Out of interest, if you had closed half of all those trades at the middle boll (I presume it was the 15min middle boll?), and left half to run at breakeven, how many would have run on further?
EU is a good example of PA staying within the SELL ZONE, 20:1-20:2.
GU is a little weaker of a trend, only in bottom half of the bollingers but same principle.
EU chart on the top, GU on the bottom.
Totally agree SM. But trying to keep it simple. I figure center line and out is a safe trade and stats support this (add another two trades to above, (+ 11 & + 14) since posting. Would rather cut and run at center bolls but take your point on PA run on. Flip side is that you can cut at center boll let PA run to other side and take the trade the other way to center if so inclined. But played safe and only took shorts today. Have been tracking EU today but decidedly too one way for an entry.
Have been tracking EU today but decidedly too one way for an entry.
I had to look under my desk to where E/U went.
You still got that EU long running in your other thread? 
r carter what exactly are you doing for your trades? your posts are confusing me lol
Time for a picture
Trading with the trend is what he’s doing I believe.
As SM states trading with the 1h & 4h down trend but using the 5m & 15m charts to enter shorts only and exiting at center boll band.
Waiting for PA to be in the upper 20:2 boll area (using 20:2 boll standard and 20:2 high/ low boll) for three distinct areas. Upper three bolls = overbought. Middle three bolls = nuetral. And lower three bolls = over sold.
Trading 5m when low volatility for 6-10 pips. Higher volatility 15m chart for 10-25 pips.
Cant draw on FXCM charts but took the short trades in the upper red bolls all on GU today.
Edit: Loaded a better screenshot (may need to expand to 200%).
hmmm ok so you trade with the 1h/4h trend (currently short) then you switch to m5 or m15 and wait for PA to hit the upper of the B Bands and enter short then? let me knwo if that right 
oh, question, why do you trade with bollinger bands so much?
Yes thats it. As you probably know I have long traded the daily. But one of my sons a retail trader of three years uses this set up. 1h & 4h for trend direction and trades off the 5m & 15m for just 20 pips a day and out. Might be three trades or just one but typically a few hours in total and out. Started out with a $200 micro but with compounding. :D:D
Why Bollinger Bands so much? Try googling trading floor pictures and take a look at the pro traders charts. All will be using Boll bands. In my opinion they are the best indicator of oversold/ bought. Stochs lag too much especially on longer TF charts and RSI is vague.
i bet your son picked up the bands from you lol seems like a neat system tho ill see how it does. personally what do you think of trading 5m and 15m TFs? ive heard alot that most pro. traders trade 1h and up and very few go lower then that.
also what pairs does this system work with? any? or just the majors?
Pros use 4h and up (mostly up). But their looking to a longer picture and only risk a tiny fraction of account bal on any trade and leverage at 2X and 4X. A good year for a pro is 30% growth. But their clients are looking for stable growth over say a high interest savings account. Retail is different. I guess most are looking long term to make a good living or even the big bucks no? There are two ways to do this. Either trade the longer TF’s and chance bigger pips but usually at scaled down trade size. Or short TF’s with larger trade size and less pips. Example $1000 account. 100 pips trade size 0.1% bal = $10. 10 pips at 1% of bal = $10.
We covered this some time ago. A 1% trade size of a $1000 account and 20 pips a day compounds up the account to huge numbers in a year or so. The big thing to realise is it needent be about big daily pips.
Works on all pairs but I like GU because its choppy and regularly gives you entry points even when trending.
ok ty for the info, its always very useful 
once i take a trade using this system ill let you know how i do:p
R Carter,
I fully understand what you are doing but must admit I’m a bit lost on the why? Generally its best to exit the countertrend trades at the centerline and let your “with the trend trades” run to the bols line before exiting the trade. I don’t suggest doing countertrends with a sharp angle bols as the profits will be meager at best.
