No Half Measures

Bad Assed Trader:  Faithful readers will know I've had my ups and downs in this trading journey.  May was looking to be one of the Big Downs for a very large part of it.  At one point I looked back and saw 28 trades, with only 3 winners. Ouch.

Once again I thank my lucky stars that I'm still trading very small.

But as my Mum will tell you, "Stubborn" is my middle name.  So despite the evidence pointing to a conclusion that I could just be the dimmest trader this side of Alpha Centauri, on I pressed.

Still,  I'm not immune to indications that things might not be working in my favour and it occurred to me that I may have thrashed that particular trading strategy to death and beyond.  It really wasn't working well for me.  Perhaps it was that market conditions in May were not ideal (retracements on both currency pairs I trade) or perhaps that strategy was just too tough for my inexperienced brain.  Whatever the reason, I seemed to be spending most of my time waiting for a set up, then when one did occur I was either changing (read "breaking") the rules and losing money or sticking to them and...losing money.  

I know I have a high pain threshold (partly from years of working with doctors who are very good at being blunt with managers) but it was starting to become a source of irritation, even to thick-skinned old me.  

I reflected on the fact that I had chosen that strategy because it had worked well in April and quite well in March but it dawned on me - finally - that perhaps I need another strategy too.  To be of use in those down times at least.

So on Bank Holiday Monday I tried a new strategy. Trading with the European markets I started to test the "Snapback" strategy which is a good one to use in ranging markets and I expected more ranging when London and USA were out of the trading for the day.

I traded tiny amounts at first and it seemed to work.  As a strategy I found it easy to execute and it seemed I had no problems sticking to the rules (later analysis will confirm or refute this).  So I continued on Tuesday and after two days' trading had won 10 out of 12 trades, something of a breakthrough compared with my previous performance.  I had never had such a successful run.  I was 3.5% up and feeling good in a "was that just luck or chance evening out my previous bad run?" sort of way.

By close of play on Friday I had placed 32 trades, 20 winners, 10 losers and 2 break evens.  I was only up 1.5% because with this strategy most of the time the winners are worth half of the losers.  But given my recent trading performance this was encouraging stuff.  It's only my first week with this strategy and I'm now analysing each trade to see exactly what happened so I can learn to sift out the poor trades in future.

It's been a really full on week trading wise - I haven't had a bath since Sunday!  I'm off to the gym in a minute as I desperately need some exercise after being rooted to my arm chair peering at the screen intently for hours.  This may seem excessive for the reward but if I'm to make it in trading I think I have to give it my all - No Half Measures.

Oh - and we had some real excitement in our town this week.  A gunman held up a local bank and caused a bit of a to-do and some inconvenient traffic jams for shoppers (no one got hurt & he got caught).

I heard helicopters circling overhead all morning and a series of still unexplained bangs and so I was checking the website of the local paper to find out what was going on.  The best bit was reading the comments written by witnesses, one said:

"Saw some police marksmen pointing their weapons at the bank, distressed people had rushed out earlier.  Town centre cordoned off.  But Pound Land still open so no panic."

I've never been to Pound Land ("Everything just One Pound!") but this reader has prompted me to reconsider.  Given my erratic trading performance to date it may become my New Best Friend.

Trading Dedication: No Half Measures