The Dance

"The purpose of this thread is to share my journey in Forex Trading and to teach the strategy I have developed with the help of a very good friend and from the input of reading most of the FF threads, many, many books on various strategies, mental discipline, psychology and such. I have taken great pains to create a pretty thorough manual and document as many nuances of the strategy as I can and boil it down to something simple enough to see at a glance and master without years of experience.

All the indicators used, templates and even a profile for the setup of the charts are in the “Templates and Tools” Zip file below, along with lots of images and examples in the manual and the other Zip files. There is even a strategy for practicing this on a Simulator (www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=70742) found here on FF (included in the Tools Zip below). So don't complain there isn't enough.

I have also included a document titled "Learning To Dance - My Journey," which is about how I got "here" and the process of creating my own strategy. Keep in mind I am not doing much new here, just approaching it a bit differently is all and hopefully in a simpler way.

I don't care about other strategies, there are many good ones, keep them on their own threads and don't pollute this one with any of them. This is about the strategy now called “The Dance” and ONLY about sharing, mastering and improving “The Dance.” It is not about anything else.

I am not a “master,” a “guru,” a fabulous trader or anything like it. I just happen to have developed something that works for me and I believe is simple enough to learn quickly and to “see at a glance” so it can become “second nature” to a trader. It works on pretty much any currency and for as far back as I can get data to review it.

I don't care about petty disputes over how others say it “must” be done, or arguments over time frames, other indicators, arguments between those who post. It's counter productive and useless and it cheats those who would like to learn. For that reason, the “rules” of this thread are as follows.

RULES OF THIS THREAD.

1. GROW UP! This is supposed to be a safe place for people to grow and learn. Learn to behave like adults, do some work on your own and read THE FREAKING MANUAL first! THEN follow the rules of the thread, THEN ask questions.
2. Stick to THIS strategy or you're history and go on the ignore list so you can't post anymore and waste other people's time.
3. BE NICE! If you start trashing someone else, or the strategy you're history and go on the ignore list so you can't post anymore and waste other people's time.
4. NO VULGARITY, it's senseless, adds nothing and only weak minds need it to express themselves forcibly. Use it and you're history and go on the ignore list so you can't post anymore and waste other people's time.
5. NO ARGUMENTS period. Disagreements and civil discussion is wonderful, get pissy and you're history and go on the ignore list so you can't post anymore and waste other people's time.
6. ALL POSTS MUST INCLUDE IMAGES OF BOTH the point of entry WHEN IT WAS TAKEN, not several bars later AND the exit WHEN IT WAS TAKEN. This is about “seeing it live,” not trading from history. Practice the screen capture process before posting to make sure you know how to do it. If you violate this too many times, you'll end up on the ignore list. In the next “Rule” I give you links to some good Screen Capture software and even include a free one in the Zip file below with the Tools in it.
7. ALL images must be in either .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png format AND be sized so they don't mess with the page width making it hard for others to read and use the thread. There are several really good free ones on the 'Net such as FastStone Capture (www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm) (free version included in the tools Zip file and the one I use), SnapaShot (nicekit.com/screen-capture/best-free-snapshot.htm), HyperSnap (www.hyperionics.com/), and many others, just search (www.google.com/search?q=free+screen+capture+softwa re&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1). Then learn to post the images on FF. If you need help, use this post #344 (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3588974&postcount=34 4). NO EXCUSES! Practice using one before you post. You get one or two chances before you go on the ignore list so you can't post anymore and waste other people's time.
8. READ THE MANUAL, do some work on your own. It's all been laid out for you, even how to practice the strategy. If you ask too many questions already answered, you might just end up on the ignore list.
9. NO talk of ANY EA, except possibly one to trail the Sop Loss "BY THE RULES" and NO others or you go on the ignore list.
10. NO OSCILLATORS OF ANY KIND! They lie way to often waste valuable screen space and for the most part are useless adding only complexity, distraction and nothing of real value. I have used and tried several hundred of the almost 2000 I have downloaded. Most are pretty useless.
11. NO FIBS, NO TREND LINES, NO PITCHFORKS, NO GARTLEYS, WOLF WAVES, GANN lines or any other such stuff that would only confuse those trying to learn this strategy. No talk of long term support and resistance levels (we only use them from the past few days as explained in the manual), no talk of “traditional” chart patterns such as Head and Shoulders, triangles, pennants, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Yes they work but they would only confuse those trying to learn this strategy. You risk going on the ignore list and not being able to post if you do much of it.
12. PSYCHOLOGY! Don't waste anyone's time arguing about it. THIS strategy takes the point of view that FEAR IS THE ONLY enemy, that even greed can be a good thing if you learn to manage it properly. Learning to be persistent, believing in yourself and the skills you work to develop is CORE to this strategy. There are a good many books on this issue. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (included in the Tools Zip file), The Greatest Salesman In The World (www.amazon.com/Greatest-Salesman-World-Og-Mandino/dp/055327757X)by Og Mandino is awesome and only costs about $7.00 at Amazon. This one book started my life down a very, very good road. I firmly believe that “if you can hold it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand!” Benjamin Franklin once said, “If a man will empty his purse into his mind, his purse will never be empty.” The only ones who are ever defeated are the ones who give up. If you don't believe it first, you'll never have it. Patience and Discipline are next in line. Read the manual for it. 'Nuff said about Psychology.
13. This is a 15 minute strategy that can also be used on several other time frames. Try to stick to the 15 minute version for continuity's sake. If you get too far into talking about another time frame version of this, take it to another thread so you don't confuse people on this one. Too many violations, you get a waring, then you go on the ignore list. Be kind to those who have less experience and don't confuse them, trading can be hard enough without any help.
14. I only comment on images posted, or post myself AFTER TRADING is finished for me for the day.
15. I won't hesitate to ask for a cleanup on posts that confuse the purpose of this thread or were made by someone who ended up on the ignore list.
16. Lastly, GROW A PAIR and take responsibility for your trading! Neither the market nor the borkers (yes I spelled it the way I meant it) even care about you and your account. Some borkers do hunt stops, but they have to hunt ALL stops, not just yours or fraud would be easy to prove against them. NO WHINING about it! If you got stopped out, you did not get taken advantage of, YOU made the decisions to trade, where to put your SL and until you grow a pair and start admitting your responsibility, you will not succeed. If you start whining, you go on the ignore list so you can't post anymore and waste other people's time.

