No major changes to the approach, Post #1 is still a must read. - p.s.sorry about the fonts - the editor was not playing nice! Indicators at the end of this post are still good - you can always check and see any latest versions in the paperclip

Add-Ons are very much down to personal risk tolerance and account / money management, so the basic rules will apply as to how many trades you have open and what percentage of your account is at risk.

To date I have yet to see a successful EA with supporting evidence of a trade explorer, so until that happens, I am staying with manual trading - most of the folks posting trade explorers accounts on FF run well for a while and then seem to blow up, so not sure if these are serious long term investors or just folks playing with high risk strategies - beware.

Start with reading this post and the referenced posts and you should be on the right track.

Following on from the outstanding success of Eelfranz - Big E's Trading Made Simple forum, and X-Man's Super Simple System - several traders have requested a new thread be set up for TMS trading with Day Charts only.

I do update this post with general rules and tweaks as I see them for the day charts and will also bring in comments from other members. I'll check in from time to time and post training charts and trade summaries and I will nuke non-compliant posts - my privilege – I started the thread . I will also add any new insights / clarifications / techniques in this post as well as references to applicable post #s, so Post #1 may well become seriously long winded. If you want to reference a post from a member, please include the post # and member name.

Once you have read this post, read through the trading charts that run through entries and add-ons and then you can jump to Post 1081 which us where I start trading with the revisions to the template. All of the indicators that you need are in this post as attachments or are described / referenced and are part of the standard MT4 indicators, such as MA and Bill Williams.

Please take the time and effort to read this post carefully and the referenced post - take notes, read again and run backtesting and then ask questions. We all love helping newbies, but only if you put some effort into your trading. We were all newbies once.

The overriding rule is that this forum is for Day Charts only and is based upon the time trusted and proven TMS methodologies as adapted and introduced by Big E (Rest in Peace), so let’s keep to the TMS spirit and keep Big E’s memory and his dream alive. Trade set ups are welcome as well as active trades or trade summaries / rationales for entering / exiting. We also want to see the ooopsies – and the lessons learned from the pain and suffering incurred!

Disclaimer:
Any trade or analysis related comments made in this thread by myself or any other person on this thread should not be interpreted as anything other than a point of view by the respective poster and not as advice to enter or exit a trade. Individual's trading rules may be subject to interpretation. It is your responsibility as a trader to decide what information to use and what to disregard and you do so at your own risk. Use the ideas and/or modify them to suit your trading style. It is recommend that you conduct your own testing for your trading system in a demo account before investing real money. All investments are taken at each trader's responsibility. Planned risk levels may be increased dramatically under extreme market conditions.

Trade Set-ups and Commentaries:
Here's a suggestion for posting trade set-ups / commentaries from fxjourney in Post #17:
1. Entry setups and brief explanation as to why you think the setup looks good (not only technical set up reasons but also risk/reward)
2. Trade Stop Loss management
3. Effective exit strategy

My current commitments do not allow me to trade lower timeframes and I have moved to the Day Charts. My Broker is IBFX and my new day candle starts at 4pm PST. I typically place trades between 8pm and 10pm PST (which is the 2nd H4 candle of the day). These will either be pending trades with sell stop or buy stop levels set for Fractal Breaks or potential TDI Crossovers – especially moves from below 32 or from above 68. Price Action is the Key, so watch for the momentum to support the signals. Look left and pick up on support and resistance levels / Fractals.

When using the RSI(10), I am looking at 25 as OverSold and 75 as OverBought - as the RSI(10) crosses the 50, there is usually a trade entry opportunity once you confirm with PA - Watch the value in the Data Window as this will overload the indicators on the screen. Any tine RSI is hovering around the 50 then you are looking at consolidation, so wait for Fractal Breaks / S/R level breaks.

Multiple Time Frame Analysis:
As far as MTFA– I do check the week for trend direction and always check out what the the 200ema is doing - this is the favourite institution ema and acts as a very dynamic S/R region - I may rarely look at lower timeframes - if the day looks good, I will enter.

Supply and Demand Levels:
I hve been tidying up the charts and going back to basics, so the II_SupDem.ex4 indicaor is optional to get you thinking about Supply and Demand / S/R levels.

Break outs / Reversals usually coincide with the APB changing colour for a good reversal signal. Basic Rule here is to sell as the candles leave a Supply Zone heading South and Buy as the PA leaves a Demand Zone heading North. If price blows through a Zone, this just means that the Trend has held and will usually give you a pause before bouncing and continuing.

With the Day charts this involves patience and avoiding the need to enter a trade for a few pips. If you study some of the available material - either in FF on the threads, or in the numerous ebooks that circulate with the hope of hooking you for a subscription service, then you will see there is no real fixed rule for this type of entry - it all comes down to your trading style and your trading plans.

My preference is to let the candle close and then follow the momentum of the PA. From the charts that I am now posting, you will see that the 100ema and 200ema will often act as a floating S/R - be aware of this when trading with set-ups heading towards these emas, especially when your entry point is within 100 pips and especially when 100 and 200 are running horizontal together - check out this post - http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...97#post5779197

One very well written article that I have seen, talked to how momentum was perceived / interpreted. The focus was on the second half of the candle's life as this demonstrates the support and demand for the current PA. You can have a great bull push in the first half of the candle with new highs being set, only for the bears to take over which will leave you with a pull back candle with a large wick - this negates any momentum that was achieved earlier in the day. This often occurs around S/R levels and folks get faked out by the initial strength of the candle, only to watch it fall away at the end of the day.

If, however, the bear push continues into the latter part of the day, then you have a strong momentum candle and if this succeeds in breaking the S/R, then look for continued momentum to drive the PA.

This supports the Big E message that not all TDI crosses are not created equal and you still have to be on your game with the forex basics.

Trade Entries:
Is there such a thing as a perfect set up? My ideal scenario would be the following for long entries for reversals (and they do happen):

APB/HA closes and changes colour
PA moves with some strength - this means its day ATR(1) is at 75% or higher of the ATR(7) - this should also be stressed that the candle body needs to be strong - larger body than wicks.
RSI moving above 51 / breaking through the 50 with strong momentum
TDI cross within the last 1 or 2 candles and moving up from the 32 region
Day chart showing recent trading range of swings (next Supply / Demand Zones 150 + pips away)

For short entries:
APB colour change to red
PA moves with ATR(1) at 75% or higher of ATR(7)
RSI moving below 49
TDI cross within the last 1 or 2 candles and moving down from the 68 region


Generally, trading into the 200ema is bad news -a strong enough PA will push through the 200ema and continue on its way. If the 200ema is dead flat, PA will very likely follow it and consolidate - wait for the breakout.

Using the Trade Signal Line for Entries
Check out Post #1419 http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...53#post6623553 and see how this works.



Thoughts on APB Colour Changes Check out Post #1267 http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...67#post6434367

Trade Exits:
For those of you that followed Big E - his trading style was structured to preserve pips, so he would exit on TDI flattening / hooks / pull backs and then look for re-entry positions. Also, Big E was not trading day charts - he did trade H4 and lower timeframes for London / NY openings. I have a flexible approach to exits and may change in accordance with S/R or general momentum. If you exit early, then look for re-entry possibilities on the H4.

With regards to any indicator that has an Overbought / Oversold region - once these indicators are in the OB / OS regions, they cease to be reliable as trends can continue to add hundreds of pips after these regions have been entered - watch for candle sizes / S/R levels and further breakouts - very few indicators will help you here - Price Action will always be king!

SL and TP levels:
From the TMS thread - dcginc posted several posts on setting up SL and TP levels using the ATR(7) and I have tweaked this to match my approach.

I now run with 3 entries per set-up and base my SL on the current ATR(7) - usually 1.5XATR(7) or the previous swing H/L / Fractal.

TP1 for reversals is 1.5XATR(7) - this will mean SL levels are sometimes 200 + pips on the more volatile pairs.

