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Q A M Trading Strategy

  • #1,081
  • Jun 17, 2016 8:05am Jun 17, 2016 8:05am
Quoting Shuael
{quote} Thank you for the time you're spending here. So, I missed the possible short entry on AUD/JPY. Let's see if the price will move higher from the 38.2%, if it does maybe a possible short reentry may be a good chose. I think i will not trade it, ( have to return to work soon). But it will be interesting too see if my expectationwill play out.. {image}
Hi Shuael,

Thats the right attitude!

Form an expectation for at least 1 to 2 trades without opening them live in the market.

Then check to see if your expectations came to pass a little later on.

If the trades failed to meet your expectations start searching for reasons why this occurred.

After watching PA flow across the charts and drawing simple trend lines and forming ABCD patterns you will see how it all relates.

When an expectation is met it is a wonderful feeling especially when it occurs on several occasions .... and it will!

ps. have a great weekend and see you next week.

Masterrmind...........
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,082
  • Jun 17, 2016 10:38am Jun 17, 2016 10:38am
Quoting Masterrmind
{quote} Hi Shuael, Thats the right attitude! Form an expectation for at least 1 to 2 trades without opening them live in the market. Then check to see if your expectations came to pass a little later on. If the trades failed to meet your expectations start searching for reasons why this occurred. After watching PA flow across the charts and drawing simple trend lines and forming ABCD patterns you will see how it all relates. When an expectation is met it is a wonderful feeling especially when it occurs on several occasions .... and it will! ps....
Right now i can only for expectations without trading, good exercise
Audjpy respected the lines i draw nicely, great feeling indeed .
Have a nice weekend
  • #1,083
  • Jun 25, 2016 6:24am Jun 25, 2016 6:24am
The QAM-1K live account has been temporarily put on the side lines and most likely will remain in idle mode.

A suitable Cent Account will replace it around July 1 which will be sourced from a list of suitable brokers posted in my other trading journal thread.

The Cent Account has the following attributes:

1. ability to open smaller positions relative to the same sized account balance

2. US$1000 simply converts to 100 000 US cents

Here is how:

A 'standard' 1 lot size on EURUSD represents about US$10 (1000 cents) per pip.
A 'cent' 1 lot size on EURUSD represents about US$0.10 (10 cents) per pip.

A 'cent' 0.1 lot size on EURUSD represents about US$0.01 (1 cent) per pip.

The 0.1 'cent' lots can be traded which are 10 times smaller than a standard 0.01 lot (US$0.10 or 10 cent).

This means that a 1K account can be traded as a cent account giving a similar ratio as if trading a 10K account with 0.01 lots!

(MT4 platform sets a minimum lot size of 0.01 'standard' lots per trade.)

The plan will be to return to a standard type account (namely the original QAM-1K live) once this Cent Account grows much larger.

Trading conditions tend to be far more favorable on larger type ECN accounts compared to the typical Cent accounts.

ps. the balance showing in the QAM-1K live account will be transferred into the Cent Account to avoid as much as possible any inconsistencies.
pps. it is hoped that the equity curve might prove to be far smoother applying smaller lot sizing however a DD intensive method might not allow this to occur.

Time will tell how effective this approach turns out to be!

Masterrmind...........
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,084
  • Jun 25, 2016 6:45am Jun 25, 2016 6:45am
I have also linked a Demo Cent account namely;

QAM-DEMO-USC test (FXTM brokers)

which will be used throughout the following week just to get an idea on how cycles are traded both manually and by the Expert Advisor.

Although this thread is all about starting with a 1K balance and growing it it might be possible for others to start with even slightly smaller accounts such as US$500 to US$750 (or other currency equivalent).

So as always feel free to follow along with your vert own TE if you wish.

Otherwise, sit back and relax and see what happens to my 1K QAM account (in Cent mode)

ps. the progress might be very very slow initially considering that a 0.1 cent lot has a pip value I believe of about 1 US cent so a move of 10 pips yields only 10 cents at a time .......

pps. hmmm ......... this might be painful but I guess it has to be done and cycles will be taken mostly not single trades!

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,085
  • Jun 25, 2016 6:52am Jun 25, 2016 6:52am
If any trader knows of other brokers that offer a DEMO CENT account please comment here as I have found very few that do.

