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Short term trading help needed

  • #1
  • First Post: Oct 13, 2006 5:57am Oct 13, 2006 5:57am
I am (as probably expected ) a novice trader and recently in the past month or so I was reading a lot about technical analisys and (as probably everybody else in the beginning) I am pretty messed up . So at this point (after loosing 400$ in my live account in one day ) I decided it might be a good idea to ask for help from the experience traders.

Now the style (which I think suits me) is short term trading (even maybe scalping if I learn to use it right). I know that short term trading brings in a lot of risks but well I think the risks might be worth it in the long run.

I need help with choosing the right indicators as the money I lost was with the MuddBudha system probably due to lack of fully understanding it.

Anyways my real question is which indicators are most "trustworthy" in short term trading and how they should be set up. Now I am aware that there is no Holy Grail but at least a system that will help me start "seeing" the market, not just looking at it, will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
  • #2
  • Oct 13, 2006 8:20am Oct 13, 2006 8:20am
You lost $400 in one day!?? I don't think it's the system, it's definitely your money management flaws my friend. I have lost many trades but I have kept my risk to minimum.

When you say trustworthy, it kind of made me smirked a little. There is no such thing as a trustworthy indicator. You are trying to personify these mechanical equations and hope that they will help you in trading. What helps is a system that makes SENSE. If it makes sense to you, and you have your risk in check, you SHOULD make money in the LONG run.

I like this quote though:

"In forex, making money is all luck, but minimizing losses is a skill"
  • #3
  • Oct 13, 2006 10:07am Oct 13, 2006 10:07am
Actually it was 3 wrong trades that brought me the -400. I set my stop losses at 15 pips whcih is 150 dollars. I guess it was wrong decisions from my side that's why I put aside the live trading for now and went back to demo trading to work on my skills. I was hoping here I can find sort of advises of what to look for in the indicators and how to minimize losses and how to "see" trends where there are some. I found several systems here and I had no problem putting them on the chart, but after that it seems that i have problems "reading" them.
  • #4
  • Oct 17, 2006 12:31pm Oct 17, 2006 12:31pm
Quoting lubzdr
I am (as probably expected ) a novice trader and recently in the past month or so I was reading a lot about technical analisys and (as probably everybody else in the beginning) I am pretty messed up . So at this point (after loosing 400$ in my live account in one day ) I decided it might be a good idea to ask for help from the experience traders.

Now the style (which I think suits me) is short term trading (even maybe scalping if I learn to use it right). I know that short term trading brings in a lot of risks but well I think the risks might be worth it in the long run.

I need help with choosing the right indicators as the money I lost was with the MuddBudha system probably due to lack of fully understanding it.

Anyways my real question is which indicators are most "trustworthy" in short term trading and how they should be set up. Now I am aware that there is no Holy Grail but at least a system that will help me start "seeing" the market, not just looking at it, will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Hi Lub, and welcome to Forex Factory, and the profitable pursuit of forex!

First, stop live trading immediately. For a new trader, it is the equivalent of giving a loaded handgun, with a hair trigger, to a baby to play with.

Second, get the words "short term" and "scalping" out of your vocabulary. Start thinking "Weekly", "Daily" and "4 Hour". Nothing smaller.

Third, for now, forget about all those wiggly indicators on your chart and focus your studies on these: Price Action, Support & Resistance, Trendlines, and Moving Averages. Get these four down pat. You can also look at Fibonacci Retracements and Pivot Levels, but put most of your focus on the first four I listed. Your best resource for Price Action Analysis on this forum is the James16 Chart Thread located here:

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=2331

Price is King, and the thread I just pointed you too is the best place to get acquainted with the King.

Fourth, and this is extremely important, read through the Money Management sticky in the Beginner's Forum. After you've read it once, read it again. Then read the other three stickys. When you're done with those, read the Money Management sticky again.

PM me if you have specific questions I can help you with.

Dial
sxaxlxvxaxtxixoxnxbxyxgxrxaxcxexdxoxtxoxrxgx
  • #5
  • Oct 18, 2006 7:31pm Oct 18, 2006 7:31pm
Quoting TheRumpledOne
You don't trade the news?

You can make a fortune by ONLY TRADING THE NEWS!

And you do NOT need a fancy system to do it.

Why waste time trading during the slow times when you can make 10 or more pips in under a minute?

Today is a perfect example of just how much you can make trading the news.

Easy 10 pips or more off the EURUSD at the 8:30 am mark. Ditto at 9:00 am.
im a newbie too with forex.trading the news can help u gain alot of pips but it can also go the oppsite direction. gotta know what u doing. me personally i dont consider a 10 pip gain, a good profit. i mean of course if you buy one 100k lot and 10 pip gain might = $100, you might consider this to be a good gain, but if you compare that to a mini account trader who buy one 10k lot with a 50 pip gain =$50 who is the better trader here? i think sooner or later you kinda have to stop counting money and count the pips( correct me if im wrong, im a newbie too). i dont recommand trading demo, theres no real emotion in it.
  • #6
  • Oct 18, 2006 10:12pm Oct 18, 2006 10:12pm
Greetings Lubzdr, and as Dialist said; welcome to the Factory.

My post here is not going to answer your Q on the quest for a grail-of-short-term-trading, rather some words of encouragement.

I hope you will take the time to read Dial's post again, there are nugets of gold in that post of his! In my first year of FX i traded some live micro and lost about 50% of my small account. That was my heads up that i needed to change something. Then i found the factory and began reading all of James16's threads of price action and anything i could find on trading pshycology (look up posts by FijiTrader !). I would say that in currency trading demo trading is well worth the time and energy, then once you've got a system to a place that your demo is doing well, go live micro at 10 cents a pip, then just add lots to increase the %R.
  • #7
  • Last Post: Oct 18, 2006 10:53pm Oct 18, 2006 10:53pm
Unless $400 dollars is an acceptable loss to you. You need to trade smaller lot sizes. i believe you lost 3 trades each with 15 pip stop losses.

Trade a micro account and work on defining your edge. I am still working on defining mine. I do question some of rumpled's advice though. I think a crossover indicator with a SMA is more meaningful than a random line crossover with the requirement you only enter a position according to the candle color(bull candle buy , etc.). One single SMA line as your crossover point at least has some relationship to the price action.

I am not questioning that method works for him. I could not perform it personally and suspect that rumpled is talented scalper and can trade by watching price action.
Small lot sizes, microaccount and money management or that $400 loss will be a $4000 loss in about two weeks. good luck.
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