Forex Strategy Outlook: Breakout Systems Attractive on High Volatility

The forex marketplace supports a diverse community of successful independent traders who have developed winning strategies that work during changing market conditions. Trend-following strategies are popular among newbies, but veteran traders truly earn their keep during times of volatility. In fact, the strategies in the volatility trading playbook work best during times when the gains from trend-following systems lag far behind.

By definition, volatility means that prices rise and fall quickly, and do not show clear direction or trend. Successful volatility-focused trading systems usually feature these characteristics:. Well-designed mechanical trading systems can anticipate and take advantage of changes in volatility, then exit the trades without giving back the open profits. Some forex traders harness the power of volatility by trading parabolic time-price systems.

First introduced by the legendary trader J. These indicators work well for determining both entry and exit points in volatile currency markets, since prices tend to stay within parabolic curves during trends. When prices move wildly, parabolic indicators can help show the direction or change in trend.

Successful parabolic stop-and-reverse strategies are also time-focused: The mechanical trading system weighs the potential gains against the amount of time the position must be held in order to have the best chance of achieving those gains.

For example, when the parabolic indicator generates a buy signal, the trade is entered. Still, order to reduce the number of quick shake-outs from volatility whipsaws, most parabolic traders filter their trading signals by using a trading volume screen as well as a variety of other indicators.

In order for a trading signal to be confirmed for this parabolic trading strategy, both parameters must be true during the same time-bar.

Here are the general parabolic setup, entry and exit rules used by several successful forex traders:. Many successful forex traders use channel-breakout strategies fueled by volatility. Here are the basic indicators and trading rules for a simple channel-breakout strategy that works for especially-volatile currency pairs on time frames of 15 minutes or higher:.

Below are the basic trading indicators and rules for a double channel-breakout strategy that works well for volatile currency pairs:. Forex traders who thrive on volatility, there are many profitable trading opportunities. Below is a simple forex volatility trading strategy. When a long candle appears during a trading session, that is, when an intraday time-bar has a greater range than the previous time-bar, it may be the setup for a trade.

Long candles are a sign that volatility has increased, and that a change in trend may be imminent. Often, after a big candle a new trend may develop, or the previous trend may become stronger. And, the trend will usually be moving in the same direction as the price movement of the time-bar when the long candle trading system volatility breakout. When a long candle occurs, if that alpha venture trading system breaks the high or low of the trading session then the price will probably continue to al ansari exchange rate for indian rupees today in the same direction.

Some forex traders who specialize in volatility-focused strategies rely on indicators which use Average True Range ATR. When volatility pushes the currency price out of this channel, the breakouts are easy to trade. This volatility trading strategy is similar to a Bollinger band breakout strategy, except that it relies on ATR instead of standard deviation as a measure of volatility to define the width of the bands or channels.

The trading rules for this type of volatility strategy are simple. Forex traders also use fractal indicators with volatility trading.

Below is a simple strategy relying on ATR channels to signal breakouts, and using fractals to determine optimal entry and exit points. These volatility indicators spotlight overbought and oversold zones. The trading rules vary depending upon the indicator.

J. Welles Wilder - Volatility Breakout | Trading Strategy (Entry)

Below are the basic setup and rules that some traders use with the Volameter, a popular volatility meter. There are plenty of good volatility trading strategies in the forex playbook.

Traders should welcome volatility because of the profitable opportunities available during trading sessions which feature big price ranges.

Is volatility a friend or enemy of your current trading system? This blog is very informative for a new trader like myself. I wish I had access to this a while ago.

Make sure to sign up for the free EAs so that you get regular updates from us. Thanks for sharing these strategies. Just to clarify for volatility channel breakout strategy, should the below statement:.

Shaun have you personally coded and backtested any of these strategies and can comment specifically on what kind of profit factor, drawdown and win percentage each has when tested over data sets of 10 years of more? I have not backtested or coded any of these strategies. The article was written by Eddie Flower, who prefers to trade manually.

Thanks for correcting my transposed phrases.

Also, I feel obligated to clarify — These strategies have all been traded more-or-less successfully by myself and other traders I know over certain periods of time using a combination of manual and automated trading methods in derivatives markets, including commodities, options, stocks and also forex.

Yet, this summary article is only a brief overview…. Thanks again for reading! Hi Shaun, Thank you for these interesting strategies, but I have one question.

Set profit targets at a ratio of about 1: What exactly is the truth? Very good blog Shaun. I kike the ATR Channel breakout strategy.

I have started to backtest accordingly.