Hi guys!
This thread is going to be about my progress trading the 2618 system that I learned recently form Jason Stapelton.
The bare basics of the system are:
-look for a double top
-draw Fibonacci Retracement from swing high to swing low
-wait for 61.8 Retracement
-SELL
(for a double bottom invert all above steps)
If you want all the details you can watch the a 3 hour in-depth seminar on youtube. It’s free and it’s not meant to sell you additional stuff, pretty cool
This first couple of posts are going to be long since I’ve already done 6 weeks of trading. I write a report after each week.
[B]I’ll post my questions at the end and in bold so if someone wants help out I’d really appreciate it!
Week 1 (62.26USD)
This was my first week of trading after I watched the 2618 video. As you can see it went well and sold me on the trading plan. I had plenty of opportunities to trade that week. I have to admit that my knowledge of the system wasn’t yet sufficient and I hadn’t figured out the whole strategy. I probably placed some trades that I wouldn’t place now but that’s what demo trading is for.
Week 2 B[/B]
I was traveling but I had a MT4 on my iphone and ipad so I was looking for opportunities to trade. While there weren’t many, I ended the week with a nice profit. I have to say that the winning trades were a bit lucky since I pretty much had news events move the market in my direction. Still those were “good” trades, meaning that I followed my plan (2618 plan ignores news events completely).
Week 3 B[/B]
There was only one trade that met my conditions this week. The whole week felt kinda slow and was loaded with news events (?). Luckily that trade was winner so I’m happy to have three positive weeks in row. I need to work on my Take Profit and Stop Loss placement as I often adjust them after the trade has started. The reason is that I don’t have clear enough rules for TPs and SLs. I have to watch the 2618 video again, specifically the part about placing stops and make clear rules to follow.
Things to learn:
[ul]
[li]SL and TP placement[/li][li]what constitutes a trend (precise rules!)?[/li][/ul] Week 4 B
[/B]So week 4 was the worst week so far, I actually lost money over that time frame and had plenty of losing trades. I am not at all disappointed, it is actually amazing how good I did over last month for a complete noob armed with a simple system.
I am also happy with the trades I took, I was following my plan to the best of my ability and didn’t make many emotional decision. The place where I get slightly emotional is my Take Profits. Basically I don’t have a perfectly objective rules for placing them so whenever the price is close to the TP level I feel tempted to close the trade instead of waiting for the price to hit the actual target (obviously, that is for fear that the price will just reverse directions and end up stopping me out when I was so close to winning). But I do know better, most of the time I was able to control my emotions.
Things I learned:
[ul]
[li]identifying trends – I was confused and unsure whether I am really looking at a trend or not during the first weeks but now I am able to recognize them. It just took some looking at and getting used to the charts.[/li][li]Stop Loss placement – I now have a perfectly clear rule for stop placement (it’s in the 2618 video, I just needed to watch it one more time)[/li][/ul] Things to learn:
[ul]
[li]take profit placement – watch the video one more time[/li][li]trading multiple lots[/li][li]trailing stops[/li][/ul]
Week 5 (61.07USD)
That was another good week for a noob like me. I am starting to follow the system’s rules much closer (in previous weeks some parts of the system were simply not clear enough to me). The rest is up to chance… and I know chance is on my side because some smart people have tested the system for me hehe
In the next 3-4 week I’ll be focusing on other non-forex projects, so I won’t be learning new stuff but I’ll keep applying what I know so I don’t lose whatever knowledge I’ve attained so far. I’m sure I can apply the 2618 while doing other stuff since I’m already doing it during my day job. One of the cool things about this system is that you can see the patterns forming hours in advance.
Once I can dedicate more time to forex again I’d like to learn more about chart patterns like head and shoulders, wedges (?), flags etc. as well as harmonic price patterns. Longer term, I want to know more about money management. Recommended reading (books or internet links are fine) or videos are welcome.
Week 6 (-35.84USD)
This week was interesting although not profitable. Monday to Wednesday I had no 2618 trades at all. That’s the bad thing about having only one system – you may not get enough action, which kinda makes you too eager to enter trades.
Anyway, on Thursday I finally got some valid trade signals but they were mostly losers, big losers on top of that. That got me slightly emotional but I knew that this system is right just a little over 50% of the time so I was able to keep my cool and the next couple of trades were winners which turned a really bad week into a somewhat acceptable one.
As I’ve leaned, enduring some losses is part of trading and also the term drawdown exists because it’s a common experience for most traders. So it’s all cool and I look forward to next week of trading.
From next week I am switching to a new broker, Trade Pro. They were mentioned (not necessarily recommended) by Jason Stapelton in the 2618 video (or maybe some of his other videos, not sure). My initial broker was missing some main pairs I wanted to trade or rather those pairs were in a special category with varying spreads… those spreads were “varying” between 20-50 pips, crazy stuff!
[ul]
[li][B]how can I see the exact spread of a currency pair in MT4?[/B] Spreads are important and I thing it’s strange that I can’t find it indicated anywhere…[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li][B]do you have specific rules on what constitutes an uptrend/downtrend? [/B]In uptrends for example, do you have to see a retracement and then another move up that makes a higher high? If you just have a strong continuous move up is that an uptrend?[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li][B]Finally,an important MT4 question. What I really want to do is this: [/B]First,set an initial TP. Once it’s been hit I want to take half of my position, move my SL to break even and have the TP for the other half repositioned…Is there a way to automate this process in MT4? I can do that manually but having it automated will help me with trading during my dayjob hours and I believe it would reduce emotional fiddling with the stops![/li][/ul]
Ideas are very welcome!
[B]Also if you can suggest books, videos and programs on money management, please do so! [/B]
Check out Into the Grey at Trade Empowered - it goes over that in detail, but otherwise. look for higher highs and higher lows for a bullish trend, and lower highs and lower lows for bearish trends.
Whoops - accidental necro. Saw it pop up and since I follow Trade Empowered and like their free stuff on YouTube I figured I would comment on it. Still learning the forums and forgot to check the date.
One of the cool things about this system is that you can see the patterns forming hours in advance.