So I am fairly new to trading. Started with a demo for a month or so then went all in and started a live account with $2000. After about one month my account was at $2400. Two days after that down to $1900. Now over the course of a week or so I seem to be losing a LOT more as I go. I feel as if my knowledge on using indicators has been getting better but my trading is getting worse. I am now down to $1500… I seem to be able to understand which direction a pair is headed but my execution is always at the wrong spot. I usually only trade on 15 or 30 minute time frame and aim for about 10-20 pips with a 5-10 pip stop loss. If I feel a trade is going for the long haul I put my take profit and 100 pips with 10 pip stop and a 10 pip trail and just let it ride until I get stopped out. I usually only trade 10k ($1 a pip) and when I do that it seems my trade goes well then I up it to half a standard lot ($5 a pip) and everything usually backfires. The indicators I like to use that have worked before for me are bollinger bands, stochastic, and simple moving averages. I am never sure which time frame to use to justify entering a trade. I hear people swear on 1 and 4 hour time frames but it has never worked well for me. I am tempted to just pull all my money out of the account and go back to a demo but obviously this is something I would like to avoid if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hey man, been there, done that, but dont worry, things can improve…
My 2 cents
…demo for a month or so …
A month is hardly enough time to determine if your strategy works well enough to be able to consistenly provide you with income over the Long-Run before going Live. Forex Market is one of the most difficult ones to trade especially on the lower times frames where things are even more volatile. Best thing is to go back on demo for a few more months, have a set target to achieve consistently, then move to Live. Dont buy into this belief that Live Trading makes you sharper, focused, take things more seriously…Reality is both accounts show the same things and if you can make 1000 Pips on a Demo you can do so on a Live Account.
I usually only trade on 15 or 30 minute time frame and aim for about 10-20 pips with a 5-10 pip stop loss. …
Sounds like you havent defined your trading targets or time frame/Stop Loss. These are crucial in order for you to not chase the market. Defining a clear set of rules to follow is very important.
[B]If I feel [/B]a trade is going for the long haul I put my take profit and 100 pips with 10 pip stop and a 10 pip trail and just let it ride until I get stopped out. I usually only trade 10k ($1 a pip)
again, sounds as if you are changing things as you go along based on emotions and what is changing rather than a clear set of rules. Rules help to anchor your trading so that the market responds to you and your targets rather than the other way around…
…
The indicators I like to use that have worked before for me are bollinger bands, stochastic, and simple moving averages. I am never sure which time frame to use to justify entering a trade. I hear people swear on 1 and 4 hour time frames but it has never worked well for me.
I have never been a fan of Indicators. I stick to Price Action. I have experimented with those you mentioned and more, but it just got confusing. Maybe there is a combination out there that works, but the time spent experimenting could be better spent learning Price Action. Much easier and more accurate.
As I have stated many times in this Forum, Lower Time Frames make trading harder than it needs to be. Economists at Central Banks already have a hard time modelling and forecasting exchange rates over the Medium to Long-Term, so doing it at the 15m 30m level is gonna be even more of headache! The Daily and 4Hour are much easier to trade and understand and their trends etc are more in sync with the Medium Term direction of a pair. Just 2 200 Pip Trades at $1 a Pip could give you that 400 gain in a month. (check out some of my trades/results)
I am tempted to just pull all my money out of the account and go back to a demo but obviously this is something I would like to avoid if possible. !
I agree…when it doubt, pull out. Save your money, protect your capital.
Best thing is to find a strategy/system that already works, try it on a demo then go Live.
Good luck
[B]Duane
DRFXTRADING[/B]
Take a deep breath, MMMMMMMMMMMMMM, ahhhhhhhhhhh
Your new. You just started with to much money. Whats your leverage?
Keep trading, but use the smallest amount possible. 1:10 ratio? Your going to take many more losses then you would think. What pair are you trading? Do you trade several pairs, or concentrate on 1 pair?
