I am trading on a demo for 4 years
I missed your post between all the others…
This is more or less what I am doing. When I make my TP target (not happens often) I will also put a trailing stop or look for a second target. But your answer also implies that you have to understand what you see on your screen and that again comes back to experience an practise.
That’s right. It’s best, if you can, to place your stop below s&r levels if price is rising or above them if its falling. Unfortunately, trailing stops cannot see s&r levels so your stop could end up on the wrong side
From my opinion, backtest is more important than demo.
There are two ways to backtest.
Using your strategy backtest with real history manually.
The other way is coding a EA to backtest.
You will find it really fastly to find your strategy work or not.
Save your much demo time.
Sheldon zhang I also use EA to experiment with different ways of trailing It is much faster The backtest results are not very reliable. My EA was making +300% or more in backtest but on live demo it is only loosing money
Hi TC Holland,
EA loss is because EA can’t change strategy by itself, not smart as human now.
How to let EA profit?
The key is to design 2 strategy for EA.
- only execute at trend
- only execute at ranging
3)pick one most clearest trend of 8 current pairs to 1)
4)pick one most clearest ranging of 8 pairs to 2)
Do 3) and 4) manually, when you see market change, update 3)4)
Do not execute EA always at one pair, EA not smart now, you can smart control ea.
You too, Eddie!
Sterling effort, Eddie!
Speaking of which: BoE rate decision on Thursday!
Have a good weekend!
Hi Sheldon Thanks for sharing your ideas about programming I am very interested to have this discussion Only we mess up the thread of eddieb for beginners We can make a thread on the correct place for it
I will start a new thread on Expert Advisors and Automated Trading
The link below is to a short article by a trader who started out with quite a sizable account. He describes what he did and gives some excellent advice on what new traders need to watch out for. A really useful article.
Thanks to PipMeHappy for the original link
We all get them, bad runs. I’m in one at the moment, this is my 2nd week of it. Last weeks run virtually wiped out the previous 3 weeks profit, leaving me a staggering 39 cents up for the month! Not going to get rich quick with months like that.
So, what can we do about these dry runs? I’ll be interested to see how others deal with them, but here’s what I’m doing right now.
First, I’m not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I know my strategy and trading systems are sound, so I’d be a fool to disregard them. My Money Management is tight, but not watertight, so thats one area I’m working on - I’d rather lose a few pips than a bucketload right now because, no doubt about it, losing affects your confidence.
Second, I’m not entering new trades while existing trades are running a loss - I may miss a few opportunities but its prudent to protect what money you have.
Thirdly, I’m getting out ahead of high impact news - one thing Ive noticed recently more so than before is that the market reaction to news is extremely unpredictable, especially on Kiwi pairs which I trade often.
So thats basically it, until this run ends I’m trading like a kitten (I had typed something else, but BP autocorrected it :)). No risky moves, double checking everything, holding onto my money until I turn things around.
Namaste
Hey Eddieb, sorry to hear you are going through it and yes it’s all part of the game.
I think how you deal with bad runs is very individual based on your personality and the way you trade.
I think that when we start out trading we are led to believe that we should replicate what a computer does and just churn through a series of trades. It’s good in theory but didn’t work for me practically in the long run even though the understanding of my system and plan was sound.
I eventually learned that awareness of specific sets of market conditions and specific sets of my own personal mind-state in tandem can healthily drive my expectation in practice. I believe it’s expectation both positive and negative which often drive our actions, so having a “realistic” view as possible of what i am looking at makes the decision process more obvious rather than difficult.
This has been my workaround as it were for not being able to trade like a machine, [I]something that i believe to be close to impossible for someone with my personality type[/I], but to still achieve close to the desired results and to avoid the usual pitfalls on a regular basis.
I day trade full-time by the way.
Thanks guys!
I’ve currently got 3 trades all running in profit, first time in 10 days.
Like you say WinPsych, it’s all part of the game. The key is finding a way to minimise damage to your account when you hit a dry patch.
A frequently asked question, there are many threads about this on BP with differing amounts of starting capital.
The quick answer is yes, you can.
Provided you take the time to learn about Forex before you start trading live, develop and test a trading plan, and work within tight Money management rules you have every chance.
It won’t be easy, it won’t happen overnight, but it can be done.
The expression “Aim for the stars and if you miss you may still reach the moon” doesn’t apply in Forex. In Forex if you aim for the stars you’ll eventually blow your account.
I’ve pretty well posted as much as I wanted to here in order to offer a compact starting point for new traders.
I will be making fewer new posts but will be around to answer any questions asked.
Thank you for taking the time to read this thread
Namaste
And done at outstanding job of it, Eddie - thank [B][U]you[/U][/B] for taking the time to compile it here. (Pleased and relieved to infer that you’re not disappearing!). 
Yes, Lexy, he did a great job…
I hope this thread can be pinned up?
[B][U]GETTING STARTED[/U][/B]
[B][U]HOW TO SURVIVE[/U][/B]
[B][U]TRADING BASICS[/U][/B]
[B][U]TIPS FOR PIPS[/U][/B]
Hi.
I’ve decided to have a go at growing a $100 account myself here on my Balls of Steel thread, if anyone is interested.
So that you don’t need to read the whole thread, the basics behind this particular account is this;
Trade micro lots 0.01, growing as the account grows
Follow strong trends only - use D1 and H4 to identify these, H1 to confirm they are still currently trending, M5 to pick my entry point.
Place stop losses as I enter trades, placed on the other side if S&R points
Dont place TP, move stops up as price moves into profit and follow it
Don’t enter a new trade until all current trades have profit secured with Stops.
Don’t trade news
Namaste
Hi
Quick question if your entering on the 5 minute, what chart you using to place your stops.
cheers
Mark
Hi Mark.
Because this is only a small account ($100) and I am advocating tight Money Management, I would use the M5 to find my S&R levels if possible. On a larger account you could have wider stops without going outside your MM rules, so could look on a higher timeframe for your S&R levels
