CoachFX Trades

[coachfx]

For some time now I wanted to document the trades I take and I thought this would be a great place to do it and show how I use the PA protocol method of trading. I try to keep trading as simple as possible so I only trade the daily charts and I place a lot of emphasis on candle close. A strong close on a large signal to me signifies momentum and that is where money can be made. I try my best to really think about stop placement at logical levels that give the best risk to reward potential. I found out last year when going back through my trades, that taking market orders at candle open often gives me somewhat of a retracement entry and allows me to get into trades that are breaking out. Too many times I have missed the train waiting for a 50% retracement only for price to shoot off in the direction I had analyzed and thought it would have! I keep money management pretty simple. I use price action to determine when to get in a trade so I use price action to determine when to get out of a trade. I don't sit and wait for a random risk to reward ratio level to hit. I never close out trades early and use candle close to determine if I should exit. I have found that you do give up some profits using this method but more often than not...you are rewarded for letting price action show you the way.

 

[coachfx]

So here is the last trade I took. It was the Aud/Jpy pair. The candle closed strongly and price was now below a support level I had marked off. A nice 1:2 R result.

(apologies if I didn't insert the chart correctly)

 

[ryan]

thanks for sharing...............and keep posting..

 

[coachfx]

Cheers Ryan. Nothing has caught my eye in the markets yet so I finally got around to charting up a recent trade. The USD/CAD was in a killer uptrend recently and after reviewing the market summary a couple of times it had was on my radar. This is definitely a trade I would have missed out on last year after stubbornly waiting for only 50% retracement entries. I managed to get that market open entry (plus a few pips due to spread) 1:4 R result (just a bit more than that actually).


One of the big things for 2015 for my personal trading is going to be about letting trades breathe. It took me a long time to accept that where I placed a stop loss level becomes that line in the sand where the trade idea is invalid. In this trade, the stop was below a support level I had marked off and should price make it's way back down there after triggering me into the trade then there would be a high probability of moving below that rejection bar. Once price moved into profit, it was a case of letting the trade breath and just seeing how each candle closed. Once the bearish outside bar closed then it was time to take profit.

 

[coachfx]

An alert just went off giving me an opportunity to post up the only live trade I'm in at the moment. WTI Crude oil has been in a nice downtrend for some time. A large entry signal presented itself with a strong close. This is a good example of getting that 50% retracement for logical reasons rather than hoping and waiting. I wanted the stop loss to be at the entry signal high. I don't trade crude oil very often so I've decided to use the split money management method here. Now price has hit 1:1R I'm taking off 50% of my position off the table and will let this trade breath. Let's see how the price action unfolds but it feels good to be in a risk free position.

 

[yash]

My 2 cents about EUR/USD

 

[erebus]

None of the above, well maybe the first down arrow, but nice Inside Day today, downside breakout probably

 

[coachfx]

My 2 cents about EUR/USD

Hi, Yash. Thanks for sharing your chart. I'm not quite sure how you plan on entering the Eur/Usd. To me, it looks like a break of the lows of the inside bar today would be the way to go. For me personally I prefer signals to be rejecting the 20EMA zone. Please let me know if you take a trade and how it pans out. Cheers.

 

[coachfx]

No entries for me to start this week off so I thought I'd check up on last week's trades. Crude Oil reversed higher and took my stop level out so that was a breakeven result and then to end last week I closed out the AUD/USD short trade that I believe was chart of the day. The entry signal was large with a strong close so that was enough for me to take a market entry the next day to ride it down with a tightened stop to just above the previous day high... 1:1R was the final result so a great way to end the week.

 

[ryan]

thanks coachfx .......keep posting.....learning experience for me...

 

[TheForexGuy]

Good information here, and motivational for other traders Coach. Thanks for sharing your trades with us!

 

[coachfx]

A very slow period in the market at the moment. It's at times like these that in the past I've chased/forced trades on lower (than daily) timeframes. More often than not, my checklist for taking a trade has saved me from a bad entry!

Look at price action:
1. Market Trend?
2. Daily price level?
3. Valid Entry signal?
4. Strong close to entry signal?

If I can't answer those four questions in about 30s of seeing the chart for any given pair then I know I'd be forcing the trade. Patience is the key. Price seems to be winding up on a lot of pairs at the moment. A

 

[tjenarvi]

Hi coachfx,

How long have you been trade with those checklist?
How has it been worked? Profitable? Nice? You have trading journal?


Best

 

[coachfx]

Hi tjenarvi,

The checklist is just a few takeaways from the price action protocol. I just place a lot of emphasis on candle close as a guide to signal entry and exits based on price action. I've been trading for a long time now but I would say this particular checklist I've used for about 2 years now. It's definitely helped my trading. I trade full time profitably and I do keep a basic trading journal. It takes a long time to figure out that you just need to keep things simple.

 

[coachfx]

A nice end to the week for me. The only setup I took closed out at the daily close yesterday when I saw some lower rejection along with the fact that we have a three day weekend here in the US so I'd prefer to be flat.


Momentum was to the downside for the AUD-NZD pair. An inside bar formed with a bearish body and rejecting a daily support level I had marked off. The housing candle was up at the 20EMA so my take on it was the price was going to be heading down from a value area. Entry at market open allowed for a retracement entry and then as I didn't want to hold a position into the holiday weekend I decided to go flat at daily close yesterday.

Nothing else caught my attention this week so hopefully the markets pick up next week.

 

[erebus]

Thanks for your journal posts, great charts & trading.

Which broker gave the last Inside Day shown?

I didn't get it on AxiTrader Australia as the low breaks the previous day, other candles all seem to be the same

Please see my zoomed in chart

PS: I think you should of held the trade

 

[coachfx]

Interesting difference in broker feeds. Mine comes from FXCM here in the US. I don't really hold onto trades over holiday weekends... I've been burned too many times watching profits evaporate after a long weekend gap up/down. There's always another trade around the corner.

 

[coachfx]

A holiday here in the US but the markets keep on churning. And we're off to a great start this week. The Eur/Jpy pair had reached an interesting weekly level at the end of last week and threw up an inside bar with a bearish body at the end of the week.




Now for me, a lot of factors lined up before deciding to pull the trigger on this short trade. The market price action opened just below the weekly level I had marked off for some time. The body of the inside bar had closed bearish and the market had not gapped significantly at the weekly open for me to dismiss the entry signal. So with these price action factors in consideration I entered short at market open (stop at the signal high) and hopefully we get a move down lower this week. As there was a small gap at market open and lower wick to the inside bar I opted to use the split money management method with this trade and having just checked the daily close I see that price has already hit 1:1R so this is a risk free trade. Let's see what happens.

 

[coachfx]

Stopped out for a break even result on the Eur-Jpy. Onto the next trade.

 

[coachfx]

Last week ended with a nice 1:1R result taken from the Eur/Aud pair. I decided to use an aggressive stop just over the previous candle high and with a strong entry signal I was hoping for a greater push lower but decided to close out the trade at the daily close seeing that lower rejection on Friday. All in all...a good week.



Quite a few pairs setting up for this week...lets hope they pan out.