Forex

Forex/Trading is a topic that's been done - redone - washed - repeated for a long time now. While I'd like to NOT reinvent the wheel - some of that will get done in this section. So let's get into it a bit.

Update: 2022-10-22.

Introduction

I'm a regular person that loves information technology (IT). I've been doing this for years. I got into trading as a means of potentially getting out of the "hand to mouth" that most middle-class Jamaicans go through. What I've found is that it is possible to make money in forex - but it takes time and discipline. Time is the main thing I don't have due to work (IT obligations).

With that said - I think I've gone through enough to help others on their own trading path. What payment do I want for the information? None. Just use my affiliate links to sign up with the brokers or services I've listed - that's all I ask.

Why am I not rich out of forex yet? Long story. Let's make it short-ish.

• 2017 - Just heard about trading - tried services and tested brokers.
• 2018 - Learning how to trade. Having some success.
• 2019 - Best trades. Great success. Father passed away.
• 2020 - No trading due to mentality. COVID.
• 2021 - No trading. Started dabbling and re-learning.
• 2022 - Working out the kinks, but actually started back.

That's where it is now. I've given myself until the end of 2023 to get things going. If I can't be very profitable out of trading - I'll put it down at that point and focus on IT solely. The information will remain and will always be free. I do believe that the things I'll show here can help you on your own trading journey - but until I am able to invest the time fully - I won't be able to do more than break even. My work schedule is that hectic.

DISCLAIMER

Do not take any information here as financial advice. Blah. Blah. Blah. If you're here then you want to find out some info - and I'll give it. It's not to be considered as a "holy grail" or anything like that. It's just my point of view on the whole financial market system and how to make money from it.

I'm going to be blunt in some areas and more detailed in others. I apologize in advance.

Jamaica Forex Banking Update – 2021-05-18 and 2022-10-01

As of the first date above - it came to my attention that BNS / Scotiabank Jamaica is no longer allowing transactions to or from Forex brokers. They are explicitly blocking transactions done – tested and confirmed after finding out.

JN credit cards and NCB debit cards are confirmed working. Uncertain if BNS credit cards will work.

Tested in October of 2022. JN Visa Credit Cards no longer work for broker deposits. Uncertain if Sagicor works, but confirmed that both credit and debit cards from NCB are functional.

Wire transfers TO your local account will not have any restrictions.

While it’s known that Forex has gotten more difficult to partake in, this comes as a bit of a shock to me.

This will be updated as I receive more data. There are other banks, but I don’t have accounts everywhere so I can’t test them all. Once I get more confirmed details I’ll update this post or create a new one with full details.

What Is ForEx?

Here's the TLDR.

• Forex is putting a dollar value to the rise/fall of currency pairs.
• Forex isn't for everyone.
• Some of the details here reinvents the wheel.
• Go to BabyPips and study - and watch the videos in the YouTube link.

Here's the links.

cTrader Forex Info - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKkNjY2oorU

BabyPips Course - https://www.babypips.com/learn/forex

HotForex Webinars - https://www.youtube.com/user/HotForexBroker/videos

OANDA Forex Market Hours - https://www.oanda.com/forex-trading/analysis/market-hours

OANDA Currency Strength - https://www.oanda.com/forex-trading/analysis/currency-heatmap

Investing.com Economic Calendar - https://www.investing.com/economic-calendar/

FXStreet Economic Calendar - https://www.fxstreet.com/economic-calendar

MyFXBook Economic Calendar - https://www.myfxbook.com/forex-economic-calendar

ForexFactory - https://www.forexfactory.com/

Forexlive - http://www.forexlive.com/

Longer Version

Information about Forex can be found on INVESTOPEDIA. A very good site for quite a lot of info. I’ve butchered the information that I recall from my own research and added it here. For something more comprehensive please see the linked articles.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/11/why-trade-forex.asp

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brettonwoodsagreement.asp

The term FOR EX is a shortened form of Foreign Exchange. If you’ve been to a bank or other place and traded in your home currency for some other currency that’s Forex. If you’ve received money from overseas that was in another currency, and it had to be converted to your home currency – that’s Forex.

