Trades 12/3 (Thurs) & 12/4 (Fri)

FX trades from 12/3 (Thurs)

EURUSD 15min : + 29 pips

AUDUSD 15min: + 10 pips

Still holding on to 1 AUDUSD position.

TF Trade 12/4 (Fri)
Limit order pending

Trades 12/1 (Tues) & 12/2 (Wed) & SPA Saga

12/1 (Tues) US Session

TF 1min

Typical pre-FED day - tight range, undecided market, basically just an ugly chart until after 2pm. There was just 1 trade that I spotted. Gave D signal to enter (blue arrow), then had him cancel buy stop order. I just didn't think I had to resort to taking a crappy trade like that (wide stop; profit capped by 3rd touch on downsloping channel ceiling). I didn't want to short the market either, and decided to call it a day. D was only too happy. He had been wanting to SELL the whole time. So he faded every new peak in NQ:



12/2 (Wed) FX

Closed my EURUSD position (LONG) from last Friday. Result: -14 pips. I'm not sure what the pair wants to do anymore. I overstayed in the first place anyway (This chart shows my entry on Fri - Oanda's not showing that trade anymore...it probably keeps historical records for no more than 2 days?).

EURUSD 15min

Opened a AUDUSD position (LONG) that I didn't feel comfortable holding, and decided to let a breakeven stop take me out.

AUDUSD 15min

Opened a CADJPY position (LONG) to hedge my EURUSD trade and decided to let a breakeven stop take me out when the 2 started to converge.

CADJPY 15min

I think I just wanted to breakeven for the day.

And now I'm totally flat, and HAPPY. PnL for the week is USD 1300, so I'm going to stay out of a FED DAY.

BAD PEOPLE
I was having breakfast with D at our favorite haunt before he went to work this morning, when he received a call from the manager of a spa with which I am a member ( a 2007 Christmas gift from D - a 12k lifetime membership which he paid 8k for with cash - yes, the 4k bonus was for his generosity). His boss had run away. D broke the news to me, expecting some sort of reaction. But I continued to drink my ice coffee, and gave him a devilish grin seconds later. It's nasty, but definitely better than the "I-TOLD-YOU-SO" expression which always irritates the 2 of us.

Truth was, I was taken aback when I received the gift. But being the ever angelic partner that I was (ok, that's totally fabricated), I forced a grateful smile and said "thank-you". The following day, I asked Seabloke if she could sell the membership on ebay for me, since she's an ebay member. No luck. What was I even thinking - the market just crashed!

So Seabloke and I decided we'd go for a nice massage SOME DAY. The day never came of course. First, I can't be massaged. Second, I can't leave my workstation for even a day. Third, I can't spend a day at a spa - I'll go completely crazy.

It's been exactly 24 months since I received the membership card and I've never once stepped into the spa. And I've completely forgotten about selling the card when our economy turned around.

So there goes D's 8k. I'm just glad he hadn't used credit (I read on the Singapore's Straits Times that there were those who paid for the membership with their credit cards, and it looks like they will still have to continue to pay their installments....).

I told D to go to our small court tribunal. I would rather give the 8K to charity than to people who ran away without paying their employees!

A brief description of the case I found on the net:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20091109/tap-097-has-wellness-village-spa-left-cu-231650b.html

TF Trades 12/1 (Tues) & FX Trades

TF 15 min

Total: + 4.9 Points

Last TF trade was a solo trade (D's at work in his office). I love trading with D - I get a real kick out of driving him up the wall. But his tendency to flee drives me crazy. So, we are even.

This is the last time that the account below will be used to trade TF. New account for TF trading has been funded (forcing me to hedge the amount by selling USD and buying SGD) and we'll be using that instead. This account here will be for ETF trading (daytrading and swing trading) only:

FX

EURUSD 3Hr

AUDUSD 3Hr

All FX positions still opened. All profits in pips.
Leverage: 8 to 1 on 12k.

Update:
AUDUSD position closed:

+73 pips

2 EURUSD positions closed:

+84 pips

USDJPY Trades 11/27 (Fri)

USDJPY 1min

USDJPY 15min

Total: +43 pips

The last trade was tormenting. I had a hunch the pair would make it to my trendline target, so I decided to put up with that extremely long sideway move. When the smallest candles were forming, I literally felt like throwing up and couldn't get out of my chair coz I was fainting. I lost sensation in my fingers, and kept asking D for water that I didn't really need (coz I was really wanting to puke). Once the market started moving again an hour later, I totally recovered from what felt almost like morning sickness. I have no idea still what that was about.

