Reading Charts in Real Time

[forrestang 10]

Let's see if the G/J declines ugly like or if it will yield a nice breakout.

 

Stopped quickly, at first redline.

[Gabe2004 10]

This was my 1st trade since the BIG LOSS

[Gabe2004 10]

I was thinking a lot about my losing trade on Thursday.

In my initial quest to find a reason behind people keeping their losing trades but closing quickly their winning trades, I came across the term Prospect theory. (Google it)

What happened on Thursday was different. I believe it is more of an addiction problem or a bad habit.

In many fields it is easier to start from scratch rather than trying to fix an older problem - renovating an old house compared with demilishing it and building a new one, trying to patch up software when the original programmer did not leave proper note etc.

When I think of Thale's daughter and me it is like comparing building a new house with renovating an old one.

So how do we UNLEARN old habits or get rid of addictions?

I found the following post in a blog. TraderPsychology: Can We "Unlearn"?.

I think it could be the foundation to a new beginning.

 

Gabe

[brownsfan019 17]

Gabe - I know others have suggested this, but since you might be open to new ideas, humor me and try this:

1) Set background color to an off white / eggshell white

2) Press the delete key on those moving averages

3) Set up candles to green

4) Set down candles to red

Just try it out. Your screenshots are so damn hard to see what's even going on there, I can just imagine what it's like trading from in real-time. Black backgrounds cause a lot of stress on your eyes.

[forrestang 10]

Gabe - I know others have suggested this, but since you might be open to new ideas, humor me and try this:

1) Set background color to an off white / eggshell white

2) Press the delete key on those moving averages

3) Set up candles to green

4) Set down candles to red

Just try it out. Your screenshots are so damn hard to see what's even going on there, I can just imagine what it's like trading from in real-time. Black backgrounds cause a lot of stress on your eyes.

 

I think this is a good idea. It will seem weird at first, but even the act of deleted everything is a somewhat liberating experience.

[brownsfan019 17]

I think this is a good idea. It will seem weird at first, but even the act of deleted everything is a somewhat liberating experience.

 

Good point forrest. Start with a blank slate (literally) and put slowly add back a few things.

[Gabe2004 10]

Gabe - I know others have suggested this, but since you might be open to new ideas, humor me and try this:

1) Set background color to an off white / eggshell white

2) Press the delete key on those moving averages

3) Set up candles to green

4) Set down candles to red

Just try it out. Your screenshots are so damn hard to see what's even going on there, I can just imagine what it's like trading from in real-time. Black backgrounds cause a lot of stress on your eyes.

 

 

Here is the best I could do.

On my platform there is no option to have the shadows/wicks assume the color of the candle.

Could you send me the HEX code of the background color that you consider best?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

[brownsfan019 17]

Here is the best I could do.

On my platform there is no option to have the shadows/wicks assume the color of the candle.

Could you send me the HEX code of the background color that you consider best?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

 

Not bad at all... little easier on the eyes if nothing else.

 

 

 

 

Try out what you got and let me know what you think. That chart you posted just looks so much cleaner and easier on the eyes IMO. Worth a shot to see if it helps, even if just a little bit.

[littlefish 10]

Whatever it's worth concerning chart color, I've found a shade of blue that works nicely for me, the rgb is 205 255 255. Having tried many different things since. I always go back to this.

[thalestrader 14]

On my platform there is no option to have the shadows/wicks assume the color of the candle.Thanks

 

Gabe

 

 

Oanda does let you set up candle to white and down candle to black. Try it, you might like it.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Whatever it's worth concerning chart color, I've found a shade of blue that works nicely for me, the rgb is 205 255 255. Having tried many different things since. I always go back to this.

 

That is a clean, readable chart, which is all you need.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

Oanda does let you set up candle to white and down candle to black. Try it, you might like it.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

I have tried that as well.

Unfortunately I have several (yes, several) problems with my eyes and it seems that a dark background with minimal light foreground colors is the best for me.

I removed the MAs though .

 

Gabe

 

How is this one?

[Dinerotrader 10]

Oanda does let you set up candle to white and down candle to black. Try it, you might like it.

Thales

 

Thales,

Have you found a spot forex platform that you like enough to stay with? I know FXCM was changing things and oanda had some problems. Just curious if you settled down with one yet or if you are still test driving.

 

Thanks.

[thalestrader 14]

Thales,

Have you found a spot forex platform that you like enough to stay with? I know FXCM was changing things and oanda had some problems. Just curious if you settled down with one yet or if you are still test driving.

 

Thanks.

