Today wasn’t one of my better days – actually it was a really good day. I got to go to my Daughters school and help out with reading groups which is something to be treasured.

Anyway I digress, when I got back to the desk USD/JPY had jumped and then reversed a bit on the Kuroda for BoJ Governor story and the Aussie had dipped below 1.03 sitting around 1.0292/3 when I opened MT4.

My hourly charts were screaming at me to sell some Aussie but I was distracted – I have had a really good run lately  and my little trading account is up quite nicely over the past few months but I made a cardinal mistake, a mistake that I thought i wouldn’t have to learn and relearn.

Also in hindsight having had a good run without a loss for a little while I seem to have wanted to protect me streak. I wanted to get the perfect entry point so I could keep the roll going so that I could say to myself how well I was trading.

So what did I do – I did nothing.

Aussie traded 1.0292/93 for a bit headed a couple of points higher back up to 95 bid before falling back to 91 bid and then down to 1.02868 bid.

Bugger I missed it – I wasn’t trading for just a few points but I thought ah stuff it. I was actually relieved when Aussie rallied a little back up to 92 bid but then it hit 97 bid I think just before the release of the HSBC Chinese PMI.

But I wasn’t there, I was off making a coffee and when I got back Aussie was almost 35 points lower and bid at 62 or 3.

So in summary I committed two major crimes for a trader:

1. I didn’t take my signals when they were there; and
2. I was trying to protect a streak instead of letting every trade run on its individual merits

DOH!

So I get the Homer Simpson award for trading today. Sure the only cost was an opportunity cost but I was only scalping on the 1 hour charts and 30/35 points is a handy earn when you are trading this way.

Why have I written this piece? Because it is a reminder that we all sometime forget to stick to our systems, that we are all far too human sometimes and that if in some small way this helps someone else to avoid this silly mistake then all the better.

This was a cheap lesson and it has certainly smartened me up again and I won’t be making those two mistakes in a hurry again – at least until the next time.

Happy trading