Low stress swing trading with momentum

I'm lazy and don't sit here and watch charts all day. I have a lot better stuff to do than to sit here falling asleep watching daily charts..... like play Xbox, target shooting, N scale model railroading, take a nap, watch a movie, play with my toys out in the workshop, chase the wife around the house..........

I check on them throughout the day but don't baby sit them and don't like to chase price around. If I catch something close enough to what I want I'll kill a limit order and place a market order in a heartbeat. Limit orders are there to work for me when I'm not.

What's nice and something I use with the THV3 trix and the supply demand indicator is the pop up alerts. I can walk into the office and with a quick glance I can see if there is something that popped up that I need to take a look at.

What I like about the ZB cloud matrix is that is just a matrix form of the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo and gets the cloud off the middle of the chart. Just set the matrix to your favorite cloud settings.

You can set it to give you signal arrows but it doesn't do an alert. That's something I like and I'm going to change on my template as I forgot to set this but it doesn't affect how it works, it's just a visual.



P.S. Once you become a trader, you're already mad and there is no cure... Just support groups..... I'm sure there are some 12 step programs out there for us but most of them are 12 steps on how to enter another trade


I'm an old country boy, grew up the son of farmers. I hate city life. When I retired from the Army 82nd Airborne, I immediatly move out of Fayetteville and away from the base.

Heck, I'm even 15 miles outside of the small town I moved into. I'm 15 - 20 miles away from town and shopping in any direction I go and 20 miles from the nearest police station or sherrifs office. You take care of yourself and your neighbors out here. There's a swamp and woods behind the property and a cotton field across the street and a good neighbor on each side but not too close.

Rush hour is about 5 cars that go by in the morning and come back by in the evening. I love it. Even the closest stop light or even a flashing traffic signal at an intersection around here is about 15 miles away.

You have some funny stuff in what I just read . This one especially. I just wrote a 15 stepper and I am going crazy mad .

You sound a lot like me, and the reason I only look at trading the H4, D1, and the W1 charts. So I don't have to sit around all day long at my computer and watch charts. Though I have been getting a lot of my ducks in order lately, so I have been spending more time than usual. The only problem is that it takes 3 accounts to trade those 3 TFs with the hedging laws, so I'll have to see what happens. The H4 is the most demanding for checking charts, but mising one or two here and there isn't the end of the world.

I guess I just like to use BS and SS orders rather than limit orders. That was the only reason I was wondering as to why limit orders were your choice.

Sounds like you are living the good life out there. Peace, quiet and gun shots . I am pretty close to a small town, but I have no real neighbors and a nice long driveway so we feel pretty isolated. Just the way we like it. We could have a nice loud Memorial Day gathering of family and friends with a bonfire to kick off the night and no one woud give hoot.

Anyway, later for now. Look forward to seeing what trades you have coming through the pipe. I have lots of things to get ready yet, plus I am a student again after 20 years, but it seems the trading is coming together finally. It also seems like you have made some nice profit based on your equity curve, so congrats on that!

[quote=AaronWard;5313283]

You seem to be vacillating between the idea of tight stops and loose stops, hard stops and mental stops...

I started doing that shit last fall when it was getting really whippy and everything was getting stopped out and then going in the right direction. I started losing the mental game. My heads on straight now, I'm going back to what I was doing well with for years. When I looked over the charts early this month to look into new trade plans I see where I would have completely fugged myself with a 300 pip mental stop when the Swiss floored the Euro so I went back to hard stops.


One idea for you to think about is trading somewhat larger lot sizes in fewer currencies.

Practically your exposure much is larger that it would look like from the size of your individual position. All currency pairs share correlations and quite a few (such as those USD based) can move like synchronized swimmers at times. This would yield equal risk V reward with a bit less clutter.

That's not happening. I know many pairs are highly correlated and my oveall risk is higher but I won't be going back to trading just a handful of currencies. I'm agressive and I always have been. I'm done with being in a trade that's not going anywhere or get spiked and stopped while I watch something else go on a 500 pip tear after respecting supply and demand but I wasn't in the trade even though I had the opportunity.

