I think from four hours to five minutes is probably too big a drop, but that’s the idea.
Sorry, I have no experience at all of that indicator and can’t help you.
Yes, very much.
Here’s a thread that might help. How did you learn?
Perfect, thank you! I will look through the books in that list and probably order one this weekend. In the meantime, I am going to review the price action related section of the school and see if I can piece together a strategy based on price action with an indicator to help indicate the trend. I am thinking RSI most likely for that one.
This way I have something that I can start back testing with and at least get some more practice on the charts and using the various drawing tools while I refine my system.
@jseymour84, it sounds like your strategy is purely technical. Have you tried testing it on a shorter time frame to see if the results are of similar quality with a higher trade frequency? You mentioned you were trying to get free data on your NinjaTrader demo with us, and the shortest time frame you could get from NT was daily.
Do you actually use their platform to automate your strategy? If not, you could retrieve more historical data with shorter time frames using an MT4 demo.
@FOREX.com : Yes, the strategy is purely technical. I don’t really know enough about fundamentals to really trade on them, and I am currently studying up on Gartley patterns and price action strategies. I don’t do any automating. The only reason I started with NinjaTrader is that I saw a trader that does trading blogs on YouTube use it so I figured that was as good a place as any to start.
For a platform, the only things I am looking for is easy to use charting and the ability to place orders directly from charts, along with the ability to adjust stops by dragging them up and down - sort of like how TradingView does their simulated trading. I’ll try out the MT4 demo to see how I like that.
If you couldn’t tell by now, what I don’t know about trading could fill the Library of Congress 3 times over 
Good question, there. Sometimes lower win rates are actually more profitable overall because of the increased numbers of trades that accompany them on a shorter TF.
1 Like
@jseymour84, thanks for those additional details.
The reason we asked if your strategy is purely technical is because then there should be no reason you can’t test it on shorter time frames provided you have the appropriate historical data. Shorter time frames should give you more trading signals, and since this is a demo account, there’s no harm in seeing if the strategy yields positive results with a higher frequency of trades.
Since you don’t automate your trades, you’re not married to a specific platform. And as it happens, FOREX.com offers all three platforms you mentioned (NinjaTrader, TradingView and MT4), and we offer free demo accounts for all three as well.
The reason you might want to consider MT4 specifically at least for you demo testing is because you said you wanted more free historical data. With MT4, you can download data for shorter time frames from the MetaQuotes history center as shown in the following video.
We’re all here to learn from each other. 
Thanks! I will definitely get an MT4 demo account on Monday
1 Like
Best conversation I have read in a long time, thanks @jseymour84 for asking on the questions that r in the back of most beginner traders (or I should speak only for myself). @LaughingCharlie, “telling it as it is” is very refreshing. We might be beginners but we not dumb, the ppl promising “from $2k to $75k in 2 months” actually drain my energy levels (I know BS when I see/smell it).
I feel rejuvenated & I admire how methodological @jseymour84 is approaching this, I am inspired to do the same.
1 Like
Is 3% realistic, Yes, is it realistic for you and your system, that can only be answered through months of real life trading, and even if you do make 3% or more per month over the 12 months, that does not mean you will make same over the next 12 months. On my own thread I am on a 10 of 11 trade win streak but I know this is not a sustainable and I am not going to make financial plans based on a 90% trade win rate. Bottom line, you can not work from a fixed profit % or win%, and markets change, so what worked really well this month might lose money the next two months
Good luck
Thanks for sharing. I understand that history doesn’t indicate future performance and that it will take me months to develop my own system for earning 3% per month average, and that some months can swing really, really low and some can swing really, really high. I just wanted to make sure that 3% was a realistic target to aim for in the long run.
My dream is to someday reach the point where I have generated enough profits to build a diverse investment portfolio (including stocks and bonds) that generates $60,000 a year passively through dividends, and make the other $40,000 - $60,000 from actively trading forex and possibly options.
