Update: $AUDUSD closed on Friday

The $AUDUSD short trade that started on 9/9/2011 was closed out on Friday, 9/16.  The stop above the highs of the prior 2 daily highs was hit, and it ended up with a little over 70 pips profit.  It was well over 200 pips profitable at one point, but I wanted to give this one room to breath (unlike my daytrades where I usually close them out too soon).  And as Murphy's Law would have it, the pair opened with a nice gap down last night, and I also missed a clean short entry earlier this morning.

$AUDUSD 15min 9/19/2011

$EURUSD short was another trade I entered on Friday, based primarily on the daily charts.  It looked like a great opportunity to short based on a pullback to the point of breakdown from the prior week...

$EURUSD daily 9/19/2011

...so there looked to be a good spot on the 15 minute chart to enter.

$EURUSD 15min 9/19/2011

However, I got in a little too early, took some heat, and then the price action consolidated the rest of the day around my entry price.  It broke above the prior swing high that lead to the swing low prior to my entry, as well as the 100 ema, so I was no longer as confident of this setup.

And then my mind, I decided it was good to take a timeout this weekend, be in all cash, so I scratched the trade with a small profit.  As with the AUDUSD trade, Murphy's Law took effect, and the pair opened with a nice gap down last night.

Here's something I need to consider - I appear to be reading and executing better on a 15 minute level, using much wider stops.  I believe this method could could also work on stocks, but I've always tried to segregate the two asset classes apart.  Being able to get out easily overnight in the forex also gives me some comfort to hold on.  So perhaps I need to better integrate what works in each and work to enhance those strengths in my overall trading.

* * * * *
It also turned out that I ended up having family visiting this week, so this timeout I took looks to be timely.  In terms of priority, family will always take priority over trading, so my activity will likely be quite light this week.  After having quite a mentally intensive past few months, I'm looking forward to this brief rest before I take things to the next level starting next week.