Reading Charts in Real Time

[thalestrader 14]

So....BE on other 1/2?

 

Should have been at breakeven once the first profit target was hit (if not before).

 

Long entry at 132.10, take a profit at 132.33, and move stop to break even on the second half.

 

Closing in on second profit target at 132.65. Stop loss is now at 132.33, the first profit target.

 

I do not have an order at 132.65. If price prints 132.65 or higher, I will bring the stop up to 132.50 or so, and wait to see if this doesn't break out for a run to the upside.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Closing in on second profit target at 132.65 ... I do not have an order at 132.65. If price prints 132.65 or higher, I will bring the stop up to 132.50 or so, and wait to see if this doesn't break out for a run to the upside.

 

We have a 132.66 print, so I am going to bring the stop up to 132.54. So +23 on 1/2, and +44 worst case on second half.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

We have a 132.66 print, so I am going to bring the stop up to 132.54. So +23 on 1/2, and +44 worst case on second half.

 

Lots of resistance to fight through, but if it does, the green lines are a sort of Ladder for price to climb. If price gets above one, I'd look for the rally to continue to the next higher level.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

Hello Thales

 

What was the spread on your platform for the EJ at the time you entered the trade?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

[thalestrader 14]

My question is, how do you scale in (2$ up to 10$)?

 

Hi Hal,

 

Great to hear from you! I hope all is well with you and your family.

 

Basically what we'll do is this: Suppose we enter long 20K (2 mini lots or 20 micro lots or .20 standard lot) on a breakout, and the move quickly moves 20 ticks or more in our favor, and then consolidates in a small range, perhaps 2-5 ticks at the extreme of the breakout. We will put our stop loss at say +10 ticks, and we will place a buy stop to add another 20k if a new BO high is made. We then continue to add after small consolidations. With the first add, we will have our stop so that the trade does no worse than whatever the initial risk was on the first lot, but more likely we will be in a BE situation. On subsequent adds, we will be adding in such a way as to insure an overall profitable result even if we take a loss on the last entered position.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

We have a 132.66 print, so I am going to bring the stop up to 132.54. So +23 on 1/2, and +44 worst case on second half.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

I'm flat at 132.54

 

Time to watch the Phillies!

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Hello Thales

 

What was the spread on your platform for the EJ at the time you entered the trade?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

 

It was probably 1.2, which is the average for FXCM. It has been as low as .6 tonight, and as wide as 2.9. Right now it is .8.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

It was probably 1.2, which is the average for FXCM. It has been as low as .6 tonight, and as wide as 2.9. Right now it is .8.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

 

This is amazing.

 

Oanda up until a few minutes ago had a spread of 10 pips and now it is 3.5.

With spreads like that I can never do what you do on a 1 min time frame.

I will have to think of switching to a different broker.

 

Gabe

[thalestrader 14]

This is amazing.

 

Oanda up until a few minutes ago had a spread of 10 pips and now it is 3.5.

With spreads like that I can never do what you do on a 1 min time frame.

I will have to think of switching to a different broker.

 

Gabe

 

I really do not know why anyone would put up with such ridiculous spreads. FXCM micro is the way to go. We actually tried Oanda for about a week, and not only were the spreads nothing close to what they advertised, but the slippage was pure thievery. FXCM guarantees your stops. Oanda almost always took a few extra ticks on the entries and the exits. I just logged in to FXtrade and I see Oanda is fixed at 3.5 on the EURJPY right now.

 

For what its worth, Oanda is the only broker of any sort anywhere where I I have an outstanding net loss. In one week, my daughter and I managed a combined loss of $100.39 or there abouts. In the six weeks since we returned to FXCM, we've managed to run a little less than $200 to over $2000. I know many will defend Oanda, but in my opinion, Oanda definitely has an edge against their customers, and I know when I'm licked. I went there on the suggestion of my currency trading friend, and he left soon after I did. You might recall that he averages about 200 ticks/pips per week profit, week after week. He lost 300 pips during three weeks at Oanda. He too went back to FXCM and immediately returned to profitability. For what its worth ...

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

I missed this, but I think a short at 132.42 would have been worth a try.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

I really do not know why anyone would put up with such ridiculous spreads. FXCM micro is the way to go. We actually tried Oanda for about a week, and not only were the spreads nothing close to what they advertised, but the slippage was pure thievery. FXCM guarantees your stops. Oanda almost always took a few extra ticks on the entries and the exits. I just logged in to FXtrade and I see Oanda is fixed at 3.5 on the EURJPY right now.

 

For what its worth, Oanda is the only broker of any sort anywhere where I I have an outstanding net loss. In one week, my daughter and I managed a combined loss of $100.39 or there abouts. In the six weeks since we returned to FXCM, we've managed to run a little less than $200 to over $2000. I know many will defend Oanda, but in my opinion, Oanda definitely has an edge against their customers, and I know when I'm licked. I went there on the suggestion of my currency trading friend, and he left soon after I did. You might recall that he averages about 200 ticks/pips per week profit, week after week. He lost 300 pips during three weeks at Oanda. He too went back to FXCM and immediately returned to profitability. For what its worth ...

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

I did a search on FXCM and in several places they have bad ratings.

