ok ok nowwww back to topic, how many trades you make per-week at least? did you all really need until your trigger come up and take the trade even if your set up will come very long?
Hi Everyone,
Time for the Home of Golf update to his FX account. Yet again I have managed to slash my account balance dramatically. From $170 to $63 no less !! But I DO have a reason for this. I intentionally refrained from using the word excuse just then because I donāt believe in excuses. At the end of the day, I made the decisions, I hit the buttons. But here is my reason anyway.
This may be another beginner's mistake but I've taken it as a lesson learned. As I've told you all before I use FXCM trading platform, which also gives you access to the Daily FX website which is a FX information site.
Now I must stress, I am NOT criticising the analysts who publish content on that site. God knows they know a lot more than me on the subject and do it for a living. But they started the week by telling every one that the EUR/USD was due for a fall to at least the 1.39000 region because the current rally was a retracement from the 2009 high to the 2010 low. Still with me ? Good. So because of this the pair was ready to fall any second now.
So I blindly followed their advice and sold at the 1.41350 level. And I sat and watched all week as the price went up, and still they told everyone the price was ready to go down. Then today, as the price finally nudged 1.43000 and I was down to $63, they say, " Well looks like we might have been wrong in the short term about the Euro, but eventually it MIGHT go down," Not their exact words but that was the point.
So there in lies this weeks costly lesson. Read things, see what others are saying, but hit the button because of your own research, not on the say so of others. What other big mistake did I make ?? STOP LOSS, or the lack of one. There sooooo important at keeping emotion out of the equation.
So the Home of Golf ( HoG ) is officially in survival mode. The EUR/HoG pairing is in a strong downtrend and if I am honest Iād probably be hitting the sell button myself. But believe it or not, Iām surprised by how upbeat I am about the whole situation. I know I am getting my backside kicked but starngely enough I still feel as though I am learning. Itās an expensive lesson but since I made the decision at the start that this amount of money was what I could afford to lose, Iām not too ripped up about it.
Also, and Iām not sure Iām allowed to do this on this forum, but here it is. I joked in post 24 of this thread, with ITtrader, that we should start a blog about our beginnerās forays into FX. Well Iām going to do it. It will purely be a diary of what I do and the thinking, or lack of it, behind what I do. I only have $63 left so it may be the shortest blog in history. It would be so cool if other beginners shared their mistakes, triumphs and just their general thoughts in it. Iāll let you all know what itās called once Iāve set it up. Iām only doing it because I have a feeling these posts are supposed to be quick articles and I have a habit of writing a short story each time I write. Talk soon, HoG.
Blog telling of tales of Forex woes and mistakes now set up. It would be great if everyone here could share their own mistakes and take part in writing it. Youāll find it at
Welcome To The Wonderful World of Forex
The blog has not been set up to promote any product or for any sort of gain whatsoever, so I hope I have not broken any rules of this forum site by posting the link for it. If I have I give my apolgies. Failing that I hope to see some of you there as well as continuing this thread.
HoG
Hi HoG, same happened to me some time ago, so I decided that if I was going to lose money, it would be because my own analysis :59:
The first thing you have to do is to prepare your strategy, for example: timeframes to trade, indicators to use, how to determine support and resistance areas and trendlines, MONEY MANAGEMENT, TP/SL placement, etc. And then you test it long enough to experience winnig and losing tradesā¦ when you feel confortable with it yo can go and trade real money!
What timeframe are you trading?
Hi HoG, im going through similar things (although i didnt lose so much in such small amount of time). i started with about Ā£300 and now down quite low. you just have to scale down and use MM to protect what you have left. I cant say too much as im in no better position. Im sticking with my low account and aiming for the small pennies to get me back to try and enforce MM in my brain. If i can prove to myself i can do it i will add more funds as and when. I have had good trade ideas and regulary make the right move. its all the little mistakes in between i have to stop making so that the correct trade makes a profit and not just recouping all thats lost from the bad ones.
I use Forex Live for commentary and they dont give a definite view on whats going to happen but give you an idea of what the big guys are doing so YOU can make your own mind up in how to trade.
Scale down so you can use a good stop but still keeping a low risk %. thats been the key for me this week.
Yunny1
Iām very much an āas it happensā sort of person. I look at the 1 hour chart to try and get an overall feel for whatās happening and then use lower time frames to try and get the bumps and falls in between. Like Iāve said before, overtrading is probably one of my faults, but I enjoy scalping more than long term trades. Maybe thatās why Iām losing so much.
mrdrink
Coming from Glasgow you can probably appreciate how much I like your name. Anyway, good to meet another newbie. Youāre 100% correct, money management is key. Itās difficult not to fall into that fruit machine mentality and start throwing good money after bad to recoup losses. Itās a skill in itslef. Thanks for the Forex Live info. Like I said, survival is very much my main objective now so small penny gains are the target.