Forex is simply the exchange of currencies.

Forex History

Goods Trading

In the past – long ago – people would exchange goods for goods. Carrots for potatoes. Sheep for cows. That kind of thing. Don’t quote me on that kind of exchange though – I’m just giving examples. But goods would spoil over time and would be costly to transport. So humans started placing value on shells and stones. Eventually we got to precious stones and gems – like gold and such – and moved to coins then paper. Coins were easier to carry around and it was easier to do business, but in every age you have persons that want to capitalize on the naivety of others – and both coins and paper were counterfeited. Nowadays there are methods in place to reduce counterfeiting, but humans will be humans.

The Gold Standard

Gold was considered a precious metal that had value. Each country then tied their currency to gold. The USD (United States Dollar) was equivalent to gold by (for example) $1 = 1 ounce of gold. The USD was mostly stable, so the other currencies of the world would use the USD as a base to determine what their dollar/currency was valued at. Faster than measuring gold and doing the checks that way. After the Bretton Woods meeting/agreement in 1944, the gold standard was decided upon. This had persons from 44 countries agreeing on using the gold standard – the USD was pegged to a certain amount of gold and the others would value themselves based on the USD. In 1971 the president of the US (Richard Nixon) announced that they would no longer tie the USD to gold. This then gave rise to a floating exchange rate.

Floating Exchange Rate

Currently most countries are still valuing their currency based on the value to the USD. The difference is that the strength or weakness is based on resources, goods or services that are provided between those countries.

Not For Profit – Sort Of

An example of goods and services – and the currency strength – would be Japan. While China makes a lot of stuff, Japan has a far more friendly relationship with most countries. The Japanese Yen (the Japanese “dollar” – their currency – called the YEN – JPY) has been mostly stable versus the USD for an extended period of time. How can the country that provides electronics and vehicles not have a 1:1 ratio (one-to-one) with another country? Well. Because they want to.

If it became more expensive to do business with Japan, countries would take their business elsewhere. There are established and agreed costs for production of goods and services, and this has caused the Japanese bank (“Bank of Japan” I believe) to monitor the floating exchange rate markets and purposely keep their currency at a certain level versus the USD. So if the JPY is gaining ground on the USD – the bank starts doing things to manipulate the market and keep the rate as stable as possible. No major fluctuations are allowed as it would be very bad for business.

Trading For Profit

We’re not interested in keeping things stable. We’re retail traders. We’re interested in making money off the currency fluctuations. This can be done daily, weekly, monthly yearly and a niche can be found to suit any need. If you’re a long term, short term or medium term trader – something is there for you.

Retail Trading

Persons that are not a bank, hedge fund, large business or otherwise directly involved in the daily market movements are referred to as RETAIL TRADERS. These are persons that speculate on the market and attempt to predict the direction.

Brokers and Leverage

In the past you had to trade from a physical location – call into your broker and set your orders. Now, everything is done electronically using software platforms that link to the brokers.

There are now literally hundreds if not thousands of brokers available to choose from. Each provides you with an option for leverage. Trading requires a lot of money, but leverage helps with that. Leverage can work for and against you – as it increases your earning and your losing potential. The broker also may provide different types of accounts so that you can start with a small balance. A “cent” or “micro” account for example would allow you to trade with as little as USD$10 versus other accounts. Standard accounts with leverage have recommended minimums of USD$300-$500 and accounts with zero leverage would require a minimum of USD$10,000 if I’m not mistaken.

Section Closing

With those things in mind, let’s move on to the more exciting part. Actually setting up and trading. And how to do it and make some profit. If you find that you’re unable to profit on the demo account – don’t move to live. Work on the demo until you’re able to make profits.

Getting Into It

There is no "holy grail". Finding what works for you - what resonates with you - will take time and patience. The easy way out is to copy a successful trader - but there are caveats to that. For the full details - continue reading on.

