Buckscoder… last week I followed the best trade of the week and really made some money with 2 of them… This week I looked at the trade suggestions and really analyzed everything.
I am learning and now I really have time. I am still in collage getting my masters degree in marketing next year but I don’t want to be forced to get a job. I already started making a notepad with all the books Pipcrawler and everyone else is recommending and now I am studding BBP School and reading the Japanese Candelsticks Charting Techniques by Steve Nison.
I know that I will have a lot of reading to do but I have some spare time and I really want to open a live account till Christmas. Everyday I learn new stuff in BBP school and improve my demo account trades and I think in a month or so I will be ready for going live…
I sincerely hope you do make it over here someday Tang. I’ve always thought of your contributions on this thread as some of the most insightful and honest, and it would be my pleasure to show you around my home land, play some golf and clink some glasses together. I would enjoy that. You’ll always be welcome in the Trader’s Arms.
And of course you are correct that misinterpretation has probably led to many a spat on forum sites, guess it’s just a part of the whole thing
So to start a fresh topic, at the start of a new week, here’s a question for the experienced crew of this thread. Remembering that this IS Newbie Island, a place for newbies to come and learn, what 2 sources of education would the experienced members recommend, ( be they books, web-sites, DVD’s or whatever ) to newbies.
Or better still, it would be interesting to hear some of the experienced traders paths of education.
Kyle posted a reply on this thread a page or two ago. I don’t know how you would go about finding him to be honest mianko, but I have a feeling, from an education point of view, I’m not entirely sure it would do you much good to find him anyway.
I asked a question of the experienced members of this thread, in the above post, about which sources of education they would recommend. Personally I have just ordered a book called Forex - Patterns and Probabilities by a guy called Ed Ponsi,from a web-site.
It was well recommended and may be as good a place to start as any other. Point is mianko we do have to put in the leg work ourselves. I’m not suggesting you’re looking for short cuts, but I doubt you search for one person who will give you the answers you seek will be very fruitful.
I really hope you do find an education path and go on to trade successfully, the education IS out there. We just need to search for it my friend. I don’t know where the holy grail lies. I don’t believe there is such a thing in the first place as far as FX is concerned. But any guru or teacher will only be able to tell you how they do things, you’ll need to work out how YOU do them.
Again, sorry I can’t be of any other help. But if you know how to post a chart on to this thread, post one of a trade you have made and include the details ( buy / sell, stop , target, success/fail) I’m sure someone here will be able to point out where they think your good points and bad points lay.
I read so many (in the hundreds), where would I start, lol? Market wizards by Schwager and the following edition new market wizards. Every book what gives you an understanding how trading works for professionals. I’d avoid the psycho hype books and those which give detailed trading systems without explaining the underlying logics. You want to know what you do.
If you open live, then trade the smallest size you can trade. Micro or mini. Live trading is different. You will have requotes and all that. Plus if your money is on the table, you act different. Imo it’s better to start very early live with smallest lot, because demo gives you a false picture. Demo is nice for getting used to the execution. That’s it. It’s like driving by car in the streets or sitting in a child’s car anywhere in a supermarket where you can put coins in to make it rattle, lol. You can’t learn to drive in the latter case.
I agree. Thanks for sharing. I used InstaForex and deposited only $1 as that was the minimum deposit. After reading the babypips lesson to grade 5 or so, I though I knew everything so i began trading. In one day, I turned that $1 into $5. Same thing happened to me when i started using bigger lot sizes hoping for more gains. it didn’t happen. same as you, i used bigger lots and lost it all.
I use GFT, and overall think they are pretty good. Their education is very good, Dealbook 360 is very usable, and most of the sales staff are approachable. I believe that Oanda has the highest success rate in terms of profitability, and they do have a web based package (would be surprised if it were better then DB360) and they also interface with MT4. You really really want to check our sites that review brokers and look for reviews on line: www.bestonlineforexbrokers.com/;Forex Reviews | Broker Review | Forex Scam | Currency Trading Reviews | Fraud & Scam Reviews & Ratings.
Ouch! I did address the content of stop runner’s original post, delighted to have a discussion on any aspect of trading (that’s why I’m here in the first place) and from the posts we made it sounds as though we each know enough to know what we are looking at, but put a different spin on elements of it, which generally makes for the most fruitful discussion. I was not sarcastic back, I answered what s/he said - but I did say that I thought the tone of the post (the opening and the closing) were closer to confrontational and sarcastic than I thought necessary, and I stand by that. Perhaps it is a transatlantic difference in emphasis that is having us read it differently, perhaps I am just a paranoid neurotic, whatever it is I stand by what I put and from there we could have had a trading exchange about it. However, from then on, stop runner descended clearly to confrontational sarcasm, HoG listed examples of it, that I found unnecessary at the time, still do, and were precisely what I was fearful of and trying to avoid by raising the matter of tone in my initial post.
