So this is where I will be collecting my thoughts as I develop more Forex experience.
By way of background, I’m a complete forex noob, still trying to find my feet. Signed up for a demo with FXCM and have been looking for a method to start off with.
I came across Capt. Currency’s 3 Ducks system. Looks like a relatively simple system (very few indicators!) and a pretty good starting place.
With no real concept of what I was doing, a placed a few trades when all my “ducks were lined up”, based on an extremely small lot size, risking 20 pips looking for an R/R of ca. 1:1.5
A few of these trades were successful and a few started to go against me as soon as I hit the “place order button”. I did feel that the SL might be a little tight, so widened it for a few other trades, with an increase in TP to balance this out.
I think that the 3 ducks is a good starting system, but as CC says we should be using our own market knowledge/experience to filter these trades. Since support and resistance is supposed to trump everything, that’ll be the starting point.
I have a full-time job, so will be able to do my analysis during the Asian session (and NY on quiet work days).
Hi Somerandomusername (great name :D)
You might be interested to know that the analysts at DailyFX.com took a look at over 12 million real trades and found that trader profits and losses can vary significantly by time of day.
It turns out that the periods of stronger trader performance lined up with the low-volatility trading hours of the Asian session. Welcome to the forum!
Jason
“The more price moves, the more people lose.” Sound right to me.
Wow, Jason and I already hijacked your thread. Just say FXCM and he appears…it’s like magic. 
Jason
Thank you for that - also gives me some pairs to keep an eye on.
Petefader
I had wondered if typing in FXCM would bring Jason by - wonder what would happen if I typed in Beetlejuice three times? 
Dang - and I didn’t even say it three times! :17:
A quick search suggests that the following pairs would be good to monitor in the Asian session - GBP/JPY, GBP/CHF, USD/JPY, USD/CHF and GBP/USD. The 3 ducks indicator can give an overwhelming number of signals for different pairs, so I’ll stick with these for the moment (I reserve the right to trim these further if I want to!).
Over the next day or so, I will spend some time looking at the key S/R levels for these pairs, so that I can (try) and put potential 3 ducks trades within the context of where price is relative to these S/R levels.
While I work on understand (and seeing) S & R levels & trend lines, I think that it might be a good idea to take some trades (of the 5 pairs listed) using the most basic system, as per the 3 ducks rules. Based on these, jumped in and bought USD/CHF. The only other thing I did was to measure the angle of the 60 SMA line.
Still hanging on to the USD/CHF trade! The trade went wrong just after the buy was triggered. Instead of just killing it, I’ve just let it run. It dipped above/below the 60 SMA line (when I should have killed it, since the 3 ducks were no longer lined up) for a few days and is about 40 odd pips to the positive at the moment.
They say that every trade should be a learning experience, so this is what I’ve learned from this one -
I need to understand S&R levels better, since it looks like I bought just beyond a resistance level.
Should have killed the trade once it went the wrong way.
Though I did measure the 4H angle (which was nicely positive), I didn’t really look at the 1H angle (which was essentially flat) for confirmation.
I need to disconnect from my trades rather more, I was checking it all hours of the day and night.
Most importantly for me, I’m not sure if this method of trading is for me. I have the sense that I’d like to trade on a longer timeframe.
The BP trading style quiz suggests that I should be a day trader, I don’t think so! I suspect that I’m more of a swing/position trader. Perhaps I can combine the 3 ducks method with something more long term like MG99’s forex portfolio methodology.
Closed out the trade when it hit my SL. Made about 100 pips or so!
