Hitting A Trading Milestone

As a part-time trader who has an intense longing for success, I hit an important milestone today.

Back in November, I recognised some good trading opportunities. As a result, I started running and managing my two metatrader accounts and also a CFD trading account at the same time.

During the past six months, I funded another metatrader account with profits and had actively traded with those accounts.

Today - my five figure CFD account has just been doubled after a six-month period. I appreciate my past efforts in blogging which, somehow, made me a better trader. Despite my tight schedule nowadays, I recognise the importance of running the blog more often.

A Year of Performance Tracking

It has been more than a year since I first started to measure my daytrading system performance on a monthly basis. Here a couple of charts I put together to see how I have been fairing:

These graphs tell me that I have been doing the right thing all year long by:
1) Generating the right trading ideas at the right time
2) Diversifying my money in two different market places, i.e. Major Pairs and Yen Crosses.

I am able to make steady gains with the two systems, simply by betting against the short-term moves for the US dollar and Japanese Yen day in day out. The combined results say it all. I have made more gains than losses, 10 positive months out of 14, averaging about 310 pips each month.

Worth mentioning, the only one time my system made a triple-digit losses was back in July 2008, that is -140 pips. Others are -50, -70 and -25 pips in May' 08, Nov' 08 and Jan' 09. Also on the plus side, the system is capable of hitting four-digit monthly gains, which so far outstrip the recorded losses by many times. This has already happened twice: +1175 pips in Aug' 08 and just recently +1055 pips in Feb' 09.

Overall, my system did incredibly well even when the market was volatile. I hope my system can continue to make gains for me and you as the economy recovers.

Here are my monthly daytrading reports:
March 2009 Trading Performance
February 2009 Trading Performance
November 2008 Trading Performance
October 2008 Trading Performance
September 2008 Trading Performance
August 2008 Trading Performance
July 2008 Trading Performance
June 2008 Trading Performance
May 2008 Trading Performance
April 2008 Trading Performance
March 2008 Trading Performance
February 2008 Trading Performance

LOBS Hitting All-Time High

My LOBS continues to make new highs this month. It managed to add 193.7 pips today. The system win-rate has slightly improved to 71.7% on Day 57.


Read my previous log entry on Day 50:

At present, LOBS is my most valuable daytrading strategy. If you run the system as your trading vehicle, be patient and let the story unfold. Don't worry if you see the EA moves lower tomorrow or the next day. The long-term is what counts for you. So far, the system winning rate stands at 70.8% on Day 50.

The Start of 2009 & Daytrading Routine

Monday marked the start of the first full trading week for 2009. I officially kicked off my new year trading with two straight winners. Price volatility had come down quite a lot recently and I was able to make good use of my day trading program/plan. Owing to efforts made in 2008, now I keep a simple, automatic and discipline daytrading routine.

Below shows the two newly closed positions. The captured screenshots show my EA program's automatic entries and exits. Two exit targets were employed which produced a combined profit of +139 pips with the use of EA programs. A possible +85 pips with manual trade. All real-time trade entries and exits can be found on my daily spreadsheets - which is made available to my program subscribers.

European Session
No. of signal recommendations: 1
End-of-session results: USD/CAD +85 pips

100-pip EA
No. of auto-entries: 1
USD/CAD +40 & 43.5 pips
EA screenshot attached:


Day 15 - London Open Breakouts
No trade EUR/USD
Short EUR/JPY at 127.087 with stop at 127.687. Final Profits: +40 & 15.5 pips
EA screenshot attached:

End of Year & Daytrading Profits

Last full trading week of the year. We managed some strong gains today using the same daytrading method I introduced back in February. The system had proved useful and carried me far this year.

During these couple of months, I setup a lot of day trades which gave me a lot of small but consistent profits. Using the same approach, just recently, I also managed to establish some long-term positions which had become fruitful as the US dollar got seriously hammered in the last few days. I had been adding positions since November 24: Discretionary Forex Trades Paying Off For Now.

It has been an eventful year for me. I am grateful with the results. We'll be winding down our trading for the year and getting ready for 2009 as we draw closer to the holiday period.

Today's Signals: European Session

No. of signal recommendations: 2
End-of-session results: GBP/USD +95 pips & GBP/JPY +175 pips

Discretionary Forex Trades Paying Off For Now

I set up a basket of swing forex trades since last Thursday when the Dow index was hovering near the 7500 - 7600 level. At present, my positions mainly consist of long carry trades and short US-dollar trades. I had discussed these trade ideas in my last posting and practically decided to call my own shots as my black-box mechanical systems were not able to cope with the recent extreme market conditions.