Once the sarcastic streak ran through the subsequent posts, I figured that neither of us would benefit from a trading discussion so I simply ended it. I said that I thought we might well have agreed on much of the trading content, but that I did not think that a discussion was going to appear fruitful (or however I phrased it). So it was never a case of not being open to opposing views, or of wishing to silence people who disagree - it was simply an issue of tone.
Anyway, I am a little surprised and disappointed by some of the contributions to this exchange, some of it feels a little patronizing and superior tbh, which is a shame but can be an issue with anonymous groups - people don’t always speak to one another on here as they would in person and we end up with frustrating exchanges like this.
It is not a case of thin skins to me, but rather one of tone and manners. You stated elsewhere that Forex is hardcore but really that, to me, is a case of believing the hype a little. HoG stated a few real-life examples of why this is frankly not hardcore, we ought each to have others from our own lives - for my part, I have three small children and in my previous career - left in 2006 - I chased international criminals for a living - I was often armed, so were the opposition, I have been shot at, chased, attacked with everything from fists to scaffold poles, been outnumbered, stuck overseas without papers, scared, hunted, and had my wife think me dead and wondering how to tell the children on more than one occasion. I left that profession - which I loved dearly - as it was really not for people with wives and children. I chose this as I saw a lot of people killed or have their lives ruined in those days and I wanted to be around for my kids while they were young, so I do this from home around school runs, plays, assemblies, trips etc.
I picked the Simon Templar avatar as, frankly, I have seen an unpleasant side of life and I have always thought of myself as one of the good guys who had spent time engaging with that in order that others would not have to and could carry on in blissful ignorance of quite how unpleasant the extremities of life can be.
So Forex is difficult when taken in the round, there are many issues to juggle, but it is really not hardcore, it is not some extreme profession that will separate the men from the boys and where anyone who doesn’t like a harsh tone is too fragile and weak to survive. It is just learning a few things and using them to make money while sitting in front of a computer screen. Particularly as this site is optional, I just think that there is no need for any discussion or post to contain anything rude, aggressive, sarcastic or generally anything which one would not say in person.
So while I might be a bore on the issue, while I have been on this site I have asked someone to think about changing their username as it included the word ‘gangrape’, I have asked some people not to be sarcastic, a few other things like that, and I stand by all of it. We all of us have a way we want to live, a standard to which we hold ourselves. I want my family and friends to look at anything I do, between birth and grave, and for me not to be embarrassed by any of it, for them to think that I was a good person who was well-intentioned.
I have seen stop runner being unpleasant to others on this site, being confrontational when someone disagrees, I got a sense that this would go that way, so I put a stake in the ground… and s/he descended to sarcasm, unpleasantness etc. So I’m comfortable in my own skin that I played that as I always would, and we all learned a little about one another.
However, I am obviously conscious that had I not raised this side of things then it would not have flared up to this point, so the fact that this discussion took place at this time in this thread is my fault. So I would like to apologize to HoG for that, and I would like to apologize to other thread followers who find HoG’s refreshing brand of tell it like it is, learn in public, warts and all trading exploits both inspirational and helpful - I know that I do. So I am sorry that I caused this diversion from the great stuff that usually goes on in this thread.
Best way to avoid a repeat, and as I am a little saddened by some of the newer contributions to this site as a whole, and the reaction to those of some of the more established members, I am going to withdraw a little. I’ll still be a lurker round here, might lob in the odd comment, but I think that I will, from now on, not be as active a poster as I have been over the past year. To quote BB King, ‘The Thrill Has Gone’.
Anyway, sincere apologies for the appalling ramble - might as well go out as I came in lol! - and to those who think that I am taking this waaay too seriously and have disappeared too far up my own a*se: maybe I am and maybe I have, but we all have to have our own standards and hold ourselves to them, and if this is not fun what’s the point? Bad manners, sarcasm, confrontation on here or any other website are a form of bullying, which I don’t find a comfortable or acceptable experience. Defending people who have that in them, that is facilitating the cycle. I’d rather hang out elsewhere.
Sorry HoG - now forget all this nonsense and keep up the good work!!
Sad to see you go ST… its the way of things on BP though. I’ve seen Cas, Graviton, San Miguel, TalonD, etc, all either leave or cut right back on posting, largely because of the reasons you have aluded to. Rise above it mate… there are still people on here (me included) who look forward to your posts! :10:
So to Monday… took a short (yep… a short! LOL) off 1.3894 (still open). Looking at 1.3795 for either a partial or full close… will look to PA to decide.
And now my account has crashed and pulling up old settings. Think I have rebooted it but I’m not great with the technology side of this forum. Perhaps it really is time to hang up my spurs lol!
