Got.. it's called the Horizontal Line... come on.. don't be so lazy. I can understand if you need an indicator to help you calculate pivot points and fibo quickly but it doesn't take long just to change the timeframe and draw in the lines.

Yes.. choppy.

It's stuck in a no-trading zone with no clear direction in the near term. This is going to be a slow week before NFP this Friday (yeah.. right.. look back at Feb.. hahahaha). Only trading I'm looking forward to is AUD tomorrow for both Retail and Rates announcement. The perfect trade would be a big positive Retail Sales and bump AUD up 50 pips in the morning and then no rates increase to crash it back down 3 hours later. Potential for 100 pips easy if played correctly in just 3 hours.

Definitely some form of basket trading system. Reminds me of a quote from Alain Quartermain saying to Tom Sawyer in movie League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,

"Very American. Fire enough bullets and hope to hit the target."

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Added on March 2, 2010, 4:47 pmDefinitely dangerous. It's one of those systems that is easy to start as you just fire all guns in the beginning, after that, the exit strategy gets complicated when you try to pick out the winners.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 2 2010, 04:47 PM

It is not that people do not share but rather there is nothing to share. Would the mad scientist try to teach the village idiot the theory of the cosmos? Lets use an analogy closer to home or closer to the average age of the members in lowyat.. Would the top student in class share their knowledge with the bottom student and invite them to their top student's study group? I don't think so.

People think that by behaving like a noob or declaring that they are a noob in the forum and they will automatically get help. Wow.. how things have changed from school. I can't remember the last time somebody in class (which was a long time ago) stood up and declared that they are the dumbest kid and in need of help. That never happens in class but in the forum, I can say that there are plenty of freeloaders and beggers around.

To form a trading group, you first have to find people who have similar trading experience with you and then also find people who trades the same strategy as you do and that is not easy.

So don't blame us for not sharing since we don't know what to share as people don't ask the right questions. Most people just say "I'm a noob, help me".

That means you have to open the order and then close it before the end of the promotion to qualify. So 80 standard round-turn lots means you have opened and closed orders equivalent to 80 standard lots.

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Added on March 5, 2010, 2:49 pmActually more for the scalpers and news traders. Day traders would not open any new positions on NFP day and if they still have open positions, the only thing they can do is pray. Scalpers and news traders would be watching and ever ready to capitalise on the situation.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 5 2010, 02:49 PM

If there is nothing to say, don't say anything. This is not kopitiam. Warning served.

There are plenty of traders out there making a living out of scalping. Everybody knows that the longer you leave the trade open, the more riskier your trade becomes as it is expose to more uncertainty. Trading on H4 as you mentioned is not scalping. Scalpers do not use buy-stop and sell-stops. We open at market price.

One part of scalping is when I buy on dips as the trend goes up. If a trend move 50 pips, I can make 70-80 pips out of that as I keep opening trades on every dip as the trend goes up and moving the other trades to BE. So even when the market moves 50 pips, I make more than 50 pips out of that move.

I realised that the more I trade, the shorter my time frame and the more scapling I do as I can see the price action better with experience. I don't have to open a position and wait for it to move anymore. I know when it is going to move and open accordingly. After a while it is a very simple guessing game of when peaks and valleys will form. I can do as much as 20 trades in 2-3 hours during scalping periods. Scalpers make money irrespective of whether it is trending or ranging. I remember the days of doing day trading and not opening any positions when it is ranging. Such a waste to watch the market go up and down but not opening any positions. Now I can sell at every peak and buy at every valley.

The best part of scalping is the education you get from it. Of course you have to spend more time at the markets when you scalp but consider that as tuition fees. The more time you spend at the market, the more you learn.

It's odd that some people are not willing to spend 2-3 hours per night on forex. Here is something for the people to ponder. It took most of you guys 6 years of primary school, 5-7 years of high school, 3-4 years of university before you can come out to work and make a living. Some people think that they can master forex by spending 30 mins every night for a few months. Oh.. they are so so wrong.

