March Review...

...don't tell you.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

+1000%

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Happy April's Fool Day!

February Review

extracted from myfxbook.com (black147)

Didn't know I got to review despite such a low volume of trading for me this month. This month started off with a massive drawdown of about -180 pips. Managed to scrape back along the way but they were all cut-winners. Meaning my losses were closed out by stop/loss, but my winning trades didn't hit take-profit because I bag them along the way. It is not profitable trading because the one stop/loss can wipe out a lot of your winning trades.

Prior to closing for the month I had another -120 pips, but managed to break-even. Lucky month for a positive. Will be putting more focus on trading in March.

Meanwhile, I am on to another psychological book - Van Tharp's Super Trader. Hope to post a review after I finish reading but it won't be soon cuz I'm a slow reader.

Happy Leap Year everybody!

Black.

January Review & Start of February

Busy with Chinese New Year for the past two weeks and a lot of things happened. So managed to find time now to update some stuff.

(extracted from Myfxbook)

Close to a -2% for my January trading month. One main problem with my losses was that I tend to trade 3 different pairs that are co-related at times (for eg. those peg against the USD). So if USD depreciates, they move together (Eur/Usd, Gbp/Usd move up, Usd/Chf move down) and vice versa. Thats when my trades usually get knocked down all at once if it fails.

Started the week with similar mistake and caused a huge drawdown. Managed to scrap bit by bit throughout. I took out my Gbp/Usd 30 pips earlier as not to hold them through NFP tonight. As usual I will be by the side lines and watch. 

This week transactions. No chart as I am too lazy due to high number of trades. (extracted from Myfxbook, my ID is black147)

I earlier (start of Asian session) longed Eur/Chf because I felt it is time for reversal. But then I saw a post in www.forexlive.com here:

I closed my position at +2 pips as not to take the risk. Just wondering, what would you do if you were me?

-------------------------------------------

Poker has been a good month in January. February started off well as I moved up stakes too. But I will still be wary of variance and approach things cautiously.

To all who are trading NFP, good luck tonight! And best of luck everyone at the charts/tables!

Black.

2011 Review - Plus Usd/Chf & Poker Wiped Out

Forex

Kinda early? I decide to wrap this up because tomorrow night I am flying away to Harbin, China, for a week trip. It is going to be freezing cold I heard.. about -20 deg celsius. On top of that, my Usd/Chf trades have finally hit the stop loss.

After Usd/Chf broke the ten-month high last week, I made a fruitful ride up the pair for about 175 pips (closed), I also long a second position on retrace which was peaked at +50 over pips. But overconfidence and greed caused me this huge drawdown.. in addition to my bad habit of averaging losers. 

I was so confident with the trades that when I was switching between my chart and news.. right before the SNB announcement about 30 minutes.. my second position was down to about break-even. Then I went in a third position, after another alt-tab between chart, both positions were instantly -50 -60 floating loss.

Jaw-dropping.

Brutal.

Disbelieved, I later long another position stubbornly when price looks like it will hold. But it didn't.

It went on for days and all the way until today, giving me hope but false hope. The initial broken 0.9350 level of ten month high resistance turned support didn't hold. The slow and steady fall and rise a little these few days by this pair feels like some one who is trying to kill you, pushes the knife slowly into your stomach instead of stabbing right in it. Slowly, and gently. And before you know it, JAMMED IT IN.

Trading: Year-to-date profit/loss: +30% (loss count of pips, probably -2000 plus) 

First year of profit since I live traded in 2009.

I have an account for myfxbook which Trader32 recommends, my nick is black147. Don't know the add-friend function and not sure if it exists.

Early part of the year, trading hasn't been much active due to work and exams. I did have major drawdown twice, in March and in August, both occur within each day. After my come back in October, things has been going pretty smooth except for my last trade in Usd/Chf. Oh well, shit happens.

Like what FX used to tell me, trading skills doesn't happen overnight or monthly, it takes years to realise. And this year, I am glad to finally found my trading style. Not completely I guess but somehow. I can't scalp, I can't position trade. I have to do intra-day to medium term swing trades. I can't sit at the chart for hours because any losses will tilt me and I will bust my account within one night like I did countless times.

