What are our BEST trading method principles?

@daveatt thanks boss.

2/ I thought you missed this one mate!

3/ good to know!

4/ I know, I just wanted to know if the signal was still valif IF we did not took it before. So lets refrain the question to make it more general:

• if I wake up and look at the chart and there has been a signal that closed at break even or at a stoploss, should I still enter if I get a good opportunity? I haven't been burned by the signal so for me it would be just a normal signal.. Would you still take a trade like this?

@bobmarley
I moved that topic here and created the trading method in the #trading method forum
Otherwise, my original post is getting lost :)

2/
Sir, it's the weekend. Please have pity :)

3/
I changed weeks ago the rules about events. The Algo indices are so accurate that waiting 30 min before/after is a bit too much.
Of course, risk management prevails and: (let's note that the US open is a HIGH/MAJOR event)

• if in a trade before a HIGH/MAJOR event and in profit => SL/BE at least
• if in a trade before a HIGH/MAJOR event and not in profit => try to exit before Rather than that, we can even take a trade at 9:32 PM EST (2 min after the US open) once the first 1-2 minutes are elapsed. That's where we see the scam wicks generally

4/
By the way, if you were following the rules as explained, we had a 30+ pips move so your stop should have been to breakeven and never ever you should have taken this 50 pips stop.
That 50 pips stop is because you didn't follow the risk management rule to protect your position once it starts moving (as I replied Friday) and posted in that forum originally December 30th

@daveatt can you answer my previous question? Thanks :)

@daveatt today there was a trade given in a time where we where not allowed to trade because of the news. (from 1530/1630) It would have been a break even trade. After that it moved down to around -50 pips from entry.

Ofcourse we did not take this trade because of the news, but is signal still valid after 1630?

@armandovanderbie
20/30 pips are coming from our method on Indices.
We say basically on Indicies to set your SL/BE after a 20+ pips move. The rest for the TPs is up to you guys (even though we provide a bit of guidance here regardless)

Some traders are looking for 100 USD a day, others 500 USD, and others even more.
I'm not the one to tell what your goals should be. I'm only saying that a few hundred pips per day with Indices is at the reach of anyone dedicated to unlearn all the public trading knowledge bullsh*it and try a more algorithmic method.

What has this to do with taking profit at 20 or 30 pips?

Thanks for your answer at 2/3.

@armandovanderbie
But why does it depends on the traders his or her goals? We all want to make as much profit as possible right?
Some traders are looking for 100 USD a day, others 500 USD, and others even more.
I'm not the one to tell what your goals should be. I'm only saying that a few hundred pips per day with Indices is at the reach of anyone dedicated to unlearn all the public trading knowledge bullsh*it and try a more algorithmic method.

2/
It happens a lot that there is a profit of 80/130 pips or something like that, if we take profit at 20/30 we leave a lot on the table. How would you have traded this one?

By having 2 levels of Take profits. You can take a first TP closing 50% of your position size and then trail your stop as long as you don't hit a big MTF SMA/Daily Pivot.
The 50% is up to you and the number of TP levels also.
I cannot answer that one for you because it depends on what you prefer in term of trade management between:

• TP1 closing 50% and SL/BE then trailing your SL until the next SMA MTF/Pivot
• Only trailing your SL and taking your TP whenever we hit the next S/R I would also take the TP if there is a giant wick giving me instantaneous many pips.

3/
So using a trailing stop to breakeven and letting the rest run makes more sense to me instead of taking small profits and cutting the big winners. I must say that I have mostly looked at the data of the last 2 weeks and that in normal circumstances profits of 100+ might be less common, I don't know.

With live trading, you don't know when taking the trade which one will be a big winner or invalidated.
Even if you don't partial TP, you can at least set your SL/BE after a 20+ pips move and take your TP whenever.

Your image is showing a perfect setups indeed. But most of the times, we'll be near SMAs blocking our way and price action will often act as follow:

• hitting the SMA
• reversing back and going beyond your breakeven point
• you punching yourself for not collecting a few pips on that trade. Basically, you would have done a trade for nothing.

However, on the trade you're showing, I agree when there is nothing near well...

• 20+ pips SL/BE
• Trail stop every X pips (depending of your goals)

Also, Profits of 100+ pips were very common as we kept hitting new all-time-highs consistently.
When Indices are analyzed as a whole (meaning using 2-3 indices), it's obvious there is some money to be made and probably most are losing their time (for now) with crypto.

Conclusion:

• You must trade at least 2 indices so that they'll hedge each other. => My favorites are DAX and DOW
• Trade with micro-lots if possible to learn the method
• Set yourself a daily goal to start of 100 pips per day. If you're not making them yet, stick to it. Once you make 100 pips, STOP FOR THE DAY

It's very likely we give back our gains so once your daily goal is made, stop.
This rule requires some self-control but that's the basics of trading.

