Get started

Trading Plan

Stop Loss Alone is not Risk Management - What is Your SystemTo be successful, you must develop consistency in your trading. You can achieve this by creating a system to trade. One that provides an edge to fit your lifestyle and personality. Discipline is required to stick to your system so that you can measure results (wins and losses) over a large number of trades. A simple journal helps you to measure your trades. This provides edge and success unfolds over time, requiring a strong mindset to create, adhere and measure. Goals are achievable through steps that are part of the process. Things to consider when developing your system are: Market Phase, Price Structure, Areas of Value, Areas of Entries as well as Exits, Multi Time Frame Analysis, Trend Lines, Support and Resistance, Dynamic Support and Resistance etc. Pro Tip: Trade clean and don't clutter your charts. Trade around a couple of levels with a single indicator. Be PATIENT to let trades come to you once you have made a trading plan. And when the market enters your zone, be READY to take action and trigger your entry based on rules. If you're a new trader or a struggling trader, feel free to reach out and ask me a question. If you liked this idea or if you have your own opinion about it, write in the comments. The information and publications are not meant to be, and do not constitute, financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice or recommendations.
Education
by imr4nkh8n
✍️WEEKLY QUOTE: Can we change our beliefs about the market?✍️..Each time I experienced a conflicting thought and was able to successfully refocus on my objective, with enough conviction to get me into my running shoes and out the door, I added energy to the belief that "I am a runner." And, just as important, I inadvertently drew energy away from all of the beliefs that would argue otherwise. ..Beliefs can be changed, and if it's possible to change one belief, then it's possible to change any belief if you understand that you really aren't changing them, but are only transferring energy from one concept to another. Therefore, two completely contradictory beliefs can exist in your mental system, side by side. But if you've drawn the energy out of one belief and completely energized the other, no contradiction exists from a functional perspective; only the belief that the energy will have the capacity to act as a force on your state of mind, on your perception and interpretation of information, and your behavior. ..Remember that consistency is not the same as the ability to put on a winning trade, or even a string of winning trades for that matter, because putting on a winning trade requires absolutely no skill. All you have to do is guess correctly, which is no different than guessing the outcome of a coin toss, whereas consistency is a state of mind that, once achieved, won't allow you to "be" any other way. You won't have to try to be consistent because it will be a natural function of your identity In fact, if you have to try, it's an indication that you haven't completely integrated the principles of consistent success as dominant, unconflicted beliefs. For example, predefining your risk is a step in the process of "being consistent." If it takes any special effort to predefine your risk, if you have to consciously remind yourself to do it if you experience any conflicting thoughts (in essence, trying to talk you out of doing it), or if you find yourself in a trade where you haven't predefined your risk, then this principle is not dominant, functioning part of your identity. It isn't "who you are." If it were, it wouldn't even occur to you not to predefine your risk. If and when all of the sources of conflict have been deactivated, there's no longer a potential for you to "be" any other way. What was once a struggle will become virtually effortless. At that point, it may seem to other people that you are so disciplined (because you can do something they find difficult, if not impossible), but the reality is that you aren't being disciplined at all; you are simply functioning from a different set of beliefs that compel you to behave in a way that is consistent with your desires, goals, or objectives From Trading in the Zone by M. Douglas
COINBASE:ETHUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
4
When to up your share size?Many traders have 2 or more trade set ups. It is important to know the following: 1)The risk of your trade must be in accordance with the winning percentage of the trade set up. 1)Your share size should increase or decrease in accordance with the winning percentage of the trade set up. * Share size increase must be in accordance to you account size (account management) These concepts are what separates really good traders from average traders.
BEducation
by UnknownUnicorn37963351
3
📖 STEP 4 to MASTER TRADING: Focus on One Pattern 📖 "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee We, traders, have a natural passion for learning and that’s really great and helps us build that foundation for trading. However, a moment comes when enough is enough and it’s time to focus on something more specific. But very often, we can make the unconscious mistake of trying to learn as much as possible, without even questioning if we really need it at the moment. 🟩 TOO MUCH INFORMATION For anyone eager to learn, the information is there. In fact, too much information, and naturally, it can be hard to stop learning. Sometimes we just feel we need to learn about one more pattern, one more strategy, one more approach. And it may seem that more knowledge will bring quality. And that’s true when you just start trading, however, later in your career, it makes sense to think and ask yourself: “Do I really need one more strategy which I know on an average level, or should I maybe focus on one strategy, or one pattern of any given strategy - and really master it, and refine it to the very deep level of understanding?” 🟩 IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE TO LET GO This part can be discussed for a long time, but based on what was said before, it’s literally uncomfortable for traders to let go of this habit of trying to trade multiple patterns, and learn more patterns in between. I’m not sure why this is so, there must be some psychological reasoning for this, but in simple words, every new trading pattern can be treated by us as a new opportunity to make profits in the market. And so when we stop learning more patterns - it can feel like we’re missing something. And it may seem that the more we trade, the more patterns we can use - the more profit we can bank because we can enter into the market based on different patterns. And while that may be true to some genius traders, for most of us it doesn’t work that well. More importantly - we don’t need to do it. It’s enough to master 1-2 patterns of a given system we believe in and tested, and so have confidence in it. I propose you consider “cutting off” 90% of your trading knowledge and focus only on executing 1-2 patterns max. Think about it. If you’re like me, you should feel really uncomfortable or even scared to do this. It may even seem stupid. Because it means you should let go of all the time you dedicated to learning, and maybe even trading with some systems before. But it’s an illusion because that time and effort - they are not lost, you can’t lose them, they are part of you now, part of your experience, something that led you to finally choose something you will work with really closely. But if you will attach to everything you learned before – this will confuse you and spray your focus all over the place, making it much harder to become a specialized, professional trader. 🟩 FOCUS ON YOUR BEST PATTERN ONLY When the time comes, and you’ve tried several strategies, it now makes sense to stop exploring additional systems and just focus on one system and learn everything about it. For example, if you’re trading head and shoulders, then stop trading double tops and bottoms, break and retest, and diamond patterns. Why? Because head and shoulders are not just 5 lines on the chart, it has numerous variations in how it plays out in the market, in different markets, sessions, and contexts. And you have to know it, see it, test it, and refine it. Become a master of head and shoulders, or any other specific pattern and trading approach, and be profitable with it. And if profitability is there - you can move on to another pattern, but at that stage, you will not need it probably. 