Took another +15 pips from a bearish gartley that had formed on the AUDJPY 30 min after the bullish one. Since i have to leave my computer and feel a bit unsure about price behaviour on the pair i closed it manually before hitting TP.
All in all a good trading week for me. Last 4 days results after a major change in my trading plan:
6 winning trades
1 loosing trade
2 break even trades
Gain/Loss: +150 pips
So i guess the changes i made had a good effect. 
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Diablo, well done! Keep up the great work!
FR
Well done Diablo! I am up 70 pips on my demo account and down 25 on my real one.
What changes did you make to your plan this week?
Congrats, Iām interested in seeing the changes you have done before recommending pairs and time frames to trade during your āoptimalā hours 12-5pm est.
Thanks guys!
Iāll get back to you tomorrow. Got a lot of stuff to do this eveningā¦
Good morning!
I maybe was a bit unclear yesterday. The changes i made on monday included major changes in my trading style and minor changes in my trading plan. But of course that depends on if you make a difference between the term trading style and trading plan or if you include both in one. When i refer to my trading plan it includes not only money management, it also includes how i trade (day trading, swing trading, pattern trading, trading breakouts, etc.).
What lead to this was monday where i came to realize that i am not compatible with one style of trading iāve been trying. One style of my trading for the last months has been following this thread which is working out better and better for each day. The other one has included trading breakouts of trend lines, major support and resistance levels in combination with some indicators and it is that trading style iāve totally taken out of the equation. What i earlier have been doing if a trade didnāt go my way i added more lots to my position. So if i short a pair and it moves up i short some more, and so on. I know a lot of people who have success in their trading using this style but itās not fitted for me for many reasons. Especially since i watch my positions get more and more negative in balance i have a reflex wanting to close them and that urge gets stronger and stronger. In the end i just end up closing all trades with red numbers instead of waiting for them to return to positive. Thats one kind of a martingale system and can be devastating if done wrong. If you can master it you can get really good results though.
Another thing that happens is that i then based on emotions start to overtrade and overdo things and i have realized that i need a style/system that is totally predefined and free of emotions like trading patterns. Anticipating a move and have predefined rules for how to act if the market not behaves as expected and then just follow through with the rules that iāve set up before the trade got filled.
As an example what happened on monday with my āold styleā was the following:
I had 12 trades on monday (overtrading):
2 winning trades
10 loosing trades
2 bread even trades
Result: -155 pips
On top of that the lot size on the loosing trades where bigger than on the winning trades. You can figure out the result yourself. That made me pull the emergency brake.
In my new trading style i will only focus on trading patterns, especially gartleys. I have kept record of the last 50 gartley patterns iāve found and more than 40 of them worked out with a positive result when i used a 20 pip SL and 20 pip TP. I did not trade all of them though. Another addition i have made is that i will only trade valid patterns that have at least 1 additional confirmation signal (RSI divergence, trend line, major resistance/support level). That is something i will be working on to specify and fine tune over the next months. For example you have seen me mentioning RSI divergence lately and all patterns iāve seen in combination with that divergence have been showing positive results. But it is way to early to draw any conclusions and more testing and back testing on that has to be done.
From tuesday i was very busy putting a new stock portfolio together which has taken a lot of time and left only little time for forex trading. But as iāve posted earlier the results of the few trades i were able to find and that matched my new trading style where really positive and a good start.
9 trades between tuesday and friday:
6 winning trades
1 loosing trade
2 break even trades
Result: +150 pips
In addition to the above named changes i will never risk more than 2% of my account on a single trade. If i suffer a loss i will minimize risk to max 1% of my account until i have recovered at least 50% of the amount of the earlier loss. I have no plans at the moment to minimize risk further if i loose since i am only trading a 1k account with micro lot positions. That will change the day when iām investing serious money into this.
Another thing that i want to do is of course be able to monitor price when completing a pattern. The more i have been able to watch price action the more i realize itās telling you a lot of information, especially when hitting a resistance level. Today watching the market as much as i want is a luxury i cannot afford due to my full time job which mostly is a 110%-120% time job in reality since iām working in the management of a big business and have a lot of responsibility which i cannot neglect and have to keep as my main priority until iām ready to make my transition to a full time trader.
I hope TMB can suggest some markets for me that may be suitable for me. Until that iāll have to stick with limit orders and a 1:1 risk/reward ratio. In the future i hope to be able to skip the SL like TMB and many others of you and that way boost my R:R further.
