How I found what works for me
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Thread: How I found what works for me

  1. #1
    The way I discovered what (I believe ) works for me. (My appologies for the rambling and span ).

    When I first began trading Forex in August 2006 I didn't know where to start. Although as a Yorkshireman I am very cautious about spending money, I did the usual thing of buying systems and training programmes. They looked promising at first, but in the end I couldn't make them work for me.

    Maybe I had been lucky, but I don#8217;t believe any of the ones that I tried to be rip-offs - that they just didn#8217;t work for me. The issue was that I spent almost as much money on losing trades since I did at buying the systems. Why was this? #8211; It was since I couldn't take paper or Demo trades badly - it had been simple for me to reside with a 200pip stop loss in Demo, not so when actual money was involved (even at only #1 per pip at a UK Spreadbetting business ).

    I had been fortunate to discover T2W, which led me into the forum at which in May 2007 I found James16.
    James16 says that you just don #8217;t need to go through hell to find out if you have it in you to be a successful Forex trader. I think that it really depends upon your personality.
    I took what James16 said to heart. I joined his Private Forum for 1 month, but couldn't justify the cost of continuing membership at that time. He said not, and you need to demo first trade timeframes until profitable live in daily and weekly. I tried for 6 weeks to become profitable trading daily pin pubs #8211; couldn't afford the big stops for your weekly. This entailed never getting to bed before 01:00 hrs on Sunday. I discovered this very hard, since I needed to get up by 06:00 hrs and found that it took me a fantastic while to turn off after being on the PC looking at Forex. My problem was in not using a means of determining a Profit goal or a Trailing Stop method which backtested consistently. I gave up and began to search for different systems since I did not (and still don't ) trust 4hr charts due to the 4 different begins to the 4hr pub.

    #8216;The_Wizard' said he ignored the advice concerning timeframes and discovered he had most success on the 1hr. He then got a commerce record as to get a job as a professional trader. But although tempted, I chased the lure of PA off the 1hr charts.
    But it took a very long time before I found anything which backtested OK for me personally. I discovered that indior were in actual fact as optional as James16 Price Action and I couldn't get them to backtest consistently for me.

    I found Jacko, whose method works but is optional, so I spent $500 in becomming one of the #8216;turtles#8217;. I discovered that I found myself just carrying his signals and so did not trust my judgement. I am currently only following 6 months when he had his biggest gains since I had been off on Holiday at B/E and I have been in all of his losing transactions.

    Then I came across FTI and Skunny:

    FTI (who had been a professional trader, then manager of traders for a major bank) said research #8216;The Art of War#8217; and stay flexible in your thinking, but his method was ALL discretion and worse still employed 5min charts without prevent losses #8211; too fast and too dangerous for me personally.

    Skunny said the maximum timeframe universal charts would be the 1hr, so thats exactly what you need to (mainly) transaction from. He also said that if you draw a Fib involving the correct S/R levels, and Price breaks (i.e. closes beyond rather than just pierces) the 0% or 100% line then it will last until at least 38.2% past (in 5 pips for spikes and differing broker prices). I discovered that my backtesting worked best over swings, where I couldn't manage the Stop Loss in a live account.

    It had been through Skunny that I came across, whose Fibonnacci Trading method (again off 1hr charts) and Trading the Daily method (off daily charts) I have had some success with.

    It had been through the Bobkus threads that I discovered about PeterCrowns (another pro trader),from and found the DIBS method. And through Peter Crowns at the #8216;No Free Lunch...#8217; thread which I found Joel Rensink ako #8216;TheRealThing#8217; (a professional trader for over 30yrs) along with his #8216;First Strike#8217; and #8216;One Night Stand#8217; methods. He offers (for free), both the details of these and daily updates on progress at his Website site.
    *Update my results are shown in post #10.

    I've some methods which suit my personality, my capital and my timezone, and I can boost the returns by incorporating the flexibility of FTI, the Anti-Hedging of Jacko, the Fibs of and Skunny along with the PA of James16.

    I genuinely believe that I am getting there!

    Ian

    P.S.. If you would like to find the details of methods mentioned above appear ForexFactoory the appropriate FF username (I have highlighted in bold) then search for threads started by these (or their articles ) #8211; or to their blog or website.

    If you have a question then send me a PM, rather than article in this thread,because I don't look at it much.
    Note that I may post anonymised PMs and replies in this thread.

