Hello,
Yep: agreed about the leverage. AND about the 24/5 thing. BOTH are recipes for disaster in and of themselves!!! I cannot tell you how many times I made PURE MISTAKES simply because I was so darn tired I could no longer think nor see straight. And as I was just saying on another thread: there are just some ‘oh so simple rules’ that need to be followed and I believe that MOST people will ‘make it’ in this business. It’s just unfortunate that we’re all human!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
Hello, Dale
Can’t resist jumping into this discussion with some information I think you will find useful.
Regarding opening/closing times:
[B]The forex trading day begins at the stroke of midnight at Castle Dracula in Transylvania.[/B]
[B]And, yes, midnight in Transylvania happens to be [B]5pm in New York[/B].
But, it’s Dracula — not the New York bankers —
who determines the start of the forex trading day.[/B]
I hope this useful info puts your mind at ease about when the forex trading day begins and ends.
.
Hello,
LOL!!! That’s too funny!!! I WAS RIGHT then though i.e. 1 hour after the NYSE closes which would make it 5:00pm New York Time!!!
NOW I’ll never forget it though!!! Thanks!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
I don’t mean this comment to come across as insulting or offensive, so please don’t take it as such.
I’ve only read this one post, but from what you’ve covered here it’s blindingly clear that you really don’t know how or why this market operates or functions do you.
Why would you trade a market or group of instruments with live funds that you hadn’t researched adequately or weren’t completely comfortable with?
Ahem…
Before I continue: let me just note that n_aftab suggested I detail the reasons for my no longer trading forex pairs as it may be helpful to others. The purpose of my reply was not to start the forex vs equities argument. I know what works for ME and what I’m comfortable with now. If forex is yout ‘thing’ AND it’s working for YOU then I myself could not be happier for you.
Hey Matt,
Nice to hear from you too.
Thanks for the input (and the 20 minutes)!!! LOL!!!
Well: you’re probably RIGHT in saying that trading forex is more challenging. I know: it ‘challenged’ me and my finances for a GOOD long while!!! LOL!!! Unfortuantely: I’ve had to make a choice as to whether or not I want to be challenged or make money!!! I’ll give you a guess as to my decision!!! LOL!!!
metrix:
No offense taken (although I would suggest that before making a comment or judgment such as that about a person: that you read some more of their posts i.e. some people are not going to be quite as understanding as I)!!!
I’ll tell you this though: I eventually reached the point where I stopped CARING WHY the markets move. Just as long as they DO move is all that counts to me.
Why would you trade a market or group of instruments with live funds that you hadn’t researched adequately or weren’t completely comfortable with?
Why??? Because I like most other people were ‘drawn in’ by the ‘hype’ of trading forex i.e. high leverage (and therefore minumum capital requirement), the ‘promise’ of HUGE gains in a very short period of time, the list goes on and on and on. In my opinion: it’s all ‘BS’ and some of the ‘advertising campaigns’ employed by some brokers is just shy of ‘criminal’ in my opinion.
Not to start an argument MYSELF: do pray tell exactly what you can ‘adequately research’ about the Euro (for example) TODAY??? I can, however, give you any amount of ‘adequate research’ about Soybeans (for example) TODAY.
Just curious.
Regards,
Dale.
Yeah, it’s “blindingly clear” that you need to read more, and talk less.
You’ve been a member of this forum for what? — three whole days?
And you waltz in here like some sort of expert, and use your very first or second post to start telling everyone what’s what.
Give me a f*cking break!!!
How many posts do you suppose it requires one reads before arriving at the conclusions I made then?
You don’t think that one was sufficient enough to expose those facts?
But just to ensure I hadn’t totally gotten the wrong end of the stick, I took your advice. 
Well you certainly have regards the FX one anyhow.
Yet it took you five years & whole bunch of other folks money for the penny to drop that maybe FX wasn’t floating your boat?
It wouldn’t have anything to do with your apparent cavalier attitude towards risk management or [B]lack of familiarity[/B] with your market then.
And folks wonder why FX gets such a bad press out there.
I think I’ll stand by the comments in my original post.
Alright: before this turns into ‘one of those’ threads!!!
Clint: I appreciate it. I really do. Thank you.
metrix:
To be clear here: it didn’t take five years it took three years which, I NOW know, was WAY too soon to begin trading ‘other peoples money’ in addition to my own (for what it’s worth: I lost WAY more than they did although that’s no justification for my actions at the time). That being said: the only reason I decided to do it was because for a consistent six months, in the third year, I had made a 2 142% gain on my OWN money for that period (and that’s not a typo) trading, yes, forex pairs only. But then. as the proverbial saying goes, ‘the wheels fell off’, MAINLY because by that stage I thought I’d ‘cracked it’. Having all these additional funds gave me a ‘false sense of security’ and somehow it encouraged me to take far bigger risks than I was ALREADY taking with the thought process being that I now had enough ‘spare’ so if I DID make a ‘just a few mistakes’ I’d be able to recover. Obviously I was wrong and, well, the rest is history. I know NOW that the 2 142% gain was more ‘luck’ than anything else and obviously it was just a matter of time until my NO risk management caught up with me. Which it did: with a vengeance.
