Does location matter?

[Biggles 10]

Hi everyone, my first post on any trading forum. I am a total newbie at this. I live in Vancouver on the West coast of Canada. My main interest in trading is in the Forex market but I am concerned that my location (ie, time zone) puts me at a disadvantage since the Forex busiest time is at the London opening--eight hours ahead of my time zone. Any comments?

[Buk 10]

Hi Biggles........

 

there are opportunities across all timezones & timeframes, just depends on what type of strategy or method(s) you're intending utilizing?!

 

sure, London attracts a good percentage of intraday volumes & the London-New York handover is probably the most active timezone regards volume/liquidity etc........

 

which pairs/crosses are you looking at trading?

 

to be honest, your currency (loonie) throws up quite a few decent opportunities against the buck & is a decent candidate to trade on the medium term swing basis.........

 

if you're intending trading the Cable (GBP/USD) or Euro via a shorter timeframe strat, then I guess you're gonna have to tailor your screen time to suit the trading/volume conditions

[RhodyTrader 10]

I agree with Buk. While you should be able to pick up some action in the Yen and the Aussie as Asian trading kicks in, you are definitely going to be outside prime-time for day trading. That certainly doesn't mean you can effectively swing trade, or take longer term positions, though.

[Biggles 10]

Thank you for your input:D

Last night I tried staying up late watching the Yen and got up at 6.00am to see what NY thought of it. I don't think I can do that everyday! I do think that I need to be at the computer by 6.00am though since that gives me the most opportunities. I am a very new to this and am trying to trade the news:rolleyes:

[Anna-Maria 10]

Wow!! You've just hitched your saddle to the bronco & you're looking to trade Yen via the news?

 

Are you sure - are you really sure?

 

Just joshin with ya. It's certainly not an impossible task to chip away at these babies striking via a data angle (strat) - a little ambitious for a rookie, but not impossible.

 

What type of strat are you looking to deploy & why the Yen if you don't mind me enquiring.

 

Best of luck to you by the way

[Biggles 10]

Texas: I was using info from Felix. Just experimenting at the moment...

The NZ dollar is next!!

[Anna-Maria 10]

Felix?? As in the cat?

 

What's a "Felix"??

[ezduzzit 10]

I think Texxas was right on the money when he sort of jokingly inquired if you were really serious about your plans to trade the yen as a newbie, etc.

 

Daytrading the Forex can be quite a challenge, even for experienced traders.. and in this one person's opinion it is one of the hardest instruments to trade, especially for beginners and for those depending mostly on tech analysis. Forex is whipped about considerably by news and you really have to be on top of your game to even have a chance of consistent profitability. Forex lends itself better to swing trading than daytrading but you better have had huge amounts of screen time and more than a smattering of education about what drives those markets and when.

 

If you have not already done so, being as how you said you were such a newbie, you might want to read an ebook called Bird Watching In Lion Country. The title alone should give you some indication of the challenge you are taking on. It is a very worthwhile read even if you decide to trade with a somewhat different strategy later on.

 

Best of luck to you.. and you might consider trading the e-mini futures markets initially since they much more closely fit with your local time frame and have somewhat limited leverage. You could always learn about Forex and decide to give it a try later if the e-minis don't aren't exciting enough for you.

 

If you insist on starting out with Forex and especially the yen.. you had best stick to using a mini account until you are truly comfortable and even that shouldn't be traded until you have plenty of screen time and at least some demo or simulated trading under your belt. Just remember that demo trading is good for getting a feel for how to execute the platform you are trading with, but it is in no way any kind of substitute at all for what trading is like when you switch to real money where your emotions are fully engaged. What that means is, don't go into shock when all your winning demo results are immediately trashed with loss after loss once you switch to trading live money. It happens to almost everyone as this business is somewhere around 80% or more psychological. In summary, regardless of your methods or strategy, it is all about control of your emotions of fear and greed and also about mercilessly closing down your losing positions right away so that you and your capital can survive to trade another day.

 

Happy Trading

[Biggles 10]

Thanks for the advice everyone. That is the only time I have tried the Yen-I thought I should try everything! After I shorted the Yen I got faked out, panicked and exited, saw which way it was going and re entered and left it overnight with a close stop loss. I made up most of what I lost on my 'switcheroo'. I have a hell of a lot to learn but right now I have the time to do it. I will try "Bird watching..."

[Biggles 10]

Is this ebook 'Bird Watching in Lion Country" worth the $69.95 it is advertised for? There seem to be an awful lot of people on Forex ready to remove my hard earned cash:mad:

[RhodyTrader 10]

Daytrading the Forex can be quite a challenge, even for experienced traders.. and in this one person's opinion it is one of the hardest instruments to trade, especially for beginners and for those depending mostly on tech analysis. Forex is whipped about considerably by news and you really have to be on top of your game to even have a chance of consistent profitability. Forex lends itself better to swing trading than daytrading but you better have had huge amounts of screen time and more than a smattering of education about what drives those markets and when.

 

If you think forex is whipped around by news you should watch the fixed income markets. You've never seen anything nearly as crazy as the Bond market when the Payrolls figures come out well away from expectations. Yee-haw!

 

As to JPY, I actually disagree. I think it's easier than most currencies. Stay clear of the GBP in all formats while you're learning. It's very choppy. The EUR is good. AUD tends to move in slow trends. CAD has its moments.

[ezduzzit 10]

Well that's the nice thing about a good forum... people are free to disagree and we can all remain open to learning something new. You might wish to edit your post to the word "Bond" from its present "Bong" so as not to excite the weed smokers in the forum, but I certainly understand your point heh, heh.

 

I think the Euro is one of the best currencies to trade for a starter on Forex, but that is just my personal opinion.

