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The Active Forex Traders Discussion

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Udine

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Myelbow4,

there are several, but the ones that I know are Oanda and Liteforex. there are for sure others, with some search on the web you will find plenty more.

Udine
 
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Charles Fuchs

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I went to a differnt route, Im involved in a managed fx account. I wanted more free time and let the money make it passively. After a lond due diligent process, I have chosen the right people and company that would fit my needs with an awesome 4 year track record of %2000 compounded interest in the last 4 years.
 

CarrieW

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I use ibfx. i think I needed 250 to open but then you can add in whatever amount you want. I think they are the lowest in the us. there are some others that go lower on initial deposits, but they are not us brokers.
 
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CarrieW

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anyone still trading out there? I have been watching for someone to post something but it seems noone is around :(

I have no idea what all of a sudden I am doing differently but ever since may 14th my trading seems to have turned around.

https://www.ibfxconnect.com/profile/carlen19/A/stats

how is anyone/everyone else doing lately?
 

garyfritz

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Looks like a good change! You really should try to figure out what you're doing differently... otherwise you might fall back into your old patterns.

Still here, still plugging away. Had a bit of a setback this winter/spring and I had to re-examine my main system. Spent a LOT of time backtesting and analyzing it with a local friend, and just started trading it again a few weeks ago. Up 10% so far, it shows up 20% in May. So hopefully I'm back on track.

I'm also active on some forums (mainly stevehopwoodforex.com • Index page) where I've been learning a lot and getting some great ideas. There's a "system" (loose set of rules) that's been getting a lot of excitement lately, called NB10.2. A lot of people seem to be making a lot of pips with it. I've been swamped so I'm still learning it -- can't report on it yet.

Plus I still have to work for a living and a few distractions like that...
 

EdwardWhite

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Im pretty much just opened up a new small account this week at MBtrading. I stopped trading for about previous 3 months or so. I have been using mostly doing the buy zone/sell zone stuff that Sam Seiden teaches, but I work mostly still in the 4 hour or less timeframe. The Separation with the wife garbage, been consuming my life for too long for the past 6 months, so its pleasant to have my mind work on other things, like this and creating an affiliate marketing income stream, with a few small niches. I have a lot to tend to, so I haven't been very social lately on any forums, thought I might have to check in a lot more from now on, so I don't get lost in my own thoughts or something!
 
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CarrieW

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honestly gary I havent really done anything different if you can believe that! the change happened a few weeks ago... on 5/11 at the prompting of someone trying to get me to switch my account over to their broker so they could "help" me. their help consisted of a chat room. there were about 7 people who were learning to trade and the 2 guys who were tryin to sign me up. I waited for a few days and hung out in chat, asked questions that were largely ignored...

the owner/boss said something about the market going one way, according to my technical anaylsis I disagreed. (he was none too happy that I dared to argue my view) I traded the day my way and I was right!

I figured out that the supposed "experts" didnt know much more(if any) then I do. noone knows whats going to happen and I can and will be ok on my own. I left that group kept my account where it was and the rest of the story is reflected in my trading stats...

so in fact. I changed nothing. but I changed. Something happened, and all of sudden everything has become clear!

its crazy!
 

Giles

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I've been dabbling in Forex over the past few weeks. Will start updating my progress and technique here.

I will be looking to pick up a book to read during my holiday to Vanuatu. Any recommendations? I would love to print off BabyPips.com School!

Since my post on December 2nd, my account has grown steadily to 150% of starting capital as of today. I'm mainly trading the NZD/EUR and keep my trades open for between 2 hours and 12 hours.

I think my self-imposed 6 Month training period is over and I'm confident to deposit some real money (I think this is a key step most new traders don't do).

How's everyone going? I'm doing purely technical analysis as I find I have much more patience looking at charts and trends then I do keeping updated daily on economic events and announcements.
 

CarrieW

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so in fact. I changed nothing. but I changed. Something happened, and all of sudden everything has become clear!

its crazy!



well that which was once so clear has become fuzzy again! I know this is a crazy time to be trading with everything happening in europe with the euro zone and everything... I had a feeling(and I even said) that I didnt know what was differernt. well the difference was that the market was trending... very clearly and its very easy to trade in a trending market...

I have lost everything I gained by being cocky and letting my newly inflated ego get into my decision making.

will I ever learn my lesson?

idk but I refuse to give up! I am a forex trader! I technically should be an "expert" by now. oh well... I will keep going. I WILL WIN!(just wish I knew when lol)

so how are you guys doing lately?
 
