Question: Forex Trading Question for Beginners
Question: Forex Trading Question for Beginners
my questions for Pablo Gil are:
- To backtest strategies. Where do I start without knowing how to program MQL5? What platform, builder to use to implement them.
- Why don't I see hardly anyone using trailing stops? I see it as a good way to follow the trend.
- What is the best indicator to know the trend in swing entries? Greetings and thanks.
Answer
I have used the same program for 15 years: Omega Research's TradeStation. Sure there are other great ones out there but this is the one I control and feel most comfortable with. I also have MetaStock but I don't handle it with the same ease. If you investigate this field, take it very calmly because developing trading systems with consistent results is hard work. It takes a long time. The best thing you will learn on this journey will be the importance of discipline and understanding how technical indicators work from a tremendously objective perspective.
The idea of using trailing stops is all well and good, but it poses more technical problems than is often discussed. On the one hand, it is determining which trailing system you are going to use. Here the question will arise as to whether to implement very tight systems like a parabolic or on the contrary something looser like a long moving average. The problem is that the first one will take you out of the operation as soon as there is a 38% Fibonacci correction, even if that does not imply more than a respite from the market and then continue with the trend. The second won't make that mistake, but instead the profit you'll get once you exit relative to what you've been earning at the top of your income statement will seem like very little, which is frustrating. I prefer to take partial profits as the operation progresses.
For swing trading strategies I think Fibonacci is a very good tool, I like it better than technical indicators. But if I had to use indicators I would use a long exponential moving average to define the main direction or trend and the crossover of two short moving averages to determine the cutoff point in favor of the long moving average to enter.