I dont use a lot of indicators , just a couple as a guide , more a case of reading a top down approach of the market
Thanks for responding, so basically u use pure price action and which indicators as a guide
Manxx,
I originally started out when I received my MBA (many years ago) as a stock trader. I am still involved with stocks but on a buy and hold basis. A few years back I ventured to open a live account with FXCM. It was a disaster because I didnāt know what I was doing. Now that I completed the BabyPips course and am supplementing it with Forex references, I feel confident that it will be a successful experience this time. Currently I have a demo account with Oanda and am satisfied with everything about it. I will be trading this account for a while, since I donāt want to risk real money until I am totally ready to do that and have the proper capitalization as well. I do trading on a swing basis and sometimes hold positions for several days. My current trade had me down over 5000 pips at one point, so even though I broke all the rules, this is my first loss since I started with Oanda. If you are trading enough and watching what is going on you get a feel for how to handle the situation. I looked at different time frames and swing highs and lows, and eliminated the loss. I currently am using Bollinger Bands and several custom indicators I found in my research. I know there is no guarantee in trading, but I feel confident that if I use common sense and donāt get frustrated or emotional my trading will improve. Forex is much more demanding and exciting than trading stocks. So this is why I am here and appreciate all the comments everyone is contributing!
I use just basic stuff RSI and bolli band but mainly I read the chart based on the make up of candles , find my channel The Scruffy Trader and I show live trades most days and how and why I took the trade
this is a good one, how i wish i had a mentor like you. i was trading to get rich, which i regretted after blowing my account for 6months, Realizing on the 7 month. i will be grateful if am guided and train.
How many pips do you wish on a trade, been a daily trader i don;t set up for much pips.
depends on the trade but ave 20 to 30 is a good trade
swinging on a trade, how much USD catching your pips
Not sure I understand the question. Do you mean how much per pip I trade if so up to around Ā£30 a pip but depends on the trade
Hi There, I am a newbie and would appreciate some kind of guide. I am a real Estate practitioner at the moment and I am tired of going for months sometime without an income. I am hoping to make trading a life long career if I can learn how to. I am trying to read up on the Forex market in general and I am feeling very overwhelmed. Any tips on how to kick start this?
Just keep it simple. To many try to over complicate the trade and the result is failure. King is money management
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That is a big distance! @Piprookie! 
Do you mean pips or pipettes? (.e. usually the 5th decimal place in quotes given with 5 decimal digits)
What were you trading?
I find this interesting because stop distances are a very important issue and are usually related to the time frame in question - which also relates to the style of trading - which also relates to the reason why someone is trading= this topic! 
There is an absolute abundance of material on the net and the problem is sifting it to find what is relevant as well as reliable. There is no single source (although the BP course is a good overall basic course).
You might like to look in on some of @Lang15ās Youtubes. He is a very straight guy speaking some very straight truths about trading and giving some examples as well - and all on the street level, not from a Bermuda island paradise. One may not always want to trade the same way and with the same methods, but the principles are all very sound in my opinion.
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The topic here is really about why we are trading and not so much about how. But these are, of course, interrelated - and that was my aim here.
One could generalise an expectation that someone trading as a sideline alongside a main job would tend towards longer term swing or investment style trading, whereas a trader who is full-time reliant just on trading earnings would inevitably need to trade shorter term to provide income that can be banked quickly in order to match the normal monthly outgoings.
But many people claim (and I agree to a large extent) that day trading is harder than swing trading. But all trading is demanding and needs to be treated with professional respect.
If one is looking to be a full-time trader then my overall opinion would be: donāt do it. But if you are interested in that then @Lang15 is a good example of someone who is a full-time trader and does trade intraday (as well as swing).
I also tend to trade intraday and my philosophy has always been: āit is easier to earn 10 pips with 10 lots than 100 pips with one lotā. Trading bigger positions makes you doubly careful where you enter and exit. It also means you can spend an awful lot of time trying NOT to trade! It is very, very difficult to keep patient and disciplined, waiting for the set-up.
But, on the other side, when you are out of the market you are fully relaxed and enjoying life - and I do need that. It is also easy to monitor a short term trade and avoid any disasters, so you are guaranteed always to be trading tomorrow.
