My trading experience & evolution

After several months of trading, back testing a variety of technical indicators & strategies on my demo account, my curiosity has led me to several articles, seminars, videos, ebooks & blogs which overall I’ve learnt from.

I’ve realized that I’m more suited as a swing trader for mid to long terms trades, my trading strategy involves price action through the use of simple charts (no indicators) with trendlines & horizontal levels acting as support & resistance in multiple timeframes (30min, 1hr, 4hr & daily).

I enjoyed using technical indicators but after a while I realized the lagging factors that everybody talked about. It led to my discovery of trendlines because I found that with my knowledge of candlestick & charts patterns, I still lacked perfect timing to enter & exit my trades… But soon realized that fusing trendlines & horizontal levels for support/resistance was the missing piece to the puzzle of my trading strategy as they enabled me to anticipate the swing levels.

Throughout all the winning trades I’ve had, it’s actually the losing trades that have made me more disciplined, patient & less reckless from taking trades in no mans land (which led to overtrading), the system I’m using & slowly perfecting allows me to set & forget trades as a test to my patience & trade management.

Lastly, I love trading mainly the Pound (GBPUSD, GBPNZD, GBPAUD & GBPJPY) but I also pay attention to the majors & gold. I still think there’s room for improvement but only time will tell as I continue to test my skills on demo before I decide to go live, hope I get to learn more from the members, maybe share some ideas & hopefully post some charts soon as learn my way around the forum.

I was in a similar situation to you, instead of drawing trend lines or I should say in addition to drawing trend lines I also like using the fib tool and use it as S/R lines which gives me good entry points

What would those factors be, and who is ‘everybody’…If I may inquire please?
What indicator(s) were you using specifically?

:slight_smile:

Jake

Sounds like you’re on the right track. Just remember that trading is long term. Everybody has good trading sessions and bad ones the successful long term traders not only take a look at what they do right, but also what they did wrong. Constant review and learning.

With regards to indicators, they are not meant to be used by themselves, they all have one purpose (theoretically) and that’s to help you measure and confirm risk. When I started I broker my trades in to: Trend, Momentum, Cycle, Support and resistance, looked for trend on longer time frame, verified on the next lower and entered on the next lower.

Today, I scan all currency pairs, use tick volume in place of time based, only look at the time frame I’m trading, look at trend, momentum cycle (no indicators) as well as a support and resistance indicator which saves me the time of drawing them. If something is not clear cut, I use another indicator which points support and resistance when pair is ranging, I’m not just looking for an opportunity, I’m looking for the best opportunity. Use the tools you need to, disregard the ones you don’t need. Be patience, disciplined and consistent.

Post questions, answers and thoughts in the forums, keep an open mind when reading other traders posts. This will help you to learn more, fortify and reinforce what you’ve learned already, practice, practice, and practice and try to make the same mistake the least amount of times. Good Luck
Gp

@Oriongalo
Interesting, though I’m curious as to which time frame do you use the fib tool? I liked fibs at a certain point but struggled to use them effectively since my analysis consists of multiple timeframes…

@Jake
Everybody being the professional traders I’ve consulted along with several books, articles & videos I found that stated the different types of technical indicators (including their pro’s & cons + how they best used in combination with leading technical indicators), the lagging type for instance would be the moving averages: I’d use two EMA’s & patiently wait for the crossover as an entry signal & also use them as dynamic support & resistance. And as @gp mentioned, ‘they not meant to be used by themselves’ so I chose to use the EMA’s with the RSI & Fibonacci… Don’t get me wrong, they worked effectively & I enjoyed using them but I felt like I couldn’t truly master using them effectively to time my trades, so I improved my technical analysis skills by drawing up levels on the charts & personally feel that price action & trendlines work far more simpler & effective with my trading style but mostly it’s enhanced the timing of my entries, all that’s required from my end is concentration, planning & anticipation when candlestick patterns & chart formations at S&R levels for final entry confirmation

@gp
Thanks… My sole aim is to continue improving & learning, I possess the patience thanks to my random distraction but hopefully I’ll gain the experience to be more disciplined & consistent. Seems we got something in common - the items you mentioned when you started are similar to what I look for in the trades I snipe out, one thing I like the most about what you pointed out is looking not just for an opportunity, but to look for the best opportunity! Which is why I enjoy getting in mid-long term trades.

Thanks for the questions & shared thoughts, appreciate & respect all your opinions… I’ll be sure to keep an open mind, give your’ll a shout with any queries I may have in the near future & learn more from what you have to share from your trading experience.

Care to share what type of trading strategies you enjoy using & find most effective to your trading style?

