What Every New & Or Aspiring Forex Trader... Still Wants To Know

[wrtm_19]

Nice trades today!

Keeping the mood from last week’s webinar, Cable is showing yet another bullish flag pattern. It would be interesting to watch (trade) price breaking up to its next potential area of interest. Of course price can do whatever it wants, but that’s a nice possibility to be aware of.

All the best!

[couriermike]

Hi, all. I have a noob question that relates to video 3 in the basic course about using the COT to measure sentiment.

When the net long/short positions are NOT at a multi-year extreme, do you want to be following the Commercials or the Large Speculators? It’s the large speculators, right? (The video at 1:54 says follow the commercial traders which was a little confusing.)

–

edit:
Right, it is large speculators ie non-commercial traders. ICT explains that in a later video.
As you were.

[system]

See you in the Babypips chat room if you can make it… not recording it sorry. :27:

[B]GLGT [/B]:57:

[The_Hunter]

See you in the Babypips chat room if you can make it… not recording it sorry

Try and stop me

[hellogoodbye4201]

See you in the Babypips chat room if you can make it… not recording it sorry. :27:

[B]GLGT [/B]:57:

Figures my best friend’s flight would be landing at 7:30 lol

[kandori7]

See you in the Babypips chat room if you can make it… not recording it sorry. :27:

[B]GLGT [/B]:57:

I’ll be there ICT. first time in the chat room!

[traderpilot]

Is somebody else able recording the tonights PTC?

Thanks!

[Dingalo]

I’ll be there.

On another note, a few days ago Michael talked about us getting involved in the thread, talking about things and bouncing ideas is really what gets you going and you start understanding how this stuff works. Well I went into the chatroom this morning and ran into hellogoodbye4201 and we talked a little and bounced some ideas and I must say it really helps.
Getting confirmation from someone looking at the same thing and using the same strategy is excellent and gives you better trust in the tools we are using.

Thanks for the chat hellogoodbye4201 this morning. I bagged 35 pips today so I’m quite happy as a newbie in the trade.

Cya guys tonight.

[Desmond_Sterling]

Hello, Desmond

I’d like to weigh in here, and address the issues you raised.

Regarding your difficulty in letting profits run: This is a very common problem, which almost every trader has had to contend with. (I speak from personal experience.) We’ve seen the market give us a tiny profit, and then take it all back, so many times, that it’s quite understandable that we want to grab the tiny profit before it’s gone.

FX280 suggested reducing your trade size. This is a good short-term, stop-gap measure which might take some of the anxiety out of your trading, while you address the real problem. But, reducing your trade size merely treats the symptoms of your problem — it doesn’t get at the underlying ailment.

The underlying ailment is your focus on how many pips you are “up” or “down”, and — worse — how much money you are “up” or down". Let’s do a quick overview of the basic ICT trade-management technique, to illustrate how your focus should be on something else, entirely.

Michael teaches you how to find high-probability entries, how to set stop-losses, and how to set (or plan) take-profit points. In other words, he teaches you how to plan your work. It’s up to you to work your plan. And, in order to do that, you have to trust the plan.

With apologies, in advance, to Michael for oversimplifying his trade-management methodology, here is what he is teaching:

[B]1.[/B] Find an OTE, or other high-probability entry point, based on market structure and price action.

[B]2.[/B] Determine an appropriate stop-loss, based on what your chart is telling you — NOT based on your pain threshold.

[B]3.[/B] Determine your position size such that the combination of stop-loss and position size represents approprite risk, expressed as a percentage of your trading funds.

[B]4.[/B] Plan to scale out of your (profitable) trade in two, three, or four steps, depending on market structure and price action, and depending on how many lots you have onboard.

Let’s assume that your position size is 3 lots (nano-lots, micro-lots, mini-lots, whatever), and let’s assume that your charts indicate several levels that price is likely to reach for, as your trade moves further into profit.