Hi HoG, i will try and add to your blog when i can 
i work full time so im not at my computer for most of the day in the week. This plays havoc with my trading and is a small part to my failure. I too was drawn in by the lower timeframes and the quick action buts its a road to ruin for me. Only these past few weeks im making more trading decisions on the 4H and daily TFs. I still zoom into 15mins to be accurate but mostly i only go down to the 1H. I found that i was being too accurate (if its possible) i would set a limit order and it would come up short by a pip or two then shoot in the direction i had foreseen. Im still finding my feet with this and sometimes i bring my order 5-10 pips closer and the price shoots through by 10pips and stops me out then reverses. This is where my scaling down has started to work as i can use a 30-40 pip stop and give the trade some room. Im not fully set on how many pips my stop is. I tend to look at the setup, if its more likely to go my way i give it more room. if im unsure that my entry is right i tighten up. Again im learning everyday.
I wish i could be at my computer though as I would be able to manage the trades more clearly which would help me no end. I do have my trading platform on my iPhone and use that to manage trades but sometimes you dont get the full picture and sometimes i dont have the connection to log on.
I have bookmarked your blog and will checkin daily
keep smiling!
mrdrink
I think one of the things that goes through your mind when you start on forex is that you are out there all on your own. The thing I have realised just since I started this thread is that there are loads of people all trying the same things, and feeling the same emotions as I am. Itās amazing how similar the things you say are to my situation.
I work all day to so by the time I get home, the majority of the volume of trading in my favourite pair ( EUR/USD ) is over since the london session has closed it is a bit quieter. Then you have to sit down and try to play catch up to see what has happened in the day while you were at work. By the time you think you have a grasp on it, it's usually time for bed.
I have the FXCM app on my iphone. But like you, the fantastic connection you get with the iphone means that unless I am practically sitting on top of the vodaphone transmitter, I canāt find out whatās going on. I have made the mistake of trading due to what I can see on my iphone before, but this is even more ridiculous since the only chart the app gives you is a 5 min one that more resembles a dogās pee in the snow than a price chart. Also, if you do miraculously get a connection long enough to make an entry, youāve got more chance of winning the Euromillions than getting ANOTHER connection to get out of the trade if you need to.
I will try to stick to bigger timeframes in future. The shorter ones certainly donāt seem to be helping me. If you can keep looking in on the blog that would be great. The only reason it exists is to keep a diary of what I, and other newbies are doing and thinking. If you ever fancy doing a post on it about how you started, and you have the time, let me know and Iāll let you know how to go about itā¦ Itās there for beginners to share there experiences after all.
Best of luck to you. Iām off to work now til about 4 tomorrow morning so I donāt think Iāll be writing anything else on here or the blog today.
HoG
HoG, trading smaller timeframes is exhausting and takes a lot of time in front of the screen. Remember, the main trend is usually found on daily and 4H timeframes.
my advice is to use the daily and 4H charts to draw trendlines, find S/R areas, look for divergences, and monitor SMAs. You can use the 1H chart to adjust and place your trade.
since you donāt have the time to be in front of the computer, please do not scalp! as you said it will lead you to overtrade.
do not risk more than 1% of your NAV, for this kind of setup you can use a 50-100 stoploss and a 100-150 takeprofit. of course you have to test it and see if this fits you trading style.
tips:
check 50,100,200 SMA on the daily chart for trends an S/R areas
establish your bias according the chart you are drawing TL
i will follow your blog:)
yunny1
Couple of things to ask you regarding your last reply. First of all, if you are using daily and 4H charts, how long do you find yourself in a trade? I realise that prices can move quickly and a lot depends on that, but typically, how long does each of your trades last?
Second point is about SMAs. I know what they are, but how do you use them? If a price is trading, for talking sake, below the 50, but above the 100, what does that tell you and how do you use that info?
HoG
Hi, the trade usually takes 1 to 5 days it depends on the price action, you have to manage your trade, this means closing your trade, reducing the size, locking profits, etc.
Moving averages can be use in different ways, for example for trend bias and as support and resistance.
If you check EUR/USD on the daily chart now, you can see how the price is trap between 50MA(resistance) and the 100MA(support)ā¦
why are this MA so important?? because a lot a traders and robots use them in their strategy.
In EUR/USD the 50MA is at 1.4360 and May 12, May 19 highs are in the 1.4340-1.4345 area ā¦ so we now that is a key level. If the price bounces off that levelā¦ then a good trade should be going short, but if the price goes up quickly you may go long.
Remember, I am not telling you how to trade:p, you have to make the final decision.
if more factors get together in a level it might validate more your trade.
