Beginner Luck

[SmoothTraderFX]

Quote from nycderivtrader:

I have started trading on the oanda simulator and after having some difficulty, have started to make some money (fake money) off forex. I have been entering into large EUR/USD contracts, looking to get 3-8 pips per trade.

Tonight I have placed 8 trades, with gains of:
8 pips
3 pips
-2 pips
5 pips
4 pips
4 pips
0 pips
3 pips

And my record so far for today is up 2.465%

I haven't been a fan at all of TA, and just go with short term gut feel, trying to play the upward and downward movement- I am sure this is not always going to be as successful as tonight.

Comments?

Yes. You cannot keep the business that way.
Say the spread is 3-5 pips, which is the cost of your one trade.
It's so obvious sculping such as 5 pips or 10 pips is way too small for the cost.
your '0 pips' is result from the favor move from your initial entry, but you just earned the spread and give it to the market.

Look for at least 20 pips, although personally, it's still small.
Good luck.

 

[dv8]

I have traded both equaties and forex; these are two very different markets.

You could scalp on the NYSE and make a very good living (reits were very good to me), but forex is a different market.

You need a good strategy for trading a trending market with a positive risk to reward ratio. Right now, you have a negative risk to reward. Why risk more than you are taking as profit?

I have seen many traders crash and burn because they did not understand that money management is the most important aspect of currency trading. So why risk 10 points (most stop losses can only be set as close as 10 pips to entry) and take 8 points profit when the trendiness of these markets will run 20-50 on a regular basis and like the Euro this week 200+.

FWIW, I have been trading forex intraday for almost three years using a risk to reward target of 1:4.

dv8

 

[Momento]

If you are trading based on gut feeling... i wish you luck in Forex.
Highly leveraged trading instruments are the worst picks for gut plays. It will kill you sooner or later in matters of minutes.