RoboForex apparently does not offer Demo Cent accounts only live accounts (correct me if I'm wrong).

Masterrmind...........
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,086
  • Jun 25, 2016 7:03am Jun 25, 2016 7:03am
Quoting Masterrmind
I have also linked a Demo Cent account namely; QAM-DEMO-USC test (FXTM brokers) which will be used throughout the following week just to get an idea on how cycles are traded both manually and by the Expert Advisor. Although this thread is all about starting with a 1K balance and growing it it might be possible for others to start with even slightly smaller accounts such as US$500 to US$750 (or other currency equivalent). So as always feel free to follow along with your vert own TE if you wish. Otherwise, sit back and relax and see what happens to...
I'm also working on a possible strategy that could be applied to slowly but surely ramp up the lot sizes since the lot sizes can start at very small levels.

This might mean taking initial Quantum signals at very small 'cent' lot sizes and then at key S or R or Pivots or mid s or mid r levels start increasing ever so slightly the lot sizes per entry.

Little by little this will be rolled out.

The Demo Cent account will be used initially as a test base to see how this might work.

ps. I am intent on growing this 1K account with whatever means possible including the use of several other strategies.

Masterrmind.............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,087
  • Jun 26, 2016 7:56pm Jun 26, 2016 7:56pm
DEMO cent account in action today.

Cycles set for AU, EU and UJ just to get a feel for a few different pairs.

Stops have been intentionally left out wide at about 100 pips per pair due to the nature of the market today.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot1.png Size: 56 KB


AU [M5; 40 - 0.1 cent lots]

EU [M5; 40 - 0.1 cent lots]

UJ [M5; 40 - 0.01 cent lots]

Note 1: many of the spreads are still quite high however, on the main pairs spread is ok presently.

Note 2: profit amounts are listed in US cents (not in US$)

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,088
  • Jun 27, 2016 1:25am Jun 27, 2016 1:25am
A few general guidelines might need to be applied for a cent type account.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
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Over the next few days several ideas will be examined in readiness for the live cent account.

Monday:

1. Started trading cycles on 3 pairs namely; AUDUSD, EURUSD and USDJPY on the M5 TF using a Q value of 40.

2. Pairs were chosen purely on spread and the fact they are majors nothing else.

3. If trades are open on any currently traded pair at FF Open then allow 1 more cycle to complete per active pair and then stop for the day!

4. AU had no trades running at FF Open and therefore the Expert is removed and no more trades will be taken on this pair today.

5. EU + UJ did have some trades open and therefore the Expert settings were updated by setting "Stop after each cycle" equal to TRUE.

From what I have seen today this Cent account gives a similar type feeling to trading 0.01 lots at >>10K account so it looks promising.

However, it is very early days and everything always looks rosy when its all working well.

Lets see how it feels when it gets into some higher DD!

Maximum floating DD limit:

I intend to reduce the limit set for the maximum floating DD which used to be 10% to maybe 2% to 5%.

This will produce a less severe pullback in the equity curve should a full loss be taken.

Ofcourse. if 2, 3 or more full losing days (eg 5% loss per day) are encountered in a row then the curve will suffer quite a drop (larger pullback).

So far so good and I like the greatly increased ratio between applied lot sizes and account balance.

At this stage I do not think it is necessary to go any lower than 0.1 CENT lots per trade however on the current account it is possible to use 0.01 Cent lots which is a nice option to have.

Stops and TPs:

At this stage I'm simply applying about 100 pip SL and a 100 pip TP per trade.

Obviously, in a live account and once the market settles down I'll go back to the 20 day ATW session averages as before.

The SLs should always be applied because if the internet disconnects then your cycles will be left without an active SL which could be harmful.

Always apply a stop .... keep it simple.

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,089
  • Jun 27, 2016 4:49am Jun 27, 2016 4:49am
Very nicely behaved set of cycles on AU, EU and UJ

Some trades were closed manually whilst others were closed by the Expert Advisor.

AUDUSD [M5; 40/manual - MN 103]

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
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EURUSD [M5; 40/manual - MN 109]

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot1.png Size: 48 KB


USDJPY [M5; 40/manual - MN 113]

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot2.png Size: 42 KB


Note 1: nice easy day for +0.54% gain on the demo account.

