Any Rookies need some help

I'm interested, just a newbie myself and have a limited account at the moment but am keen to learn the ins and outs so to speak

Thanks for sharing mate.

I am trying to add volume to my analysis but have read that only show the volume of your broker & not the whole market.
Is there any website where you can get the true value of the market for a specific pair?

Hi,

I'm also a newbie, I have been trading Forex on and off for 5 months. I wondered if I could get some help on the points below. So far my biggest problems are..

1) After reading through the forums many people have suggested beginners trading just one currency pair and get to understand how it moves. So I decided to learn to trade EUR/USD. But I am having a few problems with this.

1. Getting the trade frequency correct. At the moment I trade the 30min chart and I am struggling to find trade opportunities on a daily basis. Most of the time a move will occur whilst I am asleep or I will be waiting 3-5 days just to capture a single move. Is this normal? Should I be trading more then just EUR/USD? Its just If I trade this way I don't feel like I am trading often enough to learn it properly

2) Risk reward ratio

1. A lot of the time because of the volatility in the markets . My risk reward ratio is about 3/1 I'm having to place my stop loss really far above or below the price (depending on if I am going short or long) to ensure the stop loss doesn't get hit whilst the trade is working itself out, so the profit compared to the potential loss is bad. This means 1 bad trade is destroying 2-3 good trades.

3) Trading using the economic calendar. I had the idea that if I position myself ready to trade just before a news release then the sudden rise in volatility would allow me to catch a good move. But now I seem overly dependent on the news...to the point I miss out opportunities and cant pull the trigger at all sometimes. I feel like the economic releases have completely got in the way because they often go against many support and resistance levels and other technical indicators.

1. On the other hand if I ignore the economic releases and place a trade near a support or resistance level an oppositing economic release would just destroy my position. It would be great to get somebody's advice.

If anybody could offer some advice or encouraging words it would be great. I'm still trading $3000 demo account and want to learn to trade properly, Im not interested in any quick fixes.

Hello edb. I just stumbled on this thread and was pleased to see the thread starter was "policed" early on. Looks like he couldn't come up with the goods. I have had loads of forex experience but, to tell you the truth, I don't pretend to be able to teach, or pretend my methods are better than anyone else. The last sentence in itself should flag up warnings for you when it comes to getting training. Just have a look at the Forex Factory news section and notice how many technical analysts with credentials are getting it wrong. In fairness to the thread starter there is something called intuition which helps experienced traders not to get into bad positions. Often, it isn't easy to convey why I will take one trade and leave another, but I'll tell you for sure, the fewer trades the better while you are learning. Here's a stab at answering your queries:

1. It's useful to know how a pair will behave at different trading times (sessions) and useful to know how much it usually moves (ATR). For example, Eur/Usd usually makes its most liquid moves in early London session. From your profile I'm guessing this would be your best time for trading. In the UK we are blessed by being the main centre of forex trading. You can take advantage of the New York session too, but be aware it is muddied by the London close. New York is useful for trading Usd/Jpy for example. Study the charts and you will see patterns when different pairs make their biggest moves. When you get better you will accept the frustration of waiting for a good set up and then, even worse, watch it fail. You get used to it. Trade with the daily trend. How you define it is up to you, but I suggest studying trend lines or when the price leaves the 20dma... If there is no trend, and that is a lot of the time, don't trade unless you have a ranging strategy, which should be different from your trending strategy.

2. On R : R. (I could write another three pages on point 1. but anyway...) Study your strategy over past charts and look at trades you would have made. Look at the ATR on your time frame and compare that to the stop loss you are using. ATR will change and so should your stops, which will be a multiple of ATR. 3 : 1 is a very good R : R and expect a lot of losses if that is what you are shooting for. If you have 60% wins at 1 : 1, which is very good, then you can still expect a long losing streak - 5 would not be unusual. With 3 : 1 you can multiply that by three. I know I wouldn't be able to handle that. What i do is close some at 1 : 1 and move to break even for the remainder. Often frustrating but easier psychologically. Remember if you have a losing streak you will eat into your capital and you have to make back that loss, with less capital, i.e. risking relatively more. Hmm. Think about that.

3. On news releases: I avoid them. If I have a fledgling trade I usually close it, unless I want to see a bit of fun. This means moving stops well out of the way and hoping latency will not stop me from closing if it goes bad. (In other words, it's a gamble). Mostly, spreads, slippage, whipsaws and stop hunting ruin news trades. Unexpected interest rate changes and massive changes in such as NFP are usually the only news which change trends. Study past news releases and charts. See how much it takes to change a trend. Forex factory is a great resource for this type of study. You will see that all the excitement and gamble of a news release is often an opportunity to get into a daily trend, but not necessarily within the first few hours after a news release.

