The art of Trading MAs

Lets face it most of have started out on the lower timeframe charts thinking that we can make x pips per day and minimize our downside because we are really involved in our trades etc etc. If you had the same experiences I did you would win big and loose bigger and never really make those pips. Let me clue you in its the same reason you won't be successful in the bigger timeframes, it is not that you can't trade the smaller timeframes and be successful you can and people do it every day but you need to walk before you can run.

There are 2 real keys in trading and they are patience and consistency. Getting these 2 things down is your secret to success, its not the system. Trading and golf are very similiar in that they both require you play against yourself, not your broker not anyone but you. Yes before everyone get all hot and bothered money management is important but not nearly as important as patience and consistency.

So lets start with consistency. You have to have a documented system and trade the system religously, and I mean every day day in day out, if that means you have to write your system on post it notes and put them all around your monitor(s) DO IT and then read the notes before you place a trade. This means you can't spend time tweaking your system after you have a looser, this is why you demo trade to test your system and get comfortable with it. You also have to only trade what you see and what you know. Ignore the crap news feeds from your broker that xyz is happening, or what Joe Bob on some other thread thinks the euro is going to do, screw Joe Bob, its your money and your trade don't allow some clown to mess with your future. Now with that said stay out of trades around key news events like the NFP, and for god sakes don't trade the dam news right now. At some point I will show/tell you how to make pips around news events that is brain dead simple with almost no risk to your account.

The other piece to success is patience. Let the trade come to you, again trade only what you see and know and not what you think is going to happen. If you miss a big run up, don't worry I can assure you there will be others. Successful trading is NOT about the number of entries you have but in the pips you walk away with. The same holds true for exits, trade your system. So for example you are using ma crosses as you system you enter at a cross in one direction and you exit the trade when the ma's cross in the opposite direction, don't jump out of the trade to early, there is usually a pretty good chance that trade is going to keep going and net you more pips.

So what follows is purely my own opinion, if you don't agree follow your own money management practices, I will not hold that against you.

So the 2% rule has its place If you are an undisciplined trader without a system and you don't trade consistenly and are without patience this is a great way to keep you alive for 50 trades, its the equivalent of being slowly bled to death. If you can't trade consistenly etc etc, you shouldn't be trading much real money - stick to the micro accounts if you are working on these skills. With that said you will NEVER learn consistency and patience demo trading, it is completely different than trading with real $s, Euros or Yen, so trade those miro accounts untill you can be consistenly profitable and then and ONLY then move up to a mini account etc.

My general rule of thumb when it comes to money management is that you want to have enough capital to see you through 15 loosing trades in a row. Now that capital does not have to be in your account, and for me I don't put that money in my account. So that means if you have 30 pip stops and you are trading full lots that means you need to have another 4500 lying around somewhere to see you through the rough patch or be prepaired to start trading much smaller lot sizes. I prefer the latter approach, instead of throwing more money at the problem I would rather work through my issues and build back up.

I trade a mini account, I keep a max of 5K in the account and bank everything over that and sometimes I will take the account down to a few hundred bucks, and basically start from scratch. This keeps me honest and helps me keep my ego in check, and it usually only takes me a week to 2 weeks to build back up, so it is not a real hit to the income.

So how do I trade. When I have my account at 5K I typically trade 1 lot at a time and have anywhere from 3-7 trades open at any given time, I monitor 18 pairs and only take the choicest of setups. I also fully exploit the leverage and use 200% leverage - why tie up more money than you have to. When I take my account down to a few hundred bucks, i will trade 1/10 of a lot and be in 2-4 trades untill i get to a couple of K, at which time I will move to half lots and maybe some full lots untill I get back up to where I want t be.

So why do I only trade full lots and not double up you ask, it is because I know myself too well and don't trade as well when I double and triple up lots.

Again this is what works for me. I want everyone reading this to make up their own minds as to how you manage your account, but please don't blindly go around following these rules just because someone says you should. Opinions, even mine, are like a__holes and everyone has them, but what matters most is what you think and what you are comfortable with.