Excuse me.. and how is long term trading not gambling too? After all you are buying and selling nothing? Irrespective of how long the trade stays open, a trade is a trade. There is no difference between a 1 min trade and a 1 week trade. Both trades are done against the broker since most of us are retail traders. There is no pairing or matching with any opposite trades. So scalping is not gambling and don't like the broker fool you.

This is where you got scalpers wrong. We do our analysis for long term the same way you do and we apply our scalping strategy along with it. We all know, even in a trending market, the price will go up and down as it climbs. Long term traders will only trade in one direction whereas scalpers will trade in both directions, even in a trend.

From your tone, you seem to think that scalpers open and close trades by flipping a coin. "If you are scalping using MA or PASR methods that's a different story..." Does that mean you think that most scalpers have no methods? We just open and close for fun and hope to win? Then you got the wrong impression of scalpers.. so so wrong.

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Added on March 10, 2010, 5:19 pmThen you have the wrong impression of scalpers, just like myvi5949. We don't open our orders because we think so. We open because our indicators say so, the same way any other trader would do. They open because their analysis says so. Scalpers do our analysis in minutes, not hours. Just like school where we have tops students who can remember in minutes and some slightly slower ones that need to go home to digest. The same applies here.

Scalpers follow the most important rule in forex. Trade what you see and not what you think.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 10 2010, 05:20 PM

but you have to admit that it's more exciting than any other form of trading...

Interesting. I've survived for a year trading news and TF no longer than M5. Used to be a day trader to learn the skills and then moved on to scalping. I don't go looking at forums for failed traders. I go looking for successful traders. I guess I just don't take the negativity like you do. I guess that's also the difference between us.

Then you are not scalping right. There should be price movement every 1 min and there should at least an entry and exit every 10-15 mins as the micro waves move up and down. Even in a flat ranging market where the price didn't change much in longer time frames, there should be enough small waves for you to pull 5 pips out of every 10 pip move, assuming that you are trading on a pair with 2 or less pip spread.

If you look at the screen for more than 15mins and can't find an entry, then you don't know enough to scalp yet. Looking at the screen for 2-3 hours waiting for the price to move is definitely not scalping at all.

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Added on March 11, 2010, 9:48 pmAs attached in the above reply, I'm using THV which has about 1000 pages in forexfactory forum and also added ichimoku cloud. You guys can read it up from there.

General scalping is about 10pips SL on EU. Move SL to BE+1 at 5 pips and let the rest ride. As with all scalping strategy, the simple rule is TP at the next reversal when ranging or open another trade on dips when trending.

As for using the THV system, please read up in forexfactory. I'd try to post another better image when news is not involved since 30 mins after the news will always screw up any indicator.

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Added on March 11, 2010, 9:56 pmAll metatrader platforms are the same. How well it performs depends on the broker. Most brokers are using the metatrader platforms. The others are using their own software.

Update: It's been 33 mins after the 9:30pm news release and the market's is still going crazy. These are the times where you do not do scalping since there is no true direction where it wants to go and the swings are wild. Any indicators you have are hopeless in this situation since they are all based on historical data before and right after the news. I'd start scalping again when the DOW opens at 10:30pm. Let the market settle a little first.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 11 2010, 10:06 PM


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With replies like this, there are times where I wonder whether this is a support forex topic or against forex topic. With friends like you, who needs enemies.

Edition, just ignore bulkbiz. Once you have completed your demo training, start with the smallest order your broker can support. You can't learn anything when you are sweating on the seat of your pants worrying about your order size (this is where your emotions will get the better of you). Play with an order size so small that you are actually bored with it (almost like demo) and that's when you get to learn without emotions getting in the way.

As with all forex trading, if you can't take the loses, don't trade. This is not a get-rich quick scheme. If you don't have the money to trade, don't trade as you'd be worrying more about the money than the trade itself. The money that you put into forex has to be money that you do not need aka risk-money. Some people use their credit card to fund their trades, and when they are not winning (or just breaking even), they still have to worry about monthly credit card repayments. Again, this will affect your trades.

