overnight charges called swaps are nornal but you can also receive a credit it depends on the interest rates applicable to the two currencies. If you were short EUR/USD you would earn interest because the base rate for USD is higher than the EUR and you are effectively buying USD.
I’ve been practising on dummy account for some time now and have decided to setup a live account and go for it. Hopefully I won’t blow the account straight away but, at the same time I’m not aiming to increase the size of the account account 10 folds overnight. The plan is to use the strategy I have been using on the dummy account and ensure I maintain my discipline and very slowly start increasing the size of the account.
I was looking forward to start with a trade on USDJPY, which is showing a nice downsward trend on the daily chart. However, G20 summit and the agreement between China and US to start re-nogitations on trade has got the market excited a little so I think I’ll wait until the excitement fizzles away and market convention begins to dictate which way it is moving before I start placing trades. In the mean time I have one active trade short EURNZD and limit order on AUDUSD, shorting at 0.70. Both are on dummy account and both are showing downward trend
What am I doing wrong? I’m doing something wrong as it keeps happening and kicking me out of trades. Yesterday I opened a short position on the EURNZD with the trend on the daily showing a downward movement is developing and H4 chart showing the downward trend had already started.
My entry point on the trade was 1.69025, looking to go short with TP set at 1.67 and SL at 1.705. Shortly throughout the day price started to move in the opposite direction reaching before coming back down again round to 1.6920 as I type this. Fortunately this time I am still in the trade, 
price keeps following the trend down. The other three times this happened I took a whack, price hit SL and got kicked out of the trade. The first time it happened was on this currency pair, there was an upward trend and I decided to go long buying at 1.72729:
There was a initial re-tracement before price peaked at 1.73 and then it dropped, kept dropping until it hit my SL taking me out of the trade.
I thought I had learnt from that but then it happened again, entering two trades. One was on EURJPY and the other GBPJPY, entered both trades on the same evening (25th June; GBPJPY @ 136.018 and EURJPY @ 121.843) as both were on a downward trend on the daily and H4 chart. By 12:00pm the next afternoon price had already moved against me on both pairs. The trend was still downwards, I left the trades open as it still had not reached my SL before taking me out of both trades when the market opened on the evening of 30th June.
I have not changed the analysis I perform before entering a trade but, this issue is something that I really want to avoid as it is the reason why I am not profiting despite having more winning trades. Any thoughts ideas would be appreciated 
Use risk based position sizing and forget about using hard stops.
@dpaterso please can you explain more how you would do that? Would really appreciate it and help my development.
Here’s one of (my) many explanations:
What can I say about the EURNZD? I was worried that I’ve not done something right and I think I’ve figured out what I’ve not been doing and that is looking at SR on the daily and H4 chart thoroughly. I’m sure I pointed that out to myself, I’ll need to drill that in my head. Looking at the pair again I was right to go short on the pair, the H4 chart was showing that downward trend had already developed whilst the daily chart is showing it is in the process of developing with the EMA 50 and EMA 200 coming close together on the path to crossing over. In the end I collected just shy of 30 pips and closed the trade. Had I done a more thorough analysis then I could have left the trade open, still be up 70 pips with the possibility of this pair dropping even more if the support level of 1.68 gives away:
Having done that I decided to do a thorough analysis on the USDCAD which was showing the exact trends as EURNZD with the only difference being the EMA 50 and EMA 200 are crossing paths on the daily chart, having already crossed on the H4 chart. So I decided to go short with TP set at 1.30 and SL set at 1.32:
The pair have already reached 2019 low and although the trend is showing move down I may still close this trade soon before the big economic data from both US and Canada come out on Friday. Added to the fact that tomorrow is 4th July, I cannot see much movement happening tomorrow.
