Dec 16, 2009

Ups and Downs of a Forex Swing Trader

Hi All,

Just had a roller coaster experience of my trades over the past 2 days and I survived to tell my story! Well, I'm generally a swing trader, which means that I attempt to identify the prevalent longer term trends and then enter trades in the direction of those trends.

About two days ago, I placed a couple two trades shorting the AUD/NZD and going long on the GBP/JPY (with stop losses in place). And as 'luck' would have it, both pairs almost immediately went against me by roughly 40+ pips (AUD/NZD) and 100+ pips (GBP/JPY).

Now I know that all the experts say that you should throw your emotions out of the window when you trade, but I can certainly tell you not many people can be sitting on top of 100+ pips of losses and feel "totally fine" with it. But I stuck on to my view and trading strategy for the past 2 days and finally see them turn into profit!



Click on picture to ENLARGE the image.

As swing traders, you sometimes have to endure days of being in the RED but if you have the correct strategy and the patience (which sometimes mean staying away from your PC!), you will be rewarded for your effort. I'm currently up 409.1 pips. :)

With regards to my emotions, oh well, I guess I still have work to do but it does look like I'm human after all!

Happy Trading,
Leo

8 comments:

Mike K. said...

Nothing wrong with 100 pips drawdown or any other value, as long as it is within bounderies set for the trade before it was initiated. Problem could be if you don't anticipate say more than 30 pips against you, but during course of the trade keep changing your mind in "hopes" it will reverse. This ruins trading plan and discipline. Good results.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha Well done Leo!

Yea, can't believe it when I 1st started this road. How can a mere trade mess w my heart this way!!?!? Amazing!!??

Like I come upon this sentance in chinese.. doing business need certain kind of impulse, is like the impulse when you are in love. How appropriate!!

Keep that emotion down though hahaha...

Leo Ong said...

Mike: Yeah nothing wrong with 100 pips drawdown. Didn't change my mind halfway during the trade but it certainly will be nice for trades to immediately move in your favor after entry. But then again, I have missed profits in the past when the trade immediately moves 50 pips in my favor and I then move stop loss to break even. The price will then hit my break even and then head big time into my original direction.

TopSpot: Yup...we need to master our emotions. Trading is a never ending learning journey.

Thanks for the comments guys!

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jatt said...

I just can't be one of the swing traders..scary huh...
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