You should see the table on the chart itself, not the data window.
Try using a light background on the chart. Remove all other indicators, switch to line chart mode and set the line colour to the same as the background so you can just see the table.
Try using fewer pairs. There seem to be some memory issues with MT4 now that the indi is pulling in so many datasets - 6 sets per pair!
– Update -----
The problem is that if any of the pairs are invalid, the whole indicator goes blank.
If you get all the pairs right, it’ll be ok. I have uploaded version 10 that fixes this problem. Invalid pairs will simply be excluded.
Just to let you know on my home platform the updated CBL Entry (V10) still does not work. The headings come up but thats all. Now if I load it on a platform that has the pairs XAG/USD & XAU/USD it works fine but my broker does not carry these pairs. Would that cause it to not work?
You have to make sure the names of the pairs are what your broker calls them. You can edit the names of the pairs. Mine calls for example EURUSD, some brokers EURUSDb or EURUSDSB etc.
Yes, I look at moving averages. I also look at the last 10 candles to get an idea of what’s happening now. If the MA’s are confusing, I look at the price change from the candle on the far left of the chart to the candle on the far right. That usually clarifies the price trend.
Yes, I’m really looking at the home chart to place the stop loss. I just move down a time frame to see more clearly where that point should be. It’s like zooming in on the previous higher lows or lower highs. It’s not necessary, it’s just easier for my tired old eyes to see.
On news, just check the Forex Factory calander. If you are not comfortable scalping the news, get out of the market 15 to 30 minutes before any red flaged news. Take a break and have some lunch or a nice cup of tea and go back in 30 minutes to 1 hr after the news when the market settles. It’s much less stressful that way and unless you are fully up to speed on scalping the news it’s better to leave that to people who do that as their primary form of trading. If you use that as a trading rule, you have to totally ignore any time the news would have made you pips if you had stayed in, otherwise you wind up fighting the market and that never works.
I have a couple of questions that are in my mind: What would make you stop trading for the rest of the week? a 2 consecutive losing days? if you are down 3%, 5% 10% of your account in the week then you stop trading? I want to have an idea of when to stop trading for the rest of thw week. Obviously if i make my weekly goal i will stop trading, but what about if i´m having a drawdown? Do you have a rule?
Good question! You absolutely need rules to stop a little losing streak from becoming a disaster, as can quickly happen in Forex. It’s more important that you have stop trading or reduce position size rules after a losing streak and follow them with discipline than just where you set those points. Even the best traders in the world have to deal with this. No one is immune to it or above it. Just where you set these rules depends on your account size and other factors. I’ll give you an example and then you can rewrite it to suit your needs.
For instance, you can set one rule to reduce trade position size by 1/2 to reduce the bleeding quickly after a string of losses or a losing day. And you may want to set another point to stop trading. So if you are risking 1% of your account per trade and you don’t cut your losses short (I advise cutting losses short to help avoid this situation), in three losing trades, you will loose 3% of your account balance. Let me spell this out in more detail as a set of 3 triggers.
Trigger 1.
Three losing trades happens quite often, so at 3% loss I would say cut your position size in half. That would reduce your position size to 0.5% risk per trade and it would take another 4 losing trades to get to a 5% loss. At 5% loss you can call a FULL 24 hr trading halt. Close all trades and go have your car detailed. If the market is just acting unpredictably, as will often happen, that gives things some time to line out and get better for you.
Then when you can attempt a come back and trade the 1/2 position for 24 hours again. If you win for the day consider the problem fixed and the next day continue trading back at your regular 1% risk per trade.
Trigger 2
If you come back and lose another 2% at 1/2 position size of 0.5% risk per trade, something is very wrong with your trading plan. You’ve lost 7% total and a total of 11 or more trades, at least 3 at 1% triggering a reduction in position size after a 3% loss, at least 4 at 0.5% triggering a 24 hr trading halt after a total 5% loss, and at least another 4 at 0.5% for a total of 7% loss at an attempted comeback. That should trigger a full one week trading halt. You have to stop the bleeding and catch your breath.
When you restart, it should be at a greatly reduced position size, say 1/4 normal position size for a day, and only after a winning day then go up to 1/2 a normal position, then only after a winning day back to 3/4 a normal position and then only after a winning day back to a normal position. If at any point you hit a 10% loss of your total trading capital, that is a disaster. It risks blowing out your account. You WILL blow out your account if you don’t do something drastic. You need to enter a rehab program.
Trigger 3
I’ve discussed traders rehab before. Just as a major league pitcher can throw his arm out and need to go back to the minors to rehab his skills before returning to the big show, a trader needs to rehab when his skills are out of whack. Some traders take a one or two week vacation when that happens and if that works for you fine.
I prefer to drop my position size to 1/10th my normal position size, or enough to totally remove any emotions from my trading. While in rehab I’ll cut trading hours to 1/2 and spend 1/2 of each trading day studying and working on my trading plan. I usually choose to do that study during the slower half of the trading day, but that’s up to the individual trader. Some of my best learning and improvements in my trading plan has happened in rehab. Rehab isn’t a race, it’s a journey of learning, practice and self discovery. It’s lasts as long as it needs to last.