START (edited)

I'd like to share some stuff which I hope will advise and assist the newer traders in here. Maybe help to bolster things on the seasoned traders as well. Let's start with this - or the same info that's above at the top of the thread.

My trade explorer was removed (by me) due to the changes to my account.

I'll post information regarding previous account details here.  s

HOW TO TRADE

Everyone probably gets lured into trading thinking it's a fast way to make money. It is and it isn't. It takes time to learn - either how to trade or to learn a system. It takes even longer if you have to make your own system.

MY JOURNEY

So let's try and make a summary.

• 2017 - Just heard about trading - tried services and tested brokers.
• 2018 - Learning how to trade. Having some success.
• 2019 - Best trades. Great success. Father passed away.
• 2020 - No trading due to mentality. COVID.
• 2021 - No trading. Started dabbling and re-learning.
• 2022 - Working out the kinks, but actually started back.

I did a few things during the learning phase. I lost a lot. I felt invincible at points. Let's see...I lost most of an account right down to $14. Took that back to $80+ and then lost it. I work in a specialized IT industry - office sent me on training so I had no work to do. During that training period I took a $100 account to $1,100+ and then lost it all. That one I can explain. But there's a pattern here. I always make great gains then lose. And I identified two reasons.

1. Over-leveraging.
2. Emotions.

Every time that I make good gains - I deviate from the original plan and then lose. Do I lose because my analysis is wrong? No. Price almost always goes where I expected when I check back. I say almost always because I'm not perfect. That covers the over-leveraging.

Emotions lead to over-leveraging as well. My father got sick and passed away. During that time I had pushed my account up to from $100 to $1,100+ and was doing mostly fine - but as he deteriorated I got desperate. I heavily over-leveraged because I wanted that fast money to get things done. It didn't work out.

In the end - can you over-leverage and make it? Yes. But your account will not be able to withstand any large drawdown if you do. So I don't recommend it.

MENTORS & COMMUNITY

This was a major block for me. I've always been looking for some successful trader to teach me their way. I joined here and other communities looking for the "holy grail" - some sort of strategy that just works and gives me little to do other than follow some rules or something. Then I started looking into EAs. Nothing worked. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone knows best looking on from the outside. There's so much going on.

A SOLUTION?

So with everything going on - how do you find a solution? How do you enter this "forex thing" and actually succeed? Well. The answers will be hard - but let's try and be honest about it. From here - will just be things I've found and wish I had a mentor for. Hopefully those who come across this - or persons I forward it to - will get something out of it.

MAKE A PLAN

Now this doesn't mean you've got to make your own system. This means set out a plan. What do you get asked in interviews from time to time? "Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?" You should ask yourself a similar thing for trading. Forex, stocks or crypto - any kind of trading - it doesn't matter. Set a goal of a certain number of years. After that timeframe is passed - if you do not see progress or are not profitable - get out. Trading can be addictive - even with losses. GET. OUT. Let me give a basic plan.

• 3-6 months to learn.
• 3-6 months testing - demo or small live account.
• Within the above time you perfect your strategy.
• 2-3 years trading on live.

If after the planned period you have no good results - or you're not seeing a way out - GET. OUT. STOP.

It's unfortunate, but not everyone is cut out for trading. Whatever your reason - your day job or psychology for example - something may be preventing you from gaining pips in the market. If you find that it's not for you - get out. Don't stay and waste money over months/years. Give it a good go and if you fail - at least you tried.

TRADING SYSTEMS

Now to be honest - I don't want to bash any specific system. But the easiest one for me to find that I disagree with is the lunar cycle trading. I mean - it does work for those who use it - but I don't see exactly how...

I've never tried that system - and there are LOTS that I haven't tried. There may be hundreds if not thousands of systems out there, and with so many to choose from there are pros and cons. The pros would include having options. With the wide array there should be at least one that resonates with your character, preference and trading style.

