Interactive Euro Scalping

Nice one

I have a question about HA candles. Why do you use those instead of the regular candles?

Morning guys,

No trading from me to day on this NFP (Not For Pipping) day. Too frisky for our tight stops in this game! Instead think of NFP as your day to sleep in, go for a mid morning swim or a walk on the beach. We work our bums off so remember to take time off!

Here is a 6 pip gain on AU. I do watch both AU and EU. Roofx, if you do not me to enter these AU trades, let me know.

E: 1.06151, Long at 10:30 chart time
TP: 1.06211, exit at 10:38

I should have entered on the bullish engulfing off of the Weekly line, but did not. Still getting used to the M1. Hindsight is 20/20...

i should have learnt from you! boo hoooo~

Today's review:


I didn't trade today as it was NFP and just too risky for my methods. I hate risk so I try to keep it to a minimum.


But if it wasn't NFP or if you were feeling brave, here are the trades you could have taken using the Roofless Scalping Method:

And the only other trade I'd have been interested in would be this one. A bounce off Wednesday's low after sideways market indicates the big drop from NFP is losing energy.


Entry would have been about 4 pips above that lower yellow line for a nice +10 profit.

But no trades for me today. On normal days it's NVNG -
Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained

But on NFP it's NVNL -
Nothing Ventured Nothing Lost.

Or NVSGMHABPIDO -
Nothing Ventured Still Got My House And Blood Pressure Is Doing Ok.

Another quick note guys, when I mentioned blood pressure. Something I notcied is the bigger your accout grows and more volume you are trading the more you have to work to keep your stress levels down. When each trade starts to be a potential risk of $xxxx it becomes more stressful even though your risk percentage is exactly the same. I used to sometimes stick little pieces of masking tape over all the $ parts of my trading platform so I could only see the pips.

Since I'm in time off mode let me ask you something guys:

Do you love trading? Is it just the idea of making lots of money that keeps you trading or do you live and breath the markets? Are you fascinated by the moves of the market and learning how to predict them? Do you think about trading dozens or hundreds of times per day, even at the weekend? After years of tireless trading, do you still love getting to your screens and looking for the day's next setups?

I am thankful for being able to trade without a mechanical system. If I used a robitic follow the green light system I would become so bored and so sleepy I'd have to try to talk mysel into getting up each day. Assessing the market before every trade and looking at all the information the charts provide so I can make a good decision is what I love. It's not just the money.

In fact I don't think much about the money anymore, I think about things like how to improve my emotions so I don't feel bad after a losing day. I think about how to expand my trading into other currencies or even stocks. I think about money management and how much to keep in the trading account and how much to take out to live on. Do I spoil myself after a good month or do I keep as much as I possibly can in the account so that my account grows faster? Where is the happy medium between enjoying life and working hard for a secure future?

I worry about the market changing and my methods becoming less effective. What if I can't adapt to the ever changing markets? What if the Euro is lost completely in this economic madness? What will I trade then and will my methods be as effective or will I have to devise entirely new methods?

All these things are to be thought about. But whatever you do, don't get too caught up thinking about the money and what you'll spend it on. Focus on growing the account. Set goals for certain levels and reward yourself when you reach them. If you have a $1,000 account and you get to $2,000, buy yourself those nice new jeans you saw the last time you went to the mall. If you have a $10,000 account and you get to $15,000, take a long weekend off with your partner or friends, go skiing or boating or just rent a cottage in the mountains and enjoy nature. Or if that's not your thing upgrade your trading station with some nice big screens. If your account is at $1,000,000 and you get to $5,000,000, do whatever you want!!

Hi Capstone

Just like the look of the chart it looks very simple price goes up all green candles, price going down all red candles, very clear for me and my entry signal is change of HA colour candle taken out enter.

But I do toggle between the two at reversal pionts but to be honest find HA very indicative of a change in direction of price which is very handy around support or resistance.

Hope that explains it.

Thanks for question.

