I have been facing the same issue. When do you think is the right time for me to take an action if nothing seems to work?
There could be a lot of factors that your strategy isn’t working. I went through the forum and some gave you advices on using indicators etc. With this, make sure you are managing the risk well. Risking 1% of the capital will cut down your losses with every trade. Go for those trades that give you a risk to reward ratio of 1:2 at least.
Backtesting I think has its own flaws, who is to say that what worked in the past is bound to work as well or with similar profit ratio in the future too ?!
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Also, your backtesting is only as good as your ability to see all the cues. Maybe you ignored some cues. I’ve done that.
I think it’s good to backtest, then trade with the smallest lot possible.
Just my opinion.
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Every trader has a different story. If you can’t afford losses, I believe you should reconsider your decision. Losses are an integral part of your trading journey and you cannot move ahead without losing your money.
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I completely agree with you. Honestly, I have been an impatient trader in the beginning but as I gained confidence and learnt new ways of preventing losses, I realised that I had not been putting in enough effort and was depending on my luck with avatrade. I kept taking unnecessary risks, as though I got truck loads of money haha.
Thankfully, I had been maintaining a trading journal and realised what wrong I was doing. So, to save myself from all this, I ensured that I do a proper market analysis before risking my money going forward. And now with turnkeyforex, I record my trades on myfxbook by linking my system to it. The instant feedback I get helps me a lot. On the basis of recommendations of a lot of experienced traders I make changes for my future trades.
So if you are not maintaining a trading journal that’s one thing you surely need to start doing.
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Seems good. So what should be the smallest lot size I need to select to trade?
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Go for 0.01 lot size. Actually, check out what lot size your broker offers. It can be a good starting point for any beginner like it turned out for me when I started with pepperstone.
Backtesting totally sucked for me. I backtested a trade that starts off at the London open and it showed some great results and a happy me. What I didn’t realize is that London open for me started at 3am and because I was dozing off, I missed bloody 85% trades. So naturally, the forward testing results were damned.
Remember that making money in the forex market takes time. You won’t start making profits from the very beginning. Learn to stay patient and calm throughout your trading career. It is really important to control your emotions.
But why didn’t you verify the times of the day when there’s maximum wins or losses. You know what you can do? Maintain an excel and jot down the wins or losses and then see the time when you need to be available to trade.
What should I include in a trading journal?
@clockeyjoast I included almost all the elements like the date and time of the trade, the instruments traded and the direction it went. Thought it would be enough till the time there was a very menial increase in the profit percent of trade successes with IG.
That’s when I studied and added the entry and exit points, the position sizes, and the results once the trade got closed. This strategy actually worked for me and my trades got better with turnkeyforex.
Mate,
I might be able to help. I have uploaded an EXCELLENT free EA. Making strategies is my hobby, it has been my hobby for over 15 years so this means I have LOADS of experience and TOO many EAs so I give 95% of them away for free. Check out my thread called “Free For Life EAs” in the Free Forex Trading section.
Hey thanks, will surely check it out 
If I am to say, go for everything. You jot down everything you think would be helpful before and during the trade, and even when you close it. Don’t forget that forex is based on the skills despite your trading style or methodology. Your trade success eventually determines your skills on analyzing the market, your aptitude in designing a plan, and then how well you execute it. There are numerous variables that result in success, so it’s better that you write it down and weigh your strengths and weaknesses.
Find a strategy that offers good risk to reward. Look into smart money concepts, plenty of videos online.
If that’s the case then I’m giving up on eyesight. I’ve learned more here than any single source in my Forex education over all these years. Count me partial because the school of pipsology was part of my initial training material I **** you not well over a decade ago. I don’t need to start tagging people but within the past few months I’ve read things here from community contributors that made me rethink important aspects. I’ve learned new trading strategies and found solutions to problems.
Not sure what else I could ask for really?
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Cool but does your EA perform in the sideways markets too?
Yeah that’s what I also want to know. I’ve learnt that because most of the EAs are mathematically and technically coded, they work really well in the trending markets, but when it comes to sideways markets, they are quite vulnerable (happened so with actrader’s EA). Especially when the market enters a low pip range, sideways, the EAs gets chopped off.