Technical Analysis for Beginners Part 2: Knowing Support and Resistance

Recognizing the support and resistance in the currency market is one of the most important knowledge that every beginner traders must hold.  In fact it is very hard to make a trading strategy without basing it on a support and resistance.

 Let us define what is support and resistance.

• Support – Is an area that acts as a base of the price movement. We can think of it as a floor that when hit by price they push the prices up.
• Resistance – is an area that resists prices when touched. We can think of it as the ceiling of a house.

Note that when we plot support and resistance we can only make sure of its validity when it is tested at least 3 times.

Support and resistance in the market is an area or zone in which the price bounces off from time to time. 

It usually forms in two ways, one is in a horizontal formation and other is in a trend formation.

What is the difference between the two?

Horizontal support and resistance forms in horizontal sideways motion. It looked like a consolidating market as what we have discussed in the part one of this article series.

Click the image to zoom in

As we can see in the image above, we can say that it’s a valid horizontal support and resistance when the price line is tested at least 3 times.

Take note here that once a support or resistance is broken, it will act the opposite way. Like for example in the pair above. The support line was broken and price closed below it. What happened when the price tried to go up? The broken support now acted as a resistance and now starts rejecting price from going up as indicated in a yellow arrow the candle formed a bearish pin bar.

A trending support and resistance very similarly looks like a either a down trending or up trending market it just that it bounces in the same line of support and resistance when we plotted it.

Click on the image to zoom in

As we can see in the image above, the support and resistance formed in an up rending fashion. Again we can be sure about its validity when its lines are tested at least thrice.

Another thing to notice here also is that when the price broke the support line and closed below it, that support will now eventually act as a resistance as indicated in a yellow arrow a bearish pin bar was formed. Same will happen also if the resistance is broken and the price closed above it, it will then act as a support.

How to use support and resistance as a set up for an entry point?

Many strategies could be generated by using the support and resistance. The most common strategy that I know would be is taking an entry at the retest once the support or the resistance is broken. The set up would look like the one that I’ve labeled on a yellow arrow. A pin bar or an engulfing candle formed in the retest is good enough confirmation for an entry.

Dynamic support and resistance using a moving average

We can also use a moving average as a dynamic support and resistance. I believe that moving averages are the most used indicators in trading. Because not only will it give you a dynamic support and resistance but also it will assist you in identifying the current trend. Just like in our example below.

 

Click on the image to zoom in

Sometimes I incorporate in my trading strategy the use of moving averages 100 (red) and 50 (green). You may have noticed here that price also respects moving averages. Price tends to bounce when touched by the moving averages.

When price is below the moving averages it will act as resistance to it as labeled with the red arrows. At the same time acts as support when price is above it as labeled in green arrows.

Successful price action trader is good at plotting support and resistance. It may seem hard for a novice trader to see these patterns in the start but with constant market exposure and practice all becomes a piece of cake.

Take a look at your chart and try to see if you can identify and plot any of this support and resistance.

In my next article which is the part 3 of this series, I will talk about the basic Japanese candle stick formation and the psychology behind its formations.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

Until next time, see you in part 3!

Technical Analysis for Beginners Part 1: Identifying the Market’s Movement/Trend

This month of January 2019 so far is really a quiet market for me. My set ups are not showing up in the chart. Because of this, boredom strikes and I don’t like it. I want to be productive as always that’s why I am motivated to impart to you readers my knowledge and understanding about forex trading.

I have decided to write about technical analysis since I based my trading set ups using price action. I believe what I’m about to write is a good foundation to all the starting traders so pay attention and take notes if you want.

This is the first part of the 6 article series about technical analysis that I will be writing dedicated to all the newbie traders out there.

This article is all about how to identify the 3 movements/trends of the market and I will give also some examples on how to trade them. 

Namely:

1. the uptrend, 
2. downtrend and 
3. the consolidation.

Let us begin by answering the question why we need to identify the current trend or movement of the market?

We need to identify it so that we can have an idea of what kind of trade set up we are going to look for in the market.

Like for example, the current trend is uptrend. Should you be looking to go short/sell or should be looking to go long/buy? Of course you’re going to look for set up to buy. Knowing that it’s an uptrend it would be stupid to go short when everyone is buying.

“The trend is your friend so go with the trend”

As you go along with your trading you will be hearing that phrase all the time.

An uptrend or a downtrend is like an unstoppable moving train that losses its brake system and is very hard to stop. It has a snowball effect to it and just gets bigger and bigger until such time that it will finally hit a solid wall and halt its momentum.

