I'M P O S S I B L E

Had the chance to attend the Graduates Gathering yesterday. Learned the short term Price Pullback Strategy and the revised Tea Break Strategy. Will test the strategy next week.

Besides that, I also have the chance to do a Trader's Psychology Test conducted by Edgar Tham. Learned a lot of my own profile, the strengths and weaknesses.

One of the biggest challenge i need to overcome is my winning mentality. Always stay positive. Focus on what i want. There is this interesting video clip I watched yesterday.

Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.

GBP/USD/JPY x 3 trades

This is me at my most adventurous. I entered into 3 open position at the same time involving different pairs. First trade, long GBP/USD, then long USD/JPY and lastly long GBP/JPY all within 3 hours. Minutes later i closed my first trade with only 2 pips gain as i want to limit my risk and it proved to be a mistake as GBP/USD soared >200 pips the next morning. While USD/JPY plunged about 140 pips and GBP/JPY is still trending sideway.

Well, only 2 trades open at the moment. Let's see how it works out when US market open.

Cheers.

Update: 2009-05-29 GMT 14:17
USD/JPY plunged under heavy pressure. Exited at SL.

Entered another long trade on GBP/JPY at lower price.

Trade Window from GMT2:00 to GMT14:00

Entered two trades too early today. Long EUR/USD at 1.4020 and exited at 1.3940. The price plummet the hour i entered. Too impulsive. Entered before i checked the economic calender. There are substantial of data to be released and all are EU related. Second trade, long GBP/JPY at 150.80 and its currently still on.

Approximately 5 hours later, the trade goes up very close to my BE but i did not close it as greed overcome my fear.

First lesson, do not enter early. The window for entering trade is from GMT 2:00 to GMT 14:00

Cheers.


Updates: Second trade, GBP/JPY ended with adjusted PT of 120 pips. Even out the earlier trade. Made small profits again.

What type of trader are you? I'm a Detailed Trader.

I just took the test 'What type of trader are you? And the result...I'm a detailed trader. Below is the report.

The Detailed Trader type suggests that you are very quiet and serious. You tend to earn your success by being thorough, methodical, systematic, organized, and dependable. You are also realistic and responsible as long as things make sense for you. You have two of the three qualities that are necessary for trading success (i.e. You make decisions based on logic and analysis and you are decisive, orderly and do things sequentially). Thus, if you are willing to commit yourself, you'll probably be quite successful as a trader. However, you may need some help seeing the big picture that is necessary for trading success.

You have a tremendous internal store of facts that you like to analyze. But you also tend to have trouble seeing anything that is different from your internal picture of the world. As a result, one of your biggest challenges is that you have a distinct idea of what is right and you feel it is your duty to defend that. This can be a real problem in the trading arena where being independent and a non-conformist are important.

Because you like to analyze, you will tend to identify the facts, label them and then categorize the information so that it makes sense to you. You work best with clearly stated objectives and procedures although you should be vigilant about who's directives you are following in the trading arena, or you may find yourself working on the wrong things.

Trading can be a solitary and lonely business; however this is something that might actually suit you because you do not mind working on your own. You enjoy thinking things through before sharing with others.

You will probably decide logically what needs to be done and work toward it little by little until you are finished. You tend to take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized. This is a great quality for trading success as long as you are organized in the right manner.

Trading Strengths

1. You should have no problems staying with and executing a simple trading system that someone gives you and you feel confident about.
2. You should be really good at data analysis/developing business plans especially when someone provides you with the exact steps to take.
3. You could easily treat trading as a business provided your life is in order and you have no major distractions. However, be aware that if you have a lot of stress then this strength could turn into a weakness and cause you problems.

Trading Challenges

1. You love the details of trading system analysis and development so much but you can often be working on the wrong things. Your efforts can be misguided if you are following the wrong guidelines or advice.
2. Under stress, you tend to redouble your efforts and try harder and better in the belief that you can dig your way out of a hole, but you could be digging in the wrong place.
3. You can tend to be overly critical and only notice the negatives in your trading. If you do not learn how to recognize your mistakes then you could become stuck.

Our model of the detailed trader is Warren Buffet who once said, "If you want to be a successful investor, then you have to know every detail of every listed stock. And when someone said, "but there are over 7000 listed stocks," Buffett responded, "Start with the A's."

Three Wins on EUR/USD

Entered 3 trades on EUR/USD last night during the US session. All three are long position at different time and different EP. All ended with small profits. The first 2 trades entered at a very good price with the price trended up immediately after my entry. Making a total of 69 pips on the 2 trades. The last trades had to endured a 30 minutes battle before closing it with only 1 pip. Managed to grow my portfolio by 1% this week. Those trades were more like scalping, but with proper trade setup.

Cheers.
Happy trading.

Small Profits on USD/JPY

I shorted USD/JPY today at 94.55 on a pending order (sell limit) and closed 2 hours later with only 2 pips. It was reversing and showing its momentum to break its resistance. I closed it after the price came down.

