Hi again 4X4Life,
"Types of trading" seems to be a hot topic around here lately. Your monetary goal is $150.00/day; but that doesn't necessitate scalping to achieve it. In fact, you may find with some experience that day trading (usually referred to as "scalping" here, which is actually something else) isn't really compatible with your job and that the flexibility of holding trades longer is actually more productive. If you want, you could think in terms of "$750.00 per week"; but try not to be money focused at first. That may sound impractical, but concern about meeting a monetary goal each day while you are learning and demoing can pose a serious impediment to your progress. First concern yourself with education, then measure success in terms of pips earned and lack of drawdown (meaning loss of your account balance).
In your posts I've noticed what you just wrote: charting seems to be a little difficult to grasp. Don't worry about indicators right now - that'll only muddy the waters. Just try to understand the basic construction of the chart.
Charts are laid out on a 2-D plane, with X and Y axes: X (horizontal) measures time, while Y (vertical) measures price. Market activity is plotted here: what price is and at what time price occurred where it did is what the chart represents. Try reading more about candlesticks in the school to understand exactly what information they are conveying.
Once you are comfortable with how a chart functions and what you can know based on studying it, you are then ready to begin analyzing it. This is where simple things like trendlines and moving averages come in: where has price been, where has the movement of price found a ceiling (resistance) and where has it found a floor (support)? Again, the school here introduces and describes these concepts.
Once you're familiar with all of this, if you want you could then begin adding indicators (like bollinger bands, RSI, stochastics, etc.) and even begin trading a system (e.g. the Cowabunga system published here in one of BP's blogs).
Other types of charts? Like a bar chart? you can view an OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) bar chart on Oanda by clicking on the dropdown menu where "Candlestick" is probably currently selected. Candlesticks and OHLC bars convey the same information, only in a different visual format. Since most here talk about candlesticks, you might consider using only a candlestick chart for now.
As for walking you through a trade: simply click on the "sell" or "buy" square, the ticket will pop up, ensure the number of units there is correct (this determines the size of your position), input a stop loss or take profit if you want, and then click submit. An arrow should show up on your chart displaying where you went long or short and you can follow along from there.
|
My short term goal is to daytrade/scalp in an attempt to make $150.00 per day or the equivalent in pips if possible. I have a 9-5 and will continue the school of pipsology until the light goes on. Is there a basic charting course that is not a rip-off? What is a day in the "Life Of A Forex Scalper Like"? Can I use ONLY Candlesticks for charting, or must I incorporate other charts as well? Can someone familiar with Oanda walk me through making my first trade buying EUR/USD so I will have something active to watch?
Linear Mode
