Rob Taylor, Author at Professional Forex Trading "Live" With Rob Taylor

How To Make Money With Swing Trading.

August 2, 2014August 3, 2014Rob Taylor

Swing trading is a popular methodology used by many professional Forex traders, that can produce some very nice profitable trades.

To be able to consistently make money with swing trading strategies, you first have to understand what swing trading is, and how to identify a swing from which to trade.

What is swing trading?

Swing trading is identifying potential swing highs and swing lows within a market, sometimes called major reversal levels, and entering as close to the perceived high or the low of the swing as possible, and trading all the way up or down to the next major reversal level, or swing high or low.

Swing trading differs from day trading in the length of time a trade is held for. Typically swing traders can hold their trades for up to a week, whereas day traders are generally in and out of the market the same day.

I am primarily a day trader, as i like to enter a trade, make my pips, and look for another opportunity. I don’t like to have money in the market overnight, as the longer you are in a trade the more your money is at risk. And i don’t like taking risks, and i also like to get a good nights sleep. 🙂

How to identify swings.

The chart below shows major reversal points in the market, or swings from which you can trade.

Now its really easy to identify swings on a chart after they have happened, but how do you know that a level in the market is a major reversal level, or swing, before its happened?
How can you enter long or short at a particular level, with the knowledge that there is a high probability that it will be a major swing high or low?

I am not going to go into detail here about how identify major reversal levels in the market, but it is covered in detail in my Forex training course. But another way that you can potentially get into a swing trade is to look at supply and demand areas on a chart, and buy an sell at those levels.

For more on how to identify supply and demand levels in the market please click here.

What i teach in my Forex training course will show you how to make money from swing trading by identifying major reversal levels in the market, and enable you to day trade or swing trade them for them for big profits. For more information on my Forex training course click here.

Make over 100 pips profit with this strategy for trading the news.

April 20, 2014July 11, 2015Rob Taylor

Trading the news can be very profitable if you can predict which way price is going to move. Entering a trade just before a news release can net you 30 or 40 pips very quickly if you get the direction right. But predicting which way price is going to move is very much a gamble, so most traders do not trade the news, as its just too risky, and you often get stopped out, as price quickly moves one way, and then the other. This type of move is known as a whipsaw. Most traders have experienced this whipsaw effect, when price goes up then down very quickly, and it seems no matter which way you trade, you always seem to get stopped out.

Now i look at the charts in a very different way to 95% of traders out there, and i can always see an opportunity in whatever the market throws at me. When you understand why the market moves as it does, you can profit from almost any trading scenario, and trading the news can also be a great opportunity to profit from the market.

A strategy for trading the news is probably one of the hardest things to develop, but if you understand what is happening to price then its a lot easier. Now i am not going to go into the ins and outs of price action, and how i use it, but i would like to give you a simple but effective strategy for trading the news. This strategy can give you over 100 pips profit on a major news release if used on multiple pairs.

Now the big problem with developing a strategy for trading the news is stop losses. When most traders enter trades they set a stop loss. That stop loss could be anything from 10 pips to 30 pips, or more if you are trading higher time frames. Now if you are trading the news on the 15 min time frame, and you set a stop loss how big should it be? 10 pips, 20 pips, 30 pips, more? It is very difficult to set a stop loss for a news announcement, as you don’t know how big the move is going to be? So if you don’t know how big the move is going to be, how can you set a stop loss? You can set a stop loss above a recent high, or below a recent low, but a big whipsaw like the one in the screenshot below will still wipe you out. So what do you do? How do you profit from a move like that? Well the trading strategy below will describe what you need to do to make money from a news based whipsaw move.

If you think about what happens in a whipsaw, price goes up, stops out short traders, price goes down, stops out long traders. Now you know price is going up, to stop out shorts, and you know its going down to stop out longs, so this is what you do. You enter two trades, one long, one short, as close as you can to the the mid price of the move that leads up to the whipsaw. If you look a the screenshot above, this would be the middle black line. You set a take profit on both trades of 15 to 20 pips. You can go for more pips if the news is big, and you are going to get a bigger whipsaw, an interest rate decision for example, but 15 to 20 pips is a safe amount to go for.

