That’s really FUNNY!! 
I guess it does sound like a lot. But as I continue to improve on my chart reading the analysis will get quicker and won’t be as onerous as my post!!
KC
If you’re a US citizen don’t open an account with Oanda. They have a first in first out rule when it comes to trades.
I believe all US brokers have this rule and it applies to positions of the same pair and same size. One way around it is to stagger position size.
Do you have any recommendations?
tx,
KC
Just closed all but three positions in eur/nzc all green!!
Cool to read your learnings. People can find their sweet spot if they enjoy trading and that can be a fortunate thing.
About going live vs demo, I personally can’t wait to go live. I am trying harder now to treat my demo as such, which I thought I did for a while but didn’t really. That’s called testing and that’s ok. You single out the wrong habits and vow to not repeat them as much as possible.
I know too well that once I go live, everything will change. I will use a brand new journal, my days and nights’ structure will be clearer, and the fact that every trade matters will become that much clearer too.
I analyse my flaws and mean to improve them, adjusting to reach a safe level in trading.
Live vs demo has got to be definitely different! The people capable to be honest with themselves and truly mean to do well, which involves many things, will be the fortunate ones.
Dude.
See this post of mine below re: TradeStation. NO excuses for you. ■■■■ Merrill/BOA!!! LOL!!!
There’s a lot there at interactive brokers!!
I was familiar with them but didn’t meet account minimum. Perhaps that is my new goal … hit 10K and move!
I may open a trial account to familiarize myself with the platform. Tx for the tip!!
KC
BTW… reading your’s and Manxx’s threads about other futures/commodities I am have an inclination to explore more!
$1 000. To trade the new CME micro. stuff.
Err… Just to be clear. You want an account with TRADESTATION so that you have access to the platform. Irrelevant that IB is the broker.
That’s a lot closer than 10K!
Thanks for the tip! I am on the trail! They do seem like a much better deal!
I’ll be a noob millionaire by year’s end!
KC
Stick with me. I’ll make you famous!!! LOL!!!
Was away for a few days celebrating the crushing of nations and nation building and realizing the silent majority is remaining so.
I’ve been trading demo as real as possible but didn’t do so while I was away. Positions “on” and no access.
Margin came a callin’. It’s ugly.
I am dragging my feet in tightening up my strat which is a bad sign for a trader. Believe I have all the pieces; some of them are together and some not.
Sometimes I think going live with a micro account and real cash would be the next “boost” to move ahead - it would be with a very small - micro account - . Then I think that’s like saying “I should drink the liquor cabinet dry and finish those 2 cases of beer before I quit drinking. Don’t want to waste all that.”
Perhaps I should start now.
KC
Edit: While my lot size is small a bunch of “smalls” still equal a lot of “bigs”. Am I learning? Idk. Feeling the frustration and need to stop and get myself together!! 
Edit: Ms. Margin Call just stopped by - again - for coffee. Wheels have fallen off the cart. Further proof I am not ready.
Pressing on.
KC
@Trendswithbenefits, @tommor @anon46773462 and @dpaterso,
So I believe I’m down to pretty much “it” interms of my charting and final strategy.
The screen shot below has the HULL 20 & 50 MAs, ADX sans the +/- lines and stochastics. Using M and W for levels based on PA and ADX extreme readings. Trading on the daily. I marked the ADX extremes with vertical lines for ease of viewing what I am looking for on the chart…
Looking for ADX above 25, stochastics turning up and crossing from below 20 will be looking for the HULL 20 to be changing color and I am in long. the opposite for short.
If W/M trend is down and I am long will be aware of counter trend trade issues. I would be interested in your feedback based on the screen shot below. Of all my trading I seem to enjoy the GBP and I am thinking of developing a Profile of all the GBP Majors to use as Strong/Weak analysis similar to what dennis does.
Any and all input is appreciated! Tx,
KC
EDIT: Not quite “it”… I am still wrestlign with SL and TP.
This looks good to me. The important thing is you will probably not find you are tempted to be long when you should be short or vice versa.
Two too many indicators for my preference but each to their own, in a good strategy they help: they are only a real handicap if misused or used in the wrong strategy. Like putting gravy on a fruit dish.
GBP has been very negative across all 7 significant GBP pairs for weeks so good results from a strongly downtrending currency are very encouraging. Yes, do develop something like the SWA that Dennis uses: it generates some trades but equally helpful it forces you to justify why you want to be long currency XYZ when all the other XYZ pairs are bearish.
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Dude.
Sorry but I’m unable to tell YOU IN PARTICULAR what you want to hear.
I know you may think I’m joking with you all of the the time but I"m not. YOU have NO excuse for NOT opening a Futures account with TradeStation. I keep telling you this but for some reason you’re hell bent on this retail spot FOREX thing. I really don’t get it. You’ve got enough capital (that’s my deduction anyway) to be able to trade the new E-micro Futures (and I’ve given you enough links on this) and you’re in the very fortunate position that you are in the US and can open a trading account with arguably one of the finest brokerages on the planet and not to mention the finest trading platform on the planet (and unlike me the cost of the platform and data feeds are included if you have a trading account with TradeStation and that’s valued at around $150 US per month). A person can make a good living trading JUST the four E-micro Dow, S&P, NASDAQ, and Russell 2000. Well maybe not a living with them or with semi-limited capital but for sure could make enough to move the the bigger contracts eventually.
