Entry - Checklist

Well my first profitable week, so hurrah. I felt much more equipped, knowledge wise this week and enjoyed the benefits. Now, no need to get carried away with one profirable week, but encouragement non the less. Indeed if it hadnt been for a really big mistake on Thursday (that I am still kicking myself for) I would have been in profit overall (for the past 6 weeks !).

Thursday saw me perfrom an uttelry brainless move. In a rush and wanting to jump on an opportunity I entered a trade, in doing so, I managed to actually buy the same order twice, dramatically increasing my risk and exposing far more of my precious money than I should. The position then began to go against me and angry (emotional) at my mistake I increased my stop loss to protect my money...I did this twice and ended up losing....and in doing so lost 8 times my normal risk....nice one !!!!

Later on Friday I took a loss which I was proud of however as I was strong in cutting the loss and moving on. I need this discipline more...its so hard....half way through a day you are up and on target, something goes against you, it so tempting to extend a stop and protect your gains, of course in reality you are risking more !! So bad me. Slaps wrist. Be strong. Take the loss, move on make more good moves.

To that end I have been looking at improving my entry strategies. Something I have improved in greatly but something I need to improve on much more. It is very important to remove emotion, revenge against a loss or desperation to turn a bad day around. Revenge and desperation are no friends of profit (unless you employ a swear jar !!)

So here is my Market Entry checklist

• Having no position in the market is better than taking any position (which will almost always become a bad position) !
• Produce a weekly assessment of the market, so you know at least in your own head you are expecting and which pairs you intend to play / news events you need to wathc
• Before Placing any Position
1. Check for forthcoming news that may cause a significant reaction
2. Look at the weekly chart, get a feeling for the trend over the last 2-3 days
3. Look for highs/lows being tested putting a buy order in at the top of resistance position is somehting you should be at least aware you are doing
4. Look at the 4hour and 2hour charts to check for current trend (perhaps against the daily)
5. Use the 10, 5 and 1 minute to pick your entry, dont jump on the top of a rapidly growing or falling bar unless you are sitting there ready to bail out real quick if it does the inevitable reversal
6. Trade what you see not what you imagine, if you are trading a reversal position, at least watch for confirmation before entering or be finger on the trigger should it play against you
7. If you dont know your target, if you havent agreed with yourself the HARD stop you will take a loss at DONT TRADE

So, that is my checklist, seems long, but most of it is something you absorb during a trading session. I am using pivot points and drawing my own resistance/support lines to assist me a little in being wary of buying peaks or catchting falling knives.

Every day you survive in Foreign Exchange is a day you learn and when played with discipline a day you EARN !!

Till next time pip, pip