Take your loser's like your winners

I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about losing trades. We all get them from time to time. How do you deal with them? If after a string of losers after some winners, do you give up? Throw the towel in and say "This doesn't work" then look for yet another trade model to find?

This was a trying month for me personally, financially and mentally. Why? The Eurusd went into a consolidation on the 15th and 16th which caused me to take the longest string of losers I have ever had the joy of experiencing. Some of you took them with me. I wanted to talk about these because most people NEVER talk about the loser's they take, only the winners. I want full disclosure, good or bad, I want you all to know what is happening, the mistake I may or may not make. Your never know when or what can be learned.

My personal view when it comes to trading is to not focus on the money associated with the lot size. If I take a losing trade, it will cost me anywhere from 36 pips to 100 pips. The dollar amount of those pips do not matter to me because I know my trade model to be profitable over time. You all hear us talk about having a positive RR ratio of 2:1 or better. This means to me that I can take 2 losing trades before I am at the original account balance.

I wrote an article about having the right ratio here: Euodootrading.com

Following the proper ratio helps me stay focused even when I have to take a losing trade. When I catch a runner or a winner, I let it work and pay me as long as it wants. We all heard the saying "Let you winners run," the real question is Do You?

Losing trades are apart of trading. If you can't take a loser, then... I don't know what to tell you. Now, I can take a loser, I can take two losers in a row, 7 in a row and I'm feeling a lil sick. I still have faith in my trade but there comes a point where I have to either step away, stop trading or look closer at what is going on. When I have to take that many loser's in a row on the Eurusd, then I know its in a tight channel, at some point it is going to break out and run like crazy. I have to be prepared to make my money back, and that is exactly what happened this month. We took some losers or quite a few losers for that matter, but was able to make them back and be in profits to end the month. THAT is the power of having a positive risk to reward ratio.




I do take losing trades, its how I manage my winning trades that more then make up for a loser. Proper management of risk, positions and reward ratio all play key factors in being profitable.

Be Profitable.

Opportunity Cost Lost

Moving your stop can cost you big money. There are those that may move their stop farther back thinking "The market will never hit my stop if I move it 20+ more pips." Then you have traders like me "I'll move BE and have a free trade." Can you see the problem with this type of trading?

Let's take the first one: "The market will never hit my stop if I move it 20+ more pips."
Really? No, REALLY? The market can do whatever she wants when she wants. A properly placed SL should never be touched after its set. You pick that area for a reason, stick with that reason because during live trading, nothing is going to change that will make you NEED to change your SL.

Ever hear of the SL Hunt? It happens, what do you think those wicks are? If you are the kind of trader that feels the need to move their SL farther back in the middle of a trade, the simple solution is to build in a 10-15 pip buffer or call me. I can give you may account number and you can wire the money you are about to lose to me. If your SL is 40 pips, make it 50, 55 and build THAT SL into your risk. I had to do that with my GBPCHF trade. I originally had a 90 pip SL and kept getting taken out by a pip or 2, I forgot to add broker spread. My new SL is 100 and that has allowed me to catch these 200, 300, 800 pip runs.

Yes a 100 pip SL is crazy I know, but I don't care when I'm going for 2:1+ returns. The SL to me doesn't matter if as long as my RR is what its suppose to be.

Now time for my biggest issue: "I'll move BE and have a free trade."
I think this comes from being over protective. My true rule on moving BE is to not do it until I'm up 2:1+. I tend to move BE around 50-60 pips which is only 1.25-1.5:1 which is way to soon. Once a month I tend to do this and get taken out by 1-2 pips, then it shoots to the moon. When I don't touch it, like I'm suppose to, I can catch 150-1000 pip runs out of the Eurusd pretty easily.

So what is my problem? My wife always says "Leave it alone. You spent years studying that trade, and you continue to make the same mistakes. Your a great trader, LEAVE IT!" Of course I don't like being told what to do, I'm a stubbon Boricua, but @tradercisco tells me the same thing when I make the same mistake. Granted I have been getting better with this, but I think I am still guilty of doing this at least once a month. This for me is one the the last things that I personally have to work on.

