Have a gander at this chart. This is apparently the Holy Grail of home online forex trading. It’s called the DIBS method — Daily Inside Bar System. (Let’s not waste time on how “system” and “method” are redundant.)
This daily chart was posted on the forum called forex factory by pit trader PeterCrowns. This is the spot exchange rate for the US dollar and the Swiss Franc. (For those who really care, CHF stands for “Confederation Helvetica Franc.”)
He told us about this method in the hopes of pointing us in the right direction, because most trades get stopped out. (If you’re a home trader, you know what that means.) HOWEVER, he wants us to think like traders, so he didn’t tell us the whole secret behind this method. He basically showed us that the method exists and that we should be aware of it, but some set-ups don’t pay off and some set-ups go through the roof.
This set-up, which I copied from him, went THROUGH THE ROOF. But let’s look at it in closer detail on the 1-hour chart.
Now… EACH of these vertical bars represents one hour of trading time. When one vertical bar is completely contained within the previous bar, we say it’s an inside bar. (That means, the high price is lower than the previous high AND the low price is HIGHER than the previous low.)
The dotted white lines mark the beginning of his trading day. (His workday coincides with the UK open, so he starts trading around midnight, given his time zone in the US.)
The horizontal white dotted/dashed lines start at the opening price of every trading day. The opening price is very important, because there is a simple rule which Peter Crowns recommends that we obey:
No Free Lunch but all the Free Coffee you can drink (Forex trading post)
- Only be willing to buy a [currency pair] if it is up on the day.
- Only be willing to sell a [currency pair] if it is down on the day.
Now, Peter Crowns was awake early and he spotted an ideal trading set-up, and he placed a “buy” order (indicated by that blue line). The USD/CHF was trading above its opening price, and an inside bar formed with a very narrow range from its hourly high price to its hourly low price.
The result of this trade? Peter Crowns made a significant profit with NO retracement.
His comment:
It took off so quickly I didn't even drop off half of my position until 1.0499. Yes, 145 pips later and at the round number: 1.0500.
No Free Lunch but all the Free Coffee you can drink (Post #92, USD/CHF trade)
145 pips? What does that mean?
Well, when I was trading from my small account, I used to trade $1/pip. When I found an inside bar (by accident), I put in $1 and got back $93 three days later.
You do the math: $1 in, $93 out ($92 profit). … $10 in, $930 back in three days… $100 in, $9,300 in three days…
In this case, if Peter Crowns went long $100, his profit in the same day — scratch that, in the same morning — would have been $14,500, if he had the same margin requirements as I had.
Sadly, Canada’s IIROC has made some changes to the margin requirements for home traders, so I do not have enough capital to do any trading at home. So I’m looking to trade options or equities, at least until I move to the US…
FWIW, Peter Crowns only made 41 posts at forex factory, but his posts have a loyal following from home forex traders who swear by the DIBS method.