TP2 - options here are to set TP2 at 3XATR(7), OR, for TP2, you can always leave this open and manually manage the trade. My suggestion is to start out wit the fixed

TP3 - no fixed level - run with manually adjusting SL levels

Experiment with TP1 and TP2, see how it works, modify as necessary, but don't allow the greed glands to take over your trading plan

Once TP1 is hit, move TP2 and TP3 to B/E and then manage to your trading plan.

Trade Management:
There are several posts on manual trade management such as: 164 / 204 / 246. I will always let TP1 close out, so for my trade management, this is for TP2 and add-ons. For trend runs, I manually move my SL up to the previous but one (2 candles previous) candle L for longs (wick not body), H for shorts.

As trend runs approach major S/L levels, the 200EMA / Big Round Numbers / 32/68 on TDI, 25/75 on RSi(10), be aware the trade can stall or bounce against you, so consider a manual exit and then re-enter if the S/R is broken and the move continues.
Typically, the TDI will flatten out in the Overbought (>68) and Oversold (<32) regions and that the TDI will start to give exit signals on trade slow downs and stalls.

As the candles start to shorten, this is the signal that momentum is fading. The end results are one of three options - congestion / ranging market, trend stall followed by reversal, trend stall followed by continuation (look for add-on possibilities on a new fractal break).

Other possibilities include running with TS set to account for your ATR(7) - currently suggesting that the TS is not less than ATR(7) but then this depends what you are willing to sacrifice from your hard earned pips. Remember, it's not how much you make, but how much you keep!

Money Management:
Leonaforex made a great comment in Post # 295
For my trades, I trade 3% of my account at any time, until 3 trades in a row are winners.
I then increase to 4.5% of my account.
One loss reverts to 3%.
Two losses reverts to 1.5%.
Three or more go to 1% of account and stay there until you figure out what you were missing.
Once you have achieved 2 wins in row again, go to 3% of your account.

Again - before going live with this, run the backtests for the trade methodology and then plug in different money management approaches and see how the drawdowns affect your account and how quickly you recover. Many folks use a fixed 2% max and this is pretty safe.

Here is something that I read on another thread:

You should classify any contemplated trade into one of the following five categories before putting on a position:
a. Entrance into congestion
b. A trade within a congestion
c. A breakout from a congestion area
d. A trend run
e. Trend reversal

The trader will have difficulty in formulating a successful and intelligent risk/reward (entry/exit) plan unless the trade is properly categorized before the trade is taken. The risk/reward parameters are different for each of the five types of trades.

Candle Patterns:
Watch for candle reversal patterns - in the attachments.

Candlesticks vs APB vs HA - see Post #305
With regards to candles - my preference is for traditional good old fashioned style candlestick charts- however, Heikin Ashi or Synergy APB (Average Price Bars) have also worked well and continue to do so on the original TMS and X-Man's threads. The APB /HA appproach centers around a colour change on the day chart - When a colour change occurs, go look at it - review the PA and if it has momentum then it has a reasonable probability of succeeding - PA always takes priority in the decision making process.

With day charts, it's not like you are rushed into a trading decision, so you have time to verify PA with either the APB and Candlesticks/price bars. Using candlesticks will of course require some understanding of candles and especially reversal patterns. Again, as with so many other aspects of forex - pick what works for you and run with it - you must be comfortable with your chart settings and not become one of the sheeple trying to make something alien work just because other are doing it.

For general reading on TMS and trading strategies – look to the following members (most are from the original TMS Thread and although these are not necessarily day chart traders, their approaches and methodologies are sound and will translate to any timeframe):
Eelfranz / dcginc / X-Man / Phx62 / Emmanuel7788 / Vantage / Dean / Lawgirl – apologies to those whom I have missed – nothing intentional, just attribute it to lost brain cells over the years.

As far as trading opportunities, you will probably see each pair have one good set up per week and there are usually several high probability trade set ups each week across all the pairs – if the market is ranging – leave it alone and come back another day. The day charts will easily bring you pips and with less stress and less false signals. My experience has been between 800 to 1200 pips per month since July which is when I picked up on TMS. This can be achieved on a single currency pair, or over multiple pairs.

Abbreviations used in posts

TP1 - Take Profit for Entry #1
TP2 - Take Profit for Entry #2
TP3 - Take Profit for Entry # 3
AOC - Add-On Candle
BE - Break Even
S/R - Support / Resistance
S/D - Supply / Demand
DD - Drawdown


Install the indicators into your MT4 platform - folder name "experts" and then sub folder name "indicators"


Indicators for Chart (Day)
Synergy_APB_[C]
ATR Pips UL Corner – color to none - periods 1 – multiplier 1 - this will give you the ATR for a single candle
ATR Pips UL Corner – color to none - periods 7 – multiplier 1 (read dcginc posts for using this and setting SL and TP)
EMA 200 – blue dotted – Price Typical
EMA 100 – aqua dotted – Price Typical
Fractals (Bill Williams)
Supply and Demand indicator II_SupDem - optional

Indicator Window 1
TMSTDI Watchdog – all settings at defaults – Set the alarms that you do not want to false and adjust the font sizes accordingly for your set-up. Colors are personal preference for the TDI lines - I do not use the "Bollinger" lines, so I stick with TSL / RSI and MBL
Overlay the RSI set to 10 with no color – just a personal preference – higher probability trades when RSI(10) is above 51 for longs and below 49 for shorts. Again – another one for the Data Window.

UPDATE 1/11/2015 - I have posted some updates to the current process to reflect:

No major changes to the approach, Post #1 is still a must read. - p.s.sorry about the fonts - the editor was not playing nice! Indicators at the end of this post are still good - you can always check and see any latest versions in the paperclip

Add-Ons are very much down to personal risk tolerance and account / money management, so the basic rules will apply as to how many trades you have open and what percentage of your account is at risk.

To date I have yet to see a successful EA with supporting evidence of a trade explorer, so until that happens, I am staying with manual trading - most of the folks posting trade explorers accounts on FF run well for a while and then seem to blow up, so not sure if these are serious long term investors or just folks playing with high risk strategies - beware.

Start with reading this post and the referenced posts and you should be on the right track.

Following on from the outstanding success of Eelfranz - Big E's Trading Made Simple forum, and X-Man's Super Simple System - several traders have requested a new thread be set up for TMS trading with Day Charts only.

I do update this post with general rules and tweaks as I see them for the day charts and will also bring in comments from other members. I'll check in from time to time and post training charts and trade summaries and I will nuke non-compliant posts - my privilege – I started the thread . I will also add any new insights / clarifications / techniques in this post as well as references to applicable post #s, so Post #1 may well become seriously long winded. If you want to reference a post from a member, please include the post # and member name.

Once you have read this post, read through the trading charts that run through entries and add-ons and then you can jump to Post 1081 which us where I start trading with the revisions to the template. All of the indicators that you need are in this post as attachments or are described / referenced and are part of the standard MT4 indicators, such as MA and Bill Williams.

Please take the time and effort to read this post carefully and the referenced post - take notes, read again and run backtesting and then ask questions. We all love helping newbies, but only if you put some effort into your trading. We were all newbies once.

The overriding rule is that this forum is for Day Charts only and is based upon the time trusted and proven TMS methodologies as adapted and introduced by Big E (Rest in Peace), so let’s keep to the TMS spirit and keep Big E’s memory and his dream alive. Trade set ups are welcome as well as active trades or trade summaries / rationales for entering / exiting. We also want to see the ooopsies – and the lessons learned from the pain and suffering incurred!

Disclaimer:
Any trade or analysis related comments made in this thread by myself or any other person on this thread should not be interpreted as anything other than a point of view by the respective poster and not as advice to enter or exit a trade. Individual's trading rules may be subject to interpretation. It is your responsibility as a trader to decide what information to use and what to disregard and you do so at your own risk. Use the ideas and/or modify them to suit your trading style. It is recommend that you conduct your own testing for your trading system in a demo account before investing real money. All investments are taken at each trader's responsibility. Planned risk levels may be increased dramatically under extreme market conditions.

