Trading to Success - 1 System, 1 Timeframe, 1 Pair

Here is how i saw yesterday's breakout of the Asian session, which i hasten to add, did not trade as i was in bed after working a night shift and we all know how easy it is to trade after the fact!!


Regards MP

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7...anbreakmu2.jpg

Hi,
Just wondering why you couldn't have entered short when the
middle trendline broke?

Good stuff btw, im learning alot,


QUOTE]

Well the first reason is because I only make one trade a day but I also think there was some news out approaching and I didn't want to get caught with my pants down

Hi

I am assuming that you don't really trade on news, fundamental announcements ect. Just purely technical.. is that Correct.. Thanks for nice thread here.
regards

I don't trade the news no that is correct... However often the news for the day is the catalyst for the breakouts.

I am in the process of learning about some of the fundamentals... I feel this will just add to my artlilary when trading... But I am a technical trader and do not see this changing...

Today was a beautiful start to the week!!!!

Again we saw a surge in the Asian session which is beginning to look like the norm, but never the less it did settle into a consolidation pattern later on into the session. This consolidation pattern also happened to find support on a line which had previously been resistance and support which added further weight to its validity.

So we had an early break with plenty of momentum signalling the entry. However just up ahead was a moving average which I was a little nervous about so I waited for it to break this line before I entered. To be honest in the end it didn't make a difference but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

So I entered 1.9073 and took my first profit of 20 pips within about an hour. I then left the 2nd lot on the table but moved the stop to break even. I traled the stops 30 pips behind me the whole way down and eventually came out at 1.9026 with 47 pips profit on the 2nd lot.

Today was just a beautiful day and start to the week. I took a total of 67 pips today which isn't half bad as last week I finished with 10 pips profit total....

Great What are your moving averages?

Hi Micardo,


I am following your thread with big interest. Just a quick question regarding your last chart:
Why didn't you open your position the first time the price broke the support line? The MA had been broken too and there was momentum, even though it then retraced and went above support.

Alcastro... In order for my rules to start to formulate the very first step it to look for a close outside of the lines... Once I have this I then decide if it is safe enough to enter. In the case I think you are talking about we didn't even get the close....

Today wasn't such a hot day... We had a False breakout early on in the session. This caused me to adjust my levels as now any entry point would have been just to close to yesterdays low point. With this in mind I decided that I would wait for a break of yesterdays low.

Then on the back of the CPI release I got the break and move to signal my entry. Unfortunately the market then carried on down to just a few pips before my profit target only to retrace back up to above my entry level. It then started to come back down again but by this time the Retail Sales release was due out so I decided to exit both my positions at 5 pips profit on both lots.

If my rules allowed a re-entry there would of been one an hour and a half later. This opportunity would of hit my initial 20 pip profit target and stopped my second lot out at break even....

However as my rules do not allow this I finished the day with a total 10 pips profit....

Micardo.


Your discipline and sticking to your trading plan.. is very inspiring.. I think that if you keep it up you will become a sucsessfull trader.. Well done.

Thanks Mandie... its nice for you to of noticed.....

I think this is the only way for me to trade... Have a strict set of rules and only stick to them... As soon as I start to break the rules and THINK!!! I will go wrong .

So I think it is a matter of necessity rather than choice.....

Your not kidding. I have THUNK myself out of abot 49 pips this week already. Got to stick to rules. Going to make a sign for the desk

"Think..Thunk..Dump...Grump"

Wow if anybody ever caught a lucky break, it was me this morning….<o></o>

When you look at the chart you think simple right…. Nice clean break, little retracement, as simple as taking candy from a baby….<o></o>

Well lets look a little closer… This morning we had a very slight drop then retracement which formed a beautiful double bottom. Then on the back of the 9:30am news release we got our break and close below that line. 2 candles later we had our entry so I took the trade… within 20 mins my first profit target was hit. I moved my stop to break even on the second lot and trailed it at 30 pips behind all the way down until I eventually got stopped out at 26 pips profit on the second lot. 46 pips total for the day!!!<o></o>