I haven't the time to wait for price to hit trendline (who knows what route it's going to take to get there!) and covered when bull candles started to weaken again at the peak.

I finally figured out where that hunch came from. It was from a 600 bucks lesson (lost 1k in 1 trade, took back 400 in several scalps) from months ago. 6J just kept going up regardless of all the bearish candles that formed along the way. Lower lows and lower highs formed within what I understood later to be corrective waves - all part of a healthy uptrend.

Time to visit Little one.

EURUSD Trades (Update) 11/25 (Wed) & Regarding Daily Posting of PnL

EURUSD 1min (Part 1): + 13 pips

EURUSD 1min (Part 2) : + 16pips

EURUSD 15min
Total: +29 pips

EURUSD 15min (The Big Picture)

It kills me to trade 10k size, aiming for 70 to 90 pips each time. HOURS of sitting in front of my screen waiting for profit target to be hit is agonizing. Almost as bad as - if not worse than - sitting on a loss.

I love leverage. I wish I'll really think it's bad. But I don't. I think leverage is revitalizing. ETF and 10k FX trading has been sucking the life out of me. I'm dying a slow death.

I'm moving to full size lots. This will be on days when I can't trade the 6E (coz of ugly charts, my ugly moods, etc).

Day 3 trading TF with D turned out to be a total disaster. We drove each other nuts. I stonewalled him, and he went to bed REALLY pissed. Day 4 (yesterday) was GOOD, coz we traded separately. Ha Ha.

But, I'm still keen to work with him, coz I know that the results will be impressive. I am good at thin-slicing the market which allows me to spot good trades quickly, and D's good at executing them.

We'll see.

Will be posting PnL. Based on months of observation, I notice there's no difference in my performance patterns OVERTIME whenever I had stopped reporting.

I will not be trading everyday. I will if the market allows. If it's not my kind of market, I'll stay away.

I will no longer explain my trades, or justify my wins & losses.

I will post charts that are worth posting.

I will be turning comments off in my next post.

EURUSD Trades 11/23 (Mon)

EURUSD 1min

EURUSD 15min

It has never occurred to me to trade directly on Oanda's chart until today. It was nice...moving stops was a breeze. I traded on the 1min timeframe, but planning was done on TOS' 15 min chart and on Sierra's 6E 15min (charts right at the end of this post). Oanda doesn't give me enough candles/bars to see patterns.

I was short initially. Just wanted to take some scalps while waiting for something that I can recognize to develope. Was stopped out on both scalps (after failing to take scalp profits....I forgot that I was scalping...). The level that I was stopped out at confirmed a long entry, so I flipped and took a quasi-swing LONG (I did hold profit for hours). I learned my 1k lesson.

Seabloke and Gremlins came to visit and spent the whole time watching me manage my trade. But my charts no longer interest little ones and they were BORED to tears. I promise no trading the next time they visit - and that will be this Wed. Wed is a CURSE for me anyway....Gremlins' hundredth visit should break the curse. Hmmm.....

Today's result (Oanda charts above show my entries & exits):
-9pips (short)
-5pips (short)
+ 75 pips (long)
Net: +61 pips

I'll be trading only FX during globex hours and will be focusing on EURUSD.

10k lots for now, and will move up to 100k whenever I feel comfortable enough with Oanda to use leverage.

Will be posting all my FX trades.

EURUSD 15min

6E 15min

Update: 6B & FX (CHF/JPY) Trades 10/29 (Thurs)

Update on CHF/JPY trade:

There, my technical exit - a gigantic candle:

Total : +82 pips

From earlier today:

CHF/JPY 15min

Holding trade for now. Using technical exit - whatever that means (will be moving stop up to trail...Oanda has no trailing feature, which is great for me, coz I've never really learned how to set trailing stops. Finally a platform that doesn't make me feel stupid).

6B 15min

I quit 6B's 89-tick chart for now. It's so noisy I can't read my candles properly. 15min is good. Hourly is even better. But I haven't the patience....


D's going to love this: all blues on index futures and all red on DX and treasuries and bonds! He's holding bull ETFs....

Am watching CHF and JPY and really wanting to see the latter turn red again (6J has completed a "V" shape bull reversal on the 4-hourly).

