The College Trader

I most definitely use pivot points in my trading. However, they are not as important as monthly/weekly resistance/support lines, round numbers, price patterns ect.

You should definitely NEVER trade solely off of pivot lines. This is especially because everyone has their own calculation of pivot points and thus you can't really trust them all too well.

My suggestion is to use pivots in conjunction with another method like fib numbers or trend lines. If you see a confluence of lines (like two methods say a price will reverse at such and such point, which just happens to be your marked pivot point ) the you're good. Chances are, your pivot point is legit.

Can you go into more detail about the 23% as profit taking. So take profits ar 23% and when would we re-enter the trade.

No problem fullperson, good to have you back. Finals time was nuts, I'm back at school for a couple of days working, raising capital as I say lol

What are you up to for the vacation?

Yeah I agree, my accounting final nearly killed me. A girl next to me threw up because she was upset or something idk it was crazy. Yeah I really am starting to scratch the surface and pick up little nik naks. So far I can take an account and profit on it I just cant get anywhere good if that makes sense. My profit is erratic but overall my account goes up. I know why. I really don't have a trading plan. I just am starting to understand how everything works and kind of opening my eyes for the first time. It's cool to see discrepancies in price and be able to work off of PA and make money. But I am planning to deal more in technicals and possibly a couple of EA's I've been taking a peak at.

Thanks for the response and encouragement Fullperson!

I'm also student...
but part time not full time...
happy Trading...

hahaha, that sounds brutal! Anyways, if you're looking for some knick knacks to add to your knowledge, try candle chart analysis ( a basic for all traders):

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22501045/G...stick-Charting

A better book would be Steve Nison's Japanese Candle Sticks so you can see the bulls and bears duke it out

You might also want to look into Elliot Wave Theory (though I definitely don't recommend trading based on them because I think it's bunk. Still, lots of traders trade based off them so it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy).

Are there any particular knick knacks you want to know about?

Also if you have an EA compatible with MT4, you can backtest your strategy via running your EA across several years data on MT4. This can be done on the "strategy tester" tab. You just select your EA, select your parameters and set a time zone. I personally like to use a random number generator to select the start and end time so your results are not biased:

http://www.random.org/

IF you don't have MT4, you can download the client for free online. I'd be happy to run any back tests and post the results on the page
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Great to see you myonline! Please join in the discussion when ever you want. There's no such thing as a "bad" question

Brutal... can't believe they got rid of the trays at the DCs!

I'll try to contribute more discussion here, unfortunately I imagine I don't trade the same session as most of you. When I was still in school I watched US session, now that I'm working I'm all about the Far-East session.

Re: UMass being a school of opportunities, it definitely is but you really need to pursue things to stand out. Talk to professors, see if you can work with them on any side projects (Schneeweis & Kazemi I mentioned before, Mila Getmansky is also pretty cool and a great prof, and Kapadia teaches the FX course and also worked at Bear Stearns on a trading desk if I recall), do anything you can that could be put on your resume. Get involved with the finance society & investment club if you can.

My single biggest piece of advise would be to start a club dedicated to trading. I wish I did this, but started trading way too late to even consider it. Teach technical analysis basics, start a competition and review weekly results, etc. I can't think of a better way to illustrate to potential employers your interest in trading, your initiative, management skills, etc. Seriously, start this group!

Haha I guess I shoulda mentioned I've been on and off in the game for about 12 months now so I got my trade journal sorted (from day 1 lol) and systems (about 50 variations - you can see where that's going) which I gotta say I've never been able to stick to until recently (and even then I've slipped up at least once every two weeks now), end up forcing it, losing like 10%, going back to the books, refurnishing the old system, getting 4% up, not seeing clear signals for days or missing them, losing another 10% from scalps etc. Earlier this year I was doing even worse things like taking 30% risk on trade signals from other sites 'just to break even', those never ended very well.

In short I've finally settled to playing G/U on fundamental news and correlational comms/futs for bias & a candlestick reversals/continuations (mostly hammer/hanging man/shooting star/morning star pins and occassionally inside/outside bars) at long term s/r (daily/weekly/monthly open, highs lows). I'm only confident using it for anything up to around 20-30 pips though, but the good thing about short movement expectations is I don't need to worry that much whether its rangebound or trending on the long term particularly with something as scalpy as the pound dollar. Not that it doesn't help factoring that into the bias. Definitely found that lacking solid discipline has been boning my account but things have been turning out well more recently. Allthough I'm staying out for a week or so with the low liquidity and bank holidays, getting randomly hedge funded and inadvertantly assuming this economic climate is going to persist even when volumes pick up next year isn't really my idea of christmas & ny lol.

