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Just when...

  • #1
  • First Post: Jan 23, 2008 4:39am Jan 23, 2008 4:39am
RANT!!

New to forex, "ooh look, a good trending strategy, let's use it" makes 100 pips in a day... "w00t!" then comes some massive drops in stock markets around the globe, and the big bad fed cutting interest rates. Within a matter of hours the trending goes wild, 200 pip jumps all over the place... thank God for stop losses.

Wild numbers these last few days. Come on today most pairs are bouncing like a ping pong ball, my nice trending strategy is no match for the mighty power of the rubber pips from hell. After playing a bit I realize I can use the EMA indicator on here along with a decent exit strategy to pull some pips from each bounce. Not much, but 20 here and there adds up. Works well too, 80 pips within a few hours, looks good... oh but wait, here it comes to wreck the day!!

So now the cycles are flattening, 30 pips... 20... 10... hard to trade sideways. Somehow I doubt there are any good strategies for trading sideways.

Just when I'm having fun... Maybe I should've taken my own advice and taken a few days off.
  • #2
  • Jan 23, 2008 4:46am Jan 23, 2008 4:46am
Quoting Rabid
RANT!!

New to forex, "ooh look, a good trending strategy, let's use it" makes 100 pips in a day... "w00t!" then comes some massive drops in stock markets around the globe, and the big bad fed cutting interest rates. Within a matter of hours the trending goes wild, 200 pip jumps all over the place... thank God for stop losses.

Wild numbers these last few days. Come on today most pairs are bouncing like a ping pong ball, my nice trending strategy is no match for the mighty power of the rubber pips from hell. After playing a bit I realize I can use the EMA indicator on here along with a decent exit strategy to pull some pips from each bounce. Not much, but 20 here and there adds up. Works well too, 80 pips within a few hours, looks good... oh but wait, here it comes to wreck the day!!

So now the cycles are flattening, 30 pips... 20... 10... hard to trade sideways. Somehow I doubt there are any good strategies for trading sideways.

Just when I'm having fun... Maybe I should've taken my own advice and taken a few days off.
Do you scalp? What TF's do you utilize to trade?
Humble Lifetime Member
  • #3
  • Jan 23, 2008 6:20am Jan 23, 2008 6:20am
On trending patterns I've been using H4, H1 and M30 (mostly H1, but looking at the others to confirm the trend) with the "trend slope" approach. Not much to that really.

For the bouncy stuff I was using M5 and M15. All I do is determine the range, and use the EMA indicator at 1 (fast) and 3 (slow). Trade when the arrow fires, get out when the arrow points away or there's 2 consecutive candles in the opposite direction. Use the range to set the SL to cover against big breakouts and get out of the pair when the range narrows too far to consistently make 10+spread.

After writing this tho I went short on EUR/CHF, it's trending down and I'm at 42pips. Just reset my stoploss to entry-4. I'm looking at the M30 chart in MT4 as I type this, but the H1 looks just as good. I'll stay in for another 30 minutes, then pull out right before NY opens and see if there are any corrections (there was yesterday, wow). If it looks good I'll get back in around 9am eastern.
  • #4
  • Jan 23, 2008 7:21am Jan 23, 2008 7:21am
Sounds like you're off to a good start in forex, making some decent pips and you must have good money management from the sound of it.

Do you use price action and candlestick patterns?
  • #5
  • Jan 23, 2008 7:41am Jan 23, 2008 7:41am
Quoting Rabid
RANT!!

New to forex, "ooh look, a good trending strategy, let's use it" makes 100 pips in a day... "w00t!" then comes some massive drops in stock markets around the globe, and the big bad fed cutting interest rates. Within a matter of hours the trending goes wild, 200 pip jumps all over the place... thank God for stop losses.

Wild numbers these last few days. Come on today most pairs are bouncing like a ping pong ball, my nice trending strategy is no match for the mighty power of the rubber pips from hell. After playing a bit I realize I can use the EMA indicator on here along with a decent exit strategy to pull some pips from each bounce. Not much, but 20 here and there adds up. Works well too, 80 pips within a few hours, looks good... oh but wait, here it comes to wreck the day!!

So now the cycles are flattening, 30 pips... 20... 10... hard to trade sideways. Somehow I doubt there are any good strategies for trading sideways.

Just when I'm having fun... Maybe I should've taken my own advice and taken a few days off.
Well you can't win ALL the time. That's why when you're on the winning streak (during trending days) you maximize your gains by pyramiding. So when times or range period comes you gains can offset the losses you experience.

It's like any other business. You experience good growth, and sometimes sales slow down and you needto manage your finances (trades) more carefully.
  • #6
  • Jan 23, 2008 8:07am Jan 23, 2008 8:07am
Pyramiding is a good idea, and it makes sense now that I get into it.

I risk around 2% to 3% per trade, but am careful not to risk more than 10% at a time (across different pairs). I wonder if I'll change that if I pyramid. Any thoughts on that? On one hand I can see how it'd improve return, but it would double my exposure on a sudden reversal. One of the things I have been doing is cutting losses after an hour or 2, seems to help a lot.

On candlesticks... I've learned to read them, but I don't think I'm accurate enough to consistently trade on them yet. I do occasionally recognize patterns tho and have exited a few of the short-term trades with them. Not sure if that was a good idea or not, it wasn't really "to system" and probably too impulsive.
  • #7
  • Last Post: Jan 24, 2008 10:20am Jan 24, 2008 10:20am
Can you add charts with your instructions for us?

Lets see the possibilities and ca be make an EA.
Thanks and good luck.

Best Regards,

Marcelo Marques
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