1 cent per pip day

10.01.09

I traded well for a period of time and then I started making adjustments and figuring stuff out about Oanda's platform that I didn't know about.

When I was deliberately making trades today I either ended BE or slightly up.

Market orders are back! When I first started trading forex some years ago I totally f'ed up my trading psychology early on by losing big and bad. I placed a market order that when against me immediately and I started adding to a loser instead of cutting my loss quickly. Had I cut my loss quickly it would have been a large loss...... instead my actions turned a large loss into a gigantic one from my perspective. It was money that I couldn't afford to lose either. The entire situation didn't deter me from trading but it did a number on my mindset.

Additionally the broker I was using at the time didn't give me the option to automatically enter a stop loss w/ a market order. Therefore I either had to enter the market with no stop loss protection until I could quickly enter one - or - I could use a limit order that allowed me to pre-set my stop loss.

The problem with a limit order only approach is that often the market is moving too swiftly and doesn't leave the few seconds needed to enter a limit order. - BUT - The problem with the market order approach is that with no stop loss, in swift markets, price can turn on you in an instant leaving you no time to enter a stop. By the time you enter a stop the market has already burned you for double, triple or even more compared to a normal loss size.

I chose awhile back to only place limit orders because they offer the most safety in my opinion. I've been a limit order freak. I switched brokers a couple months ago and didn't really think about changing my entry style. However, my recent lackluster performance has really been irritating me and that lead me to look into market orders again.

Market Orders are back! I'll still use Limit Orders when they're called for but I'm excited that I can stop having to worry about entering my limit orders so damn fast. Oanda offers the ability to place a near instantaneous stop loss on Market Orders.

I've made some more tweaks here and there but nothing worth noting yet. I'll be trading 1 cent per pip again tomorrow but I should have some charts to post as well.