What exactly is FOMC? What is FOMC, and what does it do?
FOMC stands for Federal Open Market Committee. It's a group of people who work for the US government and makes decisions about the country's money. They decide how much money should be in circulation and how much it should cost to borrow money.
How does FOMC affect the forex market?
FOMC's decisions can affect the forex market because they can change the value of the US dollar compared to other currencies. For example, suppose FOMC raises interest rates. In that case, it can make the US dollar more attractive than other currencies, increasing the exchange rate. If they lower interest rates, it can make the US dollar less attractive, which can decrease the exchange rate.
What is the FOMC statement, and why is it essential for the forex market?
The FOMC statement is a document that FOMC releases after each meeting. It explains what the FOMC members talked about and what they decided to do with interest rates and the economy. This statement is essential for the forex market because it helps investors and traders decide what to do with their money. They might buy or sell different currencies based on the FOMC statement.
How does FOMC affect currency exchange rates?
FOMC can affect currency exchange rates by changing the value of the US dollar compared to other currencies. If FOMC raises interest rates, it can make the US dollar more attractive than other currencies, increasing the exchange rate. If they lower interest rates, it can make the US dollar less attractive, which can decrease the exchange rate.
Why do traders pay attention to FOMC meetings?
Traders pay attention to FOMC meetings and the FOMC statement because it can give them an idea of what might happen to the US dollar and other currencies. They might make trades based on what they think will happen after the FOMC meeting. For example, if they believe the FOMC will raise interest rates, they might buy US dollars because they think the exchange rate will increase.
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We are not a licensed financial advisor or professional, and the information we are providing is based on our personal experience and research. We make no guarantees or promises regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information provided, and users should do their own research and analysis before making any trades.
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SMC
How to trade Smart Money Concepts:Smart Money Concepts is a more sophisticated way of trading price action, while taking advantage of where institutions are likely to place their orders. This makes Smart Money Concepts a usable tool whenever you are dealing with hedge funds. What you are about to read is an elaborate tutorial explaining a lot about this trading strategy, including some trading strategies (NOTE: there are many SMC indicators and the one I’ll be using is the one by LuxAlgo since I believe is the most “complete” out of all). Let's start.
1) Order Blocks:
Order Blocks are, in my opinion, the most important feature in SMC trading, as it shows where these institutions are likely to place their orders. In order for an order block to form, look at where the market is consolidating, creating an area of volume price is likely to be attracted to (some order blocks are formed due to imbalances in the market). In this image, you can see how order blocks are formed right after a ranging market has been broken. Because of this unique feature, order blocks are not the same as support/resistance zones.
In order for us to trade using order blocks, look for where an order block has been formed recently, as the longer an order block survives, the weaker it becomes. Buy when the candle that hit the order block closes and set your stop loss under that order block. In this example it worked since the volume wasn’t too high and the order block had formed a few candles before the retest. You can do this for shorts as well (NOTE: the more retests the order block gets, the weaker it becomes)
2) BOS & CHoCH:
Supports and resistances usually apply on Price Action, but they can be applied in Smart Money Concepts as well. The difference is that in Smart Money Concepts, you these supports and resistances when the price breaks through them. However, in many occasions these signals can be false and it’s only a retest of the support/resistance. In order to understand what BOS/CHoCH means, we need to look at the graph:
This is an example I made.
From the graph, a BOS or a Break of Structure is whenever the price breaks the most recent support/resistance in the direction of the trend direction(bullish/bearish). A CHoCH or a Change of Character is whenever the price breaks the most recent support/resistance in the direction opposite of the trend direction. What I mean by this is that in the example I have shown, the trend was bullish until it was not. Normally a bullish trend breaks the resistances instead of the supports, and vice-versa. This is why the name Break of Structure since the price continues going the direction it wants while solving any “issue” in its path. If this “issue” is big enough to break the support/resistance maintaining the trend intact, then it’s known as a Change of Character , since it changes the character of the trend. When this happens, there is a chance for a trend reversal to happen, which is the case for the example I’ve shown. Now I’ll show how to trade BOS/CHoCH in a real graph.
As you can see from the chart, there are a lot of Breakthroughs of Structure and Changes of Character, but this indicator actually shows which of these BOS/CHoCH are major. The trick is that if the indicator shows a BOS/CHoCH marked by a straight line instead of a bunch of lines, this means that it is more accurate. In this example, we ignore the smaller BOS/CHoCH and just look at the 2 important ones. We know they are important because they are marked by a straight line. You buy after the CHoCH/BOS label appears and when the candle that retested the broken resistance/new support closes and the volume doesn’t increase before that (unless the market is ranging after it broke). Same thing with shorts. You short after the BOS/CHoCH label appears when the candle that retested the broken support/new resistance and the volume doesn’t increase from the candle before that.