The cons would include being unable to find one. Even with reviews done her and on FXPA - the statement "results not typical" applies. Whether it's account size or settings - you may not get the same results.

There's also the fact that a system may not suit your style. Let me give two examples.

If you're a long term trader and you buy or find a system that's short term - it may annoy you with all of the getting in and out of trades daily/weekly. The constant stream of wins/losses may get to you. If you're a short term trader then watching a position go in drawdown for days or weeks may weigh on you and you close out in loss while others end up closing in profit.

You need to find what works for you.

BOOKS & SUCH

Now I've purchased a lot of stuff during my own journey. Some of the books are really good. "Trading In The Zone" is a great book for getting your psychology sorted. "Naked Forex" is another great book that helps you learn price action. And for short books that are a few by "Laurentiu Damir" that I find to be good.

MY PERSONAL APPROACH

Unfortunately, due to my nature of taking things apart - I need to understand what the thing is and how it works. As a result, my approach to trading has been trying to at least grab a basic understanding of the indicators and how things work before I use them. It's been said over and over that price action is the greatest tool, coupled with "the trend is your friend". If you find that a fully indicator based trading style is more your thing - then ensure you test it before you get into it.

COPY TRADES, EAs & AUTOMATED TRADING

Now for some things that may have mixed results. If you don't have the time to trade, you can always get a copier service or some automated trading service - EA or otherwise.

For copier services, there is no way to know that what you're being sold is fully true. If you want to copy someone or something that's successful, use the services available on MQL or FXBook. I don't know of FF having a copy service available or else I'd recommend that. Find a trader that has good stats that you're comfortable with - pay the commission and leave it alone.

For copier services that are advertised otherwise - they may be running from certain regulations or fees from using other platforms. If you have a good set of stats from them that are verified on a platform such as here or FXBook - use at your own risk. I mean - if it's verified information then it should be less risk, but everyone has different results.

For automated trading and EAs now...that's a tricky one. I've often thought that I'd love an EA based on my strategy and style, but I don't have the skills to code that. I also don't want to have someone make it and potentially steal my idea and sell it. There are some automated services like those from "Dennis Buchholz" that are updated frequently - those I trust a bit more, but still will have mixed results based on settings and account size. Dennis updates his EAs frequently enough to match the changing market conditions - and to update the overall coding.

Oh - the mention of names, books and such aren't an endorsement or recommendation - I'm just giving examples of things I've used or seen.

I don't trust back testing either. Most professionally coded EAs are actually designed to run great during back-tests because the past data is already known. That's why you'll have great back-test results and poor live results. Some EAs also do great under certain market conditions and crash in others. So there are no EAs that I've seen personally that are "set and forget". You have to periodically check on it and see what's happening. It somewhat defeats the purpose of passive earning when you have to be checking on the EA.

If you find one that works for you - stick with it. For things you're using like an EA - use the recommended settings. For copy services where you have any control over lot sizing - stay within your means.

MENTORING MENTION (AGAIN)

I'm coming back to this to mention someone. Mr. Lee Starks aka "Uncle Lee". He's been written off by a number of people and I don't actually understand why. Prior to having a few paid services - like 4 or 5 things including one copy service - he has been on Telegram in numerous groups helping persons streamline their trading. Even during his paid services and even now, he's been trying to help persons on his own time and at zero cost. He's tested and paid for a number of different things and has given away information freely. But people have had mixed results and as such, he's been written off by a lot of persons. What this says is, you can find persons that have the best intentions that are still spoken poorly of. It also comes back to the trading styles and systems. From the screenshots and stats that he's shared, he's doing fine. Do all of his followers have great result? Nope. Does that mean his system doesn't work? It may not work for YOU specifically, but it may work for someone else.

A BASIC SYSTEM

Here's one of the most basic systems I can think of. And is the basis of what I do. Use a couple MAs and RSI. If you want to find and purchase TDI you can do so - there are also free TDI versions available online.

Disclaimer that this is basically a strategy used for scalping. The principle can be applied to longer term trades though.