Of course my trading plan consists of much more rules, many adopted from TMBās trading plan posted in the beginning of this thread, thanks TMB!
Now iām facing a really busy day once again since my weeks are hysterical at the moment.
Once again i wish you a all a great weekend. Take time to relax, enjoy life and gather energy for the upcoming week!
Isnāt this basically the Hydra system that TMB was talking about?
Anyway, good job on adjusting your stops and losses. I think weāre all seeing that identifying a gartley can be a whole different matter than profiting from it. I think the reduction to 20 pips profit was a smart move, mainly because the average range of prices for most pairs is much lower these days than it was when this thread started 4 years ago. For many pairs, itās harder to āstealā 30 pips off a fake out or a long wick. What price action are you looking at for confirmations and warnings and at what timescales? To be honest, Iāve had much less success with this harmonic method as with another method that operates off simple price action and support/resistance line on the 8hr scale.
Anyway, thanks for typing this out on a busy day. Kudos for maintaining this much focus on trading while maintaining a professional job. Look forward to seeing more good results with your system in the coming weeks. 150 pips a week is more than enough to make you a rich man.
Thanks Merper! Good week but very far from celebrating a victory. Could be plain luck for all i know. Of course i hope it to be a result of my changed approach.
And i hope it will continue that way. Like you say, even with just 50 consistent pips a week instead of 150 my dreams would be moving my way in a quick pace!
Isnāt this basically the Hydra system that TMB was talking about?
Yeah, actually it is similar to the hydra system TMB mentions just with the addition that every time you add to a loosing position you double it (Martingale System). And in addition to that it was on a bigger time frame. So for instance you trade on a 4 hour chart (0.1 lots) and your initial position is at -100 pips you add another position at 0.2 lots. If price still moves against you, you add another 0.4 lots when price has moved against you another -100 pips, and so on.
For instance, letās take the example from TMB.
In the post i linked regarding the hydra system he uses the āgreen boxā of 50 pips as an example where you can build the hydra. Itās the same principle used when trading stocks, buying when stocks get down to get your total āpriceā of the share down.
But as fast as price closes underneath the āgreen boxā you have to cancel all your trades or you will be stuck with multiple trades going against you.
And the main reason for me to switch from a TP of 30 pips to 20 pips is my inability to watch the market āliveā and to rely on limit orders only. But i think you are correct too regarding the change of market behavior. I havenāt been monitoring these charts for many years but i have been scouting through thousands of different forum posts and have found out that everybody seems to talk about the same thing, that the markets ābehaviorā has changed over the last couple of months to a more negative behavior, for example not following fib levels as good as earlier. If that is correct itās just better for me/us who arenāt as experienced because if you learn to master trading in a much difficult environment it wonāt be any problem succeeding if market conditions turn back to normal. Itās like learning to fly an aircraft in a thunderstorm, then itās no problem in good weather.
What price action are you looking at for confirmations and warnings and at what timescales?
As for now i canāt exactly describe what iām looking for. But when you for instance see price hitting a convergence/resistance area and it bounces off quickly itās a pretty good sign that your predictions where correct. If price goes past the area, retraces and hovers at the area for a while without retracing, chances are good it will break the resistance. But hey, thats just a observation iāve made and thatās why i really want to be able to watch the market for at least 100 trades before making any conclusions whatsoever. When trading a pattern on a 1 hour chart for example i personally switch down one time frame, in this case to a 30 minute time frame to see how price reacts. If correct or not i have no idea but thats how iām doing it at the moment.
To be honest, Iāve had much less success with this harmonic method as with another method that operates off simple price action and support/resistance line on the 8hr scale.
I canāt give you any advice regarding your trading except one: Trade the way that is working best for you. I think itās important to find out which kind of trading you are suited for and which one not. Everybody is different. Thats something i have started doing like i mentioned earlier. I think the biggest journey in all of this is not drawing fibs or adding/removing indicators to the charts, itās getting your inner game together and find your own path to walk.
But of course it helps to use a proven system like the gartley patterns to increase your chances of success.
Well now iām off to bed.
And guess what, tomorrow is another day with 30 hours of stuff to do and the day only has 24 hours like all the others. And after that we have the lovely monday again with 120% work waiting, haha. One good thing at least is that i love my job but iām still trapped in a gigantic āhamster wheelā which i am desperately trying to get out of.
