Highest Open / Lowest Open Trade

Over all my (many) years of trading, I have genuinely never felt so comfortable trading a method, certainly over the lower time-frames. Having come from the world of long tf position trading, it took a while to find my feet but HOLO certainly hits the mark...and honestly, all you newcomers out there, it ​did take time, I needed to have my own 'lightbulb moment'. The fact that it holds certain similarities to methods I had used previously on those position trades no doubt helped but seriously, once you have this working for you - why would you want to use anything else?

Guys, consider this. In Forex, at least 50% of breakouts are “fake-outs”...Add in ''Pre-Fake-Outs'' and ''Pre-Breakouts'', where the price bounces along just inside those Highs and/or Lows of the day and you can see why HOLO surfs the day's moves so effectively. Now on top of that, add in the fact that even if you do get a true breakout, you can trade it using HOLO's sibling, 1-2-3 (once you've found your feet with HOLO, of course ) and now do you see the edge that this method gives you?

Woops - some catching up to do - can't not read this for a day apparently lol

What caused your lightbulb moment?
What changed?

1-2-3 was posted before HOLO because it only has 3 rules.
The wait times can be brutal.
1-2-3 only happens after a breakout.
HOLO can happen anytime.

Well I'm not the most proficient person at placing an entry orders (I've always used market orders in the past) so it takes me a minute to get all the numbers inputted. By the time I got ready it had dropped below the higher H1 open entry point. I got mad but was watching it as price did briefly move slightly above the H1 open.I was about to just go ahead and enter a market order when this happened.

I guess I need to just let it go...

Happens to us all at some point - learn to type faster

HOLO works for daily, weekly and monthly.

I'll get there eventually. lol

I was going to say that I like jam - but I don't eat sugar

Channels, flags, pennants, what have you. They all work in hindsight.
At the hard right edge is where the rubber meets the road. Superfluous information clouds decision making.

My lightbulb moment came when I stripped it all out and put back two lines on an H1 bar chart, moved them to every new H or L open that formed through the day and sat and watched the price move up and down through those two lines for a week...

What changed? My ability to cut through all the HigherHighsLowerLowsLowerHighsHigherLowsHigherHigherHighsLowerLowerLows...

Most excellent Meat Loaf reference!!!

Thanks LM.
This weekend I reminded another idea from the other universe, "3rd dots". Divide s bar in 3 parts. Zone 2 and 3 roughly correspond with 1/3 to 2/3 (or at least above the 1/3rd). There is an indicatÖr for that, but it's easy to eyeball also.

Did that help with patience?
Focus?
Confidence in the method?

Hope your shit's not fucked up

Mostly...Confidence in the method. It showed the validity very graphically, not just as written down as a set of rules. Showed the robustness of the method - just watching how many times the price crossed and re-crossed those lines showed how many potential entries you could be looking at.

This in turn helped patience - why try and force something, or chase a missed entry? I now had seen how many more opportunities there would be.

Focus was never an issue - if you can't focus, you shouldn't be trading forex.

Trader Training - Waiting for the Trade Bus

Traders, particularly those who need to make money rather than those who would like to make money, tend to have a fear of missing out. They hear about a trading idea or find an opportunity with their own effort and make the trade with less thought than they might put into buying a microwave. They can invest thousands of dollars on an impulse, much like the drunken gambler who throws down $1000 on Five Red.

One reason for this sort of reckless approach to trading is the belief that trading ideas are like gifts. They only come along from time to time and you should feel grateful for the opportunity. If you spend 10 hours researching a company or receive the occasional bit of insight from someone who should know more than the rest of us, it's easy to understand why you wouldn't want to let a seemingly promising trade slip through your fingers. The problem is that this gratitude for trading ideas leads you to lower your standards and place trades that are not much more than a gamble.

Have you ever made a trade and then, just a few minutes or days later, asked yourself what the heck you were thinking? If you are normal, then it's likely that you have because it is easy to focus on the dream of making a profit. You should focus your attention on the trading situation as it has been presented to you by the market rather than the words of an expert. Some trading opportunities are so well marketed that it's hard to see the truth because you fixate on the profit potential that has been dangled before you as the prize.

It is critical to only take trades that meet the criteria of a strategy that you have found to have a positive expected value. Rather than look for a reason to take the trade, which is easy, look for a reason not to. Ask yourself, "If I buy this stock, who will be selling to me, and what does she know that I don't know?" Looking at the other side of the argument will often highlight considerations that you have missed.

Being fussy is a lot easier when you recognize that the market-even a slow market-will give you opportunities. The markets have been pretty quiet lately but there are still stocks outperforming the market every day.

And if you can't find a trade today, tomorrow or in the next week, eventually you will. There is always another bus coming down the road. If you miss one, just wait for the next.

I have found that you will actually make more money by trading less. If you maintain a very high standard for what trades you make, you will always pass on some trades that end up doing very well. By being selective, however, you will also avoid many marginal trades that would tie up your capital and then incur a loss. By being fussy and trading less, you end up taking only the very best trades and your results will be better overall.

It is easy to be fussy when the market is strong and there are lots of opportunities. It's like fishing when every time you cast your line you get a bite. With that kind of success, you will quickly throw back any fish that is too small because you know there's going to be something better coming along soon. You only take the best of the best.

When the fish stop biting and you spend hours with no bounty, you take the first fish that grabs your hook. It could be a tiny fish that you would never keep on even an average day, but with your desire to catch something, you keep it anyway. It would be better to have just not gone fishing at all.

You'll do the same thing when trading a slow market. Eager to make a profit, you will take trades that show some potential even if they don't meet all of your requirements. You will work hard to uncover a trade rather than wait for the obvious no-brainer trades that you take when the market is in a giving mood.

I like to say that in trading, when the going gets tough, the tough get lazy. You can't control the market, so if the market is not giving you opportunities, it's better to do nothing. Your hard work will not change what the market does.

This is hard for many people who have been programmed to relate hard work to success. If you try harder than the next person in a sport, you should get a better result. If you study harder for an exam, you should get a better mark. If you work longer hours at your job, you should make more money. In the stock market, if you work harder to find good trades, you will probably lose money.

The best trades are easy to find. Working hard to uncover something leads you to find questionable trades that you have to talk yourself into. It's better to walk away when you have doubts.

This is not to say that hard work is not rewarded in trading. Traders who work hard at practicing their analytical skills or developing new strategies will be rewarded. People who devote their time and effort to improving their emotional control will be better traders. These are things that you can control and affect with hard work, but hard work won't change what the stock market does.

- StockScores

Perhaps newcomers should only watch for the first 3 - 5 days?

Not any more (much) but I have needed the odd lawyer, guns and money along the way...