So there’s a bit of history for you for what it’s worth. And I’ll agree with you: it’s because of things like this happening that has given this entire business a bad name. No question about it. And believe me: I live with the ‘guilt’ every hour of every day and I SPEND every hour of every day trying to ‘make good’ to those people (and myself) and I do know that eventually this will happen (as long as I stick to trading equities and commodities that is)!!! LOL!!!
The above being said though (which is more personal than anything else): maybe it’s just the WAY that you made your point that DID ‘get under my skin’ (although I did my best to ‘cover it up’ of course). Let me say this: whether I DO or DO NOT understand WHAT and WHY the markets move is immaterial in my opinion. I do not, never have, and never will trade fundamentally. Therefore: the ‘what and why’ are immaterial in my opinion. I trade various trading systems and when I get signals I take them. I have proved, beyond ANY doubt, that these same trading systems DO NOT work on forex pairs and I believe that I know the reasons for this (as detailed in my LONG post above). Could it be that after my SPECTACULAR wipeout that the ‘shock’ made me sit back and look at equities and commodities instead??? Possibly although EVEN in the past two years: just about EVERY SINGLE TIME I get ‘brave’ and take a signal on a forex pair the trade has gone ‘pearshaped’. Same trading systems, and same trader with the same hard lessons having been learned: different result on equities and commodities. For this I have NO explanation and it only serves to reinforce my opinion that there IS a difference between the way that forex pairs and equities and commodities ‘move’ because all the other factors in the equation are ‘static’.
Anyway (now that my ‘dirty washing’ has again had to be aired): I believe that I have made some good points as to the difference between trading forex pairs and trading equities and commodities. It works for me and that’s all that counts to me (and my clients). I could be WAY wrong. I hope I am because I can tell you that there are WAY more retail forex traders than there are retail equities and commodities traders (good point actually i.e. this is just an OPINION but I wonder if there are any statistics available) which means that if I’m RIGHT there are WAY more people that are going to end up the same way as me for very much the same reasons.
So I hope that clears things up between all of us!!!
Now one thing I’d like to ADD here (as part of my LONG post above): many people say that indicators are useless. I have a theory for this (that only ocurred to me this morning while looking at my positions). As forex is a 24/5 ‘game’: remember that the indicators are still ‘ticking over’ even when there is little or NO trading activity (mainly between session times). In other words: on an hourly chart for example your indicators are still ‘ticking over’ during those periods which just HAS to be meaningless. With (exchange traded) equities and commodities: your indicators are only ‘ticking over’ when there is REAL and ACTUAL trading going on. This is why, for example, RSI is WAY more reliable when used with equities and commodities. In other words: RSI values are only being updated when there IS INDEED TRADING going on.
Anyway: as I did note before the only reason that my LONG post (above) was posted is because somebody asked me to post about my experiences and the reasons why I have my very serious doubts as to how anyone can make money in the long run trading forex other than the banks. I simply answered n_aftab and gave my reasons. In no way is my post intended to ‘pit’ forex traders against equities and commodities traders. At the end of the day: it’s the money that counts and nothing else. I’ll tell you: for those first three years I was more in ‘love’ with the business of trading (trading ANYTHING) than with the money that was to be made. My ‘wipeout’ humbled me somewhat and made me realise that it’s a business just like anything else and it should NOT be an obsession.
No matter WHAT you trade: I wish you well!!!
Regards,
Dale.
He he he, oh man are you a Cheyenne dog soldier by any chance?
I mean you got to be, or certainly their equivalent if you’re going to gallop solo into a camp kicking up the dust & dirt while it’s inhabited by more than one badge wearing marshal.
Here, grab my arm, haul yourself up & lets get you out from here before old Wyatt Earp (the one with the big shiny 4k post star) turns up with his bible, big bold type & reinforcements.
Oh that’s WAY too funny!!! LOL!!!
But hey: metrix is probably right!!! Nobody can ‘knock’ that. I actually agree: who in their RIGHT MIND would start trading instruments live that they had not ‘researched adequately or weren’t completely comfortable with?’ The very SAD answer to this is ME (to begin with) and in all probability a few thousand more people will start doing this very thing TODAY (and tomorrow, and the day after, and next year, and next millenium)!!! And I guess that the best that I (we) can do is make them aware of their choices and the pitfalls!!! And that I guess is the main purpose of these forums (and it’s why I continue to post).
