Picking your trade pair?? Why? & How?

[jcris522]

Master one pair at a time

For beginners it is definitely important to pick a pair and stick with it. This will cut out a lot of that initial confusion, but most importantly you will become familiar with it, like a mate, the more time you spend with it, the more you know what it likes and doesn't like. This may sound funny, but I can honestly say after six years of trading that each pair has it's own "personality" so to speak and some are similar to others while some are the complete opposite. Through consistent backtesting, demo and live trading on one pair you will start to see what I am talking about. It is best to focus on one pair until you are intimate with it and have developed techniques that consistently work and then move onto the next pair. I have found that trading methods that are successful with one pair will also be successful with others by tweaking it according to the pairs personality. For example, when I trade the eur/usd I use 50 pip stacks and am less aggressive, however I also trade the gbp/jpy and cad/jpy using the same technique, but I use 100 pip stacks and also increase my lot size.

 

[Ricex]

Sorry I don't agree, if you want to trade currencies then you need to learn at the beginning that there is no point wasting time and losing money on a pair that's going no where. You will make life very difficult for yourself if you restrict your possibilities and the potential to make high probability trades. Go trade where it's easy to trade not where you've glued yourself to the spot.
Learn from the start that speculative trading on the foreign exchange involves scanning the pairs and making a choice, weak vs strong, this skill is part of trading and needs to be learned.
Trying to trade the eur/usd as a novice whilst it ranges wildly and whips you out of every trade will empty your account very quickly.

This is a probability game, do all you can to increase your probability of winning, choosing the right pair to trade is part of increasing that probability. This market does not forgive.

 

[jcris522]

Sorry I don't agree, if you want to trade currencies then you need to learn at the beginning that there is no point wasting time and losing money on a pair that's going no where. You will make life very difficult for yourself if you restrict your possibilities and the potential to make high probability trades. Go trade where it's easy to trade not where you've glued yourself to the spot.
Learn from the start that speculative trading on the foreign exchange involves scanning the pairs and making a choice, weak vs strong, this skill is part of trading and needs to be learned.
Trying to trade the eur/usd as a novice whilst it ranges wildly and whips you out of every trade will empty your account very quickly.

This is a probability game, do all you can to increase your probability of winning, choosing the right pair to trade is part of increasing that probability. This market does not forgive.

Well then I agree to disagree, when first starting out the forex is very overwhelming, so many pairs with the ability to trade anytime of day or night and if you try to develop a method by starting out with 4 or 5 pairs, in my experience it will never happen. I treat it more as a business than as a game. For example, someone that, with no experience, opens 3 grocery stores at one time will most likely fail in all three. On the other hand if one opens a grocery store and learns the business inside and out and finds the most efficient and profitable ways to run the store, will most likely be successful in opening additional stores. This is my experience with the forex, I found trading techniques that work over time in one pair and once I am completely comfortable and consistently making money on that pair, I will broaden my horizons and see how the technique can work with other pairs, meanwhile I continue trading my original pair while researching additional pairs. What you explained above is more like a game, like gambling and that also can work for people, but it will take years for one to become a consistent full-time trader, as you make gains here and losses there and hope at the end that your gains will outweigh your losses.

 

[Sam Nyahando]

I am hooked on GBP/USD this is because amongst all the pairs it seems to have quiet a big range every trading day. Usually avaraging 150 pips on a given day.

 

[Eric Alyea]

learning how to post (charts)

Yeh you got good action on that and I'm learning how to be dangerous by proving it.
If this doesn't work. I'm bothering the Ass. Mod.



oh: did it work????



Warm seat on a toilet it worked.
You guys are in trouble now.

(poof it's gone, I thought a 5th grader could read it, put it back)

Hope you "Editor's" enjoyed that one! Thank you, for being so quick. I need it more than not. Your doing good work.

 

[Eric Alyea]

Worth while Discussion

Worth while Discussion

I KNEW this would be a worth while discussion.
Just had to wait on it like the Peak’s/High’s (of Resistance) and Valley’s/Low’s (of Support), and of the moment {Chart’s 1h (1 hour), 30min,15,min,5 min 1min.} moving around the pivot points of interpretation.

Now.... what is the problem?

We “ALL” want to hit the target,.. {understand the movement to score a hit (PIP) } I have to say most of you want to find and stalk a long range runner rather than popping off high score target’s or getting wet up close. It comes down to knowing your own “personal” best form of engaging the target effectively. That is something that is discovered and learned... through practice/learning/reality. Everyone is different, and you make friends with similar’s.

Here one start’s out, “For Beginners” VS “no point wasting time and losing money on a pair that's going no where”. Two different topics. For context listed below:

For beginners it is definitely important to pick a pair and stick with it. This will cut out a lot of that initial confusion, but most importantly you will become familiar with it, like a mate, the more time you spend with it, the more you know what it likes and doesn't like. This may sound funny, but I can honestly say after six years of trading that each pair has it's own "personality" so to speak and some are similar to others while some are the complete opposite. Through consistent back testing, demo and live trading on one pair you will start to see what I am talking about. It is best to focus on one pair until you are intimate with it and have developed techniques that consistently work and then move onto the next pair. I have found that trading methods that are successful with one pair will also be successful with others by tweaking it according to the pairs personality. For example, when I trade the eur/usd I use 50 pip stacks and am less aggressive, however I also trade the gbp/jpy and cad/jpy using the same technique, but I use 100 pip stacks and also increase my lot size.

