in most cases… YES
in most cases… YES
Remember this is pure technicals in trading nothing is carved in stone 
always use a SL
I’m going to be a pain Hog and say in this case no. To get a realistic test only enter a trade when indicated by a colour change candle body on a single TF… preferably the 4h. What I’d like you to get, is a basic feel for what HA candles might add to your existing strat or on their own. We can complicate this and add stops, TP’s, multiple entries and TP’s. Entering a trade based off a lower TF looking to a longer one. Comparing and contrasting with regular candles, support and resistance, etc. But first off you will need to satisfy yourself… is HA useful to me? Does it work? If yes to both, perhaps we could expand on the finer details?
OK RC, I’ll wait 'til tomorrow to kick this test off. I’ll be in bed shortly so wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on the charts to watch for a colour change, so tomorrow it is.
i’ve remortgaged the house, pawned the car, sold one of the kids on ebay and sold one of my kidneys to stake the lot on this, so I hope you’re right !!!
Only kidding mate…I sold both kids LOL!
Demo-ing it really
Pleased to hear it!
Well I couldnt do it. I jumped the gun (sort of) but AU short set up and I looked at the HA candles on the 4hr it was red so I fired a shot. Basically using my strat but going to play with these candles. Now I see I need to do some real homework on these candles because I took this screenshot immediately after firing off the trade and now I know my account is not that big to cause this slippage lol. Not complaining as it covered my spread very very rapidly.
hey RC I may as well give your HA a few demo trades and see how it goes. Currently I look from monthly down to daily for SR then 1H and 4H looking for trades
Works for me Mike. On the 4h… times to watch out for are top of the hour change of 4h candles. In my case 02:00, 06:00, 10:00, 14:00, 18:00 and 22:00 GMT. The only one I usually don’t look in on is 02:00.
that didn’t work out too well 
it was a bull when I went long but look what happened while I was asleep
only demo fortunately.
Like I say Mike… if PA is already in play on HA up or down when I take a look. Thats it… too late. I’ll leave it and try and catch the next change in direction.
A more normal chart for me. Didn’t get into a trade but would have been looking to sell in here somewhere as it hits resistance and fails to go higher. I don’t get up for LO so miss this good stuff 
Yes I look to a ‘normal’ candle chart too Mike. But you can see on a HA the resistance/ support levels too and the lower highs/ higher lows.
Wee question for you RC, which I’m sure I would know the answer to if I’d taken the time to start reading up on HA, but a wee bit preoccupied this morning.
The screenshot above has just been taken on the open of a new 4Hour candle EU. As you can see on the second last candle, the green line runs along the bottom of the body of the HA can at 1-31565. But the ACTUAL price at the time was 1-3134 (as you can see in boxes to the right.
Then when the last candle opened, a red body appeared but price had actually gone up. So I reckon you can guess the question already… how does the work then ???
EDIT: And incidentally, does anyone know if the launch of Simon Le Bon . com has been suspended indefinitely? It’s just that it will save me checking back and forth to see if the “magic” has begun yet??
Obviously when I say the “magic”, what I mean is the magic of all that traffic turning up and him getting paid for the adverts, not him actually teaching any…well you know what I mean.
Up to my ears in work right now Hog and probably late into the night! Check this out (read it a couple of times if need be) and it should make sense? LOL Confirm Forex Momentum With Heikin Ashi
HOG,
Here’s a quick cut/paste from the Investopedia “Heikin-Ashi: A Better Candlestick” page.
Heikin-Ashi: A Better Candlestick.
"Calculating the Modified Bars
Normal candlestick charts are composed of a series of open-high-low-close (OHLC) bars set apart by a time series. The Heikin-Ashi technique uses a modified formula:
xClose = (Open+High+Low+Close)/4
o Average price of the current bar
[B]xOpen = [xOpen(Previous Bar) + Close(Previous Bar)]/2
o Midpoint of the previous bar [/B]
xHigh = Max(High, xOpen, xClose)
o Highest value in the set
xLow = Min(Low, xOpen, xClose)
o Lowest value in the set
Constructing the Chart
The Heikin-Ashi chart is constructed like a regular candlestick chart (except with the new values above). The time series is defined by the user–depending on the type of chart desired (daily, hourly, etc.). The down days are represented by filled bars, while the up days are represented by empty bars. Finally, all of the same candlestick patterns apply."
In other words, the open value, low body level on up trend candles, upper body level on down trend candles is ½ way between the h/l of previous candle body.
Hope that makes sense.
