Hey traders! I shall jump right into the trades and show you my balance for week 2. However, if you are new here you are welcome to follow along my journey from week 1.
Trading History for Week 2
There’s a lot to unpack here but before I dive into the trade ideas, let me give you guys some context. Some of the trades you see are two positions of the same trade idea I took at the same time with 0.5% risk each. I did this because I thought it would be easier to take 50% partial profit by just closing one of the positions each time. That’s why you can see two trades taken at the same time or close to each other. Such as the $56 & $70, $525 & $690 and -$540 & -$562.5. However, it was troublesome to manage 2 positions so I went back to taking one position at 1% risk instead.
Trade Idea 1
EUR/USD, 10/09/24 – UTC+8 (15min timeframe)
For my first trade idea, I was looking to long the market. Here’s why:
On the one-hour time frame, the body of the candle closed past the previous high before breaking lower. This is a sign of manipulation, I then waited for the price to break the 1hr structure (BoS) to confirm my bias to the downside. I then placed my sell limit order as marked by the arrow and got tapped in. But, why did I still lose -$460? Well, after the price hit 1RR, I shifted my stop loss down to the next wick high and the price retraced and stopped me out before diving towards my take profit target. This is usually what I do in my previous strategy to cut potential loss or reversal however it backfires on my current playbook.
Trade Idea 2
EUR/USD, 11/09/24 – UTC+8 (15min timeframe)
For my second trade idea, I was looking to long the market. Here’s why:
There was a draw in liquidity on the 15min leading to a structure break on the 1hr. This confirms my bullish bias and I placed a limit order (marked by the blue arrow) at the price (marked by the green line). However, same problem, I trailed my stop loss as the price hit at least 1RR. Price came back and stopped me out again before going to the moon. However, I took another entry again on the 5min time frame, I noticed a bullish engulfing candle closing past the previous candle high. However, my mistake this time was being too greedy, although the price hit the 1hr high, I had a higher profit target in mind hence I did not take partial or any profit. Price then started to show signs of reversal and I closed it at half the profit ($525+$690) before the news event happened in less than an hour.
Trade Idea 3
EUR/USD, 12/09/24 – UTC+8 (5min timeframe)
For my third trade idea, I was looking to long the market. Here’s why:
There was a manipulation on the 1hr leading to BoS. I then placed a limit buy order around the order block. However, the price dove through my entry and broke past my stop loss (-$540 + -$562.50). However, my trade idea is still valid as the 1hr low was not broken so I took another entry at the retracement after the price broke structure on the 5min time frame. Again, I got stopped out this time ($-1121). This could be a 1% loss if only my initial stop loss was at the 1hr low hence, I will only get stopped out once.
Trade Idea 4
EUR/USD, 12/09/24 – UTC+8 (5min timeframe)
The 4th trade idea (-$1045) wasn’t even supported by higher time frame bias. I took this trade probably in a state of tilt from my previous trade idea. (From hindsight I almost caught the bottom in my previous entry).
Trade Idea 5
EUR/USD, 12/09/24 – UTC+8 (5min timeframe)
For my fifth trade idea, I was looking to long the market. Here’s why:
On the 1hr there was a manipulation (fake out) that led to a BoS on the 1hr this confirms my bias to long. I then place a limit buy order at the order block. Price tapped into my entry and shot up. However… my greediness prevented me from taking profits at the 1hr high because I had a higher take profit target. The news was coming, I expected the extra volatility to bring it to my profit target. Well, it did not. Price started to show signs of reversal on the 5min and I had to close my position to secure the remaining profits (+$890). I could have been up 3% if I had just TP at the top.
Something in me eventually broke as I had missed out on so many great opportunities due to my greed for more. The last 3 three trades were little ‘bets’ I took out of spite which resulted in losses (-$110,-$140,-$290).
Week 2 Trading Balance
At the end of the week, I am in -1.6% drawdown. Honestly, I deserve it… What could have been a 5% profit turns into drawdown. As infuriating as it is, there were many valuable lessons
Learning Points
Despite having the correct trade ideas, I got to refine my executions.
Here’s my action plan:
1) No more trade management. I will let the price tap my SL or TP. Set and move on
2) Moving forward, I will place my Stop loss at an invalidation area whereby my trade idea will be invalidated once the price crosses the stop loss.
3) Keep cool and we all gonna make it.