Poker vs Trading

Interesting article about poker and trading statistic here.

Eur/Usd Downtrend & Trade Interceptor

Following my last trade there were indeed some decent downward movement to the Eur/Usd. IF ONLY!!! Very smooth downtrend along with the Ichimoku indicators. Now we'll see if there are any reversal to the trend, whether the price will pierce the cloud? I'm placing my order above the lines, if it doesn't break, so be it.

Been trying out a charting software called the Trade Interceptor. Quite a decent software so far, it does provide live trading for a couple of brokers like FXCM, but not for Oanda, which is the one I'm using. The indicators are clear and accurate. I started using it on the iPad, and now my Android phone, primarily because of the Alarm system that is built in. So that I could set price alarm, and if it sound off, I can still decide whether to enter the price or not base on the context and momentum of price when it triggered.

I wouldn't say the software works that great for me as much on the iMac though. The alarms aren't sync (or I don't know how?), and it could be confusing. One thing about the trade interceptor is the feature-packed trading system and it could be intimidating for a start. Mobile & iPad version is great. I still stick to Oanda web for my desktop for now.

Black.

Article on Tilt (Extracted Post)

Below is a very interesting article I came across browsing the net:

Link of original site: Freezeout Player http://www.freezeoutplayer.com/wht-tilt-is-your-enemy.html

To poker players (even traders) I think you've heard this over & over before but I think it still serves as a very good reminder for us because in the field of trading and poker (even athletes), mindset and psychological factor plays such an important role. I recommend reading because I think the concept also applies not only the poker players, but even to traders. Markets are so random (at times) and we should always factor in losses along the way, as long as we focus doing the 'right' thing, we will succeed over the long run!

Enjoy.

"Overcoming Tilt and Your State of Mind.

Have you ever gone on tilt ? I don’t think there is a person I’ve talked to that hasn’t at one time or another. There are a number of things that may happen that make you go on tilt, and some even have to do with poker ! Let me explain.

I hate getting sucked out on. I hate hitting trips after a rainbow flop, I bet and there is a raise all in. I call and a weak player hits runner runner for a flush. I HATE it but it is something you just have to take because it happens from time to time. That’s poker and that’s what makes it such an interesting game to play. You can make all the correct plays and still lose!

What I try to do to combat going on tilt is train myself to think about the suck out and believe that I made a correct call and more often then not I will win given the same circumstances. That’s why there are percentages for any given hand to win. Even a hand that’s favored 90% of the time will lose 10% of the time. So you must hang on to that belief that you made the correct move and just got unlucky. Then you have to put it behind you and move on.

I know what your thinking, easier said than done.

You're right, it is, but you must find a way to do this otherwise you could lose a lot of money. When you do this you might even discover you made an incorrect play so you can change your thinking the next time a similar situation comes your way. You also have to look at your long term results and not just this one hand.

Thinking about your long term results will put this one suck out into perspective. If your long term results are not good then perhaps other areas of your game need some analysis. The point I am trying to make is that you have to be able to take an unlucky hand and move on.

Some other things that have nothing to do with poker can affect your game and even put you on tilt before the game has started. These factors you have direct control over and can eliminate so as to not affect your game. If you’ve had a fight with your wife/husband, if you’ve had a bad day at work, if you have a headache or are feeling under the weather you should not be looking to start playing a poker tournament online. These are just a few of the many non poker factors that can have an influence on how you play. I think to play consistently well over a period of time you have to play with what I call a good ‘poker mindset’ going in. I think this gives you a better opportunity to win.

Your state of mind is very important when sitting down to play a mtt.

As said above many things in the world around you can effect your mindset before playing a tournament. To me the trick is if those factors affect you too much perhaps a break from poker for that evening is in order. Maybe a longer brake is in order, only you know for sure. Something else I try to do is to sit in front of the computer 10 minutes before the tournament I signed up for starts and close my eyes and just think of how I’m going to start this tournament, what strategy will I use, making good decisions and so forth. Just get into a ‘poker’ mindset. Its like a little quiet time before the tournament gets going. This is the mental part of the game. Look at any sports stars. I’ve seen interview after interview where the athlete says “much of what I do is mental, if I believe I can win I’m half way there”.

Anything you can do to increase your chances of making good decisions at the poker table is worth while doing. Different players do different things to prepare for a tournament. Figure out what your ‘thing’ is and do it. Having a good poker mindset going into a tournament gives you a better opportunity to make those good decisions therefore increasing your chances to win. If you can come up with a good way to avoid going on tilt and eliminate outside distractions then you have achieved a good ‘poker state of mind’! "

Eur/Usd & MyFxBook

Can I say its a head & shoulder (not the shampoo) forming off Eur/Usd 1H?