4. That's all I have time for now. Only a fraction of what I could say. Thanks for reading.

great thread...thank you for that.

I would definitely be interested. Junior member for now so cant PM you, but sounds great.

I too would be interested in resources you found useful and as you say, things to definitely not do (Though I would guess some of them taught you a valuable lesson? so maybe would actually benefit long term?)

Either way, would be great to follow somehow who is further down the path!

All the best.

@smikester
Thanks for the reply. There are some helpful and encouraging tips. I will take a look at my trading strategy in more detail and study past charts for EUR/USD a bit more. Also thanks for the advice regarding trading on the news.

And thanks for the acknowledgement. Regarding news releases, I recently heard of a strategy that looks interesting: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...74#post7222874. I think it's a trade off the M15 inside bar (if there is one) following a significant news announcement. There is more detail in that thread.

Hello,

I'm a relatively new trader and could use some help regarding margin. I understand how to calculate the margin required to open a position, but don't understand how margin is affected once the position is open and is either going for or against me. In other words, once I know how much margin I need to place an order, how can I calculate how much margin is used up by each pip that goes against me?

I'm familiar with a standard lot equaling $10 per pip and so forth. I feel I'm probably just missing something that links this fact to how much margin is used per pip.

Hope that wasn't too convoluted and would really appreciate your insight!!

Best regards,
Montjoy

New member here with a question: are there any Trading Setups/Systems that are generally regarded to have a greater than 80% success rate for each trade (while also having a minimum of a 1:1 Risk/Reward ratio)?

I got into trading last year but gave it up as it didn't seem conducive to mental health! I've been thinking about it again recently and wanted to try out some different money management styles and ideas of my own, so I'm looking for something simple ('set and forget') to test these out.

Cheers.

PS. If 80% is too high please then please let me know of some of the next highest.

Hi there, thank you for your kind offer. I am interested.

Margin varies according to what your broker allows and what leverage you are using. This is something you need to research yourself. It would be easier to set each trade using a position size calculator and set your stop loss according to your risk, bearing in mind, of course, that exposure to USD, for example, can exceed your perceived risk if you are trading several different pairs.

Is this a joke? I've had 70% plus back testing some strategies but in reality it depends on market conditions, whether you can be there to actually take the trade and on the lower time frames, whether you can get a fill at the price you want. You do need to be very choosy.

Yeah i am also starting to learn, will be ok to get to know some ppl on here, back i go to setting my mt4 up as i want it , later ladz

Hey,

I'm new to trading, recently opened a modest account and I was wondering if anybody could tell me some good sites to use for daily info on trading. At the moment, every morning, I use Forex Factory and Bloomberg to get a feel for what is going to happen during the day. Although I have found both to be good, more would be great.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,
C

For daily information I usually have forexlive.com open.

Hi

i'm a inexperience trader who just lost 30 usd account in a week. i use 1:1000 leverage. $30 is huge for me. i started to trade Forex because of friends. First two day, i lost like $8 with no idea trading, just go to 1M chart and clicking. i started to use indicators. it's better but i still lose.

Anyway, i want to have a fresh start. i don't know what to do if im going back to the market right away. i wanna have a mindset of good trading.

I just lost and realize it's not easy at all. i need to learn more. i just don't know where to start.

Any advice, maybe article, free lesson video, trading system for me?

As a learner the 1 minute chart will destroy you. Just the spread will deplete your account quickly. You really need to know this is not a get rich quick pastime. If you have a spare 30 dollars then it might be a fun gamble. On the other hand, if you study and play safe, you might make that $30 into $30,000 in a few years. Unlikely, but possible.

There are lots of resources on the web. Don't pay for anything, though. Study as hard as you can. If you are anything like me, you don't like reading the instruction book, or taking advice. Anyway, this is a pretty good instruction book:



This can be found at babypips.com and as an experienced trader I still refer to it from time to time. If you find it boring and don't want to read through it all, then I suggest you save your money and start another business.

Trading conditions are not that good right now. Not many long trends. Just look where Eur/Usd is, compared with the beginning of the year. Several hedge funds have collapsed/closed down recently. What chance do we have? Try trading on a demo account for a while before risking any more money.

A couple of tips - only trade in the direction of the daily trend and only in the direction of the day. Note the day starts at midnight London for the London session, or midnight New York for the New York session.

HI,

I'd like to start keeping a journal of the trading. Good trades, bad trades, something I can refer to in different scenarios to ensure I dont keep making the same errors. Hopefully improve my general trading. Does anybody know is there a standard way to journal or is it just somethin you diary yourself?

Thanks folks,
C