Whats your pillarstone in your strategy when you trade the forex market? And please give a comment on why you think it is the best thing to focus on while trading. And also which time frame, you think one can be most profitable with. My main focus is to avoid making decsion on abstract indicators and get confused, but only on the obvious ones. I also believe that long term investing is best, because its easier to predict those moves,than small waves that could have been caused by virtually anything.
jmho If you are a discretionary trader the master pillar should be PRICE ACTION and 15 min timeframe. Then 5 min for decision on entry-exit. 1 hour for the 'big picture'. Anything else is too fast or too slow (meaning useless). And trade like you would play a computer-game.
starting another toad thread? you got a &^$# nerve http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=59280&perpage=6&pagenumber=1
I guess Im expecting too much. I wanted this thread to break out into a serious discussion with a4 posts between users on what is best and not. I love discussions like that, and they are rare here on this forum,and elsewhere too.
Ive tried that game. Its just too psychological demanding to play on such small intervals, and the moves could have been caused equally much by fundamentals and god knows what else. Ive done some research and find being a swing trader is much more profitable, and the best of all, not as demanding on your psychology. Personally I look at 10 years,5 years and all the way to 5 min charts to get the picture and when to enter. This is especially important for me as I try to use use as large leverage as possible, and not be wiped out because of bad entry and still profit from big moves, where I can hold a 200:1 leverage position for at least one day.
Someone knocks on the door. You open the door and you get a slap in the face. Guy standing there says: "Now that I have got your attention I want you to pay me $ xx because I am selling you this." You think you are going to buy his goods and give him money? Yeah right. You think your reply would be any different if that guy would knock 1 minute later on your door again and tried to sell you the same stuff? Now you started a second tread with basically the same question. Market is zero sum game. I win = you loose (and add brokerage fees and slippage to that). You really think that someone who has spend xx years studying the markets and developping a system to give it to you for free on an anonymous board? All the failed attempts are either handed out for free or otherwise marketed by the originators in their attempts to recoup some of their investment. The sooner you realise it the better it is. The only things that you can get from books / courses / messageboards are the basics: How an indicator works, what the different trading mechanisms are, what derivatives there are and the reasoning behind their existence, the types of orders and what their typical application is etc. Up to you to do the hard work and make something useful from it. Sherlock
Im aware of what you are saying, but Im not requesting someone to explain their exact strategy in detail, but rather just come with an insightful post that one could learn something from. Or are forex traders really that paranoid of someone stealing their ideas :O
I try to help people out here all the time. I have trouble believing that other people are going to copy my strategy to the point that the market changes and it doesn't work anymore. At best most people will learn a bit about the markets by reading what I give away about my strategy. The pillarstone for me is time and volatility. Markets have a tendency to be bullish or bearish depending on what time of day it is. I spend my days searching out for reliable time frame indicator. The other thing I try to predict is when the market will increase in volatility. For example I was looking for an increase in volatility in the $C when the oil inventory report came out at 10:30 this morning(It didn't happen)
No, the way how you READ is not correct. Successful traders certainly want and need to 'give back'. BUT They have paved through the difficulty of successfully having made an inner revolution. How can someone explain all the intricacies of what s/he has gone through in 'understandable' words for new comers or traders who fail because they don't find the need to make that inner revolution? If they start to say everything from the beginning, ALL IMPATIENT wannabes will call them cryptic and unwilling to share!!! Well, that is the only honest way they can do. A kindergarten kid wanting to enter a uni will have a hard time because s/he needs to go through all the steps before s/he can understand what is needed to attend uni. And all traders, may I say without exception, will say that the trading system is nothing compared to the mindset. Any system IS PROFITABLE if you have what it takes to follow the rules of that system TO THE LETTER. The problem with greedy, fearful and impatient new traders is exactly in "follow the rules of that system TO THE LETTER". It is the duty of the trader to develop such a mindset. You can't blame other traders for your failures.
Drawdown. Caused me to focus on the relationship of price action in the pairs, in relationship to each other and learning to trade them as one instrument. Thus diversification was a second by product of the Drawdown pillarstone for me... Michael B.