Rolling Stocks

  
Rolling Stocks Course











I have been very busy with a few projects and some nice to do things! Firstly I have been on another course to learn a rolling stocks strategy; I mentioned this in a previous post before Christmas.

It gives me the opportunity to either spread bet some of the stocks at a much better risk reward, or trade the stocks using options express as the broker.
                                                                  
Unfortunately its not tax free you do this the normal way, but I would recommend this type of trading for anyone thinking of starting to trade. Spread betting is like jumping into a formula one car. If you have never traded before there is a great chance that you will have a crash. Start in a go cart....Much safer and less likely to give you psychological issues!

The stocks can take two days to three weeks to hit target price. But the risk reward is very good in comparison to spread betting. The strategy is very easy and you can scan the list of stocks very quickly. Many of the graduates are making five to ten percent per month.
            
It was a fantastic two days and at lunch time we ventured to borough market for some lunch.
Lunch I say...Hmm have a look!

Marcus Generously treated me to an Oyster

Interesting taste…..

Trick is lots of hot pepper sauce…

Being of ethnic background not unusual in my food!

To be honest it was nice, I should remember not

to judge a book by its cover!

Marcus De Maria Of Investment Mastery

With More Than One Oyster ....

I Think He Enjoyed Them!

I have also been involved in a few projects which have taken up my time, hence the neglect of my blog and trades. Very sorry if you are a regular reader, but I am coaching many people now and it can be a problem to keep updating!  

To Your Continued Trading Success!

Understanding Foreign Exchange Rollover

Foreign exchange rolls are often misunderstood despite their importance for every currency trader. Indeed, the interest rate differential between two currencies is not the only factor that affects overnight rolls. In fact, just like with currencies, foreign exchange rolls are affected by market conditions, supply and demand forces and many other factors.

Foreign exchange rollover, what is it? 

Rollover is the interest paid or earned for holding a currency spot position overnight. Each currency has an overnight interbank interest rate associated with it, and because forex is traded in pairs, every trade involves not only 2 different currencies but also two different interest rates. However, unlike what many traders think, foreign exchange rolls are not only based on central bank rates. First of all, forex rolls are constructed using forward points which are mostly based on overnight interest rates at which banks borrow unsecured funds from other banks. After all, the foreign exchange market works over-the-counter. Market and spot trades need to be settled and rolled forward every day. If the interest rate on the currency you bought is higher than the interest rate of the currency you sold, you will earn a positive roll. If the interest rate on the currency you bought is lower than the interest rate on the currency you sold, then you will pay rollover. In addition, foreign exchange rolls also account for market conditions, supply and demand for specific currency rolls and many other factors. For instance, Japanese retail and institutional investors are famously big carry traders, and often their demand for yield is so strong, that is not unusual to see fluctuations on foreign exchange rolls between Tokyo, London and New York market sessions. Moreover, the same roll calculation rules do not necessarily apply for all currencies in the same way because some countries follow different monetary policies and exchanges rate mechanisms. For example, finding the correct roll for the Singapore dollar can be difficult as the free-floating currency's value is tied to a basket of undisclosed currencies from the country's largest trading partners.

You can learn more at http://www.fxcm.com/collect-positive-rolls.jsp 

Currently, most forex rolls are low and some are even negative, why?
In the last two years, central banks around the world took a number of measures to increase liquidity and stabilize financial markets. Among the actions taken by central bankers was a significant reduction in overnight lending rates and major injections of capital into the banking system. Eventually, after restoring some confidence on the financial system, central bankers succeeded in bringing down interbank rates. In other words, it became cheaper for banks to lend money between themselves. However, it also meant that the interest paid or earned for holding a currency position overnight would be significantly lower. In this situation, it may happen that both rolls for buying and selling currencies are negative because banks and other foreign exchange market players charge a small spread on interest paid or earned.

How do carry trades work?
Traders looking to “earn carry” will buy a high-yielding currency while simultaneously selling a low-yielding currency. So, assuming the exchange rate remains constant, an investor is able to earn the difference in interest between the two currencies. The foreign exchange carry trade has a successful track record that goes back more than 25 years. However, the recent shift in the world’s financial markets towards lower interest rates and higher risk aversion makes it more difficult to make successful carry trades.
When is rollover booked?
5 pm in New York is considered the beginning and end of the forex trading day. Any positions that are open at 5 pm sharp are considered to be held overnight, and are subject to rollover. A position opened at 5:01 pm is not subject to rollover until the next day, while a position opened at 4:59 pm is subject to rollover at 5 pm. A credit or debit for each position open at 5 pm generally appears on your account within an hour, and is applied directly to your accounts balance.

