30 Pips A day Keeps the your money at bay

[modo]

I’m in the same question as you, do the experts here take trades only during the session of the pair or whenever they happens?

Not that i’m an expert, but I like to enter when liquidity is best, which I find to be in the first 2 hours of the various equity market sessions. By that I mean first two hours after SPI (australia), ftse (london) or S@P (U.S.). The execption might be the Asian session where markets keep opening throughout the day, with the Hang Seng last, so I use the first 3-3.5 hours after SPI open.

I find times other than these to be thinner, and more prone to continuation and stop running than reversals. For example, I think you can get a lot of false moves on the Frankfurt session (the hour before London opens), and likewise pre-North American open. If a pattern hits D about half an hour after equites open that gives me an extra level of confidence as we are in full liquidity and a lot of weak stops have probably been tagged. Basically I just try to avoid entering into thin markets as you can be a sitting duck.

Apart from improving your odds, this approach breaks the day into 3 manageable sessions, meaning you don’t have to watch the screen all day. Use your directional filters to narrow down your search, then just scan for patterns at the relevant times. It makes your trading more efficient.

The difficulty is when a pattern hits D outside your stated enty times. It’s hard to pass on a trade just becuase it hit out of hours, but in my experience it’s better to sit it out. This takes discipline, and you must control fear of missing out. I have found observing the entry time rules to be the hardest of all my rules to keep, but feel I have finally got it now. Just remember, you can’t be desperate for a trade, you should be indifferent. Your goal is simply to follow your plan, that should be the measure of your success. Focus on the process rather than the outcome. The results will look after themselves.

Lastly, I know other traders that couldn’t give a damn about time of day, and I’m sure my times are not difinitive, I just don’t like to enter into pre-market rubbish. Also, if you are position trading it’s impossible to avoid holding positions over fakeout times, but I think it still helps to give your trade the best start in life.

As for which pairs to trade, I would avoid entering pairs where both sides of the cross are asleep, for example eur/gbp or usd/cad during asia. Apart from anything, you will die of boredom.

[medisoft]

This is a trade I taked, a bearish bat, that is in the same direction of the trend, with 127AB=CD and parallel AB=CD in USDCAD

Let’s see what happens

I’m looking at the chart, and the price is on a support that previously was resistance. I think one of the checks that should be done on a pattern is that from X to D the price don’t have any support/resistance conflicting with the target price…

[medisoft]

Thanks for your answer.

I’m going to monitor the trades when the D is on an open market and when not, to see the difference

Thanks again

Not that i’m an expert, but I like to enter when liquidity is best, which I find to be in the first 2 hours of the various equity market sessions. By that I mean first two hours after SPI (australia), ftse (london) or S@P (U.S.). The execption might be the Asian session where markets keep opening throughout the day, with the Hang Seng last, so I use the first 3-3.5 hours after SPI open.

I find times other than these to be thinner, and more prone to continuation and stop running than reversals. For example, I think you can get a lot of false moves on the Frankfurt session (the hour before London opens), and likewise pre-North American open. If a pattern hits D about half an hour after equites open that gives me an extra level of confidence as we are in full liquidity and a lot of weak stops have probably been tagged. Basically I just try to avoid entering into thin markets as you can be a sitting duck.

Apart from improving your odds, this approach breaks the day into 3 manageable sessions, meaning you don’t have to watch the screen all day. Use your directional filters to narrow down your search, then just scan for patterns at the relevant times. It makes your trading more efficient.

The difficulty is when a pattern hits D outside your stated enty times. It’s hard to pass on a trade just becuase it hit out of hours, but in my experience it’s better to sit it out. This takes discipline, and you must control fear of missing out. I have found observing the entry time rules to be the hardest of all my rules to keep, but feel I have finally got it now. Just remember, you can’t be desperate for a trade, you should be indifferent. Your goal is simply to follow your plan, that should be the measure of your success. Focus on the process rather than the outcome. The results will look after themselves.

