In describing the specifics of my trading system, if it seems that I’m being vague, it’s probably intentional. With that being said, my system can be properly characterized as a channel breakout system. The construction of the channel is proprietary, but again, it was born from the Turtle System.

I will enter long or short in the direction of the breakout when price closes outside of the channel and when such a price break is confirmed by MACD. Additionally, I will not trade prior to certain preset economic events such as the monthly unemployment figures. This last piece is very important. I’ve seen some suggestions that “trading the news” is where the money is made in the forex market. I can’t say whether or not that’s true, but I can certainly say that my experience trading around economic releases is that it costs me more (wider spread) and I’m more likely to encounter increased slippage, or even worse, my trading platform may be locked. I’m sure lots of traders feel a rush trading around news events, but for my purposes, it adds unnecessary risk and complication.

If it sounds like fairly simple criteria to you, you are correct! Dr. Van Tharp, among others, consider entry to be one of the least important components of a trading system. I’ve seen more than one source where traders or firms claim to profitably trade when entering their chosen markets randomly. This implies that all of these traders’ profitability is driven by their choice of market, their choice of exit, and their choice of position size.