30min of Your Time system

This is a system that is very simple and makes 300+ net pips per trade. The only catch is that it uses OANDA's unique trading platform that allows you to trade odd lots. I traded a demo account with this system and made 8.2% in one day!
OK, here it goes let me know what you think.

I start off with a look at the daily chart and place 3 lines at the high, low and the center line between the high and low from the previous 2 days . Then move to the 30 min chart to see where the current price is compared to the center line if the current price is above the center line sell, if the price is below the center line buy.Best entry is after a move in the opposite direction of the direction you want to trade, if you want to sell wait for a big upswing, if you want to buy look for a big downswing.(still not perfected, suggestions appreciated)

OK, now that we know what direction to trade we move to the 1 min chart and using 50:1 leverage, we start to trade the amount of units that equal the size of your trading account(if you start with $1000 trade 1000 units). Buy a new contract every minute for 30 minutes, don't worry about price fluctuations they won't matter, just stay away from news times. Just buy or sell equal lots for 30 minutes every time a new candle forms.

OK, now after 30 min you will have made 30 trades and you will have to calculate where the exit point is which is simple, OANDA's trading platform shows you your average position, you only need 10 pips from that average and you net 300 pips. Here is how it works, 1000 units= $0.10 per pip and you now have 30000 units combined worth $3 per pip multiply that by 10 and you get $30 and $30/0.10 is 300. So after trading for 30 min look at the average cost of your trades and if you're already 10+ pips in profit close all 30 trades, if not place a limit order to close all 30 orders when the 10 pip target is reached.

Since this thread was started I have been convinced that unlimited risk is not acceptable and believe that a fixed SL will not work in all markets with this system. So to calculate the SL take the distance between the 2 day high and center point and use half of that number of pips for the SL set from the average position price will give you enough space for the trade to close in profit while preventing huge losses in case of an unexpected move against you. If the distance between the 2 day high and center point is 100 pips your SL should be 50 pips from your average position.

OK, now after the first trade is completed assuming that you used a limit order and started with $1000 you now have $1030 for your next trade so you would purchase 1030 units per minute You might not think the extra 15 units is a big deal but in the same time you would earn another $1000 to increase to 2 micro-lots with another broker, you would earn $1314.

I've tested this on the EUR/USD and GBP/USD but it would work on any pair with a decent spread.

I just opened a live account with oanda and I'll start trading this system live this week as soon as my account is funded, but until then I'll be posting screen shots of my demo account.

No disrespect intended, but you're new - right? This may work in a ranging market... however, heavily trending markets can and will move 300 pips in a fairly short amount of time without a retrace. Back to the old drawing board I guess. Great effort though.

thanks for sharing the system,can u pls post your entry/exit point with charts.

I don't have access to the demo data right now but I'll post some screen shots next week.

mr.marketz: I have been testing and improving this system for the last couple weeks and it has worked since the first day, the only thing that needed improvement was the entry point. If it was using a longer time frame you would be correct, but these trades rarely last more than an hour, and the short time that they are in play they are protected from large market fluctuations by averaging the positions over 30 min. I've done 4+ trades a day and the longest one took 14hrs to close due to poor entry which is why i refined my entry strategy and it never came close to the margin call.

It's an interesting idea, and is PERCEIVED as low risk.
I see nothing wrong with this approach EXCEPT....
there is no stop loss for a bad cumulative position.

I assure you....that there will be a time....(more than once)
that the market moves away from your average price and does not come back until you are margined called.

You've experienced a scary "time" already where you had to hold your accumulated position for 14 hours to get your 5 pips.

But all in all, I don't think Grid Trading, or Averaging into a Position are any worse than many other methods.... BUT
you must manage your losses.

I'll admit... I'm curious and I wish you the best of luck.
...when you get set-up,
put in on MyFxbook.com so we can see your results!

Interesting, I think there is an edge to averaging in or multiple entries, if we keep the trend in mind.

May I suggest some kind of stop loss? Perhaps all the positions should be closed after 30 mins, whether in profit or not.

May be better trading this method during the Asian Session, where EUR/USD is usually ranging and does not make big moves.

I like the idea!

so, you are paying the spread on 30 trades and still make a profit.

Weird.

Jaws,

You're thinking creatively... and that's awesome. However, you must be realistic here. A couple of things to consider:

1. Preferable trading times (important)
2. Possible use of MA to avoid getting "bulldozed" on the wrong side of a swing.
3. Risk (the most important factor, yet completely dismissed in the discussion so far)

These 3 factors need a closer look... otherwise you just have an interesting idea. Which is great... but not necessarily viable.

Thanks Jaws, this is an interesting thread. I have a question: High, Low and midpoint of which candle? previous day?

I'm not that new to FX Ive been watching it and demo trading for several years without much success until now.

1)I am currently unemployed so I have all the time in the world to trade and I prefer trading Asian and late day US so basically any time between 11:00AM and 3:00AM EST, so i can avoid all the US, Euro and GBP news releases.

2)Using the MA is a good idea but I've never had any luck with indicators, but I do look for a strong move in one direction then trade against it waiting for a retrace and my timing really sucks so much of the time i spend trading it's either going in the wrong direction or ranging and by the end of 30 minutes it's in the middle of the retrace.