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Giles

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well that which was once so clear has become fuzzy again! I know this is a crazy time to be trading with everything happening in europe with the euro zone and everything... I had a feeling(and I even said) that I didnt know what was differernt. well the difference was that the market was trending... very clearly and its very easy to trade in a trending market...

I have lost everything I gained by being cocky and letting my newly inflated ego get into my decision making.

will I ever learn my lesson?

idk but I refuse to give up! I am a forex trader! I technically should be an "expert" by now. oh well... I will keep going. I WILL WIN!(just wish I knew when lol)

so how are you guys doing lately?

Carrie I am on a bit of a down streak. I have changed up my strategy and this is having an effect. But long term I think it will be worth it. Its jsut a matter of perfecting it.

I used to use plenty of indicators and now I am sticking to pure price action, reading candlesticks, support/resistance levels, and Elliott wave theory.

Attached is three trades I was looking at a few days ago. I trade when a new high reverses and bounces off a resistance level on an old high (and vice versa)
1.gif2.gif3.gif

All of them acted as planned and are in profit :eusa_clap:
 

Giles

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Carrie what is your strategy? And what timeframes are you using?

I trade mainly of the Daily. I've got a bad habit of checking trades hourly even though I know once they are set I should not check and adjust my rules (except when moving SL to breakeven)
 

CarrieW

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My strat is basically based on fibs. I have posted here in this thread a link to the one its based on (I tweaked it a bit and added another indicator) that you can get for free on the internet(I paid like 38 bucks for it or maybe 68 I dont remember lol) its very very very basic.

I use the 5 minute charts to find entries and the 1 min to exit. I confirm the overall direction based on rsi on a daily chart. I will go find the post for you and relink it. if you read just one example (not the entire book unless u want to) you will probably pick the jist of it up!
 
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CarrieW

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CarrieW

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anyone still kicking? looking for any updates!
 

Rawr

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How are you doing from the start of the thread till now? Thoughts on forex after all this time?
 
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CarrieW

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I am still trading and learning. I am still just as determined now as I was then to figure it out :) It is definately as difficult as I thought thats for sure! I am not at the point of saying I am successful yet but I'm still chugging along. In fact I have a bunch of new things to study tonight :) always learning :)
 

garyfritz

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Still kicking. Two different approaches I worked on earlier this year have not panned out, but the strategy I developed is doing OK. Not nearly as well as it "should," not nearly as good as it looked in testing, but I'm still up 30% since May. It's a start.
 

CarrieW

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Hey Gary!

Glad to see your still going as well :) I will be posting here again soon (and on the other forum as well) We have had alot of stuff going on here with the kids getting back to school and everything ;)
 
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CarrieW

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I have to disagree with you on that point. I only trade manually. I seriously doubt if I would ever use a bot...
 

odihost

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Do you do well when trading manually? It's very hard to trader manually. There are a lot of emotion taking control. If you have done it manually, that means you have a system right? Ask a programmer to build a robot based on your system. That means no more emotion taking control.
 
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garyfritz

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There's a big difference between "very hard" and "impossible."

Trading is hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it. Mastering your emotions is one of the most challenging parts. Even if you use a bot, YOU still have to decide when/how to run the bot. What do you do if the bot starts losing? Do you panic and pull the plug? Or do you say "drawdowns happen, if I quit now I'll miss the recovery" ? Even with a bot you have to manage your emotions. It's just not as in-your-face and constant as it is when you call each trade yourself.

Discretionary trading is absolutely possible. Over the last 15 years I've known a whole lot more successful discretionary traders than successful mechanical traders. Personally I'm a mechanical trader but I keep trying to learn discretionary systems, because in my experience most discretionary traders are successful a lot more often, a lot more consistently, than most mechanical traders. It's possible for a mechanical trader to develop a suite of systems that can work very well together -- it's just hard, just like learning discretionary trading is hard.

And don't assume a manual/discretionary trader uses a simple system that can be programmed. I've worked with dozens of discretionary traders to try to program their systems. Usually you can't, because the traders themselves don't really know what they're doing. They'll tell you "oh my system is simple, the rules are just A, B, and C." So you program those rules and it loses money. "Oh well you shouldn't have taken that trade." Why? "Well, look at that D. You should never take a trade when there's a D." So you add D to the rules, and it loses money. "Oh well you should have taken this trade here." Why? "There's an E! That's a perfect setup!" So you add E to the rules, and it loses money, repeat ad infinitum. They don't consciously KNOW what they're doing. They've just developed a subconscious intuition for when to trade, and how.

You probably know how to ride a bike. Could you **tell** somebody how to do it? Probably not. It takes practice, and developing reflexes and muscle memory. Learning to trade with an discretionary approach is similar. Maybe you could program a bot to ride a bike -- but that's a much better-defined and and more-stable problem than trading the markets.