I've actually reduced my clutter going back to metatrader and trading smaller lot size off bigger TF. I no longer have to have 3 computers, 2 - 3 platforms, 5-6 websites open and the TV on CNBC to monitor everything. I'm down to one platform and open others when needed. I open different websites at various times throughout the day to catch up what's going on and havn't turned on 2 of the computers in over a month now and it didn't matter either when my DVR went out and I couldn't watch CNBC last week.

It might look like clutter to some, especially with me posting a bunch of charts this weekend, but that was just playing catch up and getting disciplined on something I've been lacking for years and that's a real trading journal.

You have to remember I don't live on my trading so I'm not looking for a steady, safe, consistant 5% a month to live on. I've been chasing my dream for a few years and if I can keep my momentum up I just might hit that goal this year. What I do is not going to work well for most people.

I still don't have a solid system exactly although I am consistently profitable. As time goes on I am more and more finding myself siding with technical traders. Still fundamentals have their place and are entertaining. Further I can't think of a single trader I respect that doesn't use a combination of both.


One famous trader or fund manager said something to the effect of "when price is following the fundamentals, trade the fundamentals... When price is ignoring the fundamentals, trade the technicals"

Curency trading probably more than other assets follow the technicals often pretty well. The most common trading systems like fibs, S/R levels and certain moving averages are watched by many including big banks and funds especially on daily and weekly TFs so when these areas line up together it can make for some really nice trades.

I enjoy the news and BASIC fundamentals. You never know what kind of BS is going to come out of some talking heads mouth and it's often a good laugh at their lies.

I'll never get deep into the fundies like Know, PT, Tom and yourself as I don't have the attention span for it and I have documented short term memory loss problems so I don't retain a lot that isn't already highly learned and can't read stuff like Know's Nuggets other than to skim them because that is simply information overload for me and I retain nothing from it. It's all a blur to me when I read stuff like that.



I opened this account to try and look for new ideas and to me it was actually backpedaling to go back to metatrader after using Tradestation 9.0 and MB Trading desktop pro platforms. I still use desktop pro and also use metatrader with MB trading. I will likely consolidate both MB accounts to the metatrader platform once I get comfortable with what I'm doing with the IBFX MT4 account. I'm also thinking of sliding some more into IBFX which is also a division Tradestation forex as of November of last year for those that don't know this.

I am looking for something highly visual that would help me with exits and letting trades run on momentum but I still want in as early as possible on an entry and not be chasing the market which is where supply and demand usually work best for me.

On my 2 main accounts with MB Trading, I havn't even been trading them this year exept for holding a few positions in EURCHF and USDJPY long. I closed everything before Christmas and have been sitting on my hands until I figure out what I want to do with them.


Quite honestly I only have what I want in those accounts to keep me busy and make it worthwhile to trade. Like the big money investors, since late last summer we have been sitting on the majority of our cash in a money market deposit account we can write a few checks a month on. We ain't putting squat into an IRA or mutual fund.

Whew, 15 steps...... I lose focus afer step 3 and if I make it through step 4 I can't remember what step 1 was.

We're doing well out here. Nobody messes with anything, no need to lock doors around here and everyone has guns. If you hear a gunshot around here they most likely ain't shooting at you so you don't call the cops, you go grab a gun and join in on the fun with your neighbor and fire off a few rounds.

Somebody fires off fireworks on a holiday, or has an occassional loud party on a weekend who cares... enjoy the show, you were probably invited to the party anyways.



BS and SS entries are handy for entry. Often the safest entry out of a supply or demand zone when it's inside the zone.

It'll be fun to see if I can keep up some of the momentum of that equity curve..... It's a 15 step plan to turn a $100 bill into $1.6 million. I've completed step 2 and am working on step 3

I like BS and SS orders. I even have rule when to delete them which comes in handy in ranging markets. Sometimes though they can bust my chops by getting me in at the top or the bottom, but that is trading. I know I am never always going to get the perfect entry or the a wining trade. My main focus more so than the entry is letting the profits run, and dare I say it... adding entries when I am in profit, yet not doing so when the market is ranging.... gesh, I am so glad I don't as a lot of myself .

Do you trade all the pairs, or just a few?

I am pretty happy with my rules for trading the h4 bars. I just did a quick peak at the d1 charts using those same rules and I really don't like them one bit. I noticed that earlier as well that how I traded the h4 charts was different than how I had to trade the d1 charts. However, the W1 charts were similar to the h4 charts.

