Help 4 Struggling Trader

Hi,

I am looking for some advice from some more experienced trader to improving on my trading system/rules. I have removed a lot of indicators from my system and I am designing my own based on the past 9 months experience in learning and experimenting.

Please review and add or take away what you feel may benefit my system.

Thanks.

Its very thorough, you seem to be using almost every form of analysis known to man and will likely suffer analysis paralysis. Keep at it though, eventually you will figure out which methods are working for you and which aren't.

Be patient, you are at the start of a long, long road and your market views will likely change drastically several times before you reach your destination.

Your trading rules focus only on finding entries. Money management, position sizing, volatility adjustments and psychology are all just as important, if not more important than finding exact entry points.

Try to find some worthwhile books to read on trading too, a lot of stuff online is written by people who have never traded profitably. I can recommend Trade your way to financial freedom by Van K. Tharp, it will introduce you to a lot of concepts I don't think you have thought of yet.

You analyze way too much and making trading harder for yourself. My advice would be to stick with the analysis you feel most comfortable with, is not too complex (= doesn't include 100 other analysis within) and you have backtested. Historic performance is not an indication for future performance, but it can get you an idea how it would have performed over a longer time in different market conditions. Make notes and see when it does the best.

Keeping an eye on higher TF's is good, but don't include 5 TF's in your strategy. If you are trading on the H1, look for a trend on the H4. If trading on the H4, the trend on the Daily. Also, don't search for additional confirmations or force yourself to look at the market, as you want it to look like. Write down rules and follow them.

Trading is not easy, but with your current analysis you are making it a lot harder than it has to be.

Good luck.

Great book - a must read, will most likely answer the question you have posted here, Xmas break coming, would be a good time to get into it and start again in the new year

enjoy the break all

Few things -

1. "Analyse forex factory interactive discussions to get a feel/buzz/hype for the day"

Waste of time because you will just get confused. Trust your own analysis and not the analysis/feel/buzz/hype of others. You are much better of spending your time analysing price.

2. Focus more on price, less on indicators. Ensure you identify the correct supply and demand areas (look for engulfing patterns!), the higher the timeframe the better!

3. With such short targets of 22 and 44 pips, ensure your SL is never more than 22 pips.

4. Finally, keep it simple! You are over complicating things that will give you too many different signals. Cut out the crap and trust price!

Good luck!

As someone mentioned, it is very thorough list.

However, do you really understand what you wrote?
It looks like you copied and collected from somewhere.

If you really understand and recognize even 40-50% of what you wrote, you wouldn't even need to ask.

I don't know how long you have been TRYING TO LEARN (not trading).
One of the most important thing is to know the difference between
what you really know and what you think you know.

Best Pip Wishes!

When I read the attached file I thought it was a joke. If it isn't then you are using the opposite of KISS. Throw away 90% of the stuff in the word file and concentrate on building a system that uses no more than an indicator or two. I would recommend supply and demand trading. Look at the following thread: BS Trading with Kenneth Lee. No indicators. Just picking zones. Truly KISS.

I built a system using MACDs and Bollinger Bands. Check out my thread Trading with MACDs and Bollinger Bands. It's simple but so far seems to be effective. I did little backtesting and currently am forward testing it on a live account.

Forex trading is basically a big speculation, like any other businesses. You can't know for sure what will happen next. What you do is to speculate on something that (you think) has good chance to work. Sometime you will win, sometime you will lose. It is like professional gambling.

You can use 200 analysis but it won't change the result, sometime you win sometime you lose. There is chance that such thing will end you up with "Aaargh I have used 200 analysis but why I had so many losses?!" with your hands pulling your hair off.

You can try trading "what everybody see" but it is no different, sometime you win sometime you lose. Because there are strong players who preys on weaker ones. If you trade "what everybody see", then those 'predators' see 'it' too, they know where people (and you) put SL and will take it down if they feel like. Like poker, they play smaller players.

If I were you, I will try to keep it simple but still rational in term of its chance to work. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose, sometimes bad luck haunts you, sometimes strings of losses punch you in the face, sometimes you are like in the wrong place in the wrong time always, sometimes the good bus left us in smoke (regretting the great journey if only we didn't miss it). So take it easy and accept it, that should make your life easier.

We're passionate businessmen, we fall 7 times get up 8 times. That's what we do. We have stubbornness issue and sometimes masochist. But we will find a way, always

isaacyassar, this is really a good one!!

though if i wanted to argue then i would certainly ask: why would i get up 8 times if i only fell 7 times? jk...

anyway, merry christmas guys!

i will review it and tell you what each analyses according to my experience
then you can weed out the ones you do not need, duplication is not really required just adds to the confusion.

However, Learn about the market itself
market structure
players
macro economics
inter relationships in equities,options, bonds, etc, as well as among the major currencies and the importance of the USD.
money management
risk management

indicators are tools, keep that in mind, if i give you a stethoscope, thermometer, sphygmometer, can you be a doctor or a nurse?

no you need training, schooling, etc.

Hi,
You're making your trading journal become more complicated , I'm now trading using only fresh candle chart without any indicators , with my own system created from my experience only , noone teach , noone post it online maybe because it's too simple lol but it work properly...choose what you like and what you think it's suitable for your attitudes , don't try to combine more and more systems to create a thing called "Your Own Systems" << It's my first failure as others did too . I known you're trying to do that because you want have as many trading signals as possible , but trust me , it will let you go nowhere .
Good trading
Regards

your SMA i really cant find the reasoning behind it

3,30,50,100 periods of what time frame daily?

3= average closing periods of 3 days
30= little over a month
50= little over 2 months
100= approx 5 moths.

you can filter out the non sense with only one the 30 day if you want or 20 SMA for stock 22 SMA for forex = one month period.
all you really need is to figure out the trend aspect of the whole thing

bull
bear
ranging

that is all there is to it.

RSI,MACD both supposedly measure Momentum, pick one and understand its calculations, learn to calculate it my hand and be aware of its weaknesses.

your chart patterns are too much work for you, will give you headaches.

how about you sit in front of the screen for a week no trading and just observe price movement, write down your findings, you should have a better understanding on what you are looking for.
buying and selling pressure

all those fibos will mess with your head
use a 50% wave strength gauge, logically if a wave retraces more than 50% there is a danger of mutation to a different market condition/wave.
anything less than 50% will by logic surpass the previous waves peak as it generally means continuation.

the hourly time frame is a solid idea
the daily also helps to see the big picture
then use a low time frame for your entrace
and if you really want to use that many time frames, a monthly also helps with the trend aspect.
however looking at so many time frames will confuse you if you do not know what you are looking at.

be aware that time frames are not mutually independent from each other. they are an artificial construction to measure pips/time= force and they measure momentum well, range, volatility, etc

do not focus so much on predictive patterns, mostly ask yourself questions on what candles are really telling you. They are indicators too, and find a way to exploit them.

risk:reward is ALWAYS 1:1 either it goes in your favor or against you.

work on minimizing the damage part of the equation, the RISK

round numbers are a solid idea but they are not PSYCHOLOGICAL at all.

it is just the ball park value at which a security is trading.

they are just approximate areas of where buyers or sellers have not been present, however at any moment they could be.

the market is unpredictable but it is not random

Suggest read and follow this recently started thread IF the method makes any sense to you.

Uses only PRICE ACTION , gives exact entry, stop loss & take profit targets - all you need to do is calculate your RISK and proper POSISTION SIZING , manage the trade.

All the best for your trading 2012

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...92#post5230992