Trading for Charity

Here's a working level chart form example though long - AUS/USD - , so dip buying as opposed to rally fading.

1)

Plain vanilla chart , no grid, dates, numbers - hence colour change, SR level in.




2)

Dates, numbers back, SR level is parity level, common sense TL (4hr) on.




3)

Fib confluence - drawn in from 4hr swing point prior to instigation of current up leg. 61.8 ties in well.

Fib from daily from 27.10.2010 swing low gives 38 retracement at .9975, okay zone.





Okay so far, could utilise lower tfs etc nearer the time for entry and confirm.


All the best

Limey

A quick update on the progress of the Charity account since September. Last time I posted on the stats front I was running around 30% for September from discretionary trading only, in hindsight I should have left it there and recommenced everything after the wedding!

But I decided to be a clever ass (or greedy!) and keep the account ticking over using the SAM strat but with a few new tweaks, this afforded me the opportunity of some automated trades around the weeks to my big day but with minimal screen time as it was a rather busy period with family around and all the preperation.

Did tick over okay but then it faltered, it relies on catching strong runners with minimal risk, but hardly caught any... trades stopped out by a few pips only to go rocketing of in the planned direction,scratch trades, you name it. Drawdown was exacerbated by the fact I stuck to my original plan of not reducing trade size so in effect risk% increased over time. Ended September pretty much flat and a 56% loss in October.

Wasnt the nicest thing to come back to after my wedding - a battered account created by a retarded mechanical strategy, though I did design it so no one to blame but myself, needles to say its now banned!

So for the second time in this accounts history I had to dig it out of a hole with my normal discretionary trading, in stark contrast to the previous month and SAM a very high proportion of both my swing and scalp trades worked out capturing a lot of the major moves, anyway made nearly £1700 in profit, 1200 pips.

Stats below from my FX book and Oanda with all trades closed. I did deposit £475 of the other £750 raised at the back end of Oct to help with the digging back out as it meant I could have multiple trades open, this has now been taken back out as its not required. Deposits minus withdrawls still equals £750.

The realised profit is wrong also, myfx book is too generous it should be circa £2600 according to Oanda, I think the deposit/withdrawl part messes it up, also the return of 186% for November is too high.

The main thing and the most positive is the account is the highest its been in terms of profit and means I've gone over the £4k mark for money raised for Plan International so all in all really pleased.

I'll post up trades and commentary and some other bits later.

All the best


Limey

Bonjour Limey16,

Sorry for my English.....

Considering the fact that you conbine others confluence factors as Big Round Numbers, fibs, Trend Lines...etc.... and regarding your AUDUSD chart form example though long :

1) Do you ONLY take trades located on levels where an old broken resistance becomes an UNTESTED SUPPORT or where an old broken support becomes an UNTESTED RESISTANCE ?

2) So, do you take trades where S/R have already been tested 2 or three times ? I mean the more a level is tested the biggest probability this level to be broken is ?

Merci de ton attention,

Happy and fun trading all

Angel

Bonjour Angel

Your English is fine, no need to apologise.

I dont just take trades off prior support now tested as resistance or prior resistance now tested as support, but quite a few of my trades will be. If theres a decent break of a level and a deep enough retrace then with confluence its often worth trading. However other factors including overall market sentiment/trend are important.

Also what I do incorporating lower tfs at levels for both entries/good RR and confirmation is a deciding factor.

I agree with you on retests of SR levels, the way I look at it if price keeps testing a level with increasing frequency it likely it wishes to explore the other side as it were and the level breaks.

Factors such as the frequency with which a level has been tested and over what time period are important, also if price takes a decent bounce near to a level I may trade and then tests it I'd likely not trade it.

Also FX is arguably fundamentally driven but technically parametered so a lot of movement isnt technically derived - but zones where people may look to take profit or conversely end the pain of a trade going against them are technical. With AUD/USD as an example, it took a decent enough bounce of the Parity level giving the opportunity for some profit or risk protection but then some rather nasty unemployment data came out, after this to me theres little point staying in the trade. So I'd definitely also try to be aware of a wider outlook beyond TA.

I'll post up the charts of levels Ive traded on the account in recent weeks, gives an idea anyway.

All the best

Limey

Bonjour Limey,

Thanks for your clear explanation.

Even if we need a strict trading plan and a military patience to apply it, I also understand that we should be flexible in our mind in order to read the market as it is in real time ! I mean just trade and act on what you see !