Now the important part of this strategy is NOT to set a stop loss. Your take profit becomes the stop loss. Most traders will be trading this with a 20 to 30 pip stop loss, you trade it with a take profit instead of a stop loss. Price goes up, hits your take profit, price goes down hits your take profit. As price is hitting other traders stop losses, its hitting your take profit. But because you are trading without a stop loss, it does not matter which way price goes first, you are not going to get stopped out, you are only going to get your take profit hit. Does that make sense? Read it again if you are unsure.

Now there are a couple of important things you need to be aware of before you use this type of strategy for trading the news. The news release must be a high impact release, ( you can check which news releases are high impact on the calendar on the homepage ) NFP, interest rate decision, FOMC etc. A high impact news release is much more likely to produce a whipsaw move. The market also has to be moving in a tight range before the news is released. Check the screenshot above for an example of what you are looking for. This is VERY important. When the market has been moving in a tight range before the news traders stop losses are in easy reach of the whipsaw. If price has been going up, or going down before the release, then the whipsaw is less likely to happen. If you have the tight range that you need, you must enter as close to mid price as you can, so you are not exposed at the end of the range. If you are, your 15 or 20 pip take profit may not get hit in both directions.

Something else you can do to maximize your profit, is to trade this strategy on more than one pair. If the news is euro related, trade all euro pairs, if its dollar related, trade all dollar pairs, if its Yen related, you get the idea. As long as you have the tight range you are looking for before the news release you can trade any relevant pair. Trading more than one pair will also spread your risk, just in case you do not get the whipsaw on all the pairs. As long as you get it on the majority of pairs you will still make plenty of pips, and your take profit will get hit one way or another.

Please note: I am not a news trader. The strategies i employ for trading are low risk high probability trading strategies. A lot of my trading is based on chart logic, and this strategy is a logical way to trade the whipsaw on this type of news release. If you are a news trader then this strategy will hopefully help you understand the whipsaw, and how to profit from it. If you decide to use this strategy or not, i hope its been enjoyable reading, and made you think about the market a little differently. Making money from trading is all about understanding what is happening on the chart, and thinking outside of the box. 🙂

If you enjoyed this article and you think it would benefit other traders, please like it on Facebook share it on Twitter, or bookmark it using the buttons below. Thanks for visiting my blog and have a great trading day.

What Is Advanced Price Action Forex Trading?

March 2, 2014January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

What i trade and what i teach is advanced price action Forex trading. There is lots of free information online about price action trading, some good some not so good. I have some free info on here about price action set ups like how to trade pin bars or how to trade outside bars, but its just basic stuff that you can find on many free sites. Don’t get me wrong this information will help you in your trading, but it will not enable you to make money consistently, week in week out from your trading. To be consistent you need to understand advanced price action Forex trading.

So what is advanced price action Forex trading?

Advanced learning by its nature is to learn something at a higher level, so you are learning price action trading at a much higher level than the majority of price action traders. Every candle on a chart is a representation of price action over a set period of time. A daily candle is made of six h4 candles, 24 h1 candles, 96 15 min candles, or 288 5 min candles. To really understand what is happening in a daily candle, you have to understand what has happened on the lower time frame candles. This is part of advanced price action Forex trading as i see it. We break every candle down, and understand what is happening on the smallest time frames, to give us an indication on which way price is most likely to move.

If we notice a price action set up on a higher time frame, we can also use the lower time frames to give us a great entry point. Traders that trade the daily and weekly time frames have massive stop losses, we can enter the same trade at a precision entry, and have a much tighter stop than they have. By studying the lower time frames, we will also know if the trade is going to fail before they do. Whats the point of being stopped out for 200 pips. If you know the trade is going to fail, you can take a much smaller hit instead, many times you can get out with breakeven.

Why so many Forex traders lose money.

As you are probably aware the majority of Forex traders lose money in the markets, and the reason for this is that they only have a basic understanding of Forex trading. To be a consistently profitable trader, you have to have a complete understanding of what is happening to price on every time frame, from the 1 min chart, right up to the monthly chart. When you have this understanding, and you know what makes the market move, you can enter and exit the market safely, and make profits consistently.

What the experts say, lol.

Many so called experts will tell you that you cannot make money trading the lower time frames, because price is too volatile. You need to trade the daily and above to be successful. This is complete rubbish, and anyone that says this does not fully understand advanced price action. There are many well respected price action traders, that sell their courses to people on the understanding that this is a fact. The only good thing about trading the higher time frames, is it takes longer for you to lose your money, as the set ups on the higher time frames are less frequent. This is great for the people that sell these courses, as they will have more time to fob you off, and you are less likely to demand your money back if it takes you 12 months to realise their stuff don’t work.

