Hi Scientist, Oh, so you are still scalping? One time scalper - always scalper? Maybe you could give some more details about your scalping system? As i have said before, scalping can be OK, when the market is in a trading range. You can use Slow Stoch 55,1,1 on a 5 min chart to sell the highs and buy the lows - with a 10 pips stop. This should work well - most of the time. But why not go for the home-hitters by trading more long-term? RSI? Yes, I keep it. It makes me think more long-term. So it can't be that bad. Fib tools? Do they really work? PS. I trade the CHF future, but EUR/USD and GBP/USD as spot forex. Maybe that's the reason for your comments about prices/stops?
Charts and RSI looked toppy, so I took my profits: EUR/USD: Sold 1.2305 = 85 pips. GBP/USD: Sold 1.8107 = 120 pips. CHF (Swiss) future: Sold 7878 = 53 pips. 258 pips - very nice. But maybe I went flat too early?
LOL! You wish! Well, my scalping system (yes, very right, for ranging times!) doesn't use indicators, it kind of orients itself on prior bar highs / lows, but I can't be more specific. For EUR, my stops are between 5-8T, targets ~10T, maybe let some run for more. When it trends, of course there's no point in scalping, and the trends are very decent. That was my point. Good if RSI works for you. Does fib work? LOL of course! Standard fib retracements will work on any medium, on any timeframe. Why? Because markets run, and then they have to breathe, for the sake of profit taking. If the market is very strong, it may retrace 40%. If it's strong, 50%. If it retraces 60%, then it may still continue, but is also weakening. Therefore, if a reversal pattern occurs (such as a double top), you might consider playing a reversal (or at least taking profits on your current trend play). It's just simple logic. And last but not least, it works because of self-fulfilling prophecy. I use the fib tool from time to time to measure the exact levels, but usually I can do that by eye, it's not very hard to do - Similarly to seeing with bare eye what OB/OS levels are, or where a trend is headed (instead of MA's). You trade spot FX for intraday? Why not use futures? FX comes at a murderous price (huge spreads), versus the futures with usually 0-2 pip spreads, and low comms (less than 1/2 pip with IB). With FX spot, just getting in & out will cost you massively. EUR FX on Globex (6E M4) is worth US$12.50 per pip, so if you catch a 100-pip move, you're up $1,250 for every contract. How does your spot FX compare?
That is a phenomenal performance! 258 pips! :eek: I took 3/4 on that EUR trade for +50 pips, and 1/4 eventually for +90 pips. I just re-entered long at 255 (very low risk play), which is currently green as well, at least some. But that might soon change. On the GBP long, I took +40 pips, and that's it. So my total for the day is well less than 100 pips... But I still don't complain. Well done, Baruch! I'm very impressed! Scientist
Hi Scientist, I'm interested in trading Forex Futures - can you give me some info on which Broker you use, how one goes about it etc. I trade FX spot (through GFT) although definitely interested in trading futures - based on the low cost you mentioned. How is the liquidity in the market, slippage in volatile times etc - please excuse any ignorant questions althought he futures market is a whole new animal to me. Thanks Cliff
Thank you, Scientist. Yes, I (also) love Forex. Much better to trade than indexes. Some times I trade spot - some times I trade futures. I don't have any rules for that.
1) www.interactivebrokers.com 2) Liquidity; Liquid enough for you (LOL unless 150-300 contracts on each side of the market don't serve your size needs, in which case you might have to take a little bit of slippage). 3) Slippage: That depends on you and your order type. I never have slippage, because I don't use market orders, and don't know any smart traders who would. If the futures market is new to you, I recommend you open your IB account with a $5,000 deposit, and play with that. When you lose the $5K, stop trading, revise your strategy, and deposit another $5,000. Then do this 20-30 times, until you start turning profitable. Seriously though, this is the best way to go about it. Don't put it all in at once, or you'll blow it soon. Futures are a very very serious and competitive business, and it takes time to learn. But hey - if you can trade forex, what am I telling you, anyway? The leverage for 6E (Globex EUR FX) is $12.50 per pip, the spread is usally 0-2 pips, the commission is $3 per side, the performance bond with IB is $1,620 intraday initial, $3,240 overnight initial, the maintenance margins are about 35% lower. But I would never advice to margin yourself that highly. Good Luck, Scientist P.S: Baruch! That EUR long I took in the last post is up 15 pips already starting to look sweet on volume!...
Scientist, Ha-ha. I'm only afraid of the cruel stop-hunters. PS. Euro looks very strong. But we will have some important US eco reports today.