Works for me: Short-term flow

Oops.

This system is based on short-term flow. You could even call it 'session flow'. Scalping, in effect, but with the upside of being able to stay in a trade a little--and sometimes quite a bit--longer than normal. The gist of it is that the patterns are discernible, but only if we can see the source of the movement. I don't think anyone would argue that trading the strong versus the weak is a good bet and that's what I'm up to here. This requires no special indicators or dashboards, just a couple of simple charts that a human eye easily decipher.

The first step is to a) open a LiteForex account, or b) download MathTrader7's LFX EA, which is an excellent alternative.
After that, open 5 M5 charts: AUD, CAD, JPY, USD and GPB. If you decide to use LFX, go to the Market Watch window, right-click and Select All, and open your charts from there. They're identified as AUDLFX, USDLFX, etc. Be aware that the Yen chart is inverted on the LiteForex platform, i.e., up is down and vice versa. MathTrader7's EA allows you to normalize it. Tile the windows to display all charts. Load either Heiken Ashi or Synergy.


Next, open 4 M5 charts on a different screen: GA, GC, GJ and GU. Again, load either Heiken Ashi or Synergy.


Before you even THINK about starting to trade, locate support and resistance levels for each index and each pair for the last 12 to 24 hours. Remember, we're looking for short-term flow. We don't care about last week's high or low, unless things get crazy, in which case you can zoom out and find the next level.

Aight. Now, your main focus is on the GBP index. You must wait for a pinbar, hopefully bouncing off one of the s/r levels you've already drawn, and then find one of the other 4 currencies that are moving in the opposite direction, hopefully with a pinbar that matches. Let's say the Pound has found itself in favor with the market and the AUD is in the midst of being beaten senseless for the day. Whatever the case, there will usually be another currency that's moving in the opposite direction of the Pound.

When I see this setup, I generally move down to the M1 TF to look for an entry, i.e., flags or 1-2-3s. The reason for Heiken Ashi/Synergy is to determine when to exit. Stay in the trade until a closed M5 candle changes color and/or a trendline following the move is broken. I suggest that you watch this interaction for a while. You'll begin to see how things work. If you trade during the NY/London session, you'll find that the results can be quite good.

I've made some slight changes in how the charts are organized and displayed. As a full-fledged member of the ADD club, it's important to keep things as simple as possible so my brain can cope. If any others suffer from information overload when trying to make trading decisions, this may help. Attempts in the past to watch a single pair, which I was able to handle without too much drama, often left me missing out on bigger, easier moves on other pairs so I needed a way to follow as many as possible and chose GBP pairs due to their high daily ranges and tolerable spreads. Plus, they move well during all times of the day.

I was around when the CHF divorced from the EUR and the carnage was epic for traders on the wrong side of it, so I decided that limiting my exposure by getting into and out of trades as quickly as possible was the safest strategy, hence my focus on scalping. Here's a SS of the current set-up. It's a fairly big monitor, at 28", allowing room for quite a bit of stuff.

The far left group is H1 indices. They're pretty reliable, especially when bouncing off support, resistance or trendlines. The M5 indices to their right can be less so, but are usually OK. I use the Detrended Oscillator on the pair charts as a divergence indicator, mostly for determining exits. If the H1 indices look like a big move could be underway, you may want to piggyback entries using M5 or M1 trendline breaks as the move plays out.

My advice is to be patient and wait for opposing H1 pinbars on the indices, followed by M5 or M1 entries. It's easy to be impulsive and take opposing pinbars amongst the GBP vs. the other M5 indices, but unless an H1 move is on your side, you're probably asking for trouble.

Bear in mind that swap rates apply to these pairs. For example, if you buy the GBPAUD, you'll be hit with a negative swap rate, since you're essentially selling the AUD. I'll leave it to you to figure that out. Google is (sometimes) your friend.