What other websites are saying.

A lot of websites make bold claims that they can teach you advanced price action Forex trading, but they are mostly teaching you how to trade pin bars off support and resistance levels, or doji’s or engulfing candles of the same levels. They are teaching you how to read price action after it has happened. Anyone can teach reversal signals on daily and weekly time frames, but how many people can teach you how to get in right at the top of a pin bar, or an engulfing candle, before the candle has even formed? That’s what I’m talking about when i talk about advanced price action trading. Identifying pin point entries and exits on the chart, whether you are trend trading, or counter trend trading, that’s real advanced price action trading.

Many paid Forex training courses are a complete waste of money.

The majority of paid Forex training courses are a complete waste of time and money to be honest, and there are many experts that claim to be able to teach you how to trade, but they will only teach you basic stuff that you can find online for free at babypips or similar sites. They will not teach you how to really trade, because they do not know how to really trade themselves.

Before paying these people ask yourself “if this guy can trade why is he selling me a course for a few hundred bucks” and you will get your answer. The reason my course costs almost 4k is because its worth a 100k. I am a professional Forex trader, and what i can teach you will transform your trading and change your life. If you want the same old rubbish that you can get online for free, keep throwing away your few hundred bucks, plus all the time and money you are losing while you are testing this rubbish, before you find out its the same old stuff yet again that does not work.

Don’t get me wrong just because you pay 1000s for a training course, does not mean it will be the real deal. There are also many companies that charge a lot more than i do, and their training courses are just as bad, if not worse that the ones you can get for a few 100 bucks. These big Forex training organizations have huge marketing budgets, and they can make it sound like Forex is they key to making a fortune very quickly. You need to be really careful of these companies. I have heard stories of people that have paid these companies 25k and they still cant make money. How these companies are still allowed to operate their businesses is beyond me.

Forex Trading is not easy at first, and you need the right education.

I will be honest with you, Forex trading is not easy at first, and you are not going to make big money from it right away. Its a hard job that has to be learned fully if you want to be successful consistently. I can give you the right education, but its up to you to put in the time required to make yourself successful. What i teach is not a get rich quick scheme. If you can imagine Forex trading as a journey. I can take you 80% of the way very quickly, by teaching you stuff that could take you 5 or even 10 years to learn on your own, stuff you really need to know in order to be successful, but you need to invest chart time and practice what i teach, to complete the rest of the journey. With my support of course. 🙂

If you are prepared for a little hard work initially, then Forex trading will become a lot easier as you progress.

So if you are reading this and thinking “how do i know that you are not another con artist that is going to take my money and give me the same old rubbish i have paid 300 bucks for”. Well the short answer is you don’t. But you are welcome to contact any of my students for a review of what i offer, and they will tell you i am the real deal, and what i teach is true advanced price action Forex trading.

As Morpheus says. All I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.

Advice On Choosing The Right Forex Broker

January 19, 2014January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

Choosing the right Forex broker can be a pretty daunting experience. I have been trading for over 12 years in both stocks and Forex, and I have used many brokers in that period. Some good, some not so good. So how do you choose the right one?

There are 100s of Forex brokers to choose from, and they all want your business. Some brokers will offer you incentives to join them, like introductory bonuses or free commission periods. Some of these deals sound very attractive, but when you read the small print, the offers tend to be very restrictive, and weighted heavily in favor of the broker, so they are generally not really worth signing up for.

Tips for choosing the right Forex broker.

There are some rules that you need to follow when choosing a Forex broker. I am going to list them below, not particularly in order of preference, but you do need to consider them all before choosing the right broker.

Regulation.

You must trade with a regulated Forex broker in my opinion. You don’t want to be giving your money to any old Forex broker, just because he is offering you what seems like a great deal. Regulated brokers are far more trustworthy, and your money is held in client segregated accounts, with reputable banks, and not with the broker. So if your broker got into financial difficulties for any reason, you know your money is protected from any creditors that may come after the broker. I have heard some horror stories of clients losing a lot of money by dealing with unregulated brokers.

Commission Charges.

Commission charges are a major thing to consider when choosing a Forex broker. One of my students has just swapped from Fx Pro to IC Markets, and we have worked out at his current level of trading activity, he will be saving around £86.000 per year in commission charges by swapping to IC Markets.

