My Personal Forex Scalping Strategy
May 5, 2012
Here find more reviews of my personal trading strategy and how I use the forex markets as an investment tool
Developing your Trading Strategy — Timing of Entry
Apr 30, 2012
When defining the requirements for your trading strategy, and you are specifying the timing of your entry, traders like to use terms like set—ups, triggers and conditions.
Set—ups are your reasons for looking at a potential trade. For example, where a price has been hitting a resistance level for the last few days and looks like breaking through, this might be regarded as a set-up. Another example might be the observation that the price is forming an ascending triangle or a double top, or any chart pattern. Such set-ups may encourage you to place a company on your watch list and wait for confirmation that the share price has broken out of the triangle or that the double top has actually occurred. Set-ups are normally a series of events observed on a chart over an extended period of time.
In contrast, a trigger will, more than likely, be a single event that generates a buy signal for you. Examples include break—outs, significant candlesticks, or indicators crossing through relevant reference lines.
Conditions are another part of your entry decision. Your conditions will normally be trend—based, because you want to trade with the trend. You may get several triggers when looking at a particular company, however, a trigger is not valid unless it is accompanied by an underlying condition. You might stipulate, for example, that a share price must be trading above its 30—day simple moving average and must have been doing so for at least the last five trading days, before you will act on triggers. If this condition is not met, you will not initiate a trade.
Day Trading Forex — Intraday Candlestick Patterns
Apr 29, 2012
Using forex trading candlesticks to identify trend continuation. This forex trading strategy will allow you to capitalize on a trending market, in addition to forex reversal points.
Developing your Trading Strategy — Entry Signals
Apr 27, 2012
When you set about developing your trading strategy, you obviously come across your decision to enter and what conditions you will attempt to identify. Unfortunately, whilst your trading strategy and entry signal is one the first decision you make when trading, it is one of the least important decision.
There are far more important issues, such as determining your trade size and what your exit plan is.
Some people believe that if they spend most of their time determining an appropriate entry signal and making the decision to buy, they increase their chances of having a profitable trade.
In trading, there are some time-tested rules regarding entry. The simplest of these is to follow the trend; that is, when a price is trending up, buy it, and when a share price is trending down, sell it (or dont buy it).
Extending from this premise is an infinite number of possible entry signals. Most traders believe that there is no perfect entry signal, so don’t do what most people do and undertake a determined search for the perfect entry signal, only to be disappointed when you cant find it.
Using technical analysis to judge entry points, in my opinion, really just increases your chances of being right in the trade.
Free Forex Trading Strategy
This three videos present an example of a free Forex trading strategy based on the pivot points, trend lines and the MACD indicator. The first video explains the entry system, the second one is about th…
Weekly Trading Update (July 15, 2011)
“Only trained eyes can see what the financial markets have to offer.” – Naspoz
Hello:
Often and often, there are great similarities between trading and other areas of human endeavor. Many of those who succeed at their careers love what they do and are ever ready to spend their energy, time and resources to achieve goals that tend to elude an average individual. Very few of them have financial gains as their top priority. Many beginner traders are quickly attracted to trading and tend to think it’s very easy to make money (because they think the secret to riches lies in some newly-purchased trading system/software). It’s very common for traders to say they love trading at first – having great faith in their trading strategy. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to make money consistently in trading simply because the human mind isn’t wired to do the right things in the markets. It’s also sure that your passion for trading would be seriously tested by the financial markets. If money is your only objective in anything you do, you’d quit when you face great hindrances. Are you motivated to make money? This is an inverse attitude because the best traders/investors aren’t motivated to make money; they’re motivated by drive to be the best or by the joy of trading or by the desire to work on themselves.
Below is the summary of some of my trading activities this week.
AUDUSD
Primary Trend: Bullish
The strong resistance at 1.0800 easily rejected the advance of the bulls. Since then the price has zigzagged down. It’s obvious that the Aussie is running out of stamina. The trend may turn bearish at last, and therefore I’ll go short anytime from now.
NZDUSD
Primary trend: Bullish
My long trade was exited at breakeven during a short-term sell-off on this pair. The possibility of northbound continuation seems intact, but I’m not dogmatic on this point.
Order: Buy
Entry date: June 30, 2011
Entry price: 0.8265
Stop loss: 0.8157
Trailing stop: N/A
Take profit: 0.8857
Exit date: July 12, 2011
Exit price: 0.8265
Status: Closed
Profit/loss: 0 pips (breakeven)
EURCAD
Primary trend: Bearish
I’m looking for a short trade in this market; either later today or early on Monday. Based on the past price actions, it makes a lot of sense to sell a rally in a vivid downtrend, especially with the expectation of more weakness in the Euro.