With 3 lots onboard, you can conveniently scale out of your position in 3 steps, closing one-third of your position at each step. Scale out of your position as follows:

[B]5.[/B] At +20 pips, close one-third of your position. Move your stop-loss to break-even.

[B]6.[/B] Close the second and third portions of your position at the TP points suggested to you by your chart — NOT at points that will earn you x-number of pips, or x-number of dollars/pounds/euros/whatever.

[B]7.[/B] After you have closed the first third of your position at +20 pips, and moved your SL to BE, your SL will be only 20 pips away from price. You will probably want to let price move further into profit before you consider trailing your stop (a 20-pip TS is just begging to be picked off). If you choose to trail your stop — and, if so, by how many pips — these are judgment calls.

[B]8.[/B] If you are stopped out, either for a loss or with a profit, accept it. And move on.

In my summary of the basic ICT trade-management technique, note the following: Number of dollars (pounds, euro, whatever) figures into this plan only once — in step 3; and, number of pips gained (or lost) figures into this plan only once — in step 5. The rest of the plan is predicated on price action, and what action you will take at each predetermined price point. If you trust your plan, you can ignore the number of pips in play, and you can ignore the number of dollars on the table.

Put your focus on actionable price levels, not on numbers of pips, or numbers of dollars.

Your primary adversaries are greed and fear. Step 5, above, is intended to lock in a small profit, and to make the remaining portion of this trade risk-free. In so doing, it removes your biggest fear: the fear of a losing trade — of suffering an overall net loss.

But, what about your secondary fear — the fear of giving back some, or all, of your subsequent profit? This is where you must control your focus. This is where you must become indifferent to the potential number of pips you stand to earn, if your trade proceeds to your next TP, and then on to the next one after that. And, most importantly, this is where you must ignore the dollar-amounts involved.

This is all much more easily said than done. And, unfortunately, no one can do it for you. You will have to train yourself to put your focus where it needs to be. This reminds me of a couple of lines from the Kenny Rogers song, [I]The Gambler[/I], about poker players:You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.
The rest of the lyrics, for anyone who’s interested — The Gambler Lyrics - Kenny Rogers

FX280, Clint, thanks for the responses… I’ve been taking this sort of thing to heart, because it can sure make a difference. Especially after the last video the whole point about simply ‘counting pips’ to ensure poor strategy decisions rings especially true; in fact I’ve cheated myself out of some great wins where in retrospect, the price would have very little likelihood of retracing as there were no fibo levels, support or resistance for miles.

Yet, last night I still struggled with it internally. It’s a bit of an epic battle. Sitting on one shoulder I have small expert trader angels whispering all the correct things ~ and on the other, a little money demon saying “That’s ten pips, just take it and run!”

It got so bad that I had to pull out the ‘big guns’ to hold resolve; poured a sizeable glass of Merlot and straightaway I fell asleep within 30 minutes. There, that stopped all meddling dead in its tracks! Naturally, I went on to a winning trade…

I’m going to print out Clint’s steps and tape it above one of the monitors here (I run three; leftmost is Oanda fxtrade practise, rightmost is mt4 showing the same thing + pivot points/sessions, daily/weekly highs lows, and the middle monitor is for all else).

Trading UK GDP tonight with a veeeeeeeeeeery tiny lot size, just to see if I can get a sense of what Forex Gump is describing with his most recent blog post about it. Won’t be trying any new ICT style trades during that time as I’m quite uncertain of trading the news.

[Dingalo]

BTW, very nice summary Clint, much appreciated!

[Zneve]

Hey guys I just wanted to let you guys know the webinar will begin shortly within the next 10-20 minutes or so. It is almost 7:30 EDT.

[TheSimpleMan]

Euro and Pound all up like video called for. This is incredible when you think about how many times these moves come on cue and the posibilities to profit! yea!

