Its ridiculous, I get all my technical indicators set up and I notice the trend and I say ok im gunna enter in here and set my stop loss and my limit orders right off the bat. I enter the trade and it automatically (literally automatically) flys in the automatic direction taking out my stoploss. This has been like the 4th time its happened to me. Can I really be this stupid? I’ve read everything on babypips.com I’ve been to a few seminars. Think if i took the opposite side (i.e. shorted instead of going long or went long instead of going short) on all of those trades hahahaha
Hang in there. Read Pipcrawler’s sticky.
Where would I find that? I just lost another 30 pips fyi hahaha
Im learning to laugh about it
I know how you feel. its like that for me as well. I see that the trend is going up, so I enter long. but within a few pip, it went short. happen to me all the time and not just once or twice. and sometime, it turn out I’ have enter at either the highest or the lowest point.
The very first thread of Newbie Island. Go to his first post.
“Pipcrawler’s Thoughts on Setting Newbie Expectations”
i’m going to ask a silly question but are you using a stoch? I used to fall prey to this all the time until i discovered this indicator. check your s&r lines.
when set up right and combined with a good custom ao (awesome ossilator) it can really help determin correct entry to short term trends 
hope this helped.
Man, I know how you feel.
Don’t worry, I am programming the super duper software that will end all these. Now, since 95% of forex trader lose money, what we need is everyone to use the software and trade, everytime you place a trade, your order will be place together with the other 95% of traders and will NOT be executed.
However, the software will execute a reverse of your order, for example if you short, the sofware will long.
Now…lets see the logic…
But wait, if the software works 100%, then 95% of the people will make money, then who will be the one losing the money?
Hmmm…
Back to the drawing block
Questions: Are you demo trading? I hope so. How long have you been trading? How long have you been using your current indicators? Have you taken the time to see how your indicators work during the times you are trading? are you trading during key news events? Sorry if this sounds like a broken record, but have you been doing your homework? Do you know what types of patterns you are looking for that indicate trends, ranges, reversals, pullbacks and drawdowns??? Do you use Fibonacci Retracement lines? or support and resistance??
Sorry if I seem overbearing, but these are all factors you should be able to find in under about 15 or 20 minutes, at worst before ever even getting into a live trade, IMO.
sorry I didn’t bother to read beyond the first post, but, I like to stay on topic.
Good pippin,
Chubs
Don’t worry about it too much. Forex trading is not easy, if it were everyone would be rich. Instead you have now found the reason for the 95% drop out rate. There could be a lot of reasons you are not getting the pips you expect, just hang in there, continue to test and tweak your system and you will get it figured out.
What I was taught and have observed often, is that I may enter on a great signal on a One hour chart, only to discover the One minute through the 15 minute were heading in the wrong direction, even though they were still well within the trend.
When placing a trade, you should note the lower timeframes and what theyre doing, and not enter while they may be dropping if you wish to go long.
Extending your stop loss may be one problem, not reading your few simple indicators may be another, but the true bottom line is you’re simply entering on a short term down move, since that’s what always happens.
Later on, as you develop your skills, you shall be aware of support and resistance areas, anticipated retrenches and the whole slew of normal and everyday events that happen in the market.
Took me a year or so to begin to understand how it all ties together, and now i have a decent idea !
suzie
Hmmmm.
Why does forex hate me?
Because it does!!
You and you alone it has singled out for persecution and for destruction. 
Everyone else is fine, but you are ugly and it hates just you. :eek: :eek:
OK, as you can see, I have been here a long time.
I am a veteran trader.
I have been where you are now.
Because of this I am not going to give more theory but instead two [U]real [/U] solutions that actually work.
So far you have been given lots of theory but it will not help you.
These solutions are radical, so bear with me.
I may need more than 1 post to complete my explanation.
[U][B]Solution 1[/B][/U]
[B]Forex trading is simply transfer of funds from the amateur to the professional.[/B]
You are in the amateur braket and you are losing money.
The professionals are always one step ahead of you.
As you enter your trade, they finish theirs.
They then reverse the price, catch you out and very kindly take your money.
(Very generous of you!!).
