Technical Templates

[jack mason]

I & the other regulars have also found the material posted on the Technical Templates threads over at Babypips to be an invaluable additional source of information to the stuff posted on this thread.

I second that comment wholeheartedly!

This thread + those 3 are responsible for where I'm currently at in my trading journey!
Thank god for consistently reliable, common sense trading information.

You really do have to be incredibly selective with what you read & absorb on Babypips though, as you do with most of these public trading forums.
I've been browsing that place on & off for nearly 2 years & constantly have to sift through an endless stream of utter rubbish. It certainly attracts it's fair share of ego maniacs & hot air merchants, some of whom definitely love to hear the sound of their own voice
Quite often it's a case of far too much quantity & not nearly enough quality. But considering most of them are nothing but novices I guess that's to be expected.

Are Tess, Jocelyn & Jimmy the original posters to those Template threads Jay?
and do you all work for the same firm?

The activity has tailed off noticeably from the main guys over the past 18 months, as it has with the recent influx of thread posters.

Such a shame because the content on that thread is very closely corellated to the material on here, & it dovetails nicely as a cross reference option, which obviously explains why you, Jimmy & Carll have added your input to this work.
Why did all you guys & girls reduce your input Jay?

[jjay]

You really do have to be incredibly selective with what you read & absorb on Babypips though, as you do with most of these public trading forums.
It certainly attracts it's fair share of ego maniacs & hot air merchants, some of whom definitely love to hear the sound of their own voice

Oh yeah, there are a couple of huge ego's strutting around in that joint, as there are in most of those types of venue. Unfortunately the noise-to-signal ratio is often very high which tends to dissuade those who have something genuine to offer from participating on a regular basis.

Are Tess, Jocelyn & Jimmy the original posters to those Template threads Jay?
and do you all work for the same firm?

Jimmy, Tess, Jocelyn, Sean P & Andre Mayer are the original contributors.
apache, myself & another poster swung in & out for a while until our live room began to grow legs.

Yes, we all trade for the same group of backers. There are 19 of us who rotate between the UK & US, trading a variety of instruments & bringing a host of different skill sets to the party.

The activity has tailed off noticeably from the main guys over the past 18 months, as it has with the recent influx of thread posters.
Why did all you guys & girls reduce your input Jay?

The people we work with instigated a dedicated forum for clients during early 2008 & such was it's popularity a live, interactive trade room was included shortly after. As it became busier so our activity on Babypips declined.

That thread seems to attract the more articulate & switched on forum members over there, so they tend not to be as needy or dependant on our constant input.
Most of the common technical questions regarding the framework/structure can be confidently addressed by those regular followers who have quickly grasped the concepts & put them into practice.

So much so that 2 of them (Carll & catcher) now trade various sub accounts for us & another (Kevan Reynolds) will apparently be hooking up with Tess, Sean & a couple other colleagues early next year.

We'd be a little concerned if the thread was overly active with constant questions or repetitive set up examples as it would suggest the material was complex & difficult to assimilate.
The true test of a successful technical framework is the ease in which it's adopted & operated by those capable of identifying simple, non-complex, effective templates in the first place.
Evidence & feedback from both forum moderators & thread followers suggests the formula of the content & presentation was/is pitched about right for those more savvy individuals who show adequate levels of intelligence, initiative, drive & common sense.

[goldtop]

Evidence & feedback from both forum moderators & thread followers suggests the formula of the content & presentation was/is pitched about right for those more savvy individuals who show adequate levels of intelligence, initiative, drive & common sense

Well that description rules out in excess of 95% of mainstream trading forum posters immediately then!
Judging by the typical selection of posts & comments on there, the majority couldn't spell common sense, never mind apply it when it comes to trading profitably.

Little wonder the failure rate in the retail community is so consistently high if the average Babypips contributor is a reflection of the statistics.

I can see how maybe somewhere like this forum or perhaps Global-View would attract professionals because they're not heavily clogged with the usual numpties, pipedream chasers, jawboners & inflated ego's like the mainstream toilets such as T2W, EliteTrader, Forex Factory & Babypips.
But I'm quite surprised that Tess, Jimmy & you guys would even bother frequenting a place like that jjay.
What inspired you lot to actually take up on there if you don't mind me asking?

[jjay]

Little wonder the failure rate in the retail community is so consistently high if the average Babypips contributor is a reflection of the statistics.

I don't disagree with your views, especially the common sense bit, but to be fair to Babypips it's primarily aimed at entry level participants. The main function is to introduce trading to people who are either curious or investigating whether it's a viable hobby or part-time endeavor.

Sure, there'll be the rare exception where one or two will gun for & realize loftier ambitions, but they'll be very much in the minority. Plus you're going to get a varied collection of differing experience levels thrown into the mix too. But on the whole it's a novices forum & that will reflect the quality of most of the content.

