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 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.

Before I set the entry order here, there’s something I want to point out. I’m running the numbers, and with my original stop, I’m looking at a 1.7R:R — 15 pip risk 25 pip reward. I can drop my stop level to the lows of the prior key area (the support level) rather than the highs (the resistance area); which would give me a 10 pip risk and take my R:R to 2.5.

That would mean that on this rally, price pushed up above my stop. When that happens, I typically cancel my order, so I’m not sure I should put it in, in the first place right now. I have run the numbers, I do like the direction, and the pattern is largely there, so I think I’ll take the risk. I can always cancel the order if price takes too long to trigger.

Entry – 0.61450

Price made a strong drop and pushed to about 5 pips in profit (which was also .5R). It looked really good (my AUD/USD trade pushed down strong, too, so I was feeling confident about these trades).

Shortly after that push, though, price rallied almost as strong and got to within a couple pips of stopping me out. Price held, though, and eventually, it made another push down, reaching about .6R (or 6 pips of profit). I was nervous about the prior rally, so I decided to lock in profits at that point.

Exit – 0.61454

That was the most this did, though, as price rallied shortly after and stopped me out at break even. Not too upset about this one. And I’m actually  glad I stayed to manage it and lock in profits (well, lock in a non-loss) because I wasn’t incredibly happy about my stop level initially.

Overall, this was an okay trade. I liked how I ultimately handled/managed it; but it’s also one that looked really good, but ended up meh. IDK what to do if I’m not getting big wins when price triggers my entry that fast and pushes that deep that quickly. That’s why I need to get into more trades, though, because there should be 1 or 2 big wins for every 4 or 5 break-evens/small losses.

I didn’t take a bath on this, so that’s good; and I’m monitoring my trade in the other pair, so I’m just going to move on from this one.

Thanks for reading. Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s trade, and/or if you made a better one. Stay tuned for more trades!

The post Managed Well | NZD/USD Short Forex Trade | January 16, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

I looked at EUR/JPY based on the RSW chart that I had from when I was with the prop firm. That chart looked pretty good as a high base breakout — though the base on the 15 minute chart wasn’t the prettiest. I ran the numbers and had less than a 2 R:R, so I moved on. It was the 2nd highest in volume, though, and GBP/JPY was the highest, so I looked at that.

Pound-Yen looked similar to Euro-Yen — on a definite upward trajectory and was making a bit of a base/stall on the 1h/15 minute charts. When I looked at this, price was breaking the highs of a cleaner base, and I wanted to get in. I picked a target, and set my stop below the lows of the base and ran the numbers with a market order — price was moving and I didn’t want to miss out.

Entry – 185.016

With a market order, price was fluctuating around 1.9 – 2.1R, so I just pulled the trigger and got in to the trade. I’m monitoring now, so we’ll see how it plays out.

I cancelled my take-profit as this was pushing up quite strong. I’m sitting here monitoring, so I can manually exit the trade — following my rules of trailing my stop along the second-most-recent SAR dot on the 15 minute chart. This would have made ~44 pips if I had left my take-profit, so let’s see what it ends up being.

Exit – 185.315

Price eventually stalled out, and during that stall it pulled back enough to stop me out of the trade. I ended up making 30 pips as opposed to the ~44 I could have made if I left my take-profit order out there. On one hand, I left money on the table and I didn’t necessarily have to; but on the other hand, if price was stronger than I expected, I would have left money on the table in that instance.

One’s an actual and the other is an example, though, so I probably shouldn’t have removed my TP — especially given the fact that price was already overbought. Maybe in the future I’ll stop trading with take profits entirely, like I used to, but until then, I should leave them when & where I have them.

Conclusion

Even when I first started trading with TPs, I said I’d think about not using them when it’s been proven that I’m leaving money on the table due to price pushing significantly past that level. I haven’t gotten to that point yet, so I should have left it alone.

Live an learn, though. This was a great 30 pip win, so I can’t be upset. I fudged my rules a bit, but I recognized something I like and I took the trade without fear. Another reason to be happy about this trade.

There’s a couple of negatives. Namely, I didn’t do a full analysis, and this was a breakout trade which I’ve been trying to avoid. However, the trade worked out so I can’t complain. I also don’t think I made too many mental mistakes with this trade, either. I didn’t take it because I felt it should do anything; I saw something and wanted to get in. That’s where I want to be when trading, and that’s where I was here.

Time to move on and find more great opportunities!

Thanks for reading. What did you think about this trade? Let me know in the comments. If you’ve taken any trades that I missed, let me know about those in the comments as well. I’m going to try to take this feeling into trading tomorrow and hopefully make more money, so stay tuned for that!

