Right, so you've got everything you need right there, no need to complicate it. Consolidation, support and resistance, break out, a trendline.....how hard can it be?
robert hoffman from powercharting.com has 100% discount. If you join the LIVE trading room you get a $3000 worth of videos (16 hours!) for FREE. FREE $3000 in your POCKET what SAY you
from your earlier thread, http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186466 have you signed up yet? you seem very impressed with this "guru".
lol, you guys always seem so keen to spend your money! What, you think you need to buy a course or pay for access to a trading room to make you a trader? If anything it's the complete opposite!
Do you feel that there are enough signals day in and day out to trade off of support, resistance or trend lines? Are there periods of randomness where you may go through long periods of no trading signals with just those simple levels? How are the signals in a 15m chart? The noise seems to increase a lot more on charts below 4hour. But I'm trying to focus on 15m charts to find patterns because I want to be able to get into a good trade at least every day or every few times a week. That's what I'm basing my decision on using 15m charts. If I'm using higher than that, I feel like I'd have to trade all day and night to be able to get into trades. Anyway, that's my thought process. I could be really off base.
Any market, any instrument, any time frame, the same patterns and market behavior exists everywhere. People talk about 'noise' in shorter time frames but it's all tradable, personally I don't usually go below 15m as I find it ideal for intraday but some traders do. Sure you get the occasional spikes which obviously aren't (as) noticeible on higher time frames, especially around fundamental news, but you can allow for that by reducung exposure and increasing stops around those scheduled releases, even if it means risk:reward is skewed at least the risk isn't increased and stops aren't unnecessarily hit on a spike. There are plenty of intraday opportunities using just those tools, if there aren't then it probably means no-one is trading and the market isn't moving. Equally you can trade longer time frames depending on how much time you have available to sit in front of screens, the approach is the same, the only things which change are the size of stops and targets, and consequently your trade size. Believe me, for strategy these are the only tools you need. Sure you can add all sorts of weird and wonderful indcators to try and increase the probability of a trade being profitable but few, if any, really help. In fact most hinder, they filter out more potentially profitable trades than unprofitable ones! Too many novice traders spend way too much time and energy focusing on trying to get all their ducks lined up perfectly before they'll pull the trigger......and the trade still doesn't go right! Forget all that, just trade on probability, price can only go 3 ways! If you're wrong then you lose a little. If you're right you try to make as much as you can. If you make more than you lose then guess what....you're a profitable trader! It's simple, it's not rocket science, although trading course and training video sellers will try to convince you otherwise. Fortunately for them there are plenty of gullible people in this business! Of course none of this is worth diddly unless you've first mastered the basics of risk management, trading psychology, and discipline. Read Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas, it helps put this whole trading business into perspective......
I think all these gurus and "follow my trades" type of education is garbage. Most of the time the guru is going to make his money on commission rebates on the back end after he gets you to open with one of his sponsored brokerages. That said, there is nothing wrong with trying to learn more about a market, especially one that is exploding like forex. When I transitioned over from stocks and futures, I needed a little bit of "hand holding." I found some inexpensive online courses that allowed me to interact with instructors and ask questions. The material itself wasn't rocket science, and I probably could have gotten it out of a book or free on the web, but the ability to ask instructors about proposed trade ideas was invaluable for me. Once I got comfortable with the market, I was off and running and haven't looked back. So in short, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting educated, but do something that teaches you how, and not just to follow. and don't pay a ridiculous amount either.
The problem is, most of these people have no clue. So interacting with them or ask about proposed trade ideas with such is equivalent to talking to the mirror...
I was in a room mentioned in this thread, and ultimately, it didn't help me. I believe he does trade live, and he probably means well, and probably is profitable overall from his trading, but the style of trading really wasn't for me, and I didn't make money following him during the 2 months I was in the room. I actually lost money and I think that overall I did a pretty good job at following the trader in charge of the room. See the following thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...threadid=174130