Any traders in the Clare/Limerick area?

ShannonDolphin

Hi, I'm in Clare and have been trading for a few years now, mostly forex and the eminis. I'm hoping to find a few people interested in trading to bounce ideas around over a pint/coffee. Anyone in the Mid-West interested?

pog it

Would be interested in this but I am in the North West and East...

Well let me know if you're meeting anytime around Willie Clancy week anyway. I will be around that part of the country then.

ShannonDolphin

pog it wrote: »

Well let me know if you're meeting anytime around Willie Clancy week anyway. I will be around that part of the country then.

Have you heard of the Dan Furey weekend in Labasheeda?

pog it

Nope but I just googled it. Looks more like set dancing/céile dancing and I'm more into trad sessions... Willie week is mayhem, really can't wait to go

Hope you get a meet up going.

ShannonDolphin

I hope so too, lets see what the response is like.

What trading are you into yourself?

Grecco

Hi , I'm in Clare and wouldn't mind bouncing ideas etc. I'm not really into long term investments or flatland shares. For me I'm more into speculation rather than investments.

ShannonDolphin

Grecco wrote: »

Hi , I'm in Clare and wouldn't mind bouncing ideas etc. I'm not really into long term investments or flatland shares. For me I'm more into speculation rather than investments.

Greco, I'm looking at short term day-trading or swing trading based on technical analysis, mostly for the currencies and US index futures. My interest is specifically mechanical trading systems which can be automated.

I've been trading as a hobby for the past few years and now I'm looking at it as a main source of income. My background is software development but the employment situation (or lack thereof) in the Mid West has me totally buggered. So alternatives have to be found. That's the reason for my post, to see if any like minded individuals want to put some time into developing trading systems that work.

PM me if you're interested and maybe we can arrange a meet or a phone chat.

arrowloopboy

ShannonDolphin wrote: »

Greco, I'm looking at short term day-trading or swing trading based on technical analysis, mostly for the currencies and US index futures. My interest is specifically mechanical trading systems which can be automated.

I've been trading as a hobby for the past few years and now I'm looking at it as a main source of income. My background is software development but the employment situation (or lack thereof) in the Mid West has me totally buggered. So alternatives have to be found. That's the reason for my post, to see if any like minded individuals want to put some time into developing trading systems that work.

PM me if you're interested and maybe we can arrange a meet or a phone chat.

Can you write EAs/ codeing for the MT4 platform ?

ShannonDolphin

arrowloopboy wrote: »

Can you write EAs/ codeing for the MT4 platform ?

I use Sierra Chart as my trading platform. I looked at MT4, it's good but only uses a subset of C++. Sierra Chart allows full use of C++ for coding systems and I find it has a more flexible backtesting environment with better data availability.

Do you have a system you're looking to automate?

arrowloopboy

ShannonDolphin wrote: »

I use Sierra Chart as my trading platform. I looked at MT4, it's good but only uses a subset of C++. Sierra Chart allows full use of C++ for coding systems and I find it has a more flexible backtesting environment with better data availability.

Do you have a system you're looking to automate?

I dont like the idea of a fully automated system ,but i'd like to be able to get a text or something when a certain moving average line hits a candle,is that possible ?

mjgardener

Hello everyone, i`m in wexford 1+yr fx, my preferred style is day/swing trading on support/resistance (supply/demand) and price action. would love to make it into my day job, but not quite ready to take that step yet. i`m not a big fan of automated trading but there is no harm in trying to design one, that said i know nothing about programing.

arrowloopboy

mjgardener wrote: »

Hello everyone, i`m in wexford 1+yr fx, my preferred style is day/swing trading on support/resistance (supply/demand) and price action. would love to make it into my day job, but not quite ready to take that step yet. i`m not a big fan of automated trading but there is no harm in trying to design one, that said i know nothing about programing.

