What style or system works best with full-time job?

[new_trader]

New Trader mate, you are wrong. Absolutely you can. I agree with Hoggums.

Ok, I'm convinced! This is one of the few times I am glad to be wrong!

 

[black bear]

New Trader mate, you are wrong. Absolutely you can. I agree with Hoggums.

I check the charts before going to work and before leaving work. If the 4 & 1 hours charts look good with MACD and MAs in right direction coupled with S&R lines that's it.

Click away and set off to work. I check at work also but like every couple of hours or at lunch time. If it's a busy day with lots of meetings, I don't get a chance to check at all Usually, it's a winner and I close pos and take profits. Max loss per point is 160 pips with capital spreads. Obviously you can adjust Stop & Limits. If you have sufficient capital as Hoggum suggests this is not a problem.

Normally, if you follow a consisten system you can beat the market.

In fact whilst trading full time I tended to over trade and made inconsistent gains with a greater number of losses.

Now work has unintentionaly provided discpline for consistent patter of trading and I'm making greater gains - consistently.

At the end of my contract when I trade full time again I will be very interested to see if I can maintain my consistency ratios and returns.

Hi Atilla,

Noted your time frames on Dow thread -week day & 4 hour, great trade the other day

I to follow these time frames but weakness leads me towards intra day, suppose its illusion you are cutting risk by watching, but you end up bailing when should be holding etc.

Question: On above time frames what stops do you set and which time frame. Do you have limit order in market etc

I ask because I work and can choose mornings or afternoons but would benefit if I adopted this approach :?:

Returned to swing trading just last week. The Stop always bothers me when away from screen don"t get me wrong I use it without hesitation the second I am aware wrong but find it hard to determine wrong in advance

Think you can trade and work, if you can"t you can"t trade proper in my mind and I can"t yet but I can trade a bit

 

[Atilla]

Hi Atilla,

Noted your time frames on Dow thread -week day & 4 hour, great trade the other day
This is text book theory. Start from long term and drill in to your short term time frame so you get the bigger picture.

I to follow these time frames but weakness leads me towards intra day, suppose its illusion you are cutting risk by watching, but you end up bailing when should be holding etc. Yes and this is where I used to go wrong. Intraday promotes excessive trades. Has it's cons and pros.

Question: On above time frames what stops do you set and which time frame. Do you have limit order in market etc I'm mixed up in this area. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. My risk reward ratio is 1:2 if I'm setting limits. I usually set SL if going long as if markets plummet they can do so with much faster ferocity and speed than longs. I normaly don't set SL when going short. I do have mental SL which I normaly stick to.

I ask because I work and can choose mornings or afternoons but would benefit if I adopted this approach :?: I notice if you stick to one or two instruments you are better than having a few. DOW, GOLD and few FXs are my preferred choice. DOW is probably favourite. Watch it in the morning and trade it in the afternoon and evenings.

Returned to swing trading just last week. The Stop always bothers me when away from screen don"t get me wrong I use it without hesitation the second I am aware wrong but find it hard to determine wrong in advance

Think you can trade and work, if you can"t you can"t trade proper in my mind and I can"t yet but I can trade a bit

Stops and Losses difficult area for me. I thing market makers manipulate prices to take them out. At least that what I tell my self to ease the pains when I'm on the losing side... :cheesy:

Good luck...

 

[Splitlink]

Stops and Losses difficult area for me. I thing market makers manipulate prices to take them out. At least that what I tell my self to ease the pains when I'm on the losing side... :cheesy:

Good luck...

Yes, I think you have it, it's the marketmakers. Someone was accusing the spreadbetters the other day, but I have not been able to, specifically, put it down to them. When there is a spike it happens to the market, as a whole.

There's a whole lot of BS said about stops, but if you don't them use you could lose your shirt.

 

[Lightning McQueen]

There's a whole lot of BS said about stops, but if you don't them use you could lose your shirt.

oops, just posted a little bit on this, I expect a telling off shortly :cheesy:

 

[Atilla]

oops, just posted a little bit on this, I expect a telling off shortly :cheesy:

Where is that Lightning. I still see it as a weak part of my system. Firewalker was working on limits or when to close trades. If you could point me in the right direction with where to set Stops I'd give it a try...

Could do with some humour...

 

[Splitlink]

oops, just posted a little bit on this, I expect a telling off shortly :cheesy:

Just don't let me put my foot in it-

 

[Sam2018]

P&F Charts

hi i work full time,trade dow from 6pm,no indicators,look for 20-30 pts a time GET OUT.based on the trend is your friend,defined by a 35 pt p&f chart 1 hr,it tells me to be long or short and where my change of direction is.i let the trend work for me,sometimes the drawdown can be big but the trend mostly saves you.i enter on pullbacks to the 10 or 20 ma on a 5 min chart.i read people on the dow thread and i sometimes think they want to be economists.keep it simple

I'm a novice exploring P&F charts and they look like a very useful tool if used correctly. However, from what I've read so far they appear to be geared towards longer term trading (i.e. over days or weeks). Do people like CMC produce P&F charts with a lower level of granularity which are equally useful for intraday trading? Also, do they produce P&F charts for Forex trading?

 

[damianoakley]

Hi Megatrader,

Apologies if I'm coming into this thread a little late, but it IS definitely possible to work trading around a full-time job....I know because I've done it in the past.

If done correctly, it is possible to setup your trades in the evening/morning and then leave them completely unattended during the day quite safely whilst you are at work.

I did this for a couple of years before eventually leaving my job behind, so trust me, it can be done!


Thanks

Damian