Spreads.

Spreads are the difference between the buying and selling price of an instrument and are also a big game changer when it comes to choosing the right Forex broker. Some brokers spreads are good on Euro-Dollar but very poor on all others. For example, IG index has a spread of less than a pip on Euro Dollar, but Cable can be up to 3 pips. In their defense they are a spread betting company, that do not charge commission, but even so, 3 pips is a big spread if you are scalping the Forex market.

You need to find a broker with great spreads on all pairs that you intend to trade. Spreads on the major pairs with most brokers are pretty competitive, but i don’t just trade the majors, so i need a broker with great spreads on all the pairs I trade.

Slippage.

Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade, and the price the trade actually executes at. You get slippage with all brokers, sometimes it goes in your favor, but most of the time it goes against you.

Because the market moves so quickly, the price you are quoted for execution can change in the time it takes you to close or open the trade. Some brokers take advantage of slippage by nicking pips off you, and putting it down to slippage, this is not acceptable, and any brokers that do this are not reputable and should be avoided.

During major news announcements slippage can be more evident with your broker, and you may not get such a good fill during these times, but in normal trading conditions slippage should happen occasionally, and if you do get slipped, it should be no more than a pip with a reputable Forex broker.

Hedging.

Hedging is the ability to open an opposing position in the same pair, without having to close your original position. For example: If you are short Euro Dollar, and price is going up, you may not want to close your short trade, as you feel this could just be a temporary move up. You want to take advantage of this temporary move by going long, so you open a long position, which effectively hedges your short position. By hedging, you are making money on the temporary move up, without having to take a loss on your short trade. You can close your long trade when you feel price is going to reverse, and when price comes back down again, your short trade comes back into profit.

Please note: Hedging can be a very dangerous game to play if you do not fully understand what you are doing, but it can also be a useful flexible tool if used correctly.

Most brokers these days offer a hedging facility, but some don’t, so make sure the broker you choose does offer this facility.

True ECN.

ECN stands for electronic communications network. ECN is the technology that allows price makers to send executable streaming prices (bids and offers) to the market, constructing a virtual order book in much the same fashion as a stock exchange would. By trading with a true ECN broker your orders are filled quickly and at the best possible price. ECN trading offers clients a deep liquidity pool and tighter spreads than non ECN brokers. Trading with a non ECN broker will lead to more re quotes, and wider spreads.

My Recommended Broker.

I hope that these tips have made the job of choosing the right Forex broker a little easier for you. My recommended Forex broker is IC Markets. They are a fully regulated true ECN broker, with incredibly tight spreads, and great commissions. They also offer hedging facilities to their clients, and scalping is allowed if you trade that way. You can also run expert advisors with IC Markets too if you need that facility.

How To Find The Best Forex Trading Strategies.

December 22, 2013January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

Apologies for not posting for a while, but i have been really busy with new students. As Christmas is nearly upon us and the markets are pretty quiet, i thought i would write a post about how to find the best Forex trading strategies.

Can you really find a great Forex trading strategy?

Every Forex trader is looking for a great Forex trading strategy, but finding something that works consistently well, is very difficult for the average retail Forex trader. There are 100’s of strategies you can use to trade Forex, most will fail miserably, but with strict money management, you may find a few that you could make some money with.

The problem with the majority of Forex trading strategies that are employed by retail traders, is that they are based on beliefs about the Forex market that are inaccurate. So a trading strategy based on those beliefs cannot be successful long term.

How do i trade?

I am a very matter of fact trader, and i trade a rules based method, based on a complete understanding of the market, and advanced price action trading. I enter and exit trades at key reversal points to maximize profitability, and to minimize losses. Forex trading as far as i am concerned is very black and white. I don’t waste my time trying to find strategies that work. You really don’t need to do that. All as you need to be a successful Forex trader, is a complete understanding of how the market works, and the ability to read the chart. I have that understanding and ability, and i trade very successfully based on knowledge, rather than weak retail trader strategies.

There are only really 2 ways to trade as far as i am concerned. The right way and the wrong way. On one side of the fence you have retail traders, or the 95% as i like to call them. And on the other side of the fence you have the professional Forex traders, or the 5%.