Stoch uses are differant per momentuem that pair has. It can be OK for range, but then when its a All out attack on the pair, Over bought stoch really means, Its going to keep pushing even harder in the current direction… So, you must know when the range hits, and when the flood comes.
Find 1 pair to trade, pick 1 direction to trade, and see what happens.
Do that for a week, and report your results in this thread.
Do you use MT4?
Man, its all part of the business. Dont get down and out, just pick right back up, and continue to LEARN the business.
Its about repetition, per your systems rules.
Cant stress that enough.
Good luck
Glad to know you’re using a demo account while getting the hang of forex trading. From what you’ve narrated, it seems that you could practice a little more discipline when it comes to managing your risk. I know it can get tempting to increase your position sizes when you’re doing well but you have to remember that this could potentially magnify your losses also.
For now, just work on figuring out which indicators or time frames you’re comfortable using in your strategy and focus on the process and consistent profitability before worrying about the profits. Maybe have a trade journal so you can record your decision-making (if you increased your position or if you did well on a particular time frame) and then identify which ones are working out for you. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much everyone. I got extremely lucky on a trade due to news and increased my lot size based on the amount I made and consistently lost after that. I realized I was focused on how much I could lose and tightened up my stops a lot. I think I will be pulling out my capital and trading demo for a while before giving it another go.
I’ve been trading mainly NZD/USD and I use fxcm’s platform.
Nothing wron with the platform or broker.
Nzd pairs are very volatile, probably not for the beginner.
Suggest you stop trading and work your way thru the school on here so you have a better understanding of what you are doing.
Take your time, the trades will still be there in 6-9 months time
[B]Hello to the O.P.
Having seen the ‘expected returns’ coming up a lot on Newbie Island, I put the question to
Merlin Rothfeld (and his currencies guest Tim Pessut) yesterday; they answered it live on
air… Watch this from 19’08’’:
[/B]
Power Trading Radio Video Archives | Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Hey chad,
This definitely happens a lot, it did on my first live account and you start to get tunnel vision about losses. Then you start trying to trade too often
or too many pairs or tweak something or try something you’ve never tried before or whatever to try and re coop the losses.
It won’t just happen in the beginning either unless you change your mindset. Losses are a huge part of trading and probably the biggest psychological hurdle to overcome.
I’ve had losses today and I’ve just had to stop, look at the reason and I’ll carry on again tomorrow.
Try to find one simple strategy, trade one pair, in one direction, and use small position size and build your confidence back up and then progress from there.
Good luck.
Shy.
Suggest you go defensive for a while.Keep your powder dry and do some more demo trading.The markets will still be waiting for you on your return.
When I traded for a firm,when you had a bad streak,we 'd cut your trading limits for a little while till
you got back in the groove.Remember free money days are out there,you need a solvent account for when they next occur.
Turn a neg to a pos and review your winners and losers u will gain valuable info from it.
Take your trade sizes down further than 0.10. Can you do 0.01?. Think about averaging into your position of 0.10. 0.01 gives you ten shots to get the average entry decent enough for a profitable outcome.
More than finding a strategy that works, is gaining an understanding of price. A daily candle usually makes the high near the beginning of the day on down days and the low near the beginning of the day on up days. This usually happens around the start of the London open. On an up day (typically and as an example) Institutions move price down as they pair orders, meaning they are buying from retail traders who want to sell, or are pushing price down to activate sell stops from people who are long. This is called accumulation, in this case of long positions by the institutions. Next is manipulation, where price is moved upward (this occurs until around the close of London.) You can calculate an average daily range, and try to take 60-70 percent, while controlling risk carefully. If you’re awake for London open, very often you will see price move down into what’s called an order block, and then moving up. Check out some daily candles and look at where they drive price up to on down days and where they move price down to on up days. I won’t start an indicator debate, but learning how price moves will help you so much more than using a Stochastic. Add in some Fibonacci’s, eventually daily pivots, and firm risk management 20-30 pips per trade, and I bet you have something. Send me a PM if you like and I will point you towards a fellow who provides ONLY free educational videos.
Best of luck.