This halting period is what we call the CONSOLIDATION. It is the time when the market is exhausted and prepares again for its next move. The market in this state is undecided and needs a significant catalyst before it starts to move again.

How do we identify the market trend and use it on our favor?

In my case since I am trading the 4 hour time frame. I always look at the daily time frame in identifying the current trend of the forex pair that I am eyeing to trade on.

By looking at the daily time frame I can have a bigger picture of what’s really happening in the market. It gives me a bird’s eye view to which direction the market will try to go to.

---------------------------------

Let’s take a look at  how an uptrend market looked like.

 

Click the image to zoom in

An uptrend market looks like this as viewed in the daily time frame of the USDCAD forex pair. We would know that it’s a valid uptrend when its shows a series of HIGHER HIGHS (HH) and HIGHER LOWS (HL) as indicated in the image above.

What’s the reason behind an uptrend and how can we ride the trend?

In this pair it is very clear that the USD is strengthening across the board while the CAD is weakening. In my own opinion uptrends happens because the economy of a country is improving and investors are coming in to buy their currency relative to its paired currency.

To those of you who don't know, we can actually ride the trend by waiting at the pullback point of the market.

 Where can we find a set up for the pull back and join the trend?

If we look at the 4 hour time frame we can see the pullback of the market and we can actually make a valid entry and join the uptrend by using my PRICE ACTION STRATEGY as seen in the image below.

Click the image to zoom in

This is how it looks like in the 4 hour time frame chart when we zoom in from the daily chart. This is where we can see clearly the pull back. 

As you can see here there are 3 engulfing candles formed in this support area that I put on a horizontal red line. This candle stick formations here is my go signal to execute a trade.  This is the beauty of my price action strategy in the 4 hour time frame it shows very clearly that the market bias is going up. 

To those who didn't know whats my trading set up is CLICK HERE.

The best time to enter this trade would be after the formation of the 3rd bullish engulfing candle.

So what do you think happened after that entry? Lets take a look at it below.

Click the image to zoom in

Wow! Can you see how powerful my price action strategy is? Anyway lets not talk about it here. We are here to talk about the market's trends and movement.

So far we have identified what an uptrend market looks like through the series of higher highs and higher lows. 

We have also identified how to look for an entry to join the uptrend movement by using the 4 hour time frame pull backs.

---------------------------------

Lets move on and see now how a downtrend market looks like 

This is how a down trending market looks like. It is basically the exact opposite of an uptrending market.

Looking at this AUDCAD forex pair in the daily time frame, we could clearly say that its a downtrend because of its LOWER HIGHS (LH) and LOWER LOWS (LL) formations.

Finding a trade to join the downward trend is just the same with how I explained in the uptrend. 

That steps would still be going to the 4 hour time frame and look for the set up there.

When you see a trend like this, be sure that you are only looking for a selling set up to make your winning probability more higher.

---------------------------------

Last but not the least, a consolidating market

Click the image to zoom in

A consolidating market looks exactly like this.

 In this example we will be using the EURGBP forex pair  as viewed in the daily time frame. 

We can say that the market is consolidating when price movement can be enclosed inside a rectangle or a square depends on the structure of the price. Or we can also say that the price just keeps on moving in a horizontal way as seen in the above image. 

Unlike the downtrend and uptrend it does not create any higher highs and lower lows. The market just seems to be in equilibrium.

What does it indicates when prices are just moving in this sinusoidal way?

 Well in my own opinion, this just means that the market is indecisive at the moment. But you need to watch out for this because usually when the price broke from its consolidation it will continue moving towards the direction it broke out as I will show you later on.

So how do I trade or plan my trade in a consolidating market?

 

I don't want to complicate my life. So the way I trade this kind of market is still the same with how I traded the uptrend and downtrend.

Let's take a look at this image

Click the image to zoom in

This how the EURGBP consolidating market looks like when zoomed in the 4 hour time frame.

We need to look for a strong and solid set up here so that we can join in and trade the consolidation.

As you noticed, we have here a strong signal that the price would go down as highlighted and numbered by 1, 2 and 3. A combination of an engulfing candle and a pin bar candle was formed.

Lets assume that we have entered a short trade after the bearish pin bar formation which is labeled 3.

Now see what happened to the market after we executed a bearish trade.

 

 Click the image to zoom in

Woaahh! 

The market just crashed after that bearish pin bar and bearish engulfing candle combination formed.

