I think I’m just doing this to do something. I hope it works out, but ultimately, I just hope that it triggers so I have something to write about. It’s not a great position to be in, but here I am.

I, as with all of the trades that I make, like the movement here. I’m doing something a little different, though. I’m setting a limit order to short this at the top of this small range since price is currently pushing up a bit. With the limit entry, and my stop being above the next key area to the upside, I’ve got a nice 3 R:R.

Entry – 164.408

I noticed this pattern first on the 4 hour chart, and am ultimately setting my entry on the hourly. I like the key areas and the R:R, so I set it. Hopefully it works out.

Exit – 164.6

It didn’t. It took a little bit to trigger, but I looked at the chart to see how it was moving and as I was looking price shot up and triggered my entry and got within a couple pips of my stop within a couple seconds. There was a bit of a pullback from there — only for a couple minutes though — before price pushed up again and triggered the exit.

From there, price has pushed down and is sitting on my entry right now. I considered shorting it again, but I don’t want to chase or “revenge trade”.

I’ll leave the lines for now, so we’ll see how it goes in the coming hours; but I’m done for now. Like I said, I did it to do something, and I’ve got a decent plan for the next few trading days. I guess building a factory is satisfying/fulfilling enough.

Thanks for reading. Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s trade and/or if you were able to capitalize on movement in this pair. And stay tuned for more trades, I’ve got some exciting plans for the future.

The post EUR/JPY Short Forex Trade | April 10, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Full disclosure, I took this trade on March 28th, but I didn’t take notes about it right away — only screenshots. Today’s 4/3, so I’m analyzing this trade in hindsight.

Starting on the 4 hour chart, price made a peak a couple of days prior, but pulled back over the next few days. After about 3 days of pulling back, price pushed up a bit and moved sideways. On the day I took this trade, price had made another push down, and was seemingly stalling at the key area that was formed after that first 3-day pullback.

Price appeared to be struggling to push through that level, and the most-recently closed candle had a long lower wick. It looked like strength was coming back in to this pair.

Dropping down to the 15 minute chart, there was a pretty clean pullback that had just formed, so I set a long entry order.

Entry – 163.541

The pullback completed fairly quickly, and only about 6 minutes after setting the order, price pushed up enough to trigger the entry in to the trade.

Exit – 163.38

Price looked strong initially. It gained close to 5 pips (~.5R) over the next 5 minutes, but immediately started dropping from there. After only another 15 minutes, price had pushed down enough to trigger my exit for a full loss.

On the 4 hour chart, price had been strong overall, and while there had been some weakness over the week prior to this trade, that weakness appeared to be ending when I got to this chart. Price stalled at some support and while the MAs had touched, they hadn’t crossed over yet. On top of that, RSI was around 50 (though, technically, it was below that line and sloping down).

On the 15 minute chart, the faster MA was starting to slope up, and RSI was above 50, and there was a pretty clear bull-pullback. While there were some conflicting signals, overall, a lot of evidence pointed toward strength. On top of that, the pattern I traded directly around suggested strength.

Conclusion

I, once again, am feeling at a loss. I find these setups that look relatively great, but they don’t work out… It’s frustrating. I’m not in the prediction business, though, and I think I’m still getting hung up on that. I’m in the probabilities business. I need to take a larger amount of trades with great setups so I can reap the rewards of the ones that do break.

I’m tired of saying the same things, though, and not being better. Somethings gotta change.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions, and stay tuned for more trades.

The post *Shrug Emoji* | EUR/JPY Long Forex Trade | March 28, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Once again, I’m simply looking through charts and putting out orders where I like the patterns. GBP/JPY is the first thing I like — price has been down for the last few days overall, but since last Friday, price has rolled to the upside. Looking this morning, I see a bit of a base/pullback that’s formed after breaking some resistance back to the upside, so I set my orders around that price action.

My R:R is 1.8, so a little less than 2. But I still like the pattern, so I’m leaving the order. We’ll see how it goes.

Entry – 191.35

A little over 10 minutes after setting the order, price pushed up and triggered my entry.

