I just transferred money into a live Forex account for the first time in a few months. Last time I was here, I was trying to use Expert Advisers to work with MT4. I stopped doing that because of bad/mediocre results and because the authors of the EA's would not tell me the exact mechanism they work by. This is understandable because they don't want to give away their work. But I decided I either had to write my own EA's or try something else.
Now here's something that might sound irrelevant, but it's not. I downloaded a free (no real money) blackjack app along with a blackjack cheat sheet. According to what I've read online, if you play statistically perfect blackjack, the house only has a 0.5% edge. (Which is still greater than 0%, so no good). If I trust that this blackjack app has good programming, then I did a real good job because I increased my fake account by 50% in about 5 hours betting 1% of account value each time. But the part that sticks out to me was the times I lost with a hand of 20 when the dealer happened to get 21. Despite of this, I still knew I could trust the statistics because blackjack is a closed system. I wish I could say the same about Forex and other highly leveraged/derivative markets.
Also, Jim Simons lost money this year because the crazy Covid stuff confused his algorithms. So I know I cannot rely solely on quantitative analysis, such as EA's.
I currently have sold EUR/USD as my first attempt back at it. No SL or TP in place because I'm watching it very closely for now. I've realized it's not always possible to adjust your trade to a certain % of your account. Instead, you should look at the possibilities of what you think may happen and 1) hope you have enough in your account so that a move in the opposite direction won't stop you out even if you were eventually correct, and 2) size your trade to the points on the graph that you think are important points in your prediction.
Now here's something that might sound irrelevant, but it's not. I downloaded a free (no real money) blackjack app along with a blackjack cheat sheet. According to what I've read online, if you play statistically perfect blackjack, the house only has a 0.5% edge. (Which is still greater than 0%, so no good). If I trust that this blackjack app has good programming, then I did a real good job because I increased my fake account by 50% in about 5 hours betting 1% of account value each time. But the part that sticks out to me was the times I lost with a hand of 20 when the dealer happened to get 21. Despite of this, I still knew I could trust the statistics because blackjack is a closed system. I wish I could say the same about Forex and other highly leveraged/derivative markets.
Also, Jim Simons lost money this year because the crazy Covid stuff confused his algorithms. So I know I cannot rely solely on quantitative analysis, such as EA's.
I currently have sold EUR/USD as my first attempt back at it. No SL or TP in place because I'm watching it very closely for now. I've realized it's not always possible to adjust your trade to a certain % of your account. Instead, you should look at the possibilities of what you think may happen and 1) hope you have enough in your account so that a move in the opposite direction won't stop you out even if you were eventually correct, and 2) size your trade to the points on the graph that you think are important points in your prediction.