Hello Traders!
I hope you have had a great week.
This is my 2nd week back live trading for this year and I managed to end it in profit!
I did have one day where I could have done better but it taught me a lesson that backtesting never could.
Let’s take a look!
(Tools I have used this week will be featured at the bottom of the blog – including discounts!)
Live Trading Info
EURUSD
London Session
FTMO Funded account start balance = $50,000
Risk per trade = 0.5% of account balance (x)
Take profit target = 3.3x risk per trade (y)
Risk:Reward ratio = x:y
Trading Performance
Monday – 1 loss, 1 missed loss
The loss could have been avoided but it was still following my systematic rule set and executed how I would have in backtesting. I do think hindsight bias is taking over when I say it could have been avoided.
The other loss I managed to miss because I realised at this point there was no clear intention of direction for price. Therefore it’s okay to avoid any trade ideas that may appear.
If this day were in a backtesting environment, then I would have had 2 losses.
Tuesday – 2 no-trades, 1 win
The 2 no-trades had different reasons for not being executed. The first one was not executed as it met my rules for being invalid (a setup occurred, but followed the process to not place the trade).
The second no-trade was a no-tag, I had a pending order but price did not return to the level I desired for it to tag the trade in.
The win I was sceptical about when I first entered but my rules were met for trade execution. The trade played out fantastically well for the rest of the session.
Wednesday – 1 missed loss, 1 missed win
I was very tired on this day from a poor night’s sleep, which definitely stopped me from executing properly / entering the market with the right mindset.
The missed loss was a trade that systematically I should have taken. I had justifications for not taking the trade, mainly of which there was a key opposing level that could stop price from hitting my take profit (in backtesting I would have just executed & I should have, but my tiredness got the better of me).
The missed win was not executed because I had a fear of losing my profits from yesterday, so I didn’t enter the trade and went to shut my eyes.
Shame I was tired this day, missed profits in the end but these are the challenges we face in a live market that cannot be replicated in a backtesting environment.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all”
Thursday – 1 loss
I had a loss, which I know I could have avoided but I chose to go with it anyway.
I wanted to work on dealing with my fear of losing (inflated by Wednesday’s performance) so I just executed anyway (but still followed my rule set!)
The trade could have worked out, but it was easily on the lower probability side of hitting my take profit target.
Friday – Didn’t trade as I thought it was NFP (Non-Farm Payrolls)
I didn’t check the news because I assumed this was happening (Non-Farm Payrolls – NFP for short) always happens on the first Friday of the month.
I believe it’s moved to next Wednesday now as the US Government shutdown ended Thursday, that’s why it moved.
Regardless, if I had shown up today, no trades would have appeared.
Overall, not a great week but not a terrible one either…50/50 😀
Key Takeaway for the Week
My lesson for this week is to 100% have a better night-time routine.
I have learnt that it’s not always the time you go to bed, but how you prepare yourself to sleep.
I used to go to bed at around 10:30pm and wake up at 6:15/6:30am but I have moved my bedtime to 10pm and included a better winddown as well.
How do you expect your brain to rest if a few minutes ago you were scrolling on Instagram, listening to music, playing video games, etc?
You need to slow your mind down.
So, 1 hour before bed, I stop using my phone, turn off my TV, ban music, and I tone down the lights and just read a book (I highly recommend ‘Best Loser Wins’ by Tom Hougaard by the way 😉).
I’ve only been doing this since Wednesday night so I need some time to see how much of a difference it makes but I will let you know next week!
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As promised, here are the tools I have used this week and a discount code for Magic Keys:
- Magic Keys (for 25% off, use code: MKMETEORTRADINGFX)
- TradingView
- FTMO (funded account challenge)
Check out the Tools page for more info
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post, it means a lot to me.
See you next week and happy trading!