How do banks account for Weekends and Holidays?
Most banks across the globe are closed on Saturdays and Sundays, so there is no rollover on these days, but most banks still apply interest for those two days. To account for that, the forex market books 3 days of rollover on Wednesdays, which makes a typical Wednesday rollover three times the amount on Tuesday. There is no rollover on holidays, but an extra days worth of rollover usually occurs 2 business days before the holiday. Typically, holiday rollover happens if either of the currencies in the pair has a major holiday. So, for Independence Day in the USA, which is on July 4, when American banks are closed an an extra day of rollover is added at 5 pm on July 1 for all US dollar pairs.
You can view how rollover is counted for holidays using our Rollover Calendar Page.

Why should you invest in currencies, even with low interest rates?
Even though, making carry trades has been less appealing over the last few months, the currency market is still one of the best places to invest. After all, the forex market is still the most liquid financial market in the world with an average daily volume of over US$3 trillion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. This is more than three times the total daily volume of the stocks and futures markets combined. Moreover, with a no-dealing-desk forex broker, every trade is executed back-to-back with one the world's premier banks which compete to provide your broker with the best bid and ask prices. This competition between banks can reduce the potential for market manipulation by price providers.

Read more: DailyFX - Understanding Foreign Exchange Rollover http://www.dailyfx.com/forex/fundamental/article/special_report/2010-04-20-1704-Understanding_Foreign_Exchange_Rollover.html#ixzz0lmxuxDPi

To Your Trading Success

Daniel Priestley KPI Webinar

I Know this is not trading related, but I think this is very powerful know matter what your niche is.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Daniel Priestley KPI Webinar

To Your Success!

Robert Kiosaki Talks Money And The Truth About Taxes!

Many of my posts have focused on the mindset and psychology of trading. My belief is, this is more important than the strategies you use. In this post we are focusing on a master of making money, Robert Kiyosaki.

Three key points that I personally took away from some of Roberts comments are listed below.

1. Taxes - You can never be rich if you are paying too much taxes, it is one of the big reasons I love spread betting. I don't need to declare this to the tax man!

2. He is always thinking about money - I have been focused, on trying to install this type of mindset now for about 5 years, my friends find me thoroughly annoying. But why do I do this? Simply to ensure my mind and more importantly, my sub conscious is not sabotaging my attempt to make money.

3. Passive income from his property - One great point about trading that some people fail to do, is take money out and re-invest some of the profits. Why? Trading is a strange thing; some people believe that you should continue to compound your winnings and make more money.

This can be a recipe for disaster; there have been some instances when winning traders have lost all there money, mainly due to greed and the high of winning. If you are a successful trader? I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you take some of your winnings out and re-invest into property etc!



This weekend, I will be attending the beginner’s rolling stocks course with Marcus De Maria. I am adding the strategy to my trading; this is because the risk reward ratio is so good.

Trades can last for a week but the percentage gains are huge compared to risk reward. It’s like a top up, on my trading portfolio. I will post some pictures from the event!

To Your Trading Success!

Weekend Analysis: A Path To Forex Profits

There are three basic reasons for doing a weekend analysis. The first reason is that you want  to establish a "big picture" view of a particular market in which you are interested. Doing this analysis over the weekend, when the markets are closed, is helpful because such an analysis can be made when the markets are not in dynamic flux and, therefore, you don't need to react to situations as they are unfolding.

Secondly, the analysis will help you to set up your trading plans for the coming week, which in turn will help you to decide what trading plans you might want to implement. Remember, shooting from the hip can leave a hole in your pocket! Weekend analysis should be more akin to an architect preparing a blue print from which he will take the steps, based on his blue print, to construct the different aspects of the building he's designed.

Finally, the reason for undertaking a weekend analysis is to build a routine preparation method that will help to build a trading plan in the area in which you are focusing so you can establish the necessary mindset for the upcoming week. A good analysis is how you can "psych" yourself up for the oncoming trading activity. (Check out 9 Tricks Of the Successful Trader for more.)

Preparing for the WeekSince this is a forex article, the emphasis is on the necessary preparation for trading forex during the coming week. But the preparatory steps can also be used and are helpful if you trade stocks, bonds or commodities. It's important to remember that none of the markets are actually separate, or trade in a vacuum. All the markets are interdependent, so that in a global economy the purchase of bonds, equities, goods and services all have an effect on the levels of supply and demand for currencies. Therefore, the price levels of the various currencies will vary when money flows around the world as investment searches for the highest and safest yields. (For a background, see our Forex Tutorial.)

