London Calling . . . Various strategies focusing on London Open

Hi gang, I'm going to make an effort to update the London Calling RP each Wednesday/Thurday as it is my "Weekend" and i have some time to doodle and update the websites. I'll take all the previous week's tipsNtricks you guys/gals post here and include them.

: ) Thom

This indicator can be changed for the amount of days you wish to monitor,

If your a Turtle fan....system one :20 days and system two : 55 days...

The default is 5 days... it draws two lines from the H/Ls within the time frame you select..

Glenn

thanks for the indicator glenn, i'll add it to the list. I had planned to get more L.O. stuff done on my days off but "Life" happened! Oh well, there's always another set of days off.

Cheers,
Thom

Hi all, i've created a new forex factory thread DYNAMIC Breakout Expert Advisor. I think it is very relevant to our discussion here as a possible assistance during the London Open. I WILL gather all the indicator information you all have provided in the prior posts during my Wed/Thurs off this week as the calendar looks clear at this point.

Last friday this expert logged +112 pips from London Open to US open, and today it logged +146 pips during the same period. I know it could be a fluke, but the EA performed flawlessly with the trailing stops and closing out the trades after initiating them shortly after i turned on the expert at L.O.... I think it is worth some thought.

Cheers,
Thom

I don't think I will be able to get it to work at IBFX...because for some stupid reason they count 2 hours on Sunday as a regular day...i can't use any indicators on daily charts because this F's them all up, so I am concentrating on Sup/Res and trendlines

Has anyone ever backtested this so called BIG BEN strategy?

I read that the Sunday Candle can throw the math off a bit, but you can place the EA on any chart...most of us are using the hourly chart, but it's all just math so not tied to any time frame.

: ) Thom

Hi FXT, if you check out this link and check out the index page of the trades link you will see a month of testing my myself some time ago. It is what we on the West Coast of the USA call the "Midnite Express" and very similar to the BB strategy.

: ) Thom

Hi Thom,

Dear lord, one month of testing is definitively not enough to draw any conclusion.

So I guess I will have to backtest it myself with 5 years of data, the trading rules are simple and not subjective so that should be easy. But just to make sure we understand each other, could you please post the BIG BEN trading rules again, to make sure we are backtesting the same thing?
Thanks.

The BB article is describing a double head fake which I don't seem happening very often. It says you need to look for atleast 25 pip down move for a new low, then atleast a 25 pip move above the open, and then entry at 7 pips below the initial low (this is short setup, reverse for long). Then oddly the "classic" example chart only establishes an initial low around 20 pips below open, not the "atleast 25" the system is supposed to look for.

You mean the example on FIGURE 2? No it seems ok to me, 25 pips at least.

But that's weird, the example says 1/10 (I assume it means January 10) but I cannot find any historical charts from 2001 to 2004 that show that kind of price move like the one we see on the picture (the article was written in or before 2004)

Yeah, maybe my eyes are bad, but it looks like frankfurt open is about 1.7977 and "range low" is 1.7958

That's because the author is counting from the high ($1.7983) of the first blue candle after 1AM. In other words he is simply looking for a 25 pip move after 1AM, providing the price is making a new low. That's the way I see it anyway.

Also, he is talking about the new low "range". What range, from midnight to 1AM or what?

FIGURE 3 I don't get it at all, the market is up 26 pips then down 65 then up 50 then down again for real this time, and yet the author says that it is also a valid trade setup???

Yep, just what I thought, he said a "new range low after 1AM" and that's precisely what I just said : a new low from the HIGHEST candle after 1AM. That new low must exceed (or be equal to) 25 pips. Note that he did not say new low after 1AM, but a new RANGE low, that's not the same thing.

Figure 3 I still don't get it though and unfortunately I cannot backtest something I do not understand.

Ahh box trading has been around for decades so to me it doesnt sound like SRDC 3 it sounds like a box trade

Hi FXT, your comment is spot on. In no way was i inferring that what i had up was of any real long term value, it was just something i tried at that time. My personality is such that if there is even a chance a portion of what i might be able to share can assist even in a small way i'll chime in!

The reason i stopped was two fold; 1) the group i was trading with from midnite pacific to 2am disbanded, and 2) i was still working in management and had to show up to work early the next day! Now i've stepped down from mgmnt to working only a few hours a week to hone my skills as a trader...and if i didn't enjoy the people i worked with and the customer's we serverd (i work for Costco Wholesale) i'd retire now at 49. But as you might be aware, trading is a lonely passion/passtime, and i still need the joy i receive out of my workplace as crazy as that may sound.

sorry...just realized that was a serious ramble. haha.

OK, now fast forward to today. Now i can devote from 10pm (Pacific) to whenever to trade. I am doing my best to focus my manual trading on the GbpUsd pair during the London Open to London Lunch for obvious reasons of volatility breakout after the Asian doldrums. So far it is the most consistent method for my personality.

The above is why i thought a thread discussing the various profitable methods to trade the L.O. would be a worthwhile venture!

mhughes104? you are correct, box trades have been around since trading began i suppose! What can help us imo, is developing various methods of filtering out the head fakes.

...oh, "head fakes" ...there is a reason that we don't see many Big Ben setups anymore and it was touched upon in a prior post by a fellow trader...the article was written some time ago and the market has changed!! . . . that is one reason us WestCoasters began calling what we were trading the "Midnite Express".

So what is the "Midnite Express" ??

1) Look at the candle on a 30m chart that is the candle that ends at London's 08:30.

2) What is that candle's direction? Bull or Bear?

3) Trade in that direction with a 30 pip TP and a 30 pip SL

3b) Tweak i did on the above market entry: set an entry order 20 pips from the 08:30 price in the direction of that candles trend, and TP 30pips beyond in TA allows. This filtered out some head fakes.

4) Is the candle larger than 30 pips? If yes? No Trade until confirmation of trade after possible bounce after retracement.

5) Is Daily candle (Taking 5PM New York as candle close) at that point a doji? Pass on trade.

...pretty basic.

Cheers,
Thom

London calling to the faraway towns
The war has been declared and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls
London calling, now don't look at us
All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling see we ain't got no swing
except for the ring of that truncheon thing
The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
cause London is drowning-and I live by the river
London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, an' go it alone
London calling upon the zombies of death
Quit holding out-and draw another breath
London calling-and I don't wanna shout
But when we were talking-I saw you nodding out
London calling see we ain't got no highs
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes
Now get this
London calling, yeah, I was there, too
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, won't you give me a smile?

mmm good idea from joker,
no need for guessing.
loss is loss, win is win using this method
keep it up jokers.

Please share the indicators and template/s for this London Open strategy,thanks!