Of course you are correct, but I am so nervous of deviating right now. Quick profits are appealing to me simply because i am inexperienced and scared to death of losses. The small gains are very confdence boosting! I can recognise a trend and i feel that my finger is on the pulse because i'm 'living' the market, but i'm not confident enough to let it ride yet. I'm sure that will come and i appreciate your advice immensely. SG20 hit the nail on the head when he said that a trader 'evolves' and i hadn't really considered that. That can only come with experience for sure. I do spend an awfully long time staring at my screen 'waiting' for the next opportunity and missing the big picture while as you quite rightly say pick up 'crumbs'. I'm glad that my strategy has not been ridiculed. It isn't very complicated and does WORK, but i see your point. Thank you.
I will start that and let you know how it works out. I've looked at previous charts and your suggestion is very helpful and will of course help me do better. The evolving strategy........... very exciting. Thanks for taking the time.
The best way, simple yet effective. you don't want to complicate it with unnecessary indicators but maybe a simple trendline would be useful? Maybe just try anything else on demo first, or just 'imagine' you're still in the trades and see how they pan out. A tip I found useful when I was scared of losses was to take a nominal amount of money (even just $100 if you trade with someone like Oanda where trade size can be small) and consider it lost, that's the worst could happen, you've accepted it and it's no big deal. Then follow your strategy religiously for a month, winning or losing trades won't matter as it's the end of month balance which is all that's important and if the whole thing goes tits up the most you've lost is that nominal $100. For me it helped take the emotional element out of trading, anticipation and the emotional highs/lows of winning/losing didn't exist any more. Then I scaled up, knowing the strategy worked and that despite the outcome of an individual trade by the end of the month the account would probably show a profit. Just my ideas, they may not work for you, either way keep the thread updated. Good luck!
I have been using a simple 14 day SMA which seems to fit my strategy well. I've opened a new demo account to'parallel' next to my real trades and used it today which has been interesting. I have also taken your advice and stayed in a little longer and so far am 12 pips higher than i would have been which is pretty significant to me. I haven't figured out how to create a trailing stop yet though. Excuse my ignorance, but does it do what it says on the tin? Does it follow my position which is say, down but if the market rises then automatically buy me out and stop losses? I'm sure i'll figure it out in demo! I also read in another thread that you do not recommend gft. Why is that? I'm with them and find them ok, but if you can advise on another with pros and cons I'd be grateful. I'm in Cornwall by the way. You're UK right?
Surfer huh, I guessed you were UK by the 'make a few quid' and 'plum' Yes, I'm the other end of the country in Cheshire but moving back down to London soon I hope. Trailing stop, yep does what it says on the tin pretty much. It stays static until price moves in the direction of your trade then it trails it up/down. It can be a bit of a balancing act between locking in profit and having less loss, some have more options than others, you'll figure it out I'm sure. I had problems wth GFT, couldn't get along with them at all. I don't want to keep posting a link to the thread as I know GFT are sponsors here but do a quick search and it should come up, it was a discussion about someone having a Base 10 account with them with $500.
Does it suprise you that a surfer can string a sentence together? I have nailed trailing stops and WOW they have made a significant diffrence to my trade gains. I am averaging and extra 2 points per trade using my strategy so i'm very pleased although GBP/USD had me sweating a little yesterday. I know that my gains are considered measly, but is that really the case? I'm gaining around 10-12 pips a day with complete ease using my strategy on the GBP/USD alone. I'm starting on the EUR/USD today using the same system so we'll see what happens. If you're ever in Cornwall let me know. I'll buy you a pint.
A pint....of single malt, that's very generous of you Your returns are great especially with a win rate like that, what I think people were highlighting was the possibly poor risk:reward, no good having 50 winning trades for 2 pips and then a couple of losses for 50 if you see what I mean. If you've got the discipline to cut losing trades short and got your money management in order then hey, you're doing great. Try not to get over-confident though, the market has a habit of suprising when you least expect it as I've found out to my expense! I've seen perfectly good profitable strategies turned into losing ones just by tweaking, if you change anything then do it gradually would be my advice, preferably on demo. You're in an enviable position, you have a system which works and can maybe be impoved on, 95% start off with a losing strategy! Trading, it's a piece of cake, right
Only if its a Glenmoarangie. Just been given a bottle of the 'Lasanta'; its different but........ oh my god I cannot imagine entering into trading without complete discipline and respect for the environment i'm in.......Its no different to surfing (forgive the kook analogy). The more I read & trade the more i realise how little i know about this broad and complicated subject and it's very stimulating . I've realised how 'alive' trading is and a trader makes their own luck. Anyhoot, I've found that if two rather than one contrary period comes after my signal, gains are much higher (especially when using the trailing stop thank you!). The pull is that little stronger, my abort signal today was a distant memory & the trade is faster. Unfortunately, opportunities are more limited, but its a safer move all round. I've been analysing the last couple of months charts on the GBP/USD Eur/USD & JYN/USD and the results are similar athough surprisingly the Euro was less successful. I'm going to work with it and see if tweaks can be made, but contrary to my last thread I wont be trading it (gutted)! cake?.............. where?? "Turnover for vanity; Profit for sanity" - Me