Understand the Drivers
The art of successful trading is partly due to an understanding of the current relationships between markets and the reasons that these relationships exist. It is important to understand the causative factors that are in play at the moment. Remember, though, that these relationships can and do change over time. Once you have a grasp on  the existing relationships, then a study of price charts and the statements of the pundits, insiders, brokers and news services can be either reinforcing or ignored depending on your particular reading of the circumstances.

For example, a stock market recovery could be explained by investors who are anticipating an economic recovery. These investors believe that companies will have improved earnings and, therefore, greater valuations in the future. Hence they believe that now is a good time to buy! Or it can be that speculation, based on a flood of liquidity, is fueling momentum and that good old greed is pushing prices higher and higher until all players are on board so that the selling can begin.

A weekend analysis should be a basis for an understanding of the circumstances currently in play. These are the true fundamentals. Therefore the first question to ask is, why? Why are these things happening? What are the drivers behind the market actions?

Technical Drivers
Many technical analysts believe that patterns or certain price levels on charts can also be the drivers of trader behavior. They believe that so many traders are watching for these patterns that they become self-fulfilling prophecies. There has long been a debate, for example, whether a Fibonacci level is a number that is a measurement of some natural force or whether it is valid just because so many people watch for the number to occur and then trade accordingly. Whatever the reason, there are certain patterns and levels that will trigger trader action. (For more, see Can Technical Analysis Be Called A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?)

The News
The news also fuels actions. Traders wait for the news releases to confirm or deny their hypotheses and then enter or exit their trades. If these news releases occur at certain technical levels then they attract even more trader activity and can increase the odds of a successful trade. Not every news release is always valid for timing a trade. Those releases that occur at specific chart confluences can have a more dramatic effect on the volatility of the market and will provide better trading opportunities. (To learn more, see Trading On News Releases.)

Setting Up a Trading PlanBy doing a weekend analysis, a trader can prepare for the coming week and, depending on the type of trading he or she likes to do, such as scalping the news, or trading the five minute charts or waiting for a swing trade setup, he or she will have a blueprint to guide his trading. The old adage of "plan your trade – and trade your plan," is sage advice.

Chart the IndexesIt is helpful for a trader to chart the important indexes for each market on a longer time frame. This exercise can help a trader to determine relationships between markets and whether a movement in one market is inverse or in concert with the other.

Figure 1

Source: netdania.com

As you can see in Figure 1, there is an inverse relationship between gold and the dollar. As gold goes down in price, the dollar increases and vice a versa.

For example, in 2009, gold was being driven to record highs. Was this move in response to the perception that paper money was debasing so rapidly that there was a need to return to the hard metal as a store of value? Or was this the result of cheap dollars fueling a commodities boom? Or both? Could the speculators be promoting the gold hedge concept to attract dollars from

Main Street

into gold so that they can speculate on the momentum and then sell into the strength once gold reaches certain levels? Speculation is a game and how well it is played depends on the ability of the trader to understand the driving factors.

Now that we know that gold has an inverse relationship with the dollar, we can ask ourselves what will happen if gold sells off, or what would happen to gold if the dollar appreciates? We would expect an appreciating dollar to reduce the price of gold. Could we also expect a sell off in gold to have an impact on the dollar? Probably not, because many other commodities, stocks and bonds all impact the dollar, not only gold. (Learn more in Using Technical Analysis In The Gold Markets.)

So let us then turn to the dollar index chart to try and determine if there is a potential trade set-up. In this instance we note that the dollar has traded down to a level of 75.00, which is at the 127.8 extension of the previous upswing. It is also trading at a 78% retracement of the swing from March, 2008 through November, 2009.

This indicates a potentially strong resistance level for the dollar.

Figure 2

Source: netdania.com

The dollar index should bounce off of the 78% retracement from the low of March 2008 to the high of April 2009. At this level it is worth listening closely to the pundits as to how they explain why the dollar should start increasing in value against other currencies, especially in the light of the consensus at the time that the dollar was likely to weaken against the basket of currencies due to the threat of future inflation. At these levels it is worth watching the news and listening to the experts to garner clues as to what the sentiment is. If the markets are going to turn, sentiment will start to shift in favor of the turn and a trader can capitalize on this fact. Is There a Consensus in Other Markets?By charting other instruments on the same weekly or even monthly basis, we can gain a perspective of whether or not the markets are reaching a turning point consensus. Then we can take advantage of the consensus to enter a trade in an instrument that will be affected by the turn. For example, dollar yen indicates an oversold position with talk in the market place that the BOJ could intervene to weaken the yen. Japanese exports are affected because of the strong yen. Without any weakening of the yen, a Japanese recovery was likely to be impaired. (Learn more in The U.S. Dollar And The Yen: An Interesting Partnership.)