Forex Broker Fraud & Scam Reviews & Ratings

 

Have you experienced any of the complaints that are in the above link?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

[MidKnight 12]

Hi Thales,

 

To my knowledge FXCM does not guarantee stops no FX broker does that anymore AFAIK. 5 Years ago when I started trading with FOREX, they did guarantee them, they changed it shortly after because guys were straddling the NFP reports and making out like bandits. I believe now what they do is guarantee stops* - note the asterisk

[thalestrader 14]

I missed this, but I think a short at 132.42 would have been worth a try.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

And I'd have the stop at break even at this point.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Thales,

 

To my knowledge FXCM does not guarantee stops no FX broker does that anymore AFAIK. 5 Years ago when I started trading with FOREX, they did guarantee them, they changed it shortly after because guys were straddling the NFP reports and making out like bandits. I believe now what they do is guarantee stops* - note the asterisk

 

I know FXCM guarantees that your account cannot go into deficit. I also know that last week we had a buy stop at 134.94 that was filled to the tick a few seconds after the GDP announcement. And we have always been filled exactly on our stop losses. Neither my daughter nor I have experienced so much as 1/10th of 1 tick slippage at FXCM, ever. So, there may be an asterisk that gives FXCM an out somewhere under some conditions.

 

On the other hand, every trade we made with Oanda had Oanda taking a few tenths if not a few whole pips more than the stop price, whether an entry or an exit.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Kiwi 16]

FXCM probably have the out so that they can apply it to news events and/or anyone who they feel is benefiting too much from their stops.

[thalestrader 14]

I did a search on FXCM and in several places they have bad ratings.

Forex Broker Fraud & Scam Reviews & Ratings

 

Have you experienced any of the complaints that are in the above link?

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

 

I do not want to become an online commercial for FXCM, but neither I nor my daughter have had any problem with FXCM.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Dinerotrader 10]

And I'd have the stop at break even at this point.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

Here is how I am looking at it. This is point where you think, this looks like a good breakout but will it just chop around and only really make a good breakout after one or two more upswings.

 

[Gabe2004 10]

Here is how I am looking at it. This is point where you think, this looks like a good breakout but will it just chop around and only really make a good breakout after one or two more upswings.

 

 

Since most price action around horizontal areas reverts back to where it came from, I would bet on EJ going back down even if it is for a short time.

 

Gabe

 

PS It looks like I may be wrong on the above.

Eventhough retracements are more common than continuations (atleast as far as I saw, it seems if after several attempts at a breakout, if the anticipated retracement did not occur than the only alternative is for the breakout to succeed.

How many attempts are needed? I don't know.

 

Gabe

Edited November 2, 2009 by Gabe2004

[thalestrader 14]

6E (EURUSD futures)

 

Good Night and Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Dinerotrader 10]

Turned out to be a nice breakout with a great reversal bounce off the breakout level.

 

 

I looked closer on the 1 min chart to find 2 bounces off that support. Maybe setting up to really push upwards. A break above 133 looks interesting.

 

 

Okay, decided to take this breakout with some real cash. I have actually never traded spot forex before with real money so this was very exciting. I wanted to make sure my first real forex trade was profitable so once price stalled a bit and started moving back, I got out. I will start a scaling out approach once I can figure out the order system better.

 

Edited November 2, 2009 by Dinerotrader

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

Here's a look at the current EURJPY. 132.77 looks like it is shaping up to be an important level.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

50% retracement of GJ has been reached.

Now if only I would trust stats more.......

Next target would be 157.20 to the up side or 145.60 to the down side.

I am betting on the down side.

 

Gabe

 

I am not sure as to the usefullness of long term predictions for day-traders but here again, we are close to one of my targets. The low one.

Actually because after my observation, price moved up, I should have revised my low target to 146.46 which is the 50% retracement from the high on Oct 22 to the low of Oct 6

Furthermore, because the proximity to the lows around July 7-12 and the round number at that time, a reasonable target could have been set to 147 which was hit this morning.

 

The purpose of this excersize was to see whether 50% retracements are significant or not.

 

Gabe

 

PS I haven't noticed that yesterday we had a low of 145.81 (Oanda)

Edited November 2, 2009 by Gabe2004

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

Here's a look at the current EURJPY. 132.77 looks like it is shaping up to be an important level.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

That level held multiple tests, and should price revisit that level in the future, whether it holds or not should provide an opportunity one way or the other.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[brownsfan019 17]

I am not sure as to the usefullness of long term predictions for day-traders but here again, we are close to one of my targets. The low one.

Actually because after my observation, price moved up, I should have revised my low target to 146.46 which is the 50% retracement from the high on Oct 22 to the low of Oct 6

Furthermore, because the proximity to the lows around July 7-12 and the round number at that time, a reasonable target could have been set to 147 which was hit this morning.

 

The purpose of this excersize was to see whether 50% retracements are significant or not.

 

Gabe

 

PS I haven't noticed that yesterday we had a low of 145.81 (Oanda)

 

I see all those pretty lines are back on the charts... :doh:

 

Do you use moving averages to profitably trade? If so, ignore me. If not, hit delete on them.

[Gabe2004 10]

I see all those pretty lines are back on the charts... :doh:

 

Do you use moving averages to profitably trade? If so, ignore me. If not, hit delete on them.

 

Actualy I am using a 20EMA on my futures trade but.

I'll see what I can do about the forex trade EMAs.

 

If you would have seen my charts 3 months ago you'll realize that 3 ema's is trading naked for me.

 

Thanks for the note anyway.

 

Gabe