R-0.2 Got Myself Out of a Hole

Started on EA as this is where first setup occurred (dug myself a hole R-1.5). The trades were technically correct but there was no correlation with the EU like yesterday, which probably explains why the trades didn't go anywhere. Annoyingly my broker only allows me to have wide SLs on this pair, so going to have to discard it as I can't control the risk accurately. (Probably replace with the GU).

EU trade...

EJ trade...

R+1.2 Patience Wore Thin Waiting for PTs

When account was up 1.2% (both trades combined) I closed both as starting to lose focus/patience.  EU trade took 1hr 40mins!  

EU trade...

EA trade...

R-1.1 Didn't Change Guide/Strategy, But Didn't Obey It Either

Generally rusty...

• Failed to trade pair most respecting its 8/20 MAs (EURAUD).  
• Failed to enter a trade because concerned about S&R (got to be mechanical , I can always SAR if it fails).

Fix:  Obey the guide,  turn brain off. Just trade any setup that occurs, I can always SAR.

10-14th March P/L: R+2.2

Monday Issues:  Market always a little slow Monday AM. 7am probably a little early to start. Should have waited for speed (8/20) to widen before commencing trading.

Friday Issues: worked late on Thursday night so v tired Friday morning. Almost didn't trade (probably shouldn't have). Was not observant enough. But technically did take the correct trades :) 

R+0.1 Quite Tired: Not Perfect but Not Terrible

Discretionary Exit "2" think I made the right call here. The better long was on the EU at "A" and would have been an easier hold.  Could have been more observant today, however sometimes that's easier said than done when tired. Almost didn't trade today, maybe I shouldn't.

EJ trades...

EU observation...

R+1: Mechanical Entry, Discretionary Exit

EU...

R+1.5: Clusters are good S/R levels

EU trades...

EJ trade...

R+1 Trading Mechanical. Trading from and to levels

trades...

observation...

R-1.5 Allow Trend to Develop/Strengthen

R+0 no trades

R-1.2 Went Discretionary Instead of Staying Mechanical

BACK! R+0.4

Long time off.

Been all over the place mentally, effected my trading (or maybe my trading effected my mental health) who knows/cares?!

 Felt out of control learning so many different methods.  Reverting to an older mechanical method as I try to create a new one with all that I've learnt in past 8 months.

Chose the EJ as was trending better this AM
8SMA(orange)/21EMA(grey) =  direction

Reverted Al Brooks Method but Switched to S&R halfway through Session

R-1.43   £-27.25
Trend down = initial bias short
TLB =  bias remains short but prepared for reversal
1. Short RL to range lows on tick below LSH.  Plan Okay,  Execution good (NB took extra size by accident , thought my sell stop hadn't triggered) R-1
2. Reversal long/Buy first PB after TLB (HL) on tick above LSH. Plan good/bad (started trade with Brooks Method,  reverted to S&R method halfway through),  Execution good (I entered correctly with Brooks method, and exited correctly with S&R method at 3)
3. (incorrect should have still been holding 2 until bar 4.) Short RL to range highs on tick below HSL. Plan poor (switched to S&R method), Execution good (I traded the S&R plan method well, and exited on realisation of error).

January 2014 Summary

PL: R-12.73%           £-283.20

Closed Trade P/L:		-283.20
Balance:		1 941.96		Equity:				1 941.96	Free Margin:			1 941.96
Details:
Gross Profit:		228.34		Gross Loss:				511.54	Total Net Profit:			-283.20
Profit Factor:		0.45		Expected Payoff:				-4.97
Absolute Drawdown:		283.20		Maximal Drawdown:				283.20 (12.73%)	Relative Drawdown:			12.73% (283.20)
Total Trades:		57
Profit Trades (% of total):								13 (22.81%)	Loss trades (% of total):			44 (77.19%)

Week 1: First BE week (Al Brooks),
Week 2: A spate of overtrading (S&R trading),
Week 3: a spate of Poor Entries (S&R trading),
Week 4: NA an emotional write off ending in a me seeking some professional help (S&R trading).

Summary: it's very clear to see from the equity curve above that problems began when I changed my plan from an Al Brooks Method to a purely S&R method so I am just going to revert back to the former method...

Psychology: As I write this on Tuesday evening I am starting to feel myself again.  I had a couple of hard weeks at the end of the month (I should probably say I gave myself a hard couple of weeks at the end of the month) and ended up in a bad place both mentally and physically. The specifics don't really matter, what matters was I had a melt down ultimately because I saw plan failure as personal failure,  put a daily equity curve on each post and graded my trades incorrectly. 

1. The fact is plan failure is not personal failure as one must follow a plan to see if it works, this is success (even if the result is unsatisfactory) because one has successfully tested it and can either make amendments to it or write it off and create a new one.
2. Looking at my equity curve at the end of each day has been a very sobering but ultimately good thing because it has given me far greater insight as to where problems are developing, for example my short summary above. But because...
3. I was grading my trades incorrectly I took the failure personally rather than placing the blame on the plan (where it belonged). This month I graded trades on 1 prep,2 patience and 3 discipline all of which are about personal performance. Fact is there are only 2 things to grade in a trade. 1 the plan that created it and 2. the execution of the plan. Sure I still made some personal mistakes but the fact is a lot of the losses and over-trading were attributable to the plan rather than my efforts and where the blame should have been placed.

The S&R Method definitely created over-trading and I found this quote by Brooks that I thought might be quite useful.

"when you're about to take any trade, always ask yourself  if the set-up is one of the best of the day. is this the one that institutions have been waiting for all day? if the answer is no and you are not a consistently profitable trader, then you should not take the trade either. if you have 2 consecutive losers within 15 mins or so,  ask yourself if those were trades that the institutions have been waiting hours to take. if the answer is no , you are over-trading,  and you need to become more patient."