Cornflower Hourly System

Bob,

In reference to your losing trade on the second pic. I cant tell how many pips that is but it is quite a down candle on the 4hr chart. Did you ever think of moving the stop to B/E? Or possibly taking two smaller sized positions. Grabbing initial profits of say 50 pips and then placing stop at B/E for second position? That is what I do with less pips on the 5min.

Just a suggestion. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

God Bless.

on Jul 14, 2007 there is an EA posted for this, click the paperclip above

if you can improve on it then I am sure it will be much appreciated by all.

Iceman,

That trade got me... it went and hit my stop before it went on down so maybe my stop was to close? not really, thats the risk level i am happy with and they were HUGE candles so maybe i could just stay out the market if its like that!

Your spot on about moving stops and such, what i do now is something i got from the fokes over at the DIBS thread which is to set up the trade in 2 lots.

1st lot I set the trade up so the risk:reward is 1:1,
2nd lot I ride the trend and take profit where i always would, the great thing about this is once the 1st profit target is hit its a "free" trade as i lose no pips if i get stopped out and by not moving the stop to B/E the trade has room to move.

I know thats not what others will like to do but we all trade differnt ways

Bob

Hey don't really know much about EA's and stuff like that, and really don't know how it will work but give it a shot man ... happy to give almost anything a go at least once

Should we trade when the 3 smaller MAs are all bunched up (intersecting each other)?

No... want them stacked in the right order, have a read of first post in this thread for a good run down on how this works

Bob,

On those 4hrly charts it is tough because stops have got to be very wide. I am glad to see you are incorporating two smaller lots. My profits have gone through the roof on the 5min chart because of it.

When it comes to risk:reward ratios - I don't get too hung up if my stop is 25 pips I have to take 25 pips profit initially. Setting things in stone is, in my humble opinion, not a place where a discretionary trader should be. Always analyze the charts and see what is best. You might realize that you should go for a smaller initial profit because the trend might be slowing down or whatever, but your stop might have to be a bit wider to accommodate the volatility of today's markets.

Just a thought as always. I hope that between the two of us we can try to keep this thread alive as it has benefited me beyond what most can understand. I might have to start my own thread to discuss my modified strategy and my own personal viewpoints.

Until then, trade with the trend and keep it simple. Trading is only made difficult if you make it that way.

God Bless.

Iceman,

The thing about wide stops is that i am just reducing the size of the trade, risking 3% of a your account with a 20 pip stop will mean more lots on the trade than if it was 3% at 100 pips.... we would hope that the 100 pip stop trade brings in more pips profit, but getting that stuff right is very important.

As a rule i place my stop above the high of the bounce i am trading... so far so go with this because in my experince cornflower trades go with me (and the trend) quickly and if price breaks above that level the maybe it was a bad trade anyway.

I am only on the 4 hour now because of time problems i am having at the mo, so still feeling my way with them. I was useing cornflower in the 20-30 pips on the hour charts way before this last month and enjoyed the results. The last week or two have been pretty bad for finding nice trades but thats the thing.... gotta wait for the trade to come to me, i look at the charts if i don't see what i want then come back later and maybe there will be something then.

I hope i am not clogging the thread with rubbish, like you Iceman just wanting to keep cornflower out there... she's been very good to me. As we live we learn and trading is no differnt so keep the ideas coming!


Bob

Bob,

I think you are spot on with your stop management. A question for you - When trading hourly, has 30 pips been your personal target or is that sort of standard on this thread?

The reason I ask is because I go for 20-25 initially on the 5min! My accuracy is still valid at about 65% and sometimes upwards of 75%..like this past week . So I don't plan on changing anything drastically but sort of interesting.

My personal experience with cornflower on the hourly is not good so that is why I stopped with that time frame.

I might get some time this week to post and explain my trades for whoever's benefit.

God Bless.

Iceman,

I do look for 20 to 30 pips on the hour, sometimes if there is a run on I will ride it for 50 to 100 but thats not very often. I dont know how i picked that number other than Lever uses 20 pip T/P and i like a good risk reward ratio so using a 20 pip stop i like 30 for a take profit

Please do show how you are doing that with the 5 min, glad to see your getting sweet results

Bob

I am going to post a few select charts with some ideal and not so ideal trades from last week. (9-22-08 -- 9-26-08) My settings are just slightly different than the original. My EMA's are 16, 24, and 43. I stuck with the 24 because it seems to work quite well but I changed to the 16 and 43 because they have worked for me a bit better.

