Ok, i thought i’d fire this up and start posting my trades, mainly because i have decided to switch to higher time frame trading. I have been trading for 9 months now, searched for the grail for about 5 of those months and the rest of the time trying to use technical analysis to trade on the lower timeframes. Unfortunately i have yet to make any consistent profit on the lower time frames.
I have tried to trade support and resistence, trendlines and pivots all on the 5 minute charts but had no luck, just winning the odd trade here and there but losing in the long run, blowing many demo accounts. I feel now this is a new beginning for me, and i feel that i’m going to have to be patient, not only to wait for trades to take shape and hopefully end up in profit, but also being patient waiting for the right trading opportunities to start off with.
I have gone through the school of babypips, and learned so much over my time so far learning to trade, but everything i have learned i have unfortunately not been able to make use of it on the lower time frames, and that’s why i want to trade the four hour markets and see what happens.
Beware, i’m a total newb on this timeframe, i have yet to establish any kind of money management but for the start on all of my trades, i’m using 40 pip stop loss and 50 pip take profit.
My strategy is simple, trading trendlines. I will use a 60 moving average, and will also look to see that the MACD is in the right place before i make any trades. Any tips on improving my techniques etc; is welcome any time, and again i’m a total newb on this time frame so i’m trying not to build my hopes up.
I will post two open trades i’m currently trading after this post.
NZD/JPY - This pair seems to be trending well on H4, the moving average is on a strong up trend, and so is the MACD. The trendline looks strong but not too steap. I placed this trade on Friday evening, not much movement over the weekend. Green line is my take profit and orange/brown is my stop loss.
USD/CAD - Both the moving average and MACD are up however, after hindsight (i also placed this trade on Friday) i maybe realise that buying so close to the MA was maybe a mistake. Time will tell.
I’ve only been trading live for a month so I’m a complete beginner and I trade intraday, but I’ve also been thinking about longer term strategies to try and get in on some of the big trends that you see on the daily chart.
Don’t you think having a TP of 50 pips is limiting yourself a lot. On the 4H and daily charts, you can leave trades to run for a few days and make a few hundred pips and just trail your SL. If you’re in a long position and you take profit at 50 pips and then price carries on going up, you might have to wait a week before it retraces again so you can get back in, and by that point you’ve missed out on loads of pips.
Yes i agree, with trading the bounce though i don’t know if the price would reach that far up. With me being new to this timeframe i’m just going to play around with it and on future trades be a bit more versitile with my stops and take profits.
NZD/JPY +50 pips
Trade went exactly as i expected it would, if only all trades were like this. In the future i’m also going to take into consideration BearMarks comment and have a wider take profit.
Ok, whislt USD/CAD is still stumpling its way in a tight range, i have found two more great opportunities. This time taking BearMarks take profit advice into effect. I will see how it takes place.
The first trade is EUR/CHF, this time using my DMI indicator which incorporates the ADX. The reason why i thought i’d use this indicator this time around is because generally the DMI tends to tell you of changes to the trend quicker than the MACD does. I will see how it works with both of these trades.
EUR/CHF - Take profit 100 pips, stop loss 50 pips Nice up trend, DMI looking strong, and price seems to be moving in a good bullish fashion away from the 60 MA.
By the way if anyone is wondering why i’m using a different platform or theme for every trade it’s because for the first two trades i was using freestockcharts, from now on though i will be using Metatrader.
AUD/CHF - Take profit 100 pips, stop loss 50 pips
This opportunity is very similar to the EUR/CHF trade, both the DMI and MA are up, i’m currently trading the bounce off the third test on this trendline.
Hindsight proved to be true and i have decided to close this trade for a 25 pip loss. I have learned from the mistake of properly analyzing trades before i execute them. This trade was a big mistake and i should have thought more before i executed it.
