Yes sir’, it does make sense, and gives me a clue why I was sluggish to understand: There is no continuity between, say, the 5m, 10m, 15m charts each with 20:1, 20:2, and 20:3. Still, well able to be used together, but not fluid like the 80:2 on a 15m would match the 20:2 on the Hour. Clears things right up. Thanks. 
Exited my daily trade based on the 1h TF chart at 122 pips (significant resistance ahead). Will look see Sunday evening for a possible re-entry. Have a good weekend all.
Nice. I got in on that as well, not quite as efficient an entry as I was holding onto the daily breakout short from 0700 this morning but nevertheless.
Have a good weekend all
resistance, not sure if I should keep my 1H buy going or close it down. I know what my strat says but…
With all this Dubai stuff, I don’t think leaving anything open over the weekend is a good idea. You can always re-open on Sunday and put the stop in the same place it is in now can’t you (works out to be the same trade)?
good point. And I’ve done well on Sunday afternoons so far. and did well today.
Not a recommendation Mike… just that I’m happy with my take today and theres no need to push it… besides its home time for us Brits. Good luck if your still in on the New York though.
yeah, I went ahead and closed out. did ok today but missed out on the LB1 last night. I got to figure out a way to trade that and still get enough rest for my day job.
I started a thread detailing my JPY scalping using your BB set ups. So far its a working strat. If any one wants to check it out before I butcher your set ups and set me straight please do:D
http://forums.babypips.com/show-me-money-daytrading/31003-scalping-jpy-pairs-bollinger-bands-new-post.html
Going back over everything slowly, only really got to skim over things to get caught up some with where you guys are now, but my question is for Mr. Carter, what is your initial stop loss in pips for each time frame? say for the Daily, 4 Hour, Hour, 15m, and 5m? …and I’m fully on board with manually moving the stop loss, first night I used it to it’s full potenial, I scalped EUR/USD on the 15m for almost 120 pips. The problem with manually moving the stop is … it takes actual effort, which most are looking to avoid by the set and forget crap, too much like real work. I suggest anyone new reading this thread to get used to the idea, because it works. I’ve seen too many trades chaff my hindquarters raw because of not moving the stop around, and by the time you add slippage into the equation??? I don’t see how a serious trader couldn’t use this method.
Yes I agree trades need to be actively managed. I’m no fan of ‘set & forget’… but its not for the faint hearted. I as does SM (judging from his posting times) start looking at the monitors around 07:00 GMT and I rarely log off before 01:00 the next morning (often times much later if PA is making a big move). Once your into a longer TF trade you have to keep an eye on it or close out and possibly re-enter when prudent. Don’t even think about going to bed with the trade still running. 
Stops are a difficult area. If you have entered a trade at the correct place in relation to the 20:2 (candle breaks the upper/ lower bol band wicks closes and the new candle also wicks and main body changes colour) and there is no trending pattern on the over all bollingers (down: 4-5 o’clock and up 1-2 o’clock) then the following should be adequate. 5m and 15m = 20 pips. 1h and 4h = 50 pips. Daily = 100 pips. These are max SL’s that I would consider. Often times its a judgement call on PA volatility at that time (low volatility = smaller SL). I trade the London - New York open when PA volatility is often at its highest.
You have covered manual movement of SL in your post. But its worth just mentioning it again. Always move your SL to BE at the earliest oportunity whilst still giving the trade room to breath.
Worth also mentioning… I’m really only looking for 100 pips a week. If more great but thats 5000 pips a year. With compounding the figures will get serious in no time even with a low starting out account balance. Sometimes I will get my weekly pips in a day but thats not what I’m actually trying to do. I simply enter a trade at the correct set up… if the trade still looks sound I will stay in. I’ve said it before… it all about compounding up your account be that 10 pip trades on the 5m TF chart or 100 pips on the daily TF chart… not about trying to sqeeze ever pip out of every move.