Trade Set-ups and Commentaries:
Here's a suggestion for posting trade set-ups / commentaries from fxjourney in Post #17:
1. Entry setups and brief explanation as to why you think the setup looks good (not only technical set up reasons but also risk/reward)
2. Trade Stop Loss management
3. Effective exit strategy

My current commitments do not allow me to trade lower timeframes and I have moved to the Day Charts. My Broker is IBFX and my new day candle starts at 4pm PST. I typically place trades between 8pm and 10pm PST (which is the 2nd H4 candle of the day). These will either be pending trades with sell stop or buy stop levels set for Fractal Breaks or potential TDI Crossovers – especially moves from below 32 or from above 68. Price Action is the Key, so watch for the momentum to support the signals. Look left and pick up on support and resistance levels / Fractals.

When using the RSI(10), I am looking at 25 as OverSold and 75 as OverBought - as the RSI(10) crosses the 50, there is usually a trade entry opportunity once you confirm with PA - Watch the value in the Data Window as this will overload the indicators on the screen. Any tine RSI is hovering around the 50 then you are looking at consolidation, so wait for Fractal Breaks / S/R level breaks.

Multiple Time Frame Analysis:
As far as MTFA– I do check the week for trend direction and always check out what the the 200ema is doing - this is the favourite institution ema and acts as a very dynamic S/R region - I may rarely look at lower timeframes - if the day looks good, I will enter.

Supply and Demand Levels:
I hve been tidying up the charts and going back to basics, so the  indicaor is optional to get you thinking about Supply and Demand / S/R levels.

Break outs / Reversals usually coincide with the APB changing colour for a good reversal signal. Basic Rule here is to sell as the candles leave a Supply Zone heading South and Buy as the PA leaves a Demand Zone heading North. If price blows through a Zone, this just means that the Trend has held and will usually give you a pause before bouncing and continuing.

With the Day charts this involves patience and avoiding the need to enter a trade for a few pips. If you study some of the available material - either in FF on the threads, or in the numerous ebooks that circulate with the hope of hooking you for a subscription service, then you will see there is no real fixed rule for this type of entry - it all comes down to your trading style and your trading plans.

My preference is to let the candle close and then follow the momentum of the PA. From the charts that I am now posting, you will see that the 100ema and 200ema will often act as a floating S/R - be aware of this when trading with set-ups heading towards these emas, especially when your entry point is within 100 pips and especially when 100 and 200 are running horizontal together - check out this post -

One very well written article that I have seen, talked to how momentum was perceived / interpreted. The focus was on the second half of the candle's life as this demonstrates the support and demand for the current PA. You can have a great bull push in the first half of the candle with new highs being set, only for the bears to take over which will leave you with a pull back candle with a large wick - this negates any momentum that was achieved earlier in the day. This often occurs around S/R levels and folks get faked out by the initial strength of the candle, only to watch it fall away at the end of the day.

If, however, the bear push continues into the latter part of the day, then you have a strong momentum candle and if this succeeds in breaking the S/R, then look for continued momentum to drive the PA.

This supports the Big E message that not all TDI crosses are not created equal and you still have to be on your game with the forex basics.

Trade Entries:
Is there such a thing as a perfect set up? My ideal scenario would be the following for long entries for reversals (and they do happen):

APB/HA closes and changes colour
PA moves with some strength - this means its day ATR(1) is at 75% or higher of the ATR(7) - this should also be stressed that the candle body needs to be strong - larger body than wicks.
RSI moving above 51 / breaking through the 50 with strong momentum
TDI cross within the last 1 or 2 candles and moving up from the 32 region
Day chart showing recent trading range of swings (next Supply / Demand Zones 150 + pips away)

For short entries:
APB colour change to red
PA moves with ATR(1) at 75% or higher of ATR(7)
RSI moving below 49
TDI cross within the last 1 or 2 candles and moving down from the 68 region


Generally, trading into the 200ema is bad news -a strong enough PA will push through the 200ema and continue on its way. If the 200ema is dead flat, PA will very likely follow it and consolidate - wait for the breakout.

Using the Trade Signal Line for Entries
Check out Post #1419  and see how this works.



Thoughts on APB Colour Changes Check out Post #1267

Trade Exits:
For those of you that followed Big E - his trading style was structured to preserve pips, so he would exit on TDI flattening / hooks / pull backs and then look for re-entry positions. Also, Big E was not trading day charts - he did trade H4 and lower timeframes for London / NY openings. I have a flexible approach to exits and may change in accordance with S/R or general momentum. If you exit early, then look for re-entry possibilities on the H4.

With regards to any indicator that has an Overbought / Oversold region - once these indicators are in the OB / OS regions, they cease to be reliable as trends can continue to add hundreds of pips after these regions have been entered - watch for candle sizes / S/R levels and further breakouts - very few indicators will help you here - Price Action will always be king!

SL and TP levels:
From the TMS thread - dcginc posted several posts on setting up SL and TP levels using the ATR(7) and I have tweaked this to match my approach.

I now run with 3 entries per set-up and base my SL on the current ATR(7) - usually 1.5XATR(7) or the previous swing H/L / Fractal.

TP1 for reversals is 1.5XATR(7) - this will mean SL levels are sometimes 200 + pips on the more volatile pairs.

TP2 - options here are to set TP2 at 3XATR(7), OR, for TP2, you can always leave this open and manually manage the trade. My suggestion is to start out wit the fixed

TP3 - no fixed level - run with manually adjusting SL levels

Experiment with TP1 and TP2, see how it works, modify as necessary, but don't allow the greed glands to take over your trading plan

Once TP1 is hit, move TP2 and TP3 to B/E and then manage to your trading plan.

Trade Management:
There are several posts on manual trade management such as: 164 / 204 / 246. I will always let TP1 close out, so for my trade management, this is for TP2 and add-ons. For trend runs, I manually move my SL up to the previous but one (2 candles previous) candle L for longs (wick not body), H for shorts.

As trend runs approach major S/L levels, the 200EMA / Big Round Numbers / 32/68 on TDI, 25/75 on RSi(10), be aware the trade can stall or bounce against you, so consider a manual exit and then re-enter if the S/R is broken and the move continues.
Typically, the TDI will flatten out in the Overbought (>68) and Oversold (<32) regions and that the TDI will start to give exit signals on trade slow downs and stalls.

As the candles start to shorten, this is the signal that momentum is fading. The end results are one of three options - congestion / ranging market, trend stall followed by reversal, trend stall followed by continuation (look for add-on possibilities on a new fractal break).

Other possibilities include running with TS set to account for your ATR(7) - currently suggesting that the TS is not less than ATR(7) but then this depends what you are willing to sacrifice from your hard earned pips. Remember, it's not how much you make, but how much you keep!

Money Management:
Leonaforex made a great comment in Post # 295
For my trades, I trade 3% of my account at any time, until 3 trades in a row are winners.
I then increase to 4.5% of my account.
One loss reverts to 3%.
Two losses reverts to 1.5%.
Three or more go to 1% of account and stay there until you figure out what you were missing.
Once you have achieved 2 wins in row again, go to 3% of your account.

Again - before going live with this, run the backtests for the trade methodology and then plug in different money management approaches and see how the drawdowns affect your account and how quickly you recover. Many folks use a fixed 2% max and this is pretty safe.

Here is something that I read on another thread:

You should classify any contemplated trade into one of the following five categories before putting on a position:
a. Entrance into congestion
b. A trade within a congestion
c. A breakout from a congestion area
d. A trend run
e. Trend reversal

The trader will have difficulty in formulating a successful and intelligent risk/reward (entry/exit) plan unless the trade is properly categorized before the trade is taken. The risk/reward parameters are different for each of the five types of trades.

