Forex rebates on every trade - win or lose!

Hilsipops
Well said that woman !!

I haven't been posting of late but I have been lurking and it's fascinating to see so many posts on this thread. It looks as if there may be quite a few people turning to currencies because of the problems with stock trading - good move, so long as you do like CC and "learn the trade". For those who are new to it I suppose we need more posts explaining what and why positions have been taken.

For my own part I've been trading currencies for a few years now - after a spell trading the indices - but I still get the red mist and try and fight the market. Just like with stock trading that is the way of the muppet - and FOREX, like Indices is a fast moving way to lose your money.

I notice PTH's post further up where he talks about discipline - you can learn discipline and it is totally within your control - but it's not easy if, like me, you have gambling tendencies - which lead to crazy positions which sometimes pay off - but mostly do not. And taking losses is your own way of saying "my reading of the trend is one way and I have misread it - I'll take the hit, learn from it and move on". The sophistication in takinglosses is at what level and, again, there was a good discussion earlier on about what constitutes an appropriate stop position.

I really do hope that we get a load more successful FOREX traders on this thread and perhaps we should return to posting out positions - with an explanation for having taken them out. However, sometimes the market is so fast moving and/or swinging strongly so that people don't want to post because they are watching like hawks - but mostly there is time to explain.

I'll go back to lurking but will start posting positions again - when I feel like it :)

I am currently long from 20400. Having missed the early move up I entered the trade based on the 1M MACD crossover. Am looking for at least 50 points so may have to go in and out during the day.

Doubled up @ 20 - 1M MACD crossover again.

EDIT - stops for both in at range low of 20390

an update on my journey as they would say on Stricly Come Dancing.

After last week I am demo trading only. Can't see the point of risking real money when I can demo trade until i'm sure I've got a system that works.

I have decided to only trade with a broker which has software which will automatically insert a stop at so many points away determined by me. This should get round my gambling problem as I can't be adding to a position if stops are busy firing instead. Once the stop is in where I want them I only ever move them in my favour. Cancelling stops once they are in is not a problem for me.

I am currently demo trading on metatrader. I have it loaded 3 times and using 2 of them for predermined strategies I have worked out and the third to experiment with new ideas.

Long term I would like to program metatrader (or some other charting package) to give the signals for me by alerts so that I know I am following whatever system I have predesigned. I want to do this so that my trading is as emotionless as possible. i spend too much time looking at the charts being a rabbit in the headlights thinking should I, shouldn't I when actually i shouldn't be debating the decision. Maybe with experience I would do less debating as I will become more sure of myself.
big problem with programming signals is that I cannot see how metatrader would know about trendlines even if I draw them on for it. This might scupper the idea of it giving signals for me completely.


i am spending alot of time trying to work out when to close a trade. Whilst entries might be important I don't think they are half as important as trying to get the best out of a good trade when you are in it. If you don't ever get some really good trades it's death by a thousand cuts as all those little losses just eat into the 30 pip winners. this is the biggest topic I am struggling with particuarly since I've found that if I bring the stop in too close it just gets taken out by some spike or excessive noise.


On my first system I am trying to trade long term. (For a few days minimum). I am using 4 and 1 hour charts. Essentially I am watching the macd on the 1 hour chart and mfi on the 4 hour chart. I am looking for the market to fly off to an extreme which I am measuring with the mfi and also looking for the macd to cross.

At the moment I am short gbpjpy from 229.36 and euryen from 164.63 on my demo account. I've not got stops at breakeven on both.
they had both moved in my favour before the rate decision and I did not close even when they were both well in profit as last night when i looked at them when I went to bed I say no reason to. I did expect some sort of bounce and then it to hit resistance at 38.2% fib but gbpjpy is now heading for 61.8% fib and I'm beginning to think maybe I should have closed.
this is what I mean by tryting to understand where I should close. It doesn't matter at this point whether the entry was well planned, well executed or just plain lucky I just need to find a way to get the best out of it. I think this is a dark art to me at the moment. Any advice on this trade from anyone would be appreciated.


On my second system I am trying to trade the 15 minute chart. I am dong this because I feel I need to do something other than just watch my long term trades. On the 15 minute I might only get a few signals a day across a number of pairs but that will be enough to overcome my boredom and therefore risk of overtrading and making mistakes. I am looking for these trades to last a number of hours although if they progress into something whereby i'm on the right side of the longer timeframes too i'll be happy to sit in them.
Again I am using metatrader because besides it being free I can put my indicators on and there is enough historic data to show whether my potential system is worth investigating or not. unfortunately you can never really tell where you enter the candle on the 15m but it's a huge improvement over watching live data all the time and trying to gain a feel that way.
All I can say so far is that i've elilinated a thousand things that don't work and i have a few ideas mostly surrounding macd that might work. I haven't been able to demo trade enough days to see whether the more hopeful ideas work. I do at least feel I am putting my efforts in in a planned manner now

I have been trading fx now for about 4 years but only in the winter as I spend the summer at sea or most of it.

