So far 2011 has been off to a very slow start, at least on the 4 Hour chart. There's been a lot of ranging, a lot of false breakouts, and a lot of world events that are lending a helping hand to the indecision in the markets. The good thing is that while February was another losing month, the loss was another small loss, this time of (-334) pips.
Many ask how I can continue to trade during times of loss. The answer is, if you're going to be a trader, you have to learn how to cope with losses. Losses in trading are a cost of doing business. The inability to cope with loss in trading is a serious psychological flaw. It's when the losing trader gives up on a profitable system and goes in search of the "Holy Grail". And this usually happens right before the trades that offset the losses and provide the new profits begin.
All trading systems have losses... the most important thing is that the system profits over time. And as you can see from the graph above, I'm well into profit since I started trading FPM live in 2007, and the current "drawdown" of just a few hundred pips can't really even be seen. Why would I give up on it now? This ranging can't go on forever... and the longer it does, the larger the breakouts and the longer the trends will be once they begin!
As of the writing of this post I have a few trades open and in profit, including one on the EUR/USD that has been open since mid February and is currently over 350 pips in profit. This means that even though the cash value of my account is in a drawdown, my equity is actually at a new high.
Here are the totals for February across the 8 currency pairs I trade on the 4 Hour chart:
29 total trades
9 wins: 847 pips
20 losses: 1,181 pips
Total: (-334) pips
Win rate: 31%
Avg win: 94 pips
Avg loss: 59 pips
Avg R/R: 1.59 to 1
Here are the results by currency pair:
GBP/JPY 2 W, 0 L +274
USD/CHF 2 W, 0 L +224
USD/JPY 2 W, 1 L +174
AUD/USD 2 W, 3 L (-69)
GBP/USD 1 W, 3 L (-153)
USD/CAD 0 W, 4 L (-184)
EUR/JPY 0 W, 5 L (-289)
EUR/USD 0 W, 4 L (-311)
Here are the results so far for 2011:
January (-35)
February (-334)
Total: (-369) or an average of (-184) pips per month.
Here's to great trading, and may the pips flow into your account!
Jim
www.forexprofitmonster.com
http://myworld.ebay.com/jimsgr8stuff4less/
