Rufus

I will see you there. I will bring some fine Scotch. My current favorite Lagavulin.

Rufus

My recap for the week.

Up a little for the account. All my profitable trades were from my 5 min chart. I was not at my computer for the 15 min fib system I use. But there was a number of those that would have produced some pips. I was also trying some 1 min scalping. This is where all my losses came in. As I posted earlyer 1min is not for me as of yet. I will still be looking at the one min chart as this will at times give some advance warning of a position going sour.

Also this past week was either flat or extreems while I was sitting at my desk so it was chalanging. With NFP and start of the year behind us I suspect I will see more durring the limmited hours I have available to trade. Looking forward to next week.

Rufus

I did not catch the Japanese bank holiday. Lost 16 pips do to flatness.

I have told myself 100's of times to check the news, check the news. Did I? NOOOOO.

What a rookie mistake. Live, trade, and learn.

Rufus

Oh god, u bringing my crazy, when u gonna bring it?? hehe

Good morning (for me) all.

I do most all my trading from a 5 min chart. The exception is the 15 min fib ststem I use. Back to the 5m.

I have been thinking through ways to keep track of S/R for differnt time frames all on the 5 without it getting confusing. The answer is color coding.

Attached is my daily chart with hot pink levels marked out.
4h is red. 1h is blue, 15 m green.

I then plot the near S/R zones on my 5min chart in the color that has the most significance. There will be similar numbers for all four charts at times. So when I plot the line I stick to the highest time frame for the color. This lets me know the potential strength of this area. Now while watching price I can be aware of this without flopping to all the charts.

Rufus

Hi again.

Here is how it works.

The pink line.

This line was S/R in all 4 time frames. The retest would have been a good litle position. I was in bed. I haven't figured out how to get out off sleeping.

Rufus

Two nice trades for me this afternoon. I call this my Tokyo Open system.

For some reason when Tokyo market kicks in there is often a sudden movement in the usdjpy. I have not looked at the other yen pairs. Anyway was good for 30+ pips

Rufus

Take a look at this, interesting reading! It might help you prepare for your daily trading in this session.

Like the journal!

Thank you Simpleguy

I have already read the 2 pdf. Will read them in more detail latter today. They do explain the somewhat predictable behaviour we see with Tokyo Open. I have started looking at other yen pairs and am seeing the same patterns. With those pairs I have to deal with a larger spread so just need to reduce risk.

Anyway thanks again, glad you found my little corner of FF.

Rufus

Well I finally printed out my Forex trading plan for the year. It is by no means complete as I will always be adding and fine tuning.

It stands at 54 pages long. There are details in it as specific as exactly how I will draw a fibonacci. Or as general as how my desk will look when I start my trading session.

So as for the general view of the Fx. I will be focusing on eurusd primarily. Then usdjpy at certain trading times.

I also have a mentor/ accountability partner. This is an individual who trades as well and gets no monetary gain from me. We bounce ideas, successes and failures off each other.

I am looking forward to a great profitable 2010 with all of you.

Rufus

Here is a fibbo trade I did earlyer this week.

I am very proud of this one because I was completly methodical.

The first circle was my initial stop after price closed below my 8 MA. and hit my 78.6 fib. (a fib I use for dbl top) As you see I quickly got a reveral that hit my stop and took me out.

The next circle was the wick that took me out and the start of the next signal for a new trade. When it again did exactly as before I took the trade again. As you can see got a good run.

I am proud of this one because of the reversal it did not spook me away from doing the same thing only minutes latter when all the rules lined up again.

Cool Beans

One thing I have learned from this is that I am going to give it a few pips room over the pivot.

Rufus

Last night I stayed awake as long as I could waiting for my signal. I live on the west coast, USA. So this was 11:30 my time. So went to bed. 15 minutes later a signal and 120 pip run. I was fast asleep.

This happens all to often. London open is when things start cooking.

So every weekend when I lay out my weekly trading plan I am going to pick 2 nights to stay up till 1:00 am or so. Then plan a nap or two.

Any sudgestions which days. Eurusd for me

Hi Rufus,

There's no easy way around the fact the we are situated pretty badly to daytrade the fx market. I have tried different things; I have a pretty flexible schedule but I still have to be up during the day working at a real job....

- hit the Frankfurt open (FO) until about 30-60 minutes into the London session, that's 11:00 PM to 12:30 or 1:00 AM;

- get up at 4:45 to catch the NY open at 5:00, especially if there's news I want to trade. The NY-London overlap, from 5AM to 9AM, is nice if you can get all or some of it, but if you can just catch the first hour of the NY open that's maybe enough;

Now, if I have done the above every day of the week I will be needing some nap time in the afternoons & if I don't get that I will be wrecked come the weekend, so...

Alt #1) Just trade 2 hours beginning from the FO and call it good, or...

Alt #2) Go all in and trade straight through from the FO to the London close at 9:00 AM. I have met a few "pro" daytraders on the west coast and that is what they do. I have done that, too but I can't keep it up when my real job heats up and I have projects to get done.

- There is often a nice window to trade - the "3 o'clock fade" - that's 3:00PM NY time, or noon here - just for the closing hour of the NY session - there can be some good PA - hey it's the lunch hour trade;

- I also sometimes trade around the Tokyo open - got 30 pips there today - about 3:45 PM to 4:30 or 5:00 - but sometimes that is too slow and I bag it.

I think the FO/LO is the best bet for the working man. Else forget scalping and trade off the daily charts. Just my $0.02.

Thank you Fool.

Very informative post and it helps me out with time scheduling. My nemisis.

I started doing Tokyo open recently and am very pleased with the results. Usually done within an hour or two. Collect my pips and go.

Then I am going to try out Monday and Wednesday nights 10:00-1:00. Try to get a nap in before the session.