3) EQH/EQL:
In Price Action , there are chart patterns. One of the most known ones are the double top and the double bottom . Smart Money Concepts refers to these double tops/bottoms as Equal Highs and Equal Lows (EQH/EQL for short). Here’s an example:
As you can see, there is a double top (EQH) which came after an uptrend, meaning that there is a chance that the price will break the necklace (the support line made in the middle of the double tops), causing a change of character, which it did. Due to the nature of double tops and bottoms, this rarely happens. You should use this tool in confluence with other SMC tools like Order Blocks and BOS/CHoCH. Personally, I don’t use them much. I just use them to identify strong supports and resistances, as well as double tops and bottoms. They could also be used to identify trend reversals on major areas of support and resistance.
4) Premium and Discount zones:
Premium and Discount zones are ranges that form in the market when a recent major support and resistance has been established. In this example, you can see when did the premium and discount zones form. The price made a major support and resistance. The equilibrium zone is the 50% line in the Fibonacci Retracement tool if you pay close attention.
This means that price can react off of the Equilibrium zone, and if you pay close attention, you can see it was ranging for a while.
For a trading strategy, wait for the price to reach the Premium or Discount zones, and, if the market's volume decreases, enter a trade and set your take profit at the equilibrium zone. The reason why you should set your take profit at the equilibrium zone is because there is a chance the price rejects off of the equilibrium zone.
5) Fair Value Gaps:
Fair Value Gaps are imbalances that form in the market and can be good support/resistance areas. They usually form when the market is volatile and when a breakout or retest just happened.
In order to identify what a fair value gap is, look for a huge candle body like the one shown in the picture, then, draw a rectangle with its base being at the highest point of the previous candle's upper wick and with its top being the lowest point of the following candle's lower wick. Now, extend the rectangle to the right and now you have a fair value gap.
For a trading strategy, look for the line in the middle which is shown in the fair value gap. This line acts as a support, and the price can bounce off of it. For an entry point, wait for the price to react to the fair value gap, and, if the volume decreases while the reaction is happening, enter.
6) Liquidity Grabs:
Even if you think your trading strategy is amazing, you will always have to deal with scams. No matter how good your trading strategy is, all trading strategies fail to deal with hedge funds and whales. They sometimes act when the price is very close to a support or resistance, and when the people expect a bounce, they place their stop losses under the area of confluence. These hedge funds then act, and end up manipulating the market, forcing the people to panic buy or panic sell, depending on the area of confluence. One major example of market manipulation is in the Crypto Exchange. Trading Crypto is almost like gambling. Liquidity grabs perfectly reference the scam. You can spot them if, on a ranging market, there is a sudden increase or decrease in price. Always pay attention to traps like the ones in these examples shown below:
For a trading strategy, wait for the scam pump or dump to stagnate and then enter your trade in the opposite direction that the candle was going to.
In conclusion, Smart Money Concepts is a fascinating trading strategy for me, and it could be for you too. There are many aspects of it, and it is another way of trading Price Action, which itself is already fantastic.
This tutorial took me 3 hours to make, so please make sure to heart and comment your opinion on this. Thank you for reading through all of this.
📊 Smart Money Concepts | Supply & Demand🧐What is Smart Money?
Smart money refers to the capital that institutional investors, central banks, and other professionals or financial institutions control. It is managed by expert investors who can foresee market trends and make most of the profits. Smart money was originally a gambling term, where it refers to the gamblers that have extensive knowledge of the activity that they wager on or have insider information that the common public is not able to access. The smart money concept suggests that these investors can identify trends and opportunities before the broader market and position themselves accordingly. They may also be able to manipulate the market to their advantage by creating buying or selling pressure on certain securities. Some traders try to follow the smart money by analyzing the actions of these large investors through public filings, news reports, or other sources of information. However, it is important to note that not all trades made by institutional investors or large financial institutions are necessarily "smart," and blindly following their actions can be risky.
🔹 Supply Zone
In trading, a supply zone is a price range where there is an abundance of sell orders, resulting in increased selling pressure and potentially a temporary resistance level. A supply zone can be identified on a price chart as an area where the price has previously reversed or stalled, and where there are many unfilled sell orders or pending sell orders. Traders may use supply zones as a reference point for making trading decisions. For example, if the price approaches a supply zone, traders may consider selling or taking profits on existing positions. Conversely, if the price breaks through a supply zone, traders may see it as a bullish signal and consider buying or adding to long positions.
