Intraday Trading the Forex market to make consistent profit

Hi Members

I plan to use this thread to compliment my other thread - Intraday Live short term trading - under the discretionary section of the T2W main forum.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/disc...ex-trader.html


I will explain in more detail how I trade the currency market - but my knowledge and experience is just too valuable to give out every special tip I have learned in the last 11 years of forex day trading to an open forum

You will therefore have to use your own brain and eyes to really explore what I see and how I achieve consistent daily results in basically any market conditions.

I don't expect everyone to agree and believe everything I will be saying - but I will say it is based on my own FX retail trading experience of which over the last 6 years as been as a full time trader.

I don't sell courses or books / dvd's or do any trading lectures. I only trade spot fx - nothing else - not even gold or silver - so my own particular method or strategy should only be applied to currencies - as that is the only product I have ever used it on

I have only traded in the retail section of the industry - I have never worked in the commercial sector so only have basic knowledge of the "other side of the fence" - or as far as I am concerned - "the enemy" ;-))

I now have over 15k of hours watching live small frame currency charts - approximately 14k of live trades behind me on mainly 6 to 8 currency pairs with probably well over half of those live trades purely on the EU and GU.

I think that is really enough experience for you all to believe that I should know what I am talking about ;-)

I also recommend that you only start following what I am going to explain if you have at least 18 months or 2 yrs of existing forex trading knowledge behind you - so that you at least understand the basics - and also have already experienced how easy it is to lose money day trading.

i will now try and explain how to change that - but don't think its just a quick 1 month training exercise - the quicker learners might only need another 6 months - whereas many will need 9 -12 further months to be at least a lot more consistent.

I welcome questions along the way - and will first start on whether you might be suitable for this new journey .........

loads more to follow
Regards

I did not start my fx trading journey until I was nearly 50 yrs old

My first 2-3 years got me really nowhere

Yes I could achieve winning trades - and normally I had more winners than losers - I was probably achieving a 55 -60% win ratios - but normally one loser would wipe out 2 or 3 good trades

I was mainly using the 1 hr and 4 hr charts and doing the normal stuff - ie targeting wins of 40 -70+ pips - with stops from 30 to 50 pips.

The main problem was I might take profits at only 28 -35 pips - and widen my stops to over 70 pips to try and stay in the game

I was really being taught by traders and tutors who really knew all the theories - but failed to realise it did not work in practice.

I soon realised all indicators and all main methods of technical analysis gave only average results - ie win ratios of 45 -55% on 100's of trades - and then you needed really good money management to stay in the game.

I kept reading commercial fx traders who only made 40 -70% per annum - and so if they were the pro's - how would I beat that - and so even with say $100k of capital - only say 50k a year would be a great result - was it really worth it??

I had made over 100% gain in just 3 months on $2500 with a company called Next24hrs - and then realised - it had been luck - their next 6 months results were just loses - ie day trading with no stops

I also put $25k with a pro trader in the UK who had a track record of 300 -400 pips every month for over 2 yrs. He traded for me for 4 months - swing trades - after 50 pip targets with 30 pip stops - and he got my account up to $33 k - before a few bad weeks took it back down to $27k - and I then bailed and at least walked away with a slight profit.

Then thing changed after meeting some traders in a US chat room

They gave me a bit of help - and suddenly - I started to see another way of looking at trading........... - and it was just not the way I had been reading and studying - totally different

I suppose I was lucky at that stage - i was semi retired - had loads of time on my hands and was a very inquisitive - due to my business background and my very competitive nature - ie i wanted to succeed and do well in everything I took on.

Up to then trading forex was beating me - I had been ripped off on courses and i was being made to look a fool by the market - it could just beat me up - take my money off me and give me a real psycho problem most weeks

I did not like it - but knew I was too far down the line just to give up and walk away

I think that happens to so many traders - it becomes addictive - like drugs or drink - and then it takes your life over

For me Forex trading was the most difficult project I had ever taken on - no way was it easy to make consistent money - and this was after 30 -36 months of at least 10 -15 hrs a week trying to make sense of what was happening.

I really don't want anybody following me thinking its easy

It's not - trust me !!!

It helps if you have some qualities that will be needed and will be tested.

For example - there is no way my wife could learn to trade at an high level - the main reasons being - she suffers with "road rage" - ie short tempered - she cannot focus or concentrate on anything more than about an hr without getting bored - she's not into maths or problem solving........ although on the positive side she is very disciplined and does not mind hard work.

