Thursday, May 21, 2009

GBP USD- 12:01ET....Time To Think


What I'm doing isn't working for me anymore. A large part of that is emotional- how much is hard to tell as the system has a degree of discretion which can easily be affected by rampant emotions. Perhaps the market isn't favourable for this edge right now??

Whatever the mix, I need to have a think as to the next step as I'm not comfortable bleeding away anymore money. Managed to string together some 11 losses in a row, small size so the damage isn't bad but, all the same, serious food for thought.

One tiny consolation is many of the losses were stopped to the tick before reaching targets, others had the right idea but were just mis-timed....missed trades would have ended that losing streak too.

The difference between wild success and absolute failure is small....

6 comments:

Jules said...

We all have our good days and our bad days...when the going gets tough, the tough hit the gym! :-) Usually a break to clear the mind helps.

James Edwards-Marche said...

Thanks for the reassurance Jules :)

I wish it was just a "bad day"- it's been downhill for a while now... But it's not so much the money as it is the burden that trying to do this has placed on my life.

An extended break sounds like a good idea though...need to ask myself some tough questions.

Anonymous said...

The difficulty is working out when this kind of frustration (we've all been there) is the precursor to an imminent break through, and when it suggests the need for a more fundamental change of approach.

I have no idea what the answer is, but good luck either way.

James Edwards-Marche said...

A part of me wants to believe that this could be a "precursor to an imminent break through"....after all, I've used the method to draw a consistent profit for more than three consecutive months.

Another part of me (lol...no intentional reference to Michael Jackson! Even though I'm a big fan) wonders if any system can work in every market environment and maybe I just need to learn to be more flexible...

Thanks for the good wishes anyway :)

Jules said...

No, MM, there isn't a system that's good for every market environment. There isn't even one that's good everyday in the same environment :-) That's why trading is a game of probability and a loser's game. The best loser wins ;-)

Stock Pursuit said...

currencies price action scared the crap out of me. I had many losses in a row to even though I could paper trade 60-40 success rate or so. It was as if they could see my stops. really weird price action. the candles could be worthless sometimes. Then this guy that works in the industry was saying you are actually trading against the forex broker. He said they are all bucket shops. Here is what he wrote

The real interbank market is purely OTC...this is what I deal with at my mind numbing day job...there is no exchange to get quotes from.

"All retail FX do is get a pool of capital, quotes from real OTC trades...print them too you then give you a platform to trade against them with. Good luck trading against your "broker"."