Noticed also that the second bearish candle after our entry closed below the consolidation. The one that I encircled. Which to me suggests that the consolidation is over and the market would then be going down and that's what exactly happened!

To summarize the three movements of the market

• Uptrend Market - The price movement is going upward. A series of higher highs and higher lows was formed in the market.

• Downtrend Market - The exact opposite of an uptrend. The price movement is going down. A series of lower highs and lower lows was formed in the market.

• Consolidating Market - The price movement of the market is bouncing around a support and resistance ( which I will be writing next ) line almost equally.

This ends the first part of the six article series about the basics of technical analysis especially made for beginners trader. Keep practicing and keep learning until you get it right.

Until next time, bye for now!

Don’t Bother Trading Forex If You Don’t Have A Trading Plan And Not Willing To Think Long Term

Did you know that 90% of traders fail and only 10% are profitable?

If not then you’re in for a treat because I had no idea about this when I started.

I learned it the hard way, took me several accounts before I did my research and stumbled upon this shocking statistics of winners and losers.

Wonder why there’s such a big difference between the winners and the losers?

It’s all because of the wrong expectations of the people about forex trading

They thought it’s easy and doesn’t need a trading plan; they thought it’s a quick rich scheme and would give them fortune in just a short period of time.

The scenarios are always somewhat like this:

Beginner trader sees a random pin bar and traded it. The market immediately take out their tight stop loss. They got angry and emotional, want to take revenge on the market took another trade with double the leverage and still became a losing trade.

Or

Saw a random engulfing candle and took a trade. Luckily won the trade and become over confident. Here comes a pin bar formed, took that set up and opened a trade but now with double the leverage because he came from a winning trade and he is full of confidence that's why. The result a fail set up and a losing trade. Now become emotional and try to find a new set up to get back the losing trade. While being emotionally driven, one cannot think logically and the result would be a wipe out account balance.

Most of the people just simply don’t know what they are doing. They think they know what they are doing but I’m telling you they don’t.

Perhaps they know the basics of price action like the support and resistance; maybe they know how to recognize pin bars and engulfing candles; perhaps they know how to use technical indicators like moving average, RSI, MACD and etc. But still they wonder why they are still not profitable? What’s lacking?

They failed to realize the need to integrate all of the knowledge into a trading plan/strategy for them to have an edge in the market.

The successful 10% are successful because they follow strictly a trading plan and trading strategy which gives them the edge.

Be like them, model them; apply all the things that you have learn so far: basic price action, basic use of technical indicators, fundamental factors, money management, trading psychology and create a trading strategy base on it.

The trading plan and strategy will act as your edge in the market

If the criteria in your trading plan is met that’s the only time you take a trade, if it doesn’t then standby and just do nothing. Eliminate the fear of missing out a day without executing a trade.

Don’t pressure yourself on thinking that you should always have a trade open.

By not doing anything you are actually winning.

Forex trading for me is a game of defense and not offense

Stop wasting your precious energy by trying to join all of the markets movement.

To avoid over trading, one simple solution is to wait for your set up which is based on your trading plan to show up. 

That’s the surest way to beat the market.

Use this proven and tested strategy consistently and the result will be astonishing. You will see that your account balance will gradually increase.

It takes time. Great things take time. You need to be disciplined and stick with your edge at all times. That’s what professionals do. That’s why they are called professionals because they knew it’s the only way to become profitable consistently.

 Once you have your trading plan/strategy another challenge will emerge

Do you have what it takes to strictly follow this trading plan?

There are times that the markets are quiet. No trade set ups formed in a week. Can you handle these times and still stick to your strategy?

There are times that your strategy will have setbacks and you will have consecutive losing trades. Can you handle these setbacks and not resort to finding another strategy?

There are times that you will feel your gains are quite too small which will make you think of doubling your leverage. Will you be able to maintain your money management plan?

Forex trading is not a quick rich scheme. It takes time to become profitable.

Successful traders are turtle traders. They have a steady but surely approach in the market.

We should model their mentality; We should learn how they see the big picture by taking it slow and steady.

To give you an idea, here’s how most of the professionals think when they say long term.

Let us say that they have a 10k USD capital. What they do is they create a trading plan/strategy which aims for a certain amount of percentage gain each year. And by sticking to this plan they can predict how much they could possibly earn in a decade.

Let us assume that they have created a trading strategy that will give them 50% gain of the capital in a year which means roughly gives 4% to 5% returns every month. This is how it goes to them.

