Forex Mom

Archive for the ‘3-Forex Charting’ Category

I love to create a template for each time frame. I have a weekly, daily, 8 hour, 4 hour, 1 hour, 30 min, 15 min, and 10 min template.

The template has the settings I like. I do not like the horizontal and vertical grid lines. I do not like cluttering my charts with the names of the systems and indicator I am using. I like to see a countdown to the next candle. I also like to set the size of the candles for my viewing space.

It is easy to apply the template. I click on F8, select the template, and voila! My work is done. It is amazing how fast it is for me to create a page of charts for a brand new currency when I use templates.

WEEKLY USD/CAD

8 HOUR USD/CAD

4 HOUR USD/CAD

1 HOUR USD/CAD

15 MIN USD/CAD

10 MIN USD/CAD

MTI FX Advisor

 If you click on Mti Forex Analysis in the MTI 4.0 charting software, you will find a wealth of information to help you analyze the forex.

MTI FX Advisor

This website gives you access to trading systems and strategies. There are video instructions for how to use the systems and strategies and checklists you can follow as you use them.

Fx-Enzo

Fx-MVP

Five times a day there is a Live Video Analysis by a forex analyst. They look at the live market conditions and help me understand what is going on. My favorites are FX-Enzo, on the left, and FX-MVP, on the right. They help me see the trend, the consolidation, where the levels of support and resistance are and any unusual happenings in the market I need to be aware of. Don’t let FxEnzo’s serious face give you the wrong impression. He is a lot of fun and is a great guy. I tease him all the time and he will tease me back.

The first phase of training is a set of CD’s they mailed me. I went over these CD’s many times and found them very helpful.

Every Thursday, there is live online training of the market, Phase 2. The training they provided me has given me a solid understanding of the market; what candles are, which ones are important, identifying trends, support/resistance, fibonaccis, crowns (head and shoulders), gartleys, etc. It gave me an opportunity to review what I had learned and to ask questions. They were always patient and very kind.

Twice a week they provide mentorship training, Phase 3. During this phase they added the psychology of trading. When you move from demo trading to trading real money an interesting thing tends to happen to you. You begin to doubt yourself, question your strategy, jump out of the trade prematurely, only to find that it turns around and hits your limit. So they spend a lot of time helping me to get the courage to hang in there when the going gets tough. They also teach me the traits of successful people. I have found these traits to be successful in all aspects of my life, not just in trading.

Phase 4 training is  a 2 day live class. I attended the live class in Phoenix last October. FxMVP taught the class and he was awesome! Last January I attended the class again in Los Angeles. FxBrave taught the class and he was outstanding!

 This website has lots of other things to help me, like an economic calendar showing the upcoming Fundamental Announcements and how they are predicted to affect the market. I can also click on a link and chat live with a MTI Analyst. I can ask him questions about the trade I am about to enter and he will advise me. They have an Earn While you Learn Program where they will call out a live trade each and every session. WOW!

My favorite thing, though, is the MTI Chatroom. I am able to chat with other MTI students and ask questions. I love helping other students when I know the answer, because it helps reinforce the concepts in my mind. I have made many friends in the chatroom and I enjoy talking to them. Trading the forex can be lonely sometimes, and I have found the chatroom to be a great place to hang out while I trade. We have a great time while we trade.

If you are interested in checking out Market Traders Institute, click here, and tell them ForexMom sent you.

MTI Trend Scalper 4.0 is my favorite system

I love using the MTI Trend Scalper 4.0 system. This systemwas developed by my mentors, http://www.markettraders.com/landings/forexIQ/forexIQ.aspx?id=THEFOREXMOM(Blog).  It consists of several different indicators.

When the candles are above the red automated trendline, I think bullish. I look at the Stochastic RSI indicator at the bottom of the chart (blue line with dots). When I see it hit the bottom and turn up, I look for a bullish candlestick formation and enter the trade. I set my stop below the low and my limit at the previous high.

MTI Trend Scalper 4.0

Voila! I hit my limit and captured 15 pips!

The expansion tool helps us determine where to buy and sell.

The market tends to move in patterns of AB=CD. Using the expansion tool uses the values of A,B, and C to calculate where D will be.

The Fibonacci tool helps us determine where to buy and sell

The market moves in waves and the fibonacci tool is wonderful for predicting how far the market will go. The market tends to move from a to b, retrace to c, and extend to d. My mentors, at http://www.markettraders.com/landings/forexIQ/forexIQ.aspx?id=THEFOREXMOM(Blog), have spent a great deal of time helping me to learn the fibonacci ratios and how to sell c and buy d.

The Bi tool will show the number of pips I am risking in a trade

I have determined where my stop should be and where I am entering the trade. I use the Bi tool to view the number of pips I am risking. The Bi tool displays a box in the upper left hand corner of the chart. It shows the upper price and the lower price and the range of pips. Range=56 tells me that I will be risking 56 pips.

