I pop up here n there on these boards to learn from everyone and figured I’d ask a few questions and hopefully you guys can help me out =)
If you read any of my previous posts I recently opened a live account (micro, fxcm) and I’m actually having a lot of fun with it. I started with $888.00 (any other chinese do this? haha, hoping for every littl ebit of help!) But ya so far I’ve netted +$124.27 dollars in since May 1st.
All is going well, sticking to a plan but every now and then I… GAMBLE and place trades on a whim. Not really on a whim, but take positions that I ‘feel’ like are going to do me well, and well, some do, some don’t of course =P
Just wondering if this is a common occurrence when you’re just starting out, I’ve started to close out the charts that I don’t want to read because I feel enticed to open a position when I probably shouldn’t. K, I said it, onto the main topic of my post.
Does anyone have any advice on when I should be looking for trades? I live in sunny california and notice a lot happens in the wee hours of the morning. I am focusing on the GBP/USD and EUR/USD right now, if I wake up at 6am everyday should this suffice? I am usually up by 6:15 latest and out of ready to start the day by 6:45 (PST).
I don’t have a real job, I live with my parents. Right now I am teaching for an afterschool program, usually anytime between 1pm-5pm (pst). I generally don’t like to hold trades overnight, I don’t know why but I just don’t feel comfortable not being able to see them =P So basically I want to trade any time frame between 6am-12pm PST and am wondering when I should look out for news events and such.
Yes I’m a noob at this but I would like to make this a profitable hobby for myself and am willing to work hard at it.
If you continue to place trades on a whim, you will eventualy fail. You need to do several things. Decide the time frame of your trades, learn the technical and/or fundamental analysis methods, and create a trading plan. Then figure out how you will manage your money, and try to keep a level-head. Otherwise, you will loose the money in the long run.
In my experience let me tell you that price behaves less “random” when there is more volatility, and also in those hours you will make more money. The hours of the day when price moves faster is when two markets overlap. If you are trading EUR/USD, you should trade around this time:
I agree with lasereyes you should trade a plan and keep as little emotion as possible when trading. When your acount grows so will the intensity of your emotions especially ones that tell you don’t close a bad trade it will turn around. Those emotions are killers.
I agree with what others said. To complement that information, depending on what pair you’re trading you can check out on autochartist.com the time of the day when your preferred pair has the most activity/liquidity.
By knowing this, you’ll be able to trade cleaner/quicker moves and you can choose a pair that adjust your time zone.
Don’t gamble and remember that staying out of the market is also part of trading, don’t lose your patience, by sticking to your rules you’ll find plenty quality set ups that will pay off nicely.
I am in CA as well and trade from about 9-1130am and that usually has enough movement for me. waking up at 630 should be good as that is when it starts to get good here (930 est). Starts to calm down around 1130-1200. Between 0630 and 1130 should give you plenty of time to wait for and get some decent trades, no rush just take your time and look for solid entries. Remember one wrong choice can take you out for good (I trade EUR/USD as well, it will get you when you least expect it).
Where in CA are you at? I am going to take a guess and say Rowland Heights, am I close?
It sounds vaguely familiar but aren’t 8s a Chinese good luck number?
Haha yes, 8’s are lucky in Chinese. Is that also where you inferred Rowland Heights from? I’m actually from orange county.
Thanks for the advice, I notice most of the comments were about the whim trades, and yes I know I need to stop them. I’m using the cowabunga plan and I’ve been having success with it and I’ve also been using the system posted in the free systems page for the 45 pip daily eur/usd doing well also.
Thanks for the suggested time frames, I’ll give them a shot. I actually just traded a net of 65 pips today =) no gambling haha. hopefully the beginners luck will continue