Tag: Scaling

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Forex Basic Strategies

Trading the Forex Market Without Using the Stop-Loss Order

A stop loss is an order placed by a trader on any underlying asset, the order remains until the price action reaches that specific point, then it automatically executes a buy or sell order in the market. Trading the markets without a stop loss is dangerous. However, by placing the stop loss, traders can easily […]

A stop loss is an order placed by a trader on any underlying asset, the order remains until the price action reaches that specific point, then it automatically executes a buy or sell order in the market. Trading the markets without a stop loss is dangerous. However, by placing the stop loss, traders can easily […]

A stop loss is an order placed by a trader on any underlying asset, the order remains until the price action reaches that specific point, then it automatically executes a buy or sell order in the market. Trading the markets without a stop loss is dangerous. However, by placing the stop loss, traders can easily eliminate the emotions from their trading decisions. In your trading carrier, you will often hear about the traders who never use the stop-loss orders, and they continually make money in the market. They rely on the no-stop loss forex trading strategy, and some of the traders succeed, and some don’t. The traders who win consistently in the markets are emotionally intelligent; also, they spent an endless amount of hours on demo trading to master the strategy well. Another most critical skill they learn is Accurate Thinking, and they don’t see things the way they are, they see things the way things are.

Not Using The Stop Loss Have Some Advantages In The Market

In dead markets hours when none of the trading sessions is active, at that time, most of the forex brokers wider their spreads so that they can avoid the scalpers to move the market. In that time, if your strategy gives you the trading opportunity, a widening spread can easily trigger your stop loss. During the opening hours or the high political news events, markets are quite volatile, which sometimes prints unexpected spikes in the market that ends up closing your positions and markets happily moving in the directions you predicted.

No Stop-Loss Trading Strategy

Keep in mind that trading without the stop loss is only applicable for intraday trading only, and it is advisable that use this strategy only on the lower timeframes because markets are random and it’s risky to let your positions to run overnight in the market. Like a gambler, you need to keep watching your trades until your trades hit the take profit. If you are beginner traders, then we don’t recommend you to use this strategy to trade in the live market, first of all, spend two to three months on the demo account to master this strategy and then give it a try on live markets.

Trading The Markets With The Moving Average

From beginners to advanced to chartists to market movers, everyone uses the moving average once in their lifetime. Even chartists and professional traders use this indicator in their everyday market analysis. Moving average defines the current market trend, spot trend reversals; also, it indicates the buy and sell signals. When the indicator is above the price action, it means that the trend is down, and then the indicator goes below the price action, which shows that the trend is up. Many traders and chartists use some other form of technical analysis in conjunction with the moving average to identify the trading signals. You can pair it with other indicators; also, you can use the higher period average with the lower period average to find the best entries. This strategy only works in the trending market, and we suggest you avoid using it in the dead, volatile, and consolidation phases.

Buying Rules

  1. In an uptrend, go long when the 7 MA crosses the 14 MA to the upside.
  2. Exit your position when the red candle closes below the 14period MA.
  3. No need to place the stop loss.

As you can see in the below image of the USDCAD 15 minute forex chart, the markets were overall in an uptrend. Our strategy gives the first trading opportunity around the 27th of February, and exits were also the same day. Our early trade gives us 30+ pips profit. After our position exiting the market provides us with a trading opportunity in the US session, we took this example from the recent market conditions, so our second trade in still running. By now, our second trade is up by 100+ pips. By following the flow of the market, you can easily make money, without placing the stop loss. You can see in the below image that the market is not even dead and volatile; the markets were moving in a relaxed and calm manner, find these kinds of markets to spotlighting the outstanding trading opportunities.

Selling Rules

  1. In a downtrend, go short when the 7 MA crosses the 14 MA to the downside.
  2. Exit your position when the green candle closes above the 14period MA.
  3. No need to place the stop loss.

The below NZDCHF forex pair indicates the selling opportunities by using the Doube moving average. The markets were in a strong downtrend, and it gives us the first trading opportunity on the 25th of February around the London session. After our entry price action dropped immediately and printed the brand new lower low. The very next day market gives the second selling opportunity in the London session. On the same day, the opening of the New York session indicates us to close both buying positions when a green candle closes above the 24 periods MA. Both trades help us to milk 80+ pips in just two working trading days.