This week I missed out on catching the eurusd long from the 3466 entry that went and paid 200+ pips. 5.5:1 return that I missed = an Opportunity Cost Lost that was huge because the next two eurusd trades failed. Had I caught my trade and not moved BE to soon, I would have had plenty of money and pips to cover the two losing trades. 72 pips lost-200 pip gain=128 pips or 3.5:1 RR. Time's that by 2% risk and I would be sitting pretty with about 7% gain. But NOOOOO, I had to mess with my trade and am -4%. I always say lesson learned and this time I will never forget this trade. (Yes I say that all the time too).

You see where I'm going with this? As @nictrades said in her interview: "Your stop is where your trade fails." So why would you moved your stop farther against you, or move it to soon. My trade mistakes cause me to fail, not necessarily losing money, but I didn't make any money and in my book that's worse then losing.

Opportunity Cost Lost is a big deal to me as I grow as a trader. If I am not aware of it and what I am doing, my account can and would go in the wrong direction. Thankfully with my journal I am able to see exactly what is going on with myself and correct what needs correct and build on the strengths that I do have. My patience is getting a lot better thanks to the egg timer, now the itchy SL finger needs to be adjusted. Time will tell.

Piptee

Journal for 2011

Journaling is one of those things that every trader must do, but the majority of us do not do. So for 2011 I have made it my goal to take pictures of every trade, before and after, and write something about the trade. What I learned, how/why the trade paid or failed, how I may have failed or succeeded, etc.

I am already seeing patterns in my trade and how I trade them. My flaws are sticking out like a sore thumb and its funny to see what I write about myself and how I can improve, then make the same mistake on the very next trade. Only to write the same thing I wrote for the previous trade.

"Do not move your stop. Take profits if you feel antsy or your patience is waning"

I need the teacher that will force me to write that sentence 50 times on the chalk board. I have written that above sentence about 3 times already this year, and I've only been in 7-8 trades so far.

"Your stop is where your trade fails." (Like we never heard that before)
"Only move your stop when you are up 2:1+ RR" (Can you tell I have an issue with my SL?)

That's just a few bullet points from what I have had to write in my journal so far. So why should you care about my journal our what I'm writing? It would be nice to publish my journal at the end of this year. Self publish, book publisher, I don't care. I think the journey in itself will be an eye opening experience for myself and maybe others.

We all tend to have the same issue's from time to time when it comes to trading, how each of us deal with them can be beneficial to others. I talk with @tradercisco, @50pips and @kosentrade all the time about trading and the emotions that come with it. I'm sure you have seen the "Get @piptee some midol" tweets from time to time. I don't like to fail and tend to beat myself up when I fail the trade. A trade failing I can handle because that is something we have no control over, but when I fail the trade by moving BE to soon, not taking profits etc, I get emotional at myself.

I will keep you all up to date on the progress of my journal, maybe even put some of it out there for you all to see. I would really like you all to stay on top of me also, don't let me fail you.

PipTee

Screencast by @piptee from Screenr.com

September Skky Trade Results

I was happy getting back to the trading style that I am used to. I think I got my trading mojo back. I tried a different method that just would not fit my trading style or success rate that I want to have. My emotional trading style is better suited for a set it and forget it.

I have been working on Skky trade for awhile now and am happy to see the results that I was kinda expecting. Below you will see the video journal that I did showing the trades that happened this month and the profits it generated.

If you would like to see how you can take the same trades on your account, sign up for our Black Box test group today: http://euodootrading.com/black-box-beta-program-signup/

Aug 2nd trading day

So I’m going to start journaling my trades on my blog, mainly to keep me honest in doing it. I have a journal note book that I use, but should my house catch fire and burn to the ground, at least I will have this as a record for me to look back on.