Candle Patterns:
Watch for candle reversal patterns - in the attachments.

Candlesticks vs APB vs HA - see Post #305
With regards to candles - my preference is for traditional good old fashioned style candlestick charts- however, Heikin Ashi or Synergy APB (Average Price Bars) have also worked well and continue to do so on the original TMS and X-Man's threads. The APB /HA appproach centers around a colour change on the day chart - When a colour change occurs, go look at it - review the PA and if it has momentum then it has a reasonable probability of succeeding - PA always takes priority in the decision making process.

With day charts, it's not like you are rushed into a trading decision, so you have time to verify PA with either the APB and Candlesticks/price bars. Using candlesticks will of course require some understanding of candles and especially reversal patterns. Again, as with so many other aspects of forex - pick what works for you and run with it - you must be comfortable with your chart settings and not become one of the sheeple trying to make something alien work just because other are doing it.

For general reading on TMS and trading strategies – look to the following members (most are from the original TMS Thread and although these are not necessarily day chart traders, their approaches and methodologies are sound and will translate to any timeframe):
Eelfranz / dcginc / X-Man / Phx62 / Emmanuel7788 / Vantage / Dean / Lawgirl – apologies to those whom I have missed – nothing intentional, just attribute it to lost brain cells over the years.

As far as trading opportunities, you will probably see each pair have one good set up per week and there are usually several high probability trade set ups each week across all the pairs – if the market is ranging – leave it alone and come back another day. The day charts will easily bring you pips and with less stress and less false signals. My experience has been between 800 to 1200 pips per month since July which is when I picked up on TMS. This can be achieved on a single currency pair, or over multiple pairs.

Abbreviations used in posts

TP1 - Take Profit for Entry #1
TP2 - Take Profit for Entry #2
TP3 - Take Profit for Entry # 3
AOC - Add-On Candle
BE - Break Even
S/R - Support / Resistance
S/D - Supply / Demand
DD - Drawdown


Install the indicators into your MT4 platform - folder name "experts" and then sub folder name "indicators"


Indicators for Chart (Day)
Synergy_APB_[C]
ATR Pips UL Corner – color to none - periods 1 – multiplier 1 - this will give you the ATR for a single candle
ATR Pips UL Corner – color to none - periods 7 – multiplier 1 (read dcginc posts for using this and setting SL and TP)
EMA 200 – blue dotted – Price Typical
EMA 100 – aqua dotted – Price Typical
Fractals (Bill Williams)
Supply and Demand indicator II_SupDem - optional

Indicator Window 1
TMSTDI Watchdog – all settings at defaults – Set the alarms that you do not want to false and adjust the font sizes accordingly for your set-up. Colors are personal preference for the TDI lines - I do not use the "Bollinger" lines, so I stick with TSL / RSI and MBL
Overlay the RSI set to 10 with no color – just a personal preference – higher probability trades when RSI(10) is above 51 for longs and below 49 for shorts. Again – another one for the Data Window.

strategy

I wanted to take a second and point something out here. Don't get defensive, I'm not going to insult the strategy!
The reason I'm not going to insult it is because it's similar to the way that I trade, and have been doing it this way for a long time. My issue is the way it's presented as a "100% no-loss strategy." Reality is significantly different, there are some variables left out of the video.
The concept is simple: Average into a larger position for every 1 point that a trade goes against you. As you bring your average entry price closer to the market price, the hope is that you catch a reversal. When you catch that reversal, the hope is you'll get enough points to offset the largest losing position(s) in your inventory. The trader maintains managing their inventory this way until a bigger reversal occurs allowing them to close their entire inventory at a profit. Whether your bias is to buy or sell, the concept still remains the same.
Now, I can tell you from experience that it's definitely possible to trade this way. One of the big "no-no's" of retail trading is to "never average losers." I think that when most people parrot this statement, they're under the impression that someone who trades this way will average a loser until they're account is blown which, I'm sure for some, has been the truth.
Maybe the author does account for the variables I'm about to mention but, they didn't in their video so I'm gonna point it out here.
(1) The video only shows inventory being accumulated and distributed over a 21-point range.
While I've been trading this way successfully for a long time, the video begs the question: What happens after the market has moved beyond that 21-point range? What do you do if, say, you're not paying attention to the calendar and you get caught on the wrong side of an interest rate decision or a surprise liquidity absence? I say this because, in my experience, it happens and it results in losses. No matter how much capital you have in your account or how solid one may think their resolve is, the market can always hold out longer than we can. Especially for retail traders.
(2) What about FIFO?
The reason I say this is because - given say, a larger position of 20 units accumulated over a 20-point range - not everyone can close trades # 20,19,18,17, and 1. For US clients like myself, we have to compete with First In-First Out (FIFO) rules that make inventory management well, not so cut-and-dry. What this means is that I have to close trades #1-19 in the order in which I opened them before I can close trade #20.
(3) What about time?
Take into consideration my first point. The market is rarely if ever going to move as smoothly as it does in the video presented. As mentioned, the video uses the example of accumulating sell positions over a 21-point range but again, what happens if the market busts out of that range? What happens if the market stays in that range for hours on end yielding unproductive inventory? I'm sure one can program it into an EA and run it on a VPS but even still, what is your plan of action if the market continues moving against you?
(4) What about trading costs?
One of my biggest challenges in managing inventory in a similar way is not only the FIFO rule but trading commissions. I get charged a fixed amount round-turn on every position I open, for example so, I have to account for that before closing out trades. Using the method exactly as the video shows along side my trading environment with, let's say, 10K unit sizes (it seems the video uses that size); I'm being charged $0.80 per trade. The video also doesn't take into account variable spreads for those who don't pay fixed commissions. It assumes that if a position goes against you 1 point, you're down $1.00 when, realistically, you could be down more than that at the moment of entering the trade - spreads greater than 1 point.
(5) Leverage
The more positions you enter, the more leverage you're using, the less volatility you can afford. If the market busts out of that 21-point range (again, using the example given) are you going to keep stacking or are you going to bail on all your inventory?
From my experience, using generally the same concept, it's impossible to get out with no losses all the time. If you want to take the management style and explain it to retail traders, you have to not only account for adverse conditions in the market and explain your plan(s) of action for those conditions but you also have to explain your limits. Right now, anyone who reads this and makes it passed the "100% no-loss" title (which I noticed you changed) is going to be under the impression that you just stack losing positions until your account it blown. Even when you do explain your plans for adverse market conditions and your limits, most people here still won't get it.
Please keep in mind, I'm not saying it's a bad strategy, I'm saying you're going to need to go into a lot more detail if you want to drop it here on Forex Factory. Otherwise everyone's just gonna think you're a kook. Not only that but, don't present it as a "no loss" strategy because, there will be losses. It happens to everyone. Anyone with half-a-brain isn't going to believe some random person on a Forex Forum discovered something that will "reshape the retail trading experience."

Forex broker

Hello, dear  members!
I represent “Forex” company and will be pleased to answer all questions of your interest. A few words about our company.
“FreshForex” company started its operation on the foreign exchange market in 2004 and today it is one of leading players on the Forex market in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). According to “Interfax”, one of the most famous research agencies in CIS, in 2012 year the company took place among Top-10 leading brokers of the Forex Market in Russia.
Bright “FreshForex” brand continues its fast growth, winning over international market and gaining new supporters in World traders' community. There are good reasons for that: excellent trading terms, withdrawal of funds in a matter of minutes and the best possible openness of company to every client.
Evaluate advantages of trading with “Forex”:
No minimum deposit
45 currency pairs, CFD for metals, stocks, futures
No commission for transactions and funding of account
Instant market execution from 0.1 sec.
Prompt funding and withdrawal of money via the most popular payment systems
Daily analysis and forecasts
Free on-line education
VIP service for every client
Promo actions and bonuses offered by “FreshForex”:
Bonus «33 х 3» +33% for each replenishment of trading account
Spreads in half - Highest payback of spread in Forex – up to $10 per lot
Stop Out Insurance - Up to 100% of replenishment amount under Stop Out
Double benefit - Up to 20% of interest per annum for both free and margin funds.

