Originally Posted by cmellon

I am sorry to hear that Bryan. By now, some of us should have already stressed to you enough that it's really not about good indicators that will help you to succeed, but it's about your discipline to not overleverage and also to limit your capital risk.

I saw some of your posts in different currency forums, and I still feel you like to scalp in either direction with too high frequency throughout the day. You need to develop your skill to look at the larger trend in larger time frame before going to the lower time frame and trade. It's best to trade only in the direction of the larger trend.

As Brad told you before, if you trade with high frequency and you like to scalp, and you use high leverage, most likely you will lose in this market, especially if you don't have some kinds of rules to protect your capital strictly. I also remember Brad said you could have many small gains, but you just need that 1 big loss. Listen to his words if you really want to learn. The number 1 objective in FX trading is not to make high % of gains. The number 1 objective is to live to trade another day (capital preservation).

The best thing for you if you are still interested with FX is to trade demo account with 1:1 leverage for several months, with stop loss in place, and if you could show a consistent profit every month, you could try to come back again slowly to live trading.

In any case, I wish you success in whatever you plan to do.

Originally Posted by Eligason

I use RSI, sma20 and bollinger bands. I look for multiple time frames over bought/oversold, with signs of divergence and pulling away from the bollingers in combination with common support and resistance and price action. I time my entries on the 1min but look for confirmation on the 5 and 15 and wait for price to reject further movement before entering. I try to find strong entrypoints so I can expect price to touch the opposite 1min bollinger band to take profit. Sometimes it does and sometimes it comes close. If signals are strong on the 5 min and 15 min. In general I look for at least 15 pips profit per trade. You have to take what it,s willing to give you though. Yeah depending on the spread it is anywhere between 6 and change to 7 pips that it will let you set the stop at. I move it to 6 asap and move it to break even asap and then take profit when everything looks good.
cheers,
Kenny

Originally Posted by surveyman

Kenny,
How did you do today with your 20 pips? I really like the low stop, and have been trying it out. You must be much better at figuring out when to pull the trigger. If I am carefull, it works pretty good. But I know I need to slow down. Having a 6 pip loss doesn't do a lot to the account, so I tend to trade too much. Hence your 20-2-5 rule. I also trade the EUR/USD, but most of my trading is limited after 6am. I do know the later it gets the worst I do. My best trades are my first trades of the day.
My question today is do you try to hit the absolute bottom (or top) or do you wait for the movement to go in the direction of your trade before entering? It seems I have been doing better trying to get part of the move (hopefully the first third) after it starts on its way.
Thanks john

Originally Posted by Eligason

Yeah 6 pm is a tough time. I didn't see anything this morning worth entering but I did force a couple which never turns out well. What I look for are tops and bottoms which can be tricky but if you wait until there is a rejection lower or higher and rsi is good and it is pulling away from the bollinger and you are at a good point of resistance and support it works out well. I have spent a lot of time watching the eur/usd and there are definately patterns that are recognizable. Before I started scalping like this I just watched it for a couple of days and tested my ability to predict moves. There are times like this morning that you look at it and there is alot of question as to what it is really doing. Best bet is to stay out. I don't always follow my own rules but when I do it turns out well. When I don't, well that can be frustrating.

Originally Posted by jrob195

Is scalping another name for short selling?

Originally Posted by surveyman

I agree, the rules are important to follow every time. Of course easier said than done. But I did follow them this morning and did three trades worth 24 pips. Then I quit when the market start looking tough. So I will wait for the early am tommorrow to try again. I have stopped trying to get right in at the absolute top and bottom of the 5 min chart. I do much better when it has pulled away and is well on its way to the opposite band. I just look for the pause in the one min, and time the entry with that chart. I know I am leaving a lot of pips on the table, but with a low stop, it makes the winner ratio a lot better.
Good trading
John

Originally Posted by surveyman

I agree, the rules are important to follow every time. Of course easier said than done. But I did follow them this morning and did three trades worth 24 pips. Then I quit when the market start looking tough. So I will wait for the early am tommorrow to try again. I have stopped trying to get right in at the absolute top and bottom of the 5 min chart. I do much better when it has pulled away and is well on its way to the opposite band. I just look for the pause in the one min, and time the entry with that chart. I know I am leaving a lot of pips on the table, but with a low stop, it makes the winner ratio a lot better.
Good trading
John

Originally Posted by Eligason

How did you time your exits?

