It has felt like a long time since I traded.  Actually, it’s been a while since I even thought about trading.  There were many days last week where the situation just wasn’t right.  The pip spread was too high.  The Euro was moving in 100 pip jumps.  I was hungover.  See, many obstacles to overcome!  Last night I was finally able to spend some quality time with the charts.  Well, quality time for me is usually around 30 minutes to an hour.  The EUR/USD was playing in a nice, small range after 5pm last night.  As you can see in the chart below, I decided to jump in on a buy trade just after 7pm.  This one felt pretty good, and I was quickly rewarded with a nice upward movement.  I had set my goal as 10 pips, but I decided to jump ship when I was at 8 pips.  Unfortunately it slipped a little as I was closing the trade and I ended up with 6 pips.  I was only in the trade for 45 seconds!  I knew it was going up but I felt a stall in the momentum.  That was confirmed by some correlating currencies I was keeping my eye on.  I was fairly certain it was about to drop.  Man was I right!  Damn thing dropped 50 pips.  Why didn’t I get into a sell trade once I closed this first trade out?  I honestly have to think about that.  I think that it encourages revenge trading.  Today it would have worked out and I could have walked away with 15 pips profit.  But, what about when I get a trade wrong?  Then I will be allowing myself to jump right back in.  At that point it might not be logic that is driving me.  It would be pride.  I am cool with making 1 trade.  Especially when I make money.  I have to remind myself that I am a slow and lazy trader.  I don’t want to be a chart junky.

Trade Summary:

Buy EUR/USD - 1.2749
Close Trade - 1.2755
Pips =6