If you like the fib tool ( my favorite) watch this video YouTube
I used and use this tool whenever I trade trending markets. Works on all time frames. I still watch it. Very basic very profitable. Once you’re comfortable with this one , then watch this next one. It’s more of an advance video on using it. YouTube If you’re having trouble deciding where to draw your fib lines from, use a zig zag indicator to get major highs and lows. The more you practice the better you get.

I also used EMA’s 200,100.50,30,20 and 10 period. Long when candles are above 10,20,30,50,100 and 200 and short when candles are below 10, 20,30,50,100 and 200 period. Works great with RSI, Stochastic (9,3,3) and CCI and on 60 minute plus.

My personal opinion is that you want to get a good understanding of indicators, and time based charts first and then move into volume spread analysis and tick charts. Again just my opinion.

@GP
Thanks for the links, I’ll be sure to download the vidz & give the Fib’ another shot, after all it’s actually videos that catalyze my learning process. As for the EMA’s, we pretty much used them in the same manner… I think I’ll take baby steps to implement each of the indicators starting with the Fibonacci & maybe this time around I’ll be able to get different results, but as you mentioned earlier - I’ll keep what I find effective & disregard what I don’t need.

Hello JJ6479, and welcome!

Jake and GP00053 have given you excellent answers, in my humble opinion, so I will not repeat what they have said!

The only thing to remember, the one thing to remember, is that there is no telling how long it will take you to find

a ‘style’ that suits your trading, also because your trading will evolve, and market conditions will evolve: for example,

market conditions now, in a central-bank controlled system (at least for the Majors), do not have much volatility, and

there is much congestion around, so some long-term (‘swing’, ‘intra-day’, etc.) retail traders may well HAVE to look into

shorter time-frames to play breakouts, or small ranges, and other shorter-term moves… It is difficult to be a long-term

trader at the start, because you want to see results NOW, not in twelve or eighteen months down the line!

However, if you are sure that you are more suited to long-term trading from this point already, then go for it, and

I hope that you will last the mileage - BabyPips is strewn with the virtual debris of many newbies who may have not

survived very long!

Best of luck.

Happy Trading.

@PipMeHappy
Thanks for the welcome… I’m good with long term trades but I’m patient & also shift to lower time frames (lowest being 30min & 1hr) to snipe out early entries on trendlines & think I can slowly adapt in the course of time but doubt I can cope with timeframes lower than 30min.

You’re right in terms of the changes in market conditions & hopefully the more trades I engage in throughout multiple time frames, the more I’ll be able to cope with the various market conditions… Haha I’m not good at giving up, so I hope to last longer than the newbies that can’t cope.

Thanks again

:v:

J

Excellent attitude, JJ6479…

Are you getting any support from family and friends, or is this a ‘secret hobby’, so to speak?

Hahaha funny ya should ask, but it’s a lil secret… People know me mainly for being a gamer & watching anime or doin’ some Audio Visual work, it’s only my older brother (who introduced us to forex) & a friend of mine that know about my trading. What about you guys?

Excellent!

My mother introduced me to it, then I told my girlfriend after a while, and now I told a couple of colleagues and some friends

… Mostly they are fine with it, but they rarely ask questions - it just is not particularly interesting as a dinner party topic!

Hahahaha I figured I’d have the same dilemma, which is why I turned to a forum where similar minds & interests unite… Already enjoying it far more than I had anticipated.

Woot woot anime gamers UNITE! haha, i find trading to be like a life long video game, your gaming the odds and doing the best u can to be profitable. Love it! every day is a new level you need to clear and bring down the big bad boss! haaha

Thx i already knew some of the stuff but this really helped out

@Oriongalo :slight_smile: I take it you’re also into anime & games… “find trading to be like a life long video game…” Haha I like that - interesting way to perceive the market & have fun at the same time, though I’ve never thought of it that way.

Think I’ll use Final Fantasy to fuse your approach with my usual serious & tactical method which was somehow inspired from a certain football manager, the upcoming trading sessions could turn out to be an interesting strategic game…

From this what you are saying it seams like you are on a good track figure in out how how everything works, but there is a problem what will occur right after you decide to go on live trading because you are trading on demo account without any money and no emotions. What ever strategy you will develop on demo trading is not going to work on live trading.

I definitely agree that there’s lots of practice, patience and discipline involved in becoming good a trading forex.

For me, I’m still only using horizontal support and resistance lines, as well as trading the news.

I’d like to incorporate trend lines, but something gives me the feeling that if I gave 5 trades the same chart, I’d likely end up with 2-3 different trend lines which is what I don’t like.

if you are trading seriously then then you dont have to worry about money or emotions, if you are serious in trading feeling about these things automatically come.