• U.S. Stocks Post Biggest Two-Day Rally Since 1987 on Citigroup

I was glad that I made such a move as I was still holding most of the positions at this point of writing. I want to see the US stock markets to take off further.

Stock Markets are Finally at a Turning Point

During this volatile time, it's important to stay on track no matter what. It's all about capital preservation and reducing risks during tough market conditions. It's important to honour stop-loss levels and there is no reason to fight the markets without a proper trading plan.

There is something extraordinary about this market. At present, the forex markets are greatly affected by the performance of stock makets. The latest dip in the US markets has significantly changed the daily normal operation of the forex markets, especially during the month of November.

All daytrading systems are facing a uphill battle due to the current situations. Nonetheless, my major-pair system still ended breakeven for the week, and +260 pips on the month.

The cross-yen system took a hit while 100-pip program gave back some of its gains during the last 3 days. This gave me an indication that we're about to see a shift in the market sentiment in order for us to go short the US dollar and to buy into the recovery in the stock markets.

These markets present a great buying opportunity if you got a bunch of cash left waiting to speculate and invest.

You Can Practically Call Your Own Shot !

What an extraordinary trading day which presented many opportunities for us to capture the significant trending moves. Rewards were great if you had the courage to call your own shot today. They were plenty of 100-pip winning chances throught out the the day.

1) Follow my published daily market sentiment table, and run the 100-pip program.

2) Or simply check the overall trend in 5-min, 15-min and 1-hour to determine whether to long or short by yourself.

The advantage of using the 100-program is that even after you had made a decision to go L/S, the ea will double check the market direction and locate the best possible entry point.

Why You Need A Trading Plan

Another great article by Dr. Pipslow:

• Plan the Trade, Trade the Plan, or Else

Consistency is Crucial

One must trade consistently, following a specific trading plan on each and every single trade. If you trade one approach this time, and a different approach at another time, your performance will more than likely be haphazard.

You have to allow the law of averages to work in your favor, so that across the series of trades, you will make an overall profit. If you follow the plan sometimes and abandon it at other times, you throw off the probabilities, and you will end up losing overall.

With discipline comes profitability. Don't let unjustified wins interfere with your ability to maintain discipline. Follow your trading plan, and cement in the mindset that if you follow your plan, you will end up more profitable in the long run.

The article did a very good job at explaining what are the justified and unjustified wins plus the importance of maintaining trading discipline.

I became a very good system follower when I first launched my forex day trading group. I had stored almost 39 weeks of trading data consistently since it started. I had no intention of stopping yet.

Then, I became a fan of my own mechanical systems. All of them will help carry me far into 2009.

Increase My Trading Arsenal Using the Newstrader EA Program

Normally, I only run my Newstrader EA program for the purpose of news trading:

There are hundreds of economic news releases every month in the forex market. Many of the major announcements are capable of moving the underlying currency pairs by 30 to 100 pips immediately after the news releases. In other cases, market also tends to move ahead of the news.

Today, I did something differently. I applied the program (i.e. set and forget operation) to automatically search for other possible trading opportunities during today's "active" London session. It managed to execute some good trades in both the EUR/USD and GBP/USD markets.

In fact, the program had captured the early part of today's 300-pip surge of the two European currencies against the US dollar. News: The US Dollar fell most versus Euro since 1999 debut.



The ea trading program came with stringent stop loss and exit strategies, thus I was pleased with today's outcome.

Manual Trading and Goal Recap

Back in Dec 26, 2007, I wrote:

Below you will find my 10 goals for 2008 which are to be achieved by the end of the year.

1. Generate $5000 in monthly trading profits
...

Above you will find the number of pips I collected in this month (May 08) so far. I am one more step closer in achieving the main goal of 2008.

My expert advisor trading was forced to put on hold in February. I knew that my system was not quite ready at that time.

But since then, I have been actively involved in developing a new forex day trading approach, setting up my own day trading group as well as logging and analysing all of the executed forex trades consistently. I share all of my trading insights and results here.

As this half way stage, I feel confidence about my method. Lately, I also allow myself to be more flexible with my manual trading execution.

Rather than chasing big wins on every single trade, I try to breakdown the original trade ideas into several positions with smaller targets.

Rather than hopping from one market to another in search for the next trading opportunity, I try to hang on with the original trade ideas a little longer than usual. I'm not afraid to reenter more positions when I see the price is right.

Note that all of my forex trade ideas and their entries/exits come directly from my daily "automated" trading routine. I wrote about this before.

