2023W32 Review

Win rate of 78.2%, +32.7 pips, equity gain of 7.1% in 23 trades.

A rather middle-of-the-road week.

Started the week with a triple position full loss, nearly -$1000 handicap.

However, it's a moderate week from there, with rather good win rates, and only 1 full loss.

An average of +6.5 pips return a day is not great by any measure, but it is realistic, nevertheless.

Grade: B

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2023W31 Review

Win rate 82.1%, +102.8 pips, equity gain of 22.8%

All seems very impressive, deserving another A... except it doesn't.

It all started quite well, with 10 consecutive wins. Maybe that's usually a sign of some inevitable losses are just around the corner.

The first full loss of -55 pips came right after that, on the second day of the week. But the real disaster started that afternoon, after a long position went south, and I added 2 more positions to it after that. When the trades closed, it was a totaly of -226 pips and -$1361. It was a real hit in the confidence and mood.

The same night, I entered 4 more long positions after all the falls were settled, and managed to claw back just over $1780 on the next day. It was maybe a very lucky situation, because the positions were still in loss, until it gapped up by nearly 50 pips, giving me a +58 pips return on a 2 lot play. I was aiming for no more than just over 20 pips.

So, while the win rates and pips return were quite well, it was a week characterized by big emotional swings, desperate positions in order to save positions. If not because of the lucky 2 lots and 1.5 lots that gave me around $1400, it would have been a break even week.

Grade: C

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Traders or Gamblers?

Many people, me included, have said from time to time, that trading is nothing more like gambling.

Without going into the definitions of "to trade" and "to gamble", the statement is true in many ways. I guess when someone says "you're gambling", he usually doesn't imply any compliment. Quite the opposite.

So do reckless traders equal gamblers? Do professional and disciplined gamblers equal traders?

For me, gamblers just want to play and enjoy the excitement of playing, be it at the roulette table or in the market. Traders, meanwhile, want to win.

Gamblers can't resist the temptation to wait and not playing. Traders would wait patiently if it needs be, and strike only when the odds are on their side.

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