Next up, I will need to focus on my discipline (again), on my risk:reward ratio, tendency to widen stop/losses, averaging losers, and over confidence and more.. Before this Usd/Chf drawdown, for the past two months I kept my stop/losses within what my account can take, about 2-4%, so that in case it hit the stop/loss, I don't take it that hard. I need to work on that. I will come back 2012 focusing on trading and reading up more, as well as working on discipline.. why not poker.. which comes to the next topic..

Poker

I been on it for about 1.5 years now. I am not sure how long usually profitable poker players took to be profitable. So far in my experience, profitable players are profitable, losing players are losers, they stay that way.

Yesterday, I busted my account once again. Past two weeks, I was reading up and working on 6-max online. I had HUD installed and was utilising it well. I maxed two-tabling, and focused on my game. Finally in my cash game career, I am grinding out profits for 6-max. I was happy.

Yesterday, I sat down and played my second session of the day. Within one hour, I was dealt 4 pocket aces.

First one, I raises 3bb and was called. I valued bet all the way and was called down and opponent hit a river flush. Well, I may be didn't bet enough to drive him out, but I thought I was value-betting?

Second aces, all folded to me except SB who called my preflop raise and folded to my c-bet. Earned a little.

Third aces, I raised 4bb and sb called me and hit a deuces set on flop. Oh well, stacked again.

Before my fourth pocket aces, I was dealt A4. Except first player who folded, all 4 other players limped and I raised to 7bb from SB, trying out a different aggression. Only the cut-off called.

Flop came 9 2 5.

I raised 15bb, he called.

To my delight, turn came 3, giving me a straight.

I raised 25bb and he re-raised me all in.

I put him on a set and he turned over 4 6 for a higher straight.

Welcome to micro-stakes.

Ultimate tilted, as always I went over the low stakes table, CAP (cap meaning only cap maximum bet).  I played tight and only planned to go all-in with premiums, like almost every other players were doing.

There was a lady who called down and all-in a lot. With a hud stats of about 50/20/60. Too loose.

Finally from BB I was holding my fourth ACES of the night. She raised me from SB to 3bb I re-raised to 6 bb.

Flop came T 9 7. She shoved me on the flop. I called, and she turned over J 9.

River J. She scooped the pot.

I am not sure how to go about from here because I think I have tried my best. I have spent a considerable sum (of money and time) for the past 1.5 years, and I am really feeling this is it. Looking over to my poker books gives a chill down my spine now. My cousin is a profitable poker player who earns my yearly pay and haven't read a single book. He even became the last standing Singapore player during yesterday's Sunday Million. He was so close to winning and so many of us were rooting for him to win, but he was busted with KK vs AA during the last 150 out of 61,000 over entrants. Sad for him, but it was such a deep run.

I am going to take a break and focus on my trading first. Take poker as casual play and I am still finding ways not to tilt (like in trading) and accept variance. Or looking for the most suitable game for my playing style. But will all be casual, or may be not at all.

Year-to-date profit/loss: BUSTED

Tomorrow night I will be flying off and my next post will probably be in 2012.

Good luck to y'all and have a great winter break!

Black.
Off to my first white Christmas~

November Review

FXDD: Withdrawn
Oanda: +17%
Poker: Busto! (have re-deposit)

November passed by really quickly. I had losing streak starting of the month, and slowly fought my way back. I still maintain a non-scalping mode, where I simply set my orders and leave the chart. I also learn about not messing too much with the trade when they have not hit your stop/loss or take-profit, I still meddle though but reduced. Leaving trades over night no longer bother me as much as used to be.

I am currently using a very comfortable position size, increased a little. I will continue to increase when my capital grow a little more. In fact I did increase early this month but the moment I increased I faced losses thats why I reduced them again lol so typical. I maintain a stop/loss of about maximum 5% of my account, because I don't want a huge drawdowns again. Even successful traders move up the ladder with a little lost here and there. I am still working on my risk:reward ratio.

Highlight of the month was probably the last week of the month, with a big reaped off Aud/Usd +480 pips, my highest record ever (still much lower than my record loss hehe). That trade I have also cultivated a good risk:reward ratio, letting the profit run feels really good. Admittedly, there was one position I did close early, but was compensated early this week with a few Longs.

I learn how I should swing the trades and not sit down and bust my account, my temper get blown up easily. So I am not gonna trade the NFP news tonight. Some people prefer scalp, some swing, some intraday, and some position. It is finding out who you are. I kinda know the answer for me, but being a profitable trader is still another story.

