Price Action Swing Trading - The PAST Strategy

Checking to see if the door is locked

Hi,

In the PAST method we base our entries to trades on the break of trendlines or the retest of trendlines.

I thought it might be of interest to some traders here if I share something that I learned a while back about "why" sometimes price may want to "recheck to see if the door is locked (Nigel Price) and sometimes it just keeps on walking.

Now this is not written in stone, there are no statistics to back it up, 😀, for me it's just fun to see these things happen in the market from time to time and perhaps profit from them if the market lets me.

Times price may recheck the door:

Upsloping Trendline: A break after a HH
Downsloping Trendline: A break after a LL

Times price may keep on walking:

Upsloping Trendline: A break after a LH is already formed
Downsloping Trendline: A break after a HL is already formed

I've included 2 examples from recent price action.

As I said this is not set in stone and we must be flexible in our minds to understand price can and often does many weird and wonderful things, however taking a walk through the charts one does see these occur from time to time. 😉
 

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GBP JPY SELL 1st Attempt

As mentioned last weekend I was waiting for a retest of the underside of this
trendline.

Finally price has got there today and showed rejection.

22 pip stop with stop above Thursday's High.

See what happens.

Update: Stopped out on 2 entries.
 

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Hi,

Just posting a few thoughts after Nigel's post earlier.

I'm sure I'll make a decision soon enough. 😀
Hi guys

Can anyone advise where can we re enter long. I entered long at break of previous trendline and git out wit profit. But not sure where to re enter

Nadeem
 
USD CHF Update

Hi,

After missing the initial break earlier in the week I finally got some entries Friday on my 1st attempt.

I've woken up Saturday morning to see that (for a nice change 😀) the market has been kind so far.
 

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New Trading Journal

Hi,

I just started a trading journal which is a real milestone for me.😀

If anybody is at all interested it's over in the journal section. 😱

Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend.
 
Good place to re-enter long?

Think that broke to the downside foodaba did it? Just looking at my own chart here and it looks like it was choppy. But if I was in front of my screen I would have no problem trading that to the upside, with a tight stop.

Small losers and big winners 😀
 
eur/usd prepping for another drop?

I noticed some indications on the daily Eur/Usd that could indicate

losing some steam? anyone agree?
 

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I noticed some indications on the daily Eur/Usd that could indicate

losing some steam? anyone agree?

Yes, I agree with your analysis foodaba.

EURUSD is not on my watch list as Weekly doesn't show nice preceding trend such as GBP USD.

However, my personal feeling is that if the upsloping trendline I've drawn on the H4 chart were to be broken and perhaps retested then rejected it would show me that bears are starting to gain the upper hand in this current tug-of-war that is occurring in this market.

For me GBP USD just shows a clearer picture at the moment.

Just my thoughts. 😀
 

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Happy Monday everyone 😀

I'm going to do a bit of talking on here about this week about how we might think about taking profits once we get into a position that's growing.

But rather than me just whining on, does anyone what to take a stab here first at describing how when and where they decide to take profit?

1. What are your objectives and aims when your trade is open?
2. What steps do you take to implement those objectives?
3. What are the main challenges/obstacles to you achieving these goals?

I'll leave this up for a couple of days to wait for anyone to chip in who wants to and then I'll do a few posts describing how I like to tackle it.

All the best for the coming week 🙂
 
Happy Monday everyone 😀

I'm going to do a bit of talking on here about this week about how we might think about taking profits once we get into a position that's growing.

But rather than me just whining on, does anyone what to take a stab here first at describing how when and where they decide to take profit?

1. What are your objectives and aims when your trade is open?
2. What steps do you take to implement those objectives?
3. What are the main challenges/obstacles to you achieving these goals?

I'll leave this up for a couple of days to wait for anyone to chip in who wants to and then I'll do a few posts describing how I like to tackle it.

All the best for the coming week 🙂

Wow I thought I'd be able to easily answer these questions. 😛
Turns out I really need to do some thinking around this, but will definitely post my answers when I've come up with something.

Very, very good questions.
Thanks Nigel.
 
How and when I decide to take profits

Happy Monday everyone 😀

I'm going to do a bit of talking on here about this week about how we might think about taking profits once we get into a position that's growing.

But rather than me just whining on, does anyone what to take a stab here first at describing how when and where they decide to take profit?

1. What are your objectives and aims when your trade is open?
2. What steps do you take to implement those objectives?
3. What are the main challenges/obstacles to you achieving these goals?

I'll leave this up for a couple of days to wait for anyone to chip in who wants to and then I'll do a few posts describing how I like to tackle it.

All the best for the coming week 🙂


How and when I decide to take profits:

1. What are your objectives and aims when your trade is open?

Aim: To bank profits from my winning trades that are very high multiples of my risk.

Objective 1: Enable winning trades to easily cover my losses that were taken in order to estalish profitable positions
Objective 2: Maximise the unknown profit potential of a trade by letting the trade "breathe" after stop has been moved to breakeven
Objective 3: Only closing the trade after I see a reversal signal against my trade on the anchor timeframe.

2. What steps do you take to implement those objectives?

Step 1: Move my STOP to Break Even as soon as "logically" possible.
Why: This is the first step for me in controlling my emotional state so I know a trade that was winning doesn't turn into a loser. I feel that trades which were nicely in profit that then turn around and take out my stop for a loss emotionally affect me more than say a trade that goes straight to a loss after entry.

Step 2: Try to be patient enough to trust that if I am able to make a good entry at a turning point on say a weekly anchor chart, more often than not I should be able to gain a large profit by keeping my stop away from the inevitable market swings and waiting for a reversal signal on the weekly anchor chart.


3. What are the main challenges/obstacles to you achieving these goals?

Challenge/Obstacle 1: Although it hasn't happened to me yet, seeing a trade that was in profit say greater than 300 pips then turn around and get stopped at breakeven.

Challenge/Obstacle 2: Getting tricked by the market when a lower time frame (not anchor time frame) reversal bar prints and I close my trade early thinking the run is over. Then watching as the trade just keeps on going in my original direction without me.

Challenge/Obstacle 3: Self-Control to be able to take many small losses and break-even trades without it affecting me emotionally so that I can take the next entry signal.

Challenge/Obstacle 4: I need to be patient and let open profitable positions to keep running even if my monthly statistics are showing that I'm negative for that month.