17th October

Dear John

Well I didn’t do any trading today but this evening I’m on the VT and as an exercise I’m going in and out of trades, setting my stops and then quitting when I’m -2 and taking my profits when I am +2 or 3. I am also seeing for myself the pip distance isn’t 50 and proving as you said that this is a ridiculous time to trade. The spikes are so random and despite the trend being down the spikes are so long that on a 10 pip stop I get spiked out.

I know it’s not a good time to trade but I wanted to show myself that this is a bad time to trade. Its good watching and hearing you say you need a big pip difference and by doing it when there isn’t one I can see it’s a pointless exercise. I learn by trying and so this is my exercise for tonight to get in and out of trades with a minimum of loss. I am trying to visualise the £25 trade and despite the 10 pip stop I force myself to go out at 2 or if I’m too slow at 4. I am finding that the spikes are too long – longer than the candles and it’s too risky. If the spike went in one direction either up or down that would be one thing but tonight they are so haphazard.

There is a lot of practice involved here and I will keep one of my demo accounts just for exercising and once I feel I am on the right track will I go back to my serious demo account and count pips. Right now I’m loosing more than winning but on the other hand I’m preventing my losses from being big. A 2 pip spread makes it s much harder as well to gain pips.

As you said the markets are random and that was also proven to me today. For the past month or so every afternoon euro and cable took a pounding. Today it was a bit of both. When Bush was speaking the cable got stronger but then it turned around again. So my 2pm every afternoon theory went for a ball.

I think it will take me a while to get used to the 1 minute chart. I will keep the 5 and 1 minute open and compare the two but seeing we are talking £25 per pip I won’t enter trades unless I am assured I will capture one or 2.

And that’s my lesson for tonight. Kind regards Desiree