Simple Forex System Trading

I recently responded to a question about how to convert the London open to a local time zone.  Interestingly, the trader who posted the question lives in New Zealand and that adds the complexity.  Below is my response to the question:

So, New Zealand is GMT+13 now (daylight saving). London opens at 8:00 GMT (non daylight saving). Remember New Zealand and the Northern Hemisphere are the opposite. It will be 8 + 13 = 21 local New Zealand time, which is 9 PM local when London opens.

During non daylight saving, New Zealand is GMT + 12. London opens at 7:00 GMT (daylight savings). It will be 7 + 12 = 19 local New Zealand time, which is 7 PM local when London opens.

Oanda has a tool called FX Market Hours.  The tool detects the local time on your PC and displays when the major markets, e.g. London, New York, Tokyo, open and close.

If you like to figure out when a major market opens and closes in your local time zone, here is how I do it.

1. First, figure out your local time in relation to GMT.  For example, my local time in terms of GMT is GMT-8 in Standard Time.  When in day light savings, it is GMT-7.
2. Second, take the major market open time and add to or subtract from the number you obtain from the step above.  For example:
   • London opens at 8 GMT in Standard Time.  My local time in terms of GMT is GMT-8 in Standard Time.  So, 8 - 8 = 0.  When London opens, it is midnight at my local time.
   • London opens at 7 GMT in Day Light Savings.  My local time in terms of GMT is GMT-7 in day light savings.  So 7 - 7 = 0.  When London opens, it is midnight at my local time.
3. If you live in a place where you don’t have day light savings, here is an example.  Let’s use Singapore as an example.  Singapore is GMT+8.  Singapore does not have day light savings.
   • London opens at 8 GMT in Standard Time.  Singapore local time in terms of GMT is GMT+8 in Standard Time.  So, 8 + 8 = 16.  When London opens, it is 4 PM at Singapore local time.
   • London opens at 7 GMT in Day Light Savings.  Singapore local time in terms of GMT is GMT+8 in Standard Time.  So 7 + 8 = 15.  When London opens, it is 3 PM at Singapore local time.

Also, this world clock page helps figure out when day light savings is in effect.

Why does someone else’s system not work so well for others?  Because a system suits its developer’s personality, style, and skill set.  There is no one size fits all trading system.

Read more on babypips.com.  The article is absolutely well written.  

Okay.  We broke even today.  The stop buy 119.56 was filled at around 7:47 GMT.  15 to 20 minutes later, it hit our stop loss.  The stop sell 118.48 was filled at about 8:45 GMT.  The market was not moving quite that fast today.  However, it did hit our take profit target about 45 minutes later.

It was another great day for the Euro Yen 30/30 breakout system.  The stop sell order brought us another 30 pips of profit.  The stop sell was filled at 120.44 at around 8:10 GMT.  Our take-profit target of 120.14 was reached within 20 minutes.

I decided not to place the stop buy order of 121.08 at 7:00 GMT because the price movement looked choppy.  It turned out to be a good decision.

The night before the U.S. Non-Farm Payroll number is always nerve wrecking.  Both of our trades were filled.  The stop buy was a loss; however, the stop sell was a win.  We had a break-even day today.

Our second trade in 2009 was profitable.  The stop sell order brought us 30 pips of profit.  It was filled at 125.29 at around 7:34 GMT.  The market was moving fast.  Within 8 minutes, our take-profit target, 124.99, was reached.  The stop buy order was never triggered and expired at 13:00 GMT.

Our first trade in 2009 incurred a loss.  The stop buy order was filled at 127.17.  The high only reached at around 127.38 before turning south.  It hit our stop loss at 126.87 and hence, we had a 30-pip loss.

This is the EUR/JPY 30/30 Breakout System only.