Mark: Always had EEM on my watchlist, and added EDZ and EDC. Thanks! :-)

FX Trade (EUR/AUD) 10/28 (Wed)

EUR/AUD 15min

Entered on Bullish Harami. Exited at target (a resistance on the 4-hourly chart - see chart near the end of this post).

Total: +95 pips

Not accustomed to a 5 pip spread, and was staring hard at Oanda's platform, wondering if bid was ever going to hit my target as it hovered around 2 to 3 pips below. Was about to close my trade at market when price shot up to hit my target. As always, I'm happy I got what I wanted, and am not going to return to look at EUR/AUD for the rest of the day. Looking back always (well, not always, just LATELY) makes me feel like an idiot for getting out too soon.

Target was based on EUR/AUD's 4-hourly chart (not a timeframe that I can trade for now):

This is my 2nd day back on Oanda's platform.

I was in there yesterday and had put on 8 positions simultaneously (1k each, non-leveraged).

Basically, I was buying EUR, CHF and JPY, and selling GBP, AUD and CAD. That was early in the morning before I put on my 6E and 6B trades.

About an hour into my FX trades, I realized that yen was going to PLUNGE. I had 3 pairs of yen longs and yen looked like it was going to nose-dive! Just perfect. I was going crazy managing 9 trades (8 forex plus 6E), and decided to close all my FX positions at a combined loss of under 30 bucks (my EUR/GBP and EUR/CAD covered part of my loss from buying yen).

So, no more trading more than ONE pair at one go for me. I forgot I have a mind that can only focus on ONE THING AT A TIME.

FX trade today was opened a few hours after I closed my 6B trade from earlier this morning.

I was checking out reviews on Oanda and kept seeing the word "SCAM". On that list with a few dozen brokers, more than 50% are rated as "SCAMS". I'm paranoid now, and am visiting NFA's site for FACTS.

6J Trades 9/16 (Wed) & Decapitated Hanbok

Total: + USD 237

6J 5min

6J 5min (close-up)

Everything Else That I Look At:

Posting resumes today. I will be posting monthly or bi-monthly statements beginning Oct (details of trades available in monthly statements).

That said, I'm not trading the 6J everyday.

A precious lesson that I've learned in the past few months of trading forex futures is that I can't trade them the way I trade index futures.

In a month, there're only 8 to 10 days that FX futures are nice to trade.

That's probably coz I've not figured out the "structure" for trading the 6J, 6E, and 6B on an intraday basis, which I did for the TF (and to a certain extent, the ES).

Seabloke got her twins some Korean dolls when they attended Pilot's wedding in Korea. The younger twin insisted that Sea take a picture of her doll to show D (she brought the doll along when they dropped by mine yesterday), and insisted on beheading the doll. She attempted to get the older twin to do the same, but the latter refused (whether she was appalled I have no idea - nothing really freaks my family out).

The picture that totally cracked D up (D adores all things evil):

6E Trades 7/6 (Mon) - Fatal Flaw #3

Not going to be able to save my trades today - the tape's alien - so I'm wrapping up.

There's nothing to be learned.

I willfully let a 250 gain turn into a 800 loss, because I'm ANGRY.

That's all there is to it.

I had moved my stop to take profit, only to cancel it almost immediately after I moved it each time. My mind was not on my trades the whole time. The only thing I could process was how pissed I was. The better part of me kept coaxing the no-good part to CALM DOWN - to no avail of course.

To you naysayers out there: take your trophy; you won - this is the day you've been waiting for for a while now, so CHERISH it.

Trades 7/3 (Fri) Wrap Up & Lonely Trader's Interview

This hasn't been the easy week that I thought it would be, so I'm treading carefully. There was just one good entry for me after the first 2 trades today. I didn't take it. I've used up my physical and mental energy for the week, and was afraid that if I did take that trade, I wouldn't have what it takes to see it through.

Someone sent me a link today on the 5 fatal flaws of trading coz he thought/ thinks I'd find it relevant to my trading.

I'm not going to post the link - there's so much written on what traders SHOULDN'T be doing, and what kind of people SHOULDN'T be trading, one can easily find the material by googling.

I'm bringing up the issue because I'm feeling indignant.

I believe in positive reinforcement, positive thinking, positive attitude, good karma, and HARD WORK.

I do NOT buy intimidation, scare tactics, empty philosophical gobbledygook, "well-intentioned" advice by old timers to make you fall back in line.

