I undoubtably use similar strategy to most traders - pitchforks, SaR, MACD, RSI, Stoch.
A couple of my personal rules:
DISCIPLINE! DISCIPLINE! DISCIPLINE!
Don't look at losing money as a failure, we have to invest in ourselves to better ourselves! Going to University costs money, why shouldn't FOREX. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes, if its emotional reasons that you are losing, you need to stop and train yourself to detatch.
1. Never trade if your upset, angry or not able to apply your time to make a calculated risk.
2. Every trade you open, UNDERSTAND that you will likely have a drawdown before the market moves the way you want it to (nobody can accurately pick a top or bottom, prices often overshoot the mark - have a suitable SL in place to allow for this).
3. ^^ BE WILLING TO KISS THAT MONEY GOODBYE, if markets were predictable, we'd all be rich - heck I want to know the secrets too!
4. Manage your SL appropriately. Monitor PA and adjust SL if required. eg. When I bought 5 lots @ 19.2 on silver, I had a SL at 18.8, give that market some room to move - note SL is below previous low. Similar strategy for shorting a market.
5. I have noticed regardless of time frame, a market will test a price multiple times prior to bouncing or breaching. Don't get too excited and buy the first dip/rally, unless your just going for a quick scalp
6. I do not try scalp markets. All my positions are buy/sell limits. If im triggered I enter, if not I stand aside.
7. I will not enter a position on a breakout to the upside or downside, I will wait for the retracement to the breakout point and watch how it reacts. FAKEouts are probably the number 1 trap for players. BE PATIENT!
LEVERAGE
I trade very high leverage, and put myself at risk but thats the business I guess. As long as you manage your account with SL and learn to detach yourself from the emotional side of it and know when to cut your losses, you will succeed. Most people fall down by not being able to detatch themselfs from the dollars and try ride out a market that has turned on them. She 'the market' is an unforgiving beast, do not fight her
HISTORY
This is my 4th year trading, when I first started I looked to experienced traders such as Xtrade for advice (shoutout! ). The first 2 years I only broke even during the massive bull market.. which wasn't ideal, many traders made a fortune. I needed more time to research and trade demo accounts but I was too itchy to trade.
Since mid 2011 - June 2013 I have traded a very small account at low leverage just to make a slush fund for holidays, video games etc. I spent the majority of my time on demos fine tuning a strategy that worked for me. I highly recommend Pitchfork methods and schooling yourself on babypips.com learning different technical indicators, candlestick chart and what signals to look for. If you can combine multiple techniques you will find better results.
Also, I cannot recommend entering trading competitions enough. Even though you are using fake money, it had the same emotion as trading real funds as you are competing for a prize, you want to win. I treated those accounts as real money and learnt my own way to manage the funds. I'm sure everyone can agree on a demo account you are king and do well, you can open a trade with no remorse or attachment to your trade and that is an attitude you need when trading live.
In closing, I've learnt all I know from coping with losing trades in the past, stepping back and taking the TIME to read and absorb everything I can about markets. I 100% expect to open a losing trade in the future thats part of the game!
Hope some of that info helps
Mitch
A couple of my personal rules:
DISCIPLINE! DISCIPLINE! DISCIPLINE!
Don't look at losing money as a failure, we have to invest in ourselves to better ourselves! Going to University costs money, why shouldn't FOREX. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes, if its emotional reasons that you are losing, you need to stop and train yourself to detatch.
1. Never trade if your upset, angry or not able to apply your time to make a calculated risk.
2. Every trade you open, UNDERSTAND that you will likely have a drawdown before the market moves the way you want it to (nobody can accurately pick a top or bottom, prices often overshoot the mark - have a suitable SL in place to allow for this).
3. ^^ BE WILLING TO KISS THAT MONEY GOODBYE, if markets were predictable, we'd all be rich - heck I want to know the secrets too!
4. Manage your SL appropriately. Monitor PA and adjust SL if required. eg. When I bought 5 lots @ 19.2 on silver, I had a SL at 18.8, give that market some room to move - note SL is below previous low. Similar strategy for shorting a market.
5. I have noticed regardless of time frame, a market will test a price multiple times prior to bouncing or breaching. Don't get too excited and buy the first dip/rally, unless your just going for a quick scalp
6. I do not try scalp markets. All my positions are buy/sell limits. If im triggered I enter, if not I stand aside.
7. I will not enter a position on a breakout to the upside or downside, I will wait for the retracement to the breakout point and watch how it reacts. FAKEouts are probably the number 1 trap for players. BE PATIENT!
LEVERAGE
I trade very high leverage, and put myself at risk but thats the business I guess. As long as you manage your account with SL and learn to detach yourself from the emotional side of it and know when to cut your losses, you will succeed. Most people fall down by not being able to detatch themselfs from the dollars and try ride out a market that has turned on them. She 'the market' is an unforgiving beast, do not fight her
HISTORY
This is my 4th year trading, when I first started I looked to experienced traders such as Xtrade for advice (shoutout! ). The first 2 years I only broke even during the massive bull market.. which wasn't ideal, many traders made a fortune. I needed more time to research and trade demo accounts but I was too itchy to trade.
Since mid 2011 - June 2013 I have traded a very small account at low leverage just to make a slush fund for holidays, video games etc. I spent the majority of my time on demos fine tuning a strategy that worked for me. I highly recommend Pitchfork methods and schooling yourself on babypips.com learning different technical indicators, candlestick chart and what signals to look for. If you can combine multiple techniques you will find better results.
Also, I cannot recommend entering trading competitions enough. Even though you are using fake money, it had the same emotion as trading real funds as you are competing for a prize, you want to win. I treated those accounts as real money and learnt my own way to manage the funds. I'm sure everyone can agree on a demo account you are king and do well, you can open a trade with no remorse or attachment to your trade and that is an attitude you need when trading live.
In closing, I've learnt all I know from coping with losing trades in the past, stepping back and taking the TIME to read and absorb everything I can about markets. I 100% expect to open a losing trade in the future thats part of the game!
Hope some of that info helps
Mitch
Disliked{quote} teach me how to play the price action. what are the signs ? how to play the signs ? 3632.1 % is even beyond astronomicaly spectacular !!Ignored