Where to begin?

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.

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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.

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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.

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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”!! :wink:

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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.

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I understand, you’re doing great. Which broker are you using for the demo?

I’m using skilling.

for the basics of forex, I suggest you go for reliable sources. For example, if you are looking for a book, buy the one with the most popularity, if you are looking for a youtube channel, choose the one that belongs to a firm or a valid figure, like a forex company. Look in sources where you have consider the lowest chance for wrong information.

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Lol, that’s the end of Youtube as a learning source, then. :sweat_smile:

I demo traded for a couple months, hopping between different systems because nothing was working consistently. Then I came across this topic.

Scalping strategy to finish the year strong

I traded the original System in there for probably a full year. Wasn’t profitable but I learned a lot about timing, when to trade, when not to trade, how news affects price, I started watching the econ calendar here, chatted a lot with the OP of the topic and other traders. Tried to make some changes to the system to suit my needs. Then last year in Mar I think I went live with a like $250 I think.

The best thing for me was looking at charts everyday, even for just a couple minutes most days. But just doing that consistently was a big help. Then you start becoming familiar with how price moves a little.

So get a system to trade. To me it doesn’t really matter if you’re trades turn out as winners. That’s a cherry on top for me. It’s more getting used to it all. Especially on demo.

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Did you read the School at all? It’s a good intro to the basics.

Thanks for replying. It’s much appreciated🙂 I’ve started the school, but have just got the part about margins. I haven’t seen the whole program yet, so I’ve probably asked questions that gets covered in the school😅

There are too many free resources available.
Go to YouTube and follow only one person who is best for you. Stick with the YouTuber and follow every tutorial of her/him.
If you are stuck with a problem, go to a forum like this one and ask for help. There will be many people willing to help you.

Thank you for replying :slightly_smiling_face: Problem with YouTube is that there’s so many people in it to profit from us, and as a beginner I find it difficult to trust the content given. I’m currently following Tom Hougard and Al Brooks. Those I trust. But in order to get benefit from their videos, there’s a gap in my current knowledge and experience. They make amazing content, but I’m not where I can fully benefit. If you have suggestions, I’ll gladly check them out. :pray:

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Hello good morning hope you good ive just read your question and read through everything and advise given you by evryone the question you’re asking is too broad and cant just be answered like that most especially since as your a newbie id advsie you seek mentorship qnd guardiance you can’t do it on your own. I have a personal strategy call IDF. Its simple to understand i can help you throughout this journey.

I disagree that you can’t learn to trade on your own. It’s important to get guidance, but it’s okay for beginners to learn on their own too. Everyone has their way of understanding things.

You need to start with a demo account. There are a huge number of trading strategies available in the public domain. Choose the strategies you like and test them on a demo account. This is how I created my trading strategy, when I created my own from several strategies, taking the most effective moments from them.

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Al Brooks is a tough read. Tried one his 3 books in the price action series. It’s slow. Really detailed for just getting started. Maybe a bit much for a beginner. Is the Tom Hougard stuff YT or website? Sounds familiar.

TraderTom. Ok, yea Im familiar. You try out the group setting?