I trade the daily managed on the 1h because I dont mind if it takes me three days to make 100 pips for example. On the other hand I know SM is particularly adept on the 5m and 15m TF charts. As long as we both make the pips right? 
Price moves the same no matter what chart time frame you are using. Base your stop loss on your maximum risk and position size and nothing else.
[B]STOP LOSS = RISK / POSITION SIZE.[/B]
Correct me if I’m wrong… haven’t we already had this conversation before? Excepting the obvious that PA moves identically on all TF charts, In reality people trade different TF charts… well[B] differently[/B] and often seperately.
I’ve tried the rigid, standardized “maximum risk/2:1 risk to gain” and whatnot before, and it’s just that type of black and white thinking that has gotten me on the raw end of many a trade where a little flexibility would have helped. Obviously it’s a great general rule, but even using a trailing stop loss is ‘set and forget’ rigid thinking because I’ve seen price action: A. pull my trailing stop up or down too far too fast, then pop back up/down to stop me out(due to slippage often), then proceed to move on to what would have been a massive gain or B. jump back up or down a little and, because of slippage, stop me out, then proceed to what would have been great gain. As per two weeks ago when I first truly used Mr. Carter’s ‘manual method’ I’m always going to base my stops on the situation at hand and adjust according. Namely Risk to Reward tweaked to the height/depth of the wick of the previous candle, time frame, slippage, trend angle, percieved volume, news/senitiment, and volatility. Just too many factors for something like a stop loss to be based on a single equation. “Trading is an art, not a science.” and another quote from Investopedia come to mind, “Conventional wisdom in the markets is that traders should always trade with a 2:1 reward-to-risk ratio, the trader can be wrong 6.5 times out of 10 and still make money. In practice this is quite difficult to achieve.” For someone just starting out rigid rules are great, but as they progress to understand just how dynamic the the ever changing market is there just too many factors going when you enter a trade to completely adhere to one absolute rule concerning stop losses, save the one about always using them. (…and I’ve heard of long term traders breaking that rule as well and getting by with it)
Talon - in regards to your 1hr “Red Prime” strategy, are you trading when reds cross the center 20:2 BB, or price line. Yea, I know it’s a different strategy then this thread, but couldn’t find the answer after scrolling back page after page. Thanks!
The problem with bending the rule is that it only takes one time to wipe you out. Thursday was a great example. Traders who moved their stop loss or lifted it all together probably received a margin call when the JPY pairs dropped 200 pips in a matter of minutes. Those who took their predetermined loss could have made it back and more on the price action that followed the drop.
the base rule is enter the trade when all the MAs cross the center boll, which also just happens to be a 20period simple moving average. Lately I’ve also been using Heiken Ashi candles to get earlier entries and that’s working pretty good. Its not as simple as pure mechanical rules. You could program an EA to do this but it would be a long term loser. First follow those basic rules then add to that… look at support / resistance for possible turning points. look at trend lines. I currently have fan lines on the 1day chart and price has consistently followed those lines.
The problem with a moving average cross over strat is you get losses when price is in a range. So you have to learn to recognize that and either stay out or trade boll bounces. For the most part, price does two things. It trends and it ranges, and you have to recognize that and trade it differently for each.
One thing I’ll do, if it’s late, and I’ve got a good profit, I close half and move a trailing stop to break even, and let it run over night. That way I can’t loose any, and I’ll make some. Then pick it up again the next day.
It tends to flatten out or retrace some during the Asian I’ve noticed. I tend to try to trade that session actively, if you can call watching paint dry ‘active’. But thats where I tend to screw up. That’s my weakness. It’s a hard habit to break.
Traders do not trade charts, they trade pairs. They may be “sucked into” thinking they are trading charts and indicators. This is not a matter of semantics.
Red Prime? Several months ago Mike came up with a 14 SMA cross over of the center 20:2 boll. I demo tested it for all of Sept and it netted 2000’ish pips for the month.
So excepting were trading a pair and not charts and indicators I have two questions.
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Why are you reading this thread… were all wrong here!
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How do you advise us all to trade?