But from what you've described that's some insane patience & discipline you got there, using demos for testing strictly until they work etc. hats off to you man. I've tended to just jump in with a 1k lot or something live and find out the expensive way that something I *think* is working actually doesn't that well, hopefully those days are long gone

I wanted to quickly drop by and with everyone a Merry Christmas!

I will address some of the things said recently probably tomorrow since I went through a lot of the beginning steps mentioned, hopefully it'll give you some perspective, but I say relax for the holidays and enjoy the time with the family. (Then again I was working on a system until 5am last night after everyone went to sleep lol)

Have a great time guys, wish you all the best.

Jonas

University of Florida Here

I woke up this morning to my parents arguing about my uncle being lazy, my other uncle being a spendthrift ect. Then I realized...yup it's Christmas again lol.

But seriously, it's nice to step back from the desk and realize that there's way more to life than numbers and charts. Nothing will ever measure the magic awesomeness of santa or that kiss under the mistletoe

Smittens, I love your continual support man! I plan on e-mailing them very very soon about possible side projects. I did try to start a hedge fund club (it's a mix of all the jobs run in such a fund. I wanted to include marketers, accountants, managers, traders, investors in one really fun club that teaches team work w/ other disciplines). However, I needed to attened some kind of dumb seminar that started before orientations. Thus, I wasn't "registered" as a potential club leader. I'll try to get in that seminar this semester.

I do regret the fact that I live on O-hill. When roads start freezing I'm screwed.

Nev, I started as a scalper and day trader as well, but it was really physically killing me lol. Then I realized that health was more important than money, so I gave up catching the tiny punts lol. The way I see it, the money I don't lose is the money I gain.

Also, you mention you have 50 systems WOAAAHH man. Do you also have 50 money management principles strategies (you see where this is going lol). I've talked to lots and lots of traders and they always tell me the money management and risk control is MORE important than the system. Hell, if your system is only 50% correct every time, and you have a system like 3% of your account used per trade + 3:1 reward/risk, then you're set.

Here are some possible ideas:
for scalping:
-choose a solid risk % per trade of your account (1, 2, 3, 5% anything over 10 is jumping off of the UMass library, which is pretty darned tall). Statistically, you're going to win in the long run if you follow a solid MM plan. - phase your trade in by gradually increasing your position size or take half, 2/3, ect of your profits out if the trade to lock in profits.
- bank 50% of your profits (it'll teach you discipline)

-Here are some selected money management statistics:

Long term payoff = (win amount)(win %) + (Loss amount)(1-win%)
where win amount is based off of your risk reward ratio. If it's 3:1 then win amount = 3 and loss amount = 1.

Chances of having "x" losses in a row: (1-win%)^x
This is a useful equation to optimize your bank account to sustain consecutive losses. You wouldn't use a $100 account for a system that makes consecutive losses 5x in a row 50% of the time would you? Which follows into the next equation

How many losses can I sustain w/ a bank account worth Y, and what's the chances that it'll happen?
Y = account total
Loss amount = how much money you risk per trade
win % = accuracy of your system

[Y/(loss amount/100)] = trades you can lose before your account is dead and you pull out your hair

Plug back the result into the equation for having x amounts of losses:
(1-win%)^x for the % chance your system can gain consecutive losses till you die

AND you can look up "kelly's antimartinagle"- it's used by traders w/ above 80% win rate and is commonly known as the most "sane" way to be aggressive.


On another note, I'd like to welcome David Valera to the group!

malaysian student..a fresh newbie..try to change my life...

hi nobrainer, you should probably start getting read up on currencies. But let it be known that while currencies "could" get you rich, they can also hurt your bank account. Leverage, while it is very enticing, can be very dangerous. To begin, you should write down a list of your risk tolerances, and the amount of money you plan to enter the markets with. You should only trade with risk capital (the amount of money you have leftover that you don't need right now).

That is my situation too. I college student with some funds to invest and learning the forex trading market. Good Luck

Well I am a fulltime trader but have been trading for some time now. I only take 1 class per semester and all I do is trade. I am close to turning 20

last year of high school.
living in italy i get to trade the end of ny session and the whole london session.i prefer to close the trades in the day (so they last about 6 hours) but i'm trying to learn how to swing trade (loading tha position on every retracement/dip instead of closing and reopening it...a little riskier but better in the longer term)

i've been trading live for 1,5 month and i've been quite lucky.only entering secure trade with small risk.

University of Miami<<

hows CFA for forex?

Hey my young yuppie friends,

I'm considering moving to FOREX from stocks and I'm a university student, too. I go to Colorado University at the moment, and I'm kind of a fanatic about the markets just like some of you apparently are. I was wondering if anyone wanted to talk more about forex with me, the advantages and disadvantages, as well as trading in general. Good to see I'm not the only college student trading out there!

PM me ill help you out