EURAUD
Primary trend: Bearish
Later today or earlier on Monday, I’d go short on this cross. It’ll just be a sell-on-a-rally approach; just like the EURCAD. The price is trying to consolidate, and one of the most reliable entry methods for many, many years has been the breakout of an area of consolidation.
EURNZD
Primary trend: Bearish
It’s hard to tell when the downtrend will end, when a weak currency is pitted against a strong one. The price is quoted below the SMA50 and SMA 200. The ADX 20 level is pointing around 50, suggesting that the trend is very strong, but may be temporarily stalled. The -DI is also far above the +DI.
Order: Sell
Entry date: June 30, 2011
Entry price: 1.7531
Stop loss: 1.7649
Trailing stop: 1.7381
Take profit: 1.6949
Exit date: July 11, 2011
Exit price: 1.6949
Status: Closed
Profit/loss: 582 pips
AUDJPY%
Primary trend: Bullish
I had to go short on this instrument. There’s been a serious threat to the bullish bias, and this is expected to continue, which would soon force the primary trend to turn bearish. Only a very small portion of the portfolio would be exposed; something that goes against the mindset of the starry-eyed trader.
Order: Sell
Entry date: July 12, 2011
Entry price: 85.42
Stop loss: 86.46
Trailing stop: N/A
Take profit: 82.46
Exit date: N/A
Exit price: N/A
Status: Open
Profit/loss: 49 pips
Conclusion: An average person doesn’t have a chance at profitable trading because he or she concentrates on all of the wrong things. You won’t learn the real secret of trading success watching the financial news, reading financial magazines, or reading the mainstream financial newspapers, because the media will totally ignore the most significant aspects of trading success. But you can learn it by studying risk management principles. You must learn little-known, closely-guarded secrets that are not published in books and that you’re not likely to find unless you accidentally stumble upon them.
The article is ended with helpful quotes from Joe Ross
1. “Trading and investing decisions are often driven by fear and greed… When we are greedy, we tend towards buying. However, it’s a little more complicated than that. Regret and hope also come into play. We may buy and sell to avoid feelings of regret, or may hold on to a losing position out of denial and a fruitless hope that a loser will turn around.”
2. “Other emotions have a more indirect influence. Due to inattention, we may make a trading error. For example, when we are tired or frustrated, we may act too soon or too late. Similarly, during a serious drawdown, it’s hard not to feel a little depressed and frustrated to the point that we just want to give up the whole business of trading or investing altogether.”
3. “The impact of common emotions of fear, greed, hope, and regret may seem obvious to many. But it’s possible that incidental emotions elicited by events that have nothing to do with the markets may bias our decisions. It just goes to show that trading is a psychological endeavor. Keeping extreme emotions at bay is paramount. The more we can stay logical and objective, the more we’ll trade profitably.”
Your questions and opinions are highly welcome.
Thank you,
With best regards,
Azeez Mustapha
Forex Signals Strategist, Funds Manager &Coach
Email: amustapha@fxinstructor.com
Get my Forex trading signals at: http://www.fxinstructor.com/en/analytics/ituglobal
And my past articles are also available at: www.ituglobalforex.blogspot.com
Yahoo! Messenger ID: saazalmu
NB: There is risk of loss in trading, but it is possible to be a successful trader.
Monthly Trading Report (June 2011)
“Sometimes the return of your money is more important than the return on your money.” – An old British banker
Hello:
It’s necessary that I give a monthly report of the results from the strategies I use for signals generation and trading. The trading results from my weekly trading updates aren’t discussed here, since those who follow my articles can see for themselves when I place or close trades based on the weekly analyses. The results on live and demo accounts are similar. Only position sizes are different – in proportion to each account balance.
The USDCAD Hedging strategy has been optimized to give more frequent and profitable signals. No stop loss has been hit since the inception of this trading idea on the pair. Because the USDCAD is caught in equilibrium zones most of the time, some simulation was carried out to determine whether the profitability of this strategy could be improved by reducing the fixed target per trade by 35 pips. This ensures constant survival in the market in which both buyers and sellers are often stopped out. Nonetheless this kind of reduction would make less sense in a strongly trending market. A future article from me will explain the details of this optimization. In the month of June, our equity grew by an additional 9.5% (closed profits). The total trading time is a maximum of 15 minutes per week. One of the big mistakes in trading is to think you’ve always got to be doing something.
The Gap Trading strategy suffered some losses in the first half of June, leading to a roll-down of close to 4% on the accumulated profit. However before the end of the month, the losses were recovered and we’ve moved ahead by another 2.2% (additional 440 pips at minimum). Part of your profit would sometimes be given away: the key is to give away as little as possible so that recovery would be very much easier. Now, based on past experiences, it’s possible to forecast whether a gap would be filled or not after it occurs – with stunning accuracy. Gaps in the currency markets are usually followed by powerful price movements in the week they occur. Gap trading is a highly lucrative trading strategy – provided you know how to interpret the price actions correctly. A future article would be devoted to this advanced gap trading method.
