Its a bit lengthy and I tried to condense it as much as I can. So take everything at a high level as each subject is has a lot more depth but fundamentally if you distill it down its just taking simple things and applying your experience using them to add nuance and better deploy them.
There are exceptions to everything that you will learn with experience or have already learned. If you know something extra or something to add to it to implement it better or more accurately. Then great! However, my intention of this post is just a high level overview. Trading can be far too nuanced to go into in this post and would take forever to type up every exception (not to mention the traders individual personality). If you take the general information as a starting point, hopefully you will learn the edge cases long the way and learn how to use the more effectively if you end up using them. I apologize in advice for any errors or typos.
Introduction After reflecting on my fun (cough) trading journey that was more akin to rolling around on broken glass and wondering if brown glass will help me predict market direction better than green glass. Buying a $100 indicator at 2 am when I was acting a fool, looking at it and going at and going "This is a piece of lagging crap, I miss out on a large part of the fundamental move and never using it for even one trade". All while struggling with massive over trading and bad habits because I would get bored watching a single well placed trade on fold for the day. Also, I wanted to get rich quick.
On top all of that I had a terminal Stage 4 case of FOMO on every time the price would move up and then down then back up. Just think about all those extra pips I could have trading both directions as it moves across the chart! I can just sell right when it goes down, then buy right before it goes up again. Its so easy right? Well, turns out it was not as easy as I thought and I lost a fair chunk of change and hit my head against the wall a lot until it clicked. Which is how I came up with a mixed bag of things that I now call "Trade the Trade" which helped support how I wanted to trade so I can still trade intra day price action like a rabid money without throwing away all my bananas.
Why Make This Post? - Core Topic of Discussion I wish to share a concept I came up with that helped me become a reliable trader. Support the weakness of how I like to trade. Also, explaining what I do helps reinforce my understanding of the information I share as I have to put words to it and not just use internalized processes. I came up with a method that helped me get my head straight when trading intra day.
I call it "Trade the Trade" as I am making mini trades inside of a trade setup I make from analysis on a higher timeframe that would take multiple days to unfold or longer. I will share information, principles, techniques I used and learned from others I talked to on the internet (mixed bag of folks from armatures to professionals, and random internet people) that helped me form a trading style that worked for me. Even people who are not good at trading can say something that might make it click in your head so I would absorbed all the information I could get.I will share the details of how I approach the methodology and the tools in my trading belt that I picked up by filtering through many tools, indicators strategies and witchcraft. Hopefully you read something that ends up helping you be a better trader. I learned a lot from people who make community posts so I wanted to give back now that I got my ducks in a row.
General Trading Advice If your struggling finding your own trading style, fixing weakness's in it, getting started, being reliably profitable or have no framework to build yourself higher with, hopefully you can use the below advice to help provide some direction or clarity to moving forward to be a better trader.

1. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Do not throw a million things on your chart from the get go or over analyzing what the market is doing while trying to learn the basics. Tons of stuff on your chart can actually slow your learning by distracting your focus on all your bells and whistles and not the price action.
2. PRICE ACTION. Learn how to read price action. Not just the common formations, but larger groups of bars that form the market structure. Those formations carry more weight the higher the time frame they form on. If struggle to understand what is going on or what your looking at, move to a higher time frame.
3. INDICATORS. If you do use them you should try to understand how every indicator you use calculates its values. Many indicators are lagging indicators, understanding how it calculates the values can help you learn how to identify the market structure before the indicator would trigger a signal . This will help you understand why the signal is a lagged signal. If you understand that you can easily learn to look at the price action right before the signal and learn to watch for that price action on top of it almost trigging a signal so you can get in at a better position and assume less downside risk. I recommend using no more than 1-2 indicators for simplicity, but your free to use as many as you think you think you need or works for your strategy/trading style.
4. PSYCOLOGY. First, FOMO is real, don't feed the beast. When you trade you should always have an entry and exit. If you miss your entry do not chase it, wait for a new entry. At its core trading is gambling and your looking for an edge against the house (the other market participants). With that in mind, treat as such. Do not risk more than you can afford to lose. If you are afraid to lose it will negatively effect your trade decisions. Finally, be honest with your self and bad trading happens. No one is going to play trade cop and keep you in line, that's your job.
5. TRADE DECISION MARKING: Before you enter any trade you should have an entry and exit area. As you learn price action you will get better entries and better exits. Use a larger zone and stop loss at the start while learning. Then you can tighten it up as you gain experience. If you do not have a area you wish to exit, or you are entering because "the markets looking like its gonna go up". Do not enter the trade. Have a reason for everything you do, if you cannot logically explain why then you probably should not be doing it.
6. ROBOTS/ALGOS: Loved by some, hated by many who lost it all to one, and surrounded by scams on the internet. If you make your own, find a legit one that works and paid for it or lost it all on a crappy one, more power to ya. I do not use robots because I do not like having a robot in control of my money. There is too many edge cases for me to be ok with it.However, the best piece of advice about algos was that the guy had a algo/robot for each market condition (trending/ranging) and would make personalized versions of each for currency pairs as each one has its own personality and can make the same type of movement along side another currency pair but the price action can look way different or the move can be lagged or leading. So whenever he does his own analysis and he sees a trend, he turns the trend trading robot on. If the trend stops, and it starts to range he turns the range trading robot on. He uses robots to trade the market types that he is bad at trading. For example, I suck at trend trading because I just suck at sitting on my hands and letting my trade do its thing.

Trade the Trade - The Methodology

Base Principles These are the base principles I use behind "Trade the Trade". Its called that because you are technically trading inside your larger high time frame trade as it hopefully goes as you have analyzed with the trade setup. It allows you to scratch that intraday trading itch, while not being blind to the bigger market at play. It can help make sense of why the price respects, rejects or flat out ignores support/resistance/pivots.

1. Trade Setup: Find a trade setup using high level time frames (daily, 4hr, or 1hr time frames). The trade setup will be used as a base for starting to figure out a bias for the markets direction for that day.
2. Indicator Data: Check any indicators you use (I use Stochastic RSI and Relative Vigor Index) for any useful information on higher timeframes.
3. Support Resistance: See if any support/resistance/pivot points are in currently being tested/resisted by the price. Also check for any that are within reach so they might become in play through out the day throughout the day (which can influence your bias at least until the price reaches it if it was already moving that direction from previous days/weeks price action).
4. Currency Strength/Weakness: I use the TradeVision currency strength/weakness dashboard to see if the strength/weakness supports the narrative of my trade and as an early indicator when to keep a closer eye for signs of the price reversing.Without the tool, the same concept can be someone accomplished with fundamentals and checking for higher level trends and checking cross currency pairs for trends as well to indicate strength/weakness, ranging (and where it is in that range) or try to get some general bias from a higher level chart that may help you out. However, it wont help you intra day unless your monitoring the currency's index or a bunch of charts related to the currency.
5. Watch For Trading Opportunities: Personally I make a mental short list and alerts on TradingView of currency pairs that are close to key levels and so I get a notification if it reaches there so I can check it out. I am not against trading both directions, I just try to trade my bias before the market tries to commit to a direction. Then if I get out of that trade I will scalp against the trend of the day and hold trades longer that are with it.Then when you see a opportunity assume the directional bias you made up earlier (unless the market solidly confirms with price action the direction while waiting for an entry) by trying to look for additional confirmation via indicators, price action on support/resistances etc on the low level time frame or higher level ones like hourly/4hr as the day goes on when the price reaches key areas or makes new market structures to get a good spot to enter a trade in the direction of your bias.Then enter your trade and use the market structures to determine how much of a stop you need. Once your in the trade just monitor it and watch the price action/indicators/tools you use to see if its at risk of going against you. If you really believe the market wont reach your TP and looks like its going to turn against you, then close the trade. Don't just hold on to it for principle and let it draw down on principle or the hope it does not hit your stop loss.
6. Trade Duration Hold your trades as long or little as you want that fits your personality and trading style/trade analysis. Personally I do not hold trades past the end of the day (I do in some cases when a strong trend folds) and I do not hold trades over the weekends. My TP targets are always places I think it can reach within the day. Typically I try to be flat before I sleep and trade intra day price movements only. Just depends on the higher level outlook, I have to get in at really good prices for me to want to hold a trade and it has to be going strong. Then I will set a slightly aggressive stop on it before I leave. I do know several people that swing trade and hold trades for a long period of time. That is just not a trading style that works for me.

Enhance Your Success Rate Below is information I picked up over the years that helped me enhance my success rate with not only guessing intra day market bias (even if it has not broken into the trend for the day yet (aka pre London open when the end of Asia likes to act funny sometimes), but also with trading price action intra day.
People always say "When you enter a trade have an entry and exits. I am of the belief that most people do not have problem with the entry, its the exit. They either hold too long, or don't hold long enough. With the below tools, drawings, or instruments, hopefully you can increase your individual probability of a successful trade.
**P.S.*\* Your mileage will vary depending on your ability to correctly draw, implement and interpret the below items. They take time and practice to implement with a high degree of proficiency. If you have any questions about how to do that with anything listed, comment below and I will reply as I can. I don't want to answer the same question a million times in a pm.
Tools and Methods Used This is just a high level overview of what I use. Each one of the actions I could go way more in-depth on but I would be here for a week typing something up of I did that. So take the information as a base level understanding of how I use the method or tool. There is always nuance and edge cases that you learn from experience.

