The Force 5min system

But also remember Yogi said this, "I never said all those things I said."


I also saw someone a few posts up asking about just trading using the basic strat. That is okay, but please make sure you trading only with the trend if that's what you are doing. Trading with the trend can get you out of a lot of mistakes you may make. Just my two cents.

Good Luck and Happy Pips!

Simple

Thats Worth a lot more then 2 cents.

There is only 1 time in the chart where the trend will not work. The end.
Rufus

With holiday season approaching things could get pretty quiet here in Force 5 land. I will be finalizing my trading plan for 2010.

My goal for the Fx market this upcoming year is going to be this. By July 1st be able to make a decision when I would be able to trade full time. I figure this will only be accomplished for me with the use of a highly detailed trading plan. To me the hardest part of this plan is how to lay out when and when not to take positions. But even this is gradually falling into place.

The next key is to stick to it.

Part of my overall trading plan is also a plan for each trading session which I have a format for that I fill out at the start of each trading session.
One of the things I have trouble with are stupid mistakes. Some of these have been as simple as trying to close out an order but instead open one.
This plan for each trading session will help me stop the stupid mistakes also.

So all in all my objective here with all this I am doing is to lay out exactly what I will be doing for every situation the market may present.

To quote Mark Douglas from "Trading In The Zone"...."Be rigid in our rules, flexible in our expectations"

I have this posted on my desk.

On a different note, This could be a good time for any of you to post your goals here. It will help you in your thoughts, and inspire others who read it. Besides putting something in writing helps your overall believing to get your goals accomplished.

To quote Yoda "Do or do not, there is no try"

Rufus

Setting up goals and rules are paramount to success in this business. I know because I currently don't have them in place and it shows in my floundering results. I also am planning this step, also a journal helps so you can mentally track your progress and see what the indicators and S/R lines were doing etc. and it is very easy to miss it 1 day and then everything breaks down. You have to treat this as a business because the traders you are trading against definately are and you don't want to be thier bait.

There are a lot of great insight in this thread. I re-read the thread when possible (ha in my spare time-- it took me over 6 weeks to read through this the 1st time). I condensed the important and relevant topics and have whittled it down to 24 pages (so far). I feel that there is a lot of details there that if missed could mean the difference between make or break for us.

I am currently am reading the emotion free trading book. There are some good insights there. It is on post 1773 page 119 from this thread.

Over the weekend I was trying to insert charts to show examples (of recent mistakes trading against the trend and spotting the trend which is part of my steep learning curve) to no avail. I know that this has to be easier than I am making it. i will try again soon.

Day late

Great post a lot of insight

I love to see charts. On my trading platform I save the screenshot as a picture in a seperate file under "My Pictures". When you do a post, select atachments and it will give you the option to browse your computer and then you can find the chart to upload. Just make sure any personal information you have on it etc. isn't included.

Rufus

ps. you got me thinking, I am going to start through this thread as well.

Thanks, I tried that with my charts and it still did not work so I am still working on it.

Here is a great sample trade journal
http://mtrader.com/tradingjournal.htm

I drafted a journal off of that to adapt it to your current trade system. the problem is that it is very detailed and you won't have time to write down everything while you are focusing on your current trade. So I made some different modifications for a quick journal where you can just write down quick observations. This was off of different indicators but you get the picture.

TRADE JOURNAL

Time In- _________ Time Out-_________
Short/Long _________
A. Entry price _________
Exit price ­­­­­­_________
Outcome _________

B. Signals of Trade
________________
________________
________________
________________
1. Small scalp – no upside target
2. To upper/lower kelt
3. Upper/lower Donchian channel
4. Whatever reason, the point is to have one

5.__________________________________




C. Expectations




D. 10 = Sure thing
5 = 70/30 trade
1 = Quick flip

Thoughts of time of trade
__________


E. Were my expectations met? Yes or no

F. How did I feel about the trade?
Good/Anxious/Very Anxious




I also get distracted very easily so I set up a basic template where you have to write down observations at the start of every bar. This helps in the beginning to get you focused --- ha diddn't keep working for me because I got distracted and I'm lazy and the system I was using it on was a bad system so it was destined for failure--but I am going back to it because I feel this is a very worthy system and you have to put in the time. So,for example, you could write down up day, trending up, bounce off of fib line, MA cross, Stoch up, no trade here, etc. everyone is different so write what works for you and what you observe. This did help me when I finally got serious. And because of this threaad I am again!! Again this is a business and you have to have a concrete plan in place if you are going to succeed.

[quote=Day Late;3307976]Thanks, I tried that with my charts and it still did not work so I am still working on it.

Here is a great sample trade journal
http://mtrader.com/tradingjournal.htm

I drafted a journal off of that to adapt it to your current trade system. the problem is that it is very detailed and you won't have time to write down everything while you are focusing on your current trade. So I made some different modifications for a quick journal where you can just write down quick observations. This was off of different indicators but you get the picture.