FOREX TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: ECB AND BOE MONETARY POLICIES START TO DIVERGE. THE TWO CURRENCIES MOVE FURTHER APART

EUR/USD
Forex Technical Analysis: The Euro weakened throughout last week as the effects of the ECB decision to lower the interest rate and to introduce a negative deposit rate started to make their presence known. The pair broke 1.3585 support but the bears ran out of steam before touching 1.3480.

tech_3.jpg

Technical Outlook
The first major barrier to the downside is represented by the support level at 1.3480 while to the north, resistance sits at 1.3585 followed by 1.3680. We anticipate a touch of support, but a clear break will probably occur only if the move is backed up by fundamental factors. The Relative Strength Index is approaching the 30 level which indicates an oversold market and price will have a tough time traveling south while this condition is present.

Fundamental Outlook
The first important event of the week is scheduled Tuesday in the form of the German ZEW Economic Sentiment, a survey focused on the current and future economic conditions as seen by German analysts and institutional investors. The same day the American Consumer Price Index, which is an important gauge of inflation, is announced.

Wednesday all eyes will be on the US interest rate, the FOMC Economic Projections and the FOMC Press Conference, a cluster of events that will most likely have a huge impact on the market. The Eurogroup Meetings start Thursday and same day the United States will announce the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, a leading indicator of economic health focused on the manufacturing sector. Friday lacks major events except the ECOFIN Meetings which take place in Brussels.

GBP/USD
The Pound was heavily influenced by Mark Carney’s comments regarding a potential rate increase which may come sooner than anticipated. The impact was tremendous and the pair skyrocketed towards the peak at 1.6996.

tech_4.jpg





Technical Outlook
The pair reached a critical point and at the moment is testing a multi-year high. A break of 1.6996 (1.7000) would open the door for a touch of 1.7040 (visible on a Weekly chart) but a move lower would create a Double Top on a Daily chart, a powerful bearish pattern. The bulls have regained almost total control of the pair but the Relative Strength Index is rapidly approaching an overbought state so we are likely to see price pause here or even retrace slightly lower.

Fundamental Outlook
The Pound will be affected Tuesday by the release of the Consumer Price Index and Wednesday a breakdown of the latest Interest Rate votes will be made public. However, the most important Pound affecting event of the week is scheduled Thursday in the form of the UK Retail Sales which account for a major part of the entire economy and have a strong impact on the pair’s movement. As always, the US events ahead will directly affect the pair.

Market Update: 08 April Weekly Review
US and Canada

The US FOMC minutes showed difference in opinions in relation to the monetary policy rate.

The unemployment rate in Canada decreased for the last month contrary to expectations. According to the report prepared by Statistics Canada, the rate (seasonally adjusted) was 7.1% compared with 7.3% in the previous month. The experts expected the index to maintain at 7.3%.

Europe

The minutes of the last meeting of the ECB showed that there was considered a more significant reduction in the rate.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, admitted that he has a share in his father's offshore fund. The reaction comes after the Panama Papers leak that discovered many offshore accounts of influent persons.

Eurozone – the March PMI composite was 53.1 against 53.7.

Eurozone – February level of unemployment was 10.3% against 10.4%, which is a 5-year low. The lowest level is in Germany at around 4.3%.

Greece and creditors got back to the negotiating table this week. There will be discussed the progress in the fiscal policies and reforms.

The latest survey by the newspaper «Opinium for the Observer» showed that 43% of Britons support the Brexit. This is 4% higher than the previous results.

Asia

China – the March PMI index in the service sector by Caixin rose 52.2 against 51.2 in February.

The Reserve Bank of India lowered the rate for the fifth time since the beginning of 2015, to 6.5%.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left the rates unchanged, but was concerned about the strength of the Australian dollar.

5 tips for new forex traders

5 tips for new forex traders

Forex trading is full of opportunities but also riddled with pitfalls. The thrill brings in new traders constantly but most likely they are there for the easy money that was promised in an ad somewhere. Unfortunately, these riches are available only for a lucky few who get it right on the first trade. For all the rest of us being careful, having a solid trading plan, good trading conditions by the broker and low fees are a must to stay profitable. So here are 5 tips that could help you push your trading career to the right direction.

1. Start with a demo account. When you first go out to the world of forex you will have the risk free opportunity to trade on a demo account. This will give almost identical conditions for trading a real portfolio with all the ups and downs of the market. Just be sure that you treat the money on a demo as you would on a real account. This will give you a realistic feeling what could happen to your hard earned cash. Caution though when using the demo to judge the performance of trading systems which have a large number of trades, this is one place where the real results can later be lower as slippage comes to play.

2. Choose a broker that gives you low trading costs. A big part of any forex strategy staying profitable is the cost you pay on every trade. This is especially true to very active trading styles making 5 or more trades a day. These days the low end of commissions can be as little as $2 per $100,000 traded.

3. Don’t be lured in by huge bonuses of 100% and more by brokers. A good broker might give you a nice boost to start with a 25-50% bonus and you have to appreciate it as brokers give away their profits even if their trading costs are already the lowest in competition. But don’t run for 100%+ bonus offer as attractive as they may sound, these are mostly cold calculations by low moral brokers to lure you into making large deposits after which you will be riddled with fine print in conditions, withdrawal restrictions and high commissions. You have to understand that these brokers will want to make their money back from you as fast as possible.

4. Look for ECN/STP brokers. A broker using either of the technologies is more likely to be on your side. Why? Because they don’t keep your trades in house. A STP or straight through processor will send your trades to the open market place and has nothing to win from your losses than a sole B-book broker which trades against you and wins everything you loose and also loses everything you win. You can see the conflict of interest here as they have the upper hand here.

5. Don’t always go for the highest leverage accounts. While some brokers will offer you 1:1000 leverage on your money this also increases the risk both for you and your broker. Leverage like that means that it is solely backed by the broker you trade with as no prime brokers give leverage like that to the end user serving forex broker. This means it is not doing STP (read point number 4) and just wants you to lose as fast as possible for their gain. A leverage of 1:200 or less is beyond most people’s needs and is something you should go for. For comparison US regulated brokers aren’t allowed to give more than 1:50 leverage.

Learn the History of the Forex!

By the finish of the second World War, the whole world was so chaotic that the Western countries decided something had to be done to stabilize the economy.

A system known as the “Bretton Woods System” was put into place. It set all of the country’s exchange rates against gold. This system worked well to stabilize rates for a short time, but as countries began to grow at different rates the system stopped working so well.

In 1971, the Bretton Woods Agreement was thrown out and replaced with a new system that evaluated the value of currency. The United States was in control and the system became one determined by supply and demand. It was hard to figure out fair rates for everyone initially, but advancements in technology helped make it easier to do.

When the 90’s started up, banks began to create their own trading platforms, thanks to the computer nerds, and their newly created internet. These trading platforms sent quotes to their clients who executed their own trades.

Some smart businessmen were in the background working on a system for all of the individual traders out there.

This specialized system, known as “retail forex platforms”, made it possible for individuals to begin trading because they could trade smaller lot sizes. While the interbank requires a minimum amount of a million units, these retail brokers make it possible for trades as small as 1,000 units!

Forex Retail Brokers

While it was only possible for the big players to participate in trading forex in the past, the addition of retail brokers made it possible for any average joe to open up an account and trade from their home. These Brokers come in two different forms:

Market Makers – the ones who set up or “make” their own bid prices and ask prices.

Electronic Communications Networks, or ECN’s – use the best bid and ask prices that are made available to them from companies who are on the interbank market.