Thats why you see happening what you describe!!
You need to be a professional, not an amateur.
How??
The problem is your reliance on indicators.
Much is made of indicators on this forum but the truth is that professionals put little trust in them and use price action/candlesticks instead.
All the veteran/professional traders on this forum use price action/candlesticks only.
Why??? 
Because then you are trading immediate price.
Indicators are delayed data.
There is a lot more to it but I will keep it simple at this stage.
Professionals love to see amateurs discuss indicators.
They need lots of amateurs using indicators.
They need lots of losers.
They need these amateurs losing so that they have a large funds pool from which to draw their profits.
[B]Are you starting to see the picture?[/B]
[B]Next post.[/B]
[U][B]Solution 1 continued.[/B][/U]
As a retired school teacher I like to hammer out principles over and over again until the penny drops.
As I said, the amateur enters a trade when the professional has just finished.
The professional has no interest in losing his money and will fight you tooth and nail for your money.
The professional is always astep ahead of you.
He does this by using immediate price action or candlesticks combined with immediate drawing lines such as support/resistance and trend lines.
Let me now give you a real example to hammer my message home!!
I have posted this before. >>>
[B]Look at the below chart which displays a MACD and an evening star on the upper Bolinger band. (highlighted in blue).
Point A is where you would enter using the standard MACD.
Point B is where you would enter using the evening star candlestick formation.[/B]
By tymen1 at 2008-03-05
[B]The difference is dramatic - a 30 pip difference.[/B]
[B] If you were scalping as I do then this indeed makes all the difference. With the MACD you are efectively missing out on one complete candle - and on some trades this might be the only candle that goes down - it could go up from here on.
In other words, the trade could well be all over by the time the MACD says to enter.
With candlestick trading you can be in and out of this trade even before the MACD devotee gets started.
The professionals could well send the price action back up after point A and hence take all the money off the amateurs.
Time delay in indicators is a fact.[/B]
This simple example highlights what I am trying to say.
Many posters on this forum absolutely hate me for what I am saying but the truth is that most of them are long gone.
The poster turnover here is massive.
I am still here.
So…
For you to be properly successful, you need to forget indicators as your crutch.
Master traders, Rhodytrader, Tess, Tonymand, Jocelyn, JimmyMac and certain others do not use them.
[U]Go and learn price action and or candlesticks instead.[/U]
Then you will be a professional.
[B]Hello!![/B]
[B]Am I getting tho??[/B]
I suppose this argument should continue forever and while what you are saying is so very true, it does not apply to the longer term trades that the floor and desk traders “rarely” make, as they are busy chasing the price up and down the ladder, and those trades are the majority done by we new traders, don’t you agree ?
I would think if one is “scalping” the one minute chart then what you say is very true “for desk traders”, but has little application for those of us who “follow” their activities.
I have just been going over a chart of the pound/yen with another trader in Scotland, and he pointed out to me a reversal on the one hour chart, where the tail of the candle hit support and then did a marvey reverse, and there was no reversal candle except an “almost” doji, 3 candles further up the move.
All of his indicators indicated the move, divergence showed it to be coming, and it did smashingly.
I truly believe there is a major communications problem between the “price action” people and the “indicator” people, and each works for those who have perfected their techniques, but I am very happy with the increasing number of equity in my deceased husbands account.
I shall study what you teach, but I must say in advance that I am doing well with indicators that tell me “what to expect” in a few minutes, instead of just running around following the price.
Oh, I use pivots and support and resistence, trend lines and the bollinger bands and the normal small amount of indicators.
But i look forward to studying your methods also, so thank you for being here.
Suzie
[U][B]Solution 1 final[/B][/U]
In conclusion…
Go and learn price action and/or candlestick trading.
Use indicators to [U]confirm[/U] your trade [B]not [/B][U]determine[/U] your trade.
[U][B]Solution 2[/B][/U]
[U]You need to have an edge.[/U]
By that I do not mean the edge of a table.
What is an edge?
Have you ever been to a casino?
[U]Definition of Betting[/U]
Betting is the transfer of funds from the player to the casino.
No casino would stay in business if they did not have a mathematical advantage ever the player.