Welcome to boards MJ,i'm also not a fan of "fully"automated set ups ,but and its a very big but,if you don't have a pre determined entry s/l and t/p and a positive R ratio determined by back or forward testing ,Fx will kill you pritty quick smart.
Are you trading a system or just off the batt ?

mjgardener

arrowloopboy wrote: »

Welcome to boards MJ,i'm also not a fan of "fully"automated set ups ,but and its a very big but,if you don't have a pre determined entry s/l and t/p and a positive R ratio determined by back or forward testing ,Fx will kill you pritty quick smart.
Are you trading a system or just off the batt ?

thanks, been there and done that, also risking too much, news trading, gut/impulse trading, predicting where market ll go. glad i have it all out my system, now i mostly use pending orders, what timeframes you most comfortable with? i have a setup i use, 1:2~1:3 r/r ratio, was most profitable whenever i was laid off from work but i`m still afraid to take my redundancy and go for it.

arrowloopboy

mjgardener wrote: »

thanks, been there and done that, also risking too much, news trading, gut/impulse trading, predicting where market ll go. glad i have it all out my system, now i mostly use pending orders, what timeframes you most comfortable with? i have a setup i use, 1:2~1:3 r/r ratio, was most profitable whenever i was laid off from work but i`m still afraid to take my redundancy and go for it.

Yea i was there too and done all that,every trader was there at the start i think,I trade H1 only ,i get about 8 trades a week,your R/R looks very impressive,over how long a period is that for and at what timeframe ?

mjgardener

arrowloopboy wrote: »

Yea i was there too and done all that,every trader was there at the start i think,I trade H1 only ,i get about 8 trades a week,your R/R looks very impressive,over how long a period is that for and at what timeframe ?

first of all i`m looking for imbalance in buyers/sellers on 1w 1d charts, then zoom in to try pin point areas of interest (i use these levels) i don't use my brokers pivot points and i follow any news although i avoid opening/closing trades during news releases because of spread. whenever i see good rr ratio i put pending order and wait. i`m not really comfortable with this method but that's the trading my work allows me to do.
when i have a time and right mindset(well rested etc) i trade 1h 15m 5m during hi volume time of a day, i also see some opportunities around Berlin opening. i trade it using market orders. mind that my win-lose ratio would bee around 50:50 so this is very important to not miss setups. holding time very much depends on a market, on some i get fast momentum movement on some is slowly drifts towards either sl or tp.
do You mind sharing more about your style?

arrowloopboy

mjgardener wrote: »

first of all i`m looking for imbalance in buyers/sellers on 1w 1d charts, then zoom in to try pin point areas of interest (i use these levels) i don't use my brokers pivot points and i follow any news although i avoid opening/closing trades during news releases because of spread. whenever i see good rr ratio i put pending order and wait. i`m not really comfortable with this method but that's the trading my work allows me to do.
when i have a time and right mindset(well rested etc) i trade 1h 15m 5m during hi volume time of a day, i also see some opportunities around Berlin opening. i trade it using market orders. mind that my win-lose ratio would bee around 50:50 so this is very important to not miss setups. holding time very much depends on a market, on some i get fast momentum movement on some is slowly drifts towards either sl or tp.
do You mind sharing more about your style?

I keep it as simple as possible, i trade off s/r levels with the help of over bought /over sold indis,there are alot of winning systems out their,trading them correctly is the important part.
What part of Wexford are you in ?

mjgardener

wexford town, where you re based? it might sound complicated but it isn`t, and you re right about simplicity, and trading skill.

arrowloopboy

mjgardener wrote: »

wexford town, where you re based? it might sound complicated but it isn`t, and you re right about simplicity, and trading skill.

About 13 miles from you so:D.
I'm a firm believer in having the trade sorted in my head befor it occurs,when i enter ,i can stop thinking,as my pre defined s/l and multiple t/p levels are set,let the trade play itself out,and over a period of time ,if you've done your homework(back/forward testing),you should make pips.

mjgardener

that is really close . plan the trade and trade the plan, as they say. do you scan for possible trades in evening and leave pending orders or do you watch price action? most boring job ever.

arrowloopboy

My set ups are easy to see,orders during the night and p/a during the day.

ShannonDolphin

Howdy mj and arrowloopboy,

Been away a few days but pleased to see there's some discussion going on. Seems like Wexford is the place to be, unfortunately it's a bit of a trip for me for a regular meet up.

I too have spent time in trader purgatory and learned the lessons well. The main ones being discipline and patience. When you look back at your trades do you consider how you could've played them better? I've done a lot of that and concluded that auto trading is the way to go. Sure, there are many discretionary traders who can outperform any algo system, but from what I hear it's often their handful of big winning trades that offsets lots of small losers. You need a big bit of capital to stay in that game.

