Let me ask you a very simple but important question - are you a successful trader? In other words, are you being profitable over the long term?
If you are profitable (preferably on a real account with a good amount money and for at least a year), then go for it - change it as you see fit!
If you are not, then STOP! Before you can “run”, you have to first “walk”, and before you can “walk”, you have to first learn how to move your legs properly.
So before trying all those “variations” of yours - PLEASE, learn to first follow the very basics “rules” of the 3 Ducks, as defined by the “Captain”, as closely as possible without deviating and to become successful at it as is without any variations.
Learn to follow through with great discipline and rigor, applying proper money management on a DEMO or CENTS account, and at the same time (as a means to gain more aptitude, experience and wisdom), do manual back-tests on various currency pairs going back a couple of years. Again, be very rigorous and disciplined, taking notes in a Trade Journal (both for the live trading as well as the many back-tests). Make sure to record every trade on a spreadsheet and analyse the data in order to evaluate all the usual metrics (Profit Factor, Draw-down, Recovery, MAE, MFE, eRatio, etc.) as well as notes on how closely you are following the rules. Don’t reprimand yourself if you make a mistake. Just take note of it and correct it in following trades. Don’t get emotional about it; simply do and repeat until it becomes second nature and you can do it correctly every time.
Trading is a skill, just like any other, be it engineering, accounting, carpentry, masonry or others. All of them require dedication and commitment to gaining the knowledge and experience (be it by official education and/or unofficial apprenticeship), which includes plenty of hands-on practice. However, all of this takes many years - not days, nor weeks, nor months, but years of discipline, rigor, dedication and commitment on your part, especially in this case, because there is no Teacher, Tutor nor Mentor guiding you - so you have to be extra diligent and smart about your learning process in order to succeed.
Start with the most basic of very simple [I]baby[/I]-steps with much afterthought and great discipline. Think of yourself as a teacher and define the syllabus for the material to be learned and then apply it to yourself. Play both the part of rigorous teacher and applied student, starting at the beginning and only moving up when you have successfully passed all the tests and exams you have set for yourself.
[B]The discipline here is to do it by the “book” until you have mastered it; then you can throw the “book” away and write your own “book”! But not before that![/B]
