Hotch's...Stuff

Fixed vs Discretionary Targets

Just a little experiment I thought I would do (to start). May well not go on very long. Thought I'd see whether I can beat a fixed target with discretionary exits.

I'll keep the strategy pretty simple.

Possible entries will be at the open, if the previous candle closed above the last (up) fractal, and said close is a new high since said fractal, then you have a buy signal, stop at the bottom of the closed candle (+spread+1pip).

I won't take all signals as

a) doubt that would be profitable, and so the whole experiment probably isn't worth anything.
b) won't be about all the time.

m5 time frame. Eur/Usd, Cable, Swissy, Loonie, Aussie, Yen, Will enter 2 trades, one with a fixed target of 3:1, a second with a discretionary exit.

Obviously could try 2:1, multiple exits etc, but we'll stick to this for now. Oh, and the account is tiny. Might have to move to higher TFs too in a couple of weeks.

Would like this to improve my discipline as well, because currently, while profitable, my entries are erratic. Will also post all trades.

We'll see what happens (first trades tomorrows).

Short EU & Cable, hooray for $ correlated positions.

I don't want to load up too much on $ (it's £100 account, min size on ig is 50p/point, only got 38% free margin), and tbh, nothing else seems like it will give a good entry unless we get a huge reversal (which will mean I'm out anyway), so probably won't have many entries for a bit.

Here is the cable short, the fractal broken is a HL, so we're getting a "good" price, I'm not a fan of selling breaks of new low fractals. The pin before hand (I'd short it on a normal account Jakone style) also helps. Lines are entry stop & target, which seems doable.I'd be looking for a much bigger target on discretion as this is a big hourly bar, we'll see what london brings I guess.

EU is obviously very similar, not sure if i'll bother posting.

EDIT: Stopped...better go long instead

Stopped out of eu, long aussie too now.

Swissy short is probably valid, but pretty loaded so passing on it.

doesn't smart live markets allow 10p pp? and in the first month will refund £300 of losses ?

...and tighter spreads, yeah, not really sure why I'm not using smartlive (ah, was looking at options on IG and didn't think) :X

Will switch over at some point most likely.

Thanks

Swissy would of been stopped.

Very nearly got out at the 5 min pin on cable at 10:30, but I hadn't thought about exiting before target was hit so left it, stopped out. Guess this isn't going to work too well if all the trades get stopped, ha