2010 Last Sit & Go [Knockout]

Played my last sit & go [knockout] yesterday. not that i want to brag my winning, juz that im very happy. I won first this time, although i did lost my buy-in on cash game before this short tourney. I can say they were not the most aggressive opponents (last 2) I have encountered, I played with a lot of focus. Below are the last 7 hands of the tournament which changed the tide for me.

Enjoy and happy new year 2011!!

Black.

2010 Review

I saw FX's review for this year then I remembered it's time that I should do one my own too. It's good to reflect. Come to think of it, it's been about 1 year 4 months since Bottle and I started trading live. Like any other newbies, we started off energetic, with only the perfect dream of financial freedom in our mind, like as if within reach simply by working hard.

But time showered us with love and lessons. With our first account almost wiping out, after experiencing how vicious the market could do

to us. I don't think anyone will understand what tides traders went through without experiencing themselves. I was pretty focused and consistent at the first and second quarter, slowly crawling my profits to new heights, until one single NFP that sent my losses to new low, which crushed my confidence to fire up the MetaTrader until today (+10).

Along the way, the comforting Oanda account

(opened in June) with fresh records still doing okay. Until another NFP sent it spiraling downwards in a single night. I managed to recoup it halfway, until one trading day then send it back to square one. NFP is a lesson. You see the label at the side there "Non-Farm Payroll", it's history. I'm not blaming NFP, but simply the way I handle it. I'm not there yet.

During June, I caught the "poker bug". No doubt it really diversify my attention for trading. Texas Hold'em is a new interest. I used to think that poker is simply pure gambling. Until I found out it is partly a skill game, I mean it is still gambling. But you can work on your skill unlike going to casino and play the roulette or big small, where the odds are largely against you.

I bought a lot of poker books, I want to learn and improve. But working hard and showing results are two different things. At least I come home knowing and loving what I do now. We need more time and experiences.

My results for this year anyway:

FXDD: -7.14%

Oanda: -11%

Pokerstars: -25%

Omfg. So sick. I did grab my courage and traded a short one. It's time to slowly pick myself up, learn from my mistake and embrace the new year ahead.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year! Money Money Come Come!

Black.

Drawing Outs on the River

Played about short 100 hands tonight and that was it. First table, I cleared my stack. So I moved on to another table fresh, where every one was playing tight. Until my opponent below came. He was pretty loose and aggressive. He called on every flop. Basically whoever one of us is playing the hand, it will be against him. He had cleared a few stack before this.

One of my encounter with him below. I didnt expect him two have two pairs on flop (due to his past aggressiveness), but probably wan to chase me away with a huge bluff, or made two pairs on river.

With his All-in on the Turn, give me a hard but straightforward decision. I was on both open-ended straight and flush draw. In total, I had about 9 (spades) + 6 (8s and kings excluding spades) + 3 (aces) = 18 outs? Right? 15 of them for the nuts. Although I seem passively calling, but I think I made a pretty good call here when the fifth spade came. And so that was it for me.



Black.

Just A Short One Today

Played only a few hands today and I left after I meet my target. Thanks to L&W who shared with me a site so that I can post visual of the hands I played instead of tons of words like the matrix movie. I will be exploring SharkScope.com. Really appreciate the things you guys shared.

I won this pot below and left. I wanted to get him out of the pot at turn but he had a flush draw (I didnt read, I thought he had two pairs). river queen made us a pair and I scoop the pot with an ace kicker.



Maybe I left quickly because I dont want my winnings taken away as usual so that I can finally say "hey I won tonight"!

Some Updates

Experiencing some really bad lags in pokerstars. I havent been trading since my last post. Been busy, taking chance to catch up with old friends after work during this school holiday. Just some updates..

Been seeing Bottle lately, he's been actively focusing on trading. During our common friend birthday celebration in a chalet, we taught him to play texas hold'em. Now he too, caught the "poker bug" like what DT said. We bought a set of chips and play leisurely together. Its good experience. Playing in real life is much fun than online. But there is still agony in losing a big pot, but at the end of the day it is best not to take any of these too personally and everyone having a great time. This game is a challenge, there are much to learn in strategies, tactics, under different circumstances and playing with different people.

Its also time I carry on clearing my poker books. I decided that I should aim to at least spend 30 minutes after work to look at charts, or a few hours in poker (reading or playing) daily so that I get more exposure and practices before school starts, especially trading, I think I have been lagging quite much. My exams results will be out next Thursday wish me luck.

Hope everyone have a great Christmas and New Year ahead!

Black.

Happenings

Many miracle happened tonight, but thats poker. AA lost to TT when the board shows four clubs in the TT's favour. TT won QQ when the board shows 789 A 6. I won a sick hand myself too.

Table 'Cottrell II' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: KILHOFFER ($5.45 in chips)
Seat 2: QProQuo ($2 in chips)
Seat 3: Nmbee10 ($10.87 in chips)
Seat 4: e3fkaa ($5 in chips)
Seat 5: issaru07 ($13.59 in chips)
Seat 6: hxh147 ($4.05 in chips) <-- me
e3fkaa: posts small blind $0.05
issaru07: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hxh147 [Qs Ah]
hxh147: raises $0.10 to $0.20
KILHOFFER: raises $0.40 to $0.60
QProQuo: raises $1.40 to $2 and is all-in
Nmbee10: folds
e3fkaa: folds
issaru07: folds
hxh147: raises $1.40 to $3.40
KILHOFFER: raises $1.40 to $4.80
hxh147: calls $0.65 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($0.75) returned to KILHOFFER
*** FLOP *** [7s 5s 6s]
*** TURN *** [7s 5s 6s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [7s 5s 6s 3c] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hxh147: shows [Qs Ah] (a flush, Queen high)
KILHOFFER: shows [8c 8s] (a flush, Ten high)
hxh147 collected $3.89 from side pot
QProQuo: shows [Qh Qc] (a pair of Queens)
hxh147 collected $5.85 from main pot

Four spade on the board, and I held the most beautiful queen of the hand.

I'm Back & Dead!