Ahhh, now iām just rambling alongā¦ so GOOD NIGHT! 
Iām not sure if this style is suited to me or not, I read Trade What You See, but I donāt really feel any better about it.
Iām not sure if āseeing patternsā is something for me, itās kinda like constellations - They all look the same to me! Just a bunch of dots in the sky and just a bunch of candles on a chart!
So I was wondering if there is a particular post on this thread by TMB in regards to āfindingā the patterns? I can look at a pattern on here and replicate it on my chart, but canāt find them myself! I know it must take a while to get your eye in, but Iām seeking some tips so I can try and figure out if I should keep training or try a different style.
Cheers,
Tom
would anyone with this file (posted on page 343) please share it? The original link seems to have expired or broken
You knowā¦ you all have full access to my photobucket album which inclundes all the chart pictures posted on this thread:
Empowers, it takes lots of time and practice to see the patterns develop and it would be a mistake to give up at this point even if you do not plan on basing your entries solely on harmonic patterns. A lot of the traders that have past by this thread have achieved consistency with their own trading methods by simply using it as a āsignalā for whatever style they are comfortable with. Knowledge is power and when your at the verge of giving upā¦ thatās when you should push your self even further; the same applies towards managing an accountā¦
Diablo1505, congrats on reaching that āAh huh!ā moment and not giving up on trading when things seemed weary. Thank you for reminding everyone including my self of why I created this system as well, the entire point of it is indeed to eliminate emotions from trading and build consistency.
Hey Tom,
What i ment with that was to exclude a trading system if you are mentally or emotionally not compatible with it. Like me, i canāt control my emotions at least at the moment when having many trade going against med at the same time which results in me taking losses instead of waiting for the trade to turn positive again.
If you are not seeing the patterns i think you just need to look at the charts more. For example i came across a website which offers courses in harmonic trading. Their first lesson after teaching how to find these patterns was to let each student go back in time on the charts and find 50 bullish and 50 bearish patterns. They then should write down time, date and coordinates for each pattern they found. If they didnāt do this properly the course would not continue. Also worth mentioning is that this course has a price tag of 1500$. 
I started seeing the patterns all over the place after 3-4 weeks of time. But then i had spent many hours just drawing zig-zag lines all over the place. Look at the first patterns i posted in here. They were not valid at all but i tried and every time i thought i had something i compared it to the pattern rules you can easily find on google. On top of that i got great support from the other guys in here.
Thats one advice i can give you to find these patterns, start drawing zig zag lines. First lines from all high and lows and thereafter only from the major high and lows.
For example:
So in this case you get close to a bearish gartley pattern which has a convergence at the 0.786 and 0.2000 level. Price respected that convergence and continued down, even though price closed a bit over the convergence which could have a reason not to take this trade.I hope this helps a bit. Do not give up on this system just because you do not see the patterns.
Have a nice day!
//Sascha
Hey lewism09,
I canāt help you with that file. But if you want all of TMBās post just click on āSearch threadā above and then select āAdvanced Searchā.
Search for posts posted by TMoneyBags and voila, you will only see TMBās posts.
thanks a bunch diablo. You might not be aware of this but lots of learners are keeping a close eye on your posts coz they are inspiring, showing that we can come from where we are to where you are and where you want to be in relation to trading bats and gartelys. You motivate many coz we have seen you show it can be done and it can be learnt. Keep up buddy and forget them critics
To be honest I consider Diablo to be the resident teacher here! TMB is like the āBossā that pops in from time to time and Diablo is the guy that keeps the thread warm while heās gone
Thanks TMB and Diablo, both for the practical advice and psychological advice. Of course, I donāt feel like āgiving upā, simply trying to find a style of trading to focus my attention on or Iāll be hopping all over the place like a hyperactive bunny! One new thing to learn at a time 
Great words of wisdom! I totally agree with you TMB. When you really want to succeed with something just follow one simple rule: āNever give upā. Whatever happens do not give up. Just see what you have to change in your behavior/life or trading style/management to get the results you want. Another golden rule is: āIf you do something that is not working, stop doing it and do something elseā. Doing MORE of something that doesnāt work for you wont get you closer to your goal. Sometimes you need to make bigger changes and sometimes only very small adjustments.
