How many methods/strategies did you try or stick with until you found one that proved to show a form of consistency? tell of your experiences here.
Some strategies which I have tried I found I could not run consistently profitably. That’s not to say they wouldn’t work for some traders but the right strategy often finds you, rather than the other way round. The entire list is too many to type but the best of the bunch has been trend-following - its that simple old rule, buy on the pull-backs and ride the trend until it ends.
This was how I started:
- Moving average crossovers (lost money)
- Value investing (lost money)
- Option-buying (lost money)
- Combining RSI with Moving average (lost money)
- Price Action + 20EMA (current strategy)
I only trade swing trades and hold for at least a 1:2 risk-reward ratio. This means my losses are smaller than my wins, but I have about 40-50% success rate which is ok.
In my personal trading experience, I have tried several strategies like moving averages crossover, buy on support level and sell on resistance levels. After a year, I found my profitable strategy, breakouts. Buy when a resistance is penetrated to the upside or when a support is broken to the downside.
Quite a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever actually counted them. I spent the first few years after I started trading testing various strategies before I was satisfied with the one I have now. The truth is, I am still testing strategies, out of curiosity and the desire to learn.
Hi, DeafToned,
I have used too many things to mention them all, but over the years I have only been successful over months at a time with lines drawn on the chart. I mean trend lines, lines parallel to the trends lines, and support and resistance lines. Trend lines offer more opportunities for trades than support and resistance lines. Also, since I only have a little time in the evenings when I can place trades and cannot monitor them at any regular interval (I have a job that prevents that) I use a daily chart and a stop between 15 and 40 pips - depending on the pair and the recent volatility. I use a parallel line to decide the distance. I take my profit at the first time I see it greater than my stop loss. Gives me profits just larger than my losses and a few more winners than losers.
One advantage of using lines is that they can be drawn on up, down and sideways markets over any time duration. They help me keep it simple.
I can’t count, cause at the beginning it was just trading without any strategies, I tried to invent my own strategies. I also tested different methodes, that I found in the Internet and tried to modify it. I even tried to trade just according to daily forecasts.
I still can’t say, that I found an ideal strategy for me. But I really like price action and try ti trade, using this metod.
everyone here mentioned what type of strategy they use, but WHICH TIMEFRAME and roughly what kind of initial stop size?
this is important i think. i too am looking and scrubbing around forever. it’s not easy finding something…
Which timeframe isn’t very important, because charts are fractal. You have to learn how to tell with certainty whether you have a real edge. That’s what it’s all about.
After that it doesn’t matter as much which timeframe you apply it to, as long as you know how to manage your risk.
For stop-losses, a good rule when you’re a beginner is to put the stop-loss just below the last swing low for a long trade, and just above the last swing high for a short, on whatever timeframe you’re using, and if that distance would be more than twice the ATR, then don’t take the trade. I’ve lost track of the number of people I know who could have avoided accidents just by taking that advice. It’s way better to relate stop-losses to the price action than it is to try to come up with some set number of pips that actually ought to vary according to the current volatility. But what matters more is to read a decent book that explains this stuff clearly before you start trying to put it into practice. The people who never become profitable are the ones who didn’t do that.
I started by reading everything and trying everything. I knew early on that techinical analysis would be my method, but thats about all I knew. I was completely lost at first
I tried candles, bars, tick charts, different time frames, and just about every indicator possible.
It took me years to settle on using mostly price action on higher time frames and has taken me years to continue to refine my stategy.
I’ve managed to improve as a trader, but the struggle continues. I realize now that trading education never stops because the market has endless lessons to teach.
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