The post Split-Second Decision | GBP/JPY Long Forex Trade | January 10, 2024 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

First off, let’s take a look at my thoughts from this morning:

On one hand, this has made an outsized spike that I could argue is a reversal move to the upside — especially given that RSI never got into overbought territory. On the other hand, price has failed at the upper band, and appears to be seriously threatening to push back down. Is this just another higher low in the midst of starting an uptrend? Or will price actually push down? I guess that’s why we set the orders: to find out.

Dropping to the 5 minute chart, Price almost looks like it’s rolled back to the downside, and actually is showing me a pretty clean bear-rally right now. There is some resistance at this area, but there’s actually more support. I can see here already that the numbers should line up; the spreads are also not terrible, so I’m going to take a shot here.

Entry – 145.498

Exit – 145.65

The bear-rally looked really good to me, and price was heading downward, so I stepped away from the computer for a few minutes. While I was away, I got the notification that my trade triggered. Very nice. It wasn’t long, though, and before I could make it back to the computer to even look at the trade, price reversed and pushed up enough to stop me out for a full loss.

It looked like price just started to range from there, and no longer had much weakness behind it. It’s unfortunate, but time to just move on.

The pattern was good here, the overall direction was good here (post-trade, price didn’t move drastically against me. It largely stayed in a range and as of 4:40pm is sitting a few pips below my entry), and it was a pair I picked coming off of a corrective move.

I can’t see much that I really dislike with this one, from the perspective of my analysis and reasons for taking the trade. It’s just one of those that happened to not work out. I’m more upset about the fact that I don’t find more opportunities than I am about losing this one. The law of large numbers doesn’t really work out without large numbers. I like where I’m at right now, though. I have been steadily trading more and more week after week. Some days the opportunities aren’t there, and that’s alright. Just keep swimming.

I was ready to disqualify this earlier, but after returning to the chart, things are looking better. Price is dropping pretty hard off of the upper band, and RSI is sloping down out of overbought territory (on the 5 minute chart). Right now, I’m just watching and hoping for a small rally to short in to because I like this to the down side again.

As I’ve been watching, price has seemed to stall (on the 5 minute chart); albeit at the lower band. RSI is still sloping down, though, and the faster line is below 50. I like what I see, but at my numbers right now, I’ve only got a 1.4R:R, which isn’t enough. A part of me wants to take the trade with half of a position size, but I feel like that defeats the purpose, given a lesser R:R ratio. Price is basing pretty well, though, so I’m at a crossroads.

It would certainly be a missed trade if I don’t pull the trigger here and price does push down. But at the same time, I’m not sure how confident I am in the drop — actually, I take that back. I like price to the short side, it’s a matter of how far this could go that’s giving me pause.

I think I’ll pull the trigger here. Even if it ends up being a loss, I did do the work and I do like the direction. I’ll just be quicker on cancelling the order if price moves against me before it triggers, and I’ll be quicker on moving my stop to break even if price does move in my favor. I might not even get the chance because price is spiking as I’m typing this.

I’ll open the order, though, and see how things play out.

On the 5 minute chart, price pushed above my stop, and I no longer liked this short. In fact, after pushing above my stop, price pulled back to about half of the recent up move (which started at the lower Bollinger Band), and the slower RSI line pushed back above 50, so I’m switching my outlook to a bullish one, and trading this bull-pullback.

My target is the top of the range on the hourly chart, and I’m offered a 2+R:R to that level. I’ve opened the order with half of a position size (being a bit wary, changing my mind so quickly), and I’m planning on being quicker/more conservative with my cancelations and trade management.

Entry – 1.9142

Exit – 1.91447

I didn’t have an exact number I was looking for to move my stop to break even; I initially figured I’d do about .5R. Price started somewhat stalling around resistance, though, so I used that opportunity to lock in profits. From there, price started stalling a bit, and even pulling back slightly; but it was all within a framework that didn’t bother me.

Eventually, on the 5 minute chart, the SAR dot got to (and started pushing through) my entry point. When actively managing (as opposed to using a trailing stop) I move my stop to the second-most-recently formed SAR area above my entry point. That’s what I did here, and unfortunately that’s as far as I was able to move my stop before price reversed and hit it.

It was in profit, so I’m not terribly upset about the outcome, but there are two things that are frustrating with this trade. First off, when my exit was triggered, the candle was still well above my stop loss. Maybe 3 pips in TradingView. It was even still above my exit level when I grabbed my screenshot. I hate when slippage stops me out like that. I need to be more wary of the spreads when I’m managing my trades, too, not just when I enter them.

The other frustrating thing is that stopping me out was the lowest this dropped in that time-period, and from there price pushed up to a little above 1R. It hovered around there for a while; and it’s hard to say exactly where I would’ve gotten out, but I think I would’ve netted at least 15 pips — opposed to the ~3 that I did get.

