RSI Trendline Trader

One of the traders I followed a lot and studied has been Alex du Ploy from Australia. His EAs have helped me in my own trading and his trading technique has made the most sense to me. He also has a colleague Barry Thornton who has graciously shared his techniques with Alex and he has provided them as a course when you purchase some of his EAs.

Barry has made millions using this technique and is living on an island somewhere enjoying his success. This technique of his is very simple and gives just enough of an edge in the market that if you trade it consistently you will have success, he’s proof.  

This EA automates the trading process created by Barry and makes it so you don’t have to be in front of the computer all day waiting for the setup. Now of course no EA is a set and forget EA. what you need to identify is the market phase that you are in (trending, ranging) before you turn on the EA and then have the settings for that type of market saved as a set file that you can load into the EA and use for that market. I personally create 3 set files (up trend, down trend, and ranging market) for each currency that I trade.I use the 4 hour timeframe to determine the market phase and then turn the EA on using that set file. I’ll even go so far as to have only buy orders allowed for up trending markets and only sell orders allowed for down trending markets.

Here is the link to the RSI Trendline Trader EA

https://expert4x.idevaffiliate.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=228&feed=12

 

 

Crypto Flash Crash

The crash that happened last night had all the signs of market manipulation. It's no secret that the banks don't like cryptocurrencies so it would be easy to assume that they may manipulate the market like they do with the Forex market to try and destabilize it. That's what may have happened last night. There was a large drop in price on low volume. Only whales and banks can do that.

Here's a link to a recent event in the Forex market involving bank manipulation:

Banks fined over collusion in currency trading

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59502600

 

My Journey

 I just wanted to share my journey of trading so far for the benefit of anyone who is struggling and trying to figure things out.

I have yet to feel like I am a success but I feel a lot closer now that I have in many years. I’ve studied stock, options, forex and crypto and used many trading strategies and indicators. After all of my trials and errors I have finally found several strategies that I employ in tandem that keep me in the markets but also keep me away from trouble.

Aside from the strategies there are some key important money management and risk management rules I have set up as well as some psychological techniques that help me remain calm in difficult situations.

As I said I am by no means a master of these elements but I am getting better everyday and have had the most consistent success I’ve ever had.

I first started trading way back in 2000 and in true glutton for punishment fashion I chose to trade options because it had more leverage but it was super challenging to learn. I got it though and kept trying to win more than I lost. That proved to be a losing proposition however because I had no understanding of market phases, risk management, money management and smart money concepts.

Time passed and I missed the crypto run after taking my money out too early. I lost money on a couple of scams but thankfully not too much. A buddy of mine kept encouraging me to trade forex because he had so much success and with figures like $900 a week I was hooked. This proved to be illusive for me however because I did not have the right psychology to trade. I had practiced losing too much and was pulling out of trades too early for fear of losing. I had to detach myself from the trade in order to become successful. That’s when I got interested in using bots or EAs to trade. I figured if a computer can write music and make art than surely a computer can trade for me and help me get over some of my anxiety while trading.

I researched several individuals and companies who made trading bots and tested many of them. I found one individual who was consistent and has been consistent over these many years and that’s Alex duPloy from Expert4X. He consistently updates his trading robots and provides a wealth of content on how to trade them. He is also creating new robots and has a free and paid forum for owners of his robots to trade stories and ideas. I’ll be sharing some of the trading robots that have helped me in my trading and the best approaches I have found to use them effectively.

Well that’s my story so far (the abridged version). Hopefully in the near future I will be sharing my prop firm trading journey and giving insight as to the best practices to get funded.

 

 

Investing in Bitcoins

I just heard about a new online currency that is being traded and you can potentially make some money just by setting up a free computer to "mine" for the currency online.  They are called "bitcoins" and they are used as inline currency to buy anything.  Some businesses have accepted them as a form of payment already.  The currency is open source and is not controlled by any entity so there is no Central Bank.  Algorithms and code serve as the foundation for the currency and it can be traded for US dollars and other currencies as well.  The current rate is $90 for one bitcoin.  It was as high as $200 a few days ago and it was at $10 a few months ago.

The great thing is you can mine for it for free.  It just takes a long while to find any online so people have come together and pooled their computer resources to find them.  When you find a batch the group splits the batch and you get a percentage based on the amount of work your computer did.  It's an interesting concept and it can't hurt to try since it's free. I set up an account today just to see what would happen.  Let me know if you have any success.

Here's the site for info:
http://www.weusecoins.com/en/

Here's a site for how to mine for them:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/08/how-to-mine-bitcoins/

Here's the site to mine for them:
https://mining.bitcoin.cz/

I signed up on Coinbase.com



Update 4-18-13
The best site that I found to generate coins I've found so far is: http://bitcoinplus.com
the mining method on the mining.bitcoin.cz site mentioned is a bit too complicated. 

Check this article as well: http://startbitcoin.com/

Stay Focused

Here are some key things to focus on for all equity trades (stocks, options, forex):

• pick one or two stocks (whose industry that your familiar with) to follow at first so you can see how they move and react to market conditions.
• mark the trend... is it going up, down or sideways (not changing price) - the trend is your friend
• mark the areas of support and resistance (where does the price consistently stop rising or stop falling)
• use technical indicators to time your trade (stochastics, RSI, MACD, Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, Candlestick setups)
• set your entry and exit points (limit and stop loss) and monitor daily to make adjustments if necessary
• take profits even if it seems it may go higher - a trade completed is better than a trade defeated or a bird in the hand, etc....
• take emotion out of the game, the market will play you like a fiddle if you don't have a plan
• stick to the plan unless all hell breaks loose... otherwise if the setup was there and you took it, don't get out just because of one bad candlestick...let the trade develop... you have your stop loss there for a reason, it will take you out of the trade if necessary

And in the words of Kenny Rogers:

know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know when to run....