Is it mostly FX you guys are into? Which pairs ? I look mostly at the EURUSD and GBPUSD with an eye on EURGBP. I'm working on a breakout system using a renko chart to identify s/r levels then trade the breaks. With renko you lose the benefit of candle price action, which I agree is a very valuable signal, but also a very subjective one.

Would either of you be interested in automating your systems ?

arrowloopboy

ShannonDolphin wrote: »

Howdy mj and arrowloopboy,

Been away a few days but pleased to see there's some discussion going on. Seems like Wexford is the place to be, unfortunately it's a bit of a trip for me for a regular meet up.

I too have spent time in trader purgatory and learned the lessons well. The main ones being discipline and patience. When you look back at your trades do you consider how you could've played them better? I've done a lot of that and concluded that auto trading is the way to go. Sure, there are many discretionary traders who can outperform any algo system, but from what I hear it's often their handful of big winning trades that offsets lots of small losers. You need a big bit of capital to stay in that game.

Is it mostly FX you guys are into? Which pairs ? I look mostly at the EURUSD and GBPUSD with an eye on EURGBP. I'm working on a breakout system using a renko chart to identify s/r levels then trade the breaks. With renko you lose the benefit of candle price action, which I agree is a very valuable signal, but also a very subjective one.

Would either of you be interested in automating your systems ?

Shannon,
In relation to which is the better way to trade, auto/manual ,its up to the trader,Van Tharpe states in one of his books that auto trading dosn't suite alot of people because they were designed for/by someone else ,and wouldn't neccessairly suite everyones trading style.
If its your own design ,then i suppose it could work quite well.
I trade e/u and g/u ,with a system,but the system is in my head and it isn't automatiable(if thats a word),it needs a certain amount of discression with each trade.
I don't think you need a ball of money to make a decent living trading manually,its no diffrent than auto trading.
Thanks for offering but my system isn't automatiable,but is it possible to get an alert when certain m/as are hit ?
p.s, 1 trade today bought e/u @ 1.4237 ,looking good ,happy for the week if theirs no mishaps.

ShannonDolphin

If you're using MT4 you should have no trouble getting an alert on an ma hit. I don't use MT4 but plenty do. Head over to forexfactory.com, there's a bunch of free EAs there. Also alot of idiots, so beware.

I hear you on the auto, it's not for everyone. Nice looking trade on eu, where do you have your s/l and t/p ?

arrowloopboy wrote: »

Shannon,
In relation to which is the better way to trade, auto/manual ,its up to the trader,Van Tharpe states in one of his books that auto trading dosn't suite alot of people because they were designed for/by someone else ,and wouldn't neccessairly suite everyones trading style.
If its your own design ,then i suppose it could work quite well.
I trade e/u and g/u ,with a system,but the system is in my head and it isn't automatiable(if thats a word),it needs a certain amount of discression with each trade.
I don't think you need a ball of money to make a decent living trading manually,its no diffrent than auto trading.
Thanks for offering but my system isn't automatiable,but is it possible to get an alert when certain m/as are hit ?
p.s, 1 trade today bought e/u @ 1.4237 ,looking good ,happy for the week if theirs no mishaps.

mjgardener

i myself trade e/u only - need to master my style before taking on more load. what exactly do we mean by automated system? one that gives you signals to buy exit or so called robot which does all the trading? questions to both of You, as it seems you re far more experienced than me, don`t answer if you don`t want to i ll understand .
1. any trading related education? courses etc.?
2. favourite platforms, brokers etc.?
3.how long it took before you became profitable?

arrowloopboy very nice entry with really decent rr ratio .

mjgardener

Shannon you spot on about fxfactory - really destructive place, newbie trader looking for something usefull is like this lad diving for picture in Slumdog Millionaire film...i was really glad to see there re traders on boards here.
i use fxcm trade station and oanda`s java platform.
there is loads of stuff for mt4 forex-tsd.com/

ShannonDolphin

mjgardener wrote: »

i myself trade e/u only - need to master my style before taking on more load. what exactly do we mean by automated system? one that gives you signals to buy exit or so called robot which does all the trading? questions to both of You, as it seems you re far more experienced than me, don`t answer if you don`t want to i ll understand .
1. any trading related education? courses etc.?
2. favourite platforms, brokers etc.?
3.how long it took before you became profitable?

arrowloopboy very nice entry with really decent rr ratio .