But I'm quite surprised that Tess, Jimmy & you guys would even bother frequenting a place like Babypips jjay.
What inspired you lot to actually take up on there if you don't mind me asking?

The girls pitched up on there in early 2007 after a couple of clients had continually hassled the management to provide an outlet for the more "active" investors who wanted some solid, practical advice/information about trading some of their spare (non-invested) capital.

It was prior to our backers starting up our own forum/live room.
The clients settled on Babypips after sniffing out the other sites because they liked the atmosphere & eventually persuaded the girls to start a thread to assist with their ambitions.
That's basically it.

A few more forum members bought into the material & it expanded from there.

Not long after, we got the private facility where we could invite other industry colleagues in to share information, tips, tricks & valid set ups/preparation material suitable to all risk & volatility conditions that we/they weren't prepared to divulge on a public forum….hence the addition of the live, interactive trading room which now attracts a pretty decent regular audience right through the 24 hour clock.

The original few clients left the Babypips forum & continued the process in our new private facility & the girls maintained a low key presence to facilitate any questions or queries.

Silver lining on the TT threads was Carll, Kevan & catcher. It's doubtful we'd have crossed paths with those guys had it not been for the Templates threads.

Carlybonner, another thread viewer & occasional contributor, also now trades other folks investment capital after introducing herself to the girls & networking our contact base.
We've run into the likes of DoubleEcho, dancat & more recently stop runner (three experienced industry professionals) & a guy who posted under the nick; crosshairs – he actually worked for a short spell with Tess & Jocelyn's father in a 1st tier US Investment Bank back in the late 80's when Forex really was the wild west!!

And to be honest, most of the contributors who've frequented the 3 threads, & continue to do so, are ok guys who have added value to the material.
Like I say, we've been fortunate that the thread/s have attracted the more switched on members on there.

There's certainly sufficient information across those threads to accommodate any new curious visitors to the content. Plus enough competent regulars to address any queries.
That kind of renders us semi-redundant

[jack mason]

Yes, we all trade for the same group of backers. There are 19 of us who rotate between the UK & US.

The people we work with instigated a dedicated forum for clients during early 2008 & such was it's popularity a live, interactive trade room was included shortly after.

Obviously you guys won't be using retail fx brokerage shops to place your trades jay, so what type of outlets do you all typically use to get your trades away & in your experience, are they available to highly capitalized individual traders or a small (3-4) collective?

And when you say live room, is it like a chat facility with a whiteboard where live charts are shown in a webinar type environment?
Also is it strictly for the use of clients & industry colleagues?

Thanks.

ps: happy 2nd birthday to the thread!

[jjay]

Obviously you guys won't be using retail fx brokerage shops to place your trades jay, so what type of outlets do you all typically use to get your trades away

Hey Jack,
The guys have had a long standing tie in with Fimat (now trading as NewEdge) & therefore we route a large percentage of our spot & options business through their New York office.
http://www.fxedge.com/content/fx/en/home.html

We also dial into other shops, including vcap & mfglobal for specific and/or complimentary strategies depending on client requirements, time horizons & specific trade parameters.
http://vcapfx.com/forex-trading/
http://www.mfglobal.com/prime-services

& in your experience, are they available to highly capitalized individual traders or a small (3-4) collective?

If you're sufficiently capitalized, can show an audit trail with a current broker & possess the necessary experience transacting via those types of execution facilities then a broker rep from one of those typical institutional shops will be open to discuss your intended requirements.

Providing you fit their profile they'll certainly negotiate anticipated/actual trade volume, financing requirements, commission & fee structures.
I doubt you'd get much change out of NewEdge to be honest as they still only tend to deal with firms as opposed to individuals, but the others should offer some sort of link up providing you can bring something worthwhile to the table.

when you say live room, is it like a chat facility with a whiteboard where live charts are shown in a webinar type environment?

It's an interactive environment where we share & discuss instrument specific money flow..
short to mid term directional biases & the effect on localized level/zone behavior..
who is dealing at specific levels/zones & why..
commercial funding tranches being fed through the regional trading sessions & how that will impact near term levels & zones of significance etc - that type of stuff.

We also major heavily on fundamental themes & link those front & back burner influences with intraday data releases to offer us an informed view of the likely short to medium term impact on the marketplace, so those items will be discussed & exchanged throughout a typical trading session.

We then take all those ingredients & transfer them onto technical charts where we're better placed to consistently exploit those opportunities.
That's how we marry up & grade the various support & resistance (supply/demand) zones, tying it in with a directional bias view & accompanying data to achieve the high levels of success when trading this type of discretionary model.

Also is it strictly for the use of clients & industry colleagues?

It is yes.
It's not really a training environment Jack like this & the Template threads over on Babypips.

Everyone who posts & interacts in there (apart from clients) are expected to actively participate & contribute high levels of pertinent material to the room.