Just been thinking about capstones question a bit more as to why i prefer HA candles over normal and I guess to sum it up I would say I am a price action trader and to me HA candles make the price action on a 1 minute chart much clearer. I can clearly see the waves moving around the chart and get a real "feel" for the price action.

Yep reckon thats about it, just get a better feel for me anyway.

cheers clive

Heiken Ashi look much more pleasing in hindsight but for me personally I can't use them because due to the nature of them they can filter out little spikes. Here is what I mean:


Here are two identical EU charts except one uses heiken ashi and one just regular japanese candlesticks.


You can see that the little spike circled in yellow did not show up in the heiken ashi chart. And so in realtime trading I can find I get spiked out of my trades by a pip or two but when I look back over my heaiken ashi chart it looks like all was well.

Hi Clive,

thank you very much for sharing your entry signal!
Your setup is logical, precise and almost mechanical.
I will give it a try

By the way, why do you call your example infamous "Trade of the Day"?
I guess you will find this setup far more often than only once per day.

As I have started my career as a scalper with mechanical systems, I still feel the need for an objective filter which prevents me from trading every up- or downtick.

Cheers,
TraderJF

Trading the European session (8 UTC+1 to 11 UTC+1) seems easier to me than trading the U.S. session (14 UTC+1 to 17 UTC+1). I have the impression that price action during the EU session is clearer. The patterns are clean, the moves are big and the turning points are easier to see. The asian session (2 UTC+1 to 5 UTC+1) maybe even easier to trade than the EU session, but I use to sleep during this time so this is an impression I only got from looking at the charts.

A possible explanation for this might be that during the EU session there are only EU traders who are influencing the price and they usually agree upon the direction of the market. When the U.S. traders are joining the action a fierce fight evolves because EU and U.S. traders often disagree. This produces frequent reversal patterns which I find a lot more difficult to trade.

My favorite example of a difficult pattern is a broadening wedge. You get a sharp initial move, i.e. 10 pips in 1 minute, then the price stalls. As you are experienced traders you already know that it is usually a deadly sin to place a trade there (unless you have a special strategy which allows this). The reason why a trade there will most likely fail is that after such a move some kind of wedge will form - with the broadening wedge being the most ugly pattern of them. It will shake the trend followers out of the market as well as the reversal traders. It will kill both of them. The safest (and perhaps best) action might be to stay out of this market. The most aggressive (and most risky) option is to bet on a broadening wedge after it has been formed by an up and down move. I don't like to do it but I have seen a very successful scalper doing this.

A pattern I am trying to learn to trade:
High, tight flag
During an uptrend, price jumps (e.g. 10 pips in 1 min) to a daily high (this is best) and forms a tight flag after the rise. I find it highly profitable to enter the flag when I see that the flag is rising. I do not wait for the price to break out of the flag. I like this on 15-second and 1-min. When I am in the trade, I like to trail my stop by 2-3 pips. Initial stop only about 3 pips. When price stalls, I often close immediately. (Another idea would be to protect the position at +3 or so and try to let it run, but I don't do this)
For short, all rules are reversed.

Hi Roofx,

that is a very interesting topic. My attitude towards trading has changed a lot during my three years as a full time trader. Initially I was thinking of the market as a victim for my 100% automated mechanical system which I created to print endless money day after day
This worked many months - but some day, Mr. market changed his mind - he refused to be a victim any longer...
It has been a long journey, but now I understand the market myself a lot better so I don't need my mechanical system any longer. I have found that I need a deep understanding of the market to create a new profitable system. Therefore, I am studying the market every day to become a better trader. But after I have acquired this knowledge, there is probably no need any longer to program it into a new system - because the system will always fall behind my skill as a trader. Mechanical systems ignore subtle hints in the market unless one puts extreme effort into it - but this might be not worth it when you consider that you can simply pull the trigger for yourself.

Now I find it most challenging to make money and discover a new secret of the market, day after day. Do I love it? That is hard to say. It is a sort of an adventure and this is what I like about it. You are going ahead but you do not know what will come next. Of course, I hope that some day I will find it - the holy grail
If this does not happen, no problem. Just a new profitable system will also do fine.

