Make Money Everyday - A Guide to Short-Term Trading

"get really impatient when price is trending and I'm afraid of missing out on a move"

That statement right there is a big one. Relax. It'll come.

A quick baseball analogy. Two hitters. One goes up to bat - swings at everything that is thrown him, regardless of whether or not the pitches are hit-able. He may get 'lucky' from time to time and get a hit, but more likely he's going to strike out. Hitter number 2, he is a bit more discerning. He knows what kind of pitch he can hit well and he has decided to only swing at those pitches. He doesn't always hit the pitch he wants, but two things happen as a result. The quality of the hits he gets are better and two, he has a calmness about him because he knows exactly what he's looking for. He knows what kind of hitter he his and he knows what pitch serves him best.

We can choose what kind of trader we become. We can swing away all the time, or we can be very specific about what we are looking for, and only try to trade those setups. Part of being the second trader - I had to learn to sit, or to take a pitch. Speaking pretty much from a state of mind point of view, it has helped bring a bit of peace to the otherwise fun-filled stress of trading. Hope that makes sense.

I had to trade midway through the Frankfurt session today since I was playing table tennis with a friend ahahah. During the Japanese session the price hung around 111.75 and then dropped down to 111.125 and it hovered there when I started.

Trades

1. Saw that it previously attempted to break xx.25 but gets rejected. Shorted here but I'm not sure if it was a smart trade, since it was essentially in a 12 pip range bound. Also I forgot that NFP was about to be released so it helped me take profit quickly.
2. Tried another short since it previously a resistance at 111.375. Stopped out and was not paying attention for the subsequent short entry.


3. Price dropped a bit further towards a 111.00 (whole number). I had a limit order to short at 111.25 waiting for the retracement after almost touching 111.00. Sudden spike and my order was instantly taken out as well.
4. Seeing the previous rejections at 111.25 I had a limit order again set and got filled in for a short.
5.Waited for the price to reach above 111.25 before shorting again since I had a feeling it will overshoot a bit (trade #2).
Yellow Arrow. Not sure if I should of entered for another short there. The next level was a whole number so I was hesitant. Thoughts?
6. Price dropped to 111.00 again and I had a limit sell order at 111.25 in case it retraces. Took out my order again.
7. Shorted once price broke through 111.25. Almost got stopped out.
8. Noticed price was range trading around 12 pips so I shorted at 8. Just wondering if it was ok to play in such a small range of 12 pips? Or should I wait for bigger price movements.


9. Once again hit the 111.25 line and was range trading before. Got stopped out.
10. After failing to hit 111.375 line twice I tried to short again but stopped out and price move upwards.


Overall a gain of 35 pips which is surprising given my record losses recently.

For the following chart I just want to ask about 2 potential trades that appeared.

1. Seeing that price hit 111.25 and its moved 1 whole leg down already from 111.375, would this be a valid short entry or should I wait for a retracement back to 111.375?
2. Seeing that there are now 2 down legs, would it be save to assume that it's a down trend and short here? The next leg down is at 111.00 so I was again scared of a strong rejection.

Thoughts
This time I took the trades a bit slower and tried to wait for more replacements before entering. However the PA moved so quickly and kept getting rejected at 111.25 that it became quite significant and I placed a lot of focus on that line. My main questions today are the trades that I could of done at the yellow arrows and also trade #1 and 5,7,8 when price was moving in a 12 pip range. Although I made a profit today, I felt a lot of it was due to the strong reactions at the 111.25 price, but I guess that is just part of trading and I should accept anything that makes money xD.

I didn't really have the opportunity to use the 34 SMA line today since it was so range bound I think. Just wondering if it still works for a 10 tick chart since there are so many nonsense candles in between each 12 pip move or should I use a higher time frame like 1 min chart?

Cheers

I see you are using Ctrader. I have used it as well and I just want to point out that the tick chart on Ctrader are very - very different from the range bar charts mentioned in this thread. I searched hi and low but could not find a good range bar solution for Ctrader. I'm not sure if a MA is of any use on a tick chart. I can definitively say they do work on range bars.

I am not going to suggest you switch to a time based chart because at the end of the day, you have to find what works best for you.

Also just my 2 cents... until you get a good feel for the levels, just take pullbacks on the right side of the MA. Don't worry too much about missing trades. Just get what you can and make sure you make money everyday (i've heard that somewhere before!)