Im back. Have been pretty busy the whole semester, all the way until my exams were over on 20th Nov. Last whole week was spent great. Was celebrating my brother's wedding the start of the week, and we stayed over at Crown Plaza Hotel where the wedding dinner was held. I went back to work on Thursday and stayed over a chalet on my friend's birthday, along with Bottle. Followed by a night stay at Marina Bay Sands over the weekend - no casino expedition this time! Fulfilling time to spend post-exams.

Mobile-traded. Realised there were bugs with Oanda's Blackberry mobile app chart. I emailed them with the screenshot and they replied that

they will get it fixed the next release. Price paid was high. I was so closed recouping my account and WHAMP! Bad trades today and all the way back down I went. This trading thingy is a serious patient-tester. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes patient. It takes concentration. All built slowly. But my loss is always like sweeping everything off the table.

Holiday is here, market is around, its time to take it slowly.

Black.

Won My First Sit & Go!

I have been playing Double or Nothing. But tonight halfway mugging my books I felt like playing one tourney so I went into micro-stakes of Sit & Go - my very first try. I wasn't expecting I would win, I mean I hoped I did but my target was just top 3. Wasn't leading at all. TruckerAA was leading all the way. I had folded most of my cards only managed to grab 1 or 2 pots once in a while until a major turn of tide came below:

Was KK vs JJ all-in. You can imagine how I felt when the flop came. I was just numbed, didnt react. So the turn K came and saved my night. You can imagine how screw he felt but that's poker. Was at top 3 later and I eliminated number 3 with 99 vs JQ. TruckerAA still in the lead.

I was heads-up with him for quite awhile. We were on par until he was leading 10K chips vs 2K chips. Managed to play tight, I think it was because of my tight table image so he folded most of my raises and thats how I grew my stacks for a comeback. I was too happy so didn't managed to print my last hand but I requested so here you go:

*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #52370081862: Tournament #329411649, $1.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2010/11/08 10:33:45 ET
Table '329411649 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 2: hxh147 (7445 in chips)
Seat 9: TruckerAA (6055 in chips)
hxh147: posts the ante 25
TruckerAA: posts the ante 25
TruckerAA: posts small blind 200
hxh147: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hxh147 [8c As]
TruckerAA: raises 800 to 1200
hxh147: raises 800 to 2000
TruckerAA: raises 4030 to 6030 and is all-in
hxh147: calls 4030
*** FLOP *** [4h 2d Th] <<--- I felt pretty fucked here from his three of a kind Deuces..
*** TURN *** [4h 2d Th] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [4h 2d Th 5h] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hxh147: shows [8c As] (a straight, Ace to Five)
TruckerAA: shows [2c 2s] (three of a kind, Deuces)
hxh147 collected 12110 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12110 | Rake 0
Board [4h 2d Th 5h 3d]
Seat 2: hxh147 (big blind) showed [8c As] and won (12110) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 9: TruckerAA (button) (small blind) showed [2c 2s] and lost with three of a kind, Deuces

Very lucky night. I was happy.

Sweet Come Back + Oanda For BlackBerry

Oanda has finally released their trading app for BlackBerry mobile some time this week. Bottle has been enjoying his Oanda for iPhone app for the past few months already. We got to admit, app developers are more keen to make some iPhone apps because their market are huge, and their app are some times more functional than the ones created for BlackBerries. But I still love BlackBerry. I cant stand touch screen and I'm in love with a physical QWERTY keypad and push-mails. This time, I can say the Oanda app for BlackBerry is pretty decent! Here are some of the screen shots:

I was watching the price for Eur/Usd during lunch time today. Checked past days and day high and low. I know money is not free, but I hastily short at 1.4114 my first trade 2000 units. It went against me quickly all the way to 1.4133 area. Was near to day-high, I average in short again for 2000 units with 14 pips take-profit.

Price quickly rebound down to my take-profit and my first position's entry price. I didn't close the trade, still watching the movement closely. It go all the way back up to 1.4140 which was then the day high and buyer looks pretty strong. My first position was closed at stop loss -26pips.

I wanted to enter the a long on the pair when it spike to 1.4149 in split seconds, I waited for pull back, I took the third/fourth trades at 1.4141 and Aud/Usd at 1.0052. Both are like breaking resistance level to me. And London opening always give a smooth move. My target for both pairs were 1.42 & 1.01, and stop-loss at 1.41 & 1.0 respectively. I decide to let it run, and probably close them both before the New York opening, due to lotsa announcement coming.

Forexfactory is like screening landmine on the road infront of me. You need to screen for mines in the land u're walking before u proceed. Data-release are killers, I won't touch Non-Farm Payroll tomorrow because my pain is still sore from the last encounter - which was the last time I traded before today.

Sweet comeback, after my office meeting I pulled out my BlackBerry and saw the price at 1.4253 (eur/usd) and 1.0104 (aud/usd). Thats it until my exams are over. I'm looking to join Asia Pac COOP which is right after my exams, let's see how it goes.

+94 pips.

Black.

Lost Shares & Poker

BACK!! For a while.. I have been pretty busy with school assignments, basically for the past one month plus every weekend. Exams will be on mid-november after which I will have a short getaway for about a week.

I haven't been trading at all since. But.. I was into shares, for like the second time in my life. I was listening to others, hearing rumors. There was a new IPO REITs offering which came out two weeks back.

the IPO was bought at 0.96, I contra-ed with my frens for a very high number of lots, we thought we could sell it for just a few clicks up. On the day we entered, it was at 1.15, it went up 5 clicks to about 1.2 on the same day, and went all the way down to range between 1.06 to 1.08 for the next few days.

I learned a heavy lesson here. In less than a week, an equivalent of two forex account was busted for this trade. Damn foolish. There is no absolute shit in th

is world.

Im taking a break tonight before I continue mugging tomorrow onwards for my upcoming exams. Double or Nothing tourney earlier. I was having the worst hands all the way, and my only wins were bluff. I dont remember how many 7-2 I picked up. But nevermind I still lost at 8th place.

There was a funny incident inside though. BB and two callers checked when flopped A 3 3. They checked all the way thru' river and the floor was finally A 3 3 3 3 - quads. Obviously the players in the hand have a confirmed share of their winnings for that game. One player went ALL-IN and the BB folded LOL.