Lastly, I know other traders that couldn’t give a damn about time of day, and I’m sure my times are not difinitive, I just don’t like to enter into pre-market rubbish. Also, if you are position trading it’s impossible to avoid holding positions over fakeout times, but I think it still helps to give your trade the best start in life.

As for which pairs to trade, I would avoid entering pairs where both sides of the cross are asleep, for example eur/gbp or usd/cad during asia. Apart from anything, you will die of boredom.

[modo]

No problem Medi, gl with the ucad, i’ve been looking at that one too.

I covered my ecad short last night…a bit early, but still a good result, +34bps/1.4R. This was my only trade in three weeks.

@medisoft

Thanks for your answer.

I’m going to monitor the trades when the D is on an open market and when not, to see the difference

Thanks again

[newbabyfxx]

Does anyone trade usdchf, nice butterfly 4h

[nlrsniper]

I am not a huge fan of trading these signals on lower time frames, but this is a valid pattern on the EJ 15m.I only post it because I like the ratios and the convergence is great. Also the time is good so that the PRZ is around NY open.

I have been away from this thread for a few years, but now that I have completed some of my schooling and got into a decent job that will allow me to capitalize, I plan to become active again.

Update:
I have tried multiple times to update this post, but keep getting errors. I seems to have something to do with trying to add even 1 additional photo. Strange… and annoying. Needless to say the above pattern failed. Later there would be a a Bearish Gartley on the 15m that would quickly push price wayyyyy up. I was getting off a 24 hour shift so did not get in it because I wasn’t sure I could manage it properly before getting home. Ohh well.

[mulmil]

@modo

No problem Medi, gl with the ucad, i’ve been looking at that one too.

I covered my ecad short last night…a bit early, but still a good result, +34bps/1.4R. This was my only trade in three weeks.

Hi modo. On which confluence did you enter the 4h eurcad sell trade? And did you enter directly at that confluence or based on a candlestick pattern or some other sign? How many pips was your S/L?

[newbabyfxx]

@nlrsniper

I am not a huge fan of trading these signals on lower time frames, but this is a valid pattern on the EJ 15m.I only post it because I like the ratios and the convergence is great. Also the time is good so that the PRZ is around NY open.

I have been away from this thread for a few years, but now that I have completed some of my schooling and got into a decent job that will allow me to capitalize, I plan to become active again.

Welcome back, nlrsniper. How is your educational website?

[medisoft]

In my tests today I had some very ugly problems… Based on rules, I detected a pattern in 5M, placed a trade, then the trade hit the stop, and after that the price reversed to the profit level… that is not the worst part, the worst part is that the stop was hit because the variation of the spread, and not because the move of the price! The pattern was so small that the stop was only 5 pips away from my entry point, and the spread was about 3 pips, but because is a variable spread account, for a moment the spread went to 5 pips and without moving the Bid, the Ask went to my stop level, just to go to my target about 15 minutes later

I added a rule to my trading: never trade a pattern that has the stop at less than 10 pips from where the entry is placed.

[Amanfx]

In my tests today I had some very ugly problems… Based on rules, I detected a pattern in 5M, placed a trade, then the trade hit the stop, and after that the price reversed to the profit level… that is not the worst part, the worst part is that the stop was hit because the variation of the spread, and not because the move of the price! The pattern was so small that the stop was only 5 pips away from my entry point, and the spread was about 3 pips, but because is a variable spread account, for a moment the spread went to 5 pips and without moving the Bid, the Ask went to my stop level, just to go to my target about 15 minutes later

I added a rule to my trading: never trade a pattern that has the stop at less than 10 pips from where the entry is placed.

Sounds familiar. It happens all the time specially in smaller time frames.
So, you should always add the spread to your stop loss.

[medisoft]

Yeah, but what about with variable spread accounts? Sometimes the spread is 1pip and sometimes it goes to 5 pip

I would love a 5 digit account with fixed spread hehehehe and that also support mt4 and mini accounts with small equity

The good thing here is that all the trading that I’m doing right now is in a demo account, until I learn enough and be consistent with the profits.