Here is a 5min chart with 5 straight pullbacks before a loser. Each trade would have survived with a 12 pip SL. Notice that for the pullbacks you wait for price to breach a level and come back to it. Let the trade come to you...

http://tradersway.ctrader.com/images/screens/6fJ0n.png

@enochben

Yeah I'll stick with tick charts for now but range bars seem much neater. Might go back to MT4 if I don't like using tick charts. Also I'm going to be take things slower and focus on making good trades. Won't be able to trade until Wednesday night so it will give me heaps of time to review the past few days.

Had to take a break from trading since I was sick from the weekend (also was playing too much pokemon go : D). Been focusing on taking only quality set ups today and it's worked out fairly well I think. Just need more practice to get a feel for the price action at certain levels.

Trades

1. Tried going long after seeing the recent up trend around 13:16. Waited for price to almost hit 111.750 before entering on the retrace at the 12 pip level. Got stopped out but I wasn't paying attention and hesitated to re-enter at 117.625.
2. 3 down legs from a whole number 118.00 and price almost reached 117.502 and I placed a limit sell hoping to enter on the retrace. It just barely gets filled before dropping down.


3. Price dropped to almost 117.25 before retracing almost 2 legs. I initially had a limit sell at 117.50 but I had a gut feeling it was too early so I cancelled it. After seeing it almost hit 117.625 I tried to enter long no the retrace but closed the position with a break even (again a gut feeling).
4. Very clean entry, not much going through my mind at the time.
6. Hit a whole number 117.00 so maybe the short was a bit too early. Should of probably waited and waited on the sidelines to see what price wanted to do.
7. Tried going short again but had a feeling it wouldn't work out since it hit the 117.00 before (should of stayed out, PA wasn't very clear). Broke even.

Total gain of 12.9 pips.

Thoughts
With my new goal of focusing on only good set ups I've had a lot less trading opportunities. I feel that they're much more accurate and I don't get whip sawed around too much by the PA. However I need to start trading a lot earlier in the Frankfurt session to capture as many of these set ups as possible (been starting at 1pm instead of the usual 9am). Just going to take things slowly now and to remember to breathe in and out to calm myself.

Pretty slow day today with the PA not being very clear during my trading time. During the Tokyo session it rose by 100 pips before a massive retrace. Frankfurt started and tried to reach 118.250 before declining again. I started trading between the 2 white lines.



Trades


1. Tried a short since it was in a down trend from 118.25 before. However was too early and it had one more up leg before dropping.
2. Immediately tried a long after breaching 117.875. I figured that the pair wasn't ready to drop just yet and wanted to try for a long.
3. A fairly big downtrend prior and price hovered around 111.25 for a significant period of time. I figured the retracement was probably going to be more than 12 pips so I waited for confirmation before entering the trade. Just barely gets filled in and then proceeds to go down on some legs.

Total gain of 18.4 pips

Thoughts
The PA wasn't really clear to me until later in the trading session so at the start I was hesitant in entering trades (I missed a text book short at 14:07pm). I also kept adjusting my limit orders today in reaction to the price, if the price sharply moved up to my order I would get scared and cancel it thinking it might over shoot the price and stop me out, this caused me to miss out on some entries (such as the one at 14:07pm and 17:03pm). Gotta stop doing that and just follow the rules, need to be consistent.

EDIT
Just as I finished trading, price took another nose dive and some entries appeared but it's already late here and I'm tired as frack . Guess you can't win them all

One big thing I notice even in the short amount of time you've been putting up charts, is now much more selective and patient you are becoming. The first set of charts, you had trade trade trade everywhere. Some days that is legitimate. Some days, I sit down and the charts may as well be in chinese (I do not speak chinese). It's days like those, where I have to decide, do I press it and have a potentially aggravating day or do I patiently wait for it to become clear to me. I'd rather take a +18 day and save my sanity, than maybe a break even day or a down day and beat my head against the wall. The 3 trades on here, I agree with. Yes, there were some missed entries, like you said, but the quality of the trades were not bad. Do this enough, you'll start trusting your process and cancelling the orders will become less and less.

