Your Favorite Trading Setup

hi guys. im not much of a talker - even in real life. but i have been following certain threads here, and i kinda felt an urge to express my frustration and in the process help others to overcome the feeling of being lost in a pile of threads "profitable systems". It is no secret, FF is experiencing "trading systems overload" and wolfs disguised as sheep and looking for a baby meat. So i thought it could be a good idea to create a thread where we can "mention" (not "share") tips and tricks that we learned over the years. It would help those who are lost, or perhaps even too lazy to dig the gem out, tho cant blame them since the forum has gotten too big for one man. Now lets talk about the content of this thread a bit detailed.

I wont mention any threads/systems/strategies that i use/trade whatnot. Its my personal belief that profitability of a system is subjective and discipline is essential and even with simple tricks one can be profitable by adopting discipline. So i urge you to share only specific SETUPS that you personally TRADED at least over few months (5-6) during real-time market conditions - be it real or demo. Few more notes and ill draw the first blood.

- Backtesting is not trading. Unless you traded a certain setup on live markets, it doesnt count.
- If you think that a certain setup is very useful or very profitable or anything remotely similar to that, save it. it doesnt count.
- If you have nothing to offer dont try. its ok just to stay back and look at what others have to offer. Thats what ive done until now



ps: i know the post is a mess - as you can tell i didnt think the details through, the idea just popped in my mind and i decided to roll with it. for all i know the thread might as well be dead, but hopefully itll get the attention of veterans and their valuable input is what is this thread is all about.

My Favorite Trading Setup 1:


Hopefully this will clear things up as what i have in mind when i say "favorite setup". My choice is an implementation of Elliott Wave basics. Dont get scared now the key word here is "basics". So we are not gonna get into complex structures, subjective wave counts ect. Of course you wll have to do some leg work and study, but the basics of EW (short for Elliott Waves) are as follow:

- 5 waves (indication of trend) followed by 3 waves of correction. And thats about it. I'll try to illustrate the basics and how to use it with out complications.

Here is a brief illustration of the statement above:






The best trades you can take as far as EW is concerned are the ones taken at the end of wave C. Its the end of correction against the main 5 wave trend. Therefore we will use that idea and get ahead of the markets.

So there are the steps of the setup:
- Identify A=C completed correction
- Switch to a lower timeframe (one step only aka D1>H4, H4>H1 ect).
- Wait for 5 move up
- Wait for another 3 move down
- Buy the dip

In case the steps are unclear, here is another illustration depicting the steps we plan on taking:




In case you are wondering why we are waiting for so many "turns" before engaging, :
- study the basics of EW
- we cant be sure what wave it is until its over so we are waiting for clear picture
- reducing risk


If the setup still unclear it means you are not familiar with EW basics and to lazy to change that. Now below ill show a real market setup that i have my eyes on, so hopefully that will leave no place for questions.

Here is GBPCHF Daily chart - clear 3 wave move corrective decline:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Here is 4hr chart - clear 5 waves up in play:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

So our next step should be to wait for 3 waves down and buy that dip. Here is my setup for this particular situation:



So assuming wave 5 is already in place we should be looking to buy 3 moves decline into 50%-62% of the entire 5 waves up, how you do it should be optional but the idea is that
- the low of wave 1 should stay intact.
- Retest of the highs should be a cue to move stops to b/e (break-even)

Here is another one - this time a bearish setup. Looking at USDCAD 4hr you can clearly see 3 waves up and 4 waves down (5th wave is on its way) so we will be looking 3 waves up to short this market:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

So there you go. If you think the format of my posts need adjustment feel free to say so. Good day to everyone.

My setup is:-

1. listen to some good music and drink a few cups of coffee beforehand. If in bad mood, will not trade. Take note of the fundamental news coming up TODAY.
2. use 100 EMA, a Trend indicator and Hieken Ashi candles. Use a mental SL which is very large.
3. look at charts MN down to M1 and see how stretched from the EMA the candles are. Look at trend at each chart.
4. trade the trend and look out for the tweezer, dojo, hammer and shooting star candles.
5. Practise on a demo account and only go live when your Demo has doubled in equity.
6 Use Fundamentals for the Direction; use Technicals for the Timing.
7. Only trade for 4-5 hrs a day and avoid chart chasing!

Been doing this for 12 years, and I can remember using the 2002 version of Metatrader and a 14k dial-up modem!! SO SLOW!!

This setup works for me and has paid off my mortgage 17 years early, much to the disgust of my bank

Happy Trading everyone!

well we got out 5th wave, one down, 3 to go. selling 3 waves up is what i mean. USDCAD 4hr

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Your set up is good one.
I like it.