Gold Chart Provides Interesting PerspectiveThe gold chart indicates that a level is being reached at which many traders could take profits. A cheap dollar has fueled a gold rally. The dollar has enabled a carry trade in gold, but at some point there will be profit taking and I would look to a Fibonacci level to time a sell off. (Check out Taking The Magic Out Of Fibonacci Numbers for more.)

Figure 3

Source: netdania.com

In summary, we see that the dollar index is bouncing at two strong Fibonacci levels, while at the same time gold is trading to a 161.8 extension, which is also strong resistance.


To find a currency trade for the coming week, a look at whether the USDJPY indicates that there is support at around the 85 level. At the double bottom around 85.00 it would be worth placing an order in the market to go long the USDJPY with a stop at say 84.50. Since there was no sure fire way of knowing whether the USDJPY will trade lower than 84.00, one had to enter a trade with a tight stop and wait and see. If you get stopped out, wait for the appropriate signal on a shorter-term chart to take the trade again.
The chart below, Figure 4, which depicts the USDJPY, is a monthly showing a double bottom. The currency was also trading down to a 161.8 extension of the wave marked with a blue line. This adds to the possibility that there would be a strong buying action of dollars against the yen at that level.

Figure 4

Source: netdania.com

Figure 5

Source: netdania.com

On the weekly chart of the USDJPY, Figure 5, we can see a triple bottom. Our analysis and radar is now heightened to a long USDJPY trade, which we can take on a shorter time frame, depending on our personal preferences. The longer-term charts are suggesting a possible bounce as the dollar strengthens, gold weakens and the dollar gains against the yen.

Figure 6

A trade could have been taken on the four-hour chart. In this case there is a 400 pip move to the upside. This was a high odds trade and easy to detect. Not every trade is so obvious! If the move has already occurred, then the question is whether to chase the trade or not. Of course there are trading systems that buy on pullbacks into the trend and so on. Each trader has to determine his own methodology and test it over a period of time to determine the expectancy of the system. Consistency is what counts.
(To learn more, read Devising A Medium-Term Forex Trading System.)

To Trade or Not to TradeThere is a much higher chance of a successful trade if one can find turning points on the longer time frames, then switch down to a shorter frame to fine-tune an entry. The first trade can be at the exact Fibonacci level or double bottom as indicated on the longer term chart, and if this fails then a second opportunity will often occur on a pullback or test of the support level.

Look for the low hanging fruit and be patient. Patience, discipline and preparation will set you apart from traders who simply trade on the fly without any preparation.  (For more tips, read The Most Reliable Indicator You've Never Heard Of.)

by Selwyn Gishen, (Contact Author | Biography)

Forex Trading Diary 20th Jan 2010

Quick update on the week so far, I lost another 30 pips yesterday and made back 20 pips. When you trade, it is advisable, that you you close and open your computer in the morning so there are no hiccups! I didn't, and lost connection when I was recovering my 30 pips lost. 

My god you should have seen the panic on my face when I realized I had lost connection. Then the computer crashed...As Alex Ferguson would say it was bum squeaking time! It proved my lucky day and after 10 mins of panic, I logged back in and still had the opportunity to take 20 pips.

I was in profit by over 30 pips at one stage! After a year and a bit of trading the school boy errors have not been completely eliminated!

This morning I have taken a conservative 12 pips with the rest of the day to go. The new strategy I am testing has so far been 85% accurate and I think its time I started using it! But here is my morning trade so far, when you see the chart you will notice there was far more available. A retraction of the high in the last couple of days!

Date:        20 JAN 2010
Reference:    DIAAAAAEZSZ6VAF
Size:        Buy to close
Open Level:  16286
Market:      Spot FX GBP/USD 20 JAN 2010
Level:        16274

Another problem this week has been the major movements on the forex pairs from 12 midnight to 2. From what I can gather, this is being created by the Chinese. I don't see announcements for them on forex factory too often. But it has meant movement has been less when the market opens at 7am!

To Your Trading Success!

Forex Trading Diary Mon 18th 2010

Lets hope this week is far better than last week! I ended up 40 pips down...Not good, having said that I think it was one of the few weeks, that I have not really been focused. The other problem is the continued channeling of cable.

