this is my first post here, i just tried out metatrader4 and registered a demo account in order for me to learn forex trading, i am an absolute newbie with limited knowledge of forex trading, so i went on to get myself an account with $5000 deposit, 1:100 leverage and i focus on EUR/USD market.
at first it was delighting and sounds like a good start for me as my first try out, i losses (obviously) few hundred dollars (loses > 10 pips), then i seek through school of pipsology here and found out that using S/L and T/P might b a good idea. i try by setting the value for it, and often get invalid T/P or S/L message (i guess this is smth i need to know about setting orders?), and i do trades for the rest of the day on the end of the day my balance is $16503.27(thats a good start for newbie to me…)
today, i do it as usual, but for whatever i traded in, it goes against my expectation example, i look to charts seeing the trend keep going up, soon as i place my buy order it stumbles down fast as lightning :eek:and to add insult to injury, each and every S/L and T/P i placed, the trend will just moving in between…(driving me crazy without profits and loss):mad: then the end it will conclude as a lost due to S/L i placed.
to make story short, i lost a total of 14k++ and now i only left $87 in the balance, and its painful and disappointing to see this happen, good thing is its only a demo account else i’ll b in deep trouble. lesson learned today: “do not trade in random haphazard way with instinct”.
i believe that there is a proper way to make profits in forex trading, since i’m new in this, i hope to get some advice from fellow traders here. what should i need to focus on as a newbie that looks to make profit?? and i also understands that news and some event will affect the movment of the currency and i wonder where to get those information? i’m still going to the school of pipsology, trying to find a way to secure a profit instead of making losses.
thanks for reading this and hope to get replies from u guys soon!
The best guide you will find is YOU. You will need to find the time to invest in yourself, to take the time to read, to go through forums looking for info, to analyse, to understand, to question, to try, to win, to lose, to learn, … and when you seek extra information, a specific question … lots of people here to give you a hand!
to make story short, i lost a total of 14k++ and now i only left $87 in the balance, and its painful and disappointing to see this happen, good thing is its only a demo account else i’ll b in deep trouble. lesson learned today: “do not trade in random haphazard way with instinct”.
…Instinct is a very good thing, but you adquire it later…not now.
If you open an account with US$ 5,000 and you end with US$ 16,000, then you are not following any kind of money managment. That would be the lesson, always have money management. Take a look at that at the School.
If you like to see some important news when they are realeased, you can check fxstreet.com, they have a very good calendar.
great to get seniors reply, will take ur advice seriously!!
redbird, is that about serious discipline in trading? because i felt that i’ve driven by greed when gain profit, and frustration when is a loss… is that a process that every newbie needs to go through? now i won’t hesitate to seek for advice for my doubts.
gasanvill, yes lesson learn hardly…where can i find for ways for forex money management? books? or the SOP(school of pipsology) itself has it? thx for the info regarding fxstreet it give me a very clear picture for the calendar and extra info i needed for my future trades.
i know what is pips and lots but what actually is a spread? and is there any useful sites for me to get info for a beginner? SOP was great, but i seek for extra info…
spread is the difference between bid and ask… brokers make their $ this way…
so if you have
EUR/USD
1.3000 / 1.3002
the spread is 2 pips
so once u start a position, you are instantly at a lose of 2 pips.
BTW STRICT MM is impt… usually pple go 2% of total account.
SL is impt… as u never know if u fall asleep or the price becomes crazhy… once i did not SL and the price was dropping like rock, i couldnt close on time… loss a few K on that… REAL $.