Someone in the chat said sth like that:

only1Pro: lol nice fold

only1Pro: 1000% split and he folds :)

only1Pro: was afraid of the 5th 3?

Black.

The Good Lost

GBP/JPY. 4Hour time frame. Chart and circles again... As the title says, this is a failed trade. Flopped. Lets get to know the circles. Yellow = My intented TP. Green = My Entry. Red = My Stop Loss. Blue = My loss if it were to happen months ago, to that old me who dont place Stop Loss.

Analysed the chart, a conclusion of a downtrend is what came to me at that point of time. U know, low lower than previous low and high lower than previous high. Same goes to the 50 and 100 MAs that signals downtrend in progress. Anyways, what i think is of no importance. We have to respect the fact that the chart is in no obligation to follow what we analyse.

Like anyone else, i was frustrated and angry at myself for this lost. I close the chart and stop trading for the day. Soon enough when im more calm, i start to think back what has gone wrong, is it myself or just part and parcel of trading.

Well i waited for retracement to 50MA(green MA), trying to do a pullback trading that i've been successful recently. But this time round, i wasnt patient enough to wait till confirmations of a fail rally at a key resistant price. I just go in at that price EXPECTING a fail rally to occur soon after, like before. To my dismay, price shot past the resistant level n went straight to my SL.

A lesson learnt with experience gained at least. And thankfully this time round, stop loss placed and only -55pips is suffered instead of the usual -100+ pips that im capable of coming up with in the past. LOL.

Trying to be optimistic perhaps?

-55pips

Bottle

How To Prepare For The Trading Day

Trading is like construction. In fact, being a trader is very similar to being a construction worker. A construction worker builds things. Well, how exactly does he build something? Does a construction worker simply choose a plot of land, decide to build a house, gather his tools, and then begin hammering away? Of course not! A construction worker has a very detailed blueprint that details exactly how he should build the house he is building. There is no guesswork. Trading is, or at least it should be, very similar, even though it is not meant for everyone, just like construction work isn’t!

The primary similarity between traders and carpenters is that both have, or should have, a detailed blueprint, and then they simply execute this blueprint. Therefore, the first step in preparing for the trading day is to look at your blueprint.

Examine Your Trade Plan

The fact that you should have a detailed trade plan written out goes without saying. Assuming that foundational block is already laid, it is good to briefly review your trade plan each morning before you even open your charts. Refresh in your mind exactly what types of setups you are looking for. Although you know this already, a brief review of your trade plan will further emphasize and reinforce proper trading behavior to your subconscious, which is very powerful.

Open Your Charts

Next, open your online forex brokers trading platform and spend as much time as you need analyzing the market according to your style of technical analysis. Pay attention to all the price developments that have occurred since the last time you had your charts opened. Have certain key levels been broken? Have certain key levels held? Where is the order flow bias? Is the overall market bearish or bullish? Is risk on or off? It is essential that you are in sync with the market flow. Remember, you are not looking to take a trade yet, you are simply conducting analysis. This point is very important. If you conduct your analysis as you are looking for rates, your analysis will be skewed.

Review The News

Take a look at all the major news developments that have occurred over the last few hours in order to identify what is currently driving market sentiment and order flow. Did any news releases come out during the overnight session? If so, how have they affected the market? Also, make sure you are fully aware of any key economic data that will be released during the day while you are trading. This is essential. You never want to get caught with open positions during a major economic release such as Non-Farm Payroll or a Federal Reserve Interest Rate Announcement.

Begin To Look For Setups

Once you have spent adequate time preparing for the day by following the preceding steps, now you are ready to begin trading. However, if you skip through preparation, and simply sit down at your computer, open your charts, and open a trade within a few minutes, you are playing with fire. That is a very dangerous approach to financial markets. Remember, fx trading is a business, and it must be treated as such.

Preparation is Key

There is a saying in construction: measure twice, cut once. This holds up in trading quite well. If you are going to err, err on the side of preparation. You may miss a few trades over time, but you will also keep free from overtrading and trading without a plan, which are two of the most common causes of failure for many traders. Reviewing your trade plan, conducting technical analysis, and briefly reviewing the news to determine key economic drivers will help place you in the proper mindset for trading.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect, it simply means the more you practice the better you will get.. at least thats what the explanation is for GoEnglish.com Idioms .

It suddenly comes to my thoughts one day.. u know, im a dreamer... always dreaming and particularly, Daydreaming. I believe im not alone though. We all dream to have a better life, that particular model of sport car, that dream vacation at some weird corners of the world etc etc, the list goes on and on. After some thinking, it comes down to only 2 possible ways i can thought of to make that dream comes true. Its either u earn with close to 5 digits figure a month (USD MIND YOU! NO RUPIAH NO YUAN!!) or being a super lucky dude who win any lucky draw even when u r chewing gum, holding that wrapper that says You won yourself a trip to bla bla bla.

Bottomline, blunt but true. Money

A Daydreamer, but one that got the drive to make them come true, like a handful out there, i picked up trading to fulfil that dreamy part of my life. Started reading on dudes who make it BIG trading and i really mean BIG. They are my idols. I told myself i wanted to be like them~!~!
After trading for 8 to 10 months, i find that i am still way behind them. Almost thinking that its impossible to be like them. Even till now, no significant progress. Slow i would say.

Whenever my mood got affected by a lousy trade, bad thoughts like shit im not going to make it big with this bla bla bla and all that negative stuff, i try to make myself feel better so as to go on this long journey to success.

I try to relish on the first day of learning to drive @ the driving center. Remember the first time trying to move off the vehicle like a pro? And keep failing and frustrating, feel like grabbing that instructor seated beside u by his head and yank it for not able to teach u the "holy grail" to driving?

How bout riding a bicycle? Being amazed at how adults able to balance themselves on just 2 wheels while going so fast?? U keep trying n trying, ur dad keep teaching n teaching... TADA!! Now u ride like a pro with just 2 wheels. 2 months ago u were amazed by how it is possible, 2 months later you r part of the impossible and thought nothing of it.

Both the above example are 2 of the simplest things that we can do. But that little boy who saw u riding a bicycle thinks that u r super cool! How the hell he balance himself with only 2 wheels so well? And maybe that teenager who just started his first lesson on driving, amazed by how smoothly u moved off while driving a manual car.

