Price Action trading / learning

I have been reading a lot about PA trading in the past few months. Started to demo trade the past 3 months and ended up in positive pips for the first time since I started demo trading (couple of years back). I am not live trading yet (not comfortable yet). I created this thread to put my potential trade setups so that I could get your opinion and learn. I know there are lot of expert traders here. And I am hoping to learn from them.

[B]Please note that this is NOT a signal service. [/B]

I am putting my potential trades (if I find any) for me to learn and use this as my log too. Please note that I am not responsible if anyone opens these potential trades and loose their money. I am not an expert. I am a total newbie (have been demo trading for past few years without any success). So I don’t have the qualifications to give out signals or teach.

[B]AGAIN THIS THREAD IS ONLY TO LEARN AND IMPROVE MY TRADING FROM THE EXPERTS IN THIS FORUM.[/B]

[B][U]I AM NOT HERE TO TEACH ANYONE OR PROMOTE ANY PRODUCTS.[/U][/B]

I also request you not to promote any products / signal services on this thread. However, teaching me is always welcome :slight_smile:

Hi donsls Good to see you back Succes with your trading

I trade only using Daily and 4H time frames and mostly during NY session. Got a full time job. Cannot watch 1H, 15m charts.
So won’t be seeing a lot of trades for a month. Last month I only had 15 trades (I watch 14 charts :).
Since I trade using D and 4H, I can afford to look at so many charts. Some of you might not agree with me (especially for a new trader). Otherwise, it is really difficult to get trades, if I am looking only at 2 or 3 4h, D charts.
I go as low as 1H to find a better entry position, if the SL is too high. I don’t use 1H to look for trends.

Setup :
Go to D1 chart and mark SR levels (clear lines on my screens)
Do the same in 4H chart (dotted lines on my screens)

I am not a good teacher in teaching how to draw the SR lines. There are many articles and youtube videos that teach drawing SR lines.

Indicators:

  1. I do use FIBO (mostly if I don’t see a good SL / TP area). I find FIBO is a good indicator (my personal opinion)

  2. Candles and SR lines (I personally believe these also to be indicators). The moment you draw a line, that becomes an indicator.

SL:
I don’t risk more than 130 pips on a trade. This is something that I am comfortable with risking. Even if I see a very good trade setup and if the SL is over 130, I don’t trade.
Might go to 1H to look for a better entry.

TP:
1, 2 or 3 or more times than SL

Method :
Most of the times, I try to stay with the D1 trend.
Wait for a PA signal candle near SR level and trade (that’s it for my method)

Note : Most of my trades are pending. I do get a chance to enter few market orders too.

PA candles:
Pin bar, Inside bar - IB (Second candle forms inside the first candle) and Engulfing - Eng (Second candle is more that the first or reverse of inside bar - RIB)

There might be other PA candles that are better than this. But during my testing in the last 3 months, I noticed that these give me better winning percentage.

Following are few samples :



Lot size:
Following is how I calculate the lot size. I didn’t come up with this. Got it from another successful trader. If anyone knows a better formula, please share.

X : 1 standard lot is $10
A : Risk amount based on % risk per trade
B : No os pips for stop loss
C : lot size = A/B/X

Ex: If the account balance is 500
A = 5%,
500 * 0.05 = 25

B = 50

C = 25 / 50 / 10 = 0.05

Hello donsls,
Thank you for opening a thread like this, I’m also interesting in Price Action. Will follow the thread carefully.

Following are few trades that I took with my demo account. One was a win and the other ended up in a loss
Win : Chf Jpy (4H)
Took a sell trade on 10-06-2016 at 106.00 (after the pin bar)
SL : 106.47
TP : 105.16

Made 84 pips


Loss : Usd Jpy (4H)
Took a sell trade on 10-26-2016 at 104.22 (inside bar)
SL : 104.92
TP : 103.29

Lost 70 pips


I showed this just to show the PA candles that were formed on or near SR lines when I took the trade. I don’t think any explanations are required here.

