The goji system, for lack of a better name

Trading Systems
221

hi orpips et al,

i may be giving up and moving away from the one minute chart after order is entered for the reason you are mentioning. when i move to the one minute chart price seems to jump around almost randomly. also, i think it was today, maybe yesterday, the spread seemed to spike to 10 for a brief minute and it was at an unusual time. i was in on a trade and just missed getting stopped out. plus, the chart jumps at each minute mark which makes it difficult to land the S/L line at times. i do not know if this will help or not. i only take the one trade at 3:00 to 4:00 pm and i think i have had only one total S/L. the point is that things seem more stable during that time. perhaps, it is because europe and england markets are closed. then, though, forex is always open, but i know there are heavier trading times. in fact, that’s why i trade 8:00 - 11:00 am. well, my entire approach is still about risk management and that is why i do no want to wait and not move the S/L. truely, i am satisfied making the 2-4-5 pips at a time. i know of a guy that trades setting his TP at 5+spread. this would not bother me and you are sort of telling me that maybe this would work for you. you know yourself with my entrance strategy, most of the time you do get a 5-6 point move in the favorable direction.

just some things to think about and i will see you all tomorrow morning,

goji, bernie

222

hello goji,

I have been following your system (among a few others) for the past month and have been getting some sweet results :D. Many thanks to you and your dilligence! Though i have been slacking in reading your thread, I skimmed what i missed and came across you stating that you use 80% exposure on your trades :eek:. With the results you have been getting (and i don’t mean to pry) what percent of your account are you able to compound after every trading day? I am just trying to put this in perspective so that I may re-evaluate my money management strategy once I feel I have consistent-enough gains. thanks in advance

223

I think Bernie risks 3.5% per trade; in other words, he sets his stop loss so that if fully stopped out at -10 pips, he will lose 3.5% of his account. So a day where he ends up at +12.5 pips would mean he had a 4.375% gain on his account.

I’m not sure what the 80% was referring to.

224

hi all,

i’ll answer some questions first. orpips is right, i have been generating somewhere between 4-8% per day. this is why i do not mind the +2’s and +3’s etc. now, what i meant by the putting 80% into play. let’s say that my bank roll is at $10,000. then, i would buy around $8000 units. thus, about 80% is in play. however, as i maintain tight stops, the actual risk is around 3.5%, which is a little higher than what is normally suggested. now, since i am all about risk management and moving that S/L as soon as possible, i do not consider this as being out of line. i do take full S/L’s but i think i take far more BE’s or +1-2-3’s. most do not figure this in to the general paramters.

today’s trades and i finished early, as usual on fridays:

8:21 long 1.3355
8:22 exit 1.33675 +12.5

prior to this, price was doing the PPI dance closing over and below the 10 ema, with no trade being executed.

8:24 spread to 2
8:29 spread to 10
8:30 spread back to 2
8:32 spread to 1.8
8:45 back to .9

9:15 entered order short
9:21 short 1.3360
9:21 exit 1.3358, had been to 1.3353

i took the +2 to end the day on a positive note. +2, +14.5

dec. total, 184.5

great weekend to all,

goji, bernie

225

sigh

Man, I swear you must have some kind of never-lose version of Oanda!

I was stopped out at -10 as profit never even got to +4 (thus no move of SL to BE for me). Looking at 5min chart now shows the low was 1.33566, or +3.4, which would seem to support my non-move of the SL. BUT, the 10 second chart shows the low of 1.3353 that you acted on. I do know that the PROFIT(PIPS) column never showed 4+ on my screen, as my eyes were glued to it.

My December results so far, trading 8am to 11am EST:

Win/loss = 11:13
Pips = - 19.5

Now as I’ve said, there were a few mistakes I made in there, so had I not made those, my totals would be:

Win/Loss = 11:8
Pips = + 25.7

Assuming a 2% risk, that would be a 5.14% gain on my account. Assuming I could maintain that (a huge assumption, of course), that would be a 10.54% gain on my account for the month. Certainly nothing to sneeze at in the real world; that’s almost as much as the stock market gains in a year and would work out to around 250% gain for the year.

