How did you do this week? - Surviving a bad week

I don't know about anyone else but I have had a really tough week trading cable. Tuesday was a good day for that nice move down but not being in the GMT timezone anymore meant I missed it. All other days were a mess apart from today's NY session which I simply didn't trade due to risk limitation to keep my weekly loss down.

If you look at this M5 cable chart for yesterday (Thursday) you can see what I mean by mess. I would love to know how anyone else trades days like this? The chart begins at Frankfurt open and ends at London close.

To me it is an almost random series of moves that I simply cannot trade. No defined range, no clear trend.

How did you survive it?

Just don't trade if you don't see anything familiar. Anyway, i think cable respected S/R zones very nice.

easy. When things look like a mess, you don't trade. Being in the market at any given time is not a requirement- wouldnt it make more sense to trade when your charts make sense?

I am up ~ 18%

With respect Roofx it is just a matter of experience and screentime. Given time you will gain a clearer understanding of the movements of price, when you get there that chart you posted will be perfectly tradable.

It took me 3 - 4 years to consistent profitability, I know I still have loads to learn and I am in year 7 now.

I should add as others have said, if it isn't clear step back or choose another currency pair that is clearer that day.

Good luck.

Nice chart. Looks simple to me, because you have some dominant patterns on it that tell a way.



One thing that could hurt is that the symmetric triangle's candles stick to the top edge and only one of them has a lower body below the triangles middle line. But that really big candle is just that, really big, and the symmetric triangle lines up smack in the middle of it. Plus, compromises make nice turns when they work, and this one ends its midline at about twice the height of the upper half of the really big candle. Thus, it seems reasonable, and several spinning tops or groups of candles that create ersatz spinning tops, touch the dashed ray in the middle of the chart, so that price will likely double on the other side of the middle of the really big candle, too, for the TP.
It's not a big trade, but then it's also a fairly low-risk one, too.

If you were stuck in the middle of this chart earlier on,
I guess paying attention to how the trend angles progressed away from the really big candles, plus how the amazing number of spinning tops in this chart looked if gathered at key points in reference to the really big candle.

One thing I'd downplay is momentum except as a segue for a stronger or weaker ranging area. The really big candle and the plethora of spinning tops emphasize ranging.

There's gotta be some kind of momo reaction further along past this chart, though, with this little momo going on. I'd think more than one person'd get stuck trying to play momo (with a fan, perhaps) from the base of the really big candle or from the next uptrend after it; it'd be a little useful, only you'd have to recognize the grid-like area within it anyway.

One thing that confuses me is how the last down trend is centered off-beat in relation to the centerline for the entire chart that I have as a solid ray. While its candles support the centerline, its entirety is centered way above that line, suggesting a fast return after any support below the center line is satisfied with a touch from price action. Or maybe a counterweight group of price action will develop over time and around/below the centerline, especially considering all those shadows in the symmetric triangle.
I guess if this off-beatness holds price weighted above the centerline, that'd make a good SL.



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Hope I didn't confuse anyone with my own method,
and there's probably just as many and more highly %ed and understandable reasons to trade up.