  2. #2
    Thank you for your article Ian,

    please excuse my bad english
    I'm new to forex and I have read a lot here on ff about lots of different things, however, the most significant articles were some such as yours in which someone shared his experience (mainly bad) but then heard from his mistakes. Is plogy. I exchanged a couple of trades on demo account but its not the same in case it doesnt hurt to shed. So I will soon start a live-account, but with very little cash at stake, in other words: I stopped smoking and will use the money I save each month to include it up for my account no matter how bad or well I'll do
    But after I see you are story I must mention, though I am a newbie but from what I ched out of others, I believe there is not any manual on how to behave this successful trader everyone wants to be. Everyone has to make his own experience with the market, his plogy or any mixture of systems like you did. I can not imagine there is success for market nor in coaching courses.
    If it'd be that easy, why is it there are so few successful traders, or why are individuals struggling though they're for years on the market and just lately broke .

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    Thanks for your article Ian,

    please excuse my bad english
    I'm new to Currency Market and I have read a lot on ff about lots of different items, but the most significant posts were some such as yours where somebody shared his experience (mostly bad) but afterward heard from his mistakes. Is plogy. I exchanged a couple of transactions on demo account but wasn't the same in case it doesnt hurt to shed. So I will soon start a live-account, but with very little money at stake, in other words: I stopped smoking and will use the money I save every month to include it up to my account however bad or well I'll do
    But once I read you're story I must say, though I am a newbie but from what I ched out of others, I think there is not any manual on how to behave this successful trader everyone wants to be. Everyone must make his own experience with the market, his plogy or some other mixture of systems like you did. I can't imagine that there is success for sell, wheter in systems nor in training courses.
    If it would be that simple, why is it that there are so few powerful traders, or why are people struggling though they're for years on the market and just lately broke even.
    Hi Silverheat,
    Everything you say is very accurate and it's taken me wasted years until I really believed it.

    Can I suggest if you would like to trade for real but little money, then utilize OANDA and you can use a Demo account to acquire MT4 charting from InterBank FX, NorthFinance or one of the other Forex brokers (I've demos with both IBFX and NF). Though I haven't used them I hear great things about OANDA except for charting.

    Thank you for posting.

    If any seasoned trader want to post what works for them, or they found what works for them, please feel free.

    Ian

  4. #4
    This is a great thread and a lot is going to learn from it. What works for one might not work for everybody, I am a firm believer that to exchange there needs to be some degree of discretion else everyone out there would be residing of automated systems that's a whole nother matter. Anyhow, it's good to hear of people that have put a lot of time and effort in to finding what works for them and not only asking to get a fool proof system since it doesn't exist. A fantastic system's part is the thing that makes it or breaks it for each and every individual, it's only a matter of how one interprets/reads the market and accommodates that system to their wants to what works for them. Anyway, great story!

  5. #5
    Here is a DIBS trade which I took (Jaroo and others took it). I had been slow to react to this Pin Bar that is 1hr. I should have taken profits or reversed , but I did was tighten my SL.
    I had the daily floor pivots on my chart once I took the trade, but just look at all the confluence. PB off the 38% Fib retracement and the Daily floor pivot line (not a PPZ) subsequently the Inside Bar and break of this short term down trend line.
    You might think the trend line is somewhat strange, I know 5 means of drawing trend lines and this is one of them.

  6. #6
    From the chart I mentioned previously, did you see how nicely the 138 percent of those intraday fib (/Skunny style) would have been employed as a target?

    Oh, I should mention that based on, Fibs do not work nicely on cross pairs such as G/J because it is a combo of G/U and U/J. Additionally G/J'enjoys' 50% retracements, therefore Iwould not have felt bad about this transaction, if it weren't for the additional confluence (Pivot and fashion line).

  7. #7
    hi sir. .
    I had been wondering what has worked best?

    I am following jacko and found joel just recently. . [/quote]

    ...
    The question should really be what works best for me (or for you).

    And that's THE question, and that I am as yet not able to reply.

    The reason for me not understanding is that I have tried are partly optional, and it is the discretion part that needs constant advancement.
    Take another look at the DIBS thread at's (and also my) post seeing Jaroo's GJ trade on 29th May
    (edit - this is now posted above in this thread). I was in that trade, but I merely tightened my SL into B/E when really I have to have taken profits - if not reversed and gone .

    Of those methods, I have had experience of Jacko's.
    Jacko's method as performed by Jacko works very well (for less than 1 trade a week) - meaning being able to follow all of his transactions (which I have not). It has relatively shallow draw downs on account of the AH. Though of course sometimes (like this past week) the AH is also a big loss.

    I hope this helps,
    Ian

    Hi Ian,

    I hope you do not mind my pm.

    Thanks for your thread regarding how you found what's work for you. I believe I am on the same manner but maybe not close yet. I am reading the same threads and gradually beginning to know what It's all about but I am not as near as you are....