On to the trade. I personally like to wait for the good trade to come to me before taking it, and patience paid off for me today. I follow the old school rules of a confirming trade with my own little spin of wanting 30+ pips to next move/target. So when I saw the GJ, EJ an UJ all confirming, I didn't hesitate and got a perfect to the pip entry.

On to the sucky part of the trade. I closed 80% around 11, 12 pips I think, which is a HUGE no no, plus I’m still getting used to these 5 numbers. You can get excited when it “looks” like your up 130 pips lol. I did it cause I was watch UJ and it was floating around its lower targets, so I wanted to make sure I bagged some pips just in case it held and went north on me. I closed more around 20 pips then moved BE. It came back on me and took me out by the freakin fifth number this time, but whatever.

What did I learn:

1. Only close a 80% at target for the pair you are trading, make sure its over 20+ pips when you TP.
2. After 20 pips, move stop –10 and leave it.

The “Secret” Trade

I am a big believer in “The Secret.” Have you seen the movie yet? If not I strongly suggest you watch it.  I watch it at least once a week to stay on track. The “Secret” is the Law of Attraction. Napoleon Hill wrote about it in Think and Grow Rich, another book that I try to read once a year during vacations.

I first saw something about “The Secret” on Oprah. I know, I know, but that day changed my life for sure. I was broke, had about $10 in the bank and had no clue where the next dollar was going to come from. I watched that movie and used the last bit of money I had to buy it. I watched it, took notes and applied the Law of Attraction that day. It was a Monday and I wanted to have $5k by Friday because I had to go to California Friday night. So every morning I applied the Law of Attraction, calling $5k to come to me and having total FAITH that I would get it. Thursday I got a call to do a job and Friday morning I picked up a check for $4800. It wasn't $5k, but it was close enough.

 

That day changed my life and belief in how I can attract what I want. I did that exercise of attracting money into my life a few more times and stepped up my requirements. For a few months I was attraction $20-30k a week and working less and less, the other aspect of what I wanted for myself: more money and less work.

 

Not quite sure what I was attracting to myself when Barry called and said I was going to learn how to trade currency with him, but years later what I wanted, what I attracted to myself was to work less and make more money. So now I am a trader, a successful trader, and I'm humble about it ;)

 

So now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to talk about “The Secret Trade.” When you get into a trade do you HOPE it will pay out? Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. You can sit there and hope all day long, but there will be a feeling or thought that something will go wrong, the trade will fail. Negative thoughts creep in when you hope, and a negative thought is twice as powerful as a positive thought.

 

So what happens when you have faith in the trade? Wikipedia' says faith is a confident belief in a concept or thing. I like the bible definition better. Hebrews 11:1 says “ Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not yet beheld.” Did you notice how we need to have faith to go along with hope?

 

Are you seeing where I am going with this? I feel that you can “Attract” trades to you. Patience and faith are so important when it comes to trading. When I get in a trade, I try to put myself in an emotional state of what it will FEEL like when I get paid out. I try to have total faith in the trade and don’t even think about it failing. If you doubt your abilities as a trader, your account will very quickly reveal it. Confidence, trust and faith are the ONLY emotions I think a trader should have and focus on while they are sitting at the desk trading.

 

The Secret: “Attract positives pips, and you will get them”

Euodoo, Where have all the numbers gone?

Well, I need to apologize for not staying on top of the numbers. Or maybe the currencies need to apologize to me. As you may recall through previous webinar tinychat's that we have done in the past, I like to trade channel breakouts that are between 50-60 pips. We have been having massive surges and channels have not really been presenting themselves.

So what else can we do in the mean time? Well, I have been learning a lot trading with Tim Chandler in the mornings. I have been "seeing" how his trade could and would keep us out if getting into a breakout that could fail, or one that would really pay out. Price action is so very important, in my opinion, when it comes to trading. Indicators can lag, markets can move to fast for some, so when you can rely and learn how to trade and read the candles with JUST price action, your trading can and will only get better.