That leads me to think about my poker journey. I was still thinking early last month whether I should simply focus on full-ring cash games, sit & gos (STT & MTT), or heads-up SNG.

I have bad results with cash games, but played them because they are fastest way to earn VIP points for bonuses. My time for sit & gos are limited because you can't leave the table whenever you want. I have been doing good with heads-up SNG and has shown profit. I love it and my buddy (who plays with me) also feel I should simply focus on heads-up.

And then I realised otherwise. I have a e-mail pen-pal friend (who read this blog) told me heads-up are like scalping trading. I thought I could conquer it but ALAS, I have bad beats and I keep on registering for new tourney (HU-SNG) and even highest buy-ins and I play badly due to tilting, much like revenge trading.

I got crushed in cash games either. Playing too much table and bad beats made me re-buy n re-buy and throw the money into the pot, fastest way to drawdown in poker IMO.

Now I am turning to Sit & Gos and not multi-tabling, not touching the rest (HU-SNG & FR Cash games). So if I got beaten I may not be so tempted to re-buy because they are more tiring games. I working on it now. For past two days I simply played the Sit & Gos, finishing a few of them right before the money finishes -_-. But on the other hand, it shows some improvements. My last two games of 45 men SNG came in 3rd & 7th.

Lets take it nice and slow from here, tilty head.

Anyway, have a good weekend people.

Black.

October Review & Why I Can't Scalp

FXDD: -12%
Oanda: +12%
Poker: b/e

The account size between FXDD & Oanda is quite different. I thought about withdrawing from my FXDD funds and put into my Oanda, but what makes me stay put is the fixed spread FXDD provides even during news trade. But I can't download MetaTrader into my iMac anymore, so it is still hard for me to trade through the iPad.

Overall, the first half of the month was inactive. Most of my actions were very last two weeks of the month. I hope to keep the focus and maintain. Will still be using the same position size for my trades until I can move up further. I have also decided (countless times) to keep an excel for my monthly profit & loss, for all the above.

While calculating my October profit & loss, I was browsing through my year-to-date Oanda transaction history, and I learned something about myself. I can't scalp or take short-term trades, nor can I position trade. What worked best for me so far has been between intra-day trade to swing trade. Here is why I have to place my orders and walk away (not in the cafe):

Started the year with good grinds. It was consistent and I was up about 20%. During March, my capital was -30% or more in ONE night. Sitting down there firing n firing n firing trades like playing Strikers 1945 the more you press the better. Until one big super revenge trade that made a lucky come back.

Cooling period came and then I come back n started trading in June. I grind my way up again slowly and even reached the greenery! Until August, everything busto my account met another -20% tear-down.. in ONE night.

As for why I can't position trade, I think I can't step away from watching my trade progresses. If my trade is 200 pips away from take-profit, I will be watching the price at every thought of it. Very paranoid if you ask me.

Going forward, I hope I am not currently at the middle of my yearly vicious cycle and see another November ONE NIGHT BUSTO again (touch WOOD). Mid-November I will be out of job. So I will have so much time to trade & blog.

Meanwhile, you can take a look at a nice article by fxmadness.

Happy Halloween!

Black.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Black: June Review

Above is my equity graph for June for FXDD account. Below are results for FXDD + Oanda account combined. Will combine both in future.

Week 1: +51
Week 2: +11
Week 3: +105
Week 4: +55
Week 5: +114

Month: +336 pips
Equity: +22.06%

Very happy with my result this month, though they are nothing more than breaking even from my April's devastating month. Most of the trades, I have been lucky for this month, ever since the lucky NFP catapult trade, those dangerous pullbacks and averaging-ins.. if they were to went against me thing would've been very different.

One of the thing I have improve this month is the using of position sizing. I used different sizes of pips a lot, depending on the confidence of the entry. I did not force myself to trade most of the night, so I still enjoy quite a bit of personal life in balance.

But there is one thing that is still grey, I wonder if I could take loses. I have been lucky to win most of the nights this month, what if there was a losing night? Would my revenge monster rage and do all foolish things again? Or is it due to some kind of revenge that I turn some losing night into wins, due to luck?

Nevertheless, I will approach the new month with high caution like this one. I cannot let down my guards because I still do not know if this revenge syndrome has been curbed. Happy to make new trader friends along the way with this blog. Thanks everyone for the support & encouragement in between and let's work hard together!

