I day trade fx, and I find that even using a 10min chart, I find that most my time is waiting for a setup(signal)...am i doing something wrong or is this typical of a seasoned trader?. Even on such a "small" time frame, I might wait an hour or more before taking a trade. cm
so the problem is that your not getting signals fast enough.? patience is the name of the game, just continue for waiting for you trades to come. if you decrease your time frame your system might produce too many signals, many of them false, then all you end up doing is churn your account. it could also be the pair you trade. we need more information to better answer your question.
There are plenty of days where I won't even make a trade. If we are not near a level (I trade 90% 10 yr futures) or direction is choppy, stay out! I finally learned that this is actually a good part of the learning process. Take your time hunt a good hunt, pounce when you see your great setups (with full size) and ride the shit out of'em. I used to scalp with 2 min bars and I thought I might die of a heart attack. Pulling back to 5 and 10 min bars with my eye on big levels on a daily, have made my life much more stress free and my trading life more profitable. Not scalping really opens your eyes to a larger picture. It's amazing. PS.......and it's OK to miss a move.
Are you patient or just lazy? Here, try this test to find out: 1. Take any setup that happens on your screen, whether it is part of your system, or not. 2. Only take the trades that are part of your system ... even if it means you have to wait 1 or 2 hours (or more) for them to setup. (this is one of the main reasons that most traders trade more than one market, BTW). Keep a tally of the risk, reward and profit of each trade from the two aforementioned categories. Come back and tell us what the results are, then you will have the answer for yourself.
The point of trading is to what? To trade. Yes, correct. You need to have a methodology operating uninterruptedly, open to market close, to be taking the points that the market offers through its gyrations. Put another way, you utilize the markets volatility throughout the session, buying the upmoves and selling downmoves as they follow each other. Sequential play, as this is, should use liquid markets (eg YM, ES, CL, etc) Easier said than done. Of course. But your enquiry into the market should always be to take the points it is offering ALL of the time. You will find, later if not sooner, that this solves the question of set-ups. Your exit each time is your re-entry. This is the only play and the obvious practical way, starting from modest capital, for the independent individual trader, to progress into making himself rich.