If you're bored and want to do more trading for the day, keep going in demo or read some trading books or watch videos, etc.

• Then after a few days of making that score consistently, move up your goal to 150 pips
• Then after a few consecutive days with 150 pips, move to 200 pips and so on and so forth.
• Once you get comfortable making a few hundred pips per day, you can start increasing your pips value progressively with the same mindset.

🔸 Once you'll accept that trading is a profession that requires practice and dedication, accepts that all the public knowledge is dedicated to liquidate you, and are willing to learn how to manage your money following strict rules, you'll be on the right path.

🔸 I probably don't have the best trading method and I personally don't care.
It's something that works for me, my friends, my clients and even people not used to trading are using it. Once they put the work and ask me questions, they progress really fast.

Taking a profit at 20-30 pips is up to the trader and his/her daily goals.

I understand that later in the day we should take profits earlier, and if there is news coming out in the near future we should take profits faster than normally. But why does it depend on the traders his or her goals? We all want to make as much profit as possible right?

It happens a lot that there is a profit of 80/130 pips or something like that, if we take profit at 20/30 we leave a lot on the table. How would you have trade this one? Or is this what you mean with depending on the goals. Me myself would rather have a few of the larger wins each day than a higher winrate. So using a trailing stop to breakeven and letting the rest run makes more sense to me instead of taking small profits and cutting the big winners. I must say that I have mostly looked at the data of the last 2 weeks and that in normal circumstances profits of 100+ might be less common, I don't know.

Most of the rules below apply to trading in general not only to our trading method.

Those aren't recommendations but what we do for our own trading (and explain why we're still trading today, as they saved us so many times)

🔸 Which timeframes?
Indices: 1 min
Crypto: 5 min
Forex: 5 min
Universal (Stocks, Commodities): from 30min to 1 hour

🔸 Should we buy all green signals, sell all red signals?
Yes and no. (Did you expected an easy answer? ⁾
Examples of times where I would think deeply before trading

1/ Depends on the time of the day also
if it's Friday afternoon (or weekend for crypto)
if macro events are scheduled during the day - especially for
indices...
2/ If I'm not able to monitor
We all took those trades before going to bed and woke up multiple
times at night to check on our phone how liquidated we are + the GF
was shouting at us for being so dumb

🔸 I'm tired. should I trade?
Trading could be a profession and a hobby. Regardless, it's an art.
Even very skilled traders often perform poorly after a bad night of sleep/being sick/with personal issues.

Do I need to elaborate more?
Body fatigue => Mind fatigue => Monkey brain trading for you and not following your/our strict trading rules.
You're the one deciding when you should trade. Just sharing that I take into consideration my current fatigue in my position sizing (or even to trade or not)

🔸 Wait for pullback near EMA 20 if: (note the near)

• Signal near algorithmic supports and resistances point or daily pivots + we didn't touch recently
• Signal opposite leading trend direction.

🔸 Wait for a bigger pullback if:

• We're touching for the first time(s) major timeframes algo supports/resistances
• Talking about the Simple Moving Average (SMA) Daily/Weekly/Monthly
• They're insanely strong and very often the candles will bounce.
• The bounce might not be right away after the touch
• It could touch and then the candlesticks will stay near that S/R for a while. Even keep touching it again and again

🔸 Should we close all postions when vertical brown line prints?
Close or minimum SL to BE + eventually (partial) TP if not already done.

🔸 What the Stop loss should be?
For indices: the hard exit
For crypto: the hard exit
For stocks/forex/everything using our framework Algorithm Builders: the hard exit
But the real stop loss is the hard exit.

You can use your custom user-defined stop-loss/take profits from the built-in Trade Manager obviously. But if the hard exit happens before your own exit system, then the hard exit primes.

We built the entries relative to the exits and vice-versa
What does it means?
Essentially, the exits are that good because the entries are superb. The exits are great because the entries are well-defined.
Using our entries without the hard exits isn't recommended (to use an euphemism)

For indices m1, we use 50 pips for a double-layer security
The 50 pips is an additional protection on top of the hard exit.
The hard exit should almost always be fired before the Stop Loss to exit with a minimal loss.

🔸 Where should we take profit? Should it be on those multi-timeframes S/R and pivots?

1/ Yes, but whenever we have a move of 20/30 pips on Indices, I activate a trailing stop setting at least my Stop Loss to breakeven even if we didn't touch an S/R.
Taking a profit at 20-30 pips is up to the trader and his/her daily goals.

✋✋ 1 bis/ Stop Loss to breakeven if we touch an S/R with big timeframe (>= H4 or >= 4 hours) is (as the candles could reverse on any of them)

2/ Because not losing is by far greater than anything else in trading. When we constantly don't lose at least, we're way above the majority of traders losing

3/ Depends also on your own daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly and life goals