Beginner's Disaster!

Beginner Questions
272

Yunny1

Glad to see we both had an enjoyable day. It has rather made me think though that this is the perfect time to add some more of my newbie “wisdom” to the affray. There are two points that I would like to put in to see what you, and others may think. So here they are.

First point has to do with the last part of your comment “I should have let it run a bit more.”

one of the things that I am intentionally trying to reinforce in my own trading now is not to worry about what has happened AFTER I have closed a trade.

At one point if I closed a trade, and then price moved further in the direction I was wanting it to, I would get so frustrated and angry about what I COULD have had if I had just hung on a bit longer. It would get to the point where I would even forget the fact that I DID make a profit, because I was so wrapped up in what could have been.

I found that this was one of the contributing factors to actually jumping back into ANOTHER trade that I shouldn’t have been in at all, just chasing what I had " lost ". And usually this would end up leading to losses.

But now, as I say, ( maybe it is learning through experience, I don’t know ) I am intentionally trying to reinforce the feeling of being happy with what I HAVE made, rather than being unhappy with what I COULD have made. Once I have closed my trades now, I am no longer interested in the slightest at what price does. When I’m out of the trade, it’s time to start looking for other clear entry set ups.

Wondered what your thoughts on this were.

Second point, which is slightly connected to the first point, is that one of the mistakes I have made before when I have made a profit just like today, is that I have been far to eager to jump back in to any half looking trade, because I was too fired up by my ‘success’. Again, I am trying to reinforce patience in my trading.

As I mentioned before, I closed my last trade for +62 pips, and I still have the feeling that Euro Dollar will eventually fall back much lower as long as it continues to trade under 1-4535 ( last daily high ). And before, that ‘feeling’ would be enough to get me to jump back in. But now I’ll wait to see if there is a good, clear reason to get back in, and if there isn’t I won’t.

I guess at the end of the day, no matter how big your account is, this business is all about protecting what you have first and foremost.

[U]renovatio[/U]

I am tending to agree with Buckscoder in not being entirely sure where the ‘downtrend’ is. I entered my trades today because I thought I had identified areas of resistance and entered my first trade on that basis. After I got out of the first trade, with a small profit, and price had moved up significantly, I still believed that according to my analysis price would still fall again. It just so happened that the second time I had the opportunity to enter at a better price for me.

Not entirely sure I did this because I saw a downtrend, or even that a downtrend has occurred today. I think it may take more than 10 hours of PA to constitute a downtrend, but nevertheless I think my trades today WERE good as I made them off the back off my analysis and I made a profit from them.

But they’ll make me smile for the rest of the evening and when I wake up tomorrow they’ll be forgotten about and it’s time to start again. It’s a little bit like the golf mentality. Once you finish a hole and walk off the green, forget about that hole. It’s done, and good or bad it’s time to start thinking about the next hole.

Thanks for getting involved though renovatio, looking forward to talking to you and sharing our thoughts and concerns.

Anyway, I’m off to make custard and caramel cake for me and the kids. Won’t do a bit of good for the waistline but who cares ? Tonight’s an up night !!

HoG

273

heheheh thought all traders and investors of the world think alike after getting their source from CNBC squak box.

Reminds me of the wet market here.

Unlike the western countries you get your life stock like Chicken fresh here. It all comes in this little plastic cages that has 10 or 20 in a box and 10 or 15 boxes stacked high.

All you got to tell the guy is how many you want and come back ten minutes later for it to be slaughtered and chopped up, ready for you.

Walking past those boxes always reminds me of CNBC Squakbox. Everyone talking so fast and so loud at the same time and each contradicting the other and at the end of the day it does no one any good. They all get slaughtered.

LOL

274

HoG you CAN be proud of it. Proper analyzing or system, that’s to me the same.

We just had no downtrend today. If somebody wants to trade counter trend, no problem. But imho he should know it’s a counter trade and not a trend trade.

I know exactly what you mean, Nikita. :wink:

275

Hi All

Just thought I’d throw in a quick question to finish the evening off nicely after the custard and caramel cake ( which incidentally, was absolutely deliscious ). It’s about moving averages.

