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Old 01-14-2008, 02:22 PM
daedalus daedalus is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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daedalus is a veteran on the BabyPips.com Forums and is a great contributordaedalus is a veteran on the BabyPips.com Forums and is a great contributor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dahlia View Post
Daedalus

I’m a newbie and have been following your thread with great interest (and being entertained at various points as well) . I do have a few questions if you don’t mind:

1) How many pairs do you follow? Do you generally stay with the majors, or do you have a list of favorites? (Can you give us this list, if applicable?)
2) With all the pairs mentioned above, how many trades (on average) do you open a day? (Just trying to see how many trading opportunities the system produces)
3) How long does a typical trade last? (30 minutes-ish? An hour? Several hours? Etc…)
4) How big of a bet do you typically take per trade relative to your account size? For example, if you had a $5000 account, how many lots/minilots would you enter per trade?
5) Did I read somewhere that you do have a full time job while trading? If so, how do you find the time to manage your trades? Does your employer allow you to trade at work? Are you entering/exiting trades during non-working hours?
6) I’m sorry if you posted this somewhere else already, but: What is the success rate of the system. I mean, if you took every opportunity you see (given the conditions that you already spelled out), approximately how any trades would result in a win? A loss? An approximate breakeven?
7) Is this the only/primary system you use in your trading?

Thanks in advance! Also, just wanted to say that it never ceases to amaze me the way some people would give so much time and effort to help others, while asking for nothing in return. Karma loves people like you!

Dahlia
1. USDCAD, EURUSD, EURCHF, USDJPY, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, USDCHF, EURJPY are what I follow daily. Selected for their fairly congruent price patterns and low < 3 pip spreads with my broker.

2. Between 1-4 trades a day. Sometimes none, sometimes more. Trade what the charts give you, sometimes there is more opportunity than others. Don't force it when its not there, and rake it in when it is.

3. 10 minutes to 12 hours on the smaller time frame trades, unless i'm taking a 4 hour/daily setup in which case it could take 2-3 days on the 4 hr, and a week or so on a daily setup.

4. I trade with the ideology of 500.00/per mini. So technically speaking with a 5k account you'd be trading a standard lot. This of course assumes you know what you're doing and are consistently profitable EVERY week. That leverage amount is MY PERSONAL preference, but as discussed prior, is too aggressive for many, and maybe not aggressive enough for others. Refrence the "Adding Size" post and follow up discussion on page 7.

5. I'm actually a full time college student (i'm a senior in my last semester). I take night and online courses so I can trade during the day. However this semester I have to take a Monday/Wednesday morning class at 8:30... It was hell this morning. I might take my laptop with me and trade in class... I think more likely though i'm just not going to trade during that 2 hour period twice a week for the next couple months. No biggie.

6. I typically hit 75-80% win rates (this includes trades that fail at 38% and stop me out for nothing or a small 1-2 pip (spread) loss.) But I must emphasis this is NOT a system - it is a method. I've tried to make it as mechanical "1-2-3-Make Money" as possible, but there is an inherent level of interpretation and subjectivity that is left up to every trader. This works for us, but if you can't handle those types of decisions and situations you may look elsewhere for a more mechanical true "system".

7. Yes. After a small stint trading automated systems in equities, this is THE ONLY METHOD i've ever traded. Its evolved over time into what it is now, but more or less the core has not changed one iota.

Hope that answers your questions!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kagein View Post
Do you guys use trendlines as well as fibs? Or is less, the new more?

gbp/jpy appears to be repecting the channel quite well.
I don't personally. I have before, they have relevance in the markets, and there is no reason why you can't or shouldn't. Add whatever you feel gives you an extra edge, be it the stochastics, a different MA setting, or confluence from other fib grids (my next post in the works).

At the end of the day they are just one more way to identify a trend that we can use fibs to enter with. Hell, you could scrap the MA's entirely and just use trendlines or channel regressions for your trend identification and I have no doubts you would do just fine!

Cheers!
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