Mickey's Journal

[kiravon]

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50 pips up and add on PO placed at break of AIMS

ej aims.PNG

[kiravon]

CHFJPY.PNG

[kiravon]

ej aims.PNG

[wiseambitions]

Sorry there's no thumbs up system to like a post, but I do enjoy reading yours and thank you Kiravon

I'll have to study them in greater depth. the HA candles are intriguing, I have used them in the past.

The last chart is cool Aims, but I wonder what gave you the confidence to hang in there, you waited for a downward break of aims levels rather than let yourself get stopped out by frequent touches of the green line. That's the sort of thing I keep looking at. Sadly the times and a few other clues are missing because bottom and sides have been chopped off. Is it this week? I will put up EJ on h1 on my charts soon and see what else is going on with the templates I use.
PS I do think it's this week, and the clue to hanging on that long trend could be my 50/6 EMAs or else a histo MACD at 6.50.50. Cheers

[kiravon]

Hello Ray

I think I got out at cross of red on that one.

after a 260 drop presumably courtesy of Italy its
bounced up again - I may enter at the next PB
see below screenshot

In the meantime I have been having some real problems with my broker IC Markets
so have really had to rethink the whole broker situation

choice of broker is very subjective. I am very happy with IC but if you read their reviews
you see there is only one recurring complaint and its not cheating per se. yes trades do dissappear
without trace and IC are not always helpful when this happens but I am certain this is not
intentional. Simply put, there are no problems with mt4 unless you live in europe in which case
trade execution can take minutes rather than milliseconds! this same platform problem is the
cause of the other more serious problems

and it may not be possible to get out of a losing trade! as you see this is not exactly a glowing recommendation!

However there seem to be no complaints whatsoever for CTrader users. There rating now is around 4 stars
but if they were a CTrader only broker they would be 5 star rated - although they may not have many clients
without mt4 obviously. They have been around since 2007, very well established and they are one of the biggest
brokers out there, well regulated etc.

I would happily simply switch to CTrader but as far as I can see there is no trade manager for Ctrader

so you have to use an independent program to calculate position sizing which is a pain.

So the alternative is to find a highly regarded MT4 broker

I have already trialed scores of brokers in the past and most stop hunt pure and simple except Hot Forex
who don't stop hunt, they just ignore TPs which amounts to the same thing.

So I limit my choices to FPA rated brokers with over 100 reviews and 4 or 5 star rated
( btw I know many here use GKFX due to tax advantages but I couldn't ignore all their one star
reviews )

Then I filter them

Are they well established and regulated? Getting your money back is top of the list!

Are they offshore? It reveals a less than open and transparent mentality that is far
more likely to cheat their clients somewhere down the road - see filter 1

Does not offer very high leverage or bonuses - this is the hallmark of a cheating money maker, not
a serious broker.

of the several hundreds of brokers to choose from we are now down to less than the fingers of
one hand!

( and if I have overlooked a broker who meets the above criteria please let me know )

ATC
GlobalPrime
IC Markets
ThinkMarkets ( ThinkForex )

Lets start with ThinkMarkets. I've had an account with them for a long time with no problems
and their customer service is outstanding!

and their Thinktrader platform has a very institutional feel about it and offers OCO trades

ATC -
Really no major negatives here, their reputation is impeccable although minimum $30 commission
and minimum $5,000 deposit will deter the smaller players.

IC Markets -
discussed above, they would probably still be my first choice if I can sort out trade manager on CTrader

GlobalPrime -
Just reading all the five star reviews on FPA is so refreshing. Good execution on MT4 with my trade manager,
established since 2010.

I would ideally prefer to stay with IC because they are one of the big players but I need at least reasonable execution
speed and the convenience of an integrated TM which would point to GP.

I will see how I get on with CTrader

I'm obviously not promoting any of the above but it's possible that my research might be of interest to some
although of course everyone has their own criteria which might lead them in a different direction, for
example my choices are either Australian or US. I simply have not found any UK brokers that even begin
to meet my criteria.

ej.PNG

[kiravon]

really practicing with Ctrader and it certainly is a very professional
piece of kit with many excellent features, - moving SL and TP and you
see the $ amount you will win or lose etc, trader sentiment displayed at all times
you don't even have to click on anything.

but I don't actually need any such features - what matters most to me is money
management so I need a trade manager which is actually more valuable than
all other indicators put together.

Unbelievably Ctrader has no way of incorporating a trade manager despite constant outcries
from it's users.