The below image represents the 3rd and 4th trading opportunities in the NZDCHF forex pair. We activate the 3rd trade in the New York session on the 27th of February, and the last trade was taken in the Asian session on the 28th of February. Both of these trades are running successfully, and we are in profits of nearly 200 pips. Now, all we need is to wait for the green candle to close above the 14 periods MA so that we can book profits. You can use this way to exit your position, or you can use the significant support resistance areas to book the profits. The MA lines also act as a dynamic support resistance to the price action, and the more, the higher the period we choose, the stronger the S/R will be. So when the price action crosses the 14 periods MA, it indicates our trading party loses its power, { buyers in buying side, sellers in selling side } so it’s the best time to close our position.

Conclusion

We believe that by now, you can understand that it is possible to trade the market without using the stop loss. All you need to do is to put in the extra work required to find one of the best trading opportunities to make some consistent money. In short, Activate your trades only in active trading hours, no trade in dead or volatile market conditions also avoid choppy or ranging market conditions. Find out the super smooth trend in any instrument and wait for the price action to meet the rules of strategy to take trades.

Keep Milking The Markets, Peace.

Categories
Forex Risk Management

Why Scaling in Might Be a Bad Idea

If you are already in a winning trade, is there anything else you can do to father navigate its course to your benefit? One of the best techniques in position management used by trading professionals, scaling out, is based on the idea that a trader should withdraw part or half of the money at a […]

If you are already in a winning trade, is there anything else you can do to father navigate its course to your benefit? One of the best techniques in position management used by trading professionals, scaling out, is based on the idea that a trader should withdraw part or half of the money at a […]

If you are already in a winning trade, is there anything else you can do to father navigate its course to your benefit? One of the best techniques in position management used by trading professionals, scaling out, is based on the idea that a trader should withdraw part or half of the money at a particular moment in a winning trade, move the stop loss to break-even, and keep the remainder running until the point when either the trailing stop, exit indicator, or stop loss finally closes the trade. However, what would you do if you faced retracements while going long for example and the price changed direction? Would you put more money in although you are already in the middle of a trade? The answers to all of these questions are closely related to another term – scaling in that, in contrast to scaling out, essentially entails adding another position to an already existing trade. The understanding of this topic is what will help safeguard your trades against some common challenges as well as guide you through a running trade.

If a current trade is doing well and approximately a hundred pips later a retracement occurs, is a trader advised to double down? This question is equally applicable to trades that really take off because it essentially involves doubt about whether anyone should take on more risk. Although the trade in this case is a fruitful one, is investing more money a good or a bad idea? The expert opinion generally advises against entering an additional trade after you are officially in another one. Although some traders may disagree, the facts supporting this standpoint are numerous.

Firstly, if you have developed a system, or working towards designing an algorithm, you probably understand how crucial entering a trade at the best possible time is. A trade that exhibits an unstable and unpredictable behavior 20 or so pips down the line is certainly not the one you should ponder. Traders often feel compelled to make irrational decisions because of the fear of missing out (FOMO). Entering a FOMO trade, however, reveals the psychology of traders who take actions based on emotions, rather than trusting the systems they have worked hard to develop. Such emotion-driven trades inevitably lead to numerous and often repetitive losses, which is the exact opposite of what you need to grow a forex trading account.

As we cannot assume which direction the market is going to take and for how long, we strive to create algorithms on which we can rely. Moreover, since we test out each indicator we use, there should be no fear of trusting a system which has proved to give good results more often than not. Even if you notice some mild changes a while after you entered a new trade, simply allow the system that you built to take care of the trade for you. Therefore, there seems little to no reason why anyone should consider adding on. If such a decision revolves around fear or greed, the prospects of getting far in this market are very low. A trade that appears to be bad right from the start will never render any good results and risking more money at this point would seem like a truly reckless decision leading to a gloomy outcome. Furthermore, with the option of choosing between so many currencies, opting for a pair that cannot bring about any positive results also cannot have a logical explanation.

