The 3 Duck's Trading System

Pre-entry

Hey Peakyd, when I’m eyeballing a day trade type of set-up I’d probably aim to use between a 20-50 pip stop-loss and then maybe leave the profit-target open for 24 hours (no fixed target) or even plan to take half the potential profit off at X pips or at a 1hr / 4hr S/R level. #DifferentForEachTrade

Post-exit

can tell a different story of course, some trades just wont perform over a session or two (or three). These non-performing “Dead Duck” type of trades get scrapped / closed out before reaching their pre-planned (pre-entry) S/L or T/P levels. Some trades like this could get closed out for as little as -1 or +1 pips if you catch my drift …

On average

you can get a better answer (or maybe not), over the past 6 months my stats look like this:

Avg win: 30.46 pips
Avg loss: -38.16 pips
Win rate: 64.29%

Don’t quote me but I’d reckon the above stats would represent about an +11% gain on relatively low risk, maybe <1% per trade on avg.

Also, I wouldn’t be too worried about the outcome of having a neg RvR, some trades would have been closed out for greater than 2.1 RvR but when everything gets mixed into the boiling pot, RvR can get melted down … ahhhh help

Best wishes Peakyd!

Andy
Captain Currency-

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I’m in your trade system!!
Captain!

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Hey all duck hunters, just keep at it. I’ve been creating my own rules based upon in part the captains ducks. Although I am not as successful as I think I should be, I am finding some consistent entries, and by following my money management rules I am becoming a better trader.

Hi,
This seems like a great system. I just started testing it in demo last month. Quick question - when the SMA line for the 5 minute chart passes for the first sign to buy/sell, do we wait for it clear a previous 5 minute high or low before entering the market or just enter asap?
I’m looking at AUD/USD right now (12:45pm MST) - all the signals line up however I’m not quite sure of the setup.
Thanks,
Nathan

Page 7 of the free 3 Ducks eBook should answer your question Nathan, there’s also a chart example on that page to help you visualize an entry.

Andy
Captain Currency

3 Ducks July 20th

Captain’s tip: Out of the 3 TF’s we use (4hr, 1hr, 5min) spend most of your time craftily investigating the 4 hour chart (1st Duck), see how this time-frame interchanges. Study how she journeys from up-trend to pullback to breakout, from up-trend to down-trend, from trend to no trend and so on.

Gbp.Usd (4 hr) our 1st Duck is currently trading at an interesting spot (1.2946) and here’s what I’m thinking … if the sma can do a good job at containing price we could then see price take another run north targeting the 1.3114 resistance area. All your Ducks would line-up (for a buy) at some point on that potential Bull run.

On the flip-side if the sma fails to hold price in, the previous 4 hour up-trend could become fairly 50/50, not great for trading. And just by observing the current 4 hour chart, I’d reckon for me to become bearish on this pair, price would need to close below the support area around 1.2823 (see chart above)

Let me know if this post helps!

Andy
Captain Currency

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Andy,

Great example on how to trade the three ducks.
Thank you for sharing.

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Greetings Duck Hunters,

This 4 hour chart (our first Duck) posted below looks interesting to me … any thoughts?

The 4 hour chart is a little gem, a great guide to see who has an appetite; Bulls or Bears.

Andy
Captain Currency

Trade on bearisch brake out of the 5 min chart at 111,4 (if all ducks line up)

Its not Ducking up on the 5m chart. Am I right?

Thanks

Howdy guys, a quick follow-up to the 4 hour “study chart” (1st Duck) post. Below is the 4 hour chart again that I said looked interesting.

Why was it looking “interesting”, after all It was a given that price was currently trading below the sma and our 1st Duck would only have favoured shorts, well here’s my thoughts …

1 I wasn’t interested in taking a short trade in the green zone highlighted in the chart below, for me I just reckoned any trade in this zone might be a bit 50/50 or “chancy”. Support could have held price in and we might have seen price head back up to the sma (and back down again) a typical case of where Bulls and Bears have little appetite.