If I can average a 3% return per month after ten years of active trading, then I have a good chance at making that dream a reality before I hit retirement age. Once I get that passive income rolling, then I can quit my job and live full time as a trader and enjoying the ability to travel and take control of my own time.
Also, is there a place on the forums where I can have sort of a running diary of my travel down this path, or would I be better suited setting up a free blogspot or wordpress.com blog?
EDIT: I went ahead and setup my own blog on wordpress.com. Doing so gives me somewhat more control over the platform, and I think it provides a better reading experience. If anyone wants the address, just let me know.
@jseymour84 you mentioned you already set up a blog on wordpress. That’s great!
You might also be interested in the following section of BabyPips.
https://forums.babypips.com/c/trading-discussion/trade-journals
All the best 
Thanks, lots of new stuff to read and once I start demo trading I will create a thread to document what I do there as well as my blog. 
1 Like
It depends on your trading system, even you can make more money if your trading strategy is well enough! By the way, may I know your experience? How many months you used your system on demo?
I am still working out my trading plan and system. I have 5 years of data downloaded for 5-6 different currency pairs and am working out a trend continuation trading system. Once I have that done and backtested, I plan to spend 3-6 months trading it on a demo account.
Nice plan, all the best! Hope, you’ll be able to cover your plan on demo according to your session plan.
So you’re looking for a realistic answer - I’ll give you one.
Trading moving averages will only lead you to a lost account in the long term, lagging indicators aren’t made for you to make profits with, they’re only a confluence to add onto other confluences, you should look at trading as a business of probabilities where there’s no 100%'s - you haven’t mentioned any loss in your question which gives me an understanding that you think this is a guarantee, unfortunately, it is not because moving averages don’t work like that.
In my opinion you’re better off finding an investor and investing your money on them with a good annual ROI, or giving in 2 months of dedicated learning and learn how to properly trade the Forex market using price, and economic indicators.
Regards, Abdul Light
Well, luckily we are playing two diffrend games here. It certainly would be hard to beat those guys in their own game, but small time retail trader with few thousand dollars on his account and institutional trader, trading with hundreds of millions are two diffrend kinds of animals with diffrent strenghts and weaknesses. And no, not saying it is easy, but certainly possible for the best retail traders.
I have personally made it better, and no… don’t have any proof of that, but think it this way, if 26% per year was the best you could ever hope for, why would there be any retail traders? One would need huge account to make living out of trading and if you had that big of on account, why not just let one of these hedge funds take care of it and spend your time doing something more productive? But this is an age old debate, some people wanting to become millionairs in a few months and others thinking no one ever gets rich by trading…
Well, I didn’t say you can’t make money in retail, but a consistent 3% per month, I would like to see the certified/audited paper for that. While being small makes you more agile, it can limit your income a bit. But 10 - 50 mio, with 20% of 12 to 20% per year is not a bad living, especially if you live in a low cost state. By the way 10-50 mio is easy liquidity to fill.
But 36% per year, not reasonable to me, STGTBT.
The Ever Stalking VIPER
Im in no way expert on institutional trading, or trading in general. But my two cents on the subject is this. There are several differences on institutional and retail traders, but the biggest ones are leverage, liquidity and risk. And they go hand in hand. Institutional traders usually use much smaller leverages if none, than the retail traders. Partly because of liquidity but mostly because of the risk. With bigger risks come bigger rewards, but it’s just not an option for billiondollar hedge fund to go bust. They have strict rules on risk management. And with leverage liquidity comes even more of an problem for an large fund.
As an retail trader you can decide to risk more for more gain, and yes, this very thing is the downfall of many many traders. The most common mistake one can make is over leveraging. But if you do it succesfully, you can make more than even the best hedgefunds do. If I manage to dublicate my succes from last time I traded, Ill post an myfxbook link here. Will be a year or so tho, but in a meanwhile here is an interview of an trader who claims to have done even better. Everyone can decide on their own if they trust him. ( And no, didn’t do nearly as well as he did, but better than 26%)
1 Like