It’s the 4th July, I didn’t think much was going to happen in the market today and looking at the charts there wasn’t much happening. I did close the USDCAD trade I was in yesterday, I’d have gained a few more pips had I stayed in but, I’m happy with the pips I gained and also I wasn’t looking to trade tomorrow as there are big data coming out of North America and the hangover from Independence Day I doubt there will be much activity happening apart from the data due.
Next week I will begin my assault on the charts on live account 
It’s the start of a new week, I have my live account set and ready and I’m short on the EURCAD:
It’s only a tiny account and I’m not looking to place more than 2-3 trades per week. So 
the first trade goes well and is first of many good trades, on route to becoming a successful trader
well it is certainly in a down trend. As of writing the D trend seems to be weakening and it has broken the H4 and H1 trendlines so it could be a short counter trend pb or a change in direction. Let’s hope it is the former. Good luck.
Lets hope it is the former, I was up 30 pips at one stage and all was looking rosey. It then pulled back significantly and I closed the trade 5 pips up even though price has not moved anywhere close to visible sight of my SL…amature I know. The H4 and H1 chart I’m looking at are still showing downward trend. Mind sharing screenshot of the chart you are looking at? Maybe I’m missing something.
not in my skill set I am afraid.
Week two of live trading and its only the second trade I have placed and it was another bite at EURCAD. There is no direction in the pair at the moment, moving up and down between 146.7 and 147. I still managed to catch some pips but, will probably steer clear from it until tomorrow afternoon.
Everybody seem to be talking about Gold at the moment, it appears to be consolidating above 1410 with a projected move up. Watch this space.
EURCAD - does not move for a whole week and today, following my decision to syeer clear, drops almost 100 pips before bouncing back up to the 1.460 region 
. Can’t dwell on this too much and also it looks like the EURCAD will continue its decent down unless it breaks the 1.47 barrier and finds some support.
Gold is another one that does not seem to be going anwhere. It has been consolidating above 1410 since Wednesday but, now consolidating between 1400 and 1405 . Whilst it was consolidating above 1410 I was planning to go long on Gold providing it broke through the 1416 resistance barrier however, that did not mayerialise and it may be trending down. Will be watching this closely to see if it can find a direction.
Where shall I start today? Lets start with the disaster because I told myself I won’t do this but, I did it again 
I wasn’t planning on trading oil but I ended up going short at 57.49 after markets opened at 11:00pm yesterday. I normally set my SL around 150 pips from my entry point and I’ve been doing this from previous experiences where I set it lower than that and have been closed out before the trade began to move back in my directo. Despite making this mistake during the early days of my learning and telling myself I won’t be doing that again I did just that yesterday. Instead of setting my 150 pip SL I set it at 80 pips and guess what happened…price moved against me and closed out my trade at 58.30. Soon as it closed my trade it moved back, surpassing my entry point and closing at 56.60. Instead of being down 80 pips I should have been up 90 pips 
. I would have been banging my head against the wall if it was on the live account, only god send is that I did this trade on a dummy account:
The loosing Trade:
Closing Price:
On my post yesterday I said Gold is something that we should be watching and we finally seem to have some movement. Price dropped down to 1400 before bouncing back up to 1426 where it closed today. Looking at the monthly chart gold has not been this high since August 2013.
Gold has certainly been the one to watch on Thursday. After moving up to 1426 at close on Wednesday I decided to go long on the trade, entering the trade at 1428. I set my SL at 1380, resistance level that has not been breached since mid June and TP set at 1450, a level that has not been reached since August 2013. I waited all day Thursday for the price to start moving up and thought here we go again when it dropped down to 1420 in the afternoon. However, price eventually started moving in the direction I wanted it to move, hitting 1450 TP whilst being out for dinner with the family. It was nice to come home and find 22 pips in the pocket, more positive pips to come:
Note to onself, a very important one too. When price is inbetween EMA 50 and 200 it is said that you continue with the trend. However, ensure that price does not drop below the lower band on a up trend or vice versa. This is exactly what happened the day I made a mistake with my SL on oil.