M

@mongolian

I've noticed that I don't need alot of pips a day to make money as long as I'm using a big enough lot size. If I can focus on a high probability winning entry then even 20 pips a day is enough money for the day. Still currently playing with a tiny lot size right now but I've just been thinking about the benefits of trading less and being patient and of course I have to make sure I have enough capital to play sustain me first hahaha.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try and keep more detached and follow the rules from now on. Going to start experimenting with trading during Tokyo session since I've noticed that it's a bit more trendy than the Frankfurt session.

Really bad PA today, everything was really choppy. Really should of just turned off my computer and done something else.

Trades


1. Tried going short at 117.250 after price went down 2 legs and retraced back. Got stopped out.
2. Tried another short but got stopped out. Sat on my hands for a while after these 2 trades.
3. Price kept reacting to 117.5 during the Tokyo session and now, so I shorted at this level. In hindsight I should of had that limit sell order in place way earlier but I hesitated to much, Only took 7 pips in profit.

Total pips today was -4 pips.

Thoughts
Before I sat down today, I looked at the price for the past few hours and I knew that it was going to be choppy. Gotta be more patient when the market is very slow moving and next time I'll just observe it whilst doing other things just to stop myself from chasing the trades.

Pretty good day for price action today but my mental game was not on point today. When I sat down price rallied up quickly and had a couple of good entries. After that price consolidated so I stopped trading and just observed the market. However towards the end I made some really dumb trades out of impulse, I guess I felt that I needed to trade but the limit orders I placed were really poor. Should of reminded myself that capital preservation is the most important thing for a day trader.

Trades


1. Long after the retrace.
2. Tried long again after it almost breached 116.75. However stopped out and was too slow on re entering.
3. Long again after the retrace.
4. Forgot I had a limit sell set there and had to quickly cancel.



5. Tried a long due to the previous run up but I broke even since I got scared.
6. Tried a short but again I got scared. This order really shouldn't of existed, a lack of discipline on my part.
7. Tried going long after price almost touched 117.125 but got stopped out.

Lastly the 2 failed trades at the end. That was just a total meltdown from me and I ended up doing some dumb impulsive trades. Didn't really have a need to trade there but I did and lost them. As a result I went from 12 pip profit to break even.

Thoughts
Got greedy and impulsive today, wasn't happy with my 12 pips and it ended up costing me. Really need to focus on enforcing my self control starting tomorrow. I won't make any impulsive trades and I'll only trade when the trend is clear and I'll wait for the trade to come to me. If I make an impulsive trade from now on, I'll just stop trading for the rest of the day and reflect. Pretty angry myself at the moment so I'm just going to take my mind off things for the rest of the day and play some games.

Price traded in a range today, however I didn't really notice it until it was too late. Lost 4 trades in a row at the start which was quite tough to handle, but I left the charts running and monitored the session until London close. A few opportunities appeared near the end which I took without hesitation which helped me claw back some losses.

Trades


1. Tried a long on the retrace after it almost broke through 117.25 but got stopped out.
2. After price touched 116.875 I entered short on the retrace thinking the trend reversed but again got stopped out.

At this point I took a break from the market to recollect my thoughts. I was just observing for about an hour.

3. Price went down by 3 legs and it retraced almost 2 levels. Decided to go short at 117.00 but got stopped out. Perhaps should of been patient and waited to go short at 117.125



4. Since 116.875 acted as a strong support 2 times today, I decided to go long there. I probably rushed it and should of waited for a confirmation but I got stopped out.
5. Seeing that price went back up to 116.875 I re-entered long but got scared since price didn't do anything for a while. Broke even and then it subsequently shot up.

Again took another break and just monitored the charts.

6. Tried a short on the retrace after price got rejected from 116.500. almost hit my SL but I was ready to re enter quickily if I did get stopped out.
7. Price got strongly rejected at 116.5 and I tried a short on the retrace. There was a sudden volatility and I almost managed to take 12 pip profit but it stopped me out.

Had a limit sell at 116.75 at around 17:00pm but the spread widened and I just missed an entry.

Total loss was 15.6 pips.

Thoughts
Taking the first 4 losses was quite tough to handle but today's goal was to remain disciplined and trade all valid set ups without hesitation. I felt like I didn't do anything impulsively today and I had a clear reason why I entered each trade. Losses can't be helped and everyone will have losing days even if they followed all the rules which is disheartening but if I follow my system and rules diligently, probability should be on my side.

Anyway that enough reflection tonight. If possible I would appreciate if people can give me some feedback on the first few trades I made. I jut want to know if they were valid entries or if I was looking at it incorrectly.