Not the most financially successful day, but it was still a good day. Let me know in the comments what you thought of these trades and if you would have done anything differently.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more Forex analysis and trades!

The post Changed My Outlook | Forex Market Day Trades | December 12, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

On the 2 hour chart, price had been in a downtrend for several weeks, but was on a bit of a bounce. The bounce lasted for a couple days, but this morning, it seems to be failing at a pretty strong key area that also happens to be where the upper band is.

On the 15 minute chart, price looks more like it’s in an uptrend. But that’s a given, seeing the rally on the 2 hour chart. Over the last few hours price had been pushing down, though there were a lot of fairly wild swings. Within the wild swings I saw what I would consider a bear rally, so I looked for entry orders.

Entry – 1.35609

My initial target offered only a 1 R:R. But, I used the logic that: if this is pushing back down, I’d expect it to continue it’s downtrend, which would push this to at least the prior swing lows (if not further than that). Given that logic, an exact 2 R:R (by doubling my risk, and not specifically picking a price target) was well within those parameters. I set the order and now I’m monitoring.

Oh, additionally while RSI was sloping down but above 50 on the 15 minute chart, it had pushed below 50 on the 5 minute chart.

After setting my entry order, price actually spiked up to where my stop loss was. It only, really, wicked up there though, so I left the order alone. About a half hour later, price did push down and it did so enough to trigger my entry into the trade.

Exit – 1.35834

Price got about 5 pips into profit before it reversed hard and pushed up to my stop loss. I don’t think this was a good trade from the start. Price was very choppy, and I prefer more smooth movements. On top of that, even on the 2 hour chart, price wasn’t coming out of being overbought, it was just close to that level and starting to head down. I’m starting to thing that I should use the RSI more as an indicator than the Bollinger Band.

I also need to be more cognizant of key areas. I need to stop taking trades into them, essentially. It’s hard to trade around support/resistance without trading through those levels. If that makes any sense. The support level that I’m shorting on is a resistance area of a range immediately preceding it, and it feels like I’m hoping price goes through a resistance area and a strong range in order to hit a target.

But at the same time, it’s not in my parameters to trade the bounce long in that scenario when the overall trend (2 hour chart) is down. Maybe I should only be trading the trend direction of the time-frame I’m looking at, and forget my top-down analysis. Or maybe I need to be more patient and find pairs where multiple time-frames show the same direction. Maybe my mindset overall needs to change.

That’s trading, though. I’m going to continue sticking with my current system for now, because I like where I’m at, and try to implement some small tweaks to be better around those key levels.

My initial analysis here was overall short; and I saw a nice low Base on the 15 min. chart. Price is coming off of the upper band and coming out of overbought on the 2h chart, looked for entries on the 15. Additionally, I selected a target with a similar outlook as the last trade — a 2 R:R (based on pips, not a key area) looked more than viable, especially if the return to the overall direction happens, so I used that as the target and set the entry order.

This trade and EUR/AUD pushed down at the same time (which makes a ton of sense, they’re basically the same pair), and I wasn’t able to cancel one of them if I wanted to. Them being the same pair, I figured the patterns were in play in both, so I was fine with both triggering. I’d essentially double my wins if they push in my favor.

Entry – 1.921

The initial pattern wasn’t bad — it only took about 10 minutes for the trade to trigger, and price pretty quickly pushed to .5R. From there, though, it rallied, and pushed up to roughly -.5R. Honestly, I didn’t love the rally, but I wasn’t too worried about it because it looked like a bearish retest to me. It’s trading, though, so I was ready for anything.

Exit – 1.92101

After the quick spike, price made another push down, this time reaching 1R. So I was able to move my stop to break even. That was about all it had, though. Price made another rally from there and sopped me out at break even.

This is one of those frustrating one’s where price ultimately ended up pushing to my target. Looking at the chart the next morning, and while price had pushed high enough to stop me out, it made the strong push down that would have been a full 2R win. Even if I had traded this on a higher time-frame with a wider stop, it pushed enough that it would’ve probably made money.

On one hand, it’s nice to see that I’m picking directions relatively well. But on the other hand, none of that matters if I can’t capitalize on the moves. I didn’t lose here, though, I broke even. So that’s good.

I thought this and Pound-Aussie looked similar this morning, so having an order in both, I may cancel one depending on what triggers first. If they both make strong pushes, though, I might keep both. The main differences between these, though, are A) there’s more of a bear-rally that I’m shorting in to, than a base B) My entry/stop levels look a bit cleaner here and C) I hit my R:R by selecting a target first and then my entry/stop, rather than simply doubling my risk.

Overall, I think this will be a better trade, but we’ll see how they play out. They both triggered at roughly the same time. Didn’t really have the opportunity to cancel one if I wanted to.

Entry – 1.64567

It’s funny, I initially thought that this would be the better trade, but it ended up being the one that made me more nervous.

