My losing trades - 13 Feb 2025

Losing trades are part and parcel of trading. Does anyone ever get used to them? Have to keep learning to accept them, this is why I like to keep posting them, it forces me to deal with them and be hardened to them.

This was a narrow entry trade. What I mean by that is that the 20 and 200 period moving averages are very close together in a narrow state.

In this trade we have a bullish elephant bar off a narrow state. This entry candle was after price had breached above the 200 period moving average and a retest before rising. It did breach a previous pivot to the far left. The trade did actually move to the upside but ultimately reversed and stopped me out.

What could I have done better or considered? I could have not taken this trade and waited to see if the price could take out the immediately preceding pivot high to the left. The reason I took the trade was because the volume spikes supporting the upward move were present. However, the market turned.

Yet another trade on Avalanche. This time this was a bull off the 200 period moving average. But, was the entry candle really a bullish candle off the moving average? It did close without any topping wick, it had hardly what you could say cleared the moving average.

I took the trade because this looked like a pull back that was now about to resume to the upside after the previous 'double top' rejection. This did technically meet my rules but there are a few factors that show this is not a high quality trade:

• double top formation prior to this attempted resumption to the upside

• lot of resistance to the left and this level actually looks like a rejection area

• the price was not moving back into the 200 moving average it had been below it for quite some time

This trade on Vodafone was taken on the 6 February. There had been a gap down a day or so earlier but price was forming a potential reversal pattern and when price had broken the marked resistance and closed with a bullish elephant candle I entered the trade. See the chart below to see what the price action did.

Given I was long Vodafone and price surged from my original entry it was disappointing that it then started to collapse. I didn't take any profits as it moved up to a 3R unrealised return as my rules are not to take profits unless I am in profit 5R.

I was expecting a pull back in the price and that is what happened. Price even started to resume after pulling back a move back to the upside. Then there is a very significant bearish elephant bar that moved back down to the previous pull back area. At this point I was looking for price to find support but it then resumed to the downside and I was stopped out.

Am I disappointed? Yes I am, but in some ways I am quite happy as I managed to hold my nerves and stick to my rules not to take profits. At 3R a break even position should have been taken.

Trade Clearly!