Black.

Black: May Review & Gun Down The Readers

I'm back!! Exams are over, and i hope i am as happy as now when i get the results. Since my last post on Exams saying i will be away, the next day our feedburner reader subscribers dropped less than half. I can't believe the readers wanna get away from this site so much!! Bottle, instead of gunning down the chart, i think we shOULD GUN DOWN THE READERS!!

With her...


Cut the crap. Below is my review for May. I trade so much lesser this month due to exams. Only 12 trades. I hope i can do as good when i have more time to trade too.


Week 1: +58
Week 2: +101
Week 3: +1
Week 4: Exams

Month: +160
Equity: +10.07%

Green green green & green, i'm so happy. Maybe I should have exams every month...NOT. Check out the number of pips i reaped and my equity gained, compare to my April's Review. Obviously, like what RCM said, i was pretty over-sized during my trades in April, losing trades caused a chain of revenge and high risk trades.

After not touching the chart for some time, although i still keep up with other traders' update, i felt kind of lost touch. I think to take it slow starting next week and should not simply jump in. I will continue to focus on Risk:Reward ratio like this month.

Thanks for all the wishes on my exams. Now i wish u all the best in June.

Black.

Black: April Review

Week 1: -121
Week 2: Rest (no trade)
Week 3: +37
Week 4: -62

Month: -146
Equity: -20%

This is some serious drawdown man. I cant imagine a scarier roller coaster ride than the equity graph plotted above - flat dead. conclusively, old habits are still kicking. I still cant accept a losing night, therefore leads to revenge trades and then leads to such catastrophe.

I dont whether anyone would agree with me, but after learning to play Texas Hold'em for some time, i find a little similarity in it with trading. there are bound to be risk, and you CAN'T WIN EVERY round. u are meant to fold. it is part of the game. when u get bad cards, u fold. u lose the initial "deposit" (what do they call it?) when u have bad cards in hand.. because base on probability, any pair greater than 2 or 5 (if those were the cards u were holding) you'd lose.

the winning part comes when u got pictures, or higher cards or pairs, best with an ace pairs. thats when chances are at your side and u can throw higher stake. still bound to lose, but probability are at your side (i wouldnt say chances because i feel chances are random). i never call super-high stakes when i dont have pairs to back me up, this is my poker rule, that should never have one single stake that kicks u out of the game.

Coming back to trading, this spells the Risk:Reward ratio. Accept the small loses, cuz the big one will cover them, all when chances are here. fundamentally, i failed to apply good risk:reward ratio, miserably.

If i can apply good risk:reward ratio in trading like playing poker, the question is, when is it the right time, or rather when do i know i'm holding an "ace pair"?

time to buck up. otherwise, this blog will sooner or later be renamed "101 things you should not do when trading forex".

Black

Black: March Review & Short Break

Hi guys, time for a review as i'll be away for the rest of the week. Like FX, i'll be going away on a short trip to neighbouring country for couple of days on Good Friday - it will be holiday here in Singapore, not too sure in the States but i know i'm missing out the NFP this friday. Tomorrow is my last day of work with my current employer, it's good to take a break, keep ur mind off things and refresh myself for a week before embarking new workplace.



42 trades: (30 winners, 11 losers, 1 b/e)

Week 1: -53
Week 2: -4
Week 3: +68
Week 4: -5
Week 5: +35

Month: +41
Profit/Loss: +4.36%

Other than start of the month, which i loses focus, i'm pretty glad for the rest of the month, than the last. After my big dip earlier this month, i managed to trade consecutively 18 winners, a streak i've never experience before. But talking about quality, i think im still far from it.

I'm still hoping one day i can trade on larger scale - swinging my trades. But like what Seeni told me, if it's working for me, just stick to it first. During my trades this month, i've also been actively surfing the Currensee.com, you can set your own strategy and then track your performance. You can even see others' performance, making it a open community for the forex traders.

I hope to maintain good trades next month. Hopefully i'll still be as active when i go to new work place and school assignments are coming too. Well, need to brush up my risk:reward and profit-running strategies.

Keep it touch.

Black.

Bottle's Feb 2010 Review.

Howdy all!! As we can see from the above... ITS RED!!! My Green spree comes to a halt. Once again those feelings rise again. Frustration, self doubt, impatience bla bla bla, u name it...

