Most successful traders review and document their trades, unfortunately, alot of new traders do not. "what's done is done, can't change it...." while that is true, you can, and imho must, learn from them. Each afternoon, whether I take a trade or not, I review the market and my potential set-ups, executions, and trade completions. I firmly believe reviewing your trades can help determine what went right, what went wrong and how to improve. Moreover, I track 2 valuable pieces of information, for me at least, which is DD (drawdown) and PP (Pip potential). If you follow my trades, you will know that I trade the same set-ups, over and over again...almost boring. You will have also noticed that I use a set pip stop loss and profit target. I can do this because I have documented, literally, thousands of my trades and I have determined statistically, where a trade reaches the point of no return. Understand that I risk 2% of my account on each trade. which means that the tighter my stop loss, the bigger my return will be. And as weird as it may sound, the occasional loss, using a tighter stop, does not matter as it easily covered by the successful trades. The screenshot above is how I documented Monday's trade in GBPCHF. It was Type 1 trade that was triggered on the breakout. I used a 25 pip stoploss and risked 2% of my account. Once the trade was up +25, I closed 1/2 my position and moved my stop to flat (I actually got +27.4). By doing that, I banked a 1% gain for the day, with no further risk. The trade continued to go my way but found support, retraced slightly, and I closed the remaining 1/2 for +54.8 pips. Very conservative trade management for sure but I ended up banking 3% on this trade. I will take that any day of the week :)
I print the screenshot as well as save it under both trade type and in an all screenshot folder. I review the past week on Saturdays and a full month upon the month's conclusion. I also periodically review them to look for any trends or things that I may have missed.
Moreover I track trades in an excel spreedsheet, that I will attempt to attach a screenshot of. This allows me to compile and easily access my data.
I hope you enjoy this post and find it helpful. I would appreciate if you"like" it and follow me :)
Stay Green my Friends :)
Allen
Komentarz
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Unfortunately, my excel screenshot will not load :(
All facts..... A newbie could learn alot by just reading this.....thats exactly how i trade....if i set a trade and get stomped out....i have to investigate to see why i was wrong.....no one should ever take a trade with out knowing why they are taking that trade....sometimes i just watch the market...and when opportunity presents it self i take action...sometimes i don't even trade...bc i don't see any opps.....out there but when i do i take action..everyonr needs to know that the .market moves how it moves...thats why understanding market structure is important...and to know that you as a trader can't force a trade.....good info here bro...plz keep sharing
AGold54
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@nigel317, Thanks Nigel. There is no doubt waiting for your set-ups is huge and speaks to the required discipline a trader must have. Personally, I get up at 1:15am est. everyday and do my analysis and I am ready to trade but there are days where I have to wait, and wait, and wait some more and sometimes I just don't get something I like. That discipline will prevent you from having to make back a loss that you should not have been in.
Skucchal
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Great System. I do track what went wrong...but not the pip potential. Very nice info.
Great trade, and even better "how to" info. I've documented my live trades in the past, but I wasn't reviewing them later. After a while, I stopped because it was time consuming and felt like a waste of time. Bad move. Thanks for reminding me why it's important to record AND review trades. I'll start again in the morning.