So where was the part where I caught a lucky break you might ask… Notice I entered on the 10:15am candle. What I completely overlooked was the fact that there was a news release out at 10:30am. This worked in my favour and provided the momentum to reach my profit target quickly, but it could so easily have gone against me stopping both lots out for a loss of 60 pips. <o></o>

What would I have done differently… mmmm… Good question, well one of three things spring to mind. First I would not have entered in the first place. Second I would have entered but had a very tight stop loss… maybe 10-15 pips. Finally which I think would have been the most likely is wait for the news release then make a decision based on the news itself whether or not the move was going to continue and made a decision based on that. I feel that my only other option would have been to not enter at all. Entering with a tight stop loss to me is just like gambling… I don’t know which way its gonna go so why would I enter!!!!<o></o>

So whats the moral here, well I guess it is to always take the time to read and digest the Forex Calendar for that day… Don’t just browse over it and assume you know the times, actually understand it!!!<o></o>

<o></o>Anyway I did end the day on a positive note albeit with some luck thrown in, but I will not complain I will just learn from what could have been quite a costly mistake….<o></o>

Micarsdo,

I also had a good day today. Traded the early red bar, inspired by your rules. Got 20 pips. Closed my trade, left for my "real" job.

You have not yet let me know the parameters of your MA. Would you...or is it a secret?

Thanks

Today was a really strange day.... We got so many false breakouts its unreal.

Last night we had quite a nice channel building... Then when I get to my PC this morning I see that we had an early false breakout... So what did this do to the setup... To be completely honest with you it completely messed it up. Now I couldn't see any levels on the short side and the long side was only a two point resistance level, this later became a three point level which looked like quit a good level to trade off, so I decided to leave the short trades alone for today and concentrate on a possible long trade.

Well at 1:30pm it looked like we were on for the long trade, the news candle completely blasted through my resistance and looked to have enough momentum to continue... As you guessed it, all that happened was it retraced and we didn't get that move beyond to signal an entry. After this the market just continued in its erratic ways and I decided to leave it for the day and come back tomorrow.

Remember... Loss of an opportunity is so much better than loss of Capital!!!!!

Well what a nice end to the week... It started off as if it was going to be another day like yesterday... A range bound market, the price couldn't make up its mind and I really considered at about 1pm just finishing for the day. However this is an addiction and although I left the screen, I kept checking the levels etc.

Then 3pm came and the market had been moving for about half an hour in one direction... I had no idea what was causing this move but could see the momentum in there. There were quite a few road blocks up ahead so I didn't catch the earlier parts of the move. I eventually took a position. I hit my first profit target in about 15 minutes and then got stopped out on my second lot with 6 pips profit . So a total of 26 pips for the day.

Well all in all it finished off quite a nice week. In total I am up 155 pips for the month which puts me nicely on target for my 250 pips per month....

Sorry for no chart today but I am getting on the flight later and just can't get one out for today....

Mandie being disciplined and sticking to your trading plan is what makes one a successful trader. Look at Micardo's, they are very successful. Being a successful trader means to maximize profits and minimize losses.

Wow... what a great first day back in the UK :-)... Unfortunately as well as the rain and the nights drawing in at 3:30pm we had absolutely no opportunity for a trade.

To be honest we had some really great Support and Resistance lines drawn in which had actually been valid since Friday. But like I said there was no opportunity to actually enter and completely test its validity.

We had an early false breakout but the rules didn't line up , which is just as well as literally a few candles later the price action retraced and settled back into its channel.

We'll all I can think is that there wasn't any real news out today, so we didn't get the catalyst that we usually get that causes and sustains an Intraday Breakout.

From a rainy grey Manchester welcome back to the UK ..............

I'm predominantly an Index trader but trade Forex GMT/am taking the Asian session range dynamics into the London session on a b/o strategy basis with GBP/USD + EUR/JPY

Whilst your right to have an absolute set of rules at this development stage it would be well worth, in parallel , checking out Phil Newton ( a Liverpool based professional trader ) and also FX777 and his GTS strategy ( you can locate him from FxF)

Bramhall17