• Fundamentals
  • I keep a general high level Macro outlook for currencies. I dont get too deep into Fundamentals and just keep an eye out for news. If I am already in a trade I will hold it if its far enough away from my entry. However, I wont enter right before/during news as it can invalidate your setup.
• Price Action
  • I started with the basics of learning the standard price action formations/patterns and candles. You can find tons of free info on that online, google is your friend. Then I stared at charts and said "why did the price do that or do this etc" then after a while I started to understand what's happening without having to think about it and I can see the market structure without having to look as closely as I did in the past.
  • After many many hours of staring at 5 min charts for 15 hours a day 5 days a week I learned how to look at 5 min charts and be like "Oh that's a hammer on the 15 min etc. If you keep track of time you can do the same for hourly candles as well and you will start to see market structure naturally. However I typically trade in a two chart panel window so I have a 15 min and 5 min chart up when trading intra day so I dont have to think too hard about it.
• Support/Resistance Lines
  • Draw support resistance lines on Daily/4hr timeframes. I prefer to use body of the candle instead of the wick for support/resistance.
  • You can find support/resistance liquidity levels through out the day as well and trade those if the price retraces back through levels its already been through that same day.
  • It would be a bit length to explain exactly the best place to draw them. If your unsure there is plenty of free resources on the internet. Just try to use your head and look for price levels where the price was "Supported" or it "Resisted" that price level then slap a line on it. Draw as few or as many lines as you feel helps you and your style. I tend to lean on the side of fewer. I typically do about 6 lines main support/resistances (3 of each).
• Fibonacci Extensions
  • Draw two Fibonacci Extensions. One on the daily timeframe, and then one on the 4hr time frame. Then you can trade the Fibonacci levels and use them for TP targets or entry zones if price action respects the level. Also you can use it along with support/resistance and pivots if they happen to line up or are very close.
  • I cannot really figure out how to put it into words how to draw a Fib if you dont know how. I will have to make a picture to demonstrate it. If your interested post below and I will draw one up and post a link. Probably the easiest way to understand. Just keep in mind the Fib you draw on the 4hr time frame will be inside the daily timeframe one.
• Currency Strength/Weakness
  • The TradeVision2020 dashboard that I use just helps me keep a tab on the current market post plus any swing strength/momentum a currency might have on higher time frames. Helps me look for shifts in the market or confirmation that the bias it already has in momentum is continuing. I have found that often currencies when they get really/weak or strong might continue for several days or even longer like a full week or more. We recently had what felt like 1 week or so of flat out Yen weakness which was making some things wonky. All it does is allow me to look at the dashboard instead of a million other charts.
• Indicators
  • I use two that work well for my intra day style. The Stochastic RSI is just like a RSI but its faster. The second is the Relative Vigor Index which I use to detect swings in momentum and divergences in bullish/bearish momentum. I have used many others in the past, but as I have grown and got better as a trader I have found making my analysis simpler has improved my trading.I dont like the whole idea of have 43 different indicators on 32 different time frames light up a dashboard to be green for me to enter a trade. With how I do it now, I have a clear understanding of what I expect to happen and why. That way when it does happen I understand the move and dont get freaked out if the market moves funny after I am in the trade.

Conclusion
I use the above tools/indicators/resources/philosophy's to trade intra day price action that sometimes ends up as noise in the grand scheme of the markets movement.use that method until the price action for the day proves the bias assumption wrong. Also you can couple that with things like Stoch RSI + Relative Vigor Index to find divergences which can increase the probability of your targeted guesses.
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Trade Example from Yesterday This is an example of a trade I took today and why I took it. I used the following core areas to make my trade decision.

• Fundamental Bias: I already had a bullish fundamental outlook on EUUSD with expecting the markets to price in future similes due a higher an higher chance of Biden winning on paper as the election closed in and a "Blue wave" coming which would lead to a weaker dollar. Also, the Euro Zone is getting hammered with COVID pretty hard plus Brexit drama so I had a strong Euro bias.NOTE: As frame of reference, all the other pairs I trade I traded as if they were ranging and trade a range. Markets are messed up right now.
• Currency Strength/Weakness: I use a tool that gives me a currency strength/weakness dashboard called TradeVision2020. Helps me track individual currency strength/weakness intra day. Took me about a month to get used to it, but helps me keep track of intra day strength/weakness that can add a bias to trade direction as the day unfolds. Like "Will this run have a 2nd or 3rd push higher" or "I should look to TP at the first sign of weakness in the push" type bias data. You still got to use your brain and figure out the best decision. It wont make choices for you, its only a guide.NOTE: I am not trying to adverse the tool (if providing the code is against sub rules let me know), its just a tool I use every day that helps me with directional bias calls. I am sharing the coupon code that was given to me when I found out about the tool in the TradingView forex chatroom and the guy gave me the code to use when I signed up. I dont want someone to read the name and want to try it out then overpay for no reason. The coupon will give you 40% off. Coupon Code: 3F7A0T5T
• Higher Timeframe Analysis: Detected some early signs of Bearish Divergence on the 1hr chart using a on a higher time frame using a Stochastic RSI. Then I saw more confirmation on 5 min charts using Relative Vigor Index to help time my entry mid session.
• Pivot Points: I treat pivot points like support/resistance and trade them as such using price action to give me some idea how its being treated by the market. Pretty straight forward.

It may seem like a lot of stuff to process on the fly while trying to figure out live price action but, for the fundamental bias for a pair should already baked in your mindset for any currency pair you trade. For the currency strength/weakness I stare at the dashboard 12-15 hours a day so I am always trying to keep a pulse on what's going or shifts so that's not really a factor when I want to enter as I would not look to enter if I felt the market was shifting against me. Then the higher timeframe analysis had already happened when I woke up, so it was a game of "Stare at the 5 min chart until the price does something interesting"
Trade Example: Today , I went long EUUSD long bias when I first looked at the chart after waking up around 9-10pm Eastern. Fortunately, the first large drop had already happened so I had a easy baseline price movement to work with. I then used tool for currency strength/weakness monitoring, Pivot Points, and bearish divergence detected using Stochastic RSI and Relative Vigor Index.
I first noticed Bearish Divergence on the 1hr time frame using the Stochastic RSI and got confirmation intra day on the 5 min time frame with the Relative Vigor Index. I ended up buying the second mini dip around midnight Eastern because it was already dancing along the pivot point that the price had been dancing along since the big drop below the pivot point and dipped below it and then shortly closed back above it. I put a stop loss below the first large dip. With a TP goal of the middle point pivot line
Then I waited for confirmation or invalidation of my trade. I ended up getting confirmation with Bearish Divergence from the second large dip so I tightened up my stop to below that smaller drip and waited for the London open. Not only was it not a lower low, I could see the divergence with the Relative Vigor Index.
It then ran into London and kept going with tons of momentum. Blew past my TP target so I let it run to see where the momentum stopped. Ended up TP'ing at the Pivot Point support/resistance above the middle pivot line.
Random Note: The Asian session has its own unique price action characteristics that happen regularly enough that you can easily trade them when they happen with high degrees of success. It takes time to learn them all and confidently trade them as its happening. If you trade Asia you should learn to recognize them as they can fake you out if you do not understand what's going on.
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TL;DR At the end of the day there is no magic solution that just works. You have to find out what works for you and then what people say works for them. Test it out and see if it works for you or if you can adapt it to work for you. If it does not work or your just not interested then ignore it.
At the end of the day, you have to use your brain to make correct trading decisions. Blindly following indicators may work sometimes in certain market conditions, but trading with information you don't understand can burn you just as easily as help you. Its like playing with fire. So, get out there and grind it out. It will either click or it wont. Not everyone has the mindset or is capable of changing to be a successful trader. Trading is gambling, you do all this work to get a edge on the house. Trading without the edge or an edge you understand how to use will only leave your broker happy in the end.

