Finding A Trade

Hi guys!
So I have a Live & a Demo account. On my Demo account I've been trying to find a good simple system for scalping really, and it's developing okay. The thing is, when I began trading with my live account I was very inexperienced, and I lost a certain amount of money letting a loser run because I couldn't bring myself to cut it - no, any moment it would turn around for me and I'd be back in the green! So failing to use stops cost me about 10,000$$USD, which absolutely sucked. My account, since then, has been bopping from $95,000 to $98,000, but I just can't seem to get it back over that 100k mark.

Now lately, I've just been finding it difficult to find a trade setup I like! I struggle to pull the trigger now because I've had so many losses, and my winners are only bringing me to break even - overall, I've still lost! I want to go back to demo trading, but the thing I don't like about demo trading is that I pull the trigger too easily because it's not real, I feel invincible. All I want is to bring my LIVE account back up to scratch, then keep it going. So many times I've found trades, written down what I thought they'd do but then been too scared to pull the trigger - and watched them do exactly as I thought, which would have given pips+++. WHICH ABSOLUTELY SUCKS. I hate being terrified about pulling the trigger - and i hate having larger stops too. =\

Finding a trade is now hard for me. I mean, I just don't see them anymore like I used to before I got bitten. =\

I'm also a new comer to forex, but it sounds like you need to sort your head out not your trades.Fear seems to be your biggest enemy at the moment,have you read trading in the zone ?,and if you havn't i'd reccomend you do.

Regards Alb

So you began your first live acc with >100k?

And you found a huge Resistance Level on your balance....

I'd say forget about 90k (keep it safe from your itching hands on another savings acc, for instance) and train your skills with the rest... try to let the numbness of emotions out of the trading station and make it for real, in a smaller scale, since DEMO doesn't work for you. Do it until your trading become a boring routine.

I would recommend larger TF, with this capital available, you don't have to find a trade everyday....but.... If you like scalping, that's ok (for me that doesn't suit), master it before you blow your capital

Unless you are talking about Chilean Pesos, not USD.... the forget about...

Cheers!

Thanks guys, I agree entirely - fear has become too large a factor. I have a trade going at the moment, and I've dropped the leverage. The thing I did when I lost the 10k was I had a HUGE leverage - I was leverging about 1mio, instead of 100k. Of course, that meant my losses became huge in a very short amount of time, but i let it run overnight - I KNOW, STUPID!!!!

I WOULD LOVE to trade longer time frames. I generally study 4hr, daily - hourly sometimes. I don't like shorter trades, but I'd like to be able to scalp for intraday trades y'know. I haven't read trading in the zone - I'll go check it out sometime soon. I try to aim, usually, for between 20-30 pips. If I could find a good entry point for a trade that would last all week, I'd love it! The thing is with the longer trades, you have to have bigger stops - which makes me go "EEK!!" so I've dropped my lot sizes down right now, I hardly ever go over 100k - I did once, a 300k lot, made good money of it in a short amount of time but I don't want to do it. I think I will do the laborious boring thing with the 100k lot and just get used to it for a while until I am much more consistent. Another thing I have to do, I think, is when Iput stops in, pretty much say goodbye to however much that stop is worth that way I'm not all "emotionally involved".

It's definitely a much different ride than what you think when you first start! Demo just doesn't work for me aside from developing this scalping thing, so I'll just be on he very safe side on my live account and see how it goes. Thanks for your replies!! I've been live trading for about a month now I think, but demo-ing for 5-6? I wasted a lot of time with hundreds of indicators. When I started having real success, it was when I wiped them off my chart!!

Moved my current stop to 1 pip above break even =] at least I'm not worried about losing at the moment! XP

Not really, what many traders do is trade the daily chart using some sort of moving average placed as a Support/Resistance level. If Daily chart price is above the S/R level, that would indicate an upwards trend. Now, with this information, you would look for a smaller timeframe such as the Hourly chart and only trade upwards, based on the Daily chart information. You would need to study reversals and continuation moves to identify and new upwards move one the Hourly chart. You would also set up an Oscillator indicator to assist you with the reversals.

That's a prett good start Jhig...

Just one more thing, since the thread starter seems to be facing som trouble about large stops, much time exposed to market, higher TFs... Lowering your leverage is a good point, but the ultimate definition of Money Management got from Chris (Clockwork71) at the Silence Service thread (take a good look there...)

"Good money management is when you are capable of turn your computer off and go to do something else after you entered a trade", or something like this...

This is of course, useful, since you got a good setup

Cheers!

We do not "Find" trades first off.

Trades pop out at us, they are obvious at obvious levels.

You must stop trading your live account immediately.

I recommend going back to demo first to prove to your psyche that you have a winning method/system. That over a thousand trade period you are confident that you will win more than you will lose. This is huge IMO. With this new confidence you should be able to trade your plan with no doubts or worries about the position reversing on you as you have no control over the market, you can only trade your plan as your method/system says to trade because overall we know we have an edge IF we follow our plan.

Once you have built your confidence level back up and proved your method/system, scale back into trading live. Start by risking only $100 prove to yourself that you can handle a small amount of risk first then move your risk up a little more.

Anyways those are just a few thoughts of mine that have helped me become less emotional about my trades. To "let go" if you will as i truly have to control.

Fear is a big obstacle to overcome but not impossible. The more you can build your confidence back, the less you will fear. I would definitely start by demo trading( take it seriously) and then slowly as you become profitable start trading a small amount. As far as trading I would recommend starting on the larger timeframes and working your way down. With the larger timeframes you will require a larger stoploss but that shouldn't bother you. Make each trade worth 1-2% of your account and no matter how many pips you are risking whether it is 3 pips or 300 pips you will only lose 1-2% of your account. Give your trades room to breathe. And I see a lot of traders set there stoploss to breakeven +1 pip. Why? Either set it to breakeven or not that one pip means nothing other than you are happy you got 1 pip. Trading the larger timeframes of course you will be risking more pips so shoot for more pips not 20-30. Let your winners be larger than your losers. Try reading my thread I recently started Nelson7 Simple Trading and maybe you'll get something else from it. Good luck.

Hey guys, sorry I haven't checked this out lately! After being a bit shaken, I'm back on my feet with determination again. >=D I've been doing well the last few days, after I went to the South Island for a week to help my dad move house. First day was a bit strange being back, I felt so out of touch! Second day was a break even trade, or just above, a loser, and then a winner with a trailing stop. I've been dabbling through my demo account, and I recently met another trader here (OMG WOW) so he's given me some books which I'm beginning to wade through. There's a lot more about patterns I want to learn volume analysis and statistical analysis too.

As for indicators, so over them. Only ones I like at the moment are MACD just for confirmation, the occasional BBand to check, and one or two others. Fibs are a must though =]

You guys have been a great help! I think initially, the problem was I put too much emphasis on losing trades, and hardly any on a winning trade. Now though, I'm breaking through that silly mental barrier, and I'm using 1% leverage, risk is generally no more than $100. =] I'd like to develop some different methods and strategies, so it's time to broaden the horizons!