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  • #3,221
  • Oct 14, 2010 8:14am Oct 14, 2010 8:14am
Thank you for relaying the message Marion,

Please send our best wishes to Graeme. We wish him complete and fast recovery.

As someone mentioned before, we miss his "superman" avatar in these posts and look forward to seeing it again and we hope he stays in the superman spirits and annihilates whatever it is that he's fighting.

Warmest regards,
Jason
  • #3,222
  • Oct 14, 2010 9:49am Oct 14, 2010 9:49am
Greetings everyone,

I'd like to thank everyone for the posts and PMs in response to my epic post from yesterday. It means a lot to me and I'm extremely pleased to see that others have found some value in what I wrote. So, thanks again. Also, I want to give a big “thank you” to Marion for providing us an update on Graeme’s health. I wish Graeme a speedy recovery.

Now, I'd also like to clear something up. I don't want anybody to be under the false impression that I have suddenly figured everything out and that I will be a profitable trader from here on out. I hope that is the case, but I still have a lot more testing and tweaking to do concerning my method before my confidence level is where I would want it to be, so only time will tell, but for the two weeks or so that I’ve been practicing it, I am very pleased with the results thus far. One thing I have done, however, is remove the mental and physical barriers that I had unwittingly placed upon myself that were absolutely preventing me from being a profitable trader. With those barriers out of my way, I truly do expect good things to happen moving forward.

Every trader has their own demons they need to conquer. Here are what some of mine were and how I broke through them:

1. I need perfect entries with tight stops to be profitable. False. Well, maybe for a scalper or day trader this may be true, but for a position trader who is using the monthly and weekly charts to trade with the trend, not so much. My solution: Trade small lots to minimize risk, throw the stops out the window so price has plenty of room to move, and enter when daily candles agree with both the weekly and monthly trends. Close your losers when the weekly trend begins to move against you, otherwise let them ride as most will eventually come into profit.

2. Due to my location, work schedule, and family situation, I can’t trade the optimal trading session (I.M.O. = London). False. Where I live (I’m in U.S. Mountain Time zone --- 2 hours behind N.Y.), London opens at 2 AM. I have to be at work by 6 AM, which means I have to get out of bed at 4:30, so I am usually in bed by 9 PM. By the time I get to my desk at 6 AM, I have missed the entire first half of London and New York is just opening. To make matters worse, I have no idea how N.Y. is going to react to what London has been doing the past several hours (I.e., will N.Y. continue the same direction as London or will it reverse?). Again, this may be a true dilemma for a day trader on my schedule, but not for a position trader who has several open positions 24/7. This just re-confirms that my trading strategy needs to be centered on position trading, which allows me to trade all sessions.

3. Fear and greed. A successful trader needs to have ice water running through his veins to be able to control the fear and greed. False again. With many lots on the line per trade, yes, but with small lots risk is minimized and if you’re confident in your system because it is based on riding the wave of a long-term trend, the fear and greed factors are almost entirely eliminated. I took this further by setting a soft weekly profit goal so that I can realize steady increases in my account balance (I like that. It gives me that warm fuzzy feeling to see my account balance increase), but I’m also looking at it realistically and understand that I may not always make the goal and I’m fine with that. I may not reach my goal this week or month, but I may surpass it by a mile next week/month. I’m happy to take what the market gives me.

Really, that’s about it. All I’ve done is take Graeme’s solid approach to trading and tweak it a bit to fit my personality and situation. I also came to grips with the fact that scalping/day trading is not for me and I stopped doing it, cold turkey. I'm no longer getting distracted by trading several different strategies methods at the same time. I've picked one method and it will be the only one I use. The great thing is that anybody can do this. The first step is to identify all of your self-imposed barriers that you think are getting in the way of making you a successful trader and come up with a trading method that renders them irrelevant. Also remember that simpler is usually better. In reading Graeme’s early posts, it’s pretty clear that this was the main point he was trying to impress upon us and he was concerned when we started dwelling on entries that his message would get lost in the static. I believe now that his concerns were valid.

I need to get back to work now, but later I’ll post some charts that demonstrate how I look for entries. I’ll post real-time charts for what I consider to be valid entries and also some that show some not so valid entries and why I think so (I.e., trades I would take/did take/am taking and trades I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole).

Kevin
  • #3,223
  • Oct 14, 2010 10:35am Oct 14, 2010 10:35am
Quoting Starvin4Pips
Greetings everyone,

I'd like to thank everyone for the posts and PMs in response to my epic post from yesterday. It means a lot to me and I'm extremely pleased to see that others have found some value in what I wrote. So, thanks again. Also, I want to give a big “thank you” to Marion for providing us an update on Graeme’s health. I wish Graeme a speedy recovery.