This is my first 2008 goals recap post. There will be more related posts in very near future to make sure I have a fulfilling year by achieving all my goals before year-end hopefully.

Go Short When the Market is Trending Down

For 4 (may be 5) days in a row, we saw the GBP/JPY market being sold-off overnight and continued to reach a new day low in the European Session.


I was able to picked up my short alerts on the yen-crosses markets on late Wednesday night. I started following the GBP/JPY market with great interest. That time was just before the happening of the downward leg labelled as 3 in the above chart.

I received further confirmation yesterday (late Thursday night) via the following trend check analysis:
Day Trading Japanese Yen Market Sentiment - 80% Bullish (i.e. Short all yen-crosses markets)
Smart Scan GBP/JPY Trend Score: - 65 (Downtrend)

Hence, I made the decision to go short and I was able to catch the similar downward movement (labelled as 4 on the chart) overnight. I banked myself 100 pips on this GBP/JPY. Plus another 100 pips on the AUD/JPY too :)

I was well-prepared this time.

My Top 5 Forex Day Trading Winning Habits

As long-time readers know, one of my favourite trading method when I started this blog was swing trading which I attempted to capture gain in forex prices within one to three days. I used only simple technical analysis, i.e. breakout pattern, to look for prices with short-term price momentum.

I found some success using this simple method immediately but I got too focused on winning back then. My impatience and lack of strategic planning got the better of me. Since then, my new goal in forex trading was to improve on the mistakes I made, and to build upon something I did right.

Here are my top forex trading exercises which put me back on the winning track:

1. Seize opportunity to learn and grow
In trading, don't be afraid to fail and startover again. It's important to remind ourselves that failing is an integral part of learning. Make sure you eradicate your mistakes and if possible, make small positive changes at a time. The small changes do add up over time which can give you a solid foundation to tackle trading obstacles.

My examples:
>> Realisation after blowup
>> Learning and trialing new trading methods


2. Keep a journal
"A journal keeps you constructive, keeps you learning, and keeps you working on the things that are most important. It is not a tool for simply rehashing the day or voicing your feelings; it is your tool for self-development: your means for coaching yourself." (ref: traderfeed )

My examples:
>> The use of a trading journal (on this blog)
>> Be specific on mistakes and focus on positves (on daytrading blog)


3. Write/share a plan
You should have a detailed trading plan. In addition, it feels really good if you are able to share your particular expertise. Moreover, it feels even better to know that someone, somewhere, might find his or her trading outcomes improved by something you’ve written.

My examples:
>> Creating trading knowledge out of ordinary
>> Finalising a simple forex daytrading strategy


4. Organize a group
What makes you passionate about forex trading? "Being around other people who are passionate about the same thing would make you even more passionate about it. Seeing a group grow and take off can be tremendously awarding - but even failing can teach us important things too." (ref: lifehack)

My example:
>> Setting up a forex daytrading members group


5. Practise a simple daily routine
Especially when comes to dealing with the Forex market, we are expecting full-on, non-stop price actions around the clock 24/5. Thus, having a simple plan would definitely help to focus on our trading edge and also improve trading mentality.

My example:
>> Having a simplified forex daytrading routine

Achieving day trading success isn't something that should be left up to chance. We should not simply bounce from one reaction to the next throughout our trading adventures. Having real goal or plan in mind is a far better winning strategy.

Forex Trading Strategy Giveaway For New Site Readers

(Originally posted in my forex killer autopilot trading blog)

Hi everyone !

I am glad that my Scout-Forex Trading / Forex-Killer Review blog is gaining popularity with more readers worldwide. This trading blog, as usual, is DEDICATED to all forex beginners as well as serious forex killer signal software users who wish to learn to trade forex. In the last few months, I have already disseminated various advanced forex trading tips on how to make the best use out of the signal software. And up-to-date , they are well received amongst readers and users. Moreover, trading results are very encouraging and my latest system is well organised and efficient. My hard work seem to pay off. Below is an overview of my trading approach at present.


First Set of Day Trading Instructions Giveaway

This proven strategy of mine is known as MOMENTUM TRADING which I have perfected for executing my daily SWING positions. The strategy basically involves FINDING STRONG TRENDING moves and also TRADING ON NEWS releases during active hours with high volume. For this trading purpose, I prefer the active London and New York opening hours over other time period. Due to popular request of my current readers, you can now read an overview about this strategy HERE on my main site.