Originally Posted by surveyman

I'm using the the 5min and 1 min with bollingers, MA20 and RSI14 for both. I really try to time the exit when either it hits the MA line on the 5min or the opposite bollinger on the 1min, whichever comes first. Like I said before, I do realize that I leave a lot of pips on the table, but I get nervous when it approaches those lines. I have been burned before bad. But as I write this at 7:29EST I was riding the EUR/USD down from 1.3329 and when it hit the 5min MA, I closed it out at 1.33188 for 10.2 pips., but it is still dropping and its at 1.33059. Should I have stayed, in hindsight yes, I guess it wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't hit the lower 5min bollinger. But now 15 minutes later it has gone up 16 pips. Those kind of moves are what have been doing me in. So I have decided to stick with a little band of play and take what I can get untill I learn its moves a little better.

Originally Posted by needinfo

Hi,

This is what exactly I'm trying to do... but donno where to put my SL... if I am shorting, I put my SL on top of the wick of the 5min candle and viceversa... but burnt many times in the range of 20-30pips... end of the dya I stand losing as losers outright winners... where do u place ur SL?
In EURUSD, me too bagged 12 pips now... same entry...

Originally Posted by surveyman

I'm doing the same thing as kenny, and using as low a stop as possible. I am using the FXCM, and using the double click entry. This lets me set things up in advance and place the stop at 5 pips, and a limit at 8 pips. In reality the stop ends up being 5 pips plus the spread, so about 6.5 to 7.2 pips. A low stop like that means you have to be pretty sure about the entry. I time my entrys on the 1min, but time the exact entry with a tick screen, and I figure if it goes against me as far as my stop, then I really screwed up the entry anyway, since I am only looking to make 8 pips on the deal. But if things look good, like they did this morning, I will move the stop to breakeven after it gains 6 or 7 pips and move my limit up to the opposite 1min bollinger or 5min MA. Losing those 20-30 pips are hard to make up, and I also have had too many days on the losing end. I have stopped trading all but the first part of the the US session, After looking back, the vast majority of my losing trades are after 9am EST. So I am done trading by 8-8:30am, regardless. I did get one more trade this morning for 10 pips, so I am done for the day with a total of 20.2.....

Originally Posted by needinfo

Thanks a lot for sharing the info... trades with SL of 6pips needs a precise entry... let me try it in demo first... me too took another 10pips in EURUSD... I'm looking for 5 such trades daily with little success so far... do u trade only EURUSD or others as well?

Originally Posted by surveyman

I'm doing the same thing as kenny, and using as low a stop as possible. I am using the FXCM, and using the double click entry. This lets me set things up in advance and place the stop at 5 pips, and a limit at 8 pips. In reality the stop ends up being 5 pips plus the spread, so about 6.5 to 7.2 pips. A low stop like that means you have to be pretty sure about the entry. I time my entrys on the 1min, but time the exact entry with a tick screen, and I figure if it goes against me as far as my stop, then I really screwed up the entry anyway, since I am only looking to make 8 pips on the deal. But if things look good, like they did this morning, I will move the stop to breakeven after it gains 6 or 7 pips and move my limit up to the opposite 1min bollinger or 5min MA. Losing those 20-30 pips are hard to make up, and I also have had too many days on the losing end. I have stopped trading all but the first part of the the US session, After looking back, the vast majority of my losing trades are after 9am EST. So I am done trading by 8-8:30am, regardless. I did get one more trade this morning for 10 pips, so I am done for the day with a total of 20.2.....