The 95% waste years trading and back testing 100s of trading strategies, strategies that are never going to work long term, as they are based around rules and beliefs that are inaccurate. The 5% know how to trade, so they spend all their time trading and making money. Now if you are reading this and thinking “this guy does not know what he is talking about, i have been testing this really good strategy for a few months now, it just needs a little bit of tweaking and it will work just fine”, you are more than likely in the 95%, and you need to forget about back testing, and start learning. What i do works, it has always worked, and it will always work. It does not need back testing.

Finding the missing piece in the Forex puzzle.

I remember when i first started trading, it was really hard. Nothing seemed to work well enough to make money consistently. Everything i tried was not quite cutting it. It was as if i was almost there, but i just needed the last piece of the puzzle to be consistently profitable.

Now if you are in the same situation right now, i am going to let you into a little secret. You will never find the last piece of the puzzle, because the puzzle was created without all the pieces, so no matter how hard you try, you will never find that missing piece.

Traders that join my training and mentoring program often say that they need my help to find the last piece of the puzzle. When i show them how the market really works, and how to be consistently profitable, they are completely blown away, and they quickly realize that the puzzle that they have been trying so hard to complete, can never be completed.

And the reason it can never be completed is because its based around beliefs about the market that are inaccurate. So how can you complete a puzzle if the pieces are wrong to start with? When i teach my students the full story, they can then embark on their journey to becoming a consistently profitable Forex trader.

So what are your options? The education and understanding that i give traders totally transforms their trading, so the best advice i can give you is to enroll on my Forex training course, but if you do not have the money to invest in that, then i suggest you forget about trying to find the best Forex trading strategy, and concentrate on studying charts.

All the information you need to be successful in trading is in the chart. Study the lower time frame charts like the 5 min and the 1 min and see how price moves. Its not going to be easy, and it could take you 1000s of hours of study, but i can honestly say that time you spend studying the smaller time frame charts, will be far more benefit to you than back testing weak Forex trading strategies.

How To Control Fear And Greed In Forex Trading.

September 21, 2013January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

Fear and greed are a Forex traders worst enemy. Knowing how to control fear and greed in Forex trading will help you to become a better trader.

The key to making money in the Forex markets is to trade logically without emotion, and if you can remove fear and greed from your trading and trade logically, you will make more money from your trading activities.

What is fear and greed?

Fear and greed are pretty simple concepts to understand, and they are intertwined in the majority of Forex traders psyche. Everyone gets into Forex trading to make money, that is the sole objective of trading, but the fact is the majority of Forex traders lose money in the markets. Not being able to control fear and greed will cause traders to trade emotionally and make irrational trading decisions, which will ultimately lose them money in the markets.

How to control fear in Forex trading.

There are many types of fear in Forex trading, but the fear of losing money is probably the biggest one. Depending on your personality type, some traders will be more prone to fear than others. If you are a trader that has a big fear of losing money you can mitigate that fear in 3 ways.

1. Reduce your lot size. If you are trading with a lot size that you are not comfortable with your fear is greater, and your chances of making an emotional irrational decision are greater if you are trading this way.

2. Set a stop loss on every trade. Knowing how much you are prepared to lose on every trade will help you overcome fear. No one wants to lose money in the markets, but if you know your potential loss in advance, and you are comfortable with that, you will not be trading emotionally and making irrational decisions.

3. Understand the market. This is the biggest fear of all in my opinion. And the hardest one to overcome. Lack of market knowledge is the major reason why traders fail, and is the difference between the 5 and the 95%. Many traders think they understand what they are doing, but the truth is they don’t. You have to fully understand what is going on in the Forex market to become a successful Forex trader, and this understanding will greatly reduce your fear.

Fear of the unknown is the hardest fear to overcome. If you think about other types of fear you may have experienced in the past, this will give you an idea of how important knowledge is, in overcoming fear.

Many people may have had a fear of exams at school, because they wanted to do well, but they did not fully understand the subject.

Some people may have had a fear of driving a car, because of a lack of understanding, but now they drive successfully every day.

When you started your first job you may have had a fear of going to work, because you were not familiar with the roles expected of you, but now you go to work every day without fear.

Can you see a pattern here? The pattern is knowledge. Knowledge lessens the fear of all these fearful situations, and Forex trading is exactly the same. Having the knowledge needed to enable you to trade with confidence, will take away the majority of your fear.

How to control greed in Forex trading.