Price pushed down to within about 3 pips of 1R, but with only a 13 pip risk, I told myself that wasn’t close enough. I let it ride, even though it started to rally. Price continued to rally, and it no longer made sense to move my stop. Price was either going to reverse and head back to the downside at some point, or I was going to take a full loss.

Exit – 1.64567

Price rose until it got to within 3 pips of my stop, but my stop never triggered. Fortunately for me, price made another strong push down, and this time made it to within 1 pip of 1R. I moved my stop when I was only 10 pips in profit again, though. That was it’s bottom for the time being, and from there price continued to rise and stopped me out at the exact price I got in.

This is essentially the same trade as the previous one, and had essentially the same outcome. I liked the trades, though. I liked the overall directions, the patterns, and the R:R offered. In actuality, I only expect to hit big on about 10% of my trades, so I’m largely happy to walk away with a break even instead of a loss. Here’s hoping I catch the next move!

Conclusion

I’ve been wondering, since I’m taking a longer-term outlook, should I focus more on currencies with slightly lower volumes; with the expectation that there will be lower volatility in those pairs. I don’t want something with less than, say, 10K or 20K in volume, but I can maybe start with pairs lower than 100K. Something to keep in mind going forward.

Overall, I like my work cadence over the last couple weeks. I like my trading plan and my process each day, and I’ve been a lot better about updating this blog in a timely manner. I need to be better about waiting for great setups, rather than taking the trade because it’s “my favorite setup of the day” and I just want to get into something. It’s something I’ll definitely be mindful of going forward.

Thanks for reading. Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s trades, and if you were able to capitalize on something else. And stay tuned for more Forex technical analysis and trades!

The post Same Trade Twice | Forex Market Day Trades | December 5, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

First of all, let’s start with my initial analysis from this morning:

Entry – .6624

Price triggered my entry pretty quickly — so quickly in fact that it was already above my entry level when I got the screenshot. Price remained fairly strong from there, and ended up pushing to within about 3 pips of 1R. I thought about the old adage “You can’t go broke taking a profit”, so I moved my stop to break even around this time.

Exit – .66239

Price fairly quickly reversed from there and pushed down enough to hit my stop loss. Since I had already moved it, it was a break even trade.

On the 2 hour chart, price had been in an overall uptrend, and was bouncing off of the lower band. RSI was right around 50, and I traded into a bull-pullback. Based on my rules, I did most things right here, so I can’t be upset about this trade.

Conclusion

The only things I could say, maybe, that could have disqualified this is the fact that the move that returned this to the upside was fairly outsized. It was a strong move to the upside, and it might have been exhausted. Price wasn’t in overbought levels on any timeframes I looked at; but I guess it was pushing through the upper band on the 15 minute chart.

I’ve seen prices ride the bands to the up or downside several times, though, so I don’t think that should’ve been a catalyst to disqualify the trade. And truthfully, it was break-even, not a loss, so I’m not that upset anyway. I just hoped based on what I saw that I caught a lot more pips here.

That’s trading, though, and at least I didn’t take a loss. Time to move on and look for more opportunities.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments about some old habits that you’re still struggling to shake, if you have any. And stay tuned for more Forex market trades and analysis.

The post I’ll Take It | AUD/USD Long Forex Trade | November 30, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.

First off, let’s start with my analysis from the morning of the trade:

I’m looking at this this morning, and considering shorting it, when I realized I looked at taking this long yesterday. It has been up all month, and has only been on a couple-day pullback; but at the same time I could almost argue a reversal starting back around the 15th.

Dropping down to the 5 minute chart, price had a rally about an hour ago, based a little, then pushed down through the lows of that base. As of right now, I’m not seeing an actual pattern to trade in to, but I like this short so I’ll keep an eye on it, hoping one forms.

Entry – 161.995

On the 5 minute chart, price had broke a support level, made a strong push down, then had a rallying candle. The one up-candle looked like an entry opportunity to me, so I set an order. Hopefully I wasn’t too overzealous.

It took less than 10 minutes for my order to fill, and from there, price continued pushing down. I had a fairly tight stop-loss, so I was able to move my stop to break even very quickly. Since I had moved my stop, I started looking at other charts for opportunities.

Exit – 161.749

While I was looking at something else, I got the notification that my take-profit order was triggered. Price pushed down to my target and I got out for a nice win.

The pattern was good, the price action was good, the overall trend was in the right direction and the indicators lined up. I played this nearly perfectly, and I hope to find more opportunities that look just like this one.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s trade, and if you were able to capitalize on this movement. And stay tuned for more analysis and trades!

The post Nice Quick Win | EUR/JPY Short Forex Trade | November 29, 2023 appeared first on Anthony Bradley's Trading Journal.