For your extra information: I basically ride a trend and buy on news releases until it exhibits signs of reversal. The method is effective and easy to execute. It can be very rewarding plus it only requires a few minutes of my time. It is basically a 'set and forget' operation. The position will be left to run for A FEW HOURS in order to catch a great move. However, this strategy requires some ESSENTIAL forex knowledge to start with. If you are serious about this strategy and wish to learn more about strong TECHNICAL TRADING setup and forex market, I highly recommend it and you can find all the information you need HERE.


Second Set of Bonus Strategy Instructions Giveaway

After 4 months of USING the software, I am going to give away my additional set of BONUS INSTRUCTIONS. Please take note, for readers who are only interested in trading for about 1hrs - 2hrs a day and at anytime you like, this TECHNICAL trading formula is exactly what you need to keep your trading task to a bare minimum. The advantage of this formula is that it requires LITTLE forex knowledge to begin with and in fact, the formula can be applied to other trading instruments such as stocks, commodities and etc. If executed properly, the end results can be rewarding, as the system imitates how the big players trade.

Please read this TWICE - I believe that this formula of mine is CONSTRUCTIVE and MORE DETAILED than any existing "secret" packages currently being offered out there, so trust me on this. Readers need to be AWARE of any SO-CALLED REVIEW SITES which promote their products/packages with the same repeatable old SALES TRICK.

If you already wish to own a a copy of the software and want to get this trading formula which can be applied to the popular forex killer software, simply order the Forex Killer signal software thru this site and then e-mail me your contact (to avoid you falling for other 'secret' bonuses if I happen to offer it for free). I will send you this bonus trading formula at no cost.

Plus, I am happy to response to your future queries too. When you feel like to learn a bit more about the FULL OPERATION of forex market, I too will be there to provide you all the information you need in order to help you tap into other potential of the Forex Killer signal software. You may want to go thru the rest of this site later and you will quickly know that I am offering you something REAL and CONCRETE.

Thanks for listening. I VALUE you greatly as my site reader.

(Please note that I am not part of the forex killer sales team, and I am just sharing my own forex trading strategies/tips while striving towards my own goals.)

My Daily Trading Routine

Balancing full time work and 'part-time' trading (and also blogging) is never easy. Especially when comes to dealing with the Forex market, you are also expecting full-on, non-stop price actions around the clock 24/5.

In fact, I could never manage all trading tasks by myself, and quite often, have to rely on my missus's assistance. Here's my daily trading routine at the moment:

Daily Trading Routine

• Scan for swing trading opportunities on H1 chart (2 x10 minutes)
• Monitor open positions (ongoing)
• Follow live economic news releases at 9.30 am and 1.30 pm (2 x 15 minutes)
• Watch live price action during lunch break/evening on M5 chart (more than 30 minutes)
• Review expert advisor trading results (15 minutes)
• Gauge market sentiment of the US dollar on daily trend chart (15 minutes)
• Demo aggressive style discretionary trading strategy (started recently)
• Read market news (when free)
• Write blog posts and research new trading ideas (when free)

A couple of explanations. As for the swing trading, this day trading method needs very little time for maintenance. I simply monitor and exit open positions at predefined stop and limit levels. And I manage to execute the trading plan with discipline. At present, I also spend most of my time watching other expert advisor systems in action and researching new trade ideas.

My own running ea system has been very active so far and it does help me to predict better the market movement. Although the trading account is not progressing much, but its trade entries and end results are quite useful for identifying important price retracement levels and generating hidden 'secondary-level' signals for my discretionary trades. I wrote more about that here.

As for the discretionary trades, I am getting involved again in the last few days. I wish to sharpen my trading skills continuously and apply what I have learned so far in this new year. I also challenge myself by opening and handling multiple positions at one time.

Overall, this daily routine serves to instill purpose in trading and ensures that I'm moving towards my goals.

What's your daily trading routine?

ScoutForex dot com: 10 Goals for 2008

As many of you probably know, I started my forex blog back in March 2005 just to share my thoughts and trading methodologies as I was learning through my forex trading experience. There were no big plans for it and there were also no significant trading results to be proud of even till today. Nonetheless, the last few months of 2007 went beyond my own expectations and it could possibly be an important turning point for this blog as well as my trading career.

This time last year, I was in total disarray and a bit of shock after some trading setbacks. I spent many months afterwards just to regroup and reorganise myself. Still, I found myself without a clear direction and many of my goals seemed to be out of reach at time. Therefore, I am sure that, having outlined my goals for 2008, it should help me to focus my attention and prioritise my activities in the new year.

Below you will find my 10 goals for 2008 which are to be achieved by the end of the year.