If you are in a winning trade going long, how would you react if you got another signal from your system? Should you trust your confirmation indicator and take action accordingly? A confirmation indicator signaling you to long is actually telling you that it first went the other way. For example, a zero-cross indicator would give out a signal to go long (above zero) only if it crossed the zero line and went below first. Of course, if this happened, why would you stay in such a trade? As this confirmation indicator told you to short, you actually received a signal to exit (see picture examples below). Although this is not the best option you can find, confirmation indicator can definitely serve as an exit indicator as well, and especially if it is giving you a clear sign to exit, it is in your best interest to recognize it and act upon it. Therefore, no matter how successful a particular trade is, following a signal blindly, without proper interpretation, leads to nothing but failure.

Above, we see two long signals suggesting that we add on in the areas above while, in between, we get another short signal.

Consequently, whether you are adding onto a losing or a winning trade, the result is almost always the same. Instead of being impatient and hungry for money and success, strive to create a sustainable system that will safely operate in the back so you can let go of all the stress. As an alternative to trading fueled by emotions, learn how to base your trade on the system you have invested in creating. What is more, learn to interpret and trust your indicators because their purpose is to protect you and get in and out of trades in the most optimal point of time. As opposed to scaling out, which should become part of all traders’ plans, scaling in is an unwise strategy that leads to loss more often than not.

If you want to earn a profit continuously, you should strive to support yourself with tools that can grant you that. The idea of amassing a fortune overnight, though, will impact your trading and ability to learn and prosper. Leveraging up by adding on to a winning trade only equals more risk that will most probably get your account in a position from which you will hardly be able to get out. Not only is it a risky maneuver, but it also appears not to be a very smart one. If you have a goal you want to reach, you will accept time and effort as two preconditions to fulfilling your dreams. As it appears, there is little room, and certainly little hope, for quick solutions and related mentality.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Is Sharding the Future of Blockchain Systems?

For the past few years, there has been a lot of hype surrounding blockchain – a technology believed to be one of the pillars that will support the 4th industrial revolution. Well, the craze around this revolutionary technology is justified, given the immense benefits it offers to every major industry. To be more specific, data immutability, decentralization, and security; are just some of blockchain’s fundamental properties fuelling the interest in this new technology. 

For the past few years, there has been a lot of hype surrounding blockchain – a technology believed to be one of the pillars that will support the 4th industrial revolution. Well, the craze around this revolutionary technology is justified, given the immense benefits it offers to every major industry. To be more specific, data immutability, decentralization, and security; are just some of blockchain’s fundamental properties fuelling the interest in this new technology. 

For the past few years, there has been a lot of hype surrounding blockchain – a technology believed to be one of the pillars that will support the 4th industrial revolution. Well, the craze around this revolutionary technology is justified, given the immense benefits it offers to every major industry. To be more specific, data immutability, decentralization, and security; are just some of blockchain’s fundamental properties fuelling the interest in this new technology. 

However, there is a general sentiment that blockchain has failed to live up to its hype due to the scalability problem. This explains the slow adoption of blockchain technology, even in industries such as the financial sector, where it’s well suited for use. 

The scalability problem is evident in Ethereum blockchain, which currently only processes less than 20 transactions per second. This leads to high gas prices and hence the cost of executing a transaction, as well as latency problems. Fortunately, sharding and its various iterations have proven to be a viable solution to the persistent scalability problem inhibiting blockchain adoption. 

What is Sharding? 

Sharding can simply be described as database partitioning. The concept isn’t unique to blockchain. In fact, It has been in use since the late 90s as a way of splitting large databases into smaller and manageable datasets. A good example of sharding is in a business where customers’ databases are grouped into geographical locations or age groups for efficient data management. 

Similarly, this concept is extended in blockchain. Essentially, the blockchain network is a large database with numerous nodes/validators that verify data stored in the network. Through sharding, the blockchain network is broken into smaller chunks, commonly known as shards. A set of nodes is then tasked with verifying data on an individual shard instead of verifying every data on the entire network. This way, the computational and storage workload is spread out across nodes, leading to increased throughput of transactions and lower latency. This helps to overcome the scalability problem. As such, the ledger entries are public, only that they are not processed and stored by every node. 