Only after I have a winning week, I’ll increase back to 1/4 of a full position, another winning week I’ll go back to 1/2 position, another winning week and I increase to 3/4 of a full position and another full winning week, back to a 1% risk full position and I’m back in business. It’s important that it doesn’t matter what size the wins of a winning week are. A win of even a few pips is just fine. Any losing week steps me back down one step again.
So I’ll be in rehab for 1 full month minimum trading reduced position size and reduced hours. It could last much longer, like I said, it’s a journey, not a race.
Each trader should adjust these trigger points and durations to their own style and account size. The important part is to have a written plan to deal with losing streaks, to have that written plan before trading live for your hard earned cash. If you follow that plan I can almost guarantee you will never blow out an account and over time you will find success as a trader.
I believe I’ve answered everyone’s questions to the best of my ability. I’d be interested in hearing about anyones specific trading problems and will be willing to spend time to work through them. As always, charts posted with questions help greatly. I’ve finished my review of last weeks trades and calculation of stats and plotting of graphs on my progress. After doing this for a while it gets easy and doesn’t take much time. I’m now reviewing pairs for long term trading set-ups next week. I closed out all my trades early Friday as I wasn’t sure what would come out of the G 20 meetings over the weekend. My goal was to get them closed with profit before everyone else started doing the same thing. That went well.
So now I’m looking at trade set-ups for next week mostly in the 4H and daily carats as those trends tend to persist longest. Here’s a few that I’m looking at:
audusd, monthly, weekly and daily are all pointed down. a good daily cbl down last week. 4H made a good cbl down and made it to the bottom band and walked the bottom band for a while for a nice 200 pip gain. 4H has now made a good cbl up retracement and has passed through mid band. I’m watching for a turn back down, like a good 4H cbl down to re-enter the trade down in agreement with the daily chart cbl down. I’ll only trade this pair when I get good agreement on longer term charts. It’s very volatile and needs a 50 to 70 pip stop with a good entry to trade on 4H or daily, but I’d early exit and try for a better entry way before I lose that much on an attempted entry.
eurchf, I killed on this the last couple weeks. Monthly, weekly and daily all down. Hitting all time historic lows. Swiss have given up on intervention for the moment, but they could change their minds at any moment if things don’t turn around. Looking to resume this down trade Monday when lower TF’s confirm continued downward momentum. I won’t fight the swiss bank though if they decide to step in.
USDcad, kinda choppy, moves inverse to oil prices, charts not in good agreement, just watching it.
usdchf, nice solid CBL’s on 4H and daily charts with good BB walks down over the last few weeks. breaking down through the weekly and daily 100 MA. Look for more down action as price clears those major resistances. Closed the trade Friday just to be close to flat over the weekend, will re-enter as lower TF charts show momentum down again.
usdjpy, continuing a choppy long term down trend, watching for a good entry to “scalp” the 4H or daily down for 100 or 200 pips.
gbpjpy, some recovery up after better budget by gb, hourly up through 100MA and on border of 200MA, good 4H cbl up Friday, good weekly cbl up, daily cbl down hit mid band and looks to turn back up. Was down last week due to good daily cbl down but exited at midband. Watching for good entry up this week.
eurjpy, down like most eur pairs. a little bounce late Friday, probably will make another good entry down, good 1H cbl down entry set for Monday morning. Just looking for three good reasons to go short again.
Graviton, I am always amazed at the amount of energy you put into posting so much material.
In doing so, you contribute a great deal, and that for everyones’ benefit.
I, on the other hand, am a man of few words and, therefore, contribute very little!! :o :o
I have been practicing building longer term trades, and increasing the size of these positions using 4hr CBL entries on pullbacks to the main trend. I really like long term trades and it is all coming together very nicely… thanks again for all your help.
I have a couple of questions
What are some of the factors that help you determine if you are going to ride out a position over the weekend? Is it always best to exit on Friday morning and look for re-entry confirmation on Sunday? All it would cost is the spread and I could avoid the Friday afternoon take-profit crowd and the weekend gap risk.
The trouble is… lets say I have carefully built up a position that is 3 times my normal trade size by carefully managing my stop loss to reduce risk and waiting for good CBL’s to add extra lots. Would you enter the full size on Sunday or would you scale in again?
It is a judgment call that I don’t currently have defined in my trade plan so any insight would be appreciated.
Tymen, that’s just not true at all! Your BB DNA method and CBL entries have proved invaluable and have given many their first profits ever from Forex. Everyone, including myself has learned much from your efforts. I’m sure once you find a comfortable place without dogs barking and odd neighbors you’ll be posting and trading just fine. I keep a very soft and comfortable pair of ear plugs next to my bed side. They are sold in pharmacies. Quite often if I’m awakened in the middle of the night by thunder or something, I’ll slip them in and sleep in peace.
