Trading in the first place is not about charts and indicators, but about some very practical, real life criterias.
The most important things are:
Excellent win/lose ratio
Excellent reward/risk ratio
Preferably no or less indicators. It just feels better if a trading system uses none or less indicators. Since they not show price action, they lag behind anyways, right?
I am open to various timeframes, pairs and times of day to trade.
A/
I can envision one method with a low time frame, where I sit in front of the computer on given times a day. “Day trade.”
B/
I can envision one method with a bigger time frame with big swings, preferably big, profitable swings, and compared to the big swings in profit, relatively tighter stops. “Swing trade.” This kind of trade may last for days and so does not require fixed trading times. I can adjust my time to it.
my recommendation is try lots of systems, there is no particular system that is gonna answer your financial prayers, there is no quick fix. The answer is a lot of time, frustration and perserverence. Even if a person has a very profitable and consistent system, its usually down to their attitude towards trading that makes them profitable, not their ‘magic’ system. Hope this helps. There is a forum dedicated to systems here on babypips, id start by looking in there.
I agree with naughtypip, try out a few systems that work with different time frames and see how you do with them. You may just find that you don’t have the time to watch charts for day trades; then maybe the swing trade where you check the charts only once every day is the way to go.
Swing trading is great if you employ techniques regarding price action and candlestick analysis. If you do it right, it can be a less-effort way to trade profitably.
I personally found I couldn’t stand having to think about a trade for a day and then checking the next day whether it was in profit or in the minus. I opted for the day trading as I felt comfortable managing my trade as it happened and closing it out when I was done trading.
I am the same way. If you have the time to dedicate to day trading, it can be a good way to lower risk. It only lowers risk, to me anyway, because you are there staring at the chart with your finger on the clicker. This way if it gets weird then you can just get out. This is also my lack of confidence in my analytical ability and the market itself. I am still in the stage where I find it difficult to leave a trade to the mercies of the market.
As for minimal indicators and price action stuff. I personally use pivot points and 3SMA (30/50/100) indicators and keep up with the news/events. I also appreciate simplicity in my trading, too much info and my brain gets overwhelmed and I stop having fun:confused:
As far as a whole system goes that should be your own work of love made by your own hands. Using lessons from here and other places create a system that you a intimately familiar with. Demo trade until you can consistently make your goals by using the rules of your system. I am not saying that you are lazy (yet;)) but there are a lot of people out there that want to be spoon fed a system that will makes lots of money with minimal effort, that doesn’t exist (refer to naughtypip’s post for some good reasons why).
Sometimes I talk to much and off subject so I will stop myself here:)
With all that being said, if you have any questions, please ask here and your fellow newbies will be here for you.
I have to disagree with you, Romad. Day trading might be lower risk for you personally, but for most people is has a MUCH higher level of risk!
When you are doing intraday, short timeframe trading you have to make quick, high pressure decisions that most new traders aren’t prepared for. I suggest new traders start trading on a 4H chart or higher. You have more time to think about what you are doing, and less chance of your emotions getting the best of you.
Personality does have a lot to do with a person’s trading style. It can be a little crazier on those timeframes but once I got used to it, I found that it works for me. It doesn’t really have anything to do with risk levels in a truly technical way but more to do with a person’s style and personality. The “risk” increases when someone trades a lower timeframe looking to make a quick buck but does not have the right mentality to handle it and makes rash, erroneous decisions. Those are the same people who will overtrade to get out of a hole but only dig deeper.
I started on the 5 min TF but found my happy place in the 15 min. I [B]do not[/B] make any recommendations on TFs for any individual as we are all different. The reason that I went from 5 to 15 was because I was feeling overwhelmed and it was too erratic. In my opinion, new traders should demo trade different TFs to find where they are most comfortable.
From my experience a system where you are not in front of a screen all day is best. Sometimes you can over analysis things.If your working full time and trading is part time a system where you spend about 15-30 minutes a day placing the trades is best in my opinion.
I have been using a system from makemoneycurrencytrading dot co dot uk for last 2 months. Their system requires 15 minutes in the evening to place to trades indicated by their software. Some days there will be noting indicated that meets the strategy. They run a live sample portfolio so you can see how their trades perform for free before you sign up They also offer a free trial of their indictors. Their current live portfolio which they email out every day with free reports is up at around 800 pips since I started 2 months ago.
There are a few other decent companies out there but this is probably one of the best if you are looking to test run a new trading system with no cost.
Some people like to trade constantly during the day but for me it doesn’t work as I work full time and have a family so I just place the trades before I go to bed and forget about it till the next day. Its important to have faith in the system and take the emotion out of it when taking the approach of trading once a day