Help for Newbies (Discussion Thread)

Slippage:

Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade, and the price the trade actually executes at. Slippage often occurs during periods of higher volatility, when market orders are used, and also when large orders are executed when there may not be enough interest at the desired price level to maintain the expected price of trad

Break even:

It may mean two things:

"Setting the stop loss to break even" is a money management practice used to put yourself safe from price going against you. By setting the stop loss at break even (once you are making pips) you are basically trading "for free" since the worst that may happen is to have the trade halted.

You have to consider how setting the stop loss at break even is not enough to really have a totally free and safe trade: you will still pay the spread. A true free trade is setup by putting the stop loss past the entry point plus spread.

Another kind of break even is used to gauge trading strategies viability.

You can use math to calculate the ratio between wins and losses that lets you break even (get a net gain and loss of zero). Past that ratio, your strategy is a winner.

Price can hit 1.25997 all day long and your trade won't win. Then price goes back and you lose.

Why? Because price has to pass 1.25997 plus broker spread, else the TP won't be triggered.

All right. But what does that mean though, the spread on EUR/USD is one with Oanda.


I did another (small) trade, this time I traded with the trend and I made a profit. I think ** feeling small good bumps ** that I'm starting to grasp the fundamentals.

Keep those goose bumps under control. I know what that rush feels like just starting out... just realize those goose bumps are directly related to emotions... an emotional trader is among the 90% over time.

You don't ever want to be apart of the 90% group. Keep those emotions in check.

Hello everyone, this is by first post and i am brand new to Forex Trading.

I have started looking at different demo platforms and am reading and studying Forex in every spare moment.

I have a full time job, so want to trade around that, and when i get more proficient start putting on future trades.

At this stage my question's are what currency pairs can i start trading Sunday night UK time?

What analysis tools do you find are more effective for short term/scalping trades?

Thanks, and looking forward to getting to know people on here.

If you have full time job I would recommend you to trade 4 hour time frame or higher instead of scalping.

Hi,

Could someone please help me out?

I have different manual trading software that provides me with a manual popup alert when when the market is trending either upwards or downwards. I have the latest mt4 build but for some reason the popup alerts have a 15 minute delay. When I actually receive the alert and then look at the arrow on the chart, the arrow was placed 15 minutes prior. I have contacted the developer of the software and they tell me that they never experienced this issue and that I need to update my mt4 but I am already using 432.

Could anyone explain to me why this is or what the issue might be please?

If someone could post something here or e-mail me at [email protected] I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

hi, how does one predict the chart movements based on -Breaking news and calender events. thanx

Bemac, I agree with you, timeframe is very importan for traders..

Hi all!

I wanted to start a new thread for this, but I am not allowed to make threads yet so I post it here.


I was thinking lately on the thought process of the traders and observed two thing:
(may seem a little unconventional)

1. why have traders different set of rules for entries and for holding/exit on active trades?

2. why everyone is worried about not using stoploss?

On the math side i find these to average traderthinking traditions are just nonsense


Let me explain:


1. entries vs exiting/holding the trade:

A trader called Joe has a system (what kind of system is unimportant).
Case1: He makes a long entry at 25$ (again, the detailes -fx,stock..etc -are unimportant here. his SL at 23$ his TP is at 35$.
so he risk 2$ to win 10$.
The price goes in his direction, we are at 28$. everything is fine , he is still holding the trade.

Case2: Joe missed his entry the price is already at 28$ So not worth to take the bad. He is patient ,and looking for another setup.


I think most of you know this from own experience.
My Question: This is not contradict? you cant entry at 28$ if you are not in the trade but you can hold it if you are in??
Seems irrational to me. You would risk the same in each case man!!! risking 5$ to win 7$.

Yes i know, you can say that on the first trade you already in green profit.
But I say who cares? at the end after thousands of trade every penny will be counted in your bottomline.

