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Just an observation. I note on your report a daily loss limit of 3K and a MAX drawdown of 4.5K. Therefore, you held onto the trade 1.5K below your daily loss limit of 3K confident that your trade would win.
With a 150K account, that 1.5K under your 3K max drawdown is exactly 1% additional risk to the trade.
Frustration today. No, the market is actually alright but I act like a scared chicken. I think I fell victim of statistics and record observation. I just don't want to get a losing day and I lose in unrealized gains. I did find two excellent trading locations and both entries were perfect. First I cut after a pull back from 30 to 9 ticks. Candle closed and I decided to re-enter on a break of the low, sure this trade did not work at all. It went back up something like 17 ticks nearly stopping me out and then I closed at -9 breaking even for the day, less 50 in commissions. Eventually this trade went 50 ticks in profit before making another leg up. Another trade was on a similar stop run setup but went 100 ticks in profit very fast. Sure it did pull back as well and I closed it at just +2. I let go 150 ticks of profit today to save just 10. This is criminal. So I think it worth to apply less proactive trade management even if it means few more stop outs, profits should cover and much more. Trail stop works bad in T4, it moves when it wants, if I move it manually to reduce risk it can move back on its own disregarding my action. No way to stop it just cancel OCO at all, and set up a manual OCO. I decided to revert back to original 10 ticks stop with fixed SL, trailing manual only after candle close above high on short and below low on longs, break even after entry candle closes.
Currently +25 net on the day, ridiculous I know. And stats screwed again. Need let winners run.
Looks like my trading evolves slowly to trading the order flow (not scalping the Dom even if it looks like) from the stop hunt point of view. Which is a good thing, I spent a lot of time in Forex trying to master it but it works so much better in Gold (and Crude AFAIK). The type 1 setups I counted on when developing my ambitions targets vanished, sometimes popping before 1-2 AM only on very thin and illiquid market. Hopefully they will be back but there is a plentry of order flow setups to be traded. My fault is treating these more slower trades like type 1 super fast trades. There is just not enough time for them to develop. I need to allow stop run trades to work. But if I get a trade with momentum/long candle setup I will use trail stop and look to protect trade asap. They either work fast or dont.
PS I think I drive too much conclusions from just one break even day. Still +50 past commissions, so probably better keep that way and not think about stats. Tomorrow is another day and I will see what is the best way to trade. But surely I will not:
1. Use 20 ticks stop, unless very very volatile and large spread and huge 100 tick candles like we saw a week ago (unlikely)
2. Use trail stop - unreliable, slow, unpredictable
I will however exercise the option to put to break even soon if price action looks unreliable, but I will try not to use flatten all button and instead use limit orders to protect position, having pulled all working orders prior to that. It will take some practice on a fast market. T4 is not suited to trading fast markets even if it is very fast by itself and handles extraordinary activity well.
I think also I will try to setup unattended traps at clear stop run zones. I will use only 1 contract for starters, 30 ticks profit target and 10 ticks stop loss without trailing. I have seen more than once trade missing in the zone I anticipated earlier but failed to be present when break occured. If it works with 1 car I will move with this approach gradually to my normal attended position.
Nothing to be proud about, a break even day, ruined stats, but due to +50 net on the day another positive day. And I did not trade during this AP hack, but Gold only did 50 ticks on it..