Forex for Dummies 2

[Qed]

hehe stormin .. u learn discipline , if u dont ur dead in water

 

[Wysiwyg]

I'd like to offer up some good reading that has taken me all day to get through.

http://www.babypips.com

I ran though the "School" and found it to be very informative and well written.

I have an account with MBT and blew $400 in a week doing all the wrong things.

The highlights for me were:

1. Learn to read charts properly and understand the charting tools
2. Study more than one timeframe to get a wider perception of trends
3. Create a system and test it in demo before throwing away $$'s
4. Stick to your (tested) system

I am now excited with the power of charts and the indicating tools, it's not unlike having the lights switched on in a darkened room

Good one Roland. I would like to add

# Avoid trading a currency at impacting news time.

100 pip plus jumps are only good if one jags the direction.

 

[Kryzz]

anyone know how to sync MT4 with your computers system clock??

thanks,

shaun

 

[Stormin_Norman]

anyone know how to sync MT4 with your computers system clock??

thanks,

shaun

as in make the time match your computer's time?

you cant. unless u can convince your broker to re-work their system.

 

[nickdp]

anyone know how to sync MT4 with your computers system clock??

thanks,

shaun

The time shown in MT4 is the local time wherever the price server is located in the world. Eg GoMarkets is GMT+2, but GoMarkets themselves are in Melbourne (GMT+10)

 

[roland]

A week's trading has me a little negative - around 3% down.

Slowly learning to find better entry points but still having trouble with handling losing positions.

My attached trading chart shows that I have a better than 50% win versus loss ratio, but my loss values are higher.

So far have just been using manual limit orders with the ocassional "panic" market sell.

I have spent the day studying the order types with my platform and going through the video tutorials to add some loss management with stop loss orders.

I am wondering what sort of strategies others have with short term stop loss placements within a similar trading timeframe to mine: Major trend from 1d, swing trends from 1h, trading trend from 15m, entry and exit from 1m

I am happy to take 5 pips or better, so I am guessing my stop losses should be very tight.

Some of my wins have been because I have held through and waited for a reversal, so stop losses would null these out - hopefully a trailing stop will help with letting the winners run.

 

[overit]

Have collected a few bookmarks with useful information over the time. Some things that interested me for some particular reason or another.

Forex E-books - As the name suggests, a bunch of e-books.

Market structure - A thread on forex factory about how the markets/brokers are structured. Worth a read.

Peter Crowns Dibs Method - Scroll through the first 7-8 pages and look for the peter crowns posts. A very articulate and seasoned trader offers up some good advice and a simple method. I am about to take this system live myself.

Spudfires MTF Stochastics - Another thread on FF. Interesting system using multi timeframe stochastics.

Candle stick patterns - Just an ebook with some useful info on candle sticks. NIce easy to read explanation.

Forex Factory and Baby Pips - Mentioned a million times but incase you havent been there yet 2 very useful forum sites.

James16 and Jacko's Thread - Threads on FF with some useful info and a strong following.

 

[Kryzz]

Roland,

What pair are you trading? Do you keep trading each day until you get your 5 pips or better or call it quits after x number of losses?

cheers,

Shaun.

 

[roland]

Roland,

What pair are you trading? Do you keep trading each day until you get your 5 pips or better or call it quits after x number of losses?

cheers,

Shaun.

Hi Shaun,

I'm not looking for 5 pips per day, but 5 pips per trade.

I have decided on GBP/JPY which I have found to have a good daily range of around 100 - 150 pips and can get quite frantic with very quick moves of 20 -50 pips.

I initially started by over trading and getting whip sawed all over the place, so I am slowly learning to wait for better entries and less of them. Having targets is certainly not a bad idea but right now for me I'm going to concentrate on better loss management and creating better rules for myself.

 

[roland]

Definately getting better. Since around 125 on the chart I have been concentrating on better set ups and less frequent entries.

Also now I am looking for swing rebounds rather than trying to catch a speeding train.

I'm also holding longer if it goes against me, since I feel my setups are better giving me more confidence against being whipsawed.

