I want to use this thread as some kind of diary which will show my way from a more or less clueless beginner to (hopefully) a successful forex-trader.
I thought such a thread might be interesting to read for other beginners.
I also think it is improtant for myself to
a) make sure i will keep going
and
b) be able to remember things better
Of course i also hope that some of the more experienced traders here will leave some comments like:
[I]"Hey Newbie! What the hell where you thinking when u did ā(brackets filled with useless content)ā?
Look, you should have tried like this: ā(brackets filled with usefull content)ā [/I]:eek:
[B][U]What will it look like?[/U][/B]
Every day i will post a little comment about
what i [U]learnt[/U] that day,
what i [U]tried[/U],
what [U]worked [/U]and
what [U]didnt worked[/U] for me, and so on.
[B][U]Where am i at the moment?[/U][/B]
So yeah heres a short overview of my experience in trading so far:
started clueless but motivated with 200 $ and a broker (Finexo)
paid for a service which gave me trading signals every morning
using these signals and a month later my account was down to 100 $
tried different broker and trading signals
heard about [U]babypips[/U]
started thinking: āHum these people surely also started as a newbie and now they understand many things of the market and trade successful on their own. I can do that also.ā
[B]So and here i am.[/B]
Not much more to say:
I feel this is a great community (from what i saw yet im really impressed) and im happy to be here!
[B][New]
[/B][B]Navigation:[/B]
[B]Jump to:[/B]
Day 1 - Getting started Day 2 - School of pips / Demo account opened Day 3 - School of pips Day 4 - School of pips / own trading system Day 5 - A day off Day 6 & 7 - Weekend # 1 - School of pips finished
Day 8 - Lost trades Day 9 - Getting a little bit better Day 10 - Too much work = no time for forex Day 11 - Trading-test
- started the babypips-school
learnt many useful things about candlesticks, fibonacci and trendlines.
Made it to 4th grade and feeling that i can still follow and understand.
- made familiar with the forum
reading some threads i was feeling that there are still many things i dont understand.
- Got my hands on the book āTrade what you seeā by Larry Pesavento
because it was recommended by TMoneyBags and i got interested in his thread and how he trades with patterns
- Opened a demo-account at FXCM + downloaded the software
in the forum i was getting the feeling that the Marketscope 2.0 tool is a really handy tool which i deccided i want to use. Made more or less familiar with the tool so that i could finally insert Fibonacci, Mac D and a trend-line on a chart.
Of course i think i probably added them in a wrong way.
Feel free to take a look at the screenshot i made. (attached)
- read the āThe finest in trend tradingā-thread by tymen1
i enjoyed the thread sooo much, cause tymen1 keeps it simple and good to read/understand. Thanks for that. I will surely follow this thread.
UPDATE: Bollinger Bands, MACD, Parabolic SAR
Continued a little bit with the School of pips. and learnt about these three tools. My thoughts on them: Bollinger Bands: ānot sure how much this will help meā MACD: āseems to be a sweet tool to find out when a trend changes directionā Parabolic SAR: āseems nice and simpleā
Made my first try to predict how a chart will move using a Trendline, Fibonacci, MACD, and Parabolic SAR.
Outcome:
Made only some negative pips on my Democcount. No need to go into detail i think. But i felt like i was learning a lot from it, cause i could understand what happend.
The rest of the day was 8 straight hours full of work and now i feel too tiered to go on. But i think thats okay. Noone becomes a pro trader in two or three days.
Great idea for a thread - you might want to replicate it to your own blog as well.
Iām very new as well and found a lot of help on this site and forum. A couple of things I noticed in your first post:
started clueless but motivated with 200 $ and a broker (Finexo)
-[B] paid for a service which gave me trading signals every morning[/B]
[B]using these signals and a month later my account was down to 100 $[/B]
tried different broker and [B]trading signals[/B]
I think trading live as a complete beginner and paying for signals are both very large mistakes.
You should trade demo only and develop your own trading style and sets of signals. When youāve gone through the school of pipsology a good idea is to get a demo account and trade the Cowabunga system or some other system just to get a feel of following a system and money management rules.
What kind of timeframes and trading style are you thinking of using?
yeah i think youre absolutely right.
Starting with a live account and a signal service hasnt done me any good.