Orders for a retracement:
Long: 1.3485
TP: 1.3585
SL: 1.34

Was reading Trader32 blog on his views on Currensee and myfxbook. I have Currensee account already. Earlier I gave myfxbook a try and really impressed. It is detailed on your account I felt as if I am using a Poker Tracker of trading. It gives you a much better understanding of your account overall. I am still exploring and will post up more reviews later.

Black.

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.

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.

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 :)

Ass Kicked After RBA Held Rates on Aussie - Merciless Slippage

Trade Datas on Aud/Usd:

Session: Entry on New York, London Crossover, Closed out on Asia Session.
Duration: 1 hour, 12 hours 30 minutes, Split Second (3 positions)
Timeframe: 1H.
Technical: Nil.
Fundamental: Speculation on RBA rates hike.
Strategy: Buy Stop hit prematurely before US ISM Manufacturing PMI announcement for first two positions. Closes position when profit is able to meet second position's stop/loss. Therefore, second position s/l is at breakeven of day's trades. Third position is buy limit, hours before RBA Cash Rate announcement.

Duration represents three positions, and first two positions in green, meaning winners. last position, a redundant (i'll explain why) in red, a loser. Please bear this long story post as i'll try my best to cut it short.

A good strategy taught by Kathy Lien from the book Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market on securing profit. i went in two buy limit position. first position on 2/3 size, second one 1/3. got all red juz minutes after entry hit. but soon retraced into positive. i take the s/l of the 1/3 position into consideration, say 30 pips away. as my first position 2/3 was good enough to cover my second position's stop loss, i closed it. in this case, even if my second position hits the s/l, i will simply be at b/e becuz my first trade has already covered the second trade's s/l. this leaves a flexibility for my second trade.. as i went to sleep.

morning i woke up with my second position at +58. i protected my profit by adjusting my s/l at +30pips. with that, i secured a +30, i put in a buy limit 20 points below (3rd position i am speculating a rate hike from Reserve Bank of Australia from 3.75% to 4.00%), with s/l of 30 pips away. so if this third position, happens to hit s/l, it would b/e with my second position without further loss. all sounding perfect.

ALL THESE DOES NOT APPLY TO A MASSIVE BREAKOUT!!

Why? If you would take a look at my second and third position transaction history below:



2nd position: s/l set on 0.8885, but price closes 0.8872 - 13 pips slippage!

3rd position: buy limit - position closed the moment it enters, in addition - 7 pips slippage! <-- very dumb trade, that was why i said it was redundant.

all these slippage costs me 20 pips. and it happens commonly during massive breakout. Massive breakout? I was basically watching the price in my office. it basically drop 100 pips in less than a minute. my browser refreshes, the price difference for a moment, had me thought i had mistakenly stared at a different pair.

price spike down. i was in long position. u noe how does that feel.. after the 100 pips pitfall? it was like a golfer who swing and misses his golf ball and the golf club went right to ur balls instead. but i thought i had a good protective armour around it to deflect the impact, and this protective armour is called the stop/loss. who noes? when i got home to see the transaction history, i still find some crack in my nut. and this crack is called slippage.

im so sorry to use these language, pls pardon me. anyway, juz to let u see the spike down. here is the chart:



Winners and losers all over in that single long bear candle. speculating the interest rate of aussie might have another hike and placing a position before the announcement, was simply gambling. lesson learned on slippage, and having positions open while not on my trading desk. lesson for u? please don't try this at home.

thanks to my first position, closed the night before, secured a +16.

Black

Mid-Month Review

Approaching the mid-month of January. all started well last week where i focused and carefully executed each trade. mostly intra-day trading. i did not have any trade executed overnight or buy/sell-stop/limit that got executed while im in office.

i guess this week was pre-occupied and didnt had the focus like last week. i thought i could do anything. i knew from start of the week i didnt trade well even though i had profited on monday. i was also reading a blog by FXpropTrader, who was saying about trading with 'gut-feeling'. i trust that. but for me, i guess such gut feeling is not simply trading anytime of the day and any currency pair, i still need experiences from such 'gut-feeling'. i need to practice a lot from a particular currency pair, and say during New York session. i have to practice harder.

Basically i've given back almost all of my profit earned last week. my school lesson starts next week, which means i might be trading/blogging lesser for the time being. but my heart will still be here, im planning to buy another book on trading in the mean time after i finished with Kathy Lien's Day Trading & Swing Trading the Currency Market, its a good book. provides a lot of insights on trading, such as fundamental, technical, seasonality and etc. i will re-read when i have the time too.

till then,
Black

Mypaper - Mind Your Money

Did not trade today. but on can see USD is still rallying for today. Short post today. If u work or live in singapore, u will noe that u receive free news paper at almost every train station every morning. today there was an article on forex trading.