Price only pushed a little in my favor at first, but made another pullback. That pullback wasn’t sustained, though, and after 2 candles, price pushed back up. That upward move eventually caused price to hit 1R, and I was able to move my stop to break even.

Exit – 191.378

There was still a little strength after that, and I was actually able to move my stop one “SAR” dot above my entry. That was the highest I was able to get it, though, before price reversed enough to hit it. It wasn’t big, but a definite profit with this trade.

It’s better than a loss, for sure. I need to focus on the positives. But at the same time, my wins need to be bigger. I’m planning on changing up my trading habits a bit; so hopefully soon the big wins will come. Until then, .

In the interest of full disclosure, while looking through the numbers for the March 25th long trade, I discovered a Short trade in this same pair from March 21st. I looked through my notes, and I can’t find any mention of this trade anywhere. I don’t remember it either. I have no idea how it slipped through the cracks. This is very unlike me, and I don’t know how it happened. I can not make these types of mistakes…

Oh well, looks like it was maybe the break of the “neck” of a double-top that I was playing. I don’t see any specific patterns, especially given how high my stop was. Price made a small push in my favor and apparently that was enough for me to move my stop to break even already. Closed at the open for a break even trade.

Thanks for reading and staying through the ‘bonus trade’. Leave a comment letting me know your strategies of recording your trades, and if you’ve every completely overlooked one like this. And stay tuned for more trades!

The post Small Gains | GBP/JPY Long Forex Trade | March 25, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

A lot of the JPY pairs are moving pretty strong right now, but I don’t see any great entry points. I could do a market order on some of them, and I considered it, but ultimately decided against it. When I got to the Franc-Yen chart, though, things looked promising.

Price was pushing up like it was in the other JPY pairs, but this one was on a bit of a pullback. It was only 1 candle, on the 15 minute chart; but that’s enough for me right now with everything moving.

Zooming out to the 4 hour chart; there’s a bit of resistance above my entry where, if I don’t even put my target at the highs, I still have a 1.5 R:R. I kept that as my target and put in an order with a .75% position size.

Entry – 169.83

Price slowly and steadily pushed up — which maybe could’ve been a sign to cancel the order and try again later? As quickly as the other Yen pairs were moving, I could make the argument that I should’ve been wary of this when it didn’t break as fast. Price never dropped below my stop, though, so I could also argue that it was fine to leave the stop as is. Either way, I ultimately left the order alone and around 11:30, I got the notification that it triggered.

Exit – 169.84

Over the next 3 candles, price made a relatively strong push up and quickly hit 1R. I moved my stop to break even, and price managed to push a little further in profit. From there, though, price reversed — nearly as quickly — and hit my stop for a break-even trade.

Once again, after hovering just above my entry for a few hours, price made a push in my favor and eventually hit my target. Early again.

Maybe I should take some comfort in the fact that I’m not really getting these plays wrong; I’m simply mistiming them. I feel like, at this point in my career, I should be way beyond that. But at the same time; based on my performance, I’m not. I need to not worry about how I feel I should be doing, and just continue to focus on the process of improving.

Anyway, thanks for coming back. I know this isn’t the most exciting time in my trading right now; but continue slogging with me. We’ll reap the rewards soon!

The post Can’t Go Broke Making a Profit (I Guess) | CHF/JPY Long Forex Trade | March 19, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

I decided that I could still put out two separate orders, and then manually cancel one of them when the other triggers. It takes more attention, but it’s more than doable. This is the first trade where I’m implementing this strategy. I also saw a bearish move in Pound-Dollar that I tried to capitalize on. Read on to see how they played out.

I’m having difficulties getting excited about trading and have been slacking off quite a bit. To try to remedy this, I’m just diving in today. I’m not doing any analysis, I’m just looking through charts and putting out orders where I see fit.

The first place is in AUD/JPY, and originally, I thought to do a manual OCO order. It might be the move, too, since as I’ve been typing this, price has been dropping.