I agree with you, LEVELS, LOCATIONS or TRADING ZONES are the KEY in trading !

I would love to see and study your charts of levels you've traded.

God bless you,

Bon weekend à tous,

Cheers,

Angel

Update on the charity account from the last few days, little bit more growth, becoming a good November.
Most of the trades taken last few days have been discretionary scalp trades as opposed to swing trades but it all adds up. I'll post up some charts of those, but below are some trades taken the last few weeks, most had confluence of some description and had some merit when reviewing lower tf's at or near the levels.

In terms of TM some were scaled against - by this I mean as the position moved against me by certain parameters I scaled out to then scaled back in when the trade moved in the direction of my analysis, others were just scaled in, the planned risk was grouped into 3 or 4 entries. e.g 1.5% risk 3 * 0.5% entries.

Stats on the account: 293% growth overall. Ammount raised for Plan International (with the other £750.00 raised ) £4304.21 total.

Moving forward a year of trading on this will be end of April 2011 so wouldn't mind trying to get the account up to £5k by then, and start year 2 at £5750 and aim for £10-13k, all depends on trading on my own account and the time on that, as it has to take priority. I'll just have try and work around it as it were.

All the best

Limey

Here's a trade on the charity account entered today - long NZD/USD, quite a clean weekly/daily level and has taken an okay bounce so far, overall interpretation of MTFs including tick confirmed entry.

Ive scaled out a third of the trade so far so any potential loss is very small,weaker than expected housing starts/building permits in the US have helped so far, but NZDUSD is not the most dynamic of pairs, 0.7800 open target so could change I'll see how it develops, maybe a while or not at all....

Charts - weekly, daily, 15 min and Oanda hourly (little blue arrow is entry) 35,000 units is circa £2 a pip equivalent.

All the best

Limey

Above trade's moving okay, took some more profit at 0.7750, 17,500 units still running, stop now at B/E so on a free, final target 0.7800.

All the best

Limey

hi limey, hope it gets to 7800! i took this trade also but i'm taking quick profits at the moment so i'm regretting not leaving some on the table. Just wondering if you could show an example of what you look for in tick data to confirm your entry here?

Cheers.

Hi Limey,
Great journal - keep up the good work! I added you to my buddy list, hope that's ok.
JB

Hi JB, hope everythings good, thanks for the support mate, will add you to my list to.

No probs Majestic, I'll add it into the vid I'm doing on the lower tfs if thats okay, far easier to explain what Im looking for etc as there are some nuances, done a few bits already needs an edit and should be okay.


Almost there on NZDUSD, moved stop up to pretty much where I exited the second third at .7745/hourly swing low, so another circa £100 locked in. Stalled at intermediate SR at .7770 could have closed there but prefer whole number/50 retrace, whatever happens been a good result and some more money for Plan Int raised.


All the best Limey

Finally got there on NZDUSD bar spread, set the limit overnight and hit at .7795, few more £'s for Plan.



All the best

Limey

Hi there Limey, thanks for posting all your helpful followup pointers in response to all my questions.

Sorry I haven't been around since my last posting - had a rather busy few weeks moving house. Getting back into the world of trading once more

Update on the charity account after November, a rather good month everything seemed to fall into place, welcome change after the SAM strategy downside! accounts now at an all time high in balance and profit and am running at 8% for december - a strong run of scalp trades in the main.

I have put back in for good the other £750, I've kind of decided that I wont be running the SAM strat again and am not really doing this for great stastitics, just to raise some money for projects for Kids that dont have an awful lot.

The main driver is to raise as much as I can so the more capital at my disposal the better. All of the account balance is for Plan Int as the original 1k was a donation from trading profits on my own account.

Anyway account growth is now 310%, just short of 4.5k total, 3k profit on this account.

I probarbly wont trade much more in December another 10 days or so, its my least favourite next to August, it gets a bit thin volume wise normally in a couple of weeks I find it best just to enjoy the time off. Trade wise going forward I will keep things turning over with scalping prior to and into London open, obviously my own account permitting, I'll save more swing trades till 2011.

Below are a couple of scalp trades on the account on EURUSD, worth a post as highlights a few areas. Only preference today was short on any pseudo rallies on this pair.

SR areas off the hourly due to the trend strength, fib off last major 4hr swing point that instigated the last leg down.