Both scenarios, first timers thinking what possible techniques that u possess and they did not. For me on the above 2 scenario, been there done that. But now, in trading, im the first timer. That little boy, that young chap.But I know whats the technique, PRACTICE. Though i used to be like that little boy before, seeking the holy grail/technique to successful trading.

Practice makes Perfect,. Can you remember how many trade u have executed already? Of all that SLs and TPs hit, all that analysing u did since day one? These are all practices. I cant remember how many trades i had so far, all i can remember is, most are bad trades........ =(
Lol, but at least i found out many bad habits of mine and try not to commit them again! (Thats comforting......)

So yes, to me, its really simple... Practice! Try to keep going for as long as possible. For as long as u can go, the more u can trade and every trade is a practice session. No matter the amount. My progress since day one hasnt been significant, but definitely slowly and steadily. One of the most obvious yet forgotten improvement is the amount of trades i execute a day. I used to trade so much like 5-10 times a day. The urge to trade and fail badly. This bad habit is starting to disappear as far as im concern. Now i trade once a day or nothing! Comes to me so naturally that i forgotten about it till i review my monthly trades.

Keep doing something over and over and over and over and over again. You can only get better and better and better and better at that something.


Practice Makes Perfect
Bottle

Amazing Hand in WSOPE

Black September Review

FXDD: -24%

Oanda: -0.86%

PokerStars: -4.15%

Full RED month! Very bad month for me. September NFP I tilted badly, one year after live trading, not much progress as it seems. It's been a long month. I could not catch up with trading, only occasional poker in between my assignment.

Will be even more tight during work (new project in the testing phase), still rushing my school work back home. Even family poker has been cut down drastically. Time of the year, when everytime comes to you, trading & poker have to been withdrawn for the time being. I'm looking forward school hols after mid-November, after which it will be my last semester of night classes, when everything will end by May 2011 - something I waiting for 3.5 years.

I still read up poker books I ordered recently, on my journey to work or breaks during work. I recently finished with The Tao of Poker - by Larry W. Philips, introduced to me by ANON. Got time I will write a review on it. It doesn't teach you technically what to play on poker but what you mindset should be throughout poker games, which is fundamentals of poker, that can relate even things in our daily life.

I'm proceeding on the book Dan Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1, introduced to me by L&W. After only the introduction it gets me going non-stop. The writing is concise and easy to understand, and it gives a lot of insights, spells out little things that is happening but we do not know (or maybe only I don't know).

Trying not to squeeze my tight schedule to jeopardize my trading or poker. I want give myself more room to learn so I probably will be slowing down as you can see. I'm still keeping up with all of your blogs with my mobile RSS reader. All the best and..

Good luck to everyone!

Black.

Poker: Double or Nothing

Just want a short break away from my assignment. My head is busting from it. So I fired up my PokerStars and looked for a double or nothing game. Increased to "Low" games from "Micro". I was playing pretty tight from the start. And hands I went through to showdown I had all the pots early in the game.

I was number 2 in the stacks throughout basically. At one point, I was down till about number 5 out of 8 players left in the game of 10. The blinds were high. I

called with an A 6. Opponent shoved all-in post-flop when the flop came A J 5. I called.

A 6 vs A T. I thought I was fucked (mathematically I was).

Very quickly, turn came a 6. I sat up from my bed and yell "FUCKYAAA!!!!". I grabbed the pot and returned to number two, throughout the rest of the game. I was happy because this is my first game on slightly higher buy-in.

I miss about two flushes during the game by foldin

g pre-flop. Below is one of the screenshot I missed my full house, because two of them went all-in pre-flop. I had no reason to call against such aggressiveness although I had what I find a

moderate-strong card.

Result: +$4.60

Black.

Part 2 of my Comeback into trading

Yes as the title suggest, this is the 2nd part of my Comeback into the trading society.. Its goooood to be back. Split my entry into 2 so as not get F*** by anyone for being looooonnngggg winded. 1st part will be whats going on in my mind from the day of my comeback and happenings while part 2 will be one of my most recent trade. Ok lets get it on!!!!!!!!

Pair : EUR/USD

Timeframe : 4H and 1H

As u can see from the picture, the 100SMA is going up.. So i suppose Mr Trend our friend is heading up. The Red circle is my signal. Well, to me it(candlestick) looks like a struggle after a rally by USD. The candle after that confirms my believe. The Yellow circle marks my entry base on 1H chart, its a 5SMA on that 1H chart. Last but not least will be the Blue circle, my TP. Base on DOUBLE ZEROES. 1.3400. SL will be 50 pips down from my entry, its the low of my red circle signal. I believe that prices that close below that means my forecast / prediction or whatever is wrong.

Profit : 65pips.

Patience... Root of success.

Bottle

Part 1 : Back from the dead and into the game

Yes im back finally after funding my Oanda account... Fyi i busted my FXDD account. LOL.
Went into hiding and meditate. Reflect on every aspect of my trading style, learn from mistakes.

My first trade with my account is a disaster as i chose to place a bigger lot. Reason being, FIRST TRADE MUST MAKE IT BIG!!! The success of this trade will be a good omen for a start!!

Hell yea im so wrong... big lot = bigger pressure = unwillingness to place further stop loss. Hence my stop loss was being triggered by "noise" when actually my trade should turn up profittable had my stop loss been slightly further.

Then thereafter i became PUSSIFIED and starts placing much smaller lots, and fortunately enough, they are profittable. Then i tot to myself, all these small wins cant or bearly make up for my big loss i had earlier... Something has to be done..............

Finally, i make an effort to do a calculation on my capital and came out with a lot size that is much more acceptable, not too big, not too small. No pressure n no regrets. No regrets as in i wont whine about "IF I HAD PLACE A BIGGER LOT" bla bla bla...