That’s neither here nor there, though. Price hit a low yesterday and has been pushing up this morning. Price stalled for a bit overnight, but pushed up through the resistance area this morning. When I got to the chart, price was pulling back a little and seemingly retesting the resistance area that was just broken.

I  put an entry order to go long if this breaks back above the highs before the pullback, with my stop at that resistance/key area. My R:R is only 1.5, but that’s going to have to be okay for today. When I was trading more successfully, I was looking for a 1.5 minimum.. I went away from that because I wanted the bigger wins, but maybe it’s something I think about implementing in my plan. We’ll see how the next few trades go.

I’m considering also putting in a short order here, still. We’ll see. I see a couple areas of support where I could put an entry order — but the “best” one is pretty far below current price. I might just let my current order ride and adjust it if price starts to hover around one of those entry areas. For now, though, we’ll see how the long play works out.

Price was dropping, so I did it. I put out a short order in the same pair. I’m going to keep an eye on them and cancel the one that doesn’t trigger.

Entry – 97.329

As the day went on and I watched this chart move, I remained confident in my plan. Price rallied back up to near my stop level — so if this was bearish, it was forming a head-and-shoulders; and if it was bullish, it was a deeper pullback than I expected. I wasn’t at the charts, so around 8:00pm when it triggered, I saw the notification on my phone.

I opened my laptop to take a look, and price pushed through the support area pretty strong, and was heading down. Pretty quickly, I was in profit a couple of pips. I monitored for a little bit, but when price started to rally a bit (back to my entry), I decided I’d just let it ride and not stress myself over it. I set an alert for 1R and put the computer away.

Exit – 97.55

I was in bed falling asleep when I got the notification that my stop-loss had been triggered. Those couple of pips of profit are the furthest down this pushed — apparently the underlying pressure was bullish not bearish — and from there price ran to the upside.

What’s worse, as of right now (11:20am the next day) price is hovering around what would be 1R if my long trade had been the one that triggered first.

IDK. Should I have left the long trade open? Looking now, there was a huge, outsized spike a couple hours before the trade. Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to that? I feel like every time I do a bit more research and try to learn something new to add to my toolkit, I read things that I already do. It’s gotta be mental. I think about trading the wrong way, and I need something to “click” or have that “a-ha” moment that will bring more consistency.

Glancing through charts on the hourly timeframe, I came across this that looks really good. Price has been pushing down this week, and last night through this morning, price bottomed a bit and rallied. That rally reached a resistance area that was created during this overall drop, and price started to push down from there.

This looks like a great bearish rally/retest pattern to me, so I put in an entry order. The R:R isn’t quite 2, but it’s close, so I’m going to let it ride. Here’s hoping it works out.

Entry – 1.27729

It took a little while — almost an hour exactly — but eventually price pushed down enough to trigger my entry. Now we see how it plays out.

Exit – 1.2792

Price never really did much for me. Almost immediately after hitting my entry, price started to rally. And after another hour-and-a-half, price hit my stop loss. This was a pretty discouraging one, the bear rally looked clean and I thought the target was fully in play. I guess I was just wrong. Even as I type this (around 1:30 the next day) price just hovered around my stop level all night last night and made a small push up this morning.

Like I mentioned, though, I’m trying to change my mindset around trading and I think taking this trade was a good step in that direction. That’s something. This trading competition is helping, too, as I’m able to trade with no risk, but there’s still stakes so I want to do well. I hope to come to some conclusions while doing this that I can take into my every day trading. We’ll see.

Baby steps…. I guess… Feels like it’s been too long for that, but not much more I can do at this juncture. On the bright side, the portfolio continues to grow, and I’m up in this trading competition (even though that’s just from holding Bitcoin… still up). I need better habits, and there’s been some progress with that. Just keep swimming.

Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s trade and if you were able to capitalize on any Aussie-Yen movement. Any advice you want to leave in the comments might be helpful as well . Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more trades and analysis!

The post First Manual OCO Order | AUD/JPY & GBP/USD Short Forex Trades | March 12, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Two days in a row this had candles with long lower wicks and small bodies near the highs; occurring near a strong resistance area. On a daily chart. With an entry above the highs of the resistance area, and a stop below the bodies of the last 2 candles, I’ve got a 50 pip risk.