Regards,
Dale.
Hey Matt,
Well maybe THAT is why equities and commodities ‘work’ for me i.e. APPARANTELY I have that ‘gangster mentality’!!! LOL!!!
I love you guys!!! If the S&P doesn’t ‘put a smile on my dial’ then I know I can count on the forum members!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
LOL!!!
As if THAT is not enough: somebody told me the other day that I look like a ‘Mafioso’ in that picture that I posted on the ‘pictures thread’ (or whatever it’s called)!!! LOL!!!
Anyway: to back up my NEW theory about indicators not working correctly on forex pairs I’ve attached a chart demonstrating what I mean. It’s an hourly chart of the US Dollar Index Futures (but the same applies to forex because this is also traded 24/5).
Basically: for a good few hours there has not REALLY been any SERIOUS trading right??? And yet: MACD (as an example) continues to ‘tick over’. (I’m using MACD as an example because out of sheer boredom I’m trying out that new MACD interpretation as detailed on another message thread). Now if I look at the VIX for example: MACD stopped ‘ticking over’ when the NYSE closed and will only START to ‘tick over’ when the NYSE opens again (and of course the same would apply to equities and commodities).
Just something to back up my observation is all.
Regards,
Dale.
haha, funny.
Thanks for your offer but I’m pretty confident I won’t need a juicy steak for my eyes today.
I guess the fx-honorary member badge you’re referring to doesn’t necessarily reflect any kind of acquired trading expertise then.
Hello, me again.
Well here’s an idea: why don’t you tell us something about yourself metrix. Seriously. Judging by your observations: I’m sure you have something valuable to contribute and I’ve no problem taking criticism or learning new and possibly quite valuable lessons. Hell: for all I know you could be somebody that’s traded forex for years and has made a veritable ‘killing’ from it. The only reason for the (apparant) animosity is because nobody ‘knows’ you yet I guess.
Regards,
Dale.
Correct cowboy.
That particular badge is handed out only when you’ve clocked up 1,000 posts on here. It doesn’t discriminate between traders & tire kickers.
Wyatt issues you with your badge at a public ceremony in the town square complete with trumpet fanfare.
A couple old ladies toss shiny ticker tape at you from the balcony above, (which generally misses) & he mentions you in dispatches via big, bold black type every time you post, the point of which I’ve never really fathomed?!
I put it down to some sort of law enforcement tradition.
Just don’t stand too close to those damned trumpets or keep a loose rein on your pony when it happens, they’ll give you earache for half a week + it’ll spook your pony so hard he’ll kick off through the town boundary & gallop till he drops.
Mighty inconvenient.
Oh well: I guess ‘that’s that’ then.
Back to ‘ye olde’ (boring) Sugar trade then!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
Maybe I do & maybe I don’t. Perhaps I’m some sort of expert who waltzes while he talks & has an aversion to reading. Who knows.
… frankly with an attitude like yours who cares?.
Apache rider you did make me chuckle 
What are you waiting for him for?
You’ve been here over 3 years, surely you managed to filter out most of the chaff & focus in on the quality stuff by now haven’t you?
What about these threads. You got the basis for most everything that’s required right in here.
http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/29902-technical-templates-continued.html
http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/19076-technical-templates-2-a.html
I came across this appetizer lying around in the basement a couple months after I joined.
A nice simple little concept you can maybe adapt to fit your style that will run smoothly alongside the other two like a perfect fitting glove.
http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/8595-trade-v-formation-system.html
Trouble is, neither of those models include indicators + you might have to keep abreast of one or market drivers & fundamental sheets.
The combination of no indicators & a little brain work generally tends to freak out 95% of rookies for a start.
I don’t imagine most of them signed up with the prospect of having to use a little common sense or subscribe to a little brain work to kick this gig into gear.
Hello,
I cannot help but get the feeling that something went ‘askew’ on this thread. Thanks for the offer but ‘I ain’t lookin’ no more’ i.e I’m doing JUST fine now thanks with the systems that I trade on equities and commodities. Somehow that seems to have gotten lost in the ‘melè’. Now and again: yes I’ll ‘mess around’ with something new that I’ve found but that’s really only an attempt to curb the boredom. That said: I’ve only ever heard good reports about those threads.
Thanks again.
Regards,
Dale.
Dale,
I just came back to this thread, My personal apology I actually believe that peoples experience good or bad is helpful as there is no point reinventing the wheel when someone else has already done the hard graft.
I did not think for one second that it would cause members of this forum to try and make you bad, I didn’t think people could be so immature for that im sorry I should have just pm’ed you and asked you.