• 1st year = 15,000 USD
• 2nd year = 22,500 USD
• 3rd year = 33,750 USD
• 4th year = 50,625 USD
• 5th year = 75,937 USD
• 6th year = 113,906 USD
• 7th year = 170,859 USD
• 8th year = 256,289 USD
• 9th year = 384,433 USD
• 10th year = 576,650 USD

Almost 600k USD in 10 years with only 10k USD starting capital. That’s how it works to them. By following strictly a trading strategy and thinking long term one can become profitable.

We are only assuming here that we have a 10k capital with a 50% gain every year. 

What if you have a 50k capital how much could you possibly earn?

That’s why I could say that trading is a game of the wealthy to make them more wealthy. Your capital matters if you want to make big gains. 

The amount of success we are going to make is directly proportional to the amount of risk we are going to take. Be realistic on your expectations if you have a small capital.

But anyway the point here is that we should all be thinking like the professionals.

And acknowledge that majority did not succeed because they fail to recognize these two important aspects in trading which is creating a trading plan/strategy and thinking long term.

The big question now is do you have a trading plan/strategy for your long term goals?

 If not then just forget about trading because you will just loss money if you will force yourself into it. 

See you till next time my friends!

The Only Japanese Candle Stick Formations That I Watch Out For In the Market

I know you will agree with me when I say that we are living in the age of information or should I say the Internet Era. Where information is very accessible anywhere you go with just a click of a button.

In this age whatever we want to learn we can learn; but because there’s so much information out there, so much option to choose from we tend to hop from one subject to another without even learning thoroughly yet the first subject that we have chosen. What I wanted to imply here is that we become jacks of all trades and we all know this comes with this figure of speech.

“Jack of all trades, master of none.”

I want to talk about this and apply it to forex trading and mainly focus on the candle stick formations.

---------------------------------

So why do we need to master and focus on certain Japanese candle stick formations?

The answer to that is because candle stick formations serves as an indicator of the psychology of all the participating traders. It’s our clue of whether the BULLS or the BEARS won at that particular time frame.

Perhaps all of the traders, including me will only decide to take on a trade when a certain formation of candle stick patterns formed. This is called the trade set up candle or for me candles, which I will be sharing later on.  I hope you will put this in your mind, to trade only when your trade set up candle/s formed and don’t trade when it doesn’t. One big benefit you can get from following this is that you will somewhat avoid over trading which is one of the biggest mistake a beginner forex trader would do.

---------------------------------

  What are my trade set up candles and the logic behind it?

This candle set ups that I'm gonna show you is the skeletal system of my forex trading strategy. Without this specific formation no trades will happen for me. I wait and wait and wait patiently until this formation shows up. I’m like a soldier with two guns here, I have a machine gun and a sniper rifle but I choose to use the sniper rifle and target those big bosses which equals to the big moves in the market. I hope you get my point here. So here we go!

Fist trade set up candles: Formation of at least two engulfing candles

To those who don't know yet, lets define first what is an engulfing candle.

An engulfing candle is a candle that ENGULFS or EATS wholly the body of its preceding candle. I want this to be very clear because a lot of people get confused with this formation, an engulfing candle is the candle that engulfs the body of its "PRECEDING CANDLE" as you will see in the image below.

I’m in an aggressive mood here when I say that at least two engulfing candles. Because usually I wait for a third engulfing to form before I hop in. Sometimes only two engulfing candles form but if the structure of the price action is pretty convincing I will sometimes trade that set up.

Just click the image to zoom in...

 As you noticed in this example, EURGBP 4 hour time frame. Ive highlighted 7 engulfing candle formations here which to me signifies that the momentum here is bullish.

Why these? Why I wait for these candle formations to show up? Whats the significance of this?

Click to enlarge the image and you will see that based on this candle stick formations you will understand who dominates the market. Every bullish engulfing candles indicates that the buyers dominated or overpowered the sellers every time the price tries to go down. If these engulfing candles keep on showing up in the chart what does it indicates? What does it resonates? What does it tries to say to you? Its very obvious already, eventually the price would go up!

Another good thing about this kind of set up is that it gives you a lot of time and chances to ride it before it decides to go up. 

In this case I could have had decided to join the trade after the 3rd engulfing occurred. Then a 4th engulfing shows up, another opportunity to those who are late and a 5th shows up another one for the late commers. Mind you this is in the 4 hour time frame. So each candle here is equivalent to 4 hours, if you are just trading part time there's no reason you could not join this trade.

