Posts

Showing posts from August, 2007

Early Winner Tonight...

Image
This trade follows the strat outlined in the third post in this blog. Not a bad haul: +30

No Trades, Internet Went Down...

The cable internet service in my area went down last session. My ISP said it would be a couple of hours before it was up again which would have been about 3:00am, so I closed up and went to bed. Normally my ISP is very stable and not a problem at all.

Interesting Article on U.S. Financial Contagion

If you haven't already read it, here's a good article on where the currency markets are at this time: www.dailyfx.com/story/special_report/

eur/jpy trade...

Image
The signal showed itself earlier tonight and I took it. Notice where the RSI is showing a better than 70 signal. When I see a strong bullish move, I tend to wait a candle or two to make sure price is weakening. Price was still 8 pips from the 50% fib retracement level from 160.95(08/14) to the recent low of 149.22(08/17). Many times the 50% retracement is a strong resistance level.

Misc...End of Week Wrap Up

I see that the charts are a little hard to read with the colors I've chosen. I'll be experimenting over the weekend with some different colors for easier viewing. The market received some unexpected news this morning in the form of the Fed lowering it's overnight rate from 6.75% to 5.75%. This action by the Fed is what a lot of traders have been looking for as it shows someone in the Fed cares about what's going on in the turbulent markets of the past two weeks. I've added a World Market Hours, CNBC World, Volatility Index (VIX), and Commitment of Traders links. Check 'em out, they come in pretty handy. Have a great weekend and I'll be back posting on Sunday.

Trading Advice...

Over the years I've been trading currencies, I've been fortunate to come across some wise veteran traders who have imparted some good advice which I would like to pass on to any readers of this blog. Here you go: "We can not control the market. The market can not control us. But we can control ourselves." Trade what you see, not what you think. Maintain discipline - Never consider a random entry just because price appears to be doing something. There must be a valid reason every time you step up to the plate, otherwise you're exposing yourself to too much risk. Never chase losses. Ever. Plan the trade - trade the plan. Log all trades.

Tonight's Trade EUR/JPY

Image
Here's tonight's trade. Take a look at the RSI indicator. I have it circled where it hits the 70 overbought condition. At the end of that candle, I entered short knowing it didn't have much left in the tank. Prior resistance is at 156.25 as shown by the spike candle to the left. There was an earlier opportunity approx. three hours earlier as shown on the RSI. Unfortunately, I was not at the screen to take advantage of it. Early bird catches the worm, eh? This is how the trade ended. Closed my short position at 155.44 for a +69 pip profit. The strategy worked like a charm....again.

The Trading Strategy....

Here is the way I trade to make money. I apply this strategy to the four currency pairs I monitor. The strategy: Open a cable(gbp/usd) 5-min chart, set it to candlesticks, apply pivot indicator with standard(R3, R2, R1, P, S1, S2, S3) and mid-pivots(M1, M2,...) enabled. Apply the RSI(Relative Strength Index) indicator to the chart. Set it to 14. Set levels to 30, 50 and 70. 70 is overbought and 30 is oversold. Change chart to hourly peridocity and determine the dominant trend. It will be one of three things: ascending, descending or ranging. If the trend is not apparent, change to the daily chart and determine the trend. Mark it on your chart with a trend line. While at the daily and hourly charts, make note of support and resistance(s/r) levels. You can use previous highs/lows, fibonacci retracements, pivots, round numbers(00 or 50) or all of the above in any combination you find price reacts to. You can mark previous high/lows and round numbers on the chart with horizontal lines. As

Some Basic Information...

Image
People always want to know what software and hardware you're using for trading, what's your trading environment like, etc. Here's a bit of information about my trading area: My office is in the loft area of our home. It's quite comfortable and far enough away from the normal hullabaloo of what ever else is going on in the house. Usually, that's not too much since I'm based in California, eight hours difference to GMT. Though forex(foreign exchange) or currency trading is a 24-hr market, my trading session runs from near the end of the Asian session (10:00pm PT) to approximately a couple of hours into the London session (1:30-2:00am PT). I've found this zone provides plenty of entry opportunities if you stay focused and don't dilly-dally surfing on the net, watching YouTube, etc. If you need to read trading related news or find out what fundamental data will be released during your session, try to do it before the session commences. Make notes, whatever i

Back from Hiatus...

Wow...it's been a while since I posted anything regarding trading. I've got a new strategy(for me anyway) that's quite simple and so far, has been quite successful. I'll be posting images of live trades as they come along starting tonight. Trading is a tricky business to master. Typically it's the psychology of trading that's the most difficult area to progress through. The next most difficult area for me is trade management, of which 50% of that falls under trading psychology. I'll be adding my thoughts of why I entered a trade, thoughts during its progression, and why I exited the trade to my posts. My hope is that folks who visit this blog will get an understanding and possibly a bit of education as I progress toward my goal as a full time currency trader.