Honest opinions wanted...

phaedrus · #1 (**permalink**) 04-18-2007, 07:40 PM

Hello there everybody I am a new graduate from the school of pipsology..brilliant site! (no smudges on my nose really)..however, there isso much info that I find myself starting to grasp one thing and completely forgeting another. What I need is a decent starting point, very simple..can I get honest posts of how people started and what mistakes/successes they may have had? I seem to have the opposite of the midas touch on my demo account..perhaps I use too many indicators or I'm using them incorrectly??..ok enough babbling..appreciate any help..Cheers!

orangutan · #2 (**permalink**) 04-19-2007, 01:37 AM

I found the "so easy its ridiculous" section in 11th grade a good place to start.

http://www.babypips.com/school/my_so...us_system.html

It has some flaws, but its a good way to get a feel, especially if you are into inter-day trades. I have found that its not much chop on time frames of less than 1 hour.

I know what you mean though, its a bit of information overload. The fact is that most of the "tools" of forex trading you will never use. You need to find the ones that create a system that works for you. Its a bit like being a chef. Most of them have dozens of knives, but have one that is weighted and sized just right for them and use almost exclusively.

akeakamai · #3 (**permalink**) 04-19-2007, 02:18 AM

My personal recommendation is to find a single pair and stick with it for awhile. Maybe try looking in the ones with low spreads, or that are paired with the USD, or whatever you like.

Then, load up one indicator at a time and see how it reacts to price movements, maybe change the indicator's values if you're adventurous. Try em' all just for the hellofit, and maybe pick some that make sense to you, like ones that seem to correlate to the charts in a way that makes sense to you. Of course you should probably know the basics of what these indicators tell you

Then master the hell out of that specific currency pair and those specific indicators, and voila, you are a master novice!

And of course money management. Figure that out sometime between demo trading and live trading if at all possible

and oh, I almost forgot, try out different time frames! While I don't really recommend limiting yourself to one timeframe, maybe limiting yourself to one longterm chart and one shortterm chart would be beneficial. I think you'll notice that some indicators behave a little bit differently on different timeframes.

phaedrus · #4 (**permalink**) 04-19-2007, 09:01 PM

Cheers for the comments! I can use all the help I can get. I tried that Ema Step thing..not too bad once you figure out which is actually the "cross candle"..I mean it was a little confusing..does the cross happen ON the candle..is it the candle just after the cross...and what direction do you take if the cross is somewhere between candles..maybe I'm not getting it..however I did manage a theory and ran with it..just don't have the statistics to confirm it as a 4/5 return as promised..in time I expect. I'm still on a demo..not enough guts yet..still need to eat..but I'll get there eventually and with your help it'll be sooner...thanks!

daraknor · #5 (**permalink**) 04-20-2007, 10:33 AM

Get used to trading slowly, don't try to do anything new all at once if you're struggling to keep up. When I started learning networking and security concepts, I just kept reading and experimenting. Eventually a few things clicked and it all started to make sense after spending a long time not understanding what I was reading. So what does RPC identd checks on NFS mounts after a squished ID mean? (accessed remote file system, checked on user) You don't need to know everything, you just need to keep treading water.

Here is a "stupid simple" system that is popular at the moment. Trade a currency that pays money every day you hold a position (AUDJPY, USDCHF, USDJPY, GBPJPY). Look at your daily chart. Set up SMA 200. (moving average over 200 days) Set up an RSI indicator. If the price is under the SMA 200, check your RSI. If your RSI declines 3 days in a row and ends up below 35, buy. When RSI is over 75, sell your position.
Longer explanation is here:
Yahoo! Groups

Explanation with graphs is here:
TradingMarkets | Improved R2 Strategy

censce · #6 (**permalink**) 04-20-2007, 10:49 AM

Heyy, you can read all you want, get answers all you want, but your best teacher is experience, if it was as easy as reading a couple articles and knowing how to use indicators, i think the world would be a happier place lol, but its not. If this is what you want to do, you'll have the patience and "stick-to-it-ivness"
and every mistake you make should be taken as a lesson. The articles or "school" here is a good place to start. One thing that i have noticed as you probably have is that there is no shortage of info or people on the net looking to sell you something or tell you they know the "holy grail" and the term "paralysis by analysis" can be applied here, which i have and probably many others have fallen victim to. What i'm trying to say is that theres a lot of noise to deal with, and it sometimes will bogg your mind up, you always need clear cut rules and strategies to adhere to, and you'll never be able to know what that is for you until you figure out what your own beliefs are in the market and try your own strategies. Use whats out there as a guide, as a giant text book, but don't rely on it to give you all the answers. I've heard it said that if you need to go looking for a reason to trade, you shouldn't be in that trade at all.... or if you can't find a good reason to take a trade, don't go looking for one.<< same thing pretty much. There are a lot of factors to consider, how much you want to make, in what amount of time, what you can risk, when can you trade, what session, what time frame, fundamentals, technicals, both?.. the list goes on and on, but as you gain experience you will be faced with these questions which only you can answer, and you'll have to. Money management is often over looked, but please don't do that lol.. it sounds boring and theres no "glory" in risking 2-3%, but if you want glory go watch "300".
I think i may be rambling on about things, but i can do it for a lonnng time lol, My main point is, or "honest opinion" is that you need to dive in and make your mistakes and successes, experience is going to get you there if you stick to it and use good money management so you don't loose too much of your capital. You can read all the books you want on building houses, but that doesn't mean that you can build a house...

experience!
Good Luck and stay confident.

Cencse

toptick07 · #7 (**permalink**) 04-20-2007, 12:50 PM

Welcome aboard. As you can see, there are many on this forum who are willing to help out.

Honestly, if you've never traded anything in your life, you've picked a difficult place to start. I suggest finding a couple stable, profitable traders to exchange ideas with. The "system" itself is less important than the experience and discipline of implementing a strategy. You'll find threads all over this forum discussing that subject.

Like the others suggested, start with a couple simple indicators and learn what makes them tick. Check out the simple math behind the calculations so you understand why certain price action or bar patterns make the indicator move. This may help you make better decisions. Go slow. There is no rush. The markets will be here tomorrow.

I found this in another forum posted by a decent trader regarding patterns and indicators :
"every thing i have posted has been learned from someone else. learning to trade successfully with them is the traders responsibility and trust me it is not automatic. ... ... now maybe some of you who along with me have listened to the drumbeat of go it alone you will never be a good trader until you figure out your own system will say along with me. BULL****. without help from others i would have quit a long time ago. do not be afraid to learn from others even if you lose trading their ideas. you learn more sometimes from the losses than the winners. spending money on books and tapes and websites over twenty years is how i got here."

I'm not saying you have to spend money on books and tapes. I'm saying you should find like minded traders to learn with.

Just my opinion. Best of luck...