30 Days to Profitable EUR/USD Scalping....
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thread: 30 Days to Profitable EUR/USD Scalping....

  1. #1

    30 Days to Profitable EUR/USD Scalping....

    Disclaimer: This is my initial FAILED attempt to demone that scalping on very short time frames could be profitable to the retail trader.

    Disclaimer2: You won't be able to invent an EA from what I discuss here. This thread will follow 30 trading days of a new Scalp account. The focus will be on approaches, but in addition mindset and scalping frame. Much will be subjective but of some worth.

    Disclaimer3: This journal has been completed with 30 trading times recorded. Unfortunately, the account isn't profitable. At best, I was profitable to approximately 7%. It dropped into -25percent by Day 30.
    Read along in the event that you are considering starting a little account to scalp intraday, maybe my experiences will save you from mistakes and errors so that your travel is going to be a positive one.

    If you'd like to bypass the very first month, then the drawdown, and lots of egy changes...
    leap to Page 4, Post #51 roughly.


    Feb 2010: 5.96%
    March 2010: -30.71percent
    April 2010: 10.10%
    May 2010: -29.64percent
    June 2010: 10.01%
    July 2010: -16.74percent
    (account stopped July 13th 2010)

  2. #2
    On April 12th, I attempted trading USD/JPY back again. Analyzing my trades for the previous months, my other accounts, it's quite clear I do in slower markets. Forex EUR/USD, I've a much greater winning commerce% after London markets near (US afternoons). Stated in this diary the volatility in the mornings is too high because of my stop inventories method that is tight.
    #12288;
    I attempted USD/JPY but the sense of this”quantity” was quite thin, very hard to see.

    So, I am back to the idea of volatility based ceases and position sizing at a really easy format. US Morning periods, 7500 units, approx 8 pip stop spread...US Afternoon sessions, 20,000 units, approx 4 pip stop spread. I created a customized start date perspective of my account on MyFxbook. I only wanted to take a peek at my winwith short term small scalps.

    I did take a peek at quantity from MB Trading's ECN and attempted to use it with charts but it was not too much help. I believed with some quantity”insight” I could find some clues concerning price action. The truth that we must live with would be that there's not any quantity and we cannot observe the traders order books. For me coming to realize that It's painful. But... the traders can't observe any fundamental volume nor will they see any other trader's order book .

  3. #3
    I started at roughly 10:00AM EST.. Again we were between the central rally and S1, the 5 min TF trend was down. Now, I only did two trades. Following my trades, as we approached the European close (10:30-11:00AM), the 5 min TF fad changed.

    I really wanted to wait till after 11:00AM, to allow some of the excitement perish. I could not reconcile the upward movement of the EUR/USD. It did later break out higher and traded through the 1.3550 psych amount and above the central pivot point of the day. Though there was much movement, and that I felt that I must be in a trading or trade more... I had no plan. No support or resistance and also we had been pivots and such, with a trend change that is recent. I logged out to the week-end, roughly 1:00PM EST.. Big 1 min TF candles constituting ranges of 10 pips or more all around the central pivot. . .bad for a little stop method of 8 pips like mine.

    Chart below is a trade I overlooked, as I'd just logged in. It is a textbook trade that is rather instructive . At that time, 5 min TF was in a downtrend. So, you are looking to become short. Price moves breaks and lower a recent low, and the 1.3500 psych level. Don't chase the initial break, allow it retrace a bit and receive short, which wouldn't have been too hard.
    I was just getting situated so that I missed the trade. . .but it's a pattern you watch over and over again, even on the smaller time frames.

  4. #4
    I read in the forums that trading is a functionality activity. Like tennis, then you can read books . . .until you go outside and struck the ball, you can not really learn how to playwith.

    I think short term time period scalping is very performance associated. You've got to have the ability keep them small to take your losses, and keep going. Having a clear mind, not biased toward your current PL or the trade or the two transactions, you keep scalping. That takes practice.

    Even my trading, should I take a bigger loss, then I know it's likely to take many smaller gains to create it back. I basically was also on the wrong side of a movement (that might have been profitable), should I take a bigger loss. All these things, mess with your psyche. You get rattled, and you begin taking trades. When the traders have you, that is.

    I'm still working on it after all this time. Losses that are small, keep on going, and take the loss. Provided that it is not gigantic, you will make back it over time. Do not look over your PL, do not think that commerce was, or it has now moved into your favor.

    The benefit scalping has is that there are literally hundreds of opportunities each day. You just have to be accessible to them.

  5. #5
    Just a small update and reminder for myself...
    March ended down 30 percent, Account at $751.50 down 25 percent in general.
    Difficult month, I have had 6 winning days in row, although quite small, resulting in March 31.

