A solid currency trading strategy consists of entering a trade at the right place, having a stop that is properly calculated, and setting a reasonable profit target level that works time after time after time.
Many newer traders set too ambitious profit targets expecting the trade to be "the big one" and hoping it will help offset the losses they have accumulated.
However, a far more effective currency trading strategy is to set a reasonable profit target each time, not expecting the home run, and being satisfied with smaller profits which on a consistent basis will build the equity in the account surprisingly quickly once the compounding action kicks in.
Here is where the Fibonacci tool comes in.
This article assumes a trader knows how to use the Fibonacci tool which comes as a standard technical analysis tool on most charting software packages.
While the key retracement levels are 38, 50, 62 and 70 percent, two extension levels are commonly used - 1.27 and 1.62 percent.
The Importance Of Fib 127
It is the 1.27 level we are interested in.
Why?
Because price regularly gets to the 1.27 level, or at least within a few pips of it. Price also gets to the 1.62 level fairly often but not nearly as often as the 1.27 level.
So if you are trading with the trend, always a safe currency trading strategy, and price has pulled back to the 50 or 62 retracement levels, there is a very reasonable chance price will reach the 1.27 target.
If price pulls back to the 79 retracement level it may not go so far. If you trade from that retracement, you will want to take the first profit at the end of the swing as price may not extend beyond that point to the 1.27 or 1.62 level.
Some traders just focus on this currency trading strategy when going with the trend:
In at the Fib 50 retracement
Out at the Fib 127 extension
Why is this such a sound currency trading strategy?
Because the Fib 38 retracement level does not offer such a good risk reward ratio many times. There is always the risk price will pull back further and take out your stop.
On the other hand, price frequently fails to reach the 62 or 79 retracement levels so the trader is left on the sidelines as the trade fails to get filled.
The 50 level is frequently reached so the trader has a good chance of getting his order filled.
On the other hand, the 127 extension is not too ambitious. In at 50 and out at 127 will often net a profit of somewhere between 25 and 40 pips. With a 20 to 25 pip stop the risk reward ratio is satisfactory.