FOREX FOCUS
Access to foreign exchange trading has opened up exciting trading options for the retail trader. You can now trade alongside corporations and institutions in a highly liquid market that is global, traded around the clock, and highly leveraged. Before jumping into this market, however, we must understand the factors that affect the forex market. With that in mind, STOCKS& COMMODITIES has introduced Forex Focus to better prepare the retail trader to participate in the currency market.
Do You Analyze Your Trades? No, seriously. Do you?
by Patrick Nouvion
Ever since I started trading currencies about three years ago, I knew that I lacked the discipline to be a consistent and profitable trader. But I still love to trade; I just can't stop thinking of it as a game! I know that's not the "trading guru" way of thinking, but fortunately, I do not risk too much money on the market and my primary "trade" is as a programmer, so I guess it is okay for me to trade for fun.
Every once in a while I try to get back on the righteous path and approach the forex market more seriously. Just last month I created an EA, an automated program, to manage my orders so that I would not be tempted to gamble and be forced to respect my initial stop-loss and profit target. Let's just say the software was great, but I was still in there messing around with the orders.
AND SO IT GOES....
The issue really is that we don't know when we've won enough pips, and we don't know when we've lost enough pips. So I looked around for money management concepts. Standard trailing stops were the first thing I looked at and then I moved on to average true range (ATR) trailing stops, chandelier exits, and other options. Nothing was helping, so I did a lot of research; I even found out that some people do technical analysis on fundamental analysis. I had been working on pattern recognition and neural networks (still am), and after going through a lot of complex concepts, I decided to take a simpler approach.
Originally published in the September 2008 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2008, Technical Analysis, Inc.
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