    I am still using 200 period BBs and deviations of 1,2,3, and 4.
    I have added Parabolic SAR (.02, .20) to my 1 min charts and it's helped keep me on the ideal side of the market usually. I still chart pivot points and xx.00 and xx.50 levels. Let us see how the April EUR/USD action pans out.

    141 transactions in March.

  6. #6
    I skipped much news this morning and didn't log until 11AM EST..

    First chart is really a quiz, what would you do this? I had been asking myself the exact same thing. Downtrend all morning from 9:30AM till approximately 12 noon EST.. Then you've got this mess, and I asked myself. . .at the circled area... What to do?

  7. #7
    EUR/USD began to flatten out as we approached 2:00pm EST.. As the price action slows down, the BBs start to converge. I didn't take this transaction due to the slow, quiet price action. It is interesting though as the yellow BB comes nearer over time, due to no change in price... that a brief transaction appears for a few pips.

  8. #8
    At this time, for this journal, I am trading $2 a pip, two minis on the EUR/USD using a maximum stop of 8 pips (including spread).

    The account started with $1000, I had been trading this level and greater on a $2500 account and felt comfortable.

    So one maximum stop-out would be about $16 or 1.6% of account.
    I've the principle about quitting trading for the day if you hit your maximum stop-out twice. If this occurs, something is up, volatility is crazy, you're gambling, or you're being lazy and not taking small losses.

    My personal plogical limit is around 20 pips using this style at this level, I tend to find gun shy with a profit of around 20 pips. One of the purposes of this journal is to push myself past this and to possess more tumultuous screen time.

    So in relation to this, my additional stop-loss for the afternoon is 25 pips. If I am down 25 pips in any given point... I shut some losing trades and stop for the day. I don't wish to dig a hole that I can not climb out of in a day or 2.

    I set no profit goals, though I would like 3-6 hours screen time every day, and to push past my 20 pips psych level. I am just getting back to things and I am slowing back into the point where I can sit 100% committed while scalping.

  9. #9
    I can tell you my 2 trading flaws. I can tell you as in addition to using a monitoring site like http://myfxbook.com, I also keep a spreadsheet for the entire year with notes.

    1. Removing or shing my stop-loss.
    This beauty has cost me the most money in general.

    2. Surprise moves upward.
    All these are my quickest losing trades.

    Bonus: I'll let you know a third weakness.

    3. Revenge trading after 1. Or 2. To try to make losses .

    I have traded around 80 documented trading days in Forex before creating this new scalp account. This spanned till now with 941 trades. (Three different accounts, starting accounts $1000, $1500, $2500) Drawdowns of about 20% every time induced me to re-shape my methods.

    If you choose my 10 worst shedding times and cut them in half (by 50 percent ), I would be net favorable.
    At times the market will do things completely unpredictable, unexpected, and far out of what seems normal chance. You have to have a. Perhaps it's a fixed stop-loss or a variable stop with position dimensions have one.

    Likewise, about flaws... get a deal on them. Figure it out if you do not understand what you do wrong and can't acknowledge it. Yeah, it appears a great deal more entertaining to scour forum for systems, indiors, or even the hottest Heiken-i charts on the 13 min TF using Slow Stochastics and 6 Moving Averages... but I guarantee you'll save or earn more cash just by fixing your mistakes in relation to fundamental trading principles.

  10. #10
    I stumbled down around 11:00 AM EST, I knew Bernanke and Geitner were talking now. . .my intention was to avert as much volatility as possible.
    My initial trade was at 11:50 AM and over 16 minutes I had closed 4 losing trades in a row. I was down 23 pips, really close to my stop-loss for the day.

    I was trying to exchange counter-trend, buying dips in a general downtrend. I eventually decided to go with the trend. I went short and had to take a pullback that was nasty. These traders, on the time frames, will squeeze you until you can not bear it.

    So after preaching just a day ago, and bragging about the way I constantly had a stop-loss on each trade... I removed my stop-loss on this particular trade. I would have been stopped out at 8 pips, it actually went about 11 pips . The trade was held by me . Basically, I took too much risk for profits that were barely any. I was mad that I couldn't shut that winner in the bottom, I missed possibly 13 pips when I had shut it. I was mad that I had to hold a trade for two hours to compensate for 16 minutes of losers. I was mad that my stop-loss was removed by me.

    This is exactly how NOT to exchange. Being a bit shaky, I went for a run. I try to run and exercise moderately 5-6 times each week.
    I may trade the Asian Open if my mind is clear.

    Chart under - the blue line is the daily central Pivot Point, the dotted lines are Psych levels 1.3600 and 1.3550.

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