As traders we never stop learning and growing. We all have our systems that we use, but we can always learn something new that we can adjust and add to our systems. I now have added Tim's trading system to my own account and am doing very well at it. Everyday I learn something new, which I think is important. I really can't wait to start trading with some of the other traders that you all have come to know and love on Twitter. We will be releasing their rooms very soon, and I know you all are going to REALLY get excited when you learn who they are. So stand by because they trading fun has only just begun.

Pip T

Lesson in Price Action

I have been trading with Tim Chandler lately and have been getting schooled in Price Action. I wanted to let everyone know what I have been learning.

 

1. Correlating Currencies

When the currencies pairs are all following the rhythm of each other, it is very important to WAIT for the pairs to all hit their targets. I learned this lesson on a losing trade this week. I bought the Eurusd when the Eurjpy had not hit its reversal target/area yet. So my Eurusd dropped a little more stopping me out. Once the Eurjpy settled at a reversal point, the Eurusd followed suit and I was able to buy it again and get back to BE.

Patience is so key in trading. Let the trade come to you, there is no need to force anything. If the set up is not there, wait. There is nothing wring with not taking a trade, then to force a trade, lose then want to revenge trade to get the lose back. Not a good way to trade at all.

2.   Limits and Return Ratio’s

If you have a trade that has high success rate’s and pay 1:1 returns, I think it’s a safe bet that you will be successful. But what if you have a high success rate and can get more then 1:1?

The lesson in setting limits was a good one. I learned this on a one on one phone call with Tim. (One of the perks of trading with Tim.) If you cannot watch a trade, set a 20 pip limit. If you can manage the trade, don’t set a limit. Leave the entry open and see if you can get 30, 40 or more pips out of it. Nothing wring with closing a portion at 20+ pips and moving BE to take profits. You HAVE to take profits. Can’t let a trade that pays out turn into a loser.

3.   Risk

Risk only .5% on trade that may set up but are not the “Perfect” trade, and load up to 1-2% when it does. An example of this was on the guppy this week. About 20min after the webinar ended the guppy(GBPJPY) set up as a picture perfect confirming trade. It paid out over 60 pips. 20 pip stop:60 pip payout. 3:1 return. If you loaded up to say 2%, you would have yielded 6% payout.

This is a combination of not setting a limit and loading up. These trade present themselves and we see them almost everyday and almost every session. Bring the risk down when you don’t have the “warm and fuzzy” feeling, and load up when you do.

So those are three points that I have found beneficial to not only trading with Tim, but with my trading in general. Correlations, letting the runners run and controlling risk are all key components to trading.

The next blog I am going to focus on is taking full loses and half winners.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I know I have to get back to blogging and posting, I will step my game back up.

 

Pip T

EURJPY going long this week

So this is why I am looking at going long and trying to stay long on the EJ. As you can see from the 4hr chart, we broke the 4hr trend wall and we have new support created after a trend wall break (that is a confirmation of a trend change). We are also in and around an inner trend wall and one of my old lines around 125.09. If we can get above the 125 area then i think we may see this EJ take off. It can also turn around here and drop, so we have to be watchful off that too.

 

Looking at the Day chart, the last resistance that we saw was 126.90 area. If we breach this area then we have MA’s  to hit , which will either cause it to turn around or stall, then off to the top of the Day trend wall.

Now keep it mind that it will go in a wave pattern until it gets there. With that in mind I will go a lil heavier on breakouts topside, buy the stops and leave them until we get a trend change (or stopped out, lol).

Looking at AUDJPY

So I am looking at the AUDJPY with levels between 80.00 and 79.69. It broke out below 79.69 earlier today and to took a quick 25 pips on it. Then it went back into the channel. I am going to set Euodoo on these channel lines with the expectation of it break up above 80.00. I think it will break topside because a few indicators that I use say that we are not done moving up. In fact if you look at the day chart you will see that we have a few moving avg that it may need to get to before we see the AUDJPY continues its downward trend.

80.00 has been a strong area, mainly because we have the 100 MA right there that could be holding this down also. Either way, lets see if we can make a good trade out of these area’s before the weekend.

