Castlemain
Casual Member
Dear all,
I expect that this is something that many of you have had to wrestle with in your journeys as traders. I have found the process of making decisions exceedingly tricky, mainly because of my tendency to take an entirely different perspective of a chart from one minute to the next.
In order to streamline the decision-making process, I have created a spreadsheet with formulas that govern the rules I have set myself. For instance:
- If the size of the candle is small (such as an inside candle) on a 4-hour chart, the spreadsheet will only allow me to take a breakout trade.
- If the trade is counter-trend, it will only allow me to take it off a weekly level.
- It will direct me to enter a portion of the trade at the current market price if the signal is glaringly obvious and is supported by a weekly level.
Here's a screen grab for this month:
Most of the trades listed here are those seen in hind-sight, i.e. successful trades with valid signals that I missed, or hesitated to place. You can see the trades that I took this month in column W, marked 'Yes'. The successful ones I saw in hindsight are marked 'No'. 2 trades closed profitably, and 3 trades currently open. I expect that next week, at least one of my currently open trades will stop out, and will be marked as such. Profit/Loss is measured simply in risk to reward.
A significant benefit that I hope to gain from this system is validation. At the moment, I am being ultra-cautious, but I hope that this record of successful setups will give me the confidence to place more trades and feel a little less risk-averse.
I am also learning much from this record. Notice how the majority of the setups recorded hit a 50% retracement... most informative.
I have attached the spreadsheet. It also includes formulas that help me calculate my lot sizes.
I would be very interested to hear of any systems you might have in place for making decisions and following rules.
Happy trading!
I expect that this is something that many of you have had to wrestle with in your journeys as traders. I have found the process of making decisions exceedingly tricky, mainly because of my tendency to take an entirely different perspective of a chart from one minute to the next.
In order to streamline the decision-making process, I have created a spreadsheet with formulas that govern the rules I have set myself. For instance:
- If the size of the candle is small (such as an inside candle) on a 4-hour chart, the spreadsheet will only allow me to take a breakout trade.
- If the trade is counter-trend, it will only allow me to take it off a weekly level.
- It will direct me to enter a portion of the trade at the current market price if the signal is glaringly obvious and is supported by a weekly level.
Here's a screen grab for this month:
Most of the trades listed here are those seen in hind-sight, i.e. successful trades with valid signals that I missed, or hesitated to place. You can see the trades that I took this month in column W, marked 'Yes'. The successful ones I saw in hindsight are marked 'No'. 2 trades closed profitably, and 3 trades currently open. I expect that next week, at least one of my currently open trades will stop out, and will be marked as such. Profit/Loss is measured simply in risk to reward.
A significant benefit that I hope to gain from this system is validation. At the moment, I am being ultra-cautious, but I hope that this record of successful setups will give me the confidence to place more trades and feel a little less risk-averse.
I am also learning much from this record. Notice how the majority of the setups recorded hit a 50% retracement... most informative.
I have attached the spreadsheet. It also includes formulas that help me calculate my lot sizes.
I would be very interested to hear of any systems you might have in place for making decisions and following rules.
Happy trading!