Been sifting through different sites recently and looking at various charts and have noticed the different moving averages used by different traders. Now I know the explanations of how these different moving averages are calculated, but I just wondered what the thread opinion was on the pros or cons of Exponential, Simple or Smooth moving averages.

I guess like most things in currency trading it all comes down to personal preference, but thought I’d ask anyway.

HoG

276

Interesting stuff on this thread, as ever.

Congrats to all who picked up some pips today. However, for what it is worth, I have to agree with Buckscoder’s take on things - there was certainly no downtrend today. Personally, I stayed out of this pair as the picture is a little mixed for my approach. I can see where those anticipating a big drop are coming from, fundamentally speaking, but I personally won’t trade opinion, even my own lol! Trading is all about timing, so a generic belief that a pair is due a fall is never something I would trade. If anything, the trades today were countertrend, as Buckscoder says, but they were really more a case of Price Action traded out of areas of S&R - an effective trading style, but not a trend.

Also interested in the point made by HoG, saying that he is beating the temptation to dive back into what looks to be a good move to squeeze a few more pips out. For me, this is a key point. To treat this as a career, it is important to trade mechanically, take a consistent approach to the market and come away with consistent pips. So I prefer to plan a trade, including my exit from that trade, then trade that approach. Suddenly getting a good feel for a move and going with it is not, to my way of thinking, an effective approach for the long term - certainly not as effective as taking a mechanical, consistent approach to the trading.

Anyway, I am concerned that this has ended up sounding negative, which it is not meant to be at all, just sharing my thoughts. Winning trades today placed for PA/S&R reasons were obviously a nice piece of work!

Hope that this ramble is of interest to someone - apologies, as ever, for the ramble!!

(And for my ongoing inability to multiquote different posts from other users - sorry)

ST

277

I am a clear fan of Exponential Moving Averages - MAs provide a valuable insight into likely areas of Support and Resistance. I have backtested SMAs and EMAs and found that EMAs, with their weighting towards more recent Price data, give a more accurate and consistent indication of where Price might next interact. SMAs give a similar thing but are, for my trend-based trading at least, less accurate. I have EMAs on my chart and will enter trades off them, they allow for nice, efficient Stop placement. It is about as close to indicators as I get!

(And I’m glad my dinner’s ready, with all that talk of cakes!)
ST

278

About moving average you know is like beauty…:slight_smile: is in the eye of the beholder

But to give a straight answer to your question… “I, myself” use SMA 50, 100, 200

A friend that trade for a Bank in my country, told me they give great importance to those MA in the daily chart in order to establish a trend…

Read this about SMA vs EMA

Simple Versus Exponential
Even though there are clear differences between simple moving averages and exponential moving averages, one is not necessarily better than the other. Exponential moving averages have less lag and are therefore more sensitive to recent prices - and recent price changes. Exponential moving averages will turn before simple moving averages. Simple moving averages, on the other hand, represent a true average of prices for the entire time period. As such, simple moving averages may be better suited to identify support or resistance levels.

279

The problem with the anti EMA SMA club again is the classical mistake of using indicators.

Looking at the indicators for entry and exit instead of the price.

Many who say ohhh they are useless cause they lag and trading crossovers cost you money.

Well there is more then one way to look at it and trading cross overs is not one of it.

280

Not every trade is the same at least for me… sometimes there are a confluence of more signals that make me more confident on the trade I am taking.

the sooner the trade goes my way the better cause i can manage it with less stress…

today trade i took it based on PA in 5m chart and the 1.4510 resistance zone…(not my main strategy) that’s the reason I bailed out early from the trade, I just wanted my 20-30 pips :smiley:

I keep on my mind that any gain makes me a winner in this business… of course there is always room for improvement…

281

So let me see if I’ve got this right.

SimonTemplar reckons EMA’s to be best.

yunny1 reckons SMA’s to be best.

And Nikita doesn’t like either !

Well, I’m glad that’s cleared up lol !! :slight_smile:

Personally I have SMA’s running on my charts. I am the first to admit I don’t have enough experience to argue they are better or worse than any other, or wether any of them do any good at all.

