My schedule dictates primarily trading early AM EST after the London open.
I have studied patterns of different pairs and found G/J is the most consistent in the first few hours of trading. This is not backtested years or scientific but based on a looong time experience trading the first 2-4 hours of London before off to work.
Basically what I do is get up during the 2nd hour of London trading and set chart on hourly candles. The 2nd hour candle sets the short term trend for the morning. I watch for a retrace in the 3rd hour and usually enter the 1st trade on the retrace into the 2nd hour candle. Ideally the retrace doesn't move beyond the 2nd hour candle body. If the trade starts moving in my direction I will enter another trade at the breakout beyond the 2nd hour candle or around 20 pips profit. Seems once you get the breakout into profit then usually good for at least 50 pips. Anything more than 50 is a bonus but happens frequently.
If the 1st and 2nd hour candles are both in the same direction then I sometimes enter small trade at close of 2nd hour candle. You have to be careful when both 1st and 2nd hour candles are either red or green. Most of the time there will be at least a small retrace into the 2nd hour candle. This is not necessarily a stronger signal but sometimes you get big trades like 3/27 when the pattern leading up to the 3rd hour candle looks looks too good to pass up. The 2nd hour candle still dictates the trend regardless of the 1st hour candle.
Setting SL is the toughest call of course but usually I set it 10 pips outside the 1st or 2nd hour candle depending on the range of open & close in those candles. I don't like to go over 50 on the SL and sometimes practice Jacko's hedging strategy. I have had many trades stopped out that eventually would have returned to profit but the small losses are more than offset by the high percentage of 50+ pips winners.
You need to know candlesticks and price action (james 16) combined with alot of coffee in the early hours. Watch out for those spinning tops. My charts have fibs, pivots, and SR. I watch the calendar and news for surprises. This is not a perfect system and can go either way in streaks. If I get a couple days of losses I take a break.
I don't know if there truly is a pattern when they start trading over there but this has been highly successful for me and I welcome all comments and feedback.
I have studied patterns of different pairs and found G/J is the most consistent in the first few hours of trading. This is not backtested years or scientific but based on a looong time experience trading the first 2-4 hours of London before off to work.
Basically what I do is get up during the 2nd hour of London trading and set chart on hourly candles. The 2nd hour candle sets the short term trend for the morning. I watch for a retrace in the 3rd hour and usually enter the 1st trade on the retrace into the 2nd hour candle. Ideally the retrace doesn't move beyond the 2nd hour candle body. If the trade starts moving in my direction I will enter another trade at the breakout beyond the 2nd hour candle or around 20 pips profit. Seems once you get the breakout into profit then usually good for at least 50 pips. Anything more than 50 is a bonus but happens frequently.
If the 1st and 2nd hour candles are both in the same direction then I sometimes enter small trade at close of 2nd hour candle. You have to be careful when both 1st and 2nd hour candles are either red or green. Most of the time there will be at least a small retrace into the 2nd hour candle. This is not necessarily a stronger signal but sometimes you get big trades like 3/27 when the pattern leading up to the 3rd hour candle looks looks too good to pass up. The 2nd hour candle still dictates the trend regardless of the 1st hour candle.
Setting SL is the toughest call of course but usually I set it 10 pips outside the 1st or 2nd hour candle depending on the range of open & close in those candles. I don't like to go over 50 on the SL and sometimes practice Jacko's hedging strategy. I have had many trades stopped out that eventually would have returned to profit but the small losses are more than offset by the high percentage of 50+ pips winners.
You need to know candlesticks and price action (james 16) combined with alot of coffee in the early hours. Watch out for those spinning tops. My charts have fibs, pivots, and SR. I watch the calendar and news for surprises. This is not a perfect system and can go either way in streaks. If I get a couple days of losses I take a break.
I don't know if there truly is a pattern when they start trading over there but this has been highly successful for me and I welcome all comments and feedback.
History is written by the victors.