Still finding it hard, been on numerous courses & seminars, spent thousands on them learn about Fibs pivot points Elliott wave moving averages support & resistance etc etc

The one thing I cant get is money management I can find good entrys but when it goes against me, I just cant seem to get out quick enough, keep thinking it will come back but it never does and of course I always take my profits to soon, I used to trade stocks but found it was to slow for me day trading.

For traders just starting out there is a wealth of info on the net for free a good site at the moment for swing trades that work is FX Nation Live, early morning Video briefing with trade set ups
http://www.fxnationlive.com/members/blog/
A very good read and a lot of useful info and trade set ups is 7 Winning Strategies for Trading Forex by Grace Cheng
www.gracecheng.com
www.hariman-house.com/forex

Rob Booker with his strategy 10
www.robbooker.com

Wayne Macdonald Bootcamp Free Videos on You Tube
eedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com

I've now moved my stops up to 415 - a bit tight but it leaves me with a few pips for the 2 trades - compensation for my efforts if I've read it wrong and gives me an incentive to get back at some stage.

EDIT - set at 415 'cos it's the bottom of the recent range since around 09:40 on the 1M

PS - I'm only going to do the running commentary today - it gets a bit boring (for me and others) if I keep doing it.

I'm now looking for what it does around the top of this morning's range - 20445 - if it breaks through then I've read the trend well and it should go on and up. The decision is whether to take profits at or around this level in anticipation of it falling back again - as it has twice today. I would be guaranteed around 80 pips so I may well just take them and look for weakness to buy in to - or just call it a day.

Bugger, I've just looked and I could have taken 45

Taken profits at 455 - so +55 and +35 for 90 pips.

That's enough for today - have a profitable rest of the day folks.

mg, nice to see you back from 'lurking' I don't think anyone could ever get bored with your posts :) Hope you're bearing up

Thanks mate - up and down but still here :)

Good to see you're a landlubber for a while - are you at home for Christmas this year?

Looking forward to 2008 - hoping it has fewer surprises than 2007!!

Yup, home for Xmas, first time for quite a few years, not sure I wouldn't prefer to be in Rio though :)

Great to see all the discussions and comments on here today.

Have got to get myself a real forex account because even with my small amounts cmc take what seems like an age to execute. Anyone got any recommendations? I've tried and fxcm demo account and they kept ringing me up at the beginning of the year but I wasn't ready then. Spread on cable appears to be 4 pips whereas cmc and most s/b co's is 3.

Oh and regarding trades, just had a quick long from EUR JPY 163.19 to 163.25 whilst I was busy with paperwork.

Seymour I use GFT good charting package, trade off the chart, up to now no re quotes easy to use.
www.gftforex.com

Divetime, that sounds good, being able to trade off the chart is a real plus, doens't seem to be possible with FXCM.

B*gger, just missed one on EUR JPY :-(

SC...is the difference in the spread between 3pips to 4 pips a factor in your trading... ?

Speed of execution...no requotes....ability or manipulate stops and limits...sound more importnat to me...

I use fxcm and happy to pay away 4 pips on a trade

SC - I wouldn't necessarily reccomend them but I use IGIndex - cable spread is 3, EUR/USD is 2 - not particularly good but depends on what kind of stake you're using in terms of risk that implies.

The spread does widen when there are mega-moves in the market but it usually doesn't take long before they bring them back to the standard - I suspect it's a way of protecting themselves (rather than the punter).

I've tried capital spreads but ended up coming back to IGI - no real problems and only issue is that I blame them when I get it wrong - couldn't possibly be my fault - could it?

EDIT - Oh, and their charting package is excellent in my view. I used to use nadia or whatever it is but now just load the IG ones which have lot's of indicator options - well, enough for me anyway.

Foale, the spread isn't really a problem, just think if some are providing 3 pips and some 4, but there's no difference in quality of execution / platform, then I'd rather have a 3 pip spread :-) The quality and ease with which you can manipulate your positions is very important - cmc is a bind in that regard.

Another problem with cmc is if I'm trading the far east on a late evening the platform is not always available.

SC, Worldspreads do 1 pip on EURUSD and USJPY and 2 on Cable. I think it does vary with the time of day though.
The execution times I have experienced are very quick. Never traded FX with them but when you place a 25/pt on the FTSE execution is almost immediate (and unlike CMC NO REQUOTES!!!!!!!)

Wasn't Nadia the trannie in Big Brother? Strange that it should be meggers who mentioned her.

:o)

Ya bitch

Never traded forex with CMC ... and never will...


World spread have very tight spreads...but Ruth and others had problems with them when there were fast markets..although I dont think that was with Forex