Market wasn't good for my trading method, yesterday was better but I barely had setups, I had one good and all others were mediocre, and it shows. I have my live account with Patak already but yet to make any trades in it, as I can't see good opportunities.

My trade log


I was giving much thought about how to better keep my trading journal, made an attempt to add setup screen shots into a spreadsheet but it's not convenient and useless when printed as it is not possible to see anything. So I will resume keeping my trading journal here in blog format. I will make an effort to comment on every trade with accompanying screenshot.


The only real good trade day before yesterday, good level proximity (magnetism) and quick buildup with lots of pressure on DOM. There was another potentially good trade when pushed HOD, but I bailed too quickly and then made an attempt to jump in again, only to lose twice. This is an important lesson to learn - you can enter the same river only once! I was stalking a good setup for the whole afternoon but it never came to play. Only after market reopened late into O/N session it did play for 100 ticks. It happens.


Trades overview from yesterday. Again, just one good trade, and multiple of break evens and few fails.


First trade went my way but reversed very quickly. The entry pattern was there but no strong level or favorable volume profile shape, I just relied on downward direction. I got hit by trailing 6 ticks stop , had I have manual trailing with my concept of moving stop after retests/moves, I would be likely safe. I reverted to manual trailing after that.
Second trade went very well, I did not anticipate such a big move so had my default target, it could yield much more that 12 ticks. There we had a combination of LVN, VWAP and previous swing high with s tiny consolidation and considerable pressure on DOM.


Here it was a decent attempt, no strong levels but very nice consolidation, it was just that market has died after triggering my entry. I moved to BE+1 but it slipped me back to BE.


I have missed this excellent setup by mere sub-second, I was waiting for a formation of mini-range with a mouse hovering over the price note and hit it only as price raced up so my entry was invalid. But there was no strong premise to enter earlier as formation only built up as it moved. 


Here I was worried about next mini swing high in just 5 ticks from my entry and was right about it. Closed trade manually as it made few ticks into black and reversed quickly. In hindsight it gave a chance to close at BE later but that would be a pure gamble. Right call to close. Should not enter it at all.


This setup was ok, no strong level but there were good signs of reversal and it could make a good trade. Unfortunately market became very sketchy by this time so I had to do some damage limitation once it turned to be a fake out.

Overall conclusion - strategy is good, risk and targets are good, it just I have to be much more selective in this holiday market. No big damage this week, but I am not in a business of bleeding accounts slowly either. Will focus on taking only the best trades.

Some more trading live today on my personal real account.

Some more trading live today on my personal real account.

Another attempt to jump on the bandwagon (low volume market again!), now placed entry not below the sell level but right on it to minimize the slippage, still got slipped 6 ticks on 8 ticks pop. Not good. And there was no real strong selling pressure. Have to blame illiquid market.

Now, I do find more and more attractive to just trade around those levels before the pop and after the pop, instead of during the pop. I lost 5 ticks on the pop trade, stop was 2 but got slipped 3 ticks on exit  but I faded the level on retest, too bad I tried it on somewhat 3rd retest, price moved my way like 5 ticks and BE was put but went back, stopped at BE and slipped 1 tick, so another -1. Price moved above with some buying pressure, so I faded the move down to the level again and netted 15 ticks. During this move my internet went off, so it was a moment of tension. Still on mobile tethering access. But this seems to be a nicer way to trade my levels. Here Jigsaw tools come to real life, as market trades much slower outside of events, and ladder number are a big help actually, so are real traded contract numbers and added/removed limits.

Few live VSA trades today

Entered on a weakness of up bars and high churn, while in a strong down trend aiming for a continuation. Aimed 21 pips, got almost there but was stopped out by a trailing stop at +16. Stop was around 9-10 pips risk.

Another one: first attempt failed, stopped out for 13 pips on a single position, of course I used authomated trade management and did not accommodate for this specific trade, I have learnt the lesson though, and increased default stop level while will be adjusting for a smaller individual TP after the entry.

However, then I re-entered with one and then second lot and closed out in an overall profit counting in first losing trade. The moment I closed it run twice that. I cut my profits too short. Need to learn to let them run, however it is also wise to cover initial loss if possible. So I guess it is a success after all.

OrderFlow scalping: mixed bag of trades today

Today I had two trading sessions: first I did with Nick in the room, but taking trades myself, although there were in most time similar to Nick's so I assume he's influencing me, wasn't good day, difficult PA, undecided, maybe due to two expiring options on EU, and FOMC later in the day. 

Then Sander took over and since he trades much less I did trade on my own and results were better, despite tight-range PA continued. I need to practice solitary trading I believe, but room at RockShore is great.

