Your trade journal is a log of all trading activity. A trading journal provides any serious trader who wishes to make money a tool to help them evaluate themselves objectively. There are three elements for sustained successful trading: Having and executing a good trading PLAN. Having a good trading system as part of that plan. Review…
Keeping a trading journal is hard. But so is losing all your trading capital, failing as a forex trader, giving up, never to return to forex trading ever again. And reminiscing about the good ‘ol simpler days of being happy when there were only five TV channels to choose from. Which would you rather choose? …
After a good number of trades, you will have collected a lot of fancy-schmancy data and observations on the market and yourself…how do you analyze it all?? It’s pretty simple: Find what works and keep doing it Find out what doesn’t work and stop doing it. And finding what works and doesn’t work is all…
While your bottom line (total profit or loss) can easily tell you your overall trading performance, keeping statistics is a great way to find out what parts of your trading system are keeping you from running like a finely tuned race car instead of a junkyard clunker. Your “performance stats” help you determine what’s…
Being retrospective means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. Once you’ve finished trading, it might be tempting to call up yo homies to hit up happy hour, kick back shots of Patrón, and splurge on bottles of Dom Pérignon, but it’s crucial that you review how your trade went, win or…
You need to have a game plan in place BEFORE you even consider getting in the trade. That game plan tells you how you will manage this trade, whether it goes for you or against you. Entering a trade is the easy part, it’s exiting a trade where you’ll determine whether you make or lose…
How big should your position be? This is the easy one. You must decide, based on your risk management rules in your forex trading plan, what your position size will be. This allows you to know your maximum risk. How much are you willing to risk per trade? 1%? 2%? 5%? 10%?! 20%?!!!! Or are you going to bet the…
The entry trigger tells you when to “fire!” Your entry trigger tells you that once you’re in the potential trade area when to actually enter the trade. This is your specific entry technique. Now that you’ve decided on where you’re looking to enter a trade, now you have to decide how to actually enter…
You need to have a valid reason for every trade you enter. This is also known as logic or rationale. You are not a caveman. Nor are you a gambler, right? Why are you looking at this area to enter? Where are you looking to pull the trigger? This area is determined by whatever setup…
The answer to that question is simple…Everything!!! You record everything you feel and do before the trade, during the trade, and after the trade has been completed. Trading is a performance skill, regardless of your trading style or method. Your outcome is determined by how well you analyze the market environment, your ability to create a plan or…