 

As to Biggie's question about Bird Watching.. well, bud... I wouldn't have referred you to it if I didn't think it was worth at least $70. Your point is well taken that there is no lack of parties eager to see you part with your hard earned money, but if you are not prepared to pay for the tools and knowledge to properly learn this business then you are almost guaranteed to fail miserably and in fairly short order. Of course, I know that your comment was really directed at separating the good from the bad.. and let's be honest .. yes.. most of the advice out there is pure junk and you would be far better off without it.

 

Happy Trading

[Anna-Maria 10]

Biggles:

 

Pay close mind to Ezduzzit's post (No 8), & his following comments re; trading the Euro if you're intent on persuing these instruments.

 

Euro is the big dog of the $ Indx, & tends to truck along in the middle lane (unlike it's lower weighted cousins). It therefore lends itself to a more sedate journey & adheres a little better to the tech's.

 

I haven't read any of the mainstream books out there, so can't really pass on any reccommendations personally, but Buk has just informed me who this Felix dude is

 

Stay the hell away from these characters! Unless of course you want to continually donate your hard earned to the snipers & sharks who circle in wait for all these poor, unwary feeder fish roaming the FX sea's at chow time LOL.

 

 

Great post Ez about covers the important points!

[Biggles 10]

Thanks guys! I have both hands over my rear end....

 

Could you email me and tell me why you are concerned about Felix?

[Kiwi 16]

I have the birdwatching ebook and would support the view that it is one way to take on the markets. Not my chosen way but I could make it work if I liked it a bit more

 

IMHO a nice way to deal with the euro is to trend trade it although when I was doing it I was trading the european morning and then taking the rest of the day off. The US morning could also be trendy as long as the news at 8:30 didn't hammer it with too big a shock ... big shocks often leave the bell ringing and make day trading trends a poor choice.

 

If you do want to day trade the euro trends then a method of buying pull backs in the trend (I used to use 5 minute bars for my base timeframe) will work. The "Floor Traders Method" which is free from NQoos site worked well for me. You can find it for free here: Trade Setups for trading futures, stocks, options...NQoos

[RhodyTrader 10]

Euro is the big dog of the $ Indx, & tends to truck along in the middle lane (unlike it's lower weighted cousins). It therefore lends itself to a more sedate journey & adheres a little better to the tech's.

 

Maybe you aren't refering specifically to the Dollar Index (USDX) here, but rather USD trading in general. If you are, though, I believe the index is trade-weighted, which actually means that the CAD is the biggest part of the equation.

[RhodyTrader 10]

...IMHO a nice way to deal with the euro is to trend trade it...

 

Interesting to hear you call your approach trend trading. I'm not saying that it isn't. After all, there are trends in all timeframes when you think about it - day trading included. It's just that most often trend trading is considered a longer-term sort of thing.

[Anna-Maria 10]

I don't need to e-mail you or go underground & whisper warning signs etc.

 

Just think about it for a second or two!

 

These guy's draw a huge audience into their pen, yeah? For which they charge each subscriber a large mug of $$'s for their services?

 

Their prime audience are small pockets of under-cap retailers who no doubt, are executing via the "traditional" mainline dealing desks.

 

You think these (broker) desk jockey's at the shops don't know about these price pump merchants??

 

Why d'ya suppose they all put the skids under the 'bracket order trigger' on their platforms, not guaranteeing fills/stops etc?

 

This Felix character (& his hoppo's), if they're ACTUALLY triggering these trades themselves (which is highly debateable), will have access to tier 1 platform execution.

 

They'll also be wired into high grade squawk-relay terminals kicking out the data release info + a couple dudes with a programme matrix on hand to assist with pricing in the skew regards the actuals v/s consensus readings on the Grade 1 data, in order to get a feel for the spike (& any follow thru) potential which the data prints.

 

So, they're already several levels above you regards their software/hardware machinery + (if they're ex-Bank) they possess infinitely more experience of the playground.

 

Hell, we can't always catch a fill even on the secondary spike - & we're hauling our asses round Prime Broker facilities, so god knows how the average retailer shooting off a low key retail shop board can boast of all these wonderful pip collections LOL. And to boot, we know what we're doing (most of the time).

 

Another thing: What happens if/when this dude closing up shop?? Where do you go then?

 

Do you have an in-depth understanding of what he's looking for on every possible occasion if the data prints slightly out of synch? How does he prepare for any anomalies in the number?

 

What back-up does he/you have if his station locks up?? Which alternative station will he/you hedge against in that scenario?

 

What kinda relationship does he/you have with your rep at the broker??

 

Do yourself a favor, go get a proper education & learn about the internals & externals which affect your favored market. Experiment with a cross range of timeframes & tools to give you a flavor of what might suit your PSYCHOLOGICAL persuasion.

 

Do as Ez mentioned & demo a few strategies to get attuned to the climate. You have a whole sackful of grind ahead of you if you wish to persue this business on a realistic levlel. And it's gonna take you a whole lick of time!

[Anna-Maria 10]

Maybe you aren't refering specifically to the Dollar Index (USDX) here, but rather USD trading in general.

 

That was my pointer yeah.

[torero 10]

I started with GBPUSD and am comfortable with it. I have no luck with Yen so far, maybe has to do that it´s not at major S/R areas for me to profit comfortably. Not sure about EURUSD. But does GBPUSD considered a more difficult pair to trade?

[RhodyTrader 10]

Cable (GBP/USD) tends to be the choppiest of the major currency pairs. That could be why you have success if you favor a reversal type of trading style. The Yen tends to be more trendy.

[torero 10]

I'm pretty much a trend follower but short term trends 1-2 day holds, looking for 50-100 pips. Yen, I made a few trades already, diffierent animal and still learning its style and personality.