Strat's Long Term Stress Free Trading

Hi Strat &Team
Still learning on how to plan daily trades, (From smaller Tf’s) by absorbing the sound advice on here and lots of practice I’m gaining confidence.

Posted chart on the Euro / GB for your comments please. The pink lines are the plan for the trade with entry just below 0.9300 first trade or enter @ 0.9530 ish should I miss the retrace. The R/R looks ok to me?
Thanks
Steve

hello Strat,
I have been a student of forex trading for about a year and a bit and in that time have managed not to read on the forum, not to engage with tutorials and to demo very infrequently. So what kind of a student have I been? What I have done is watch the progress of a couple of friends of mine who both started about three years ago and who, although subscribing to the same philosophy, nevertheless had very different attitudes to trading. With very different results.
So I became the apprentice of one of them and have developed my interest and involvement by investing a big chunk of my money for him to use. This in tandem with daily discussions which provided overview as well as detailed analysis. My mentor is a follower of james16 and I know with my very gut, that this is the way to go.
Tai chi I have been practising for nearly 30 years and the parallels with trading are perfect. This together with the lessons I receive from my mentor, always backed up with live examples of what works and what does not, have created in me a quiet confidence. Prosperity follows naturally when we strike harmony.
I find in the way you, Strat, express yourself a no nonsense sense of reality which (without wanting to sound overly critical) is sometimes lacking in the blah blah I have seen in some postings. I have been encouraged by my mentor to start getting involved in the forum and am grateful for instructions that can help me to broaden my understanding.

So what have I understood?
That greed and fear are the destabilisers.
That timing and listening are the two attributes we must cultivate. Listening so that we know what, and timing so that we know when.
That action without thought is blind, that thought without action is sterile.
That the action required may be precisely to avoid action.

Patience, patience, patience. St Augustine said the reward of patience is patience.

Thank you for your thread
TCThttp://www.forexfactory.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

What does a bearish engulfing bar tell that a bearish outside bar doesn't tell? Are they saying the same thing, because the real question is what is the difference?

Putteth my head on the block of chopping, good king?

Hi

An BEOB (Bearish outside bar) engulfs the previous bar, also the close is lower than the open and close of the previous bar ,preferably two thirds of the way down or more
An Engulfing bar is normally preceded by a small bar (Upward) and part of a pattern.
That’s my interpretation, have a search of James 16 thread also check out Trading naked.com for candle formations.

very nice thread, with a lot of pertinent info. good job, strat

No problem here are some examples



Here is a nice Harami on the daily eur/usd
As you can see it fills all the requirements of a Harami pattern

1 - A long bearish candle
2 - Next candles forms an inside bar, closing above the middle of the previous candle
3 - This candles closes above the previous, thus giving additional confirmation to the pattern



This is a newly formed Harami on the usd/jpy
I was going to trade this one but I missed my ideal entry

This is the same as the previous pattern, an inside bar is formed followed by a third close above the second candle to give confirmation for a long

Remember it is advisable to trade these patterns off of a support as that gives them much more strength and reliability

On a harami pattern, does the entry go on top/bottom of the first engulfing candle, or on top/bottom of the third confirming candle?

PS - I really appreciate the amount of posts slowing down. Thanks Naws for adding this to our common sense toolbox.

Here is another example on GBP/JPY where an old trendline support becomes resistance, and is soon to become support again.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/9393/gbpjpys.gif

Price is about to close above BOSS 20 and is testing the major resistance at 141.70 area, if it closes above this level we would place long orders on top of that candle? Stops below the low of that candle?

You are thinking along the right lines but seem to be putting the "cart" before the "horse" in other words, you are planning something that isn't there - yet. Might it not be better to wait for a bullish candle bouncing off support?

If you are so risk aversive, you could always do a Dr. Joe and put a buy stop above the high of retrace candles

Thank you.

"'sometimes lacking in the blah blah I have seen in some postings."' Very interesting, O Learned One - when I get on my soap box I think I'm doing too much "blah blah".

The third candle closing above the previous should give enough confirmation to go long there. Although if you are more conservative you can wait for it to reach the top of the engulfing candle. Also you can look for a small retrace after the third candle to get a better entry.

I don't think things like these should be set in stone, the pattern gives a signal and its up to the trader to decide how to trade it based on their preference.

Again, the normally quiet Asian trading session is on fire - looks like Tokyo is wanting to dump the JPY real bad. Must be the worse than expected manufacturing figures is causing BOJ to jump in and sell JPY again in an attempt to get back to 100 Yen to $1.

Remember, Japan needs a lower Yen (and higher $ since the US is their largest export market) so that their exports are cheaper.

I think maybe I should pay more attention to Nicola! I wonder if she has a little Japanese man somewhere?

It showed absolutely no respect at this, the fourth attack at the BOSS 20 and the double top - I guess this is one of the times where you stick it to the BOSS!

There is also a Rule of 4 which says something like after 3 attempts at support or resistance, there is a high probability that the 4th attempt will break through.