So, those 25.7 pips would undeniably be a good thing, but compared to your 184.5 for the same time (which works out to a mindboggling 261,726% increase if maintained for a year, or turning $1000 into almost $3 million – ah, if only it were that easy!), it’s kind of a head-scratcher. If nothing else, I am going to contact Oanda to find out why their charts show different lows for the same period depending on which timeframe I use.

edit: spoke to Oanda, they suggested clearing the Java cache. I did that, and the chart now shows the correct low on the 5min chart. No idea if this would have affected the real-time display. This is certainly alarming, as it implies that the quotes I am getting are not necessarily accurate, and with a system like this that requres tight management of the trade…It occurred to me, are you using the desktop version of their platform or the browser version?

226

hi orpips,

WOW, now you got my attention. i went back and checked. i have the candle that started at 9:20, showing a low of 1.3352-3. the one minute candle that starts at 9:21, shows a low of 1.3352-3, and the candle that starts at 9:21:30, shows a low of 1.3352-3. mine are all the same! i certainly see where this discrepancy could lead to problems. i just took the 2, to show a positive end result and quit for the day. it could have been a 1, or even a BE, i didn’t care, just so it was not negative.

i hope following oanda’s suggestions gets us back on, or closer to the same page. i must admit, you had me going because, i am truly reporting what i am doing. in fact, as an example, wednesday, on my earlier report i indicated that i was not trading at 3:00 pm. well as it turned out, i was finished with my obligations sooner than i thought and i came home and had a positive trade right around the 3:20 fake out. even though the trade was a TP, i did not record in the blog because i had previously indicated i would not be trading.

have a great weekend,

g, b

ps. right now i am on the desk top version. for some reason the desk top version quit working on my lap top, so i use the browser version for it. over the weekend i will recheck the lap top to see if my results are similar???

227

I certainly did not mean to so much as hint that you were not reporting truthfully. There was at least one instance where I had a slightly better result than you did on a trade due to seeming difference in proft(pips) display or perhaps quicker SL managing. I have emailed Oanda to ask if there might be any differences between the desktop and browser versions; I suspect not, since they are both Java and presumably use identical code and identical feed. I also asked them what they suggest I do, since obviously accurate-to-the-instant quotes are a necessity and I can’t be wondering if I’m getting that at any given moment.

After I cleared the Java cache I did have the problem with the desktop version that it would not start, and I fixed it by re-downloading and re-running the setup. You might try that, although honestly if I were you I wouldn’t change anything about what I’m doing!

228

hi orpips,

the following is information from my lap top, thus browser. the one minute candle shows 1.3352-9 and the five minute shows either 1.3352 or 13352-4. i was not able to get it to settle on anything other than those two. this tells me that there is something different between the two, desk top and browser. it is slight on my computer, but that is only on this one instance. i wonder why this would be different. in other applications the differences could be even larger. hmmmm! please let me know what oanda says when they get back to you.

bernie

229

hi all,

there were no trades today. in the last six months of using this system i do not think that has ever happened before. now, i am not upset in the least bit. i watched all morning and nothing came even close to a trade. the december total is still +184.5. if i did not have another trade for the rest of the month, i would not be disappointed. again, it is all about attitude. i would still end the month as a winner.

i will be back at 3:00 pm. today was unusual in that the e/u just continued rising. this, i believe, is atypical for a day before a rate decision taking place in the usa.

see you later,

goji, bernie

230

Could you elaborate on your EMA settings again? I have my ema open at 20 for value 1 and at 40 for value 2 (this is for my exponential moving average). Do you mean just set it up at 10 for the first value and use no other values? I apologize for the question but i just wanted to be sure about properly using your system.

231

hi all,

hi traderboy. yes, i simply use a 10 ema. not 10 on the open, close, or anything else. what really got to me when i was settling on this system was its simplicity. now, most find the entry simple enough, but trade management and risk management are also important and they are both a little more difficult to define.

it seems that the 3:20 fake out of the us stock market also has an effect on the e/u, at least. anyway, we shall see as we continue trading 3:00 - 4:00 pm. today’s ONLY trade:

3:25 entered order long, 1.3670, as set up closed right on 10 ema
3:29 long, 1.3670
3:31 exit, 1.36825, +12.5

december total, +197.0

with the rate decision in the us scheduled for 2:15 pm tomorrow, i will be at the computer from 2:00 - 4:00 pm, or perhaps for two trades, we’ll see,

see you all tomorrow,

goji, bernie

232

For once my results matched yours :slight_smile:

233

Thank you for your response bernie. You try your hardest to make sure everyone uses your system properly. However, i hope that your patience will not run out when i ask just one more question… when you say 10 ema, i presume that means the “10-day ema”? There are no other settings accompanying that? Because i use forex.com and it has an ema and then under prefernces it’s got 5 other values that you could put into it. I really apologize but i really would like to use this system down to your exact method and the ema settings (i’ve never used ema before btw, just macd, stochastics, and rsi) on my system is just confusing me…

234

hi all,

orpips, that is really good news. i hope this helps going forward and also that it eliminates some of the confusion.

traderboy. now, i do not want to confuse you. i hope after this we are on the same page. i use a 10 period exponential moving average on a five minute chart. i am a little vague on what you are asking but aslo, i am not familiar with your trading platform.

later,

goji, bernie

235

Hi all,

Anybody that can help to automate this system ie create an EA?