1. generate $5000 in monthly trading profits
2. generate $2500 in monthly site incomes
3. reach 500 RSS subscribers (currently at 100 140 170 )
4. reach 1500 daily page views (currently at 300 940)
5. enter the Alexa top 100,000 (currently at 584,309 285,724 259,694 )
6. keep writing good contents for readers
7. review one new forex trading strategy every month
8. compare their trading results every month
9. research one new forex topic every month
10. prepare one short forex trading course every month

Finally, a big thank you to all the readers and supporters of this blog. Hope you will all achieve your goals in 2008.

Summing Up 2007: My Journey So Far

Jan - Mar: Recovering From Setback
Realisation
What's Next (1)?
What's Next (2)?
5 Trading Pitfalls To Avoid

Apr - Jun: Trying Too Hard?
US Session Trading
Europe Session Trading
Losing Trades and How to Cope

Jul - Sept: Learning To Be Systematic
Aiming the Impossible?
Zulu My Trades
Real Ways to Grow Your Trading Money

Oct - Dec: Making New Ground?
Continuous Learning via Blogging
Back to Swing Trading
ScoutForex dot com & its Popular Swing Trading Site
Top 5 Reasons for Using Mechanical Trading System
Get to Know My Own Trading System
My Expert Advisor Goes Live

Do Not Fight the Trend

Loonie's a winner...and my two losing positions.

Trading book:
Long USD/CAD (x2) @ 1.0204 effective cost

Hence, possible improvement to my trading system:

1) Use a 100-pip stop loss level when opening position.

I had 43 winners for the last 2 week (from 13 Sept), yielding a total of 941 pips. The average drawdown for those positions is -26. The highest drawdown recorded is -86. If I had the emergency stop in place, the system would automatically close out the losing position for -100. Hence, it should be a simple 200 pip loss on the loonie positions instead of a current running loss of 400. Looking at my results, I should not be afraid of trading losses, and it is OK and 'healthier' to take a hit occasionally.

2) Attempt to clear my trading book towards the end of the day.

Holding onto a losing position for too long could impair your trading judgement. This week, I 'carelessly' added onto a losing position, hence the second long USD/CAD position in my trading book. I even tried to long EUR/CAD . I think I can do better by having a clean, new trading book for each new trading day.

Real Ways to Grow Your Trading Money

I am still progressing, but slowly. This new week saw my trading account reaching a new high, hitting milestone 8 out of 88 in my quest to grow 1 million pound trading money. An improvement of two levels since my last update. However, the en route journey (so far) is a bumpy one. Nevertheless, I manage to gain some valuable lessons out of this experience.

I will try to sum up my points here:

1. In order to grow your account size comfortably, you need a trading method that can typically generate 1.5 - 2 R, and possibly 3 R in some of the best setup. (R being the reward-to-risk ratio). For example, in forex pips term, you are willing to risk 20 pips to gain 30 pips (1.5 R), 40 pips (2 R), 60 pips (3 R) and so on.

2. The strategy used must capture the essence of trading, i.e. buy low sell high. For swing trading, you are able to understand the swinging price action and hence allowing you to enter positions near the low or high of the day.

3. You have a detailed trade exit plan. In the case of trading multi-lot, you are willing to book partial profit as well as holding the rest of the position for a bigger profit. You give time for the target price to be developed.

4. You have the ability to minimise trading losses. Although you use a stop loss of 1 R, you are willing to cut your losses early as soon as you identify the price action is going against the initial trading plan.

5. The win/lose rate must be better than 50%. The 50% figure is already quite a conservative one. Your trading methodology must give you a real edge, therefore, you must understand where your edge lies.

6. Finally, it is about the trading capital preservation. You should not risk more than 8% on a single trade. My current affordable/emotional limit is a low conservative 5 -6%.

(1 Million Goal: 8/88)

Losing Trades and How to Cope

It is always hard to deal with trading losses. Here are some simple trading rules that might help to calm nerves, to avoid further upset and so to keep us on path to pursue our goals:

1. It is all about capital preservation. Each trading losses should not exceed 5% of the total capital.
2. Set stop loss level to minimise trading errors.
3. Do not let winners turn into losers.
4. Use stop loss to protect profits.
5. Do not add on losers for cost averaging.
6. Stay sway or cut your losses when you become indecisive.
7. Rather wait and see when the market trend is not clear.
8. Trade when the market is active.
9. Do not enter because you are bored, likewise, do not exit because you are impatient.
10. Do not overtrade.
11. Do not simply alter your trading strategies if not for a sound reason.
12. Always remember that losing is part of the game.