Getting good at trading currencies

[Miragers]

Well if your into putting alot of time into research and have a longet time horizon look at currency futures and futures options combinations. One you set up a position you dont have to do much maintenance if you do it correctly and even if you only have a small profit target the leverage makes up for it. Best thing is you can take on as much or as little risk and you want and you know what it is ahead of time.

Ex.
I have a 2 contract Sept/Dec futures position on now along with modified collars around it and my max gain is over 13k at Sept expiration and max loss is around 2-4k right now. And I can make adjustments to it along the way to reduce risk or increase profit depending on how things look.

 

[bigmrfrank]

Quote from drasfs:

Well I would guess that ive over 5000 hours of experience watching charts, as i've been intra day trading/scalping for over 3 years, approximately 6-16 hours a day. It's how I currently make a living.

I've only been intraday trading through the study of price action,support and resistance and getting a feeling of how the price on the currency behaves.
Well not everything have been scalping. Sometimes I stay in for a longer period of time, and sometimes i even trade the news.

Here is a typical day of how my trades can look like. 13 trades during a little more than one day:

http://img142.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ddhn9.jpg

However, ive been reading about all these tecnical indicators,,candelsticsk analysis, and being able to setup a mechanical system. I'm very curious about learning these things, and being able to trade on longer time frames, as ive only done the things I said before(support/resistance,price action et), in short time frames.

Cabletrader: Well i dont think it is easy. But I'm partly doing this because I'm interested.

Those are almost a year old. Have anything recent.

 

[drasfs]

Mirages: sorry, I dont really understand what you were trying to describe, since im not too knowledgeable when it comes to futures. It's an interesting area,but also a very complicated one?


Bigmrfrank: No I closed my account with my broker about 1.5 months ago, have been studying ever since and put my capital in other investments in the mean time. I just have a demo account know with oanda,trying out longer time frames ^^ Though if you want to know how I fared in recent times, I can tell you I've been doing a little better, since scalping is easier when you have about 1pip spread, instead of 3pips(which forex.com had at that time). For instance more opportunities (with the lower spread), and two pips bigger profit on each trade.

 

[Miragers]

Quote from drasfs:

Mirages: sorry, I dont really understand what you were trying to describe, since im not too knowledgeable when it comes to futures. It's an interesting area,but also a very complicated one?

Well it can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. For example I use futures in place of actual currency positions since i dont have to pay interest on the position. One EURO futures contract acts the same as 125,000 in the spot market. So if you think the EURO will be up VS USD next quarter from current levels and your willing to give up some upside for downside protection go go long 1 June Futures at lest say 1.46, buy a 1.46 put for downside protection and sell like a 1.52 june call to cover some of the cost of the put, your protected on the downside but your cost for that is upside potential past 1.52 minus the remaining cost of the put between 1.46 and 1.52.

 

[drasfs]

Quote from Miragers:

Well it can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. For example I use futures in place of actual currency positions since i dont have to pay interest on the position. One EURO futures contract acts the same as 125,000 in the spot market. So if you think the EURO will be up VS USD next quarter from current levels and your willing to give up some upside for downside protection go go long 1 June Futures at lest say 1.46, buy a 1.46 put for downside protection and sell like a 1.52 june call to cover some of the cost of the put, your protected on the downside but your cost for that is upside potential past 1.52 minus the remaining cost of the put between 1.46 and 1.52.

Sounds interesting, but it seems like whole new area to digest. Are there any obvious advantages to usual currency trading, or is it good as heding or a complement?

Im looking into i t now. So you buy at tops and sell even higher...how profitable have you been since you started with forex? You seem to have learned a whole deal in your short trading career.

 

[thetrendfollowe]

Quote from drasfs:

Im looking into i t now. So you buy at tops and sell even higher...how profitable have you been since you started with forex? You seem to have learned a whole deal in your short trading career. [/B]

Drasfs,

The system , though it hasn't proven itself in real-time (a longterm method can't be expected to show results in a short time frame), it has been extensively backtested and correct validation methods have been applied, so it definately works.

As to forex, I haven't placed a single trade. I only started looking at forex about 2 months ago. Right now Im just reading books, spending time on forums, and looking at heaps and heaps of charts for several hours a day, trying to get a feel for this market.

I still want to take a quantitative approach, so i have decided to use NeoTicker coupled with EFX. But that is later.

My next step is to open a demo with EFX. But Im in no hurry. The market will always be there. Its important to remember this.

Thanks for the kind words, but I have a lot more to still learn. The core principles of money management, risk management, and understanding expectancy and your own psychology are fundamentals that can be transferrable to trading any market. So try to learn/master these.

I believe the key is to always seek continuous improvement in performance.

I wish you all the best.

 

[JB3]

Ummm...if it ain't broke, why fix it? You obviously have a gift in scalping.

The hours suck, but you should just double your lot size, and work half the time. That sounds more logical to me.

Hehe, perhaps, you should teach me this scalping technique. If I can scalp with profits, I would.

 

[downrivertrader]

it is interesting to read people's views on a question like this isn't it? How do you define "getting good"?

So you wake up at 8:00. Trade 50 lots, take a single 20 point trade a couple times a week net. If you're lucky you get to go fishing or play golf in the afternoons. Let's say I am able to net out 2, 20 point trades per week for 50 weeks. (2 weeks off at my age is all I can stand). Maybe I am happy with this income, 7 figures sounds good after all.

So am I a scalper? or a smart businessman.

 

[radex78]

Metatrader4 is a good way to learn how to back-test strategies. The MT4 language is reasonably easy to learn, it's free, and there's already scores of strategies and indicators available.

Although, this software won't necessarily tell you what systems will work - but it is a quick way of seeing what won't work. But what ever you do, don't use MT4 to trade with - the brokers associated with it are not the most reputable.

I am also use mt4 in my trading activity, this platform really already user friendly and easy to use, and support also if we use custom indicator and also already support ea, many broker also use tis plaftorm and as I know this is as popular platform

 

[traderob]

I am also use mt4 in my trading activity, this platform really already user friendly and easy to use, and support also if we use custom indicator and also already support ea, many broker also use tis plaftorm and as I know this is as popular platform

are you a vendor here? You have a forex broker as your avatar