Just thought I'd pop down what made me spend a lot of time investigating how to enter multiple times and gain some big pips. May be of interest.
A while back I was looking at forex competition results - you know, crazy high returns, crazy high leverage and risk. I could see returns of 1000% to 10,000% in a month and thought - well these guys must be nuts trading with max leverage, max risk etc. Turns out some of time they weren't taking massive risks.
I could see that some big returns were actually possible, but I wasn't really bothered about the $ returns - what really struck me was the amount of pips they could get. The more I looked at their trades, the more I realised that top 10 traders had a lot in common. They had a method that they stuck to. They help positions open for several weeks. They managed their trades actively across the time period. And yes they got a bit lucky - what I mean is, if they were going long on a pair, there was no terribly bad news affecting the currency pair during the several weeks they were trading. Plus - they entered many many times on a single pair.
So I went and analysed all their trades - firstly using indicators to see if I could find what made them enter when they did. For most of them I could never match up stochs, RSI, MCD etc with their entries. So I took off indies and went naked. Then things started lining up with SR areas, and mostly not 15m timeframes, but longer timeframes. (all this took me ages to do!).
What I realised was that many were looking at the big picture and seeing where major SR points were and trading inbetween them, riding resistance down to support or support all the way back to resistance areas. Note that it was Major SR areas.
Yes some of their risks were bigger than I would take, perhaps 20% or so. But when I'm trading for example and use a 5% risk, that's only 5% of my account. Not 5% of my total money available. So I'm not concerned too much with all the advice about only risking 1% to 3%, but I do keep it sensible at up to around 6% or so. (only a guideline as I use $ risk and not %).
So I just stopped focussing on the money side of things and looked at how they got the pips.
There is another website somewhere called Double in a Day - where they trade mostly 15m & 1hr charts, basically channel trading and try to double their account in a day with 100 pip run. Seems to work sometimes. However, what struck me again was that it was possible - and once again, they enter multiple times. They use auto entries at 40% of the run, 60% etc. I'm not keen on that - I prefer to use PA to guide me on where to enter.
So, what's the upshot? It made me look at how to gain maximum pips. The $ comes from risk mgt and can come later - but gaining the pips was an eye opener for me and I put the focus very much on to that goal - get as many pips as possible and how to manage the trades and stops to keep risk constant and sensible.
I remember one of the contest winners saying - if you can work out how to do this, you only need to do it once, then you will always know how to do it. Your life changes as you stop trading all the time. Trade every couple of months or so focussing on the big picture, but when you're trading a run, you're flat out doing it. Then have a break. Take your money out of your account and leave enough there for the next run. Go invest that money in something else - pay off debts, property etc. The next time you're trading, you're trading with money you didn't have in the first place.
Anyway, a bit boring I know but that's what made me focus on multiple entries.
Cheers
A while back I was looking at forex competition results - you know, crazy high returns, crazy high leverage and risk. I could see returns of 1000% to 10,000% in a month and thought - well these guys must be nuts trading with max leverage, max risk etc. Turns out some of time they weren't taking massive risks.
I could see that some big returns were actually possible, but I wasn't really bothered about the $ returns - what really struck me was the amount of pips they could get. The more I looked at their trades, the more I realised that top 10 traders had a lot in common. They had a method that they stuck to. They help positions open for several weeks. They managed their trades actively across the time period. And yes they got a bit lucky - what I mean is, if they were going long on a pair, there was no terribly bad news affecting the currency pair during the several weeks they were trading. Plus - they entered many many times on a single pair.
So I went and analysed all their trades - firstly using indicators to see if I could find what made them enter when they did. For most of them I could never match up stochs, RSI, MCD etc with their entries. So I took off indies and went naked. Then things started lining up with SR areas, and mostly not 15m timeframes, but longer timeframes. (all this took me ages to do!).
What I realised was that many were looking at the big picture and seeing where major SR points were and trading inbetween them, riding resistance down to support or support all the way back to resistance areas. Note that it was Major SR areas.
Yes some of their risks were bigger than I would take, perhaps 20% or so. But when I'm trading for example and use a 5% risk, that's only 5% of my account. Not 5% of my total money available. So I'm not concerned too much with all the advice about only risking 1% to 3%, but I do keep it sensible at up to around 6% or so. (only a guideline as I use $ risk and not %).
So I just stopped focussing on the money side of things and looked at how they got the pips.
There is another website somewhere called Double in a Day - where they trade mostly 15m & 1hr charts, basically channel trading and try to double their account in a day with 100 pip run. Seems to work sometimes. However, what struck me again was that it was possible - and once again, they enter multiple times. They use auto entries at 40% of the run, 60% etc. I'm not keen on that - I prefer to use PA to guide me on where to enter.
So, what's the upshot? It made me look at how to gain maximum pips. The $ comes from risk mgt and can come later - but gaining the pips was an eye opener for me and I put the focus very much on to that goal - get as many pips as possible and how to manage the trades and stops to keep risk constant and sensible.
I remember one of the contest winners saying - if you can work out how to do this, you only need to do it once, then you will always know how to do it. Your life changes as you stop trading all the time. Trade every couple of months or so focussing on the big picture, but when you're trading a run, you're flat out doing it. Then have a break. Take your money out of your account and leave enough there for the next run. Go invest that money in something else - pay off debts, property etc. The next time you're trading, you're trading with money you didn't have in the first place.
Anyway, a bit boring I know but that's what made me focus on multiple entries.
Cheers
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