Sounds familiar. It happens all the time specially in smaller time frames.
So, you should always add the spread to your stop loss.

[Amanfx]

Yeah, but what about with variable spread accounts? Sometimes the spread is 1pip and sometimes it goes to 5 pip

I would love a 5 digit account with fixed spread hehehehe and that also support mt4 and mini accounts with small equity

The good thing here is that all the trading that I’m doing right now is in a demo account, until I learn enough and be consistent with the profits.

Demo trading is good.
However, I would say you start a micro account. Trade with real money.
I noticed my reactions were totally different when I switched from demo to live. Entering trades in Live account felt a lot hard then in demo account.

[nlrsniper]

Welcome back, nlrsniper. How is your educational website?

I took a major detour in my life and got into the medical field. Daily I was faced with this major desire to be assisting other people and after much thought decided to work for a local Ambulance company. It had been most rewarding and has filled a major hole that was in my life. I am confident that teaming trading with my current job would make me very happy.

In regards to the website, it is very much on hold. I need to catch up on about 250+ posts on this forum as well as restructure everything in terms of making trading a business instead of a hobby. MY current goal is within 1 month to have legal structure to the business (tax benefits), a completely reorganized trading plan, and a method for trade management for when work pulls me away from the screen when I have a position open. I am considering a website/blog to track my trades and for personal accountability that would document each trade information.

All in due time

In my tests today I had some very ugly problems… Based on rules, I detected a pattern in 5M, placed a trade, then the trade hit the stop, and after that the price reversed to the profit level… that is not the worst part, the worst part is that the stop was hit because the variation of the spread, and not because the move of the price! The pattern was so small that the stop was only 5 pips away from my entry point, and the spread was about 3 pips, but because is a variable spread account, for a moment the spread went to 5 pips and without moving the Bid, the Ask went to my stop level, just to go to my target about 15 minutes later

I added a rule to my trading: never trade a pattern that has the stop at less than 10 pips from where the entry is placed.

As Amanfx said, this is a major problem with smaller time frames. If the confluence of your Fib’s are respected, you might have experienced a “fake out” which would be most likely as a candlestick tail going counter your entry (which was likely close to your Stop Loss) but still closing on the “right side” of the Fib levels as viewed on a higher time frame. There are some methods to combat this, but sticking to your own personal plan is the best rule you can have. We have all experienced this more than once and it does indeed suck. Trade management becomes key in these situations.

[nlrsniper]

Demo trading is good.
However, I would say you start a micro account. Trade with real money.
I noticed my reactions were totally different when I switched from demo to live. Entering trades in Live account felt a lot hard then in demo account.

^ This. Very, Very Much This. A story if you will. I traded SUPER successfully for over 5 months using a system in Trade for a Living on a demo account.I basically took a 1k account to over 10k in that time period. Of course I financed an account and blew it all in short time. Why?!? It was 2 parts actually. 1.) Whether it is just $20 I can guarantee you that psychologically you will not trade exactly the same as you do with a demo account. Maybe if you were a machine with no emotions, then maybe, but there is something fundamental about “losing” something that we have actually worked for. Sure you might feel a little pain with you lose 20% of a demo account and say “crap I will never do that with real money!” For your sake, I hope not, but until you are there and faced with that completely different world of greed and fear that exists with real money, you will not be truly trading a system. I threw $50 into a micro account recently and am following no more than 2% risk and I swear to you that even with that small amount of money I still feel those psychological strings being tugged on from time to time… “OMG its going against your position; GET OUT!”, “HECK YES! Perfect reversal on that pattern! I bet it will go 100 pips or more… I am not going to close any of my position even though I am 30+ Pips!” – That is where the psychological slap in the face comes to play and a reminder that I am not going to be a loser. IF you can come up with even 30 bucks there are plenty of micro accounts that you can trade .01 lots and get a REAL feel for trading with your own money. I promise you that you will instantly notice a difference in mindset.

