Manual Grid trading vs Martingale Strategy's

I wanted to open up a discussion for my fellow traders and see if any of you have come up with the same conclusions I have in regards using grid trading and martingale strategy's.

I have been trading successfully for several years now, but only over the last year have I made some concrete decisions in regards to these two styles of trading.

As everyone knows when stating out trading Forex you need a dependable trading strategy that is both dynamic and flexible if you are to stay in this game and either make a living at it, or just some extra cash flow.

You need Patience and discipline.
You need good money management.
You need a system to tell you when to get out.
You need maybe most important of all, you need to know when to get out.
You also need Patience and discipline...lol...did I mention that one .

Once you have these figured out you probably then go on to try out various expert advisors. I admit I went down that road as well, and found that yes some do work for a while, but the majority of ones are not flexible enough to anticipate the current market.

So basically what I did was configure 2 expert advisors that were purely engineered for managing the trade once I pulled the trigger. Hence this new thread to share my findings of both.

One EA would deal with the trade following the trend, picking off 20 pips at a time, when the trade went against me, the trade would then be handled in a semi martingale style until the trade was closed.

My other EA would deal with the trade following the trade, picking off 25 pips at a time, when the trade went against me, the trade would be handled in grid trade format and close the trade by going with the flow.

Pros and Cons for both, but mostly for the martingale style, it is highly effective in a strong trending market, ie Aussie dollar...I have had it running on that pair for weeks. The trick is to know your support and resistance levels...ie with the Aussie you did not want it buying in the 1.09 and 1.1 area...if you made that trade you would be in serious trouble.

I really like my manual grid EA...the trick with this style is know the pair you are trading, know the best times with most volume etc etc. The only really down side I have found for this method is money management and exit strategy. This is a no loss type of strategy, so at some stage you are going to get into a trade at the wrong spot, or the market starts ranging, then you are stuck with a trade for days waiting for it too close. I found it best at a certain stage to just kill the trade and take your lumps. Mine you that has not happened for a while now, as I have perfected my entries etc, so risk is limited.

Anyone else have any success with either strategy's?

Yep, I use a limited-martingale (very controlled size increases) strategy too. Martingales are GREAT for capturing trades you just need to know when to KILL THE ENTIRE TRADE and take the loss. There's a very fine line between taking full reset losses and using the marty for recovery but in skilled hands it can work wonders for your bank account while eliminating 'direction-choosing' which is the greatest benefit of hedge/grid trading. I could never do it manually though - Its 1000% EA trading or bust for me. No way I could handle the emotions and on-chart time needed to trade 24/5 FX.

I know exactly what you mean. I trade entirely with my manual EA's now. I use my own method to determine entry, and then turn my EA on, and let it capture the profit and turn itself off at a pre-determined point.

would you share ur grid ea.... not the martingale one?

thx b4

i'm a newbie and i'd like to listen to that idea of yours too

anyone got the EA that will martingale your manual trades? It works like open position management orders rather than pure martingale EA. It;s like the TS stated above but he didn't post the EA.

thanks

I use half-auto martingale as well. Trend or ranging bounds is set by manual technical analysis each weekend. I'm pro-martingale. Just withdraw often and have an emergency exit strategy.