I hate to be so draconian with the rules, but I have seen too many good threads destroyed by the pettiness of mental midgets who think they have a right to throw their puke all over everyone else or think they have the only valid solution to the FOREX puzzle, when in fact there are hundreds of good ones. This is just one more, but perhaps a simpler one to actually “see” while you trade live.

I have no personal “Axe” to grind, I wish no one anything but great success, but I have no patience or tolerance for bullies, educated idiots or arrogant boneheads, Trolls and Troglodytes. Get over it and grow up!

With that said, let's get down to business. There are several files posted below. Then everything is posted in one of the Zip file below so the PDF documents would “fit” by attachment sizing rules. If you need a good program to unzip them, there are also several of those around if you search (www.google.com/search?q=free+zip+utility&rls=com.m icrosoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1) for them. AlZip (download.cnet.com/ALZip/3000-2250_4-10326198.html?tag=mncol) is a good free one and the tool I use.

What I AM NOT doing in this thread is babysitting. I am NOT making a lifelong commitment to teaching what I am doing or to being on the thread every day of my life. I AM giving back to the community for all the free information, research, learning and growth I got here and I am also doing this for a very selfish reason. I know that the more I “give” the better I “get” and the more charts I see, the better my own trading becomes. Analyzing charts based on THIS strategy makes me a much better trader and I enjoy helping others.

I am also honoring some of those here who have played a strong role in my trading development like Endroute, who is an amazing trader consistently earning 300 to 500 pips per week, no matter the market, the cycle, the trend or the news. He just keeps milking the market, trading a few hours a day each day. He has been a great inspiration. If he would let me, I'd tell you more, but he wont. Other's like EOHater, James16 and more are mentioned in the manual, but Endroute did the most for me.

There is also a file below that is titled “Learning To Dance” about how I got to where I am now in all this. I heard over and over again, “Develop your OWN strategy” but no one ever said how. That is what this file is about. Hope you enjoy it.

Enjoy and have fun, but remember the rules of the thread. I won't waste time explaining them again, or using the ignore list (mine already has over 60 user names on it). So, if you find you can't post, you probably got pissy with someone in another thread and most likely it was more than once. If you think you're on it erroneously, PM me and maybe I'll consider removing you ONCE, but never twice.