Hope this helps
( sorry, english is not my first language )
Hi Pingback,
You can access live charts in the demo account with FXCM. Thereās a button at the top of the platform that says Charts. Click on [B]Charts > Create Marketshot[/B], and you can access a chart. The demo receives the same price feed as the live accounts.
HoG mentioned the micro account which is a good option to start with if youāre new to forex trading and want to start off with a small balance. The standard 10k account requires a higher minimum to open, but you can still trade micro lots in that account if you go through FXCM US.
All the best with your trading!
-Jason
First of all, thank you for this thread.
I am just a newbie as many of others as I believe. I have not traded on real accounts yet and I have my own reasons for it.
From the very beginning I knew, that if I begin to trade with real money, I will certanly lose them within a few minutes. You know, itās kinda when you are small child on the nuclear station in front of many buttons. You want to push all of them but you never know what the result will be.
So, I have started to trade on demo accounts. I lost all āmoneyā 3 times in a row. And even these attemps gave me a lot of knowledge. One of the main thing was, that I will NEVER trade with big lots if I have a deposit at least a few thousand green. Itās just gambling if you have a few hundred dollars and itās a matter or time when you lose your deposit.
I remember that I have once double initial deposit on demo account (it was $200 and I make about $413) and then I started to open big lotsā¦and it appeared that I had opened orders just in the most wrong placeā¦5-10 minutes and all my āmoneyā were lost.
Thus, the next thing was stop loss as it was said before millions of times
And lastā¦but not leastā¦it was myself and my greed. I am not ashamed to say that, I am who I am. Every time I wanted to waita little bit more to have a little bit more and then I got less then I could. Or I was waiting that market would āchange his mindā and I would be able to close order at least with $0.01 profit.
And I know that it will be most difficult thing to conquerā¦not to find the right strategy or smth else, but my greed
Hi chichwar
Do you know what? I reckon that your post was just about as true as it gets. Greed is an animal that I guess EVERY SINGLE wanna be trader has experienced at some point. And why wouldnāt we feel it, weāre only human after all.
When I first started doing demo accounts I lost my $50,000 so fast I hadnāt even finished my coffee. And that was because I thought it was just numbers going up and down and all you had to do was guess which way they were going. But itās more than that.
You can, and should, use the school of pipsology on this site to learn about the different technicalities involved in trading. But you also have to start paying attention to economic events, ( interest rate rises, National GDP figures etc ) because these are the events that make the numbers go up and down.
Iām far from being competent at this FX thing myself as you will know if youāve read the thread and seen what has happened to my balance. ( back up to an impressive $65.22 from a low of $63.27 ) And Iām sure conquering our inner demons are just as big a part of success at this business as anything else, but I honestly believe it IS learnable and it IS acheivable.
You stick with it my friend, you donāt learn to walk without falling on your backside a few times. If you need to talk, Iām always here.
" Once you choose hope, anythingās possible." ā Christopher Reeve
Chichwar, is not about the lot size is about risk management What is Risk Management? | Risk Management | Learn Forex Trading
Is one of the most important things in forex trading.
Hi Everyone
Newbie question coming up.
At 07.33 GMT today, The EUR/USD pairing jumped off a cliff and went from 1-4440 ish to 1-43390 ish in a heartbeat. And then the price slowly started to climb back up.
What makes a price move so dramatically? Anyone know an answer I would be grateful to hear it
HoG
eurusd is āslightlyā overbought. lol. So, buyers canāt/wonāt buy anymore and more sellers come in and sell, while some former buyers cash in (taking profit). If they close their orders or liquidate, itās like selling. As all those sellers come togehter, thatās a stark move often.
Hope that helps.
Hi HoG
There are several factor for that move
- 1.4460 technically is a strong resistance
- ADP and ISM reports came short for expectations
- Everybody cut its NFP forecast
- Greece downgraded by MoodyĀ“s
- Stock Market panicked and went down 279 points
Thanks for the replies.
Another question for yunny1. What makes 1-4460 a strong resistance line? How did you come up with that figure. Learning to work out resistance and support levels is key for us newbies. Is it a Fibonacci extension? If so, an extension from what price point.
Earlier tonight I put my Fib on the 1h chart from the 23-05-2011 low ( 1-3970 ) to the high of today ( 1-4454 ). Came up with the following retracements:
23.6% 1-43412
38.2% 1-42702
50% 1-42129
61.8% 1-41556
76.4% 1-40846
The price fell below the 23.6 Fib line but seems to have turned back to the upside. Using this info I bought 1 lot ( 10 cents per pip ) at 1-43279 in my live account. Stop loss at 1-4310 and limit at 1-44. Price as I write this at 1-43376. May not be the best analysis in the world but itās the first analysis Iāve done since I started this so at least Iām thinking about it now.
Just wondering though how you got the 1-4460 resistance level. Thanks for your help.
HoG