The Forex Market Makers

Imagine that you want to travel to France to eat some tasty snails. Before you will be able to complete any transactions in the country, you have to trade in your cash for a stack of Euros. To get your hands on those, you will have to visit a local bank or a foreign currency exchange office. To be able to exchange your money, you have to agree to the rate that they set.

Just like with everything else in life, there is a little catch. The bid/ask spread can complicate matters a little bit.

For example, if the banks bid for EUR/USD is 1.3000, and they are asking 1.3003, the spread is .0003. Well it may seem like a tiny amount of money to you and me, when amplified over several million transactions it comes up to a nice little profit for the makers.

The makers lay the foundation for the market of foreign exchange. Retail makers repackage very large sized lots into easily accessible lots and help provide liquidity by doing so. Without them, it would be very hard for Joe Schmoe to trade anything on forex.

Electronic Communications Network

Trading platforms, given the name “Electronic Communications Networks”, automatically match a customer with buy and sell orders at a stated price. These prices are gathered from many different sources such as banks, market makers, and other traders. When a person makes a buy or sell order, they are matched with the closest order out there.

Since traders are able to choose their own prices, ECN’s usually charge a very minimal fee for carrying out your trades. Since the spreads are tight and the commission is very minimal, ECN’s are usually the way to go.

Stocks vs Forex

The foreign exchange market might seem very similar to other financial markets to some people. On the surface, the Forex exchange has many similarities to the stock exchange. However, there are a number of differences. Below is a breakdown of some of the major differences that might not be obvious to everyone.

The Marketplace
The stock market is a centralized market, meaning that it is located mainly in one place: the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). All trades enter and exit from that location. Forex is not centralized, and is considered an over-the-counter (or OTC) exchange.

Trading Hours
The stock market is operated on a strict schedule. So is the forex market. However, the stock market operates for 8 hours per day and then shuts down. Traders have to wait until the next morning to start trading again. There is no downtime in the forex market. It’s operated 24 hours a day in 3 shifts, 365 days a year. The forex trading hours in the U.S., Asian and European markets overlap, so trading at any time of the day or night is seamless.

Fees
Since the forex market isn’t centralized, a trader can buy or sell directly by spot trading. The stock market always has a middleman, and that means more fees. Every time a stock is bought or sold, there is a broker or other entity standing between buyer and seller making money for just being there. Of course, forex brokers exist, but the spreads are transparent and most brokers don’t charge a commission or tack on additional transaction fees.

Complexity
Although there is a good deal of formulation and study to forex market analysis, it really boils down to following just 4 major currency pairs, compared to trying to follow any number of over 8,000 stocks in the stock market. Traders also make use of forex systems to help determine the best time to buy or sell a given currency, simplifying the trading process.

Speed
Under normal market conditions, forex trades are instantaneous, thanks to programs that automatically execute on a forex trading signal. There is little chance of missing a trade because of execution time. In the stock market, your order is passed to the trading floor, where it can take several minutes to make the trade.

What Is Forex?The foreign exchange market is the "place" where currencies are traded. Currencies are important to most people around the world, whether they realize it or not, because currencies need to be exchanged in order to conduct foreign trade and business. If you are living in the U.S. and want to buy cheese from France, either you or the company that you buy the cheese from has to pay the French for the cheese in euros (EUR). This means that the U.S. importer would have to exchange the equivalent value of U.S. dollars (USD) into euros. The same goes for traveling. A French tourist in Egypt can't pay in euros to see the pyramids because it's not the locally accepted currency. As such, the tourist has to exchange the euros for the local currency, in this case the Egyptian pound, at the current exchange rate.

The need to exchange currencies is the primary reason why the forex market is the largest, most liquid financial market in the world. It dwarfs other markets in size, even the stock market, with an average traded value of around U.S. $2,000 billion per day. (The total volume changes all the time, but as of August 2012, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reported that the forex market traded in excess of U.S. $4.9 trillion per day.)

One unique aspect of this international market is that there is no central marketplace for foreign exchange. Rather, currency trading is conducted electronically over-the-counter (OTC), which means that all transactions occur via computer networks between traders around the world, rather than on one centralized exchange. The market is open 24 hours a day, five and a half days a week, and currencies are traded worldwide in the major financial centers of London, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Sydney - across almost every time zone. This means that when the trading day in the U.S. ends, the forex market begins anew in Tokyo and Hong Kong. As such, the forex market can be extremely active any time of the day, with price quotes changing constantly.

Spot Market and the Forwards and Futures Markets
There are actually three ways that institutions, corporations and individuals trade forex: the spot market, the forwards market and the futures market. The forex trading in the spot market always has been the largest market because it is the "underlying" real asset that the forwards and futures markets are based on. In the past, the futures market was the most popular venue for traders because it was available to individual investors for a longer period of time. However, with the advent of electronic trading, the spot market has witnessed a huge surge in activity and now surpasses the futures market as the preferred trading market for individual investors and speculators. When people refer to the forex market, they usually are referring to the spot market. The forwards and futures markets tend to be more popular with companies that need to hedge their foreign exchange risks out to a specific date in the future.

What is the spot market?More specifically, the spot market is where currencies are bought and sold according to the current price. That price, determined by supply and demand, is a reflection of many things, including current interest rates, economic performance, sentiment towards ongoing political situations (both locally and internationally), as well as the perception of the future performance of one currency against another. When a deal is finalized, this is known as a "spot deal". It is a bilateral transaction by which one party delivers an agreed-upon currency amount to the counter party and receives a specified amount of another currency at the agreed-upon exchange rate value. After a position is closed, the settlement is in cash. Although the spot market is commonly known as one that deals with transactions in the present (rather than the future), these trades actually take two days for settlement.

What are the forwards and futures markets?Unlike the spot market, the forwards and futures markets do not trade actual currencies. Instead they deal in contracts that represent claims to a certain currency type, a specific price per unit and a future date for settlement.

In the forwards market, contracts are bought and sold OTC between two parties, who determine the terms of the agreement between themselves.

In the futures market, futures contracts are bought and sold based upon a standard size and settlement date on public commodities markets, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In the U.S., the National Futures Association regulates the futures market. Futures contracts have specific details, including the number of units being traded, delivery and settlement dates, and minimum price increments that cannot be customized. The exchange acts as a counterpart to the trader, providing clearance and settlement.

Both types of contracts are binding and are typically settled for cash for the exchange in question upon expiry, although contracts can also be bought and sold before they expire. The forwards and futures markets can offer protection against risk when trading currencies. Usually, big international corporations use these markets in order to hedge against future exchange rate fluctuations, but speculators take part in these markets as well. (For a more in-depth introduction to futures, see Futures Fundamentals.)

Note that you'll see the terms: FX, forex, foreign-exchange market and currency market. These terms are synonymous and all refer to the forex market.

الاثنين، 7 مارس 2016 Learning to Trade Forex in Seven Steps

If you are interested in learning to trade forex successfully, then the most common path for an aspiring trader these days is to search the Internet for information to apply immediately to their live forex trading account. The problem is that their search often leads them to destinations where there are plenty of false promises, bad ideas, negativity and an obsession with indicators.  Many of the EBooks on sale today are filled with recycled concepts or incomplete strategies which the authors themselves do not use.  Many authors do not earn money from forex trading but they earn their living by selling these EBooks to the novice forex trader.
 
This easy access to forex guru's who fuel the idea that forex trading is the holy grail of easy money, then financially feed off those same people they have sold this idea to. At the end of the day what many of these forex guru's sell is a gross misrepresentation of what it takes to trade forex for a living. 
 
Forex Trading is not easy.  You can become a good forex trader though dedication and by treating forex trading as you would any other skill.  The reality is that it is hard work and must be treated with the same amount of seriousness as you would any other career.
 
The effect of all these gurus is that many forex traders start off overly optimistic with unrealistic goals.  Whilst there is nothing wrong with a positive mental attitude but this positivity must be built on strong foundations and realistic expectations.
 