So for any new guys reading this:
[B]With the help of[/B] [B]ddinnov [/B][B]i want to point out the problems of a signal service:[/B]
[B]Update:[/B]
These services are sounding promising i know. I tried some.
Now the main problems are:
you just blindly believe in predictions from others
they cost you money
if you win a trade you dont know why
if you loose a trade you also dont know why
especially if you loose trades you get frustrated because you dont know why (i think especially this isnt worth it)
My personal experience with them:
None made me more money that i had before and i got very frustradet because i really didnt know why i lost money. Looking at a chart i couldnt understand what was happening and just thought: ā[I]Oh well they must know what will happen to the chart. I payed them for that[/I].ā
Thanks for pointing it out.
Made it even more clear to me.
[B]What kind of timeframes and trading style are you thinking of using?[/B]
At the moment theres just answer to this:
I know that today i used different timeframes (15, 30 min or more) to look at a chart from many points of view.
But i dont know if thats clever.
As i read this i get the feeling that i should place my orders while analysing a chart in timeframes i choose to use. Not use any timeframe possible.
And trading styleā¦ well. Guess iāll use the money-making-style.
No sorry i cant answer this yet.
[B]Cowabunga-System?[/B]
Guess i will learn about that later.
Sry only heard cowabunga in a turtle-movie until now.
Youāll get to a lesson on multiple trading personalities in the school which will cover timeframes and trading styles.
What kind of time do you have to put towards trading? Do you see yourself day trading a lot making many short term trades, or do you have a 9-5 and canāt watch the charts all day and need a system that suite that?
Thatās the problem with buying signals form other people - you are just blindly trading their system without knowing why or whether it suits your own style.
Cowabunga is the system provided by Babypips. Itās covered here:
Hi NForex
Iām also a newbie, and your idea for this thread seems excellent. Iāll be following it every day.
After I finished the School of Pipsology, my main concern was what to do next. After reading a gazillion posts and threads in the forums, realized next step had to be trying to follow a system, back test and demo test, but still wasnāt sure which sytem, time frame, etc.
I believe that by creating a thread such as this, it will make it much easier on the people just getting started. If you persevere, and keep on posting along your journey, I think this may even qualify to become a sticky in the newbie island section.
Hey NForex great idea with this thread. Iām a newbie myself, although Iāve had prior trading experience, I only recently decided to knuckle down and get serious with the Forex market. Iāve been studying the school of pipsology for almost two weeks now and feel that Iām progressing really well and itās nice to see a thread like this so other newbies can compare and contrast their experiences with yours and of other traders.
Anyway, yeah good luck with everything, hope you stick with it and eventually reach your financial dreams.
Thank you all very much for the warm welcome. Iāll try my best to keep this thread as useful as possible.
Im also happy that i also found some fellow-newbies here. Fine so far.
Now its up to me to continue my journey and ask many noobish-questions.
[B]- continued with the school of pips.[/B]
since on wednesdays i used to have a [U]14-hour-work-day[/U] i feel a little tiered right now.
But i use my lunch- and coffee-breaks to continue my study at the school of pips.
[I]I think thats one of the most improtant thing[/I] right now, since it was recommended to finish it first.
[B]- answer a few questions.[/B]
Thanks to [B]ddinnov[/B] again for already asking me a fundamental question:
How much time can i spend on trading each day?
Well at the moment i got a job, but lets say i have a good half day to watch charts. Like from 8 am to 3 pm. Sometimes more. I also got free on thursdays so i got a lot of time there.
[B]UPDATE:[/B]
[B]- Stochastics and Relative Strengh Index[/B]
So yeah i really spent time with that 5th grade in the school of pips., since so many indicators where introduced to me. I also spent some time trying to apply a combination of Bollinger Bands, MACD, Stochastics and RSI.
I find these indicators VERY interesting. But cant tell yet which of them i prefer.
[B]- continued to read the āThe finest in trend tradingā-thread by tymen1[/B]
I decided to spend some time following this thread since my personal feeling is that i learn a lot of important knowledge about trends.
Today i also was happy to notice that i understand many things, which i didnt understand yesterday.
[I]So yeah my 14-hours-full-of-work-wednesday is over.
Couldnt spend much time with the forex today. Feeling tiered but still fine.[/I]
Interesting thing youāre doing here, NForex. Read through your posts but noticed you havenāt answered the single most important question to a new trader.