Getting pips is proving difficult due to lack of volatility in the morning and small range breaks. Last week I noticed that more breakouts occurred between  2 - 4pm around when the yanks started trading.

I also followed a few forums and looked at some expert analysis, and none of them are very clear on direction. The question is are we out of recession? Has the dollar recovery began and faded away? I am not sure anybody is any wiser than you or me?!

Because I am focusing less on the other currency, I am a bit out of touch with the slower moving pairs. In addition, I have two new strategy's on my plate which I am testing at the moment. At the end of the week I celebrated my day of birth, I had an interesting weekend!

Onto this morning, Happy Martin Luther King Day if you are from the US and reading this blog. Because of this the Americans are on holiday today. For all my complaining, cable gave signs for a slow long trend this morning.

No yanks later to stir the market did not  worry me too much on volatility. The Americans are normally not awake anyway at this time of the morning. My only concern was a small possibility that no over night US news could keep volatility low.

It proved correct and it was a slow march up this morning. I entered the trade after it broke the pivot, I should have been in earlier but wanted more certainty. 16332 and exit at resistance 50 level, It so happens I got out way too early, had I used a trailing stop loss I could have easily taken 60 - 80 pips .

After last weeks performance money in the bank is whats required. I took the 20 pips and very happy with them too! Cant leave without touching on the horrific earthquake in Haiti, they have many peoples thoughts and well being with them at this time.

To Your Trading Success!

Forex Trading Diary 12th Jan 2010

Free Trading Seminar: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Gain a FREE Copy of Our Interactive E-book 
 

"Complete Guide to Becoming a Moneymaking Trade" Worth £49.99 When You Attend! Spend the Evening with Elite traders and discover the Real Secret to Trading for 2 hrs per day. This is the Stuff the professionals don’t want you to know!

Back to trading for 2010, a long extended break after the festive period, then spent a week tarting up the blog. If you are a regular reader let me know what you think.

The volatility is back in the market but less bigger trends at the moment. I have adjusted my trading style for this period as I felt I had one two many losses for my liking as we ran up to Christmas. It has been said that you need three strategy to be a successful trader.  

1. Strategy for a trending market  - This is great for huge points especially using a trailing stop loss.

2. Strategy for a channeling or oscillating market - For low volatility periods and indecision times.

3. Breakout Strategy - Classic and essential, my personnel favourite.


Review of my trades before Christmas showed me I was missing points because I was holding on for far too long. I then decided to get out at breakeven if the trade started going against me. But this created far too many breakeven trades.

Interesting day on Monday, due to lack of time I did not take any screen shots. But pulled off broker numbers so you can look at the trades on your own charts.

Date:        11 JAN 2010
Reference:    DIAAAAAEWMSUUAC
Size:        Sell to close
Open Level:  16117.2
Market:      Spot FX GBP/USD 11 JAN 2010
Level:        16126.8

Date:        11 JAN 2010
Reference:    DIAAAAAEWNKHAAL
Size:        Sell to close
Open Level:  16115.1
Market:      Spot FX GBP/USD 11 JAN 2010
Level:        16134.4

Tuesday was a good day of strong trading, but it was three trades for a total of 34 pips. Very unusual for me, but great that the adjustment is working.

















                                                                           Not shown on the below chart was a pivot around my entry point, without it my trade looks a bit random!

I have now added two additional indicators to my trading, stochastics and the ma 100. I have used the ma 100 in my previous days of  trading oil. Added to the the ma21 or ma20 it gives a great indication of the trend or non trend!

Stochastic is to complement the Macd. The Macd indicator was created in the 1960s, and some believe its out of date? I have had great success with it, but feel in a channeling  market, that stochastics will support my desicions better!

To Your Trading Success!

Forex Pivot Point Trading!

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Happy New Year! Well just a couple of days short. I have found a couple of great videos on using pivots on forex trades.I have touched on pivot points before in a previous blog post. It continues to be used more and more as a strategy to identify great trades on forex pairs.

I currently use a great pivot strategy that is very consistent. The more I learn about them the better I will be at identifying better trades.

They work in trending markets as well as channeling markets, and the videos are better than the previous blog post on pivots.For a day trader pivot points are essential for identifying strong resistance and supports. Note, the amount of times he mentions discipline and money management in the first video.

So three great videos on pivot points and the use of them. The first video is split into two, and will give you a good understanding of the fundamentals, entry's and exits. The third is a bit more detailed and if you have used  pivots before? Then maybe you jump to that video. It has a strategy which is easy to pick up!