'Technical only' views are of no use in there unfortunately.

Selections of our live & active trade blotters updating the P&L on the various accounts are visible all the time. Individual trades & positions can be accessed through the various sections of the site, including waiting & resting orders.

We do have sub-rooms within the forum where we teach & coach other templates & set ups to clients not posted in the public domain, but a lot of that material is either proprietry or not subject to public perusal due to our colleagues reluctance to allow certain stuff to be shared openly - which is completely understandable.

Typically our clients are high-net worth individuals or small groups, well capitalized investment units & people with a very large wedge seeking an aggressively managed, high risk investment home & they're not going to be very happy if they get wind we're sharing all of our valued information freely that they're paying us obscene amounts of money for.

A fair percentage of them take an active interest in the markets & also wish to bet with cash they're holding separate from their investment pool, hence the inception of our live trade room & information forum.

[jack mason]

Also is it strictly for the use of clients & industry colleagues?

It is yes.

We do teach & coach other templates & set ups to clients not posted in the public domain, but a lot of that material is either proprietry or not subject to public perusal due to our colleagues reluctance to allow certain stuff to be shared openly...

they're not going to be very happy if they get wind we're sharing all of our valued information freely that they're paying us obscene amounts of money for.

I totally understand. The last thing you want are a bunch of free-loading vouyers lurking in the background hoovering up all that info & advice. Discretion & common sense is definitely in short supply on public forums.

Thanks for all that info though jay. I'm enjoying this sequence of posts. It's very interesting to see the type of daily routines that seperate & distinguish the professionals from the amateurs who frequent the public forums - it really is quite a noticeable gulf in competance & awareness.

Having said that, the material you guys present on here & over at the Technical Template threads highlight the effectiveness of using a solid, minimalist approach that focuses on common sense technical levels/zones combined with basic fundamental influences & price drivers. It's certainly a model that has enabled me to continue reaping consistent financial rewards & long may you guys continue to hang out here!

[Carll]

Having said that, the material you guys present on here & over at the Technical Template threads highlight the effectiveness of using a solid, minimalist approach that focuses on common sense technical levels/zones combined with basic fundamental influences & price drivers.

You're not wrong there Jack.

Combining those two important elements & trading with the dominant bias that's driven on the back of those influencing factors is the simplest & safest way of legging into high probability, lower risk opportunities.
Same boring old structure, same unsurprising results

Primary (60min) chart highlighting the 3 higher probablity (pullback/hook) entry signals confirmed by extreme stochastic hooks confirming the bullish risk appetite orchestrating & influencing the price action on the back of the positive IMF/EU/ECB (aka: troika) weekend Greek aid package, Slovakian affirmation of the EFSF deal & upbeat european Industrial Production & Trade Balance output...


and once the primary chart offers up the signal, drop down to your secondary chart of choice (in my case the 5 minute) & match up the directional bias, price location, time of day & available average range coverage to leg safely into a long only entry....
Monday's early european session dual 60/5m trigger..


same again for Wednesday's early european session dual 60/5m trigger..


and another dual high probability pullback trigger, this time playing out into today's european close/NY overlap shift..

[shona123]

Primary (60min) chart highlighting the 3 higher probablity (pullback/hook) entry signals confirmed by extreme stochastic hooks confirming the bullish risk appetite influencing the price action this week

and once the primary chart offers up the signal, drop down to your secondary chart of choice (in my case the 5 minute) & match up the directional bias, price location, time of day & available average range coverage to leg safely into a long only entry....

which offered up another long this morning into the London flows.
Pretty neat doji to shine the torchlight on that 5 minute hook signal in sync with the weekly long bias. That was definitely the easiest trade today.
Going with the intraweek flow - early in, cash out the profits & spend the rest of the day chillin out!

I'll bet it caught out quite a few top pickers attempting to jump into shorts seeking a piggyback ride off that upper 3800 resistance this week.

[kipper]

Thanks for all that info though jay. I'm enjoying this sequence of posts. It's very interesting to see the type of daily routines that seperate & distinguish the professionals from the amateurs.

Hear hear. I also find it fascinating stuff.
It's a shame you guys can't spend more time on here.

Having said that, the material you guys present on here & over at the Technical Template threads highlight the effectiveness of using a solid, minimalist approach.
It's certainly a model that has enabled me to continue reaping consistent financial rewards & long may you guys continue to hang out here!

I'm also with Jack on this point too. Since I began adopting Carll's template & framework my results have not only improved noticeably, but my confidence & discipline have gone up in leaps & bounds.

I'm taking on average half a dozen clear, well presented opportunities per week & my trade size is gradually increasing proportionately. I can't thank you guys on here & across at the Technical Templates enough for the fantastic material you've provided FREE of charge & the continued support you offer to back up your work.

Keep it up guys!!