Journaling is for the birds!

OOOO no it ain’t!!! I got a chance to realize how important journaling is while I trained for my first triathlon last year. I took all the steps needed. I got me a coach that taught me the proper way to swim, bike and run. There is a science behind all three and doing them efficiently, and I needed a professional to show me the RIGHT way to do them, so I got one. Wasn’t cheap either, was paying about $400 a month. We met once a month to train together for an hour, I had unlimited email access to her and she scheduled all my training. She was able to look at my JOURNAL that I had to keep online and could see if I worked out at all, where I needed improvement, where I was excelling, etc.

Journaling does a few things. I think the most important thing is that it keeps you honest and on track. You can see exactly where your weaknesses are. In trading, we cannot afford to be weak. We LITERALLY cannot afford it. Every failed trade is a lesson. What did you learn from the mini seminar you just bought in that failed trade? You better have learned something, if not the situation can happen to you again and again and again, and each time you could be sitting scratching your head wondering “What happened?”

The other day I posted the lesson I learned about closing the Eurjpy to soon. I lost money unnecessarily. I wrote about it in blog, in my journal and I even talked about it to my Mentor. (Yes even I have a Mentor/Coach) What did I learn, “Don’t break my own stinking rule!” I know I will remember that lesson because it 1.) Cost me money and 2.) I put it in my journal. I will grow from it, I will TRY not to make that mistake again and I hope someone else has learned from it too.

So what do we have in store for you guys? Coaches, Mentors, Journals and a lot more. Trading is just like a triathlon. Its just you out there on the course, but you have the knowledge of your Coach, your Mentor and your personal Journal in your head the whole time giving you the right information to be an efficient and effective trader (or triathlete).

Yes, I finished the race with a better time then I expected, but I know there was no way I could have done it with out the right help. We all will benefit from this community because “The Right Help” will be at your finger tips. It will be up to you to use them.

PipTee

EURJPY, Going Short

So here we are looking at the Week chart of the EURJPY. If you have been able to join us on the webinar's, you will know how I like consolidation channels. WEll, the EURJPY has been on a channel for about a year. When ever I trade a breakout of a channel, I look for a candle open outside of the consolidated area, and we got that this week. As you see to when it opend outside of this channel, it surged all the way up and tapped what used to be our support. (Remember: Support becomes Resistance)

So it surged up there, tapped it and dropped. Euodoo was able to get us in on the retracement and if you where able to hold on you would have two entries, one at 126.42 and another at 125.92. As I am typing this the EURJPY is droppin and is at 124.69.

Entry #1: up 173 pips

Entry #2: up 123 pips

Totaling: 296 pips

HOW AWESOME IS THAT????

Now that we know we have broken a 1 year channel, I will be looking for more short entries then long and will probably set the Euodoo to get me in short positions adding to the entries that we have now. So stay tuned to @Euodoo for levels as they present themselves.

FYI, My long term target is in the 112 area for the EURJPY.

Heart Rate Monitors for Traders

So I am talking with a student I am mentoring, and he goes and talks to a shrink about trading. Why you ask? Because trading is about 80%+ emotion he figures why not talk to a psychologist about the emotions of trading. So here is what she had to say and why I think is was very interesting.

This psychologist's husband just so happens to be a trader, so she had in my opinion a good deal of knowledge and background with the subject. So here we go.

She said to wear a heart rate monitor while trading, and whenever you heart rate got above 100 bpm, DO NOT ENTER A TRADE. Why? The switch in our brain from I guess you would say Knowledge and Emotion flips at 100 bpm. At 100 you go from thinking clearly to pure emotion. I don't know about you but when I get all emotional in trading, FAILURES start to happen.

INTERESTING HUH?

So I am going to try this out. I generally have taken all emotion out of trading now that I use Euodoo. Once that thing is set Im committed win or lose, and I know how to get the loss back without revenge trading.

