"Take Risks: If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Good Week Bad Day So Many Words

Been 2 weeks since I last posted. Very busy with night lessons, group assignments and online homework. Trading has come to a complete halt at the moment. Oanda account has finally break-even after 6 months and I did not trade with my FXDD account because I have limited access to it.

Wednesday, Bottle and I went to a talk hosted by Oanda Asia Pacific here in Singapore, by Stuart McPhee on basic trading lesson. It wasn't a lesson about asking you to sign up their course though he was selling his book at the refreshment and attending the talk gives you chance to win an iPad. I admit I was there partly because of it.

The fee of the course was $50, but for Oanda account users, they will deposit it into your account, on top of that Oanda account users have 3x more chance for the iPad. Ok I seem to be going for the wrong reason, but thats not the saddest thing. I fell ill in the afternoon and was feeling terrible during the talk. Had cold sweat and was feverish, I was dozing off throughout and had medical leave the next 2 days. So sorry if I am not able to share what was taught in the talk, but they were things like using take-profit and stop loss and identifying trends and basic bankroll management. It was good, Mr Stuart believes solely on technical analysis only. And also he take things simple, and does not complicate his trades.

I had quite some time for poker this week. Monday started off badly, joined a 27-man SNG with my fren and I was out in no time. Felt bored along the way so I played a 6-handed $0.10 table, seeking action. Sadly the play was different, I kept getting called unlike in a full ring game and drew down quickly.

Thursday, on my first day of medical leave, I was 6-tabling 500 hands. I think that was my limit. Am tired right after the session. That day, I ran pretty good, I was up about 20+ usd, never in my poker life have I had such a successful session. I later joined a 18-man SNG and cashed out 2nd place.

I planned my style before the session. I have been losing by being too loose and calling opponents' raises and playing too much hands. This time I approached the game by folding more hands than before, folding opponents' raises, playing much much tighter. It ran real well. In a full-ring game, I managed to bluff a lot of pots too, I think partly because other people were also playing a lot of tables at once. And probably they can't be bothered when they miss their flops.

On Friday, I played the same blinds 10cent table 6-tabling and again another 500 hands. It was bad at some table, my JT hearts ran into ace high flush. At the other table, I called a re-raised pre-flop with 66. Flopped a 6 and I re-raised all-in against aces. Sweet. I got closed to 10 usd that session using the same approached. Later in that day, I played another 18-man SNG and won 1st!! It was a micro though. I was so happy and dancing around until my girlfriend asked the prize I won.. errrmm.. seven dollars. WHAT!? Was it worth the effort she asked. Its the winning that counts heehee.

So the 2 days ran well, but I think that doesn't prove my approach is good yet. I see improvement becuz I slowly grind my way up in the session, but I still think I'm seeing too much flop. So I took a day off on Saturday, and started my third session on Sunday, today. This time, it went all the way to 900 hands. It might be little to some of you, but 3 hours sessions was a strain to my eyes. My little 14.1 inch laptop could only fit 6 tables at once, I took another shot at a micro 27-man sng and have much difficulty on the 7th, I really got no place to put and was so clumsy. I was out quickly in 18th place and I didn't even know what I was doing.

Lesson 1: never play more than you/your screen can handle.

I ran bad on the start, with an all-in with something against something I forgot. I slowly grind my way back and was seeing profit already. I dominated some of the tables. That was about 500-hands when I last checked. I thought it was a Sunday and I was pretty free so I continued my session. Maintaining throughout, my connection got messed up on about 700+ hands and I was stuck in four of the tables, unable to play, exit nor cashout. I had to close them out and join another table. I was feeling frustrated already and I began losing. Cards ran pretty badly right after and then I got disconnected again. Maybe this is an omen for telling me to stop my session.

In less than 200 hands, my profit of less than 10 became -30 quickly.

Lesson 2: don't play beyond session you can handle, stop once u feel fatigued.

Lesson 3: stop immediately once you feel irritation. cards are supposed to be ur fren, if u feel irritation, they will become ur enemy in no time.

I finally sat out and walk out of my seat. My water-bottle was empty and I was feeling dried up. My eyes really needed a break and I felt like shit. It feels exactly like those tilting days like my trading. I went for a shower to cool off and thoughts kept running over my mind. I felt anger and frustration. Feel like screaming if you ask me.

I went out and took a breather. Back home, I thought about one more tourney for the night. I maintained well and was chip lead until a flop T34, I had pocket 34 and re-raised all-in becuz he was short stacked. Expectedly, he turn over an AT, top pair with best kicker. I was favourite at the moment, although I know he had outs. Unexpectedly, turn came a Q, river came a Q. ARGH. That over-pair on the board overwrites my treys. Thats poker. My stack was halved. I was out in the 7th later with A4s vs pocket tens, taking another huge draw-down on my bankroll.