But!!! Those above are only temporary, i enjoyed my weekend and came back to reality. I studied back and find out my faults. Learn from it, carry on and avoid making those mistakes. How many more mistakes can i make?? I told myself... Someday i will finish commiting all the mistakes and learn from all of them, thats when i will be a better trader. Well some of u may say, "there is no end to learning in trading... " If thats the case, i'll be glad enough to learn most of it and will carry on learning.

Lets talk about my lost for that month. That month was a low trade month for myself and i
believe Black too.. Due to Chinese New Year i guess, the mood for trading is just not there u see.. So every trade that i did must count for something. But that is not the case. The number of lost trade are more than profits.

Finally i came to a conclusion, it has something to do with my setting of TP. Well i always emphasize on good entry position and Profit Vs Lost Ratio, during a trade it has to be like example,

(Profit 50pips Lost 35pips) A 15pips difference for this case. Sometimes 10, 7,5pips or watever. The reason for this is to maximize my wins and cut my lost. So that even with a 1 Win and 1 Lost. I will still end up profitting abit. During a long run with this strategy, i can consolidate and compound up till 50 - 100 pips even when my success rate for number of trades is like 50%. This strategy was proven useful for my last 2 months. The usefulness of this strategy is more obvious during my last month's review as my success rate for that month is almost 50%.

Now so why the hell did i come out with a Red for Feb??? After i talk so much above and somehow like bragging how good it is, i end up losing?? Well the reason for losing partly is, quite ironically, caused by the above strategy as well... I put so much attention in my ratio, that i quite often ignore one of my most important commandment when setting my TP.

That is "Set ur TP at where your analysing tells you it will hit and not how many Pips you want from the trade."

Quite often i manage to come up with 30++pips profit before it went back down to either smash thru my Stop loss or ended due to the trailing stop i put up. Then i will soon realized that my price actually did hit one of the resistance/support when my profit is at ard 30pips++. I should have came out but instead i stay on because i want it to hit my TP of 50pips. Thats when i realize how stupid i am. Its greed perhaps? Its a scenario of Emotions over Thinking. Which is, to my opinion, not desireable in trading. But that doesnt mean the Profit Vs Lost Ratio strategy that i talked about doesnt work, its just that it cannot be a standalone strategy, it has to be used with confirmation with other signals.( Whelter there is any obstacles in the way such as resistance or support that i overlooked bla bla bla)

Now that i learn from my mistakes, i will try to not do it again. Learn from it and it doesnt matter how many mistakes u make. Mistakes indirectly makes me more powerful. I found that something has changed in me after i embarked on this journey of trading. Things that i value in life changed as well. Lets take reading for example, yea reading is good, everyone says so... Quite often we hear ppl say "Knowledge is Power". And fortunately, yup, im a reader. But, i read War novels, fantasy novels... hahaha, slashing killing romance and heroes. Its not gonna help! So a few months back i started reading on something more useful, read on the Bio of successful people, read on books on Trading, the mentality bla bla bla that u see in bookstores, books that usually end up below the title Self Improvement. Thats the change that im talking about =)

Bottle
The greatest asset is one that we all have, our brain

Black February Review

For some reasons, whenever i put up the feedburner reader count, my traffic starts to fall significantly. i guess after experimenting it twice by displaying it, i probably shd juz keep it in my pocket lol.



19 trades (12 winners, 7 losers)

(in terms of pips)
Week 1: +8
Week 2: +22
Week 3: +23
Week 4: -89

Month: -30 pips
Profit/Loss: +0.6%

Very bad end to the month after building consistently for the first 3 weeks. conclusion: revenge-monster is still alive, and kicking. PnL is still green, luckily. i took larger position sizes earlier in the month becuz my equity has hit certain target point. but fortunately, those larger position werent part of the time i went crazy.

For March, i am looking at going back to my original position size first, until i hit my equity target (hopefully). i am also looking at cultivating swing trading methods, but leaving position open thru news release is always not so comforting, rendering sleepless nights. i will try it on demo first though.

I am seeking new job, planning to make a switch. Hopefully doesnt land on somewhere that affects my trading routine. Bless me. Ultimately, one way or another, i dont foresee myself to become a full time trader in near future. reason no.1: obviously i am not capable so far. secondly, london and new york crossover trading hours is night time over here. so the least i should do is still maintain a day job. and employers pays u CPF in this country, which is something our citizens need very badly. property purchase, study loans, medical, retirement etc. lastly, if so i wouldnt be bothering with the night classes, would i?