🟩 HINDSIGHT TEST, BACKTEST, FORWARDTEST, REFINE It’s a great practice to have a “hindsight journal” and your backtesting journal, that will only be about that pattern you chose to trade. And there could be several reasons for choosing some particular pattern. But usually, it comes from your mentor or anyone else that you saw who reached sustainable profitability with it, and you believed in this pattern. But that would not be enough. You can’t tell your brain - believe in this. You need to actually show and prove it to your brain and to yourself. So you need to backtest this pattern, and only this pattern for at least 150 trades. This will help you to develop real confidence in the system. 🟩 YES, IT CAN BE HARD TO FIND “YOUR” SYSTEM I spent almost 3 years before I really found something I was willing to stick to long-term. Not sure if there’s actually good advice on how to find the system for yourself. It depends on your personality, your lifestyle, etc. Based on my experience, I would say just continue to learn and listen to yourself. Most likely you’ll find some trader or a mentor and you’ll like his trading style. Try to replicate it, and stick to his system. With time, and during journaling and live testing, it will all develop into your own system. Yes, it may look similar to your mentor’s but it will be your system. And once again, a trading system can have different kinds of entry confirmations, but it makes big sense to choose 1 or 2 confirmations and master them. 🎁 For those who are still reading :), thank you, and here’s BONUS trading hack for you. Next time during your trading day, when you'll feel something is wrong, maybe you're frustrated or just feel like your discipline starts to slip away, or maybe even you catch yourself thinking about entering without entry pattern or risk more than usual - realize that's your "monkey brain" stepping in. It's very hard to control, but easy to trick. Here's what you should do. Say to yourself: "Ok, I'll do whatever I like, place any kind of trade with the risk of half of the account if I want, BUT after 20 min. pass." Then you just start a timer (you can google "timer 20 min.") and do whatever you like after that 20 minutes. Usually what happens is you calm down and don't do stupid things. It very simple but effective technique. 🚀Thanks for your BOOSTS and support🚀 💬Send your comments and questions below, I'll be glad to talk to you💬 Dima
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
19
Layout and order in TradingviewStrategy is the first most important thing in trading to me, the second is the right layout in Tradingview to monitor the market everyday Im finding the perfect layout to me for my intraday trading I can apply on forex and commodities, having at least 1 future chart as reference Following the description of my 8 charts on layout, for instance on BTC. My order of monitoring follows from point 1 to 8: ***INTRADAY PERPECTIVE 1. My main intraday chart - Time frame preferred 30m or 4h - No moving averages but only levels - Yesterday's low and high levels (red and green dotted lines) generated with my custom pinescript indicator. It includes also failed auctions detection and ATR percentage for my stop loss reference - Intraday volume level on price (white lines) - My custom weekly and monthly level indicator (red horizontal lines) I generate with a my python tool or I can manually draw adding my preferred trendlines. - Volume on timeline (Indicator: Volume) and on price (Indicator: VRVP) are optional. I will look volumes on future chart, not cfd and so on 2. Chart with the same intraday time frame at point 1, with candlestick and pattern detection indicators free provided by Tradingview. ***SWING PERSPECTIVE 3. Daily chart with moving averages EMA9, EMA20, SMA50, SMA200. Main underlying (for instance BTC) 4. Daily chart with moving averages EMA9, EMA20, SMA50, SMA200. Main correlated underlying (for instance USDOLLAR, SP500 are highly correlated with BTC) 5. Future Chart, for instance BT1! - Volume on timeline (Indicator: Volume) and on price (Indicator: VRVP) are required on futures. - Charts like contango curve (BTC2! - BTC1!) or difference between future and spot price are optional (without a strategy) 6. Weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) on future chart, for instance BT1!, free provided by Tradingview 7. Weekly chart with moving averages EMA9, EMA20, SMA50, SMA200. Main underlying (for instance BTC) 8. Monthly chart with moving averages EMA9, EMA20, SMA50, SMA200. Main underlying (for instance BTC) Maybe It will not my final layout but im working well for now. Last but not least.....Dont Sitting and staring at a computer monitor all day long, but using alerts where I need, much better tradingview webhooks to my robots.
FX:BTCUSDEducation
by automiamo
Trading Psychology | How to Perceive Your Trades 👁 Hey traders, In this post, we will discuss a common fallacy among struggling traders: overestimation of a one single trade. 💡The fact is that quite often, watching the performance of an active trading position, traders quite painfully react to the price being closer and closer to a stop loss or, alternatively, coiling close to a take profit but not being managed to reach that. Fear of loss make traders make emotional decisions: extending stop loss or preliminary position closing. The situation becomes even worse, when after the set of the above-mentioned manipulation, the price nevertheless reaches the stop loss. Just one single losing trade is usually perceived too personally and make the traders even doubt the efficiency of their trading system. They start changing rules in their strategy, then stop following the trading plan, leading to even more losses. ❗️However, what matters in trading is your long-term composite performance. A single position is just one brick in a wall. As Peter Lynch nicely mentioned: “In this business, if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.” There are so many factors that are driving the markets that it is impossible to take into consideration them all. And because of that fact, we lose. The attached chart perfectly illustrates the insignificance of a one trading in a long-term composite performance. Please, realize that losing trades are inevitable, and overestimation of their impact on your trading performance is detrimental. Instead, calibrate your strategy so that it would produce long-term, consistent positive results. That is your goal as a trader. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Education
by VasilyTrader
15
✍️WEEKLY QUOTE: How to be rigid and flexible at the same time?✍️ In what way does a trader have to learn how to be rigid and flexible at the same time? The answer is: We have to be rigid in our rules and flexible in our expectations 🟢We need to be rigid in our rules so that we gain a sense of self-trust that can, and will always, protect us in an environment that has few, if any, boundaries. We need to be flexible in our expectations so we can perceive, with the greatest degree of clarity and objectivity, what the market is communicating to us from its perspective. At this point, it probably goes without saying that the typical trader does just the opposite: He is flexible in his rules and rigid in his expectations. Interestingly enough, the more rigid the expectation, the more he has to either bend, violate, or break his rules in order to accommodate his unwillingness to give up what he wants in favor of what the market is offering. 🟢To eliminate the emotional risk of trading, you have to neutralize your expectations about what the market will or will not do at any given moment or in any given situation. You can do this by being willing to think from the market's perspective. Remember, the market is always communicating in probabilities. At the collective level, your edge may look perfect in every respect; but at the individual level, every trader who has the potential to act as a force on price movement can negate the positive outcome of that edge. To think in probabilities, you have to create a mental framework or mindset that is consistent with the underlying principles of a probabilistic environment. 💡 A probabilistic mindset consists of five fundamental truths.💡 1. Anything can happen. 2. You don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money. 3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. 4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another. 5. Every moment in the market is unique. From Trading in the Zone, by M. Douglas ❤️Please, support this post with like and comments!❤️
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
4
