Basically I Just got out of the military & I am off until January when I start my new job & school.
We have money saved up for living & such. I have set aside about 800-1000 & opened an account with forex.com
Basically I hear all of these strategies about once a day trading or scalping, I am brand new to this.
Couple questions.
I have all day to trade, What can I do to maximize my profit, I can literally work any time of the day all day until Xmas.
I enjoy the idea & practice of scalping, Just not sure exactly what I am looking for to make split second decisions.
I read the strategies & such on here but is there an in-depth guide to actually explain everything?
I guarantee you it will fly by, and it will be closer to two months, since we are mid October and you can’t trade over Christmas, and it could be quite a miracle if you made hardly any sense at all of things in two months, so be prepared to feel that you may have wasted your time.
Thanks for reply, but i wasn’t really looking for opinion on if i should or shouldn’t trade, I was looking for a strategy {best in your opinion} to trade.
I will be doing it after xmas, I just have the time to do it all day before hand.
I already understand the ‘fundamentals’ of trading, just not the strat’s involved.
Pretty sure it takes 2-5 years of practice before one becomes consistently profitable. Handing over a working strat is no gurantee that you’ll be able to trade it successfully.
Also, I’d look into day trading strats rather than scalping. Try to trade 4H and up.
I really do appreciate the advice, But I am not really looking for advice on rather or not to scalp or long term trade.
“2-5 years” but that is 100% of the time & I have already practiced a little bit and with my “real” account i have made anywhere from .40 - 8 in profit in small margins. So I know I can do it, I just want to know a better strategy.
Let me say this, I have been trading stocks, etc. with our IRA for a few years now, about 6.5 to be exact, So I know what trading is. My wife works for the bank, directly under the Bank Manager So I know the links between the Central Banks & Interest Rates/News.
ALL I want is a good day trading/scalping strategy. I do not want advice on if I should Trade or not.
You can be profitable in 2 minutes, I don’t know where the “2-5 years” is coming from, talking about margins, 3 year gap for that stat is quite vague.
If you’re already making money and have a working strat I don’t know why you’re asking for another. If you’ve been trading stocks for 6.5 years I’m sure you’re at least decent at it so why not just trade stocks?
I made a couple bucks but that wasn’t really with a strategy other then just watching the charts.
I want to learn all of the tools/graphs & was looking for the best set-up.
AND PLEASE stop replying if you are going to not help at all, you are just arguing & giving advice that I clearly stated I don’t want and/or need.
please don’t reply unless you your sentence is in the format of
"in my experience or from what i hear, the best scalping graphs are … "
The stock market & forex are completely different & I used that as a base reference to let someone reading understand that I know what trading is.
I will stat it again
I want to know of a good strategy besides staring at the graph for scalping, I don’t have a strategy besides staring. What are the best tools/graphs. PLEASE PLEASE don’t reply unless you have advice that falls within my guidelines of what I am looking for!!!
I think it’s quite good that you have decided exactly what some of your approach is going to be, the only point I was making was it’s amazing how time flies - staring at the charts as you say.
Also have a look at the Cowabunga system as well, but I think that might be longer term than you are looking for, but it may help you come up with your own strategy.
Hi there,
Glad to hear you’re not that new to trading in general. You might like this scalping strategy. I’m using a variation of it myself and I do like it. It has branched off to forex factory that you may like to follow as well but there is a point when it just can’t be tweaked any further and just plain 'ol discipline and patience needs to be adhered to
Have a search for James16 on another forex forum (Don’t think I can post the link), the thread is over 5K pages but the basics are listed in one place and is the kind of strategy that has been proved over about 5 years
So this is where the systems are! I’d seen the Cat and Mouse and I’ve been giving that ago, had a look at the Cowabunga and maybe… I like this Mad Scalper thing and am going to set it up on my Metatrader.
Another one I came across that you may want to have a look at mj2009 is NickB 4hr scalping method, I’m trying out some of that and using 15min chart for entries, looks promising.
