The title basically says it all. I just finished the school and I’m looking for the best way to get better. Right now if someone were to trade in the exact opposite direction I do(demo), they would have made ~175 pips in the last 4 days. I think I’ve just been unlucky because it seems like the odds are that in the last 7 trades I would have gotten one.
Anyway, I’m mainly asking what would be the best use of my time at this point. Should I just keep practicing demo and try to gain some experience? Or should I start trying out systems?
I’d start by learning the trading platform’s ins and outs first. That way you’ll know where to find what you need, WHEN you need it.
Then, as you’ve gone through the school, find a few topics you find interesting that would be your style of trading. Pick a few and then research/search the forums for systems based on those topics. For example, look at things like ‘price action’, ‘volume’, etc…
THEN once you’ve got something you like, demo it. See how you do. Focus on maintaining a positive number of week over week, month over month.
It’s not a quick easy process, I’m two years in and still learning a boatload. Good luck to you.
I got started by doing something different. Like the first post states, knowing your platform is important indeed, which is required in order to be able to mark up your charts. I found that learning about support and resistance was crucial. Its also important to remember that you dont need to learn how to do things differently but the same as the big guys. Reading charts like them will enable you to make similar decisions, which is good. The most i portant thing all is to learn how to manage your risk, this is essential.
Here is a quick list:
Learn about risk management
Dont get emotional about forex, if you do you will fail
Find a good strategy and stick with it
Know how to enter trades snd more importantly, know when NOT to enter a trade
Dont get gready, respect the power of the market and be thankful for it. Be humble
Hey Sharpe, Point# 2 is something I needed to explore better. I need to get charged up some to get into something, if not my interest in it will wain. What is the mind trick then you think to ‘not get emotional about forex’ ?
Frankly, trading without a system which just means proper rules, you are gonna lose your last shirt for sure.
The point is this: There are a lot of probabilities with a bunch of different setups. Although if you use every different setup, you might end broke until the string of winners set in. Focus on a few rules of just one setup or two, which gives you an edge and a max. drawdown.
You mean I can’t just point and click my way to $$$'s of dollars:p Sorry, just having a senior moment of humor here. It felt good to post this for some reason…
Its about being able to take a loss due to a bad position/decision and not get all “I THINK it will turn…” - when I am “thinking” I am getting emotional. I studied hypnotherapy as a hobby (as the knowledge is useful in regards to what I do) and applied it to my trading, to create a proper mindset.
Ok, so I think I’ll start trying out the Cowabunga system. The problem is that I’m a college student, so I can’t watch the charts all day. I can probably watch it for about 4 hours at the end of the day. My goal is to make 50 pips a week. Do you think that is reasonable?
Also, like soul786 said, I realize this is going to take a lot of effort and I’m not just going to hit a point where I start making a ton of money all the sudden. And that’s it’s more a continual learning process.
I’m a newbie and tried out the cowabunga system recently. I found it worthwhile. Doing things like jumping the gun before a valid signal is quite there helped me understand the system, you can see bad trades which would have been filtered out by following the system properly. So if you don’t have time to wait for valid signals, playing around with “near” signals might help your understanding.
I’ve been at University for the past two years Monday to Friday and I have used the same trading approach for these two years and also one year prior to starting university. I trade very early hours of the morning, before any of my lectures even start. I’m from the UK and get up at 5am ready to trade 6am to about 9am/10am depending on how things are going.
You may have heard people suggesting that you cannot make a trading system work for certain times of the day, but if you can make a system work all day long then the morning session is fine to now specialize in. Different times of the trading day do have certain characteristics that have always remained the same. So with this being said, find a time frame of the day that you know you are always going to be available to trade in, and i don’t mean like a one hour period! You are going to need a good four to six hours consistent section of the day.Trading signals will not always occur with in a named hour of the day, each and every day!!
