Good idea on longer TF's for instance weekly/bi-weekly or monthly highs. The problem with that is to workout stop losses. I have tried to reduce stop loss from 15 to 10 and it failed a few times. Maybe a multiplier in proportion (ie, 15x4 for monthly high and target 20 pips)? But, then it would still remain 3:1 risk reward.
I also kept spreads into account. So I am looking in total for a move of 12 pips above the previous high (3 pips my trigger, 4 pips spread and 5 pips target).
Any suggestions on that front?
Cheers
Those numbers are terrible mate. Your profit target is only just one pip more that your spread and 2 pips more than your trigger. In % terms you've given up 75% of the total trade expectation to your trigger and spread. You should be aiming to give up less than 15% ideally, imho.
I think you need to think of a profit target in line with the time frame you are trading and as a % of the daily range of that pair. Look at
Forex Market Hours to see when the sessions open and look at your charts on different time frames to see when the moves happen and what patterns they take. Think how if a previous low or high is broken and that provides an opportunity, what are the other factors surrounding it?
I'll give you an example of something I backtested (briefly!) last night, but have not traded.
EURCAD is a messy pair. It moves in fits and starts, a bummer to trade but when certain levels are broken and conditions are in place it provides really strong moves. Put on your pivot points for all periods and look at 2H. Now you could say to yourself, the rule is to trade on a break of previous days high/low on the third 2H bar (6am bar) when
1) price is moving in direction of the pivot bias, ie. above pivot then in a long direction 2) the three preceding bars - 12midnight to present - have all remained above/below pivot
3) I am above/below the 24/72/200 whatever Moving Average
This in just itself would have given you confidence that a break of a high was in line with a larger trend and also takes into account price beforehand and a range for the target above.
This is just a rough example, but add conditions and experiment and keep it simple, but you need to give yourself every chance of a trade succeeding and expect that when it does, it can pay for the other times it doesn't.
As for the above - what I am going to call the Pivot Accelerator Method and Analysis (PACMAN for short
😛) - its more to do with using pivot points on multiple timeframes with illiquid pairs, but I hope you get the idea. Don't box yourself into just thinking 'break of a high' - study price in the conditions when this happens, and work back from there.
OK, I don't write for ages and then give a rambling opus....hope it helps...