She also pointed out that the gut feeling that you get sometimes is real and you SHOULD listen to it. No not the grumbling in your stomach you get because you have been staring at charts for 24 hrs and forgot to eat, shower and shave (yes Im guilty of that too). But when you just have this very strong, can't put your finger on it, can't formulate a sentence to explain it GUT FEELING.

You cannot explain it because she said that part of your brain that the gut feeling comes from is not tied into speech. That is why its hard to explain where and why you are having that feeling. Now I know I have had gut feelings, call out a trade, not get in it and it pay 100's of pips. I have started listening to my gut when it lines up with my rules for certain trades, and have started to see higher returns from it.

I personally cant wait to have a session with this lady now, she has me intrigued. Everything she said made sense to me. You can take it or leave it. I got my heart rate monitor on.

Pip Tee

Euodoo Trades

So Euodoo got us in on the sells for the EURJPY and also gave us opportunities to cost average, which some traders took. I know I did and by the time the original entry started to pay about 40 pips I was up around 90 pips. That was close to 1:1 returns so I closed out the majority of both entries and moved my stop -10 on the original entry and BE on the cost. Needless to say I was stopped out of both but with profits.

The GBPJPY on the other hand wasn't so nice to us. We took about a 100 pip loss, which basically took our profits from the EURJPY trade. My rule when I get stopped out of this trade is to flip it, double my lots and head the other direction. So that is what I did. Euodoo will get you in on the flip, but it will not increase your lots. I am looking to have that added to the next version on Euodoo and we will probably have it by next week.

Let's take a second and talk about doubling lots. My risk on every Euodoo trade is around 1-1.5% of my account. That way of the trade fails I am looking to add 2-3% on the flip. I never risk more then 3% on any given trade. So you are probably asking yourself "What if the flip fails?" Well I have only had that happen to me on the USDJPY, which id one reason why I do not trade this trade on that pair. If memory serves the 3rd flip would have paid out, but I don't like wishy washy trading so I just stay away. Rarely, in my studies, has it failed twice in a row, that is why I am comfortable flipping it. Time will tell.

Back to the GBPJPY. I saw about 40 pips on the flip, closed half and moved BE, as Im typing this it just stopped me out. But that is fine. Ended the trades positive only a few pips because the EURJPY and GBPJPY washed each other out. ( But keep and eye on the GBPJPY, it will most likely get into the 146 area today and you might be paid about 100 pips or so.)

Euodoo also got us in going long on the AUDJPY yesterday with an entry at 80.73. It is against us right now, but I am not to worried. As I looked at the day, I noticed it came and tapped two trendwall lines that intersect each other. That is a Treasure Map trade that I learned from @tradercj. (I would follow him if he lets you.)

What is a Treasure Map trade you ask? Stay tuned, I'll teach you. Just keep and eye out on AUDJPY, let's see if we get a bounce up. (Watch it fail because I said something=)

Ok, so that is the recap. We washed out of two trades with a lil profit, and we are sitting negative about 40 pips in AUDJPY. Waiting for next set up now, so DELETE Euodoo from your charts. This is what I do so I can start fresh when new numbers come out.

I probably could recap what Euodoo did on Monday. Think we took about 100 pips on GBPJPY, so we are up for the week. I know @tradercisco is up 50% in his Euodoo account. He was trading it better then I was.

Keep following @Euodoo because we are going to be holding a webinar very soon on what Euodoo is, how to trade it successfully and a bunch of other useful tips. Let us know if you need Euodoo also.

Thanks all.

Pip Tee

Euodoo EA is ready!

For awhile now I have been posting some of my trades and the success we have been having trading it. If you ask Tradercisco he will tell you how much I value my sleep, so because of that I needed an EA that would get me in my trade if I was away or....asleep.

So I aligned myself with an excellent trader/software engineer. I talked to him about how I do what I do and how I need an EA to execute positions for me and BAM!! Euodoo was born.