[color=black][font=Verdana]Now, I'd also like to clear something up. I don't want anybody to be under...
Interesting posts, starvin. Appreciate your contribution.
  • #3,224
  • Oct 14, 2010 11:43am Oct 14, 2010 11:43am
for anyone too lazy to flip different TF charts.
Attached File(s)
File Type: ex4 MiniChart_v12.ex4   37 KB | 676 downloads
  • #3,225
  • Oct 14, 2010 11:46am Oct 14, 2010 11:46am
well done Starvin4Pips, a very good post and congratulations, and its good to hear Graeme is doing ok also.

While you did a great self analysis the one sentence in your first quote struck a chord
"I would always return to the M5 & M15 charts because in my mind, that was where the action was and results would be much more immediate."

Once you get away from focusing on the "action", and "immediate results", then focusing on the bigger picture can be easier, and lo and behold a lot of other smaller issues - like trying to trade too much, trading too big, taking profits too early - seem to melt away.

I used to trade a lot, now I trade less, make more, have less stress....go figure.
If you want action - go to the track.
  • #3,226
  • Oct 14, 2010 11:55am Oct 14, 2010 11:55am
Quoting songbo
for anyone too lazy to flip different TF charts.
Thank you! Ive been looking for this.
  • #3,227
  • Oct 14, 2010 12:11pm Oct 14, 2010 12:11pm
Quoting marionb
Dear fellow traders

Graeme requested that I post a brief message into the thread on his behalf. He had an ongoing health issue for some time and only recently he had an operation which he is still recovering from. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Many of his business aides and associates are also praying for his well being.


Sincerely,

-marionb
Hello Marion,

Thanks for updating us. Our prayers with Graeme...I am sure Graeme will recover very well from current condition.

-maaj-
-happyTrading, maaj-
  • #3,228
  • Oct 14, 2010 12:49pm Oct 14, 2010 12:49pm
Quoting marionb
Dear fellow traders

Graeme requested that I post a brief message into the thread on his behalf. He had an ongoing health issue for some time and only recently he had an operation which he is still recovering from. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Many of his business aides and associates are also praying for his well being.

I have visited Graeme last week and all seems well. His thoughts are with the community of this forum and he wishes everyone success they seek.

For what it's worth, I too learnt greatly from Graeme who pushed me...
Thank You.

I join the team and wish Graeme a speedy and complete recovery.

Regards,
TS
Haste not to Enter AND Haste not to Exit !-TradeStar
  • #3,229
  • Oct 14, 2010 12:51pm Oct 14, 2010 12:51pm
Quoting marionb
Dear fellow traders

Graeme requested that I post a brief message into the thread on his behalf. He had an ongoing health issue for some time and only recently he had an operation which he is still recovering from. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Many of his business aides and associates are also praying for his well being.

I have visited Graeme last week and all seems well. His thoughts are with the community of this forum and he wishes everyone success they seek.

For what it's worth, I too learnt greatly from Graeme who pushed me...
Thanks for the update Marion ! I was quite concerned about Graeme's health situation and have received countless PMs for fellow readers of this thread asking for his whereabouts. I totally appreciate your post to calm our nerves as I had a very bad feeling during my last IM with Graeme.

All - Now that we know Graeme will be back with us (hopefully soon), For those who are wondering where I am with the 200ema volunteer project....I have been very selective in taking some opportunities since my last post as price is usually ranging near the yellow line for my select pairs. Did take a few bad trades earlier this week so overall results is still not satisfactory. The good news ism I have just reached my first TP trade of 80 pips on CADJPY that I took last night during London open. Here's the chart for your reference.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: 10-14-2010 10-20-26 AM.png Size: 75 KB


And finally a quick update on my live trade for those interested. My previous post on EUR.USD trade taken at 1.3047 is still running super strong with a profit of 1000+ pips.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: 10-14-2010 10-44-09 AM.png Size: 12 KB


Hope this helps.
Staying in my lane...
  • #3,230
  • Oct 14, 2010 2:07pm Oct 14, 2010 2:07pm
All - Now that we know Graeme will be back with us (hopefully soon), For those who are wondering where I am with the 200ema volunteer project....I have been very selective in taking some opportunities since my last post as price is usually ranging near the yellow line for my select pairs. Did take a few bad trades earlier this week so overall results is still not satisfactory. The good news ism I have just reached my first TP trade of 80 pips on CADJPY that I took last night during London open. Here's the chart for your reference.

