Next step in a newbie's quest for glory

IMO, the best education you could obtain in forex would start with a read of the thread immediately beneath this one (at this time in the Forex forum) - and that is Rezo's weekly thread.

Next, head on over to MoneyTec (sorry Baron) and search the archives to find his past threads, of which there are many going back several months.

Rezo has provided incredibly detailed accounts of trades, and he's answered numerous questions along the way. So there's a wealth of info there. He doesn't give out the specifics of his trading strategy, but you'll learn a great deal about forex trading in general.

Chances are you're aware of Rezo's threads already, since you've been trading for a few months now. But I thought it worth mentioning for the benefit of any other newbies in the crowd. It's excellent information freely available.

Good Luck,

chaos
 
Hi Maujz, I recommend you purchase or library loan:

‘Elliott Wave Principle : Key to Market Behavior' by Frost and Prechter, originally published in the 1970s, last edition 1990 I think.

You'll find many EW sites on the web, do a search in Elitetrader 'Elliott Wave', and visit monetec.com.

EW is not a trading system in itself, nor easily applied, it will give you an idea of price movement if you are able to 'get hold of it'.

Once you understand the basic theory, study longterm charts and go down in timeframe to minutes so you see the waves within waves, Corrections and Retracements. Learn how to apply the fibonacci tool and learn the fibonacci and Lucas numbers to count bars/time.

One cannot avoid the 'fundamental' reportage that is going on at present regarding the US$ v other currencies, however the technical analyst is generally able to rely only on the techniques that contribute to a profitable trading/money management system, having price and time targets in advance of and independant of the 'fundamental'.

Once you understand EW, when trading day-to-days, use the 4 Hour and 60 min charts to confirm a trend/swing/wave direction change of the Daily. Wallace.
 
Quote from mauzj:

Hi,

I've been trading with Oanda (real cash) for a couple of months. I am exclusively using technical analysis and risk 0.5% per trade. My planned holding period is just a few days. I do all charting on Sunday, place my orders, and then let the trades go.

The problem is that I'm down 2% and keep on losing. What would be the next best step in my education? Should I start learning fundamentals/economics? If so, could anyone recommend any good books or websites?

Thanks in advance,


Mauzj.
More...


Thought only:

If your current result of down 2% is due to placing weekly orders (without using margins) in the last 10 weeks period, and winning 2 weeks @ 1.0% and lossing 8 weeks @ 0.5%, your performance would be quite good, I would say.

One way for improvement is to learn from your 2 winning trades very carefully to see how you could confidently duplicate the trading setups in the future.

Also review critically whether you could develop and employ any better strategies that would highly likely turn those 8 lossing trades into profit ones.

Start trading again only when you could figure out any clear and firm solutions to the above. :confused:
 
Your performance so far is not bad at all - I fluctuate up or down more than that in an hour! (But don't copy me. Do as I say, not as I do).

If you're not wiped out, you're doing better than most. What you need to do now is LEARN. I think you know that, that's what you're asking, but you want to know HOW. First and foremost, keep a trade log. WHY did your trades go sour? What could you have done differently? Where did you break your plan? Study the charts until your eyes bleed. Look for patterns. They're there if you look. Test them on other charts. Are they universal? If so, you're printing money. Watch the forex news to see how the government affects your chosen pairs. Look ANYWHERE for things which are related. Repeating relationships are god.

Grab some books. What you read doesn't matter, because you're not supposed to copy what these other guys are doing anyway - Books make you think. Books make you investigate things for yourself. Books are a launchpad into your own style.

Of course, I would recommend anything by Vic Sperandeo, Soros if you don't mind indepth (dry) fundamental stuff, even Larry Williams etc. Larry's book wasn't a holy grail, but it got me investigating his patterns to see whether they worked or not. Then I modified them so that they would work for me. I've got a LOT of books, and some I've only gotten one sentence out of, but that's enough if it leads you into a good trade. It pays for itself.

Just keep at it, keep on top of it, and keep an eye out. That's what's important. I've made more money by being in the right place at the right time than anything else. And I've lost more money by going on vacation with a position open, or sleeping in, or having a Windows Computer Crash(TM), than anything else. Look at it this way: if you can break even (or thereabouts) most of the time, if you're lucky, the other 5% of the time you'll have trades which do 500%. Just keep a good stop, so you don't do -500% the other 5% of the time....
 
Quote from cable:

Study the charts until your eyes bleed.
...

If so, you're printing money.
More...

Now I understand why I still don't have the money printing machine Yet!

:mad:
 
Quote from vhehn:


forex is no place for beginners.
More...

i stand by my original statement. the odds of a beginner jumping into a highly leveraged instrument like forex and lasting long enough to learn the game are so long that it is not doing him any favors to encourage him to continue. learn to trade without leverage then work your way up to the highly speculative areas of the market if you survive.
 
Quote from vhehn:



i stand by my original statement. the odds of a beginner jumping into a highly leveraged instrument like forex and lasting long enough to learn the game are so long that it is not doing him any favors to encourage him to continue. learn to trade without leverage then work your way up to the highly speculative areas of the market if you survive.
More...

Very good advice indeed. Thanks! :)
 
Hi,

Thanks for all the advice, I think that I shall now try to

- Keep a better log of my trades and spend more time analysing them after they've closed.
- Follow the threads of Rezo.
- Read MoneyTec.

Are either of these books worth reading?

- Trader Vic II: Principles of Professional Speculation
- The Alchemy of Finance: The New Paradigm

Thanks,


Mauzj.
 
Quote from mauzj:

Hi,

I've been trading with Oanda (real cash) for a couple of months. I am exclusively using technical analysis and risk 0.5% per trade. My planned holding period is just a few days. I do all charting on Sunday, place my orders, and then let the trades go.

The problem is that I'm down 2% and keep on losing. What would be the next best step in my education? Should I start learning fundamentals/economics? If so, could anyone recommend any good books or websites?

Thanks in advance,


Mauzj.
More...

are you in a rush to make money? In my opinion it's better to trade a demo account first until you make consistent profits. Then try mini account cos it'll have less psychological affects on you and help you practice correct trading discipline.... once you trade with consistent profits with correct mental attitude, then try regular account. :-)

Andy
 
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