Trading Break & Closed Position Trading.

09:58 Won't be doing much trading today. It's good to have a trading break.

15:37 A total of 15 positional trades closed as wins. This wasn't the PoC Team or algorithmic trading through trading robots on an intra-day. It was my own old school trading. The trades were put on last Thursday after pausing the PoC team. Admittedly, I used a trading robot to close the multiple positions when the target was reached. Old school trading instincts are very hard to explain so I won't be able to explain why I went ahead with putting on 15 positional trades over the long weekend and just chilled throughout.

15:40  I'm now back in a position where I can carry on with the PoC Team experimentation as if last Thursday and Friday results didn't matter. I won't do it right away and will most likely wait until Wednesday before trading again with the PoCs. I will have to alter PoC parameters which I will most likely do tomorrow. Still very much in a trading break mindset.

15:55 No log entries will be made tomorrow so see you all on Wednesday. Not sure if anyone is reading this blog, but if you are you're welcome. 

PoC Team on Pause.

08:00 Yesterday, the PoC Team was being picked off. The robots did eventually get the direction correct. However, they ended up down on the day. This calls for direct intervention. Whilst, I am at it, I might as well take a day off. So, it's an early weekend for me.  I can't but get the feeling that the FX market is manipulated. If the market does not behave or go in the direction of the manipulators then you get extreme movements of peaks and troughs until it eventually goes the way designed. Equally, there is a manifest disconnect in the short to medium term between fundamentals, as indicated by figures and market direction. It's all interesting stuff. It also explains why many trading houses and brokers soak retailers.

Up overnight. Down in the early morning.

08:20 Have to admit to being disappointed this morning. Overnight 5 winning trades took place. Then in the early morning 3 losing trades. Had I reached the PoC team early enough I could have paused before the 3 losing trades came into play. Problem is your can't be up 24 hours a day indefinitely. May have to adjust the parameters so that stops are tightened to allow the PoC team to reverse position more frequently. After a dismal week, negative emotions are beginning to get to me. Thoughts of ending this experimentation, into FX, is entering my mind. Better that I leave the PoC team on as they trade without any emotion. Intervention, with this frame of mind, may make the situation worse.

Accidental parameter reversal.

09:38 In total 5 trades took place overnight 3 lost and 2 won. On this basis, I have to try another strategy. The overnight market must have changed behaviour in some way which has adversely impacted on the PoC team. Therefore, step forward PoC(5) who now enters the team with the hope that some diversification takes place.

10:08 6th trade closed at a win. 7th trade a minor loss. This was due to intervention. Overall, still down on the day.

10:13 8th trade closed as a win. Down small now on the day.

10:15 9th trade closed as a win. This effectively trades out the overnight loss.

10:17 Paused PoC(5) from the PoC team. PoC(5) trades well on volatility. It, also, represents higher risk. Pausing it now reduces risk on the PoC team. Impressed with how PoC(5) quickly aided in recovering the overnight loss.

10:24 10th trade closed at a minor loss. 11th trade scratched; small win.

10:53 Un-paused  PoC(5).

11:57 Noticed that the parameters on PoC(5) were reversed. Interesting, since despite the reversal PoC(5) traded well. Could explain why it performed 1 losing trade. The parameter reversal on the PoCs have to explored further going forwards.

12:33 Closed 12th trade with a small win. Might as well call it a scratch.

14:52 13th trade was a scratch; small loss. 14th to 16th trades were wins though technically the 14th and 15th were scratches with small wins. The 15th was a win.  Overall, this can go down as another scratch day; up a small amount on the day. PoCs effectively paused.

14:55 The lesson today was the effectiveness of using PoC(5) in recovering overnight losses. The accidental reversal in PoC(5) parameters which proves valid to explore further - possibly in developing reversal PoCs. It's clear that my interventions are impacting to recover losses. Closing before the market reverses or scratching trades are interventions. Though I could add breakeven functions into the PoCs algorithm. So far, interventions have proven effective.

15:08 This is the third occasion, during this week, where I have finished up small. Unfortunately, closely monitoring the market has left me feeling drained energy wise. For this reason I am pausing when recovering losses. I look forward to the day when I get back into profitable trading.

Down again overnight.

08:12 Two trades happened overnight. 1 win and 1 loss. The loss was 3 times the win. The PoC team is under-performing, overnight, so far this week.

12.55 3rd trade eventually closed as a win. Have to put this one down to chance.

13:33 Directly intervened and close the 4th trade at a win before the market turned. Good timing - perhaps.

14:07 5th trade was a win. Paused the PoC team as writing this off as another scratch day overall despite being up on the day; small. 

PoC team takes over.

08:50 PoC(12) & PoC(8) executed 5 trades overnight which came in, overall, at a small loss; 2 losses and 3 wins. However, the wins were not strong enough to overtake the 2 losses.  Currently, another position is taken. I've yet to switch on PoC(5). My reserve with PoC(5) is that it trades more frequently and is suitable to higher volatility.

09:25 PoC team completed 2 trades; 1 win and 1 loss. The winning trade covered the loss and made a win. The losing leg effectively acting as a hedge trade. Still down, today, overall.

10:51 8th trade was a win.

12:53 9th trade was scratched. It was losing and I scratched it as soon as it hit breakeven.  May have been premature, but the market turned as soon as it reached that point. It's always difficult to know the best moment to intervene. As a general rule, if it's winning close it or if it's losing close it at breakeven.

13:06 10th trade was scratched.

14:28 11th trade I closed at a win. I'm up small on the day and, after this morning being down, I decided to pause the rest of the day. So, the day ended with 6 wins, 3 losses and 2 scratches.  On day like today where everything seems to be difficult to win then I find it better to breakeven or finish up small. If I go back down during the evening then I would be here until night trying to get it back. Plus, having a good rest saves energy for tomorrow.

Overnight win.

08:15 The PoC team carried out six trades overnight. The 6th I scratched with a minor loss and the 5th was a small win. The rest were wins. The PoC combination seems to be working to quickly recover previous losses. I'm too exhausted to trade today. I normally enjoy trading on Fridays because you tend to end with some kind of rally or trend as either shorts or longs close positions over the weekend. Therefore, doing a POETS day.

08:30 The week ends with an 11.28% draw down on overall equity. That's a recovery of 18.72% since the 30% hit this Monday.

08:36 It's always good to rate how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10 before you start trading. If you feel anything below 6 then don't trade. Almost certainly it will impact on your trading, negatively. Yesterday, I was up during the day. Then I did the Cardinal error of drinking a few glasses of wine during lunch. Sure enough, by the evening I was down. Only to recover small towards the end. Alcohol and trading don't mix. However, as the effects of alcohol wore off it did give me the inspiration to apply a PoC combination. It's hard to say if the recovery would have been higher - I estimate closer to 26%. Just like you don't drink and drive then don't drink and trade.