Guide To Trading USD/JPY (In Top Five Most Traded Pairs)The USD/JPY currency pair is one of the more popular FX pairings available to traders. It’s represented by two of the world’s largest economies with the US (US Dollar) and Japan (JPY). USD/JPY ranks as the second most traded currency pair in the world, according to the Bank of International Settlement (BIS), which compiles statistics in cooperation with world central banks to inform analysis of global liquidity, among other things. Fundamental Aspects: Two of the world’s largest economies, USD/JPY is often a popular macro venue for traders – especially as a hedge for manufacturers and global importers/exporters. With the Japanese Yen being the most heavily traded currency in Asia, USD/JPY is often seen as a significant link between the Eastern and Western worlds. Because the pair represents two risk-averse currencies, volatility often lags behind the other G10 FX majors, which will tend to offer greater deviation in the represented economies (such as the UK and US or Europe and the US). As such, traders will often expect lower levels of volatility in the pair, which can open the door to more ranges or mean reversion as opposed to trends or breakouts that may be more common in other major forex trading pairs. The big focus is on the respective central banks for the possibility of even more unprecedented easing. The Fed and BoJ are two of the most extended central banks and the competing stances on monetary policy have continued to define the multi-year range in price. USD/JPY has traditionally seen strong correlations with U.S. Treasuries and as such, tends to be rather sensitive to broader shifts in interest rates and interest rate expectations. Also of note: the Japanese Yen, as well as the US Dollar, enjoys a ‘haven’ status during times of economic uncertainty. USD/JPY is extremely popular with larger institutional traders, banks and multi-national corporations. Often employed for hedging purposes, the pair can be used to offset currency risk for manufacturers as well as global exporters and importers. USD/JPY often trades on both USD flows and risk trends, depending on future interest rates expectations and risk appetite in broader financial markets. Range-prone price action and event risk volatility makes USD/JPY an attractive asset for retail traders as well as technical traders across the spectrum. How & When To Trade USD/JPY? With such a high market volume, USD/JPY is often a favored FX pair for technical traders. Adherence to psychological levels and potential for sharp inflection moves off support and resistance levels tend to make the pair more amenable for reversal/breakout approaches and shorter intra-day trends. USD/JPY trading trends evolve quickly and over the past five years, the pair has been a popular product for near-term and swing traders. Price action in this pair is notorious for aggressive reversals and fast breakouts, making it ideal for short-term scalping as well as event risk traders looking to take advantage of the sharp spike in volatility during key data releases or macro-economic developments. In practice, this can mean shallower targets and tighter stops. Finally, it is worth paying attention to the psychological price levels, as there is a propensity for sharp inflections off big-figure thresholds. When To Trade?: London/New York overlap is best time (4hrs) even if Tokyo is not open.
Education
by Anbat
📖 STEP 3 to MASTER TRADING: WHAT’S YOUR TRADING EDGE? 📖The topic of trading edge in the market is highly underrated, in my opinion. That’s why today I propose to discuss it, and I hope it can help you to shift your perspective on this matter. So let’s think about this together. What parts does your trading edge consist of? 🟩 THE BIG FILTER For me, the first part of any trading edge is its filter. So your trading system tells you very clearly when you should NOT be in the market. It protects your capital - both $ capital and emotional capital - from poor market conditions, and low-quality and low-probability setups. And what it actually means when you execute your edge is that most of the time, you will stay out of the market. 🟩 YOU WILL “MISS” THE MOVES That’s really tough topic for many of us, me included because very often you’re looking to enter the zone, but the price can either turn right before tapping into it or tap and doesn’t give any confirmation for entry. And that could be very emotional. However, the fact is simple - such “missed” moves are also part of our edge. Why? Because if you tested one set up, one pattern, and you know it’s profitable the way it is, then you need to execute it the way it is. Keep in mind, when I say profitable, I don’t mean crazy profitable. Today, with access to prop firms, we need a very low % of profitability to earn for living. We can scale the $ amount relatively easily if we are profitable consistently. So again, we don’t need every move, and we don’t need the whole move. We just need some part of some moves - and a good edge will make consistent profits out of this. And only then, if you want, you can tweak, refine and step by step make your system even more profitable. 🟩 THE PATTERN This part is actually your entry pattern. Notice again, this is just a part of your system, not the whole system. If you really understand this, you’ll be much more relaxed in the market. This part should include a written checklist for your entry - just like a pilot has a checklist before his flight. A checklist, in its turn - is a part of your trading plan, it’s the essence of your trading plan. You will refer to it before every trade. 🟩 MANAGEMENT, LOSERS AND BREAKEVENS When you executed your edge in the market, now you need to manage the trade accordingly, based on your checklist. So take partials, accept breakevens and losers. If you entered into a high-quality setup, which turned into a BE or a loser - it’s the part of your system, and usually, it doesn’t make sense to overthink it and try to find flaws in your system. But that’s flexible, and of course, you can analyze what happened, and maybe even find something to tweak, but very often a loser is just a normal loser, and breakeven is just a normal breakeven. 📖To recap, any edge will include: 🔹“missed” trades 🔹trades, where price didn’t tap into your entry order just a bit 🔹trades where you were stopped out for several pips and price then went to profit (if it repeats constantly, maybe consider having a bigger stop loss) 🔹full TP 🔹partials 🔹losers 🔹breakevens 🎁If you’re still here, here’s a BONUS trading hack for you. Ask yourself and try to answer honestly this question: “During all the time I’m trading, what is the maximum amount of days in a row, when I followed my rules to the T, honestly?” You will be surprised, but the usual answer is 3-10 days. Yes, people can trade for 2-3 years, but never manage to follow their rules (whatever they have at the moment) for at least a month in a row. It all leads to catastrophe, of course. Thank you for your time! If you want to see more educational materials, please hit the BOOST button and leave your comments below. Dima
FOREXCOM:XAUUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
7
Guide To Trading Eur/Usd (#1 Most Popular Forex Pair)As the two largest and mostly commonly traded currencies in the world, the euro (EUR) and US dollar (USD) represent the highest proportion of trades made in international finance. Euro to USD (EUR/USD) trading occurs constantly and the pairing of the two is extremely popular; it's actually the most liquid currency pairing in the world. A large number of companies operate both within Europe and the Unites States, owning offices in both locations. Fundament Aspects: Reasons for trading and investing include: the vast amount of economic and financial data available on the EUR/USD exchange rate, the wide range of market participants and combination of volatility and liquidity in the EUR/USD market – all of which make trading this pair attractive to newcomers and veterans alike. Only existed since end of 20th century, EUR/USD has proven itself to be a powerhouse in modern forex trading. This common currency for a large proportion of Europe quickly gained traction and became cemented as a market leader. Euro trading swiftly developed into a new and exciting financial opportunity. The dollar, of course, is far older, with roots stemming back to 1792 and the creation of the United States Constitution. Since that time, the dollar has grown considerably in strength and, paired with the euro, has become something of a global standard among investors and traders. The EUR/USD experienced large price swings as various economic and political events affected it. Role of Euro : As interest rates play a major part in the moves of the EUR/USD exchange rate, it will come as no surprise that the European Central Bank (ECB) is one of the major