A newbie performance for 1 month

Dear Friends,

Last May 2007, I started trading forex with only a few winning vs a lot of lost trades and at the end of July I lost all the money invested... 2500€.
I guess I didn't had any clue about how to protect myself from losing money...

However I continue to follow forex, and this year I started trading again with another broker (AVAFX) on September, just one day before the crisis start in USA. I was long on EUR/USD, GBP/USD and short on USD/CHF, you can imagine what hapened... I got my margin at 90% used, and decided to ride the downtrend with hedging (I know it might sound crazy).

Well when the downtrend stoped for a while I injected some more money to have some margin, and started to make some shorts, allways trading with the trend.

Well after all this mess here you have my results:

Number of winning trades - 39
Number of losing trades - 1

Overall winning ammount - 3,109.63$

Do you think I'm being lucky, or I finally have a good strategy and starting understanding technicals and fundamentals (as I follow them very carefully)?

Tell me what do you think.

Regards,
D. D.

Does not sound like you have a strategy yet. Why did you enter the trade? What was your target price? SL? I think you were lucky this this time.

If you can repeat being profitable for another 2 months, i think your really onto something. But one month is not enough time, and anyone who basically shorted since last month could of made money.

See also this thread:

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=107815

Lucky streak

Thank you for your replies,

I went to that thread of the beginner lucky guy who ended up without money...

Sure that I have a strategy, I normally never trade against the trade, and enter allways in the highs or lows when there is a reversal.

After that as soon as the price moves in my direction I put a stop at 0 profit to have 0% risk, or a trailing stop.

Using a trailing stop stopped me to make 100% more that I've done, but I guess that's the best and safe thing to do. I have a target of making 20 pips per day or 100 pips per week, and as soon as those targets are made I close my position.

The only thing that I know I should be using but I'm not is a stop loss.
I don't understand were to put it, sometimes if I had it, I've had lost trades instead of winning trades.

If any of you two can make a suggestion, I will consider...

Thanks and keep working on Forex, I know that the base of success is not luck, I never played in casinos and I hate that...

Regards,
D. D.

I'm 100% with you. It seems that many on here are overcomplicating trading. I liked your post because you actually seem positive, too many on here seem negative. I watched a crash course on forex of about 12 cds from my brother who is already a Forex Trader, and I follow some of the very basic systems outlined in the course:

1. Best indicator for me is the DMS, Directional Movement System on VT Trader. I generally don't make a trade unless there is a cross for a buy or sell signal on this indicator first. This also has to corespond with the RSI, Relative Strength Index. If the RSI is above the fifty percent line, it confirms a buy signal from the DMS, if it is below the fifty percent line, it confirms a sell signal from the DMS.

2. Second, just the easy 5 EMA crossing the 12 EMA, and I keep the 60 EMA on the chart for especially if the first two EMAs cross the 60 EMA. The Bagovino System.

3. I keep the Stochastic Oscillator (Full) indicator on the screen to confirm the #1 and #2 indicators.

(**I also usually just TEST the "Open Day System" I learned. It actually almost always works, I just don't feel comfortable enough to live trade it. Chart where Midnight EST is (10Pm for me in Utah), and find the Open of that Midnight candle. Then, set your Entry order twenty pips above that Open and twenty pips below to catch whichever direction the price moves. I lock in ten pips every time. You can also chart a 25 SMA on the 15 minute chart along with this, as the price begins to cross the 25 SMA, you buy/sell in that direction. Like I said, it seems a little "iffy" and that is why I still don't trade it live, but it 95% of the time is a system that works.)

I use this with any significant news of the day, and I haven't had a negative trade in quite awhile. Even when there is a negative trade, there are far too many positive ones.

I also only lock in generally 10 pips at a time. Many of the trades will go on for 50, 100, or 150 pips...but I simply close my position when I hit 10 pips. Greed will kill you. My goal is simple like your's, to have about 10 to 20 pips a day, five days a week. My general goal is simply 200 pips a month...so when I go over that, it is a very good positive feeling. I then re-invest about half of what I made that month into my trading account for the next month to increase the number of lots I trade.

I'm like you with stop-losses, I know I need to use them, but sometimes it seems to rigid where to put them, so I usually just watch my trades very closely. If it is beginning to go negative TOO much to make me uncomfortable, I'll cut a loss.

Thanks for a positive post!

PS - Thanks also for reminding me about trailing stops. That is something I am going to begin incorporating again into my trading.

Hello my friend,

Thank you also for your positive words.

It seems like you already use very well some indicators, I'm start learning to use a few, and testing to see which fit best my trading.

For stops I looking at SAR as it is used a lot for stop loss and take profit.

I will post some info about my results after being using it for a while.

Regarding the greed, I believe it is nº1 negative feeling in forex, and the hardest to avoid...

This week I did already my 100pip objective, I did the 11pips yesterday in the morning, I don't like to open a position on Fridays as I hate sunday open volatility...

Have a great weekend and keep making profits without greed