In this episode of Truth About FX, Walter digs into the case of trading while working and is this really possible? He opens up ways on how you could manage your trades depending on your lifestyle.
He also shares inspiration about two forum members who use automation and how you could take this as an example for your trading system. All these and more in this episode of Truth About FX podcast.
Download (Duration: 04:12 / 9.62 MB)
In This Episode:
00:34 – the assumption
01:38 – getting ready for work
03:03 – staying up
Tweetables:
Shift your timeframes [Click To Tweet].
Automate your system [Click To Tweet].
Watch the open[Click To Tweet].
Announcer: Sometimes, forex trading is a wild and wooly place to be. That’s why Hugh is here, to post your questions to Walter, the naked forex guy. Hugh’s got questions and Walter’s got the answers. Here at the Truth About FX Podcast.
Hugh: Hi, Walter. Somebody wrote in and asked, “How do I trade in the best times which are London and the US Open even if I have a busy work schedule?”
Walter: This is a good question. The assumption here is that you’ve got to watch the open to trade. Now, that’s not necessarily the case with a lot of trading system. If you’re trading a lot of breakout strategies or even like simple swing trades on a higher time frame like an H4 or even a D1 or H12 chart, then you don’t need to be there.
Let’s say that I live in New York and I wanted to trade the London open but obviously that’s when I’m sleeping. What do I do? You could trade the D1 charts and you could simply when you went to bed put your order in during the tail end of the Asian Sessions. What happens if you actually get that trade triggered if the London volume pushes through?
For example, let’s say, I think the market has made a double bottom and I put my order above that second touch. If the market does make a new high, I’m in. I expect that to probably happen during London open or maybe the New York open when I’m getting ready to work or whatever or at work.
That is how I would do that. If you shift to a higher time frame, it makes it easier to setup those buy stops and sell stops. But, if you feel like you’ve got to trade the system on the lower time frame, then probably automation is the way to go.
If you don’t know anything about automation, certainly you can hire somebody in the Naked Forex Now Forum we have people in there that are really good in that or actually teach you how to do it or you can hire someone in there. There’s Mark Fletcher and Adam Hartley.
Both of those guys, I would definitely trust in terms of creating something. For example, take a H1 or M15 chart breakout, you can have them code something up for you so that, that would run while you’re sleeping at night.
There are different ways of doing it. If you feel like you really have to trade the lower time frames then it sounds like you’re a great candidate for automation. Otherwise, I would just focus on a higher time frame.
Just zoom out of it. In that way, you’ll be able to put in your orders in your platform before you go to sleep if you’re on the East Coast time zone. Same thing if you’re on the West Coast time zone in the U.S. It’s the same thing. You just get the advantage of actually putting in much closer to the London open. That’s what I would do.
That is actually what I did. When I was in California, eventually what I did was I actually stopped doing the whole thing where you stay up all night and watch the London open. I’d go “Oh, I screwed up. Might as well stay up for the New York open.” You’re awake from 1 am to 6:30 am California time.
It’s just not very fun. Eventually, you’ll burn out on that. It’s kind of like scalping. The scalpers, they’ll scalp 8 hours a day and they’ll eventually burn out too. They’ll either lock in to a schedule that’s doable or they’re just going to give up and do something different.
I think that’s what usually happens for traders who are trying to stay up and find it and be there when these London trades come in. You’re probably either just be better off switching your higher time frame or going with automation if you insist on trading the lower time frames.
Hugh: Okay, cool. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Walter.
Walter: Thank you.
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