Making Money Trading

[forexbee]

Hi Lurker,

I tried using the pinbar indicator in MT4, sometimes even a doji like bars are marked as pinbar by the indicator. Though your idea is good. MT4 has settings facility to configure for sending mail to particular address, also their API allows to send mail or FTP.
Personally i havent tried it. MT4 forums has got information about it.

Fxbee

 

[forexbee]

IG Index will let me go 50p/tic on Spot and Forward Currencies so I'll concentrate on them for the time being.

Hi Mitch

I believe IG Index offers 50p/tic for only few weeks. Initially they offer for £0.10p for first 3 weeks then increase to £0.20, then to £0.50 and then turns to standard £1. Not sure which account you mention, i got Mini account & was told this comes for new account holders and after few weeks minimum order is £1.

Do they have that £0.50 as minimum to start.!?

Fxbee

 

[MitchT]

Hi Mitch

I believe IG Index offers 50p/tic for only few weeks. Initially they offer for £0.10p for first 3 weeks then increase to £0.20, then to £0.50 and then turns to standard £1. Not sure which account you mention, i got Mini account & was told this comes for new account holders and after few weeks minimum order is £1.

Do they have that £0.50 as minimum to start.!?

Fxbee

My account has always allowed a minimum bet size of 50p/tic on Spot Forex. I seem to remember that the minimum used to be 50p/tic for Spots and £2/tic for Forwards, but you can now do 50p/tic on Forwards too. I know the Trade Sense account starts at 10p/tic and increases the minimum allowed every so often, but mine isn't that account. I opened my IG Index account before Trade Sense was launched.

 

[trader_dante]

Trade update *Wheat*

December Wheat has gone limit up early in the session giving me a profit of 33 cents per bushel.

As a result I am now moving my stop to breakeven (which at 767 lies just inside the recent trading range)

 

[smbtnt]

Wz

Hi TD,

Let me be the 1st to congratulate you on an excellent trade.

 

[forexbee]

December Wheat has gone limit up early in the session giving me a profit of 33 cents per bushel.

As a result I am now moving my stop to breakeven (which at 767 lies just inside the recent trading range)

Hi TD,

Glad to see it boss, "33 cents per bushel", what is this...! will check up...

Fxbee

 

[ER2-D2]

Phew, finally up to the end of this thread.. a great read.

I have a few thoughts.. TD (many thanks for posting all of this first of all), when you set your entry/stop, how many pips above/below the pin do you set your orders? Maybe I'm being pinicky here but would be interesting to hear.

Also, do you have an order of importance when it comes to using fib retracements, pivot levels on daily/weekly, S/R etc or do you just want to generally feel confident about it so to speak..?

Thanks again.

 

[lurkerlurker]

Phew, finally up to the end of this thread.. a great read.

I have a few thoughts.. TD (many thanks for posting all of this first of all), when you set your entry/stop, how many pips above/below the pin do you set your orders? Maybe I'm being pinicky here but would be interesting to hear.

Also, do you have an order of importance when it comes to using fib retracements, pivot levels on daily/weekly, S/R etc or do you just want to generally feel confident about it so to speak..?

Thanks again.

Thanks for the post. I suppose I should leave TD to answer this, but I'm thinking of taking the firewalker approach. I think (and he'll correct me if I'm wrong) that TD is trying to teach a good strategy we can apply and make our own. If we only want to trade pins on a certain timeframe, or on certain instruments, or ignore pins with wide stops, or make other alterations, or only take signals in the direction of the trend, we should be free to do so. There is little use in saying "you must use X pips above / below the pin".

My advice would be to vary it according to what seems reasonable to you. Take into consideration the market spread (more important if you trade through SB), the size of the pin, and the volatility of the instrument. The key is to enter the trade when price has surpassed the extreme of the previous day - I would use about 16 pips on the GBPJPY, but only 4 on the EURUSD for example. Also, if it is a wide ranging bar you will need a slightly wider margin for error than a small bar. The idea is not to enter until the extreme of the pin has broken, and not get stopped out unless the instrument makes a new high/low against your position.