Open a chart with a 50 EMA and 200 EMA. Switch between the 15 minute, 1 hour and 4 hour chart. Note that the lower MA is basically equal to the higher MA on smaller timeframes. That's to say - the 200 EMA on the H1 is the same as the 50 EMA on the H4. With a certain cluster of MAs you can tell where price is on a higher timeframe without switching to it.

Look for price action, candle formations, patterns or support/resistance levels. Let's say you have an engulfing candle on the low or a double bottom formation. You get that on the H4, D1, W1 or MN timeframe. You drill down to the lower timeframe and trade long (buys) until price has reached another level or MA before you get out. Do your confirmation of a break/trend/move on the higher timeframe - enter on the smaller timeframe.

Something else would simply be...identify the trend. Is price going up or down? OK. Did it bounce off an MA or a level? Enter on the next bounce.

I mean - you could complicate it more by using fibs and QT and such - but that's just to keep it simple. And you can actually win with something like that. There was another very simple strategy which I saw....

Use Heikin Ashi candles on the D1 with a 20 SMA. If price is below the SMA - prepare to sell. If it's above the SMA - prepare to buy. You'll confirm your buy/sell entry if the Heikin Ashi candle is red or green. Red and below the SMA is a sell. Green and above the SMA is a buy. Then you'll switch to another type of chart and use other confluences for your entry. You can't get much more simple than that. Unless you're going to do a simple MA cross.

STATISTICS

Another thing I was obsessed over in the past was stats. I actually had an account where I had zero losses for 3 weeks straight. Decided to stick it out and do that - but it takes a toll when you have a job other than trading.

Stats are nice to look at - but in the end you really want to look at 2 or 3 things.

1. Pips.
2. Percentage.
3. Balance.

Where pips are concerned, it actually is possible to have a negative amount of pips and a positive percentage or balance. Imagine having a 30 pip (300 tick) win with a 0.30 lot size - about $300 win - and then have a 1,000 pip loss (10,000 ticks) with 0.01 - that's about $100. You're ahead with percentage and have increased your balance - but your pips are in negative by -700.

At the end of the day - ensure you're ahead. Do what is needed for you to push forward.

MENTALITY

Yes - you can make 100% or even 1,000% profit in trading after 1 week or 1 month. But that's very high risk unless you have a large enough account.

1% of $50 is $0.50.

1% of $500 is $5.

1% of $10,000 is $100.

If you can grow your account CONSISTENTLY by a small percentage each month for 3-6 months - you're well on your way to making money in trading.

Get in with a demo account to LEARN about the market - develop a strategy or adopt one - use this strategy for a minimum of 3-6 months to see how it works for you. Once you're comfortable with the strategy - move to a live account. Some brokers offer "cent accounts" where you earn very little, but it's actual market conditions. Some demo accounts are not subject to gaps, spikes and other movements in actual market conditions. A real account as well - regardless of how small - affects your psychology differently. Trade that small account for another 3-6 months and grow it consistently successfully. I've attached an Excel file where you start with $50. At the end of one year you should have over $600 - and that's at 1% per day.

Based on how this is - the file will probably be at the bottom of the post. It's called "1YEAR CI Calculator.xlsx" - it's an Excel document to help you project your profits once you have a system in place.

If you don't make your 1% per day - it's fine. If you make more - you're ahead and can take it easier. Do what you're doing consistently for 3-6 months to solidify the method you're using. Once you've done so, you can add more to your account and keep with the strategy.

Note that with a small account you can't open anything smaller than 0.01. The risk is higher with a small account. Your calculation of the lots to open - based on your strategy - should be around 0.01 for every $100 you have. You can scale upward from there.

If you want to take risks with certain types of over-leveraging on a small account, you're free to do so. Just bear in mind the risks. It's better to have consistent performance than to take large risks and lose.