Your first sentence is what you should be doing. Just watch the charts and get a feel for it. I didn’t start making money until I dropped all the fancy indicators and just learned how to read the chart. I suggest you focus on only one pair and learn it’s patterns and behaviors inside out. Pick whatever pair you want, I use EUR/USD only. I have friends who trade stocks, futures, forex and they all just basically use price action, maybe one indicator for a little added confirmation. I personally have some MA’s on my chart but I don’t put a lot into them. The only way to learn that is by watching the charts.
Read my advice in the thread The wild Euro today that’s in the Show me the money! [Daytrading] section, especially page 2. I give a general overview of what I do but the truth is it really comes down to screen time. You just have to observe the markets and get a feel for how things move, especially if scalping which is what I do and I do it fulltime.
I am NOT trying to brag or anything like that, I am new to this … but like anything else in life, some are talented in certain areas.
I think i may have a niche for this work here, I have made officially about 40 pips in 6 days of trading {roughly 55-65 usd} and I haven’t lost more then 10% of the bids, I just stare at the charts & use stoc for reference.
But it seems like if I just have a standard account with 10k, and these pips are 10$ a piece, I can make more. I feel like I have my method down & it works for me, I honestly think I have a natural feel for this.
What really helps, & I kid you not … is I was a circuit card repair tech in the Air Force, It was a specialty job that no more then a couple hundred have. & we would trouble shoot circuit cards & various devices from the aircraft using oscilloscopes, so I honestly think that education has direct effect on understanding these graphs … it just ‘clicked’ for me last night & I ‘get it’.
I have plenty of money saved up to where, as suggested in the ‘learning school’ {which is GREAT by the way} that you can lose that 10,000.
So should I open up that standard account & try it out? with stop losses of 10, I won’t lose more then a 1,000 on this and I went into this telling myself that I was going to loss 1,000 so I wouldn’t become emotional, & so far in about a week I have made roughly 5.5-6.5% return which isn’t to bad.
Tell me what you think even though I think my mind is made up. This seems like a good community all around.
You made 5% in one week and you are planning to open a live account…
What i´m going to tell you wont like, but is the truth:
[B]Even if you spend 3 months all day learning, you wont be profitable.[/B]
This business take years to develop, it doesnt matter if you traded stocks or whatever before, or if you are a natural. Maybe the learing curve is faster, but not that much.
So my suggestion is this: save your money for now, keep demo trading everyday for at least three months. If you make consistent profits during that period then open a live account.
Keep a trading journal and record all your trades, that way you can make your analysis on the weekend, about what went wrong and how to improve it. [B][B]THIS IS THE KEY, A TRADING JOURNAL, TRUST ME.[/B][/B]
I notice you are pretty anxious because you have 3 months free, and you want to make money no matter what. Relax. If you think you are a natural, then why rush things? Take advantage of this 3 month period, but in demo account, and prove yourself that you can make money. After that open an account.
That is my advice, take it or leave it, is up to you…
I appreciate the input, but you stated ‘Even if you spend 3 months all day learning, you wont be profitable’ when in fact, that is an opinion, you can’t guarantee that … and actually 5% is trading for one week, so who is to say that one week can’t be 1 year? & 5% is a lot, more then most pay raises, savings accounts & cd’s. Most stock brokers have a GREAT year if they make 8% for their clients.
We have plenty of money saved, enough to last for a couple years {I wasn’t the ‘solder’ who came back and purchased a new car or went on a big vacations when getting back from deployment(s), we actually just put the money in the bank}. I can lose 10,000 & it wouldn’t really affect me to much. I am using a 1,000 account but I want to upgrade to a full account to not have any restrictions.
I appreciate the input, but I am looking for advice on how I should go about this, but not looking for advice on rather to open a demo or not. I am past a demo account, and that is that.
I really do appreciate your input, but with stop-losses, there is NO way I will lose more then 1,000-2,000 … especially considering the fact that I won’t bet with any margin of more then a few hundred dollars to lose & no more then 2 trades at a time.