 

[roland]

Sticking with 1 pair is definately a benefit as one learns the nuances. The following is a classic hiccup which seems to occur around 10.30pm every night with GBP/JPY. I was ready for this one and caught 14 pips, could have taken a lot more but my entry and exit were not ideal. Pretty happy anyway!

 

[caribean]

Sticking with 1 pair is definately a benefit as one learns the nuances. The following is a classic hiccup which seems to occur around 10.30pm every night with GBP/JPY. I was ready for this one and caught 14 pips, could have taken a lot more but my entry and exit were not ideal. Pretty happy anyway!

Hiccup at 10:30 PM ???? what could it be???
it seems you may have discovered something no one else has !
Let us know if it keeps occuring around that time.
http://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php (if allowed )

 

[roland]

Hiccup at 10:30 PM ???? what could it be???
it seems you may have discovered something no one else has !
Let us know if it keeps occuring around that time.
http://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php (if allowed )

I haven't read your link, but will, probably have read it before.

You want to know something, self discovery is a lot more satisfying that reading about other peoples discoveries.

At least I am finding pleasure in entertaining myself

 

[marknz88]

I haven't read your link, but will, probably have read it before.

You want to know something, self discovery is a lot more satisfying that reading about other peoples discoveries.

At least I am finding pleasure in entertaining myself

The link is referring to the non-farm payroll figures that came out at 10:30pm (8:30US time)

These figures come out the first friday of every month so yes it is a recurring pattern, but it could break either way depending on the figures (as expected/better than expected/worse than expected)

 

[Stormin_Norman]

careful. nfp can be a bit of a roulette wheel.

 

[caribean]

I haven't read your link, but will, probably have read it before.

You want to know something, self discovery is a lot more satisfying that reading about other peoples discoveries.

At least I am finding pleasure in entertaining myself

Hi Roland, from the # of posts you have i'm assuming you have a good understanding of some market at least, if you're interested in Forex, take the time to know when news releases come out, it is very importand IMO, unless of course you deliberately choose not to.
Take a look at the calender from that site or others, it is a great tool to have.
Ohh, not usualy a smart...e, i just couldn't help myself, appologies if i offended you.

 

[Kryzz]

what time frame would one begin to not look out for news announcements? I would have thought 4hrs and above? I understand you would still look at them if your about to enter a trade, but once your already in a trade.

 

[caribean]

what time frame would one begin to not look out for news announcements? I would have thought 4hrs and above? I understand you would still look at them if your about to enter a trade, but once your already in a trade.

I can not answer that, all i know is, there are times i can see the news release "fits" my TA picture, it is predictable, or should i say, as predictable as a trade can be, those times i dared to enter prior to a medium level new release, i did early enough to secure a "buffer" of
15- 20 points or so and can't remember losing one, but, there are a hell of a lot more times i can't see with any sort of certainty where it's going so i stay out, i can always trade after the initial spike.
Certainly for me news are more of a pain than an opportunity.
If you're going to play the time immediately after the release you'll need charting that can do faster than 1 min TF's, and a broker that executes very quickly...IMHO of course,

 

[tayser]

Sticking with 1 pair is definately a benefit as one learns the nuances. The following is a classic hiccup which seems to occur around 10.30pm every night with GBP/JPY. I was ready for this one and caught 14 pips, could have taken a lot more but my entry and exit were not ideal. Pretty happy anyway!

One man's hiccup is another's opportunity

 

[roland]

Hi Roland, from the # of posts you have i'm assuming you have a good understanding of some market at least, if you're interested in Forex, take the time to know when news releases come out, it is very importand IMO, unless of course you deliberately choose not to.
Take a look at the calender from that site or others, it is a great tool to have.
Ohh, not usualy a smart...e, i just couldn't help myself, appologies if i offended you.

No offence taken, I appreciate your "heads up" on the calendar. I have read the Forex Factory's forums in quite some depth.

Actually it was there that I first learn't about scalping with the Cyrox Rainbow and thought that was the only way to trade Forex - blew my first micro account in no time trying to master 1 second timeframes.