Hey guys , my first post here 
i’ve been studying technical analysis concepts for 6 months now! i know almost everything about Price Action , Fibonacci , Patterns (harmonic , candlesticks , chart) and im going for Eliiott Waves next week 
and i had this question in me head from the beginning (when i met FOREX and BITCOIN) that is Technical Analysis enough??
i mean let’s consider that i’ve learned everything about TA and also a bit about Fundemental as well (trading the events) and as you know trading without Risk & Money Management is nearly impossible , so ok i’ll learn them as well , so now what? am i ready to Start Trading FOREX and MAKE PROFITS out of it? or there is still a whole new path/course i need to go thourgh , i mean it shouldn’t be that easy right? TA , fundemental , management and start making money at home???
The principles of trading are that simple. To verify this, reverse the parameters and list what you should NOT be doing, rather than what you should do. Therefore the “do not’s” of trading are obvious -
do not buy when price is falling
do not buy because somebody said people will soon be buying
do not bet the farm that price will continue rising forever
do not attempt an opinion on the world’s economy
(the first one is key)
Keep everything simple. Simple strategy. Simple edge. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
It might interest you that I only use Ichimoku (8-22-44) to determine whether to trade or not. It’s a profitable strategy that’s stood the test of time over decades and which is still being used by mainly Japanese traders today.
Yes, you are right. It is definitely not that easy.
Firstly, technical analysis alone cant fetch you profits, you need to be up to date with the market on fundamental grounds as well.
Secondly, even though you have gained enough knowledge about TA, you are yet to experience Live trading.
Lastly, my advice to you is dont jump in with a a really huge investment, start small, understand the live trading, gather some experience and then when you become confident enough, you can start with a good capital.
It’s a very good question @Shrezinc. But I guess one needs to clarify "good enough for what?"
There is a big difference between Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis:
Fundamental analysis tries to determine where price should be going next based on an assessment of how market participants are likely to react to current fundamental factors such as economic data releases.
Technical Analysis tries to determine how market participants are acting now and in the past and then projects what is likely to occur in the near future.
But although both approaches can predict direction, neither can predict very well how far and for how long a current move will continue after having started. This is why risk/money management is an essential component of any trading strategy whether it is based on TA or FA or a mixture of the two.
But there is still another major factor that gets little consideration and yet, paradoxically, it is perhaps the biggest reason why so many new traders never make it to a state of positive consistency in their trading. And that is Mental Analysis. It describes how we react to risk and uncertainty. And we are all very different. Mark Douglas refers to this in his book “Trading in the Zone”, for example:
"Trading presents us with a fundamental paradox: How do we remain disciplined, focused, and
confident in the face of constant uncertainty? When you have learned how to “think” like a trader, that’s
exactly what you’ll be able to do. Learning how to redefine your trading activities in a way that allows
you to completely accept the risk is the key to thinking like a successful trader. Learning to accept the
risk is a trading skill—the most important skill you can learn. Yet it’s rare that developing traders focus any attention or expend any effort to learn it."
Disciplined, focused and confident. Sound risk/money management. A clear, simple, specific trading strategy based on TA and/or FA.
Very well explained.
It’s not easy. You need deep understanding of market and a strong psychology. Even with good knowledge people can’t make money due to psychological issues.
While you can most definitely make money solely from technical analysis, it DOES pay to have an idea of fundamentals too.
Sure fundamentals are not there for market timing but the same chart can be read in two ways depending if you are a bull or a bear.
Knowing the fundamentals will often clear up to the technical picture.
You don’t need to examine every central bank minutes meeting, or read crop reports or balance sheets of every stock in the S&P; but having a knowledge of broad market themes will pay off handsomely, or at least keep you out of trouble.
I personally like to follow sentiment.
There are not many sentiment indicators in forex, save the COT.
But even stock sentiment indicators can give forex traders a good heads up.
The VIX, VIX term structure, put calls ratio, sentiment surveys can all tell you when major market moves are likely to occur.
Of course these are all secondary to having a superior market timing mechanism, but important non the less.
Hello John, if you get a chance in the new year could you explain more how you use cot and other sentiment indicators to guide you in trading.
I am still enjoying your blog.
Cheers and Thanks
I would love to and will try - but the COT takes quite a bit of explaining and it may be worth you getting the Larry Williams book ‘Trading with the insiders’ as a good reference.
You could also have a peruse of the site Cotbase.
Indicators like put call ratios, or the VIX are much easier to explain so I will likely write about them first.
