What Is The Best Way To Be Successful in Forex?

What are the best ways to become a successful forex trader? These results are taken from a Moneytec poll that had over 6,000 respondents and are ordered by most votes first.  My comments follow each result.

1.  Study by yourself and get experience - Over 45% of the respondents said this was the best  way.  I have to totally agree with this and is what I've been doing for the last year.   One point I'd like to make is that you don't have to do it all by yourself.  If you can find a trading partner who has the same drive and motivation as yourself, this could be even more beneficial.  
2. Develop your own system - Over 25% voted for this but I think this goes hand in hand with #1.  If you are studying by yourself and want to get more experience, developing your own system is an absolute must even if you never use it.
3. Learn from a mentor - 15% said this.  I think I've stated my views on mentors clearly in previous posts.  Mentors are what you make of them.
4. Open a managed account and monitor it for education - 5% voted for this.  I personally have never tried this method.  I did just hear last week that you can open a managed account with Raghee Horner called Autotrade FX.  You open your own account at TradeDirectFX and it mirrors her every buy and sell order.  Interesting concept but I think difficult to learn from.  You see all the buy and sell orders but no rationale behind them.
5. Hire a portfolio manager - This was voted as the best way by 2.65% of respondents.  I don't get it.  I'd rather be self-sufficient and how do you know who to trust.
6. There is no way to become continually profitable in forex - 1.51% negative respondents to this one.  The jury is still out on this for me personally.  I hope I don't come to this conclusion.
7. Get signal alerts by subscription or live from a guru - 1.09% voted for this.  I don't know if this helps or not.  I don't like it though.  Who do you trust with the never-ending list of scammers out there.  If you want to listen to someone else though, there are plenty of sites where you can get free trade calls and technical analysis.  In fact, there are just too many out there to choose from.
8. 
   Get Analytical reports and Make your Judgement - Less than 1% chose this response.  Sound very similar to #7.  The analytical reports are basically going to tell you which way to trade so making judgment calls here is probably kept to a minimum.  Not for me.
9. 
   Buy Software or Strategy Description - Less than 1% chose this response probably because this too is very similar to #2, developing your own system.  If you are going to trade forex with TA, you need software and you need a strategy.

Link to Poll at Moneytec

Popularity: 2%

Big H-system win today

My H-system generated a long signal this morning at around 3 am.  I went long 3 lots on the GBP/USD.  2 positions closed out already for a net profit of 60 pips.  The last position is still open at +100 pips with a stop at the last 30min candle low so I'm pretty much guaranteed a total profit of 160 pips on this 1 trade.  

I'll also be trading what I call the R-system which is really nothing more than following the simple support/resistance, fibonacci, wave rules set forth by Raghee Horner.  This system is definately a discretionary system since different people draw different support and resistance lines and fibonacci retracement lines.  I don't follow all of her rules but I used Raghee's as a base for mine.  I'll post these rules later this week.  I've found in my year of trading forex, I always come back to this support and resistance break type system.  

I got a long signal using the R-system this morning on the 4-hour EUR/USD chart so I went long 2 lots with 2 different profit targets.  1 lot has already closed out at a profit of 26 pips.  The other is still open and up about 30 pips so I've set the stop loss to break even.  

So it's been a good day so far before the US session even gets going.  +186 pips. 

Popularity: 2%

Thirty Days of Trading by Raghee Horner

I have to admit that I'm an avid reader of just about any "legitimate" forex content that I can get my hands on.  If a new forex book is published, I'm one of the first to read it.  I know some people think that one book is good enough but I just enjoy reading. 

I ordered Raghee Horner's new book "Thirty Days of Forex Trading: Trades, Tactics, and Techniques" from buy.com last week and received the book yesterday.  I've always enjoyed Raghee's commentary, webinars, and also her previous book, "Forex Trading for Maximum Profit." Here's a partial description of the book on Amazon:

…she shares her experiences in this field by chronicling one full month
of trading real money. First, Horner introduces you to the tools of the
forex trade, and then she moves on to show you exactly what she does,
day after day, to find potentially profitable opportunities in the
forex market.

The introduction of the book is a Raghee brain dump of her trading methodology.  She talks about her main indicator, the Wave, support & resistance, fibonacci numbers, the MACD, and pivot points.  She also gives a general overview of the forex market and also how to execute trades using a particular platform.  My problem with this chapter is that I feel she is trying to endorse certain products in a way similar to James Dicks' in his book "Forex Made Easy."  I don't know if Dicks' is a scam artist but I've heard he is a bit shady.  Raghee attempts to push an introducing broker where she probably gets a cut of the spread.  This just turns me off so I just skipped over this crap.

