Bad Assed Trader: Yesterday I started to live up to my name. But not in a good way. Gaining 3.25% on one trade is not bad in itself, but it is if you preceded it by losing 4% and if you only made the 3+% by accidentally trading the news.
Oh dear. I am now on my 16th attempt to take 30 perfect trades. Only two days' ago I was on my K alphabetic run but am now on P. P for Pathetic! What happened to L, M, N and O in the intervening days? I traded EUR GBP short twice on March 2 and made an error on the second one so those were the last two K trades. They took me down for nearly a tenner between them.
Then yesterday. Well what can I say. I knew there was news on Swissy so why on Earth did I take two trades on Swissy Yen (CHF JPY)?? The first was before the news - the news being the retail sales in Switzerland, defined as "Change in the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at the retail level, excluding automobiles and gas stations" which had been anticipated at 1.7% but turned out to be -2.6%. This led to a drop in the value of the Swiss franc against the Japanese Yen by over 40 points in about an hour when the underlying trend for this currency pair is up and I was optimistically looking at long set ups.
I also knew there was news on the pound, but did that stop me from taking a long sniper on the pound against the dollar at 08:42 only to watch price plummet by nearly 60 points over the course of 15 minutes? Hm.
I also lost the plot on the Euro and jumped into a trade using the one minute chart rather than the 5 minute chart and before checking the hourly chart to make sure price was bouncing on a significant level. That one stopped me out half an hour later, so another six quid to the other side.
I would have been 4% down on those 4 crap trades but I also pitched myself into a second Euro trade which I was unable to name because it wasn't clearly following any specific strategy (broke my rules then...). I let it run all morning and sneaked a peek at my trading platform during my lunch break at work, just as Monsieur Trichet, President of the European Central Bank was announcing that they may have to raise interest rates.
It was quite bizarre as at the same time (1.30pm) good news came out on the American economy - unemployment claims had been expected to be at 394,000 but had gone down to 368,000. Usually this would give the dollar strength at the expense of the Euro but Trichet stole the dollar's thunder and my trade leapt through the roof, within 5 minutes handing me my target 3.25%.
But this is not the way to trade. I have slapped my wrists and spoken to myself firmly. I had lost the plot and that is not the way on which to base one's future career.
Today I've checked things out and nothing is in the right place for me to trade. Also, it's Non Farm Pay Roll day (US employment data) which almost always means an odd, unpredictable and often boring morning as people hold onto their positions ahead of the release at 1.30pm. At 1.30pm everyone piles in on the back of the news and things go crazy. We're not supposed to trade on this news but I know a lot of worse ass traders than myself who love to trade at this time as it's high octane.
As for myself, I am hanging my head in shame for now on yesterday's shannanigans. Faceless Bureaucrat is kicking back in and I'm off to do a day's work for the NHS, whilst it lasts....
PS That bloomin Swissy Yen pair has only gone and shot up this morning now, hasn't it??!
Oh dear. I am now on my 16th attempt to take 30 perfect trades. Only two days' ago I was on my K alphabetic run but am now on P. P for Pathetic! What happened to L, M, N and O in the intervening days? I traded EUR GBP short twice on March 2 and made an error on the second one so those were the last two K trades. They took me down for nearly a tenner between them.
Then yesterday. Well what can I say. I knew there was news on Swissy so why on Earth did I take two trades on Swissy Yen (CHF JPY)?? The first was before the news - the news being the retail sales in Switzerland, defined as "Change in the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at the retail level, excluding automobiles and gas stations" which had been anticipated at 1.7% but turned out to be -2.6%. This led to a drop in the value of the Swiss franc against the Japanese Yen by over 40 points in about an hour when the underlying trend for this currency pair is up and I was optimistically looking at long set ups.
I also knew there was news on the pound, but did that stop me from taking a long sniper on the pound against the dollar at 08:42 only to watch price plummet by nearly 60 points over the course of 15 minutes? Hm.
I also lost the plot on the Euro and jumped into a trade using the one minute chart rather than the 5 minute chart and before checking the hourly chart to make sure price was bouncing on a significant level. That one stopped me out half an hour later, so another six quid to the other side.
I would have been 4% down on those 4 crap trades but I also pitched myself into a second Euro trade which I was unable to name because it wasn't clearly following any specific strategy (broke my rules then...). I let it run all morning and sneaked a peek at my trading platform during my lunch break at work, just as Monsieur Trichet, President of the European Central Bank was announcing that they may have to raise interest rates.
It was quite bizarre as at the same time (1.30pm) good news came out on the American economy - unemployment claims had been expected to be at 394,000 but had gone down to 368,000. Usually this would give the dollar strength at the expense of the Euro but Trichet stole the dollar's thunder and my trade leapt through the roof, within 5 minutes handing me my target 3.25%.
But this is not the way to trade. I have slapped my wrists and spoken to myself firmly. I had lost the plot and that is not the way on which to base one's future career.
Today I've checked things out and nothing is in the right place for me to trade. Also, it's Non Farm Pay Roll day (US employment data) which almost always means an odd, unpredictable and often boring morning as people hold onto their positions ahead of the release at 1.30pm. At 1.30pm everyone piles in on the back of the news and things go crazy. We're not supposed to trade on this news but I know a lot of worse ass traders than myself who love to trade at this time as it's high octane.
As for myself, I am hanging my head in shame for now on yesterday's shannanigans. Faceless Bureaucrat is kicking back in and I'm off to do a day's work for the NHS, whilst it lasts....
PS That bloomin Swissy Yen pair has only gone and shot up this morning now, hasn't it??!
Reminds me of my poker playing days... in times like this you should just play 'bread & butter', ie. stick to the rules and don't do anything fancy!
ReplyDeleteThere's no point in thinking about the bad beats, just look for the next trade and keep on doing.
Hi Nelly, thanks for your wise words and encouragement. I completely agree! Just have to learn from it and press on, or "get back on that bucking horse" as my coach Emmanuel keeps telling me. I'm trading with him all Wednesday morning so maybe he'll help me to mend my evil ways...
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