Greetings all,
I have been trying to teach myself to trade for a couple of years now. My overall goal is to be trading full time and leave my current job as an Engineer.
I have been studying price action, chart patterns and even automated breakout strategies. Recently I have been testing the merits of various indicators as a means of creating mechanical entry and exit strategies.
My head sometimes seems on overload with the masses of data I am trying to sift through.
I am here to meet like minded people to bounce ideas off and hear others’ experiences in trading.
Great to be here, thanks.
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Welcome Steve. I hope it all goes well for you. At the very least, its the most interesting journey.
Just to suggest a thing to bear in mind is that indicators alone give poor entry signals. They can give useful confirmation of a trade you want to be in, and they are good at defining and confirming set-ups so that you’re focusing on the right pair.
Thanks for the reply and the advice.
I must say I have seen some great entries in my testing with indicators, but also some stinkers that have caught me out. Like everyone I’m looking for the Holy Grail of strategies so I’m trying a whole number of tools; it’s so difficult to know which ones.
I’ve been learning alone since I started, this is really the first time I’ve discussed techniques with like minded people.
There are some great resources and advice out there, but soooooo many sharks, waiting to take a bite of your capital! I mean, every time I open You Tube I’m confronted with Greg Seker, telling me he’s off for Tea with the Queen in his hot air balloon or something!
Greg Secker’s courses are mega expensive. I get the impression he teaches absolutely viable profitable strategies but 5 minutes search after the end of the lesson you find it for free on the internet.
He sells stuff that works, and people buy what they don’t want to work for.
A trader’s first strategy should be comprehensible in within 2 days.
Same as the no nonsense guy ,maybe it "easier way to make money " through their you tubing and sales of his course.
Hello Steve! I hope to see you around in the community from time to time. Sounds like you’re already quite knowledgeable and might have some good things to contribute to the community here!
Hi. Welcome!
I don’t really understand much about mechanical entry and exit strategies. By that, do you mean automated trading? If so, given what I do understand about it, isn’t that either for people who don’t know much about trading (which doesn’t apply to you cos you’ve clearly done your homework), or for people who have already invented a successful strategy which is track-proven but want to spend less time in front of the screen?
Wouldn’t it be better to develope the successful strategy first, before doing the mechanical stuff? Or maybe you already have a successful strategy? Tell me more, you’ve hooked me!! 
Thanks for your comments Blue,
With regards to mechanical entry and exit strategies, I was talking more about having a strict set of rules that must be adhered to, which triggers an exact point when a trade can be entered. Rules such as where certain EMAs are (and in relation to each other), other indicators positioned/behaving a particular way and waiting for specific candle formations.
This is all stuff you guys might or might not do naturally, but I am intrigued whether such a ‘robotic’ or ‘mechanical’ approach can be profitable.
I know that a massive part of trading is psychology and sometimes I struggle with the emotional side of things.
I just wrote that as it poured out my head, I hope it makes sense.
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Hi Heaven, thanks for your reply.
Looking forward to sharing ideas in the community.
Ok, I get you! I make fairly mechanical entrIes and exits. I figure out which way the trend is going and go in the same direction. I refine this approach by using moving averages with superimposed support and resistance lines (diagonal not horizontal), so i can get in at what i think is the best moment. I usually mess that bit up, but the trend is usually very forgiving so i usually get to profit in the end.
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