The trade of the year…

Although we still have two months to year end, most of us can reflect back on this year and identify the periods that were good and the periods that weren’t so good.

Within the context of the good periods will undoubtedly be some really nice trades. I’m a firm believer that if you’re a swing trader, it’s usually just a handful of standout trades that are responsible for much of your performance over 12 months. Likewise for day traders, a few trades often give the bulk of those monthly returns.

If you do some detailed analysis of your trading journal it may well surprise you how few trades it takes to deliver so much of your performance. Does this mean you shouldn’t trade as much? Well there could be an argument for some traders in relation to that but I like to think those other trades (our bread and butter trades) are those that we try with the view that they could end up being those bigger winners as we don’t always know in advance.

So what about those bigger trades that make our month or even our quarter? These to me come as part and parcel of being ‘in the markets’ enough to be there when the opportunity arises. What’s the old saying? ‘Luck is when opportunity meets preparation’.

Personally, my trade of the year so far was back in January running into February. It’s not about total number of points made, more about how well it was executed, added to and therefore became highly profitable. I won’t go into the reasons for the trade, but it was a long on Euro in January which I closed out of right at the peak in February. You rarely exit right at the high of a move but this one did with the full position.

There have been other very good trades but this one stands out most, especially as it was so early on. So what’s your trade of the year? What were your key trades that have defined your trading over this past 10 months? It doesn’t have to be a huge number of points, but just a trade that you felt was executed well and ran according to the plan.

By doing regular reviews of your trade journal, it helps to both see what you’ve achieved, plus what type of trader you are and which suits your personality…

Moving over to the markets, after some choppy back and forth activity of late, the USDCAD is breaking out to the upside. Unless it breaks below 1.3150, it looks primed for more follow through to come…

Have a great week

Charlie Burton

Ezeetrader

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