New and wanting to learn

[GONKO]

Hi everyone, name is Gary and am from Ireland.

I am 28 years old and currently studying Business, Accounting and Finance and am in my third year of a possible 4.

I dabbled in trading last year at micro levels <300EUR and had some mixed results. I'd guess my net P&L over the 6 weeks I did trade was €70 loss before I withdrew my remaining funds. I then havent traded since as I feel I did not know enough.

I am was using then (and now) plus 500, except this time I am using the demo money account to learn before I put my own money on the line. I will only be putting up small amounts when I do go onto real cash. Its all about progressive learning and perhaps developing as a financial professional too, as this is my area of career study. I have read a fair bit on here so far, and thank you all for the contributuions made. They are really helpful to me.

I have no set trading plan YET and have so far been a bit loose placing the paper trades. I have a habit of placing the losses more generously than the limit stops. I allow the price to move in this way and then look to bag smaller profits while the going is good .

Not sure if this is the correct approach. I trade 15min to 4 hour charts. Take into account the daily trend before opening. I use MACD at 5,8,3 and RSI 14. Any help or input is welcomed.

Thank you and look forward to contributing on the forum.

 

[malaguti]

Hi everyone, name is Gary and am from Ireland.

I am 28 years old and currently studying Business, Accounting and Finance and am in my third year of a possible 4.

I dabbled in trading last year at micro levels <300EUR and had some mixed results. I'd guess my net P&L over the 6 weeks I did trade was €70 loss before I withdrew my remaining funds. I then havent traded since as I feel I did not know enough.

I am was using then (and now) plus 500, except this time I am using the demo money account to learn before I put my own money on the line. I will only be putting up small amounts when I do go onto real cash. Its all about progressive learning and perhaps developing as a financial professional too, as this is my area of career study. I have read a fair bit on here so far, and thank you all for the contributuions made. They are really helpful to me.

I have no set trading plan YET and have so far been a bit loose placing the paper trades. I have a habit of placing the losses more generously than the limit stops. I allow the price to move in this way and then look to bag smaller profits while the going is good .

Not sure if this is the correct approach. I trade 15min to 4 hour charts. Take into account the daily trend before opening. I use MACD at 5,8,3 and RSI 14. Any help or input is welcomed.

Thank you and look forward to contributing on the forum.

Hi Gary, I'd have a think about your strategy a little bit. You are currently aiming to lose more than you win. You are taking small profits, and letting your losses run as it were (OK not run, but certainly wider than your limit) in which case it may only take one loss to wipe out all your winnings.
Somebody studying accounting and finance you should see this also

Start with a startegy, that reverses that approach. You want any potential gains to outweigh your smaller losses, not the other way around. Will a MACD give you that edge..its very unlikely. The MACD is just another lagging indicator, I certainly wouldn't be looking to make that my entry system.
But that withstanding, the biggest single thing you could start with, is reversing your potential expectation which like I say is negative right now

all the best though

 

[GONKO]

Hi Gary, I'd have a think about your strategy a little bit. You are currently aiming to lose more than you win. You are taking small profits, and letting your losses run as it were (OK not run, but certainly wider than your limit) in which case it may only take one loss to wipe out all your winnings.
Somebody studying accounting and finance you should see this also

Start with a startegy, that reverses that approach. You want any potential gains to outweigh your smaller losses, not the other way around. Will a MACD give you that edge..its very unlikely. The MACD is just another lagging indicator, I certainly wouldn't be looking to make that my entry system.
But that withstanding, the biggest single thing you could start with, is reversing your potential expectation which like I say is negative right now

all the best though

Yes you are right, my mindset is that each trade will net a loss, and any profits that are running must be closed and realised as soon as they happen or hit any decent figure. I know this is not the best approach. I do set the SL just below support level and limit stop at just below resistance (normally), but depending on the instrument I may widen the gap to allow some wiggle room but the limit stop will remain conservative/lower than the stop loss when taking into account the pips given to each.

 

[tradebeginner]

Hi,

Welcome to the Trade2Win Community...

 

[timsk]

I have no set trading plan YET and have so far been a bit loose placing the paper trades. I have a habit of placing the losses more generously than the limit stops. I allow the price to move in this way and then look to bag smaller profits while the going is good.