Based on my initial target, I had a 2 R:R, and I can even find a reasonable target that offers a 4. there’s not a pattern per-se that I’m trading in to, just a couple long lower wicks that suggest the buyers are in control here.

It’s the daily chart, so I’m probably going to hold overnight, but we’ll see. I’ll also cancel the order if price reverses. Also, since today’s Thursday, if I do hold overnight, I’ll have to make sure I close this trade before the close of the market tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.

Price was hovering around that breakout area, and was in a bit of a bull-pullback/base on the hourly chart. Looking at that, my initial entry was incredibly far away from current price, far enough that I don’t feel like it would have hit today — and even if it did, I’d be at risk of holding over the weekend.

I ran numbers around the current price action, using my prior entry as a target, and I’ve still got an above 2 R:R. That seems more realistic in my time frame, so I adjusted my order to the new one. Hopefully it works out well.

Entry – 161.67

Updating 2/20/2024

On the day this trade triggered, It was after 6:00, and I was finished with the bulk of my work for the day. I was on the couch watching TV, when I checked the charts for the last time prior to entry. Price was still a little off of my entry point, but the action looked good, so I left it alone. A few minutes later — like, less than 20 — I got the notification that my order had been triggered.

I was excited about it — I had just checked the charts and price wasn’t really threatening to trigger my entry yet. So the fact that it had pushed up and triggered me in so quickly seemed like a fantastic sign. Unfortunately, though, when I looked at the chart again, I discovered that price hadn’t actually broken out — it just got near the highs and I was  triggered due to the spread/slippage.

Exit – 161.53

I can’t even say that my entry was the highest that this made, because truthfully, it didn’t even really get up to my entry. And from there, in less than 20 minutes, price reversed and stopped me out for a loss.

What’s worse is that after stopping me out, price pushed up to within 2 pips of 1R over the next couple of hours, and (by today) has pushed well through my target. Once again, this should have at least been a break-even trade.

If I had placed my stop just a little lower — at a more clear key area — I may not have been stopped out and it would’ve been a win. If I were to have picked a different stop, though, that would affect my risk level, decreasing my R:R, and potentially making this not viable..

Even if I had stuck with my initial outlook and traded the daily chart with a longer-term hold period; it still may not have worked out. Price has yet to reach even 1R based on my original numbers. It still could, and if I were to have made that move I’d still be in the trade, so it’s impossible to say at this moment if I had it right the first time. Regardless, even if I did have it right, holding for 4+ days isn’t really in my plan, and isn’t going to lead to much profitability trading .5% – 1% of my account…

Trading, amiright?

I was looking through the charts on a daily time-frame, and saw that this was butting up against a really strong resistance area. Price was somewhat steadily pushing up over the last couple of weeks, and is now at the point it looks like it’s ready to break out. On top of that, the current candle had a really long lower wick.

I dropped down to the 15 minute chart, and while price is in oversold levels, I’m not really trading this time-frame — just looking for entries. There’s a clear bull-pullback on the 15 minute chart, and it’s giving me a risk of 18 pips. I had already picked my target (98.5) before I went to the 15 minute chart, and with those numbers, I’ve got a nearly 3.5 R:R. We’ll see how this one works out.

Entry – 97.881

Updating 2/20/2024

This trade and the Euro-Yen trade triggered at essentially the same time. Both of them being JPY pairs, and both making such a large jump to trigger my entries, I was feeling very confident. Excited even; and I was adding up the amount of pips I was going to make in my head.

Exit – 97.7

Like EUR/JPY, though, price reversed almost immediately after triggering my entry; pushed down just enough to touch my stop for a full loss; then pushed up through 1R and by today (2/20) up to my target. At least this pair had the decency to take a little over an hour to stop me out, instead of 5 minutes, but the result and the subsequent price action is all the same.

This is one of those extremely discouraging days. I was right about the direction, I was right about the distance, and, really, I was right about the timing. It’s really difficult to buy in to the idea that there’s not stop-loss hunting taking place when this happens, and how am I going to be successful if the big players are just hunting my stop losses and literally taking my money.