As we have established greed can also play a big part in the success or failure of a Forex trader. There are various types of greed that will attribute to your failure as a trader, but the main one is trying to make money on every market move. Trying to make money from every move in the market will cause you to chase after market moves, and over trade, and if you are chasing the market and over trading you are trading emotionally, and you will lose money. Here are a few tips you can use to help you overcome greed.

1. Make pips not money. Its not how much money you make, its how many pips you make that counts. If you are trading 50 lots per pip you can make £3000 per week from just 10 pips. So don’t get greedy and chase after the big money every week, just concentrate on making pips. When you are consistently making pips, week in week out, then you can increase your lot size to make the big money.

2. Be realistic with your expectations. You have to learn to accept that you cannot make money from every move in the market. You have to be satisfied with the pips you do make, and not get frustrated by the pips you miss out on. Getting frustrated by missing out on trades, will cause you to trade emotionally, and chase after those missed pips.

3. Learn to trade. Making money is a by product of trading successfully, but the majority of traders will try to make money first, and then learn to trade, after they have lost a lot of money. Which does not make a great deal of sense, but that’s what happens. The majority of traders that come to me for training and mentoring, have already lost a lot of money in the markets, before they decide to employ me to teach them how to trade.

Summary. Knowing how to control fear and greed in Forex trading will help you to become a better trader, but the biggest obstacle to overcoming fear and greed is a lack of knowledge. Knowledge will give you the understanding you need, to enable you to trade without fear and greed, and consistently make money from Forex trading. Not knowing how to trade correctly, and chasing after the big money, will cause you to trade emotionally, and ultimately lose you money. Trading is not easy, but understanding the market will help you to control your fear and greed, and make you a profitable trader.

How To Stop Losing Money In The Forex Market.

August 31, 2013January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

Why do Forex traders lose money? There are many reasons why Forex traders lose money, but in this article i will give you 10 top tips on how to stop losing money in the Forex market.

Knowledge is power.

The most important thing that you need to be a successful Forex trader is knowledge. Knowledge is everything in Forex trading. The more you know about the market the more successful you will become at trading.

There are many websites available online that will give you a certain degree of knowledge to enable you to trade Forex, but 95% of these websites are run by marketing companies, or failed traders, so the knowledge you get from these websites will enable you to trade, but they will not give you the understanding you need to enable you to make money from Forex trading every week.

Its a fact that 95% of Forex traders consistently lose money. And the main reason for this is they do not understand how the market really works, because they have never been educated by a professional Forex trader. I am a professional Forex trader and i can teach you how to trade Forex, and make consistent profits week in week out from trading, but my time is limited so i cannot teach you for free. For more information on my Forex training course please click on the link.

If you do not have the funds available to pay me to teach you how to trade Forex, here are 10 top tips you can use to enable you to cut down on your losses.

1. Don’t trade with more money than you can afford to lose.

Putting pressure on yourself will cause you to make the wrong trading decisions, and trading with more money than you can afford to lose will add to that pressure.

2. Don’t over trade.

Over trading can lead to an emotional roller coaster. If you are taking too many trades you are trading emotionally. Trading should be as mechanical as possible. Emotional trading will lead to big losses.

3. Don’t be greedy.

If you have had a couple of nice trades and banked some pips enjoy them. Don’t think you are on a roll and chase after more pips. This often leads to more risk taking and you end up giving back the pips you made, and some.

4. Don’t revenge trade.

Getting back into a position straight after a losing trade is called revenge trading. When you trade this way you are trading purely on emotion, and you are chasing those lost pips. If you have a losing trade, just sit back and relax, and take some time out to re focus your mind.

5. Don’t over expose yourself to a losing position.

Chasing after a losing position is probably one of the worst things you can do in trading. Adding to a losing trade in the hope that the market will come back will cost you big time. Just admit that you got it wrong and close your trade, and move on.

6. Keep a record of all your trades.

Keeping a record of all your trades may give you some insight into your trading habits. Do you trade better in the morning, or in the evening? What is your average win loss ratio? How many trades are you taking per day? How long are you holding your trades for? Understanding your trading habits will enable you to become a better trader.

7. Trade with a lot size that you are comfortable with.

This is a mistake that a lot of traders can make that will dramatically effect their trading performance. If your lot size is too big, you are anxious when you trade, so you close trades too early, and you stop yourself out of trades too soon. If your lot size is too small the reverse happens. So you need to trade with a lot size that feels comfortable, but not too comfortable.