I can see exactly why you took those. You are correct, losses can't be helped. Managing the losses can. Keep it up. There will be times where we can get stopped out a few times in a row. Doesn't always mean that we're trading badly, it just means, price is chopping a bit. Also, think of it in terms of over the course of a month, or a year, does 4 stops in a row kill me? As long as you're not trading too big of a size, it shouldn't and you'll be able to play another day. That, is the key. Never putting ourselves in a position where we are out of inventory!

I agree 100% with Mongolian. However in the never ending quest to cut down on losing trades, however futile, I have come across this from another FF thread:

http://www.forexfactory.com/attachme...1&d=1466316630

I have not tried it on any time frame less than 15 minutes. If you see the above candle formation after a push down it is a great entry signal. If you see this at one of your levels, say 00 or 25 - I would not hesitate to get long. It is also a low risk entry as you can place your stop at the low of the green candle.

Works in reverse for up swings.

I've seen this kind of set up, I think they call it engulfing bars or something. But yes I think you're right, it wouldn't really work with a small time frame due to all the false candles that can appear. I'll write that down and keep it for future reference. Anything for high probability entries

Wanted to incorporate something new today after re visiting some past posts on this thread, I wanted to try and read price action on the charts. Was thinking that it would give me more information to make more informed trades but it's quite hard on the 1m time frame. Seems that the market does not always respect support and resistance levels but I'll try to identify key areas of congestion for the next few days just to get a feel of the price and how it might react.

Trades
The price during the day is shown below. The rectangle boxes are areas which acted as S/R during the day. However they did not always hold and it would sometimes overshoot.



The main areas which concerned me was 116.25 and 116.375 as resistance levels and 116.00 as a support. When I started trading the session, price remain pretty much between these 2 levels.



1. Price had been in an uptrend for the last few legs so I went long on the retrace. 116.375 proved to be a resistance and got stopped out.
2. Tried a long again at the next retrace but got stopped again. Took a breather here and watched on the sideline since it volatility started to thin.
3. Tried a short at 116 since it almost breached 115.875 but I was too early. Probably shouldn't of entered that trade and waited for a retrace to 116.125 but I got too trigger happy.
4. Tried a short again but I should of canceled the order since price rejected 115.87 pretty sharply which told me it wasn't ready to drop down there right now.
5. Entered on the 6 pip line. Was kind of experimenting with he 6 pip line but I took profit since it failed to reach 116.125 twice.
6. Tried a short of the 6 pip line but got stopped out. This one was my bad, didn't follow my rules and enter on the retrace.

Price pretty much chilled at 116.00 for 2 hours so I sat out. But I noted that 116 was a level that was quite significant since it was a whole number.



7. Tried a long on the 6 pip line but wasn't confident since the next level was 116.25 so I took profit for 6 pip.
8. Tried a long again before it breached the next level. Got stopped out, should of waited for price to breakthrough completely since previously price stayed at 116.00 for so long. Could of been a false breakout.
9. Shorted at 116.25 again since it was a significant level from the past but my client crashed. Tried to adjust the take profit to be slightly above 116.125 but it took profit for me for 6 pips.
10. Price hit 116.25 a few times before and got rejected. Tried to short but it suddenly moved up and stopped me out.
11. Tried another short thinking 116.25 was still significant but I tunneled vision. Got stopped out.
12. Tried another short at 116.375 since it was a strong resistance but got stopped out.
13. Tried a long after that but got stopped again
14. Tried a short
15. Almost breached 116.5 so I tried a long at 116.375 but stopped out.
16. Started a down trend so I shorted on the retrace.
17. Shorted after price retraced from 116.00. I noticed that the rejection from 116 was pretty strong so it wasn't ready to drop further. Manually took profit.

Overall loss was -33 pips.

Thoughts
I wanted to try and incorporate price action into my trading today but I forgot that price doesn't always respect S/R. I tunneled vision and kept trying the same entry thinking that the market will reverse and respect these key areas (trades #10-15). I have to remind myself that the market is random and illogical, best method of dealing with it is to adapt to it and follow it. Never try to speculate what should happen : (. At the start I was too trigger happy when I really should of calm down, and be cautious entering a trade when I've just started trading.