The remaining 30 chapters of the book are a rough trading journal broken up into 30 days.  Let me get into the good first.

I thought that I knew everything there was to know about how Raghee traded but reading through her trade journal produced some additional information I had never heard from her before.   One such thing was how she traded during the news or hot zones as she calls them.  If she gets a setup opportunity before an important news release, she doesn't ignore it.  She will take the trade and then use a 60-second stop once the news is released.  She does this by getting rid of any stop orders she may have and then she waits for the 60 seconds to expire after the news release.  She still mentally keeps the stop in her head and if after the 60 seconds, the price is below her stop in a long trade or above her stop in a short trade, she will exit the trade.  She does this to clear out the emotion typically exhibited during the first minute after an important news release.  If after the 60 seconds have expired and her stops were not hit, she will once again set a stop order at the levels she had them at before the news release.

Raghee really likes the use of fibonacci retracement or extension for her profit targets.  A rule she uses in conjunction with figuring her profit targets is the 10-12 pip rule which says that if a certain support/resistance level is within 10-12 pips of her entry, she will ignore this level and use the next level.   So if you entered long at 1.3012 and the .618 fibonacci level is at 1.3019, this level is not used as a profit target because it is only within 7 pips of her entry.  She will use the next level, the .786 fibonacci as her 1st profit target.

What didn't I like about the book? There were a couple of things, one of those being that I feel like she didn't really address money management in her journal.  She does mention it in the introduction but never mentions whether a trade had proper risk/reward for entry.   The charts were also pretty hard to follow because many times they weren't on the same page that referenced them.  They were also in black and white.  I don't know much about publishing but for $85.00, you would think that all or some would be in color.  (I didn't pay $85 which was retail, I paid about $50) If they weren't going to color the charts in print, they really should have included a picture of every chart on the CD that comes with the book.  I thought including the color charts on CD would be common sense but obviously not.  The CD just contains some videos similar to what you will find in her webinars.

While I found her explanations for trade entry, stop and limit placement satisfactory, I found that she didn't mention the end result of most of her trades.  Only if a trade opened and closed on the same trading day did she sometimes mention it.  I was constantly asking myself, "What happened to the trade she made yesterday." This may have been by design but I just felt like her trades could have been much more organized.  She could have numbered each trade and at the least, included the results of each and every trade on the CD or in an appendix.  

With the good comes the bad and I don't want to give everyone the impression that I didn't enjoy this book.  I read it in under a day so I must have enjoyed it! I just felt like it could have been much more organized.  I don't regret buying it because I did learn some important lessons from it, hopefully lessons that I can use in the future.  

If I had to give this book a rating from 1 (worst) to 10 (best), I would give it a 6. 

If you're interested in reading more about the book or buying it, go to Amazon. 

Popularity: 2%

Trading the Forex Wave

In this months issue of Stocks & Commodities magazine, Raghee Horner writes an article called, "Trading the Forex Wave" which is very similar to her webinars and books.  I did learn some things from the article though which is why I'm mentioning it.  For one thing, I have to commend her for her consistency.  Never has she swayed from her method of trading.  In addition, she keeps everything pretty simple with a touch of technical analysis and discretion.

If you have not read anything from Raghee, I'll explain her main analysis tool which is "The Wave." The wave consists of three lines, the 34 EMA of the high price, the 34 EMA of the low price, and the 34 EMA of the close price.  "The Wave" in the following picture are the 3 pinkish colored lines:

 

 

 

 

This Wave is used primarily as a tool to see if the market is trending or heading sideways.   This article talk mostly about momentum so therefore, what we look for in the Wave are 3 lines that are pointing towards 3 o'clock if the chart was a clock.  In the above example, before the price breaks up at the end of the chart, the Wave shows that the market is sideways.  Raghee trades this in the following way.  

1. She draws all of her trend lines first before trying to identify any chart pattern such as triangles, pennants, rectangles, wedges, flags, head & shoulders, or rounded tops/bottoms.  She states that drawing first will prevent you from forming a pattern that may be in your mind.  "Look hard enough at the clouds and you'll see a bunny; look hard enough at the charts with a specific pattern in mind and the pattern will appear."
2. She will then wait for the price to break the upper wave line.  She may go long once the price breaks above this upper wave line but in the above example, there is a trend line that cuts down through the wave.  Therefore, she would wait until the price breaks this trendline.
3. Once the price breaks the trendline or the upper wave line if no trend line exists, she will then reference the MACD histogram.  She uses this as her confirmation tool.  If the histogram is above 0, she will take the long trade.  If it is below 0, she would not.  She would not wait for the candle to close since she uses the MACD histogram to confirm that the pattern has been pierced.