Lesson 4: Now I know why people say stop during your bad day, because if you continue, it felt double worst.

Lesson 5: Such days makes you appreciate break-even day. (which leads to the what-if what-if if-only if-only I had stop at 500 hands at little profit blah blah)

After reading Trader32's post of full-time trading, it kinda give me a clearer picture on dreams on becoming a full-time trading, or full time poker? Full time poker doesn't seem to exist in my country except probably Pokerstars team pro Bryan Huang.

Trading/poker skills aside, it definitely have tremendous stress when ur income solely dependent on these. Because u need money, u need to trade, becuz u need to trade, u may do it despite having no setup. Besides, being an employee, company gives u 14.5% of your salary into your Central Provident Fund account, something very important to us Singaporean. We use it to buy ridiculously high pricing homes here, and we use it for retirement. If we have to become a full time trader, we need to be proficient enuff to sustain such high standards of living. Right now, if lucky, my profit a month can only buy me a double cheeseburger in mcdonalds', not even a full meal with french fries, if they can take out the pickles and charge me less that would even help.

I'm going to have some ice-cream cool off, tomorrow is a new day new week. Gl to everyone at the chart and at the tables!

Black.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Guerilla Hit and Run and Smile and Cheer!

Been a nice few weeks back, gambling pokering trading having fun etc etc... Just like Black mentioned earlier. Black is a total poker addict, LOL. Whereas for me, i only do weekend "live" pokering with him and a bunch of our friends. Who knows in future i may turn addict too? haha, its fun i have to admit, the thrill n suspense... im kinda falling in love with it. Hur hur.. But as for now, im still a very forex trading dude.

Did 3 trades during those period, results were positive... fortunately.. LOL. The images below tells my story.



Picture shows EUR/JPY pair. Did a LONG trade on a pullback as pointed by the RED line. 3 horizontal line each representing my SL, entry point and TP.

This trade ended up with a +1 pip. Due to my cautious nature, i put my SL to breakeven after gaining an unrealize profit of 30 pips. The price fall back and hit my breakeven and went up -.-
Perhaps i should just let it run? Well, past bad experience makes me come out with this move.

Long for this EUR/USD pair.. Long on retracement after a fall on price. Same as above, RED line points to my entry and 3 horizontal line shows my SL Entry and TP level. TP hit for this case. It would have been the same result as my EUR/JPY pair if i had the time to pull up my SL to breakeven. Luckily, i did not and though the price did went back to - a few pips.. it went back up and hit TP. +30 - 40 pips i think? cant remember.


Long GBP/JPY pair, this is one of the more preferred type of outcome. Straight forward, no slippage no scares no pullback. Upon entry at RED line pointing, price went up and never looked back. Comfortable +40 or more pips.
O, forget mention that my entries are based either on 4H or 1H. Whichever resistance/support is nearer to price. SL would be max 40pips or last high/low. TP at last high/low or resistance/support whichever nearer.
Hope these helps!!
Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa POKER FACE!~!~ MUM MUM MUM MUMmmMMm~
Bottle

Monday, February 7, 2011

Today Is The Day! (Warning: Lengthy)

Chinese new year celebration was great. The reason besides gathering with relatives, is also because I'm not yet married and I don't have to give ang bao - red packets. But instead, I'm still receiving them from relatives and married cousins $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Like every year, I went to the cemetery to pay my late grandpa a visit on the very first day of lunar new year at dawn. It's tiring but I think it is still important for us to pay respect to our ancestors. Funny thing about this year was, while we were there, we saw a group of Bangladeshi workers strolling along the road in a group, singing and playing musical instruments like some tambourine and bass drums. They seemed to be having a great time, I thought it was cool too, but what's with the place they chose to party?

Visiting for me is simply gathering, eating, drinking and gambling. I think I kinda touched every form of gambling we played at homes. Nothing is greater than the yearly "bonding" session we had with one another. From Blackjacks, to Dai Dee (Big Two, some call it the chinese poker), Mahjong, and Texas Hold'em (the firstime we played this for new year). All the hyper-links to the explanation of these games seem to give police who are reading this evidence to nail me.

Our home game of blackjack are nothing like the casino's, this is much about luck to me. Big two is my favorite, I can safely say I'm good at it. Mahjong is a skill game to me, and I am super duper bad at it, let alone playing with my uncles' who are like old-timer to this game. I learned this game frm young simply sitting beside my mother who used to play with her frens. I can never quite anticipate opponent's hand as much as I could do in Big Two.

Hold'em is a new game to us. I had two home games last week. One with my cousins, one with Bottle and frens. My cards were good during the game with my cousins. I kept hitting sets and even quads on one of the hands. I didn't make the full use out of those monster hands becuz the pots that night were already a few times higher than usual, despite playing pot limit. Tried to keep it frenly and hopefully no one take things personal, unless playing with strangers.