Attached is 2 Charts. The first is a EURUSD Chart from 9-22. There are blue boxes that I used to highlight each area where a trade can be attempted. I do not enter all of these because I am sleeping some of the times. Starting with the box to the far left which I will refer to as #1 and each box will be referred to as the next number in order. #1 is a good 24EMA Trade that I entered to the right side of the actual blue box.

This trade I entered and yielded +25 and +45 pips. #2 is a trade worth entering at either the 24 or 43. I was luckily asleep and missed that trade because it would have been a losing trade based on my parameters which is usually a 25 pip stop. #3, I was awake for and took but got in late. It obviously did not truly touch the 24EMA but with such a reversal bar off of that level I took the trade.

Another thing to keep in mind is that monday's are typically a trendy day with good profits for a system like this and that is also the reason why I took the trade. I would not have taken the trade any other day. I got +25 and +52 on that trade. At this point I quit for the day because I had two winning trades and there were any more trades until the #4 box. I did not take this even though I was watching because the trend was so far extended that I knew this was more of a risky pullback, in which it would have resulted in a loss. No EA can beat an open eyed discretionary trader with no greed.

Now on to the next day in the EURUSD (9-23-08) where the day was not as perfectly ideal. Not that you can't make good pips but knowing how far the market extended itself on monday, you must keep in mind that trades need to managed more diligently.

Box #1 is a perfect setup where the EMA's are "stacked" and there is a good trending market. I took a short at 4748, I believe, and took +20 and +42. My schedule is that I wake around 2-3am EST and if there is an opportunity I wait and take it. If nothing then I rewake at 5 and then 7. If the EMA's are in trending mode then I'll wait up but if not then I go back and sleep. Once NY session is open I am up all day because I also trade the grain markets.

Box #2 is a trade that I was not awake for because I had taken profit earlier but this is a perfect setup that just didn't work out. Either EMA would have resulted in a loss but this is no problem at all. We are merely trading with the odds that over time we will come out on top.

Box #3 is also a trade that I was not awake for and quite questionable as to whether there was profit. If you would be going for +20 then you would have gotten your initial but then break even on the second position. If you went for 25 to 30 then I believe you would have taken a double loss. Nevertheless, it was a good set up once again.

Box #4 is a trade entry that I missed by 1 pip. I place limit orders and move them every 5 minutes so that I can take advantage of moves like this that are only at the price level for an instant which is difficult to stare at the screens like that for so long. That trade would have yielded +25 and +0 if taken.

Box #5 is a trade that I did enter and got me worried at one point with the price spike. Haha. I place my stops at -25 though so it never hit. I did get +25 and +43 on that trade. A very choppy market at the time which is difficult because ultimately the day fell much harder. No worries though because you can't predict anything...all you can do is follow a system and not regret missing out on things.

I hope this helps anyone trying to find a system that works. Any questions are welcome as I am sure I skipped some things and maybe some would like to dig deeper into how I make certain decisions.

God Bless.

For this post I will talk about the GBPUSD on the following 2 days (9-24 to 9-25) No particular reason because I do trade both and which ever setup (sometimes both) appeals to me then I take that trade.

Starting with 9-24-08. Box #1 is perfect setup where the EMA's split just in time for me to take a long. Any earlier and I would not have been able to justify a trade. I got +22 and +43 out of that one.

Box #2 is another trade that I was awake for but ended Breakeven on both trades. My initial profit was missed by just a pip or two and so I moved my stops up because that is too close. That turned out to be the intelligent thing to do.

Box #3 was a shrot trade that I missed. As the day progressed it was a perfect setup but very volatile and you would have more than likely gotten stopped out. There is actually another trade that I am seeing that I missed about half way between #3 and #4. A good short could have been taken there but I did not see that until now.

Box #4 was another perfect setup that hit my second profit target perfectly merely by luck, in my opinion. So +25 and +45 on that trade.

Box #5 was another good setup that I took. I ended up +25 and +0 because of the retrace right before 1500. It could have yielded much better profit but better to be breakeven knowing you cannot lose any pips.

