Remember it is not only the plan but belief in yourself to trade the plan that is important. Successfully, Alex L. Wasilewski Co-Founder & Head Trader Trades That Work www.puretick.com 1-877-GOLONG1 (1-877-465-6641)
Check out the 12 newbie trading commandments on our site. They are a good place to start. ********************* Geoffrey Preston - PureTick Partner/Administrator/HTML Coder
Your trading plan should address every possible issue so nothing is left to chance. 1 Money management. --> How much % will you risk on a trade? 2. Stops --> Will you, place hard stops or trailing stops?..how will you choose when to use one over the other?, will stops be placed off price action or indicators?, etc.... 3. Adding to positions. --> why/why not?, when will you add, and under what conditions? 4. Scaling out. --> Are you going to take money off the table at some point? how will you know when to do this, and why? Will you adjust stops to break even?...how will you manage your stops to keep the profits you take? 5. Averaging down. --> Will this be a part of your trading?..under what conditions? 6. Entry signal --> what entry signals will you use to get in and out of the market?... 7. indicators --> if you decide to use them, how will these mix into your trading in a way that doesn't confuse you, and make you profitable? 8. Markets traded --> if you trade other markets, can the same trading style be applied? why why not? 9. Time frames --> how will you handle the many different time frames?, or will you use just 1 chart?, if you use more than just 1, how will you determine trend? 10. Back testing/ sim trading --> Is your current trading method been backtested?, and if your trading real money, are your results in-line with expectations?...if not why?. ..and more The more questions like these that you can answer, will make your trading more systematic and less prone to impulsive and random trade decisions. Even on losing trades, at least they will be in some-what of a consistant manner, rather than just saying to yourself "Oh well i guess it was because the market went down".
this is where i found my first trading plan ... http://www.informedtrades.com/350057-trading-plan-template.html the community here is also more than willing to help developing traders remember, trading plans are living documents -- always changing and adapting, just like the markets
The more questions like these that you can answer, will make your trading more systematic and less prone to impulsive and random trade decisions. Even on losing trades, at least they will be in some-what of a consistant manner, rather than just saying to yourself "Oh well i guess it was because the market went down". [/B][/QUOTE] If by this, you are saying, know the high probability edge you are using before entering a trade, and knowing when the edge isn't working, I agree.
Trading plans are very important. However, I think with alot of new traders kind of put the cart before the horse. They want to make a trading plan before they have spent much time observing market action and gaining knowledge. An effective plan presupposes a substantial body of knowledge. A plan with no foundation is just not going to be worthwhile. Most things in trading in my opinion start with observation, so I would say the first step is to create an organized approach to observing and learning from market behavior. Or, even better you become obsessed with learning about the markets: You observe, take notes, learn how to backtest, learn from others, etc. I started a blog a few weeks ago were I have been discussing some of these issues which hopefully will add some value.
+1 When I started daytrading for the first time, I didn't try to come up with a detailed plan for the first while - basically just played around on the simulator and tried out various ideas until I started to see patterns that made sense to me. I then incorporated those patterns gradually into a more detailed plan, tested it extensively, and only then went live with it. A lot of traders try to jump into the market right away without enough observation, which means that even if they have some type of general plan, they are still flying blind because they don't have the experience to go with it. I probably rewrote my initial plan dozens of times as I was observing the market before I came up with something that I felt fully comfortable with.
Do your homework: Understand how a forex trading account works. The best way to understand this is to call your broker, open a demo account have them explain to you how this works. Open a trade with one lot in your account and observe what happens in a demo account. What must be my goal setting before I go live? Before going live, set your average number of PIPS, what is your win to loss ratio, the risk to reward ratio and other realistic profit targets. Before you risk any real money, you should establish a goal for yourself for demo trading, proving to yourself that you do know how to trade before risking real money. How often will I enter a trade? You would want to know this in advance and a good way to figure this out is to look at a chart and on whatever time frame you intend to trade, go back and look at where the entries and exits occurred in the past and see how much time passed in between the entry and the exit. What will be my starting capital? Will it be $300? Will it be $5000? Will it be $100,000? It is common knowledge that most businesses fail because of undercapitalization, which is true in the forex trading business. It is okay to start with a small amount of capital while you master trading the right way. How much will I risk per trade? A good way to find this out is to go to the time frame where you would plan to be trading. It is important to understand that your risk is based on the number of PIPS that you are willing to go negative or the number of PIPS in your stop loss, not the amount of your deposit. Decide what percentage of capital you will have at risk in a trade throughout your trading business. Two percent capital at risk is a recommended industry standard for maximum risk in a trade. But that number is based on your win to loss ratio with your risk to reward ratio.