-----

Vee,
Congratulations, you are making it. Just one quick question, are we limited to trade only on one direction? I am asking this because I saw only a sell in your report.

Thanks,

Edd
  • #3,231
  • Oct 14, 2010 2:26pm Oct 14, 2010 2:26pm
Kevin,

Just to clarify on this on this "Close your losers when the weekly trend begins to move against you, otherwise let them ride as most will eventually come into profit." Before a trend appears on the weekly, it will appear first on the daily, by then you will be losing much of your profit. any reason why weekly?

Thanks for your answer.

Edd
  • #3,232
  • Oct 14, 2010 3:00pm Oct 14, 2010 3:00pm
Quoting Edd Ganuelas
Kevin,

Just to clarify on this on this "Close your losers when the weekly trend begins to move against you, otherwise let them ride as most will eventually come into profit." Before a trend appears on the weekly, it will appear first on the daily, by then you will be losing much of your profit. any reason why weekly?

Thanks for your answer.

Edd
Thanks for your question, Edd. You are correct that an earlier bailout would potentially preserve profit. My reasoning for waiting for the weekly to go south is that due to the fact that my entries are coming from the daily and may be a little sloppy, a decent bit of drawdown is expected, so I'm willing to let the daily go against me quite a bit before I throw in the towel and pull the plug on the trade. Since I'm counting on the weekly and monthly trends to carry my position into profit, I'll be tolerant of a of a few days of pullback before I consider the trade to have failed. This comes back to personal risk tolerance and everyone has to decide how much breathing room to give their trades and at what point they will decide to wave the white flag.

Hope this answers your question.

Kevin
  • #3,233
  • Oct 14, 2010 3:03pm Oct 14, 2010 3:03pm
Quoting VEEFX
I have been very selective in taking some opportunities since my last post as price is usually ranging near the yellow line for my select pairs. Did take a few bad trades earlier this week so overall results is still not satisfactory. The good news ism I have just reached my first TP trade of 80 pips on CADJPY that I took last night during London open. Here's the chart for your reference.

And finally a quick update on my live trade for those interested. My previous post on EUR.USD trade taken at 1.3047 is still running super strong with...
Nice work, Vee. Keep it up.

Kevin
  • #3,234
  • Oct 14, 2010 3:52pm Oct 14, 2010 3:52pm
Quoting wickstedFX
1. Whenever I can find time, I’ll scan my charts looking for alignment of monthly, weekly, and daily candles. When I see such alignment, I’ll open a position (single mini-lot on a $10K account or a single micro-lot on a $1K account). No hard SL, no TP; just open and let it run for at least a day or two.

Hi Kevin - Interesting post, can I just clarify your enter method, let say for a long.

Monthly candle is currently blue (bull)
[color=black][font=Verdana]Weekly...
Thanks for your question WFX. When it comes to entries, I'm typically looking at the last several candles of the monthly and weekly to determine a reliable long-term trend direction. With the daily, I'm looking at the most recent 1-3 closed candles for confirmation that the short-term price action is in alignment with the longer-term trend.

Example 1: Monthly shows last 10 or so candles in strong downtrend. Weekly shows last 3-4 candles have resumed downtrend after a multi-week pullback. Okay, now looking for a short position. Daily shows a pullback that started last week, but yesterday's daily closed as a bearish engulfing. I'll enter short with no SL and give it a couple of days to see what happens.

Example 2: Same scenario as above on monthly and weekly, but daily is still in bullish pullback. I'll keep an eye on the pair over the next several days, but won't enter until I see evidence that the daily pullback has fizzled, I.e., a closed bearish daily candle or pattern.

I am planning to post some examples to better convey my entry approach, since a picture is, after all, worth a thousand words. I hope to do this later this evening.

Kevin
  • #3,235
  • Oct 14, 2010 4:11pm Oct 14, 2010 4:11pm
Kevin,

Many thanks for the quick reply. One more question. On Graeme's, I main on the exercises he gave us, we used 200ema, 4h/daily/weekly while in your post, you tweak it one step ahead to daily/weekly/monthly TF, and I assumed you dropped also the use of ema as well. The difference between the two as I looked at it was, you will be getting more entries on the latter while the former less. Would be glad to hear from you the reasons.