[B]STATISTICS SAY…Market conditions change every week, and every month. Some weeks you will be down, and some weeks you will be up. Investors make most of their money in a few trades a year, not by making 5% a week. They have 2 or 3 small losing months, 2 or 3 small winning months, and the rest incredible winning months, which make their year. The fact that you make those statements shows that you have no clue about it. Learn how to stop losing first, and the profits will come. [/B]
“We have plenty of money saved, enough to last for a couple years {I wasn’t the ‘solder’ who came back and purchased a new car or went on a big vacations when getting back from deployment(s), we actually just put the money in the bank}. I can lose 10,000 & it wouldn’t really affect me to much. I am using a 1,000 account but I want to upgrade to a full account to not have any restrictions”
This is nonsense. So if I have 1 million dollar, I can spend 20,000 and it wont affect me? Is not about that, is about CAPITAL PROTECTION.
“I appreciate the input, but I am looking for advice on how I should go about this, but not looking for advice on rather to open a demo or not. I am past a demo account, and that is that”
If you were done with demo trading, you wouldn’t be asking this kind of advice. Seems to me that you don’t have a trading plan yet. If you cant answer this kind of questions, then you are not ready:
-trading days
-trading sessions
-maximum risk per trade
-maximum trades per day
-maximum trades per week
-maximum day loss
-maximum week loss
-maximum consecutive losing days
-risk/reward and win/loss ratio of your system
-Risk/reward and win/loss by each pair you trade
-risk/reward and win/loss by each day of the week
-profit taking efficiency of your system.
-maximum profit execution and maximum adverse execution of your system, separated by each pair you trade.
And some other information that are part of a trading plan. If you don’t know what this all means then you are in a road directed to ruin. I don’t tell you this to scare you or to prove my experience, I tell you this because in order to go live and make profits you need a TRADING PLAN, and you don’t have one yet. It seems to me that you don’t like the advices that go against the way you think. Well I just tell you what I have lived after years of trading, and before being consistently profitable. You have two roads: the easy one and the hard-working one.
“I really do appreciate your input, but with stop-losses, there is NO way I will lose more then 1,000-2,000 … especially considering the fact that I won’t bet with any margin of more then a few hundred dollars to lose & no more then 2 trades at a time”
There is always a way to lose if you are not a disciplined trader, and especially if you don’t know the data I asked before. Come on man open your eyes, you are planning to use 10 pips stop loss on every trade! this is not that easy. You need to consider day traded, pair traded, session traded (US, asian or European), you need to know how news affect the market. Anyway since you only take advices that you like, then this is my last post here. Good luck!
I have to agree with gasanvill. This business does take a long time to develop. I started trading stocks and options in 1999. It took me over two years to become profitable but I did eventually do well enough to trade my own account fulltime. Then I started dabbling in forex a little over three years ago. Even though I was and experienced and profitable trader I got my ass handed to me at first. It took me about six months to become profitable with forex. And for the past 2 and half years or so I’ve traded nothing but the Euro and it’s worked out very well for me. But it does take time.
We’re not trying to discourage you but just give you the realities of trading. I know from my own experience and from many friends who are also traders. No one starts off making money right away. As a matter of fact almost everyone will blow out at least one account, maybe more. And you can read the Market Wizards books and see that. So many of those great trades blew up their accounts more than once. But I think losing some money as a good thing. Look at it as your trading tuition. You just have to learn from your mistakes, and yes, you will have mistakes.
One thing though, I’m not big on demo trading. I think you should do it but it should be limited. Basically just to get a feel for your brokers platform. People do well with the demo then with real money their psychology completely changes, they lose their money and can’t figure out why.
From reading through this thread I think you may have a decent understanding of money management. To me that is the second most important aspect of trading. Third is your trading system and first is psychology. That really ties into the money management part. I’ve seen it over and over again where people do understand money management but when it comes down to having real money on the line they’ll let trades go against them because they’re afraid to or just can’t accept taking a loss.
With that being said, I do like your attitude. But I wouldn’t move up to a standard account just yet. If you really don’t need the money like you say then don’t worry about how much you make now. $1000 is a good place to start if you can afford to lose it.