Fortunately again i made it! It hit TP and im over the moon and sun and stars and comet and meteor and space shuttle and and whatever u find up there. GODLY! From all the small wins till now, i had quite a streak... i almost forget what my dad's name is dammit... I lost myself and start to look for a position to get into again........... aiming for a "MONSTER KILL" (If u play DOTA, u will know wat that means)

DANG!!!! Wrong move... bad price bad position. Got shot in the head. The devil inside me came out from my ass again... My placing of stop loss.. i totally ignored stop loss placing, instead i went in another position so as to offset my previous losing position should the price go in my way again.. I GOT RIPPED... Picking up myself together, i got the courage to close both position at a big lost... All my profits earlier dissolve together with my ego. Fall back to earth with a bang... AGAIN?!?!?!?!?!

The above totally sounds familiar...was it like 6 months ago? Cant remember...

Put the past behind, take a step forward
Bottle

Poker: 20 Sep - Lost Focus

Firstly, I called an all-in with JJ against 88 pre-flop. Flop came an 8 and that was it for me right from the start. Never mind. I grind my way back up. Was on the profit side. I was on too much attention with other stuff online. There was obvious full-house on the table. I had a K high flush and without second thought and look I called all-in and lost everything there.

Losing focus is something that shouldnt be in poker (obviously). I wanted to curb this thats why I played one table instead of two and I play 0.01/0.02 stake instead. But still happens.

I wasn't that upset that such thing (losing) happened but more upset to the fact of how it happened. If you can't keep your focus, don't trade, don't poker. That is why I haven't trade since NFP and play poker for more than a week. Because I knew I had my job and classes to worry. Until finally today I had the mood to get in and it happens again.

This is getting emotional. I suppose even writing blog may go on tilt. Lol, till then.

Casino Expedition

This post is more on my trip to local casino I was talking about in a few post back. SGD100 have to be paid as a levy for locals. So you basically lost 100 before u even start to gamble. That prevent a lot of small rollers like me from entering the casino at will.

I went there with my family last week during the public holiday. We reached there at night about 21:45. So the time you enter, you have 24hours in there, if in any case you came out 21:46 the next day (say if you stayed for 24 hours), you will be told to pay another SGD100 levy - thats what I heard.

It is the newer casino, Marina Bay Sands. Beautifully designed. I like the layout and the place just seem new and feels good (except for the cigarette smells). There are table games like Black Jack, Bacarrat, Roulette (table and machine), Big Small (thats what we call it), and Singapore Stud Poker etc.

Of course, I went over to check out the Singapore Stud Poker, I read the rules of the game before I went there. I didn't play because I didn't plan to gamble more than simply 3 bets of the game (Ante: $50, if you bet it cost you another $100 which therefore $150 per hand). It seem pretty hard to play too. I went on to the machine roulette thereafter.

You can simply place your bet bet bet bet bet all over 1-36 of the roulette table. I felt that the odds is greatly against us. So I bet for Red & Black. Didn't make it either. Down to $100 in 3 hours by then. It was $1 minimum per bet, probably the only game I coulda afford that night. Then I went on bet on between 1-36 and it seem like a slow death so I was down another $50. Finally, I bet first column. I thought the reward ratio is better though the odds is only 1/3. I only hit once and finished my last 50 bucks quickest.

Day One: -$200

Second day, we went in the afternoon (still within the 24 hours, sound pretty desperate -_-). That morning, before brushing my teeth I started to surf for some roulette system. I manage to find the Labouchere System (I dont know what to put in the numbers basically), Martingale System (seems too risky for me), and the 1st & 3rd Column Strategy (which I adopted).

On the second day, I tried 1st & 3rd column right from the start. But because I also bet an additional "Black", which makes it always break-even like what the author said, or else I will lose all my money, and pretty hard to win all. So first half of the gamble, I was basically +40 then 0 then -50 then back to +10.

I decide to stick to simply 1st & 3rd column. Seems more like a better odds to me. You get a probability edge of about 2/3 against the dealer, although the lost is x2 of per win. I was pretty lucky from there and then. I caught most of the moves. I was up +75 before I raised my stake size. When I hit +150 I raised again. This time round I was hanging there pretty long, before I hit +200 and called it a day. I'm in love with this system but you have to stay discipline and it can be a pretty boring betting style (nothing more than using my thumb and middle finger to tap the two bets every hand). If can win, who cares if it's boring?

Day Two: +$200

Nett: -$0 + (-$100) = -$100

Screw the levy man.

Black.

Poker: 10 Sep - Randoms

Short 100 hands today. Last weekend was terrible, after the previous NFP big draw-down, I was followed by loses in poker over the weekend. This is at a point of time where I was lost and felt I need more time to pick up. Earlier this week I was only doing my school assignments. Got to play a bit of hands today.

Today is a public holiday, our fellow Muslim counterpart's festival call the Hari Raya Puasa. If you don't know, they went through one month of "fasting" before celebrating this special day. Long weekend for everybody.

I need to remind myself of becoming calmer during my trades/poker even during losses. Recently, I let myself go easily, I tilt easily. The more I'm afraid to lose, the worst I become when loses come infront of me. It's simple concept every beginner learn till they are masters, but it is some thing that takes a life-time to master. I was thinking if I relate my capital to my real-life monetary too much. Because if you take it too hard, like losing a few dollars to hundreds of dollars, you might go into thoughts like 'oh my I lost these amount I coulda bought something or something'. But then again, these are still real money. But I think the key to curb this might be changing my mentality about it. Isn't it strange why we always do so well in the demo than our real money?

Have a good weekend people!

Result: +$1.20

Black.

3 Sep, Eur/Usd - Non-Farm Payroll

Frustrating night on NFP.

From start, I sold at bottom when slippage occur. I was too reckless. I thought they are always the same.

So most of the night, I was trying just to re-coup. And then I sold at top, big size (tilting again), I was at break-even and even some profit. But I held, I thought it would still go down. US data was bullish.

And thinking that it would go further down, I added another lot size short and thats where the root problem occurs. That last position caused me lost (overall) which I dont want end like this. I went back in and in and in like how it always occur.

My FXDD account got margin called twice. Year's profit gone plus some loss. My Oanda is still ok, hanging on where it is.

-8.46%

Fuck me. I am going nuts trying to trade the market. I should really find more discipline in myself.

August Monthly Review: FXDD + Oanda + PokerStars

FXDD: +8.12% (8 trades, basically most from the NFP this month)

Oanda: +4.26% (No count, most are scalps)

PokerStars: -5.67% (Most active, least result)

As you can see, my attention recently has been slowly drifting from trading to hold'em poker. School started early this month. And I'm probably gonna have even less time for the next 3 months or so.

