5Min Intraday System

Quoting Golfer

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Hi Tom

Very wise words. I bought a few electronic systems and books before I met Phillip here on ff and every system claimed to have a high success rate. But if you don't study, understand and practise it, you won't have success.

And yes, I know there is no holy grail. One will have losses and you need to live with it (accept it and keep it to mimimal). Looking forward to see your advice on the mental side of trading as mentioned in your message.

I do have a written intra-day trading plan to expplain my actions and where I should be going. I think I posted it previously but here it is again.

Enjoy the trading.

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Quoting booktimes

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Thanks Willem
My skype i.d is tom.immins

Tom(uk)

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Quoting 6pack

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I also have trouble getting rid of losers fast, and I am aware of how stupid this is! I hang on to them, sometimes for days, till they become winners. I could have saved so much time - and money - closing that losing trade early, and making three or four profitable trades! Not to mention the huge risk of taking a much greater loss later on...

I am still struggling with it but it is getting better.

While my own trading philosophy may be somewhat different than yours, the only thing I might suggest adding to yours is taking a look at the [FF] calendar every morning - to make sure you're not trading around news events. You do avoid them, don't you?

Previously I used FXCM daily calendar, I print it and put it in front of my PC. Nowadays I do use ff's calendar as well as the news terminal on InterbankFX's platform. And yes, I don't enter trades rigth before a news release.

Regarding your entry/exit criteria: are the pips net, or do you subtract the spread? i.e., if you mention a TP of 25 pips, and your spread is 3, would you net 22, or would you wait for an actual movement of 28 before you close the trade?

The latter - the actual move should be 28pips if the spread is 3pips. That is why you'll see on my charts posted a move of 14pips (10pips profit + 4pips for the spread). I hope it make sense

Thanks again!

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Quoting booktimes

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I believe in the theory that trading is 10% skill and 90% mental, when you step back and look at the bigger picture it has to be, all trading is not automatic it takes a level of thinking before pulling the trigger, exiting, deciding to let it run, and the most hurtful not being able to press the button when it goes against you HOPING it will turn around.
I believe in discipline and a trading regime.
eg:
I get up at 6.00am gmt every morning during trading days.
I trade for 3 hours till 9.00, If i lose or win it makes no odds, i finish at 9.00
I then go to my normal job which I am self-employed and is totally different to trading, I am a landscaper.
I will then trade again from 16.00pm gmt but am much more cautious, as after that time the liquidity in the market has dropped. My forex friend told me that most brokers, spread betting firms make more money after that time because they can see who is online and trading and allegedly can hunt stops and manipulate trading platforms, my friend says he never trades after 16.00pm, interesting thought!

Yes, very interesting. I also decided not to trade after 18H00GMT - only if there is a great setup. What I did find is that the market is starting to do some recovery work (e.g. if there was a downward movement during the day - this is the time that the market is turning around and move upwards). This is where I had many of my losses (Usually I see another short set up, I go short, just for the market to turn around and move upwards through the 50MA). Just have a look at it in future.

I was not really aware of the stop loss hunters at that time of the day (I do believe you) but I do know they do hunt your stop losses. That is why I put my stop losses 20-30pips away. Just in case something happens e.g. I loss my Internet connection. But then you need to have the discipline to exit the trade if the market move has been 10pips against you. The one thing I am struggling with.

Another thing I dont like to do is put stoplosses on, I believe that brokers are told to hunt them and have tried and tested small stoplosses before and saw them nearly always get taken. My friend says brokers love traders who apply stops, to them it is like a red flag to a bull, something to go after, he says the clever and skillfull traders use mental stops, this again is down to mental discipline, which is what I try and do.
I set a mental stop of say 10 pips and if it is reached I cut off the trade, by that time the trade has gone against you anyway.
Every time I put on a trade I think of it as a battle me against the broker, a faceless enemy who will do everything he can to get my money, so I try and cut off his avenues and not putting stops is one thing he dosent like. My trading has improved since I adopted this tactic.
My mental figure is to make 50 pips a day, which is not a great target in hindsight, I mean it is an achievable target once the trading strategy you are using is learnt and applied.

For a part time trader, I think 50pips per day is more than enough - I would be happy if I can make it. The rest I do agree with you

Good luck and respect
Tom(uk)

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Quoting booktimes

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Hi Willem
euro/usd from 12.20pm gmt till 14.35pm gmt would you class that as a 3 sisters pattern?
Tom(uk)

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Quoting booktimes

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Hi Will
I loaded the macd indicator you posted on the forum and it completely screwed my computer up, I couldnt load metertrader 4 and the whole machine slowed down, I at to delete it from my programme files, phew scarey
any ideas, maybe a bug in it
Tom(uk)

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