The next post will have an example of the three main trades, IN THE FORMAT I EXPECT EVERYONE TO FOLLOW. I put in tons of time to document this and to most of the work for you where this strategy is concerned. The least you can do is follow the rules. By the way, in the file “Three Trades Live Examples” there are lots more, with comments on them.

Now, for the files. If you have any problems downloading them, click on the paper clip at the top right of this page and a pop up will open with a list of attachments. Download from there as sometimes FF attachments end up with a “.php” at the end of them when downloaded from the page itself, making them impossible to open. The pop up never seems to have that issue.

God bless, and good trading to you all
Clay"

P.S. here is a link to the page with a newly updated manual and tools zip file. Enjoy! Post #256 (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3568994&postcount=25 6)

P.S.S.
5 Digit Borker Issues: There have been several questions about 5 digit borkers. The following posts give answers to dealing that the Scripts and so on while using 5 digit borkers. There are more, so please serch the thread for any other isues you're facing, we have answered them all in the thread.

1. #180 (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3562594&postcount=18 0) MT4 settings to allow script useage.
2. #247 (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3566603&postcount=24 7)Modified buy/sell scripts for 5 digit (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3566603&postcount=24 7)
3. #584 (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3625802&postcount=58 4) Modivied Round Numbers Indicator

UPDATE: A Live chatroom has been setup here (by Juneman) to help learn "The Dance (fxinvestor.co.uk/?page_id=417)."

Here are a few examples of the Chart setup I use, a couple of good trades, and how I expect people who post, to post their trades for comment. Make sure they “fit” the page or don't post them so you don't end up on the ignore list. Make sure the FIRST image is of when you took the trade, not several bars later. Make sure the SECOND image is either as the trade progresses, or at the exit.


Here are a couple of examples. By the way, there are lots of examples in the file “Three Trades Live Examples” and in the manual itself.

Clay

Here's another trade,,, 4 chart series. Hope this makes things clear and helps some of the newbies a bit as well as improving things for the more experienced traders.

Let's see if we can make this thread a "safe zone" of sorts for really learning to master a single simple and very "low risk" strategy.

And before you ask, yes, these were live trades, one in a live account, on in a demo.

God bless,
Clay

eclayf,
Congratulations on finaly posting your system, I'm certain the FF community will benefit from this material and realize its potential.

God Bless,
Mikali

Thanks Mikali,

Here's another one from "right now" as a matter of fact. The trade is now at BE +1, and is "by the rules" not a successful trade. The only thing left is to see if there is anything to "manage" for a strong exit.

Mastering managing the trade is what I am working on most now personally. As you can see from the images below.

Thanks for all these information. Clear entry points, clear setups and criteria, an very clear and numerous examples. It will take quite a time to read it all, but I will. The look is great.

Thanks again and happy pips

Gonso

Thanks - very well and painstakingly put together. Many nuggets of pa gold. Going thru the pdf again!

Regards
Pardy

Thanks Gonso and Pardy,

Glad it's making sense to you. Hope it also improves your trading or at least adds some good tools to it.

As time goes on I will add a few things to the rules of the entry which I have been observing to help filter out a few more of the "bad" trades.

The most recent version of the Manual will always be in Post #1.

Clay

Thanks for all the work and examples. Really useful. Have been going through the material. This system takes us back to the basics of Forex trading.

Hi Clay,

I can see you've put alot work into your system and the documentation. I'm surprised there isn't more interest in the thread. I'm going to test it out over the next few weeks and see how I go.

Great effort with your documentation....

Thanks. Great Work and effort. Appreciated.

Thanks for the kind words guys. Not sure why there isn't more response Dave. Probably because of two things.

First, it's not a flashy system, just built on the core basics of simple things that work. Most think that trading is somehow a complex issue and hard to grasp. The fact is that it's pretty simple and that "WE" are the only thing complex about it and "WE" make it harder, much much harder than it needs to be or is.

Second, is that it could be a result of the "rules of the thread." I don't intend to scare off anyone, but I also don't intend to let this become another arguement forum with lots of unrelated garbage in it.

