[QUOTE=“poopoopotato;715983”]Looking back through my trades I noticed that I was drawing support levels and waiting for signals to enter around the support levels. While looking at my charts I was waiting for these levels to be reached to signal entry’s for me. I found that I would take trades around these levels without waiting for signals to really let me know it was a good time to enter. I think my drawing of the lines was pretty decent but certainly not perfect as I don’t think any drawing of support and resistance lines can be perfect. Anyways, I’ve decided to stop drawing support and resistance lines until after I see a good entry signal. This should prevent me from taking trades without the proper signals. My adjustment will be to locate good price action followed by support and resistance rather than plotting support and resistance and waiting for signals. I think this change will help me stay out of bad trades and make me more selective of good trades.[/QUOTE]
Looking at that chart it seems the most recent active high was broken and price moved up for a bit thus changing bias to an uptrend?
It’s always good to plot horizontal levels and then wait for price to retrace to those levels and form a price action signal before entering.
That way besides going in the direction of the trend you can have confluence of a price action signal that formed ON a horizontal level giving it more probability than just forming anywhere y’know?
You wanna stack as much odds in your favor before you take a trade rather than entering whenever you just see a candlestick formation?
I agree. I very much still use support and resistance levels. I just noticed, in my trading, when I plotted a horizontal line I treated it like everybody had that same line plotted, and I was taking trades without finding price action signals. The lines on my chart were becoming a distraction to me reading the price action in a sense. So now I look for signals first and try to get a good read. I plot my lines after I have made sure the signal is strong. If the levels are not clear I will pass on the trade.
I think I just need to have completely naked charts to read price action more effectively.
I went short on the EUR/NZD last night. A pin bar formed right at the 1.7100 level which hasn’t been touched in 2 years. Last time it was reached there was a sharp sell off. The other thing I noticed was the way the higher highs were slowly fading which can be a sign of divergence. I don’t use this very often but I will occasionally use it as a form of confluence to add more weight to a signal. I threw up a default settings MACD to check and sure enough there appears to be divergence.
My pending order was just barely triggered overnight and the trade has gone against me to start. I have a wide stop and will hang on to this trade watching its progress actively.
wanted to update this trade before I go to sleep. Such a frustrating trade… The first picture shows how the trade has gone against me from the beginning. I am holding onto this to see if we can reject the 1.71000 level in the morning, if not I accept I was wrong and am willing to lose the 1% I risked here. Losing is a part of this thing and I get that.
The part that actually frustrates me is the entry to this trade. I zoomed into a 30 minute chart to show my entry. You’ll notice how the wick of my entry candle is just grazing the bottom of the triangle. Price got down to the pip it needed just to trigger me into this trade. Funny thing is I lowered my entry price about an hour before I went to be to ensure that the pin bar would break completely away. I think these are the times that make traders think there are people stop hunting our trade limit orders. Price still hasn’t managed to close above the 1.7000 level on the daily so I hold out hope for a strong selloff.
It still looks like you’re taking counter trend trades here.
If you look at the bullish pin bars they seemed to have gone in the direction of the trend.
Wait for those, the trend is your friend.
Taking counter trend trades will always have you feeling frustrated because the probability of it going against you is higher than in your favor cause it’s an uptrend and you shorter the market.
Interestingly enough this trade has formed a second pin bar that closes below 1.7000 and just touches the 1.71000 line. For all the same reasons as my entry this would hold weight. I am not entering another position but I am watching this closely for a chance to reduce risk.
You really reminded me how i started years ago… i see lots of potential in you. Keep up the good work.
Please don’t hesitate to ask me any question… its free of charge.
Final update on this trade. I manually closed this after it reversed directions today. Had an opportunity to get out with a small profit and even at break even, but i wanted to see how the day played out. Thought there might be an opportunity for a new downtrend to continue. Anyways took a small loss at the top of the last bar here. Overall I think my wide stop helped me stay in the game at a good resistance level. I believe my initial entry was a bit unlucky and I feel good I was able to get out with only a partial loss of about .2% of my account.
I had this trade trigger and close out overnight. The pin bar is just above the 1.1500 level which i have marked on the chart. I placed an entry order 10 pips below that line to make sure price moved well beyond that level. Price went on to hit my profit target before I woke up this morning.
