When using the Bollinger DNA Method, what requirement do you have of your outer Bollinger Band when selecting your entry candle? Does it have to contract? Or is it being level good enough?
Also, I notice you don’t always wait for your entry candle to close before entering. Why is that?
I’m thinking of trying this on the daily chart. Have you tried this? Any advice?
And like I said keep up the great work. This is a great thread!
Contracting or level typically. If there’s a very slight expansion I’d still consider the trade though I’d be more wary.
I enter once PA goes through the CBL. I don’t wait for the candle to close. I believe this is what Tymen advised. Anyway, it’s what works for me. Though as I think I mentioned before just because PA goes through the CBL doesn’t make the trade an automatic entry. I’ll look across other timeframes and market news to try and get an overall picture of what’s going on.
Haven’t used it on the daily myself so can’t offer any advice about how well it might work or not. Might take a while to find some entries I guess. Using the 4 hour and 1 hour charts I usually find about 10 trades as week approx. I don’t find the BB bands making as clear patterns as on the lower TFs too but that’s just me maybe.
Not much to report with these ones. Don’t have the charts I was using at the time to show them. If I was working with my MT4 charts they would’ve worked out differently so I might post them tomorrow from work instead.
Trade 2 was USD/JPY long from this morning. Entered once PA had gone up through the CBL at 84.21. Came up close to the Mid BB before dropping back down. Was really dawdling along doing nothing at all and I decided to close it out at breakeven and use the risk elsewhere.
Trade 3 was USD/CAD short entered this afternoon. Went short once PA went through the CBL at 1.0255. Again PA dropped to near the Mid BB on my charts before reversing. Closed it out again at breakeven.
So two failed trades but didn’t lose anything as just closed out early and went to look for other opportunities. If I’d let the JPY trade go I would’ve eventually made a small profit. The USD/CAD would be posting a bigger loss than what the JPY would’ve gotten me so no complaints. Tomorrow’s another day.
Went short as PA came down through the CBL after another test of the 1.35 level. This had held up so far so thought a quick short trade might be on the cards even though PA hadn’t pierced the Outer BB. Entered with two positions of 1 mini lot each. Stop was placed just past 1.35.
PA went down to almost the Mid BB before reversing. Came a bit close to getting stopped out then before the 1.35 held again and this time when PA got down to the Mid BB I closed out both positions. Was some event risk coming up and figured I’d stay out of things until that had passed. Not feeling too comfortable with the risk %'s involved so not planning to take unnecessary chances.
I’m sort of in the same boat as you with a underfunded account causing a two position entry to be above my MM rules.
So instead, I’m only entering one position and targeting only mid BB for profit. This strategy is working great, although often I miss out on OBB to OBB moves.
For me it’s only an interim solution, but you may want to consider this is your worried about blowing your MM rules.
Went short as price came down through the CBL after the extreme candle. Entered with 2 positions of 1 mini lot each. Stop was placed just above the high of the extreme candle. Was a litte wary about this trade as EUR has been rocketing up lately but thought I might get a Mid BB trade at least.
PA came down close to the Mid BB before reversing and heading up to near my stop loss. When the price came back down towards my entry point I decided to get out of the trade as it seemed like the pair was well bid at the 1.36 level. Missed my entry point by a pip just as I clicked the button so made a small loss. In the end this trade would have worked out it seems as PA has since gone down to the Mid BB but not with my SL setting so no worries. On to the next trade.
Haven’t had as much time lately due to work picking up quite a bit. Managed to get in some screen time this morning and went short once PA went down through the CBL drawn from the low of the extreme candle. Stop was placed at the high of that candle. Entered with 2 positions of 1 mini lot each.
Seemed to be going favourably enough for me in the beginning but didn’t hit the Mid BB. Began to turn around then fairly sharply and rather than wait for it to go all the way back to breakeven I closed it out with a small gain. Been busy since lunch and came back to see I missed some great trades. Bleh.
Zaboon - I’m from Ireland so I trade mornings to evenings GMT.