2 For me to be a more confident in the Bears hunger (and short trades) I reckoned Bears really needed to close a 4hr candle below support, below the 111.45 area. A 4 hour candle that pierced this area and pulled back up wasn’t going to be good enough, I was looking for a close below, a “Bearish Bite”.

3 My plan wasn’t to take any trades until Bears proved themselves. Now that they have closed below 111.45 I’d reckon short trade set-ups in the coming sessions (where your 3 Ducks line-up) are well worth taking.

4 The Bears next meal (or target) could easily be in the 109.50 area, +160 pips from where we are currently trading at.

5 On the flip side, a 4 hour close above the 112.40 resistance area (highlighted below) makes me think that Bears have lost their appetite. If this does happen I’d reckon it was a fundamental announcement (or two) that pushed price higher and not the technicals.

Side note: Of course the 3 Ducks is a discretionary approach and your thoughts may differ to mine, but if I had only one bit of advice for newcomers it would be to study the hell outta the 4 hour chart, your First Duck. Become good at having a solid logical grasp of this time-frame, spend years studying it! #Study4HrChart


Sure, would have made you about +40 pips, for me I wasn’t pulling the trigger until we got that “Bearish bite”. Thanks for the comment!

I’d reckon it did at some stage but you’re jumping 2 steps ahead of me :slight_smile: Cheers for the comment.


Take care,

Andy
Captain Currency

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Andy thank you explaining the strategy with a clear example.

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Pure golden example. Thanks Captain.

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Very interesting, I’m beginner with currency

Kind of a newer user here, but if any of you folks use TradingView as your charting software, I did create a strategy of this system and put it into the public indicator section.
I also added the ability for you to input your own profit targets, stops, trailing stops and specific times of the day to trade for back testing.

Here is the link for the 3 Duck’s System on TradingView

i’m not sure if this kind of system is for me. i did a test on fx tester and although i had a ‘season’ of profits, as i did more tests (about 60 from memory) i lost a lot of it. to me, it just feels that it’s not enough to line up directions/moving averages and go in. that making money short term trading forex is hard . i’m thinking of trying higher tf (h4/D1+)…

making money in forex is difficult…

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Hi Harpoon, this ‘system’ is likely not for everyone. It does need your own view of what the market is doing. It attempts to get you engaged in a trending market. Many trends ‘look’ unique, they don’t all have a nice stair stepper look to them. But some do. I believe it is very important to know your 4 hr ‘background’ view before even worrying about Ducks 2 or 3. Say even though pa is below sma on the 4hr, does it look like a down trend? If yes, does it look like it’s ready to take a step down?

Anyhow. Good luck.

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I always follow the babypips forum as I am a new trader. After reading your topic I tried to test it in my own trading business. Tony, what I found is your guidance is actually straight cut. I was struggling for long time and your guide made some hope to get rid of lose. Again I found only lose in my business. I think it will not work for every trader.

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thanks Perch. i need some luck. and a job that i can do (i got limited work opportunities cause of my state, so that’s why iv’e been taking trading really seriously ). but it hasn’t been what i thought it could be…

i notice though Cap’s results aren’t as high as what i was thinking. (about 1%/month) on darwinex. i don’t know what he got on other years, but from reading other places they reckon short term trading is low profits (teaching pros discourage it). maybe it’s better to trade weekly if high results are hard to come by.

i got forex tester which is good. you get to try out some of those common ideas on the net and see for yourself that they don’t work, although i should redo some of those tests more thoroughly. maybe even basic horizontal trendline bounces on h4 may not even work. so buying fx tester even just to see that a lot of this stuff may not even work is a great idea . if i’m destined to fail, the quicker it happens the better…

perhaps you’re onto something perch - maybe the 4h trend should look beautiful…i don’t know. but whatever it is , it’s not obvious. especially for beginners.

Cool I’m keen to muck around with this, cheers!