It would certainly help emulate Bernie’s performance as the emotions and the errors would be eliminated. In fact it may even beat Bernie’s performance.
I see that it has potential. Any thoughts on this?
Regards

236

10 EMA just means 10 period/10 bars. If you are on a 5 minute chart it means 10 5-minute bars; on a daily chart it means 10 daily bars.

237

hi all,

i am quitting early today, because i just got back to the plus side and i plan on trading between 2:00 and 4:00 pm.

today’s trades:

9:05 short, 1.3710
9:06 exit, 1.3705, had been to 1.3700 +5

9:15 entered order long, 1.3735
9:20 long, 1.3735
9:25 S/L, 1.3725 -10, -5

9:45 entered order short, 1.3725
9:46 short, 1.3725
9:47 BE, 1.3725, had been to 1.3721-7 0, -5

9:50 entered order long, 1.3735
9:51 long, 1.3735
9:54 exit, 1.37475, +12.5, +7

later!

ps. teddy, i like the personal side of trading, for myself, however, if somebody can come up wih an EA, by all means, go for it!

238

EA for this should be easy to make if you actually know how to make an EA…I don’t.

9:45 entered order short, 1.3725
9:46 short, 1.3725
9:47 BE, 1.3725, had been to 1.3721-7 0, -5

So are you adjusting your SL based on hovering over the candlestick and looking at the Low, rather than by looking at the number in the profit(pips) column of the top frame? Because I was (again) stopped out at -10 because profit(pips) never got better than 3.2 (my Oanda shows a low of 1.37218).

239

hi all, orpips, too,

yes, i just took the BE. my oanda shows 1.3721-7, but i wouldn’t consider that pippette difference major. probably being down already, i did not a want a slight winner to turn into another loser. i thought it was going to go to the four and i moved the S/L to BE. it got hit.

last trade of day:

i assume the pull back after the rate announcement, which was a tad tardy, and rapid candle advance caused the spreads to return to something nearing normal. thus:

2:31 long, 1.3840
2:32 exit, 1.39625 +12.5 +19.5

december total, 216.5

later,

goji, bernie

240

Hey everyone,

I’ve been enjoying following this thread for a while and made my first couple babypips posts on here a week or two ago. I tried the system, Bernie, and I had trouble following it. That was back when I was being pretty reckless with my trading. I was completely riding on emotions. I made a few trades with a pseudo-goji system and broke-even, and then, like every other system I tried and didn’t immediately show profits, I would then go crazy with unplanned trades. If I lost a trade, I would dig myself even deeper trying to get revenge on the market. This brought my account into the hole (most of this time I was on demo, but I switched to real money before I was even getting consistent results, I know, stupid!).

Anyhow, Bernie, you made a very good suggestion and one that has proved invaluable. You said I should write down my plan and follow it. So simple. Before, I typed out complicated plans I came up with, but they were not simple enough, and I never followed them. What was the point of even making them in the first place!? Anyhow, last weekend I read a book I’ve seen recommended by people on this forum, “Trading in the Zone”, and that just reconfirmed Bernie’s suggestion. Now I understand why I was doing what I did, and I understand that just because I came up short or broke even on a few trades, that does not mean a system does or does not work! I’m starting to think in terms of probabilities now.

So, this week I started with a real plan. I won’t go into details, but it involves support and resistant points and a very simple way to scale out of trades that lets a third of the position “ride” if it wants to. The specifics don’t matter, what matters is that I’m following my rules. The first couple of trades reversed on me and hit my stop loss. In the past when that happened I would say “this system is crap!” and I’d be done with it. However, as I kept trading with it, I got to see how it played out over a larger sample size. So in only two days, and under 25 trades, the system brought me over 100 pips! Rad! Now I’ve come back to break even on my account and will see if I can start posting a profit.

So, I just wanted to thank you Bernie for such a simple but important suggestion.

Happy trading!