What free resources are available to learn everything I need? I’ve been exposed to a lot of misinformation my first 2 weeks and I feel a bit overwhelmed. I need to make a trading plan, find a strategy to start with, learn price action, technical and fundamental analysis, and money management plan. I have no financial education and feel lost at every step.
I’ve tried daytrading on a demo account, and found the fast pace not suitable for me. I think I’m more of a swing trader, but haven’t tried.
Good to recognise that a lot of trading information is misinformation.
Sometimes statements are simply unfounded -
“Never do this, never do that”
“This always works”
“After this price always does this”
But the deeper misinformation is more deadly -
“It takes 10 years of full-time trading to be consistently profitable”
“You must develop your own strategy but never tell anyone what it is”
Actually the average trader never becomes profitable but that’s partly because they don’t use a profitable strategy, but once you have a profitable strategy I estimate 3 weeks.
So here’s a profitable strategy which is an old and simple technique -
Example - Uptrend - Daily time-frame -
look for a candle on your trading time-frame whose range (not close) makes a new high
look for this to be followed by 3 successive candles which have successively lower highs and lower lows
after the third lower candle, set a buy order just above its high (as long as the uptrend is still intact) and a stop-loss just below its low
That’s the basics but you can customise with your own tactics like selecting the best trends. A key decision to make is capital risked if the stop-loss is hit: many traders recommend no more than 2% of your account.
After that the real headache is what to do when your position goes into profit - how quickly to bank the gains - or indeed whether you should add to the position.
It’s still going to be a journey but it’s nice when your tradng pays for your ticket.
Yes, range is high to low of the candle. The strategy ignores the open and close prices but obviously you can’t safely set a new entry order before the candle has closed.
As for brokers, I always think selecting a good regulator is more important and easier than selecting a good broker - any large broker regulated by the EU or UK regulators should be fine, I’ve not had direct contact with a Norwegian trader before so I don’t know if regulatory (and taxation) issues could be different there.
Helloooo! I think it’s good that you’re already demo trading while getting to learn more about forex, so you’re putting theory into practice right away. Apart from the school here, when it comes to strategies, I think there are also a lot of interesting systems shared on the forums.
I’m looking at the charts today. I only have the major pairs on my watchlist. None seem to fit the entry criteria. I can’t put links in replies, so will try to explain. Ther’s one green candle reaching a new high. It’s then followed by 2 red candles. The one succeding the green candle opens at the same price and closes at about 50% of the green candles body. The next red candle has a lower high and lower low. Does the first red candle count as meeting the criteria given?
Would you suggest just paying attention to it tomorrow and see if it fills the criteria then enter?
Also, is my watchlist too small in order to find opportunities?
Sure. I am long US/CHF as I have it ranked as Very Bullish.
To assist I have the following observations from my D1 chart -
15/04 - Putative swing high.
16/04 - Inside day - ignore this.
17/04 - First day with lower high and lower low than 15/04.
18/04 - Second day with lower high and lower low than 15/04.
19/04 - Third day with lower high and lower low than 15/04, so this confirmed 15/04 as a swing high and is itself a putative swing low. I set a buy order just above day’s range and stop just below.
My buy order was triggered on 24/04 and I am long. I have a pyramid buy order above my original entry price with equivalent stop-loss.
I’m not looking at open and close price levels for this strategy.
As far as watchlists are concerned, I look over all 28 major pairs every night but the results from that scan are that I would only consider trades in perhaps 5 or 6 of these at the most. I look for various features which confirm trend and comparative currency strengths, I note which pairs have the highest number of these features and those are the ones I’m going to try to get into.
Another feature I look for is higher recent volatility. No point getting into a position which takes 3 weeks to break even.
The final components are making sure I don’t have e.g. too many long USD positions, or multiple AUD plus multiple NZD, and that open positions are not highly correlated (both positively and negatively) - e.g. not much point being long AUD/USD, also short NZD/USD.
I need some clarification. Do the candles have to have lower higs and lower lows in order to meet the criteria? Ie, one candle has lower high, but not lower low.
At first, it can be overwhelming, but there are plenty of free resources to guide you through the process. Start by creating a plan, outlining your goals (have to be realistic), risk tolerance, and time commitment. It is always a great idea utilizing resources like Babypips. For strategy selection and understanding price action you can start by using some demo account and see how you are doing. The most important thing is creating a strict plan and following it no matter what, especially with your stop prices. Create a demo and start trading, best of luck.
Thank you! Yes, it’s overwhelming. I’ve done my best creating a trading plan, but due to me being a beginner and haven’t found my strategy yet, I see that I deviate quite a bit from it. Like trying out new strategies to find something that fits me. I have risk management down and I’m currently using a demo account to get some practice.
But, I’m a person who is highly motivated and spend all my time reading and studying. This leads to a lot of disjointed information and a lot of things that don’t stick. This in turn affects the way I practice on the demo account. Like, There’s no opportunities on the strategy I I’m following and I end up just trying to scalp or something. I do keep a journal and I see it’s helping me out. But the foundation on HOW to learn and get a good ammount of practice is difficult, since this is a new field. And yes, I feel that I don’t have enough time in a day to learn everything and also put it all to practice.
I think that what you’ve described in your post just above are probably very common feelings and experiences among “very intelligent beginners”; you’ve just worded them much more articulately than most people do.
I don’t think there are really any “fast panacea” answers to most of the good, relevant, appropriate questions you’ve recently been asking here.
Choosing one strategy and sticking to it exclusively may help you out, though. (In the long run, you’ll want more than one - I just mean “for now”.) And stop trying to “scalp”!!
Yes, the ideal pattern for a long entry is any candle in an uptrend which is followed first by a candle with a lower high and lower low, then a second candle with lower high and lower low than that one, then a third candle with a lower high and lower low than the second candle.
Sometimes you can get a candle thrown into the mix which has a lower high but higher low than the one preceding - an inside candle or inside bar - these can be ignored. An outside bar would have both a higher high and a lower low and these serve only to muddy the waters - might best to avoid this pair until the situation is clearer.
I think it’s good that you’re already demo trading while getting to learn more about forex, so you’re putting theory into practice right away. 
Apart from the school here, when it comes to strategies, I think there are also a lot of interesting systems shared on the forums. 