It will take you some time to work your trading system around this chosen time period, but this is your first step. Why test times of the day that you know you are never going to be able to trade. (all this is with the exception to an EA, which im assuming as a newbie you dont know of)
Thanks Sharpe, I study lucid dreaming or OOBE as some call it, well I can’t say I study it really, I just find myself in the 'state of consciousnesses that allows for a better understanding of projected dreams. Have a great weekend too.
To be perfectly honest your in discovery mode now. People will say stick to one system and I agree but that’s further down the road. I know nothing about dreams or nothing so I won’t touch that one. But explore forex on demo of course and find what works for you. You need to find your own trading personality and psychology. Only then can you either find or build a system that fits you perfectly. Like a doctor in his internship years has to spend 6 weeks trying all kinds of different specialties; to see where their skills, their personality and their passion meet . That nexus of skills personality and passion allow you to perform at your peak with the least amount of effort. After you learn the basics trading becomes a very personal journey. So other than keeping your trading and risk in check my advice. Obviously never stop studying that never ends, and start a journal either on paper or here in babypips. My thread began on day one trade one of my live trading and has been invaluable. I think if I started it earlier I would have found my trading self faster.
So spend several weeks solid on the following: some will take longer than others due to the length of time set ups take on higher time frames .
Scalping/ momentum trading
Intraday trading
Swing/ multiple day to two week trading
Position month or longer position holding( most people don’t like this one but if you are real patient 1000 + pip gains are not uncommon)
Types of trading:
Indicator based trading
Naked/ price action based trading
Fundamental trading
News trading .
I know it seems like a lot and it’s going to probably take you 6 months to get throughout it but imagine how much you will have learned. Not only will you understand the basics of every major style of trading out here so when people tell you about the trades they put on you can see the logic. But Also you will have the ability to find your niche and develop exactly what fits to you, maybe you like intraday trading using price action , but you like to also use bollinger bands. So you develop something exact for that. Also each section will teach you how to use the basics to help enhance your eventual developed plan. So because you scalped the 1-5min TFs for a month even though your a intraday swing trader. You are completely comfortable finding pin point entries on the 1 min chart giving you 3:1+ reward risk ratios. Etc you see where I am going with this.
Personally it took me a long time to just find what style I liked the most but because I did most of the above myself what I said is true. I look at setups on the daily and confirmation on 4H but I enter on the 1min with confidence. I am a purely naked trader (volume sometimes) but if you throw a bollinger, fibs, CCI or stochastics up I would be completely comfortable with it and be able to incorporate that info into my trading analysis. I know this has been a long one but it really shows what I did to develop myself and it’s all documented in my thread. I never felt so comfortable trading it’s almost like innately know that I flow with my style there is no forcing. I hope all newbies can find their own trading niche. As always Cheers and good pippin’
It’s nice to hear that other college students have time for school and trading. I was a little worried that full time college might not leave enough time to trade. I might have to trade the mornings also(more awake for class is a bonus), or the late after noon.
That’s awesome. I saved all that and I think I’ll just go down the list of things you said to do. That is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for the long post. It was very helpful.
Also thanks for everyone’s input even if I didn’t address it.
Yes practice forex demo account, if you want to make good career in forex. This will let you understand basics and you can easily test your decision strategy.
Ask yourself WHY you are using something before you start using it. For example, lets take moving averages. Moving averages are linear because they use some of the basic 4 operations ( adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing). We know the market is not linear because if it was and we can in find out the relationship from past data and draw the line continuing into the future and be able to define where price will be in 2015. We all know that’s not possible so the market must be non-linear. So why would I use a tool that is linear (like moving averages) in a non-linear market? It would make more sense to use non-linear tools like harmonic patterns to get an advantage. Use the right tools for the right job. (btw, 99% of your tools in MT4 are all linear, as well as 99% of all EA’s)
I remember that I was once like you … didn’t know where to start after learning the basic. The truth is the more you learn, the more confuse you will get because you don’t know which information is valid. Therefore, the best way is to just look at a chart and record your observation. Based on your observation, you can construct a plan with different strategies and management techniques.
After you develop a rigid plan and have a solid foundation, you can slowly learn more new things to improve your edge.
