It depends on what you're trying to do. I'm not going for huge daily chart swings most of the time, so I'll be taking trades off 4hr/1hr charts. I am discretionary, watch many markets, and don't run any mechanical PA methods.
MangoLassi's EURUSD price action trading journal
- Thread starter mangolassi
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It depends on what you're trying to do. I'm not going for huge daily chart swings most of the time, so I'll be taking trades off 4hr/1hr charts. I am discretionary, watch many markets, and don't run any mechanical PA methods.
At least in Canada, in the instruments available in my OANDA account there's the usuals like EUR/USD for example, but there's also "US SPX 500" which is OANDA's CFD for the S&P 500 index.
HOWEVER, I see that there seems to be huge restrictions if you're in the USA. Compare http://fxtrade.oanda.ca/markets and http://fxtrade.oanda.com/markets for example. I'm guessing you're in the USA. Bummer.
I'm in the USA. I guess that makes CFDs out of the question for me. :/
I'd like to run my analysis on the daily charts and go for swings. At least, that is what I will practice doing from now on. Basically I will be doing very similar to what I was TRYING to do on the 5 min chart with very little success. The channels and trends are much clearer on the daily chart, and I understand there is much more money at risk with the daily charts. But if I trade 1000 units, I won't be risking beyond my budget.
I guess I will update this journal once every week or so.
I didn't switch instruments (staying with Forex). I understand your point about the time frame switch, however. But honestly, after thinking this over for more than a couple of weeks, I have come to the following conclusions:
1) Intraday forex trading is NOT for me. The same patterns that have a probability of success when traded on other efficient instruments such as ES or high volume ETFs do NOT have the same success on Forex. This is what I have determined by doing a backtest on the EURUSD 5 minute chart. Moreover, the price action setups discussed by Al Brooks in his course and books do NOT present often at all on the 5 minute EURUSD chart. Yes, they are found throughout the day on the ES or SPY, for example, but the EURUSD is lacking in opportunity. And when they do present themselves, they are highly improbable.
I have a theory about this (though I don't know if it's valid...). Basically, I have hypothesized that the banks and hedgefunds that are trading currencies are doing so for various reasons such as hedging, importing/exporting, purchasing foreign assets, etc. This must result in a lot of intraday noise, with the clearer picture being presented on longer time frames. No doubt there are institutions trading forex intraday, but I think so much of the noise exists because of the fact that many aren't simply trading speculatively and watching chart patterns on the 5 minute charts. I think this may be a key difference between forex and other instruments like the ES and SPY, but this is simply my theory.
2) The daily chart for the EURUSD has NUMEROUS trading opportunities throughout the year, with excellent price action setups.
3) If I one day feel like I can attack the 5 minute chart, I wouldn't be doing it with forex. I'd rather do it with the ES and SPY. However, I cannot afford to trade these instruments at the present time.
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I think I can do much better with a trading the daily chart with forex, rather than get beaten around by the intraday noise, which is why I have been spending the past week or so analyzing the daily charts and keeping extensive documentation on my studies. I have even placed a couple of trades since I saw some opportunity, and I will update this journal with when things start to develop.