Thats why casinos get rich and the players get poor.
The mathematical advantage is called an “edge”.
There is one player who can beat the casino.
The casinos hate him.
If he wins the casinos lose.
If the casino spots him, he gets thrown out of the building.
The casinos cannot win against him - he has an edge [U]against [/U]the casino.
This player plays the roulette wheel.
But unlike all the other losers, he is highly trained to watch the wheel spin and track the motion of the ball.
He has a well studied and practised method which uses physics to determine wheel speed and ball speed and hence determine ball fall off point and winning number.
He places his bet as late as possible.
He wins.
The other players lose.
[B]He has an edge over the roulette wheel.[/B]
He takes money from the casino.
He has a good “act” because if the casino spots what he is doing, they will evict him out of the casino.
next post.
[B][U]You need to have an edge in forex.[/U][/B]
The way to get this edge is to use a multiple contract strategy.
Have a read of the following hyperlink >>>
http://forums.babypips.com/analyst-arena/12562-using-multiple-lot-positions-improve-trading-fx.html
Like the casino roulette visual tracker (By the way, I am actually one of those - that is why I know about it)…it is essential for the successful trader to have an edge over his competitors.
A multiple lot strategy is therefore [B]mandatory [/B]to maintain this edge.
[U]In conclusion to Solution 2[/U]
Go and practise using a multiple lot strategy on your demo until you can do it correctly.
END OF POST.
Unfortunately I cannot take the post by Pipmistress with any credibility.
It is simply mp6140 back yet again on this forum after being banned.
When will this man ever become a law abiding citizen and obey the law of the land?
No integrity whatsoever.
No flaming from me, I will show restraint.
I will immediately alert [B]Pipcrawler [/B]and [B]Pipdiddy[/B].
Please Mr. Tyman I am a simple trader, trained by my deceased husband and why are you attacking me ?
I felt this to be a good thread to hone skills that have developed over a year or so, and everyone here is fighting and going off in tangents.
You presented a situation using the macd which no one uses for scalping and you did so with the values used for the daily charts by its creator and you compared that to a candle reversal.
While I agree your candle reversal certainly shows a good trade setup, I would believe that using the macd to be similar to entering a model T ford in a Nascar race . . . . . . .there is simply no comparison.
I am simply mentioning this because the macd, in the configuration you’ve shown, is for “investors” using the daily charts and most definitely not for “scalpers” working on any of the many time frame charts we have.
Thats all I am saying
suzie
Well, if you are trend trading you just don’t automatically jump in when a technical indicator (s) says to. Indicators are better used as filters not entry signals. Because they are all lag behind the price.
The best things you can watch IMO are candles (price), support & resistance & fibs.
Watching an idicator and thinking that you should trade when this line crosses that line or some tunnel shrinks will have you losing very quickly, as it will never behave quite the same.
If you are trend trading pick one longer time frame to determine the overall trend and one to pinpoint your entry/SL/TP. For instance daily/hourly or 4Hr/15M.
So, lets say you’ve determined your pair is in an uptrend. The next thing you do is determine major support and resistance. Draw them and use fibs. You don’t just jump in as it’s going up. You wait for the trend to retrace to support/resistance & fibs. (that is wait for price to go up past support & retrace to support and then go up again. So, on entry, in an uptrend you would have got in just after the retrace as the trend resumes. The stop would be placed in such a way that if the trend didn’t resume and just kept retracing the trade would never enter)
The Stop loss should be placed somewhere above major support/resistance, that price has had a problem penetrating before. (Remember support & resistance & fibs are soft targets, just because price seemed to hit exactly their before doesn’t mean it won’t be just short or just over next time)
The exits are up to you. But, the with the first one it’s a good idea to at least take what you initially risked. Risked 30 pips, take 30 right away. I like to enter one trade and just keep resetting the stop loss postive at key TP points, or even break even to eliminate risk from the trade. Other extis would be at other support and resistance/fib levels. To make it safe put them 10% short of them.