For the persons that have looked at the account - yes I did heavily over-leverage at certain points based on the account size. I wouldn't have grown it so quickly otherwise. As the account grows however, the risks should go down. One of the things I've done - and I do not recommend this or put it here as advice - is to take a larger size position - like 0.10 for example - and then close it after it goes in profit by say....+$5 or $10. I do a partial close at this point of 0.08 or 0.09 and leave the remaining position of 0.01 or 0.02 to keep running. This is only done on entries that I can either sit and watch or those that match my entry rules by 85% or higher. This reduces the overall risk and gives me a boost to the profits and percentage. It increases my drawdown however, but that's inevitable with a small account.

Once you get your account larger - stick to the rules you have and the estimate of 0.01 lot to every $100 in your account. Meaning you can take a maximum of 0.10 for a $1,000 account and 1.00 for a $10,000 account.

BROKERS

There's a LOT of brokers out there. I won't bash any specific ones, but I'll say this - there are some that I'd avoid and never do business with again. I will only make mention of one particular broker - TradersWay. My personal experience with them was very poor. VERY. I'll post a chart. You can check back with your own broker and see.

That was during my initial entry to trading. I had accounts at 4 different brokers and TW was the only one that had this kind of movement. Many people - and I mean MANY - have told me nothing but good things about TW, but this experience with them has made me leave and never look back.

Find a broker that works for you. I would personally only recommend two. If admins/rules will allow me to post my referral links to those two I will - but you can look them up yourself either way. HotForex and IC Markets. Great experience with them.

For challenges and to make some money with your skills - if you have limited resources - you can try the FTMO challenges or any other broker challenge that's available.

THE $50 ACCOUNT

I live in Jamaica - a little third world country in the Caribbean. People know the country for reggae, weed and Usain Bolt. I think that about sums it up. We also have some of the best coffee in the world - arguably. But being a third world country means not everyone has easy access to funds. My job allows me to open a $500 or higher account with relative ease - even if some sacrificing is needed to do so - but the average person cannot find $100 to open an account without taking a loan. After 2-3 months they can possibly save enough spare cash to do $50, but it's a major gamble for residents to find foreign currency.

The current rate for USD$1 is about JMD$157 - that means USD$50 is about JMD$7,850. Then there's getting it to the bank to do the broker deposit. Then there's the fees. Then there's the fact that many Jamaican banks have blocked transactions with brokers - so you can use wire transfers but that's an additional cost.

I'm doing this account to show that it is possible to start small and build up. Your account balance doesn't really matter. Sticking to your rules makes the difference. Managing your risk.

IN CLOSING

Find or develop what works for you. Go at a pace you're comfortable with. Exercise patience - that's one of the HARDEST things. Waiting on your ideal setups can be a pain, but once you find them - awesome. Keep practicing if you're sticking it out. Get out if you've been at it too long and aren't getting anywhere.

Don't mind your account size. Let people laugh at you. Ask them how many pips they made - or what percentage. That's what matters. I could never attempt to compare my $50 account with someone that has a $100,000 account. Not just because of the percentage difference due to the sizes - but the psychology of trading the larger account will be much different. The person with the larger account may reach their target balance before me - hence they do the other hard thing to do in trading - stop. They get to their target and then stop for the day/week. So they could have gotten more pips - but they're not taking any unnecessary risks.

Find your rhythm. Find your path. Make the decision to stay or leave. If you decide to stay - I wish you well.

Outlook & Strategy

That's out of the way. Let's move forward a bit. We're in 2022. I've (mostly) streamlined processes and will be discussing how I got here. I'm going to try to summarize at first and then get into detail later on. But let me do this beforehand.

I've spoken against TradersWay (TW) before - repeatedly - but you can have issues with ANY broker. What you should do is find whichever one works for you. I've had a bad experience with them - that doesn't mean you will. There are persons that have NEVER had a problem with them. I guess I was just unfortunate. So here we go.

TRADING METHODS - Summary

There are two specific methods that I've bastardized and combined to get what I think works. This is after years of trying lots of things - from being manual to automated - back to manual - etc.