The Bi tool helps me determine where my limit should be

I want to make sure I have at least a 1-1 risk/reward when I trade. So I have calculated where my limit needs to be. In order to earn 56 pips on this trade, my limit needs to be at 92.48. The Bi tool shows me this.

I moved the tool to where I saw 56 pips show in the box, and discovered I needed to place my limit at 92.48.

The Bi tool made this trade easier

You can see the results of my trade. I hit my limit and captured 56 pips. The Bi tool made this much simpler.

A page displays several charts.

Several charts can be displayed at the same time. I know it is hard to see the charts. I had to shrink this considerably for it to fit on this page. I have a 24″ LCD monitor.

My page is showing several charts for the USD/JPY pair. I am displaying the Weekly, Daily, 8 hour, 4 hour, 1 hour, 15 minute, and 10 minute charts.

One of the important things my mentors at MTI, http://www.markettraders.com/landings/forexIQ/forexIQ.aspx?id=THEFOREXMOM(Blog), taught me, is to look at the longer time frames when I trade. The longer time frames dictate the smaller time frames. But in order to limit my risk, I need to enter a trade using a smaller time frame.

It is also possible to build a page showing 10 minute time frames for multiple currency pairs. I found this especially helpful when I am scalping (trades I want to enter and exit quickly).

Drawing trendlines help determine the direction the market is going.

My charting software from Market Traders, MTI4.0, makes it easy to draw trendlines. The green line is a trendline and it makes it very easy to see that the market is making lower LOWS and lower HIGHS. We are in a downtrend.

Ths will would be a good time to sell first and buy later.

Can you see how the market moves in waves, up and down? Overall we are going down. The best time to sell is after we hit a high and we start moving down again.

A chart represents the change in price of a currency-pair over time. The price is the y-axis (shown on the right), and the time is the x-axis (shown on the bottom).

This is a 4 hour chart. Each candle represents the price fluctuation that happened over 240 minutes.

You can see that the price of the USDJPY is going down, it is in a downtrend. This is a great time to be a bear and buy first and sell later.

This letter is really going to p&!# some people off!! I’m sorry about that, but it’s time for a dose of reality.  Do these headlines look familiar to you?  I get a new one in my mailbox every week. 

“The new XXX Forex Robot is taking the forex community by storm!!”

“There is no other way to put it, the buzz surrounding the XXX Forex Robot is….Huge!!”

“It’s official… the boundaries of Forex Artificial Intelligence robot trading has been pushed forward.”

“The XXX Forex Robot went live yesterday and, as I predicted, it rocked the Forex industry…”

“XXX Forex Robot will change history…”

“So after 24 hours, the industry buzz behind the XXX Forex Robot is reaching  fever pitch!!”

It’s a seductive concept …. the Money Machine.  Let’s be honest here. All of us in our heart of hearts dream about finding the “Holy Grail:” The infallible system that tells us to  buy at the bottom and sell at the top. Taking it one step further, we want this system to run on “auto-pilot.”  We just get up in the morning, start our “Money Machine,” and then collect our profits a little later in the day on our way to dinner in Paris. (As long as we’re fantasizing, we might as well have a private jet.)  Ok, now let’s get real. The money machine doesn’t exist. Billion dollar companies, that can afford banks of super-computers and teams of programmers have gone bankrupt trying to create that “Holy Grail.” (Does the name Enron ring a bell?)

Wall Street brokerage houses consistently lose millions on programmed trading. Do you really think you are going to find a “Money Machine” that’s going to run a few lines of code on  your home computer and automatically fill your bank account?  Of course not. Yet many traders wind up jumping from one trading program/method to the next looking for just that. They don’t make the commitment necessary to succeed with any of them because when  they start one method, they are already looking for the next. I know that’s the case because I’ve “been there and done that.”  The fact is that no programmed trading system can work because every day is different than every other day there ever was. Market movement on any day is the result of all human experience up to and including that day. 

So how do these little desktop robots show such great back tested results?  Simple, they are simply algorithms designed to show great profits on one set of historical data.  How it does going forward is anybody’s guess.  It’s the ultimate in curve fitting. That’s why each robot can only “trade” one currency pair in one time interval. In other words, these “Robots” are designed to be back-tested.  Then they are updated monthly so the most recent data can be used to maintain the illusion. Essentially, they are picking the winner of the race after the race has been run!

The idea behind most of these robots is to trade when the markets are very quiet and take very small profits from the random movement of the market while using very wide stops.  This allows a lot of “wins” in a row (maintaining the illusion) before a big loss wipes you out. If you really want to be successful trading you have to put in the effort to learn to trade, and use the “Secret Weapon” that each of us has.

Scientists have never even come close to producing a super-computer as powerful as the human brain. We can process amazing amounts of data instantaneously. That’s why systems don’t work, but trading methods do work. When you look at a chart you can easily understand the national, international and financial forces affecting that chart.  Yes, even technical trader should be aware of the world around them.  Do you really think what happens in the equity markets don’t effect the currency markets (or visa versa)?