MACD strategy

[asimpleplan]

You can only do that by following the fundamentals.

So you just watch the economic calendar then?
http://www.forexlive.com/EconomicCalendar

I noticed the Euro rallied briefly 10 pips against the US$ in spite of being in a more general bear trend.

Also, the Euro is up against the £ today.

I assume because of the positive news about Spanish Unemployment Change?

 

[forker]

There are 2 approaches.

You can trade the calendar when a surprise data point is released. So if pmi for example is estimated at 51 and comes in at 54 then you have a short term trade opportunity. At this point you can refer to a technical setup. The caveat to this is you have to define the trading strategy to operate potentially between data releases and definitely not beyond a trading session. You are taking advantage of a short term effect of a data point and need to operate on that basis.

The second approach includes the first approach but additionally applies a longer term analysis requires more work but is by far the best. By studying the long term cycle you can open long term trades in addition to the short term trades. Furthermore, it allows you to use a short term data point to get into a longer term trade or get back in if you have already taken profit.

To do this you need some tools

- a real-time news feed to deliver you the data points on release
- a news tool that allows you to do research

I use Eikon for both points but i additionally use tradingeconomics.com which is simply an amazing resource.


The market is in a range at the moment because Friday is the employment report.The Spanish employment report is nothing more than anecdotal to the bigger picture. You need to focus on the main gauges and then dig into each economy (5 largest) to pickup signs of changes. If you see several of them turning then you can be sure the overall picture is shifting.

 

[asimpleplan]

The Spanish employment report is nothing more than anecdotal to the bigger picture.

I was hoping you were just going to say that trading the unemployment reports of different countries short term is an easy way to scrape some pips; anyway, in other words positive data like this (or negative?) can be released but it won't impact the market like one would expect because of the greater trends.

Anyway,

You can trade the calendar when a surprise data point is released. So if pmi for example is estimated at 51 and comes in at 54 then you have a short term trade opportunity. At this point you can refer to a technical setup. The caveat to this is you have to define the trading strategy to operate potentially between data releases and definitely not beyond a trading session. You are taking advantage of a short term effect of a data point and need to operate on that basis.

OK, so you're saying to look at previous support/resistance, the general trend, momentum and to place stops accordingly.

I haven't done much work on fundamentals but thanks for the resources. I'll certainly be following them.

 

[forker]

if you going to scrape pips then only trade the big ones when they are outside expectations. in forex factory those are the red releases.

in terms of aligning a technical setup with the fundamentals you can use whatever you feel comfortable with. If the market is going to move then all charts and indicators will exhibit characteristics of a setup in some form. For me, i look before the data is released and assess which is the best counter currency to trade (weakest). if the pair is range bound i target the upper range; if it is trending then i target the nearest congestion point. i use market orders with tight stops. This style of trading works very well but you need home runs to really grow an account which is why i also trade longer term to catch cyclical moves.

 

[forker]

a good tool to get is visual trading console to better manage your trades

 

[Jason Rogers]

With FXCM I believe the minimum stop is 10 pips. Can this be moved tighter once the position is opened so as to protect a position?

With FXCM, the minimum stop distance is only 1 pip on the No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution we provide to all Standard and Active Trader accounts. Perhaps you are thinking of the minimum stop move (the amount a trade must move in your favor before a trailing stop moves to a new price level) for Fixed Trailing Stops. It's worth noting that Dynamic Trailing Stops have a stop move of 0.1 pips which means they will adjust the trailing stop by 0.1 pips each time the price moves 0.1 pips in your favor.

For more details on how trailing stops work, please visit the help section on our website.