The third video is one of the best explanations I have seen of pivot points, nine minutes of great information, and I encourage you to take notes. If you do come across a pivot strategy and want more info, or would like to use  them in your trading  Click here for a free stock market DVD

 



Pivots are as discussed a very strong indicator, the amount of growing company's that are using them as trading strategy's is an example of its importance. They also work well with other indicators, to give you even more secure entry's in your forex trading!

To Your Trading Success in 2010!
Click here for a free stock market DVD

2010 Here You Come!

Merry Christmas all, the festive period has kept me busy and I have had very little time to update my blog. Trading officially ended on the 18th of December due to the lack of volatility in the markets after this period. In time honored tradition my brain in the last week in particular, has switched to festive season mode. But more importantly the master plan for 2010!

Whatever has happened to you that is negative in 2009 forget about it! Whatever has happened to you in 2009 that is positive, hold, focus and make it bigger! I caught up with twitter queen Milli Ponce this week and we discussed many topics including our love for reading. Two books that we talked about in particular were the Celestine prophecy and also the Alchemist by Paul Coelho.

Both books are story's but have a real value to life. In short one is the journey a person takes to find riches (The Alchemist) and If I had to describe the Celestine Prophecy I would say it was a combination of Think and Grow Rich and the secret. Honestly there are really no problems that any human has faced that somebody else has not faced before you. Humans are repetitive and everything is a repeat of that repetition!

What makes a person different is there ability to deal with challenges and more importantly how you choose to live your life i.e ATTITUDE. My blog was inspired through the fact that after 6 months of trading and loosing it dawned on me that I was fighting myself. Win that battle and I would win at trading. From that point on the charts and screens have looked very different.

Yet again it proved to me that no matter what you are doing in life you are responsible for what happens (Both good and Bad). While the difference between 2010 and 2009 is actually one day this can be and should be used to motivate yourself for your next journey in life.

In my discussions with Milli we also talked about Will Smith. To become the highest paid actor in Hollywood Is incredible. If you had gone back 20 years and said that a black man would be the highest paid actor grossing over 100 million on each of his last eight films...People would call you mad and probably throw you in Jail.

The video below is 9 minutes of short clips... but I encourage you to watch it all.  It is an example of what can be achieved with the correct mindset!




Remember belief mixed with actions creates results and change only comes from you! I leave you with my favourite quote form Albert Einstein:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

What will you change to get ahead in 2010? I start trading again from Jan the 4th when volatility is back in the market. Until then I wish you all a fantastic Christmas and the best year ever in 2010.

To Your Trading Success in 2010

Forex Trading Diary 8th Dec 09

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Morning all, I'm in bed trading because I'm still sick as a dog (Far too much info I know) I have had flu for four days and missed my alarm this morning at 5.45am. However it has not stopped me from pimping the pips!

I did a late trade around 14.40 yesterday for 19 pips and another 7 pips later on the break of the pivot to take yesterdays total to 59 pips for the day.

So why am I sharing so much about this morning? Well Adrian  (Trading partner) was up on time and noticed that cable was making a move at 6.10am and actually took an additional 33 pips before I had even woken up! This morning I had no problems with IG and I took 30 pips again!

Date:        08 DEC 2009
Reference:    DIAAAAAEM25RSAN
Size:        Buy to close
Open Level:  16373.3
Market:      Spot FX GBP/USD 08 DEC 2009
Level:        16343.3

 

Tired and feeling lazy and so wont say much more apart from scalping an additional 10.5 pips to make 40 for the day and 100 pips in two days.

To Your Trading Success!

Click here for a free stock market DVD 

Forex Day Trading Diary Mon 7th December 09

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Oohh wow what a f%^&**^ frustrating morning....I had the breakout set for 16874 and pushed the button to enter but IG refused to fill the price. I missed a good 30 pips and possibly more, have a look at the charts and you will be able to see my frustration.



I'm not sure what caused the vicious drop this morning but it was a major one! Brown announced a spending cut and the market could have reacted to that. Candles work in a 3, 5 , 8 , 13 combination on a trend.

Today it went short for 8 straight candles which tells me something spooked the market.
I did finally enter the trade when it broke a later pivot and manged to also scalp some additional points to make a total of 33 pips on the day so not too bad.