That’s victim mentality, though, and that’s not really how I roll. If other people can do it, so can I. I just need to continue carving out my niche. Besides, overall, I’ve been successful and my results have been trending in the right direction. This was just one of those things that’ll test my intestinal fortitude, and I’m going to come out the other side stronger. I need to make a change somewhere, that’s clear, but there’s not stopping and there’s no going back. Just keep swimming .

What did you think about today’s trades? Let me know in the comments. If you were able to catch pips on these moves, let me know about that as well! Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back often for more trades and analysis.

The post Stops Hunted | EUR/JPY & AUD/JPY Long Forex Trades | February 15, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

If I’m playing probabilities, it means I need to get my trading numbers up. And to get my numbers up, I need to continue looking at charts, even after my initial view/analysis; which is what I did today. I thought about putting in an OCO order here earlier, but couldn’t quite get the numbers ironed out. Upon returning, though, I see that long was the way to play this today.

Entry – 160.314

There was a strong spike shortly after I came across the trade, and when I came back to it just now, there was a minor pause happening. Maybe the start of a base on the hourly chart, and a pretty clear pullback on the 15 minute chart. I set an entry around that base/pullback and the trade triggered pretty immediately. Now we just wait to see what happens.

Exit – 160.15

Nope. I was completely wrong. Shorts was the way to play this after all. Once again, less than an hour later, price reversed enough to stop me out of this trade. And, after triggering my long entry, price dropped X pips over the next X hours. In retrospect, this was  actually a pretty clean continuation setup on the 4 hour chart. Price had gotten up to the 20 MA and failed there.

I called this in my pre-trade analysis, too. I knew/know that EUR and GBP are correlated and I shouldn’t have had opposite outlooks on them, but I did so anyway. The correlations aren’t perfect and they can move against each other, but the odds aren’t typically in my favor that they will. If I’m trying to make the best decisions, I need to be better.

On the other hand, though, I was playing price action and anything can happen. But I should be better about considering all of the context surrounding the trade in order to be in the best positions to make (and not lose) money as possible.

Looking today (I’m actually journaling this on 2/2), price ultimately pushed down about 75% of the way to my take profit. But that was after another rally that took price back up to the 20 MA near my stop level. I’m not sure how I would’ve managed this trade better to catch those pips — It would have probably had to have been a new trade.

Overall, I was just straight up wrong on this one. That’ll happen. I still need to figure out how to adjust my decision making process, and I’m moving in the right direction. Shake it off and move on with confidence.

Thanks for reading! Were you able to catch some of my pips on this drop? Let me know in the comments! If you’ve got any questions or feedback, feel free to use the comments section for that as well. Happy trading, and stay tuned for more trades and analysis!

The post Called It In My Analysis | EUR/JPY Long Forex Trade | January 30, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

This had been in a base around a strong resistance area for several days. I noticed some Doji’s last week and wanted to short it then, but never really saw the opportunity. This morning, price broke the lows of the base and when I got to the chart was making a pretty clear bear-rally on the hourly chart. I put in an  order quickly and it triggered immediately.

I picked an initial target using the daily chart (through a couple minor levels of support) and the R:R was ridiculous — over 5. It didn’t seem realistic, so I used the fib retracement to determine a target. It was much more realistic with a still close to 2.5 R:R, so I went with that.

Entry – 186.599

Exit – 187.07

Once again, my entry was essentially the lows that price reached, and just under an hour later, it rallied up to my stop. And, once again, looking at the chart and the pattern and all of the context, I like the trade — and actually, after basing a little above my exit, price ultimately did push down to my target. I missed the move by about a day.

Takeaways? I have no idea. The only thing I can think to do is to continue to remind myself that I’m not in the predicting business, I’m in the probabilities business; and I need to just keep hunting for those perfect setups whose wins will wipe out the losses and put me in to profit. Just keep swimming.