Well, i hope i understand that question right and you want me to point out what i expect from forex-trading. Well here we go:
I think a first [U]short term goal[/U] is to see if I can actually make a little money with trading or not.
A [U]long term goal[/U] is hard to define for me at the moment.
I dont want to spend ALL my time watching charts and become a professional trader. But i also see this trading as a good opportunity to make a some money with something im interested in.
I also think that when i feel ready i want to throw a little more of my money in this. But until that happens i really want to feel ready. And maybe i will also try it out with a small sum like 100 $ first.
okay. Iāll try. I hope this topic will also show up in the school of pips., since i got no idea where else i should start learning about it. Anyway thanks for the push in a (hopefully) right direction.
Spent a lot of time reading through the school of pips.
Learnt about: - leading / lagging indicators - patterns
(tried to look for them on a chart but couldnt definitely spot many. Feeling insecure here.) - pivot points
(not sure how much these will help me) - Using multiple timeframes
(really handy lesson i think) - Elliot Wave theory
(sounded promising, but i also couldnt spot these wave patterns on a chart) - How to create my own trading system
(very good lesson) - Market hours
(also quite some good information i didnt had before) - Money management
(that was a must-read!)
So yeah heres my first try on developing my own trading system.
Im open for any recommendations.
Trading setup:
trade on a 15 min chart 5 EMA applied 10 EMA applied (both to find new trends early) Stochastics (10, 3, 3) (confirm new trend) (overbought / oversold) RSI (14) (confirm new trend) (over 50 / below 50)
Enter long (buy) when:
The 5 EMA crosses above the 10 EMA.
Both stochastic lines are heading up.
Dont enter if stochastic lines are in overbought territory.
RSI is greater than 50.
Enter short (sell) when:
The 5 EMA crosses below the 10 EMA.
Both stochastic lines are heading down.
Dont enter if stochastic lines are in oversold territory.
RSI is less than 50
Exit rules
Exit when the 5 EMA crosses the 10 EMA in opposite direction of your trade.
RSI crosses back to 50
Feel free to comment. Im ready to learn.
UPDATE:
So yeah i opened a trade following my System. Ive added a screenshot. Looking at it now i think i made a mistake and ended the trade too early. I ended it because the stochastic-lines where crossing. But that is not defined as a signal to end the trade. (not sure if i did right or wrong now)
I attached a screenshot. Anyway i made some pips and knew what was happening. (i think ^^) Good thing.
Some people set defined profit targets based on number of pips/fibonnaci levels/psychological levels (00 and 50 numbers).
Some people like to set just a trailing stop that trails the price by x number of pips and ārides the waveā as until it retraces back and stops them out.
Some people put on a combination of both with mutliple positions and multiple profit targets.
One thing you might want to think about now when developing your system is your risk/reward ratio and money management. So if you have a risk/reward ratio of 1:2 then you will set your profit targets at 2 x your stop loss. This would make your target profit 40 pips if your typical stop loss is 20. You might want to round this up to the nearest fibo/00/50/support/resistance/pivot point
So in this case your typical position would be:
entry price - price you entered at
S/L - entry price + or - 20 pips depending on long/short
T/P - entry price + or - 40 pips depending on long/short
Felt good reading your replie and i think im on the right track.
Reading the part i quoted i noticed that i still need to learn more. āRiding the waveā sounds cool. How to actually do this i dont know yet
But hey, iāll learn i guess.
What just happend was this: (screenshot attached)
My question now would be:
Is there something i overlooked?
EMA lines where crossing, RSI was not going up, but above 50, stochastic heading up - so i opened a trade.
Maybe i should have seen something in the pattern of the chart?
Riding the wave is when you set a trailing stop to trail the price by a number of pips. So however long the move is your stop moves with it until it turns back the other way and stops you out. Itās a way of taking profit by extracting the maximum amount of pips out of a move.
However it is a double edged sword because the price can reverse a bit, hit your stop then go back and make itās big move without you.
Not exactly sure what happened with your USD/JPY trade - if you were long then you should have had a nice few hours just now.
Iām not sure if USD/JPY is the best pair to start on - itās very unpredicatble and volatile.
Remember to trade with the trend as well, if youāre using 15 minute charts then check the 4h charts for the general trend direction and only take trades in that direction.
Have a look on Youtube for ācowabunga forex trading systemā
.