In fact, the only real way I do use them is that if they are moving up or down in order, ( shortest time periods ABOVE longest for an up move / shortest periods BELOW longest in a down move ) I use this to reassure myself that the move is relatively strong. But as of yet, I haven’t ever used them to enter/exit a trade. Maybe I’m misusing them completely !

Anyway, seeing the different opinions made me smile and probably just confirmed that this is all about personal preference.

Hope you enjoyed your dinner Simon. As for the using multiple quotes. Click on a reply as “reply with quote”. And you will see someone’s reply come up beginning with the symbol [ and then the word QUOTE and then the symbol ]. I can’t write it exactly as it appears as it would come up in this post as a quote and not how I’m trying to explain it.

Then at the end of that persons reply you will see the symbol [ then the / symbol, and then QUOTE, and then ] again.

What you need to do is go through someones reply by starting each section you want to discuss by typing [ then QUOTE and then ] at the beginning of that section, and then type [ then / then QUOTE and then ] at the end of that section. Then you write your bit, then start and end the NEXT section you want to discuss by doing the same. Each section you want to discuss seperately must start and end with those. Then when you press to submit your reply they will appear as quotes. It’s like HTML code.

Hope you get what I mean. I think if you wanted to use different quotes from different posts in your reply, you would still need to start and end them like that so they appeared as quotes on screen, but you would need to physically type in, or copy and paste, the sections you wanted to discuss then add in who that quote had originally came from. There you go. Clear as mud !!

This really is goodnight this time.

Talk again soon.

HoG

282

no no …I trade EMAs. Matter of fact that was the first system that was profitable consistently.

Just dont use them as simple cross over set ups.

283

just keep it simple…if you see a good PA formation bouncing off any MA… then you have a high probability trade…

704×832

284

yes something like that is more like it.

285

That is really kind of you, thank you, will have a play around with that and see if I can make it work. I come on here looking to discuss trading and get free IT advice - this thread really is all things to all people!

Dinner was good thanks! My wife was out at her local book group (which I think is probably a bunch of women sitting around drinking with a pile of books on the table, but at least she had read the book this month lol). Given that we have three small children we don’t often get to go out after dark at the same time, so I was home alone babysitting. Which meant a blokey film and a pizza with meat on it, for once…!

Thank you for the mulit-quoting tips.

ST

286

A blokey film and a pizza with meat on it. My god that takes me back a few years !!

287

Trading is not easy for the beginners, that is true. You need to know a lot first before you start trading. It’s really great that there are many forums where you can communicate with other traders and learn. All the best and profitable trading!

288

Good afternoon togehter!

I see, you all had nice cakes and other delicious food. Me too. Herrings with potatoes. No bordeaux, though, because that would taste urrrrgh. Too bad you can share videos on the net but no food. No, I mean the real herrings not those in the markets, lol. :smiley:

Regarding ema, I have some drawn at a screen. Same reason ST says he prefers it over sma.

289

Just came home to find the Euro Dollar falling out of bed. Have to be honest and admit I took a chance and jumped straight in selling at 1-4328. As I write I am +38 pips. Another 10 pips would take my account back over $90 for the first time in goodness knows how long. Dropped my stop to 1-43 exactly so I know I have at least +28 pips in the bag. Trying to give it room to breathe though as If it is going to go a long way down I’d like to be in it.

Not too bothered though. I’ll take the +28 gladly if that is how it turns out.

HoG

290

Just as a quick side note to all concerened. The way the last few replies have gone, it is good to know that if we all do break our accounts completely, we may all have a future as food critics. It’s always good to have a plan ‘B’ :smiley:

HoG

291

OK, call me a big girl if you want, but I just closed my trade for +51 pips. I know only too well that price may drop like a stone a mile further, but I need to be sure I’m bagging the money along the way. Account now at $90.50.

Add today’s +51 to yesterday’s +82 and I’m not too worried about chickening out.

Maybe some day when my account is much larger I’ll let these trades go the distance. But for now I’ll take the money and run.

I’m sitting at my computer now bracing myself for the criticism.

But the way I look at it, there will ALWAYS be another opportunity.

HoG