This wasn’t the best first month of the year, but the wheels are turning. I’ve got a plan to get out of the house more, hopefully I’ll be more focused without the distractions of home.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s trade and if you’ve got any feedback or advice. And as always, stay tuned for more trades and analysis!

The post A Day Early | GBP/JPY Short Forex Trade | January 30, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

I like this to the short side, but there’s something I want to mention as I enter this trade. If I set my stop above the highs of the rally, I’m looking at a 55 pip risk and a 1.5 R:R; which isn’t what I’m looking for (if I had a 55 pip risk and a 2+ R:R, I’d be okay with it, though).

If, however, I set my stop at the current price — 1.646 — My risk drops to 35 pips, which increases my R:R to 2.3. I think I’m comfortable with that because this level was a key area early last week. And, it’s still a 35 pip risk, and not, say, only 10 with a 3+ pip spread.

I think I’m willing to take that risk now, and I can always cancel the order. Oh, and I’m picking my target using the fib retracement level.

I had two orders open, and price on both pushed well up above my stop. I decided to hold to see if maybe price would still reverse — I still liked the key areas that I had my orders set around, so I left them open longer than usual to see if that strategy would work out for me.

Eventually, nothing happened in my other trade, so I cancelled that order, but EUR/AUD is somewhat basing (if you focus on the bodies of the candles). It’s hard to say. I’m on the 4 hour chart and the current candle is pushing back down. It’s approaching the key area that was resistance earlier — and would’ve been my stop level if my trade triggered earlier — that’s now acting as support.

Despite the long lower shadow that made up the last candle, this still looks pretty weak. I’m considering putting in another order around this base that’s forming now. The spread isn’t wild right now either and I still have a pretty significant stop level, so I want to do it. A part of me feels like I’m trading just to trade, maybe? It’s something I had the idea on earlier, and I’m just re-tooling the trade. It’s 1/2 a percentage and I need to not be afraid, so I’m going to do it. I’ll be back with the results when/if it triggers and after it closes.

I’ve set the order now, and dropped down to the hourly chart to see how close it was. On the hourly chart, there’s a bit of a bull-pullback forming. If price was heading back to the upside, this would be a good place to get in. It looks like one of those scenarios where I want to put in an OCO order, but I’m not able to right now.

I want to figure out how to implement that into my trading. Either by just opening two orders in the platform now, monitor closely and close the opposite trade manually. Or use a different broker that allows for that type of order. I’d prefer the latter, but we’ll see. Stay tuned to see how that ends up playing out.

Entry – 1.64599

Price was moving as I was placing the order, so it ended up triggering pretty quickly. Immediately, it looked like it was the wrong decision. Price hovered a little above my entry, and after a couple hours ended up pushing up close to my stop.

It didn’t hit my stop, though, and my work  day was starting to wind down. I set a couple of alerts — one at the lows before the rally occurred, creating that long lower wick on the 4 hour chart; and one at 1R. I figured I’d move my stop when it got to those initial lows, in case that was a strong support area; but if it was moving strongly enough, I could potentially wait for 1R.

With my alerts set and other work taken care of, I finished my work day and largely relied on notifications to keep me informed about this trade. After a few hours I hadn’t gotten any notifications, so I wasn’t sure what to expect (I didn’t fall into the trap of immediately thinking it was a good thing). I looked at the chart on my phone and once again price had gotten up to near my exit, but hadn’t actually hit it; but price was still sitting above my entry.

There was nothing I could do at that point, so I continued to let it ride. I got in bed, and thought again about the fact that I hadn’t received any notifications about this trade. I checked the charts at that point, and price was down near those initial lows; in fact, shortly after checking the chart my initial alert hit. Since I was going to bed and had no way of monitoring overnight (and price didn’t push down as quickly as I hoped) so I moved my stop to break-even at that point.

Exit – 1.64599

I woke up this morning to discover that my stop loss had been hit at break even. Price ultimately pushed to exactly 1R, but that’s the furthest it dropped. It’s been rallying since. I guess the positive takeaway is that I managed it well, and a break even is a win.

