[suzanne]

Hi Everbody, Well, well, where to start! In my first(and last) Forex course, we were urged by each instructor, to use his favorite trading method/time frame. That had us looking at every conceivable indicator combination, as well as the weekly, daily, 4hr., 2hr., hr., 30m., 15m. 5m., 1m., and even tick charts! We were confused and overwhelmed. Many gave up, before ever trading at all. Most of those, who did start trading and persevered, lost megabucks in the beginning, while labelling it additional "tuition" to appease themselves. Since losing real money does a number on my confidence, I set out to find a path thru the "Forex forest" that would be both comfortable and profitable for me. It took me the better part of 2 years to find that path. Books and courses gave me information about the entire field of the Forex. What they didn't do was give me, as a beginner, a starting point and map, so I could figure out how I could find step 1 and get to step 2, etcetera. I didn't give up, because I saw the great potential in the Forex for us all to escape from the slavery of working for someone else, have time to spend with our families and do good in this world. Using my academic training in Adult Education, I became a self-directed student and taught myself. Instead of thousands of pages of material in books, I ended up with about 10 pages of material, that became my step-by-step guide/workbook. I'll share some ideas from it here, as they relate to the discussion. One very basic concept is to assume the attitude of the sceptic. Verify, for yourself, every tip/recommendation offered to you. It's only by checking things out for yourself, that you can become confident and calm in your trading. You are a dynamic (as opposed to fixed/static) personality trading in a dynamic market. Unless you understand that, you will jump in/out too soon, wait too long to exit and second-guess yourself thru the entire process. Also, if you view the market as static, you will keep applying strategies that no longer reflect market behavior. Talk about stress! Time frame only enters into the equation, here, if you are trading in a time frame that's not suited to your personality. You can get a hint by considering this: If you view making time-pressured decisions as an exciting challenge, you may be happy daytrading. If it takes you until the next morning to think of the "perfect comeback", you'll probably be happy swing-trading. There are many profitable moves in every time frame. (IMHO, scalping and daytrading has been pushed in the media because brokers make more, the more frequently the trader trades. Unfortunately, not all of us do our best trading in short-term time frames.) Once I determined my personality was better suited to swing-trading, I was able to eliminate a bunch of info, focus on the relevant and take the next step on the path. I discovered it was better to use only a couple of indicators, but 1 had to show me the trend and the other had to show me short-term movement. I find the 4 hour chart very useful for entry. Check it out. Suzanne