Every thing you’ve done is greatly appreciated by many, including me. Please keep up the good work and thank you for everything you’ve done so far.
what do you think about eu? look at H4 and 30 min chart.
H4 sets great to walk the band?? what do you think about retracement before the walk continues?
thanks for pairs analyzing
Glad things are coming along well for you. Yes, I’m finding that the 4H CBL entries that move back to the midband are very reliable. If they bounce off the midband (about half the time) I usually take profit there and wait to see if price will make another run down. If it penetrates the mid band I stay with the trade and try to make it to the opposite outer band. Price makes it to the opposite band about half the time for good pips. Often, maybe 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 trades, I get a very good BB walk on the opposite band worth more nice pips. I like 4H
If I have any belief that major news may come out over the weekend, I want to get out Friday morning. Everyone else knows what I know and profit taking will start in earnest in the last hour of London session, so it’s important to get out before the crowd. When in doubt, get out. This weekend was obvious with the G20 meeting over the weekend, but I probably close about 3/4 ths of long term trades over the weekend anyway. I only keep those I’m way ahead in and have lots of confidence in. A spread cost of a few pips really is no consideration in these trades at all.
I’m always trying to scale in and out of trades. It’s how I originally learned to trade. I use lower time frames and for example in a short trade will scale in on peaks in price and scale out on dips in price.
But there comes a time when I just have to get out for the weekend, no matter what, almost. In that case I’ll just exit on a very short term swing down like on a 5M chart. If I’ve waited a little long and price is moving steadily against me already, I may either just exit, or set stop to minimum, like 4 to 10 pips and wait a bit more for a swing in my favor to exit if I still believe one is likely, or take the stop out, if price is intent on moving against me, meaning the big players are getting ahead of me taking their profits out. Occasionally I get left in a trade that I really wanted out of, but price is just moving just too steadily in my favor. That’s not an all bad thing.
Going back in may take longer as I’m looking at longer term charts to get better entries. The longer I wait, the better entry I’ll usually get, so patience pays.
I don’t worry about gap risk too much as gaps usually close, so if price gaps against me the gap will probably close, and if conditions are right I may even put on an additional short term trade in the direction of the gap closing. If it gap is with me and very large, say 50 pips or more, I may close my long term trade to capture the gap pips and re-open it as soon as the gap is closed.
You are quite right though, it is a judgment call and very hard to make a rule for. I’d say to start, if there seems to be no news risk at all for the weekend, try taking half your risk off for the weekend by closing the trades that seem the most questionable, or if you only have one trade on by then, taking half the lots off. If there seems to be any weekend news risk at all, try closing all your trades and scaling back in after the open. At least that way there is no risk you’ll lose back pips that you worked so hard for during the week. There’s always a chance to get back in a trade, but you have no chance to get out if someone says something stupid when the market is closed.
eu, this isn’t where I would like to enter long on this pair, but if a candle closes above resistance at 1.2396 I’ll look at it again. It was a good long on the weekly and daily a few weeks ago with good cbl entries, and a good long a few days ago with a good cbl on the H4, and even a good long the middle of Friday with a good long cbl on the H1, but it’s a little stale now. It may run up for a while before turning back down again, so there may be some pips there.
I’d rather get a good short entry since it looks like on the weekly chart channel we are always looking at that the price is moving back down in the channel again. That may take a day or so to develop. If you decide to take this trade long, only take it if you get a 5M breakout up with the candle closing above resistance at 1.2396, and trade it with tight stop and be ready for a quick reversal. If it goes nicely your way, you can then move your stop to a little better than BE and see if you get the up bb walk you are looking for and risk nothing if you don’t.
gpbusd, 4 weeks up in a row. I exited a good long position Friday in advance of the weekend G20 meetings. I’ll scale right back into it long Monday if there are no big changes.
eurgpb, been a good short since mid March. The only position I held over the weekend. I’ll add another lot short soon.
nzdusd, been a good long for three weeks since a doji extreme on weekly. Now watching for an H4 down cbl to ride it back down. H1 looks like it might support a turn down. Watching H1 and H4
xauusd, gold just keeps going up. Seems the Chinese have decided to buy up the worlds gold supply. Everyone is jumping on the rising gold trade. It should be a swift and severe crash when the bubble bursts. Or then again, maybe it is the end of the world and everyone needs to keep enough gold to bribe the border gaurds. Naaaaa, it’s a bubble.
doesn’t eurjpy 4H cbl has been set for up entry at list to hit the upper Bband with possiable bb walk? Also weekly chart has been set for cbl long entry :rolleyes:
Thanks Grav, your responses are clear and detailed. I was wondering what kind of preparation you do each day before trading, you mentioned alot what weekends should be used for like analysing the higher time frame trends to form/make adjustments to the trading plan and assessment of previous week performance etc… Was wondering what kind of daily analysis you do?
Also you mentioned you used stoch to help asess trend direction and enter trades. I know many books, including the Baby Pips course mentions using regular and hidden divergences in the stoch indicator and price to look out for upcoming trend changes. Do you find divergences work and do you ever use stoch indicator this way?