I've had a rough week and it sounds like I'm not the only one. This week has wiped out my gains since July 1st, and I'm finding myself ever-so-slightly in the hole this month so far. I've made money every other month I've traded, so I'm not writing myself off as a failure, but nevertheless, I've done some digging to try and figure out what I'm struggling with. I hope the following observations about my own trading resonate with some of you and can help us all become better traders.
First off: Fundamental/technical analysis. Since I started with forex a few years ago, I've put 100% of my time and effort into studying technicals. I think many traders, myself included, are drawn to technical analysis because we fall into the trap of thinking "If I just figure out what combination of indicators/chart patterns/algorithms work for me, trading will be smooth sailing." Being able to take a formulaic approach is incredibly appealing because it's much easier to simply check off a list of criteria than it is to interpret more nuanced information. For me, I found success drawing supply and demand zones, using Bollinger Bands to visualize market structure, and confirming reversal patterns with stochastics to trade from one zone to the next. I even studied the math behind those indicators to make sure I fully understood how they worked so I could identify their limitations, and for the most part, the strategy made money. Nevertheless, if I had a dollar for every time I take what I think is a perfect setup, then the market takes me on a wacky-ass ride of unexpected "crazy bullshit" that stops me out, I wouldn't be trading for a living. After some introspection, my conclusion is that those moments are not "crazy bullshit", but rather are the results of factors that fall outside of the (actually very narrow) scope of technical analysis. This has been hard to accept, as I previously learned technical analysis was perfectly viable as a sole perspective. I was taught that the market can be predicted based on analyzing past behavior. It seems obvious now, but when I think about it, no combination of chart patterns or indicators can predict next week's unemployment figures, interest rates, or what announcements (or blunders) world leaders are going to make on the global stage. Technicals work, but they only work when the market is reacting to fundamental factors, and as soon as a new fundamental change comes along, every bit of technical analysis used until that point becomes obsolete. What I'm trying to say is, at the very least, I need to be able to understand when, why, and how the game is going to change if my technicals are going to serve me. As such, I need to stop shirking fundamental analysis. It's time I start paying attention to that economic calendar and put in the effort to learn what each event means and how to interpret the results to figure out how the market will react. It's simply not as easy as looking at the technicals. It should be obvious that there's no magic formula to trading, but many of us try hard to avoid coming to terms with the fact that there's a lot more to "analysis" than just price action, risk management, and indicators.
The problem is we as traders want trading to be easy. It's a career that society glorifies, and even if we tell ourselves we know it's not a get-rich-quick scheme, we still want to "figure it out" so we can spend a few hours a week scribbling on our charts and making simple black and white decisions while we kick back and "live comfortably". And so we try to trick ourselves into thinking it is easy by endlessly parroting mantras like "Risk management is all that matters" and "Trading is 100% psychology" and "All you need to do is find the strategy that works for you and stick to it." The first two are certainly pieces of the puzzle, but there's so much more to the big picture.
The last mantra isn't even remotely true, and brings me to my second point, which thankfully is something I figured out early in my career, but it's too related to the previous topic to not mention: Mechanical strategies. The sentiment that you need to clearly define a precise, detailed strategy and always stick to it is another lie to make trading seem simpler than it really is. Even when I was just starting to demo trade, I was finding trades that would tick all the boxes outlined by my strategy, but my gut would hesitate. Long after I identified that problem, I also began to notice that I'd be forcing myself to hold onto trades, even if they were not moving as fast or far as I initially thought they would. Once I decided to leave room for my own instinct and discretion, I became much more successful. It's important to understand your strategy is a set of rules you yourself made up. If your strategy does not line up with your own professional opinion of the situation based on your personal experiences and observations, you need to find out why. Yes, you absolutely should draw on your past experiences and be consistent in how you examine the market, how much you risk, and what tools you use, but give yourself enough credit to form your own opinions. The market is not consistent. Do not expect to succeed by applying one cookie-cutter set of rules to different currencies, at different times, during different events. Long-term success in any other line of work is dependent on critical thinking and the ability to adapt to an ever-changing world, and forex is no different. It's not simple, it's not easy, and you will have to make difficult decisions.
This wound up being longer than I anticipated, so thanks for reading. I'm eager to hear everyone's thoughts on these topics, so please share them.

Hey guys, i've been practicing my trading on a demo account. Its been 4 months already and I just can't get enough profitable trades. I do my analysis as per price action(candlestick patterns) and also check the economic calendar. I also use some indicators(stochastic and Moving averages) to verify if my potential trades are good. I also check the resistance and support areas. I am not the type of trader who rushes into a trade. I am really dissapointed of how i trade, because it seems like almost everyone i see on the internet is making profit, and of course i see a lot of stopped out trades on my history rather than profitable ones.
-To those who have been in forex longer, please give me advices. I think i really need it - I trade the 4h timeframe and I use pending orders

I'm still a fairly new trader, I've with known about the markets for a few years but i only started lately with about approximately 6 months of consistently educating myself and teaching myself on all the different parts of trading, some parts I feel confident with while others might not be the best that I can be YET.
a list of things i can say i understand would be
fundamental analysis, technical analysis...to a certain extent (always room for improvement) indicators and various tools like the macd, momentum indicators, rsi, stochastic indicators, bollinger bands, etc, risk managment and protecting capital the meaning of certain candelstick patterns, diffrent markets like stocks, forex, commodities and dividend stock. i also learnt how not to fall for stupid internet scams.
ive been trading with a demo account for the most of my learning period but i have traded with a live account too.
I took a liking to the 4 hour timeframe and built my own trading plan from there onwards , i guess i just feel like my personality matches the 4h charts, but i use 1D 1H 30M also.
I just want to be a succesful trader and improve my standard of life, buy myself a cozy house, fall in love, help my mother pay her bills, these regular things.
I'm working on making enough money to fund my account since im only 19
With all i have already taught myself I cant help but feel like theres someting important that i am missing and have not stumbled into yet to teach myself or learn. Like what is the next step in my growth?
i feel like i dont have all the pieces of the puzzle.
what do you think it might be?

I'm still a fairly new trader, I've know about it for a few years but i only really started properly with about 6 months of consistently educating myself and teaching myself on all the different parts of trading, some I feel confident with while others might not be the best that I can be YET.
a list of things i can say i understand would be
fundamental analysis, technical analysis...(to a certain extent)always room for growth... indicators and various tools like the macd, momentum indicators, rsi, stochastic indicators, bollinger bands, etc, risk managment and protecting capital the meaning of certain candelstick patterns, different markets like stocks, forex, commodities and dividend stocks. i also learnt how not to fall for stupid internet scams.
ive been trading with a demo account for the most of my learning period but i have traded with a live account too. Doubling my small accounts of about $40
I took a liking to the 4 hour timeframe and built my own trading plan from there onwards , i guess i just feel like my personality matches the 4h charts, although i use D1, H1, 30M also in my analysis
I just want to be a succesful trader and inprove my standard of life, buy myself a cozy house, fall in love, help my mother pay her bills, these regular things.
I'm working on making enouph money to fund my account since im only 19
With all i have already taught myself I cant help but feel like theres someting important that i am missing and have not stumbled into yet to teach myself or learn. Like what is the next step in my growth?
i just feel like i dont have all the pieces of the puzzle.
what do you think it might be?

Back to the trenches I guess. Some of you might remember my last post over proffesional approaches to the markets. If not I suggest you take a look on it before reading this.
https://www.reddit.com/Forex/comments/cxymyf/a_peek_into_how_financial_institutions_play_this/
I promised to discuss some stuff about macroeconomic approaches to forex, and well, with some delay here I am. Again, here I introduce the very same disclaimer. This is a professional approach, not coming from retail. Take everything with a grain of salt, and exercise proper due diligence with your approach. Sincerely hope you get something out of this post.
An inconvenient, forex truth
You've been there, struggling and suffering for a while. You have experienced the pain that the markets can unleash on you. You have left positions on the red for longer than your sanity could possible hold. You have opened positions that moved to the green, but you did not take any profits and you let that position slowly die and possibly causing huge loses. Now here you are , in October 2019, possibly as a breakeven trader, still suffering and trying. You have researched hundreds of indicators, if not thousands. You thought you have all sorted out with your RSI , stochastics and TDI. Yet you have switched between strategies more than you have changed your underpants in your whole life. Spent too many hours looking at the screen, wondering what the hell you are still missing.
And the incovenient truth is that you want the glitz and the glamour, and the caviar, but you are not willing to eat the shit. And this is the shit: How are you expecting to make any good money on a field where you dont know virtually anything about it. Nor the substance that you are trading, nor what moves it. How are you actually expecting to beat guys that breath and eat economics?. You know literally nothing about volatility and liquidity, about interbanking flows , about puts and calls, market microestructure and price delivery mechanisms both on OTC markets and CME , what is GDP , how is calculated and why is critical. CPI, NMI, GDP to debt ratios, UST, repo markets, shadow banking, carry diferentials, how and why commodities alter certain currencies. EM vs G10 currencies, pegged vs unpegged. Balances of Payments.... When you hear "greeks" you are thinking about the Iliad or Athens. You know nothing about business and credit cycles. Valuation anchors, return to the mean, standard deviations, fair values. I could go on and on and on. Does this make you uncomfortable? It should.
You have dozens of the best students that the world can produce, coming out of the London School of Economics, or from IT degrees in Harvard and MIT, all moving into freaking huge financial institutions, building complex system, doing incredible research . Funded to an extreme you can not imagine. Working in partnership with the IMF and Central Banks all aroundthe world. PhD's dedicating their lifes to such complex systems and situations....... and yet here you are, insolent and ignorant piece of s***, you that have been trying to make your "RSI" or "stochastic" work for 2 months, trying to beat this multi billion-trillionaire infrastrucure. Do you start to realize where the f*** do you stand? Do you really believe even for a freaking second that you can beat them on their game? Using RSI or Ichimoku? EAT.THIS.SHIT.
And its not that technicals are not necesary. They are. But believe me, I (and most pro's that I've ever engaged with) spent less than 1/5 of the time actually managing trades and looking at price charts. If I'm not scalping , my day starts with me reading around 12 to 15 research papers coming from the main financial institutions, glued to my Reuters terminal reading more reports, looking at polls, updating my macroeconomic models with the latest data, performing calculations related to options...... only then, with a fundamental trading idea, I will move to evaluate technicals to see if the timing is good.
I want to learn, how shall I procede?
You want to build a lasting and enjoyable relationship with the market? EAT THE SHIT, and do all that is under your control to actually be able to open The Financial Times and understand what they are talking about. It will take you years, and for the education, hundreds of dollars. But this is how it goes if you want to get real. This is career, not a hobby. This is simply the way to be consistent. EAT THE SHIT.
I compiled some resources to get you started:
ACATIS Konferenz 2016, Mr. Koo, Surviving in the Intellectually Bankrupt Monetary Policy Environment - A great video coming from Nomura, to understand the actual shitty situation in the Eurozone.
Online Courses - Look for IMF on EDX. Also, a fenomenal course on Banking and Money in Coursera.
Books -
Macroeconomics, Gregory Mankiw - Start here to graps the basic concepts
Financial Times Guide to the Financial Markets
Financial Times Guide to Banking
Applied Financial Macroeconomics and Investment Strategy: A Practitioner’s Guide to Tactical Asset Allocation
The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession
The Escape from Balance Sheet Recession and the QE Trap: A Hazardous Road for the World Economy
The Other Half of Macroeconomics and the Fate of Globalization (English Edition)
The new lombard street - how the fed became the dealer of last resort
Foreign Exchange , Amy Middleton
The Role of Currency in Institutional Portfolios, Momtchil Pojarliev and Richard M. Levich
Currency Overlay: A Practical Guide, Second Edition, Hai Xin
The Handbook of Corporate Financial Risk (2nd edition)
Trade Stocks and Commodities with the Insiders: Secrets of the COT Report (Wiley Trading)
How I Made One Million Dollars Last Year Trading Commodities
Market Liquidity: Theory, Evidence, and Policy (English Edition)
Trading And Exchanges: Market Microstructure For Practitioners
The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates
The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Big Debt Crises
Payments Systems in the U.S. - Third Edition: A Guide for the Payments Professional
The Volatility Machine: Emerging Economics and the Threat of Financial Collapse (English Edition)
Stabilizing an Unstable Economy

