Ok, I didn't go back into the market after my last blog entry. It had been a long day with multiple migraine attacks (which miraculously went away slightly before market opened last night and came back this morning...)...
Most of all, I didn't want to over-trade. It was a mistake I made once before and it nearly destroyed my state and I don't want to repeat it. I hate making the same mistake twice, which is why I do "after action reviews" after major screw-ups. I conduct a postmortem and then generate from the result a list of "to do's" and "not-to-do's" and put them somewhere where I can see them often enough (Back at my old home, I had 10 mistakes I vow never to make again as a relationship manager printed out and plastered on the walls of my study, my bedroom, where the TV was, right by my dressing mirror, and yes, in my restroom too. Drove D nuts.).
Ok, back to last night.
So I took an hour to document what I did right and wrong for my trades. It took me an hour, coz, like I've mentioned, I had put in bracket orders for all my trades, for the first time. Which means I had my stop loss and profit target figured out for each. Which means I have REASONS to enter each of these trades (or more precisely, no reasons NOT to enter...boy, I've got to learn to be more laconic with my description...), and hence, more to write.
Then I did a little reading and turned in at probably a quarter past 5 in the morning. Struggled out of bed 2 hours later to have breakfast with D (while stealing glances at the charts on my computer screen).
When D was done getting dressed, I was already on my forex trading platform.
D couldn't believe his eyes.
I promised him I would get some rest.
But of course after PATIENTLY waiting for him to get out of the house, I dashed back into my study's to see how US market has fared last night, how the world has fared, what the central banks and the policy makers are cooking now and brewing for the days, weeks and months to come, how commodities are doing, did someone who can move the yen say something, etc.
And this "morning tour" is the part that I love best about trading forex. When it comes to forex trading, I have become less fixated on technicals coz as much as I love my charts, I started to see consistently good results only when I began to drop them, albeit not totally. As far as charts go, I will take a look at where the pair is trading within a 10-year, 1-year and 1-month period and that's it.
Many would disagree with my approach, and it's ok. Trading is really a personal thing. So, to each his own.
I used to trade a few currency pairs at one go, especially during periods when a certain prevalent trend or "theme" seemed to be there to stay. For instance, when there were signs that carry trades were unwinding coz the global market was really letting the Japanese down or freaking them out, I bought Yen and sold US and all those affected by US (EUR, GBP, CAD). Other than CAD, I didn't touch the other commodity currencies coz commodities were (and still are today) doing well then. When there's no clear winner and loser in a pair, I just don't trade the pair.
What I usually do is to buy just one lot to reduce my exposure to too high a gearing that's very generously offered by most brokers. Because there's no precise entry, I am ready to give room for the trade to go in my direction, as long as I have confidence in my short and intermediate view of where the pair is going.
Unlike stocks, currencies trade around a median, and as long as you are somewhere around there and going IN the direction that it's going, you will eventually get there (where the pot of gold is). But if your view is wrong, it'll be like taking a wrong bus. In which case, once you realize the bus is not heading towards your destination, get off and wait for the RIGHT bus to come along and hop on.
How do I know I'm on the wrong bus, since I allow my bus to take detours? Well, I keep tabs on news almost the entire day.
The only news I don't keep up with is my own country's.
The reason that I have no problem walking out to get a smoke by myself at 3, 4 and 5 am is because I feel safe in this peaceful little island. Nothing much happens here. Uneventful is how most living here will report their typical days to be.
Anyways, if anything MAJOR does happen, I would hear it from Seabloke (e.g. the first time in the country's history that someone broke out of prison...Actually, he's not the first. The first man who successfully got out, but was caught again, is now a esteemed pastor who recounted his very interesting life in his book "Iron Man"...check out Neville Tan..the bit that sent me rolling on the floor laughing was when he related how, while being incarcerated for manslaughter, he had randomly torn out from a bible a page to use as cigarette paper to roll his smoke..and - if I didn't get this mixed up with another similar story - it turned out that the page he tore out had John3:16 on it...hmmmm....).
Now, where was I?
Oh, Forex.
But enough of Forex.
I'm such a junkie.
When Ken wrote me to ask how my day was and that he's was boring, I replied,"Too many books to read. Too many charts to see. Too many forums to follow,. Too many things I wanna write on my blog. Too GREEDY!!"
"A small lady with a big stomach...tzk tzk tzk...."
Spot on, Ken.
But I'm getting smaller only coz I'm forgetting my meals! :-D
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