Anyway. All personal choice I guess. But c’mon. So far as I can tell (deduction once again) you’re not of one these underfunded $100 wanna-get-rich-quick-in-a-month dudes as you don’t need to even attempt that I don’t think. Learn to trade proper and with the pros. I’m telling you that you will not be sorry. And even if it’s not deemed as trading with the pros. I can tell you that it is MUCH easier to make money this way than trying to make money in this ostensibly random market. Matter of fact: a good friend of mine, just this morning, sent me an article about something else but in the article the author describes the spot FOREX market to an absolute “T” (and actually it was a FOREX related article so not coming from somebody who has issues with retail spot FOREX like me). Will find it now and tack it onto the end of this post.
As for your chart:
For one thing seems like you could probably just use that MA that changes color (black and white) and do away with the rest to be honest i.e. so far as I can tell the end result will be the same give or take. I of course assume that MA repaints so you’d have to wait for a close. And second: just bear in mind that you’re looking at a pair that for some reason has trended in one direction or another on that particular chart. Find something with “chop” and then see how this holds up and I think you’re going to be miserable with the result.
Here. Now admittedly the article is about volume in the FOREX market but if you forget that for a minute the rest of the quote sums up the retail spot FOREX market perfectly.
“Unlike futures trading, one of the challenges of trading spot forex is its opaque and fragmented nature, with no exchange or central entity facilitating a transparent volume representation. Trading activity via banks, financial institutions, hedge funds, asset managers, individual traders around the clock makes it incredibly difficult to track the real-time aggregated volume coming through the books. Because of this wrongly assumed limitation, many traders have led to believe that volume activity is therefore not available.”
For what’s it’s worth I’m going to start a thread today re: volume, Bill Williams’ MFI, and hope for some VSA contributions. Long story but watch out for it.
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That is where I would like to get to but right now I don’t have the money. I’m not a seasoned trader like yourself or TWB and Tommor. and Manxx.
I agree that I am not a $100 acount with million dollar dreams. I take trading seriously and I am always trying to improve. I believe that I have the tenacity, disposition and perserverance to succeed. It may take me longer - I’m more like a mega tanker slow with a huge amount of force and not a cigarette racer - There is no way I could try to trade other folks money and for the the low cost of initial entry for actual money trades forex is my only choice. I’m not in dire straights… yet!!.. but my money I can lose fund has been decimated years ago.
So unfortunately - or maybe not I have to start with forex based minimum openning balance and margin requirments.
So know that I hear you I’m just not there yet financially. 
always appreciating your input and posts,
KC
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Hi KC,
At least you seem to have whittled your number of indicators down to what I would call an absolute maximum. You could probably still carve away some more in time,
I think the key thing here regarding entries is that you have to decide the priorities you are applying to each of the signal generators. I.e. one main indicator provides the signal and then look to the others for confluence. If you only act when all are saying the same thing then it might sometimes get a little confusing what to believe.
But, like with all methods, the key to its prosperity lies more in the exit part of the strategy rather than the entry - and that is an area that gets surprisingly little attention.
The other key area is the policy regarding position sizing and possibly scaling in and out. A consistent, disciplined and gradual expansion of risk and money management will provide the growth if the method is also consistent over time.
I appreciate @dpaterso’s view of forex trading, but I do not share it. ONe can see trends in currency pairs as much as in commodities and indexes. It is just a matter of finding the right gloves to wear…
I cannot comment specifically about ADX or stochastics as I have never used them. But I see no reason why your MA basis should not be productive - if you get an exit strategy to work with it.
I thought the same thing, but of course, any MA structure will “look good” at certain times - and then play hell with whipsawing in a drifty market going nowhere.
My own view is that any collection of indicators will have the same “achilles heel”: They are all based on mathematical formulas and would work fine and consistently if market prices always moved in the same flows, paces and patterns - but that is not the case, as we know!
So any combination of indicators is inevitably designed for a specific “template” of price movement characteristics. When price movements fall into that pattern then all things are fine - but when they don’t, well it is not going to work at all well during that phase. This is why I think there is always a need for personal discretion and experience in deciding when to act and when to stay out.
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I’ve done a lot of back testing… manually… And I’m pretty much in the same boat. However, adx seems to give me some needed insight as to strength of moves or developing strengths of moves.
KC
Hey KC… nice and short, you have too many Indicators that are giving conflicting signals…confusing?
(Edit: Just noticed all these changes of direction… the same 0.00 time NY Close…Wow)
Try just two and work with a cleaner chart where the Indicators confirm each other. (Both FREE)
XLV4 Indicator = Periods 9 | Liner Weighted | Close Price | Alert ON
DiNapoli Stochastic = Periods 8 | SmoothK 3.0 | SmoothD 3.0
Stochastic Green is above the Red, Confirm - XLV4 changes to Green… BUY
Stochastic Red is above the Green, Confirm - XLV4 changes to Red … SELL
In doubt? Stay with the Stochastic signal as an Oscillator is less affected by chart noise…
Nice clean Chart with signals that work together not giving differing signals… on the D1 TimeFrame…
I don’t use MT4 so I hope this is of help…
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Forex traders should never stop learning and adapting!
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Any particular reason you like the xlv4 better than the hull moving average? Just curious.
KC