institutions to which investors and traders will pay close attention when making decisions that might affect the future direction of this currency pair. The ECB releases monthly reports concerning interest rates and economic outlook, which are used by investors and traders as indicators about future policy direction and the effect these may have on the EUR/USD exchange rate. Wider economic data, such as consolidated employment numbers, can also impact the EUR/USD exchange rate and can be a vital source of information for traders. Role of USD : As with its counterpart, the US dollar is influenced by its own central bank, the US Federal Reserve – often referred to as the Fed. The institution releases the Federal Funds rate and rate statements eight times a year, which can provide insight into the state of the US economy and impact the currency. In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics release Nonfarm Payroll numbers usually on the first Friday of every month. This is the US unemployment data and can often cause volatility in the EUR/USD pairing. It is closely watched by traders and investors around the world. Why trade Eur/Usd? The exceptionally tight pricing for euro to USD means lower costs for traders. The high volume of trade in this pair make for a market with plenty of liquidity. Historically, the EURUSD market has seen some great trends over multiple time frames – another reason why traders are attracted to this foreign exchange pair. When To Trade? If day trading the EUR/USD, the times that are likely to be most active for the pair, on average, will be when exchanges in London and New York are open and overlapping (4 hours a day), before London session closes for the day.
Education
by Anbat
8
How to control your trading mentality 🧠Mental training helps individuals to improve their performance by preparing their emotions and mind. Focus, confidence, and motivations are important factors of mental factors. According to a study done at Brown University, it may be possible to train your brain’s automatic emotional responses. It may improve your experience in trading. To be a mentally tough trader, one should tap into his emotional and mental resources that keep his mind in check at its peak as often and consistently as possible. One may make wrong decisions when he/she is unstable emotionally and mentally. Stop 🚫 It does not matter how you good or how experienced you are in trading. If you don't see the whole picture 100%, your trading experience would end unsuccessfully. What happens when you keep hitting that stop loss and losing money? Your body starts to release cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which increases blood sugar in the bloodstream. When cortisol level is more than normal, you will have high blood pressure, will become agitated, irritated and start to sweat. You have to STOP! You will only lose more if you continue to trade. Take a breath and take a step back. When you come back, you will have a better perspective and a better picture of how to trade. Accept ✅ Every trader has their own pace of learning and trading. Don't compare yourself to others. Your friend may have started earlier and made more than you. You just have to ACCEPT! Trading is not about competition. You cannot start trading with a competing mentality. Don’t take a higher risk than you can handle. If you have only $100, just accept that you have $100. 100 is a start of a bigger number. Don’t follow social media group who claims how much they made and how easy it is. Your brain may unconsciously make competitive decisions. Make a plan 📝 You have to make a plan. You may have made a plan and failed. Let me tell you what worked for me. Like many traders, I lost in the beginning. The more you lose money while trading, the more you focus on the money not on the trading. When you focus on money, you may try to find money by different ways; borrowing, stealing and some in easy ways. To make a plan to trading, you have to see the whole picture; the risk, the situation it is creating for you, your family and finance and your future. Summary It is important to stop when you are overwhelmed and take a step back. When come back you will see how much difference it makes when you are calm and in control of your emotions and mind. Accepting that you have your own pace of learning and trading is also crucial in trading. Last but not least, to make a plan consider the risk and the situation. Be prepared and be in control of your emotions. Now you know when to stop and accept. You are ready to start your trading journey. Don't put at risk what you already built. Take it slow at your own pace.
CME:BTC1!Education
by YertuntsTrader
8
Advanced limit order swing trading strategySo if you haven't read my other writeups first, you probably should. Non-speculative limit orders are the basis for this trading style. Now, the idea behind this system is simple. You're using a script, EA or bot to create dozens of limit orders very quickly, with predetermined stop losses and take profits, to capture swings against active trends. See a trend. Any trend. Are the candles going up? It's an uptrend. Are they going down? Downtrend. In this trend, you want to identify momentum candles that have a wick. I'm not talking about hammers, I'm talking about candles that close with momentum in the direction of the trend, but just happen to have a wick that's at least 5% the length of the candle body. When you see this, you're going to place a limit order cluster above (or below) that wick to counter-trend it. As the trend continues upward, you might see more wicks like this, and you're going to do it again. And again. And again. The pic above shows an 18 pip range of limit orders getting filled, with limit order grids being stacked on top of wicks. This can definitely be considered Martingale-like, so you obviously want to be careful with how much you're risking. If 12 orders are each valued at 0.01, and your stop loss and take profits are both set to 30 pips, then that means each individual limit order is worth $3 and totals to $36 profit or loss. Your take profit structure can be greater or lower than the 1:1 ratio, as this is just an example and it's something you would have to backtest and figure out for yourself. However, stacking grids to catch a swing can be highly rewarding. It's possible every ticket of your lowest grid hits its SL (although I'd say pretty unlikely as long as you're spacing is good for the currency pair), but every grid you stack up on top of that will greatly increase your odds of winning. i.imgur.com i.imgur.com This is how it would look in practice. The limit orders are based off of these wicks: i.imgur.com Every time I see a wick in that uptrend, I'm selling into it. My limit orders start 5 pips away from the top of the wick. I click "Sell limits" and I'm ready to go. I'll leave a link to my EA (for MT5) at the bottom. I cannot stress enough that you would have to really backtest this and get comfortable with whatever currency pair or asset you're trying to trade, because it's important. And always bet small when you do this! This is about trying to make money regardless of market conditions, not trying to bet big and win big. If you have a $1000 account, maybe risk $20 per grid (grid meaning every individual cluster of limit orders). No one can tell you how to manage your risk obviously, but losing shouldn't be a big deal. My MT5 EA: mega.nz My settings for a 3 minute EUR/USD char
Education
by WinkleTrades