8. Devise a rules based trading method and have a reason for entering and exiting trades.

You have to have a method. You cannot blindly enter the market in the hope that you will get a winning trade. You have to trade based on a rules based method that has been tested over time and is proven to work.

9. Be patient and wait for the set ups.

When you have your rules based method in place, stick to it. Wait for qualified set ups before entering the market.

10. Don’t rely on indicators to give you trading signals.

The majority of Forex traders rely on indicators to give them trading signals. If trading was that easy everyone would be making fortunes from trading, but that’s not the reality is it. If you want to be successful in Forex trading you have to learn to read price action. Price is the most important thing in trading and it always will be. If you understand price action you will be a much more successful trader.

Can You Use Price Action Trading For Scalping The Forex Markets?

August 10, 2013January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

I am a great scalper, and price action trading can be a very successful way of scalping the Forex markets.

What is scalping the Forex markets?

For those of you that are not aware of what scalping is, its basically the process of entering and exiting trades very quickly for just a few pips profit. Scalping trades can last anything from a few seconds to a few minutes. Scalping can be a really effective way of making money from Forex trading very quickly, but it can also be a very high risk strategy if you do not know what you are doing.

Many traders end up as scalpers, as they do not really understand the markets, so they try to jump in and out of trades quickly, and make a few pips on each trade. When you do not understand how to scalp effectively it becomes a very high risk Forex trading strategy, as scalpers tend to have much larger stop losses than other traders, some scalpers even trade without stop losses.

If a bad scalper enters the market at the wrong time, price can quickly move against them, and a series of half a dozen winning scalping trades, can be wiped out with one single losing trade.

How can price action trading be useful in scalping?

Price action trading is all about understanding price, and predicting with high probability what will happen next. To be a successful scalper you need to have a complete understanding of price action trading, this will enable you to enter and exit the markets with precision and take your pips effectively, rather than just jumping in and out, and hoping you make some pips. This type of reckless trading is very stressful and can be very costly, and should be avoided at all times. Trading should be relaxed and calm, and you should be entering the trade logically, and with a complete understanding of what price is likely to do.

Can you teach me how to be a successful scalper?

The short answer is yes. I teach advanced price action trading. What i can teach you is as close as you will get to a perfect trading strategy. That is a bold claim i know, but i am 100% confident in what i do, and my strategy if followed correctly will produce a 90% plus win rate, so if you want to be a scalper following my strategy will make you a great scalper, if that is what you want to do.

When you have completed my Forex training course you can trade how you want to trade. So if you want to be a scalper, you can do that, if you want to be a swing trader, you can do that. Whatever trading style you have, or wish to have, you can apply it to what i teach.

I like to trade based on what the market is giving me. If there is an opportunity to make 50 pips i will take them, if the opportunity is there to only make 10 pips i will take them too. I trade logically, and i take what the market gives me, and to trade that way you need to have a complete understanding of advanced price action trading, which is what i teach.

So yes you can use price action trading for scalping the Forex markets, and in my opinion you do have to have that knowledge to be a successful scalper, but when you do have a complete understanding of price action Forex trading, why would you want to be a scalper and take 3 or 4 pips from a trade when you can take 50? 🙂

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Spread Betting Verses CFD’s Contracts For Difference. Which One Is Best?

July 27, 2013January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

This is a question facing a lot of new Forex traders. Is it better to go down the spread betting route, or the CFD’s contacts for difference route.

First of all let me explain the difference between spread betting and CFD’s.

Spread betting.

Spread betting is betting on the future value of something, it may be a stock, a currency, a commodity, house prices, an event, you can basically spread bet against anything if you broker allows it.

For example: If you believed that gold will go up in the next week, you can bet on the future value of gold by spread betting with a broker. You broker will quote you 2 prices for your bet, a price to buy, and a price to sell, the difference between those 2 prices is the spread, which is the profit made by your broker.

Lets say for example that the price of gold is 100. Your price to buy may be 101 your price to sell may be 99. So you take the buy price at 101. When gold has risen above 101 you are then in profit on your bet, and you can close your bet at anytime and take that profit. If the price falls below 101 then you will be in a loss. The price is constantly moving every second of the day and you can close your bet at anytime that your broker is offering trading in gold, which can be 24 hours per day with some brokers, (excluding weekends).