🔹 Demand Zone
In trading, a demand zone is a price range where there is an abundance of buy orders, resulting in increased buying pressure and potentially a temporary support level. A demand zone can be identified on a price chart as an area where the price has previously reversed or found support, and where there are many unfilled buy orders or pending buy orders. For example, if the price approaches a demand zone, traders may consider buying or adding to long positions. Conversely, if the price breaks through a demand zone, traders may see it as a bearish signal and consider selling or taking profits on existing positions.
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SMART MONEY CONCEPTS #1: LIQUIDITY THEORYHi everyone! As you all should know by now, I mainly use smart-money concepts to enter into my trades. Today I will be talking about the concept of liquidity and how to capitalise on it.
Looking at the graph, there are 4 main types of liquidity that I use and as stated in the chart, I will normally look for entries off the liquidity grab zones or liquidity hotspots as I would describe.
Make sure to backtest and forward test into your chart data to identify which type of liquidity are the most prevalent. There are many many different forms to liquidity zones and knowing when a liquidity grab occur can be a very profitable strategy.
Smart Money Concept - TerminologyToday i would like to share full list of basic terminology Smart Money Concept
To all newbies this list will be useful
HH (Higher High) - high maximum
HL (Higher Low) - high low
LH (Lower High) - low high
LL (Lower Low) - low minimum
Fib (Fibonacci)
PDH is the high of the previous day.
PDL is the low of the previous day.
PWH is the high of the previous week.
PWL is the low of the previous week.
DO - opening of the day.
WO - opening of the week.
MO is the opening of the month.
YO - discovery of the year.
TF (TF) – timeframe
MN (Monthly) - monthly
W (Weekly) - weekly
D (Daily) - daily
H4 (4 hours) - 4 hours
H1 (1 hour)
M15 (15 minute) - 15 minutes
M1 (1 minute)
MS (Market Structure) - market structure
BOS (Break of Structure)
MOM (Momentum) - momentum. Time difference between impulse and corrective wave
HTF (Higher Time Frame)
LTF (Lower Time Frame) – lower timeframe
RSP (Real Structure Point) - key structural point
PRZ (Price Reversal Zone) – price reversal zone
CPB (Complex Pullback)
RR (Risk:Reward) – risk/reward
TGT (Target)
SL (Stop-loss) - stop order
BE (Breakeven) - breakeven
PA (Price Action) - price movement
Liq (Liquidity) – liquidity
EQH (Equal Highs) - equal highs
EQL (Equal Lows) - equal lows
SMC (Smart Money Concept) - the concept of smart money
DD (Drawdown) - drawdown
Be (Bearish) – bearish trend
Bu (Bullish) – bullish trend
HNS (Head and Shoulders) - head and shoulders
IT (Institutional Traders) - institutional traders
CO (Composite Operators) - composite operators
WHB (Weak Handed Buyers) - Weak Buyers
WHS (Weak Handed Sellers) - Weak Sellers
DP or POI (Decision Point) or (Point of Interest) - decision point or point of interest
IMB (Imbalance) - imbalance
SHC (Stop Hunt Candle)
OB (Order Block) - block of orders
OBIM (Order Block with Imbalance) - a block of orders with an imbalance
OBOB (Lower timeframe Order Block with a higher timeframe Order Block) – LTF order block in the HTF order block zone
WKF (Wyckoff)
PS (Preliminary Support) - preliminary support
PSY (Preliminary Supply) - preliminary offer
SC (Selling Climax) - Selling Climax
AR (Automatic Rally) - automatic rally
ST(Secondary Test) - secondary test
SPR (Spring) - the final position by a major player, followed by the liquidation of the last players in the market
Test (Test)
SOS (Sign of Strength) - a sign of strength
SOW (Sign of Weakness) - a sign of weakness
LPS (Last Point of Support/Supply)
LPSY (Last Point of Supply) - the last point of the offer
BU (Back-up) - price return to the range to cover the imbalance
JAC (Jump across the creek) is another name for SOS
UT (Upthrust) - the primary move out of the range to capture liquidity
TR (Trading Range) – trading range
WAS (Wyckoff Accumulation Schematic)
WDS (Wyckoff Distribution Schematic)
WICK - a candle with a long shadow, which removes liquidity, stops.
A squeeze is a rapid rise or fall in prices.
Range - sideways price movement in a certain period without updating highs and lows.
