Pls advice ! what am I doing wrong ?

Hi
Been trading for a while (few months) primarily with IG index.
Read various good books such as @Come into my Trading Room@ Dr Elder, Toni Turners Day trading books, know a little about charting, MACD MAs, Stochastics but am still generally losing - not as badly as when I started but barely breaking even.

My latest strategy (after having a mixed return from trading stocks (FTSE & DOW)
is trading FX - basically use the following technique:

Look for MA 22/11 crossovers on a 30 minute chart (IG advanced charting allows notifications of these) check the crossing point out... if MACD looks good (+2 for buys -2 for sells), Stochastics look ok (high for buys, low for sells) and Dr Elder's Elder Ray has appropriate sell or buy values I may trade. I wait and watch ... but still inevitably lose!

I feel I am @nearly there@ but am clearly missing something.
With the stocks I was making a list of target stocks, identify if the trends from a Weekly/Daily/Hourly perspective and buy or sell in the opposite direction of the major daily/hourly trend. Had some luck with this @system@ but the losses although smaller in numvber than the wins, are inevitably wiping out the winning profits.

Funds and pride running low now so any advice pls ?

Hopfully other newbies may appreciate this as I am sure I am not the only one on this lonely road !

Cheers
P

i am not trying to act like a professional or someone who has a defined egde, im on demo so don't take what i say seriously ;)
the reason why I think you're barely break even is that as you said, you have only just read a few books, checked out a little charting and spreadbetted. I think you should get down to some learning about trading with trends via entry on a pullback. indicators can be excellent so i'm not going to discourage you from them, stochastics can be great for entering on pullbacks aswell.

What i'm saying is to just take it further, not just buy at macd crossover , learn a lot more, test and see what works for you, read some more books and check some threads /videos out on the interwebz.
new market wizards, financial spreadbetting handbook,
james 16 if you want to do that sort of thing
if you trade with or against trends then you'll probably want to have a good skill at identifying how healthy a trend is by checking out the AHG thread at eite trader aswell.

over the past year i reckon i have spent at least 1000 hours learning about markets and im only on demo , i blown up 20 demo forex accounts, i stopped and just went all out intense learning real stuff for 3 months, i opened a 10k demo account 3 weeks ago 3 swing trades later im up 550 ish pips so it certainly does pay to invest not just money into trading, but dedication like you've never had it before :O

( lulz i hope i can get me 500 pips with real money :D)
 
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in fact, around 3 months ago i was probably where you are now, check out my threads from the past to see some of the harsh realities i faced :)
 
'Nearly there'

ROFL!

The reason your failing is because your an absolute rookie, an absolute noob and you shouldn't expect otherwise... Trading is a Zero-sum game (Most of the time) and so ofcourse rookies lose money... If you were making money, it wouldn't say much for the very proffesionals and traders who have spent 16+ hours per day becomming good at this...

You have a long, long, long way to go and lots to learn; Your concepts of the market are very 'noobie' - The market doesn't care if you look at stochastics, just understand that ultimately it doesn't tell you anything about what price will do; however it can be used as part of a mechnical system (maybe) but otherwise it gives no indication, also i will tell you that such aspects are largely unimportant to most traders; Just reflect on that. Also understand that Elder WRITES BOOKS AND DOES SEMINARS; Not trading... :)

'Barely breaking even'
Why would you expect to make money, given how little you know?
Sorry, i never understand such logic.

Assume that you know nothing yet... Your unlikely to become profitable until you understand everything and right now; You've got a lot of understanding to do! If your up to it then face the very difficult challenge...
Don't fool yourself that this is easy, its not...
When you start to learn to trade, seems simple and easy, only because you have no clue - As in; Ignorance is bliss :) If you really are serious about trading then lower your expectations and read more appropriate books than that Elder prick...
To start you off if you would like?
Read New market wizards; That'll give you a grip of how difficult it may be and you can decide if your up to it.

Consider what i'm saying as fact; Don't think you know better; It will definately lead to tears of disappointment... I hear you considered quiting your full-time job recently?

Christ. I'm very serious, you should right now accept and be fully aware that you know absolute nothing about the markets, i mean seriously... You are a prime example of the type of person i would absolutely love to trade against - And don't take this as an insult; if you keep your current frame of mind, the market will continually insult you to breaking point and realization of your lack of skill until you finally do accept it!

Don't trade until you know the number of limit orders on a price level of the E-mini S&P500 June 2010 contract for both the bid and ask.


lol
 
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'Nearly there'

ROFL!

The reason your failing is because your an absolute rookie, an absolute noob and you shouldn't expect otherwise... Trading is a Zero-sum game (Most of the time) and so ofcourse rookies lose money... If you were making money, it wouldn't say much for the very proffesionals and traders who have spent 16+ hours per day becomming good at this...

You have a long, long, long way to go and lots to learn; Your concepts of the market are very 'noobie' - The market doesn't care if you look at stochastics, just understand that ultimately it doesn't tell you anything about what price will do; however it can be used as part of a mechnical system (maybe) but otherwise it gives no indication, also i will tell you that such aspects are largely unimportant to most traders; Just reflect on that. Also understand that Elder WRITES BOOKS AND DOES SEMINARS; Not trading... :)

'Barely breaking even'
Why would you expect to make money, given how little you know?
Sorry, i never understand such logic.

Assume that you know nothing yet... Your unlikely to become profitable until you understand everything and right now; You've got a lot of understanding to do! If your up to it then face the very difficult challenge...
Don't fool yourself that this is easy, its not...
When you start to learn to trade, seems simple and easy, only because you have no clue - As in; Ignorance is bliss :) If you really are serious about trading then lower your expectations and read more appropriate books than that Elder prick...
To start you off if you would like?
Read New market wizards; That'll give you a grip of how difficult it may be and you can decide if your up to it.

Consider what i'm saying as fact; Don't think you know better; It will definately lead to tears of disappointment... I hear you considered quiting your full-time job recently?

Christ. I'm very serious, you should right now accept and be fully aware that you know absolute nothing about the markets, i mean seriously... You are a prime example of the type of person i would absolutely love to trade against - And don't take this as an insult; if you keep your current frame of mind, the market will continually insult you to breaking point and realization of your lack of skill until you finally do accept it!

Don't trade until you know the number of limit orders on a price level of the E-mini S&P500 June 2010 contract for both the bid and ask.


lol

Roll Fcking On. Real expert talking here :LOL:

Saved up for a Blue Ray DVD Player Yet ???
 
A little harsh there GladiatorX but you make some valid points.....

To the OP I would say keep going. You are asking the right sort of questions and everyone hard to start somewhere. As has been mentioned before you are not putting the odds in your favour by trading against the trend. My strategies contain one counter trend strategy but that is just a brief 2-3 day trade as I expect the main trend to take back over again so never try to "run" a counter trend trade. Why not learn how to trade with the trend?

With regards to indicators some are useful but not many. I have never seen a profitable strategy that use stochastics for example. One thing you don't mention is the famed "price action". When you see a setup that should be a buy signal wait until the price starts to do what you expect to happen. For example if you have a long trade don't enter until the price rises to the prior bar high say. That may stop you getting into trades where the price just keeps dropping.
 
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