Hope this helps. TD - sorry for butting in.

Finally, I think we'd all be interested to hear the criteria TD uses to select which pins to take, as his win % is impressive. However, don't be afraid to give different weightings to factors of confluence, or even to depart from what TD uses (perhaps you don't work well with fibs, and prefer to look at levels of S/R, weekly pivot points, etc).

 

[combotrader]

This is not a pin bar entry/exit. Its more of a price action and fibo trade.

Entry on 19th (monday) evening at 509. Reasons - bullish candle and 50% fib support. Stop 140 pips away.

Target - where 23.6 ( 4hr chart) and 38.2 ( daily) fibs are getting close together, possible confluence.

Was making 160 pips this morning, now about half of that
Still holding.

Any thoughts on the confluence at target ?

Er..chart next page!

 

[combotrader]

sorry chart attached.

 

[shano]

EURUSD 1hr

Many thanks for having the courage to start and continue this thread, t_d; I think you've given quite a few people a lot to think about. Particularly like the emphasis on risk/reward and patience, they're both certainly things I need to practice!!!

Started setting S/R on daily charts today, drilled down on EURUSD to 1hr and plotted more S/R. Noticed a pin forming at 11am that looked like it was going to hit the support line so kept an eye on it (as a paper trade only).

It's not a perfect pin, the head looks a little large, but it bounced 1 tick off my support lines so looks like a valid setup. The next bar (at 12.00) touched the buy signal at 1.4797.

First target was my support line at 1.4812, that was taken out in the 1 o'clock bar. Second target resistance hasn't been reached yet. If it were a live trade I'd move the SL up to the first resistance 1.4812 for a 15 pip profit (less spread) with the trade still going.

Charts attached...

 

[counter_violent]

If any of you guys can dig out the MT4 pinbar type indicators...various ones i'm sure...I will send them on to a programmer colleague who can then evaluate them and if needs be modify or re-write etc....the aim being to come up with something useful that can be used in this type of trading.

Please post them to a new thread...save cluttering this one up...thanks.

cv

 

[trader_dante]

Hi TD,

Glad to see it boss, "33 cents per bushel", what is this...! will check up...

Fxbee

Hi Fxbee,

It's just the way the market is quoted.

For example, Nymex Crude is quoted in dollars per barrel.

Tom

 

[lurkerlurker]

Hi Fxbee,

It's just the way the market is quoted.

For example, Nymex Crude is quoted in dollars per barrel.

Tom

Contract Specifications:YW,CBOT
Trading Unit: 1,000 bu.
Tick Size: 1/8 bu. = $1.25
Initial Margin: $405 Maint Margin: $300
Contract Months: Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Dec
Last Trading Day: The business day prior to the 15th calendar day of the contract month.
Trading Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. All times Chicago time
Daily Limit: 30 cents/bushel or $300 per contract.

 

[trader_dante]

Hi ER2-D2,

I have a few thoughts.. TD (many thanks for posting all of this first of all), when you set your entry/stop, how many pips above/below the pin do you set your orders? Maybe I'm being pinicky here but would be interesting to hear.

I personally set my orders just one pip above/below the pin on both entries and stops. This comes down to personal preference. I know some traders that will set their entry/stop as much as 10 pips above/below the pin. (Although I suspect this may change with the volatility of the market traded)

So far one pip either way works for me. However, before I started this thread I was entered in a trade that had its pin triggered by 1 pip which proved to be the exact high of the market. It then collapsed and hit my stop.

If this were to happen again I would likely reassess.

Also, do you have an order of importance when it comes to using fib retracements, pivot levels on daily/weekly, S/R etc or do you just want to generally feel confident about it so to speak..?

Do you mean which of those elements do I attach the most weight too?

It's a hard question to answer. I've had enough experience trading these setups now that I get a FEELING for whether they are going to work. That is why sometimes I will take a pin bar at nothing but a fib level but other times I won't take one when it is at a strong resistance area such as a triple top.

