Monitoring Trades, essential!

[timidave2005]

Hello everyone,
i've been trading for about a year now(both demo and real), and my conclusion is that, one cannot be trully successfull in forex, if one does not closely monitor one's trade. Many, many times, i enter trades and come back to check them hours later, i discover that market conditions have changed and my orders irrelevant(and so in the negative).
I believe those who make it most in forex will sit down there watching there trades. WHAT DO YOU THINK?



David

[daydreamer65]

A read through this thread may give you some answers.

Trading with a full time job just may be impossible

[timidave2005]

Hi, thank you so much for the response. i've learnt that the hard way anyway.
I knew i had gotten the experience i needed, but somthing was lacking. I was'nt monotoring my trades

[topgun]

I would say that is not entirely true. You might be trading monthly, weekly, daily or 4 hour charts so why should you monitor it constantly if your using a dily chart per say. If the overall trend is up and your trading a daily chart then who cares if it plunged 100 points due to an announement because your trading with the trend so it will most likely recover it back. If anything I think over observing would cause you to get out of trades way sooner than you would if you just set you SL & TP and leave it go. I personally like to trade 4 hour charts in which I look every 2 - 4 hours for a good entry. This gives me time to play more golf

Topgun

Originally Posted by timidave2005

Hello everyone,
i've been trading for about a year now(both demo and real), and my conclusion is that, one cannot be trully successfull in forex, if one does not closely monitor one's trade. Many, many times, i enter trades and come back to check them hours later, i discover that market conditions have changed and my orders irrelevant(and so in the negative).
I believe those who make it most in forex will sit down there watching there trades. WHAT DO YOU THINK?



David

[jroxman]

I don't think it's necessary to sit in front of your computer screen while you are in a trade, although i do find perverse satisfaction in watching the price swings that occur while im in a trade!

I think that if you're happy with your indicators pre-trade, then when you enter a trade you are doing so in the knowledge that you are using the indicators to their utmost potential (depending on your view). From that point of view, there's no need to watch the trade develop, as you've already (hopefully) set your s/l and t/p.
The only legitimate, trade-related reason I can think of for watching a trade develop is for the purpose of trailing your stops at refular intervals (I trade with Oanda who don't do automatic trailing stops).

I agree with TopGun's philospohy, the less time I spend on my arse in the front of the computer, the more time I can spend on my arse in front of the TV......

[tymen1]

Originally Posted by jroxman

The only legitimate, trade-related reason I can think of for watching a trade develop is for the purpose of trailing your stops at refular intervals (I trade with Oanda who don't do automatic trailing stops).

Good point here.

Yes, I think if you have, in general, set your TP and SL then the trade is in automatic.

In my case, I am a scalper, so I do monitor my trades. But then they do not take long to execute. And its nice to watch a win and add it to the bank.

I also monitor my trades to review and improve my strategy.

[timidave2005]

Hi, thanks so much for these brilliant responses, i trade on the 3ominutes time frame. I've always set my trades in the past, but i discovered that several things do occur when i'm not at my desk to my disfavour. For intance, prices may just start ranging or my profit target almost hit, e.t.c

[nytrader1958]

I belive that I should monitor my trades but like it has been said it depends on the timeframe I take the trade in. if i take a trade on the daily chart I am not going to sit in front of my monitor that would drive me crazy.

[icycloud]

its depends on your trading style and system. I'm a longer term trader and thus there is no need for me to monitor my trades that often.

Best Reg
Chin Liang

[jroxman]

I trade on the 5min and 15min charts, and the average trade time for me (i.e. open trade / close trade) is around the 15-20 minute mark, based on my last 30 or so trades.
As Tymen said earlier, monitoring trades over this short period is doable, but not for the reasons of changing your s/l or t/p. It's more to do with watching your own system accumulate pips, which for me is immensely satisfying (when it happens)