Hi all, I am new to forex (just trying to learn) and trading on demo. I've been watching prices and I noticed often at (exactly) 8.30 new york time (I am at gmt+1 btw) there's a large jump or break in prices. It just goes crazy and can go 50 pips or so in 2 seconds. Impossible to trade manually because the moment you see something it's gone. After that it goes back to old levels although volatility is very high for an hour or so. I do not like to trade this hour btw because I get stopped out all the time. Has anyone been focussing his strategy on US opening? For example right before the moment one could place a buy stop and sell stop 5 pips away from the current price. Has anyone been trying / studying this and what were your findings? regards, Ivo
8.30 ET is a common time for data releases - that explains the sudden gyrations in price. Re trading the news - you need a more reliable strategy than that to survive in forex. I remember trading the news was really good for a period about this time last year (similar strategy to yours). I never did do it, but then I remember a few months later the gyrations were not as wild and they were all over the place. Then their is slippage, bad fills, wide spreads at that time in a nutshell it's a real rollersoaster ride that usually will end in the poorhouse. Give it a go - maybe I'm wrong. In my experince, systems like you described work for a while but their will be some bad periods which can knock you out. Do it the old fashion way and study technical analysis, you live in a good time zone, take advantage of it and try and find a buying/selling opportunity that has some strong momentum behind it, without the associated "noise".
Thank you NZDSPeCIALISt for your answer. I was just wondering if you guys thought there are opportunities around this time. regards, Ivo
Been missing your posts on the NZD, Specialist. What happened? I thought you were going to post your trades.
Check todays post on usd/chf thread. I'll post wherever I see opportunities - NZD included but not strictly only that pair as I had originally posted. NZD=No Zinc Deficiency
This is the same strategy that I used on a demo account when I first discovered forex. If I though that the market was going to go up I would place a buy order 10pips above market about 15 seconds before the release. I thought I had a good strategy and was ready to open a live account. Then when I tried it on a live account I found out that my broker doesn't accept orders 15min prior to a major release. As NZDSPeCIALISt indicated it probably isn't the best strategy for a novice. It might be best to study technical analysis and trade during quite times. After the London closing perhaps. And you should always be aware of when economic data is going to be released. Daily FX has the most complete global economic calendar that I have come across. The prominent releases are in bold. Click on weekly economic calendar to the left. http://www.dailyfx.com/calendar/briefing/
Thank you. So why not trade futures if you like this strategy and your broker doesn't let you. BTW last Friday one would have made a lot of money trading this strategy. Of course this doesn't mean anything. Ivo
You're right, you could trade futures or you could trade spot with an ECN-type model. I don't care much for this strategy because I live in the Pacific Time Zone, so those announcements are at 0530 for me. And I have a different method that I'm more comfortable with. I like the hours of operation for spot, more hours, more opportunities. So on second thought I should not discourage you from trading a certain method just because it's not something that suits me. I'm sure that this is something that you could become quite proficient at. Just make sure that when you get to the point that you feel you are ready to open a live account, keep on trading the demo for another six months.