Hi everyone, I'm no forex expert. A beginner myself you could say. But I have been learning forex for the last year and I thought I'd share my observations as it might help the absolute beginner or someone like myself.
I got into forex trading from trading binary options(of which I quickly got out of). For those not familiar with it, it's pretty much the closest thing to gambling in the trading world. I don't recommend people without extensive trading experience to do it.
Basically with learning anything, it takes time to come. Don't have expectations early on or put a lot of pressure on yourself as there is a learning curve and it will come naturally with time and practice. Don't be discouraged or lose confidence early on when you're not doing well or don't get it, or understand why x,y,z happened or didn't happen. There is a lot to know and take in and it can only come with time and practice, or mentoring(but for most, mentoring is not an option).
Charts are very important. How your chart looks determines how clearly information is presented to you. A clearly uncluttered chart is also much easier on the eye and less stressful. The first thing I do when I open up a new chart is to remove the grid(right click the chart and hit grid option). This makes things appear much clearer. I only use primary colours on my charts. Blue, red, yellow, green, black and white. There are a whole multitude of colours available to choose from. Needless to say, puffed peach and salmon among others, do not feature on my chart. Keep a black background with primary colours only and it will look clean and crisp.
I use APB(average price bars). It is the same as the Hiken Ashi candles available in the custom indicators section. The reason I use them is they are much less stressful to look at than the ordinary 'Japanese' candlesticks. If you add these to your chart, set the MT4 to line graph and change the colour of the line to the same as the background so you can't see it. In my case it's black as described above.
The next thing I add to my charts is a long moving average. Something like a 120 or 200 exponential moving average. This will show you the general trend direction of the market. If it's below it, it's in a down trend and vice-versa. If it is not consistently above or below it and it keeps crossing it, then it's not trending, it's ranging or in a flat trend.
Now, what time frame you use is entirely dependent on your trading strategy and/or how many pips you're going for. But always pay close attention to what is happening on the 1H and 4H time frames as this will give the general overall direction of the market. For example if a currency pair is trading above the moving average, you're only going to execute buy trades. And if it's below it, you're only going to execute sell trades. That doesn't just mean you can take a buy or sell trade at any time as long as the price is above or below the MA. You still have to get in at the right time and use your other indicators to confirm that things are still going to head in the direction you're expecting. It may be that the bars are going up and down in a wave like pattern either under or over the MA. In this case if it's under the MA, you'd want to get in at the top of one of those 'waves' to give yourself the best chance. And likewise if it's over the MA, you'd want to buy at the bottom of one of the waves. (Sell when overbought in a downtrend and when oversold in an uptrend).
The only other thing I use really is a flat trend indicator(attached). This shows if the market is trending up or down with strength, or if it's 'flat'. It can be set to any time frame. And will always show the trend for that time frame regardless of what time frame your chart is on at that moment.
Trade at the best times with high market liquidity. This would be the first few hours of the London or New York sessions. Take a trade or several when conditions permit and leave your computer. If you don't plan on moving your SLs/TPs, there really is no need to sit and watch your trades. Take your trade/s and go and do something else. It's much less stressful. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you your TP or SL should be this or that (like some others). It entirely depends on your strategy, expectations and balance.
Practice will bring experience, confidence and knowledge. Personally I don't like trading in a demo account. I'd rather trade with smallest lot size 0.01 in a live account(always use a stop loss). But I know most people recommend only trading in demo until you're reasonably confident. Find a good broker, try to stay away from brokers that are only forex brokers. Try to use one that are brokers for financial markets in general and offer indicies, commodities, equities etc. as well.
I have nothing more to add really. I hope this is helpful to forex beginners.
I wish you all the best with your trading,
David
I got into forex trading from trading binary options(of which I quickly got out of). For those not familiar with it, it's pretty much the closest thing to gambling in the trading world. I don't recommend people without extensive trading experience to do it.
Basically with learning anything, it takes time to come. Don't have expectations early on or put a lot of pressure on yourself as there is a learning curve and it will come naturally with time and practice. Don't be discouraged or lose confidence early on when you're not doing well or don't get it, or understand why x,y,z happened or didn't happen. There is a lot to know and take in and it can only come with time and practice, or mentoring(but for most, mentoring is not an option).
Charts are very important. How your chart looks determines how clearly information is presented to you. A clearly uncluttered chart is also much easier on the eye and less stressful. The first thing I do when I open up a new chart is to remove the grid(right click the chart and hit grid option). This makes things appear much clearer. I only use primary colours on my charts. Blue, red, yellow, green, black and white. There are a whole multitude of colours available to choose from. Needless to say, puffed peach and salmon among others, do not feature on my chart. Keep a black background with primary colours only and it will look clean and crisp.
I use APB(average price bars). It is the same as the Hiken Ashi candles available in the custom indicators section. The reason I use them is they are much less stressful to look at than the ordinary 'Japanese' candlesticks. If you add these to your chart, set the MT4 to line graph and change the colour of the line to the same as the background so you can't see it. In my case it's black as described above.
The next thing I add to my charts is a long moving average. Something like a 120 or 200 exponential moving average. This will show you the general trend direction of the market. If it's below it, it's in a down trend and vice-versa. If it is not consistently above or below it and it keeps crossing it, then it's not trending, it's ranging or in a flat trend.
Now, what time frame you use is entirely dependent on your trading strategy and/or how many pips you're going for. But always pay close attention to what is happening on the 1H and 4H time frames as this will give the general overall direction of the market. For example if a currency pair is trading above the moving average, you're only going to execute buy trades. And if it's below it, you're only going to execute sell trades. That doesn't just mean you can take a buy or sell trade at any time as long as the price is above or below the MA. You still have to get in at the right time and use your other indicators to confirm that things are still going to head in the direction you're expecting. It may be that the bars are going up and down in a wave like pattern either under or over the MA. In this case if it's under the MA, you'd want to get in at the top of one of those 'waves' to give yourself the best chance. And likewise if it's over the MA, you'd want to buy at the bottom of one of the waves. (Sell when overbought in a downtrend and when oversold in an uptrend).
The only other thing I use really is a flat trend indicator(attached). This shows if the market is trending up or down with strength, or if it's 'flat'. It can be set to any time frame. And will always show the trend for that time frame regardless of what time frame your chart is on at that moment.
Trade at the best times with high market liquidity. This would be the first few hours of the London or New York sessions. Take a trade or several when conditions permit and leave your computer. If you don't plan on moving your SLs/TPs, there really is no need to sit and watch your trades. Take your trade/s and go and do something else. It's much less stressful. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you your TP or SL should be this or that (like some others). It entirely depends on your strategy, expectations and balance.
Practice will bring experience, confidence and knowledge. Personally I don't like trading in a demo account. I'd rather trade with smallest lot size 0.01 in a live account(always use a stop loss). But I know most people recommend only trading in demo until you're reasonably confident. Find a good broker, try to stay away from brokers that are only forex brokers. Try to use one that are brokers for financial markets in general and offer indicies, commodities, equities etc. as well.
I have nothing more to add really. I hope this is helpful to forex beginners.
I wish you all the best with your trading,
David
Attached File(s)
