My Adventures in forex trading 07-22-2008

I now officially have a live trading account with FXCM. And I guess I should confess, although I’ve said I won’t start trading until the 28th, I did give in to temptation and take a test trade this morning. So that’s one mark against me for not having the discipline to wait. My test trade resulted in 11.98 gained; but it was followed by another trade which resulted in losing $4.40. That was followed by another trade which also resulted in losing $4.40; and that was followed by another trade which resulted in losing $1.67. So my $11.98 is now down to $1.10; but I don’t feel too badly about it. I still have the full amount of my deposit; and the losses would have been profits had I not closed them to prevent them from getting any bigger. So  that in itself is a good sign that I had the courage to take the loss. I was thinking about the funds in my account and didn’t want to risk more than the $11.98.

The courage to close a position on a loss is going to be very important. I watched my demo account  drop to under $1000 because I kept holding out hoping for things to turn around.

One thing I definitely will need to work on is my discipline, especially when it comes to waiting for the right time to open a position. The 3 losing positions I opened today were done so knowing fully well I was not entering at a favorable point. I need to absolutely 100% avoid taking chances I know are unwise in the hope that things might work on favorably anyway. Hope has no place in this business. Fear also has no place in this business, but there’s no excuse for being reckless and making impulsive, careless decisions.