That is exactly - I mean, [I]exactly![/I] - how I trained my brain to have the confidence to let trades run. It worked for me. If I have had a few losses I still sometimes catch myself taking trades off the table a little early, or sometimes trailing my Stop to B/E too early, but generally that approach fixed me. We are all permitted a fleeting moment of hesitation from time to time, as long as we mostly trade mechanically!
TP on my EUR/USD trade yesterday was at 1.4515; Price has not been higher than that level since January 2010, and then only just, so personally I would not go long beyond there right now, I would rather wait for some confirmation. Of course it could work out, but in a probability game I would rather take something without such a level of resistance to it. Sorry if this sounds negative, trying to be helpful rather than pour water. I trade a number of pairs, so tend to avoid setups like that. Unless I am misreading your post, always possibleā¦!! I am waiting for a confirmed close above 1.4515 before I look at taking this pair long (or, of course, a retracement back down to give room for a decent Long trade below that level).
One of the reasons I took profit when I did was due to the ceiling double top formation. Iām glad I took profit when I did as price failed and retraced down. I will watch for confirmation of further move up and wait to see a solid body close above that previous high. If it does, I will trade accordingly, if it doesnāt, I will trade accordingly.
I wouldnāt discount the possibility of further moves up simply because Jan 2010 was the last time we were here, I think the area should be approached with cautionā¦ 45828 is the 78.6fib retrace level which happens to be exactly to the pip the previous high you are referring, we about 100 pips away, close enough to attempt a touch (maybe not this week or next). Weāve extended quite a few days now so a pullback is in order first. The lines in ITCās latest video I had plotted already on my daily chart, Iām glad to see my analysis was similar to his.
Hi folks, I have again very good week so far (around +130 pips and +6%).
I want to share this Breakout candle (or Zero line) concept, because I found it very useful especially for entry points inside OTE zone. It can be also useful for targets, because price often exhausts or reverses around zero line. This concept is not from my head, I learnt it somewhere else, but I see some similarity with ICT techniques.
Basically zero line is a beginning of breakout (the place where the initial move started). I think pictures tell more than my poor english, haha.
Here is my trade yesterday afternoon on the EU:
I took the trade in OTE in the buy zone, pa stopping right below MS1 and almost on par with the 1hr sr; bias was long back to the top. I entered where circled but exited early after 32 pips because of the low volatility over a few hours. PA ultimately went up to retest the previous days highs before failing completely which would have been a nice trade if you were up this AM.
Took the first short right at London open on GU. Iāve been restricting myself to only enter at the .786, if price doesnāt hit this area I simply wonāt enter. Slight drawdown but still a win in the end, 30% off at +30, 50% off at the 1.272 and the last 20% off at the 1.618
I find myself pretty much always taking trades back to the central pivot rather than trend trades which is weirdā¦ Maybe Iām just not spotting them? Also, only trading GU for now
Actually, looking at my charts right now, I think I see a possible trend trade lol. Fib from Asian low to London high puts a .618 right above the central pivotā¦ oh well I already got my win for the day but am still a little off from my weekly goal
Not a bad week again. 8 trades, 6 wins, 2 losses, +10%, +263 pips.
Third profitable week in a row, total +36.5% in April. This is really funny. I trade only ICT techniques in this account. My default risk is 2% with 50 pips SL.
I see, that I still need to improve many things (better entries, better timing, better targets!!! - low risk reward ratio, etc.), but it works, folks :18:
Have a nice weekend.
This is one I took today for Friday and my thought process behind it. Chart may be a little hard to read so hereās what I did. There is 2 trades here one is numbered by Green and one by Purple; the Green trade was live and the Purple one a Demo/paper trade. Red horizontal lines are my 60m key s/r)
Hereās the chart setup: Fib drawn from yesterdayās high to low (purple) for the overall move retrace. Then I drew a fib on the Asia move High/low (brown). Blue trend line was drawn before the trade occurred and is part of my reasoning for entering.
Thought process: I watched asia drop and price stay relatively stopped at the 28% retrace but it did not break lower (while I watched) which signaled to me that there was a possible attempt to try that top again. The blue immediate trend was short with a new lower low est and 3 consecutive lower highs. Yesterday eu tried reaching the high at R1 (est) but failed, then consolidated and tried reaching R1 and failed a 2nd time. I drew the brown fib during asia and set my entry at 72% which was slightly below the immediate trend and confluence with MR1. I placed the exit 32 pips lower at Green 2 as this was a possible reversal to rally and attempt a new high before the end of the weekend, I wanted to take a āsaferā trade that way being Friday since most donāt trade friday.
Paper trade (purple numbers). I placed Entry right below the previous attempted Top with the confluence of mR1 (gmt time) + the immediate trend line (DeMark style). Exit was placed at purple 2 for the following reasons: 5 significant technical areas confluence at this point. At this exit point we have: yesterday S1, Todayās S1, the 23% retrace from yesterdayās move, the 262% extension from Asia fib/move, EST S1 and a key 60m s/r only a dozen or so pips below. Given all these together in one spot I felt this was the perfect place to take an exit. Entry was set and hit during sleep and I awoke in profit, trade exited by itself. A little over 100 pips.