Basically a generic explanation on FX Trading and a little in sights of how our dollar is doing. Any i think is good to share it here. Link below, enjoy :)

my paper 7th Dec.

Black

Latest Broker Announcement - FXDD.com

Good day people, guess most of active traders under US based brokers have already heard this news some time back. Our current broker, FXDD is in the process of registering with the CFTC and joining the NFA, and they are in full compliance with all applicable NFA and CFTC regulations. And Sunday November 29th, 2009 is the implementation date for the above. Cut the long story short, here are the changes:

1. Major currencies leverage will be set at 100:1; all others will have leverage of 25:1. Affected currencies for 25:1 will be the USD/TRY and the USD/MXN. Gold and silver leverage will be set at 100:1.

2. Official FXDD account statements will show position offset on a FIFO (First in, First out) basis.

3. FXDD does not recognize hedging. Oppositing orders are offset immediately. Meaning you can no longer buy and sell the same currency pair at the same time on the same primary account.

4. No more daily MetaTrader statement via email. Official daily and monthly statements will be emailed directoy from back office.

And we're suppose to download the latest compliant version of Meta Trader before the implementation date. Oh dear, if you are under a US based broker, i'm sure majority of them are being regulated. Thats what happen whenever economic bubble burst happens, everything are being regulated again... causes restriction on innovation of financial instruments.. though regulation are for the benefit of preventing another recession..

Sadly, for FXDD users, we're given such a short notice period for changes. Meaning by the time market open next week, all ur positions have to be re-calculated based on the new leverage requirements. basically, we have only 2 1/2 days to get these done. what happens if u don't? if by the time market open next Monday and u're in a position too highly leveraged, u gonna get a MARGIN CALL! << note that this word SUCKS!

Well, anyway, small players like me ain't much affected, maybe yet. but pity those bigger players. maybe this isnt happening in foreign brokers areas like London, or Switzerland. Im sure one way or another, (switching broker or altering our money management with the new leverageetc) we all will get this thru' yea.

Black

For those who uses META Trader 4

Hello everyone! I've got something to share about Meta Trader 4. I think its kinda important that anyone of us who uses this should know. If possible , do share and confirm my doubts if the below happens to you as well ya?

Meta Trader 4. Not sure if alot of you uses this platform. But one thing for sure is, Black and I do. I've got no problem with this platform, or rather i am so used to it now that i actually love this platform. All was good until yesterday. Take a look at the below chart before i carry on my shock discovery.

Ok as usual, some information on the above image. Its EUR/JPY pair. Red circle is where i did a long trade. White circle is my TP and the Yellow circle is where the highest was hit during that surge of price.

Ok my TP is 60pips away(White Circle). SL 40pips away(Just somewhere below the FIBO support). Custom set trailing stop 30pips. Notice that i had to custom set my trailing reason being the default given is only in multiple of 5s. 25 35 45 etc.

I left the trade to run and left for work. And when i got back, to my dismay, my SL was hit. Well, my trailing stop did not work!! As you can see from the point where i enter trade, a 50 pips was reached, so that means my trailing stop should kick in at 30pips profit and secure at least 1 to 20pips profit for me. But it didnt, unfortunately the trade went back and hit my SL. Well i thought i did a good job in eliminating the risk involve in this trade. Thats too bad eh?? =(

After which i checked with Black, he too remembered having the same problem when he was in AUD/USD trade. The trailing stop didnt kick in when it should. We were wondering what happened. I've used the default given trailing stops (25 35 45) though, it was good. It worked. So im wondering if its because of some errors or bug in the custom setting for trailing stops... Mayb next time i'll try in Demo.

Thats all folks! Do take note of this and share with us and everyone else if you too encounter this problem yea??

Bottle

Aud/Usd - Swap Interest / Rollover Rate

Not too bad for a Swing Trade on Aud/Usd? with a 55 point trailing stop in place. on top of that, with the interest rate hike, who dares short the pair? Such a high rollover rates ain't it?

Fyi, the above trade was executed with 2 standard lot. dats why the rollover rate, and its gonna continue to increase for the next few days, provided the trade is still open. delicious? sadly, it was tested on a demo acct, so that i can show u the delicious taste of swap interest. IF ONLY I HAD USE LIVE !!! If only if only if only.. very typical slogan we use when trading..

Anyway, how does Swap works? it is the difference between the overnight interest between the two currencies. Difference? Yes, if u're in the position of the currency that has higher interest rate between the pair, u earn the swap.. and the amount is the difference between the two interest rate.

