In the long term I think the above is probably the way to go. It might not maximise your system but forex won’t be consuming your life. It’s probably ok for now but I think I’d burn out after a while and start to hate trading if I had to sit through the late night GMT crawl waiting for Asia to pick up and then catching a snooze before getting into the Euro open. Anyway, each to their own I suppose! So long as you’re making money and still enjoying it all’s good.
Well pretty quiest for me in the market at the moment. I still have that original trade going. I did take another sometime ago but it promptly got stopped out.
Passing the time at the moment reading Elder’s ‘Trading for a Living’
Well, another morning, another day in the market.
I closed last month up on my original bank so that’s good and hopefully I can continue that.
Currently in 2 trades this morning.
Just commited the cardinal sin, I exited a trade before my method told me to. Feel very stupid for doing so and very annoyed at myself!
I’ve done something pretty unconventional for myself but at least it means it kind of ‘erases’ my earlier exit. The price action went against my original position so I was able to go back in at the price I exited at. Even though price action was going against me, at least now I will follow through with the trade as it was meant to be originally, gains or losses aside.
I have done much the same thing myself, a couple of times. It sounds odd to some, but if that is the way you tick, it is important to be able to look back and feel that you played things the way you planned them. Thank you for posting this thread, I have found it very interesting. I gave up a career for this (this lets me help look after the kids, too, and is more stable, lifestyle-wise) so find a certain resonance in some of your experiences. I look forward to future posts.
Sorry, nothing much to add, just wanted to make a generally supportive and appreciative noise!
Cheers Simon, good to hear from others in roughly the same boat as me.
Finished yesterday very slightly under break even.
I’m in one open trade today so far. Looking for the market to give me some good price action! Also have to watch when I’m trading as the kid needs to go get an injection today…
There might be less volume, or things might be a little more erratic than usual, as it is the US elections today. Some of the bigger investors might keep their powder dry, wait until it is clear whether there really will be an anti-Obama backlash. I may be overly safety first, but I am not trading USD today.
Ha ha, I did that while playing a bit in demo for getting familiar with the platform. 5 pips before my sl would be hit it jumped several hundred pips to would be profit zone. 
That was a lesson for lifetime. My last big profit chunk of 25% came out of a trade where sl was missed by 8 pips while price jumped up and down tens of pips in seconds. It looked all so bad and then after the news price jumped like a rocket. Trading [U]IS[/U] rocket science, lol.
WildChancer - thanks for these insightful thoughts, really useful for us newbies. Question: have you tried setting up an EA? Sounds like you need to cut down the hours or you’ll burn yourself out
Hey,
I’ve not tried setting up an EA as I think it would be hard to program, if it can even be programmed (i.e. calculating where I would want my entry to be, when the entry would become void, when to exit, when to move SL etc etc.). I would also prefer to have a bit more control over my trading.
I have however, decided to close all positions no matter what by the end of the US trading session. This should mean I get at least some sleep!
Today, I had a small losing trade this early morning but now all seems pretty choppy, no doubt apprehension in the market with all the big news due out…
Yes, I am staying out altogether today, too many variables for me. I agree with you on EAs. I often trail stops and scale out profits with the strategies I use, I feel I need to have more live control than an EA would give. I am sure that they suit some strategies, some of the more fire-and-forget ones, but I have the same hesitations you mention.
Just a quick post since I didn’t post yesterday, what with all the interest rate meeting volatility etc.
I’ve not blown my account!
Actually, I’m starting to look into harmonic trading and have taken a very cheap trial offer of somebody I have seen on a webinar. I have 2 weeks that cost $20 so I’m going to study it like heck and get my worth haha. Whilst I have always known about harmonic patterns, I would like to use this trial opportunity to see if it is something that I can incorporate into my trading.
As always, only time will tell…
In case anybody is wondering, normally I would say to people almost eveything is available on the web free and there is no need to pay for any training courses/services. This is also true for harmonic trading but the reason I am doing this one in particular is the cost for the trial is so minimal (less than most books!) and it also gives access to the guy who runs the trading room. I believe this will substantially speed up my education on harmonic trading and thus, let me come to an educated decision on if I should incorporate it into my personal trading. Essentially in trading terms, it has a good risk:reward ratio!
Well, trading week is over, today I caught a trade on USD/JPY for profit.
I am now certain that I want to give harmonics a try for the forseeable future so we will see how my trading goes. As always, excited for Monday to come and trading to commence once again!
Have a good weekend folks.
Morning all.
And the week starts! Got myself into a trade with EUR/GBP this morning.
I’ve started slightly late as I’m coming to a new schedule for myself. I think Mondays I will start late and Fridays finish early. Everything else in between I will will work like crazy where good set ups present themselves. I think this would be fair enough as it basically gives a 2.5/3 day weekend…
What is the rationale behind starting late on Mondays, if I may ask? It is something I have been considering, to give the markets time to sort themselves out after the weekend. I am a very trend-led trader, so the weekend blip makes first thing Monday morning a bit choppy for me.
I’m not a trend trader but the rationale is pretty much the same as what you mentioned. I find the Monday mornings slightly choppy and I don’t think I will lose out by starting slightly later. Albeit slightly later for me is around the London open, I’m not talking about a mid day start.
Yes, I agree - I start at 0600 most days, but am thinking that it isn’t worth the bother on a Monday, 0800 seems fine for Mondays.