Please do not kid yourself - trading will find out all of your weaknesses - don't think you can hide them - and get away not needing rules etc

Therefore probably out of every 10 forex traders with basic - or intermediate level who will try my way - maybe only 3 or 4 of them will make it work well and maybe another 3 or 4 should not even attempt it - ie its not for them

Ok - on next to my own particular theory of the FX markets and why I probably differ with 80% of all traditional type of traders and investors

Regards

I got into the forex market in the boom time - after the new millennium and pre 2007 /8

The currency market had been growing quickly after the arrival of the internet and suddenly being made available to everyone and their dog.

It became the largest money market in the World by 2006ish with over $3 trillion being traded every day. Day trading was the new boom business - ideal for someone wanting a new money earner - and you did not need 10's of K of capital to start with- you could use your savings or borrow a a few grand and in theory once you had spent a few months looking at a few charts - you would be on your way to your first million - ( that's how the dream was sold)

It just looked so easy - just look at a day chart and go back over a few years and then look when it reaches a peak - and you sell and look for a bottom - and then you buy.

The commercial financial groups must have thought they had won the pools and the Euro lottery and met 500 beautiful virgins all in one day - it would be that good for them

By 2008 -09 - we had hit the world wide recession - thousands of people where losing their jobs and being made redundant - what job can they find to work only a few hrs a week from home - as their own boss and earn thousands and thousands of bucks - yes - it was forex trading.

The existing traders who all started a few years back were able to suddenly sell their limited knowledge - ie as we know - the one eyed man is the king in the land of the blind

Courses and books and dvd's were everywhere - just spend a few hundred or thousands and you too can be an expert - and go on to fame and fortune.

Yes - it got me interested and I became hooked - but knew there just had to be some catch in this too good to be true new business.

I had heard that business people and clever well educated studious types might not do as well as normal level headed everyday folk - ie it did not matter if you were an housewife or a shop assistant - you could do as well as even a professor or a retired brain surgeon - ie you did not have to be a member of Mensa (more total bo11oxs )

I looked upon it - if I cannot become profitable - as far as I was concerned - hardly anybody else would be able to be profitable - ie I had that much confidence and past credibility in my ability.

I had the Hon's degree in Economics - a business and accountancy trained background - had worked 3 yrs with Sir Richard Branson as well as at a World wide Conglomerate at Director level - I had set up 3 businesses myself - done MBO's than had sold out and was worth a few million - and was semi retired with time on my hands

I had been trained in stats and micro management - was use to pressure and deadlines - had worked on commission only projects within strict end dates - I loved problem solving - was great at thinking outside the box - loved all sport as well as motor racing and competed at various levels - so knew how to win - and also how to accept defeat to a better guy or competitor.

So after 2- 3 yrs of not getting that far in this game - I had to start again and study what I had actually got involved with

That study along with some help from US chat room lead me to concentrate on a way of trading that would also fit in with my own business criteria - ie

1. I would not be trading millions of dollars and I looked upon trading as an income source - not a long term investments - I had that before 2010 in the form of property and 2 pensions.

2. 40 -70% per annum returns would not be sufficient on $100k or less - and I had no intention of investing a quarter of a million or more in this unregulated - crooked industry - with the regulators not having a clue what was really going on

(Back in 1994 I was involved in another industry and had to testify at several Monopolies and Mergers hearings on how certain businesses could control market prices illegally - and for sure I had now got involved in another one )

3, I am not a gambler - I rarely have more than ?20 on the horses or other sports betting - as an ex trained accountant - I don't like financial risk - but similar as a previous amateur motor racer - I have driven over 160 mphs on various old aerodromes as well as Silverstone and Brand's Hatch - and therefore I am into "thrill seeking" - as long as its fully controlled

4. I needed a way to make me a minimum 15% per month on under $100k of capital and with the possibility of up to 70% per month - without ever exposing drawdown of more than 10% on any day or week or month

5. I needed consistency - ideally money gains every 2 or 4 hrs - certainly every day and no losing weeks or months -just not allowable

6. All the commercial institutions and all the gurus and brokers etc I talked to just said it could not really be done over say a few months and certainly not over years and years

It just shows how much they knew - and how they had never really looked at "outside the box thinking" - but instead - just followed the herd - the sheeple and believed all that had been written in the past

ie a bit like when everyone thought the world was flat lol

OK - so needed to test some of my findings on a demo account for a few hundred trades and then on a life $5k account - which I was prepared to lose - if need be

That did not happen - as I will now go on to explain along with why I like trading at the "coalface" - day in day out

Regards