Deviation (deviation) - a false exit, beyond the boundaries of the range.
EQ - (equlibrium) - the middle of the range.
TBX is the entry point.
Take Profit - take profit.
STB - sweep (manipulation) of liquidity, the sale of an asset before growth.
BTS - sweep (manipulation) of liquidity, the purchase of an asset before the fall.
AMD (accumulation manipulation distribution) - accumulation, manipulation, distribution ( distribution)
Hope you enjoyed the content I created, You can support with your likes and comments this idea so more people can watch!
✅Disclaimer: Please be aware of the risks involved in trading. This idea was made for educational purposes only not for financial Investment Purposes.
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True SMC entry module to pass Funded Accounts!!!Hello traders. In this module we aim to explain how to enter the trades along with market makers for high RR entries. Entering like this will protect your Stoploss since your orders are along with the Market makers and market makers defend their positions. As a result your position in also defended in this case. Please pay attention to the annotations made on the chart.
Happy Trading
Team Lamda!!!
How to trade markets in both directions using true SMC conceptsHello Traders, in this post we aim to explain how we can trade the markets in both directions. Since this comes under the concept of liquidity, it is very logical to trade in both the directions of the market. Please pay attention to the annotations made on the chart.
Happy Trading
Team Lamda
Imbalance- Today we will talk about imbalance. What exactly is an imbalance, and how to recognize it?
- Imbalance can often occur in forex due to many reasons. Imbalance can move upwards or downwards.
- Most of the imbalances get filled up within minutes, hours or in one daily session. But it is not always like that, some can take days to fill up.
- Imbalance is like a gap, it drives the price to go in the direction where it made the imbalance in order to fill it up.
- We can use all that information in our favour to maximize our edge in the markets in different ways.
- Here we have 2 examples, on the left example, the price left an imbalance, but on the right, it did not.
How?
- At first glance, these 2 examples look totally the same, but they are not. In the example on the left, the price left an imbalance, and the wicks are not touching, while on the left side the wicks are touching and therefore we do not have an imbalance as in the first example.
- If this post helped you better understand imbalance and its role, leave a like and follow us for more content like this.
How To Choose High Probability OBHello traders
- In this example, we will explain how to choose a high probability OB for your entry. And what you need to pay attention to.
- If you want to choose a good OB, you must read every detail on the chart and take into account everything you see so that you can determine whether your OB is the high probability or not.
- One of the most important things we need to have with a high probability OB is the present momentum. When we see momentum, we know that the price has the potential to continue in the same direction.
- Here you can see 2 examples. In one example, we have high probability OB, and in the other, low probability OB.
- High probability example:
On the left, we see a high probability example. Momentum is present, and the price is making strong BOS. When the price impulsively breaks through the high, as in this case, we know that the price has a great potential to continue in that direction. In the end, we see a good closing of the candle, the price did not leave a big wick and filled the entire bullish candle. In this situation, we have a high probability OB.
- Low probability example:
On the right side, we see a low probability example. Momentum is not present, and the price makes BOS weak. When the price weakly breaks through the high with wick, we know that the price no longer has momentum and will most likely change direction. We see a low candle close and a large wick which tells us that the price has no momentum. In this situation, we have low probability OB.
If this example helped you better understand low probability and high probability OB, leave a like and follow us for more content like this.
SMC TrapHello traders
- In this part, we will talk about the smart money trap.
- There are a lot of traps for traders left by big boys in the markets to take your money. That's why it's important to be careful, and don't swim with fish but swim with sharks if you don't want to be eaten.
- The move is designed to first take out early sellers, then take SMC traders.
-We'll explain this example in a few steps:
1) We see that the price is in a downtrend, reacting from OB, and supply has full control in this situation.
2) We can all assume that the price will continue to be bearish.
3) Now you can see that the price is coming aggressively to the last OB, and before that, we had WBOS, and there was a trap made for SMC traders.
4) This is inducement, and we talked about it in one of the previous posts, you can go back to it for a more detailed explanation.
5) This OB is not valid for us, because we have seen a lot of liquidity that the price needs to pick up and an aggressive retest.
6) We waited for the price to pick up all the SMC entries, and then the price came to our safe entry, which is marked on the chart as a valid OB.
If you liked this example, leave a like for more content like this.
Inducement Hello traders
-In this example, we will explain what INDUCEMENT is.
-Inducement is a trap for traders left by big boys in the markets to take your money.
-The move is designed to first take out early sellers, then take retail pattern traders, then break out and break and retest traders together in one move.
