Advice for a rookie swing trader

Am new to Forex and i decided that i was gonna swing trade. I just don’t have the time to sit and watch charts all day, and I don’t want to hold on to a position for more than a week or two. Anyways i justed wanted to know what are some really good indicators for this type of trading, and how much can the news affect my trades. I’ve been using the strategy from the baby pips school, it takes awhile to get in on a trade because am using a daily chart. But I made my first trade today and i made thirty five pips. Another question since am position trading, on Fridays when the markets close should i close my positions or is it ok for me to leave them open since am swing trading.

Knock yourself out. Find all the advice you need in the forum below.

I just don’t have the time to sit and watch charts all day,

But do not take too many short cuts in your Forex education
because of time restraints.

Anyways i justed wanted to know what are some really good indicators for this type of trading, and how much can the news affect my trades.

http://forums.babypips.com/show-me-money-swing-trading/

I’ve been using the strategy from the baby pips school, it takes awhile to get in on a trade because am using a daily chart.

Also take a look here.

http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/727-cowabunga-system.html

A lot can happen over the weekend and you can find your profitable trade very unprofitable come Sunday’s opening. Most traders that I know close their positions Friday night for safety.

I remember a professional trader once telling me that she closes her positions on Friday because she wouldn’t want to wake up Monday morning and find that North Korea had nuked the U.S. It could damage her USD positions. :wink:

The point is, a lot can happen over the weekend, so you’d be safer to close everything on Friday.

Never been a big fan of fancy indicators. I’ve only ever used price and price alone. After all, bands, moving averages, MACDs, and the rest are all derived from price. Why bother with em?
These three rules have served me well in the past;
Rule #1; Trade with the trend- If the market is making new price highs, go long. New lows, short. Buy breakouts, short breakdowns. Keep it simple.
Rule #2- Cut your losses quickly and never average down- Guard your trading capital because its your life line. Break this rule and your out with just one mistake.
Rule #3- Let your winners run- If somethings working for ya, add to it. Compund on your success.

To be clear, I’ve mostly traded stocks in the past, just starting in Forex. But I’m pretty sure these rules hold true here to. Nothing that hasn’t been said on these forums before before, but they can’t be stressed enough.

I do believe the above rules are valid but still worthy of being challenged depending on the kind of trader you are. For instance:

Rule 1: Why do you have to trade with the trend if you are not a trend trader? What’s wrong with range trading? Hell, there are even those who are good at counter-trend trading (divergence and the like)

Rule 2: Why should you NEVER average down? “Never” & "“always” are dangerous words to say. There is a time and place for almost everything, including averaging down. Clearly you should not do it in a haphazard manner, but i definitly think it is wrong to acquire a never or always kind of mind-set

Rule 3: Again, another valid rule in many circumstances but why would you let your winners run if you are a scalper or swing trader? Scalpers are in and out. Alot of people are more comfortable with using profit targets, which, by definition, is not exactly letting profits run in the purest sense. Some even shoot for higher accuracy systems with lower profit targets. That’s cool too

The point i am trying to make is that no trader should get themselves bogged down in any kind of hard fast rule. The above rules you state are found anywhere and are rules you find in most books. Are they valid? Of course!!! But they’ve become doctrine that too many people are afraid to move away from and explore other options

I think these 2 posts by busboy and pipbull are priceless. So often new traders are given conflicting information. These posts show that you have to develop your own ideas that work for you. There are not many hard and fast rules and even those that I hold as unbreakable like never trade without a stop are openly ignored by others. I will often leg into a trade (some would call it averaging down), trend trade but with divergence will look for the trend change, change my plan in midtrade as a result of new information etc. Each of us has to decide how much flexibility we can endure without losing our footing! So many differences, so little guidance

Good point tony. Everyone has gotta find there own way in this game. The points I made are just the ones that have worked for me in the past. There are a million ways to become a profitable trader and it really comes down to trying out different methods tell you find one that works for you.

Rule #1; Trade with the trend- If the market is making new price highs, go long. New lows, short. Buy breakouts, short breakdowns. Keep it simple.
Rule #2- Cut your losses quickly and never average down- Guard your trading capital because its your life line. Break this rule and your out with just one mistake.
Rule #3- Let your winners run- If somethings working for ya, add to it. Compund on your success

Yep these are standards or I should say foundations which can be found
in many text books et al, but these are the [U]“foundations”[/U]

Everybody needs them, do you learn to drive an F1 racing car, before you
learn to drive?

No you are taught to drive, then with practise from these foundations, you
branch out. Put the firm foundations in place first.

Some great post here.

[B]All you need, as an individual, is your own proven system, put on a short term chart, if it works, put it on a long term chart if that works,

"when I say “works” I mean gives good buy and sell signals that would’ve yielded profit if you were in them.

Then, as simple as it is to make money in forex, trade in the direction of the longer term signals when the short term set up gives a signal, and if you trade against the trend just take a smaller trade or a trade 50% of the normal trade size , this should be based on account size.

This will cut losses and give you “smart” exposure.

Works for me and my members. But this simple concept will make anyone money with any system.[/B]

Disclaimer: Discipline is your job. No forums or signal systems can change a trader that is there own worse enemy. Man must be IceMen. Man must have a strategy to be IceManic About.

Man must strive to be fine practitioners of the IceManicTradeCraft.

People always say trade with the trend.

People usually have different ideas and time scales that they use to determine trends.

Be one of the people. Get your own time frames and make your own decisions.

Set goals and stick to em.

Find any old crappy system, tweak it, and make it work, put a short term idea (signal) against a long term idea (signal), if they disagree, don’t trade or trade small, if they agree (A trade baby), seriously consider pulling the trigger.

Git money.

Man Must Remember

  1. There is a such thing as missed trades.
  2. Be smart about your losses and rape your winners.
  3. Don’t make predictions, only omnipresense can do that, and I assure you its none of humanity.
  4. repeat all of the above.