This is a recurring theme that's come up in people reaching out to me via DM. I'm getting asked a LOT about my 'strategy' and getting requests to review your strategies / trading plans, so I thought I'd bang out a post here as a sort of catch-all. It got to the point where I was copy / pasting the same reply to a number of people.
Strategy is really important. You definitely need a cohesive strategy or set of strategies that help determine what gets you in and out of trades. I personally run a mechanical trend-following system in addition to my discretionary style of trading. Even my discretionary style of trading however, is viewed through a framework that gives me consistent structure to follow on trade after trade.
Now that I've gotten that point out of the way, here is my next statement:* Strategy is COMPLETELY USELESS without having a thorough and expert understanding of the markets in the first place*
Here's my analogy: let's say you really want to get into the fast food business. Now let's say you're fairly smart and you realize that your best chances for success are to buy into an established franchise (McDonald's, Taco Bell, KFC, whatever). Now here's the kicker, who do you think is more likely to succeed at running this franchise? Someone who has worked within the industry their entire lives and knows it inside and out, versus someone with no industry experience. Okay, okay, that question is completely rhetorical; it's obvious who has the edge here.
Trading is no different, and it's why buying a course or finding a guru has let so many of you down so many times before. You're trying to follow an established plan (one that has in fact quite possibly brought success to whomever is selling you their wisdom), but without an expert understanding of the industry you are participating in.
If you reject my premise that knowing your shit when it comes to the macro side of things is important, that's fine. Let's take what seems to be the dominant retail route of pure technical analysis. If you don't know technical analysis inside and out, you are not setting yourself up for success when you buy a course (or even read through a free one like BabyPips). After doing a rough search for Forex courses, I haven't found any technical ones (maybe apart from Adam Grimes. I like Adam; don't know the guy personally, but know of him through colleagues) that actually teach you about technical analysis and not just are feeding you a strategy.
My entire point here is that if you don't engage with the nuts and bolts of the arena in which you're competing, you are at an inherent disadvantage. For example, I've talked to a trader that had Stochastics, RSI, AND MACD on their chart. What is the point of having 3 momentum indicators apart from enjoying a gratuitous circle jerk of redundant 'confirmation'? But this trader didn't know the math behind the indicators, what makes them similar and different, how they can be applied. If they did, then maybe they could have explained in greater detail how having those 3 gives them a defined edge.
My favourite example of a trader who 'knows their shit' is Thomas Bulkwoski. I don't like his style, but you can't deny he has done his homework. He has dived so deep into chart patterns that from memory he can quote you various failure points and success rates for individual patterns. He has meticulously studied what works and what doesn't, and can explain the WHY behind all of that.
If you don't know your shit, you will eat shit. So know your shit! Once you know your shit, then it becomes far easier to strategize.
End of rant :)

Almost every day people come to this subreddit asking the same basic questions over and over again. I've put this guide together to point you in the right direction and help you get started on your forex journey.
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A quick background on me before you ask: My name is Bob, I'm based out of western Canada. I started my forex journey back in January 2018 and am still learning. However I am trading live, not on demo accounts. I also code my own EA's. I not certified, licensed, insured, or even remotely qualified as a professional in the finance industry. Nothing I say constitutes financial advice. Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, but everything I've outlined below is a synopsis of some tough lessons I've learned over the last year of being in this business.
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LET'S GET SOME UNPLEASANTNESS OUT OF THE WAY
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I'm going to call you stupid. I'm also going to call you dumb. I'm going to call you many other things. I do this because odds are, you are stupid, foolish,and just asking to have your money taken away. Welcome to the 95% of retail traders. Perhaps uneducated or uninformed are better phrases, but I've never been a big proponent of being politically correct.
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Want to get out of the 95% and join the 5% of us who actually make money doing this? Put your grown up pants on, buck up, and don't give me any of this pc "This is hurting my feelings so I'm not going to listen to you" bullshit that the world has been moving towards.
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Let's rip the bandage off quickly on this point - the world does not give a fuck about you. At one point maybe it did, it was this amazing vision nicknamed the American Dream. It died an agonizing, horrible death at the hand of capitalists and entrepreneurs. The world today revolves around money. Your money, my money, everybody's money. People want to take your money to add it to theirs. They don't give a fuck if it forces you out on the street and your family has to live in cardboard box. The world just stopped caring in general. It sucks, but it's the way the world works now. Welcome to the new world order. It's called Capitalism.
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And here comes the next hard truth that you will need to accept - Forex is a cruel bitch of a mistress. She will hurt you. She will torment you. She will give you nightmares. She will keep you awake at night. And then she will tease you with a glimmer of hope to lure you into a false sense of security before she then guts you like a fish and shows you what your insides look like. This statement applies to all trading markets - they are cruel, ruthless, and not for the weak minded.
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The sooner you accept these truths, the sooner you will become profitable. Don't accept it? That's fine. Don't bother reading any further. If I've offended you I don't give a fuck. You can run back home and hide under your bed. The world doesn't care and neither do I.
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For what it's worth - I am not normally an major condescending asshole like the above paragraphs would suggest. In fact, if you look through my posts on this subreddit you will see I am actually quite helpful most of the time to many people who come here. But I need you to really understand that Forex is not for most people. It will make you cry. And if the markets themselves don't do it, the people in the markets will.
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LESSON 1 - LEARN THE BASICS
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Save yourself and everybody here a bunch of time - learn the basics of forex. You can learn the basics for free - BabyPips has one of the best free courses online which explains what exactly forex is, how it works, different strategies and methods of how to approach trading, and many other amazing topics.
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You can access the BabyPips course by clicking this link: https://www.babypips.com/learn/forex
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Do EVERY course in the School of Pipsology. It's free, it's comprehensive, and it will save you from a lot of trouble. It also has the added benefit of preventing you from looking foolish and uneducated when you come here asking for help if you already know this stuff.
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If you still have questions about how forex works, please see the FREE RESOURCES links on the /Forex FAQ which can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/Forex/wiki/index
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Quiz Time
Answer these questions truthfully to yourself:
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-What is the difference between a market order, a stop order, and a limit order?
-How do you draw a support/resistance line? (Demonstrate it to yourself)
-What is the difference between MACD, RSI, and Stochastic indicators?
-What is fundamental analysis and how does it differ from technical analysis and price action trading?
-True or False: It's better to have a broker who gives you 500:1 margin instead of 50:1 margin. Be able to justify your reasoning.
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If you don't know to answer to any of these questions, then you aren't ready to move on. Go back to the School of Pipsology linked above and do it all again.
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If you can answer these questions without having to refer to any kind of reference then congratulations, you are ready to move past being a forex newbie and are ready to dive into the wonderful world of currency trading! Move onto Lesson 2 below.
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LESSON 2 - RANDOM STRANGERS ARE NOT GOING TO HELP YOU GET RICH IN FOREX
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This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but that random stranger on instagram who is posting about how he is killing it on forex is not trying to insprire you to greatness. He's also not trying to help you. He's also not trying to teach you how to attain financial freedom.
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99.99999% of people posting about wanting to help you become rich in forex are LYING TO YOU.
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Why would such nice, polite people do such a thing? Because THEY ARE TRYING TO PROFIT FROM YOUR STUPIDITY.
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Plain and simple. Here's just a few ways these "experts" and "gurus" profit from you:
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• Referral Links - If they require you to click a specific link to signup for something, it means they are an affiliate. They get a commission from whatever the third party is that they are sending you to. I don't care if it's a brokerage, training program, hell even an Amazon link to a book - if they insist you have to click their super exclusive, can't-get-this-deal-any-other-way-but-clicking-my-link type bullshit, it's an affiliate link. There is nothing inherently wrong with affiliate programs, but you are literally generating money for some stranger because they convinced you to buy something. Some brokers such as ICMarkets have affiliate programs that payout a percentage of the commission you generate - this is a really clever system - whether you profit or blow your entire account, the person who referred you to the broker makes a profit off you. Clever eh?
• Signal Services, Education & Training Programs, Courses - If somebody is telling you they are making a killing with a signal service and are trying to convince you to join it, I guarantee they are getting a piece of your monthly fee. And better still, these signal services often work...for about a week. Just long enough to suck a bunch of poor fools into it. You see people making money, you want in so you agree to pay the $200+/month subscription fee. You follow the signals and it looks like it's making money for a few days or weeks. Then it turns sideways, you start losing money hand over fist. Pretty soon you have lost most of your trading account because you blindly followed a signal service. And better still - when you go screaming at the person running the signal service they will be very quick to point you to their No Refunds policy. To add insult to injury, the buttfucker that referred you to the signal service in the past will likely listen to you getting mad, and then come back with something like "Sorry it didn't work out, but I just joined this other amazing service and it's working great, you should come join it to earn your money back. Here's my link..." You get the point here right?
• Multi-Level Marketing (MLMs) - These people are scum. They are going to offer you training and education, signals, access to forex experts and gurus, and all kinds of other shit with the promise that you will live the dream and become financially free. They are also loading you into a pyrmaid scheme where you will be hounded to recruit other people and make money off them just like you got roped into it. A really prime example here is iMarkets Live (or IML for short). Don't touch this shit with a 10 foot pole. I don't care what they are claiming, you will lose everything using them.
• Fund Managers - These people make my skin crawl. It's a classic scam and it works like this - somebody will post online about how much money they are making trading forex/commodities/stocks/whatever. Most of the time they won't explicitly post they are offering a trading service, rather they just put the message out there and wait for the ignorant masses (that's you) to contact them. They will charm you. They will lie to you. They will promise you the moon if you simply wire them some money or give them API access to your trading account. Care to guess what happens next? If you send a wire transfer (or Western Union...hell any kind of payment to them) they will vanish. Happens usually after they take a bunch of suckers for the ride. You sent them $2,000 and so do 9 other suckers. They just made $20,000 and are gone. With API access to your account, you will find your account gets blown super fast or worse - possibly leaving you open to persecution by the broker you are using.