Two threads earlier I was complaining about how I got caught out by oil because my SL was not wide enough. That was one key thing, another which I did not mention at the time is that there was a clear change in trend taking place right in front of my eyes.
My point of entry was 57.49, on the chart below I can see the price had already tested the water below the lower band two candles earlier on the H4 chart and on the next candle it closed below the EMA 200:
There was some retracement after I entered the trade, loosing out on a trend down of almost 300 pips because the SL was not wide enough to cover the retracement.
I’ve gone over this again as I was looking at AUDUSD and I can see the same thing, only this time it is looking like the trend is changing from going down to moving up. Looking at the H4 chart, the first point on this is that EMA 50 had crossed over the EMA 200 starting an upward trend. The upward trend continued and price had broken through 0.705 before re-tracing back below this level. Ever since 0.705 has become a resistance level that price is struggling to break through:
The daily chart is showing that the EMA 50 and 200 are coming close together, if a crossover does happen then it will begin a upward trend on the daily chart as well. The key to this is can price break through 0.705 and find support. I’ll be going long on this pair if the 0.705 resistance is broken and finds new support. However, if the price drops below 0.7 then we could possibly see a continuation of the downward trend, down to 0.69 with the EMA 50 and 200 crossing over again on the H4 chart.
Yesterday I was talking about EMA 50 and 200 crossing over after price had broken through the upper or lower band, focusing on the AUDUSD. The pair hit a resistance at 0.705, had it broken through 0.705 it would have strengthened the case for a upward trend. However, the move did not materialise and price has dropped down to the 0.70 region (currently around 0.7004. With key data due out in 15 minutes there will be some movement however, once price settles and if it breaks below the 0.700 support then we could be looking at a shift down to 0.69.
I’ve decided to touch the subject of price breaking through the upper/lower band of EMA 50 and 200 because look what is happening to USD/CAD:
I’m watching this with keen interest because if price breaks through the EMA 200 band then we could see another trend reversal taking place. Preparing for a long position if price does break through and finds support. If it rebounds of the EMA 200 line then we will continue to see the downward trend.
In my previous post I was looking at the AUDUSD which was showing a possible change in trend had the 0.705 resistance been broken and that the down trend would continue if the support line of 0.7 was broken.
Price did not break the 0.705 to develop an upward trend however, it did break the 0.7 barrier to continue the downward trend. I entered trade at 0.6986 with SL 150 pips away whilst my TP was set at 0.69 and as expected price continued the downward trend. Being an amature, as soon as it had moved 20 pips in my favour I had moved my SL 10 pips below my entry, securing 10 pips and not allowing the trade to breathe. Following the the change there was a retracement which took out my trade with 10 pips gain before moving further down, currently trading at 0.6835…that should have been 86 pips to my initial TP of 0.69. It is currenly trading at 0.6835…150 pips
I also mentioned that USDCAD is showing an upward trend, price potentially moving above the EMA 200 as well as a potential cross over betwee EMA 50 and 200. Price has now broken through the EMA 200, aided by the rate cut announced by FED and the EMA 50 and 200 are close to crossing over:
It is very tempting to go into a trade however, with NFP due out on Friday I will wait until the market has settled after NFP data is released. Once the market has settled I will be looking at go long on this trade, could be looking at target of 1.34
On my last post I was looking at the USDCAD, price had moved above the EMA 200 whilst on a downward trend and EMA 50 and 200 were on the verge of crossing over, changing trends on the H4 chart. I wasn’t expecting the cross over to take place on Friday but, it did. Look what happened to the chart:
EMA 50 and 200 crossed over on Friday after the NFP numbers came out. Price did not get affected by the NFP numbers much and there was no movement yesterday either. However, it has taken off today, hitting 1.3290 before re-tracing back down to 1.3280. I’m expecting price to reach 1.34, providing POTUS doesn’t tweet anything that will spook the market.