Agreed. I am taking my daughter to see Kung Fu Panda tommorrow and now I can't wait to see it.

Finding a consistent, well documented trading system is a grail in itself.- ---if that is the case you would automate because anything that you can dream up and review can be automated.
I think that you should be able to do that with a system and have zero
intuition in pulling the trigger. Therefore, I ask...Is anyone making money with what we have now that you have given us ? If not, its not a perfect system, which means its 50-50 trade and those folks that don't have the eye for this business are gonna get killed over the long term. --- if the system is not above average its just gonna eat your capital like a gas guzzling suv.
I am not saying this system works or doesn't work. I just don't trade it -- not negatively, I just have not heard anyone say this is working out great for them

The fact that people come here and just expect things to be dropped in their lap just astounds me. Evidently it is true that the people of world are becomming lazy sheep just like my fellow Americans. No system is perfect, and to even think there is such a thing is foolish. This is another great reason why people fail at this, they want systems dropped in their laps and don't want to have to do any work, or they want someone to write them and EA and then they wonder why it looses all the time. A good part of any system is the trader, there are nuances to every system that requires the best/and yes the worst computer ever invented and that is the human mind. This is the wrong thread for finding systems that are well documented and will work for everyone or for EAs that are the next big thing untill the next other big thing. I can teach people what works for me and why it works for me and I am willing to help individuals develop solutions that work for them. I have never claimed to offer anything but that, and does this require people put in some sweat equity hell yes it does nothing in life is free.

take a look. good entry @ 4H charts.
Dani M.

EMA's still haven't crossed?

Thanks, Lost Angles

this is very helpful

We have a signal on Uch 1H charts
Dani M.

Yes, that's right.

You wait the candle close to enter? or have you already entered??

I'm in since the candle closed. it was a valid signal IMO.
Hopefully the price breaks 1.023 and will fly up.
BTW, my trade on AU 4H mentioned above is still open.
BR,
Dani M.

Dear Thread,

Happy to contribute to the well-being of the thread if someone can provide me a COG indicator for eSignal.

Thanks,

Lenoxer

COG stands for Centre of Gravity.

The indicator has been supplied by Endroute on the first page

Just entered BUY on USDCHF 1H TF and AUDUSD 4H TF.

Good work Endroute give us more


best regards

Superb classical English poetry.
Dani M.

Thanks for starting to post again endroute. I was begining to think that we had lost you. I look forward to your input. I've been lurking on this thread since you started it and I have to say that I've found the COG very useful. Thanks again!

Agreed,

People are always waiting for the EASIEST way to profits. Some waiting for SIGNAL only , some waiting for " I don't really know what they are waiting for"

There's no such thing that we called FREE LUNCH



KingOfDinar (KOD)

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and I only registered because of this thread! I could post my
comment this morning but my approvel needs several hours.
Then I got this beautiful message tonight "Forex Factory is undergoing scheduled server
upgrades and will be unavailable for about 1 hour. Thank you for your patience." and again
I can't update the thread

I really like this system! Good work endroute!

I want to share something about COG as you can see in the title. I downloaded the indicator
and build an ea that sends a message to get all the good trades.

But as many before there are some problems with COG repainting. Good for me, somebody
posted the source code. I'm a softwaredeveloper, it wasn't that
hard to understand the code.

To avoid all the repainting probs just set the parameter i to the correct value.
i is nothing else then the shift value in the MA's or e.g. the Bollinger Bands.

To help you all to get a better understanding about that I build an indicator
above the COG. I call it "COG NR" (NR stands for "no repaint") it shows you the values COG
has had in the past so you can easily backtest and reproduce why you did the trade.

Just copy the original COG and my modificated one to your indicators path, now restart and add
them to your chart.

TY
scratch

hmmm if i get itright acording to your indicator there have not been on right signal in GBP/USD or EUR/USD 1 hour chart for as long back the indicator goes hmmmm is something whrong ?


best regards