Yirbu wrote:Managed to get this trade down. First I tried to trade it down in London but I couldn't get in.
When I tried to trade it back up again at the start of NY I got distracted and just got a 10 pips or so.
Finally got the trade I wanted after it took out the high of London.
Price printed a doji in that little congestion at the top.
Went short at the break of the doji with one part
Price created an imbalance.
When price (nearly) touched the imbalance I added a second part.
At 40ish pips and 40ish minutes I took profit
Happy with the result because I was eating up yesterday's profits but after this trade everything is fine again
EURUSD-42pips.png
That's good. The anchor trade setup shown is just about right.
The goal of an anchor trade is to take the tops and bottoms of a specific time range and hold the trade for a maximum result. The daily anchor trade uses intraday TP but the regular anchor trade uses multi-day TP. In the case of my previous version, the time range is the trading session's high and low. This could mean Asian's or European's or U.S. extreme high/low point. So your view of the anchor trade is correct in this sense.
However, let me tell you why I have since moved on from that view...
There are times when the price just go directly into one direction without even looking back. Guess what will happen when this kind of scenario appears? You get no anchor trade for the day. Of course you have the choice of using extreme points beyond the previous session(s) but the same question persists "What if the price also already moved beyond the session before the previous session?" Obviously, you will have no anchor trade.
- The weakness of my anchor trade SD version.png (36.82 KiB) Viewed 2693 times
The above scenario happens a lot during a strong trending market. But man, you don't wanna be left behind during this harvest time, right? I don't know about anyone's preference but I for sure don't want the price to leave me behind when I trade. Some say "don't try to catch a falling knife" and this is true but only for those who don't know how to do it. It's the same as "don't enter MMA ring if you don't know how to fight".
- The weakness of my anchor trade FTR version.png (44.62 KiB) Viewed 2693 times
The second scenario happens during a sideways market. But a good trader must be able to make the most out of a bad scenario. It could be losing a little, BE, make money, or make a lot of money even during bad times.
I'm a scalper first and foremost and this is how I operate. edit: If you are the type who only does swing trading then it's fine for you to only go with the top down approach. I'm the type who do both scalping and swing trading but my swing trading comes from a scalping perspective and this is why I start from the smallest TF and then go up and down again.
- Zoom in or zoom out.png (24.26 KiB) Viewed 2693 times
Some of the reasons why I do both are:
1. if you only do swing trading, you must go from a big TF to make it worth it.
2. there are times when you don't get a trade or only get a handful of trade a week depending on which TF you're using.
3. when you don't trade but the market is open you are "wasting time" because you could've made money but you chose not to.
4. I trade only during specific period of time (from 09:00 or 10:00 to 16:00) because I don't want trading to dictate my life. I control when to trade not the trade opportunity dictate my time.
5. Trading (working) at specific time period makes me diligent in finding ways to exploit the market using various POV.
Most traders operate by using some hints from the market but what if you don't get any market hint at all?
- With or without market hints.png (13.48 KiB) Viewed 2693 times
Scenario 1 is what most traders are familiar with
Scenario 2 what do you do if the market just fall off after creating a hint?
Scenario 3 what if the price came back but there is no hint or did not touch the hint and then fall?
Scenario 4 what if the market just makes a sharp V or A shape without a market hint?
edit: personally, I want to be able to make a profit no matter what the market condition is as long as there is a good reason for it and also the target profit makes sense.
I don't know if the information from this post will be useful for any of you. Also as I always said before, I don't know how to teach.
My opinion is if you only master 1 trading tactic then you are too lazy. Why? Because the market provides a lot of pips per trading session and you can't take even 10% of those moves. The market is hyperactive and if you have kids at home, you know what it is and what you have to do... PLAY WITH THEM until you or the kids are exhausted