fgsfx

Hi Pipsaholic Sounds familiar. To get off of the right base: I'm not a profitable nor fulltime trader (yet, hopefully), so I'm not here to offer you a solution, but my two and a half odd years I've been at it demo and live (live pretty much from the start) had me go full circle from the naked black and green MT4 screen through 5000 indis back to the basics. I'm now pretty close to something useful, using only what I was onto right at the start and then got distracted by all the pretty (pretty confusing) spaghetti screens with tons of indis. May I suggest something? Put the 3 or 4 period smoothed MAs of the open, the closing (and maybe the typical price) onto whatever timeframe chart. Since what we want to know is when price is turning, this simple set of lines gives you pretty much all you want to know, really. Yes, they're MAs, yes they're better during trends; if so, any trends on 4H start on 1H or 30min or whatever, then why not look at 30min for entry and if subsequently 1H and 4H agree, stay in until that TF gives you an exit or your trailing stop does so, whatever, there are many options. I just found it interesting that - after all the other stuff - I find myself back at square one, with the most simple stuff that seem to work best. I'm still refining this approach, but with just those lines on the chart, they really give you early notice. I tend to agree with steve, we are generally inclined to listen too much what other people tell us, yet we should just DIY it, because the success lies within us, not within a fancy indi or system. There are tons of systems out there that are potentially profitable if the rules are applied. But we cannot muster the discipline to trade them properly if we don't OWN them, make them part of ourselves and to me, it seems the best way to OWN a sytem is to develop it yourself with common sense and minimum input from some or other gurus (who seem to live in forums and chat rooms with nothing else to do than giving clever advice. The guys who really make money in forex generally don't spend their time in forums (few exceptions, granted). And to the fulltime critics out there, to curb your constant enthusiasm too shoot everyone down: I'm not suggesting I have a solution. A mere suggestion, yes, that's all. And this is my first post, and there will not be many following this one anytime soon, so I am not acting contrary to what I'm saying. And lastly, I might not be profitable yet, but in two and a half years I've not blown a single live account (although my account is down by about twenty percent from its deposit amount), so I think my two cents worth might be helpful to someone. I'm not saying all forums are useless etc., but they sure take you down every available cul-de-sac.... Good trading to all