I probably didn't trade much because I was afraid my profit will be taken away? Or has recent detachment from this activity doesn't exert that much pressure on me to do slightly better? As for poker, the more I thirst to recoup my money, the more they run away, like how I was when I started trading forex.

ANON pointed out something interesting in his recent post which got me into thinking mode. Why do you do it? Why do we trade forex? Why do we play poker? (Off track a little, besides his point, you should really check out those photos he posted)

I wanted to learn to trade the stock market initially. I wanted the skill to make money. And I know many people who are rich, trade the stock market; doesn't necessary mean people who trade the stock market, are rich.

So my colleague was introducing forex market to me. He was trading then, and taught me a lot of basic stuff and chart reading. I juz wanted to learn some derivatives, I want to make money. Telling people you trade the currency market sounds cool? He has already quited fx after major losses and now invests in REIT.

But I know too, that there are price to pay. But I need to take the first step. Like the saying goes "Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die." One example..

Some people who find out you invests or trade and ask you immediately:

They: "So you earning from trading?"

Me: "No.. not at the moment.."

They: "EEEYYERRRR" (typical Singaporean reactions)

Me: "It's not something that is quick buck or you win immediately, some times you pay to learn you see. Besides.."

They: "Nah! better don't touch these things, get your hand scalded. These are simply gambling."

Well. Earlier days I do try to defend the currency market from people who claim its gambling. But no longer bothers.

Anyway, back to why I wanted to trade. I just hope I can make long term money out of it, and like Jules, I prefer my own life. Although I know it's pretty hard and pressurizing when your bread n butter depend on trading. But I don't have to do what I don't like to do in office.

As for poker, I used to think that it's simply gambling. But when I started to learn the game, I also found out the "psychological" part of it - the bluff. That is what got me so interested in the game. It is the trigger point I started the poker highway.

Anyway, let's hope for the better in September!

Black.

Poker: 30 August

Not a very good day today again. I was slowly grinding my way up. But my 2nd table lost all-in flush to a full house. I didn't expected a full house.

Second big pot lost was when I hold Ace of hearts. The table has 4 hearts. I went all-in.

Ace-high flush losing to STRAIGHT FLUSH.

"Your goal is to win one big bet an hour, that's it." - Mike McDermott in Rounders Movie (1998)

On the contrary, I played two hours. I lost 2 big pot. That's it.

Result: -$6.28

This is so no good!!!

Black.

We Wish..

Couldn't help laughing when my friend sent me this screenshot that night. He told me "sometimes I really wish the hands were swapped.."

We have been squeezing time for about 100 hands a day now. Rushing school assignments. Due tomorrow midnight. Will keep ya updated. Short updates will be through our twitter.

Thanks for keeping up here.

Black.

Poker: 23 Aug

Just a short update today. I have recently up my Stakes from $0.01/$0.02 to $0.02/$0.05. I know it seems crazy for an amateur like me. I decide to focus on cash games instead of hoping around Double or Nothing.

I will be playing about 100 hands per day, whenever I can. And trading will probably be slowing down quite a bit, sorry for my fx readers. But because my school is catching up once again. In fact, I was barely home from school 1 hour (now time is 11:35pm) after work.

I have school assignment due this weekend, otherwise I would want to join my family on a Saturday outing to Marina Bay Sands, the newest casino in Singapore, or rather newer (between the two). Well, good thing about not going is the fact that Singaporeans ourselves have to pay a levy of SGD100 just to enter the casino. Well, I cannot imagine trying to recoup initial 100 loses when what I play are simply micro.

Another thing I found out about local casinos is that we do not have any Texas Hold'em poker here. I don't know the reason. I suppose Macau casinos have it. This poker game only began to grow popularity recent few years when Zynga created Texas Hold'em in Facebook. I learned my poker there too. But then again, just like trading, fake money is seriously different from real money. You find everyone go all-in with anything anytime.

I had good poker earlier (obviously because I won). I was pretty loose on the very first hand and got smash right from the start. That table I managed to recoup back and break-even at the end. At the other table, my good friend joined me. No we didn't cheat or anything. Instead, we went heads up against one another fiercer than against anyone else.

He raised aggressively against me. I had nothing on the table except a pair of Qs myself. I almost folded but I called and win the pot. Next up, I had suited A T. He raised pre-flop. I called, with 2 other opponents. He raises aggressively once again. I didn't call, in fact I re-raises him when the flop came A A K. I had three aces, I would do anything in that hand already.

Then turn came T again, that makes me full house Aces with Ts. He Turn a set too - Straight, holding pocket J Q, on the table A A K T. He all-in, and so did I. Pretty lucky for me - because he know my weakness well and it is a challenge to go heads up against him. It is good because we often point out each other's weakness and try to work on it. He's more a natural in this area. For me I often find myself brain-fucked in probabilities. Still working on it. :)

Result: +$5.03

Black.

Poker: 19 Aug - Beats Beats Beats!!

I'm kinda on tilt after tonight's lost. But I try to take a deep breath and move on to grab some profits back.

These 2 days of losses were more or less result of recklessness. I didn't lose 'em by being "grinded" slowly. I lost 'em thru' all-ins.

Two nights back, as posted in my Twitter. I went all-in pre-flop with a big slick (A K). I lost to a pair of A J when J appeared on the river. Followed by all-in with a pair of A J and losing high card to big slick. *SPIT*!

Earlier, I was doing fine until I did the all-in shit again. One guy raises high pre-flop, I held big slick again. Because I see he was loose and all-in a few times previous hands. So I went all-in. And he did without hesitation.

Big Slick VS Q 9.

9 appeared in Turn. I got busted. The other table I was holding a 6 A. The floor was 6 2 2 3 6. I raised before showdown, thinking I made a full-house. He went all-in. I called. He held a 6 3. 6 full house of deuces loses to 6 full house of 3s. For a moment I felt like throwing the mouse out of the window.

My last big loss tonight, I didn't really know what he held. I was holding Big Slick again (the bigger the card, the greater your lost, or maybe I'm not good enough). The flop came A K Q.

