You know at least 100 people who failed at trading?#!! Man, you must have a lot of traders around where you live. I know one guy who quit, and one guy who's still plugging at it. You're right though, it takes absolute dedication, you have to see what, by definition, most other traders don't, and you have to be very disicplined ... at least in the begining. As you begin to become profitable, you can't become arrogant, overconfident, or cocky, or let the light of greed consume you. I
I am not a very good trader, and so I use automation to compensate. The computer doesn't get bored or excited. So far, I have only written systems for trading stocks and futures. Spot forex is new to me. None of my systems are designed to run unattended, so that greatly simplifies coping with connectivity problems, etc. My systems sound an audible alarm if they stop receiving data. I have a screen scraper that collects lists of stocks with earnings announcements so I stay out of the markets at those times. The only other news periods I avoid are FED announcements, and I just shut down my systems during those times, all pretty low-tech. I currently have only one broker and one broadband connection, and these are weaknesses in my business plan. I have a computer dedicated to only trading, and my development computer and laptop can act as backups. [rwk]
Not quite sure I understand your terminology as it relates. I employ a swing trading style. I allow the trade to develop. I also have a programmed System That I use. Via AmiBroker. Do I go signal to signal?? SOmetimes yes, most times no. Primarily I use the system to alert me to a setup. I am watching 9 pairs so trying to chart watch FOREX this way is extremely mundane. The alert system allows we to goof off on the web while my trading day is at hand. I only trade FOREX from 9a to 4p EST. If I hold overnight it is due to what the charts are telling me. My AUDUSD and USDCAD trades were overnighters. Hope that helps. Right now I am awaiting another setup... The Euro is looking good. Moved 98 pts (pips) today, but I was watching beans and corn mainly. So far as overnights, I don't watch them. If they reverse, I already have allotted in my system for potential drawdown... Largest loss I have ever had on an overnight trade was 40 pts, Normally I keep them reigned in at 10-15 pips. I should note. LOL. That loss was an issue of me changing the timing interval at which I view my charts and failing to put it back.. When you read a 5minute chart you develop a feel for it's rhythm. Switch to a 15 minute and the feel is different. If you fail to compensate for that, you'll burn yourself.
It is just your opinion and/or experience. It doesn't prove anything except that you think so. Once again: 200pips/month AVERAGE does NOT mean month in month out - one month it can be 0 or -100, another month it can be 500-600. And I have several SWING trading methods (utilizing 4h charts) which average around this per pair. And know people who use them successfully (don't use myself simply because I am short term trader by nature - I want instant results). Not even speaking of higher frequency daytrading with tight stops which became possible when spreads these days are as low as 1 pip. Problem with FOREX is just that most brokers out there are indeed scams (as Joab stated right). Market itself has no problems - it's just another market and as such - same methods apply.
Hi T200K, your thread got busy! I'll reply to your questions in broad terms if I may as it wouldn't be practical to go into specifics on a public chat forum. One striking common denominator among all the traders interviewed for Kathy and Boris's book was discipline and preservation of capital, those are the two most basic mantras that I follow myself. Individual strategies ranged from trading technicals, fundamentals, or a combination of both, scalping, intraday, or positional trading, trend trading and counter trend trading, and of course the impressive Indi Jones contrarian style when he traded OJ in the pits! What I glean from that is strategy isn't all that important, pretty much all strategies have a degree of success, it's the way they are traded which is important. What works for me and suits my style and temperament might not be suitable for the next person, one size doesn't fit all in my opinion. Your original post asked about consistently making 10 pips every day, is that something you are still pursuing or have other more attractive ideas emerged? It's a shame in a way that naysayers like forex-forex can't support their opinions with reasoned argument because that would be valuable, simply saying something can't be done or 'extraordinary returns' aren't sustainable is not all that constructive really. So anyway, tell us a bit more about you and your trading experience and what you're looking to achieve from trading forex.
Hi cabletrader. i have been reading your posts on this forum and i also believe the 10 pips method can generate a constant profit if someone can do it consistently. I was wondering if you can share some details on what is the best pair and best time of the day to produce the 10 pips consistenly. larry
I look for setups on the daily/4hr/1hr using 1 and 2 bar patterns which are commonly known.. many times these patterns are signaling completion of a larger compound pattern .. once I locate my prey I will spread out the pair on my screen with multiple tf's .. i.e daily-4hr-1hr-15min-5min and once the pattern triggers an entry on the higher tf I look at the smaller ones for retracements and then a similar pattern. Trades may last an hour or a few days.. depends on what the price action is doing at certain levels. During a large move I'm watching the 15 min and attack on pullbacks continuously. Sometimes I find myself experiencing sheer terror and sometimes sheer pleasure PS: Theres a guy on another forum doing just what you're trying to do and he's doing well so far (actually very very well). He shares his method openly so let me know and I'll direct you. Bob
Hi Larry There is no best time or best pair, obviously the more liquid pairs (majors) are easier to trade and the more liquid times less volatile. Asian sessions are fairly low volume and moves are exaggerated so that's not a great time to trade, US sessions can be volatile due to data and if you have open positions across important data the exposure to risk hits the roof for a short-term trader, that leaves the European session which I usually trade from 6am to 8.30am GMT. It's fairly orderly and technically 'correct' most of the time. But if there's a trade set-up which meets your criteria, take it, no matter what the time or pair. '10 pips a day' is actually a bit misleading, it's not really one trade for 10 pips it's more a case of =>10 pips profit overall. If you're going to target 10 pips on one trade where would you have a stop? You don't want it too close otherwise it will get hit too often by normal market movement or intentionally by your broker. Too far away and your win:lose needs to be ridiculously high to compensate for the abysmal risk:reward. Having said that, there are some nimble scalpers around but they never seem to last very long, either their broker puts them on manual execution so fills are delayed making scalping unattractive or they have a series of small winning trades followed by a big hit which gives back all the previous profit and chews up some of their account. That's just my view and there will always be those who disagree, that's the fun of trading, pitting your wits against the market!
Cabletrader, thanks for the advise. The 2 pairs that I like to trade is the eur/usd and the gbp/usd. From your experience, what indicators work better for entry signals during the time you stated (6 to 8:30). How many pips you use for stop and tp are best for that period ? larry