Trade Week in Review: 1 April to 7 April 2013

I received a bit of feedback asking for a return of my trade reviews, so here it is. Hopefully it'll spark some ideas for yourself, and feel free to chip in your opinion if you see something interesting.

 

I opened three trades this week, all finishing in profit. However, there's one trade that spooked me psychologically, prematurely taking profit.

GBPUSD

This is the trade that I prematurely closed. A low volatility candle appeared on the 29th March, and my system Hermes told me to go long if the candle's top breaks during the next day. Which it did. However, price retreated just a few pips short of my profit-taking level and I closed the trade when price retraced to breakeven, resulting in a very minor profit.

 

Price resumed moving upwards the next day and hit my original profit target, so this trade should've won. They say successful trading is 10% technical, 90% psychological.

NZDUSD

A low volatility candle appeared on the NZDUSD's weekly chart. I personally love weekly charts. While the frequency of signals are much lower than the daily chart, their reliability is significantly higher.

 

Anyway, this was an easy win. I used my Daikoku weekly low volatility system. I went long on the break of last week's high and hit my take-profit during the same day.

USDCAD

This was a similar trade to the GBPUSD. A low volatility candle appeared on the USDCAD's daily chart after 1st April. Went short on the break of the low and snagged a win using the Hermes system.

 

As you can see, I like to look for significant decreases in volatility. That tells me the big money is staying out or quietly accumulating positions in anticipation of a big move. This is a good time to place pending orders in case of a breakout.