Bottle played very well that night. He threw more hopeless hands away than he used to play, which was very loosely. He bet into monsters and was one of the winner. That night was the first ever hold'em session my cards ran worst than bad throughout the night. Besides hitting the wall with good hands, I didn't hit any top pairs on flop and missed my flop most of the night. Juz naming a few:

Worst Pot Lost
Me: 6d 7h - straight (i re-raised like no tomorrow lol)
Board: 4c 8c Jh 5c Ks
Opponent: Ac 3c - flush (we both made the set on turn)

Me: As 5s - straight (I folded on river)
Board: 2c 3c Qh 4c Jc
Opponent: Kc Jh - flush on river

Me: Ah As (pocket Aces, lost most of my buy-ins here)
Board: Tc 7h 3h Qs Ts
Opponent: Ks Th (set of Tens on river)

Me: 6c 9c (all-in on flop)
Board: 2c 5c Ac Th Kc
Opponent: Jc Ts (Jack-high flush on river)

I witnessed that night how cards could screw you up, just like the market, except its cheaper, totally. One full night of torture lol. I am lying if I tell you yeah that night was fun though. I seriously can't wait to go home lol, but of course I enjoyed my time with my friends. They are improving every time I played with them, it was my first lost against them so I need to work harder.

Back to work today and taking the next two days off to do my sch assignment. In fact I just completed a quiz earlier before posting. Gonna be busy. Tomorrow night dinner with my family. Gonna hunt some seafood fine dining.

Traded today and Asian session was a torture. I had awful entry for both Eur/Usd and Aud/Usd pairs and exited once they were in favor, took like the third hour of London session, when the bearish German Factory Orders, that pulled the skirt off Eur/Usd to my take-profit level.

After all my positions were closed, I finally, after six months in my Oanda account, do I see the balance at the profit level once again. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have just recouped my Oanda account today. It is probably lucky and maybe short-live but it is a day worth celebration. My FXDD account is still under the blackhole and still can't see the light.

Anyway, I will still try to post whenever there are actions, thanks for all the support all these while. I know I'm boring shits out there with my wordy lame posts but I will do better!

Good luck to your charts and tables! For married couples out there, red packets is just a tradition, I accept paypal! :-)



Black.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

January 2011 Review

Oanda: +9.47%
FXDD: +17.89%
PokerStars: -35% (somewhere there lol)

Well, nt too bad for my trading. But still dangerous valleys ahead on tilting. Poker ain't a draw-down, I'll call that a tear-down instead. Reviewing it by topic..

FX Trading

The lucky thing about trading this month is the grinding of Aussie ranging between 0.98xx - 1.xxxx. It'd been in range for weeks and I have buying and buying. Until yesterday it finally punch through the level 1.01xx.

Improvements? Probably the risk:reward ratio. But the bad thing was, I still find myself tilting. Second week of January almost tear me down into another groundless abyss. It is really lucky to get back up and I should take extra care. No one can stop me from trading, so I don't know how to avoid tilting when I lost. I am still learning to accept losses. It is part of the game. I kinda keep a mentality like the following:

In the past when my equity reach say $1200 from $1000, I will be thinking yeah I'm up $200 and this is my damn money you bitch-ass market I juz humped you.

And then I lost probably $80 from it the next trading day..

I will start going tilt because my mind will be running things like damn those are supposed to be MY MONEY and market juz took it from me, thats not gonna happen.

So I keep entering trades with bigger sizes in hope of recouping losses under the emotionally distraught mind. If lucky I may recoup my $80 plus maybe $100 more. But 80% of such tries end up losing at least another $300+ more..

..and I'm sick of such days.

So now, when I win $200 for my account, I tell myself losses are part of the game, so my actual winnings are maybe $120 or so, so the nextime if there is a loss I will take such business-costs in mind, and make sure I don't do anything foolish. It worked so far. But I don't know how long. When I lost I juz keep telling myself to accept it. I could pump in another 10x size lot trying to grab that few pips to recoup a loss but I know it will tear me down in the long run. This leads me to my poker problem...

Texas Hold'em

Big tear-down. Two reasons: I started to 6-tabling, and I see too much flops.

Like the above problem in trading, seeing too much flop is a long-term disaster. Calling and playing too loosely. 6-tabling probably won't give me the luxury of analysing opponents, but it gives u more hands to get premium cards faster.

Bankroll management is obviously not present. I guess I will soon need another deposit.

Should be slowing down for this trading, poker and blogging upcoming weeks. This is a Chinese New Year celebration weekend and follow by many school assignment deadlines. Just had my re-union dinner with my family, its great seeing people respect the occasion and get together although the mood of new year days are slowly disappearing here in Singapore.

Should end here. Good luck to your trading and tables ahead!

Black.
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