Then that would be a good example of how 'not to support' people statement. A reminder of an impending doom is not supportive. Just like in a disaster movie where one dude yells.. "We are ALL going to DIE!!".. that is not exactly a supportive reminder.

A better example of "But trust me, once you are very confident and go live, you will lost.".. would be like your driving instructor telling you that once you are confident and go drive your own car, you will CRASH!!. It does not win any awards for being 'supportive', does it?

There is nothing to hide about which broker I'm using. I'm using FXDD. With a spread of 2 pips for EU, seldom do I get a chance to close in less than 2 mins. So far no issue with them. Stories of brokers that don't allow closing in less than 2 mins are usually those with zero spread or very tiny 0.5 spreads for pairs like EU. With those kind of spread (or even no spread), I can understand why people open and close in 30 seconds. I'd do it too.

My FXDD account was actually meant for news trading as FXDD has a rather 'fixed' spread during announcements. Imagine EU still staying at 2 pips 1 min before NFP announcements. Although they do not offer the best spread it is perfect for news. However, if I can find a zero pip spread broker, that would be perfect for scalping too.

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Added on March 12, 2010, 5:13 pmIsn't the forum all about languages.. as in what you read is what you get? We cannot hear any sarcasm and we cannot read body languages. We cannot tell if the reply was meant to be a joke or being dead serious (esp when it wasn't accompanied with any emoticons). All we can do is just read what people post and accept it as the actual expression from them.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 12 2010, 05:15 PM

Don't forget about the change in Daylight savings for this year on the last Sunday this month for US and UK and first Sunday of April for Australia. Tokyo has no Daylight savings adjustment.

The value of my pips varies with the size of the SL that I use but I do follow the 2% risk per order, so my lot size varies from 0.2 to 2.0 lots. SL depends on whether I'm scalping, newstrading or day-trading. I will only position trade when I've already locked my profits and let it free-trade.

That is why we hide our SL and TP from our broker so that they cannot spike us out. It's not an ugly truth. It is the truth. We are playing against the broker. They want our money and we want to make money from them. We don't win other people's money like the stock market. We have to win the broker's money. If you read the excerpt that I took from the CFTC, they did specifically say that we are betting against the broker. People should not be trading until they read all the terms and conditions. It is all stated clearly there but people just don't read.

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Added on March 13, 2010, 1:03 amWe get it. From your negative statements, you are the one belonging to the 95%. At least he is asking questions. At least he does not leech info from here. When was the last time you actually contributed anything? Those who think they are going to fail will fail. Then have you ever sat back and considered how the other 5% make their money? Definitely not by talking to people like you.

Forex trading is like a classroom of students. You have your clever students who consistently score high marks and you have the bottom rank students who fail at everything, even though they are learning the same thing and doing the same exams. It all depends on how much work you put in. Nobody is born stupid but it will take more than the average person to be successful in forex, in fact you have to be better than average to be successful in anything.. otherwise you'd just be ... umm.. average.

All of us here have gone to high school.. then to colleges and then some proceed to University. Does that mean 100% of us are guaranteed to be successful in life? There will be those who excel and there will be those who fail but I don't think I ever went to school thinking that I'm going to fail.

I guess you don't need any more education in forex.. maybe a self-help book on thinking positive.. might help with the negativity.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 13 2010, 01:05 AM

You will have to stay in a country with a big difference in sunrise and sunset hours to really appreciate DST. When I was in Melbourne, during winter, there is only about 8 hours of daylight, from 8am in the morning until about 4pm. However, when summer came, if we didn't implement DST, the sun would rise at 4am and set at 8pm.

Since nobody wakes up at 4am, so they implement Daylight savings to give us more daylight by moving the time forward 1 hour in November. So now the sun rises at 5am and sets at 9pm and we have more daylight, hence the name, daylight savings.

So come first Sunday of April, things are going in be in reverse as summer is ending in Australia and time will be moved 1 hour backwards.

The reverse is true for countries in the Northern Hemisphere.