Anyway, good luck with your trades. I am going to shower and settle in for some football. Hoping to see San Fran run the tables from here on out!

I'll trade almost anything I think I can make a $ on. I trade 26 pairs, all the majors and the major crosses. No exotics and right now I only trade EurChf and UsdJpy long when they dip so I can try to catch the next intervention or rumor spike.

BS and SS are a good way to box a ranging market to try to catch a breakout and you'll see me do that. You'll get whipped occasionally on a spike that hits entry and reverses doing that though. I like limit orders to trade inside a range.

One thing I don't like to do is add positions. I'll do it once in a while but not often.

How to sit on your hands and let a trade run and where to put stops are 2 of the most difficult things to learn and sitting on your hands is one of the hardest things of all to do.

A few ways I like to let trades run is:

1. Bollenger band mean line. Close the trade when price closes above on a short or below on a long
2. 20 or 21 EMA use it just like the bollenger band mean.
3. Ichimoku Kinko Hyo cloud use it just like the BB mean.
4. Draw trendlines and use them like the BB mean. I don't usually use this one as an EMA or the BB mean creates a dynamic trendline for you. Drawing your own lines allows you to cheat and change them too vs just putting on an EMA and leaving it alone.
5. Technical stops using supply and demand levels. Move SL just above/below a fresh level when it is formed and price moves away from it.

My favorites are the Ichimoku 2,3,5 cloud and 21 EMA. I have found it's best to just pick one method you like best and stick with it. I have tried and tested all of these methods and they all averaged out about the same results over time.

I actually want to add on addition order or two, but I am not in a big hurry to do it. I think it is alright to do so if you base it off of something solid. I can relate with your "sitting on my hands" analogy. To enter another trade just because I am antsy and I can't control myself would indeed be the incorrect way to enter an additional trade or two. Anyway, I like the concept of it and I think it is worth me keeping an eye open for safe situations to do so that happen consistently that I can add as a rule.

I have never been able to understand Ichimoku though I have not worked much with it. Bollinger Bands I have worked with quite a bit, but still don't really understand them. I have already stopped using TLs on my h4 charts as I found them a bit slow to geeting into the market and a bit fast at getting out.

I have really been running my h4 trades as a true stop and reverse, swing trading system, where I exit my open trade .1 pip before I enter my new trade. It works well on the h4, but it looks like I may have to come up with another idea for the daily charts.

Games back on...later.

AUDNZD Short


Price

1. Market Entry 1.2996
2. SL 1.3071
3. T1 1.2890 will pull half and move SL to BE
4. TP 1.2590
5. Risk 75 pips @ 1% allows 0.04 position size

Profit/Loss booked

1. Position 1
2. Position 2

Remarks

Price entered supply zone right after monday Asia open. Was able to catch this pair with a market order right at the zone when the spead narrowed to 1.2 pips in thin trade.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Well scratch that idea.

You can't go back and edit a post after so many days or posts to keep each trade organized in one spot to track it's progress as it developes.

You have to run the journal like some rambling blog and no way to organize it. That's flipp'n stupid.

Yeah, at one point I thought about trying to delete all the dumb things that I said... no luck. My stupidity preserved like a bug in amber for all of eternity.

That's funny.

I sure would have been nice to have at least 1 month to edit instead of 1 day. That's just dumb.


Oh well screw it.

Here's what's going on today so far.

USDCAD limit order entry hit



Limit orders placed for AUDUSD and EURJPY


AUDUSD short

1. Limit Entry 1.0672
2. SL 1.0772
3. T1 1.0303 take off .01 lots move SL to BE
4. TP 0.9956
5. Risk 100 pips @ 1% allows .02 position size

EURJPY short

1. Limit Entry 101.77
2. SL 102.60
3. T1 99.20 take off .01 lot move SL to BE
4. TP 97.47
5. Risk 83 pips @ 1% allows .02 lot size

I've been looking for an area to short the E$ pair. I like the supply zone on the daily but it's wider than I want at 185 pips to put on a position size I want. Looking down into the 4 hr for more definition I like what I see and can put on a larger position with a tighter stop at 85 pips.