Above all, I do not buy the "fact" that 90% of all new traders fail because they have aimed for more than ZERO percent return.

It's utter crap - that one should start out aiming for such a MEDIOCRE performance as simply NOT losing your capital.

Whatever works for or happens to one trader does not necessarily apply to another.

We walk our own unique journey.

I appreciate all the help I've received, and I thank folks like Cory, Jack W, Leon, Lonely, Lord Tedders, Solfest, and many others, with all my heart. You always encourage, motivate, and inspire, and thoughts of you always put a smile on my face.

For those who are concerned that I'm at risk of blowing up my account - don't be. Your concern is baseless. I am NOT you. I will get what I want, whenever I want it. Just watch me.

On a lighter note, another of my favorite things - The Lonely Trader - was interviewed by Tim Bouquin! Check out his blog (don't skip the comment section!!) for details and the link to his interview (a gem!!).

Trades 7/2 (Thurs) - Jules Is A *#$^*#!*@!!!!!!!!!

My day sucked. It all started with me not taking a USD 200 profit. Ended up taking an 11-tick loss instead. Took me 2 scalps to recover all 11 ticks, only to give back 5 ticks on the last trade.

Why am I despising 200-dollar profit??? I BOUGHT on a down day - I should be happy that I'm getting 200!

Then I had to stay up for a market that's NOT moving, in the hope of recovering that 5 miserable ticks. Can't believe how much I hate having a red day. It's not like I haven't had them before!

I'm going to call it a night. My internet connection went down for a long time before I realized I have a mobile network device that I can use. But that device crashed my computer and took me ages to start it up again. Called up my internet service provider - StarHub - and totally didn't manage to get through. For almost an hour we waited - no response.

STARHUB, YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do you have to carry out maintenance on weekdays??? AND, why am I paying you monthly fees for a standby that doesn't work??? And it crashed my pc!!! You're a plague!!!!!

D's lodging a formal complaint.

The universe is against me AGAIN. It's punishing me for being GREEDY!!!

J, how did you know that I was going to call myself a pig???
Thanks for the lovely NG pictures. Put a smile back on my face.

6E Trade 7/1 - 1.4000

Yes, I bought a wave 4 in a downtrend.

But this is a HUGE wave 4.

Price tested low from yesterday, and bounced off that level with a strong bullish reversal pattern, which gave me a reason to stay put instead of scratching my trade after price turned against me almost immediately after my order was filled.

The extremely long bearish candle that extended below trendline support gave me yet another reason to bet on a downtrend that has exhausted itself, and that price is reversing to test the day's high at 1.4052.

Finally, and probably the KEY reason that had kept me holding my position for..let me see...nearly 3 hours (!!!!) was the number 1.4000.

Trades 6/30 (Tues) - Still Loving 6E

6E

Momentum: Chop, then Down

Blue Arrow: Loser
Green Arrow: Winner

Highlight of the day: my first trade. It was one of those blunders I can't seem to stop making. Put a stop order to buy before candle closed. Usually I'd do that seconds before. Today, I forgot my counter. Entered a tick above way before candle closed - it closed exactly there, and I knew I was in trouble. Price went down to take out my stop without ever going back to my entry price. The 2nd trade was an attempt to immediately get something back from the market to placate myself. An even more stupid mistake than the first.

Turned out that it was good to have D around after all. He saw the red 212 on my 6E DOM, and in the midst of his conference call, he gave 6E the middle finger and a really dirty look for upsetting me early in the morning. I couldn't stop laughing.

We had sushi takeout to celebrate D's birthday. He's now busy sending thank-you replies to friends that sent him birthday wishes via facebook. But he still managed to get his 2 ticks. Yesterday, he took 4 ticks while in the middle of a conference call. Absolutely the King of Multi-tasking.

Am still staying out of ES. It's a DOWN day for crying out loud.

Trades 6/29 (Mon) - Manic Monday Wrap Up

6E

Used all my 6E gains for the day to make ONE statement.

Last trade was based on NO setup. Got my context and direction right, but without a setup, my entry was lousy. Sure as hell was exciting - not knowing what I was doing. I covered just before price turned back up coz that's the max loss I was willing to take for this clueless trade.

So, I need setups, not excitement.

Like I said, I missed my ES setup. Not chasing. Not selling. So, no trade. And feeling perfectly ok.

EP,
Removing my post about Ziad. I read it again. It does sound really mean. And perhaps even unfair to him.