Traders with the same strategy could chose to ride this trade with the pullback which is the 6th and 7th engulfing, for me its still a valid signal or set up.

---------------------------------

Lets take a look at another forex pair as an example.

 

Click the image to zoom in..

This is in the AUDUSD pair. The best time to join this trade would be the formation of either the number 4 or number 5 engulfing candles. 

In this case here, the 4th engulfing candle is a 3 candle combination in which when you add up the last two candles it would end up engulfing the first one. I hope you grasp what I'm trying to say here, its just basic actually.

---------------------------------

 

Second trade set up candles: Combination of engulfing candles and pin bar

We already defined what is an engulfing candle, now we need to define what is a pin bar candle since we need to understand it for this set up.

A pin bar is a candle which has a short body and long wick or tail. Its very easy to recognize because it looked like a pin.

Pin bar formation means price rejection in the market, sometimes it indicates reversals of momentum. It has the same logic behind engulfing candles it just that pin bars are quiet more obvious to notice, especially the long tailed once.

Lets take this example below:

 

Click the image to zoom in..

This set up formed in the USD/CAD forex pair in the 4 hour time frame. Actually, I was able to bank 1:4 risk to reward ratio with this set up and I made a live recording here in my YouTube Channel. Click here if you want to see the live trade and don't forget to subscribe :)

If the engulfing candle formation is already a powerful set up, how much more when you combined it with the pin bar?

Is it a 100% percent guaranteed that this set up will work? Of course not, but you can have my word that the win rate of this set up is more than 70%.

After the 4th signal formed which is the engulfing candle, I waited for a pull back before I took my entry. As you can see it formed yet again another engulfing candle which is labeled 5, before the price moved bearish and never looked back. This is what I love about having this FOREX STRATEGY IN THE 4 HOUR TIME FRAME, it gives you so much time to see this opportunity for an entry before it manifests.

I'll show you again another example of this candle stick formation set up in the 4 hour time frame.

Click the image to zoom in..

Formed in the USDJPY 4 hour time frame. This time its just 3 signals, but still leads to the same result; price movement reacted to the combination signal and became bearish. Here its all bearish engulfing candles with number 2 being an engulfing at the same time looks like a pin bar because of the rejection tail. There are so many set ups like this in the market and its very easy to recognize also. In this kind of set up I set my risk to reward ratio to 1:3, depends really on the price structure. Safest place for the stop loss would be above the engulfing candles.

That's it! These are the only Japanese candle stick formation that I always looked for in the market. I only trade this kind of set up. If they don't show up then I wait. Out of the 27 forex pairs that I monitor I could say that at least once a week a set up like this comes out.


 In trading the currency market you need to create rules of engagement, and not just blindly taking trades without logic behind. That is the main thought of this article. If you are really serious of becoming a successful forex trader you must learn how to think like the 10% and be disciplined always on taking trades. Be like a sniper and take only trades with high probability of winning.

If you think my set up looks good, looks profitable then feel free to use it :)

If you have some questions in your mind comment below and I will try to answer them ASAP.

See you soon my friends!

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop" - Confucius

Big Mistakes That I've Made in The Beginning Days of Undertaking Foreign Exchange Trading

I’ve made countless mistakes way back in my early days of doing foreign exchange trading. Nobody taught me how to trade currency and I had no clue about any forex trading platform to use. That’s why I did my own research, I watch a lot videos, read a couple of books and blogs about it. After trial and error and all those mistakes that I’ve made I came to realize that experience is the best teacher. I want to share with you some of the lesson I’ve learned in this post. I will try to explain all of the major mistakes that I have encountered when I started my forex trading journey.

Very optimistic to go live trade after seeing positive gains in a demo account with only less than a week of practice.

 This is my first mistake when I started trading. As a beginner, I jumped in directly to trading using real money and guess what happened to my first trade? I won! Not that I knew what risk and reward ratio is but I closed that trade that time with a positive gain. Apparently that’s what they call the BEGINNERS LUCK! After that trade, my luck just seems to run out in every trade I took and my first account is finished in less than a week.

What I’d like to point out here is that I was very excited about forex trading that I could only think of the reward, positive side of it and I was very naïve, blinded to the consequences when I didn’t get it right. The hardest part of it when I think about it now is that I could have avoided those losses if only I am more familiar about the trading platform that I used. Such as the movement of the spread during a news event, during end of day, during weekends, volatility and proper usage of leverage.