I am also looking at 4h charts thinking about incorporating this into my repertoire. I have a hard time with trying to use EA's, from what I understand they take every signal and it averages out over the long run. I am more of a S/R guy and try to only enter there.

Thanks again for your imput. If you see a 1980's brown Ford pickup parked in a lot with a guy sleeping in it. Probably me. I get naps in whenever I can.

I am looking forward to when my "day job" is the one I schedule arround the Fx.

Rufus

Another realization I came to recently.

I have a hard time trading effectivly when the family has the TV going or there are kids or wife bugging me.

So 100% attention needs to be on price action with my charts. I will read things while waiting for a signal. But all in all the room has to be quiet with no distractions. Now if my attention gets pulled away from the computer I shut down till it is done.

When I trade Tokyo open, usually it is in my truck, sipping coffee, parked somewhere where I can look out on Puget Sound. Actually very peaceful.

You learn a lot about yourself when you take Fx trading seriously. What makes you tick. This is something I don't believe someone can teach you. Also the disadvantage in my mind on trading demo to long. There is something to be said about seeing your money disapear or grow that you don't get with demo. Also how your mind reacts to other outside stimulus while loosing or gaining. If you are loosing are you going to yell at your wife or kids? People may not know this untill they go live not demo.

So do demo for a short while to get used to the platform and system you use. But get live with a large enough account that you understand how your mind functions with various scenarios. Then you can establish how you need to trade to be successful. What your surroundings need to be.

I have a goal to take one of my kids bedrooms, (they are both about grown adults, going to college) and turn it into my trading room. For me this will have a desk with lots of room and two monitors. A lazy boy chair in the corner. One large monitor hanging on the wall I can opperate from the lazy boy. I can take a quick nap and quick check on the charts. As you can see I like peaceful comfort while trading.

Well that is a little about me.

Rufus

You're welcome, Rufus. I hope we get the chance to keep going with fx trading. I'll tell ya, though - I am not counting on it. The way the regulatory hammer is coming down now it would not surprise me if the retail fx industry had been radically changed, even wiped out in a few years. Well OK if you can trade spot forex you can trade futures - but changes might be coming down that pipe, too. So I ain't burning any bridges.

Having a good environment to trade in is key. I used to have a big office space in Purdy & there was nothing to do there but work or trade. Now I trade from home & I'm single but even so there are too many distractions.

So, here now, see - its afternoon on a Saturday and I just got up around noon. Because I am on daytrader schedule & staying up all night Mon-Fri, going to bed at 8AM. That's not healthy & its not right. Having trading methods on H4 or daily charts is definitely in the program - I just have not been able to make those pay as well as scalping does....

Well, have a gr8 weekend Rufus & good luck next week.

Rich

I decided recently to Start working Tokyo Open when ever possible. It would be a lot easyer on my sleep schedule. Here on the West Coast London Open doesn't happen till 12:00 am and with trying to work 8-10 hours durring the day and trad till 1:00am tends to make me zombi'ish.

I will be using the EURUSD and the USDJPY as currencies of choice. Had an entry for both at basically the same time.(Two different systems) I elected to go with EU to not get myself to spread out. I will only enter a second position if the first is "paid for". Both turned out to be good runs.

The EU also has three pivots daily, monthly, weekly all huged together arround 1.3958. This very well could be a great place to watch for a move. Could be a great night ahead for some decent price action. I will be staying awake as long as I can. It has been a few days since I have been able to sit at my desk and do this, and am looking forward to it. A glass of Scotch will end the evening.

Be collecting pips

Rufus

Some opinions needed

I have been thinking through a system whereby I can evaluate the strength of S/R.

If I do a point system.

Monthly, weekly pivot 5 points
Daily open 4 points
Daily pivots 3 points
Daily chart S/R 4 points
4 hour chart S/R 3 points
1 hour chart S/R 1 point

When any of these are within 30 pips of each other I add all the points.

I am trying to get an evaluation of how price will behave as these lines approach.

So in the chart I posted above where all those pivots are huged together.
would have a value of 13 points if I add in the daily open (within 30 pips) it makes it 17 points.

Now at each time a 15m bar penetrates or touches the line I reduce its value by 1.

The actual line that will be drawn (as opposed to a 30 pip range) is the one with the most weight. In the above example the Monthly pivot line.

So let me know what you think. I am a line in the sand kind of guy. Are the points weighted properly?

Or is it a waste of time?

Rufus

Here is an example for me as to how powerful these S/R lines can be. All were pip producers.

I caught the first 2 of the evening, the rest was durring my shut eye time.

Hi Rufus,

Nothing is a waste of time if it really helps you see how the market is behaving. Your attempt to numerically weight s/r performance seems a little complicated but hey what do I know? All thats important is that it works for you, if it does work, and if it dont, then you recognize that & move on to what do.

I use horizontal s/r alot. (Less often I will draw diagonal tl's and consider those as s/r). There are natural s/r lines/zones to mind - around the 00's and 50's (the psych levels - some would include the 80's & 20's, too...). Then there are the s/r that I draw. I am looking for multiple touches & I am going off daily down to H1. The more recent a line/zone of s/r is, the stronger it is. Confluence of drawn s/r with a psych level needs to be noted. Since I mostly try to catch breakout momentum I will watch for bounces off or strong breaks through s/r levels. "Where are the stops?" is the dominant question that goes along with any attempt to exploit s/r in this way. So I will always pay attention to the news feeds and note any rumoprs of barrier options or other large stops that may help to define s/r. Thursday's breakthrough below 1.3990 (E/U) was a perfect example - I fished that for a nice gain.

Well, hope that helps, just my 2 centavos.

Have a great weekend.

Rich