Mechanical/bot trading and discretionary trading are entirely different approaches. They have almost nothing in common. But both can work very well.
 

odihost

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I believe there are some rules for Discretionary trading, but they just can't write it down? Just like you said with the A, B, C, D and E. I'm on my second profit month. It's kinda strange if there is a system /robot that can make money. You are right, although i'm using robot there is still one or two times I enter the market by myself. Yes you still need to control your self even though you have a system. garyfritz, according to your experience is there such thing a robot that can make money easily and consistently?
 

CarrieW

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Gary ty for your post, I would have posted a simular explanation but I was too lazy lol.

I have only ever traded manually. I dont know any other way. I am still learning and practicing... Do I consider myself successful, yes. would I be successful by someone elses standards, no probably not. LOL

I have yet to make money, but I manage my money and emotions very well and have continued to trade for an extensive period of time with very little capital.

So in my eyes I am successful, even tho I have yet to become profitable :) the ultimate goal is of course to be consistant in my trading as well as profitable. as long as I continue on with my learning and I dont give up I am a success!
 
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CarrieW

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I am not 100% positive but I do believe I have posted my rules previously in this thread somewhere lol. I know I posted a link to the main strategy that you can go to and read for yourself. I have read a few other strats and have taken bits and pieces of it into my own thing, kind of what Gary said. There is still alot out there that I intend to learn.
 

garyfritz

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I believe there are some rules for Discretionary trading, but they just can't write it down?
Not if they don't consciously know what all the rules ARE!

Trading is a very complex process. Very seldom can a successful discretionary approach be described in a few simple rules. I can't think of a good example that's as complex...

Let's say you have kids. Somebody asks you "how do you raise kids?" And you say "Love them, feed them well, make sure they get lots of sleep." (A, B, and C. :)) Then the kid gets sick. "Oh, well then you take them to the doctor." Then the kid gets in trouble at school. "Oh, you need to go talk to the teacher." On and on. There are a thousand situations you didn't think to list ahead of time, but you just respond to them when they happen. Discretionary trading is usually like that. You just do the "right thing" in each situation, but you don't know what the "right thing" is unless you've developed the skill.

garyfritz, according to your experience is there such thing a robot that can make money easily and consistently?
You better believe it. That 30% gain I mentioned earlier? That's a bot. Not in the MT4 EA sense -- I don't trust MT4 with my money -- but I programmed the logic into Tradestation and it calls the signals. I enter the orders manually but the bot could be running all the orders automatically if I trusted it. It's making all the trading decisions.

I guess I wouldn't say it's "easy." I've put many, many, many, MANY hours into learning what I'm doing. Anybody who develops a successful and stable, long-lasting bot has done the same. Most people aren't going to give that away for free. Most of them won't even sell it, except for big $$. If somebody develops a system that makes $1000 a week, do you think they're going to sell it for $99? Of course not. So most (not all) of the EAs you see for sale are poorly-designed garbage.

So if you're asking, "do successful robots exist?" the answer is "yes, absolutely." If you're asking "can I get one for free or cheap?" the answer is "probably not."

If you're on the Fastlane forum, hopefully you have some energy, discipline, and ambition. If so, and if you want to learn how to get or build a successful EA, go hang out at stevehopwoodforex.com • Index page for a while. That's a hotbed of trading ideas and EA/indicator development. If you want to learn, that's one of the best places to start.
 
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Arturo-Jay

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I'll have to catch myself up on this thread...
Right now I'm throwing together my trading "stake" which I'll trade my manual system that has 10 months of live testing, and 5 of it is on myfxbook.com

https://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/jaysaccount/364521

I'm pretty comfortable trading in this style on a large account, or I can ratchet up my risk a little more on a smaller sized account and live off doing this (I traded live, full time before, went bust due to under-capitalization and taking too much risk). This is a much better plan than working my 2 jobs at 16 hours a day..12$ & 10$ an hour, and spinning my wheels in the mud without an education or any trade skills (not an option for me to pursue at this point). Then I can market my trading and offer managed accounts in the far future.
But till then, 6 more months or more of saving...
 

Arturo-Jay

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Gary - speaking of "systems"...

I have a friend who took 4k to 150k+ and stopped. Had no system. Sheer luck and some technical chart reading plus massive leverage, oh and the fact that he did not need the money, nor was it his goal at all. Sometimes, no matter how prepared we are, we fail.
If you asked him to package his style up and sell it, it wouldn't even be possible.

But for most people that is never going to work.
 

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