Types of Sharding 

There are several iterations of blockchain sharding, which are often classified in terms of the level of functionality. Below is a review of each type of sharding:

I) Network Sharding 

Network sharding is the most common type of sharding. It involves dividing the entire blockchain network into several subnetworks, with each consisting of one shard. All shards within the network process transactions in parallel, consequently increasing the performance of the entire network. 

However, this type of sharding poses a risk of one node gaining control over a majority of shards, which can lead to attacks or manipulation of the network. A possible solution for this problem would be to use a randomness mechanism to help assign nodes to a particular shard. Merkle tree root of transactions, in this case, can be used to facilitate public randomness to keep a node securely on one shard.  

II) Transaction Sharding 

Transaction sharding is an improvement of network sharding, whereby besides splitting the network into subnetworks, it goes further to divide transactions into groups which are later routed to different shards for authentication. 

III) State Sharding 

On state sharding, the entire ledger information is divided and stored in different shards. This is similar to dividing the state of blockchain into multiple states where each can process transactions independently and interact with others. 

Risks of Blockchain Sharding 

Sharding sounds great in theory, but its implementation is not as straightforward. There are several concerns that arise.

First, sharding can only be implemented on the Proof of Stake algorithm since it has active validators which can be randomly assigned to different shards. Proof of Work (PoW), on the other hand, relies on hash power to validate a block. Therefore, it’d be expensive in terms of hardware and electric power to alter any block.  

If sharding was to be done on the PoW algorithm, it would be feasible for a bad actor to accumulate enough hash power in a particular shard to manipulate the network. This is because by splitting the network – sharding – the hash power is also divided in the process. Therefore, it’ll be easier for bad actors to collude their hash power on a single shard and take control of that particular shard. 

Even when using sharding on Proof-of-Stake algorithms, there still exist challenges. One of these is maintaining inter-shard communication. Often, when nodes are assigned to a specific shard, all the associates of that particular node view the shard as an independent blockchain system, yet it’s just a segment of the larger network. In such a case, establishing inter-shard communication has proven to be difficult, requiring special efforts to develop communication systems. Even with the few inter-shard communication systems, most of which are yet to be rolled out into the market, they all have to sacrifice one of the key properties of blockchain – decentralization, and security – to achieve efficient communication. 

Also, as stated earlier, there are different forms of sharding, with each approach featuring its own pros and cons. This has led to a conundrum among industry players in terms of deciding which approach to take. 

The Future of Sharding 

Sharding has its own share of challenges slowing down its effective implementation, but it still presents an opportunity for solving the wider scalability problem facing blockchain technology. As Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin once said, it’s impossible to maintain the two fundamental properties of blockchain – security and decentralization – when trying to solve scalability using sharding. His sentiments can be extrapolated to mean that, for now, the blockchain space has to rely on sharding for the maturation of the technology, and maybe with time, new approaches will be designed such that they don’t compromise on blockchain’s fundamental properties. 

In fact, social media giant Facebook under its Libra coin project recently acquired Chainspace – a blockchain start-up focused on sharding. Probably this suggests that Facebook’s Libra coin project may be considering using blockchain sharding to increase the coin’s throughput. It’s further predicted that with Facebook’s interest in blockchain sharding, new complementary technologies will be designed to solve some problems such as cross-sharding communication, to deliver the necessary scalability. 

Conclusion 

Scalability is one of the roadblocks hindering blockchain’s mainstream adoption. With the borrowed concept of sharding, technology has a better chance of finally replacing the traditional data infrastructures. However, the blockchain sharding still struggles with a few bottlenecks that need to be ironed before this happens. With big data companies such as Facebook showing interest in the technology, we can anticipate that the solutions to challenges facing it will materialize soon. 

Categories
Forex Basic Strategies

Scaling Positions Using The Pyramid Trading Strategy

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

You would have heard most of the successful traders and market gurus say ‘let your winning trades run.’ That is very true, but do you know how to do that? You would have probably asked this to yourself many times. In today’s article, let’s understand a strategy that helps you in turning your small trades to big ones using a strategy called Pyramiding.

