I play swings, although, because of my schedule (and the fact that I don't like to set stops and ride when I'm gone), I'm typically forced to cut them short. I suppose some people would call that scalping, because that's what it ends up reading like. Sounds like good advice. What pairs do you suggest? EDIT: I see you said USD based pairs. That just made my screen a whole lot less cluttered and now I don't feel like I'm trying to juggle twelve chainsaws. Definitely some good advice. Too bad I'm still getting mollested on AUD/USD.
Choose 2 of them and choose them for three different reasons: For me, EURUSD, because it is the most traded (cable sometimes can give you some fun too) a commodity currency, like USDCAD, AUDUSD or NZDUSD - if you follow commodity movements like oil or gold, these are good because they are reflective of commodity valuations and USDJPY as it good for tracking equities. Personally, I would follow no more than 3 (2 is probably more ideal, but hey) if you are just starting out. If you want to figure out the crosses and such, use a demo for them until you have your 3 primary ones under your belt.
I might also suggest switching fx brokers since by your own admission it sucks. Oanda is a good platform for smaller traders because they will allow you to trade for as little as $1, which is a good way to learn. Not as many bells and whistles as other platforms, but good enough as you are starting out.
^I was actually looking at switching to Oanda. Forex.com has my money for 30 days (or so I've heard), so we'll see what happens in the mean time. I'm still with the AUD/USD long. That may or may not prove to be a good idea. Can't tell if it found support and is about to make higher high, or if it's making the right shoulder of a funky looking head/shoulders (on the 30 min). It did make higher low, so I'll let it ride a little longer.
Aside from letting off steam and having a few chuckles, that's one of the main reasons you should post.
What do you mean by this: Your stop got taken out with major slippage? You expected the trade to move in your favor and placed no stop and now you're waiting for price to "come back", but price is laughing at you while saying, "Squeal like a pig!"? I, too, am about as new a trader as you, trading stocks for a little over a year and just now exploring futures. Best thing I've learned so far is to have an exit strategy that you fully accept in advance. It shouldn't bother you at all if you bail at that point because it simply means the inviting setup that winked at you from across the dance floor, turned out to be a real piece of work once the dance was on.
I don't like stops in forex. Too many times in practice I've lost big winners because of massive fake out spikes (see page 1 for another example, with chart). IMO, this leaves me with the option to set huge stops (what good does that do?) or to simply monitor the trade and see how the price action behaves as it moves against me. In this case it wasn't a spike, but an actual move lower. I could have closed the position for a ~25 pip loss when it broke what I saw as support. I chose to trust the setup and stay with the trade. Down about 45 pips I waited for a move to a lower low, at which point I would have closed the position for a sizeable loss. We didn't end up making lower low, and now (a good while later) I'm currently down only 8 pips. Is that good risk management? I'm not sure. From what I've observed in practice, it's important to trust your setup and not panic when the position moves against you (sometimes significantly so). Admittedly, the original call was bad. The question now is now is whether the call was merely too soon or altogether wrong. If it was making a weird h&s patterns, it's broken the right shoulder line significantly, so it's looking good from here.
Sold - AUD/USD .82493 8.3 pips Aftering being down nearly 50 pips, that's the best 8 pip gain ever. lol More to go on that one? I wouldn't doubt it, but I'm sick and going to bed. Progress after day 1 (including Friday's half-assed trade): +22.4 pips
If your profit target on this trade was a minimum of 50 pips, we may let you slide on this one, depending on what you give as the reason for taking off the trade so far from your target.