 

We're still with FXCM, but we moved the account to the UK so we could use the old platform with contingent OCO orders. My forex trading friend was adamantly opposed to going offshore, but even he has given up and transferred to FXCM UK. Oanda's platform seems clunky and the spreads are terribly wide. My daughter had a GFT demo account, and she really liked the platform, but I thought the spreads at GFT also too wide.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Dinerotrader 10]

We're still with FXCM, but we moved the account to the UK so we could use the old platform with contingent OCO orders. My forex trading friend was adamantly opposed to going offshore, but even he has given up and transferred to FXCM UK. Oanda's platform seems clunky and the spreads are terribly wide. My daughter had a GFT demo account, and she really liked the platform, but I thought the spreads at GFT also too wide.

Thales

 

How hard was it to set up an account in the UK? Does that complicate the tax situation? Any other consideration you went through before setting it up?

 

Your daughter can tell her friends she trades forex on an offshore account. That sounds cool to me but probably not to her friends.

[thalestrader 14]

How hard was it to set up an account in the UK? Does that complicate the tax situation? Any other consideration you went through before setting it up?

 

Your daughter can tell her friends she trades forex on an offshore account. That sounds cool to me but probably not to her friends.

 

FXCM just needed me to fill out an on-line transfer request and it was done within a few days. I'm not a tax adviser, but I imagine that so long as you declare the existence of the account and any profits on your tax return, the tax treatment of those profits will be the same to the IRS. I do not believe that the UK taxes profits from retail forex trading as I assume that it is classified as spread betting, and last I checked, the UK does not yet tax spreadbetters. Perhaps we have a friend here from the UK who could let us know for certain.

 

Best Wshes,

 

Thales

[forrestang 10]

I like 2 of the 3. The white chart is the G/U, but I can find a stop/target situation that looks favorable.

 

The E/J and E/U look alright.

 

-----EDIT------

And with that uncomfortable decline, I am pulling my E/J buy stop, not entering. Haha, usually this happens AFTER I enter the trade.

Edited October 27, 2009 by forrestang

[thalestrader 14]

I like 2 of the 3. The white chart is the G/U, but I can find a stop/target situation that looks favorable.

 

The E/J and E/U look alright.

 

-----EDIT------

And with that uncomfortable decline, I am pulling my E/J buy stop, not entering. Haha, usually this happens AFTER I enter the trade.

 

Why are you not considering the short side?

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[forrestang 10]

Why are you not considering the short side?

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

Good question, I almost did and almost posted a picture. The short side makes more sense given the downtrend.

 

The E/U I figured was right at the 50% retracement and might favor good probability for a long, but as of right now I am getting smoked.

 

The G/J looks to be setting up for a possible short.

 

----EDIT-----

Stopped on E/U

Edited October 28, 2009 by forrestang

[Gabe2004 10]

FXCM just needed me to fill out an on-line transfer request and it was done within a few days. I'm not a tax adviser, but I imagine that so long as you declare the existence of the account and any profits on your tax return, the tax treatment of those profits will be the same to the IRS. I do not believe that the UK taxes profits from retail forex trading as I assume that it is classified as spread betting, and last I checked, the UK does not yet tax spreadbetters. Perhaps we have a friend here from the UK who could let us know for certain.

 

Best Wshes,

 

Thales

 

How safe is one's money with FXCM UK compared with a futures broker like IB in the US?

Had that account have enough money, would you prefer to trade currency futures nistead of forex?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

[Kiwi 16]

currently short but if it shows too much more strength i'll take a small profit and exit

[Kiwi 16]

It didn't and peewee decide it liked the trade too so it joined in.

 

Currently a bit below this picture (780) . I moved the target on the other one down to 749 to see if i get a break of the bottom.

 

Edit: got 200pts on the first. Will post peewee when it exits

Edited October 28, 2009 by Kiwi

[Kiwi 16]

And Peewee got 147 points.

 

[thalestrader 14]

How safe is one's money with FXCM UK compared with a futures broker like IB in the US?

Had that account have enough money, would you prefer to trade currency futures nistead of forex?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

 

Hi Gabe,

 

I would imagine that it is as safe as it is with any bucket shop, which is probably not very safe at all (though again, I have heard that UK does offer protection to FX account holders and that those protections extend to foreign holders as well.

 

I prefer futures to spot, but my daughter likes what she is used to: trading spot fx on FXCM's platform. So, that is what we are doing with this account.

 

I've mentioned that I have a very close friend who trades currencies only - he trades both futures and spot, and he does equally well with each. He does have some shorter term scalping type approaches that he says only work on futures because of some restrictions FXCM sets on entry orders, but otherwise he trades two accounts - FXCM spot and IB futures - as a matter of course. I do not think the level of account funding determines which he trades.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

Trying to get back on the horse again.

I have to work on my STAYING POWER

got out of a trade after almost 2 1/2 hours just to see it go even more my way (in a big move).

I moved my stop once but I was confident that the trade will work out well (famous last words ).

 

Gabe