Still in the process of reading Curtis Faith's book, very slow lol, which i had promised to do a review. becuz i was at the same time reading the book by Donald Trump - Think Big and Kick Ass. i will do a review of it up next.

Monthly review for month of January 2010!

Yes it has been a great weekend like Black had posted. Its good to get urself away from everything else totally for occasionally. It feels great, feels charged.

Yup this post is mainly on my review for the month and some tactics or strategy that keep me floating/green for the month. Its always good to share and hope there maybe some pointers n tips from people as well.

Ok this month's green! And as u can see, its not totally smooth up all the way... there is bumps here and there on the way up. This month wasn't quite consistent as i have hoped. Inconsistent in terms of winning trades. Its almost 50/50. And there were quite a few mistakes that i realize i have made. Nonetheless the month was still green due to some "rules" that i practice.

Firstly, my Trade Profit is always higher than my Stop Loss. Meaning its always TP 50pips SL 40pips or TP 40pips SL 30pips. There is always a 10pips difference. SO even if its a 50% winning ratio on trades, these 10s and 10s of pips slowly can make a difference to your account in the long run.

Secondly, I always try to enter trade with my first "rule" in mind. Lets say if i want to place my SL for my Long trade right below the next Support level and it is like 50pips away. With a TP of also 50pips away at next Resistance level. I will often do a buy limit at a position more favourable to my first rule. Meaning i will place my buy limit 10 to 15 pips nearer to my SL. So if this Buy Limit is hit, my new SL will be 40pips away with a TP of 50pips or more. I find that its safer this way, lowering risk and stretching my profit.

Above is the good i did, now the bad. Bad thing is, i often kept in mind how many pips i wan to gain from a trade, its like so natural that i overlook some important stuff. The correct way is actually setting up TP/SL at a point where the price will hit and be resisted or supported and afterwhich is unknown, breakthru or not. And from a chart, we can see lots of these points. Be it Moving average Bollinger band or FIBO or Week high/low ( These are what i use but not sure about u yea?) But im sometimes blinded by the amount of pips i aim for and set a too high TP. Instead of choosing the one point that may get hit, i chose one that is too far behind. Quite often i miss it and it all went back. Sucking up my profit and worst, go all the way to SL without having the chance for me to close and breakeven.

I told myself, "Set ur TP at where the chart shows high chance will hit and not how much pips u want from it, the Forex chart dont give a damn on how much u want!"

I apologise if i did lots of talking but not much actual trade shown in this blog, was very busy recently with work and stuff ( family and love ones ). I will try to post up next trade of mine with picture presentation. Lol. Well i may not know if u guys understand what im blabbering about above u see. Ha and CNY is coming, got cleanings to do... Damn, more stuff building up..

Yup so this month i recover a total of 156 pips. Thats what 10s and 15s of pips can do in the long run despite low hit rate.

Bottle

Black's January Review & Some Thoughts

This is basically my trade p/l graph for the month of January generated from my MT4. Interestingly, a full scale Eilliot's Wave can also be witness from a p/l graph - one pretty important chart pattern, but something irrelevant in this case. Well, it looks good as obviously it was a profitable month, but thru' thorough examinations and reviewing of my trades, i still find it pretty unstable. Profitable trading has to reach some kind of consistency.

Summarizing my result for January:
43 trades: 27 winners, 14 losers, 2 b/e.
+76 pips
+3.65%

i am happy for the number of pips reaped for the month, although it was way off my target (50 pips per week), considering other commitments at hand, and also school lessons resuming, it is good enough, but still, it can be better.

for the percentage gain on my capital, it is pretty small. i was focusing on the pips earn for January, and had been using the micro lots on my trades. in fact, the gains practically can't even buy u two set meals from Hungry Jack's.

thankful for a profitable month of Jan, as for February, i will be giving a little more focus on Money Management. in another words, i think i shd be focusing on the risk-to-reward in terms of percentage of my capital. will take it slowly, hopefully wouldnt blow up my account lol. i'm still digesting a post though, from fxmadness.com's Mike, on increasing Forex returns through compounding. i guess that is one of the most important factor on profitable forex trading. he is a great writer, and a trader of course, u should find more useful information in the link.

some time back, i bought two motivational posters and stick 'em up at the door of my wardrobe. it may be something u've heard all the while but i still find them very meaningful, in terms of life, work, and even trading.