Wow! Who's better than me now? Everyone checks and I raises high and then one of them (out of two) remaining calls. The turn came J. This time that fellow went all-in. I didn't know what to do. I kinda feel that he had turn a set. Obviously a straight if you ask me. I folded and let go of my pair of big slicks.

Result: -$3.89

Black.

16 Aug, Eur/Usd & Poker Sunday

Off from trading a week. So I came back, with a little scalp. I haven't been long with the market so I didn't hold it too long. Just simply catching a small direct movement.

Anyway apologize if now the layout of the blog looks a bit fanciful. I decide to put the twitter back so that if I had no time to put, I can still post some short updates using my mobile to the twitter.

Thanks to ANON, I subscribe a number of poker blogs through his site. I played number of games in Pokerstars last weekend. I went out very early in a Double Or Nothing game but managed to cash profits back in a micro cash games.

Very lucky, both times (bigger wins), I hit a set on the turn, and in both hands, I had Ace two suited, once hearts and the other time diamonds. The first i hit a flush and the second a straight where i all-in after opponent raise before showdown. Feels good. I'm on for another game now.

FX: +6 pips.

Hold'em: +$2.16

Black.

Poker: 12 Aug

No trade this week. But I could still took notice of prices this week, and noticed Eur/Usd has fallen -400pips since last week's NFP.

Two matches, Double or Nothing tonight. Both won. First table with the highest chips left. Second table 3 (out of 6) of us All-In. I had pocket Js. One had big slick (A K). Then one K 8. Flop an ace. I thought that was it. But luckily, the big slick guy wins the pot and the remaining five wins the "double" prize, otherwise I would have left with very small stake.

Tomorrow I will be out with colleagues for drinks, so will not be poker/trading. For those of you who does, good luck!!

Result: +$1.70

Black.

6 Aug, Eur/Usd - Non-Farm Payroll

Traded in the London session with my mobile in office today. Scalp a few pips there.

Wasn't very particular with Oanda during NFP release because right before the release the pip-spread went up to 10. So I switched my focus to FXDD's fixed spread of 2. I did scalp a bit off though, after Oanda's pip-spread went back down to about 1.2.

I was pretty bullish with the pair. I did not do a single sell in the movement. I lose too much to know that such news release is not for you to catch every kind of move in every direction. I just kept buying. Like the "catapult" in my June NFP, I juz kept buying at every pull back.

After I'm done, I left one small size pip to run. Because I noticed in some NFP night, the market does not go back to where it starts when the data is so bearish to USD. When the pair continue pushing up, I added another position. It struggle for some time there and expectedly, my balls shrink and I closed that position with only one pip. My original position continue to roll but also closed pre-maturely. Wasted about 20 pips there.

Short night and I'm gonna enjoy the long weekend.

+75 pips.

Black.

5 Aug, Eur/Usd - Overnight Trade

Bullish on Eur/Usd. Went in long trade, and went to sleep. I woke up and close my FXDD trade at +33. Seems to be struggling at the blue 200SMA resistance.

My Oanda trade hit take-profit at 1.3165 for 14 pips.

It is good waking up in the morning knowing it's Friday (and next Monday is national holiday for our Independence Day) and winning trades.

I'm continuing to bullish on the pair and had my orders at 1.3205.

Should be in for tonight's NFP. May be not. Will see how it goes. Looking forward to another family poker weekend. Enjoy everyone, have a great month ahead.

+48 pips.

Black.

2 Aug, Eur/Usd, Gbp/Usd - Back to Trade

Finally back to trading. Was waiting for US ISM Manufacturing news to be over. News was bullish for US, but not surprisingly, price didn't react. I closed my Eur/Usd trade the moment it bounced of my short trade thru fibo. It is still hanging high up. -15 on this pair.

I had better deal with Gbp/Usd. At first, I bought and it didn't spike up as strongly as the Eur/Usd did. That was some struggle. I took another position in seeing strong buyer. Price broke fibo and continue going up. +25 on this pair.

+10 pips.

Now I'm getting the hang of Oanda platform thanks to the training. I removed "pipettes" from my chart now. More on it later. And also my July review (which was horrible).

Black.

Poker: 31 July

Had a few poker hands this afternoon. Trading was slow. Will blog on the Oanda platform training we went some time next week.

Ups & down in the session. I had two tables at once. Both NL Hold'em 9 players normal ring games. It went well earlier on. I noted down some bad beats (not pretty bad) though but some mistakes which I think I have to train on and watch out for in future.

Firstly, i was pretty silly. I had a pair of Js in hole. I raise on pre-flop. Only one person followed. Flop turn out to be K K 9. Opponent checks. Thats where I got it. I all-in (left about sixty cents there) thinking K has got nothing to do with him. He calls. Thats it.

Second mistake was, I had a pocket A J. I hit ace pair on flop. I didnt raise that much, I raised slowly, slowly than should be. J came out at the turn. I still raise but not very much. Opponent calls and hit a straight on river. I should have nailed him out earlier.

Some players play pretty tight in REAL money. But some play very loose. I encountered a player who buy-in double my from what I had, and finishes much earlier than me. He seems to call on every round, to the point that as though he does not have a 'Fold' button installed.

I only remembered one big win from the session. I had suited K 8 (hearts). I hit flush on flop. I raise. One of them (left) called. The turn, turn out to have another Heart. He raised. I hesitated and re-raised him. The only card he could win me is if he had an Aces heart. He calls and I grabbed the pot.

(Flushed, not royal nor straight though)

I lost overall (win in first table but lost in the second table - that all in thing). But I found myself improving, not being intimidated that much by real money, although it is micro. By the way, I was looking for a Poker Tracker (track your statistics) over the net but couldn't find any. Some are way too expensive. Blackberry mobile does not have it either. (BB Poker Life Lite doesn't track micro lots) Wonder if anyone who has any sort of tracker to recommend?

Result: -$1.12

Black.

Our Twitter and Currensee

Bottle asked me whether I'm free to go to this fair INVEST Fair 2010, held in Singapore on 21-22 August 2010. I hope to get the time to go there and have a look.

