Karmacat said:
Newbie, as my ID says. Been studying technicals and fundamentals for far too long, I'm now virtual trading every morning from about 7.45 - 10am (I still work doing other things).
Well, for starters, you got a time selected that's pretty active. Lots of movement, good for significant moves and subsequently, pips to be earned.
I'm mostly seeing veteran/senior/legendary (!) traders here, so a bit nervous about posting, but needs must - like most, although people around me are interested and supportive, they're not following it themselves, so its the blind leading the blind.
Started posting here in late April, already veteran, mainly posting "gone long, moved SL, out at...", and also some method stuff. So, take it with a grain of salt. I'm a newbie too, but the feedback I get is encouraging even though my way isn't everybody's way. What's even better to develope my trading skills is that I get to put into words what I thought and observed over a long time papertrading, putting a touchstone to them.
I've read a couple of articles on here about pulling the trigger in general, but I'd like to check out with people how they do. I'm fed up with virtual trading, but when it comes to trusting my knowledge, it feels impossible.
Believe me, pulling the trigger to get in is (way too) easy, it's the waiting for the right moment that is hard. It's even harder to pull the trigger on a losing position. Papertrading hardly prepares you for it, as in real trading it's your hard-earned money that's on the line, not virtual moolah you can top up with a simple request to your broker.
But you wanted to know how I do it: three methods mainly:
1) observation: I've seen enough Big Bens, slow grinds up and down in Tokyo, decaying sines to "know" the probability is high for a successful trade being at hand. (If it goes wrong, too bad, so sad).
2) more observation, but highly risky: just in front of major news, I don headphones and let some "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" do the desensitizing until I'm pure aggression, very triggerhappy. To most, utter madness, and I agree. But my observation led me to "sell the rumour, buy the news" or vice versa. I never do this with big positions, as I've blown my account too often. Even I learn, though the hard way.
3) get my adrenalin flowing: my first trade of the day is usually wrong, but it gets my blood up. I use a 1$ a pip on cable, usually losing me my standard stoploss $20. Any trade after that has a 75% win/loss ratio :cheesy: Believe me, the first "****e!" of the day gets me in the right frame of mind better than all the coffee in the world!
This morning, on cable at cmc, I'm using 5 min and 3 min charts, set to candlesticks and triple MA with stochastics and macd. I also input trends and SR levels manually. These are the trades that came up:
08.33am 1.8755 – 1.8739, 9 mins on 3 min chart: 13 net points.
09.42am. 1.8736 – 1.8722, 6 mins on 3 min chart: 11 net points.
11.10am. 1.8712 – 1.8678, 15 mins on 5 min chart: 32 net points.
I'm only at a basic level, I'm pretty sure, but I do feel like I know my stuff. But I've felt that before and been wrong. So, my questions:
- how do people manage to regularly pull the trigger?
- what do you think of trading such a short chart for a beginner? I've seen a few pages back that people are using 30 min or 1 hour charts.
I use the 15min because the 5er is too panic-inducing. I lost a lot of money on being too triggerhappy on it. The 15min is a good (good for me, others may disagree) one as it smooths out the moves to a level where I can outwait the move, good or bad. Only on slow days or in tight ranges will I open up a 1min to job the range, 10pips here, 20 there, lose some, win some more. Not everybody's thing, but jobbing a tight range is one of the tools in my trader's toolbox.
But a general truism is that the more experienced you get, the longer the timeframes become, as staring at the chart all the time is wearying. You do your research, wait for the entry, go for it with stoploss and limit in place and let the market do its thing. I'm nowhere near there yet, but I feel it's the way to go. In between, if I want a flutter, I can always go for a quickie scalp