The pivot strategy which I didn't play yielded 70 pips this morning. The skype chat group was very buoyant with many people taking the most amount of pips they have ever taken in one trade. In 45 minutes cable dropped 130 points and I only took 33!I will say it again bloody IG

I was involved in the webinar yesterday for the traders that are on skype. After this finished I discussed with Marcus De Maria what people expected from the webinars. They occur monthly but I'm not sure the traders are taking full advantage of it.

The group support that we give is amazing for any novice trader. But we don't believe people come with enough questions to help them improve.

A couple of points that I would like to make for anyone trading and loosing. It is a time thing purely and simply. You will become a good trader if you stick at it and most important Master your PSYCHOLOGY. Trading with fear is the number 1 reason people are not successful in trading in my opinion.

The point I made earlier about the candle formation is a great example. I had been trading for 6 months and was getting extremely frustrated about my losses. I then went on a webinar and was given that info.

I couldn't believe that I had never noticed this before. As soon as the webinar was finished I opened up the charts and you know the saying "I was blind but now I see"

All this time I had not noticed this point and it is now an integral part of my trading. You will continue to pick up small nuggets that will refine your trading and add to your strategy and then it will take off.

To Your Trading Success!

Click here for a free stock market DVD

Forex Trading Diary Friday 4th Dec 09

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Loss of 30 pips on cable on Wednesday but gained it back in the afternoon. The trade took so long I nearly fell asleep... Nearly two hours before I got back the 30 pips I lost. Not my kind of trade....

Today is non farm day which I am very much looking forward to. I took 30 pips on cable this morning but missed many more. Knowing a forex pairing is vital to trading it. Today cable began going long at 6.45 am.

As you know, I tend not to trade this until after 7 due to the false indications you get. But on this occasion the jump was too significant. So myself and Adrian my trading partner entered the trade early. He got in at a slightly better price and took 25 pips. I held on for 30 nice ones.....



Always much debate about trading announcements...I took an additional 20 pips to take my weekly number to above 100 and my daily number of pips to 50. We have a strategy to trade announcements, so I look at it as a calculated risk.



I made the trade more difficult as I did not adjust to Ig's trading rules change. When I finally had limits etc correct it had moved past my entry point. But looking at the news that unemployment in the US was better than expected! I assessed it was good for an additional 20 pips.

If entry had been where I originally wanted I would have taken 50 pips. All in all another great week, over 100 pips again and a nice percentage growth in my account.

To Your Trading Success!

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Day Trading Diary Tues 1st Dec 09

A week of announcements ahead, in particular non farm on Thursday. I tend not to trade the announcements but non farm is an exception.

Due to this being the first week of the month you have to be cautious because sometimes the Forex pairings will channel before the non farm announcement on Thursday.

Thankfully no major channeling so far this week, the forex markets have continued to be liquid. Not sure if we have the Dubai continued speculation and issues to thank? But I am 99 pips up in two days.

I placed another two trades today, one at 7am the other around 8.05am. Both trades one of 30 pips and one of 17 pips struggled a bit at a couple of psychological levels then raced through for the pips!

(Cable trade)



(Cable second trade)



Ftse opened at 8 and the up swing in stocks also helped cable break through giving me another entry point above the pivot at 16483. The exit which is the most important part of a trade, was to get out before 16500.

To Your Trading Success!

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Forex Trading Diary Monday 30th Nov 09

I attended the forex millionaire summit this weekend. A very interesting event and featured some great speakers such as Sandy Jadeja from spreadbettingtowin. Lots of speakers offering different guaranteed systems and the promise of making big money straight away!

But only a few really making the point that without the correct psychology / mindset then systems generally will not help! Friends and fellow traders Martin and Kate also attended the event.

The first day had the usual suspects such as Knowledge to action and win investing. I have taken many courses including one from each of the companies mentioned above. I could have saved a lot of money... but you live and learn.

If I was to offer some advice...... Well for me personally win investing was the worst course I have ever paid for on trading. I admit it was over three years ago. But since I took the course, I have still to come across anyone who has given it a glowing reference!


The below video is gives you a quick look at the event.




Earlier I mentioned Sandy Jadeja who has appeared on bloomberg and many investment shows. Sandy also writes for investor chronicles the Times and many more. On Sunday I had the pleasure of having a private chat about teaching and trading the markets.

He talked a lot about tough love in his trading methods. In his presentation he gave no guarantees on his course and was very specific in our discussion that he teaches you to trade. He does not offer you a guaranteed system as many do. But his system is simple and what you get is what you put in.

I asked if he is prepared to mentor people? His answer was a straight no, this is mainly because the goal of trading for him is to free up time. He cant offer mentoring if he cannot fully commit and like wise passing you onto his team of people as others do, is not in his opinion mentorship!