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These are just a few examples. The reality is that very few people make it big in forex or any kind of trading. If somebody is trying to sell you the dream, they are essentially a magician - making you look the other way while they snatch your wallet and clean you out.
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Additionally, on the topic of fund managers - legitimate fund managers will be certified, licensed, and insured. Ask them for proof of those 3 things. What they typically look like are:

• Certified - This varies from country to country, in the US it's FINRA (http://www.finra.org). They need to have their Series 7 certification minimum. You can make the case that other FINRA certifications are acceptable in lieu of Series 7, but the 7 is the gold standard.
• Licensed - They need to have a valid business license issued by the government. It must clearly state they are an investment company, preferrably a hedge fund because they have some super strict requirements to operate (and often require $25,000+ in fees just to get their business license, so you know they at least have some skin in the game).
• Insured - They need to be backed by an insurance company. I'm not talking general insurance for shit like their office burning down. I'm talking about a government-implemented protection insurance program - in the US I believe that is issued by the Securities Investment Protection Corporation (https://www.sipc.org/).

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If you are talking to a fund manager and they are insisting they have all of these, get a copy of their verification documents and lookup their licenses on the directories of the issuers to verify they are valid. If they are, then at least you are talking to somebody who seems to have their shit together and is doing investment management and trading as a professional and you are at least partially protected when the shit hits the fan.
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LESSON 3 - UNDERSTAND YOUR RISK
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Many people jump into Forex, drop $2000 into a broker account and start trading 1 lot orders because they signed up with a broker thinking they will get rich because they were given 500:1 margin and can risk it all on each trade. Worst-case scenario you lose your account, best case scenario you become a millionaire very quickly. Seems like a pretty good gamble right? You are dead wrong.
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As a new trader, you should never risk more than 1% of your account balance on a trade. If you have some experience and are confident and doing well, then it's perfectly natural to risk 2-3% of your account per trade. Anybody who risks more than 4-5% of their account on a single trade deserves to blow their account. At that point you aren't trading, you are gambling. Don't pretend you are a trader when really you are just putting everything on red and hoping the roulette ball lands in the right spot. It's stupid and reckless and going to screw you very quickly.
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Let's do some math here:
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You put $2,000 into your trading account.
Risking 1% means you are willing to lose $20 per trade. That means you are going to be trading micro lots, or 0.01 lots most likely ($0.10/pip). At that level you can have a trade stop loss at -200 pips and only lose $20. It's the best starting point for anybody. Additionally, if you SL 20 trades in a row you are only down $200 (or 10% of your account) which isn't that difficult to recover from.
Risking 3% means you are willing to lose $60 per trade. You could do mini lots at this point, which is 0.1 lots (or $1/pip). Let's say you SL on 20 trades in a row. You've just lost $1,200 or 60% of your account. Even veteran traders will go through periods of repeat SL'ing, you are not a special snowflake and are not immune to periods of major drawdown.
Risking 5% means you are willing to lose $100 per trade. SL 20 trades in a row, your account is blown. As Red Foreman would call it - Good job dumbass.
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Never risk more than 1% of your account on any trade until you can show that you are either consistently breaking even or making a profit. By consistently, I mean 200 trades minimum. You do 200 trades over a period of time and either break-even or make a profit, then you should be alright to increase your risk.
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Unfortunately, this is where many retail traders get greedy and blow it. They will do 10 trades and hit their profit target on 9 of them. They will start seeing huge piles of money in their future and get greedy. They will start taking more risk on their trades than their account can handle.
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200 trades of break-even or profitable performance risking 1% per trade. Don't even think about increasing your risk tolerance until you do it. When you get to this point, increase you risk to 2%. Do 1,000 trades at this level and show break-even or profit. If you blow your account, go back down to 1% until you can figure out what the hell you did differently or wrong, fix your strategy, and try again.
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Once you clear 1,000 trades at 2%, it's really up to you if you want to increase your risk. I don't recommend it. Even 2% is bordering on gambling to be honest.
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LESSON 4 - THE 500 PIP DRAWDOWN RULE
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This is a rule I created for myself and it's a great way to help protect your account from blowing.
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Sometimes the market goes insane. Like really insane. Insane to the point that your broker can't keep up and they can't hold your orders to the SL and TP levels you specified. They will try, but during a flash crash like we had at the start of January 2019 the rules can sometimes go flying out the window on account of the trading servers being unable to keep up with all the shit that's hitting the fan.
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Because of this I live by a rule I call the 500 Pip Drawdown Rule and it's really quite simple - Have enough funds in your account to cover a 500 pip drawdown on your largest open trade. I don't care if you set a SL of -50 pips. During a flash crash that shit sometimes just breaks.
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So let's use an example - you open a 0.1 lot short order on USDCAD and set the SL to 50 pips (so you'd only lose $50 if you hit stoploss). An hour later Trump makes some absurd announcement which causes a massive fundamental event on the market. A flash crash happens and over the course of the next few minutes USDCAD spikes up 500 pips, your broker is struggling to keep shit under control and your order slips through the cracks. By the time your broker is able to clear the backlog of orders and activity, your order closes out at 500 pips in the red. You just lost $500 when you intended initially to only risk $50.
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It gets kinda scary if you are dealing with whole lot orders. A single order with a 500 pip drawdown is $5,000 gone in an instant. That will decimate many trader accounts.
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Remember my statements above about Forex being a cruel bitch of a mistress? I wasn't kidding.
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Granted - the above scenario is very rare to actually happen. But glitches to happen from time to time. Broker servers go offline. Weird shit happens which sets off a fundamental shift. Lots of stuff can break your account very quickly if you aren't using proper risk management.
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LESSON 5 - UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT TRADING METHODOLOGIES
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Generally speaking, there are 3 trading methodologies that traders employ. It's important to figure out what method you intend to use before asking for help. Each has their pros and cons, and you can combine them in a somewhat hybrid methodology but that introduces challenges as well.
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In a nutshell:

• Price Action Trading (Sometimes called Naked Trading) is very effective at identifying when trends will start and finish. This gives you the advantage of staying ahead of the market and predicting when a change in trend direction will occur. It has the disadvantage of being really easy to screw it up if you don't plot your support and resistance lines properly and interpret the chart wrong. Because you can identify a change in trend direction, you'll generally make more profit on a new trend than a technical strategy will.
• Technical Analytics (or TA) uses math and statistics to try and identify where the market is headed or confirm/reject whether a trend is happening. It has the advantage of being very math and stat driven which is hard to refute the numbers, but it has the disadvantage of being late to the party when it comes to identifying trends (hence why people call TA a lagging strategy). When people fail using TA, it's not because of the math - it's because you misinterpreted what the math is telling you.
• Fundamental Analysis (or FA) uses news and macro scale events to predict what is going on. A really good example right now is Brexit, what a clusterfuck that is. Every time some major brexit news breaks it causes all sorts of choas in almost every currency pair. Fundamental trading has the highest potential profitability per trade but it also has the highest potential drawdown per trade.

