Texas-2-Step: An Odyssey

Odyssey

1. a series of experiences that teach you something about yourself or about life
2. a long journey with a lot of adventures or difficulties

In the Lone Star State, they like to dance,
With a forex trade, they take a chance.
With a Texas-2-Step,
Their profits they'll prep,
And their wallets will surely enhance!



I have been asked several times to start a thread to explain how the trades in the Trade Explorer are taken. I hesitate to do this because there will be critics for sure, and I do tweak settings from time to time, so that may not please everyone, except those that want to change everything with endless suggestions for improvements; should be fun, let's begin.

FAQ 1 - Mainly I use this on 4-hours as that presents opportunity from week to week as price oscillates up and down. Yes, it works on every time frame, you may trade whatever you want, feel free to share any success you might have.

FAQ 2 - I use Tradingview for analysis, but the indicators are available for Metatrader 4 and 5, any others, I don't know about. I will share the sources below.

FAQ 3 - How long have I been using this? The start date of the current Trade Explorer is 27-July-2024, today is 13-October-2024, so about 3 months.

FAQ 4 - Settings are Default for the MACD, The PPST is 2 / 1 / 60 but subject to change. Also, feel free to experiment with both.

So, here we are, after a prolonged period of experimentation, I have settled on using two indicators only, because I think traders have been focussed for far too long on a single indicator being able to do everything for them: direction, entry, stop loss, and exit. How is that working for you?

The 1st indicator, Step 1, is to know the market condition; that means, what is price doing? MACD has long been a popular indicator of choice, with several options to trigger a trade, e.g. the crossing of the signal line with the main line, or the crossing of the Zero level. There is a better way as I will explain. I use the MACD crossing below or above the Zero level strictly as an alert that price action may be changing direction; this can happen many times without the need to panic and enter a trade. Patience is required, as well as reading the chart.

The 2nd indicator, Step 2, may not be as well-known as the MACD, it is the Pivot Point Supertrend. I shall post websites for you to explore and further your knowledge as the thread progresses. The PPST gives a level where a trade may be placed upon the close of a candle past that level.

Let's go straight to a chart, this is as simple as it gets, and of course, the market doesn't always comply so easily, hence the need for trader experience and expertise!

Indicators: All are FREE

Tradingview:
1. MACD, I use Moody MACD Fixed because it gives a highlighted vertical bar when the crossover is either above or below the zero level which make for easy recognition. This indicator is NOT standard on TV, watch this video to learn more and find the file required - NEW INDICATOR! Fixed Moody's MACD
2. Pivot Point Supertrend is in the TV library, by LonesomeTheBlue.

Metatrader 4:
1. I use Traditional MACD 4 by Daniel Lewis, available in the Market tab.
2. Pivot Point Supertrend, watch this video for education and the link is there also - Pivot Point Supertrend - MQL4 Code

Metatrader 5:
1. I use MiniMACD from the Market.
2. I use Pivot Point Supertrend from the Market, Search can find both, as shown in the attachment.



NOTE: I have tweaked the settings on PPST to 2 / 1 / 60

Same trade setups on MT4 -


Same trade setups on MT5 -

Developing a forex trading method can indeed be likened to an epic journey. Just like a hero embarks on a quest, you too will navigate the currency markets, facing various challenges and opportunities along the way.

* The Call to Adventure: Your journey begins with the call to trade forex. You answer this call with the desire to seek knowledge and potential profits in the forex market.

* Facing Challenges: As you enter the market, you encounter volatility, economic news events, and technical analysis dilemmas. These are the trials that test your trading skills and emotional discipline.

* Finding Mentors: Just as heroes find mentors to guide them, you seek experts, mentors, and trading communities to help you improve your trading strategies and gain valuable insights.

* The Road of Trials: Your trading journey will be filled with ups and downs, wins, and losses. These experiences will shape and meld you into a more resilient and knowledgeable trader.

* The Ultimate Goal: Your ultimate quest is to achieve consistent profitability and financial freedom through successful forex trading.

* Return with the Elixir: Your journey is completed when you've developed a solid trading plan, a disciplined mindset, and the ability to adapt to market changes, ultimately leading to successful trading and financial prosperity.

Just like the heroes of epic tales, your forex trading journey will be full of challenges, but with determination, knowledge, and discipline, you can emerge as a victorious trader.

Week of October 7 to 11, missed many opportunities, wasn't really looking, Monday and Tuesday there was no news, Wednesday was the NZD interest rate cut which made it weak, then Thursday waiting on USD news on CPI.

These trades placed on demo, when the previous signal is reversed, I change it to a Dotted line so that I still see it for reference level. Obviously, the EURGBP move up was on the news and was never going to be a Buy.

Exit all before the late Friday red news, USD Core PPI and CAD Unemployment Rate, for small profit, check the TE.


Remember the rule...

What to watch week of October 14 to 18

This could be a real test for this method, could it work? Let me know!

