Monday! YayYYyY

O its Sunday... Monday finally... I know i sounded wrong, but i shall no longer deny that ever since i started trading, im looking forward more to weekdays than weekends. Or should i put it this way, weekdays aint that dreadful as it used to be. The problem is, i can only say it out LOUD here in this blog.. because i believe i am not the only one feeling this way. Try telling that white collar guy at your bus stop on a blue Monday morning.

If you still dont get what i mean.. Well, market's opennn on MOndayYYyYY.... All the excitements bla bla bla..
I guess they are right, passion/interest is really important.

O and one more thing! Black and I are so looking forward to the release of DIABLO 3!! HOLYyyYYy..... and we have already pre ordered our copies of it already. Mine? I got it for free... my girlfriend bought it for me. She doesnt know anything about games, but she know im so into it, she decided to buy it for me.. So sweeeeeeet. But she have NO IDEA what she got herself into....

So true...~~ Im so dead if she reads this. MUaHAHahHAHHAaAAHHA~~

Anyway, WTF has DIABLO 3 gotta do with Forex Trading? Of cause it does, did i mentioned before that gaming is one of the few ways i find very effective against emotional trading? At least to me though. It takes my mind off trading, it keeps me disciplined enough to follow through my trades.

Going into game right after i entered trade (after setting my SL n TP), prevents me from looking at the chart too much.Just imagine the emotional stress of looking at prices going up and down. Hence, the trade will be safe from early exits or profit taking. Or when setups are not triggered, i can remove my eyes from the chart and prevent myself from entering trades just because i got the urge to do so. Gaming gives me distractions, in a right way.

2 more weeeekkksssssss................................................................

Which cHar to uSe which ChAr ??? which WHicHH whIChhHH?????
Bottle

The Lack Of Sleep. True Story.

Above image is a reply to Black's earlier post. Its a true story. LOL. I'm envious of Black's life now. Admire his courage to try to achieve it. Me on the other hand, is always thinking of going the same path, but afraid of being financially insecure. Thats the thing yea? We all have our dreams, but how many of us are willing to risk it all to pursue it?

Nonetheless, my time will come! Sooner or later.. But i'll make sure my daytrading days will be more exciting than just waking up and doing same thing all over! I promise to have a haircut every now and then to avoid having urchin's hair.. LOL

Anyway, some thoughts that i would like to share.. its one thing that i think all traders, at some point of their journey faced.. be it pro traders, wannabes, going to bes, greens, reds... bla bla. Any category! THE LACK OF SLEEP!


Not sure about u, but i remember days when i went in position and targets are not hit within certain period of time and is forced to put it overnight... every now and then in the middle of the night, woke up and check hows my trade going.. No matter how sleepy i am, i will still be able to get myself focus and check out my trade. SURPRISINGLY. Its like 3am or 4am in the morning. And i gotta wake up @ 7am for work later on.

Or going into the night with a floating loss position? Waking up every hour to check if my trade came back to green zone... I even dreamt (TELL ME I'M NOT ALONE!) of my postion hitting target profit! Only to wake up and see -23RED on my screen... F*ccCCCkKAAaAAAAAA!!!

How bout sticking your eyes to the screen and waiting for that perfect set up that u have planned since a few hours ago. Watch watch watch and watch the price into the late nights..
Its quite bad for me as my laptop is just right beside my bed. I've also got my forex app on my iphone4. It just makes things worst, i wake up every now and then to check out my trade thru my phone. So convenient! =D

Nights and nights of praying to as many gods as i can think of in front of my laptop/iphone4 in the middle of the night 3am! Now i that i mention it, i must have looked so stupid... Hurhurhurhur...

Recently came by an article on this issue, the lack of sleep. And how important it is. I believe we can google and find many useful informations about it. The benefits and stuff like that. But its this one article that caught my attention. Ranjan Das, CEO and MD of SAP Indian subcontinent. (Click on his name for the link on the article.)

He is a high flyer, he got almost everything we wish for. A good career, loads of money.. dreams bla bla bla.. you name it and most probably he got it. He is still young @ 42 years old.. most probably he still got so much that he wants to do. So much to look forward to, so much things he wanna see, would like to go... bla bla bla.. He worked hard for it and now its time to enjoy the fruit of his success,but its all taken away from him in an instant. Life's cruelty. Truely feels sad for him and his family.

We can have all the material things that we want in life. But what are these without our good health to enjoy it? Life is short, yes. Life is unpredictable too. We never know whats gonna happen tommorrow. Dare to pursue our dreams but not at the expense of our health and those who care for us. So now, if you slept less than 6 hours. Please go get some now. AND! try to hit your daily quota of 6-7 hours of sleep yea..

Else, WE WILL DINE! IN HELL!!!!!!!!

Bottle

Just Random - Full Time Trader/Poker

Ok, after some "bad beats" last week, I took a break away from the chart until Wednesday before hitting the poker tables n chart again.

I think the break serves well because last week I just kept trying and then i made things worst, and then I felt worst when the losing streak persisted. I am currently on trades too but im posting this from iPad in starbucks probably another day for charts.

I am currently unemployed, not depending on poker n trading yet of course, still looking around for a full time job. Finally got called up for an interview this week and it was smooth. I hope for a follow up call. In the meantime, during my unemployed days, I experienced the feeling of being a full time trader / poker player.

It is true that u feel wondrous without the need to wake up and report to work a specific time, the need to show ur boss ur in the office doing work n sending emails. You are ur own boss, u do what u wan u knock off anytime u want.

But everything got its good and bad side. When u r not a consistent winner like me, u dont have a pay day. Although i barely spend money like i did when i had a job (expensive lunches and after-work hang out), other than monthly fixed expenses, it can be scary. I had winning months in Jan n Feb but a March losing streak could tear everything down.