-The beauty of it is that everybody thinks they win, but in reality, the big boys go home with your money.
-Look at this example carefully and next time you see it play out on the chart, look at how you can profit from it instead of getting your SL hit.
Example:
1) Here, we see that the price is in a downtrend
2) Then, at the last BOS, the price barely breaks through the low and makes a trap for retail traders, breakout and retest traders, etc.
3) As you can see, this was an obvious fakeout and trap for other traders
4) In the end, the price picked up all SL, and came to our entry, from where it starts to move in our direction.
-And remember, you want to swim with the whales and follow them, not go against them.
Don't forget to leave a like and follow us for more quality content.
HTF direction LTF execution Hello traders
-In this example, we have explained the high probability setup after a reaction from a strong supply zone.
- Here, we have an entry after the reaction from the supply zone, which we will break down in detail in the following steps;
1) We can see that the price is in a downtrend, and supply has full control.
2) The price moves towards the supply zone, and make liquidity
3) In one move, the price picks up liquidity, and we see a good reaction from the supply zone.
4) An impulsive reaction from the supply zone tells us that we have a strong supply zone and we can expect a downtrend
5) After the reaction from the supply zone, we see a nice momentum, and then the price starts to pullback to our entry.
6) The price creates liquidity, that's another positive confirmation we see here.
7) We currently have everything we want to see, and the price from our entry is expected to continue impulsively towards the downtrend
- It is very important to read the PA in detail in order to understand the psychology behind the PA and to more easily recognize your high probability setup.
-Other people do not look at the market the way we do. They do not look at everything in detail. They don't know that this is necessary because if they do not understand the language of the market, they will have a lot of problems.
-It is hard, it requires time and hard work, and you need to be eager and well disciplined.
-Once we learn the language of the market and the way it communicates with us, we will always be able to understand what the market is saying to us.
- Don't forget to leave a like, if you have any questions, write us below in the comments.
Game Of LiquidityHello traders
-Today we will talk about liquidity and its role.
What is liquidity?
-We will try to explain you as simple as possible what liquidity is and what you should be looking for when you want to spot it.
-There is a theory on the FX markets that the Big institutions (Smart money) are always trying to trap us and take our Stop losses.
-Retail education as we all know is based on patterns (double top,double bottom, trendlines, supp res zones etc...
-As new traders come fresh on the markets they can be easily manipulated and taken away from their money because they are 'easy pray for big boys.
-If you want to understand liquidity as simple as possible - when there is a trend line, double top pattern, there are retail stop losses and there is liquidity to be taken.
Example:
1) In this example, we see that the price is moving in a downtrend
2) Then the price slows down with momentum and starts to make a lot of liquidity.
3) We can see liquidity in the form of a trendline, double tops, etc.
4) A lot of retail traders lose their money here, while we patiently wait for our opportunity.
5) Our entry is at the strong supply zone, and the price reaches it when it picks up all SL of retail traders.
6) At the end, we see a liquidity sweep that mostly happens in one move, and here we open our position.
-Remember: This is the cat and mouse game. In order for one person to win someone else needs to take the loss. So our question is
Are you a cat or a mouse?
-If this post helped you better understand the concept of liquidity, leave a like. If you have any questions, write below in the comments.
2 Simple modules to pass FTMO ChallengeThese are the two types of entry modules that can be used across any market to take low risk high rewards trade. Pay close attention to annotations made. First High / Low acts as a trap for early sellers or buyers as this point is used to create liquidity for the market makers. Market makers sweeps this liquidity and mitigates extreme POI like orderblocks etc. and thus finally the banks load their short orders/long orders to break the structure.
TRUE STRUCTURE MAPPING AVAILABLE ON OUR YT CHANNEL. DO WATCH THAT VIDEO TO KNOW HOW REALLY MARKET STRUCTURE IS REALLY MAPPED AND DON'T FORGET TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL
Happy Trading
-Team Lamda
Key to unlock the true market structure!!!Have you been struggling with marking market structure? You may have come across many Youtubers who aim to teach the market structure, but in a very wrong manner either by taking fibonacci tool or by discretion. This Video can be an eye opener for you all who are struggling in marking valid market structure.
Market structure is the backbone for every other SMC concepts. Without market structure there will be no orderblocks, breakers etc. Even if you are a beginner in market structure, that is much better since you won't be acquiring the wrong knowledge in the 1st hand.
So are you ready to uncover the real mechanical market structure?
Video will be uploaded on YT at 6:30AM GMT on 25th November 2022
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Happy Trading!!!
-Team Lamda