Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Journal entry 2009-12-23

OK, since my last post here, I have been doing demo trades, backtesting and trying to design my own trading strategy.

The one that I am going to post, is so far the most successful one I have to date.
I am sure I am not alone when I say that it is difficult to find a trading strategy that works ALL the time.

And depending on the risk appetite and trading habits of the individual, each trading strategy developed thru experience is unique to that individual.

What I want to do is to share the trading strategy that I am currently using, and hopefully, be able to generate a healthy dose of discussion with regards to developing your own strategy. Again, I must add the disclaimer that I am sharing for information purpose only. What may work for me, may not work for you.

I will try to attempt to put my system in words.

So far, this system has worked well for me. And trading on my account, it is more profitable than most of the other systems I have tried.

The only problem to my system rite now that I am facing, is to put in a reasonable SL to ensure that you can ride the throw backs prior to the completion of the trend that you entered your trade in.

You can use any time period for this method. And it can be used on most of the major 4 currency pairs. I have yet to test it on cross currency pairs though. But it should work as well.

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On the chart, set up the following indicators:
1) Bollinger bands at period 20, sd 2.5 (color the center line Gold)
2) Bollinger bands at period 20, sd 1.0
3) ADX 8, DI+ 13, DI- 13
4) RSI 18 Levels 75, 50, 25

Long Entry Setup MUST include all the following conditions
- When the candle closes above the gold line
- RSI crosses above 50
- ADX slopes upwards to show a trend
- DI+ above DI-
(Best if the bollinger bands are opening!)

Short Entry Setup MUST include all the following conditions
- When the candle closes below the gold line
- RSI crosses below 50
- ADX slopes upwards to show a trend
- DI- above DI+
(Best if the bollinger bands are opening!)

Exit on either of the following (at the close of the candle)
- When the ADX upward slope changes direction
- When the RSI changes direction
- When the candle closes with>60% body below the sd1.0 line.
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Using the above set up, I usually put a SL of 30 pips and a TP of 30 pips as well.

The SL is not the optimum value yet. Cos during my usage of this system in the past month, I get a few pre-mature closing of my trades due to throw backs.

What I did was to achieve more profitable trades, is to adjust my SL and my TP as the trade progresses.
At the beginning, I will set up the SL=30 pips and TP=30 pips.
If the subsequent candle opens above the wick of the previous one, I will move my SL to 1 pip above the last close value, and shift my TP 10 pips up.
(eg, for a long set up, if the previous candle closes at 100 with a wick of 110, and the current candle opens at 112, I will adjust my SL to 101 and shift my TP up 10 pips.)
I will continue to adjust my SL till I reach the point where my SL= my entry price. There after, keep adjusting the TP up 10 pips till the exit condition is met OR till the trade closes at the TP i set.

So far, my max profit from using this system in one single trade is 80 pips on the 5 min chart.

Any feedback with regards to the above strategy is most welcome and appreciated.
And best, if you too can share your trading strategy with me.
posted by GnM at 5:22 PM 1 comments