Michael "Grimweird" Tan
Private, 1st Class
- Messages
- 53
Thanks for taking the trouble to read this. I appreciate your kind attention
I'm a Forex newbie and I'd like to get some feedback as to my current trading strategy/method, I have no knowledge of the technical jargon commonly used in the industry, so I have to resort to lay terms, sorry.
In the simplest terms, I trade according to "Time" and "News".
Basically:
I keep an eye on when New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, The Middle East, Germany, the UK and the US opens for the trading day. From what I have observed, 1.5-2 hours before each region opens the charts show movement and these moves may change direction based on prevailing trends, current events and expected announcements in relation to the pair of the currency I'm trading. As an example EURO/USD in anticipation of and in response to the recent FOMC announcements.
I try to avoid trading and close positions approx 30mins before and 15-30 mins after the actual announcement or event or regional market opening as I often can only guess which direction the spike is going to "stab". Oftentimes it may be the opposite direction many trading "experts" predict. So instead of taking the risk and the resultant massive profits/losses I think it may be better for the n00b to wait and see. Frequently I find I can still make modest profits but at a much reduced risk.
I also make sure I have my "Trading Twitter Account" on and following Reuters World News, WSJ, The Economist and CNN in case of any market shaking "Breaking News". Using this, I have managed to both minimize losses and make at least small profits whenever these events occur.
I also make sure I get updates from knowledgeable folks like our resident Sive, Andy and Jarrat and thoroughly read through their daily write-ups and predictions as well as those of others every day before deciding on which one or at most two currency pair(s) to pay special attention to.
I have very little understanding on the various tools available for "technical analysis" and I know next to nothing about many of the trading "bots" out there, so until I can get a better understanding of these, I'll stick to my own (probably over simplistic) way of reading the charts this would namely be:
1. Look at the chart from the daily, hourly and half hourly perspective.
2. Identify the "highest" and "lowest" peak prices and the "middle" price lines running through the chart.
3. Wait for the price to get either very high or very low in relation to the middle and place my money to go the other direction.
4. This of course is done in conjunction with all the other stuff I mentioned earlier on in the post.
5. I tend to take modest profits ONLY. Once the trade has made about 50-60% profit, I bug out and close. Same if the chart suddenly goes berserk for no reason I can understand.
This approach seems to work for me somehow, although I spend a LOT of time waiting and scrutinizing the charts for all these conditions to be met before opening a position, the effort and time is more often than not justified. I feel that this method is more about minimizing risk than about maximizing profit, but as far as I'm concerned at this point in my life, not losing money is already making a profit in Forex trading
Please provide me with as much feedback as you can spare, it's fine if you want to ridicule and laugh at the n00b But I really need to learn and I need to learn as quickly and as well as I can. So please leave me comments, critiques and suggestions as to how I can improve.
Many thanks in advance guys. A thousand pips to you
Mike.
I'm a Forex newbie and I'd like to get some feedback as to my current trading strategy/method, I have no knowledge of the technical jargon commonly used in the industry, so I have to resort to lay terms, sorry.
In the simplest terms, I trade according to "Time" and "News".
Basically:
I keep an eye on when New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, The Middle East, Germany, the UK and the US opens for the trading day. From what I have observed, 1.5-2 hours before each region opens the charts show movement and these moves may change direction based on prevailing trends, current events and expected announcements in relation to the pair of the currency I'm trading. As an example EURO/USD in anticipation of and in response to the recent FOMC announcements.
I try to avoid trading and close positions approx 30mins before and 15-30 mins after the actual announcement or event or regional market opening as I often can only guess which direction the spike is going to "stab". Oftentimes it may be the opposite direction many trading "experts" predict. So instead of taking the risk and the resultant massive profits/losses I think it may be better for the n00b to wait and see. Frequently I find I can still make modest profits but at a much reduced risk.
I also make sure I have my "Trading Twitter Account" on and following Reuters World News, WSJ, The Economist and CNN in case of any market shaking "Breaking News". Using this, I have managed to both minimize losses and make at least small profits whenever these events occur.
I also make sure I get updates from knowledgeable folks like our resident Sive, Andy and Jarrat and thoroughly read through their daily write-ups and predictions as well as those of others every day before deciding on which one or at most two currency pair(s) to pay special attention to.
I have very little understanding on the various tools available for "technical analysis" and I know next to nothing about many of the trading "bots" out there, so until I can get a better understanding of these, I'll stick to my own (probably over simplistic) way of reading the charts this would namely be:
1. Look at the chart from the daily, hourly and half hourly perspective.
2. Identify the "highest" and "lowest" peak prices and the "middle" price lines running through the chart.
3. Wait for the price to get either very high or very low in relation to the middle and place my money to go the other direction.
4. This of course is done in conjunction with all the other stuff I mentioned earlier on in the post.
5. I tend to take modest profits ONLY. Once the trade has made about 50-60% profit, I bug out and close. Same if the chart suddenly goes berserk for no reason I can understand.
This approach seems to work for me somehow, although I spend a LOT of time waiting and scrutinizing the charts for all these conditions to be met before opening a position, the effort and time is more often than not justified. I feel that this method is more about minimizing risk than about maximizing profit, but as far as I'm concerned at this point in my life, not losing money is already making a profit in Forex trading
Please provide me with as much feedback as you can spare, it's fine if you want to ridicule and laugh at the n00b But I really need to learn and I need to learn as quickly and as well as I can. So please leave me comments, critiques and suggestions as to how I can improve.
Many thanks in advance guys. A thousand pips to you
Mike.