ATTITUDE: Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude. (Kinda reminds me of attitude trader lol)
This is basically talking about discipline. In life, in the corporate ladder or even in trading, u need discipline. u need the positive attitude, to learn, to overcome obstacles, and not to give up! the more positively inclined u are, the higher u can achieve. master traders don't slack and became what they are, without going thru' ups and downs and overcoming obstacles.

RISK: Take risk. If you win, you will be happy. If you lose, you will be wise. Nothing ventured, nothing gain.
I love this phrase. Especially the last part. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you had been to my blog at the beginning few months, you would've notice i used that quote as the captions for my page header. all of us have ventured here, into the currency market, and we're all exposed to risk. i AM here to take risk, when i win, i am happy. when i lose, i am sad of course, but whether u will be wise or not, depends on whether u learn from ur losers. a quote from a friend, "Wisdom however... is a collection of experiences that has been converted into knowledge."

i am here to seek financial freedom. the will to learn this unique skill under this fast-paced environment as a currency trader, has slowly turn itself into a passion. and i believe passion can overcome a lot of things, the interest to learn, the ability to overcome difficulties and the will to excel.

considering the drawdowns me and Bottle have experienced, giving up is still not a part of our options.. although i have to admit, at some point of losing streaks, i felt intimidated juz by opening the chart and see the price movements.. we're looking ahead. and the next step, is, to simply have profitable months all the way thru' to mid-2010.

Happy trading, let's have a great month ahead!

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

Transaction History December 2009 + First trade of 2010!

Hello everyone, the above show my November and December transaction history. The problem here is i couldnt get my December only history. I only see the last 3 months option. Lol so this is all i have. Before the green line is November's while after is December's.

Notice that the gradient of my December's trade is kinda straight yea... Most prob due to low confidence after the account shattering November. I went in and came out with little or no profit for alot of trades. Fearing that i might get bite again u know? That kinda feeling i guess all new guys have? Yup but fortunately the overall for the month is green. And thats gooooooood news.

Ok now for the first trade of the year 2010! Some information on the above scenario. Its USD/JPY pair in 4H timeframe. Its a short trade with the first circle as entry and second as my profit target.

Weapons used : Bollinger Band , Stochastic and candlestick patterns. ( + some Ema as well)

It all begins with the first green circle showing a Doji star lookalike candlestick. Its at the top of the Bollinger Band, looks like there is some indecisiveness here i suppose? The next bearish candlestick results in the Crossover of Stochastic in overbought zone. That looks very delicious...

Price was at around 92.93 when i am starting to make a decision. Should i go in now or should do it the more disciplined way? The more disciplined way will be at the near of Bollinger Band top where price will try to break up. Its at 93.16. Thats about 20pips away and the current market im watching that time is like u know... " Tug O War". No one is giving in, what if i go in late and miss the boat?? In the end, i manage to supress my inner devil (who has been asking to go in now lets not wait anymore!!) and set Sell Limit @ price 93.16. SL 40pips away and TP at 20EMA as support. Though i believe there is a chance that it might go all the way to Bollinger Band 30EMA. I chose 20EMA to play safe and not be greedy. Afterall its about 61pips if hit.

And there i thought it will be hard to hit my Sell Limit which is 20+ pips away, the next moment just after my lunch, im in a trade already. It went against me for a few pips and thereafter it proceeds towards my desire direction. The feeling is....... great

WHAT IF! I choose to go in earlier... i'll be having 20+ pips floating loss. It will affect me emotionally. I will tend to close at break even even though i analyse it correctly. I will have to go through the agony of floating loss unnecessary, no doubt it will affect my trading journey in the long run. Fortunately i chose the right path and end up having that extra 20pips that might just happen to be my floating loss if i went in earlier.

Still, there will be chances that i will miss the boat by doing the above... But i choose to take the trading system is set for myself seriously and follow it strictly. The system that i think can maximize my profit(more pips) and minimize my risk (further SL). I have much to learn.

First trade of the year = Profit = Good Sign!!! LOL!! Lets hope we can keep it this way.

Bottle