Going back to focusing on only entering quality set ups where price retraces back to the previous level since I've been bending the rules slightly for the last few days (got to buckle down and remain disciplined). Made too many trades today just like when I first started. I'll still try and understand price action but I won't be entering trades on 6 pip lines anytime soon . Been having terrible results for the last few trading days and today I got punished hard for being impatient but I learned a lot today (patience is key|patience is key|patience is key|patience is key~~).

The market today was quite slow again today with a very small range.

Trades
The areas of interest remained pretty must he same as yesterday. 116.375 acted as a strong resistance during the Tokyo session and 116 was also a fairly strong support.



1. Price was in a 30 pip uptrend and hit 116.375 twice. I decided to short there but I got stopped out. Should of ignored this trade and instead go for the long entry at 116.25 (following the retrace rule).
2. Price hit 116.375 a 2 more times and I did a short again. I jumped the gun on this one, I shouldn't be trying to guess market tops and bottoms.


3. Price had been in a down trend for 2 legs and it dropped to 116.00. Shorted on the retrace but got stopped out.
4. Price almost breached the next level at 116.25. I noticed the trend might be changing so I went long on the retrace.
5. Price went back to 116.375 and this time I went long on the retrace. No more playing around picking market tops until I get better at reading price action.
6. Tried going long again on 116.25 but it failed to reach that level again.

Total gain was 0.6 pip.

Thoughts
Jumped the gun again at the start ,gotta stick to the rules. I had limit orders set and didn't cancel them so today was a pretty successful xD. On a side note, I've been reading Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas. Should of read it before I started trading months ago, really good content in there about letting go of my fear of losing. Strongly recommend this book to anyone, even as a refresher to what you've already learned.

Didn't actually start trading until 2 pm Frankfurt time due to other commitments, but I was tracking price during the day after BOJ didn't please the market. Actually quite a trending market when I entered, ideal conditions for me to trade. Also decided to change the color scheme, looks much pretty to me xD.

Trades
Price dropped 200 pips before retracing back to 115.250. After that it went into a down trend for the rest of the session.





1. Had a limit sell at 114.875 since the market was consolidating just above 114.75 after a 3 leg downtrend. The price suddenly spiked and I got filled in a few pips above the 114.875. For the next few seconds the orders kept flooding in and the tick chart went crazy, so I closed my position for a 8 pip profit. Very volatile so I just wanted to secure a little bit of profit.
2. Shorted again at 114.75 after price touched 114.625.
3. Shorted again since price hadn't shown me that it was ready to break above 114.75.
4. Shorted again but got stopped out.
5. Tried a long thinking the trend might of reversed but got stopped out. Was just a fakeout.
6. Tried a short at 114.625 again but the market was choppy, got stopped out.
7. Took a short after price touched 114.50. A strong rejection and it almost took out my stop twice. Manually closed the position since price was very volatile again. However it later dropped down to 114.5
8. Price dropped further down and I entered short after price breached the half way through the next level. I thought the trend might continue but volatility was dying out with the London exchange closing. I also checked the mornings support and 114.25 was a strong support with massive bounces, so I just closed the trade for 6 pips. Wasn't really smart of me to enter near the end of the session.

Total gain was 29.2 pips

Thoughts
Again today I entered valid set ups without hesitation but for a few trades I got a bit scared and took profits too early. That was due to the sudden volume spikes which I wasn't comfortable with but I'll have to learn to accept that these things will happen and I'll adapt to it. Still feel a bit scared when the position reverses on me after being in profit but I'm trying my best to believe in my trading edge and strategy. Got the whole weekend to finish reading Trading in the Zone and digesting all the important bits in it which is much more relaxing than trading .

Tried trading on Monday but it was pretty slow today.

Trades
Price was trading around a 50 pip range through out the day.




1. Shorted on the retrace.
2. Tried a short again on 114.25 but I closed early because price bounced around 114 twice prior to the large uptrend.
3. Had a limit sell when suddenly the market was very volatile and I got filled in. Almost took profit but price reversed.
4. Tried a short on 114.375 since it got rejected twice around this price before. Got stopped out. (Gotta stop picking market tops)
5. Tried a long after price almost reached 114.50 but it ran out of steam and reversed.

Total loss was 9 pips

Thoughts
PA wasn't really good today. There were a few opportunities to take but I wasn't alert enough to take advantage of them. Quite a slow day compared to last week but it can't be helped.