Trading Quandary and Sleep Deprivation

Over the last 4 weeks or so, I've been attempting to stick to the H-system which usually trades during the European session.  Though I've managed to automate a good portion of this system, it stills requires some filtering at point of entry.  I've been losing a lot of sleep during this time sometimes waking up in the middle of the night to either manage the positions or to determine whether the filters nullify the trade signal.  Well, I've managed to burn the candle to the point where I just cannot get up in the middle of the night anymore.  If I was actually trading forex for a living though, there is no question that I would work my life around the European session.  The moves during this session are sometimes driven by economic announcements but I've found the slippage associated with entering or exiting a position much smaller or non-existent compared to the US session announcements.  So basically, the lack of sleep has forced me to re-group and to think of a better way to trade this system and still get the much needed sleep that I require.  

In the meantime, I'm attempting to get back into less systematic methods of trading not only because I think discretionary trading may be a necessary complement to systematic trading but also because I find that it can potentially lead to the creation of a more automated system.  I'm already violating my #1 point from last week in my Trading Performance Update and Ramblings post.

I missed an H-system trade early this morning (I was sleeping) which would have been profitable by over 100 pips but I at least managed to pull off a 60 pip profit on 2 USD/JPY positions this morning and a 20 pip profit on 1 GBP/USD position yesterday to get me back in the black for November.  I'm currently up 34 pips for November and if I can remain profitable for this month, this will be the third straight month of profitability.  

I've found that I've been very good over the last couple of months keeping impulse and just blatant stupidity out of my trading.  My goals are pretty straight forward and I know that one dumb move can wipe out everything I've accomplished.  I'd like to compare this to quitting smoking.  I've quit smoking on and off over the years and would have been successful if it were not for isolated incidents.  These isolated incidents like when I go out drinking at the bars involve going outside for just one smoke.  This one smoke has managed to prolong my habit.  One smoke turns into another and then seeps into subsequent days when I'm not out with friends but when I'm at work or home or stressed or whatever reason I can find to continue.  One bad decision can lead to many more and however minor a violation it seems to your goal, it actually turns out to be the whole reason why you're failing.  Some of you have probably never smoked and therefore cannot relate to this analogy.  For that, you are lucky.

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