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Now you may be thinking that you want to be a a price action trader - you should still learn the principles and concepts behind TA and FA. Same if you are planning to be a technical trader - you should learn about price action and fundamental analysis. More knowledge is better, always.
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With regards to technical analysis, you need to really understand what the different indicators are tell you. It's very easy to misinterpret what an indicator is telling you, which causes you to make a bad trade and lose money. It's also important to understand that every indicator can be tuned to your personal preferences.
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You might find, for example, that using Bollinger Bands with the normal 20 period SMA close, 2 standard deviation is not effective for how you look at the chart, but changing that to say a 20 period EMA average price, 1 standard deviation bollinger band indicator could give you significantly more insight.
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LESSON 6 - TIMEFRAMES MATTER
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Understanding the differences in which timeframes you trade on will make or break your chosen strategy. Some strategies work really well on Daily timeframes (i.e. Ichimoku) but they fall flat on their face if you use them on 1H timeframes, for example.
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There is no right or wrong answer on what timeframe is best to trade on. Generally speaking however, there are 2 things to consider:
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• Speed - If you are scalping (trading on the really fast candles like 1M, 5M, 15M, etc) odds are your trades are very short lived. Maybe 10 minutes to an hour tops. For the most part, scalping strategies will produce little profit per trade but make up for it in the sheer volume of trades. Whereas swing trading may only make a few trades but each one could be worth a significant amount of money.
• Spread (the fee you pay to the broker when you trade) - If you are a scalper, the spread is your worst enemy because you have to overcome it very fast to make a profit on your order. Whereas swing trading the spread hardly impacts you at all.

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If you are a total newbie to forex, I suggest you don't trade on anything shorter than the 1H timeframe when you are first learning. Trading on higher timeframes tends to be much more forgiving and profitable per trade. Scalping is a delicate art and requires finesse and can be very challenging when you are first starting out.
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LESSON 7 - AUTOBOTS...ROLL OUT!
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Yeah...I'm a geek and grew up with the Transformers franchise decades before Michael Bay came along. Deal with it.
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Forex bots are called EA's (Expert Advisors). They can be wonderous and devastating at the same time. /Forex is not really the best place to get help with them. That is what /algotrading is useful for. However some of us that lurk on /Forex code EA's and will try to assist when we can.
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Anybody can learn to code an EA. But just like how 95% of retail traders fail, I would estimate the same is true for forex bots. Either the strategy doesn't work, the code is buggy, or many other reasons can cause EA's to fail. Because EA's can often times run up hundreds of orders in a very quick period of time, it's critical that you test them repeatedly before letting them lose on a live trading account so they don't blow your account to pieces. You have been warned.
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If you want to learn how to code an EA, I suggest you start with MQL. It's a programming language which can be directly interpretted by Meta Trader. The Meta Trader terminal client even gives you a built in IDE for coding EA's in MQL. The downside is it can be buggy and glitchy and caused many frustrating hours of work to figure out what is wrong.
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If you don't want to learn MQL, you can code an EA up in just about any programming language. Python is really popular for forex bots for some reason. But that doesn't mean you couldn't do it in something like C++ or Java or hell even something more unusual like JQuery if you really wanted.
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I'm not going to get into the finer details of how to code EA's, there are some amazing guides out there. Just be careful with them. They can be your best friend and at the same time also your worst enemy when it comes to forex.
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One final note on EA's - don't buy them. Ever. Let me put this into perspective - I create an EA which is literally producing money for me automatically 24/5. If it really is a good EA which is profitable, there is no way in hell I'm selling it. I'm keeping it to myself to make a fortune off of. EA's that are for sale will not work, will blow your account, and the developer who coded it will tell you that's too darn bad but no refunds. Don't ever buy an EA from anybody.
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LESSON 8 - BRING ON THE HATERS
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You are going to find that this subreddit is frequented by trolls. Some of them will get really nasty. Some of them will threaten you. Some of them will just make you miserable. It's the price you pay for admission to the /Forex club.
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If you can't handle it, then I suggest you don't post here. Find a more newbie-friendly site. It sucks, but it's reality.
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We often refer to trolls on this subreddit as shitcunts. That's your word of the day. Learn it, love it. Shitcunts.
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YOU MADE IT, WELCOME TO FOREX!
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If you've made it through all of the above and aren't cringing or getting scared, then welcome aboard the forex train! You will fit in nicely here. Ask your questions and the non-shitcunts of our little corner of reddit will try to help you.
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Assuming this post doesn't get nuked and I don't get banned for it, I'll add more lessons to this post over time. Lessons I intend to add in the future:

• Demo Trading
• Why you will blow your first account and what to do when it happens
• Trading Psychology (this will be a beefy one and will take a while to put together)
• Exotics vs Majors and which you should focus on as a newbie (aka how to blow your account in a single trade with exotics)
• Which Broker Should You Use? (This is covered in pretty good detail on the FAQ already - https://www.reddit.com/Forex/wiki/index - so I may not bother)
• Hedging (there isn't really a good guide written on this anywhere)
• Doubling Your Risk to Save Your Ass or Lose a Shit Ton (aka Martingale & Anti-Martingale)
• Risk On/Off
• Forex Calendars
• Currency Strength / Heat Maps
• Swap
• Margin Calls (What are they and why are you getting them?)

If there is something else you feel should be included please drop a comment and I'll add it to the above list of pending topics.
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Cheers,
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Bob
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If you’re asking the question, how do forex indicators work, I’m going to make a couple of assumptions about you.

• You’re new to forex.
• You see trading as an avenue to improve your lifestyle by making money.
• You want someone, or something, to tell you when to enter or exit the market because it seems like the easiest solution.

Was I right?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but an indicator is nothing more than a different way of looking at the same information.
As forex traders we have very little information available to us. All we know unequivocally is:

• The price in the past
• The price right now

That’s it.
As an example, your candle sticks give a visual representation of how price moved in the past, with the hope you can use this information to predict what’s going to happen in the future.
Every forex indicator will simply show you different visual representation of this same information.
RSI, MACD, CCI, Stochastics & Bollinger Bands are all built using these 2 variables.
No indicator contains a secret sauce capable of telling you when to enter and exit the market at the perfect time.
When you look at these forex indicators you’re seeing the same information, just in a different format.
I’m possibly being a bit dismissive, partially because I don’t use indicators. I do know plenty of profitable traders that do because it helps them understand the previous market movements better than a naked chart. If that’s you, then by all means continue.
But… If like I suspected, you’re wanting to use an indicator to simplify the market and tell you when to enter and exit, you’re on the wrong track.
If you want to succeed with your trading you’ll need to learn the fundamentals of why the forex market moves. But In case you are interested to learn more about forex indicators then visit : https://www.forexracer.com/forex-indicators/

I know what y'all thinking, scam. But hear me out. I've been an entrepreneur and full stack dev since 2006, started with Dreamweaver remember that? Have made my money now. So in December bought into bitcoin at 17K and quit at 13K to venture into alts. I have trading experience but did not day trade crypto. I hate trading as I'm too emo for that shit haha.
So fast forward a couple months ago and I thought I could increase my stack by trading these waves but didn't want to do it myself. Started looking into bots. Complicated and time consuming stuff, considering I have trading and programming experience. Crazy thought, let's do it myself. So fired up my Mac registered coinbakers.com after researching days to acquire a good domain name. I own a lot of domains but finding crypto related domains is hard, I tell you. Then again, I only use .coms for my businesses.
The most difficult and important part is de development of a strategy. I know you can make crazy returns in backtesting, but would perform very poor in real life. I choose lagging indicators, just Simple Moving Averages, to start with. I added Stochastics, RSI, TDI, volume, to spot patterns. I made sure I could grab the biggest jumps and from there start to minimize losing trades. It's been running with real money on a real exchange. My biggest tests were, can the bot NOT buy when the market is going down, can the bot buy when the market is going up, and are the buy and sell prices similar as in my backtests. To test the latter, once the bot bought into BTC, I just imported the latest data in the backtest and see the prices the backtest. Worked like a charm.
Past couple months was just a huge bear market, so I could only test this real life scenario. The bot moves slow and only does 1-2 trades a month, unlike some other bots that places hundreds of orders. It did this very well and it stayed out of the markets. But I still needed to test when the market was growing and if it would buy in and make a profit. It's cool it's staying out of the market to prevent losses but we need to make money too.
On 17th July at 14:00UTC it entered a position at the price of 5743 EUR. It sold the position July 30th at 18:00UTC for 6802.85 EUR. That's 18.45%! Okay I was convinced, how strange that may sound as it's my own thing. I received a trillion notifications because of a bug, but the overall strategy worked. The crazy thing was that I didn't interfere or had to look at charts. I just checked it sold and saw my balance being higher. You'd say well that's the whole point buddy, but too see your money increase like kinda magically is still a crazy. It's running along now nicely with a buffed up balance.
However, the entrepreneurial side in me started itching a while back. My goal was to create a "base" group of customers that would pay a monthly license fee. This would create a consistent recurring revenue besides the profits from the bot. Don't need many, just a nice base. Can I market and sell this? I mean how hard can it be to market something that makes other people money right? Well, not as easy at least as I imagined because my usual marketing channels I use for my companies banned crypto ads. Including reddit. So yeah we can talk about it but not promote it. I'm moving into alternative ways to promote, like speaking at meetups, looking for people who affiliate partners, etc.
So why doing all this? I can just load up my personal assets and use it myself. Which I already do but there's something in showing other people what everyone thinks it's impossible. And eventhough I don't think I add that much value when trading (stocks, forex, crypto), unlike my other started ventures, it does break the walhalla of truly passive income. Which I am very fascinated by.
Then again it's been running for less than two months, maybe I'm missing something. For now it seems to be working and I thought I'd share it with y'all. Enjoy and DYOR!