Visual Signals Versus Data Driven ResultsMany traders fall into the habit of judging a trading system or methodology by observing visual signals. A visual signal can range from a bot or algorithm signals, moving average interactions, a stochastic cross, or a plethora of other common patterns. Observation is the first step to finding a successful trading system but relying solely on visual cues will leave you open to selection bias. In other words, people tend to focus on the signals that worked and ignore the ones that didn’t. In addition to selection bias, if you make adjustments to an indicator or strategy based on visual cues without knowing the results in terms of accuracy and profit, you may suffer from what we call cascading changes, also known as unforeseen side effects. Tuning For Results The opposite of relying on visual cues is basing your decisions on the past results of a trading system. While past results do not guarantee future results, a pattern that has produced historical net profit is likely to work to some degree in the future. Indicators and systems that are packaged with backtesting logic allow you to make adjustments to the system and then view how your changes affect real outcomes like net profit, trade accuracy, and profit factor. Making indicator changes based on results means you are using data in your favor. Avoiding Selection Bias The fix for selection bias is simple. If a pattern looks good to your eyes, backtest it and ensure you locate every last instance of the pattern, especially failed outcomes. It’s also important that you backtest over a long time period and do so on multiple different tickers. Some systems work well over a specific date range on a certain ticker but are much less successful on other securities or date ranges. Those who are unable to write automated backtesting scripts will have to rely on manual backtesting or find others who provide backtesting suites. We highly recommend you avoid indicators and systems that do not include the ability to backtest and view past performance. It’s also best to remain skeptical when taking the word of many online influencers. Looking at a few signals that produced winning trades does not mean the system is capable of producing net profit over large sample sizes. In addition, only testing a system in a rampant bull market can be misleading. In other words, don’t fall victim to visual signals that don’t reveal results across time. Avoiding Cascading Changes When backtesting, sometimes tweaks you believe ought to improve your net profit do not produce the expected results. During extensive backtesting, many system changes we thought were improvements turned out to produce undesired outcomes. Not all changes improve your strategy even though the most recent visual signals appear better. For example, by adjusting a strategy variable to avoid a few unwanted losses you may inadvertently miss a few trades that were big winners. The same variables that produced the unwanted losses were the same variables that produced the big winners. Some of the best trading systems follow the trend and a pattern similar to the Pareto principle, which means a small number of trades produce a large amount of the total gains. Missing the big winning trades has a significant negative impact on your net profit. You will never know in advance if the trade will become a big winner, and anyone who tells you they know is naive. Trying to achieve perfect trade accuracy will cause you to miss many excellent opportunities. Adding more variables to a trading strategy means you are limiting the conditions that will activate a signal and increasing the likelihood your strategy will miss winning trades. A good strategy is strict, but simple, and does not attempt to achieve perfection. Technical analysis does not predict the future, it simply provides us with an indication that one outcome is more likely. Changing trading variables without knowing the full extent of your changes over time is akin to fighting with a blindfold on. Below you can observe the excellent gains produced by our Olympus Cloud backtest logic with only a 54% win rate.
NASDAQ:TSLAEducation
by Level8Trading
The Truth About Trade AccuracyA critical component relating to trading success is the relationship between your win percentage and your bottom line. Many new traders hold some extremely inaccurate views when it comes to what kind of win percentage is required to generate net profit, including the notion they need a 70% or higher win percentage to achieve success. This notion is wrong and misleading. The relationship between your win percentage, your risk management, and the profit you generate from each trade are intricately related. The beauty of this post is that the backtest logic in our Olympus Cloud indicator showcases the concepts covered with real trades, which is shown under this post in the data section. The Positive Win Percentage A win percentage over 50% is regarded as a probable edge or edge. Yet, even with a 60% win rate, you can generate a net loss. How? If your average loss is $100, but you are in the habit of falling prey to your emotions and prematurely selling your winners so you only generate an average of $50 when you win, you will lose money regardless of your 60% win rate. No trader goes into a trade thinking, “Hey, I’ll lose $100 if I’m wrong and I’ll make $50 if I’m correct.” Nevertheless, random wins of $75, $25, $60, $40, $90, and $10 will average out to $50 per win. No one purposely tries to win half of what they lose, but random trading combined with random emotions produces random results. We all desire winning and making good profits when we take a trade, but as emotions come into play, things quickly change. You may take a trade that reaches $75 in profit and then decide the move looks gassed out, so you sell. On another trade, you might get scared by some volatility, or notice a resistance you neglected to spot initially and sell for $25 of profit. It is all too common to fall prey to your emotions and behave in a way you didn’t plan to. The irony is, that you will regard the $25 trade as a winner, and it will raise your trade accuracy. Let’s look at a simple example: Example: 100 total trades with 60% trade accuracy 60 winning trades at an average of $50 per win = $3,000 40 losing trades at an average of $100 per loss = $4,000 Net loss of $1,000 In the example above, your break-even point is a 67% win percentage for a whopping $50 in profit. With this type of random risk and profit management, any meaningful net profit requires a win percentage upwards of 75-80%. The psychological damage of having a higher average loss than an average win is hard to quantify, but it’s easy to feel frustration when one loss wipes out two wins. While this sounds like common sense, many, many new traders fall into the habit of random profit management and find themselves in this undesirable situation. The same theory holds true even if you let your winners play out, but you also let your losses escalate and take a few big hits to your account. In either scenario, your 60% win rate means nothing. The Negative Win Percentage In the case of a negative win percentage, you can produce a net profit even if you are correct less than 50% of the time. In this scenario, your advantage over the market is getting into trades that consistently provide large gains when you win, and by letting those winners play out fully. Furthermore, you can’t hesitate to cut your losses and keep your drawdown controlled. With this kind of win rate, you must not sell early or your entire business model falls apart. You must understand that the big winners will make up for any profit you leave on the table. Let’s look at what happens if you are correct 40% of the time, but your average win is $100 and your average loss is $50: Example: 100 total trades with 40% trade accuracy 40 winning trades at an average of $100 per win = $4,000 60 losing trades at an average of $50 per loss = $3,000 Net gain of $1,000 It is now clear that win percentage is not everything. You can make money even if you are correct on 40% of your trades as long as your average win is double your average loss. The smaller your average win compared to your average loss, the higher your accuracy must be to make a net profit. Of course, if you can maintain a win percentage over 50% while also having proper risk and profit management you will end up far ahead. Putting It Together Clearly, the best approach is to combine a reasonable win percentage of over 50% with proper risk and profit management. You must consistently let your winners play out regardless of the emotions you feel in the moment and ensure you don’t take losses beyond a certain threshold. Furthermore, scaling out of trades – selling portions of your position as the market moves in your favor – will increase your accuracy and ease your mind. By dividing your position into two or three tranches you can lock in a certain amount of profit at predefined targets and then let the final portion ride out the trend with a trailing stop-loss. Revisiting our example, let’s put these concepts together with a reasonable win percentage: Example: 100 total trades with 55% trade accuracy 55 winning trades at an average of $100 per win = $5,500 45 losing trades at an average of $50 per loss = $2,250 Net gain of $3,250 Now, that’s what you want to see! It’s more important you behave in a consistent manner and follow a predefined game plan than it is to have 80% trade accuracy. It is wise to strive for reasonable trade accuracy – 50% to 65% – and remain consistent in order to fulfill your trading potential. After you have mastered your emotions with a consistent strategy, perhaps you can raise your win percentage to mythical values like 80%. As we have covered, though, such accuracy is not required for great trading results.
