4 Keys to Profitable Forex Trend Trading

Christopher Weaver is a technical analyst who has spent extensive time trading and studying the trends and movements of the foreign exchange market. He believes in making forex trading accessible to anyone willing to commit the time and effort needed to master this market and has personally mentored hundreds of new traders.

His new book “4 Keys to Profitable Forex Trend Trading” is an excellent resource for forex traders and investors. Christopher has a rare talent to explain in a simple and concise way, how to use four technical analysis instruments – trend lines, channels, Fibonacci retracements and symmetrical triangles – for profitable trading.

What makes this book a useful tool for improving trading performance is both the personal approach proposed by the author for the use of these four popular technical analysis tools and a clear explanation about how to implement the techniques in real trading. Entry and exit points are – for once – clearly defined, which makes the theory easy to put into practice for live trading.

But as any other “discretionary trading technique” there isn’t a clear way to know if these techniques give a real edge on the market, as backtesting is difficult, if not impossible.

For this reason we have interviewed Christopher Weaver to better understand his experience when using the four techniques in real trading.

FXTM: Why did you decide to write this book?
CW: Well, I had read a number of FX trading books and I felt like most of them never really presented me with tangible and practical strategies that I could implement straight away. If the book did have a strategy, it usually seemed very vague and non-committed. The 4 Keys to Profitable Forex Trend Trading is a different book . It has 8 unique trading strategies with step by step rules on how and when to enter a trade as well as where to place the target and stop loss orders. It is setup in such a way that the reader is able to read one of the strategies and then start trading it immediately.

FXTM: How would you define your trading style?
CW: I would define my trading style as very relaxed and quite simple. For me it’s all about knowing which direction I will be trading the currency pair before I even begin to look at specific entry points. I really feel this is important and that is why the strategies in this book are set in the context of “trend trading” – identifying the trend and trading in the direction. So many traders fail because they have too much going on in their mind when they are looking at a chart. They are thinking about entry points and strategies while juggling whether or not they will be going long or short. If I can’t decide whether I am going long or short within the first 5 seconds of looking at a chart than I pass on that currency pair. In other words, the direction should be obvious. Once that is determined, I get more specific.

FXTM: Where did you learn your entry and exit techniques?
CW: I guess you could say that I learned the techniques through personal experience as well as general exposure to other traders. In this book I break down 4 different trend trading concepts. Trend lines, channels, Fibonacci retracements and symmetrical triangles. Although none of these concepts are original, I believe that the way that I approach them is. Unfortunately, a lot of these concepts have taken the back seat to fancy indicators which are considered more advanced. This is why a lot of traders find it difficult not to over complicate things. I like and use these concepts because they are based on the visual movement of the price action.

FXTM: Which one of the techniques described in the book do you use more often?
CW: It is very difficult to say. I kind of go in phases where I seem to favour one over the others. It is rare to look at a chart of mine and not see a trend line, though.

FXTM: Do you implement some of these techniques together, in a confluent way?
CW: Trend lines and symmetrical triangles naturally go hand and hand. This is because a symmetrical triangle is actually formed when 2 trend lines come together. So yes, these two techniques almost always end up merging. It is very natural for all 4 of the techniques in this book to come together, though. That is because they are all trend based and will generally be indicating the same message.

FXTM: What are your trading results using these techniques?
CW: Very Good!

FXTM: What would you suggest to traders in order to use the 4 keys successfully?
CW: The most important thing is to not over complicate them. I did my best to write this book in a very informal and personal way. A lot of things in this book are just common sense. Choose one of the keys, read the chapter and then spend some time on the strategies. Once that is done, go through some charts and start identifying historic setups. It is important to get a feel for them.

FXTM: In your opinion, what makes a successful trader?
CW: Thick skin and a willingness to ask yourself tough questions. Before a trader can analyze a chart successfully, he must be able to analyze himself. It sounds a bit abstract, but I believe it is true.

FXTM: Is there any other advice you would like to give our readers about trading techniques or about Forex trading generally?
CW: Losing trades are inevitable and winning trades are always possible. This is a little saying that I remind myself of all of the time. It helps to give perspective.