Trading Price Action Using Your Intuition

Trading Price Action  is truly a game of “gut feel”  ” trading strategy” and “price action charts”

The market is one giant poker game, and not only do you need a good
knowledge of the game itself, one must learn to read the emotion of all the
players at the poker table.

As a price action forex trader, I can only offer my personal trading insights and the things I have picked up
over the years that have helped me with trading strategies and my general approach to reading charts..

I can not give you all of the “gut feel” qualities which is a larger part of the ingredient to long term success, this market intuition and emotional element will only come with learning and trading experience. Nobody will want to tell you this though.
I am here to tell you that no matter what trading strategy you learn, it will require screen time, patience and absolute discipline to trade it successfully.

There are 2 levels to be aware of.
1. Part of trading is the strategy
2. Part of trading is the emotional element, and the ability to read the market with “good intuition and feel”.

There is no mechanical approach that I am aware of that makes money long
term, all methods I trade and that others trade that I know of, use a basic
“rule set”, and basic “trading plan condition” to then use pull the trigger on price action related setups etc.

For example, a trading plan may look like the following…

One might have 3 pre conditions,

1. The chart shows a trend within the last 10 days, price has formed a 1 2 3
reversal higher, and is trading near its recent high.
2. The market has pulled back to a support point
3. The market has now formed a “price action signal” condition to confirm a
reversal which may become the entry point.

These may be criteria in a trading plan, but how do we truly filter this,
and say ” ok I will trade this setup, but I wont trade this one, because
of…etc etc.”

As I say to all my students honestly, the greatest traders are in fact, people that can
have a trading plan conditional element, but then use what I call the “gut
feel element” and the “internal emotional filter’, or put simply, they use market experience and screen time to help make quick on the spot trigger decisions.

Thats just a qucik article on the “emotional element” in trading price aciton, and indeed all trading methods, no matter what the educators say, there is always a degree of intuition and awareness that is taking place in our trading, and its time to learn to harness it correctly.

Think of Forex Trading as a Business

Many forex traders lose their shirt and this is mainly because they are not really prepared to put the time and study into their day to day trading activities.  The concept of Trading and investing in the forex market is like any other business, what you get out of it is relative to what you put into it.
In other businesses you find a market, you learn a skill or develop a product, and then develop that skill or product until it is better than other people in the same business or niche. Trading is the same - it is a business - and if you want to be one of the financially secure you will have to work at it, in the exact same manner as an astute business person. In conventional business you have to be patient, focused, disciplined, very committed, hard working, forceful, and in complete control of yourself and in control of your plans.
To be successful in your forex trading business you can’t be forceful or control the market, all you can do is identify what is happening and go with it to profit, thats not to say that you cant be confident with your trading, but you need to realise early in your career, that you are not bigger than the market, and although you run a trading business within this large market, you are never truly in control of whats happening, or what will happen in the day to day forex market movements and events.
You can never be reliant on tips or one lucky trade to secure your future, nor can you build a trading business using a mechanical autopliot kind of system. You have to continuously work at it until you have developed a trading strategy, and even when you have developed that strategy, it will require ongoing effort and monitoring.
Once you have a forex strategy that works for you don’t keep messing around with it, try to remain very consistant and subject yourself to the trading opportunites it identifies. I have read in so many articles out there on the web that you should keep searching for a different method or system to improve your trading, and I respond to that by saying, ‘ this is complete rubbish’ … rather, I strongly suggest trying to stick with what you have and see it through, you need to give things a chance to work and prove itself.
Successful forex traders know the main part of their trading business is the development of their trading skills not continually looking for the ‘Holy Grail’. When you have a set of trading rules that suit you and you are happy with what you have, you need only improve your skills to implement them, this will take much of the stress and anxiety out of trading and it will become enjoyable. That’s right, trading can become enjoyable once you have faith in your rules and your method.
When you rbegin to remain consistant and disciplined with your thinking, and of course your trading plan/rules, then you can create a dynamic forex trading business that will help secure your financial future or simply make your trading much more enjoyable and relaxing

How to Become Successful at Forex Trading

Most people’s experience in the Forex Market is relatively short and in no way profitable. They hear about the currency market and think it is an easy way to make a lot of money in a very short space of time. Now, I am not saying this can’t be done, because for some this is true, but for the majority it’s certainly not the case. Let me explain in more detail …
In the early stages of most FX trader’s career, the first trading decisions generally come from tips and recommendations from brokers, alert services, forum threads or sometimes even mutual novice trading friends. Then, at some point, traders decide to study the market and attempt to find the perfect system or method to trade with. I am sure you can relate to the following statement; for many traders, the forex market and it’s nuances truly become an obsession that takes up countless hours of searching on the internet and books, forums and DVD’s , in the hope to find the holy grail forex trading system, which they eventually find out, simply does not exist.
Traders develop or buy a system and start trading way to soon. Sometimes it is profitable, but when it has a few losing trades (which is normal), they change the system, read a new trading book, etc. or go back to looking for tips and advice, back to the forums, back to Google, searching for more information. After some time, and after more losses and frustration, most give up and stop trading altogether. Or, they go on the analysing merry-go-round, keep paper trading and never get any financial success from their trading; this is the case for 90% of newbie and intermediate traders.
A few realise that the trading method they are using is not the actually problem and the most important ingredient in their trading is actually they.
In addition, they soon realise that a sound set of trading rules is essential to trading profitably. But if the rules are not followed, they are of no value, and an average trader will have difficulty making a profit with a good trading system. Ironically, a good trader who has skill and a good mind can make a profit with even an average system. Put simply, even with a perfect system, the human mind can stop it making money!
Statistics from surveys of US traders indicate that once a trading methodology is developed by a forex trader, then 80% of the effort in trading is actually trading skills (that includes things like trading psychology and money management).
When the trading system is developed and trading skills are learned, a person starts finally trading properly. Most traders encounter a setback at some stage; either the market conditions change or they don’t follow their rules. However, if good money management is followed, this is not a serious problem. Often, even after winning for several months, after a small set back, many great traders stop trading to evaluate what has happened. This is often a mistake, and is again, the ever-present emotional element which plays in the back of our minds every day we trade. It’s a mistake to interfere with the consistent day to day trading routine, even in the face of losses, the trader has to press on and believe in what they are doing.
Here Some Common Traps Traders Fall Into:
This is where the real decision about the trader’s future is made:
1. They stop trading all together
2. They find a new system, read a new book, and do another course. This can go on forever and successful trading will never happen.
Or
3. They evaluate what really happened. Mostly it will be that market conditions had changed or they didn’t follow their rules.
Then the forex traders who go on to achieve greatness:
(a) Monitor the markets and start trading again but trade small amounts and don’t force trades, they then resume trading normally once they get back on track.
(b) Wait for market conditions that suit their trading style.
This is an important process to go through. Most traders go through this experience 2 or 3 times before they develop the skills to achieve their trading objectives.
Trading success is a result of consistency, discipline and patience and most importantly self belief… When you have a trading plan that involves clean price action strategies, and that is built on practical workable parameters and it suits your personal and financial requirements, and you stick to it, then your forex trading will become more enjoyable and more profitable.