How I Trade While Working Full Time

Let's see if this journal thingy helps me to be a better trader.

I'm able to trade any H4 candle during the week because of my schedule. I only trade in the direction of the D1 and W1 trend. I wait for pull backs to enter. When I see a set up I like I enter at the opening of the next H4 candle. The arrows on my charts mean I enter at the open of the candle I am pointing to. More rules to follow as I post trades.

I'm obviously going to try to post trades as they occur, but here's a recap of some trades for this past week:

GBPUSD, USDJPY, EURJPY, GBPJPY, EURGBP [a few to start. Too busy to post more right now.]

USDCHF trades from last week. I'll add a position if the H4 RSI [green line] continues to trend AWAY from direction of trend after the first entry [as in this case: midnight candle 1/13], with the caution that the candle CANNOT be significantly in the direction of the trend [a small move in the direction of the trend is ok]. This rule is to prevent entering on a move that has already happened.

NZDUSD trades last week. Note: trades are ENTERED at the OPEN of the candle the arrow is pointing to. Yellow RSI line is D1 and blue RSI line is W1.

USDCAD trades. Note: 50% level in MTF RSI determines trend: >50 = uptrend, <50 = downtrend.

EURAUD RECAP. Trading note: this RSI MTF will give a different look over time. So, I refresh the charts just before trading.

GBPAUD weekly recap. Trade setup: RSI MTF is set to "2"

CADJPY weekly recap. 1/14 midnight candle made me worry the move had already happened so I waited for an "indecision" candle. Then I jumped in with 3 positions over the next three candles - since RSI H4 line was still rising against the trend.

AUDJPY weekly recap. 1/14 midnight candle made me nervous about the move possibly already passing, so I waited for an indecision candle and entered on the open of the next candle - which also happened to be an indecision candle. I should have entered again because that's the rule, but I didn't. NOTE: the 3rd trade doesn't look like a valid entry, but AT THE TIME OF THE TRADE all the RSI lines were in order to sell. Again, refresh charts just before trading because historically, the indicator will look different. NOTE: horizontal lines represent 100 pips on all my charts.

NZDJPY weekly recap. Also, check out the week before last - I still have some trade entries pictured on that sweet downtrend. Of course, even a monkey could have made money during that trend, right? Note that as this week began, this pair was consolidating. This is where many trend following methods fail. I still made pips during the range, kept out of the fake out "uptrend" and caught the downtrend once again later in the week. Naturally, I still have losing trades/days. In fact, this method can have very large draw downs because I can potentially open a couple of dozen trades at once. But I usually come back with a vengeance. Last week I remember being down 400+ pips at one point and then checking my accounts later in the day to find I had made about 800 pips and was therefore about 400 pips up for the day! Not for the faint of heart, I know.

AUDCAD weekly recap. This pair gave me a couple of losses [120 pips total] to start the week and then the W1 never crossed up over the 50 level to give me a chance in the uptrend.

CADCHF weekly recap. Second trade was a loser and I decided to wait for an indecision candle which never came so I missed the reversal. The consolidation later in the week never produced a clear signal so I missed the move after that.

EURNZD weekly recap. Two small winners and then I caught about 121 pips later in the week. I should have held out for more and patience is a lesson I'm having difficulty learning.

Orders at midnight: buy eurgbp, usdcad, euraud, eurcad.
sell gbpusd, usdjpy, gbpjpy, audusd, nzdusd, cadjpy, audjpy, nzdjpy, cadchf, gbpchf
pending buy stop eurnzd @ 1.68510; pending sell stop audchf 0.69340.

8AM: sold eurjpy, chfjpy. Bought another usdcad, eurchf.

Seeing a lot of indecision candles so far this week.

Total for the day: +339 pips [I have -18 pips open currently] W/L = 19/10.

I open so many trades that it's not practical to enter them all into my journal. And I learned today that my breaks at work do not allow me enough time to trade
AND record the trades in the journal or even to take a screenshot because I use GoToMyPc to connect to my desktop at home and the mouse delay is terrible.
Never mind, I will adapt and overcome. I'll find a way to use this journal consistently for a while and if it's not helping I'll discard it. I'm not married to an idea just
because "it's what 'they' say I should do."

I'm also setting up a trade log to better track trades and various metrics.

Progress with my trade management software is slow, but I am patient.

I guess I'll discuss problematic trades or trades that stand out for various reasons and other things that I need to recall or think through.

My main challenge today was deciding when to exit the winning trades. I could have doubled my total if I had left my 12am/4am trades until 4 pm instead of going flat at noon. However, I achieved a decent daily total and won't beat myself up.

GBPUSD screenshots at open of trade and next picture is later on after I had opened another position and just before I closed the trades. 38 pips total profit between the two positions.

EURAUD at trade open and the pair at midnight tonight. 70 pips profit [I closed this shortly before noon]. I like this entry because the signal occurs as the retracement reaches previous resistance.

NZDUSD yesterday midnight entry and tonight midnight view. profit was +21 pips. Signal occurred at a nice resistance area.

Here is a pair of losing trades [picture at open and tonight at midnight]. The USDJPY continued up and refused to turn around. The second entry was a BE and I went flat at noon so the initial entry was only 23 pips down. I executed this trade according to my rules. Both entries were valid.

GBPUSD: 78 pips 4 am to 8 am candle.

8am lesson. After examining the 8 am charts there were a number of signals I didn't take which would have won [GBPNZD + GBPCHF = >300 pips in 4 hours!!!] I just shake my head, but instead of beating myself up I express gratitude for my method, my knowledge, and the opportunity I have to trade.