The next chart is GBPUSD on 9-25-08. Boxes #1,2,and 3 are all good setups that I just wanted to point out. These are during the asian session and pre london open. It seems to me that the slower times yield as good of profits as the more volatile times. Less chance of getting stopped as well.

Box #4 is where I began and took 2 losses -25 and -25. Box #5 is a little modification that I personally do quite well with. When it seems to me that there is a trend reversal (in this case long reversing to short side bias) then when price breaks the 43 and retraces when all 3 EMA's are together I'll take a position (in this case short) in anticipation of more follow through with a tight stop. +25 and +52 on that trade.

Box #6 I took two losses on a good setup. This is a tough pill to swallow since it ended down on the day afterwards but I would have to have more than 50 pips on my stop to be safe on that one. I don't really care at that point losing but seeing the market fall with no real pullbacks until box #6, which I did not take because I missed the major move of the day.

Once again, any questions just shoot them my way. I am glad to help.

God Bless.

This will be the EURUSD chart from Friday 9-26-08 that I traded.

Box #1 is a great short when the retracement was actually just a flattening period until the EMA's caught up which is my personal favorite trade to make.4638 was my short and I took profit at 4613 +25 and 4582 +56 with S1 in mind.

Box #2 was also another short I took which got me a little concerned but luckily the 43 stopped the market. I took profit of +25 and +16. The exits were alittle different because of box #3 which I was still in my second position but then missed my second profit target by a few pips. That should not have been because I should have just exited at the S1 level again. Not really greed but I was hoping for lower lows.

Box #3 was no entry because I was still in the #2 trade but could have still produced some profit.

Box #4 was a clear long entry loss that I took for -25 and -25. I usually don't like to take positions when the market reverses rather than retraces slowly. Ths happened so fast though that I did not have time to cancel orders. Not a bad setup though so I can not regret.

Box #5 and #6 I did not take because if you look at overall price movement it was down earlier (london open to about 0600) then up, then down, then up, then down again....on a friday. These are possible trades I wanted to point out but the open eyed discretionary trader will not enter in these market conditions, especially on a friday.

God Bless.

Does anyone have an alarm for EMA's? Been looking for one found one for a trendline but no luck on one for an EMA.

Iceman,
I have been following cornflower and this thread for a while. Your five min ones looks more interesting. I was just wondering if you waited to enter in a trade after the price crossed the 16 ema or you wait for it to bounce touch the 24 ema.

Doggy,

I enter at the 24EMA. I sometimes place an entry stop on other side of candle if price just bounces off of 16EMA for strong trending days. For example, today in the EUR would have been a prime example at the 0720 EST 5min candle. Price retraced to the 16 so what would have been ideal is to place an entry sell stop below the low of the candle in case the market never hit the 24.

I missed that trade and have missed quite the move in the Euro today but that is another option for entry that I have used...just wasn't thinking at the time to place it.

Hope this helps.

God Bless.

Well guys heres an EY move that I caught for 15 pips

Kodflakes,

Is that all that you typically go for in your cornflower trades? I was thinking that my accuracy might be even higher if I go for less myself. How long had you been trading this strategy?

Your thoughts appreciated.

Here are my trades for today in the EURUSD and GBPUSD.

The euro was a tough one today until later. Box #1 went immediately against me for -25 and -25pips. Box #2 is one of the most frustrating type of trades ever. I missed entry by HALF A PIP. That would have been a stellar one but luckily on the GBP I got in. Box #3 is a trade that I am currently in with +25 locked in and a +1pip stop on the second position. I am going to let that one ride to see what it can bring me.

GBPUSD was much tougher and actually motivated me to go take a nap and restart for New York session. Box #1 and #2 were long trades that gave me
-25 and -25 on both. Along with the EUR trade I decided to go lay down. I missed the obvious loser at Box #3 but was up and took Box #4. I took +25 and +0 on that and it gave me the confidence to make back what was lossed earlier.

Box #5 is the big motivator. I took the short and profited +25 and +62. Of course there was much more on the table but that is unpredictable and does not happen as often as ranging markets. Box #6 was another perfect setup that yielded +25 and +64.

So for the day in EUR I am -25 with an open position. GBP I've locked in +101 pips. So very good trading for the day.

Any questions are welcome.

God Bless.

Iceman,
does it mean that you trade just the EUR and GBP against USD with this system.

Thanks.