Trade 7 - 01/10/2010
Pair: EUR/CHF
Timeframe: 4 Hours
Not much to report here. Had gone short at 1.3395 last night when PA was bumping up against a falling trendline on the 4 hour charts as well as hitting a place where it had topped and turned over before recently. I thought as well with the news about the Euro that we might see a bit of a drop over the night and into the coming day. Was up about 30 pips at one stage but I didn’t have my thinking cap on it seems. Should have noticed that EUR/USD and EUR/JPY were holding up just fine and were starting to climb some even. Probably should have been my cue to take my profits and go but I put the stop to breakeven and went off to work. Got stopped out on the way as PA rose up quickly. So another breakeven trade.
Went long at 83.20 this morning in case this pair had bottomed out and was going to take a bit of a jump up. Before the ISM numbers was +15 pips but this was quickly reversed after the US data. Decided to close out for a small gain of +2 pips on the two positions before it went back to breakeven again and use the risk elsewhere.
Not a Bollinger DNA trade either this one. With work being busy I’m finding that I keep missing them setup. Anyway, spotted what looked like a descending channel of sorts on the 15 min channel a short while ago and there seemed to be some resistance occurring around the 1.5840 level so went short after it came back off the top of the channel. Looked like the bottom of the channel and the 38.2% Fib level from the last swing high matched up so placed a take profit order there. Entered with 2 mini lots and stop was placed at 1.5855.
I’m not the biggest believer in trendline channels and whatnot on the lower TFs but with the US markets trending down at the time of the trade I thought it was worth a go and I guess today was my lucky day as it worked out almost to the pip. Could have tried to leave it run some more but I’d already seen my EUR/CHF and USD/JPY trades give all their profits back today so happy to book something before the weekend.
Not much about this trade. Just went long after PA had gone down to the recent resistance level of 83.20. Entered with one position of 2 mini lots. Stop was placed at 83.00. Closed out the trade at 83.30 after it had ground it’s way up slowly.
Went long a couple of candles after the extreme candle once PA was moving around the CBL I’d drawn. Hadn’t gone long before when the price had gone through the CBL as the BB bands were trending down at the time. Once they’d gone more or less flat that was good enough for me. Entered with 2 positions of 1 mini lot and stop was placed at the low of the previous candle.
PA rose up almost immediately after entering the trade and I closed out TP1 at the Mid BB for +12 pips, moved stop on 2nd position to breakeven and placed a take profit order on the 2nd position for 1.5837 where the Outer BB was at the time. PA managed to climb up and the limit order was triggered.
Thanks Madpipa - slowing down my trading and moving to longer TFs has definitely been beneficial for me. Just have to find what works for you I guess and go with it.
Trade 12 - 05/10/2010
Pair: USD/JPY
Timeframe: 1 Hour
Was pretty busy in work all day yesterday but had time for another go at a long trade after price had dropped down to 83.04. This pair has been pretty slow moving so suited me with work and the 83 level has been holding up well the past while. Entered with one position of 2 mini lots and placed a limit order for +25 pips. This was subsequently triggered while I was out for lunch.
It’s a very long read but probably worth it if you’re learning FX. There’s a PDF near the end of the thread which summarises a lot of it so I’d probably look for that to speed things up. Anyway, like I said it’s worth a read and you can take away what you like from it and see if it works for you. It’s not the holy grail or some guaranteed win system but I find that the framework works for me so I use it.
CBL = Count Back Line. It’s explained fully in the thread but basically it’s a line that you wait for price to go through as it shows that a retracement is more likely to be underway. Gives you a defined entry point.
I’ve been away in Poland with work this past week. Will be getting back to trading soon enough - probably Monday as work has been ramping up lately with the start of a new project coming.
Just getting back into some trading today after a bit of a break due to work demands. Missed the DNA setups so went hunting for something else. Went long with this pair after it had stalled around the bottom of the channel line on the 15 min charts and was also at the 1.39 level so I thought there’d be some decent resistance there. Entered with 1 mini lot and stop at 1.3875 for not much risk.
Price rose up and limit order was triggered at the top of the ST channel line. Went away and did a few things then to come back and see China had announced some rate hike and everything had plummeted. Kicking myself for missing it but that’s luck for you I suppose.
