I Had to Take an Extra Trade! -- IFCN Wk 10 -Wed- Equity: $508.87

I couldn't help myself.  When I see money just laying there on the ground, I have to pick it up.

In the midst of my trading day, I was handed a "Sure Breakout" trade that I couldn't resist to take in the Forex Challenge account.

It was a breakout from a very narrow 66 pip / 40 hour range in the USD/CHF pair. I bought 1425 units of USD/CHF @1.1042 and exited @ 1.1102 for a targeted 60 pips. The attached chart will make the reason for the trade and the exit clear.

At least the trade improved the account equity a little-- now at $508.87.  Total risk for the trade was only 30 pips, with the initial stoploss placed at --1.1012.

Markets tend to travel in multiples of the ranges they break out from. I didn't discover this concept. The market does it all by itself.

W.D. Gann was the first trader to discover and write at length about the phenomena.  I think every trader should get a copy of "How to Make Profits Trading Commodities"-- his premiere work.  Even though at first glance the book may appear dated, and the material seems to only dwell on commodities like corn and wheat-- there are many unique trading tools that are only found in this extremely valuable volume which apply to all free markets.  Including Forex.

One of them was the proofs of how mathematically precise future movements are based on previous ranges.

Tomorrow we have Canadian and US Trade Balance reports @ 7:30 CST. The news may help tip the market into some direction for Friday. A good OneNightStand trade or two would be welcome.

Best wishes on your evening.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent.

A Useful Phenomena! IFCN Wk 10 -Tue- Equity: $501.11

Followers of FirstStrike now have the rest of their week free. 5 trades and stoplosses taken in quick order. This is also a good time to mention a side benefit that this style of breakout trading can bring to a certain segment of trader.  

Maybe you!

Current Equity: $501.11

On Monday we got filled on the following FirstStrike trades:

• eud/usd: SELL 1.4504, stop 1.4564. Had 23 pips of profit after entry.
  
• gbp/jpy: SELL 208.05, stop 208.65. Had over 120 pips profit at one point!
  
• gbp/usd: SELL 1.9422, stop 1.9482. Had 20 pips of profit after entry.
  
• usd/chf: BUY 1.1043, stop 1.0983.  Had 3 pips of profit after entry.
  
• usd/jpy: SELL 106.59, stop 107.19. Had 46 pips of profit after entry.

These trades have all been stopped out for 60 pips loss each.

A Useful Phenomena

If you check back at all the past trades made by FirstStrike usually more than 90% of them gain 10 - 20 pips before their protective stop gets hit. There are shorter-term traders who take advantage of this momentum effect.

Note that I am not recommending anyone to take up this style of trading, but to each their own. The reason these trades have such high reliability is because there is a lot of money looking for a direction to trade at the very beginning of the week. The follow through on Monday breakouts tends to be greater than most days of the week.

If you target 20 pips profit and keep the 60 pip stoploss-- the percentage of win level you need to beat to have a winning strategy is 75%. If you win more than 76% with this short term strategy over the long run--- you have a great winning strategy!!!  (Example: if you took breakouts with the 20 pip profit-target and 60 pip stoploss--and had an 80% hit-rate, you would average 4 pips a trade. Increase your hit-rate to 85% and you would then be gaining 8 pips per trade.)

To make it trading, you have to consider all possibilities! Check out your favorite trading method with the following tool--- fill in the appropriate boxes, it is simple.
Equity Curve Random Generator

Millions of dollars could have been saved by traders if they only used this simple device.

Have a good week.
Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me which address you would like it sent.