The futures and equities markets are not rallying like the risk currencies are and money is still piling into gold and silver. US bonds are down a bit but not like the US$ and looking into things a bit today looks more like someone just dumped a truckload of US$



EURUSD short

1. Market Entry 1.3040
2. SL 1.3125
3. T1 1.2906 pull .02 lots move SL to BE
4. TP 1.2686
5. Risk 85 pips @ 1% allows .03 position size

Okay. I went back to putting two trendlines on my chart. I am jujst using them differently than I was using them before. Now they are being more helpful to what I am doing and before I thought they were in the way .

respect-keep on!

Quoting damonl

Disliked

Okay. I went back to putting two trendlines on my chart. I am jujst using them differently than I was using them before. Now they are being more helpful to what I am doing and before I thought they were in the way .

Ignored

LOL Amazing how you go back to old tools that work isn't it.



Thank you. Good bad or ugly... All you can do is keep on trying. You're not beaten until you give up.



Here's what's happening this morning. Europe is still in the spotlight with the big focus on Greece putting a lot of pressure on the markets. US and European equities markets are taking a hit today.

I was stopped out on GBPJPY and GBPAUD trades this morning for a small loss to the account balance but my account equity is about the same as it was when I went to bed.

Interesting that with the "risk off" theme today that the Pound is catching a bid and the Yen is down.

Hi PK,

Got some questions, appreciate your view on this.

Daily still looks bullish and if i am not wrong all the daily set-up I got from you are bullish ... in this scenario, the sell you have @ 1.3041 (guess) you could have closed when it reached 1.295x.

Q A. I understand you have a target of 200 pips atleast and your rules, but you could also have taken early profit and close it and re-enter at better price ... what is the mindset restricts you doing so? Some strict principle, discipline?

Q B. When your Set up is showing Bull run is not finished yet .. why you took contra trade against E/U ... and also you are not closing it when it got almost 80 pips I guess?

Answer would help me building a better mindset

cheers my teacher!

I can't go short yet on the eurusd. I had a SS order in place, but price action just deleted by showing me there was still a lot of strength to the upside. I'll be back in a few more bars to see if any thing has changed, but for now, the long position still holds.

I'm trading supply and demand. My entries are off the zones, not what lagging indicators are telling me.

The markets right now are risk averse. Greece and the Eurozone are still in the drivers seat. E$ strength today was probably more due to some sovereign buying through BIS at 1.2950 as the rumors were reporting seeing them buying this morning as both European and US equities markets and dollar buying was telling risk off but the Euro and GBP got a bid and Aussie and Yen were weak? Something isn't right there.

Answer A.... 1). Discipline, I would be violating my plan. 2). Position size is what I am comfortable and willing to lose and I'm not worried about it. 3). I'm trading daily charts and am not looking at them all day. I won't catch the daily fluctuations in price and I simply don't care about the noise and price movement of small TF trading..... In fact I've been playing Skyrim on the Xbox for about the last 4 or 5 hours and tomorrow is supposed to be nice so I can put my dogs out all day so I can lay more tile in the hallway to the utility room without them needing to run through there to go outside to the fenced back yard.


Answer B..... Entering in supply and demand zones is basicly a way of picking tops and bottoms for entry. It's a way of leading the market, not lagging it. I am legally frontrunning the market. Yes it can look like a contra trade, but to me it isn't. Lagging indicators like moving averages, Bollenger bands, trix and Ichimoku cloud etc....... will usually still say the momentum is against you when you enter. You can use them for exit but you have to just sit on you hands and wait for them to turn in your favor first. I'll use supply and demand levels for the 1st target and momnetum for the rest of the position. While the other 90% are chasing the trade with lagging indicators, I'm already in it first and often out first.

On daily charts it can be several hundred pips before a lagging indicator turns and tells you it's OK to chase it. That's fine on a trending market but if price goes sideways you will often get the snot whipped out of you with MA crosses and other indicators like that.

Yes you will get run over doing this. Like anything else, it's not perfect. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.


Watch some of Sam Seiden's webinars on FX street. You'll better understand what I am doing.

You would not be violating your plan ... I am trying developing discipline for myself ... these advices I am going to save and read everyday before I plan for the day ... due to the urge of making money quickly many times I forgot the principals willingly so this is the only challenge now. Thank you PK