Thread: small time trading

Quote: Originally Posted by Splitlink From what I have read lots of traders do hundreds of trades per day. I am not one of them but not because it is wrong, just because I like an easier life. If, as virtuos0 suggests, you were in a trending market, you should have known it and, therefore, IMO, you were trading badly by giving the broker too much commission, plus losing on the spread. Automatic re-entry after profit taking is a senseless way...

The more trades you make, the more of a cost the spread becomes for two reasons: 1. You are likely trading with higher leverage to make it worthwhile to capture smaller and more frequent moves 2. You are paying the spread several times. There is a tendency to believe that you have to make short, frequent trades to compound your money faster and make bigger gains. Nothing could be further from the truth. Less frequent trades will help clear...

I want it NOW ! Quote: Originally Posted by Pippy5000 Yes, people do that... it's called scalping, but what the first guy said is true.. it was luck and you are gambling.. If you are interested in trading Forex you should only trade the daily charts.. win big or lose big, but you have no hope on the smaller time frames.. If new traders would only trade the dailies there would not be a 95% failure ratio.. Las vegas games have a 7 to 1...

Quote: Originally Posted by FormulaOneFan To be honest I did not gamble. You misunderstood what I'm trying to get at. I did a level of research, chart analysis (3 ducks method), news and other information. I admit I'm new to this and still have a long way to go before I start to deal with real money but it wasn't a guess. If I would have put just one deal (Sell EUR against USD) and left it for couple of hours It would have...

I'd say that it was anything but typical thinking by a beginner. Most beginners lose their money by watching their trade reverse into loss. You have a system based on paper profits. However, would you stick to that system with real money? If you have the ability to identify direction of a price and the abilty to fix a stop loss that is not so close as to get triggered by "noise", then you have the basics for successful...

Quote: Originally Posted by Claudia123 Good luck, but do what split says earlier - look at trading less. Presumably you use a spreadbet firm for the demo? Trade 25 times a day in real life and your account will be gone in days (if not day!). You will end up chasing losers all over the place. As these guys say you hit a trending day by the sound of it. Will made some good points. One adverse move against you (maybe just a news release) can be...

i used to trade a lot using indicators that generate many trading opporutnities. but at the end of the day, i'm not actually accumluating any profit, at times, incur losses... so i revised my trading stretagy to only a few trades week, and the result is significantly better than over-trading. catch the big fish, let the small ones pool together, and scoop them all.

Quote: Originally Posted by FormulaOneFan That is an interesting comment. I'm looking for information like your response. Thanks for the info. Like you say I lost 2 spreads plus commission every time I opened and closed. 25 x 2 that's 50 pips. As a beginner my thinking behind it was: OK. After the graphs and other info I know it is going down but if I leave it all in one transaction and 'what if' it spikes the other way? I...

Some sound advice has been offered and I can only echo this sentiment - move your stop to break even and avoid paying the additional spread. I know people who do trade as you do but not only off a moving average three ducks system. In the long run most scalping systems fail when the adverse moves destroy any gains made that day. Personally I hate seeing price move against me and i trade purely off price action. I enter off 1-5 minute charts...

Good luck, but do what split says earlier - look at trading less. Presumably you use a spreadbet firm for the demo? Trade 25 times a day in real life and your account will be gone in days (if not day!). You will end up chasing losers all over the place. As these guys say you hit a trending day by the sound of it. Will made some good points. One adverse move against you (maybe just a news release) can be the end. Sideways markets (like today)...