Looking back over the eurusd sell, it doesn’t look so good in retrospect as the 4h is flattening but a couple of candles earlier it was definitely down. The sell was at the red line on the 5 minute and in the blue circle on the 1h. Appreciate any feedback from experienced eyes 
The eurjpy worked much better but the 4h ma had only just started turning.
How do you post the charts as smaller attachments - these seem to come out full size?
In contrast the eurjpy sell didn’t look back. When I took the trade I thought initially of trailing the stop behind the ma, but often when it takes off like it did, it retraces much of that back. Add in that it was after London hours and I didn’t fancy it drifting around so the one hour support looked good.
Still looking at the previous Eurusd chart and wondering if I missed anything obvious screaming “don’t take this trade”.
Bobcon,
I don’t see anything obvious [B]screaming “don’t take this trade”[/B], IMO the ducks were lined up and your EUR/USD short was a valid set-up.
You’ll find that even when there is a textbook set-up the market doesn’t always behave and move the way we hope it will. That’s why we use & set a stop loss and try to keep the reward v risk ratio at 2:1 or better.
Keep up the good trading!
Hi d-pip,
Thanks for that. It seems difficult sometimes to decide when to exercise discretion and when to take the trade. Gut feeling told me not to at that time but the same gut feeling also told me to not take a number of trades in December, especially with audusd, as I kept thinking it should rebound.
Hence I decided to put gut feelings etc to one side. It’s difficult 
Hi bobcon,
on the table I have exposed “five fundamental truths about market” from book "Trading in the Zone"
by Mark Douglas. It’s very beneficial for me.
10 outta 10 Bobcon, glad to hear you’re having a bit of difficulty with discretion because at least that means you’re thinking about your trades before you enter rather than just blindly jumping in.
You gotta know when to hold’em and know when to fold’em … is what Kenny Rogers said but I doubt he traded Forex so take that saying with a pinch of salt. No trader knows exactly when to fold; not take a trade, the best a new or experienced trader can hope for from their discretion is to dodge some (not all) of their losing trades.
Discretionary Muscle, use it or lose it … discretion for me is about making a decision on a trade based on my “here and now” opinion of the market or the currency pair I’m looking to trade within the 3 ducks approach. Gained Experience, your discretionary muscle should get stronger the more you exercise it along side the experience you gain through involvement with the market and the approach.
Hope that’s helpful to some traders, let me know if it is or if you think you can add anything else,
Andy
Captain Currency
Hi Andy,
I couldn’t agree more with your last post. When you talk about the “art” to trading I think this refers to the balance of discretion and gut feeling. I’m just happy to still be in the market in my first 6 months of trading a live account. I’ve learnt a lot about how certain pairs behave and what SL and TP to use depending on the “here and now” of the market. It’s not easy, but I’m still learning.
If I think about the world’s greatest works of art, they weren’t created after ten minutes of learning how to use a paint brush. I don’t think any system or guru can teach gained experience.
Here’s to a profitable 2014,
Drue.
Hi Andy,
I think this week ended up a good example of using discretion to hold back a little.
Although setups presented themselves the underlying price action seemed very choppy. I did take a few which in retrospect I maybe should have held back from.
I also made the mistake of revenge trading. After losing a few I started chasing signals which were not really there and found it amazingly difficult to stick to my plan of a maximum of 2 trades each day. For some reason I ended up chasing cable on Wednesday and got whipsawed out 3 times.
My observations are that this method is sound if we avoid the chop which is easier said than done. To me the key seems to be in looking for a smooth impulse move followed by a correction. A couple of strong bullish/bearish bars make all the difference. Next week I’ll endeavour to take the first move, if it doesn’t follow through I’ll stand back rather than chase the next entry. If the first entry fails, it seems to iften indicate chop/ranging setting up.
Reviewing this week it seems to me that most potential entries did not follow through substantially ( ie give r:r of 1.5 or more). However, losses would have been kept short, and would have been contained if I had kept to a max of 2 trades daily.
Good advice also about staying out fir NFPs. Big spikes today all round:)
Hi all, am fairly new to trading and have just finished reading the the 3 Ducks and the messages in this forum. I work full time so can only trade at certain times. What are people looking to trade next week?
Thanks
Fifi
Well, if you’ve constructed your chart platform according to the parameters discussed within the thread content you’ll already know from your 4 hour reference which pairs are in trend mode, if any.
Dial out a little further on a larger time duration chart to offer you a wider view covering at least the previous business quarter’s activity & you’ll observe that Sterling is exhibiting the highest potential bullish activity of the major currencies with Yen + Canadian & Australian Dollars suffering the most pain over the corresponding period.
