What the hell is someones strategy?

Upcomingstockmaster

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I have read on here many times that dont start trading with real money until you have developed a strategy/system...

Can someone give me an example please.

Why cant you just trade, by doing what you think is right at the time, buying or selling?!
 
I have read on here many times that dont start trading with real money until you have developed a strategy/system...

Can someone give me an example please.

Why cant you just trade, by doing what you think is right at the time, buying or selling?!

well give it a try
just paper trade
allow 3 pips spread
and see how you do
after you have lost a big pile of paper money
you will see what we are talking about

have a look at this site
Trading Systems @ Forex Factory
 
Nobody's answered this, perhaps because it's too obvious? Ooops, somebody beat me to it as I was writing!

Anyway, here's my bit, for what it's worth.

How can you 'do what you think is right at the time' without some sensible basis on which to make that judgement? That sensible, tested and proven basis is the necessary strategy. Otherwise, it's a guess and guess will lose you money. Yes, it's 50:50 up or down but it's the oscillations that will knock out the inexperienced, so you can't just guess and bung in a larger limit than stop.

Even when you've got the direction right, the chances are you'll still lose because the market won't go there in a straight line. What drawdown will you accept before you conclude you were wrong? Maybe you get a decent profit in the first 10 minutes but what is a decent profit - perhaps if you hang on for more it will reverse and go into negative territory big time. Perhaps it has much further to go and you close too early.

There's a hundred things that will kill you and without a good strategy to give yourself rules to follow, rather than making emotional decisions, you will most certainly lose money and never succeed.

Unless you are clairvoyant, in which case just pick the lottery numbers.
 
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Nobody's answered this, perhaps because it's too obvious? Ooops, somebody beat me to it as I was writing!

Anyway, here's my bit, for what it's worth.

How can you 'do what you think is right at the time' without some sensible basis on which to make that judgement? That sensible, tested and proven basis is the necessary strategy. Otherwise, it's a guess and guess will lose you money. Yes, it's 50:50 up or down but it's the oscillations that will knock out the inexperienced, so you can't just guess and bung in a larger limit than stop.

Even when you've got the direction right, the chances are you'll still lose because the market won't go there in a straight line. What drawdown will you accept before you conclude you were wrong? Maybe you get a decent profit in the first 10 minutes but what is a decent profit - perhaps if you hang on for more it will reverse and go into negative territory big time. Perhaps it has much further to go and you close too early.

There's a hundred things that will kill you and without a good strategy to give yourself rules to follow, rather than making emotional decisions, you will most certainly lose money and never succeed.

Unless you are clairvoyant, in which case just pick the lottery numbers.

good post 10 k

after you have been on this web site for a few years
I am afraid I just get of fed up of answering the same questions all the time
from newbys
and all they want is for you to tell them how to make some money
no work, just tell me your system so I can make some money
 
Hi Upcomingstockmaster

You need a structure to follow, otherwise your emotions will destory your account equity - even with structure they can often lead you astray.

To give you a little something to follow, try Richard Dennis' idea of a complete trading strategy. It encompasses the following:

What markets should you trade?
What should the size of a position be?
When should you enter (open a position)?
When should you exit (taking profit)?
When should you stop out (taking a loss)?
What tactics should you use?

The latter refers to liquidity and volatility management which, if you are a small trader, you will not need to worry about too much.
 
Why cant you just trade, by doing what you think is right at the time, buying or selling?!

Of course you can, but success is a result of what you repeatedly do. And you should be aware of the edge you have, and a summary of that would be called a system.
 
you can indeed do as you say and just trade what you think is right
but this level of trading will only come to you after years of practice, ie you will be trading from an subconscious point of view,
once you have studied the charts and markets and its behaviour and the behaviour of its participants long and hard would you even be able to consider trading what is right and what is wrong and even then you would still need some kind of strategy to work from
but go ahead give it a go and see what happens you may be some kind of trading genius and be able to do it
but its unmeasurable, so you will have no way of knowing what you did well last week to make profits
and no real way of knowing what you did wrong today to wipe them out again !
it probably seems like a great idea, but will give you no longevity in the market.
 
I have read on here many times that dont start trading with real money until you have developed a strategy/system...

Can someone give me an example please.

Why cant you just trade, by doing what you think is right at the time, buying or selling?!

Lol,

The first strategy you will need is to research strategy.

Here's a start:

A Strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. Strategies are used to make the problem easier to understand and solve.

Strategy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hold my hand and follow the link.
 
I have read on here many times that dont start trading with real money until you have developed a strategy/system...

Can someone give me an example please.

Why cant you just trade, by doing what you think is right at the time, buying or selling?!

Well you take driving lessons to learn the basics of driving ,why is it you think that the markets are any different,doing what you think is right will loose you a whole pot of money,give it to me instead.
My advice do what i did(and belive me i,m still no great shakes at Trading)take a course in Trading there,s plenty about some are crap some are good ,do your research.
Yes ,a trading plan is essential,dont try anything without one if your not sure what a trading plan is then go webside there are plenty of examples.And just to dampen your adour a bit more i,m 2 years into study ,thats a course + my own research,plus trading and it,s hard but i,ll tell you this it,s not rocket science to learn the basics of Trading,but it,s damm hard to trade well.Good Luck. Mike..
 
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