So now, we wait. If I see possible trade setup, will update the thread so that I could get your valuable input.

If I don’t see any possible setups, I won’t insert the charts just to make this thread look bigger and messy.

I already had a buy order with aud usd @ 0.7585. Price moved about 100 pips and I moved my sl to 0.7660.
SL was hit and I got 75 pips on that trade. I took that trade on Oct 31. It closed on Nov 1.

Nzd usd - 4H

Engulfing candle was formed. Fib 50 level is almost at the SR level.
Nice strong confluence (Fib 50 / 61.8, SR and engulfing candle at the same place)

Entering a sell limit trade at 0.7175 (hoping the price come back up to re-test the SR level)
SL : 0.7235
TP : 0.7115

FIB 127.2 (0.7069) is also a possible TP level. However, price bounced twice at 0.7109. So I will not use this TP level

Lot size :
My demo account has $790. I am risking $25 on this trade with a 60 pip SL.
So the lot size is : 25/60/10 = 0.0416
I’ll round it to 0.04

Would like to know your comments on this trade.

Lunch hour is over and back to work. Going for a meeting. Will check the trade in the evening.

nzd usd trade is live. Let’s see what happends

eur aud


Inside bar at 1.4460. Took a sell trade at 1.4447.
SL : 1.4507
TP : 1.4354

eur usd

Pin and ib at SR 1.1058
SL : 1.1077
TP : 1.1004
sell at : 1.1047

Eur Aud and Nzd Usd hit SL :frowning:
Cancelled eur usd as the price is climbing.
Would like to know from the experts about the loosing trades. Should I have taken it?

eur cad is at the D1 SR line. Don’t have a PA signal yet. Thinking to go short. Anyone agrees?

eur aud is also at D1 SR. But I am not sure about this pair (short or long).

Hi I am waiting for a conformation on eur cad Have to see tomorrow close On 4H looks like IB Closed longtrade EUCAD today on brake even before it went to my TP
eur aud also not clear to me.
Opened short eurJPY and audJPY

I saw the pin bar on the daily chart but I didnt take a trade because it was not clear on my SR but somewhere in the middle

eur cad
IB on 4H chart. Entered a pending sell order @ 1.4895. Hoping the price comes up to test the SR @1.4904.


usd chf
D1 is trending up and formed a pin. 3 pin bars with IB also formed in 4H.
Entered buy pending @ 0.9717

Nice pin bar formed on aud nzd 4H chart. Go long? I already have 2 pending orders. So I am going to skip it.

usd chf hit sl. Should have closed when the price was at .9746. My mistake.

eur cad : moved sl to 1.4865

Missed 3 great trades on gbp nzd (4H) last 2 weeks
Could have banked at least 150 pips on each trade (yellow arrows). Any one took on these? 3 Red arrows confirmed that the price is respecting the SR levels. I look for 3 bounces, before taking the trade.

eur cad : moved sl to 1.4815. Banked 80 pips. Removed TP from the trade
Price didn’t really respect (history) my D1 SR line at 1.4707, even though I drew one there. I am removing the TP and letting the trade run. Will be moving SL to the top of each 4H candle. Might be a big mistake (being too greedy).
Would love to know anyone opinion on this.

It is a nice thread about price action. I also trade using this technique of horizontal levels but I mostly trade on daily time frame as my time for trading is limited.

I also trade using Daily if I see a good setup and the SL is not too much. I also look for channels too (if they are forming). Use the same technique to confirm the channel (3 bounces)

eur cad : moved sl to 1.4760. Banked 135 pips

Eur Cad hit sl. Trade went further down by another 100+ pips. Sine I already banked 135, I wanted it to breath more and see whether the price will go further down. Didn’t happen.
Don’t see any potential trade setups. Will check again tomorrow at 9 a.m. EST