Might also be that there are so many already on my ignore list. Doesn't matter "who" is on it, only that the reason they are on it is for being "pissy" toward another trader, or trying to tell everyone "their way" is the "only way" it can be done.

I have tried to make it as complete as possible, including all the tools to post in the thread, understand the process of "getting there" to have a strategy of one's own, how to "make it a business" not a gamble and all the things I heard so much about while learning, but never really ever got a solid answer about "how" to do that.

Simple example of that is "Let the market show you it's 'hand' before entering a trade." That one alone used to really mess with me. If I waited and was patient, the market simply ran past me, if I entered too quickly it crushed me. Never failed and every one who tried to explain it made it some complicated thing.

The truth of that one little thing is that every strategy is built on what the creator perceived as how the market reacts to "their" strategy and that simply following the "rules" DID SHOW you the market's "hand" so to speak. The issue is that the market, can simply move the other way after it's done that.

So the "real" issue wasn't seeing the market's "hand" but learning to deal with the fact that after it has "shown it's hand" it can simply change it's mind. Post number #5 (www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=3530843&postcount=5) is a great exmple of that fact. The Market gave a pretty solid "shot" signal, I took it then when it seemd to be gaining steam, it simply went the other way.

"My" flaw in that trade was not tightening up my stop when the reverse "pin" happened and allowing it to take me out with far fewer pips than I could have had. Which brings us to manageing the trade once it is entered.

We do our best "by the rules" that we can, we set a proper stop loss to act as both a disaster stop and to mitigate risk "by the rules" then we learn to live with my favorite trading quote from Endroute,,,"Some do, some don't, SO WHAT, next!"

We have to learn to take our trades dispasisonately, not get "hurt" or upset when the market lies to us according to "our" strategy, whatever strategy that may be. It's never personal and no one "out there" in the market, not the traders, not the borkers, not the banks, no one even cares about our tiny little trade, even if its a ten million dollar trade.

Again, thanks for the kind words, I hope all the work helps some one to start being consistent at least and perhaps helps others to improve what they already do.

Clay

I read the entire thing today. Went through all the examples.

Outstanding piece of work. It will take me many more reads in order to internalize all the nuances and learnings here.

I found many things to assist in my current trading methodology.

thanks for creating such a great thread.

Just got a P.M about the scripts, so let me clear that up a bit.

In the manual each script has a description of what it does and that "infers" how I use them.

I use the A_SetLotSize Script to set the size of the "lots" traded. It is based on a money management calculation which sets the "risk" per trade to 3% at 15 pips for each position entered into. I normally only reset it once a week, but you could reset it for each trade if you wanted to.

There are scripts that do that automatically on each trade, but I found that incrementing the trade size on every trade sometimes ended up costing me money, even if I was being consistently more successful, in that the next trade would be larger than the last trade every time. So if one trade was +19 pips and the next trade, which would then also be LARGER was say - 14 pips, it wiped out ALL the gains (and sometimes more) because the trade size was larger.

Compounding is a great tool,,, INSTANT compounding, not so much as it can bite pretty hard and discourage you when in fact you are becoming better, but the use of instant compounding is also eating away all the profits on a few bad trades.

That one was a bit hard for me figure out and recognize what the solution was.

So, I separated out the ability to increment or decrement the trade size into a separate script to allow for better manual management of risk, but faster ability to increment the risk back to the "normal" risk with a couple of mouse clicks. That way I didn't have to calculate it every time.

I use the A_Buy and A_Sell scripts to execute my trades long or short and I use the AEMERGENCYCloseAll script to close all trades if I need to (for what ever reason) close all open trades, or just to get out of one if I only have one open at the time. For example,,,, if I have two positions on in one trade, and I believe it's going to go against me, I might just execute this script to completely get out.

The AcloseAll_1_Chart script to close just one, if I am hesitant, but have two positions and want keep one while I close the other. It can "hang" the execution of a new script on a chart though, so I if I can find a better one I may substitute that in it's place.

I have found a currency specific "close" script but am debating using it because then I need one for each currency I decide to trade, and sometimes I trade other currencies than the Gbp/Usd and Eur/Jpy. I am really trying to just keep it all very, very simple.

The best solution here would be to find a script that will close the FIRST position on a specific chart without it being currency specific, but I'm not much of a programmer and that is beyond my skill set. That would allow taking two positions in what I feel is a really strong trade, then quickly exiting only one position if it seems it might reverse.