• BTMM
• PVSRA

You can look them up and find information. IMO - PVSRA is a refined version of BTMM with specific rules that will help you to earn. BTMM took a more holistic approach which works for some - but not for others. Using things learned in  both will help you to push forward.

HISTORY

Here's some trading history for you.

2019 - started out with the broker HotForex.

Then I moved from HotForex to ICMarkets

And then my father got sick and died. And that was it for my account. Heavy over-leveraging and attempts to make fast money didn't work out. Trading is a process. It takes time to get things right. I left it alone and really just started back. There's been a lot of ups and downs, but I've not actually started with a large enough account to get anything done. I've had losses through the year trying to refine and get something that works with my 9-5 schedule. I'm getting on to it.

This is something which is doable. I'll get into more detail when I can. The last image above is at 2022-10-06. It's hard for me to balance the daily job and trading - but it may be easier for you. My job isn't your typical 9-5 so I'm free from physical and paperwork late at nights. That means I miss market moves and other things.

What I've done since October is open a challenge account which gives a high value demo to trade. Once you prove your worth there, you're given a live account where there is a profit split. You can look up companies like FTMO and MFF - or just search for Forex Prop Firms to see what the options are.

But now that the sob story is out of the way. Let's get into what you wanted. The reason you're here.

Using The Trading Methods

Now this section is going to take some time to edit and get right. I'm going to try to summarize it as much as possible for now - and then I'll expand as I can. I expect that you getting here - you've looked through the videos/training mentioned before - or you have some knowledge about trading overall and are just here for the juicy bits.

My methodology takes two things into consideration - and it's not as "weird" as lunar cycle trading. Again - not to knock what people use (and are profitable with) - but it just doesn't seem logical to me. I mean - Ichimoku Cloud trading is another thing that works - but it was far too complex for me to grasp.

Let's see if it can make sense to you. As I said - I'll expand as I have the time.

Indicators - Tools - EAs

This section will have links to tools that I recommend using. It will have a version of PVSRA and most of the tools used to analyze and enter trades. Any tool that I've paid for will not be listed due to copyright and such.

BTMM & PVSRA

These are two trading methods that I've found compliment each other very well. Let me give the summary.

BTMM

The BTMM (Beat The Market Maker) method basically says there's a dark side to the trading markets. There are persons on the other end of your trades that are out to get you. Well - not YOU specifically - but all retail traders. The vast majority of traders place their orders and stop loss in the same ranges. The MMs (Market Makers) push price to pick up these orders and have you in DD (drawdown - negative balance) or hit your SL (stop loss) to take you out.

BTMM is a reversal strategy that identifies tops/bottoms based on patterns and trades away from the reversal formation.

PVSRA

From what I've seen - PVSRA (Price, Volume, Support, Resistance, Analysis) is related to BTMM, but focuses more on the trend than the reversal. The concept is based on PATIENCE where you wait for the setup. There are 3 MAs (moving averages) that are used, and price needs to break the primary (50 EMA) and retrace to it before you enter. This essentially identifies the top/bottom/peak and trades away in line with what would be an established trend.

Putting Them Together

The best thing to do is combine the two. But the HARDEST part about all of it? Patience.

Hindsight & Homework

Any idiot can look on a past chart and show you all the best entries and exits. Identifying what YOU did on the chart - what you did right and what you did wrong - will help you to identify when these things are setting up. It can then help make you a better trader overall. Homework involves either taking screenshots of the chart to review - or taking the time and the session end or on the weekend to look back at what you did. Analyzing before entry is critical. You may not get "the perfect entry" when you spend time analyzing - but you'll be more sure of the direction and WHY you are entering. Keeping a journal helps for some.

Trade What You See

This is something that I can't stress enough. Examples will be used for the previous week on USDCHF because it gives a very clear picture of where price is and went. I'll be showing the mistake I made as well - in the hopes that you don't do the same. Emphasizing that you should always trade what you see - not what you feel or think. Doing so will save you lots of grief.