Took a day bar pin trade short on the EUR/USD this morning. Have the day off so I got to look at some charts. Have a pretty conservative profit target due to the 1.12000 level holding as recent support. 1.1200 could act as a price flip level or it could be just a blip in a new down trend. I don’t know what will happen so i’m managing this one closely. Since today is Friday and I don’t want to hold this over the weekend I will likely just make sure I get out of this trade positive and avoid any kind of loss here.
Took a small gain on this trade. I wanted to get out early because I was going out of town and could not effectively manage the trade how I would like. The trade went on to break that level of 1.1200 and continue falling. Could have been a bigger winner, but I was happy to take some money out in the short time I was able to watch it.
Here is a new trade I entered over night. Long the EUR/AUD. I entered after the 2 day pin/reversal set-up that came right at the 1.5600 level. I will look to hold this until price gets back to the most recent highs or if the trade appears to want to head in the other direction. Currently the trade is 70 pips up and I will be looking to reduce my risk throughout this trade.
I have now moved my stop loss to the low of yesterday’s bar. Not quite at break even but only about 1/4 of a percent of risk on the table at this point. I’m about 210 pips up on this trade at the moment and price has retraced a bit. I expected this as price basically rocketed up all day long. I am looking to the 1.6000 area(marked) for a new bounce to continue the uptrend. If the level is broken I will consider closing the trade with what profit I already have. For now however, I am holding waiting for price to retest the recent highs.
With August now closed I want to evaluate how I’ve performed. I finished the month down 2.5% which is less than ideal. However I was down 3.2% at one point this month so I am proud that I was able to fight it back to 2.5%. The issue was that at the beginning of this month I was still revenge trading and caught in a 2 month long slide back from the middle of June. I feel that at this point I have stopped the bleeding, and my back to back losing streak has ended. Limiting my open trades per day and per week has been the biggest factor in gaining control I believe. I now have confidence in my trades and am taking only the best set-ups. It has also allowed me to focus in harder on managing each trade to make sure I reduce risk or get out of trade when they begin to turn against me. I have had 3 winners in a row and I am looking to keep that momentum going through September. Hopefully this month will be the second profitable month for this account.
I had this trade close out today by hitting my stop loss. I noticed there was a big EUR economic new event this morning so last night I prepared myself for it. I tightened my stop loss to lock in as much profit as possible while still giving the trade space to breathe. I figured the news would act as a catalyst, but I didn’t know which direction. So the tighter stop loss protected my current profits. I hedged this by placing a pending short entry on the EUR/USD.
The EUR/USD already had a pretty good set-up set to go short so it was a no-brainer as the choice to hedge my other trade. The news release was indeed bad for the Euro so my EUR/AUD quickly triggered my tighter stop loss leaving me with a .5% gain. And almost simultaneously my position was opened on the EUR/USD. The EUR/USD short quickly jumped out to a 70 pip gainer and I have moved to break even already. I am targeting previous lows around the 1.1000 level as my profit target, but I am managing this one closely. The 1.1100 level has acted as an area of support this afternoon, so if that level cannot be broken early in the day I may close this trade with the profits I have already. I will not be looking to hold the trade over the weekend and I am aware of the news release that is coming out in the morning.
whoops. That last post had the attachment added a few too many times…sorry about that. Anyways quick update:
The EUR/USD had a pretty volatile morning. when the unemployment news came out price jumped all over the place. you can see it clearly on this one hour chart.
I got stopped out at break even around the top of the bar so I didn’t get a chance to take my profit off the table like I had hoped. Still glad I didn’t lose money on this trade though. I finish the week with 2 winning trades and up .5%. Neither hit their profit target which is a downer but I think it makes me realize that being risk averse and actively moving a stop loss can help protect my account. I will continue to practice this with only one active trade at a time and hopefully I can keep these winners going all month long.
Had a position open and close on the GBP/USD overnight. Had a 2 day pin bar set up at the previous support level around 1.5200. I set my pending order just above 1.5300 to ensure it did not act as a resistance level before entering. My profit target was set for 1.5400 because of the previous highs and lows around that price where I thought the trade could turn lower. Price barely rose to 1.5404, just enough to get me out of the trade, and has now lowered slightly. This trade could potentially move higher, but I’m happy to be out of the trade with .65% gain.
