Hi everyone, I’ve been on this site for a couple of years now and completed the babypips course last fall. Since then I’ve been demo trading on and off, but I’ve been having alot of trouble in determining how to approach trading in a structured manner, similar to a day job. I find that my day is pretty much over before it even begins when I start trading in the morning/afternoon. Prior to opening trades, I start by reading up the market analysis on forex.com ( the broker that I am demo trading with) to get an idea of what currency pairs are being talked about. After that, I move onto the Babypips economic calendar to see what currencies are most likely to move in a particular direction. After this, I start looking at the currency charts on the forex.com web platform, using different technical indicators as I see fit. Finally, I use Babypips position size calculator to place my day trades (usually 2-3 in total). All in all, this takes me 20-30 minutes or so. Is trading supposed to be like this?? Is there anything else I am supposed to do to fill in the time gaps so that I can make faster progress? So far, I have been trying to focus on a combination of swing trading/day trading since I feel this is best for me. As I work on a rotating schedule basis, I feel that this works better for me, because I can day trade on my days off, while opening and holding swing trades on days that I can’t designate to day trading for various reasons (ie. work, school, errands, etc.).Based on this schedule & my trading style(s), I would appreciate it if someone can provide me with an outline of things I can do to better improve my chances of success throughout the week. I really want to work hard at this, but so far, I don’t think I’m going the right way about it. Thanks!
It sounds right away like you have a logical and structured approach to your trading sessions. Plenty of traders enter and leave the markets using pre-set orders, so they are emotionally a little bit more removed from the action but also so they can then go away from the screen and do other things. These could be trading-related sometimes, or not, as required.
Are you getting good performance form your trading account? If so, why change anything? Getting rich quick generally demands higher risk.
I like in the UK and so have the benefit of both London and NY sessions at reasonable times for me. I focus on the first few hours of each session only. So I start looking at 7am GMT until around 10am and then from 12pm until around 3pm. I use alerts to let me know if price is in an area of interest and then can look to see if there is refinement for entry. But I certainly don’t sit around staring at the charts. Not healthy or helpful in my experience.
NY session is my favorite one; because I have a limited number of trading pairs! Besides, I see my strategy provides the maximum success ratios on this popular trading session!
I agree. The less screen time, the better.
It looks like @Aman_Bajwa has some pretty good structure.
I suggest back testing more and fine tuning your strategy. Back test, write some statistics for your results, maybe.
Day traders are keenly aware of the factors that trigger short-term market movements. Using the news to trade is a common strategy . Market psychology and expectations influence scheduled releases like economic statistics, business earnings, and interest rates. When those expectations aren’t met or exceeded, the markets react with big changes, which can help day traders a lot.
Numerous intraday tactics are used by day traders.
Among them are Trading the Scalping Range, Trading using news, Trading at high speeds (HFT)
I find that quite often if there is nothing to trade in London then it sets up NY well so as I say having the benefit of being able to trade both allows for plenty of opportunity
I personally trade the London session and first 2 hours of New York. No matter what, after that I’m done.
Take your breaks while waiting for a candle close. For example, if you’re not yet biased on your next trade, you can take a break at 11:40, while waiting for the 12:00 (1H) candle to close.