So if you match your strongest with the weakest options (which you should be doing at all times to obtain the highest odds of ongoing success trading this type of model) & keep them on the front burner you can begin to prepare for possible entry set ups if & when they start establishing trend continuation behavior such as pullback/re-engagement activity.
Always good to learn from your mistake Bobcon,
Losing trades and losing runs happen … FACT of Trading! The good news is you don’t need to win every trade or win every day to be a profitable trader.
For losing trades: have a short memory instead put your energy into medium to long term performance, not short term results.
Good trading to all the Duck Hunters for the week ahead,
Andy
Captain Currency
Greetings Duck Hunters,
Eur.Usd, it’s currently a very tradable pair for a 3 Ducks Trend Trader and it could be well worth a SELL next week (20th - 24th Jan) if and when all your Ducks line up.
Stops-losses, could be placed above hourly resistance or 5 min resistance if you’re a bit more aggressive. Risk versus reward ratio; I’d say target or aim for at least 1.5 times your risk.
Good trading Duck Hunters for the week ahead and try and leave a bit of profit for me!
Andy
Captain Currency
These are not trade recommendations. The 3 Ducks Trading System is best used as a set of guidelines with discretion in addition with your own market analysis and trading ideas. I do not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation to any loss of profit which may arise directly or indirectly from use or reliance on such information.
thanks,
another pair looking good is Aud/usd.
We have to wait for the end of month to see if the support level was broken.
by now all 3 duckies are aligned…
Greetings Duck Hunters,
For the week ahead, (27 - 31 Jan) it looks like our Ducks would favor:
[B]buying set-ups on these major pairs:[/B]
Eur.Usd (price above 4hr sma)
Gbp.Usd (price above 4hr sma)
Usd.Cad (price above 4hr sma)
[B]selling set-ups on these major pairs:[/B]
Usd.Chf (price below 4hr sma)
Aud.Usd (price below 4hr sma)
Usd.Jpy (price below 4hr sma)
[B]buying set-ups on these cross pairs:[/B]
Eur.Gbp (price above 4hr sma)
[B]selling set-ups on these cross pairs:[/B]
Eur.Jpy (price below 4hr sma)
[B]Tip:[/B] next week we got an FOMC interest rate statement on our radar so trade your 3 Ducks carefully around the US Dollar pairs next Wednesday the 29th.
Hope you can grab 1 or 2 winning trades next week Duck Hunters!
[B]Andy
Captain Currency
[/B]
These are not trade recommendations. The 3 Ducks Trading System is best used as a set of guidelines with discretion in addition with your own market analysis and trading ideas. I do not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation to any loss of profit which may arise directly or indirectly from use or reliance on such information.
Andy,
I’m new to forex & glad to have found your 3 Ducks. How do you choose the pairs that you recommend for the upcoming week? Are you looking at longer TF’s or something else?
I really like the simplicity of your system. I just began trying it last Thursday and have been successful about 1/2 the time so far. I had some trades making a lot of pips, but either got stopped out or didn’t exit soon enough… Hopefully I’ll figure that part out soon. 
It’s great to not be “totally clueless” for a change!! lol I’d read & read and studied charts, indicators, etc. , but everything was overwhelming. Too much info is worse than not enough info.
I’m still trying to grasp “all the numbers”. There are so many numbers to understand, margin, risk, pips, leverage, etc. I’m sure it’s all simple “after” you understand them all. :rolleyes:
Thanks for all the work you do to help us.
Glenn
GlennR,
Welcome aboard!
That’s an easy one even I know the answer. It’s the first step in the 3-ducks system/method and it’s right there in Andy’s post. We look for price to above the 4hr sma for buy set-ups, price below the 4hr sma for sell set-ups. Easy enough, right?
Yeah as d-pip say’s Glenn, don’t whatever you do overthink or overcomplicate it.
There is a very precise & orderly sequence to follow that filters & prioritizes the potential or likely candidates to begin focusing on.
Just set up all your pairings as per the instructions on the 3 timeframe charts & allow the 4 hour chart to offer you your initial signal focus.
The objective of this model is to correctly identify & get in step with current momentum flows which will reveal themselves via the natural higher high-higher low/lower high-lower low rhythms of the market, & the 4 hour filter is your first port of call in quickly spotting that type of order flow activity.
Hi Glenn,
I understand you. System 3 Ducks is clear, but what pair to choose .This is my problem too. It takes time and patience …
Beno
Greetings to all,
I want to ask you, if you use correlation of currency pairs and intermarket analysis (e.g. Gold x AUD.USD…)
for filtering trades.
(Except the way here: 301 Moved Permanently)
Thank you
Beno
Well you choose any pair, the duck´s will tell you what to trade on.