In fact i placed 2 pending orders and i canceled the other after this one activated as i do not want over-exposure. And i was lucky as the other pending order, a buy limit for GBP/USD would have been activated. As Pound Sterling tumbles sharply during the European session on news that S&P rating has lowered its outlook of UK economy. There were concern that UK's AAA rating could be downgraded for the first time in history. GBP/USD dropped 222 pips from opening of GMT 8:00 hour. However the pair recovered later.

Yen weaken on Moody's rating.

I had 3 trades for the past 2 days. 2 small profits and a loss. Net result is a small loss. I missed out on the reversal of trend. When the Moody agency decided to revise Japan's rating, the yen began to weaken, but i did not reverse my position. I was holding it and hoping it would go back my way. When there is uncertainty in the market, its time to change or at least close your position.

Another lesson learned.

Happy trading.
Cheers.

What If You Can Have If?

If I have a million dollar....I'll want another million, and another million, and another million, and another million, and another million, and another million and hope it never stop coming...

I hope I can make it with trading forex. Today i closed 3 trades, one trade, short USD/JPY from yesterday which i accidentally closed it with 29 pips loss. The second is long GBP/JPY, which is a 50:50 trade. It didn't goes my way and i adjusted the SL moment after, exited with 50 pips loss. Then i went in short on the same pair and exited at trailing stop with 90 pips gain. The reason i went in short is because German and French quarterly GDP data released today is worse than the consensus. And the market reacted badly to it. However I did not end it when i saw the hammer formed about 5 hours later with about +150 pips, some 50 pips away from my PT. And it retraced all the way to the day high. Exited with 90 pips gain.

Summary for the day is small profits again. Lesson learned. Ended the week with 1.2% growth.

Enjoy the MV.

Another BE and Two Small Profits

Gained 2 small profits from the last 3 trades. The other long trade on GBP/USD managed to BE after it goes down to about 100 pips. Watching it goes down and climb back up was a really slow painful process. Its like this video.

Break Even and the Five Small Profits

Managed to get small profits over few trades. Slowly growing the portfolio. And this point i was trying new strategy to suit the current choppy market conditions, after a few discussion with my fellow trading buddies. However this strategy requires lots of patient which, clearly i find difficulties to adapt in the short term. Furthermore this require high SL level and this reduces my lot sizes. Anyway, i am giving it a try for the week. See how the results go.

Cheers.

Strategies for Success

Two consecutive SL knocked the wind out of my sail. Portfolio down 9.1% so far. Tried hard to lift myself up. Found some inspirational videos but it did not work much. Anyway, i need to keep my mind positive. No point fretting over those losses.

Need to tweak my strategy to suit my style, as well as my game plan. Set some goals, both long term and immediate.
Mission Impossible I : Achieve consistent small profits.
Mission Impossible II : Achieve 500% portfolio growth by end of the year.

Mission Impossible III: Retire by May 2010.



Strategies for Success: Change the input to your mind, change your attitude.



Heroes bounced back. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going!

I got something to tell you
I got something to say
I'm gonna put this dream in motion
Never let nothing stand in my way
When the going gets touch
The tough get going

One small loss is not going to put me down. I am going to get going. I will keep moving and winning. My goal is to quit my full time job by next year, May. I will stay focused.

Game plan:

1. Max 2 trades per day
2. Max 5% per trade
3. Min SL: 150 pips
4. Weekly growth: 8%
   

Recharge & move on.

Suffered a setback today. Lost 110 pips on GBP/JPY. Persisted with the trade even though it showed signs of reversal. Erased 3.5% of my capital. Its a Golden Week holiday for Japan until this Wednesday and UK market also closed for May Day. NTD for tomorrow. The SL is too small even though there is still room to adjust.

Time for recharge and reflect.
Cheers.

How winning is done?

I started my very first live trade on the 15 Sept 2008. Gone through a lot of emotions. My portfolio experience down and up, down and up. Now back to where i started. I've learned to become a better trader, both emotionally and technically. Getting better with my technical analysis and currency price action behavior.

And along the way, i am grateful to few of my trading buddies and my mentor for their guidance, support and encouragement.

I found this short clip from and an inspirational figure that will explain how winning is done.

Let me tell you something you already know; the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.
It’s a very mean and nasty place.
And I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, nobody…is gonna hit as hard as life.

But it ain’t about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can Get hit, and keep moving forward;

how much you can take, and keep moving forward.
That’s how winning is done.
Now if you know what you’re worth, go out and get what you’re worth.
But you got to be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody.
Cowards do that, and that ain’t you!
You’re better than that!

Cheers!
Keep moving forward and growing.

GBP/JPY again

Gained 98 pips on GBP/JPY again. This time on a smaller lot and smaller PT due to some holiday season in Europe region. Limit my exposure to lower volatility. One thing i learned during my time of trading is that i could not endure a long flat market with low volatility. This trade added another 1.3% to my portfolio, overall down 2.1%. Getting back to positive growth next week.

Cheers!