Trading update.

After 3 month of live trading. Its unfortunate, yet expected. I'm down by 26.5% of my initial trading capital. I have identified what the problems are and listed them out here:

1. Deviate from trading plan
My trading plan are well laid out and i should be following them religiously. However, the lure of big pips gain in a single trade is too much to resists and i traded not according to tried and tested system. I ventured into swing trading which is not my strong suit. Swing trading require huge stop loss (relative to my short term trading) and with my untested skills, is a recipe for disaster.

2. Overleveraged
Yes, I'm guilty of this. Being over confident after a 13 consecutive winning trades and getting cocky. I start to going over my limits and enter unnecessary trades that results in big loss. Remember, the market will SPANK you once you start to be undisciplined and cocky.

3. Moving stop loss higher OR deleting stop loss.
Very typical of a loser. Once a trade reverse against me and gets near stop loss. I moved the SL further as i don't want the market to get my SL and return back. Now this is a big mistake! You should read a story by Rob Booker title "The Fairy God Trader".

Now i'm back to trading real small lots while i gathered my lost confidence and try not to repeat the same mistakes again. This have cost me dearly and i'm working hard toward restoring my loss. Now i dont need to outrun the market. I only need to outrun others novice trader as Rob Booker says it (I'm a fan).

All the best in Trading!

Prick of The Year

today meet the biggest prick of the year.
Location: Inside faculty lift.
Setting: I was on the way down back from class
(a fat short lecturer entered)
Lect: "y dun u get an original book?" (while pointing at my photocopied book)
Me: Not available when i wanna buy it.
Lect: Ahh Tipulah. Kalau di UK, kamu sudah kena buang uni tau.(full of sarcasm)
Me:nasib saya di Malaysia.
Lect: U r against the copyright law u know. Buy the ori book!
me: out of print. sy student. mana mampu import dari UK.
Lect: ptptn ada kan?
me: takda.
Lect: Hp mahal boleh beli
Me: 2nd hand punya.
Lect: What do u feel if u created something and someone just copied it? it's wrong!
me:Fuck You!! Go burn in hell! i bet ur software in ur flashy laptop are pirated! songs u listen to are pirated as well! FAT FUCK!

Of coz the last statement didnt happen as i still respect my elder no matter how stupid they are. but damn it. he just got the biggest prick of the year award.

Japanese Yen Strength

Lately the Japanese Yen is gaining a lot of strength as many seek safe haven. As we know, a strong currency is not very good for an export driven economy as it makes Japanese produced goods expensive to buy.

Japanese officials have been playing a little drama title "Let scare the Yen traders":
Scene 1;
FinMin Noda: "Moshi2 PM Kan, what should we do with the Yen strength and falling stock market?"
PM Kan: "Mosh mosh FinMin Noda, let's publish a press report that we will intervene in the FX market shall the need arise."
Finmin Noda: "Yeah that shall be fun watching the traders reaction, HAHAHA (evil laugh)."

Scene 2;
Vice FinMin Ikeda: "We will take action on the JPY strength by intervention in the FX market" (Ehemmm, i just said that for fun to scare those Yen buyers).


Sigh.... I have nobody else to blame except for myself. I have poor money management. I could have 10 profitable trades, and 1 loss big enough to erase all profits. Should work harder on MONEY MANAGEMENT.

Eurobanks Stress Test

I'm not qualified to write about these stress tests. What i know is last year a similar stress test was also conducted on US banks with positive results. We do hope so for the eurobanks. Here's the link:

Intermarket Relationships? Sound sexy to me.

There is an interesting article i read on the Saxo Banks website about intermarket relationships. Worth a read. Here's the link:

http://us.saxobank.com/en/education/forex-education/pages/intermarket-relationships.aspx

A little update on life.

After a very hectic class hopping (changing groups to suit my personal schedule). At last I'm settled. But the final class schedule is not something i liked but must do with. I ended up with two 4 hours night class which start at 6pm till 10pm Malaysian time every Monday and Thursday night. That sucks.. catching on yet?

For new traders, the time taken up by my night class is the time where London and New York session overlaps. Huge trading activity occurs during this hours. Not to mention the plethora of data that are released within the time span. For Monday it is still okay as trading are still going slow. But on Thursday, trading are just on full throttle.

Hmm.... let's not forget that i'm still a student and my primary focus should be on my studies. I'm quite confident on my skill to improvise. Not to mention that i got myself an old pocket pc with data plan. Thus, Long Live Mobile Trading!

Why trade only the major pairs for beginner?

Been a long time since I updated this blog. This post is dedicated to beginners in Forex Trading. When I said major pairs, what I mean are the EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY. Now, the dollar-yen pair is quite special and interesting pair as the New York and Tokyo trading hours NEVER overlaps, this leads to possible high probability trades during certain condition but let's leave that for another day.
For beginners, it is a good thing to just focus on the major pairs. There is a few reasons for this. First is the availability of data, analysis and banks commentary on the happening in this 3 countries which is US, UK, and Japan. You can only trade if you know what is happening such as what the market movers are (stocks, bond, interest rates).
Secondly, these three pairs are volatile enough most of the time. Those tasty pips only gonna add up if the market is moving up or down, not sideways.
Thirdly, focusing on just a few pairs can do you good. Remember that we are human with very limited abilities. Learn a few pairs well, they all behaves differently from each other. By really getting familiar with a pair very well. You will develop subconscious mindset which will improve your trading. For example, you will know what is the best time to trade the pair, how it react to news, and the range of movement during the day.
Well. That's all I can whip up on this pocket pc while being sleepy. Happy trading for the week to come. May you become pips magnet as well as chicks magnet with all the moneys you generate.