Agree 100% with the above post.
Also, in terms of your losses, analyse them (ignore the indicators, at best they show analytically what has happened, not what will)…
What time of day are you entering? (what time of day statistically does price turn)
What market opens are you targetting?
“Where” on the chart (relative to other candles, swings, order blocks) does price turn?
What’s price doing on the higher timeframe, to give you a bias for the lower timeframe?
All kind of price action & time stuff, occurs day in day out.
I hope you were referring to Blackwave’s post rather than Hogarste’s, because his makes much more sense & is actually based on factual information as opposed to spurious heresay.
Here you go look, this guy puts his money where his mouth is, practicing what he preaches.
Blackwave Monaco System by Lazard | Myfxbook
Blackwave Australia System by Lazard | Myfxbook
Why does he need to send you a private message?
Seems all a bit covert & mysterious doesn’t it? 
Just simply validate & confirm in public on here for all to see & judge that your “secret fellows” free information is worth his time & effort.
If it’s as good as you infer you certainly ought to be able to present as impressive a C.V as Blackwave.
After all, you’re encouraging this poor guy to commit a large chunk of his time & more money on nothing more than fresh air & hope.
Because the last time I recommended ICT’s website on a thread, I got a warning. I also did not want to hijack this fellows thread with starting a debate with anti-ICT people. I wrote a paragraph that most technical analysts would agree with, and offered to point him in the direction of free videos that many of us have turned into profitable trading and I did not want a debate with you or (heaven forbid) billjoebob. I was simply trying to help someone without the pain in my backside.
It’s amazing the way the anti ICT folks want to hijack conversations in hope of preventing people from thinking for themselves and watching videos that are totally free. It’s like understanding price has become a sin on this currency trading forum. The guy asked a question and I offered to recommend some videos. Now go ahead and make some more inane comments about ICT and challenges etc, that won’t help the fellow who started the thread a bit.
Moderators: I must complain about the absolute silliness of Speed Bumps comment above. THis is not helping traders, it’s just being used to undermine.
Since you dislike my post, can you use your vast trading knowledge to dispute what I said that you disagree with, and how it is not helpful for someone to understand price. Speaking of “secret fellows” 35 posts is not that many. Can you give us some of the other BP names you’ve used so that we can be more familiar with your posts. In four years I’ve only had this one.
Looks like you might have attracted yet another one judging by the speed in which your post/thread got deleted yesterday. You should know better than to openly solicit members to contact you via private e-mail address, because we all know where that tends to lead don’t we!
Take a lead out of a [U]genuine[/U] professionals book like Blackwave & just [B]demonstrate your skills & competence with full, open transparency.[/B] There’s nothing like cold, hard financial facts to separate the walkers from the talkers!
If you’re smart ChadPitt you’ll wise up quickly & filter out the static on these forums, because unless you do you’ll waste an awful lot of valuable time & money chasing these pipe dream peddlers all over the shop.
Funny, coz as it turns out the very person you’re recommending the o.p hook up with had more than one username himself.
Not only that, he was engaging in conversations with himself on his own thread trying to drum up an audience by deliberately deceiving them.
And you wonder why you & his other “followers” attract so much flak when you continue to pimp his wares around this place.
It really does beggar belief.
The tightening of the stops is a very common reaction to losing trades.
The usual mantra is that by doing so a trader decreases his risk and thus makes his risk to reward ratio much more favourable.
Tight stops are good if they fit into a framework of trading that has been designed by the trader to not only take into account his risk/reward but also, and equally important, that win probability is accounted for.
Tightening stops solely to reduce risk can reduce win probability.
Many crosses are ranging at present, an ideal time to take blackwave’s advice and on a demo account try out say maybe four entries or five or indeed the ten mentioned, but - again only on demo - set the stops wider, use your skills to get the direction.
There are many permutations on entries and on exits, make the exits take profits ( I like to scale in but always exit in one go, but that is just my personality) and leave the stops for when you are totally wrong … demo only, using live for learning can lead to early frustration and giving up - never give up