New forex traders normally start their career by purchasing some secret set of indicators and they are quickly punished for their naivety.  Many of these forex traders then purchase a different set of secret indicators until they become disillusioned and then quit trading.
 
In fact, many forex traders that are now successful went through this learning process, including myself.  This is only a problem if you refuse to learn from your mistakes.  You need to break from this cycle of reliance on secret indicators and guru methods to be successful.
 
You help yourself in the beginning; by learning to think for yourself and understanding that whilst anyone can trade forex, to be successful, you must learn to BE a forex trader.
To BE A Forex Trader
 
To trade forex is easy, all you need is a forex trading account with money in it and then you enter the foreign exchange market and start trading. 
 
To be a forex trader is more work. You need to grow from the starting point of having very little knowledge to the stage where you have a trading plan, understand the concepts and behaviour of the forex market and be able to trade with a cool head and understand that wins and losses are all part of being a Forex Trader.
 
Learning How to Trade Forex by thinking like a Forex Trader in Seven Steps.
 
 
1. Understand your place in the Forex Market
 
This is very important you must understand that you are very small fish in a big ocean. 
 
 In the Foreign Exchange Market the majority of the liquidity is coming from big banks and experienced institutional traders. These are the big fish.   The big fish will happily enjoy you as a little snack.
 
You are only fooling yourself if you think it will be easy to take money off these big forex traders.  
 
You have to learn to swim alongside these big fish and catch the same currents they do.  Swimming against them just marks you as prey and sooner or later you will be eaten. 
 
 
2. Learn to read the Forex Charts and Understand the Foreign Exchange Market.
 
Many novice forex traders believe that these big forex traders have access to some secret forex trading strategy or use a secret set of indicators, but the truth is this is just not the case.
 
These major forex players are using simple, but proven technical analysis techniques - most commonly horizontal support/resistance, identification of trading ranges, Fibonacci these are then coupled with fundamental themes. 
 
Begin by accepting that the other major participants are highly experienced in the market and they make money because of experience and by a complete understanding of the core skills and not because they hold a holy grail of secret indicators.
 
3. Money Management
 
It is crucial that you understand as a novice forex trader the emphasis is not on how much you can make from forex trading but on how you manage what you have.
 
This is the most common downfall of all novice traders.  It is common place to see a starting trader risk the majority of their account on one or two positions. 
 
This style of trading is not sustainable and professional traders do not trade in this manner.  Everyone sometime in their career will have a string of bad trades.  A typical number might be 10 losing trades in a row.  The question is do you have a money management plan in place that enables you to survive this?
 
4. Focus on the Market
 
Many novice forex traders open their forex charting software and activate their latest hot indicator or tool and proceed to place their trades as per the tools recommendations. This style of forex trading is unlikely to have much long term success.
 
When these indicators fail to generate the required profits then these traders then move rapidly on to another set of indicators.
 
You must focus on the forex market and understand what the indicators are telling you so that you can pick the forex trades which have the best probability of being winners.
 
Successful forex traders use indicators and tools as Fibonacci, Pivot points, price channels, MACD, RSI etc.  These tools by themselves do not make a successful trader.  There are many successful traders and unsuccessful traders who use the exact same indicators.
 
The key is that successful traders understands how the market behaves around the indicators and understands what the signals actually mean.   
 
The best way to achieve this is to stop swapping between tools and select those that compliment your trading plan, understand how they work, and then spend time in the market experiencing them.
5. Plan your trade and trade your plan.
 
This is a common saying that seems to get lost on novice traders.  It should be every trader's goal to make pips on each forex trade as per their trading plan.  Forex Traders must treat each trade as a business decision by calculating their risk and defining their entries and exits points, those that do not   open themselves to big losses when a trade goes bad.
 
Many novice traders seem to lack the discipline to follow a plan for each trade.  So what happens is typically the following; a novice trader will see a potential set-up, they decide on some arbitrary sum to buy or sell with a quick guesstimate, then place the trade without analyzing any risk and having an exit strategy. 
 
Of course this way of trading can be profitable over the short term, more down to luck than skill.  But eventually the luck runs out and the trader is caught napping and a common result is a wiped out account.
 
The first question novice traders tend to ask themselves how much will I make on this forex trade?
The first question experience traders tend to ask themselves is how much is my potential loss / risk?
6. Your mind is your strongest asset and weakest link.
 
Entire books have been dedicated to the subject of psychology and its role in trading. That doesn't mean they are all going to help you, but you should take this as a sign that the subject is not to be ignored. 
 
First you must understand the role psychology plays in trading.  You must learn to understand your personality traits and how they might affect your trading style.  
 
A trader I know is a bad loser and when he has a bad trade, he had a habit of going straight back and trying to win those pips back with even worse results.  But he understands this as a weakness and when he has a bad trade, he takes a break of 20 minutes before he goes back to trading so that his emotions do not affect his trading decisions.
 
Second you must make it your aim to never stop learning. You cannot get yourself to a certain level and then become complacent. Every day is a learning experience in some way or other and you must be prepared to learn lessons and invest time in improving your skills and experience. The day you stop learning is the day you should stop trading.
 
7. Understand The Forex Market is always right or Expect the Unexpected.
 
The forex market is an interesting place, but there is one thing every trader needs to learn.   Always expect the unexpected and do not get wrapped up in past successes.   No matter what your charts or indicators tell you; sometimes the forex market will just do the opposite.  
 
Whatever happens in the market you must maintain an objective outlook on your strategy and the forex market and ensure that bubbles and crashes do not derail you in the long term.
By following these steps and learning to become a forex trader rather than just trading the forex market, you will put you on the path to ultimate success as a profitable forex trader.  This is something that 90% of all novice traders fail to achieve.

How to Instantly Trade Like You Have Decades of Forex Trading Experience

Seriously consider forex signals if you are not yet trading profitably, have limited experience, or just don't have much time to devote to your forex trading.
From the simple one email a day variety to the forex mentor who sits with you all day holding your hand as you trade, a portfolio of forex trade alerts can be virtually free and can transform you into a profitable trader instantly.
If like us you've ever analysed a chart and placed your own trades, you will almost certainly have also sat in front of your screen wondering if you were doing the right thing.
Questions like "have I entered this trade too late ?" and "am I trading in the right direction (long when I should be short)" will certainly have entered your mind.
How many times have you wished you had an expert trader with decades of experience guiding your trades, keeping you out of dangerous trades, and pointing you towards trades with a higher probability of success ?
We were certainly in that position many times in the early days, but always imagined the cost of having an expert on hand would far outweigh any extra profits we might make. It turns out we were quite wrong.
There are numerous services available, known variously as forex signals, forex alerts, or forex tips.
Trading signals come in a variety of formats, suited to how much of your day you can devote to trading. And yes beware, there are loads of scams out there too, but we'll show you how to avoid them, and we'll direct you towards the better ones.
Forex Trading Signals - many varieties
The main characteristics of forex trading signals to be aware of are as follows;

• Cost: Free OR monthly subscription
• Complexity: Simple "one email a day" OR Full-Service
• Control: You keep full control OR the signal provider trades your a/c for you
• Trading style: e.g. frequent scalper OR low volume swing trader