Try a 9-2 bols added to your chart and watch the PA go to the bottom bols line and reverse. You might want to color them Gold as that is what you’ll get with this thingy. If you get caught in a consolidation and the profits are slim or nil you just let it ride and wait for the break-out down to the pot of gold.
Let your winners run and kill your losers as they say.
I might add the EURUSD is and was a pretty sure short today. The GBPUSD is bit on the flat side. When you have a choice why take a flat chested gal to the dance?LOL.
Trade well and prosper,
Johnny
couple of things for r cartre;
-what defines a trend for the system you are using
-do you wait for closes in the OB/OS zone before entering?
-where do you close a trade at?
A little lost myself Johnny?
Been trading the trend down all day today on GU. Taking the pull back away from the trend as the entry signal at the upper bolls and going with the reversal back to the longer trend down but exiting at center boll for safety. Center boll = nuetral. Twice today on GU PA hit center boll and revsed back up against the trade and trend. Better I think to exit at center even with trade following trend with pips firmly in the bag.
Center boll = nueutral PA.
These were not counter trend trades, they were with trend trades.
On the 5m & 15m TF’s 1h & 4h should be sufficient in terms of trend.
Second ‘q’ is more difficult to judge. I suppose judge is as good a word as any. You can wait for PA to wick on the up candle close and look to the new candle for direction on a timed entry. Or with experience judge where PA will likely reverse in the upper boll bands. I tend to look to both the 5m and 15m and go with my judgement. If volatility is low then I look to the 5m. If higher volatility then the 15m. Trending down like today PA will likely respect the lower upper of the three upper bolls on the 5m (low volatility) 15m (higher volatility) or at most the middle of the three.
I close out at center boll of the three or there abouts dependant on the angle of the three center line bolls.
Robert, thanks for giving more details on the Matt strat! I wondered what his trading was like. Sure wish I could trade live in person with you two for just one trading session. I’ll bet that would be a learning experience!
R Carter,
Playing the GBPUSD today and trying to make a lot of money was like trying to get blood out of a turnip.
The USD for no other reason then the rest of the world is struggling even worse has made the investors flock to the greenback. Gold is down and that tends to make sellers of gold futures and buyers of dollars.
I think the pound looks stronger at the moment but with the record CPI and possible interest hike forthcoming as well as quantitive easing talks a few months back the Brits don’t want to put the skids on their economy. It’s going to be a real balancing act for them in the coming months keeping the Pound down and still be competive in the world market. The European Union is falling on their face and the US economy still stinks so they still are in a better position.
The feds here are too busy fighting across party lines to actually do anything meaningful and I don’t see that changing any time soon. This congress reminds me of the Jimmy Carter era where we prayed he wouldn’t do anything as it was sure to get screwed up.
The EURUSD or the USDJPY was a lot more fun to trade today. I do have the same bad habit of sticking with the GBPUSD but not today as it showed fairly early with the stonger dollar it was going to be a fight between heavy weights and I like one sided fights.
Playing the M5 and the M15 can see a lot of trends within trends occuring when it really is just a flat trading day. Here’s hoping for a more volatile and profitable day tomorrow.
I trade the bollinger bands but I don’t rely just on the bands for support, resistance or direction. I believe the bands are very good and a key component but just not that good. Too many headfakes are given which make you sell or buy too early.
Trade well and prosper,
Johnny
long on both AUD/USD and EUR/JPY, my reasoning, PA goes outside of the 20:2 boll after close of the second bullish bar all 3 LWMAs (high low close) are all pointing up and thats when i entered, well see what happens
If people are willing, I would suggest we do something like this one day: Chatzy - Start Quick Chat
However, we’d have to concentrate on 1 or 2 pairs to really focus.
Also, I’m away for a bit now and only on EST time, so can’t do the morning times. I wouldn’t mind getting some breakout trades as well based on London breakout 1 and this bodge of Winratio +London breakout 1 method that I am using at present for London breakouts.
Up to you guys on times or whether you think it;s a good idea…