But don't you think that we are very late in buying. the 3 wave pullback you are looking for, it usually does not come in three waves and many times it just keeps on going.

Like you said, you go one TF down. to count the 5 waves to upside and then 3 correctives waves completion you trade.
I think we should go one more TF down and catch the same move from deeper bottam with same EW trick.
Rather than going for 4H Tf, we can go for H1 timeframe to get the same move.

Anyways thanks for sharing the knowledge.

thanks for stopping by. yes the setup is bu trade against bigger correction, thus we need to switch into lower tf for opportunities. That would be the case with GBPCHF example. But USDCAD we dont need to look into lower tf, since we are looking for at least 50% correction, and once we get that correction, which you can observe on the same time frame, you can go as low as you want, and see if it is in fact 3 waves, and if so, then you take your short at equal legs (AB=BC pattern into 50-62%).

The thing about wave counting is that people try to label every single glitch/noise, every move/leg/wave. It might be possible with years of eye training, but to succeed you need to focus on clear patterns. Look how easy to see 5 moves down on USDCAD, or 5 moves up on GBPCHF examples.

One more thing , this is a SETUP that is designed to catch a move in direction of trend, if you try buying this drop in hopes of getting at least 50% rally, then

1 - you are trading against 5 waves thus against trend
2 - this is not our setup and you are looking at completely different setup
3 - i do not trust corrections, as far as we know price can plunge from here and drop to new lows, id rather wait for correction and join the party, than risking and deluding myself into false expectation of possible correction. Hope that explains it.

Thanks again and if you have a SETUP that you have experience with please do not hesitate to share, and help this poor folks on their way of financial freedom

Here is another one emini S&P500 a strong rejection from A=C equal legs. 4hr chart (this move is even more scary in Dow):

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

so lets wait for our beloved correction and join the party hopefully. note: because the drop is too sharp i had to drop down to 5min chart for clarity, tho it was not necessary.

So here is our 5min chart and possible 3 waves up illustration:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Here is an intraday setup which makes me money most of the time.

Setup.

1- Pullback to Ma's with roll-reversal confluence
2- Mas ( 21 & 55 Ema)
3- In the direction of Major trend
4- Entry at fib zone 35-61.8 %
5- Entry tf is 15m/5m
6- Target- Extention of the wave 161-200%

thanks man. tho few chart examples would really assist and add to your contribution

Ok we had

USDCAD short setup - never pullled back, damn its slipping into eternal pit.

GBPCHF long setup - still waiting for 3 wave pullback.

S&P short setup - your lucky day, we just got our pullback into 50%. I shorted it right at 50%, not sure how fomc will affect this but setup is setup so now that we got that out of the way lets get into charts.

So if you remember from previous post this was our S&P short setup that we've been waiting.




since that chart we had few more lows, but it doesnt change anything. Ill add more shorts, how you plan on doing it is your preference, stops above the 1892 or smthn high, and target below 1750. Stops will be moved to b/e upon 62% drop of last rally. Well have fun with it while it lasts.

I also had a look at EURUSD - our all time favorite. The corrective drop on 4hr chart was complex, so i labeled it with abc to make it less complex. After a correction, there comes a trend.




1hr chart we see clear impulsive rally. dont bother with the count, the point is, its impulsive and we shall wait for 3 waves pullback, or something that resembles a corrective move, and buy between 50%-62%.





Keep your spirit up, dont chase the setup, wait for it. Good luck.

Ok USDCAD is climbing steadily hopefully towards 50% where we will short. EURUSD on the other hand keeps climbing too, which means we will have to wait even longer to jump in. Good news is our snp trade looks good. As soon as price pierces through 1850 im moving stops to b/e.

Wow this market is fucked, like literally. S&P 1hr chart:

I closed 0.25 at 1810 (equal legs) just in case, and the strong bounce suggests the corrective nature of this drop. Regardless im holding the rest of my position.

If you remember the EURUSD trading plan from earlier post,, we were waiting for a corrective decline into 50%-62% zone. Looking good so far. ps: i already closed 0.2lot for 35pips, small-to-no risk is involved now.

Here is the other one that we were keeping eye on - at least we were supposed to but some did not (ME) - GBPCHF buy setup. Working nicely for those who did tho.

I'll pretend I didn't hear that

now that you mention it, it does sound a bit harsh. But then again, reality is no picnic either.

oh and i have been known to like wolves occasionally lol

I like this approach, it's one I'm looking into, I try and make sure we are not in a range, and also look for shallower replacements after breaking out, I'm thinking of one simple strategy over multiple pairs and pick the best opportunity.