Note 2: you need to apply some common sense too for example on the EU cycle price had just broken down below the 1 st entry price but remember that the Expert will not close out the trades until an opposite Q box is generated AND that candle closes which means price has 5 minutes in this case to bounce back up higher or drop lower. What I did was manually close out trades showing the smallest net profit to protect them from turning negative and then I watched PA and made sure that if price decided to pull up against these final trades I could close them out manually.

Note 3: be aware of the level at which Q exit can be expected based on the trending label indicator on your chart...this might save you some money.

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,090
  • Jun 27, 2016 5:17am Jun 27, 2016 5:17am
I'm starting to think that this Cent Account idea is going to be a winner so I'm keen to see it all unfold in time!

Current Demo Cent account (shown in the middle column of the screenshot) is with FXTM which has the following characteristics that suit my purposes although there are a few things that I don't like and one of them is the spread but I'll just have to work with that.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot1.png Size: 45 KB


There is also no upper limit on the account balance which many other Cent brokers tend to have so this is a welcome plus because I'd like to be able to trade small lot sizes over multiple entries until the account (if it does) makes it to at least 3K to 5K to possibly 10K.

Although the greater the account size the more likely I would be to transfer it to an ECN account or similar with much tighter spreads and potentially faster transaction times.

If any trader has used this type of account and wishes to provide an unbiased account of trading conditions then you are most welcome to post away.

If any trader has other Cent Broker suggestions please post them here asap since by this Friday the new Cent account will likely be active.

Masterrmind..........
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,091
  • Jun 27, 2016 8:00am Jun 27, 2016 8:00am
Good thing that now you are able to reduce you DD by half and more.
Also you are forced to trade only Majors because of the spread, right?
Do you think it will impact the cycles significantly?
Less cycles maybe.
FXTM forex seems to be a trusworth broker.

I think this week i will not trade, i'm only backtesting /styduying charts ( with not very good results )
Made only 4 trades this month.

Have a nice day, and trading week everybody

P.s people who didn't read the thread will think that you linked a 100k account xD
  • #1,092
  • Jun 27, 2016 8:41am Jun 27, 2016 8:41am
Quoting Shuael
Good thing that now you are able to reduce you DD by half and more. Also you are forced to trade only Majors because of the spread, right? Do you think it will impact the cycles significantly? Less cycles maybe. FXTM forex seems to be a trusworth broker. I think this week i will not trade, i'm only backtesting /styduying charts ( with not very good results ) Made only 4 trades this month. Have a nice day, and trading week everybody P.s people who didn't read the thread will think that you linked a 100k account xD
The idea is to limit the DD but still gain a reasonable daily% gain .... which can be quite a challenge at times.

No I'm not limited to just majors its just that in the Asian session this morning the spreads were far too high on some of the other pairs so I decided to go with the lower spreads on the majors.

Once the market settles down a bit more the spreads will tend to reduce but you still have keep an eye on them.

Yes if you took this week off you would not be doing anything wrong .... next week should be a little more rational.

The account size will often fool many people that is why I have gone to great lengths to ensure this is not the case but I'm sure a few will think that and that's ok because we know the truth!

I'm looking forward to Friday actually to get this QAM account sorted and kicking in the right direction which I think this Cent account can achieve.

At least I have the rest of this week to run through some cycles of trades on the demo account.

Perhaps tomorrow or later in the week I might explode with several pairs (most of the 13 pairs) and see how much it can handle noting the floating DD overall.

I just haven't decided what lot sizes to apply eg 0.1 cent lots or 0.01 cent lots!

I'm also going to run some cycles in a progressive lot sizing sequence starting with 0.01 cent lots and working up to 1 cent to maybe 10 cent lots.

Enjoy the study mode its one of the most important!

ps. Yes it will be FXTM if other better suggestions are not made within the next 2-3 days!

Masterrmind.............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,093
  • Jun 27, 2016 7:37pm Jun 27, 2016 7:37pm
Tuesday - demo cent account test

4 pairs traded today from just after Tokyo Open (no trades triggered yet)

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot1.png Size: 79 KB


AU [M5; 40]
EJ [M5; 40]
EU [M5; 40]
UJ [M5; 40]

All 4 pairs will be traded via Expert Advisor with manual intervention if and as required.
Stops and TPs all set to 100 pips over all pairs but may be modified throughout the course of the day although the Expert will be used mostly to control the opening and closing out of trades (with perhaps some manual intervention).