Ralph Vince, author of 3 books on money management, allowed 50 PhDs who knew nothing about money management or statistics to play a game with 60% accuracy (which is certainly much better than any game you’ll ever play in Las Vegas) for 100 trials. They weren’t given any incentive for winning – which can cause stupid behavior. They were merely instructed to make as much money as possible playing the game. Guess how many of them made money? Only 2 of them! And these results aren’t unique. The markets can remain irrational longer than most traders can remain solvent. That’s why majority of traders would continue to suffer in the financial markets unless they embrace safe money management.
Why is it important that we understand money management? Because the main reason people think that trading is a dead-end activity is that they are unaware of – or choose to ignore – the purpose and power of this principle. Make money and risk management the focus of your trading activity. That’s what will make you a successful trader.
Would You Like to Trade Like Me? I look forward to helping you to learn and grow your skills as you trade this huge, but extremely volatile, Forex market. During these turbulent times, I will be at your service through the cutting-edge articles from me and giving you access to some trading accounts that enable you to see how I trade, apply the risk control measures I preach, manage open positions (so that you can do so accordingly), and to help you make good trading choices. A helpful gift is also coming the way of my paid subscribers on today. This gift could be yours too. And, if needed for special help in trading, I am available via e-mail. I look forward to your starting your subscription. You may join me at: http://www.fxinstructor.com/en/analytics/ituglobal
Lastly, the team at Fxinstructor.com has been making efforts to help traders out there realize their dreams of profitable market experience. Please let them take you by hand and lead you to trading mastery.
NB: Please watch out for my coming articles with these titles: ‘Resist the Lure of High Risk – Part 3,’ ‘Carrying Out Stealth Raids in Weak and Strong Markets,’ ‘Worst-case Scenarios – Facts Are Sacred,’ ‘Effective Swing Trading in Forex,’ ‘Advanced Gap Trading – Trading with Insane Accuracy,’ ‘3 Recent Gap Trades,’ ‘Trading for a Livelihood – One of the Best Jobs in the World,’ ‘If I Were a Trading Neophyte…,’ ‘Developing the Right Attitude towards Losses – Part 3,’ ‘The True Holy Grail – The Long Sought for,’ ‘Achieve Success through Sensible Risk-to-reward Ratio (An Interview with a Trading Enthusiast),’ ‘ Clarifying Some Issues – Part 5,’ ‘Optimization of the USDCAD Hedging Strategy – Bringing the USDCAD to Subjection,’ ‘A CHF Breakout Strategy,’ ‘Overview of My Signals Strategies,’ ‘Is It Realistic to Give Guarantees in Trading?’ ‘The Proper Way of Using the Bollinger Bands – Learn the Truth from the Horse’s Mouth,’ ‘Monthly Trading Report (July 2011),’ etc.
I end this article with a quote from Joe Ross:
“Traders don’t seem willing to admit that once they are filled, the situation becomes 100% managerial. Most traders concentrate on finding the perfect entry signal. But you can teach a chicken to place a trade in the market based on an entry signal. What you can’t teach the chicken is how to manage the trade once the market provides a fill.”
Your questions and opinions are highly welcome.
Thank you.
With best regards,
Azeez Mustapha
Forex Signals Strategist, Funds Manager &Coach
Email: amustapha@fxinstructor.com
Yahoo! Messenger ID: saazalmu
Get my Forex trading signals at: http://www.fxinstructor.com/en/analytics/ituglobal
And my past articles are also available at: www.ituglobalforex.blogspot.com
NB: There is risk of loss in trading, but it is possible to be a successful trader.
Monthly Trading Report (May 2011)
“… There’s a way to know exactly when to exit and how much you’re willing to accept. More importantly, the [market] can gap as much as it wants, but you’d lose only the predetermined amount you decided upon when you entered the position.”- Jim Augustine (square brackets mine)
Hello:
It’s been decided that I’d report my trading results on monthly basis, especially the trading results from the strategies I use to give my trading signals. These trading strategies are used on the accounts made accessible to my clients who see how I open trades and manage them, and thus trade accordingly. The trading results from my weekly trading update wouldn’t be included because I’ve already made references to them in my articles.
The USDCAD Hedging strategy account grew by 1.6% last month. You know how much this would be if you were managing millions of dollars. This strategy, which is non-directional and suitable for passive investors, ensures that profits are made regardless of market directions. The USDCAD is a slow pair which mayn’t experience upwards or downwards moves of up to 150 pips for many weeks in a year. This characteristic allows very slow but steady growth on my account on annual basis.