Well all i want to say to you is: never count on your instincts only, but never ignore them also! In other words, if u earned 10-12k only because of instinctive actions - then that’s a luck. But always be careful! I think you have to look for some investment companies for advices, like i do.
i have read some of the methods given in the forum redbird, some i can understand but i have some trouble with technical terms, i think is better to get a thorough understanding about the basics from school, and graphical lessons always works best for me especially the technical, i learn fast compare to words and sentence(which is useful when comes to theory & terms), may u suggests any user that post real useful videos on youtube because i browse through some videos its either too blurr to see the graphs or just cursors moving around without explanation
thanks the for the terms trading801, which explains how come i never start off a positive position, for every sell/buy i placed, i loses money, the higher the volume the bigger the losses thanks to the spreads, 2 pips? wow~ may vary depends on broker rite? what is SL btw? i hv some trouble with those abbreviations in the forums, mind share some useful terms which peoples here commonly using?
great thanks to mathematician, i appreciate those hard works of working out the advices or i consider a small workshops there! need some time to digest that but will read it thoroughly.
i agree with you mikehf! is pure luck! do we charged for seeking advice from investment companies via physical or via email u mean?
one question is there were 3 forex trading market hours is Tokyo(open 7pm close 4pm), London(open 3am close 12pm) and NY(open 8am close 5pm) which one i need to follow if i’m trading EUR/USD and i’m from malaysia how many hours need to add in order to match my time here? and is the market close on saturdays?
once again, thanks to u guys for taking time giving me advices, i may start a new thread call pipvector’s forex trading journey, which records my day by day outcome of a trade. hope everyone kindly leave comment there for me!
another question is how is the indicator works? example moving average and Reverse Strength Index… is that to identify signals for a currency if will going up or down??
Yes, there are 3 major trading “sessions” (as they’re called): The Asian session, the European session, and the North American session. These three sessions correspond to the different banking hours in those parts of the world. After all, the forex market is basically just a lot of big banks exchanging currencies with each other. Most banks are open from about 8/9 AM to about 4/5PM in their local time zone. Here is a website that will show you when these sessions begin and end: FOREX Trading Session Times
Now you’re in Malaysia, so I guess your time zone is 1 hour behind Tokyo. So in your local time, the 3 sessions are like this:
Tokyo: 8:00 - 17:00
London: 16:00 - 1:00
New York: 21:00 - 6:00
Banks are closed on the weekend, so the forex market is also closed on the weekend. However if you live in North America, you can trade on Sunday night because it’s actually Monday morning in Asia/Oceana. If you live in Asia/Oceana, you can still trade very early Saturday morning because it’s still Friday afternoon in North America. Each week, the forex market technically first opens when the banks in New Zealand open. Trading continues 24 hours a day for the whole week until the banks in New York close on Friday.
However, this is important: [U]Not every trading session is the same[/U]. For example, there is a lot less action during the Asian session. Most of the big banks are in Europe and North America; those sessions are more active. A very active time is when there is an overlap between the London banks and the New York banks. This happens from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM in New York time, which would be in the middle of the night for you, i.e. from 21:00 to 1:00.
Do you mean how are these indicators calculated (the mathematical formula), or do you mean how should you interpret their signals (how do you use them)?
Either way, it is clear to me from your questions that you have not read through the babypips school here on this website. You should go through the whole school. At least go up to the 14th grade. It’s the quickest way for you to learn all the basics. I know English isn’t your first language, but you English is very good. It’s certainly good enough for you to read through the baby pips school: Forex Training Online: Learn Foreign Exchange (FX) Currency Trading
Anyways, I will still give you a little explanation of those two particular indicators. (Every indicator is different.) Moving averages are good at identifying trends. Some people look at the slope of the moving average line, other people look at the relationship between price and the moving average: If price is above the moving average, then the trend is up. If price is below the moving average, then the trend is down. Other people use two or more moving averages, a faster moving average (with a low number of periods) and a slower moving average (with a high number of periods).
The RSI (Relative Strength Index) is a type of “oscillator.” These types of indicators oscillate between two extremes. That means they move up and down. Other examples oscillators are Stochastics and CCI. Oscialltors show “overbought” and “oversold” signals. This means that they show when price will probably reverse and turn around. So if price was going up and you see an overbought signal (usually that’s indicated when the oscillator has a high value), then price will probably turn around and start moving down soon.
Those are just the very basics, but you should read more about it in the school. The truth is, there are many different ways to interpret indicators. Some traders have very unique ways of using them. You sould play around with them. Try different things. See what works for you.