I know there are some EAs that will do that, but the only ones I found don't work quite right and the do not allow for trailing the SL on each bar, so I opted against that solution for now.

The ASL and ATP scripts are used to modify the Stop Loss and the Take Profit, if I need to for trailing the SL "by the rules" or if I think the trade might run and I decide to move the profit target way out front of the trade other than the normal 100 pips it is set to in the by and sell scripts.

The TP set in the scripts is by default 100 pips, but I have given some though to eliminating that and just depending on trailing the Sl and then tightening it when the trade approaches a S/R level. Still considering how best to maximize and/or even use the TP of the scripts.

The Break Even script does exactly that,,, it moves the SL to BE in case I think P/A is acting "funny" and I want to mitigate my risk to 0 a bit earlier than normally I would.

The Delete Chart Objects script is to clean up the chart if I decide to "play" around a bit on the chart for some reason. I just needed a quick way to clean up the chart.

Hope that helps clarify things a bit for everyone.
Clay

Hi Clay,

Try this script, perhaps this is what you need...
.

Will do Swingman. By the way,,, I've seen your work around the threads before. Great stuff and I really appreciate this.

Is this a basic rework of the other script so it won't hang or when closing one trade in a pair or will it close all orders for that pair?

Thank you again Swingman.

Hi Clay,

Thank you for a very well done job. I deeply appreciate all the trouble you have taken to make the manual etc. as concise and complete as possible.

I have read the material through more than once to fully grasp all the nuances, now it's time to practice!

I have noticed that there are a lot of posters on the forum who appear too lazy to do anything for themselves and expect to be spoonfed. The mind boggles.

Once again, thank you.

Jan

Thanks Clay!
It has liked me your strategie, and have seen that you need an additional script. I quickly programmed something, and made only two tests. I do not know if that's what you meant...
I have entered multiple orders, and at the start of the scripts was closed the first. If something is not right, can be corrected.

eclayf, I agree this is not a flashy system, but I believe it is just what I am looking for. No wild indicators that can be distracting and something I can trade on non-MT4 platforms.

Also, it is a system one should learn over time... Based on Price Action... I believe you have to learn to better understand the ebb and flow of FX to trade well (I do not trade well yet) and this appears to be good guide to learn that.

Thanks... you have put together a nice piece of work

Thanks for the contribution

Jan, webicknell, thank you both for the kind words. It is a very simple system, and that is exactly what I was trying to achieve for myself when I started down this road.

If I can give one word of advice, it would be stick to one system and master it first, then once you have something solid under your belt, you can branch out if you like, but you will always have something solid to fall back on. That was probably my biggest mistake in the time I have been trading.

Next, with this strategy, don't overlook the amazing value of training your eyes to "see" the signals using the Simulator I linked to and included in the Tools Zip file. Once I began to catch on with this strategy, that helped me a lot and I mean a LOT!

Jan, I don't mind spoon feeding a newbie a bit, that's why I went to such great lengths to document everything as intensely as I did. I remember when I started and how frustrating it was. Seemed that every system had some hidden "gotcha" in it that only the creator seemed to have mastered. Always really pissed me off, frustrated my efforts and discouraged me a lot.

So, I do expect them to at least read the manual before asking questions, almost anything one could ask about this strategy is in it. Then, as time progresses and more people post trades, there will be more and more explanations.

I have been debating using the Simulator to "replay" the good trades every few days and post the "real time" views of the entries and exits for the ones I didn't take, with explanations of why they are good entries and why the exits. Problem with that is people would say I am trading "the left side of the chart" and that then becomes problematic not because it isn't a good way to learn, but because it could undermine the power of posting trades immediately after it has been exited. Then no one can say anything about it.

Swingman, again, thank you. I will give it a test out, but I am sure from previous work I have seen you do it will work perfectly. Is it possible for you to allow it to close all the trades on one pair?

Then the only thing I have searched for that I don't have to perfect the management of the trades would be a way to trail the stops automatically. Too often I hesitate on that part and lose some pips I could otherwise have kept.

For example, in the trade on post 5, if I had a way to take the judgment out of the SL trailing and let it just trail "by the rules" I would have kept 9 pips more than I did. Little things like that can make a huge difference.

Good trading to all.