    I found in your thread that you employ a spreadbetting company. I wonder? I have an account by IG Index but I find it quite complied and the demo period was to short for me. I now have a live acconut together with the beginning with #50. (It's now up to #54.90 after just one - and profitable trade.) (And that was a trade that pointed out from the James16 thread. Quite dumb to take it because I hardly understood it by myself...) Yes, I would not try to follow most trades because he moves so fast. If you feel that you MUST follow some transactions out of J16, then ONLY take a trade where it is'an A class Pin Bar' or a trade that MBQB11 would take.

    I never know what to pick from among al their areas, close quarter, far quarter and so on. Now even bungee stakes that seems tempting for a newbie....Can you urge them or another company? Or do you have some tips about what to start with in IG Index. I think that it's time consuming to find anything valuble inside there although I am also a member of the board that is Trade2Win. T2W is not so great as FF for Forex.

    I realise that having a spread betting company is going to be more expensive because of the spreads and slippage but I believe I am willing to pay the price instead of calculate everything to cover my Swedish taxes. Can not even think of calculating the transactions to convert them to SEK...I am not good at maths, just like to examine the charts and my style is quite cicken-like.

    I am not fond of posting threads thats why I pm you instead of post in your thread.

    Thanks for reading my pm.

    Regards
    [/quote]

    ....

    I have (just ) had experiance of 4 spread bet firms. CMC (=Deal4free), Finspreads, Tradindex and IG Index.

    They all have their benefits and drawbacks. For instance, I require one that's open when Forex has been traded i.e. from around 16:00 EST Sunday into 16:00 EST Friday. So far as I am aware, that restricts it to CMC and IG Index.
    Once I used CMC (that was for UK shares at this time) I got the feeling that they did a'Stop Loss Hunting' overnight. This was some years ago when I knew less about the markets, therefore I might have been mistaken.

    I have to remark that #54 is not sufficient to trade either Forex or Shares (stocks) in #1 per stage. And Financial Indexes ( Dow, SP, Nasdaq, FT100, DAX, CAC40 etc. ) require even bigger stop losses than Forex/Shares.

    I strongly imply that for Forex, you either:
    A). Get an infinite period demo account from one of the Forex brokers. I've got two that I use for charting because IG index charts were not great. They're out of North Finance and InterBank FX. IBFX servers are run on GMT which I like, wheras NF have Commodities and Financial Indexes available as well as Forex.
    B). Utilize OANDA, they allow very small transactions, but you would probabley still need a demo account with an broker for charting.

    When you're using real cash, at first (I'd say for the first 6 months) you want an account big enough so that you are never risking more than one% of your account on any one bet - and no greater than 5% at any one time. What I mean with this is that when you look the vrey first thing is to determine the Stop Loss - and when it'd be more than 1% of the account then move on to a different trade. You must never lower your stop loss only in order to get it to be under the 1% - that is only going to get you ceased out and make you certain to keep losing.

    Regarding the types of trade available from the spread bet firms, I state that it is best to stick to the basic ones at first because they are more economical:
    For Forex, it moves quickly so the Spot market bets are OK (on average you eliminate a bit over 1/2 of the spread Monday through Friday nights if you hold the bet overnight.
    For Shares, because they usually move more gradually, I use the close quarter Future, or when less than 1 month staying on the close quarter I use the next quarter after it.

    I hope that this assists you,
    Ian

  8. #8
    Ian -

    I liked the article, it really does say a lot about the process of becoming a profitable trader. I would say this: If somebody told me before I started just how much work went in to this - I probably wouldn't have started!

    I have to admit, I am a little biased - I am a Senior Member at James16. However, there are numerous threads or methods on the market that I like a lot. Feb2865 is good. Jacko is well. I would be alright pointing any new trader to see. The DIBS method shows promise. (I really have not attempted it yet, but'm reading up on it at the moment.)

    The point is this: There are plenty of methods of earning money in this market. I am ready to bet that I could make money using any of these methods listed. There are times when I may borrow a principle or two to suit a trade set up from these. But finally, there is one thing that makes the distinction:

    Are you really trading this method?

    For me, that was the response. There are lots of strategies to come out but if you are not comfortable, then you will do all the deadly Forex Sins. You understand, taking profits too early. . .taking losses too early, or allowing them ride. All the things that lead to whipsaws.

    Also, there are numerous similarities in those systems/styles of trading. For starters, they are simple. You don't have charts that show you a little lines you can't see the price.

    There are times when I may be down 150 pips, but it is alright. . .my risk was minimal. I understand the new men reading this will find that an odd statement, but it is true. That might be the whole It is not pips that thing, but proportions... discussion.