CFD’s Contracts For Difference.

Contracts for difference are similar to spread betting, but with CFD’s you are buying a contract rather than taking a bet with a broker. You can still take the same trade on gold but you are buying a contract from another trader that believes that gold will go down instead of up. The difference between the buy price and sell price of a CFD is generally a lot less than it would be for a spread bet, as you do not have to pay the buy sell spread offered by your broker.

So if the price of gold is 100 you may be able to buy at 100.1 and sell at 99.9. So you will be in profit a lot quicker by dealing in a contract, as you are cutting out the middle man which is your broker. You still need a broker to deal in CFD’s but you are dealing direct with the market, and not with your broker, so you will get a much better price for your trade. Your broker will charge you a small commission though, for putting the trade through on your behalf. Commissions vary from broker to broker, as do spreads if you are spread betting.

Pros And Cons.

Spread betting is currently tax free, but any profits you make on CFD’s are taxable.

Spread betting will cost you more initially to get into a trade, but there are no commissions to pay.

When you are spread betting you are betting against your broker, and its up to your broker whether he takes your bet or not. Your broker can sometimes refuse to take your bet if he thinks he is likely to lose on the trade.

For example: If a high number of traders are buying gold, and your broker does not have time to cover himself, he may re quote you, so you have to pay a higher price to enter the trade. This does not happen with CFD’s as you are dealing with the deep liquidity of the market, and there is always someone who will take the other side of your trade.

I trade using CFD’s and spread betting, but i only spread bet on instruments with a very tight spread, as i would rather pay a bit of commission and get a better price on my trade.

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What Is The Best Time Frame To Trade When Forex Trading?

June 30, 2013January 10, 2020Rob Taylor

This is a question many new Forex traders ask, but the answer is not as simple as the question.

The best time frame to trade when Forex trading can be down to what each trader is comfortable with.

If you know how to trade Forex correctly you can trade any time frame, from the 1 minute chart, up to the monthly chart. My preferred time frame is the 15 minute chart, but a lot of price action Forex traders like to trade the higher time frame charts, 4 hour and daily mainly, and 1 hour occasionally.

There are pros and cons to every time time frame. For example, your stops and your profit targets will be much bigger on the higher time frames, and the trades will take longer to set up. You can sometimes wait a few days for a set up on a 4 hour time frame, but the same set up on a 5 min chart will come around many times throughout the day. The smaller time frames are more profitable in my opinion, as you can take more trades, and your stops are much tighter.

How reliable are the set ups on the smaller time frame charts?

The price action strategies i teach work on any time frame chart, but a lot of Forex traders only trade the higher time frame charts, as they think that the set ups are less reliable on the smaller time frames. This is a myth, if you are trading advanced price action, the way i teach you to trade, you can trade on any time frame, and the set ups are just as reliable.

The only thing you have to be aware of when trading the smaller time frame charts, is high impact news. If you are trading 4 hour and daily charts, then a news announcement will be less of a problem to a trade on that time frame, but on a 1 minute, or a 5 minute trade, you will more than likely get stopped out by a news announcement.

So if you are trading the lower time frame charts, do not trade them when news is imminent. I have an economic calendar on the home page of the site, which shows the latest news announcements for each country, and their potential impact on Forex prices. If you bookmark the page you can come back throughout the day to check on what news is coming up.

Can your price action training course teach me how to trade the smaller time frame charts.

Yes if that is what you want to do. My Forex training course will teach you how to trade any currency pair, on any time frame, at any time of the day or night.

Any professional Forex trader worth his salt should be able to trade any time frame. If you are paying good money for Forex training then you should get what you pay for.

All my students agree that what i teach, is worth far more than what i am charging for it, but i have to be realistic with my pricing. I try to make my training course affordable to the majority of successful people, that wish to learn Forex trading.

I am not really interested in teaching my stuff to the world. I am just looking for a select group of traders that can all trade together, and help each other achieve their trading goals. Forex trading is not an easy job, but if you have a good support network around you, you will do very well indeed.

So if you are serious about learning to trade Forex, and you wish to be part of my group of successful traders, please give me a call or drop me an email. I currently have 2 spots available for my one to one training and mentoring program. When they are sold out i will not be taking on any new students until August or September 2013 at the earliest. My Forex training course is sold on a first come first served basis.