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My Harmonic trading guide

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I have been posting some harmonic setups over the years, I thought maybe a simple harmonic trading guide might help readers who are following this type of trading. For the harmonic patterns I am using, there are some Fibonacci ratios to follow. They might look complicated, but they are not. Once you get the hang of them, it is not too difficult to identify.

One of the important things to note is, I do not trading harmonic patterns exclusively. The patterns are used as an aid to my over analysis, an odd enhancer you may say.

Secondly, I prefer to look at harmonic patterns in higher time time frames, such as 4 hours and daily. This is not to say the patterns do no work in lower time frame, it is just personal preference. I found that the patterns work well in medium to longer term swing trading.

For the start, harmonic patterns are divided into two categories, Extension patterns and Retracement patterns.

  • Extension patterns are Bullish Butterfly, Bearish Butterfly, Bullish Crab and Bearish Crab.
  • Retracement patterns are Bullish Gartley, Bearish Gartley, Bullish Bat and Bearish Bat.

These are the patterns that I used, and the list is not exhaustive. The “hardcore” harmonic traders might look at more patterns such as 5-0, Shark etc and in more time frames.

So here are the key factors I am looking at when using harmonic patterns

  • Identify key market levels, in other words, key support resistance levels. This one of the MOST important step.
  • Identify established price channel. A channel also represent the current trend, applying the appropriate patterns to follow the trend.

Harmonic Trading Guide

Below are the patterns with respective Fibonacci ratios. I also prepared two simple cheat sheets in PDF forms for readers who would prefer to print it out.

Harmonic Trading Guide - TraderGav.com
Harmonic Extension patterns
Harmonic Retracement patterns
Harmonic Retracement patterns

My opinion about harmonic trading is, Do Not Complicate things. Keep it simple, be clear with what you are doing, are you using the patterns as entry trigger? or are you using them for directional bias setting (I will discuss more on this in the future posts),  and, as always, make sure the patterns are forming in the right place, i.e key levels or channels.

Here are the cheat-sheets in PDF format that I have prepared in case you prefer a printout.

Extension patterns

Retracement patterns

You can also find my harmonic setups/charts in Harmonic trading posts section

From the desk of TraderGav.com

Trading setup: Immediate retest of broken support and resistance level

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Very often, on twitter or forums, I see people posting some simple trading setups, and give them some odd names, then call it their inventions. Laughable indeed. Anyway, kudos to them for providing some amusements.

One of the most commonly seen setup is Immediate retest of broken support/resistance level. Well, regardless of the names given by “traders”, let’s have a look at it a little b it closer.

If I really wanna trade the immediate retest, there are three conditions I wanna see before establishing a position:

Strong level

Immediate retest of a level works, when it is against a strong level. It could be a horizontal support and resistance level, or diagonal trend line. A strong support or resistance level is the one that was formed by multiple touches in the inverse direction before it is broken. For example, a strong support is a level that was formed by a broken resistance level where there were multiple resistance points, in other words, multiple swing highs. Vice versa  for strong resistance level.

So, for the first condition, I want to see a break of level which was constituted by at least 3 swing points (or 2 with other confluence factors)

Strong breakout

Secondly, I want to see a strong break of the level. A slow grinding movement is avoided. Often times, it might turn out to be a false breakout. So, a STRONG breakout bar is what I would like to see.

Continuation pattern

A continuation pattern can be as simple as a small consolidation price cluster following a strong breakout. The basic idea is to have Breakout -> Consolidation ->Breakout scenario.

Here are some charts to demonstrate this setup.

AUDUSD immediate retest explain
AUDUSD immediate retest explain (click for bigger chart)

EURUSD Immediate retest explain
EURUSD Immediate retest explain (click for bigger chart)

So, here is the simple support resistance setup. Of course, this is not a complete trading strategy. Just some tips for you to consider before taking an immediate retest setup. Err… Shall I also name it as Butt Kiss Setup!

 

From the desk of TraderGav.com

Managing your trade :Exit strategy

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I am not the inventor of this strategy. It is widely available on the internet, and I have no idea who was the originator. I have found it to be effective when using simple support/resistance methodology to manage trades.  

The Simple Exit Strategy

This is an exit strategy using a 5-min chart, however, it can be easily applied to any time frames. The basic idea is to use a lower time frame (about 4 to 6 times lower than the trading time frame) to manage a position and using support resistance to define a better exit. For example, if you are trading the hourly trend, you can apply this strategy in M15/M5 to manage your position. I’ve found this strategy to be useful in my Forex trading.

Rules:

  • When previous resistance becomes support, it is time to consider exiting a SHORT position.
  • When previous support becomes resistance, it is time to consider exiting a LONG position

The EURUSD trade below is a good example to illustrate this strategy. Assuming we entered a short position at 1.27, and the market started to sell off, we decided not to set a hard profit target, instead, we follow the price action to decide when to exit. Looking at the chart below, without a planned strategy, where would you exit? chicken out when there were small price bounces?

Here is the idea. In a downtrend, prices will form lower highs and lower lows. And previous support acts as resistance. By following this principle, we let the profit run until the previous resistance level was violated and becoming a new support level. This signals a potential trend change.

Again, no strategy is perfect, we might still miss out on some even bigger profits. However, in my personal opinion, it is good enough to manage short term position. Have a look at this method.

Below is the hourly chart of USDJPY to illustrate this strategy:

exit strategy chart

The best forex trading strategies are the ones that know when to be aggressive (letting the profitable positions ride) and know when to exit promptly (to cut losses or take profit.) By using the simple concept of support and resistance, traders will be able to map the market and manage a position effectively.

This post was originally written back in 2010. I have updated with an up-to-date chart and refined the strategy.

TED talk: Your body language shapes who you are

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I thought this TED talk is definitely worth watching. My weekend 21 minutes well-spent.

“Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.”

As I tweeted before, I will be on 1-month vacation to Southeast Asia, so trading will be light to none.� Have fun with your year end trading, and see you next year.

Coffee Thoughts 02 November 2012

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Capital preservation is important. Risk management is important. But the trader’s job is to risk and make money, not sitting in the office to preserve capital.

When it is time to trade, just trade. Capital is a tool for you to use to make more money, not for you to preserve.

If you want to win, you’ve got to know the rules; and also, you can’t win if you are not at the table.

Just trade.

Coffee Thoughts 31 Oct 2012

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Looking out the window, you see it is raining. Put your hand out of the window, you know it is raining. And yet, you still feel the need to view the website or call Bureau of Meteorology to confirm if it is really raining. Some traders trade in this way. Is the the word “confirmation” really confirming something or it is just showing the lack of confidence of your own strategy, or even your own opinion?