Almost as pitiful you cannot overlay indicators which is something I rely on

also IC Ctrader commission is 9% whereas MT4 is only 5.5%


Ironically GlobalPrime 's MT4 execution is ok but not that great

and I've found that IC is much better on live accounts - their demo's are almost unuseable
in europe

but using my live account with a far superior computer is virtually the same as globalPrime
which takes away my only reason for switching to them.

and as regards GlobalPrime there are some perceived negatives

it all seems to revolve around an incredibly nice guy named Jeremy, you really get the feeling
he is GlobalPrime!

and worse he recommends a sister Forum for all GP clients to exchange ideas etc

- a handful of clients only have ever visited this site!

alarm bells!

If IC endorsed a forum to discuss IC or MT4 related issues they might have a million visitors!

yes Jeremy is almost certainly one of the really good guys but there is safety in numbers.

so if IC MT4 live account remains stable I really see no competition, at least based on available
evidence - but I'm open to any suggestions, - there may be someone I've overlooked.

[acceleratum]

Well all I can help is share my experience:
GKFX I use only demos so I can have same feed as everyone here while I was training strategies and still do, works perfectly on demo, not sure of live account, they did have some gaps once in while, like 3 or 4 in this last year that lasted a minute or two, which I noticed but might be because of demo, also some differences in price action (compared to xtb), more noticeably on events like the brexit but I guess no broker is the same.

For my Live account I chose XTB.com simply because of the few brokers that are regulated in my country and registered in the regulation entity here. They offer their platform which is cool but doesnt allow installing any kind of extra indicators or managers, and Mt4 is supported which I use and never had problems with them, They do have quite alot of negative reviews in other countries but here its all good and I havent seen anything negative about them, they provide support and are registered in several european countries. They provide lots of education seminars, tutorials, webinars almost every day covering the major events, and a traders talk service in real time on their platform, they have local telephone support and their staff is all very nice, the execution is instant and theres only small slippage on the higher volatility periods, the leverage is fixed at 1:200, and in the pro accounts you get stp market execution and price. (theres no ecn brokers here unfortunately).So I dont know whats the bad reviews about but I never had any problem with them. Also have a social platform for whoever is into those copying other traders things and payback systems on pro accounts etc.. they offer all the services you can find around.

Other broker that I hear good about is pepperstone, but they are not locally registered here so for legal purposes I cant really invest there.

[arjanbg]

What would you guys recommand for the Netherlands. I was thinking of making an Alpari live account. I am currently with XM. Preferable I have a broker which is regulated, ECN proved, and has a sharp spread on DAX30.

[kiravon]

Thanks for that Pedro. Evaluating brokers is quite a science, it really isn't straightforward at all. I found GKFX on demo to be a bit sticky on execution but that was when we were all trading Fruit on M1 - that was difficult enough without the platform freezing! I would imagine higher time frames would be ok. They don't stop hunt at least and the tax advantages are not to be sneezed at. Yes there are a lot of 1 star reviews but even they need to be investigated carefully. How is it that the same broker can receive dozens of 1 star and dozens of five star reviews at the same time?

and as you say, so often the complaints are geographical, often with Asian and African clients feeling the most hard done by.

Interestingly ATC have almost exclusively 5 star reviews and the reason to be is obvious - $5,000 minimum deposit attracts more serious traders who take responsibility for their own trading mistakes and don't resort to blaming the broker for their losses.

I liked XTB when I trialed them, particularly they offer Polish currency accounts, but I wanted to use Skrill but that has to be USD account plus 2% fees which defeats the object. but they also have a lot of very mixed reviews.

I have finally made a breakthrough with the Ctrader platform - it is extremely professional for professionals.

The only drawback isnt a drawback - you cant install thousands of indicators - only the few very basic standard ones.

Thats because professionals don't clutter their charts with indicators, many not using indicators at all! and I suspect they don't touch EAs and robots etc.

So I am fast coming round to staying with IC because all their very many reviews from clients who use Ctrader tend to be 5 star rated, although ironically now their MT4 live platform is working fine and their web trader, whilst basic is very fast. But Ctrader grows on you and gives you confidence

[kiravon]

.
I've made over 1,500 pips on USDJPY on demo since September and that convinced me that the less I have to do the more I will probably earn

I have just opened a position on EU

It is lower than at anytime in last fourteen years and has just broken last year's lows.

This is one of the most convincing AIMS setups I have taken. I'm hoping to let it run into the new year if possible.

Break of AIMS and I hope some are starting to get you need to break prior AIMS as well ( what looks ok on the daily isn't enough! check the monthly and you see you need to break the 2015 AIMS level too otherwise it will likely just reverse on you.

of course it still might but waiting for a complete break of all Lows must be sensible

eu 16.12.2016.PNG