Darren from all over the shop!

My name is Darren Littlewood, I am 43 and live in the UK, Thailand and Spain, I trade for a living and have been trading for 6 years. Before I was a trader I worked as a record producer and as a chef. I am not super intelligent or a highly gifted trader but luckily neither is required to make money trading. I set up this website to meet other traders and of course as a business. Trading can be a lonely endeavour and whatever way you look at it you will need to dedicate a large chunk of your life and time to it if you wish to be successful. I'm an easy going person and happy to help anyone if they want - I never wanted to be a millionaire and still don't, being happy is about much simpler things than money!

 

Hi Stuart, I have been developing this strategy of using the flow of the market and non-discretionary entries for around 3 years. The number of pips is really dependent on the market movement but I average around 100 pips net a week. The idea is to make small consistent gains - if you can be consistent and reduce trader errors I believe you can develop an edge without having to use predictive analysis.

 

Thank you Vanderhyke, are you trading H1 or H4?

 

Hi Vanguardian,

yes indeed this forum is still maintained by me but a combination of travelling and computer problems have made it quiet recently. I take 3 or 4 months a year off to travel mainly SE Asia and usually I continue to trade but more recently I have been having a complete break from trading.

 

Indeed, the plan was to be uploading some new content the week just gone and then I managed to trash my laptop (which i use for all my video stuff)... Hopefully I will get it back this week.

 

shocking how reliant we are on technology now....! when you get cut off you realise everything you do is now online

 

Hi Ed,

Well some of the strategies I have suggested will be an issue because of hedging or timezones but modelling a strategy to get around these issues is fairly easy, what is important is the bigger message. The core idea is that the entry strategy is not the important part, focussing on entries and win rate only creates a massive disadvantage. What you really need is the right psychology - making the right decisions in line with a plan, not getting thrown by losing runs, not getting thrown by winning runs, the right money management - how much to risk on trades, how to manage winners, and the last leg of the table is market condition - can't really predict that but understand that sometimes it will favour you and sometimes it will not (why winners and losers are rarely evenly distributed.)
So if trading from America I would suggest a very simple trend strategy - very basic indicator for direction and a very simple entry system. Something that is easy to follow and with almost no discretion. Then risking a fixed % of your account on each trade, and a management strategy that allows you to get big winners when the market runs and collects some smaller winners when it does not. Something that kicks in around 2R - 4R will be a sweet spot, it will create high returns over a decent sample but the drawdowns wont be too big. It really is as simple as that, the problem comes in that it doesn't win all the time and people let their psychology fail them before hitting the profits.

So in summary theres just 4 important elements are they are ranked in this order:

1: psychology - if you don't execute the strategy well you will never win
2: money management - you have to have a strategy for how much to risk and an exit strategy that insures you keep the win size/loss size ratio where you planned. (dont be lured into 1:1RR trading, it seems appealing but you will never have a life trading this way)
3. Market condition - No real control over this one but have to accept it will have periods for you and against you, you have to stick it out...

4. An entry system - least important, just needs to be very simple and mechanical.

here's my facebook if you want to discuss these points more
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009819888969