Ive been a bit slack on the blog of late, not had much time because Ive unexpectedly found myself with an accounting day job!!!
But I think the job is temporary so I will be back with some hopefully new interesting blog stuff soon.
One point worth mentioning is that although the VIX measures S&P options volatility the extremes readings in that index usually coincide with large US dollar rallies so Forex traders should always keep an eye on it.
Some would say you only need TA but I and it seems most of those above me would suggest it is a culmination of TA, FA and SA that can help you to attempt to determineyour trades. What you haven’t mentioned is the psychology of trading which is massive in its own right.
Absolutely! That is what I was referring to above:
it is why demo and live trading are so different.
Understanding fundamental Analysis and how it affects your trade can go a long way to help these are the actual market movers, I remember being in a trade(GBPUSD) during one of those days when the brexit drama was hot, from my technical Analysis the pair was to go down and so it went until a news release came out and in less than 5 minutes my profit suddenly became loss, The Economic calendar is your friend let it guide your fundamental Analysis.
I think it highly depends on the timeframe you are trading. If you are a scalper / day trader, technical analysis alone is more than sufficient (providing you’re not holding trades over high impact news) if you’re a swing trader / investor then a sample of fundamental data (atleast 5 reports in bias towards one currency’s strength within a month), if this is achieved or things like interest rate / PMIs are in your favour, this is a good starting point, then you need to consider current overall sentiment right now (If you’re sure a currency is weak and price should tank / fall, but everyone is buying it and price is rising, it makes no sense to enter right now. Wait for buy / sell order volume indicator to move in your favour, then you can consider a set-up. This is where technical indicators now come into play, wait for PA to signify a move in your bias / direction is about to occur and then and only then can you take then entry.
Learning patterns from previous market snapshots / pdfs / pictures (if that’s what you’ve done) etc is very beneficial in the beginning, but you need to apply it in a real life market. 90% of the time patterns do not print as you’d expect, and you will hardly ever get that ‘perfect’ pattern you’re looking for, sometimes you need to be flexible and look for clear similarities between live charts and patterns you’ve studied (generally I’ve found the more obvious the set-up, the bigger the market trap). I can only advise back-testing atleast 100 trades before you go for it, know your win %age, endure your strategy is profitable, then you can make this ‘game’ real easy.
P.S. Find a pattern you like, backtest it, keep testing things until your profitable then start live trading. Best of luck, and that’s when the psychology hits you! My advice, create some simple rules for the 3 market conditions you could be in (going with you, going against you, consolidating) and stick to the rules religiously without excuses. This is much easier said than done, but if you can do all of that you’ll be ‘independent’ within a year’ all the best 
You’ve said it all 
I won’t give better idea.
The key point to win a long time and not be a boomer buster Is a very sound mental analysis. No matter how good your TA analysis might be it’s nth until you become a robot and face the market with emotion free mind.
If I may ask mate, what do you think is the reason for your loss?
It’s best not to suppress emotions or they can bottle up and explode in unmanageable ways. Try to acknowledge your emotions in the moment, be aware of what you’re feeling, take a deep breath and focus on executing your strategy without outside interference
I’m assuming the original question was more to do with the type of analysis needed to trade successfully rather than qualities needed.
Yes of course discipline, or ‘psychology’ is needed and money management as well.
To be honest the simplest way I have found of managing your own emotions is basically to stop caring so much about money.
The root of all our emotional trading problems is because we believe there is never enough money in our lives - whether or not that is true or not doesn’t matter - but you have to going around with this belief system that there is always enough of the stuff and you won’t get so damn upset when you lose it.
It’s not easy, but reprogramming belief systems is possible over time.
For a beginner I would very much agree with this statement - however, while spending 8 months trading a small capital demo account as though it was a live account, I’ve breached the gap to get my mind set geared to managing trading psychology properly. Now I’ve duplicated my set up on a ‘same capital’ live account - absolutely everything is exactly the same as my redundant demo account - even the broker, the leverage 1:100, the lot size, risk parameters, money management, and the same MT5 charts. Hopefully, a bulletproof system.
It’s been a tough path to breakeven, and then being profitable for the last 19 weeks. My success is being able to CUT losses quickly without suffering emotionally. In fact I enjoy ‘saving’ money to use on a new trade - there’s always one awaiting.
What I find most difficult is to let winning trades run - and I’ve managed that by using a trailing T/P once my S/L has been moved to break-even profit.
Best of luck, though.