This August we’re giving some serious virtual high fives to forex junkies out there who are brave enough to trade the choppy summer trading environment!
Let’s meet some of the popular men in the forums this time of the year, gp00053, Cyco, and Pips Ahoy!
In their interviews they have shared their forex trading origins, their trading routine, and even some tips for the newbies.
These guys don’t bite (unless provoked) so don’t be scared to say hello!
[B]Pips Ahoy![/B]
I am Markus from Waterloo, Canada, and I would consider myself a trading newbie still on demo. I like to make beats from old records.
I heard about forex and Babypips in 2008 while online but started Babypips school in 2011. in 2012 I began to follow a thread in the free trading systems forum and have since stumbled on two other trading techniques which I am still in the early stages of practicing.
Skeptical and uninformed. Still early though.
My first attempts were completely clueless, just a few trades on the 5 min charts. Once I finished Babypips school I began to follow a thread on price action trading using daily and sometimes 4h charts which I read every post of and followed for almost a year and still follow.
Recently I discovered two new systems which (too recent to tell really) look promising and I am having some success with. One is a weekly price action method using engulfing bars at key areas and the other is a ‘basket’ price action method that does much of the same except daily charts are used and multiple low-risk trades across many pairs are held at a time and long moves of up to 1000 pips are the goal (actually, same pip goal for both systems. Often trades will be 200, 500, etc).
The thing about these three methods is none of them require reading news or indicators of any kind, both of which were things I subconsciously dreaded when learning forex as I never had the slightest interest in finance, economics or politics in my life (I just like to make beats lol).
I do find I am more interested to eventually learn these things the more success I have with trading though currently I am running the two above mentioned trading methods (weekly engulfing and daily basket) on two instances of mt4, just because mt4 doesn’t save a profile properly and i want to keep the two methods separate both on the computer and in my mind as I try them out. I am hoping to either settle on one or combine the two.
I’m at the computer throughout the day but I try to make all trading decisions after 5pm. often setups that appear on the weekly system will give me a week or so heads up so I can watch the setup form and then place my orders sunday evening at market open.
A memorable moment would be the ah-ha moment that I had been waiting for for over a year. I think I am in that ah-ha moment right now, it’s more like an ah-ha couple of months lol
Bike riding, basketball, records, and music.
Don’t want to think about this one lol.
Not yet qualified to answer this. I still need to get to a point where I can realize and wait out a slump and be used to it and how it feels.
As a newbie I think the best way to start is price action on higher time frames, and you have to be in the market and never leave. meaning, if you go a few days or weeks without watching your charts, it might take a few days to get back into it you have sort of a working relationship with the market while you are paying attention and/or managing trades which informs you on the strength and speed of different currencies and pairs at any given time.
I need advice too as I am a newbie here…
any specific questions? this is a learning opportunity for me also
i noticed after taking babypips school that it doesn’t actually teach how to trade. i think of it now like an instruction manual for the flight controls. flying lessons come after, and we are on our own when it comes to choosing an instructor
Well yeah, that’s what schooling is isn’t it? Your performance will depend on how well you apply the use of these “flight controls” and how much experience you get from using them often.
Unlike flying though, there’s more than one way to successfully get from point A to point B. In fact, it’s so subjective that being pointed to one or two “instructors” would be counterproductive. You’re better off discovering for yourself what kind of “flying style” you have and then talking to a group of people who share the same techniques.
If I were you, I would begin trading the higher time-frame charts, daily and weekly. If I had to do it over again, I would focus on price action. Don’t clog your charts with indicators, they will confuse you. One or two indicators will suffice. I use Stochastics and RSI. I sometimes throw ADX on the chart for a few moments. I use support and resistance zones and candle stick patterns, as they work the best for me. You tube has a lot of videos on how to draw s/r zones. Steve Nison has excellent courses on candle stick patterns, etc. You can find free stuff on the internet (sorry Steve). Find used books or check your library for his books as well. Don’t worry about whether you have more wins than losses. You will lose more than you win any ways. The trick is to cut your losses early and let your profits run. You will make money if you have good discipline. Trading is about find trade setups where the odds are in your favor. Keep this in mind, 95% of traders lose. This figure has been around for ages and it’s still the same figure today. That should tell you that all this technology crap is worthless. Be your own trader and do not listen to others, especially brokers. Tips: Avoid the obvious; Keep your stops away from where the herd has their stops; What ever the majority is doing, do the opposite; And keep educating yourself - it’s endless. Stay disciplined, cut your losses early and let your profits run and you’ll make money. Happy Trading!
Best way to start is to use the simplest indicator - the moving average. You’ll be surprised at the results you can get. Sometimes the most profitable ideas are so simple! 
if you have more time in this market. you will relize. you have a little experience. you should invest in long term
Long term investment are good if you have patience and you dont have enough time to trade, but for people who want to earn regularly must have to make short trades.
woah…been a while lol
since last posting i have improved and hope to be able to go live in spring/summer 2015. reading again the advice in this thread i can now finally begin to understand it. the thing that has helped me the most is using a top-down approach and having multiple profiles set up in mt4 with all time frames tiled together and taking trades on the lower time frames always in direction of the greater trend. i won’t go into the other methods i attempted along the way lol but whatever i am doing atm it is my own method
been at forex factory mostly since then. been intraday trading the six majors and now recently am simplifying again and splitting those into two baskets, using a top down approach from monthly to m30. i use trend/channel/sr lines saved as a template on monthly and then the same template is opened on the other time frames with trend lines added when needed. also i use standard bollinger bands which are nice for highlighting consolidation areas for breakout trades. i’m currently not using stop loss either but will probably employ some form of equity protection using the basket ea
one thing i notice about basket charts is they have a more organized appearance with more clearly defined consolidation/accumulation (right words?) areas. compared to single pair charts they look more tradeable and are less random
who knows how i will be trading six months from now : )