    I would submit that most of us trade a little differently, even those people in a cult like J16! There are certain nuances to my trading that 's trades won't be seen in by you, or James16's. However, we use the exact same base. Consequently, two things happen: '' We a lot of the time are in exactly the same trades at the exact same time....and when I give my chat to the new traders, I believe that I am describing things to them because they hear that I don't do it exactly like Jim.

    Markets are all about perceived value of an item/currency/stock,etc.. So due to this, we see it. Even though all people see the daily pub as a pinbar.

    None the less, Good POST.

    Clockwork

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    Ian -

    I enjoyed the article, it really does say a lot about the process of becoming a profitable trader. I would say this: If someone told me just how much work went into this before I started - I probably would not have started!
    Clockwork
    - Me also!

    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    .... But ultimately, there is something that makes the difference:

    Are you familiar trading this method?
    Clockwork
    Agreed, you can't succeed investing in a system if you aren't comfortable with it.

    Quote Originally Posted by ;
    Markets are about perceived value of an item/currency/stock,etc.. So because of this, we see it. Even though all of us view the daily bar .

    None the less, Fantastic POST.

    Clockwork
    Thanks Clockwork, even though there is only that one small (in blue ) that I disagree on. Which leads me to a PM I have asking about broker Ends of Day:

    The sender of this PM said they couldn't discover a broker with a handy EOD for their time zone.

    I replied that Price Action (in addition to S/R, Fibs Floor Pivots etc.) work because lots of different men and women see exactly the identical thing and act upon it. For this reason, you need to have exactly the bars as lots of different traders.

    The EOD is where the East Coast USA based J16 Pin Bar kind traders have a large benefit. There are just two (strictly 3 but effectively just 2) EOD worth using in the event that you exchange the majors:-
    17:00 EST (a few use 16:00 however there is hardly any difference).
    And 00:00 GMT

    If it is not one of them, then there is not any use in finding a broker with a handy EOD for you whether you're investing in Daily Pin Bars.

    This time issue is why I do not trust PA on 4Hr charts. I'll trust daily charts (using either EOD) since (all else being equal) daily is a lot stronger than 4Hr that's stronger than 1Hr etc.. But 1Hr has the excess benefit that everyone is truly seeing the very same bars (give or take a couple pips for broker differences).
    I know that lots of individuals disagree with me on this point, but I would much rather be solvent than be in a majority. Remember the majority traders consistently lose money.

    Ian

  10. #10
    I believed it was abou time that I submitted an update on my progress, since I feel I've developed a good deal towards being a trader in the last five months. I still don't feel I am a'Trader' since my only consistently profitable method does not feel for me like trading.

    I've at last grown my personal trading method based upon Joel Rensink's First Strike that is described at http://infiniteyieldforex.blogspot.com/

    I began by alloing a portion of my trading account into utilizing his First Strike (FS) and One Night Stand (ONS) approaches on 26th May 2008. I am limited my (SpreadBet) Broker to some minimal position size of 1GBP per pip.
    I chose to risk no more that 2 percent per transaction (i.e. 10% for all of one week's ONS transactions or 7.2% for the FS transactions ).

    From 1st Semtember I began to diverge from his very first Strike method by tracking my StopLoss.

    Due to the extreme volatility of these markets, such as the months of 6th October and 13th October, Joel altered his FS - basically halving the position size and doubling that the break dstance and the stop loss.

    About 20th October, Joel introduced First Strike Plus ( a variant of FS predicated upon previous week's volatility). I exchanged this on that week, though I should not have since my risk was too high ( gt;20% for the 5 transactions united ). This was successful, but I was scared by how much risk I took.

    So from 27th October onwards, I reverted back to the previous (high volatility) version of FS and experimented with various sizes of monitoring stop.I have also done backtesting form 1/1/08 and consequently have dropped Joel's worst performing currency (U/C) and added those that backtested'greatest and most equally' - specifically E/J and U/CAD ( A/U also backtested well, but the positive weeks were quite few - and so were clumped together - so it wasn't'even').
    I have'my method'. By this I mean that though I may modify the break SL and monitoring Stop worth, I forsee that I will trade this method for the future.

    OK now the outcomes 26th May to 1st December 2008:-
    9118 pips or 182.36%

    For the inquisitive I attach a spreadsheet containing my weekly outcomes (and some backtest results for the different approaches I have cited ).

    WARNING: Do not trade ANY Technique. Backtest to see whether you think it is ideal for your personality and account size. Even methods that are simple and quite successful can be quite tricky to trade due to the pressures.
    Discover what is Right For You!

    Many pips to All,
    Ian

    Please Don't post in this thread, since I rarely check it. If you've got a question, please send a PM to me.
    Notice that I could post anonymised PMs and answers in this thread.
    https://forexintuitive.com/attachmen...1062608414.xls

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