I thought I’d add to trading801’s list. Here are some more common terms that people use:
TF = Time Frame, e.g. daily chart, 1-hour chart, 5-min chart, …
TL = Trend Line
S&R = Support & Resistance
(You should learn what these are. Read about it in the school. Support and resistance are very important concepts in technical analysis.)
“The Bulls” = the people who want price to go up
"The Bears" = the people who want price to go down
You might also hear people say, "I’m bullish on the euro, " or, “I’m bearish on the dollar.” Or they might say that a signal is bullish or bearish. For example, “When price crosses below its moving average, that’s a bearish signal.”
By the way, this might help you remember which is which: The reason why bull mean [I]up[/I] is because the actual animal, a [U]bull[/U], attacks by pushing its horns [U]up[/U]. A [U]bear[/U] attacks its prey by striking [U]down[/U] on it.
thx again mathematician for for providing useful info! =D yeah, i need to to go through the school from time to time, in the mean while i see any terms or words mentioned in some other posts which i dun really understands, then i put it up for a question… =) thx again trading801 from providing a list of abbreviations for me, i agree to u that mathematician’s way of explaining bulls and bears r great that really will help newbies to understand the term more clearly! thumbs up
as for the indicator, yes, i wanna know how is the calculation and how it affects the market and interpret it if it really does showing signals?
hi guys, is me pipvector seeking for term guidance again, i happen to come through a method called GMMA named Guppy-Multiple-Moving-Average as ppl claim that is a very useful method for indication any comment for this?
i also came through the terms which i need to understand abt is resistance and support? any examples?
You can think of [B]support [/B]like a [U]floor[/U]. Price will move down to a support level, but then it will turn around and come back up, just like a ball bouncing off a floor. Similarly, [B]resistance [/B]is like a [U]ceiling[/U]. Price will move up to a resistance level, but then it will turn around and move back down.
For example, maybe the price level 1.3000 is acting as support, and the price level of 1.3200 is acting as resistance. You could draw those flat lines on your chart. That means price will mostly stay between those two levels, bouncing up and down. Two horizontal (flat) support and resistance lines like that are sometimes called a [B]channel[/B] or [B]rectangle[/B]. But be careful, like trading801 said, those price levels are not exact. Sometimes it might turn around exactly at 1.3200, but sometimes it will turn around at 1.3210 or 1.3197…
Of course it does not always work. Eventually price will break out of a channel, and that usually starts a big trend. Usually if price breaks out of the top of the channel, it will continue going up for a while in an up trend. But again, it’s not perfect. There will be a lot of “false signals.” Sometimes price will move up to the resistance level, but it won’t bounce back down, instead it will break out, but then it won’t move up a lot either. Sometimes after it breaks out it will turn back around again and move down, back inside the channel.
You can also think of a trend line like support and resistance, but it’s not flat. It’s slanted, at an angle…
The Guppy Multiple Moving Average method is a bit more advanced. To set it up, just put a lot of moving averages on your chart. Each moving average will have a slightly different period. There will be two main groups, a longer term group (slower moving averages with larger periods) and a shorter term group (faster moving averages with smaller periods).
Like any method, it requires a lot of practice. You cean read about it in some articles. Just do a google search for GMMA. The creator is an Australian trader named Daryl Guppy.
I used to use it and similar multiple moving average techniques. It was interesting, but I don’t use it anymore. Maybe you will really like it. Everyone is different. That’s an important concept you should learn. There is not one right way of doing things. There is no magic indicator that always works. Someone might be using an indicator in a different way that other people. That does not make him “wrong” and the others “right.” There are millions of different ways to analyze the markets. Some ways work, other ways do not work. Some methods might work well for one person, but they won’t work well for someone else. The best thing you can do is learn the basics, then start to focus on something you really like. [U]Pick [I]one [/I]method and only focus on that. Become an expert in that one method.[/U] Many times we will keep switching from one system to another, trying to find the perfect system. You will be much more successful if you really try to master one system at first.
good thing is its only a demo account else i’ll b in deep trouble. lesson learned today: “do not trade in random haphazard way with instinct”.
good thing is its only a demo account else i’ll b in deep trouble. lesson learned today: “do not trade in random haphazard way with instinct”.