Anyway, my night classes has started this week, so expect less posts, trading and poker. We will do short miscellaneous updates via our twitter (BlacknBottle), please follow us for more short updates. I will tweet mini updates, besides, my FXDD trade results (individual trade) are also posted there live automatically whenever I trade. Thanks to Currensee.

Currensee is expanding and building up more and more features. They have also added a few new supported brokers. You need a live account to join. You can form a team and know their position. Or you can earn "credit" and attend Live webinar, quite an interactive social networking site. It's like a facebook for currency traders.

Sign up Currensee via my link and remember to send me your account name so that I can add you as a friend. It's free.

Night peeps. May the pips be with you.

Black.

We have Oanda platform training tomorrow :)

Daniel Negreanu

I watched a few of his videos over the weekend, interesting the way he analyse people's card based on people's action. Amazing.

Here is one of them.

Anyway, this video has 1.4 million views. I'm not surprise you are already one of 'em.

Just Words

Thanks Jules for the comment on my recent tilt. Reply comments thru' post, something I learned from you. And I welcome you and "Scooby" on your first comments in my blog, thank you guys for the encouragement. Ironically, I wrote tons of trading posts and only got L&W his first comment here in this blog with a poker post.

I watched the movie Rounders (1998) on Texas Hold'em recently, after gettin' quite interested into poker. Very nice show with a lot of quotes. One of them he mentioned I find it quite true. He experienced a bad beat at the start of the show (lost his $30,000 bankroll with a full house of nines over aces to Teddy KGB's hidden aces over nines), and had never touch poker for the next nine months.

Before he sat down in his first poker table after such long break he said to himself (narrative): " In Confessions of a Winning Poker Player, Jack King said, "Few players recall big pots they have won -- strange as it seems -- but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career." Seems true to me, 'cause walking in here I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can't stop thinking how I lost it."

How true that is, even in trading sense, as it's exactly how I felt about myself. Thanks for sharing with me your experiences too Jules. Learning poker/trading rules are definitely easy, but mastering ourselves is another story. But that is what I want to do, I hope to see myself succeed some day.

I had LIVE poker for the first time with my family over last weekend for fun, and we really enjoyed ourselves. My brother-in-law went fanatic and went to buy a set of poker chips the next day and we're looking forward to another round of battle this weekend.

Taking it easy tonight. I'm playing fake money poker online for some leisure time.

+$1 million (well, fake money)

Black.

21 July, Eur/Usd, Aud/Usd - Hold Your Ground

I am back. Well, I wasn't gone anyway. How I wish I have summer vacation like everyone else. Worst still, my new semester of night classes are resuming next week.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement after the "tilt" night last week, like what FX called it. You want a better overview of my tilt night, other than going back to my previous post, you can read an insight here on what kind of behavior I was experiencing in the process of a losing night, for traders.

As always, after such night, the next trading day will be taken slowly. I had 20 minutes trades (about there) tonight, no tens of time in between this time. :) I took 2 trades, one in Eur/Usd, one in Aud/Usd. It went against me at start. Good thing was, I didn't went against myself. I held. Price went towards my take-profit and I was out peacefully.

Below is a shot of Eur/Usd in 1M chart. I traded 15M chart for both btw, for screen-shot sake. More significant downtrend off Eur/Usd. Bounces off 20SMA beautifully.


Aud/Usd in 15M. Short after reversal. Take profit at previous support.


+22 pips. Long way home.

Black.

16 Jul, Eur/Usd, Aud/Usd - Trading Vs Buy/Sell

I think I have forgotten what is trading. I only remember what is buy and sell, but not trading. Please wake up Black. Like what Harvey call it, Max-Loss-Day. This is something I never experience in my earlier days big loss, although the loss are not as much as lastime, but I felt like tonight I simply went out of control.

Just take a peak at the number of trades I took. Anyone will call me crazy. Any pro-trader watching me trade will smack me in the back of the head and say "Go home and sleep Black! You are not fit to trade!". Now I start to have doubt in myself on this journey of trading.

Summing up the night, basically my winning (or rather losing) went like this:
+5
-8
+2
+4 (struggling)
-10
+3
+7
+5
-20
+4
+5
+3 (struggling again)
-19
..
..

..and the list goes on.

The more I want it back, the lower my bankroll became. hmm.. emotionally unstable right now. I should learn from Jules not to dwell into losses, its a hard process though especially when it just happened. Sorry L&W, seems like my kit kat break is inevitable. :)

Obviously, under this kind of transition (big loss), I myself is to blame, although another part of me feels like gunning down the chart. Seems like the more you want to win, the harder it gets. The market is simply a formless figure everyone is trying to grasp. Like the sand in the palm the more you want it the faster it slip out of your hand, well maybe it only applies to me.

I'ma go get a drink. Criticism are welcomed, else I will take it as you have given up on me.. getting pessimistic here.. :D

Please. Don't try this at home.

Eurusd


Audusd
How I stopped out just on the point when market reverse.

-80 pips

Black.

Rest Night

No trades, no poker tonight. Only yogurt, granola, boxer and the couch.. yes and the tv.


Black.

Poker: 14 July

Same tourneys today. I wanted to play ring games but I think I need more seat-down time if I want to play them, but I don't. Quite consistent for both rounds. At the edge of losing but good card gave me the chance to fight back.

I feel that in tourney, when ur stakes are running low, you have to push forward as long as you have great cards eg. AA, AK, KK, KQ, or suites pictures - at least for me. Otherwise, the blinds will eat you up alive.

Result: +$1.80

13 Jul, Eur/Usd + Poker - Put'em Back Down.

Trade went badly. I am in going thru an awful process. At those times I don't know is it my stop/loss are too tight or something. Eur/Usd keep rising and rising. I had many scalps in between. I had a full size lot barely touching my take-profit and it reverse all the way to my stop/loss, check out the printscreen below.


One of those days. Traded and traded again.

I had poker in the night too, before this awful trades. I played two tourney tables, Hold'em Turbo Double or Nothing again. I dominated the first table and lost the other at 6th place, damn. Although the river came an Ace that paired with my A+Q, the turn had already spell out the game when his third 9 came out. I had to give it a shot as my capital is running out and the Blinds are very very high.

Very very bad night again.

FX: -50 pips.
Poker: -$0.20

Black.