TRADE JOURNAL

Time In- _________ Time Out-_________
Short/Long _________
A. Entry price _________
Exit price ­­­­­­_________
Outcome _________

B. Signals of Trade
________________
________________
________________
________________
1. Small scalp – no upside target
2. To upper/lower kelt
3. Upper/lower Donchian channel
4. Whatever reason, the point is to have one

5.__________________________________




C. Expectations




D. 10 = Sure thing
5 = 70/30 trade
1 = Quick flip

Thoughts of time of trade
__________


E. Were my expectations met? Yes or no

F. How did I feel about the trade?
Good/Anxious/Very Anxious


I know what you mean about grtting distracted from getting all the information down. Mine does look similar. I recently added to mine "what is the S/R that will keep price from hitting mt stop"

I just managed to nail a nice F5 trade. Got an S2 pivot and 2 previous highs to protect my stop. With FX getting so holiday mode range bound with sudden bursts of energy, it's nice to get one to move for you.

Rufus

Gotta go build 2 night stands for someone, my other job.

Happy pippin to all

Rufus

Things could get slow and volatile for the next few days. So everyone enjoy the time off.

"""This Pips for You"""

Rufus

Well I have been going through the entire thread again. I have relearned some things that I had not been putting to use on my charts. I am sure looking forward to the end of the holiday slows. Right now on page 100 and ready for another break.

Rufus

Just finished going through the thread again.

It is a gold mine of information. I have 40+ pages of cut and paste and comments I have made. I am sure looking forward to trading when all gets back to "normal" sometime in early Janurary.

I am planning on doing a lot of posting here on F5. Maybe we can all learn together and see lota of pips.

Rufus

Hi, Merry Christmas and happy holiday wishes to all.

Sounds great Rufus and thanks for your hard work. Is there any chance that you could post your compilation of notes or PM them to anyone that is interested so we could be on the same page when looking at things? I easily get turned around on what to watch and how to interpret it. I want to be active in this thread also and want to learn. But wanting and doing sometimes are far off --- ha.

Day late.

Hi Day,
saw your problem with putting up charts Are you using MT4?
If so R click hit save as picture. Put it where you know to find it.
After you write the post hit 'manage attachments'.
Hit choose - that lets you find the pic, hit upload, when that is done hit close window, then submit.

Hi Kolvekal,

I use Tradestation for charting on another computer and trade the CME FX products (they are usually a little different than forex by a pip or 2) and I just started watching/trading from 12AM to 5 AM CDT (6 to 11 GMT). I have done everything except the last step (I think). I was able to save a chart as an attachment on Forex Factory but I could not show it as a thumbnail where you can visually see it. I will try again soon after the holidays when the markets pick up unless I see a great example before that. I am also pretty new to this web site, thread, the 5 minute time frame and the EURUSD so I am playing catch up in many arenas. Thanks for all of your help and patience.

Merry Christmas All.

Next year will be a great year for all of us on the Force.

Rufus

Hi All

With the Holiday season upon us it gives me a lotof time to think about Fx and all. This morning while drinking coffee I was thinking a lot about trade or position managment.

I contend that how you manage your position is at least as important if not more so as the edge that gets you into the trade. I believe that a good manager can take any series of positions in any market and by management alone can make a profit.

Once the position is in place the fear or greed can take over easily. The rules we set up to manage the position will manage the fear and greed. This is why sometimes trading on a demo account can be detrimental. It does not teach us the way to manage our mind. Seeing your own dollars vanish or accumulate play with the synapsis of your brain cells. We can train the synapsis by how we manage our positions. So when you feal you are ready to leave the demo account, do a very small live account. But not so small that you don't learn how your mind reacts to certain situations.

Why are some people afraid of snakes, dogs, spiders, future, failure, or what ever. You were not born with any of these. There are two fears we are born with, falling and loud noises. All others we have were acquired over time for whatever reasons. So we must manage our positions to manage our minds when it comes to money. To quote an american movie "Grumpy Old Men"... "you can crap in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills first". No hoping, wishing, praying, fearing or being greedy can enter in our trading.

As you may see, I am a fan of how to manage your mind. At times I will spend hours looking at a chart in light of position management. How much time should I give a position tohit 10 pips?,20 pips?, 30 pips? These are all things that should be taken in consideration. When do you let price hit your stop?

Here in the F5 thread FJ set the standard that our initial stop is 20 pips. We take 1/2 off when we get 10 pips, and so on. How you manage that position is up to you. It is your money. For me now when 10 pips profit is hit and I take off 1/2 my position. I move my stop closer ten pips. Of course at times it will take me out of a move. But for me and how my mind works, I want positions paid for as quick as possible. With this moving of the stop 10 pips pays for my position. If it gets hit I break even.

There are tons of things we can do to manage our trading. As a matter of fact, in my trading plan there are far more pages on management then rules for getting into a position. Any fool can hit buy or sell. But what we do after that order is placed is of utmost importance to our profitability in this market.

Well hope this helps someone.

Rufus

If you do go back and look at charts in light of managing your position. You probably should go back to Sept. Oct, and first part of November. The end of November and December are loaded with holiday anomalies that need to be handled on their own. Also look at the chart times that correspond to the hours and days where you will be trading.

It's a business and we run it like one. No haphazardness.

Rufus

Impressively done. 6 hours to make 136 pips is not bad at all. Congrats

Those of us who have been on this thread a while saw FJ do this repeatedly. It is an awsome system when traded right.

Rufus

That's all we can do Rufus! That's all I can do. I'll be back on here more after thew new year. Just got a computer system to set up and get running. I love it, I feel like a little kid with a new toy.

Take care man!