29th March 2013 - win on silver, update on trading journal

Silver

A ripe pinbar presented itself at a resistance level yesterday. Just now, I closed for profit after trying to actively manage this trade.

In the last few hours, bearish momentum became very strong. As price moved within a few pips of my original take-profit target, I decided to move my TP further and place my stop-loss about 20 pips behind the price. This cemented around 70% of profits gained already. In exchange for risking the remaining 30%, I hoped price would move beyond my original TP and break support, potentially doubling my reward.

Alas, price retraced and took out my stop-loss.

As I actively managed this order, I could feel my emotions (mainly excitement) rising to the surface. Emotion is the bane of all traders.

This trade yielded a return of 66%. I need to increase my average return to 100% (1:1 R:R). Although all my trades are high probability, the general guideline is a minimum R:R of 1:1.

Trading Journal

I've also updated my trading journal. It now documents every order I execute, rather than every "trade". The term "trade" can be confusing. Suppose I enter two orders shorting the USDCAD simultaneously, with one order having a 1:1 R:R and the other 1:2 R:R. Should both orders be considered a single trade since I'm basing both orders on the same market setup? Or should both orders be considered separate trades?

Instead of focusing on each "trade" and confusing myself and other readers, my trading journal now catalogues every order executed. That way there is no more confusion.