Sorry I don't agree, if you want to trade currencies then you need to learn at the beginning that there is no point wasting time and losing money on a pair that's going no where. You will make life very difficult for yourself if you restrict your possibilities and the potential to make high probability trades. Go trade where it's easy to trade not where you've glued yourself to the spot.
Learn from the start that speculative trading on the foreign exchange involves scanning the pairs and making a choice, weak vs strong, this skill is part of trading and needs to be learned.
Trying to trade the eur/usd as a novice whilst it ranges wildly and whips you out of every trade will empty your account very quickly. This is a probability game, do all you can to increase your probability of winning, choosing the right pair to trade is part of increasing that probability. This market does not forgive.

If a beginner “knew” how not to waste time and money he wouldn’t.

Here I switched from the Zen Trading Practice game to Zen Money Making game. Don’t get excited. You can’t skip a phase of training, it will screw you up.
I’m a “Shooter” Rifle & Pistol (@ start I begged not to shoot pistol, it was terrible). You learn to do “ONE” shot at a time. Then you learn how to do that “One” shot faster and be as accurate as you can on “Multiple target’s”

Some time’s the strong get hurt and are weak and if you know them you know that.
Some time’s it doesn’t matter who is strong or favorite,... but the conditions of the “Track”. This year I didn’t pick a “Horse” strong or not for the Kentucy Derby. I picked a “Jockey” for a muddy track and won.

Shake hands and know it was different topics.

 

[Ricex]

Well then I agree to disagree, when first starting out the forex is very overwhelming, so many pairs with the ability to trade anytime of day or night and if you try to develop a method by starting out with 4 or 5 pairs, in my experience it will never happen. I treat it more as a business than as a game. For example, someone that, with no experience, opens 3 grocery stores at one time will most likely fail in all three. On the other hand if one opens a grocery store and learns the business inside and out and finds the most efficient and profitable ways to run the store, will most likely be successful in opening additional stores. This is my experience with the forex, I found trading techniques that work over time in one pair and once I am completely comfortable and consistently making money on that pair, I will broaden my horizons and see how the technique can work with other pairs, meanwhile I continue trading my original pair while researching additional pairs. What you explained above is more like a game, like gambling and that also can work for people, but it will take years for one to become a consistent full-time trader, as you make gains here and losses there and hope at the end that your gains will outweigh your losses.

I'm offering my point of view not looking to argue the toss, you have your way of thinking I have mine, people make up their own minds.
Your analogy of grocery stores is very simplistic and has no bearing on trading, what if he buys a store down a back alley with no passing customers?
My explanation has nothing to do with gambling, where did I mention gambling? how have you come to that conclusion?

Forex is hard there are easier markets to trade, but if you want to make a go of it then there are certain skills that you will need to master, if you can't handle looking at more than one pair then no matter how cuddly you get with the eur/usd you'll freak out in the real world and join the other 98%.

I'm not looking to sell anything, I tell it as I see it, people will discover for themselves that staying with one pair is like always staring at a 5min chart, you have the blinkers on.

Btw I'm not talking about opening positions on 5 different pairs at the same time, I'm just talking about using your eyes to find that one high probability trade.

Lets keep our knickers on....

 

[jcris522]

I'm offering my point of view not looking to argue the toss, you have your way of thinking I have mine, people make up their own minds.
Your analogy of grocery stores is very simplistic and has no bearing on trading, what if he buys a store down a back alley with no passing customers?
My explanation has nothing to do with gambling, where did I mention gambling? how have you come to that conclusion?

Forex is hard there are easier markets to trade, but if you want to make a go of it then there are certain skills that you will need to master, if you can't handle looking at more than one pair then no matter how cuddly you get with the eur/usd you'll freak out in the real world and join the other 98%.

I'm not looking to sell anything, I tell it as I see it, people will discover for themselves that staying with one pair is like always staring at a 5min chart, you have the blinkers on.

Btw I'm not talking about opening positions on 5 different pairs at the same time, I'm just talking about using your eyes to find that one high probability trade.

Lets keep our knickers on....

I guess you missed the part that I agreed to disagree, that basically means that I respect your opinion, but have a different opinion of my own, that is called a discussion, not an argument. Throughout my message I also clearly stated that these opinions were based on my experiences in the market. It was pretty obvious that no one was arguing, just stating opinions. You called it a game of high probability, that's exactly what you do in poker, which is considered a game, which is a form of gambling, hence my reference to gambling. Any beginning traders that I have traded with would disagree with the above statement about one pair, but then again, just my experience.

 

[Ricex]

Such is life, apologies, my gaelic persuasions must have been on full defense mode.

Yeah I do call it a game but that's not to trivialise the business of trading. As soon as we mention the word 'game' we can be easily judged as not taking things seriously, or gambling.

The forex game has challenges and objectives with rules, and requires skill and strategy to win. The number of lives that you have will depend on many things but we do our best to avoid elimination.

I personally feel at ease with the 'probability game' perception of forex, a game I've become much better at over the years. Where there is repetition in the market we can apply probability, with discipline we only take the trade with the highest probability, that's how I get to win in this game, others have different ideas, that's cool whatever works for you.

In my experience novice traders are high on expectation low on knowledge and skill, very much like learner car drivers. The coordination of pedals, steering wheel, gears and observation are what make a good driver, understanding their relationship to one another is what makes a good driver, and you can't just concentrate on one element, you have to take it on as a whole new skill, difficult at the start of course but with practice you look back and laugh at how you thought it would be impossible.

I can understand your thinking, I used to think the same, but I now put a lot more priority and importance on being able to select the right pair to trade.