TL;DR There's lots more to the story. But the code is all open source now. Have at it. I'm too exhausted to continue with this. If you'd like more details, feel free to message me. If you happen to carry on with this project or use any ideas from it, I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep in touch on your findings. If anyone has any insights, please feel free to comment or message me.
I've spent the last nine months working furiously on this. I started a project for backtesting strategies against data I exported from MetaTrader. I had a very powerful computer crunching numbers constantly, trying to find the most optimal configuration of strategy indicator inputs that would results in the highest win rate and profit possible.
Eventually, after talking with a data scientist, I realized my backtesting optimizer was suffering from something called overfitting. He then recommend using the k-fold cross-validation technique. So, I modified things (in the "k-fold" forex-backtesting branch), and in fact it provided very optimistic results when backtested against MetaTrader data (60 - 70% win rate for 3 years). However, I had collected 3 months of data from a trading site (by intercepting their Web Socket data), and when I performed validation tests against that data using the k-fold results created from the MetaTrader data, I only got a ~57% win rate or so. In order to break even with Binary Options trading, you need at least a 58% win rate. So in short, the k-fold optimization results produce a good result when validation tested against data exported from MetaTrader, but they do not produce a good result when validation tested against the trading site's data.
I have two theories on why this ended up not working with the trading site's data:

• The trading site I collected data from uses Reuters data. The prices in the MetaTrader data I used are different from the prices in the the trading site's data. Basically the the trading site's data is offset and is slightly higher than the MetaTrader data (and there may be other differences). I suspect that the k-fold optimization may have produced a predictor that is tailored to the data exported from MetaTrader (data available here), but it does not work as well on the the trading site's data.
• The script I used to collect data from the trading site disconnects from the trading site periodically for maybe 10 minutes every, and so when it does, the strategy indicator calculations used when validating against the collected data have to start all over due to gaps, and so potential trades are lost.
• JavaScript floating point errors.

For the strategy I use the following indicators: SMA (Simple Moving Average), EMA (Exponential Moving Average), RSI (Relative Strength Index), Stochastic Oscillator, and Polynomial Regression Channel. forex-backtesting has an optimizer which tries hundreds of thousands of combinations of values for each of these indicators, combined, and saves the results to a MongoDB database. It can take days to run depending on how many configurations there are.
Basically the strategy tries to detect price reversals and trade with those. So if it "thinks" the price is going to go down within the next five minutes, it places a 5 minutes PUT trade. The Polynomial Regression Channel indicator is the most important indicator; if the price deviates outside the upper or lower value for this indicator (and other indicators meet their criteria for the strategy), then a trade is initiated. The optimizer tries to find the best values for the upper and lower values (standard deviations from the middle regression line).
Additionally, I think it might be best to enter trades at the 59th or 00th second of each minute. So I have used minute tick data for backtesting.
Also, I apologize that some of the code is messy. I tried to keep it clean but ended up hacking some of it in desperation toward the end :)
gulpfile.js is a good place to start as far as figuring out how to use the tools available. Look through the available tasks, and see how various "classes" are used ("classes" in quotes because ES5 doesn't have real class support).
The best branches to look at are "k-fold" and "master", and "validation".
One word of advice: never, ever create an account with Tradorax. They will call you every other day, provide very bad customer support, hang up the phone on you, and they will make it almost impossible to withdraw your money.

Here is a blog on how to use stochastic indicators in Forex trading to make a reliable Forex trading strategy at its best. Learn it completely from the following blog. Make sure you implement it as per your current trading strategy. Read more here - https://tradinginsrilanka.blogspot.com/2019/01/tips-to-use-stochastic-indicators-in-forex-trading.html

Ticker: $GIMO
Exchange: NYSE
Industry: Software
Overview: $GIMO offers solutions that deliver visibility and control of traffic accross networks. It has a presence in the United States; Rest of Americas; Europe; Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. (Source: Reuters)
In January, $GIMO reported prelimiary Q4 results that caused a crash of almost 20%. Of course institutional downgrades soon followed. Now, the company is operating at it's "new" value, and looks to be at a fair price. This post will outline when to buy, and when to sell in an effort to make a short-term gain. Personally, I like playing options to get the most bang for my buck.
That being said, I believe $GIMO will continue it's uptrend through to the middle of next week before it either peaks, or rallies, and here's why...
Ichimoku Cloud:
Figure A
If you'd like to read up on Ichimoku clouds, check out this article. Otherwise, the TL;DR is that when the pink, green, and light-blue lines cross in to the purple cloud, there's a good chance there will be a rally of some sort.
Aside from that, you want to notice the green line and how it is starting to trend upwards. This alone is not enough to say whether or not you should expect it to continue, but it's a good starting indicator...
MACD:
Figure B
You can learn about the MACD over here.
What you want to notice, is that the green line is starting to turn around, and the blue is about to as well. This would be a nice 'sweet spot'. Scroll down in the article to Figure 4 and look at the 2nd circled 'Buy' spot. Looks familiar, eh? TL;DR looks like it's trending up.
Stochasitcs:
Figure C
This is the Stoachastic Momentum Index (SMI). We are using it as an indicator to tell us whether or not the 'run' is over ($GIMO has been green 2 days in a row now). Since the two lines look like they just turned around and are still near the bottom, it leads us to believe that there is still room to run. I personally think it'll be bullish through next week.
More info on using this indicator can be found here
Figure D
This figure shows the Stochastics-Fast chart. Similar to the Stochastic Momentum Index (SMI), this is to help identify whether or not the stock is overbought or oversold. More information can be found here.
This chart is the LEAST desirable out of all the charts posted so far. Right now it says its approaching the overbought territory, so tread carefully!
Conclusion: I believe $GIMO will dip or stay relatively flat tomorrow (Friday Mar 10th), this will give a little more leeway on the overbought territory which allows for a little more of a run throughout next week. So my play would be to wait for a dip tomorrow, buy, then hold through to Weds or Thurs next week for a small run. After a few smaller green days Mon-Weds, I think it will dip a bit, until the MACD levels out. Not necessarily to 'oversold' territory, but enough to run back up again and a little higher than the previous peak (seen in first chart around mid Feb).
Well, I guess that's all. Let me know what you guys think, and if I'm an idiot that's gonna lose every last penny or not. Or if I'm doing everything wrong, etc... Otherwise, good luck and godspeed.

So you've begun forex exchanging and are amped up for how a lot of cash you're going to make, you should simply stall out in. In any case, when would it be advisable for you to exchange? Where would it be a good idea for you to enter? Which money sets would it be advisable for you to take a gander at?

Envision if there was an answer that let you know precisely when to enter an exchange!
New kid on the block dealer, meet Mr. Marker. Disregard those senseless climbing ashy candles, that poo is simply excessively mind boggling.
What on earth is a bullish overwhelming flame development at any rate? I'm a new kid on the block, I don't have a clue, or care, I simply need to make cash damn it! Demonstrate to me the most straightforward approach to make cash at the present time!
Sound commonplace?
These mystical pointers will guide you. Like a Magic 8-ball. They'll demonstrate to you the route to the heavenly place that is known for forex magnificence, where the avenues are cleared in green pips, and everybody you meet gives you a bar of bullion, since you merit it.
It helps me to remember my most loved Guns n Roses track "Bring me down to the heaven city where the pips are green and the diagrams are beautiful, goodness won't you please take me home, hold up ouw"
In this way, what precisely is a MACD, CCI, ATR, RSI or a ridiculous Stochastic!
They all solid so logical; without a doubt they should be great?
All things considered, I'm sorry to learn your air pocket… yet this is simply one more approach to peruse value developments in the market (a few brokers like to call this value activity). A marker is parcel more like salt and pepper than Colonel Sanders 12 mystery herbs and flavors.
On the off chance that you just learn one thing today, make it this: As merchants, we just approach a constrained measure of data.
These are the main two things we know without a doubt:
What cost is presently?
What cost was 1min, 5mins, 15mins, 1hr (you get the thought) prior
That is it.
All markers are doing is demonstrating to you this data in an alternate organization.
Presently, for all the pointer fans out there, you'll be satisfied to know it's not all foolishness. Pointers are intended to indicate past examples in the market that probably won't be anything but difficult to see with the stripped eye. What's more, the hypothesis goes, in the event that you can distinguish an example from an earlier time, at that point you'll have the capacity to anticipate what's to come. In any case, that is a discussion for one more day.
Will forex dealers foresee what's to come? That is an incredible theme for my next blog entry… hold tight, let me record that…
Alright, I'm back. Presently, the current theme – Which pointer would it be advisable for you to utilize?
Whichever one you need.
Apologies, I realize that is most likely a bit of disappointing…
All it's doing is demonstrating to you what you definitely know (present and past market cost) in an alternate visual configuration. So discover a pointer you see, at that point stay with it.
My solitary suggestion is to abstain from running different pointers without a moment's delay since you'll likely befuddle yourself.
Picture result for MT4 window with pointers
It would appear that it's a great opportunity to purchase, sell, hold and turn.
By and by, I like to exchange bare. That is correct, starker's.
Why?
You will probably discover once you watch the graphs for a considerable length of time, you won't require the spiritualist Ichimoku Cloud to furnish you with a climate figure. You'll have the capacity to gaze toward the sky and tell for yourself whether you'll require an umbrella for the session ahead.
Contact: https://hawksfx.com, +44 208 638 8973.
Head Office
Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX United Kingdom
Asian Branch
19/1, Sri Sumanarama Road,
Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka

