I am new to forex and have just started demo-trading a few days ago.
I have very basic knowledge of forex that i got from reading the school of pipsology on babypips, and a book titled “7 winning strategies for forex trading” by Grace Cheng.
So far, most of my trades are losers, winning only 1 out of 9 trades.
This is what I do, and i hope you guys can give me some advise!
I trade off the 5min or 15 min chart, consulting the larger TF charts like hourly, 4hrly, and daily charts.
I place in a market order when I see an ongoing trend, or trend reversal, and use the indicators: Stochastics, RSI, MACD, MACD histogram, and I draw S&R levels based on Simple trendlines that I draw.
I usually place my Stop loss at 20 pips, and my Target price at 20-30 pips.
Many times, my positions will usually move into the profitable region, around 5-15 pips, and then reverses on me and hits my stop loss, resulting in a loss.
What am I doing wrong? Thank you all so much for your advise again!
There is nothing wrong with taking some off table. If you want to use 1:1 ish, then that is fine. When you see the candles struggling to push higher/lower (usually happens at support/resistance areas), that is a good time to take a little bit off and possibly move your stop loss, to a breakeven point turning your trade into guaranteed profit and risk free thereafter.
I have moved my stops on a few trades and ended up with no net profit/loss.
Your suggestion to look at candles that indicate losing steam or momentum did not work for me because I was getting stopped too soon, before enough candles even appeared. I was probably seeing 1 or 2 candles and then before I know it, i get stopped with a 20 pip loss.
Sam hi, is this a proven strategy of someone elses or is it something your trying to develop?
If your trading on the 5min, looking at a daily chart really won’t help that much.
If your getting stopped out that much then I would look at your entry point which seems to be off target for the SL that your giving yourself. I am a believer in setting SL’s strategically rather than at a fixed distance especially if your using s+r as the basis of your trade.
Hi there!
Im from singapore too.
I would highly recommend reading up the thread, the finest in trend trading by tymen and multi time frame trading by graviton!
Give it a go, might take a while. But hey no pain no gain!
It WAS something I am trying to develop, and i’ve moved on to trading a higher TF like the 15 min one, i find that it works better for me! I am trying to move away from using a fixed 20 pip SL into placing more strategical ones using S&Rs, gotta read up on that.
Yesterday, I tried using bollinger bands to trade in a sideways market and won 3 out of 3 trades (but i still think much of it is luck lol).
And thanks guys! I have started reading up on trend trading by tymen!
I have a question to ask though, if anyone could answer me.
Why is it that when Ben Bernanke made his speech today, news reports all over said that it’s negative news, because Ben bernanke said “unusually uncertain” and not giving solid measures on what courses of actions to take,
The Euro still dropped against the USD right after the news was released? Shouldn’t the USD drop against the euro instead since the news was perceived as negative?
When news are bad, people move ther capital into “safe” investements like US dollar. Dont ask mw why people think the US dollar still is a “safe” investement, they just do.
That is why the stock market moves down after a bad new, people move their money from stocks to US dollars, and that is why you see the euro falling.
Uncertainty is always considered bad by the markets. Ben was being a little too honest. I doubt he will ever use the word “uncertain” in public again.
I agree with Gas, in times of bad news, money flows to the USD. Companies go to cash in bad times to weather any storm, even if that cash might have questionable future value. As the economy weakens though, cash usually becomes even more valuable. There are trillions being held on balance sheets now, just waiting to be put back to work when the economy improves. Some say an economic crisis this deep could take 3 to 5 years to really get better. If that’s the case, we would be coming out of it in 2011 to 2013. Since the big US election is in 2012, that would be my best guess
make your stop losses bigger!
if the trend passes the spread move the SL to cover your trade, the worst that will happen is you break even
i wouldnt be too greedy with your TP levels either, last year my target TP level was just 5 pips -1st year after demoing.
" Protect the money the rest will follow"
i agree with gasanvill, too many indicators BB and stochs are plenty, look into candlestick patterns - more worth than any other indicator