The Gap Trading strategy has been modified to give more and better trading signals (this modification would be explained in a future article). The strategy account grew by 3.2% last month, excluding open profits. This 3.2% increase resulted from around 640-pip gain since I use 0.01 lots for each $2000 in the account. If this risk was increased fourfold, the account would’ve grown by 12.8%. But this kind of risk is too high for me. I’m a funds manager, not a gambler: little drops of water make a mighty ocean
If one uses high risk, one might see one’s trading account sailing thru the air in one period. The next period the account would be plummeting to the ground. Behold the trader (using high risk) that suffers heavy losses with the most hyped and the supposedly best strategy in the world! Behold the trader (using low risk) that survives and makes profit with a terrible system!
This issue of risk management bears repetition. It’s true that there’s no such thing as risk-free trading, and that’s why the risk MUST be managed. Always put capital preservation, not profits, first
In 2008, Dr. Van Tharp declared in an interview that, with a terrible system, you still have the chance to meet your objectives through position sizing. When you have a superb system but don’t understand position sizing, you probably won’t meet your objectives. Picking the right entry prices has nothing to do with trading success and neither do amazing trading systems with high percentage wins. It’s evident that if traders would be more interested in sound position sizing techniques that work, the experience of many traders would change for the better. Doing so, you can escape many trading woes and anxieties that majority of traders suffer today.
Satisfaction outweighs the sacrifice when attempts are made to apply sound risk management.
You may consider signing up for my trading signals services and see how I survive the markets uncertainties and move ahead gradually, and do so along with me. You can do that here: http://www.fxinstructor.com/en/analytics/ituglobal
Also, the team at Fxinstructor.com now concentrates their efforts on helping traders make progress to the greatest extent possible. There are immense benefits in taking advantage of their services. You’d be glad you do so.
NB: Please watch out for my coming articles with these titles: ‘Resist the Lure of High Risk – Part 3’ ‘Is There Really the Best Time to Trade?’ ‘Carrying Out Stealth Raids in Weak and Strong Markets,’ ‘Worst-case Scenarios’, ‘Effective Swing Trading in Forex’, ‘Advanced Gap Trading’, ‘3 Recent Gap Trades,’ ‘Trading for a Livelihood,’ ‘If I Were a Trading Neophyte…,’ ‘Developing the Right Attitude towards Losses (Part 2),’ ‘The True Holy Grail,’ ‘Achieve Success through Sensible Risk-to-reward Ratio (An Interview with A trading Enthusiast),’ ‘Monthly Trading Report (June 2011),’ etc.
This report is ended with more quotes from Dr. Mircea Dologa:
1. “Even if you’re a lucky fellow, and have discovered either by your own study or thru mentorship, the most consistent and symbiotic trading technique, there remains the problem of assimilating and practicing it.”
2. “A professional traders has a few emotions. Many readers would be surprised to hear this, but we’ll mention the word ‘confidence’… and they’ll understand it rather quickly. Nothing can be done without it. No trader will use a trading strategy without having a full confidence in its efficiency. But it’s hard work to acquire confidence. It takes many months, even years to get acquainted with the optimal tools that you’ve tested and which are prone to give the best trading results. Confidence is a rare friend that once acquired, will assist the trader day-after-day.”
3. “You attitude is based on the confidence that you have in your store of experience. Keep in mind that slumps and joys are two indispensable emotions in trading process. Being under pressure shouldn’t change this attitude. At the end, there’ll always be a new day and the sun will rise again. But keep one thing in mind: preserve your capital by holding to the rules concerning the ‘tiny bits’ stop losses.”
Your questions and opinions are highly welcome.
Thank you.
With best regards,
Azeez Mustapha
Forex Signals Strategist, Funds Manager &Coach
Email: amustapha@fxinstructor.com
Yahoo! Messenger ID: saazalmu
Get my Forex trading signals at: http://www.fxinstructor.com/en/analytics/ituglobal
And my past articles are also available at: www.ituglobalforex.blogspot.com
NB: There is risk of loss in trading, but it is possible to be a successful trader.
Fractal Based Support and Resistance Trading Strategy
May 20, 2011
This video will show you a Forex trading strategy based on Bill Williams’ Fractals indicator and the support and resistance levels (100 SMA is used for support/resistance here).
Parabolic SAR and Stochastic Trend Trading Strategy
May 15, 2011
This video offers a Forex trend trading strategy based on Parabolic SAR and Stochastic Oscillator standard indicators. It’s a great intraday strategy that can be used successfully during the London and New York trading session.