Mj, an auto can be designed to various levels. What you call a robot can qualify your trade entry signals, apply whatever filters, then submit the entry order with attached sl & tp orders. It then monitors the trade, scaling in/out adjusting sl & tp, looking for the exit signal etc. That would be a true auto system, totally hands off.

There are all flavours in between. I recently developed a guys system but we couldn't capture the nuances he used for his entries. We tried a bunch of filters to try replicate his manual entries but it was never as profitable. In the end we just let the computer manage the exits and stops. He said he often used to exit too early but letting the computer manage it improved his profit.

For me the main advantage of an auto system is the ability to backtest and fine tune a system. I use a platform which allows the system to run through months of historical price data (you need good tick data) executing trades as if in realtime.

Regarding your questions:

1. I don't think you need to pay for education. There's so much info out there already if you're willing to look for it. I know for a fact that some courses are pure sh*te. The best way to learn is with other people, exchanging ideas and experiences. That's why I want to network with other traders, hence my reason for posting.

2. There are plenty of platforms. MT4 is good for fx but doesn't have the backtesting ability last time I looked. Sierra Chart is what I use, extremely flexible if you learn how t use all it's features. Brokers I know are Interactive Brokers (big margins but you can trade just about anything on the planet), IG Index (good spread betting firm but no auto interface), Oanda (great for fx and u can trade any lot size, but auto api is too expensive).

3. My interest in trading started when I had to convert currency to build a house. I used Oanda to get better rates than the rip-off rates the banks offer. I started trading with IB and had a great run in 2006-07 on fx and the ES. Overconfident I wasn't prepared when the volatility took off in 08. I got hammered. I gave up trading my own account and focussed on developing other traders systems for them. I've got capital back again now and am ready to start trading again - this time I'm older and wiser!

arrowloopboy

ShannonDolphin wrote: »

If you're using MT4 you should have no trouble getting an alert on an ma hit. I don't use MT4 but plenty do. Head over to forexfactory.com, there's a bunch of free EAs there. Also alot of idiots, so beware.

I hear you on the auto, it's not for everyone. Nice looking trade on eu, where do you have your s/l and t/p ?

I've been at the Factory for 2 or 3 years,not so much anymoe,theirs some really good stuff their but its not worth wading through the 98% bullsh1t.

E/U closed @ 1.4500 :D:D S/l was 30 pips.

arrowloopboy

mjgardener wrote: »

i myself trade e/u only - need to master my style before taking on more load. what exactly do we mean by automated system? one that gives you signals to buy exit or so called robot which does all the trading? questions to both of You, as it seems you re far more experienced than me, don`t answer if you don`t want to i ll understand .
1. any trading related education? courses etc.?
2. favourite platforms, brokers etc.?
3.how long it took before you became profitable?

arrowloopboy very nice entry with really decent rr ratio .

M.J ,
1. Books,babypips,and forexfactory.com
2.I dont think it matters.
3. 2 years,alot of frustration,and some small donations
to Forex Inc:D

Thanks,R/R was 8/1 ,not bad in a two horse race:D.

mjgardener

that`s great arrowloopboy. just want to wish to you lads a good rest and great weekend.

Munkybutler

How's it going,

I'm probably a very naiive newbie but I am hoping to get into forex trading and would love to make a career out of it. I've been studying on babypips.com for about 3 months now, they have a great 'school' section which gives you the lowdown on all aspects of fx trading broken down into layman's terms.

At the moment I'm in Korea teaching English but I live in Loughlinstown. I have a lot of spare time over here and am filling a lot of this spare time with forex study. I'm due to come home in September but am thinking of extending until Feb/March 2012 so I can use the free time I have here to study forex.

I'm still on a demo account and am just trading with Fibonacci levels, candlestick patterns, s/r, stochastics, moving averages etc. Do you think I should stay here where I have time to learn, or come home and try get a job and keep learning trading in my spare time.

I am an accountant by trade but I just find accounting so boring that I don't think I can go back to it!!

devianttrader

Hi MJ, just wondering which broker you use. American, Irish, UK?
My broker is U.S. based. Commission per trade is below 5 euro. If you trade regularly you can qualify for free market data, including free Level 2.