hey everyone. I always read about how traders spent hours and hours looking at charts, spent weekends looking at charts to get better.
what exactly are you doing when your practicing looking at charts like this? as a beginner how do i practice doing this to get better? do i have to have some kind of strategy or chart pattern that im looking for?
im pretty new and can only swing trade(because of work) and i dont really have a strategy yet so can some one give me a little advice on how i could go about spending time practicing looking at charts so i can improve?
hope this makes sense, thanks!
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If you follow the free courses on this great education site, there is plenty of information available. It is a slow learning venture, so take it easy, one step at a time.
Many traders spend time looking for repeat patterns in price movement, and use that to place orders if it seems like the pattern would be similar to before.
IMO, I always look at charts for trend movements towards support and resistance zones, which does give me a better probability of being on the right side of a trade.
I hope that helps.
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You may consider -as a beginner-:
- Draw the trend.
- Find out support & resistance
- Notice the candles patterns and try to make a sense.
- Find out divergence between the chart and indictors.
- Find out technical analysis patterns.
Always try find out what dose it mean and how it can help you in trading.
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Hello @lbcwes86,
If you’re eager to start learning about Forex, we suggest that you make your way over to the School of Pipsology , our very own guide for teaching beginners how to trade the foreign currency exchange market. We start you off in Kindergarten, teaching you Forex basics, and you progress all the way to College, learning more complex subjects. This is all self-study, done at your own pace. Along the way, stop and take one of the 50 forex trading quizzes to make sure you’ve retained the knowledge.
We also provide regularly daily and weekly updated articles (written by various industry experts) on different Forex topics, a community forum where you can exchange questions and answers with the thousands of other members, a Calendar of Forex news and events, our Forexpedia that includes Forex terms and definitions, and several broker resources for when you’re ready to open a Forex trading account.
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Pipzilla 
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I’m not really one who pays attention to only chart patterns. 
I try to trust my strategy and indicators when it comes to my trades. 
I suggest exploring some of the strategies that have been shared here? 
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Always, when you’re about to start some research, decide what you’re looking for before you start searching. Your strategy will give you some really good leads to follow as to what you need to find. Remember there may also be things the strategy tells you that you should not find.
Then look for the things you need. Don’t pay attention to anything else.
Why? Well, imagine you’re a police officer and your Chief comes along one day and says, “Sergeant, search that large forest over there.”
What would you say? Would it be “Duhh, OK Chief”. Really?
Or would it be “What are we looking for Chief?”.
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Agree 100%. You can be led off into so many different directions if you let yourself. Set your own parameters and give them a chance to work for you.
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thanks everyone , that helps clear things up a little for me. doing school of pips as well!
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Yes, you can practice looking at chart. It will enhance the knowledge of price action trading.
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I feel the same way you do. Sometimes I just stare at them to fit in but have no idea what I’m supposed to decipher from starting so long.
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Stop doing that. Work from the top down. Identify a strategy. Identify the chart features that show how it works. Look for those features. If they’re not there go to the gym.
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Yooo what’s sup bro ! Definitely figure out what strategy you want to use because everyone eyes see the charts different. Spending time on charts is fun , But tbh that’s only the 1st step , you can spend 10 hours on a chart a day & it won’t make necessarily make you better , it can in the beginning stage , but your 2nd -3rd year of trading you’ll learn the mental side is the hardest part . Definitely check out YouTube or a nice affordable course .
Hi @lbcwes86,
Great question because you’ll often hear people on forums and blogs talking about studying their charts, especially over the weekend in preparation for the week ahead but what are they actually looking at or studying?
Well, as @Pipzilla suggested above, a great place to start is over at the School Of Pipsology. It is, without a doubt, the best free forex education available and it will teach you exactly what you need to be looking out for and how your time is best spent when studying charts.
However, to answer your question in a more direct fashion, there are several things you could be studying:
Firstly, you want to be getting up close and personal with the assets you are planning to potentially trade in the week ahead.
You want to know those assets inside out. This is why a lot of traders suggest newbies should only focus on one or two pairs to start with.
So, let’s say you regularly trade several of the major pairs.
One thing you can be studying, for example, are key levels of support and resistance across multiple time frames for those pairs.
Then during the trading week, just as an example, if a good set-up emerges, you’ll be able to judge how that’s likely to play out against any significant levels of support and resistance on the multiple time frames you studied over the weekend.
A less experienced trader, in contrast, might not bother studying their charts, spot the appealing set-up on their first day back in the markets and dive straight in, not realising they are about to hit a key level of support and resistance on a different time frame perhaps.
In short, try to familiarise yourself with the terrain you are going to be trying to navigate over the week ahead.
Secondly, you could be backtesting the recent success rate of your current strategy.
A lot of new traders start out thinking they just need to just find the right strategy to start printing money and become profitable traders.
If only trading were that easy!
In reality, trading is a zero sum game. No single strategy remains profitable forever. You have to be prepared to change and adapt your strategies as necessary. That’s why you need to know how your strategy has been holding up and identify any changes you might need to make if its win rate is starting to go south.
More to the point, profitable trading comes down to balancing your estimated win rate with a suitable reward to risk ratio. By studying the charts you will be able to back test your strategy and estimate your win rate as accurately as possible.
A good trader should, in my humble opinion, be able to confidently tell you the estimated win rate of any particular strategy he or she is employing. And, it goes without saying, the more accurate that estimation is, the more profitable that trader will likely be.
Thirdly, you can look back at what’s happened over the previous week and go investigate what might have caused any major trend reversals, large spikes, excessive volatility that kind of stuff.
This will help you understand what actually moves markets and build out your knowledge of the markets and how to trade profitably.
For example, you notice the EUR/USD becoming quite volatile on the 12th January and if you didn’t trade that day perhaps, you wonder what caused it. You decide to have a look through the BabyPips Economic Calendar and you notice that there was a High Impact US inflation report released at 13:30 UK time, the exact time the market went a bit loopy funny enough.
Anyways, I could go on listing stuff you could be looking at on the charts but I’m sure you get the idea and I’m sure there will be lots of other suggestions for you to consider too.
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There are many books about trading… you should read some… you Will not get an exact strategy, but you Will at least get some ideas on What to look for in the charts … then with experience, you Will come Up with your own strategy and trading style.
Classical technical analysys, is a good strating point…that you can learn at the babypips school.
Also after that you could read about Richard Wyckoff trading ideas… it’s a different way to look at the market…
Finally read news that affect currencies… see What price does after their release… maybe ft.com/currencies is a good site…
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I’m a newbie and I’m listening
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If you’re swing Trading use a four hour daily and weekly time frame use support and resistance areas follow the trend higher high , lower lows , lower highs and higher lowers couple of chart patterns candlestick patterns . You should be more then fine
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Expert traders can predict the market looking at the chart and it refers to a trader’s efficiency.
Not everyone starts off as an expert . Some people get it together faster then others
Yes, practicing looking at the chart is a good practice. But to do so, you should have better idea over candlesticks.
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