I sit for a long time before I see my set up, but I could just be impatient. so, how long do you guys wait to catch a wave?
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I check my charts at the end of the time-frame period I’m trading in. My trades are mostly on D1, so I check the charts for these at the NY close. But during the London session I also trade off H1, so I check those trades and set-ups on the hour. No need to see the charts between these times - all entries are via pre-set orders, each trade has a stop-loss order and if appropriate a take-profits.
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how do you use h1 timeframe?
Pretty much same as D1 set-up -
identify a consistent trend with higher highs or lower lows, correct MA sequences, and corroboration from other pairs with same currencies
then wait for a minor pull-back away from the trend and set an entry order which price will pass through if the trend is probably resuming
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Difficult to say it all depends on the timeframe you trade most won’t trade until a candle close so you can work on that and also the confluences you have in your trading plan
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To be honest, Good entry points are not available here & there! So, sometimes I need to wait for a long period of time!
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How much is the monthly return rate of this strategy?
It has a positive win rate but return in either real money terms or percentage profit is subject to too many tactical variables to be a useful parameter. Its very simple and objective, so its easy to demo it.
This could be the oldest trading strategy in the game.
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Do you play Texas Hold’em poker, this game is a great lesson in patients, the key to Hold’em poker is to wait for a strong playable two card hand, evey thing else is a fold, that means you might be folding 9 out of 10 hands. Trading is no different , learn what is a good trade setup and patiently wait for that setup, conserve your capital for those rare high probability setups. Otherwise you might as well go to the craps table
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Well, there you go.
I have never played poker and I don’t know what craps is but I agree with the technique.
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Same for me and I’ve learned not to force trade setups just to get a trade in.
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How long is a long time for you? 
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I look at probabilities of being on the right side before opening a trade. That could take 1hr to 2hr.
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I realize I didn’t answer this question: mine is usually a couple days but I don’t trade full-time. So there will be multiple days where I don’t see any good setups for me but then there would be some days I’ll take two trades in one day.
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Hey Centipede
Based on your question it really depends. I usually create a watchlist for the week ahead with the trade with the right setup at the top and the pairs lower are needing more time to form. Some take a day or two or some a few hours. I would suggest as you trade your strategy see overtime where a tweak could make a difference in terms of your entry and can help reduce your waiting time but obviously aligning with your trading plan. Hope this helps feel free to reach out to me anytime
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Good question. Personally, if I estimate a trade based on the charts, I make a note-to-self to check on it before or at the time I estimated, and move on, so, to me, I’m not actually “waiting” for a trade, but rather, I’m really checking to see if my estimate was correct.
If you consider that to be “waiting”, then, on average, I’m waiting 2 to 3 days.
I’m still on the D1 timeframe so I’m not a swing or position trader but I hope to develop the patience to get there even though I enjoy day trading.
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It is entirely dependent on the trading strategy that you employ. Are the odds in your favour? You’ll have to look for it yourself.
I’m really interested by these answers cos they are totally contradictory to what I do. I never wait for a trade. I look at the charts for different forex pairs and commodities and if i’ve got the capital I jump straight in. If there is nothing suitable on one particular time frame I select a different time frame. There is always something. As far as I see it, every hour you are out of a trade you’re not making money and other people are.
This is exactly how i trade i have been looking for similar opinion to my trading style, i do consider my self a newbie to trading
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Hi there Prince. Welcome to babypips!. How’s the trading going? I think a lot of newbies trade like this i.e throw themselves in and don’t wait for set-ups. In general people are advised against doing this as the commonly accepted and (most likely) correct wisdom is to wait and be careful, so I’m guessing as you refine your trading style you might become a bit more of a waiting person.
However, that said, waiting around for hours/days a good fish to bite has never been my style, mainly cos I’d either have to totally change my psychology (which is impossible) or give up trading! I’m way too impatient with too short an attention-span. It just doesn’t make much sense to me to wait for the perfect set-up, on which you might end up losing anyway. I have found that even if all the stars and planets are aligned over 50% of my trades will go the wrong way. So I’ve accepted my ignorance and lack of technical flare and built a trading strategy around that! I rely more on hedging than stop losses and stay in some trades for a long time, so I have very frequent smallish wins and the very occasional huge losses. However, the balance of profit/loss is the important thing at the end of the day.
I accept the risk of getting wiped out one day, but I think the risk is low and can be compared to crashing your car on the way to work. That’s a risk I can live with, which is why it’s important to only trade what you can afford to lose. 3 years on and I’ve not blown my account yet.