[lehm]

ICT. would u still consider 1.442 as OTE as u mentioned that last night or game plan have changed since then ? can you explane that with a chart please ? cheers for help.

edit: since cable hit that level on LO which u showed us (1.623)- im thinking that cable is more easier to trade :31:…

[alexb]

Hi all,

Another lurker loured out in the open by this fantastic thread. I would like to start with a very very big thank you to ITC and all other contributers!! The couple of video’s I have already watched where very accessible and made very good sense. It seems that as a very big FX noob I have struck gold!

My experience with FX is currently zero. Read quite a bit about it but never took on a demo account or put real money on the line. And then I stumbled across this great thread, got very enthusiastic about the video’s and wanted to say thank you to ICT and beging the learning curve.

As I said i’m very new to FX and to ICT’s method. I watched the first five video’s, digested the content for a few days and came up with the following plan to master FX through ICT’s method

Step one: Open up a demo account. Do you guys have any tips?
Step two: Start experimenting with trading the daily highs and lows with +20 TP / -20 SL (as explained in the video’s) for two weeks.
Step three: In the meantime watch the first video’s again, summarize them for myself and read some more on the forums.
Step four: The next video’s.

Does this make any sense to you all or is there a way I can improve this plan?

Will try to post he summary of the first video on Thursday!

Cheers,
Alex

[FX280]

Hi all,

Another lurker loured out in the open by this fantastic thread. I would like to start with a very very big thank you to ITC and all other contributers!! The couple of video’s I have already watched where very accessible and made very good sense. It seems that as a very big FX noob I have struck gold!

My experience with FX is currently zero. Read quite a bit about it but never took on a demo account or put real money on the line. And then I stumbled across this great thread, got very enthusiastic about the video’s and wanted to say thank you to ICT and beging the learning curve.

As I said i’m very new to FX and to ICT’s method. I watched the first five video’s, digested the content for a few days and came up with the following plan to master FX through ICT’s method

Step one: Open up a demo account. Do you guys have any tips?
Step two: Start experimenting with trading the daily highs and lows with +20 TP / -20 SL (as explained in the video’s) for two weeks.
Step three: In the meantime watch the first video’s again, summarize them for myself and read some more on the forums.
Step four: The next video’s.

Does this make any sense to you all or is there a way I can improve this plan?

Will try to post he summary of the first video on Thursday!

Cheers,
Alex

Hi Alex,
Want to say a warm welcome to you. This thread is very newbie friendly. I can tell from my own experience when I started few months back.

I like your plan of action and look froward to see your demo trades soon.

I am using Oanda MT4 because their demo never expires. In my opinion find a broker with MT4 to trade demo because there are several indicators you can down load from the first page of this thread and few inside the thread.

Cheers,
Good Luck and Good Trading:57:

[Dingalo]

One question Michael regarding your trading methods.
I’ve seen you talk about changing your lot size depending on the S/L you need to take.

So my question is:
What leverage do you usually use and do you change that as well when entering trades with different risks levels?

Thanks,
Dingalo

[slowman]

At last I did get into the webinar and it was sure worth it,for some reason I had to go on my lap top as my pc would not let me in. Anyway that aside am very very intrested in trying to get my daily bias right which has fooled me many times. The info which you are sharing at the moment helps with this premis which I thank you for.

Am sure you mentioned a riptide either in the webinar or chat room, I wonder if you were refering to the usd index or am I off track?

[MCAWally]

@lehm

ICT. would u still consider 1.442 as OTE as u mentioned that last night or game plan have changed since then ? can you explane that with a chart please ? cheers for help.

edit: since cable hit that level on LO which u showed us (1.623)- im thinking that cable is more easier to trade :31:…

Hey Lehm.
I’m not sure what video your talking about but I hope this helps you.
1.4420 has finished as far as OTE on the daily charts is concerned.

The next levels to be watching.

Wally

[ameese]

Does anyone else agree that 1.62940 is a price to watch on the cable?

[slowman]

Nice head and shoulders maybe forming on cable and fiber?