The number 2 reason I was so successful with that trading system at the time was because the US was in recovery mode and there was major trending in the majority of pairs. This made the system I was using work amazingly well! However, at the time I started to trade real money things began to trend less and less. Having been a winner for 5+ months prior to starting with real money, I was frustrated and began taking more risks when I started becoming a loser. What system? What rules? One KEY thing I remember about trying to “recover my losses” is something we hear over and over. At some point you will win big. It will give you a false idea that you will do it again. This was the #1 thing that made me over leverage and lose more.

The account referenced above was well before I was introduced to the approach offered on this thread. I took a $10,000 account down to about $3k in less than 2 months. I have had some mixed experiences with the techniques taught in this thread, but I believe that the majority of negative experiences have been to lack of trading experience teamed with not following the rules that are in place based on probabilities. Having watched TMoney progress to where he is today, I have confidence that I personally can take this approach and make it successful. I hope that those current active members on this thread also can do the same.

[medisoft]

I have a micro account. But here in Baby pips have a legend that says: “if you are losing money in demo trading, you are not going to magically start winning in real trading”, so I need first to be profitable on demo.

Really, I want to start with a real account heheheh, I want to celebrate my first $100 with japanese food with my wife hehehehe, but I don’t want to lose money because I start early in my trader’s career

Demo trading is good.
However, I would say you start a micro account. Trade with real money.
I noticed my reactions were totally different when I switched from demo to live. Entering trades in Live account felt a lot hard then in demo account.

[medisoft]

I placed this trade with a symetric gartley found at 30M, a candle stick of reversal is shown just at the PRZ

Hope to post a new image once the trade is finished. Right now it is +7 pips and moving.

[nlrsniper]

I have a micro account. But here in Baby pips have a legend that says: “if you are losing money in demo trading, you are not going to magically start winning in real trading”, so I need first to be profitable on demo.

Really, I want to start with a real account heheheh, I want to celebrate my first $100 with japanese food with my wife hehehehe, but I don’t want to lose money because I start early in my trader’s career

Invest $30 to $50 and trade pennies. Literally. IF you lost 30 pips on .01 lots on a micro you lost .30 USD. Think of it as investing in your own education. I use IBFX and my margin requirement on a major for .01 lots is 27.95. So I could only lose $3 max if I only had $30 in the account. Just food for thought. I still personally believe that the system one trades isn’t the most significant aspect in trading. The trader is.

[FishingRaptor]

@medisoft

I placed this trade with a symetric gartley found at 30M, a candle stick of reversal is shown just at the PRZ

Hope to post a new image once the trade is finished. Right now it is +7 pips and moving.

Medisoft, two ? for you, is that the usd/chf? it looks to me like your B and C are the same candle?

[Amanfx]

Yeah, what pair is it?

[medisoft]

Thanks. I just talked with them. Liteforex offers more or less the same thing, and I have my account with them.

I already traded with my real account and found the issue of emotions hehehe. Leave losers hoping for them to recover, and take profits earlier. I “solved” this placing big banners in front of my eyes that say: “leave them run!” and “stop that garbage!”.

So far they worked. What didn’t worked very well is my system, until I found this thread. The Harmonic patterns are almost what I need. Swing type trades, possibly little time like scalp, and math based decisions instead of more subjective signals, and also leading indicators (the patterns!) instead of lagging (almost all others).

Now I’m practicing my pattern detection eyes (in addition of making something to help me finding the patterns, by software), understanding all the details, like the AB=CD, the PRZ and other things, and making some discoveries.

I still need more learning, and until that I feel very happy and motivated looking at charts, finding patterns, trading them and looking the result of my decision It is very interesting and refreshing hobby&job.

Invest $30 to $50 and trade pennies. Literally. IF you lost 30 pips on .01 lots on a micro you lost .30 USD. Think of it as investing in your own education. I use IBFX and my margin requirement on a major for .01 lots is 27.95. So I could only lose $3 max if I only had $30 in the account. Just food for thought. I still personally believe that the system one trades isn’t the most significant aspect in trading. The trader is.