Anway, thank you for the thought, it might just be some time away, might be a reduction in my posting, or I might just give up on it altogether, not sure but I’m certainly going to have some time out - too much like hard work, the minute I find myself feeling I have to justify myself it’s probably time to stop.
I was just thinking shorting at 13920, but didn’t pull the trigger. Sad, but okay. I was not so sure. Anyways, good to see I was right with my assumption. Seems I get things together more often lately.
Regarding posting: I like yours and ST and HoGs and others opinion BECAUSE it is sometimes different from mine. Why go? We all have flat times in this forum, but why giving the trouble makers the credit to win over you?
I agree however with ST and HoG. Wonderful story ST, btw. that with the former job. Plus I guess I can imagine how hard it may get to drive a taxi in a suburb like HoG described. I guess I do also know what hardcore means. I had a girl friend, really nice and beautiful from her soul. We were already engaged. But she didn’t make it so far. Drug addiction. I read a library about that and it’s really ugly. I can only hope and pray for her now that she will be able to get one day what she is doing and to change. Though the probabilites are way worse than any trade on fx. I still love her.
Seems some of us are not like the next door Joe. Maybe it’s this what makes some successful in trading? Oh yes, where was I, lol? Fx is definitely not hardcore. At least for those who throw in money what can get lost. I lost way more money via stock speculation in the last 12 years than anything close in fx. Even if I am in a temporary and small hole with my new broker right now.
Let me deal with the trading part first as I have my own thoughts on ST’s decision to cut back on the posting.
Believe it or not I took a LONG position this morning. I bought at 1-3884 and targeted ( believe it or not 1-3915 ) as this was below one of my “10 Lines” previous week’s high of 1-3938. My thinking was that if I could get 30 pips I’d be happy, so I set a stop, purely by halving my target, at 1-3869.
After setting the trade I left as I’m doing some work in my mother’s house today and tomorrow. By the time I’d reached her house, I’d got my target and the EU had jumped off a cliff. So I’ll put that one down to a spot of luck. I did think PA was looking for a slight rise this morning though.
Mind you, that was before certain German ministers told everyone they were dreaming if they thought an end to the current crisis was going to be reached soon. Why don’t these people phone and tell you they’re going to make such statements in advance LOL !!
Funny thing is, in the midst of the little spat we all were involved in recently, I think it was mianko who posted and asked for advice on how to go about trading. One of the first things that came to my mind was a post some pages ago, ( and again I’m too lazy to check exactly who wrote it,(but I think it was either yunny1 or Buckscoder, or Niki, or R Carter or you …I think you get that I can’t remember eh ? LOL ) about ignoring market noise. And it did cross my mind to say to mianko, “Don’t get involved in Forums.”
Not because of the spat, but purely because, whether we realise it or not, as newbies, we are influenced and by all things we read on all sites. And I guess it’s only when you learn to think for yourself that you truly begin to learn. But that thought, and the spat, did make me think about just giving it a miss all together.
When I think about it, this thread is taking up just about as much of my time as the trading itself. But the thing is ST, I enjoy it. I’ve enjoyed meeting ( not literally of course ) you, I’ve enjoyed meeting R Carter, yunny1, BUckscoder, Nikitafx and the vast majority of the people who have contributed to this thread.
I’ve learned from it, I’ve learned from you lot. Your story, and that of Buckscoders are real life stories, and they themselves are what makes us strive to find, I don’t know what to call it, probably a “safer” way of life. These are the things that make us human beings. These are the things that have taught us that life is far to precious to spend trying to be a smart arse or indeed wasting our time with OTHER people who know no better.
If you DO decide to retreat a little then that is ultimately your decision my friend, and I’ll spare you all the cliches about “Don’t let the ba*****'s get you down” and not letting them win.
All I will say, is that if you do avoid posting , I for one will miss you and your thoughts. There is no doubt that FX is not what our definition of “Hardcore” is, and I’d hazard a guess Master Tang meant that it’s more of an emotional rollercoaster, which it certainly is.
So sure, have a break, kick back, have a Chatsworth or two, ( three on a Sunday ! ) get back into your trading routine, spend some time with the good lady and the boys, for THEY are the most important things. Compared to them, all else is just noise. But don’t stay away too long, because if you think I’m doing all the after hours cleaning in the Trader’s Arms all buy myself indefinitely, you’ve got another thought coming boy !! LOL!
Question just if anyone should know the answer. Does anyone know how fractals work?.
Below I’ve posted a 1Hr chart and I’ve put the fractals on from my charting platform. I hope they are clear enough for you to make out.
I saw a thing recently where someone said they used fractals for part of their trading strategy.
I just wondered if they are used for a certain style or timeframe, how you read the info and then use it.
Thanks in advance.
I’ve edited this post to add that I see the picture has not come out to easy to see. But any info or opinions on fractals are appreciated anyway.
