Munchie "the noob" dude's Virgin Trading journal

pathetic.

I hinted at one reason earlier regarding indicators, but I'll have another stab. Trading is not just about entry. Entry is important but it is one moment in time, based on some past price action. You think the probabilities are in your favour, so you enter. But current price action has more weight than past price action. So you've entered, and price is going against you. The probabilities are now not what you thought they were. Re-assessment time.

So you are using an indicator on a 10-min chart say. Price can tell you the probablitilies have changed in one minute. It could drop 50 pips in one minute. It doesn't need 10 mins, but your indicator exit strategy isn't valid until the 10 min bar closes. So do you wait for the 10-min bar to close and your indicator to tell you to get out? Realising that you're wrong slower than everyone else is going to hurt your account. Or you can say, 'well I have a stop at 20 pips' to save me when I'm wrong. Fine, but then that 20 pip stop isn't based on the indicator, so why 20? Should be a reason for everything you do.

If you're wrong you want to be able to recognise it as early as possible and get out. You can use indicators to help you, it's not bad. A bit of price action and just a moving average could make you money. But you need to have a plan of what to do after entry, and that will be more important than the entry. And I believe that is partly what Rathcoole was trying to get across.

Blue part:

Just as a general point, I think using anything as a tool is fine, as long as you find it useful. The realisation that nothing works is an important one because it leads you through to the real breakthrough, which is that you are what makes your trading work, not your method.

But seeing things as "tools" is a good way of thinking about things in my opinion.

Red part:

Consistency? Who cares, frankly. You're not working for wages. One thing I would be careful about - do not expect to take money out of the market every day. We'd all like to guarantee 1% per day or whatever, but I think it rarely works like that, and the attempt to do so is dangerous.

Personally, I'd look at results over no shorter than a month (and a quarter is probably better still).

but obviously too forcibly for whiney mummy's boy here

rathcoole has lost all credibility in my eyes, and regardless of his comments, i no longer feel i would benefit from any feedback given by him/her.

your explanation shakone is far better and i now understand in part, the limitations of using indicators as part of a trade setup.20 pip s/l was within 2% allowed per trade which i did not state altho this may change to <20 depending on price action so far and range that the pair is trading in.

insofar as the timeframe lag for exits, its something that ive picked up as experience in my trading today, lower timeframes i believe tend to give more false signals (noise) whereas longer TF's would give more reliable indication but lag so its a tradeoff it seems between reliability and speed of response. this is still something im working on.

as i said previously, im nt hung up on indicators one way or another, i just find that its a good starting point as my experience grows.

thanks for your input shakone, it obviously shows your maturity and professionalism.

rathcoole, you're a funny one lol.

you're showing your immaturity. as i said, ur entitled to your opinions so thanks for that, tho im a bit more civlised than you to respond in the crude manner that you did, you was obviously raised very well.

nuff said on the topic, thanks for your input but i no longer value them.

buy eurusd (stox crossover)

entry: 1.4471
s/l: 1.4461
t/p: 1.4484 (~1:1)

target reached: +10pips.

reason for 1:1 and not 2:5, eurusd entered a range from a trend.

ok end of mkts but wont be trading eurusd today.

day has been fairly ok, summary later.
some useful (and not so useful) feedbacks today, im going to go back to drawing board to distill all the info, read resources etc and start again tomorrow.

thanks to all posters that have contributed!