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.