A free forex signal may at first seem like a fabulous idea, but as we will reveal here, you may very well prefer to pay for a free subscription service (yes, we know that doesn't make sense - but read on)Most forex trade signals charge a very modest subscription fee, usually in the region of USD $80 - $400 per month (although happily most are at the lower end of this range), while there are also websites which provide forex signals for no charge.
In their simplest form a forex trading signal will send you a forex alert email once a day listing trade set ups for the next 24 hours.
Some of these are purely computer generated, some are computer generated and then audited by a human expert, and some are completely researched and generated exclusively by a human expert trader who may add some market commentary to their forex forecast.
Some forex trading signals are high volume scalpers, calling many trades in a day aiming to profit a handful of pips on each. Others only call a few trades a day, aiming to profit 20 - 80 pips on each single trade.
At the more full-service end of the market is the type of forex signal service which provides you with an almost 24 hour a day live online broadcast calling forex trading tips as they occur, explaining the logic of the proposed trade and backing it up with an email or even a video clip.
Some forex trading signals will even trade their signals in your own account for you, leaving you to just sit back and watch.
This is similar to what a robot does by using forex signal software, but with the added reassurance that it's being done by an experienced intelligent human trader rather than a dumb machine following an algorithm.
Think of full-service forex trading signals like a forex TV station, which you have running in the background on your pc or internet connected laptop throughout your day. The broadcast remains quiet when there is nothing to do, freeing your time for the other priorities in your day, then calls for your attention when there is a trade to place or manage.
You may be surprised, as we were, to discover that the prices charged by full-service providers are usually very similar to those charged by the one email a day providers.
This type of service usually also includes an interactive facility, enabling you to send a message to your forex mentor if you have a question.
Many forex signal services have very loyal memberships, and some even limit the number of members they will accept.
Free forex signals (virtually)
On the basis that time is money, in our opinion the amount of time we can now devote to other activities by not slaving over our charts for hours searching for the perfect trade set up, not to mention the improvement in our trading results, has more than paid for the very modest cost of the forex signal subscriptions.
Indeed if you apply this logic, subscription based services can effectively be free when you take into account the improvement in your trading profits, and the freeing of your time for other profitable activities.
If you think about it, a subscription based forex signal service has a built-in incentive to call profitable forex trading tips, as its subscriber base would soon evaporate if it failed to provide profitable currency trading tips. "Free" non subscription signals do not have this incentive.
Manage your risk
In any aspect of forex trading your primary goal is to manage your risk. Choosing, and trading a forex trade alert should be no different.
Even the best most experienced provider of forex signals will regularly have losing trades. However taken with all of their winning currency trade signals the overall result should still be profitable, but not all systems work all of the time. Some forex alerts may even have a completely losing week or month.
However, we have found through our own experience that the best way of making consistent profits with forex signals is to subscribe to several different currency trading signals and trade all of their signals. If one of them is having a particularly bad week, the others should compensate and still net you a profitable week, or break even at worst.
Always do your due diligence before trading a provider's forex alerts. Good forex signal services will publish their last 6 - 12 months results on their website. Some will even show you details of the actual trades they took. Expect to see losses as well as winners - that's just the nature of trading. Indeed, if the results show only winners, or the provider is unwilling to show you any results, or to provide contact details of some of their clients willing to give a reference be on your guard.
Most will offer you some sort of free trial or discounted special offer. Make sure that you clearly understand the terms of this offer and know the deadline by which you need to give notice to terminate if you're not happy with the service provided.
If you compare the last 6 month's results of all the forex signal service providers you intend to use, you should find that taken as a whole they delivered a profit.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results, but we have found that if you have a good combination of trading styles in your trading signals portfolio you are in with a fighting chance of consistent profits whatever the market conditions.
Again, think about the cashflow logic of what you will be doing here - the subscription costs of each forex signals service are already very modest, and by combining them you are increasing your probability of consistent profits. They can't all get it wrong all of the time, and remember they are all incentivised by their membership to get it right as often as possible.
Even with experienced traders calling your trades, it's prudent risk management to never ever risk more than 3% of your initial capital on any one trade, preferably only 1%. So, if for example your initial capital, (or to put it another way, the maximum you can afford to lose) is let's say 5,000, the position size you take on each trade should be such that if the trade hit your stop loss, your maximum loss would be no more than 1% x 5,000 = 50.
Using forex signals as trade ideas
Even if you prefer not to follow forex tips to the letter, you can still profit from their trade idea.
For example, if you receive a forex tip trading the GBP/USD long with a 40 pip stop loss, but on analysing the charts (following your attendance on a forex training course) you feel more comfortable placing the stop loss let's say 63 pips below entry, giving the stop protection below a visible area of recent and prior support, which happens also to be below the weekly pivot point, and in doing so are happy to have a longer range target - then go right ahead and do so.
We were surprised to find that when we did exactly this with one of our forex signals' tips our trades actually performed better than theirs did. Two heads better than one maybe.
The point is though, that without the forex market forecast drawing our attention to that particular chart at that particular time we would never have seen that trade idea.
This also makes the point that while it may at first seem temping to let a signal provider trade your account for you, if you have the time you may actually prefer to control it yourself.
If you have been through a good forex training course and understand the concepts of support, resistance, pivot points, trends etc you should always use this knowledge to perform your own due diligence on forex alerts. You may well find as we did that you can enhance the overall performance of your portfolio of forex trade recommendations.
Free forex signals
This section would not be complete without mention of forex signals providers who don't charge any subscription fee.
As we mentioned above even subscription charging services should be effectively free to you by virtue of calling enough profitable trades to more than cover the subscription cost.
In addition we prefer to use subscription based forex signals as they have an incentive to consistently call profitable trades, in that their subscribers won't stay with them for very long if they don't.
Free signals by comparison have no such incentive, so be warned and trade them at your own risk.

The [http://www.profitable-fx-trading.com] website provides access to free signals providers as well as details of some of the better subscription services, along with free training videos and many other free tools, strategies and useful contacts to make your forex trading as profitable as possible.

US Crude Unchanged, Nonfarm Payrolls Next

US crude futures are subdued on Friday, trading at $34.73 a barrel in the European session. Brent crude futures are also very steady, trading at $37.06. In economic news, market focus will be on US job numbers, led by Nonfarm Payrolls. The markets are expecting a strong turnaround in the upcoming release, with an estimate of 195 thousand. Crude oil prices are above $34 and are close to two-month highs. This is largely due to market sentiment that the crash in prices may have “bottomed out”, as crude has been climbing steady over the past three weeks. However, the huge surplus of crude continues to dwarf demand and may be with us for quite some time, which would weigh on the commodity. Perhaps underscoring this point, Crude Oil Inventories surged last week to 10.4 million, the largest surplus recorded in almost one year. Global demand for oil has decreased in recent months, sparked by the Chinese slowdown. The US economy has also softened, resulting in less demand for oil and exacerbating the tremendous collapse in oil prices. All eyes are on the US Nonfarm Payroll release on Friday. This event is one of the most important economic indicators and any unexpected reading could have a strong impact on the currency and commodity markets. This week’s employment numbers have been mixed. ADP Nonfarm Payrolls improved to 214 thousand, crushing the estimate of 185 thousand. This was followed by a disappointing Unemployment Claims release, which missed expectations and climbed higher for a second straight week. Which direction will we see from the key NFP report? The markets are expecting a sharp rebound in July, with a forecast of 195 thousand, close to the important 200-thousand level. A strong reading could revive speculation about a March rate hike by the Federal Reserve, but such a scenario remains unlikely, barring a spectacular surge in employment and inflation indicators in the next two weeks, leading up to the Fed’s policy meeting. In the rosy days of December, when the Fed raised rates by 0.25%, there was talk of a series of hikes over the course of 2016, but the US economy has since softened, so another upward move by the Fed could be some time away. WTI/USD Fundamentals Friday (March 4) 8:30 US Average Hourly Earnings. Estimate 0.2% 8:30 US Nonfarm Employment Change. Estimate 195K 8:30 US Unemployment Rate. Estimate 4.9% 8:30 US Trade Balance. Estimate -43.5B *Key events are in bold *All release times are EST WTI/USD for Friday, March 4, 2016070316gWTI/USD March 4 at 3:00 EST Open: 34.72 Low: 34.63 High: 34.88 Close: 34.73 WTI/USD Technical 070316h WTI/USD has been flat in the Asian and European sessions. 35.09 remains a weak resistance line which was tested on Thursday. It could see more action in Friday trade 32.22 is providing support Further levels in both directions: Below: 32.22, 30.00, 26.64 and 22.88 Above: 35.09, 37.75 and 40.00 -