To give an idea however, I would say I pay most attention to the pin bar ITSELF. It has to look perfect. It should:

- IDEALLY be at a swing low/high and NOT within a range.
- Its nose should be long and point out and away from the other bars into space.
- Its body should be in the top/bottom third of the bar and contained within the previous bar

After this I pay most attention to S/R levels and in particular the areas where price has flipped between support and resistance and vice versa, forming a pivot.

The three moving averages are always on my charts. They help me define the trend and when it might resume. They also help me to stay in a trending market.

Regarding fibs, I will always draw them on to see if the move lines up with any of the key levels. However, I don't pay any attention to the 23.6. The 38, the 50 and the 61 are the numbers I look for.

 

[lurkerlurker]

If any of you guys can dig out the MT4 pinbar type indicators...various ones i'm sure...I will send them on to a programmer colleague who can then evaluate them and if needs be modify or re-write etc....the aim being to come up with something useful that can be used in this type of trading.

Please post them to a new thread...save cluttering this one up...thanks.

cv

Hi CV

Thanks for agreeing to help with this. I think it will be quite exciting when done. Here is the link to the thread I started for this project.

I have access to a MT4 file which detects pin bars (amongst other things), and I've asked the author for permission to post it here.

 

[trader_dante]

Thanks for the post. I suppose I should leave TD to answer this, but I'm thinking of taking the firewalker approach. I think (and he'll correct me if I'm wrong) that TD is trying to teach a good strategy we can apply and make our own. If we only want to trade pins on a certain timeframe, or on certain instruments, or ignore pins with wide stops, or make other alterations, or only take signals in the direction of the trend, we should be free to do so. There is little use in saying "you must use X pips above / below the pin"...

Finally, I think we'd all be interested to hear the criteria TD uses to select which pins to take, as his win % is impressive. However, don't be afraid to give different weightings to factors of confluence, or even to depart from what TD uses (perhaps you don't work well with fibs, and prefer to look at levels of S/R, weekly pivot points, etc).

Thanks for your post Lurker. This is very important advice.

This is exactly what I did.

I learnt the strategy and made it my own.

J16 wrote that until we were consistently profitable on the higher timeframes of daily, weekly and monthly we shouldn't consider going lower as they were harder to master.

I tried to trade the higher timeframes but at first I FAILED to be consistently profitable. It was only when I moved down to the one hour TF and looked for the setups that I found considerable success. Once I managed to trade for profit on this timeframe I then began to move up to the higher timeframes. My experience was the exact ANTITHESIS of what J16 teaches and yet it worked for ME.

In addition, I tried some things and when they didn't work for me I discarded them and bought others to the table.

One thing I tried was calculated pivots. I downloaded the calculator, input the numbers and marked the areas on my charts. But they just didn't work for me. i didn't get a feeling for them. So I put them to one side and concentrated on what did work for me which was S/R and fib levels.

An example of something I added myself was the moving averages I use. Nowhere on J16 does he talk about this combination of EMAs but I tried it and it made sense to me. I watched the market react to them and I decided I wanted to use them in my trading.

So what I have done is taken a basic strategy and made it my own. This is what you should do.

If you want to try or are comfortable with short term trading, you could take the gist of what I am saying and apply it on the 5m timeframe. You will see pin bars at S/R levels there just as you do on the one hour. Price action works across ALL timeframes.

Maybe you want to use indicators. Fibonelli mentioned one in an earlier post. I have not personally tried it - maybe you want too. It might be a great way to trail a stop. Just because I don't use indicators doesn't mean you don't have too.

Finding a winning strategy is all about RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT. Look at big businesses. Look at the millions of pounds they spend on trials of their products.

You have a great opportunity in that you can try on demo without committing any real money.

This leads me onto the calls I make on here.

I can't stop you following them but you should understand that it will most likely not help you in the long run.

They will hopefully provide you with IDEAS because you will find out why I entered and how I exit but blindly following someone else is not a profitable long term strategy.

You have to learn to make your OWN trading decisions.

