Have scaled out and in a risk free trade. I actually have a longer term view on this trade but will need to see how price plays out over the coming days and see if Im still in the trade.

Absolutely HILARIOUS!

Something funny to finish up with. Hope you enjoy!

Charts

EURUSD

Played the trend line break and re test but was stopped out at BE.
Entry wasnt the tightest as an aggressive entry could have been taken when price was about to strike the line but I prefer having candle confirmation and in this scenario I was waiting for a H1 to turn bullish and the candle that confirmed was quite a large candle. Guess thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Charts

EURUSD

Seeing as its NFP's tonight I will sit the rest of the week out. Its been quite a quiet week for me but thats usually expected seeing as its the 1st week of the month and also the month of August which has a reputation for being a little bit erratic.
I just wanted to post this chart of EUR and how technical it has been. I dont like trading during big news announcements like the ECB or FOMC or any other acronym that seems to cause huge reactions in the markets as I tend to find you get stopped from whipsaw more than anything else but had the big boys not been out and about talking their talk these levels would have been very nice to play.
Note how that old support level held to the pip and had a 3rd touch trend line near it. SO CLEAN!
Then there was the support turned resistance turned support again. I love these setups when I can catch them!
Well thats it for me. I hope you all have a great weekend and remember play it safe tonight and dont get into too much trouble if you are gonna play at all!!

J

Charts

EURUSD

Im just looking at this pair and thinking everything about it is technically down at the moment.
You can see Ive marked a potential trend line waiting for validation with a 3rd touch which is also aligning with a proven support level so we should be expecting it to turn resistance and this zone could also be an attraction point especially for the 3rd touch of the line BUT...............
If these levels are broken and when I say broken I dont mean by a few pips I mean a strong break through the level there could be a potential move long for a decent move. I think either way some interesting levels that could provide some trading opps. Will need to see what kind of reaction we get from the major news announcements this week either way hopefully we can get some volatility and some direction for some trading opportunities.

Hope you all have a great trading month!

J

Charts

GBPCHF

1st trade of week. Not really gonna look for anything else today as a new month begins tomorrow.
Would rather wait for the new month to begin and see how the rest of the week wants to play out with lots of major news announcements out this week.

Price was failing to break through 3rd touch of trend line so opened trade on confirmation of line holding on M15. Not much really happened from when I took the trade last night till sometime today but finally we got movement in the direction I was looking for. Ive scaled out 1/3 position and stops at BE so no risk on table. Gonna let the rest ride to my TP2 and TP3 or stopped at BE.

J

Charts

EURCAD

Last one for the week. This is one thats been going in and out of profit since I took it. I almost got stopped but she's still going.
I entered off the strike of the yellow line but Ive also marked a trend line and triangle that Ive noticed to support my thinking for a push north.
Price is looking like its establishing support and making new highs. I got my 1st TP set roughy about 1:1 and am gonna see how long I can hold as there is quite a bit of room to the upside if we can break north.
Have a great weekend all!

J

Charts

GBPAUD

Was looking to start building a position long on this pair. Should have got stopped at break as had 1st position up 100+ pips at one point then added 2nd position and got stopped from news.
Got slipped by the broker on my stop by 30 pips. Should not have taken the 2nd trade leading into major news. Lesson learnt!

J

Charts

USDCAD

Got stopped at break on this. Fell short of my 1st TP by a few pips.
There was a perfect entry on the strike of the line and I would have taken this one but was already in the trade using a different technique for entry.
Am not opposed to taking another entry if it strikes the line again.

J

Some fun stuff to start the week

Rich Froning JR recently won the Crossfit Games for the 2nd year in a row. This is just a quick snippet of the Games and how hard these guys really push themselves.
I do Crossfit and it gives me the best workout day in and day out that has effected my life both physically and mentally (which assists with my trading).

J

Charts

GBPUSD

I took a small position on this on Friday. I generally dont like opening new trades on Fridays so this trade was at a reduced position size looking to add today (Monday).
There was a bit of confluence on this trade as price was aligning with old highs and I had the confirmation when my lower trend line was broken.
Since the open price has just fallen so I have scaled out to cover the stop but still have the view to add if I can get a clean technical entry.

Charts

NZDUSD

Continuation trade. All candles are pointing up so really just looking for continuation.
Have scaled and moved stop to break as approaching a strong resistance area on the left so would rather walk away with a few pips than none at all considering markets aint really doing much at moment.