Hi Gary,
Welcome to T2W.

Not having a trading plan virtually guarantees you won't make any money and, almost certainly, result in you losing the money you have. Essentially, trading boils down to two activities:

1. Knowing exactly what you'll do in any given situation. Plan for every possible eventuality, such that nothing surprises you. So, if you find yourself undecided and you're umming and arring about whether to close part of a position, all of it or just let it be - then you don't have a plan. It's better to have a bad plan than no plan at all, because at least you're able to test it. Your results will quickly highlight the flaws and the areas that aren't working and need revising.

2. Having a plan is only half the battle. The hard part is sticking to it and executing it flawlessly in a live market when real money is on the line. The temptation to deviate from it and get clever is immense - and often very costly. Yes, I'm afraid I speak from experience!

As malaguti says, at the moment you appear to be doing the opposite of conventional wisdom which advises cutting losses early and letting the winners run. If this is deliberate on your part (i.e. a part of your plan), it can work so long as your success ratio (i.e. the number of winners relative to the number of losers) is sufficiently high to compensate for it. In other words, you'll need a lot of small winning trades to offset a smaller number of larger losing trades. In your shoes, my focus would be on trying to reduce the size of the loss on the losers without adversely affecting the success ratio.
Tim.

 

[MajorMagnuM]

Hi everyone, name is Gary and am from Ireland.

I am 28 years old and currently studying Business, Accounting and Finance and am in my third year of a possible 4.

I dabbled in trading last year at micro levels <300EUR and had some mixed results. I'd guess my net P&L over the 6 weeks I did trade was €70 loss before I withdrew my remaining funds. I then havent traded since as I feel I did not know enough.

I am was using then (and now) plus 500, except this time I am using the demo money account to learn before I put my own money on the line. I will only be putting up small amounts when I do go onto real cash. Its all about progressive learning and perhaps developing as a financial professional too, as this is my area of career study. I have read a fair bit on here so far, and thank you all for the contributuions made. They are really helpful to me.

I have no set trading plan YET and have so far been a bit loose placing the paper trades. I have a habit of placing the losses more generously than the limit stops. I allow the price to move in this way and then look to bag smaller profits while the going is good .

Not sure if this is the correct approach. I trade 15min to 4 hour charts. Take into account the daily trend before opening. I use MACD at 5,8,3 and RSI 14. Any help or input is welcomed.

Thank you and look forward to contributing on the forum.

Where did you discover those MACD settings?

 

[CityMasterTrader]

Hi everyone, name is Gary and am from Ireland.

I am 28 years old and currently studying Business, Accounting and Finance and am in my third year of a possible 4.

I dabbled in trading last year at micro levels <300EUR and had some mixed results. I'd guess my net P&L over the 6 weeks I did trade was €70 loss before I withdrew my remaining funds. I then havent traded since as I feel I did not know enough.

I am was using then (and now) plus 500, except this time I am using the demo money account to learn before I put my own money on the line. I will only be putting up small amounts when I do go onto real cash. Its all about progressive learning and perhaps developing as a financial professional too, as this is my area of career study. I have read a fair bit on here so far, and thank you all for the contributuions made. They are really helpful to me.

I have no set trading plan YET and have so far been a bit loose placing the paper trades. I have a habit of placing the losses more generously than the limit stops. I allow the price to move in this way and then look to bag smaller profits while the going is good .

Not sure if this is the correct approach. I trade 15min to 4 hour charts. Take into account the daily trend before opening. I use MACD at 5,8,3 and RSI 14. Any help or input is welcomed.

Thank you and look forward to contributing on the forum.

Hi Gary. You say you have a habit of having wider stops than limits. May I suggest considering more carefully every trade’s potential risk vs its potential reward. Being honest and acknowledging you won’t win every trade means your few winners have to make up for your likely many losers in order for you be profitable. This means that what you stand to win on every trade needs to be a multiple of what you stand to lose. For example, having a limit distance 3x as big as your stop distance means that if the trade is a winner it can make up for 3 other losers. If you have a good run you stand to do well. If you have a bad run it shouldn’t see your pot run dry. Best of luck with your studies and the trading.