Always have a question!

Questions are important. Many times when we have one, we seem to receive an answer almost immediately. Either from our own self or from somebody who we ask. It is the same with forex trading. While staring at a chart, we should have questions. It is a good practice to have an internal conversation or talk to the charts. Functional traders are price action traders, we get the ammunition from the past and present in the context of time, patterns, red news, sessions, ranges, etc. We link everything, connect the dots and build a narrative that leads us to understanding where we are in the price cycle, what and around when is expected from price.

Below I list some of the questions I usually ask when looking at a chart:

• What is the area of accumulation? Where is the starting point of accumulation, which session started the process? Is the range size sufficient to consider it an area of accumulation? Has the accumulation process been completed?
• What time is it? Is it a session change-over? Is there any important upcoming news? Are we at the beginning or end of the week, month, quarter?
• What are the ranges, what ranges have been created from peaks to peaks? How did the sessions contributed to the ranges?
• What is the location of price within the cycle/cycles? What price pattern variation am I investigating on? Can I identify the moves of 3s? How are those moves of 3s positioned, relative to price movements from the past?
• Where are the stop-out areas?

Questions lead to narratives, the understanding of context of our trades. Practice to have the same questions all the time and make sure you have a narrative for current price positions. It is the narrative that we trade and once we have it, we take a closer look at the candles. Build your own list of questions and reminders, print the document out, keep it at hand and use it until you do not need such list anymore.