torero

I usually scale in as the market goes my own, sometimes more positions as the trend is confirmed. But I only say this for forex because I have found the e-minis to be less trendy so pyramiding doesn't do as well.

I usually treat scaling in and out as each separate trades so keep things simple. If I get in at $10 with 900 shares, then scale out 300 (trade 1) at $11, then another 300 at $12 (trade 2), and so on.

To get started, please go to babypips.com and get familiarized with terms and basics. As for strategies, each person have their own way to trade the market. But basically there are 2 types of trading: breakouts and range trading. That's pretty what the market does one or the other. Indicators, you have to find that for yourself and experiment. I don't use indicators so I can't help you with that. Just use support and resistance, daily weekly monthly high/low/open/close would be a good start. Mind also the different market sessions (Tokyo, London, NY times). More questions, ask away.

Hi and welcome Anupdodia, 1. The volume depends on what you're referring to: the total volume of the stock for day or average volume or your volume? If it's yours then 30% of your volume will be ordered to buy/sell. If it's your volume, then on #4 and #5, it's 2000 shares of 10,000 for limit at 15.55 (#4) and 2000 of 10,000 (#5).

I agree r/r is only an assumption that you will get that, but in reality it rarely happens as expected. Even when you try to keep as such, you become boxed in by that very concept you do reach your reward target, not letting profits run becomes a crutch down the road. For me, the best judge of good strategy is avg win/avg loss in combo with #losses/#wins. If you find out your # wins to losses you have an idea how to work on picking better setups with smaller stop losses but not the target as it's more unpredictable.

Which markets are you looking at? Individual stocks or the ETFs? More details please.

For those of you interested in trading and investment corporate world, you should check out this site. I visit this site quite often just read what's going on with the finance world on the inside. Not your typical news, especially the articles they write. http://news.hereisthecity.com Although it's all about London, the news is very global.

Do you have a website for Independent Brokers?

Maybe we should create a poll so people can vote on the best time, say day and time.

the NZD/USD and AUD/USD have tight spread (1-2 pip for NZD and 2-3 for AUD). The moves are decent from their session I think.

There is a way to do but it has to be Non-dealing desk in order to make your percentage of success higher. The great thing about it the news is that once, it decides on a direction, it's a nice long ride. You just have to be patient and wait for the entry.

Hi Anna-Marie, I see you're not spending Good Friday at a pub or in some country club sipping some hot tea or better yet an icy margarita! So much for teasing Andre about being stuck at the office!:o Thanks for the recommend on these 2 brokers, I'd certainly research around for them. Just out of curiosity, a commoner wanting to know about the forex biz, what is the length of time is considered solid record before a firm would even consider looking at it?

Sledge, have you tried Interactive Brokers, MBTrading or EFX? I heard IB is not bad, even for forex. I trade through MBT and EFX belong to MBT. I have no complaints from MBT, occasionally their quotes lags during high volume periods but I have FXCM quotes on Ensign and can monitor the real time quotes, I put in my orders and they are accurate with the bid/ask at the moment. They have demo acct you can try out. Try EFX as they have charting tools on their platform. Sledge I was like you when I got started and was frustrated also at the swindling and dealing that goes on behind the scenes and worst was they were getting away with it. But I tried out a few accounts with different brokers with small lots to test their claims. All I'm saying is don't generalize that all are bad. True the worst offenders are the largest companies with the highest budget in marketing to capture the inexperienced. These are the same guys that smear the reputation of the forex industry. But there is some decent ones out there if you look for them and of course read reviews from others. Let's just say I used to lose money from DD (dealing desk) and now it's just the opposite from trading with NDD. With DD, you need to swing trade if you are to make money. For shorter time frame, there is 0 chance of winning. But with NDD you can do both and do all right for yourself. Good luck.

Check out babypips.com, I usually recommend this site for those new to forex.

When it comes to money, which they already had and made alot, I guess the word "more" was part of the philosophy. Yeah, it's sad, especially when these guys run a large amount of investment from others.

That I agree on. The problem is that it moves too fast to analyze rationally while the emotions are peaking watching it move. During slower movements, it´s great, but during fast moves like these, even experienced traders have to be wary. I think at least 30 minutes before moving in is reasonable, not when it explodes on the mark of the announcement.

The problem with Fed news is that levels are general ignored because the herd is just dumping everything and anything onto the market. Plus the fact that no one seems to have control long enough in directing traffic at fast speed, seems more a gamble than systematic trading. I think we all a certain amount of control in price action but these times there doesn´t seem to be one minute of control at all.

Thanks for that, Anna-Marie! Yeah, last night´s 9950 was hit and hasn´t looked back since then. I´m little a surprised that prices are moving briskly despite today´s Fed announcement. It´s as if it´s a given that the Fed is going to lower rates, between .25 to full point. I´m still skittish about getting in today. With all the news hitting the financial markets lately, I´m just glad I´m trading forex, you don´t deal with any news except the news from CBs.

Hi Anna-Marie! Nice to see ya back! Thanks for the clue! I cleaned out last night before tokyo opened, I figured the wide spread would have taken my stops eventually. I'll keep an eye on these levels. I suspected 2.0000 round number would have others make their stand from the bears.

zdo: I didn´t have any problems with quotes, feeds or trading today with MBT. What brokerage did you experience this problem? Been shorting Cable all morning since 201.3, adding more positions as it keep going lower. Any clues as to where we may see support from the big boys?

I've been stuck to GBPUSD since the spread was better than the rest I've seen today, 3 was max I've seen and stay with small positions. The spreads got better as NY opened up but I'm not taking chances. I like the steady directional movement today though but when I saw the opening London with high spreads I just waited. The gap on GBPJPY was amazing as well as it moved lower on Tokyo, I was tempted to get in but seeing the spreads just killed my temptation. Yeah, regarding degrees and prestigious schools, not convinced anymore with the hype and hypocrisy going on with the turmoil. Smoke and mirrors through and through.

So far only Norther Rock was the problem which has been bailed out already. Seems other banks in UK don't seem rocked by it (pun intended). UK's economy is closely tied to US than to US, so if they are focused more on inflation, chances are Europe is even more focused on inflation than the other side.

Sad, only a year ago, it was worth 20$bil. Wow, these dumb asses sure knew how to increase the value of their company and their clients. So many economists in Wall St. and no one saw this coming... no one!!! Except Cramer!!! Scary!!!!

That's true, but I have the impression BCE sees this as the Fed and US problem, not Europe's problem. I don't see the damage in Europe was as large or widespread as in US. I think the banks here impose high qualifications to obtain loans/mortgages. The US banks just binged bending their own rules on loans and are now purging... bulimic behavior. So far Trichet has only focused on containing inflation, nothing more. BOE, no idea, they can go either way I think.

Is it me or am I seeing this like in Tokyo sessions? I know the rates have been tinkered with late last night but it doesn't move slower than the normal quick move. I see slow movement with wide spreads. GBPJPY are at least 5-10 pips spreads, even GBPUSD and EURJPY I see is 4!!! Does that mean there's low volume or just lots of volume being thrown at the market???