Forex trading is completely bounded by the economy of the currency pair. Forex trading is not a kind of business where you can take spontaneous decisions to run your business. It needs a thoughtful and strategic process with the emotional discipline to make any move in Forex trading. It is always said that a Forex trader must strive to develop his/her own trading strategy or try a strategy that has proven itself in past. Best Forex trading strategy for 2018 can develop after multifaceted analysis of currency pairs and economy news.
1. Trading is an Art, not a Rocket Science: You must remember that trading is an art, not a rocket science. No one can assure you for 100% accurate movement of any currency. Therefore, no rule in trading is ever absolute. You have to learn Art of trading. How the market reacts to the economic news? And how technical indicators work with those data?
2. Emotional Discipline: Everyone knows about emotional discipline, but no one controls their emotions while trading which becomes a reason for the loss of trading. Emotional discipline keeps you on the track of successful trader. If you are trading with a strategic process and don’t have the emotional discipline you can lose your money on trading and we suggest you stop wasting time in trading. You can do more interesting in your life.
3. Don’t Get Greedy: Forex trading is highly fluctuating trading system. You are making a good profit 1 min ago and next min you are having a loss. If you’re in profit and you are making good money with respect to your investment. Then don’t get greedy into making more profit. Just close the trade and have fun with your profit.
4. Risk Management: Most of the people trade without risk management and wipe out their account. If you want to be a successful trader don’t forget to put proper risk to management in your trades. Trading is a kind of business if you are not able to lose money that you are investing. Please don’t put any trade in stocks, currency market.
5. RSI (Relative Strength Index) Indicator: As you know it is a momentum indicator. It is used to understand the movement of the market. It also helps us to learn the trend of the market in particular time frame. But why we are suggesting to others to use in your toolkit. We know that market is run by investors and all investors need something to predict short terms and long-term movement of the market to make a good amount of profit. That’s why they use tools used by a majority of traders and RSI is one of the tools which is used by the majority.
6. ATR (Average True Range): Most of the traders lose money in Forex trading not because they are trading against the trend, they lose money because they don’t what is stop loss and take profit they have to put while trading and ATR will help you to use a proper stop loss on your all trade so you can increase the number of profitable trade in your portfolio.
7. Stochastic Oscillator Every trader must keep this tool in his/her toolkit. This tool will let you know about get-in and get-out price of your trade. If you are following the signals provided by this tool, you may lose most of your trades with good profit. It shows the overbought and oversold price of any currency, commodity, and stock. This range – from 0 to 100 – will remain constant, no matter how quickly or slowly a security advances or declines. Considering the most traditional settings for the oscillator, 20 are typically considered the oversold threshold and 80 are considered the overbought threshold. However, the levels are adjustable to fit security characteristics and analytical needs. Readings above 80 indicate a security is trading near the top of its high-low range; readings below 20 indicate the security is trading near the bottom of its high-low range.
8. Simple Moving Average: The thing to remember about SMA is it helps you to determine the upcoming trend. It helps you to know upcoming the bullish trend and bearish trends in your currency trading. Two popular trading patterns that use simple moving averages include the death cross and a golden cross. A death cross occurs when the 50-day simple moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average. This is considered a bearish signal that further losses are in store. The golden cross occurs when a short-term moving average breaks above a long-term moving average. Reinforced by high trading volumes, this can signal further gains are in store.
9. A risk to Reward Ratio: Before entering every trade, you must know your pain threshold. You need to figure out what the worst-case scenario is and place your stop based on a monetary or technical level. Every trade, no matter how certain you are of its outcome, is an educated guess. Nothing is certain in trading. Reward, on the other hand, is unknown. When a currency moves, the move can be huge or small. Always trade in 1:2 risks to reward ratio. So if you lose two trade you, your one profit trade can recover your loss and put you in no loss- no profit situation.
10. Never Risk more than 5\% of your investment: If you are a trader with the low budget in rang $100-$1000. Never put more than %5 of your total amount of investment. And if you have budget more than $1000 than please don’t get greedy and don’t put more than 2% on risk.

Forex trading is completely bounded by the economy of the currency pair. Forex trading is not a kind of business where you can take spontaneous decisions to run your business. It needs a thoughtful and strategic process with the emotional discipline to make any move in Forex trading. It is always said that a Forex trader must strive to develop his/her own trading strategy or try a strategy that has proven itself in past. Best Forex trading tips and strategies for 2018 can develop after multifaceted analysis of currency pairs and economy news. Here are some forex currency trading tips that will work in 2018:
1. Trading is an Art, not a Rocket Science:
You must remember that trading is an art, not a rocket science. No one can assure you for 100% accurate movement of any currency. Therefore, no rule in trading is ever absolute. You have to learn Art of trading. How the market reacts to the economic news? And how technical indicators work with those data?
2. Emotional Discipline:
Everyone knows about emotional discipline, but no one controls their emotions while trading which becomes a reason for the loss of trading. Emotional discipline keeps you on the track of successful trader. If you are trading with a strategic process and don’t have the emotional discipline you can lose your money on trading and we suggest you stop wasting time in trading. You can do more interesting in your life.
3. Don’t Get Greedy:
Forex trading is highly fluctuating trading system. You are making a good profit 1 min ago and next min you are having a loss. If you’re in profit and you are making good money with respect to your investment. Then don’t get greedy into making more profit. Just close the trade and have fun with your profit.
4. Risk Management:
Most of the people trade without risk management and wipe out their account. If you want to be a successful trader don’t forget to put proper risk to management in your trades. Trading is a kind of business if you are not able to lose money that you are investing. Please don’t put any trade in stocks, currency market.
5. RSI (Relative Strength Index) Indicator:
As you know it is a momentum indicator. It is used to understand the movement of the market. It also helps us to learn the trend of the market in particular time frame. But why we are suggesting to others to use in your toolkit. We know that market is run by investors and all investors need something to predict short terms and long-term movement of the market to make a good amount of profit. That’s why they use tools used by a majority of traders and RSI is one of the tools which is used by the majority.
6. ATR (Average True Range):
Most of the traders lose money in Forex trading not because they are trading against the trend, they lose money because they don’t what is stop loss and take profit they have to put while trading and ATR will help you to use a proper stop loss on your all trade so you can increase the number of profitable trade in your portfolio.
7. Stochastic Oscillator
Every trader must keep this tool in his/her toolkit. This tool will let you know about get-in and get-out price of your trade. If you are following the signals provided by this tool, you may lose most of your trades with good profit. It shows the overbought and oversold price of any currency, commodity, and stock. This range – from 0 to 100 – will remain constant, no matter how quickly or slowly a security advances or declines. Considering the most traditional settings for the oscillator, 20 are typically considered the oversold threshold and 80 are considered the overbought threshold. However, the levels are adjustable to fit security characteristics and analytical needs. Readings above 80 indicate a security is trading near the top of its high-low range; readings below 20 indicate the security is trading near the bottom of its high-low range.
8. Simple Moving Average:
The thing to remember about SMA is it helps you to determine the upcoming trend. It helps you to know upcoming the bullish trend and bearish trends in your currency trading.
Two popular trading patterns that use simple moving averages include the death cross and a golden cross. A death cross occurs when the 50-day simple moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average. This is considered a bearish signal that further losses are in store. The golden cross occurs when a short-term moving average breaks above a long-term moving average. Reinforced by high trading volumes, this can signal further gains are in store.
9. A risk to Reward Ratio:
Before entering every trade, you must know your pain threshold. You need to figure out what the worst-case scenario is and place your stop based on a monetary or technical level. Every trade, no matter how certain you are of its outcome, is an educated guess. Nothing is certain in trading. Reward, on the other hand, is unknown. When a currency moves, the move can be huge or small. Always trade in 1:2 risks to reward ratio. So if you lose two trade you, your one profit trade can recover your loss and put you in no loss- no profit situation.
10. Never Risk more than 5\% of your investment:
If you are a trader with the low budget in rang $100-$1000. Never put more than %5 of your total amount of investment. And if you have budget more than $1000 than please don’t get greedy and don’t put more than 2% on risk.
If you remember this rules and learn to use above mention tools properly. Definitely, you can make a good amount of money from your trades, without wiping out your account. Trading is subject to market risk. You can lose all money, so please trade safely and don’t get emotional.