Thexder's journey to(ward?) freedom

Yeah they just keep coming. It's a strange thing to get used to, spending so little time at it and usually winning.
What strategies do you follow lately?

I know exactly what you're saying.
A month ago I opened shorts on gu gj then went on holiday for a week with no PC access. Came back to nearly 2500 pips profit in a week or so...
Its crazy.

These days im using J16 pins on daily and just one fib.
Preferably only trade on gu gj but if i see something like a daily pin at a 50% retrace of a wave then im all on it, regardless...

It just took time to find what suits, and then to build the patience to wait for the right setup.

How are you trading these days yourself?

Part of what suited me after looking back was not focusing too much on it, having other main priorities and only minimal time to look at this stuff. Then only the good setups came clear. I look for J16pins on 4hr to weekly, or maybe lower if something stands out, and I try to be conscious to take them only as pullbacks with an entry resuming a trend like all the shorts with USD lately, or else in a sideways time then either way as long as there isn't much traffic (like a clean run up or down leaving space to retrace before slamming into a bunch of bar ends). Suddenly it feels normal to see a trade get triggered and be sitting in profit over 100 and consolidating between +100 and +130 profit...and then I decide if I will stay break even and ride it or take at least something. I sometimes drop down to check for the s/r levels if I want to lock in profit and at least do it semi intelligently rather than picking a pip number to bank.

For now I'm still just hobbying it while I work the job but my ambitions are to continue slowly building until I can increase the lot size to a point where I'm still doing the same thing week after week, just with enough lots that eventually I'm free instead of playing with monopoly bills.

Fast in & out 4 hour bearish outside (or 2 bar pin) after a sharp run up (hoping there was bound to be a retrace down to give a small move a chance).

And now looking at the developments since I got out with my fixed small target I'm glad I did...

H4 bearish and bullish outside bars were seen on these 2 at areas of interpretable pullbacks or sideways areas with at least some room to get in & out and some otherwise identifiable targets if staying in was an option with manual management. A small profit at the end of the week to compliment a small in & out profit at the beginning of the week.

On the watch list for next week are 2 daily pins. I like the fact that USD CAD is a triple top now.

And as planned, didn't take long.

Just following up on those 2 daily setups, now I'm glad I just set my exit targets and took the exit when it came because if I tried to ride it out I would have broken even or had small profit. After hitting the targets I plotted out they both rolled back. If I have time I want to try tracking the progress of a trade setup so I can look back and see how accurate I was or what I could have done better, rather than just spotting possible setups and then not remembering how they played out.

I did ok on the daily triple top USD CAD pin and then it rolled back upward so I was looking on a lower time frame for price action to get me back in short. The hourly chart had the clearest/cleanest looking price momentum (distinct swing waves rather than a bunch of parallel moving sideways action) so I kept watching and saw an hourly pin but it was not the best pin, not very long compared to the previous etc.
But then a bearish outside followed and it was all sitting on a pivot area so I took the chance on that one.

Since it was hourly I decided to try riding it out rather than setting a fixed target (which I would have met on the next pivot area below entry) because the loss would be relatively small if I got stopped at the other end of the bearish bar, and I would expect a re-test of the entry point before it drops significantly anyway. Since I got about 150 pips out of this chart just one day ago, I don't mind giving back a small portion of it if I fail on the hourly.

Update: I had a stop set for break even after being in for a while but it has been taken out after this chart was posted so now I'm sitting aside again looking for another short. So far now it's going sideways, which could lead to some scalp ins & outs and possibly a short resumption.

The bigger picture on the daily chart. The initial short of the triple top pin gave +150, now anything can happen but the bias is for shorts on lower time frame setups.

Since it's been a while and I've been banking pips on price action I thought I'd try some cable scalping for old time sake using disposable pips that won't hurt to lose compared to what I otherwise bank up. I consider a mini account to be disposable money (I don't put a lot in there and it's money I can afford to lose) so to me it's like demo trading as long as I think I have a reasonable chance at success with a method.

So tonight I decided to try hourly cable scalping with some price action in the form of DIBS combined with just my overall feel for cable from all the months of effort I invested in learning it this time last year.

I placed an order at the break out of the circled inside bar and two bar high looking region and it blasted on up around +40 so I am sitting at break even and will let it ride out. I miss scalping.

And since it's a scalp trade and things move fast, it's only fitting that I resurrect my old M1 trade management at least to lock in something at or above break even.
So right now I have +20 locked in now that a retracement has occured after the thrust, and then the previous high has (barely) been beaten by a new high.

If the trade stays on (it's consolidating sideways now) I'll keep bumping it up behind M1 S/R areas and if it starts looking strong I'll find somewhere to park the stop on a higher time frame overnight.

Another new M1 high has occurred so I've marked off the new boundary low that was reached during that last swing and that's the current stop location setting me with +33 if I get stopped.

Leaving the stop there under that highest orange support line gives a reasonable "free trade" so I'm willing to let it stew there and see what develops. This also gives the current high to retrace and test the minor break out level it just ran through above the top resistance (now support) line.

So my initial long entry way at the bottom surged cleanly into profit, consolidated, then broke long again and my stop allows some re-testing of that second break out and gives me profit either way. Now I can either continue to micro manage or just go to bed.

Edit: I bumped the stop a little higher basically up at the top support line because it's gone sideways a long time again now since this screen shot and I feel new support now exists at the top horizontal support line. This pretty much pays for the Pring on Price Patterns book coming in the mail in a few days from Amazon.

Here's where it's at with +47 locked in.

And the support was broken giving +52 final result for almost 2 hours work.

Look at the hourly chart again now that it's all over and what a coincidence, my M1 managed S/R trade was done when an hourly pin was broken counter trend to what I was trading. Almost tempted to go short. Almost...not quite.

Got in 3 daily pins last night.

Out of the 3 daily pins I posted, I took profit on EUR and CHF when they retraced. I'm still in the NZD but it's been going sideways all week hovering around break even and it's getting closer to Christmas so I've set it to get me out at break even. It's within 8 pips so far as the nearest threat. If it gets me out, no problem. Things are going too stale. The hourly chart shows just a bunch of parallel bars and the range has been only 50 pips the past few days.

The sideways traffic has broken and the daily trade is still on, set to run with no targets and currently break even.

Hope it is going to yield some nice green pips to you! Have a nice christmas and a good 2009. My sister and her husband are here with us to celebrate and they flew over from Calgary a few days ago!

Best Wishes for 09!
Ciao!
Gnat - Matt