AMEX:TANEducation
by Level8Trading
1
STEP 1 to MASTER TRADING: Hindsight trading. Train your eyes.A common mistake that traders make after learning any kind of trading setup is jumping into backtesting using a replay tool, or even live trading. However, if you think about it, trading is very much about pattern recognition. And when you force yourself into live trading without a proper understanding of what your patterns look like, most likely you’ll need much more time to succeed. A different approach and much more effective would be using hindsight, that’s when you see what actually happened. During this process, try to find at least 50 high-quality setups, that represent your trading system. So you actually see everything that happened and find situations, where your edge played out, document it in your journal. That’s great training for your eyes and brain. You don’t need to guess, you will not feel anything, because you already see what happened, you’ll notice that sometimes your edge, your system doesn’t give you entries and price goes without you, sometimes, you’ll see a loser or a breakeven after your entry, start to get used to this, as it’s all part of your system. After that, you'll have a much better understanding and vision for your setup - and that could be the time to try some backtesting and forwardtesting. I’ll talk more about a different kind of backtesting in future posts. Meanwhile, take care, send your questions, and comments, will be glad to chat with you. Dima
Education
by Yelli_trades
1
Trading Insights #3: Mastering Your Mind Debriefing In the opening two parts of our Trading Insights Series we evaluated the importance of probability and random distribution, and then covered some key misconceptions relating to technical analysis and price movement. We recommend you start at part one and work your way up, but this entry can stand alone. Intro Your mind is the most powerful piece of the puzzle when it comes to your trading success. Without developing the mentality of a pro trader, you will never achieve the results you desire. When it comes to mastering your mind, we can think of no one better to draw influence from than Buddha. In this entry to the series, we intend to turn back the clock to see if we can glean some valuable insight and apply it to our trading endeavors. Trading Pitfalls There are several pitfalls most aspiring traders fall prey to when operating in the market. In our analysis, there are two categories of trading errors. We define these as conceptual errors and execution errors. While it’s tempting to focus on execution errors, we’ve found that addressing conceptual errors simultaneously fixes execution errors. Conceptual errors stem from inappropriate ideas about trading. These errors are: 1. Not believing you need a defined strategy 2. Blaming the market for your failures rather than taking responsibility 3. Trying to get rich quick by trading in an aggressive and reckless fashion 4. Not viewing your trading exploits over a set of trades and over-emphasizing individual trades Not believing you need a defined strategy This is one of the most common and difficult to break trading habits. The market is a limitless environment where you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Many traders enjoy this type of freedom and struggle to develop or follow trading rules. Some traders say they recognize the importance of a defined game plan, but when it comes down to it they don’t embody or act out a belief that rules are necessary. By not having a gameplan, or not following your game plan, you will never allow yourself to find out what methods work best for you. When you factor in random variables based on your momentary perception you prevent yourself from learning what variables give you a real edge on the market over a set of trades. Many traders develop a plan, but when the moment comes they fail to execute their plan. This cycle tends to repeat itself over and over. “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” —Buddha It’s time to embrace action, not ideas. Create a plan and follow it for 20 to 30 trades. If the results are not what you hoped for, come up with a new plan, and try again. When you find something that works, stick with it until it doesn’t. In this way, you will learn, with a degree of certainty, what method produces the desired results. Blaming the market for your failures rather than taking responsibility for your actions Many traders fall into the habit of believing the market is responsible for their success or failure. The market is a dynamic sequence of events that has no feelings or emotions. It goes up, and it goes down. The market does not exist to make you a winner, just as it does not exist to make you a loser. If you depend on the market to make you a winner, the market can take your success away. If you trade like a gambler and the market gives you a series of winning trades, the market will eventually take the money back. Once you realize it’s up to you to get what you want from the market you will embrace the appropriate amount of responsibility. “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.” —Buddha When you take a huge loss, it’s not the market's fault — it’s yours. The contradictory component here is that if you find yourself in a huge winning trade it’s not necessarily because you’re a great trader. Anyone with any degree of skill can stumble into a big winning trade, even a complete amateur. Therefore, big losses beyond what you define as acceptable are your fault, but big winners beyond what you can imagine are not a product of your ability. Why? Because you could have prevented the loss by using a risk management plan, but for the winner, you just happened to enter at the right moment and there is no guarantee it will happen again. Professionals don’t allow themselves to believe they are responsible for big winners — they understand it was just an occurrence of the behavior pattern that gives them an edge on the market and the next trade could very well be a controlled loss. If you believe that a single huge winning trade is more important than a consistent mindset you are missing the big picture. When you master the appropriate mental techniques the market cannot take your success away. You will keep the gains you make and you’ll have the ability to keep winning in a consistent fashion. It’s time to take responsibility and conquer your mind. Trying to get rich quick by trading in an aggressive and reckless fashion Many people get into trading because it seems like the easiest way to make money. In addition, they think it’s their ticket to quick riches, almost like winning the lottery. Indeed, a select few individuals have been extremely lucky and have gotten rich on pure gambles in the market. Yet, if these people kept trading in the same reckless fashion they were not rich for long. There are many high-risk ways to trade the market and inexperienced people are drawn to these methods by the lure of some fast life-changing cash. “Patience is key. Remember: A jug fills drop by drop.” —Buddha There are 252 trading days in a year. If a day trader can consistently earn just 0.5% on their account per day, they can gain 125% in a year. Alternatively, if a swing trader can earn 1-2% per week, they can gain 50 to 100% on their capital in the same period. Any money manager would be ecstatic to produce such results. If you cannot consistently earn 0.5% per day or 2% per week, what makes you think you can earn 100% in a month, and keep it? If getting rich trading the market was easy every retail trader who attempts to trade would be rich. Not viewing your trading exploits over a set of trades and overemphasizing individual trades Nearly every trader has the tendency to view each trade in a vacuum. In other words, each trade either proves or disproves the trader’s methodology or ability, and determines their emotional state. Any trade that does not meet the trader’s expectations causes frustration and mental distress. The problem is, that no trading system tells you what will happen on any given trade. A trading strategy only gives you an approximation of what you can expect over many trades. There is no other way a strategy can work. You must view each trade as a part of a set — this is what it truly means to think in probabilities. “Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” —Buddha When you have a methodology that gives you a positive expectancy, you must learn that you will never know in advance which trade will work. Each trade has its own unique outcome but also exists as a part of many trades. When you have a system that tips the odds in your favor, you must view the big picture and not let losing trades affect your positive mindset.