On one hand, if I’m trying to catch new trends early, this is the exact type of opportunity I’m looking for, and breaking even is not a bad outcome. On the other hand, zooming out a bit to the daily chart, my entry was roughly at the MAs, which are touching and now sloping up. Longer-term, this is a lot of what I’m looking for in a bullish continuation play. I could certainly argue more strength in this prices future, and price has been up a good amount so far today. Maybe I should’ve been looking at this long the whole time.

Conclusion

All that said, price was down pretty strong, and pulled back in a way that didn’t really suggest more strength was coming. Anytime any buying did come in to the pair, even more selling came in quickly. Shorter-term (which is my time-frame — I don’t want to hold for multiple days or over weekends), it’s definitely fair to say there could have been a lot more weakness in the future for this pair; it just didn’t come to fruition.

Overall, I like what I saw in the trade, I liked my entry and the overall pattern. I liked that I entered without fear, and how I managed the trade. I feel good about this one, and I wouldn’t be upset if I found a lot more opportunities similar to this one.

Thanks for reading! What did you think about today’s trade? Not losing money is a win, right? Leave a comment below. It wasn’t the best week of trading, but certainly not the worst — and my portfolio continues to do well. Can’t complain so far about 2024. Come back next week to see more analysis and trades!

The post Re-Tooled My Entry | EUR/AUD Short Forex Trade | January 25, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

Overall in this pair, price had been weak. It made a pretty strong rally then dropped, taking back about half of it’s gains from that rally. There was a bit of a rally after the drop, and I’m shorting in to that expecting price to take back the rest of what it gained over the last week. Here are my thoughts from this morning:

Aussie-Kiwi had been pushing down for most of 2024, until it made a strong spike up at the end of last week. That spike lasted until Monday night, when price started dropping hard. That drop bottomed out at the end of the day yesterday; and since midnight, price has been on a small rally.

I think I’m going to look to short into that small rally. Price has reached some resistance that was strong prior support, and the up-move doesn’t look extended at all, or like it’s returning to the upside. Dropping to the 2 hour chart, I don’t necessarily see a pattern to short in to, but I see clearly defined support and resistance where I can put my entry and stop orders. I’m going to pick a target and run the numbers, putting out an entry order if they’re there.

I’m playing this to at least the lows of the overall range that this is in, but I selected my target using the fib retracement levels to give me a more realistic exit.

Entry – 1.07698

Nothing happened immediately after setting the order, but I kept my eye on the charts and things continued to look okay. Price approached my stop level, but stayed a few pips below it. I took a break for lunch, but liking price action, I left the order out there.

While eating lunch I got the notification that the trade had triggered. The last time I looked at the chart, price was near my stop level, so I knew it had to have been a fairly strong drop to trigger the entry. I looked at the chart again, and sure enough, that’s what happened. I set an alert for 1R, which was exactly at the next key area, and just waited for price to reach that level so I could move my stop to break even.

That hit a couple hours later, and I know I wasn’t losing anything on this trade.

Exit – 1.07716

After hitting 1R, price started rallying and did so enough to hit my stop. That next support area held stronger than I hoped and price reversed from there. Even looking today (the next day, analyzing how this went), price failed at that exact same level again this morning.

Overall, I liked this trade. I liked the overall direction, the pattern, and I traded around price action rather than a specific base or pullback (I traded an longer-term pullback, but didn’t set my entry based on that). I broke even, which was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s better than a loss.

That rally up to the MAs, with my entry being at a clean break of a key area is almost exactly what I’m looking for when I’m trading. Couple that with a high R:R, on not-ridiculous numbers and I thought this was going to be a huge winner. It’s unfortunate that I don’t see that price action more often. It’s also a bit of a disappointment that it only broke even, but if I can get into more trades exactly like this one; overall, I’m going to be very, very profitable.

Thanks for reading! What did you think about today’s trade? Were you able to get a better entry and catch more pips? Let me know in the comments. If you have any other thoughts or suggestions, leave those in the comments too. I want to get better together! Don’t forget to check back frequently for more trades and analysis, too!

The post Near-Perfect Setup | AUD/NZD Short Forex Trade | January 24, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.