Ive been registered here for a while and havent contributed so I figurred journalling my live trades would be a good place to start .
Ive been sim trading forex for 9 months and have been able to keep it green for the last 2 months , ending around 12/20/11 to take a break . Im trading my live account as of 1/3/12 .
My experiences shape my convictions about trading and what works for me is just that - what works for me . What Ive learned is that KEEPING what you earn in trading is the difficult part and much more difficult than putting on a trade and having it go in your favor . Controlling what I give back either to the market , my broker , my software provider etc. is where the money is at , again , this is whats working for me so far .
A few of the things I grasped early are .....
1. It takes an exponentially larger gain to offset a loser .
2. Trade when the most traders are offering me their money .
3. Profits only exist when you close the position .
4. Prices dont move in one direction forever .
... Among others .
My method presently is to trade in the direction of strength on the USD based pairs that have the highest daily ATR and only from the london open --> asian close(ish) and NY open till about 1030(ish) . Im watching only a 5 minute chart and plotting what I determine to be swing highs and lows . Price closing beyond those levels indicates strength to me and I enter after retracements seeking larger gains than what Im risking . As long as my average gains are larger than my average losers then Im not overly picky about stop amount > 2% of capital but I wont take an entry if the bar Im refferencing to enter is wide ranging or exhaustive . And so on .
Right now its friday > lunch and Ill post some charts when I settle in before mondays open . Hope I can contribute a little with what Im doing and have a good weekend all .