What price actions triggers can you find? Trend line break? Higher low? Bear flag?

Note: I leave the most recent signal level on the chart but change it to a Dotted line.

I also have many other levels on my chart which we will get into as we go along.

Right now all I get is sell signals.
Donno about direction for the whole week.

Message is not clear; sell signals from this method, or from ICT, telepathic perhaps?

Ok Partner have saddled up best I can, what is the argument for not trading all pairs and being in either long or short at all times?

Trading all pairs is fine, I look at the main 28 myself, but only trade one-way on the "rules" as mentioned.

Well, anything is possible, but that would be hedged and what would be the trigger for taking profits?

Can you give an example?

Cheers.

No, any signals are fine, as are random comments, share as many as you like!

Let's see what the new week brings.

The only way that this method does not work is IF price just goes in one-direction forever.

Good Luck

Interesting thread..subscribed.

I mentioned that I watch other levels so let's look at EURUSD Daily chart:
Back in July, the 2-steps gave an idea of the price action, became a support area in August,
Then a failure in September to go down, the white line is 2024 year open, so always going to be tough to crack,
And almost fail to go very far up before topping out.
But that is the past, look at current levels, MACD followed with Sell level.
The 1, 2, 3, are Month, Year, and Week open, let's see all those on the 4-Hour chart.

Here on the 4-Hour we can see at #1 -
The Buy signal cancelled by the 4-H MACD + Sell level
At the same level as Daily MACD and month open
Below that, the confirming Daily Sell level

You may have heard of the famous Triple Screen Trading by Alexander ELDER?

This is not it, but we may as well look at the 1-hour chart for day traders and desperate noobs.

Will it continue lower?

No one knows, and I can't catch all the signals, so if you see anything or have questions, please join in.

Following the thread and testing the indicators.
Once you have the alert of the first indicator and the candle close above the level of the second indicator, do you enter taking into account any other concept? (distance traveled by the price, higher TF...) or does it enter the candle close?
Learning as the thread develops. Thanks for sharing.

Finally nice to see your tread, Erebus!
(I'll visit it for your firm vibe at less)))

Pretty cool, will look more into this when home..

You got it, there is manual supervision required, for example, this was Monday, there were bank holidays, I was expecting more USD strength, I let the market settle down, no trades taken. In general, yes, 4-Hour can be taken at the PPST level - don't forget, 4-Hours is a long time, price can stay around there for a day. And, also, what market is open? Is there news? There is no hard yes or no for me; you must study even just the last few weeks Price Action of the pair with the setup? Has it been swinging up and down? Or is more of a directional trend move, and perhaps just a retracement?

However, once the markets start to make moves, I expect that during the week, probably on 1-Hour, entries could be made fairly quickly at the PPST level. Again, I can't monitor every pair, every 4-Hour, every 1-Hour, so there should be plenty of opportunities posted once people start watching and sharing setups.

Thanks for the interest.

All Indicators are FREE
NOTE: I am assuming that you possess the required degree of knowledge and expertise of the platform of your choice; I have made this as simple and clear as I possibly can, let me know of any difficulties, but be specific with your issues, I'm here to HELP.

TradingView:

1. MACD, I use Moody MACD Fixed because it gives a highlighted vertical bar when the crossover is either above or below the zero level which make for easy recognition. This indicator is NOT standard on TV, watch this video to learn more and find the file required - NEW INDICATOR! Fixed Moody's MACD

2. Pivot Point Supertrend is in the TV library, by LonesomeTheBlue


Metatrader 4:

1. I use Traditional MACD 4 by Daniel Lewis, available in the Market tab.


2. Pivot Point Supertrend, indicator attached below (again), and watch this video for education - Pivot Point Supertrend - MQL4 Code




Metatrader 5:

1. I use MiniMACD from the Market.

2. I use Pivot Point Supertrend from the Market, Search can find both, as shown in the attachment.


NOTE: For all platforms, I have tweaked the settings on PPST to 2 / 1 / 60
The Pivot Point Supertrend indicator is a variation on the Supertrend indicator that uses a weighted average of high and low pivot points (fractals).

PS: Frequently Used Acronyms:
MACD = Moving Average Convergence Divergence
PPST = Pivot Point Super Trend (Supertrend also acceptable)
TV = TradingView
MT = MetaTrader
IDK = I Don't Know

Follow up on the AUDUSD what to watch: we can see the conundrum of AUD vs USD strength, this might not be decided until the Aussie Unemployment Rate / Employment Change on Thursday, or the later USA Core Retail Sales m/m / Retail Sales m/m / Unemployment Claims or combination of both.

Here is the Daily, will it prevail? And the 4-Hour, Tradingview =


Metatrader 4

Metatrader 5 =

Okay, I understand.
That operational point that you add (previous levels, news...) to try to know when the price can really move or not, is what makes the indicators work and trying to avoid ranges, that is the complicated part of trading.
Thanks for the response