Ok well I will update on my trade I took. I trailed my stop down to +20 pips and went to bed in which I was stopped. I could have got more if I would have watched it but I went to bed. I will give it another try when I have another trade setup
update on my GBP/USD trade: I have been stopped out for a small profit of 30 pips, after being up nearly 140 pips… so I am not a happy camper today 
If we do not break 1.5200 then I might enter a long trade again but with a very tight SL, just gambling a bit 
My “virtual” trade in the EUR/GBP is looking great right now
RC, d-pip and bob.
HA candles aresomething I’ll make a start on tonight. Had something going on today that I’d totally forgot about and it’s more or less taken up my full day so I’ll make a start tonight.
Yunny
I know it’s not much consolation getting +30 when it was +140 at one point, but at least the + was there. That’s better than a minus. Also makes me wonder, if it’s not too nosey, at what point you adjust your stop. Was the +30 an adjusted stop?
Last I looked yunny ( I’m at the ice skating with my youngest daughter right now away from my charts) you’re virtual trade was looking rather handsome. Ooooh if only…
To one and all…have to make an apology. I’d said just a couple of days ago that I would post the details of all future trades now. Posted the first two (losses). Last night I left a sell order on cable and woke to find I had made +56 pips.
I was going to post the pics but then I remembered what it was I was supposed to be doing today and totally forgot about the pics.
Also shorted the euro yen this afternoon for a wee profit which again I didn’t get the chance to take screen shots of.
I’ll try to do a revised version of the screen shots tonight.
Both trades though were taken within new “proper” risk management rules and even though I had the two losses I’m actually up for the week now. I’ll do a screenshot of the balance later also and apologies once again for not doing the pics I promised I would.
Update on last night’s cable short while I was safely tucked up in bed.
Firstly the 4 hour chart which made me look for a short.
As you can see, Tuesday’s last 4 hour candle closed forming a shooting star. Maybe not the classic shooting star as technically I think the wick was not as long as it should be, however since Tuesday’s high (1-5380) did not break Monday’s high (1-5386) and then made this formation on the 4 Hour, it had me looking for a short.
Move down to the ! Hour Chart to illustrate this a wee bit better.
The 4 candles at the top left of the picture, between the light blue arrows are the 6pm-10pm 4 Hour candle. As you can see, yesterday’s high was formed by these candles (top horizontal blue line) but they actually closed at 1-5363.
When Wednesday opened, price originally climbed. (next candle with small green arrow above it)
So I placed my short entry 2 pips below the close of Tuesday’s 6pm-10pm 4 Hour candle at 1-5361. my stop went 5 pips above the previous days high at 105385 and I put my target at 1-5304.
I put this as my target because it was a few pips above the round number, it was a handful of pips above the S1 on the daily pivots and there had been previous support around 1-5265/70. So I thought that would be a good enough number to aim for.
The diagonal green line in the middle of the chart is my actual trade, where it opened and where it closed for +56 pips.
I was just about to post the details of my Euro yen short which made me around 25 pips but my trading platform refreshes the charts at the end of each trading day and has just wiped the trading history from charts so I can’t show you that one.
Also made a bit of a hash of my entry to EUR/GBP. went short just before it popped up and stopped me out for -15 pips. Of course later in the day it dropped like a stone but hey ho, win some you lose some.
This is taken from the targets excel sheet I had made and posted the other day;
From the figures on the right hand side of the picture, underlined in blue, is the way my account should grow on a weekly basis if I was to hit my 3% weekly target exactly each week. Hopefully you will be able to make out that under perfect, exact conditions, by the start of this week I should have started with a balance of $115.94 and closed this week with a balance of $119.42.
On the left hand side of the picture is the ACTUAL figures of what has happened to my balance. As you can see, underlined in red, I started this week with a balance of $143.55 and my target for the week, based on a 3% gain of this week’s starting balance, would be to close with a balance of $147.85.
This is a snapshot of my actual balance as I write at the start of Thursday’s trading day:
I know it’s a wee bit like tempting fate showing my balance BEFORE the week is through but I’m tempted just to stop trading for the week right now as, as you can see from the picture, I’m ahead of this week’s target.
If a clear chance shows itself between Thursday and Friday I’ll have a pop at it, but I’m not chasing anything now for the remainder of the week. May use the time to read up on HA Candles !!
EDIT: I do think the bobmaninc is heading south though.
Nice trade Hog! I’m going for an agressive GU long tonight, ahead of HA… so could get my ass kicked! But I like the look of the support. I’ll come back at 06:00 GMT and check this one though!
EDIT: 4h GU chart.