NASDAQ:NFLXEducation
by Level8Trading
3
A simple trend-following strategySo I like to trade without speculation, but if I do decide trade *with* speculation, then this is a way that I like to do it. This is my version of the Turtle trading strategy. I really don't know or care what their specifics are, because I just don't have the patience for anyone who unironically trades daily timeframes. My version of this strategy is all about finding momentum candles that breach support and resistance and then giving them room to grow. So... first thing's first. Once you've decided on your level of risk, then under *no* circumstance can you break that during this process. I cannot make this any more clear! If your risk is $15, then it's $15 from start to finish. If it's $1000, then it's $1000 from start to finish. This way, as you follow the trend, you create a scenario for yourself where your wins (which will in all likelihood be less frequent than your losses) will be very big wins. We're talking like 15:1 ratios on a 1 minute chart wins. Now, because you have to stick to your level of risk, that means you have to get your math right when you're dragging around your stop losses on multiple tickets. If you have 4 buys in different positions, you have to get your exact stop loss level correct for all of them so that your total risk doesn't exceed what you risked when you started this trade setup. So the rules: 1) You enter on the close of a momentum candle (and a momentum candle *only*) that breaches a recent support or resistance. This is a break of structure and is indicative of a potential reversal. It does not mean the price is reversing, and it is likely you will lose this trade. You stop loss goes underneath the momentum candle, and that's how you'll measure your risk for the first ticket. 2) You only add to your position on momentum candles that come after a pullback. You're not looking for Fibonacci numbers or anything, but just look at the exact candlesticks. You want to see a conscious effort from your opposition trying to drive the price down, preferably with some consolidation candles that follow afterward. Then, when you see a momentum candle following the trend you're trying to ride (preferably with little to no wick in the trend direction), you add to that position. 3) You repeat step 2 until you have a ratio that you're happy with, or if you see a break of structure, as in a pullback pivot point being exceeded. That's it. That's the entire strategy. It's simple and effective, but it will only make you money if you're disciplined and stick to the rules. With that said, let's have more examples... I think I messed up in this picture actually - there's a break of structure right at the top of that first wave, so I probably would've seen the writing on the wall and would get out. The only reason one might stay in on this logically, is because the downward pressure isn't momentous. Identifying momentum is extremely important to this strategy. I would highly recommend mixing my non-speculative strategy in with this one so that you're not losing money by waiting (missing out), getting frustrated and entering on bad setups, or having to feel like you've taken a loss simply because you were wrong. My non-speculative limit order trade plan fuels my account to make these kinds of trades.
Education
by WinkleTrades
2
1% risk per trade is too much, try this insteadHello traders, Remember when you just started trading, almost everywhere you could hear about the 1% per trade risk rule? While this is not too bad, I think in most cases 1% risk is too much. Here's why: 1. If you're trading a 100k prop firm account, 1% is $1000. Imagine you have a very usual losing streak of 3-4 trades. Now you've lost 3-4%, and $3-4k in dollar amount. If you're a day trader, it could happen in one day easily. Ask yourself honestly, how would you feel about it all and if you will be capable of executing your edge? 2. Most prop firms will have a 5-10% drawdown breach rule So again, a very usual losing streak will take you halfway to account termination. 3. 1% risk leaves almost no room for days where you executed poorly or traded emotionally. We are all humans and we make mistakes. Something goes wrong and you trade the setup you were not supposed to be trading. And instead of stopping after 3 losers, you continue to trade more. So what can we do about it? My suggestion is very simple: risk no more than 0.1-0.25% per trade. If your average winner is 3-7RR, then with a good account size a 1% winner is just huge and more than enough. And if you're going through the evaluation process, such a small risk will keep your equity curve in control and still will allow you to grow it to profit targets. Hope it helps!