Here are a couple of other points she makes.

There are 4 market cycles at any given time: 

1. Accumulation (consolidation)
2. Distribution (congestion)
3. Mark up (uptrend)
4. Mark down (downtrend) 

• Congestion and consolidation patterns should only be used in sideways markets
• Exit positions based on significant support or resistance levels

Popularity: 8%

Mastering the Forex Market

Raghee has a webinar this weekend, Saturday, June 17th at 1 pm EST.  This webinar is called, "Mastering the Forex Market" and the description provided by the email was as follows:

Your host Raghee Horner will reveal some of her best and most profitable techniques for keeping your
currency account profitable. You will not want to miss one minute of this all
new most valuable online seminar series.

I will probably not attend because I've been to a few of her webinars and they are all pretty much the same.  I registered anyway just in case it's a rainy weekend and I have nothing to do.  For those of you that have never attended, it's worth it to always educate yourself furthur.  Take advantage of it, it's free.

To register, go to:

http://www.hotcomm.com/virmeetCID_ARR2.asp?CID=MZ6EXZ&MID=HM4HG2  

Popularity: 1%

Free Raghee Report for 2 Weeks

Want to see how Raghee trades? She is allowing free access to her new Raghee Report for 2 weeks.  I checked it out today for a little bit but not enough to comment.  Any resource like this is useful even if you never use her method.

To access the site, you will need a username and password.

Username: saturday

Password: super 

Raghee, if your reading, I hope you don't mind that I'm sending some visitors your way…

Popularity: 1%

Free Raghee Horner Webinars This Weekend

Raghee Horner announced today that she will have 2 webinars this weekend.  The first is called "Setting Up Your Entries with Advanced GET Charts."  This webinar allows you to watch as Raghee walks you through the three type of entries she uses. The second is "Master Order Execution with Raghee Horner" with a description as follows:

Raghee will share her entry techniques using eSignal's Advanced GET charts
which attendees of this FREE WEBINAR can get free through TradeDirectFX*.
Advanced GET charts will allow you to set up the Wave, draw trendlines, support,
and resistance as well as use all the Fibonacci retracement and extension levels she uses every day. 
See set ups of momentum trades, swing trades, as well as Raghee's Wave/CCI
trade and learn specifically when to use each.

Both webinars are this Saturday, the first at 1 p.m. EST and the second at 4 p.m. EST and are FREE. I've been to her previous 4 webinars and found them all very beneficial if not for her commentary also for the contacts you meet in the room.  

I've already registered for these 2 events.  I would recommend you do the same.

Click Read More to see the attached email with register details. 

[Read more]

Popularity: 3%

Encouraging Words from Raghee

I’m alive and eating solid food! 

I was delighted and surprised to receive inspirational words from Raghee Horner the other day.  Here they are:

Hang in there…you’re trying some new things and its when you are getting close that the setbacks often seem the greatest. Keep it simple…you already know that. You shared some great insight as well as your ups and downs…kudos for your frankness. Anyone who says they haven’t been there too is just fooling themselves. If I can be of any help, please don’t hesitate.

Popularity: 3%

A Forex Trader Speaks His Mind

I’m posting an email I received from a fellow participant of Raghee Horner’s webinars today.  He has been utilizing Raghee’s methods for the last year and goes into the successes and failures he has had with them.  Keep in mind that he is a beaten down trader who started out with $30,000 and now has $3000 left.  I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says.  I don’t think because 1 person is unsuccessful at something that no one else has a shot.  One of his final sentences is "Do not think you’re going to realize your dreams by day trading."  I don’t believe this and won’t believe this.  I feel like his story will be beneficial:

I would say her setups happen quite a bit if you scan all the pairs. I am not good at position trading or sitting on trades, so I found it really hard to utilize the large time frames. I like to be in and out, a day trader. Her system is like any system, it gives you a method for entries and exits. Each entry has 50% chance of moving in your direction and her method gives you a slight edge or helps you gain a higher probability of being on the winning side. No trading system is consistently profitable, your either on the winning side or your not. The key is to get in when your system tells you to, act on your systems signals, utilize stops or get out as soon as the trade tells you it’s not going in your direction.

Click [Read More] to Continue 

[Read more]

Popularity: 5%

Read more Raghee Posts

Raghee webinar visitors!  Read my previous posts regarding Raghee especially the posts regarding her  EZ2Trade software where if you buy it directly from Divergence Software costs extremely less than $195 a month.

Raghee Horner Previous Posts

Popularity: 4%

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