To summarize it seems irrational to me that traders can -in general- hold the trade at some point of the trade but cant open a whole new position exactly at that point if they are still not in the trade. RR is the same imo.



2. Worry about not using SL.

I know its important to calculate the risk, protect the bankroll..etc.
Just playing with the idea. Using sinlge probability.

So u have entered a trade and have a stoploss at a point where your criteria for your setup will become invalid and will be a good point to take your 1-2% loss and move on.
But I think the fear of losing more and the 'exit and move on' are contradict .
Whats the reasoning of an average trader about SL ? -->
'oh my trade sucked it goes against me now' -- in this case you must exit but NOT move on. open a trade in the other direction.

'oh its not good because who knows where the market will go' -- in this case the market became RANDOM in your opinion so not using SL wont heart you in the long run because with a total random movement your expected value is breakeven.

In summary: I aggre SL is important to reduce variance and protect capital. But i think on the probability side its not a big deal if you forget to place an SL if your admit that the market is now random for you.
If you think its not random, but against your original trade, well you know...



What do you think about this?

thanks for sharing....

First I would like to thank you peter for such an informative thread to Newbies like me, I really find it useful in many ways but along the way You said " You forget to keep the track of forex calendar avent and don't follow it mostly". As far as I have been told by othes is that these avents play a vital role in deciding where your trades end up in the forex market. Hope to get some clarification on that please.

Regards

Need attached indicator converted to ea. Need ea to close open trade when the built in alert is triggered. Any help greatly appreciated

I am looking for a EA on renko bars 20 pips, at the moment I trade manual when the conditions have met. sorry I have attached a EMA crossover indicator onto my renko bar chart, I want the EA only to place one order ones I get a the signal from my EMA crossover indicator.Stoploss 40pips with 20pip take profit. then the EA will plase the next trade on the next convermation.

Hi Guys,

Taking Peter's advice on board! Im an absolute newbie...so green its ridiculous! so my question might seem a little silly and any feed back is welcomed.

Q: keeping in mind the above mentioned, i opened a demo account and after half a dozen opening winning trades i thought this is ridiculous! .. i can be skeptical...
so i put an an order for an entry point and exit point that was absolutely absurd and went to bed..the next morning "lo & behold!!!" i had another winning trade!

Is this a ploy from some brokers to entice you with false confidence on their demo accounts so you jump into a live account??

Has anyone experienced this? And can you please recommend a good demo account to practice strategies and develop understanding or real market action?

any feed back is welcomed!

Cheers

http://www.forexpros.com/currencies/...cal?period=300

I'm wondering if this could help me?! I have been watching it for 2 months now and its just following the trend and when trend reverses also predictions reverse. And thats just...I don't know useless.

well joe, almost everybody is better in DEMO than in real. At least me, and few my friends as I know I'm newbie also, but I think it's also psychological factor - it's always much easier to play with "imaginary" money, then real. When u play with real, u're always much more stressed, thinking about every trade from all possible sides to make the best decision, because u're much more worried because of real chance of loosing money...When u are under pressure, u're making much more mistakes. But maybe experienced traders have another opinion, this is just my view

Peter, One word, thankyou, I am 'getting there slowly' it has been slow and hard but fortunately only on a demo. It is good to hear of other peoples experiences that are not too dissimilar to mine. Aroma (new member).

I should be able to start a new thread, but i cannot. I have been member for a year or something like that.

But i have a question. I have developed a system. It runs on EUR/USD from year 2001 till present. so aproximately 11.5 years of data has been backtested.

This system has 20% drawdown at most and on average 17% return in year.
Chart:


My question, is this system good enough for investors? I have historic data good enough and i am most sure it dose not have any mistakes. I have not yet tested it in real account nor demo account, only historic testing. But if those numbers are not good enough no reason to waste time testing it on real account.

I read an article in FXtrader about the momentum oscillator in mt4, they added an 14 sma to it. how can i add the sma to my momentum oscillator
thank you