If you never give up and learn from your mistakes [U]you WILL be successful[/U], and that is a fact regardless of what project/plan/goal you have in life!
Another important thing is to stick to your rules and do never go back doing something that does not work. It wonāt work in the future either if it didnāt work in the past.
Thank you TMB and everyone else for supporting me! This is one reasons besides learning why i stick to this thread. When you are feeling a bit low and in doubt there is always someone in here who can help you see things from another angle which can push you into the right direction again.
I have made my decision. I will stick to trading patterns as iāve seen them work over and over again unbelievably well compared with other systems. What convinced me most was when i were able to predict price movements with the help of patterns i found myself!
Another great thing with trading patterns is that you can, like you say, remove all emotions from trading which i think is one of the biggest reasons many fail trying forex trading. You are sitting there in a trade and it moves against you getting closer to your initial SL. Then all of a sudden you get a feeling that the turning point just has to come soon and you move your SL away even further. Then emotions keep on brainwashing you and get you to move your SL even further away until you reach a level where you have to close the trade with a big loss, sucking away all your motivation and killing all of your self confidence as a trader. And when that happens you jump into new trades to āget backā the amount you lost, taking even bigger risks. Before you know it you have blown your account into pieces.
I have pretty much learned the basics and now i have a lot of fine tuning to do and learn. Iām far from my goal but iāve started running without falling and am moving at a good pace towards my final goal which feels great!
You are right, i am not aware of that since i still consider myself to be a newbie in here.
But iām glad if i can contribute with some basic information and share some of my discoveries i get after analyzing my own mistakes. And of course i will keep doing it if others can benefit from it!
Haha, you guys are great. Iām flattered but TMB still is the only real teacher in here and me along with others are only repeating what he has taught earlier in this thread.
But when it comes to setting and reaching goals in life i actually have one or more stories to tell since iāve always have reached all goals iāve set in my life until now.
Regarding this particular goal with forex trading, to be honest i am considering myself to have traveled only 15-20% of the distance between my starting and finishing line. That is why iāve set 5 years to be the time frame for learning and practicing before being able to take the big step: Transition from full time employee to full time trader. I think that time frame is realistic for me because i have such a full schedule due to my work and other investment projects.
Like i answered lewism09 i will gladly continue contributing frequently to this thread and share my progress, ideas and thoughts on everything. Itās a great motivation for me too if anyone finds it helpful.
Hi guys!
Itās great to stop by again to catch up on all thatās been happening.
TMB - WOWā¦ thatā¦ isā¦ amazing.
Diablo, what a great week my friend, congrats! I had a killer one as well, up about another 30% or so from the beginning of February. Kinda embarrassing now, putting that next to TMB but Iām still happy 
Some very sexy setups coming this week that Iām spotting on EURJPY, GBPJPY and GBPUSD to start with. I am forcefully and purposefully keeping the amount of pairs I watch as low as possible for right now, otherwise my brain just overloads.
Best of luck to all, almost time for the new week and to get back to business!
Cheers
Yeah, that sounds terrifying to watch over live. I definitely need to build confidence in Gatleyās first. Look forward to seeing how well your trading plan continues, because for whatever reasons, itās looking quite similar to mine. Kudos for being so open and helping people learn from you. I am not so confident yet.
30% for 2 weeks is certainly nothing to be ashamed about. And all from trading 3 pairs? Very nice. I think I will have to limit the number I watch too, since my brain is overloaded tracking lines on so many setups. The Yen pairs all have very nice volatility; is there any reason you arenāt watching USD/JPY?
Thank you very much, merper.
Well if you look at the daily ATR over a 40-period timeframe (2 months), the EURJPY and GBPJPY are the two most volatile pairs at the moment, excluding stranger crosses such as GBPNZD etc etcā¦
The way I think about it, it then makes sense to trade these because 30 pips happens āeasiestā with these pairs. Mind you, the USDJPY is very close as well. But right now I am just so completely unfamiliar with the way USDJPY moves that I have no personal urge to trade it. I really canāt give you a better answer than that, sorry
Have a great week!
Hey man, nice to see you are alive. Was wondering where you went.
Thanks a lot. I hope the success comes from the changes i made and that it will continue like this.
Congratulations on the 30%, thats awesome and if you only continue to increase your account with 10% each month you can retire in a few years.
Good luck to you for the upcoming week and the pairs you have chosen.