P.S. Trending is the easiest thing to trade, but you must make sure you are not forcing trending techniques on the wrong type of market condition otherwise you will fail. You need to learn to trade: Trending & Ranging & consolodation. Those are the three major types of movements. If you try trending techninques on a ranging market you might get lucky, but you’ll probably end up frustrated.
Trending = Obvious to spot. Price is in a clear direction, not just for a few bars, but for quite a few and strong.
Ranging = price ping pongs between support and resistance levels.
Consolodation = price starts forming an arrow down to a small point. Price ranges but the range grows progressively smaller. At the end of the point there may be a breakout or not.
Again pick a longer time frame to determine the market type and a shorter one for entry/exit/sl/tp. Once you’ve determined the overall trend (if their is a trend) it’s a good idea to only take trades in that direction. This way you aren’t fighting the market, but concentraing on trying to sync up with it.
Sure experienced traders are quick and mentally nimble and can trade the retraces too, but when starting out that can be mentally taxing and unfocus your view.
Thank you so much Phoenix, for returning to sanity.
Since I was taught to trade with the trend, it did not take long, with my husbands assistance, to learn that even if the trend is up there are many time frames below the one you are trading that are still within the trend, but moving in an opposite direction.
Leaving out stop losses and anything else for a moment, if the trend is one way, and you enter in that direction, no matter the retraces of the currency during shorter time periods, you will end up in profit.
Unless we enter into a nuclear war at that specific moment.
Each timeframe has its own movement and each timeframe “passes off” to the next as resistance is met. A normal “trade” on the higher timeframes must go through all of the timeframes before it becomes its time, and that is why you note a drop when you enter, even if you have entered in the correct direction.
With some time behind you, try finding your entry point by moving down as low on the timeframes as you wish, with the ideal point being an entry when the indicators on all the timeframes agree. That should provide you with an almost immediate move up, especially as trading volitility picks up drastically at that point as all other traders see the same signals.
I imagine that is what is meant by a “trade signal” and if you’re using the metatrader 4 platform, there are even custom indicators that will alert you, with any sound you choose, when that point is hit, although entering early with a wide enough stop loss will do the same, just that you will go through some temporary retraces on the lower timeframes.
Its what was taught to me and I find it works like a charm constantly.
suzie
Don’t despair mate…and don’t give up either (if trading is what you really want to do).
Now I am not a “veteran”, nor am I going to try and coax you into feeling the power of my candle :eek:. But I have been in your shoes and I offer the following advice from one who has (just a few) battle scars.
The first thing I want to say is (as chubs had already mentioned)…if you are trading real $$…STOP RIGHT NOW.
Have a break…go play for a while…forget trading.
When your head is clean and you are fresh again…start “paper trading” a strategy (any one you like really) [B]ON DEMO ONLY[/B].
Be consistent with your strategy, don’t trade just because you ‘think’ it’s a good trade to take…trade because your system tells you it’s a good trade.
Do this for at least a month (at the very least do it through both ranging AND trending markets).
Examine the results.
If it was profitable - DEMO it for a longer length of time ( I would say about 6-12 months).
If it sucked - repeat the process for a different strategy.
After going through and testing out a few strategies, you will begin to SEE certain patterns or rythyms and start to get ideas for your very own personalized strategy.
Moving on…
Aside form the strategy part, there is some other stuff that is vitally important (possibly even more important than your strat)…
MONEY MANAGEMENT.
Yeah, I know it sounds boring - but if you really want to succeed you MUST LEARN THIS. I am not going to go into details about it 'cause there are already a million and one sites/threads/books etc. that have a lot on this subject, but you must learn about it!
PSYCHOLOGY
I am not talking about the current market sentiment or whether the bulls are soiling themselves and the Bears are prancing around singing the Song of Joy…
I am talking about YOUR ATTITUDE.
If you are getting freaked out when a trade goes down 5 pips after your entry, you need to stop and think about whether you should really be doing the FX samba or just buying some blue chip stocks or property and laying on the couch watching old Star Trek episodes for a year or so.
You need to be void of emotion when you trade. No hoping. No praying. Just a stone-cold hard-arsed strategy machine. GRRRRRR
OK, enough jabber from me…let that sink in for a while.
Nay-sayers let the nay saying commence. 