There are plenty of articles, books, etc about the history of trading. There are many more about psychology of trading etc. This is just my view after having been involved in trading for 30 years. No fluff, no fuss. This is what I look for in the market. Simplified, short and straight to the point.
Let's start with some words advice, just so we can have some sort of a common ground.
If you reading this, at this point I believe you should know already that Forex as any other market, is risky, if you don't know what you're doing. In other words, if you bet the farm and the animals, you can lose it all in a split-second.
People talk a lot about losing in trading. It's all about protecting your capital, that you should not risk more than x percent of capital. All that is fine, and yes, you should preserve your capital at all cost. But in my view, many traders put too much weight on capital preservation and forget the fact that trading is all about taking chances of the opportunities that the market brings.
Trading scared is simply a recipe for disaster. Avoiding losing is even worse. Some people just jump from one system to another like a monkey from a tree.
First, losing is an inherited part of this business. I see losing as an investment more than a loss.
If you think long and hard at the statement above, then losing won't be as hard as you think. In fact, it won't be hard at all.
Now we'll talk about opportunities in the markets. This is how I trade. My nuts and bolts.
First, I realize after many years of experience that trading with the trend is not where the money is. Categorizing the market as a trending or ranging is pointless and useless if your only objective is to make money consistently. As I am an old dog coming from the market, I ?test? the market on small, low risk trades until I get a direction. I won't talk about how much I risk, that's something I already have set before any trade.
One thing I have in mind always when I trade: Once my position gets filled, there's nothing I can do. I either lose, win or at least break-even.
I will use 1 minute charts on the Euro-US dollar instrument. I have the tendency to be a counter trader. But don't kid yourself, sometimes I go with the flow. I don't have any bias on trading.
As for why I use 1 min charts, or trading on longer time frames, or using multiple time frames, I won't explain in this article. That would be another subject to cover later.
My objective on trading is to try to spot early on the market intentions. I anticipate when the market turns. But in order for me to place an order, It has to be a significant move. Please see charts #1.
I personally don't like to explain that much every detail of any charts or any system whatsoever. I believe every trader should have a clear observation of what the market does and it's intentions. I force people to think and make their own conclusions.
Just remember to use a stop-loss at the other side of the move (cover).
V-formations ? also called fractals. It really doesn't matter. The idea is to spot some sort of reversals and take the chance as long as your pre-determined risk permits. Could be a fractal; long candle/bar/line etc.
As you can tell, I don't have any mathematical-based indicators on my charts. I am not completely against them, I just don't need anything on my charts. As I said, this is what I look for whenever I trade.
I believe you might be somehow disappointed by the fact that I am not showing complicated mathematical formulas, fibos, moving average salads, big mac's, Elliot wave stuff, long talks about market psychology etc.