Sincerely,

Edd
  • #3,236
  • Oct 14, 2010 4:47pm Oct 14, 2010 4:47pm
Quoting Edd Ganuelas
All - Now that we know Graeme will be back with us (hopefully soon), For those who are wondering where I am with the 200ema volunteer project....I have been very selective in taking some opportunities since my last post as price is usually ranging near the yellow line for my select pairs. Did take a few bad trades earlier this week so overall results is still not satisfactory. The good news ism I have just reached my first TP trade of 80 pips on CADJPY that I took last night during London open. Here's the chart for your reference.

-----...
Hi Edd,

As far as our mission statement for the 200ema project goes, there is no limitation on which direction to trade. You are free to trade in both directions. The key is to achieve a goal of one 80 pips TP by risking no more than 4 SLs level for any given opportunity/setup/pair.

Also / If I take 3 short trades (stacking like I did for cad/jpy) with a single SL risk at any given point and achieve one TP, I consider it collectively as a single opportunity.
Staying in my lane...
  • #3,237
  • Oct 14, 2010 5:15pm Oct 14, 2010 5:15pm
Quoting Edd Ganuelas
Kevin,

Many thanks for the quick reply. One more question. On Graeme's, I main on the exercises he gave us, we used 200ema, 4h/daily/weekly while in your post, you tweak it one step ahead to daily/weekly/monthly TF, and I assumed you dropped also the use of ema as well. The difference between the two as I looked at it was, you will be getting more entries on the latter while the former less. Would be glad to hear from you the reasons.

Sincerely,

Edd
Correct, Edd. I do not use the 200 EMA, but I do have the 200 SMA on all of my charts and I do pay attention to where price is relative to it on D/W/M timeframes when I'm looking to enter; however, I won't use it as an entry signal by itself -- D/W/M candle alignment is my primary entry signal. On the other hand, if I'm looking to take a short position and price is has found support at the 200 SMA, I'll definitely think twice. Same for a long with price at 200 SMA resistance.

Also, one thing I failed to mention in my earlier posts is that for entries I do consider where the previous daily candle closed relative to the weekly pivot. Specifically, I want to see the daily close above for a long position or below for a short. Similarly, if I'm short and I get a daily candle close above the weekly pivot, or I'm long and the daily closes below the weekly pivot, I would likely close the trade for a loss as the weekly pivot carries a lot of weight with me. I'll elaborate more on my use of the weekly pivot when I post my examples and when you see on my charts how price tends to react to the weekly pivot, you'll understand why I respect it as much as I do.

Kevin
  • #3,238
  • Oct 14, 2010 6:26pm Oct 14, 2010 6:26pm
the weekly pivot. Specifically, I want to see the daily close above for a long position or below for a short. Similarly, if I'm short and I get a daily candle close above the weekly pivot, or I'm long and the daily closes below the weekly pivot, I would likely close the trade for a loss as the weekly pivot carries a lot of weight with me. I'll elaborate more on my use of the weekly pivot when I post my examples and when you see on my charts how price tends to react to the weekly pivot, you'll understand why I respect it as much as I do.

----

Kevin,

Many thanks, I got it. Looking forward to your post examples. Weekly pivot, I hope i can find one in the other forum for my reference.

Sincerely,

Edd
  • #3,239
  • Oct 14, 2010 6:29pm Oct 14, 2010 6:29pm
Quoting VEEFX
Hi Edd,

As far as our mission statement for the 200ema project goes, there is no limitation on which direction to trade. You are free to trade in both directions. The key is to achieve a goal of one 80 pips TP by risking no more than 4 SLs level for any given opportunity/setup/pair.

Also / If I take 3 short trades (stacking like I did for cad/jpy) with a single SL risk at any given point and achieve one TP, I consider it collectively as a single opportunity.
Vee,

Thank you.

Regards,

Edd
  • #3,240
  • Oct 14, 2010 10:00pm Oct 14, 2010 10:00pm
Quoting VEEFX
Thanks for the update Marion ! I was quite concerned about Graeme's health situation and have received countless PMs for fellow readers of this thread asking for his whereabouts. I totally appreciate your post to calm our nerves as I had a very bad feeling during my last IM with Graeme.

All - Now that we know Graeme will be back with us (hopefully soon), For those who are wondering where I am with the 200ema volunteer project....I have been very selective in taking some opportunities since my last post as price is usually ranging near the yellow...
Good Evening Everyone,

I just closed my very first profitable opportunity for the 200ema project after a lot of 'patience'.... one to the next one

I will continue to only post positions that result in profitable opportunities to avoid clutter until Graeme arrives.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: 10-14-2010 7-47-48 PM.png Size: 79 KB
Staying in my lane...
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