Morning all. A quick intro to my background. It’s about time I got involved with the forum so any advice appreciated here is great, TIA!
I’ve been trading about 8 or 9 months and don’t seem to be getting anywhere. I’ve done the Babypips course which I found great and have been trading a demo account throughout.
I’ve been working on my own strategy and seem to have come up with something I’m happy with IE nothing too complicated and reasonable to back/forward test!
So, using 50EMA and 100EMA combined with RSI, looking mainly at 4H/1H timeframes (just to add I’m not a huge fan of leaving trades overnight.)
E.g. Long trade setup
4H confirm trend: Price moving above both EMA lines
1H confirm trade: If 1H trend mirrors 4H trend, look for support/resistance zones for entry point.
Entry: When price retraces to support zone and RSI above 50 showing momentum for upwards trend (engulfing candle here for added confirmation).
R:R usually ~1:1
TP: Few pips above most recent swing high.
I look at this on paper and think it looks fairly reasonable but I barely ever find any trade setups. Am I just being too impatient or could I be being too strict with my trades?
I tend to forward test more than back test to trade in real time with the market. For what reason I’m not overly sure!
The higher the timeframe used, the less frequently that setups will present in general. It takes a lot longer for the 4 Hour and 1 Hour to align than say the 1 Hour and the 15 Minute or the 15 Minute and 5 Minute.
It’s interesting that you use the 4 Hour but don’t like holding trades overnight because it seems like a 4 Hour setup may take multiple days to play out.
Impatience can be a natural feeling when you’re waiting for something but I wouldn’t deviate from your trading plan to sate your need to get into a trade. Stick to your script until you have enough data to warrant creating a new script.
Yeah this is a great point which has crossed my mind before but I am stuck within two minds I guess, where if I look into shorter timeframes there will be too much noise and not really be getting a true reading of the market trend. Vice versa using longer timeframes.
While I’m keen to test this strategy and make changes along the way, would it be useful to test 2 different sets of timeframes?
e.g. 4H/1H aswell as 1H/15min separately to see which suits my trading style and returns better results for myself and this strategy?
I find it’s too easy to jump from one thing to another at this point in my trading journey, just getting annoyed with myself - a common mistake I find people fall into! Is this approach just falling back into that cycle or likely to be beneficial?
There’s not really a right or wrong answer, it depends on what you have the tolerance for. Price is fractal so if it happens on higher time frames is also happens on lower time frames just more frequently. The higher time frames will be more reliable. So you would be trading reliability for increased trade frequency.
Even if trading on the lower time frames you still need to account for where price is on the higher time frames so you don’t actually get a shortcut in your analysis.
I think trading less results in winning more, especially when you can be very selective about the trade setups that you take.
Hey, welcome to the forum! your setup sounds solid, don’t worry if trades are few—sometimes that’s just how it goes. Forward testing is good, but a bit of backtesting might help spot more setups. Patience is key, keep refining and you’ll start seeing more opportunities
Your setup looks solid and well thought out. The structure makes sense, using higher time frame trend confirmation with lower time frame entries, which keeps trades aligned with momentum. The issue seems less about the system and more about frequency.
If setups are rare, it may simply be that your conditions are too strict or that the market has not been trending much. You could test small adjustments like widening your EMA gap slightly, accepting RSI above 45 instead of 50, or using more pairs to increase opportunities.
A strategy either works or it doesn’t. There isn’t a trading style that “fits a beginner”. If it fits you now, it’ll fit you when you’re experienced. My strategy has always been bound by my non-negotiables. For me, I’m simply not awake during most of the London/NY hours and I also don’t like the idea needing to be super precise on entry and exits, so scalping is not an option. Furthermore, a simple strategy or complicated strategy has no bearing on it’s success. There is no “skill” in trading a setup. A system produces a signal or it doesn’t.