Sunday, May 31, 2009

Hmm... setting up a system....

After reading more, I have discovered that to trade, I must have a system.
Duh~~! That much I know.
But the useful thing about setting up a system is this... it can be done in six simple steps.

1) Define a time frame that you want to trade in.
2) Decide on the indicators that you want to use to identify the entry points.
3) Decide on the indicators that you want to use to confirm those trends that you want to enter.
4) Define your risk appetite.
5) Define the entry point and the exit points.
6) Write it all down and stick to it!

Sounds simple right?
Well, I am starting a new month with a new demo account. No harm giving this a go.
Coupled with my experience from my last demo account, I am going to write down my trading system for this month and see if it is working.

1) Define a time frame that you want to trade in.
Well, this should be simple. Given my small trade fund account, I am going to stick to the 1 min, 5 min and 30 min time frame.

2) Decide on the indicators that you want to use to identify the entry points.
I have been pretty successful using the indicators the last time I traded.
So I will stick to it. The indicators I am using are: EMA and Bollinger Bands

3) Decide on the indicators that you want to use to confirm those trends that you want to enter.
Previously, I was using Stochastics as the confirming indicator for the trends I spotted.
There are a few other indicators that the gurus are using.
I am going to try using the following as well to see if they will be helpful to me or not: MACD and RSI

4) Define your risk appetite.
This time, I am going to ensure EVERY trade uses a Stop Loss (SL). I am setting my SL at 20 pips.

5) Define the entry point and the exit points.
My entry will be at the close of the current candle.
Too many times I have spotted a trend. And in my eagerness to enter a trade, I enter mid-way to a formation of a candle. Most of the time, my trade ended the way I wanted. There are a few times that happened such that by the end of the formation of the candle, the trade did a total reversal on me!
So this time, the entries will all be at the close of a candle to ensure my trend spotting is correct!

My Exit would be as follows:
a) All trades will have a stop loss of 20 pips.
b) As I am using a MT4 platform, I can do a Trailing Stop as well. The Trailing Stop will be 20 pips as well.

6) Write it all down and stick to it!
There it is, I have written it all down. Now, to test it out on the demo account!
posted by GnM at 11:39 PM

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