My suggestion to all aspiring forex trader would be to get to know first your trading platform. Observe what happens to the market and the spreads during news events, during end of day and end of the week. If only I had put more time trading in my demo account perhaps I would noticed those things and avoided those mistakes. So guys don’t take for granted trading using a demo account. At least try playing with it for a month or two.

I live in Asia, that’s why I traded during the Asian session which should be a big NO NO

What I mean here is taking a trade during a time when the open market is the Asian markets like (Australia), Japan, Singapore and China. Don’t get me wrong here. I know there are a lot of profitable forex traders out here who trades during the Asian session. But in my experience I had a very slim chance of winning during these sessions.

Most of the fake moves in the market usually happen during the Asean market. Like for example, a certain pair went up during the said session but suddenly went down when the Western markets opened. This is what they called the “FAKEY” move of the market. The market fakes the traders, prices seems to go to one direction and suddenly changes to the opposite.

So how do you avoid this? Well just don’t trade during these hours and for me since I traded the 4 hour time frame it’s the best time to plan my set ups and wait for pullbacks to enter trades.

Discovering ForexFactory and trading the news every now and then

I know! I just know that you will eventually discover this website and you will learn that news events will affect the price movement of the forex pairs. You will know that during this scheduled time, especially the RED FLAG NEWS, prices are gonna be wild.

As I was still learning forex as a beginner, this is what I often do. I looked at the scheduled news and put on an order on it by just randomly guessing which way the market goes. I hoped for positive news when I traded long and I hoped for negative news when I go short. What I did here was very stupid; I entered a trade without any reason behind it. And as expected the result will almost always be a disaster! Deposit time again.

So how do we avoid this mistake? If you have open trades prior to the news events is no problem. Just don’t put orders during the scheduled event. Don’t be greedy; eliminate the thinking that you will miss that possible big move which should be a big profit for you. Always think about capital preservation.

 

Not following a standard risk to reward ratio when executing a trade

I never knew that I should plan on the amount that I would bet during those time when I traded the currency pairs. It was only when I started reading and watching youtube videos of successful forex trader that I understood it all. You know you just don’t bet randomly, there are systems to this. Most advice would be to risk only 1 % to 3% of your capital.

Let’s say you have a 100k USD capital. And you had a 1:3 risk to reward ratio strategy. That means you only need to bet 1k-3k USD or 1%-3% USD of your account every trade and expect to win 3%-9% gain if ever you are right. The reason for this is that you can easily calculate your gains and losses in the market. Also, it give you control over the amount of money that you are comfortable losing in each trade without making you stress and emotional.

I believe having a good risk to reward ratio plan is essential for capital preservation. As what I have said before, being on the defensive for capital preservation should always be the priority of a beginner forex trader.

Unclear forex trading strategy which leads to over trading and over leveraging

Beginners in forex trading most of the time have no preplanned trading strategy upon entering the game of currency trading. Perhaps they have the idea of support and resistance, bullish pin bars and bearish pin bars but that knowledge is not enough.

You can’t just jump on a trade every time the price is in a support or a resistance zone. You can’t just take on a trade just because a bullish or a bearish pin bar formed in the 4 hour time frame or any time frame in that manner. Another thing also is the consistency of the amount of risk and reward ratio in every trade should be look upon. Every beginners need to have a well-defined trading system and rules in every trade that they would take. A systematic approach should be involved in it.

Find a trading system that fits your personality and lifestyle. When you are doing it part time perhaps you can try trading the 4 hour chart. If you really don’t have the time to look at the chart every 4 hours then you can trade the daily chart which I think is the best time frame for starters.

Leveraging for me is a very good thing because I started with small amount of capital. But usually this is the main cause why most of the traders burned their capitals to the ground. The emotional and the psychological aspect of trading plays the biggest obstacle that we all need to overcome. One example of this is when I loss a trade and I jumped right back in the market, this time using twice the amount of leverage in the hope that I can earn back my losing trade which eventually resulted to another loss. But this time the loss was huge, twice the amount of the loss that I was trying to recover. Imagine what would you feel after this happened to you. It’s really disappointing but I don’t know why you just can’t stop trading, it’s like you got addicted to the market even though you are losing. This is gonna be another topic about trading psychology which I plan to write soon.

You cannot control the market, you can only control yourself so don’t try taking your revenge in the market after a frustrating loss. Because at this moment you become driven by your emotion so much and cannot think logically anymore.