I stopped shaving regularly, stopped going to my regular barber (only go downstairs for a cheap quick cut, where my head now looks like sea urchin) n I stopped talking much about latest news around the world like in the office. But all the above could just be personal habits lolllll.

My routine has been, wake up when im done sleeping (obv), put anything on and go downstairs for a quick meal, or cereal. Then I fire a few tables in pokerstars n started grinding. For abt 3-4 hours when im feeling tired or the tables not looking good, I'll take a break and then wait for the London opening at 3pm, while reading up updates on the market. If no opportunity for trades, I would close the chart n probably wait around until New York session at 9pm after dinner. Else I would be reading some trading/poker books. TV has been a stranger to me since years back. Sometimes I sat down at the couch n barely know how to switch to a particular channel.

My stakes r currently not enough to feed 3 meals a day, let alone the lack in consistency. So I think I still got much to learn n probably work for and save for a more realistic capital.

Bottle n I met every Tuesday n Thursday for the past few weeks for Black Bottle's weekly meeting. Yeah right, we didnt pass our physical test and have to go back to camp for training twice a week. We are all soldiers here in Singapore. If there were a war our economy would be hit hard probably becuz all the engineers, doctors, businessmen etc would have to put on their helmet n die for the country. Thats why we have to keep fit and take yearly proficiency tests. First time I didnt pass... So FFFUUUUUUUU.

Anyway, its good to maintain physical training be it working or unemployed.

Just some random thoughts this post, time to embrace the weekend! Gd luck n enjoy!

Peak Performance Trading - Gold

I have too much phobia with what I'm trading now. Send chill down my spine thinking about this pair. Another day I don't know what I'm doing. 

Just feel throwing my mum's gold necklace and jewelry away.

Black.

Details On Ranging Market & Averaging Loser..

..is to NOT do what I did.

 -42 pips (GbpUsd)

-1581 pips(?) (gold)

Black

Non-Farm Payroll Trade

Aud/Usd - The only pair going straight down during the bearish USD news. I was watching it along with Eur/Usd, Gbp/Usd & Usd/Jpy. Yen had the sharpest rally I would say. I thought the aussie should be a little lag. But it was losing in Eur/Aud & Gbp/Aud as well. 

I waited for the momentum (as well as the spread price to drop) to weaken and went in. I wanted to ride, but I also need a target. So I closed out at Chikou Span resistance and that was it.. one more lucky escape!

+42 pips

Usd/Jpy - Very nice fall, fallen too quick to catch the move.

Have a Good Friday and enjoy the long weekend! Wish y'all an advance Happy Easter!

Black.

Many Many Pairs

 Aud/Jpy - Stopped out real quickly after entry.

-31 pips

Aud/Usd - No trade. But I notice the support level that the Chikou Span of Ichimoku indicator is quite accurate in this pair.

Eur/Aud - 3 signals were hit, therefore a strong sell signal. Cross-over of Tenkan-sen (red) below Kijun-sen (blue), below the Kumo (cloud). Price breaks below Chikou Span support.

+52 pips

Eur/Chf - This trade I held since last week. Thinking price wouldn't break below as maybe SNB were "on it". First position was stopped out last week. Today when I saw CHF CPI m/m bullish, I closed my last position after a pull back, which was a good choice seeing that long candle after that. Tired of holding this position as it used up my margin to trade other pairs.
-28 pips

Gbp/Jpy - Another strong sell signal I noticed from this pair. This one did not hit target (missed by 2 pips), after seeing a weak yen going into New York session I decide to bag it, before it really retrace so much.. another lucky escape.

+71 pips

Usd/Jpy - Sell-limit for this pair. But it was not a very good entry though, still within Chikou span support. Seeing the weakened Yen like the Gbp/Jpy, I decided not to gamble and closed it out 20 minutes before USD unemployment claims which forecast a bullish USD data.

+1 pips



Black.
can't think of any decent title for the post.

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo

Decide to try out a new indicator this time round, called the 'Ichimoku Kinko Hyo'. Before I went to study a little of this indicator, a glance of it is like so complicated. It is still complicated to me, trying to memorize all the Japanese name for the individual lines. I will write more details and the uses of it when I am more familiar with it. There are quite a number of blogs and sites that explain the use of Ichimoku though only a handful of books that specialize on it. Right now I am still trial running this indicator for my trading, pip size are almost halved in the following trades I under-taken.

..way of the samurai.

Besides having a change of "clothes" to my trading chart, I have also created [yet another] Trading Journal excel. I used to think, hey all these transactions are indicated in my broker's site, and hell, now that myfxbook.com gives a free and even more detailed transaction history of your trading, why need a journal? Looking back at those transactions doesn't explain why I enter/exit a trade, what happened and how I traded, I need to account for my every trades and take it like a business from now. I may even hire an auditor to check there are no fraud trading. Just hope I don't caught another losing streak and then abandon everything!

An embattled March result is not fun. I need some serious re-work, while juggling poker at the same time. I have decided some change in my approach in both areas, will update in my poker site blackdeckpoker.blogspot.com soon.

Aud/Jpy - I think my exit makes more sense than my entry. Entry was just a moderate bearish signal and was almost ranging after I entered.

+34 pips

Aud/Usd - Hit my target upon FOMC minutes. Target hit because of the help of fundamentals, a double-edged sword in trading. Missed another short-entry when aussie report trade deficit. I wanted to enter but was there ehmm.. err.. and then it spiked down.

+45 pips

Eur/Usd - Entry is kinda late though, took the whole day for the price to break go down to support when I exited. Still traces of bad habits when I move take profit closer by 5 pips.

+44 pips

Fine start, let's see how it goes Black.

March Review...

...don't tell you.

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Happy April's Fool Day!