You should notice a pattern in my evolution as a trader. My manual trading experiences have been moving up the time frames, even though I got into trading because of forex robots. First, I tried scalping on the lower time frames, then day trading on the H1 and H4 time frames. Since I hadn’t really been able to find a way to fit trading into my lifestyle, my next stop was the daily time frames.
Daily Chart Trading
I thought trading the daily time frames was only for big players with large trading accounts. I thought this because on the daily time frame you need to use a larger stop loss than on the lower time frames. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that you can be just as profitable trading the daily charts. Then, when I learned more about money management, I understood how this type of trading can be traded for nice profits on a smaller account.
When you are on the lower time frames you can use a tighter stop. This means that price does not have to go that far in your favor to pick up some nice profits. Price also does not have to move that far for substantial losses as well.
The higher time frame’s price needs to move more to get the same results. While you usually end up placing less trades than you would on the lower time frames, the setups are stronger and can be just as profitable over the long run. You do need to have patience in both waiting for the right setup and letting the trade develop once you get into the market.
Basically, I was drawn to trading strategies where I looked for trade setups once a day, at the close of the daily candle. This made things simple and quick because I only had to make a decision once a day and actually had the time to look at the charts and decide if this was a setup I wanted to trade. On the lower time frames, things happen a lot faster and you have to make a quick decision.
Due to my experiences with day trading, I already had some trading tools built that I could use with the daily chart strategies. I particularly liked using a Trade Management EA to manage the trade after it was placed. I would place the trade, set up the Trade Management EA to move the stop to breakeven, take partial profits or lock in profits, and I was done for the day.
Example Daily Chart Strategies
Here are a couple of examples of systems I use to trade the daily charts. I think you can see the potential here for profits.
So, was trading the Daily charts the end of my Forex trading journey?
Well, not really. You see, while trading the Daily charts has a lot of what I want in a trading system, I still was not satisfied with it. Quite frankly, it can be a little boring and you still have to be very disciplined to trade this way. You can be in trades for a very long time, going up and down. It can take its toll on you emotionally.
Automating Daily Chart Trading Strategies
In the beginning of this series, I said that my journey began because of forex trading robots, but that robot development should be the the END of the journey, not the beginning. After going through my scalping and day trading phases, I believe making robots to trade on the daily time frame is for me. The daily time frames are more stable than the lower time frames and the setups are stronger. Making an expert advisor to trade the strategies would allow me to set up the accounts and walk away from them completely.
I know it might sound strange to want to automated a daily time frame strategy that is quite simple to trade. But the truth is, watching the big pip swings up and down bothers me. Using a robot would fix this problem and I’m sure some years would be very profitable trading these strategies.
Entry and Exit Rules
Moving Average: Simple – Close Period 3 Shift 3
MA Period 1: 3
MA Mode 1: 1
MA Price 1: 0
MA Period 2: 5
MA Mode 2: 1
MA Price 2: 0
RSI: 14
The rules: Enter when the candle crosses and closes on other side of MA and RSI is already crossed above the 50 line. Exit when the EMAs cross in the opposite direction.
Basically, this is a 3/5 EMA crossover with an RSI filter.
In the mean time, tell me what you think about swing trading or trading off the Daily time frames. Have you thought about automating a Daily time frame strategy before?