07/02 Performance Review & Improvements

Following the suggestion so briliantly put by Brett Steenbarger on his blog, I decided to do a performance review of all my day trading activities in the FOREX market. I know there is room for improvement and this review is mostly to find where to improve. I am going to look over my trades day by day, scanning for what I can do to improve my performance.

This may very well be a great excercise for the end of the week, but since it is my first time, it may take longer, but should run smoother if I do it weekly.

After preforming the review, I noticed improvements in the trades and set-ups I'm looking for, torwards the end of this 2-weeks period I am already using trend-lines, candle patterns and Fibonacci to determine my entries, price targets and stops.

I believe there is improvement to be made on my exit strategy. This is an age old debate for me, since I started trading FOREX. Some say it makes sense to take 3 to 4 pips, others (myself included) preffer to use a price target. I have the price targets in place, and I will maintain that, what I think needs improvement is consistency in managing the stops. Once the price goes my way, I can adjust the stop and therefore protect my capital. This will be my one single goal to improve upon next week.

I took a total of 40 trades, 24 wins, 16 losses. My win-average is 60%. On this ratio, a 1:1 risk:reward set-up will bring me a profitable week. This ratio can be improved if I manage my stops once the trade moves my way.

07/02 Day Trading FOREX: 2 trades, 2 wins (1-2-3 + confirmations)
07/01 Day Trading Forex: 2 trades, 2 losses (didn't move stops)
06/30 Day Trading FOREX: 2 trades, 2 wins (moved stop)
06/29 Day Trading FOREX: 3 trades, 1 win, 2 losses (didn't move stops)
06/26 Day Trading FOREX: 1 trade, 1 win (traded to limit)
06/25 Day Trading - Forex: 1 trade, 1 win (traded to the limit)
06/24 Intra-day trades: 2 trades, 1 win, 1 loss (managed stops, traded to limit)
06/23 Intra-day trades: 6 trades, 2 wins, 4 losses (exit too soon on wins, didn't ajust stop on losses)
06/22 Intra-day trades: 2 trades, 2 wins (more organized, 1 trade 1/2 way to target)
06/19 Bearish Engulfing bonanza: 2 trades, 1 win, 1 losses (no limit, missed a bunch of set-ups)
06/18 The "Dark cloud day": 11 trades, 6 wins, 5 losses (some chasing, fixed stops, no limit)
06/17 FOREX Trades: 6 trades, 5 wins, 1 loss (no limit, fixed stops)