We are up 30% since the start and 21% so far this year.

Over my holidays I read all eight trading books by Laurentiu Damir. Seven of which are short e-books written about four years ago. He teaches simple, conservative trades. His more recent book ‘Price Action Breakdown’ provides a useful trading concept.

Laurentiu recommends the higher timeframe charts – such as 4-hour or daily charts; this, as he explains, is because of the effect that multiple news events throughout most days has on the lower (such as 5 minutes) time frame charts.

Laurentiu teaches reading a chart that is a time frame appropriately above your price action chart. For example, He would take the ‘bigger picture’ from the daily chart but use the 4-hour chart for price action set-ups.

We use (and I think Laurentiu does too) the 30-minute chart for the market cycle and the 5-minute chart for our price action – and we keep an eye on the news events that can affect us.

As Laurentiu explains: the thing with trading is that all of this is a guide. Flexibility based on a solid concept is vital. It may be the 1-hour chart but on the day the 30-minute chart. Price action may be 5-minutes, but again the 15-minute or even the 3-minute chart is prefered. It’s whatever fits.

We cannot trade by numbers and be successful, we have to know and understand a lot and, of course, practise a lot – then keep it simple and adapt.