Trade decision components

Hi all .. hope your trading week has been a profitable one so far. I am slowly starting to realise that a longer term strategy is what my current lifestyle is looking for, despite my current day trading methodology being profitable for the last year (http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...d.php?p=55230).

My ideal strategy (apart from being profitable of course) would be one were I can check the charts at the same time each day, most likely some time in Asia as I live in Australia, use a criteria to detemine the most probable direction for the day, open the trade, and close it 24 hours later.

I am under no illusions that there is a magic formula, but I bring it up here as I would love to hear some feedback and thoughts on what components make up your trading decisions. I am not necessarily talking about specific indicators, but rather things like market conditions, news, day of the week etc. etc.

Love to hear some thoughts, and of course if anything does come of it ill be sure to keep it updated here

Happy trading!

Akuma,

I came to the same realization about a month ago. My present job/situation just does not allow me to do intraday trading (although I've become "not too bad" at it).

I've been studying the Vegas Wealth Builder model and practicing with it in my demo acct for the past 3 weeks. Working out fairly well so far, but I still have lots to learn and discover before implementing it in a live acct. This model allows me sit back and study the market conditions more thoroughly before taking a trade and since it is over a period of days to possibly weeks the anxiety level is lower for me personally which means I don't have to check my charts every hour and then re-analyze as often if I see a price spike against my trade(s). So far, only my patience is getting in the way, but that will come with time as I adjust and adapt. News announcements aren't as big of a deal trading this way either, although I do follow the news mostly looking for opportunities.

Best of luck to you in your ventures.

Greg

bonmeister, sounds like we are in the same boat, I have had a look at the Vegas stuff, and he has put in a lot of work, but it is not for me for some reason.

Interested to hear what people take into account.

Akuma, one of my friends trades off 4hr charts exclusively. Here is a rundown of what he does:

He only trades Monday-Friday starting @ the London open on Monday nite and then quits by noon on Friday. He only trades the four majors. He uses only candles, S&R, trendlines, & chart patterns. His methodology involves taking a 4hr, 30-40 day chart and dividing into 3rds. Sell only in the top 3rd and buy only in the bottom 3rd. Breakouts above/below those areas are also taken if the momentum is strong enough. Middle 3rd is no man's land and trades are never taken there. Trades can last anywhere from 1/2hr to several days.
He seems to be doing pretty well with it. I asked him if he closes his trades or adjusts stops for news announcements and his reply was that if he is already in a trade then he stays in, but he doesn't enter trades during prime news release hrs (8:30AM or 10AM for USD pairs).

Maybe something like this would suit you...

Very interesting bonmeister, I have just finished a book on applying traditional index indicators straight to price action, one of the methods talks about breaking the RSI down to its original price and applying that to price, creating Wilson Channels, i.e. areas on the chart that would be "overbought" or "oversold", this sounds similiar in the basic principal at least.

Thanks for the idea ... something throw into the pot and stir around a little.

Longer-term trades? Trade on the big Fibo charts! Simple.

You'll know what I mean very soon!

indeed I will

The chart-in-thirds method sounds similar to what i was taught and many had adapted to longer term charts. The method was called a "momentum channel". Basicaly what i would do is take the 1hr candle high and low over a 30ish day period and draw a fibo in the direction of the trend. Then i would only take buy trades in the lower third up to the lower 38/62% fibo line and only take sell trades from the top line down to the upper 38/62% fibo line. I would also consider the break outs as they occured. The area between the 38 and 62 were caution zones and what one might call a "Median" similar in some way to what is going on in the Vegas model but with static s/r lines, and also some of what might be involved in the B W I L C model. It does seem to have merrit.

Cheers,
Thom