Stops on both trades did not exceed 10 pip draw down.
WOW manta! 36.5% is awesome! My monthly goal is +6% every monthā¦ Figured to take baby steps and meet my goals so i donāt get burned out. How long have you been trading these concepts total?
ā¦and the results are in!
I got over some āentry hesitationā problems earlier in the week by cutting my lot sizes in half and then working up from there. It really helped! Iāll have to remember that strategy for next time I get in that kind of a funk.
Manta: ā¦wow! Do you trade full-time? Iām truly inspired over here
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Anyone else having posting problems?
It wonāt take my longer posts for some reason.
I saw EURJPY set up last night on GMT pivots and long term resistance at the 119.80 figure. It would have bagged 30 pips, but I decided to stand aside because it was the final day of my first month trading LC scalps, and I am happy with my current haul.
Results for 4 full weeks trading the London close:
Total Trades: 15
Total Winners: 11
Total Losers: 3
Total BE: 1
Win Ratio: 73.33%
Pips Won: 196
Pips Lost: 39
Total Pips Gained/Lost: +157
Hopefully I will be able to include the rest of the information I want to post at a later date, but for now I am having too many technical problems. Regards.
iām having problems in general with the baby pips site. I think this is why:
http://forums.babypips.com/bugs-suggestions/38676-website-downtime-details-thursday-apr-14th.html#post253884
Alishijo, Iāve been having a terrible time navigating and posting things on BPās last few days.
good stuff folks. please keep it up!
My friend send me a link to ICT videos and blog last summer, I think. I just watched and read that time to time, but didnāt pay too much attention to it, because I was happy with my trading results. Start of this year was terrible. 2 or 3 months from nowhere to nowhere. Drawdown around 30%. I decided to study more ICT techniques and then suddenly I saw some similarity with my old methods, so I decided to trade only Michaelās tools in one account at the end of March.
So to your question, I trade these concepts for 3-4 weeks. The results are in the post above. 
It is difficult to say. My day job allows me to watch markets for the whole day (Iām managing our family company with more than 100 employees. I dont have any boss or something like that and I have absolute freedom in what Iām doing, so this is big advantage for me). On the other hand my FX income is still not my main income even after more than 3 years of trading. I hope I can get to the level of full time trading this year. I would like to travel more again and Iām a bit tired of all those āsmartā business people, employees, government, politics and winter weather in central Europe 
Just one small note. I really like the way how Michael is teaching his stuff, but i think it is easier to understand, see the things and make it work faster, if you have some previous experience with markets. I would recommend to the people who are new in this business, just TAKE YOUR TIME, PATIENCE, try to understand the logic (why it should work), dont trade some method blindly like a robot and find your own way. Use your common sense. Markets can do unbelievable things.
But this is just my opinion.
Back 3-4 years ago when I started to take FX seriously, I thought that this has to be perfect business for me and I will have star results in a short time (I have 2 university degrees in Economics and Computer methods in Physics and was quite succesful in other business and almost everything what I did before).
HEHEHE, HOW STUPID AND FOOLISH I WAS. I think my biggest enemy in trading was my ego and thinking that Im really cleverā¦believe me, Im not. But Im sure one can still do this succesfully, even if you know that it is hard to compete with the banks and their knowledge, technology, quant departments etc.
If I think about it, at the end there are only two options - long or short on the different timeframesā¦The only job is to pick the right direction and dont make things complicated.
Talking, theories and predictions are good for academics, politicians and philosophers, not for traders. So it is time to stop writing long forum posts, I guess Manta 
Good post. As a newbie i can figure out the technicals of a trading system, the rules and tools etc. Its these more general Nuggets of wisdom (see above) that i really glean the most from. This is a great thread. Thanks manta and others on here for the patience and willingness to help. THANK YOU ICT FOR THE GREAT INFO!
Im also still learning, but these ICT concepts helped me to put all the things I know together. Look, I could afford to spend time (really hundreds and hundreds hours in the last 3 years) with charts, trading and learning, because I dont have family, kids, can do it during my working hours etc. After some time you will start to see more in your charts. it is like with every activity in your life. You wonāt become top athlete or brain surgeon after one week of training. Im also not fully satisfied with my results yet. Last year was my first profitable, I made more than 200% gain in less than 6 months, but this is still nothing, because I still sometimes fight with consistency (e.g. my trading in january and february and drawdown more than 30%).
ICT is master here. Lol, Im curious how I will look at charts after 16-20 years of trading career.
Thanks Manta for the bigger picture of you as a trader. I bet the way all of us trade will be very different in 16-20 years. It would be awesome if a few more of the folks in this thread would post how they got here and how these concepts have fit in or changed the way they trade. A few posts ago ict posted a kind of brief bio of his journey as a trader. VERY FASCINATING! The big lessons that I as a newbie can bring away from those kinds of posts isnāt really about setups or price action. It has a lot more to do with psychology as a trader and patience/disciplineā¦ SOā¦ if any of you guys donāt have anything better to do this weekend, it would be sweet to hear something more about the bigger picture of you as a trader. How did you get where you are now? What has been holding you back or working in the long term? what big mental games have you overcome? When did you start trading and what is the main difference in how you traded then to how you trade now?
Keep up the good work guys