I Am Still Trading

I first wanted to answer a question that I've been getting, "Are You Still Trading?"

The answer is "YES." Last month I traded very lightly due to a busy full-time job schedule and other personal issues.  One thing that ate up a lot of time was putting my house on the market.

This week I've had some time to trade and have managed to capture some pips.  http://www.forexproject.com/My_Trade_History/

Specifically on 5 trades, I've profited 54 pips or $539.20 mostly from my EUR/JPY trade on Labor Day that netted 42 pips.  Today we got most of the currency movement during the European session so I took what I could get during the U.S. session which was 17 pips from a short EUR/USD trade. 

After trading for about a year now, I still don't see trading full-time on the horizon.  What I do realize more and more is that searching over and over for the perfect system or any system for that matter is not that important.  Don't get me wrong, I am currently testing 3 different systems but I'm not looking for perfection.  I'm just looking for a slight edge.  What I've found during my journey is that if I stick to a system that has a well defined set of rules and sound money management, my losses are controlled.  If I told you that this system was profitable, I'd probably be doing this for a living but the reality is that most times in the medium-term, the system breaks even or loses a bit.   I attribute part of this to the fact that I've been trading 1 lot positions.  In the coming weeks, I will be opening an account at Oanda where I can trade in any size that I want and I will take advantage of this by having different profit targets and objectives.  It isn't that first lot or profit target that can make you successful, it is the subsequent lots that have higher profit targets and the trailing of stops that can make all the difference.

I've explored a system called Alba (http://pippinainteasy.blogspot.com/2005/07/alba-track-record.html ) and I can pretty confidently say from talking to others and from looking at trading logs that this is over the long run a profitable system.  This is accomplished due to trading in three lots.  Once the initial target is hit, two lots are closed and then the position is trailed by the high of the last candle.  Only when the high of the last candle is hit is the last position closed out.  This last lot can be more profitable than the first two is why I brought this system up to begin with.

In addition to sticking to the rules and the sound money management, it is important to not allow your emotion to affect the rules of your system.  Another important thing is to have realistic profit expectations.  I've been guilty in the past of trading a setup on a 60-minute chart and looking for a 50 pip profit or more on the first and only lot.  I don't do this as much anymore. 

I see more than ever that the reasons you enter a position (either a moving average cross, channel break or whatever) aren't what's important.  If your system says to enter on a channel break, then do it but have realistic stop-losses and profit objectives in place.  Bend your rules only after you've decided that an additional tweak can make a difference.   I've heard from profitable traders that a trader with sound money management fundamentals and no emotional attachment to their positions can turn any arbitrary system into a winner.  

The last thing I want to say is that I'm constantly approached by advertisers and as you can see, I've taken some offers specifically from FXCM and GFTForex the last 2 months.  I would be crazy to not take these offers.  It certainly isn't a ton of money but it pays the bills that accumulate from having a totally dedicated server to host this site.  

I'm leaving to Atlantic City tomorrow for 4 days for a golf tournament so I won't be around to trade.  Have a great rest of the week.  Talk to you when I get back.

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