You might have answered this earlier in your journal, so excuse me if I am flogging a dead horse. How long a time frame do you usually hold your trades? From what I can tell, it looks like it varies from a few hours to about two days. The reason I ask is the one thing that really seems to kill the performance of my system is that have a tendency to get out too soon, thereby decreasing the profitability of my winners. The other question I have concerns position sizing. Obviously the length of time one can stay in a trade is dependent on this (especially in as highly leveraged an instrument as Forex). While I am generally satisfied with my method of position sizing at the moment, I do feel it need to be tweaked. Any answers/suggestions you can give will be greatly appreciated.
No way. I always have a net connection where I live. In 1987 I travelled with a 1.2 meter dish for Comstock data. Much easier now. I already have a broadband connection lined up for my rental in Cabarete. Many third world countries are better wired than the US, especially with wireless net. The US is too big, and has fractured technologies. Back to forex, I would concentrate on your charts more than the news. News releases have a funny habit of sending markets opposite of what you think about half the time. The charts don't lie. Also, no, I don't trade NQ. I don't like the way it moves, and ES has greater liquidity, although that's a moot point as they are both plenty large. Jay
Hi LouDogg, It would be nice to hold positions a week or two or three - and take 1000 or more out of the market. It can be done. George Soros does that. Exit is a lot more important than entry. But how can you hold a position over the weekend in times like this? How can you short the dollar before the weekend, when you don't know if Osama bin Laden gets caught or killed? (I suppose we will get a 200-300 pips gap if that happens). It's not easy. My system does'nt have rules for exit - only to give the position a free ride, when I have my first 30 pips profit. I use a trailing stop, look at the chart and listen to the news. It's very difficult to know when to take the profit. We all know that we have to let our profits run - but we don't want to give a lot of pips back to the market. No, it's not easy. Some systems go flat with a new cross, but I don't think this is a good idea. I have seen proof for that. Maybe Jay or Scientist or others have som good ideas? (And better than an scaling out-strategy, which always cost you pips). Position size? Don't overtrade, but I don't think your size has anything to do with your profit-taking. It's always difficult to let your profits run. You must have very good reasons for not taking your profit, if you have made a lot of pips.
Well I like to keep a smaller MA to assist with the 50ma, but, didnt want too small as I found too many false signals, so, basically its just a number I pulled out to be close to my 50ma. Nothing major about it really...I just like to use it as a slightly faster ma than the one i use to trade of as a heads up. If that makes sense.. Ive actually hated the past week or so being stuck in a range..kills my longer term system totally, even with the range going between 100-200pips or so...tend to turn the charts down then to smaller time frames for smaller moves but im not as comfortable there. I trade a lot of different pairs tho, Aud/Cad, GBP/JPY, Eur/JPY, etc...so I find that helps sometimes when the USD is doing a sideways dance, I dont mind the wider spreads as Im looking for moves of couple hundred pips over longer terms. Im developing something tho to take advantage of sideways action more and also shorter terms, but, my longer systems work while I play, so im only wanting something shorter term to use if I feel like chart watching all day.
Hi Jay, No, the charts don't lie - but they will make you crazy, if your are sitting the whole day just watching them. You need to know, what makes those charts, what's behind the moves - the news, most of time, I suppose. I love to trade forex - because you get a lot of information, what's happening in the whole world. If you only look at the charts, you will die because your are so bored...Why not look BOTH at the charts and the news? Yes, I agree that the news send the markets opposite of what you think half of the time. But If you want to stay with your position, I suppose you must know why you should do it. PS. Why don't you like the moves of NQ?