I took 13 trades, 70% winning, max drawdown 0.5%, best trade 1.06%, gross profit 3.6%, gross loss 1.25%,  total net profit 2.35% (23.5 pips).

OrderFlow-assisted scalping

Had a decent scalping session today: took three long trades on EU towards expiring option at 1.3725, market was around 1.3680. Made +10, +20, +13 pips. Then engaged into scalping, bit of mess, lots of small winners and losers, my mistake was I started doing it too late, around mid-way through US session, and the best time is start of London. In any case did around 30 trades during the day, net result +70 pips.

Some trading rules to follow:

To do:
1. Wait for a decent trend to establish on M1, don't trade ranging market on M1.
2. Identify support or resustance on a pull back, or breakout-pull back (the best)
3. Use Order Flow and OrderBook sentiment bar to identify sentiment and pressure
4. Wait for a signal from MFSI and confirmation from PA with a price moving same way, on a decent volume at least through the half of a first M1 candle and enter
5. Decent pressure on OBFX viewer bar is a big bonus
6. Start trading option/stops run around 2-2.5 hours before expiration on counter-trend breakout/pull-back

Not to do:
1. Don't trade after 4 PM CET
2. Don't trade ranging market and indecision
3. Don't trade against immediate trend and H1 trend if present
4. Don't trade against an expiring option or noted stops cluster

OrderFlow trading: Option Assault

I was given an opportunity today to test DarkStar's method for a second time, the first attempt was last week. And again it played out by the book:

1. This morning information about a resting put option with a strike 1.3600 was leaked on TalkingForex.

2. EurUsd was in an intra-day down-trend, which quickly reversed, just as DarkStar noted.

3. A short up-trend was used to achieve a better price to accumulate offers being sold to break out buyers, to shake out short weak hands and to invite bottom callers to long, in order to hit them with a big sell-off forcing their stop orders into liquidation.

4. With a break out from a short-lived up-trend the down trend resumes, occasionally producing long up candles, scaring weak hands again and use propelled price to add to shorts at a better price.

5. As time is closing to the cut at 10AM NY, the price is breaking under 10-pip zone of 1.36. My first target is hit at 1.3615 and 1/3 position closed.

6. A fierce battle commences for about 15 minutes storming the 1.36 barrier. The option underwriter fiercly defends the strike price in order to avoid a pay-off and retain a premium. An option buyer fights to avoid paying a premium and to capitalize on whatever profit may be (a number of pips a price will be below 1.36 at a cutouff time).

7. An option buyer and stop raiders won again as price closed at around 1.3598, creating a small profit for  an option owner forfeiting a premium. But the battle is not over yet as now there are less defenders left to protect 1.3600 since the option underwriter doesn't care any more. Only people who care are stop raiders and people who have stops below 1.3600.

8. Half an hour later raiders managed to push price below 1.3595 and force a stop liquidation, visible on a strong down bar. However there was no cascading stop liquidation what would be visible as charts failed to produce consecutive large down candles. Therefore there was no more selling interest and it was a time to close positions.

9. I had an entry split in 3 parts and also had 3 take profits, all 3 were hit as limit orders.

10. The best part is this highly profitable fun happens several times a week in FX for every major, every week :)

Result of the trade: 130 pips collected within 3 hours. Stop was 50 pips as emergency, I would be closing positions if retraced over 20 pips. OrderFlow principles and OrderBook data feed was used to select entry points precisely and also monitor for the potential bail-out.

Order Flow scalp

I have started to study some order flow trading, I got a trial of OrderBookFX software, and here is an attempt to scalp M1 market with an entry confirmed by the order book imbalance: at the moment of entry order book was heavily skewed towards offers and indicated strong selling pressure. Setup itself is a range top with stochastics cross and exit from overbought area but exact entry was based on chart pattern and volume indicating struggle to move higher with small candles produced on high volume (churn). This type of consolidate can be before reversal or breakout, but when I saw the heat building up in the order book with lots of offers above the area, I went short and price followed in a couple of minutes. I took only 14 pips but about 50 was available, the sell-off was pretty big and order book imbalance big too. Stop was only 5 pips. P/L 2.8:1

Another one: this went around 12 pips against me, but I consciously entered against a trend as I saw a point of exhaustion and anticipated a bigger run for stops above swing highs and potentially up to 1.3700 before down trend will resume. I went with a half normal lot (0.25% risk) and was tolerating up to 18 pips floating loss. It went then up to 16 pips in profit, but then I saw bears starting to take control over order flow, pressing lower and a climax low candle down on a big volume where I bailed out for 9.3 pips (on half lot, so 4.65 pips normal lot equivalent).