Who here is actually training with the ambition of becoming full-time dependent on trading earnings?
I am a little late to this thread. But the why we doing anything in life affects how successful we are at it.
Because trading can be so frustrating you really do need a strong enough why to overcome the how.
Mine why was strong - probably more than most - which is why I was able to stand being kicked in the teeth for quite so long.
If your why is not strong enough, and only to get rich that is possibly not strong enough.
Money isnāt actually a great motivator - crazy as it sounds, you have to know what having that money is going to mean to you.
I digress, the reasons I trade:
I am not good at practical skills like making things with my hands
I am not blessed with a sharp intelligence for more senior management type jobs
I am not particularly well educated save what I have taught myself
I am a highly inquisitive person - and derive pleasure from trying to make meaning out of things
I like reading current affairs, economics and politics
I was trying to escape a pretty mundane lifestyle
I have always loved strategy games
As a kid I made up my own fantasy football league well before it was ever invented
Being half Chinese I have a little bit of a natural gambling streak
I want to be location independent
I want to be able to make money when I sleep
I donāt want employees, or have to go looking for clients
I have naturally been a risk taker
I want to be in complete charge of my own destiny
I think that pretty much covers it.
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Thanks @Johnscott31 for such a comprehensive reply (as usual! )
I am interested to hear your opinion of full-time trading as a sole source of income. Would you want to or not, if not, why not. But mainly - how would it affect your style of trading?
What I am getting at here (I think!) is how much is our trading defined by our circumstances and needs. For example, one may feel more comfortable with longer term trades, but if one is too dependent on the outcome to pay the immediate bills, what happens when a trade suddenly goes wrong after a few days and youāre left with a big hole in your budget? The next longer term trade is a) more desperately needed (increased pressure = risk of a bad trade) b) greater pressure to take profits sooner to bank some money.
Unless one has a substantial buffer to cover the cold patches, how can a full-time trader avoid becoming a daytrader?
I do not class myself as a full time trader - first I have another source of income and second I donāt spend all day at it
But there is an important point here - i got much better as a trader when I started pursuing other non trading goals including other income sources.
I no longer felt pressured to trade.
For the most part I always had another job, but I wanted out - I was trying to escape it and the route was trading - it didnāt work out
Only after I decided to skill up in new areas of interest did trading improve - I was no longer addicted to trading.
I would never recommend full time trading there are so many other interesting things to do. I love trading with a passion but Iām not nearly as one dimensional now
This is precisely where I was hoping we would get to!!!
Please donāt, good people, get me wrong. I am not trying to dissuade people from trading full-time. I am only hoping to bring out the exceptional challenges and differences that solely trading for oneās living present. Aspects that many aspiring full-time traders may not have considered.
Better to be forewarned and forearmed and aware of what is ahead than to find out after the crash and maybe even to find it is too late to start something else.
I will write more about my own thoughts on this later, but in the meantime, I would really like to also hear from some Newbies who are inexperienced but aiming to become full-time traders and how they see themselves trading as such when they get there.
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I donāt think there is any need to be full time - I think that idea is an ego thing more than anything else.
Sure you can make millions - but you donāt have to be at it all day.
I have read in depth about Jesse Livermore - and he was a full time trader - but he needed to study the tape and general conditions. In his day it really was a full time job
But with charting - all the different advanced orders out there - does any one really need to do it full time.
Many assume that the more trades the more money you make - but it donāt work out like that - as the more experienced will testify.
I really think trading is the best business in the world - and one of those reasons all the free time that comes with it to pursue other fields.
Manxx,
In response to your question about what were you treading. I know all the educational points emphasized in the course were ignored. I was trading all four major currencies. I was thinking emotionally not logically. The currencies took a dive since I was holding them for several days. In order to not have my account have a margin call, I took revenge trades. I know that this is not what trading is all about, but after looking at the charts on a daily and weekly basis, I found out that the trend was reversed many times. In order to save my account, I took the opposite trend and it worked out. I was just lucky, because if this was real money I would be in bad shape! I really want to succeed at trading, but the past few days was not the way to go. That is why I stated in my prior posts that I am going to take my time, learn from my mistakes, and avoid trading with real money until my foolish trades are eliminated. If there is anything else you need about this, let me know! Thanks!