Similar approach to yesterday with cycles left to run post FF Open only if current trades are running otherwise pair is terminated for the day.

ps. chosen on spread mostly but EJ added to the mix to even out the pairings (AU + EU ; EJ + UJ ; each pair with a unique magic number)
pps. AJ pair rejected due to current unfavorable spread otherwise it would have been used in the group of pairs and not UJ.

Masterrmind.........
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,094
  • Jun 28, 2016 12:34am Jun 28, 2016 12:34am
Maintenance performed and Expert Advisor settings updated accordingly.

1. Observe location of current price and the trending line Quantum value and also the price level of the 1st entry of that cycle.

2. If the Q close price will close out multiple trades in loss then it must be modified.

3. Modify it by first testing different HH and LL values in the trending indicator

4. Check to make sure that there is plenty of distance between current price level and the "new" about to be assigned Q exit value.

5. Make sure that when you're ready that you remember to update the new Q entry and Q exit values in the Expert Advisor.

6. If you fail to update the values in the EA then expect possible losses in some if not all of the trades in the currently running cycle.

7. Steps 1-6 above usually need to be done only once per trading day but it depends heavily on the price action on a given chart

8. Be sure to familiarize yourself with this task (if unsure and you want to know more ... best you ask me)

9. Each pair being traded on a given day needs to be examined on a case by case basis which means the Q values between different pairs MAY NOT be the same since they are chosen based on price action on their respective charts.

Note: Maintenance applied and Q values updated in Expert to Q = 100 - 100 (entry and close)

ps. When I check the current Q value trending lines I always attempt to select a value that creates a positive cycle and also that will generate more entries should price continue to trend away from the closing point ..... something you need to be very aware of otherwise if you choose a Q entry value in the Expert that is too high the EA may not open trades until much later (this may or may not be to your advantage).

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,095
  • Jun 28, 2016 1:35am Jun 28, 2016 1:35am
Quoting Masterrmind
Tuesday - demo cent account test 4 pairs traded today from just after Tokyo Open (no trades triggered yet) {image} AU [M5; 40] EJ [M5; 40] EU [M5; 40] UJ [M5; 40] All 4 pairs will be traded via Expert Advisor with manual intervention if and as required. Stops and TPs all set to 100 pips over all pairs but may be modified throughout the course of the day although the Expert will be used mostly to control the opening and closing out of trades (with perhaps some manual intervention). Similar approach to yesterday with cycles left to run post FF Open...
UJ cycle closed out manually.

AU, EJ and EU continue to be traded until the completion of the current cycle.

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,096
  • Jun 28, 2016 2:10am Jun 28, 2016 2:10am
Hi Mastermind,

I have been wanted to test a theory with regards to your system, but it requires two type of Traders.

- One Trader who is very aggressive with the Q Values (meaning, that trader will take any trades whenever the Q Value is printed)

-And the other Trader who is a bit conservative (meaning, that trader will create a parameter within the first hour of each session,
then make a decision based on a Market Bias)

The First Hour of each Session is called " A Decision Time". This is where you pick a Direction, and know the amount of positions needed.

From that point on, that conservative trader will create a proper expectation for Stop-Loss and Take Profit Areas.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot 2016-06-28 02.05.44.png Size: 81 KB


Make a Decision after London Open ( A Conservative Trader )
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot 2016-06-28 02.07.57.png Size: 88 KB


P.S I haven't done any intensive Backtesting yet, but for the past 2 weeks of observation...I think this theory has potentials.
Have an INVESTOR Mindset, but Trade like an ENTREPRENEUR
  • #1,097
  • Jun 28, 2016 2:24am Jun 28, 2016 2:24am
In some cases, the conservative trader might miss out on a lot of good Entries.

And, because of that, I integrated Arrow signals as extra Confirmations for any types of Trend
Reversals.

A Clear Example below:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot 2016-06-28 02.23.36.png Size: 85 KB
Have an INVESTOR Mindset, but Trade like an ENTREPRENEUR
  • #1,098
  • Jun 28, 2016 2:33am Jun 28, 2016 2:33am
Lastly, if there's no Red or blue Boxes inside the First Hour, it's best not to trade that pair during
that session and wait for the next one.....