Imagine pressing the green button labelled ON in the morning and then do what you like the whole day? When you are coming home, you have a look at your daily pnl of +3%. Instead of watching the market you could create a charity project with all your millions and help people in need etc.

Just a thought. I did this for many months, but unfortunately that was too short to accumulate millions
... but it was good enough for a whopping yearly performance

This reminds me of the best trader I have ever seen. He scalps ES futures (also EUR/USD and Oil) with a $10M (estimated) account, for an average daily profit of $100K (estimated). He started 10 years ago with only $10K. You can watch him live, but he explains almost nothing - so you probably won't learn much. He calls himself tradeitdontdateit.

Cheers,
TraderJF

Hi TraderJF

I didn't call it "Trade of the Day" our thread founder Roofx awarded me that title on the first day of this thread, because I traded it live here on the first day.

I think he is going to award a "Trade of the Day" everyday for a bit of fun but up to now I am the only one to have this honour bestwoed on me, hence my reference to it.I'm very proud of my award. All a bit of fun really.

As for using an objective filter, yes its a very good idea. I am still developing my method but right now I have the following filters in place.

Price should be trending one way or the other and so I only take entries in the direction of the 1 min trend. I use 5 and 15 min to help with this also. I use the 200 and 100ema to give me the trend. EG Red(100) below blue(200) = down trend. Red(100) above Blue(200) = uptrend.

I know Roofx loves his ranging days but thats because he scalps the tops and bottoms of ranges and is only looking for a fixed 10 pips.

Me however I am looking for 2:1 plus trades so with 7 pips risk I'm looking for 15 pips. Thats why I am only taking signals with the trend as I'm using the trend to carry my trades further.

So to make this an easier description lets assume we have a down trend like my "Trade of The Day" on Tuesday, obviously the opposite applys to up days.

I trade pullbacks in the trend (read the thread Flag trading the Trend by Divergence, absolutely Gold) so wait for my CCI (20) to go +150 as this defines a deep pullback for me.

Once that happens I am looking for the price to hit some resistance either,

1) Some support or resistance level that has acted both as support and resistance. (red horiziontals on my chart)

2) The 100 or 200 EMA

3) A 25 level (hence I have them marked on my chart). I find 50 or 100 levels particularly reliable on EU.

Once price hits one of them i am looking for my reversal signal to enter on which is a HA candle colour change in a downtrend of course it is a red candle, then for the next red candle to take its low out by 1 pip.

Sometimes the price will push on further past these levels but I will take the next HA reversal signal as long as price doesn't go too far past.

Once in my trade I move to BE after just 3 pips profit.

Once BE has been achieved so I can't lose I will try to evaluate where to close out my trade.
I am a great believer in making the most of your winning trades and cutting my losing trades at 7 pips.
With all my trades I am hoping for 2:1 minimum but it depends on market conditions and price action as to when I close out my trade, I have no fixed TP.

I have not yet decided how to do this but that is still work in progress on my trading plan.

I have posted a chart showing you many examples of these types of entries from last Tuesday. See if you can spot them all????

The trend is down so I would be looking for sell entries only.

Look how often after the CCI +150 level the next HA candle change is a good entry.

Look how often the price reverses at the EMAs. I find the 200ema particularly powerful.

Look how often the 25 levels once hit or breeched the next HA change is a good signal.

Look how often the support/resistance levels work (red horizontal lines).

The secret is of course that there was a strong move down or down trend in place. These signals won't work so well in a ranging market. Also don't just enter when these resistance levels get hit wait for the nexta HA candle change it pinpionts the entry for me.

Of course they don't all work but if you hold for 2:1 trades then you only need a 50% hit rate to make good money.


Hope that helps with your filtering ideas.

all the best Clive.

could u please upload ur CCI histo...

Here you go you will have to adjust colours etc but I'm sure you can work that out.

Someone has been asking me for my template and I would love to oblige but can't find it anywhere in my MT4 folders. Its certainly not in the templates folder just the default ones there, so does anyone know where the personal templates are saved?

thank u
clivepackham

for ur cci histo