Fear of missing out the opportunities or what most traders called “FOMO”

The best example I could give to FOMO is when you saw a set up and you say to yourself this is the best set up in the world, It’s the best opportunity I have ever seen, I need to take it. I need to take it! But the price already moved a little bit further from the set up because you just noticed it and yet you still chase the price and took the trade with a very tight stop loss and eventually the price pulled back and stopped you before it burst out going to your desired direction.

Happened to me all the time, which is not good. Later on I came to realize that there is always opportunity in the market and the market is not going anywhere. If I saw a good set up but the price already moved what I do is I wait for pullbacks before I enter or if there’s no pullbacks then I let it be and move on to find another opportunity. There are plenty trade set ups occur in the market every week, there’s no need to chase one single trade.

Jumping from one strategy to another

If you type forex trading strategies in YouTube a lot of videos will pop out. You choose carefully strategy that fits your lifestyle and stick to it. Bear in mind also that all trading strategy has drawdowns so don’t expect to have 100% win rate.

The reason why I made this mistake jumping from one strategy to another strategy is because I felt like the one that I am using is not giving me gains anymore because of my losing streak. I didn’t realize that those are only setbacks and is normal.

To make this clear let’s take this example:

Let’s say you have a strategy that has 70% win rate. So that means in every 100 trade you take you will have a RANDOM DISTRIBUTION of 70 winning trades and 30 losing trades. Since these are RANDOM there is a possibility that you will have a series of winning trades and A SERIES OF LOSSING TRADES AS WELL. That’s why don’t be discourage and think that the strategy that you are using has lost its touch and is not working anymore and I need to look for another strategy that works.

My advice here is to stick to a strategy for at least 3 months. And when this strategy is not giving you gains then that’s the time that you’ll have to find another one.

I want to end this post with an inspiring quote in the hopes that you will not give up no matter what happens. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because that’s where we grow.

Bye for now and I’ll see you again my friend!

“Every artist was first an amateur” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Top 5 Reasons Why FOREX Trading Will Give You Freedom and Liberty in Life

In my entire 27 years of existence I’ve been looking for the best job that could fit with my personality and I finally found it. 

 In this post I want to talk about my top 5 reasons why FOREX TRADING is so liberating and rewarding.

You are the CEO/Owner of your own business

 The good thing about becoming a PROFITABLE FOREX TRADER is that you don’t have to follow anyone’s orders. You decide whatever you want cause you can do whatever you want. You don’t need to interact with other people to earn a living. You only need a decent laptop and a reliable internet connection and you’re good to go. In trading the FOREX MARKET I am treating it as if I have a business. The capital is my investment and I am the boss/manager/employee.  At the moment, I am still working in the corporate world that’s because this is my stepping stone for me to raise money for my desired capital.

It’s also the advice given by those who are already successful in this field. And that is to not quit your main job yet as long as you are already profitable and confident to do so. In my part, I have blown several accounts already and it gives me experience and understanding more about becoming a successful forex trader.

Because of that, a tip that I could give to aspiring new traders would be to always, always be in a defensive approach in trading. What I mean by that is to always preserve your capital and don’t do over trade. Because sometimes this very obvious trade appears right in your face in the market but the problem is that you cant take the trade cause you have blown your account and will missed the opportunity. Literally happens to me! If I could go back to my early trading days I would definitely tell myself to go slow in my trades and be on the defensive always.

You have all the time in the world to do whatever you want.

The FOREX MARKET is open 24 hours Mondays to Fridays. Only closes during declared holidays and weekends. When you already have your trades running you can do other things. 

Actually, this is the reason why I created this YouTube Channel about my forex trading strategy and why I created this blog. I have my vacation now and I got bored trading, that’s when I had this idea why not I make a blog and a youtube channel about forex. I totally understand why there are a lot of successful forex traders out there that choose to share also their own opinions online. Perhaps they’ve got no other things to do because you will literally have all the time in the world if you go full time. So your spare time should be filled with whatever you want.

 Also, in forex trading you get to decide whatever time frame you want to trade in. Like in the 1 hr, 4 hr or daily time frame, totally up to you. In my case I only trade the 4 hr time frame; this gives me a lot of spare time in between.  And once my trade is up and running, I close my platform and the charts to avoid being emotional and just checked it again every 4 hours or so.

No matter where you live, color of skin, or whatever you maybe as long as you are eligible to open an account, forex trading has equal opportunities to all.