For the last couple of months I have been trading it on a micro starting with $250. (I used micro instead of demo because you still need to feel the pain of loosing real money, even if it is $5) I started this trade with this account on Nov 16th 2009. As of right now today the account is at $855, just over 300% gain) and I'm currently short AUDJPY with an entry at 84.04 and up 106 pips. Euodoo is also looking to possibly add another short position. (FYI I did move it over to my standard account, but still run it on my micro because... why not? I like money.)

What is Euodoo? I am sure you are wondering. Well here are a few definitions:

1. To grant a prosperous and expeditious journey, to lead by a direct and easy way
2. To grant a successful issue, to cause to prosper
3. To prosper, be successful

That is exactly what we have been seeing with Euodoo. I say WE because this trade came from TraderCisco. He taught it to me, I tweaked it and we both trade it successfully. We feel this trade is "Euodoo", a way to have a prosperous and successful journey in FX trading.

Now after much deliberation TraderCisco and I have decided to share this. We are offering it as a monthly subscription. We will be doing even more pod casts, blogging and market commentary for our subscribers.

So if you are interested in trading Euodoo, let me know. It is ready to roll. This prosperous journey is not mine alone. Join me.

We also have a version that works on demo accounts only for those that want to test it before becoming a subscriber.

All The Best

PipTee

The "I Don't Care Entry"

This is one of my trading rules that I have for taken profits on certain trades. Its the "I don't care entry" because after about 20 pips, I no longer care about the entry. So here is my math:

If I have a 50 pip stop, once my entry is 20+ pip positive I will close out 80% of my entry and leave the remaining 20% with a don't care mind frame. I can do this because the 80% has paid for the 20%'s stop. HUH??

Trading a standard it will look like this:

50 Pip Stop

@ 20 pips close 80% (or $8)

20 pip

$8

$160 Banked

50 pip stop remains

$2 left in trade

$100 Risked

So I banked $160 and have $2 running in the trade. If the market never comes back, I'm a happy camper. If it comes back and stops me out, I still would have made $60 or what usually winds up being a lil over 1%.

Does that make sense? I'm sure there is some great math formula but I try to keep it simple.

The Rule:

"Once the market pays you 40-50% of you stop, close 80% of your entry. Leave the remaining 20% and do not move your stop until new resistance/support has been created"

I don't use trailing stops because in my opinion its about support and resistance. And since I base my stops at those levels, a trailing stop would have me kicked out of the market before the real move can happen.

That's one of my TP rules. I'm working on the FIB entry blog and should have that done by tomorrow.

A very wise (and old) trader once said "Nothing wrong with taken profits."

I'd like to add "Nothing wrong with leaving a lil to see what happens"

Pip T

Who keeps you Accountable?

At work, your boss holds you accountable to what your position is to produce. In marriage you are accountable to you mate. You make sure each of you are pullin your own weight in the relationship (unless she wears the pants) keepin each other accountable to the vows that you said to each other. As a parent you stay on top of your kids making sure they follow the house rules, disciplining them when needed so that they can grow up to become productive adults.

Who keeps you accountable to your trading? Hope you don't say no one, or worse: myself.

There are life coaches, personal trainers and mentors for a reason. They keep you focused and make sure you are following the rules that will make you a better.... whatever you do. So Im going to ask you again: Who keeps you accountable to your trading?

Mine, TRADERCISCO. Love the guy to death. We started trading around the same time. I started about a month or two before him, loved it so much I wanted him to learn, so we made it happen. We would study trades together and study the same way. The trust we have in each other is in my opinion like no other. If I where not around charts and he called me and said "Get in EURUSD now!" all I ask is "Where's the stop?" I get in blindly cause I have that much faith and trust in his ability as a trader, and I know he would do the same thing if I called him.

So how do we keep each other Accountable? Most important way is callin each other "Stupid" when it applies. LOL. I can't tell you how many times we both have jumped the gun in getting in a trade before every rule for that trade has finished lining up. While the other sits on the side line saying "Duh, this rule hasn't happened yet, what are you doing?" Establishing rules and sticking to them is a key way to becoming a successful trader.