This is the only way to reduce your exposure in the Market or reduce your DD

AUD/USD, M1TF was the perfect example:

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Screenshot 2016-06-28 02.31.35.png Size: 79 KB
Have an INVESTOR Mindset, but Trade like an ENTREPRENEUR
  • #1,099
  • Jun 28, 2016 6:01am Jun 28, 2016 6:01am
Quoting OctaveJay509
Hi Mastermind, I have been wanted to test a theory with regards to your system, but it requires two type of Traders. - One Trader who is very aggressive with the Q Values (meaning, that trader will take any trades whenever the Q Value is printed) -And the other Trader who is a bit conservative (meaning, that trader will create a parameter within the first hour of each session, then make a decision based on a Market Bias) The First Hour of each Session is called " A Decision Time". This is where you pick a Direction, and know the amount of positions...
Yes there are many many many different ways to play the Q values.

The Asian session presents many opportunities for pullbacks against the main trend often back to the DO line.

The problem is when the trend continues and does not return and creates an escalating DD.

Quite often the only solution is to either wait it for an eventual deep enough retracement or close out some or all of the trades once a pre-determined limit is hit for example 5% or 10% of account balance (or equity) as the case may be.

An aggressive trader might be similar to how I'm trading the 4 cycles on todays trades.

Currently the demo cent account is in about 1600 pips of DD however the floating DD is only sitting at about 1.55%.

So the ability of being able to use a cent account as I will starting hopefully this Friday (or Monday) gives the trader far more scope to be ultra aggressive.

Further to this is the ability to implement progressive increases in the lot sizes as X_trades are generated (going back to Mers thread where he started off at 0.01 and after 12 trades increased the lot size etc etc based on a certain number of levels reached).

What I'm liking about this Cent account is that even with a 1K balance it can literally be traded as if it were the same ratio as 0.01 lots per US$100 000 account balance.

This is because on the cent account I can trade 0.01 cent lots which are 100 times smaller than a standard set of lots.

This also provides many many opportunities that will be explored over time which could never have been possible with trading a 1K account on standard 0.01 lots.

The next thing to think about is actually how far would a trader want to allow a trade to run before they close it out.

I may have to rethink my approach to the global SLs because now when I trade 0.1 cent lots this only represents about US$1 for every 100 pips.

So I'm going to start thinking about the ATW trading ranges and also into the London session somewhat and analyze the data and come up with say a SL that is just outside (marginally) 3 by SD (standard deviations of the mean).

I'd probably have to reject all of the ranges created by the Brexit impact as this is a decent outlier if ever I saw one!

Many things to consider and many ways to trade it but I see this Cent account as potentially greater than 50% of the solution the rest will be up to the trader as always.

Thanks for your comments they have been noted.

Masterrmind............
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
  • #1,100
  • Jun 28, 2016 6:21am Jun 28, 2016 6:21am
Quoting OctaveJay509
Lastly, if there's no Red or blue Boxes inside the First Hour, it's best not to trade that pair during that session and wait for the next one..... This is the only way to reduce your exposure in the Market or reduce your DD AUD/USD, M1TF was the perfect example: {image}
Yes I've seen this happen many a time too.

But the next time you take the later cycle it works out perfectly with huge swings up and down within an hour or two and plenty of profit.

You simply cannot pick the times that a cycle will be a very quick closing net positive winner to one which will not.

In hindsight of course you can fit a 'perfect' Q value but trading live I've found that you simply have to pick a best fit and run with that and use alot of trader judgement to either keep in a cycle or to start looking for the exit.

The cent account gives with much much more time and plenty of additional choices because I can wind the lot sizing down very low ans literally trade the account as if it were 100K trading 0.01 lots.

Nevertheless, the downside to all of this would be the trading style becomes one of overpowering quantity rather than quality because you need an awfully large number of pips to start generating a decent profit on the Cent account.

0.1 cent lots = about 1 cent per pip
0.01 cent lots = about 1/10 of a cent per pip

Due to this reason alone it would not be economical for me to simply miss cycles however I can always attempt to be discretionary in the cycles I take but at the end of the day with the Cent account I need to make pips and I need to make thousands of them.

Thanks for your comments its great to get another perspective.

Masterrmind...........
Master your Mind then Master your Trades
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