Personally, I was born in a place regarded as a third world country. I’ve always hear a lot of peoples says that they were born in the wrong side of the world. Where in the opportunity is scarce and survival of the fittest exists. Luckily, trading the financial market is open to all people. This gives us the right to participate in this kind of endeavor which I think is really really liberating and fulfilling.  Another thing is that you don’t need any diploma, educational background or high IQ. Actually, you don’t need to be smart trading the financial market. What I believe the qualities that are needed to become successful in this field is discipline and self-control. If you happened to be a college dropout or an ex-convict still the financial market will not judge you, instead will gladly accept you with open arms and open legs.

Forex trading is the only career that I know that gives you unlimited free trial to practice.

Creating a demo account gives you a chance to do the virtual trading. Buying and selling in the market using virtual money gives you the opportunity to see and understand how the market works. If you are not yet profitable in you virtual trading, what gives you the idea that you’ll gonna be profitable once you go live and used real money to trade?

Trading using demo accounts can help you back test the strategy that you are going to use. It will give one ideas on what work and doesn’t work in the market. It’s like being a pilot flying a plane using simulations and not feel afraid of crashing the plane because it’s not the real thing. 

They say practice makes perfect, but nobody’s perfect. So why practice? Well in trading the financial market, all I can say is that traders who practiced trade first using demo account have bigger chance of becoming successful than those who directly traded with real money. I assure you, you will blow an account or two before you can be a successful one.

Very Rewarding if mastered and the sky is the limit $$$

Let’s not be hypocrites here. A lot of people say that money is the root of all evil; well I would say to them that the love of money is the root of all evil. A lot of people say that money can’t buy happiness; well I would say to them that money affects the lives of those people who make us happy.  Money makes the world go round. I believe it’s not wrong to dream of richness and being wealthy. When our creator created us, He gave us free will that’s why He would not deprive us with the abundant life that we wanted.  

I believe  forex trading or trading any other financial market is rewarding because once you have your strategy that you’ve been back testing for so many times and so far gave you positive outcome in a year of testing. All that’s left now is to just strictly follow that strategy and keep on using repeatedly. You just need to be disciplined about it and only trade when your desired set up shows up. Time will eventually come when trading to you will be just like driving a car. First time driving would be very difficult; you need to have this awareness on all sides of the car. But along the way, all would become automatic thanks to your subconscious mind. 

Forex trading is the biggest casino in the world. In my opinion it’s the game of the wealthy people to become wealthier. Imagine if you have a large amount of capital, you only need to earn 10 pips or so to profit such huge amount of money from it.

All of these are just my opinion, whether you agree or not is all up to you. 

After all, we are all prisoners of our own truths.

Best of luck to you my friend! See you again sooner or later.

Bullish Pin Bar and Bullish Engulfing Candle Combination Strategy : Live Trade Explanation

Way back 2 to 3 years ago when I started FOREX TRADING, I was jumping from one strategy to another. I realized that was a very big mistake which eventually blown several of my accounts. Now I have finally found a strategy which fits to my personality. This FOREX TRADING STRATEGY is mainly based on technical analysis. The set up for this strategy usually occurs in the 4 hour time frame that's why most of the time I trade it there. It is composed of a combination of engulfing candle followed by a pin bar that are formed on a known SUPPORT OR RESISTANCE ZONE. 

--------------------------------------

Lets take a look at this FOREX Trade I had below:

 

 

You can click on the picture to zoom it.

As you can see, this set up happened in a broken resistance area that at that time acted as a support already. The support area here is plotted in a red horizontal line. As the price bounces back from the support it formed a bullish pin bar. Again as it tries to go down twice to that support area it was rejected and formed a bullish engulfing candle.

That for me is the signal and indication that the price would probably go up already.

--------------------------------------

Planning For The Risk To Reward Ratio of the Trade

 

If this image appears small to your screen just click it to zoom in.

So whats next? Now that we have found the set up we need to plan now the risk to reward ratio of our trade. In here I choose to risk 1 to win 3. That's my risk to reward ratio in this trade. I based it where? Well if you look at the chart, you can see that in that area where my profit target is located is where the previous price tried to consolidate. In my own opinion and understanding the price now would try to retest that area of resistance if not break it.

So the final set up for the trade looks like this with the 1:3 risk to reward ratio.

 

--------------------------------------

Trade Manifestation Time: Approximately 16 Hours of Waiting and Profit Target Was Hit!

 

 And just like that! 

Gained 3 percent of my capital account in this trade. It was particularly a no sweat trade. All I did was wait for the set up to be formed and when it does I just acted on it and walked away from the market.

You can watch this NZDCAD live trade here in my YouTube Channel: 

https://bit.ly/2RJNDLh