Education
by Yelli_trades
Weekly Quote | 7 Rules of a Consistent WinnerHello trader, here's a quote from the great book "Trading in the Zone". Hope you'll find some inspiration or maybe even practical advice here. I'm a consistent winner because: 1. I objectively identify my edges. 2. I predefine the risk of every trade. 3. I completely accept risk ($ risk, risk of not being right, not being perfect, being wrong, losing money, missing out, and leaving money on the table). If not - I am willing to let go of the trade. 4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation. 5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me (take partials). 6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors (emotional pain or euphoria). 7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them. Best Regards, Dima
OANDA:XAGUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
2
Trade setups I would take and how to manage riskJust like this. Buy and sell limits above and below structure, as in the most recent highs/lows, with your TP in general being a return to structure. Brutally easy way to scalp and make money. Few more examples... This one shows where the stop loss might be. In general, I go with a 2/3 or 3/4 type rule, where I'll have a wide cluster of limits, then a gap, then a hard stop that closes all of them. Just in case. Your order clusters should be wide enough with this strategy that it almost never gets hit. Regular market movement should not be hitting your stop loss. That kind of behavior should generally be reserved for news events that catch you off guard. Now as far as actual risk goes, this is entirely determined by you and no one else. There's no single correct way to do this. A lot of people are dead set on the idea that you should never risk 10% of your account, but how big is the account? Is it $10,000? Is it $100? If it's $100, why not risk $50+ when the odds of a loss are very low? On EUR/USD, you might have a hard stop loss of 50 pips with 15 tickets separated by 2 pips each. Each ticket would be 1k (0.01 lots). If 1 pip on a 1k is $0.10, then a 50 pip stop loss is $5. Your second ticket is 2 pips away, so that loss would be $4.80. Third $4.60, and so on. It's doable, right? Maybe the price dips 20 pips into your counter-trend limit cluster, eating 10 limits. Then the price returns to the support or resistance near your starting point, and you decide to close all of your tickets. The profits from that would be $2.00, then $1.80, then $1.60, and so on. That might not seem like much in comparison to the stop loss, but consider this: your stop loss will have a 0-5% chance of ever getting hit. It's straight profit. And it's constant, and consistent. I cannot stress that enough! You can be doing this all day long. So, what if you want to follow a trend in this manner? It's the same deal, really... just throw limit orders below (or above) trending wicks. Like this: It's all just structure. You bet with structure, and you bet against structure. At all times. You only require a 50% retracement from your starting ticket in order to break even. If you even feel uncomfortable with what's going on in front of you, it doesn't take much for you to get out safely and start over with a new cluster of limits. There is absolutely nothing wrong with closing out safely. You'll be trading so frequently you aren't even a little bit obligated to let things "play out". Maybe you don't like how quickly the momentum built into your cluster, and it retraces down to the 50% area so you wanna break even, but then you start laying more limits above and below because you believe that momentum is likely to slow down. I'm gonna tear down a phrase that I'm sick of hearing: the trend is your friend . The trend could be the worst friend you've ever had. Sometimes he's really cool, and he's the life of the party. But he really likes hanging out with you, especially when nothing is going on. He really likes to wait! He doesn't exactly value your time, and he's perfectly content sitting in a chair next to you watching paint dry. He smacks the remote out of your hand when you try to turn on the TV. This trend guy can be a real jerk sometimes. You also suspect he might be bi-polar, because sometimes when you get excited to do things with him, his mood shifts the moment you open your mouth and suddenly the fun has been sucked out of the room. That is the trend. On some pairs like USD/JPY, a trend can go on for a very long time, and there's a lot of money to be made. The problem is it is speculative . You don't know where that trend is going to end. Nobody is clairvoyant, and most people will make incorrect guesses. If you simply remove this requirement of speculation, where you have to be "correct" in your guesses in order to make money, you will do better in almost any market. If your goal in trading is to make consistent money, then the trend is not your friend. He's an acquaintance at best. You have to associate with him in business and that's about it. You spend just as much time associating with the counter-trend, because you should be doing business with both of them constantly. Now, on the other hand, if your goal is to invest (AKA gambling), that's a separate concept entirely. You're trying to grow a tree from a seed when you invest, and there's nothing wrong with that. But most people cannot live off of it. You can't even order pizza with your investments until they come to fruition. A trader can make consistent money every single day, without knowing or caring where the market is going or what it's going to do. Price continues trend, price retests, trader makes money. Price reverses, price retests, trader makes money. That's it . No waiting for retarded "key support levels", no waiting for "confirmation", no speculation, no technical analysis. Just raw risk management, getting in and out of the market quickly and constantly. Now, the one downside to being this kind of trader is you generally can't do this easily with the basic tools provided by your platform, meaning you would need scripts, EAs or whatever in order to quickly deploy limit clusters. The tool I'm working on allows me to drag a horizontal line on the screen, and I have a panel of buttons that do interesting things. I can click "Sell limits" and a whole bunch of sell limit orders appear just above the line. I can move that line again and click "Adjust TP", and the take profits for all of those orders will appear right below the structural retest point I'm targeting. I have buttons to close profits, to close pendings, close all tickets... it's just the bees knees. This is an MT5 EA, which most people won't be using, but I trade on CryptoAltum so that's what I use. I will leave it here for free. Lastly, have some limit order porn. Every single rectangle is a place where you could've had limits that got filled and made money. On really strong trends, you might notice that the retracement only returns to around the 50% point of your limit cluster, but you'll notice how uncommon that is and how easily you could've gotten out with little to no loss. A lot of the time, I won't even restrict myself to structure (swing highs and swing lows) even though that's the most reliable way to do it. I'll literally just put limits above and below any wick because I feel like it and I can make a profit in all likelihood. ...Anyway. I hope you enjoyed this write-up. Leave a comment if you did, or have any questions!
Education
by WinkleTrades
The easiest way to make money tradingI'm going to show you one of the simplest, and most effective ways to trade. Period. Just about every other type of trading is speculation; this is not. This is making money regardless of where the market goes, and you don't even have to have a clue as to what the market is going to do next. I repeat: you do not need to know where the market is going to make money . In these pictures, every rectangle represents a cluster of small limit orders getting filled, with the anchor point (starting place) being a wick rejection. That's it! You'll notice that in almost all of those cases, the retracement from the limit block exceeds 100%, meaning 100% of the limit orders in that block are profitable. You only actually need to see the price retrace by 50% of that block to break even. This is why I laugh when people say "the trend is your friend". The counter-trend is your friend too. The market is your friend. You don't have to know where the price is going, and you can make money in either direction as long as you're placing your limit orders in a way that goes with the flow. You're trying to capitalize on liquidity 100% of the time, and liquidity is really, really common. You can literally place trades based on every single candle if you want to! If there is a wick, you can trade it. Even if you're wrong, having tiny limit orders spread out through a cluster based on that wick means your hard stop loss would be hit rarely. You should still definitely have a hard stop loss, just in case a doomsday scenario comes. So imagine you have a $2000 account. On a 1k (0.01 lot size), 10 pips is $1. Let's say you have 100 limit orders, separated by 1 pip each. 50 of your limit orders get hit, and then the price retraces by 50 pips. Given that your average entry point would be 25 pips (the halfway point), you would have made 25 pips profit on a 50k, meaning $125 profit on a very high probability trade. In those pictures, even the big moves don't hit all 100 of your limit orders, not at once. Not even 50 all at once. I'm not saying that doesn't happen obviously, but the probability of it happening is very low in relation to how frequently you'd be making profitable trades. So what you do is you either commission a script or write your own to deploy all these limits very quickly. I'm currently having one commissioned for me in MT5 which works very well. I can drag a horizontal line that serves as an anchor point, deploying x amount of limit orders with y distance between each other, z order sizes (0.01). I can even have them all share the same stop loss and take profit, or have SL/TPs a specific distance from each individual ticket. I'd show this stuff here, but TradingView doesn't like pictures coming from the outside. If you use metatrader 5 and would like my tools, feel free to message me. I'm not sure if I can edit this later, but I hope I can... I tend to rethink things a lot and hate having to finalize something. Anyway. I hope this helps.
FX:XAUUSDEducation
by WinkleTrades
10