Hello everyone,
Firstly I apologize for not having uploaded yesterday’s trade yesterday. My firewall was for some reason blocking my internet access to my website so I could not upload the video. I had to disable the Windows firewall, the Kaspersky antivirus and the rest of the package. Does anyone know why would this happened? I run Windows Vista if that matters.
Anyway, let me talk about yesterday’s trade. I took a short entry on GBPCHF based on the breakout of the Tokyo session trading range in the direction of the trend. Moreover, USDCHF was backing up my position since it was also breaking in the same direction, so all in all CHF was showing strength across the board and that spurred me to take that GBPCHF short. It moved nicely to about +70 pips in profits at one point, but late in the day it retraced back to entry levels where I decided to manually exit out at breakeven.
As I mention on my Forex course one of my Golden Rules of Sensible Trading is:
Trade your time frame
That means that if you’re taking an intraday trade, your should be looking to see your target or your stoploss being hit within the day. When none of that happens it’s because you’re riding a momentum-less trade and that’s dangerous, so I simply decided to minimize the risk and exit out at breakeven.
Everything’s explained in the video below:
And now another example of a good-trade-gone-tits-up-mid-way-through: the NZDUSD trade I entered long about 10 days ago. Well, enough is enough: I gave it enough breathing room and I have taken enough heat. After having retested the 0.7900 last Monday I was looking to see the bulls pushing the Kiwi up into new yearly highs - unfortunately, it looks like the bulls are getting ready for their Easter holidays and the Kiwi gave us yesterday another bearish candle on the Daily chart. Well, today I had decided to give it an ultimatum: either we get a bullish day or I am out of this trade… I just cannot take more risk on this position, and indeed I have manually exited out at -76 pips as we pipped below yesterday’s low.
Enough is enough… It sucks because I still believe in the bullish general outlook on this currency pair, but I gotta keep disciplined and limit my loses. Always keep in mind that what annihilate trading accounts are not limited loses here and there but rather those occasional massive hits that went out of control for the lack of discipline.
PS: Forgot to post the total results for February 2008: including this NZDUSD loss, the total score has been -119 pips. Certainly not a good month but losing months here and there are absolutely unavoidable.
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5 March, 1:38 pm
yes tough conditions. it seems everyone is having the same problems. I’m just standing still for 6 weeks with wins and loses about equal. it seems the place to make money is commodities as that seems to be where the big money has gone?
rather than full targets i think in these market conditions taking profits early is good. its a bit tedious but a few 20-50 pip trades does wonders for morale.
5 March, 5:20 pm
Hello Hector
It seems as if you were using metatrader platform for trading, so what is your broker when you use metatrader like in this video you show? I mean, I can see the lines of stop level, entry price, take profit price, etc. I guess, that means you really are using metatrader platform to trade. Could you please tell us the broker you use with this platform?
Thks in advance
5 March, 7:57 pm
Hi guys,
Richard - These type of months do happen here and there. The trick is to not let those sour months become more than a small setback. That’s why limiting your loses are important.
Manuel - For MT4 charts I use MIG. You can find the link at the “recommended tools” box in the sidebar.
-HECTOR-
5 March, 9:17 pm
What are your thoughts on a potential EUR/USD breakout to the upside?
Here’s the chart: http://www.youaretheworst.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/eur-usd-march-5.JPG
6 March, 12:02 am
Tom - EUR and GBP interest rates tomorrow, and NFP on Friday… that’s a tough river to navigate mate.
-HECTOR-
6 March, 8:37 am
Hi,
Hector, I found the idea to expand the trading timeframes very good. Keep it up!
6 March, 11:06 am
Hello Hector,
Regarding the news, one should only look at news that theorically affects the currencies that we want to trade or, important news can affect all pairs, independently of the currencies involved? It seems to me that the later is truer.
Today I opened a short position on USDCHF before 9:00 London time, the next major news release will be for GBP at 12:00 (interest rate), was it wise on my part and should I expect much turbulence at 12:00?
So, on days like this, what does a professional trader like you, enjoy life? :)
Thank you,
Jaime
7 March, 12:58 am
Hello Hector
What software do you use for your sound alarms? Do you use metatrader platform, the EFX platform or what do you use to set those alarms you mentioned in one of your last emails?
Greetings
Manuel