Or how about the "I hate you!" LOL. There have been so many times we both will be in a trade and one may take profits to soon. Of course whenever you TP too soon 3 seconds later it runs 100+ pips. That's when TRADERCISCO tells me he hates me. I cry one little tear cause it hurt my feelings, but the 100+ pips I catch more then make up for it. (Love you TRADERCISCO) You need to have an idea about where the market is going so you can maximize your profits.

That brings us to the "What the hell are you doing!!!!" We risk the around the same % on the trades we enter. So when one of us tells the other how many lots we have going, if it is over the risk level we are suppose to be at, it is our duty to remind the other how important risk management is. Without proper risk on every trade, it is very easy to treat the market like vegas, double down and lose an account in one day. (Been there done that, learned that lesson)

And finally we come to the "What was that?" A failed trade. Because we trade the same trades we have four sets of eye looking at the charts, plus the eyes of those we mentor. When TRADERCISCO and I have a failed trade we BOTH are looking to see what happened, where did we go wrong, what rule did we break etc. Learning from a failed trade helps us to string trade (I beat him in string trading though. That is a fun game to play) but more importantly helps us to know when NOT to enter the market. Just like every trade has a rule for getting in, you should just as many rules for knowing when not to.

I hope you where able to catch the four points that you and your Accountability partner should focus on so both of you can and will become successful traders. I have an accountability contract that I used to have. It breaks down the trades I trade, their rules and proper risk for the trades. It is signed by both me and my accountability partner. I would have it sitting on my desk as a constant reminder of what Im suppose to be trading. Keeps you from revenge trading after a loss. If you would like to see or want a copy let me know. I will have to dig it up, but it helped me stay focus enough to string 50+ trades in a row with no loss.

Real American trader

We Salute you TRADERCISCO.
Your tweets come to my cell phone at all hours of the night.
(Tweet Tweet Tweet)
We talk so much, both our wives tells us to get a room.
(Who is that on the phone, let me guess Scott?)
We just talked on Skpye and then texted each other 2 minutes later
But we don't care. We are here to make pips and that all that matters.
So here's to you TRADECISCO, keep them tweets and pips comin.

Thank you Scott, you da man!

Pip T
pippin.tee@gmail.com

Say Whaaaa?

1000 pips is not to bad. I just got in AUDJPY on another entry. I got a signal to get in EURJPY with another entry but past on it because the stop was to large. If the EURJPY comes up a little and makes the stop about 60-70, then I will add another entry and short that also.

Account x Risk= Reward

So last week I found myself in about 6 trades at one time. The trade we have been focusing on often goes off at the same time on multiple currencies. I know you may be wondering "What kind of risk am I taking on my account?" Well, I can safely say that I was under 3% risk at all times, and this is how:

I was in a few trades that where in profits by the time I got another signal to re-enter more trades. I was able to move Break Even on a number of entries which freed me up to be able to get in a few more trades. I lost on the GBPUSD, which does not surprise me cause I tend to always lose money on that pair. I only risked 1.5% on that trade. The profits I made on the other trades that paid out more then made up for that lost trade. I ended that day with a little over 10% gain on my account. Another account I trade I have almost doubled this month. That account is a high risk account that I trade about 10% risk per trade on.

I always watch my risk. I think my risk is more important to understand then the trade you will trade. Not only my risk on my account, but also the risk ratio of the trade itself. I personally like 1:1 or better ratio. It makes no sense to me to risk 50+ pips on a stop and only go for 20 pips. If the trade where to fail you are now 3 trade away from break even and profit. Not to mention you are now trading with less money then what you started with, which also means your entries will be less in a monetary value.

I could go on and on about risk ratio's but most people already understand it. If you don't, a few more lost trades will teach you very quickly. LOL (we all gotta learn some time)

"Think of a lost trade as a mini seminar. You better have learned something from it and taken notes otherwise it was a waste of money" Pip T