I’m curious as to the time frame most of you trade and what is the longest that you have had a position open?
LOL… couldn’t resist! Well here goes… personally the daily. Might have mentioned that a few times before? ;);)
But with good reason. :rolleyes:
EDIT: Usually just 24 hours, but occasionally 1-3 days.
lol I think I’ve seen you mention it a few times.
I usually trade off the 4hour charts myself. I like to manage my entries on 1hr and 15m charts when I can but I’ll often put pending orders for when I’m away from the computer.
Most trades well fall between the 7-14 hour range, some longer, some shorter.
The reason I ask is, I usually trade off the 1hr chart and close all positions within 2 weeks, but I have been looking into a long term trade on the weekly chart and potentially keeping it open for up to 24 month.
yes I did say “months”…
wow you have to have really large stops to trade off the weekly… How long have you been trading… I trade off the 3 hour chart and enter on the 1hour or 30 minutes, my trades usually last 5 to 6 hours sometimes a couple of days.
I trade mostly of the Hourly and Daily charts. A position entered off the Hourly I will generally hold for up to 24 hours, when entering off the Daily I will stick with it as long as price is moving in my direction, generally trailing the Stop to at least breakeven pretty early on. I guess they average a week or so open - if I am stopped out it generally happens in the first few days, whereas if they run it can be much longer, so an average is not quite representative. I entered AUD/USD short earlier this week and look like keeping it over the weekend, will see how this pm goes. I have also thought about trying some longer term trades off the Weekly chart, trouble is that they look good in hindsight, I wonder if the size of Stop needed would make them worth the risk, particularly in these choppy times? Not sure, but I definitely see your thinking.
I don’t know… 150 points should be sufficient a SL if you look in on the trade at least once a day I would have thought. If I were to take a trade like that I’m not sure I’d just let it run. More likely, I’d look to the daily TF for correctional pull backs from the weekly overall direction and either temporarily exit my position or hedge until ‘normal service’ resumes.
Yes 150 should be sufficient, and thinking about it the #pips don’t really mater if you are adjusting your lot sizes, so that it equates to your risk tolerance. If its 2% it does not matter if its a 2000 pip stop or a 2 pip stop 2% is still 2%…
If you “temporarily exit” then you would be doing several trades, not really trading the weekly in my opinion… To me that would be like looking at the 4 hour chart, then looking at the 15 minute for correctional pull backs and getting out, then back in… You are not trading the 4 hour you are trading the 15 minute while focusing on the larger trend…
Yes I see what your saying and agree in principle. But say you were just looking to take a trade off a weekly single candle high or low? Looking to the daily would give you a cleaner/ cheaper entry perhaps.
can’t argue with that at all, it would be foolish not to enter on a lower time frame in my opinion.
I watch the 30-minute interval for a setup, then check the Daily interval to make sure I’m not missing the bigger picture of what’s happening. If I were to trade Daily intervals, I would only do it with either a) small lot sizes or b) a very large account
:-p
I have been ‘crunching’ the numbers this week. I’m looking to keep the position open for 12-18 months the longest I have held a position open was about 4 weeks in the past. I have been looking at the weekly (for the bigger picture) and timing the entry using the hourly chart. This is a secondary account so I will be riding out some of the minor swings with 400pip SL trailing after break even point!
I pretty much trade off the four hour charts, fib it out to find my support and resistance. At that point my trades can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as 8 hours. 8 hours would be the longest I’ve probably stay in a trade though.
I trade the H4 and daily, but last year I held a trade for 6 months. I took half off at profit in a couple weeks and decided to set the sl to break even on the rest and let it run. I never moved the sl again during the duration of the trade and took some wild swings but it never crossed back to break even. We got an almost doji near the end and price reversed taking back about 150 pips before I gave it up. It was my largest single pip gain on a trade, but considering the number of days in the trade, it only averaged out to about 40 pips a day. So before you get all giddy over that possible 2500 pips on a single trade, remember that if you have to stay in the trade for 250 trading days, that’s only 10 pips a day. Bet you could beat that trading the daily or H1, with a bit of practice.
I don’ have any deluded opinions about huge proffits. Im looking into diversifying my funds so that is why i’m looking into long term trades. Whatever the outcome I will still out perform savings account interest rates! and the roll charges are not too bad at the moment either!
12 to 18 months? Dude, it’s hard to predict price for that long.
Basically I would say 4 weeks is fine.
But for over a year… Too much man.
…but I am sure that we would be fascinated to hear a future update on how it works out. I have never held a trade anything like that long and would be very interested to hear how you find it.
At what point does it stop being “trading” and become “investing”? Or put another way, what is the difference between daytrading and the buy-and-hold style?
There are lots of shades of opinion on this. It is covered in a number of books, for instance it is a minor theme of Market Wizards. My own view is that if I buy something with a view to holding onto it as I believe that its value will rise over time, then I am investing. However, if I simply buy and sell two currencies - and as a largely technical trader, I am really not making a comment on longer-term value when I happen to buy - because my signals are telling me that there is a profit in it, then I am trading. I place many trades off the Hourly and 240 charts, but use a very similar system on the Daily chart. I often hold trades placed off the Daily for 1-3 days. To me, that is trading. So if I do exactly the same thing, on the same chart, but price stays with me, so I stay in the trade, maybe days or even weeks, I don’t feel that that suddenly becomes investing. That is just unexpectedly happy trading!!
Many investors are not seeking an income every month, whereas this is my day job, so I look to liberate profits each month, so it is quite a different beast. So to answer your rephrased question, for me there is no difference between my day trading and my buy-and-hold style, I am doing the same thing on each occasion - I go for the setup, I take it whichever chart it appears on.
I don’t mean to dismiss your point, I absolutely see it, but that is how I view the distinction.
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