Friday, June 10, 2011

FX: Trial by Fire

Day 1: -3600$$ (US%100k - Different account)
Day 2: -400$$ (US$5000 - Different account)
Day 3: +395$$ (US$5000 - Same account: D2 )
Day 4: -740%% (US$5000 - Same account: D2 )

Forex demo account : Trial by Fire.

I have been thinking really hard on what I am doing wrong in the forex the past 2 days since I lost around US$3600 the first time I tried.

Day 1

The first system that I tried was using was a 9-50 EMA crossover on a 30-sec chart, which takes both long and short position. At first I was impressed as it produced profits on both sides. But when I checked my trades, the crossover produced only a maximum of 8 pips which kinda sucks since I had been reading other people's disclosures of minimum of 100 pips. Then the choppy session came. The losses from the sideways session piled up together with the 8 pip gain that I didn't take, I was devastated and my head started to spin so I decided to take one final trade before calling it quits for the day. I went short on GOLD and slept.

The next day it had a 2.45. That's 2450 pips if I'm reading it right, right? I closed it because it was a half-meant trade so I am counting that one on pure dumb luck.

Lost 3600USD using the system in a 100k account(3.6% of capital).

**No idea on how pips work, where to put the stop loss, trailing stops, and proper position size to maximize the leverage. I didn't even know how buy/sell stops work lol.

Day 2

So I made a new account and put a more reasonable and realistic amount that I can actually put up. This time I used the triple EMA crossover (9-18-50). It also takes both sides of the trade. Disappointingly, it lost more than it won so I decided abandon it and used another system(buy above high-sell below low) which also failed miserably. lol.

Anyway, I started asking myself why the triple EMA crossover didn't work in FX while it worked and showed profitable results in the stock market. Then it got me thinking that I have to be on the right side of the market. With that in mind I decided to "zoom out" and check for 50EMA in longer time frames and trade with the 50EMA trend.
Got really tired so I decided to call it quits.

Lost 400USD using both systems in a 5000USD account(8% of capital).

Lesson: Trade with the trade. Don't take unneccessary trades. Sit tight when winning and set trailing stops. Don't be too eager to trade/wait for the right setup.

Day 3

I probably had the best trade today so far as I was able to gain $$50 above my starting capital haha. I lost it anyway when I started doing what I was doing in my first 2 days of FX trading. After losing the $$50 that I gained, I lost another $200 when I deviated from today's trading plan. After I reconized my own stupidity, I decided to FINALLY follow my trading plan LOL. So, I took the next trade and I was up by $200!!! But then I got really greedy I didn't put up a trailing stop! LOL!

So what do you expect from a pig other than get slaughtered?

Lesson: Don't be a pig and set trailing stops. Trade with the trend.

Let's see if I can break-even tonight. Currently short on EUR/USD.

*Trade setups. Trade with trend. Trade with trailing stops.
**I also tried selling lower and buying higher but both failed miserably. I probably should use them with the 50EMA.

***Currently using the triple EMA crossover in 1-minute chart + 50EMA on the 30-minute chart. Entry points are more often retested than not.
It took over an hour to fix the connection with COL. Average of the entire position in PX is down by 5%. My my. I'll probably just wait for the gap to be filled.