Justaguy

I think that way is as good as any really. That is what is great about trading is that there are so many ways to accomplish the same goal. You already know and I am probably stating the obvious but MA to determine, depending on length, can get you on the right side too far into the move at times. In answer to your question, I don't balance out. I am a FX trader with a futures dabble. I may have swings in either direction but will day trade the opposite direction as my swings.

Good question. Which trend to trade has always, since I can remember, been a question. There are so many ways to determine YOUR direction from moving averages, macd, stochs, pure price action (HHHLLHLL) to gut feel. For me, I like to use where we are in relation to the weeks open for longer term holds to days open for day trading. I find that to be a simple variable. I won't hesitate to use the basic high/low stairstep either. I don't look for overall swings but a simple 1-2-3 reversal pattern. As for chop, there are a few ways to determine it. When the HHHL is happening but other HHHL are contained within (obviously long) the previous HHHL. There is also a series of candles contained within a prior candles high and low range. Or of course...we can keep it simple and if price is from upper left to bottom right...down trend. For me personally, what i listed above are my top picks.

Hmm..thanks. I used the wrong link I assume. I know you already know what I was referring to but to make my previous post complete...I have hopefully attached the chart

Clear cutting....he is referring to adjusting around those swings just as he does with key levels (round numbers......) As for key adjustments....I am adding in a chart of the GBPUSD. I had a long setup occur on the doorstep of the 1.5400 level. Made the adjust and the order never triggered was would have been a loser. Look around the 8:45 time. You will see the setup but no arrow that indicates a fill. These adjusts are an integral part of my trading.

What a great question. I echo many of the comments here. I'm happy with what I do. It has allowed me to stay home and raise my daughter. It has allowed me to pursue other interests as well. The most difficult thing is...the bucks stops with you. Working for someone else, there are filters. Other people. Trading for your bread and butter brings on a whole new bundle of responsibility. One huge one is immense focus. One mistake can have you in a trade that you should not be in or out of one you should be riding. What other business can the psychological factor drain your account in a matter of moments? None that I am aware of. The social isolation aspect is a tough one. I limit my trading to the first 3 hours of the session (overlap in spot forex). It can be tough as you can constantly be looking around the corner at what could be the explosive setup. That discipline is tough. I've started to schedule events for the time after my session so the temptation to trade may be there...but the ability is not. Overall? I would never look back

I'm with the other posters. Frequency of trades is a huge factor in determining how many you can watch. One thing you don't want is to be watching too many and having to chase entries simply because the markets are too fast. I don't know if I ever totally became "one" with the market. There are far too many influences on the day to day movements. Far beyond what I could ever fully grasp. I have heard as well to learn how the market moves.....etc. The only problem I see with that is that you'd need the same market participants and variables over and over again. Add or subtract a variable and the ball game can change. For me, I have a trade setup that I look for. Trades goes on. Trade is managed to target, break even or loss. Nothing more complicated than that.

gandalf33, don't get me wrong about win rate. In the context of pure "roadblock" and psychology, I agree that traders that see a higher win rate will have a little more "ease" than those seeing some large in trade drawdowns. My point however maybe wasn't as clear on the forum as it was in my head. Even with a 65% win rate, trades can still be slowly bleeding their account. I submit that a trader who is in the 65% range and keeps the focus on rate but over time is seeing an overall account drawdown will drive him/herself nuts trying to figure out the problem. Like I said, win rate as a standalone factor is meaningless. Van Tharp has excellent writings on this topic. In the end though, psychology by itself doesn't pay the bills. I think it is great that you understand that taking part in the drawdowns can bring in results far superior to in/out. A lot of traders I am sure want the large gains but get "psyched out" when the retrace starts and that paper total is slipping away. It's like that saying where the greatest rewards lay with those that go places nobody else wants to.

Personally, I don't know where the 65% win rate was pulled from. Win rate by itself is meaningless and really oversimplifies the branches that make up a winning tree. So much more goes into "knowing" how your system will perform over time. To the question..... I do well already but could do much better. How? Bigger returns. Now, surely many people would love that. The problem may lie in how we all approach return. Some may say that 15% per year is a great return. Those would be the people who have their money managed by some financial advisor looking for a bonus or simply the mgmt fee. What keeps people from going after the bigger returns is the drawdowns you must face. Risking 35 pips and going for 1-2-300 pips is a great return for money invested in that trade. What comes with that is up 200 and retrace for 100. Some, I hazard that most, traders do not have the stomach to handle that. Which brings me to my final verdict......my roadblock is the greed/fear factor. Sometimes, I have no problem letting it run...my largest trade was 1021 pip trade in the GJ (risk was 50 on liftoff). I didn't cut that off. Others, I will be up 100 or so, see a discretionary pattern...and shut it down. I sometimes take the same trade in a demo account and simply let it play out. That just feeds my "let it run" mantra even more. I will get there. I have to put the drawdown in the trade into perspective and learn to tolerate it knowing that greater rewards lay over it. BTW..I am new here. Great forum. Pro questions.

As for broker, I personally use Oanda. Did venture to FXCM for a while but my overall experience is much better with Oanda. The ability to gear in with position sizing makes a world of difference. Pretty much the same feeling as Weed. I use Ninja charting with PFG data feed however Due to the narrow spreads in comparison to many, I day trade through Oanda as well. Stop runs by brokers may have been the flavor of the day moons ago, now, different story. Dealing desks may take the opposite position but so what? I have never seen a massive discrepancy between Oanda charting prices and my Ninja feed. While the cost may be higher in spot FX as opposed to futures, it's all the same to me. Cost of doing business. My spread cost is more than covered and being diversified in trading style (swing/day), helps to smooth the equity curve. You could say that day trading pays the bills and swing trading pays for the future. I'm with Weed again on breakouts. You could sit and wait for a retrace that never comes in the immediate future. Sure, you can offset that by dropping to a lower time frame to grab the retrace but then you have to decide where you are getting in as price moves away from the main direction (ala picking bottom/top). 1-2-3 reversal? An indicator trigger? Another breakout? Going astray from the topic. Hope this helped

I'm a little late in posting to this thread and should have gotten in sooner. As for fib trading, that is where I cut me teeth, so to speak. It was based on using a confluence of .382 and .618 from different areas to find "stronger" support and resistance areas. It was quite intriguing when many many times those areas were actual turning points. A lower time frame entry then followed using fib levels as well. It wasn't just marketing in wherever but looking for a rollover, a trigger, usually the stochs. I enjoyed trading this way and did pretty decent overall. The problem became when it was becoming more and more subjective for me as time went on. There were so many areas to pull from. Trading this way was not as kneejerk as just using every fib levels as there was only 2 to use. Using extensions for profit targets, while mechanical in nature, also fell into the very subjective category. I still use them from time to time. More of a general interest really. It did make for some interesting "trader talk" conversation from time to time.