Take this example. If you have been reading the news past month, u would've know RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) has hike their rate to 3.25%, and then to 3.5% currently. And as u can see, the Fed has been lying low on the USD rate that is close to zero, probably abt 0.25%. i can't go thru the exact mathematical calculation with u becuz i know u're not got read them.

im juz kidding, ok i admit i do not know the exact way to calculate it at the moment. i wish i know i would've share it here with u guys. therefore, based on above example, i longed Aud/Usd becuz im buying Aussie (and selling Dollar), thats why it earns me the interest in carrying overnight. on the other way round, if you were to have short this pair, needless to say, negative swap will be charged.

Different brokers have different rollover rates. And the rate changes daily. Hope this serves part of ur decision in trading. but i dont think u need to worry about this if ur an scalper or an intra-day trader cuz u would be unaffected.

Black

Forex : Currensee.com

While maintaining our Facebook page, i often take notice of the ads on the right handside of the page. i have been seeing a site Currensee.com. I did ignore it for few weeks until i saw something in the description that goes 'traders social networking..' curious, i went to sign up and take a look in hope of knowing more trader friends.



indeed, it is something like a Fx Trader's facebook. you sign up with an email, you upload your picture and you get to meet people. there are various features which i have yet to explore fully. *note* you have to have a LIVE trading account to complete the sign up. they have a 'read-only' software which track your trades. and then in ur dashboard, u can see the percentage of currensee traders who long or short a particular currency pairs.

by signing up or introducing ur friends etc, u get to earn "bucks" in their programme, where u can shop in their "market" and purchase training video, articles etc. that expires in one year time if i remembered correctly.

there are features where u can upload ur strategy and they will track ur progress. by teaming up with ur trader friends or newly made trader frens, u can track each other's progress. needless to say, there's discussion column much like a live chat or a forum.

i am only a day old on this network and still exploring, hopefully it would be of some help, making new friends from this very interesting features provided by the social networking site. and its global!

Black

Article on Realife Lessons Learned From Trading Forex

Good Sunday morning, could be bright and shines up your day now, but who noes the weather might rain in your afternoon? Looking it in another perspective, without the rain that falls from the cumulonimbus clouds, when can we see the sunshine? Just like Forex Trading, you may have a winning trades to end your day, you may have losing trades the next. Losing is part and parcel of the trading journey, DON'T REVENGE! Let your money management guide you to a profitable journey. Lessons are learned to mould you into an experienced and skillful trader.

As the saying goes, "A smooth sail never trains a skillful mariner."

We all learn throughout our journey, especially early period when our learning curve is the steepest, just like right now, me and Bottle. I'm fortunate enough to have a close partner in my trading journey, and we're definitely looking forward to our days, and years ahead in this. We're serious. And we enjoy making new trader friends and learning from one another.

In this post, I'm gonna share with you an article from a Forex Trader, and his early days. The author is Greg Sidelnikov. I wish I could write like him someday. But im sure the following article will catch the attention of new traders (MUST READ!) and even the old birds. I can really relate to alot of thoughts in words he wrote. Some right into my heart~ Sobz~, which ones? I quote the lines for u: "Like many other excited traders I started to trade without knowing much about this market. I would draw trend lines and think I was in business." <<-- So true ain't it?

For full article, here's the link:
http://www.authenticsociety.com/blog/RealLifeLessonsLearnedWithForex

Please enjoy..

Black
The smart man learns from his mistakes, the wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Trendline and Double Zeros

taken a look at the price last night. drafted an uptrend in the 15M time frame. For the past two days, price did not break the resistance level of 1.4844. base on forexfactory.com, couple of news coming out that night (singapore time). with unemployment in green, usd looks to go good. price has been fluctuating upwards towards my 23.6 fibo line @ price 1.4790, was analysing whether there will be a breakout if it punch thru the fibo. considering the Existing Home Sales annoucements in about one and half hours time, base on economical news it looks to be good for the USD. in addition, fibo works as a resistance, unless it break thru the line then it will be acting as a support line, generally speaking. on top of these, it was only about price 1.4800.

Thanks to author Kathy Lien - Day Trading & Swing Trading the Currency Market, it was written that double zeros, meaning price ending with double zeros, eg. 1.4800, 1.5200, are psychological levels where prices tends to bounce off resistance or support. Psychological? Market orders, stop-loss orders or take-profit are usually set @ rounds numbers due to human nature. Very good knowledge for intraday trading.

I rode only half of the downwards breakout trend though, @ my 50.0 fibo line. Still very noob. Focusing more on money & risk management first.



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