I really love the asian session lately! I am usually too tired at 5Pm EST to do analysis so I walk dogs and have dinner and then take a look and it has got me hooked lately because often it is on fire, especially the beginning of the week.
I have a rule on my desk "never buy yens in asian session" because any dips in the yen pairs seems to be profit taking. They must think things are pretty bad there. Where isn't bad? Oh yeah, Norway LOL

Nicola

[quote=strat;2623817]I think maybe I should pay more attention to Nicola!
(/quote]
I am just very happy I was listening to you when you taught me spirals.
Big Thank You Strat

[quote=elitejets;2623862] i'LL BITE, care to elaborate on this or is it for another day?
cheers
Geoff

[quote=geoffrod;2623879] I am happy to pass on what he told me because I know if I get it wrong I will be corrected. Attached is a Brent crude chart and I have marked the spiral outlines with purple lines (you can see the coil clearly on the 4hr but we won't go there OK!)
He told me that ever tightening coils can suggest an explosive breakout and that the breakout from the coil can usually be measured as the distance of the extreme range at the beginning of the coil, which you then project from the breakout point.
Nicola

PS probably some people just call spirals triangles or wedges and coils but I call ones like this spirals now.

Thankyou so much for your explanation nicola.
cheers
geoff

I'm just looking at Amin's GJ chart about Harami's and does anyone else see an inverted head and shoulders?
http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...postcount=1067

Bloody hell, Dan, Morris Minor to Ford Anglia to Ford Capri in 4 weeks!
Don't get carried away, lad, there are some huge potholes in the road that will tear the suspension off your Ford Capri before you can trade it in for a Mustang.

It is good to hear that you have found the time frame that works best for you. Many traders under estimate the importance of correct time frame selection (note to myself to get on my soapbox on this).

More important is that you ONLY have 4 WEEKS of this under your belt. This is not the time to bet the farm (as they say here). Baba G responded with seeing where you are after 3 months. For me, it's much longer than that, 1 year at least. You need to go through a full cycle of market tribulations and see how you live through that. If you look at a REAL trader's equity curve (NOT those published by scammers trying to sell stuff), you will see that it is not a straight line and suffers drawdowns (often when you least expect it). You need to feel the pain of that - and how you react to it. Just because you have a high success ratio NOW, does not mean that you can project it into the future.

You will have so much success with your trading that you will feel like "you can walk on water" - this is the MOST dangerous time. Remember the last guy that thought he could walk on water - he got hung on a cross! I've done it a few times and can still see the scars in my hands!

So, just keep doing what you're doing and PROVE to yourself (nobody else), that you can do it CONSISTENTLY over the long haul.

It is disappointing that you do not trade your plan, after doing the hard work of planning the trade, BUT it is good that you are HONEST and own up and realise your limitations. So many wannabe traders LIE and fool themselves with so many things about themselves and don't realise that until they resolve their personality and character traits, they will never be really successful.

Before you go any further Dan, you have not said WHY you do not trade your plan. Step back and ask yourself WHY? Your answers should reveal a great deal about YOU and YOUR plan. Keep asking until you get to the bottom of it and can put your finger on it and truly say "here's the reason why." I could tell you the questions to ask yourself but keep asking WHY? and they will come.

Having found the time frame which is comfortable for you, you now need to FIND what type of trader you want to be, or more important, comfortable, in being.

WHAT is your GOAL? WHEN do you want to achieve it? HOW do you want to achieve it. HOW do you want to spend your day, your life? WHAT makes you happy/sad? WHERE do I want to go in life? HOW do I get there? WHY? Ask all these questions RELATIVE to your trading and you will find your INNER trading self.

When you ask yourself these questions, go and stand in front of the mirror and STARE at yourself in the eyes. You are looking at the Holy Grail. Ask him all these questions; he may try to lie to you to make you go away, but YOU will know when he is lying so keep asking until he gives YOU the TRUTH. You may feel different after your conservations with the Holy Grail - I know I do.

It is always important to make a profit, no matter how or no matter how small - it is our REWARD and makes us feel good about ourselves and is very important for our psychological growth (not to mention the trading account).

When you get down to serious trading, profit doesn't figure anymore, we always make a profit. What is then important is ROI expressed in percentage terms.

After you have asked yourself these questions, you should have a clearer picture about what type of trader you are evolving into.

You may end up being a scalper on the Daily time frame being happy with 50 pips or so per trade but knowing that you are trading 100 GBP/pip contracts or larger.

You may not have the finances or the psychological make up to do this and may instead want to trade smaller contracts on longer trends. Or, you may be sufficiently skilfull to do both.

I'm sure you have already read them, but read those pages again with the posts of the conversation between Jim and Jacko. Keep reading them until you picture yourself as either Jim or Jacko for they both have contrasting styles.

While you are tormenting yourself with this and searching for the answers, you may want to trade 2 contracts (reduce GBP/pip if necessary). Take your profits on the 1st as you are already doing and then trail prices on the second one. Stop placement is key to this but until you find out from the Holy Grail the reasons for not trading your plan, no-one, NO-ONE, can help you.

I'm sorry for being long winded on this, Dan, and that this is not the answer you were hoping for but the true answer is very deep and we need to keep digging to get there

Amin, you are getting into semantics, for which there is no need. As far as I'm aware they are both the same just different terminology by different folks.