It takes time and dedication but it is well worth the effort for financial independence.

 

[lurkerlurker]

Live test: there is a pin bar forming on the hourly GBPJPY. Unless there is some odd price action in the next 8 minutes, this will close as a bearish pin off a S/R pivot. Hopefully my half baked alert system will "see" it.

 

[lurkerlurker]

GBPJPY H1 Bearish Pin

Live test: there is a pin bar forming on the hourly GBPJPY. Unless there is some odd price action in the next 8 minutes, this will close as a bearish pin off a S/R pivot. Hopefully my half baked alert system will "see" it.

Well, I took the short, managed it by the book, and got taken out. I should have had +6 (where I had set my stop, and where the stop was filled), but I reversed due to it being ambiguous whether the stop on CMC's platform still existed. Sold 06, stopped out at 00, bought at 06, covered at 07. Thankfully I didn't have to pay spread for my execution error, but that was just luck. Exit for +1 (instead of +6).

Anyway, to the trade.

Hourly pin bar off important S/R zone, big nose, small body, small stop. Entered short, stop above pin. Set stop to +6 at +50 (which was also the 3 hour low and important support break). Price was supported, retraced, and I was taken out.

I entered on the hourly, and did not consult lower timeframes. Trade managed well. P&L not so good, but a P rather than an L.

Oh, and not only did the MT4 script I am using fail to spot this as a pin, it also sent another 1000 emails on the turn of the hour. More tweaking needed before I can bring you all an automated alert service.

 

[trader_dante]

This is not a pin bar entry/exit. Its more of a price action and fibo trade.

Entry on 19th (monday) evening at 509. Reasons - bullish candle and 50% fib support. Stop 140 pips away.

Target - where 23.6 ( 4hr chart) and 38.2 ( daily) fibs are getting close together, possible confluence.

Was making 160 pips this morning, now about half of that
Still holding.

Any thoughts on the confluence at target ?

Er..chart next page!

Hello Combotrader,

I'm afraid you've made some mistakes with your fib levels.

Fibs take a while to get to grips with so don't worry.

Let me explain:

Chart 1

This is the first fib you have drawn and it was drawn CORRECTLY. However, you are READING IT wrong as it is of no use as a target.

The purpose of this fib is to measure how much of that swing up, from approximately 1.99 to 2.1150, the market will retrace.

As you can see, it retraced close to 61.8% of the move up.

So this fib level was meaningful when the market was FALLING but now it is RISING we need to draw a new fib.

Chart 2

This is what you attempted to do here. You wanted to show how much of this swing down will be retraced. Anotherwords, how much of that previous move will the market UNDO before turning again.

However, this time you have drawn it WRONG.

You must always draw your fib levels FORWARDS and NOT BACKWARDS as you have done here. The quick way you can see that you have drawn it wrong is to look at the percentages.

If we are measuring how far the market is going to retrace up from this swing low, then the lowest percentage must be CLOSEST to the price. That makes perfect sense because once it retraced 50% that is further than 38.2%. Since it is further, it must be be MORE of a retrace and therefore higher up.

Chart 3

This is the CORRECT way to draw the fib. As you can see price has retraced over 38.2% of the recent sharp swing low and is now holding above that level.

SUMMARY

Fibs can be difficult to get to grips with at first. I always found them rather daunting until I took some time to understand them and now drawing them is simple and requires little thought.

Here are two important rules:

If the market is trending UP, you draw the fib from LEFT to RIGHT. From SWING LOW to SWING HIGH.

If the market is trending DOWN, you draw the fib from LEFT to RIGHT again but this time you draw from SWING HIGH to SWING LOW.

If you need further explanation, try doing some research on the web on fib levels and how to draw them. This is what I had to do to fully understand how to draw them.

I have watched a few videos on Youtube for you. Many of them don't explain the process very clearly. Here is one of the better ones I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ft90FLI-I&feature=related (ignore the fact its on the 5m timeframe and please note that I don't use fib extensions as profit targets)

Tom