First, I didn’t trade yesterday because I had slept poorly the night before, and I was not in a good place emotionally.  And, judging from reports on twitter, it looks like that was a good thing for my trading account.

I approached this morning cautiously.  There were mostly good moves overnight – 8 of the 10 pairs were in steady moves as I did my trade planning a little before 7:00 PM.  But I have learned that those clear moves during the London session often dissolve into sideways chop in the few hours before the NY open. Nevertheless, I did cautiously enter some trades, and soon had 4 trades open, all of them looking good. I ended up taking the USDJPY trade off for +2.2 because I judged it a weak trade being between two pairs that were both weak, and I needed the margin space. I had 2 pendings rejected for margin shortfall, so I decided that was the trade I could sacrifice.  In the half-hour or so I held it, it was up and down, so when it got up again, I took it off.  Turned out to be a big mistake as it ran for 31 pips from where I exited., but #weneverknow.

I added a trade in #USDCAD, and now had 4 trades that were up around +20, give or take. But AUDUSD and USDCAD stopped out, and I ended up down <16>.  I moved the GBPJPY stop to BE when it went through the ’50 level, and it eventually pulled back and took me out for BE. I entered EURUSD shortly before NY open when it broke the low of the overnight range.  I nursed that trade and my remaining AUDJPY, eventually getting out of them on tight protective stops for a combined +32, so I was up about 15.

It was still early in the session (about 8:50 CDT), so I decided to trade very cautiously – meaning one or two trades at a time – and see if I could add to my gains. I took a fresh pullback trade on EURUSD, and continuation trade on the USDCAD at the ’20.  The EURUSD was up several pips, but then pulled back and stopped out, but I was able to capture almost 20 on the second USDCAD, so I ended up +27.4.  I was hoping for something in the mid 30’s, but I decided I would quit while I was ahead and take it.

My target for the month is +250 pips (which will be about double my best month ever). I’m figuring that translates into about +75 pips a week (except that I’m going on vacation for a week, so I may not make it).  But I’m altering my attitude somewhat and I intend to avoid over-reaching, and protect the gains when I get them.  This after turning a +64 pip gain into a <3> pip loss last week by trying to extend it when I was already well beyond my norm.

More tomorrrow.