This Forex Pyramid Strategy helps you in increasing the chances of making consistent returns as a Forex trader. Using this strategy, we can scale our winning position and make the most of the trend. This strategy cannot be used in every market situation. If you do that, it will be the most destructive thing you do to your trading account.

Pyramiding our trades work very well in trending market conditions only. To make consistent returns from the market, we need to buy or sell strategically to add to an existing position. Always remember that when we are right, we must be really right, and when we are wrong, we must cut our trades immediately. The concept of this strategy can be applied to both long and short positions.

We can get a basic idea of the pyramid strategy from the below image. Here, we can see the price action printing brand new higher highs and lower highs continuously. The market is clearly breaking the resistance line and taking that line as a support. Note that the price action must break the resistance line with strong power. The price should also show the sign of holding at the support line.

The key to successful Pyramiding is to have a proper risk to reward ratio in place. That means our risk should never be greater than the reward. So if our target is 50 pips, our stop-loss must not be greater than the 25 pips.

Rules to Trade the Pyramid Strategy

🏁 Pick a market that is in a strong uptrend and wait for the price action to break the significant resistance area. Let the price test that resistance line as support.

🏁 Go long when the market gives you a buy signal. You can even look out for the appearance of any bullish candlestick patterns like Engulfing, Dragonfly, or a Bullish pin bar, etc.

🏁 Let that trade run because the market is in a strong uptrend.

🏁 Then wait for the price to break through the second resistance line and retest it as strong support.

🏁 Notice if the price is holding at the support line, and if it prints any buying candlestick pattern, go long again by extending your buy position. Make sure to trail your stop-loss after taking the second position.

🏁 Repeat the same, and do not forget to place your trailing stop-loss orders just below the entry points.

The same is vice-versa when the market is in a downtrend and when we are going short. By following this, we have built a good amount of buying position with minimum risk involved. Also, as discussed, the key to successful Pyramiding is to maintain proper risk to reward in each of the trades. As a thumb rule, our risk must never be greater than half the potential reward.

Trading The Pyramid Strategy

Market Identification - Strong Uptrend or Downtrend.

The below price chart represents the AUD/CAD Forex pair, which is in a strong uptrend.

To understand the strategy better, let’s consider a $10,000 trading account. In this particular pair, we decided to buy two mini lots on a retest of each of the levels. The take-profit for each trade is varied as per the market conditions, but the stop-loss for each new position should not be more than 15 pips.

Market Entries

In the below chart, we can see the market broke through a resistance level. We have decided to buy 20,000 units right after the price took the broken resistance line as support. In a few hours, we have observed the price action blasting to the north and broke a new resistance level. The price again started to retest the level as new support.

At this point, we decided to buy 20,000 more units. You can see that the buy order 2 in the below chart indicates the second trade, and we have trailed the stop-loss below the second position. We found the trend to be super strong still, so we let this trade to run for the deeper targets.

On the 5th of February, the price again broke through a new resistance level and retests as a support area. By seeing the uptrend’s strength, we have bought another 20,000 units and placed the trailing stop-loss order just below the third position.

We did a lot of buying up until this point and built 80,000 units in one single pair. So the real question by the end of the third position is how much of our money is at risk? Nothing. The worst-case scenario would be us making 10% profit by the end of the third position.

Final Trade Set-Up

In the above chart, we can see the final trade setup of all the three trades we took. By the end of all the three trades, we made a profit of 28 percent. The profits on each of the trades have compounded throughout the process, where the risk in each trade remains the same. Overall, we have generated 12R, 10R, and 6R in the first second and third trades, respectively.

Conclusion

Never forget that the pyramid strategy works very well only in the trending markets. Also, try to avoid using this strategy in volatile markets. Pyramiding is a great way to compound our profits in a winning trade. Knowing when to use and when not to use the pyramid strategy is the crux here. Hence it is advisable to read the different market situations on a demo account first before using this strategy on a live account.