SR and 50% level first trade - cross divergence - hidden 1hr, triple div 5 min, exhaustive bullish lead in highlighted, second trade at 61.8 off prior swing low hourly - again exhaustive bullish push faded - fast but essentially weak imo, 100 pips but no significant pullback.

All the best

Limey

Reached a mini milestone on the charity account in December - the £5k mark, 330% growth overall, 20% into December so pretty pleased with that, numerous scalp trades off various levels helped get it there, I'll post up the charts, will be quite a few.

FXbook bits below, it is a rather strange thing myfxbook, profit is not £4294 more like £3.5k. Deposits minus withdrawls equals £1500. Balance minus £1500 should be realised profit imo. Will keep trading the rest of this week, finished on my account for this year so will can dedicate a bit more time to this for now.

All the best

Limey

Hi Limey, thanks for continuing to post charts of your trades. It's great to see you growing a charity account so consistently. I'm certainly curious to see how big you can grow that account before donating it. Had you thought about organising a PAMM setup for that account when it gets big enough? You could then give regular donations month by month and maintain the principle to create ongoing revenue for charitable purposes.

As for your trading style - I believe that I am able to follow your general top-down analysis approach to find entries, but I'm wondering if you could possibly spend a bit of time going through lower timeframe considerations? I know you said in the past that you would endeavour to create a video looking at this issue more closely, but I understand that that takes time.

In the meanwhile, perhaps, could you take us through a few of these recent entries and perhaps post a few lower TF screenshots to show what you would like to see, and what to look out for?

If it's okay with you, perhaps I could post a few potential entries that I'm watching based on your methods, and you could comment on them? Or would you prefer that we start a new thread for that?

Cheers!

Hi Mindsphere, hope your move went okay.

I have in mind to do something far more expansive and of larger scope for Plan International incorporating my own account next year.This seperate charity account though okay is far from the figures I wish to work to in terms of fundraising and obviously is rather a pain in the a** having to operate around my own, I expect ultimately I'll just focus on my own but operate within that a compounded ammount for Plan as I'll raise more that way.

In terms of the Journal and documenting the trades I always planned to keep it simple with a few charts here and there as i dont really wish to spend too much time at my PC outside trading on the net and forums. I spend a rather large ammount of time in front of screens, enough to make me sick of it at times, so its important for me to keep a balance.

With the lower tf aspects I'd say often I use them for entries only - particularly on A grade type levels, then its a case of squeezing every ounce of value and RR with a lower tf chart.

With intermediate type levels It may infiltrate my decision making slightly more as I weight the trade so there are things I may look for, but to begin with I'd stick with major SR thats v obvious, the danger of too much focus on lower tfs is whats of least importance is given too much.

However say with NU or GBPCHF in this Journal (off clean daily levels) Im not too bothered about lower tfs aside of gaining an entry. If you focus on really obvious levels with confluence and use lower tfs for entries this is more than enough. Covering say 15 instruments/pairs you may only get 100/150 trades a year 2/3 a week but you'd enter some really good set ups and achieve a strong success rate and profit with the appropriate TM.


I will post up the scalp trades but some are off intermediate SR which to start with maybe best left alone, the videos just need to be edited together, theres bit here and there.

All the best

Limey

Below are a few of the intermediate scalp levels of recent trades, the GJ lower tf chart is 1 min the lowest I use is 2 min, its more for illustration of the final exhaustive push pre level, crappy MT4 hasnt got 2 min, but its easier to post grabs than PRT.

Nothing to report on the account, I havent traded, been a bit lazy/tired tbh, I expect I'll call it a day for this year, I'll start up again in the New Year if I dont decide to run everything off my own account.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year

All the best

Limey

Thanks for posting up some lower timeframe charts Limey. I'll have a closer look when I get home from work. And just to clarify, I was not requesting you to post a highly detailed journal of your entries - time away from the screens is extremely important and helping some random people on FF doesn't deserve to sit very highly on your list of priorities.

What I meant more was that it would be great if you could, at some point, talk about the specifics of entries off your marked up levels. To use the example of the Aussie setup you posted a little while back (http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...4&postcount=61), I would be interested to see how you handled the entry and exit.

There are probably many ways of viewing the market which can provide good entries, but how we manage these entries, when we choose to stand aside, and where we take our profits are all essential elements to trading profitably. If you could give us some insight into these elements that would be amazing.

All the best!

wow......an example to follow. really a great job. By the way, wondering why u choose barx and not other brokers/dealers?? i hope u can achieve your target as soon as possible. Good luck buddy........