3)As far as addressing risk it seems at 50:1 leverage a margin call will cost me 60% of my account and when it happens I will be prepared for it, I'll be saving 1/4 of my profits in a separate account so I just replace the lost capitol and continue trading, and I might consider cutting my losses if the trade didn't close within 4hrs, but that probably won't happen until after the first margin call(I'm really stubborn).

shiva: I use the previous 2 day's high, average and close.

Pinbar: With OANDA the spreads are very small on cable and euro and haven't caused me any issues

Darren Teo: The times I trade might be the reason it has worked so well, I have a very chaotic sleep pattern so I'm never asleep for more than a few hrs so many of my trades happen in the middle of the night when volume is low and I purposely avoid prime trading hrs.

good job J ,we will be waiting for ur screen shots in few days..........what a simple stratagies............thanks for sharing

Appears simple and neat.
1. Do you use Oanda daily candles for high/low/center?
2. Do you use last day or 2 days to determine high/low/center?
Thanks for sharing.

Hey Jaws,
Thanks for sharing this idea, it got me thinking, and I wanted to throw this out there to see what you thought. I would use your same rules for determining direction to trade, and when to avoid trading.
What I would do differently is this... Using your same example of a $1000 acct. instead of trading 30, one minute candles at 1000 units per 1 minute candle, I would trade 25 one minute candles at 1000 units per 1 minute candle. After you've made your 25 trades, set a stop loss of 100 pips from your average candle position, and a take profit of 10 pips. At this rate I'm now making 2.5% profit per trade and I'm protecting myself from a runaway market, margin call taking away over half of my account and all I need is to have better than a 10 to 1 winning ratio. It still should be a rare occurance for a trade to go 100 pips against me in EUR/USD, and if it does, I'll live to trade another day instead of more likely than not having a margin call, trading your original method. If I'm lucky enough to win the 10 pips 28 times before I lose once, I will have doubled my acct. I only have to average more than ten, 10 pip wins per one, 100 pip loss for this to be profitable. I think I might try this next week to see how I do, what do you think? If you like, I'll report back and let you know how it works out. If you rather I didn't confuse your thread, let me know. I apolagize in advance and I will edit this out.
Thanks again for sharing, that's why I like this forum so much!

Andy.

Like I had said in my previous post, this has
PERCEIVED low risk, but that is not true.

A position of 30,000 units with a profit target of 5 pips
and a stop loss of 100 pips (or greater)

has the same RISK as

An average position of 30,000 units with a profit target of 5 pips
and a stop loss of 100 pips (or greater).

You will have a high hit rate...but unless you incorporate an "edge"
(maybe trading with trend...)

AND a stop loss or risk management technique
(not an account margin call)
you will lose over the long run.

There is nothing safe or "magical" about an average price in a ranging market.
The market can move away from your price indefinitely (or until you "blow up")
in any session.

Example: You have a small floating loss of 15 pips throughout the Asian session. Doesn't seem like much to worry about, until of course you get to the Frankfurt open... then the 15 min candles can become 100s of pips.
It happens all the time.

Hi, I have question for your strategi. You say you buy/sell when price is on the other side of your middle line (from the high/low of the previous 2 days) and start taking trades from 11:00 AM EAST to 3:00 AM EAST. The question is, what are your preference for entry? Do start trading immediately or do your wait for price to run a certain distance for your middle line? A screen shot would be much appreciated. Thanks for sharing your idea.

This is a MM strategy that would probably work nicely because usually when my 5 pip TP is hit it usually continues to move in that direction but sometimes it hits it and then reverses, maybe taking half at 5 and the other half at 10 might be an even better solution, and I totally agree that 100 from average is a reasonable SL which would be about a $300 loss or 250 if you stop trading at 25 and either way is better than a Margin call. Give it a shot with 25 trades with a 10 pip TP and a 100 pip from average SL and post your results and I'll do the same at 30 trades and TP at 5 and 10 and a SL of 100.

OK, that should satisfy anyone that has an issue with risk not being addressed. I'm going to open a clean demo account funded with $1000 so we can see what it does clearly.

I based the whole idea on the almost inevitable retrace after a big move so the best entry is after a big move. After a big move start trading and catch the retrace. Here is a shot of my Friday trades, The 15minTF is the best I can get OANDA's platform doesn't store much history. Below is a link to my account history for Friday. I think it works for anyone. BTW, the chart is -1hr NY time, and if it wasn't a Friday i would have probably started another trade around 12:30 and it would have closed when the big drop occurred at 15:30. I quit trading early on Friday's don't want any open trades over the weekend if it could be avoided. I'll post daily screen shots and account links using a new demo account until I start trading live.

https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/user/...oDEuuXrAnKbPDc

seriously..no stops? be careful mate.

From now on I will be setting a 100 pip stop from the average after the last trade is placed. This is still fairly high but I'm confident it will remain profitable due to the high win ratio.

Thanks for the screenshot.

Just a suggestion. Would it be possible employing your strategy and trading with the trend? Seems less risky this way, because it's difficult to pick tops and bottoms. Sometimes, there might be little retracement too.

If we trade with the trend there might be pullbacks, but because we are averaging in we will profit when the trend resumes.