Organizing Your Trading Day

I start my day with no bias. I’m neither

bullish nor bearish.
No.1 Economic Calendar (I do this FIRST
because I am most likely not to do this
because I favor the charts. KNOW THYSELF.)
Price-based traders too often *dis* the
news. I don’t trade news but respect it as a
PSYCHOLOGICAL event that creates
volatility!
Differences between consensus number…
“whisper” numbers (the quiet minority)
Know the different numbers (consensus)
that may be discounted.
Check multiple sources.
- Forex Factory
- FXStreet
- Baby Pips
- Breifing.com
Also, be sure to get the pulse of the market
via StockTwits stream or Twitter, CNBC,
Bloomberg TV.

No. 2 Trading Times!

“WHO” financial centers. Sydney - Tokyo -
Singapore - Hong Kong - Paris/Frankfurt -
London - New York “who’s awake???”
Who is participating in the price action?
www.BIS.org
London is 800lb gorilla. Biggest player.
Dollar-correlated majors
EUR/USD GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CHF
Comm-dolls
USD/CAD NZD/USD AUD/USD
For me a “majors” = trade against the U.S.
Dollar with reliable correaltion
What events (when) effect the dollar?
Price movement. The “normal” cycles of the
day.
Pips each pair moves on average per hour…
project how many pips it typically.
24hr forex day into one hour segments…
Rhythm or Cycle was same…
Frankfurt/Paris (Europe) 2:00am EST (New
York) slight increase in pip movement, a
wider range and a higher amount of pip
movement. 3:00am EST, another push in
pip movement…who was entering the
market?
Europe
U.K.
Overlapping with Asia
Volatility/Movment slows between 4am
and 7am
Asia…very quiet…low pip movement
session. Lowest of daily turnover among
three significant financial center overlaps
Consider the Comparison:
8:00am to Noon EST - Europe/U.K./U.S.
versus
8:00pm to Midnight - Asia
Economic releases occur 8:30, 9:00, 9:15,
10:00 EST - effect the dollar, effect risk
appetite and risk aversion
PRIME TIME = 8:00 to Noon EST
4:00am EST…as Asia closes for the day. 3-4
hours of quiet time…until New York

No. 3 Directional Bias

What is the market trend on the daily time
frame?
Daily? IMHO. It’s the most psychologically
significant time frame. Bullish or Bearish
opinion…get it from the DAILY. Most
watched - most psychologically significant.
Market Trend = Market’s Psychology
Fear, Greed, Bored, Confused. It’s that
SIMPLE!
Downtrend, uptrend, narrow sideways,
wide/volatile sideways.
Choose direction…and what time frame.

No. 4 Market Trends & Clarity.

Specific time frame that I want to trade
must be showing clear psychology.
TRIAGE. (sorting, comparing to find where
psychology is clearest.)
Clarity of the 34EMA Wave
- smoothness (organization)
- established (psychology is set)
- respected (only applies to trends. Did the
Wave offer support/resistance?)
Your entry strategy is based upon the
market environment/psychology.
Same for indicators…
Trending environment = Stochastic no
good…
Sideways environment = Moving Averages
are confused…

No. 5 Levels are “in play”

Support or Resistance = Entry, Target(s),
Stop-Loss. PRICE!!!
Psychological numbers
Past horizontal sup/res
Trendlines
Fibonacci retracement/extension
Pivots
Wave
Chart Patterns (support, resistance,
trendlines)

One of three possible REACTIONS “in play”

1. Acceleration. 2. Stall. 3. Reversal.
Which it will be??? Look to the underlying
psychology of the market.
Buy or Sell at that level.
e.g. Uptrend - support - BUY
No. 6 Proximity. Volatility.
How close is a price level to being reached?
In one to two hours…
100pips GBP/USD - reachable
100pips USD/JPY - not as likely
This has much to do with the economic
calendar, market overlaps.

No. 7 Harmony.
Correlation is to dollar and other
commodities. (My forex market pulse)
EUR/USD GBP/USD AUD/USD
Opposite USD/CHF
USD/JPY - Dow & dollar
USD/CAD - crude
AUD/USD - commodities (crude, to a lesser
extent gold)

U.S. Dollar, EUR/USD long, USD/CHF

long??!!
No harmony

USD/CAD loonie is strong - USD/CAD down -

loonie is strong when crude is strong as
well…harmony
EUR/USD and U.S. Dollar move opposite!!
Dollar is strong - weakness in EUR/USD
Connection to futures (specifically forex
market pulse) and forex is key!
U.S. Dollar
Crude Oil
Dow Jones
Cont. Commodities Index
(*Gold) XAU/USD

This is FOREXTRA…