He's a great guy and gave a massive amounts of value in our discussion. I have taken his e-mail address for future communication. His video of January this year is still very close to the current market conditions. It has some great nuggets that can help improve all our trading!


Sandy Jadeja - Talking about dealing with fear and more when trading!




Onto the Forex trades this morning. Two trades on cable to be precise for a nice 51 pips gain. I have pulled off the actual entry as shown by the broker and posted it below. Over the last 10 days cable has been very volatile moving on average 100 - 200 pips per day.


I just want around forty of them. I pay most attention to price action and less on psychological levels. You need to learn how each forex pair behaves as they are very different. Cable being sensitive to most news, fell massively last week due to the problems in Dubai.

The trend has continued this morning and lots of pips on offer again. The key to this trade was the aggressive drop of the candle at 7.45 am using a 5 min chart!

Date: 30 NOV 2009
Reference: DIAAAAAEJ7AQYAS
Size: Buy to close
Open Level: 16503
Market: Spot FX GBP/USD 30 NOV 2009
Level: 16476.6

Date: 30 NOV 2009
Reference: DIAAAAAEJ6RSXAJ
Size: Buy to close
Open Level: 16543.8
Market: Spot FX GBP/USD 30 NOV 2009
Level:16518.8


(Cable trade)



To Your Trading Success!


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Forex Trading Diary Friday 27th Nov 09

Five for five so.....Err high five I think!? As the Americans would say awesome! My apologise for not wishing the yanks a happy Thanks giving yesterday! I'm writing this blogg at 7.31 am in the UK and have just taken another 30 pips off Cable (Pound / Dollar)


I believe we have to thank Dubai for the downs of cable this week!Having said that virtually every pair on the pivot strategy went between 7 and 7.30am this morning! I have captured 1 pivot strategy trade and my 30 pips on cable!


(Cable Breakout 30 pips)



(Usd/Cad Pivot strategy)



I end the week with on a significant Milestone....I have got more points but never without a loss. This week there were no losses and I read the markets correctly. For that I am very pleased!

I'm am teaching the advanced Traders at Investment Mastery today. It's good to help people who are also looking to breakout of the RAT race!

I will also be at the Forex Millionaires summit this weekend. I am crewing at the event so I can keep in touch with what new developments and advances the industry may have had. Its great to also get other experts opinions on trading. You can always learn more!

Some great speakers so I will have some interesting points for the blogg.

To Your Trading Success!

Day Trading Diary Thursday Nov 26th 09

I start today's blogg with a play on the Jay Z song "I have 99 problems but trading is not one". This is because I took another 29 pips this morning to have a total of 99 so far this week. Sometimes its good to celebrate...But not too much!

A strong week of trading with potential to be my best ever. If I round up all the fractions its actually 101 pips so far.

I traded cable again at 2pm yesterday afternoon after it channeled from 12 o'clock. My entry points were 16692 and exit around 2.35pm at 16670. Similar set up to my trades in the morning. This time the volatility is created by the US market opening as opposed to the European market at 7am.

It broke below the 16700 mark and confirmation was given by the histogram showing a short trade.


On to this Morning, I had a hairy 15 minutes when my trade was channeling. I had the option of 10 pips which was offered 4 times to me!



I remained stubborn and held on for it to finally drop below 16630 and then on for 29 pips. Had I played this on the hour strategy there was 40 on offer. If this had been played on the pivot strategy there was 30 pips on offer!

I wrote on my twitter site today, could cable repeat last weeks huge drop. The Americans are on thanks given today but this did not make any difference. There was a drop of 200 points virtually the same as last week. Proving again that its the most liquid pair and how the forex market does not rely on the US!

On my point on the banks from yesterday....All I can say is the bloody £$%^&&* if this does not show how the bank cartel and money makers stick together then you are blind! Take your future into your own hands.

That's what I do with trading, if you stay in the system they will always keep you poor!

To Your Trading Success!

Forex Trading Diary Tuesday 25th Nov 09

I meditated for a bit too long this morning. I didn't open the charts up until 6.50 am, cable (Pound/Dollar) was already moving. Easily could have got in at 16,638 for a long trade, that's because the histogram had just changed to indicate going long.

But I didn't like the fact that the European markets had not opened. I then revised my entry to above 16,650. This was broken at the usual time of 7.30 am. This Morning I was joined on my skype discussion by Kate.

We talked about how myself and Adrian trade the breakout of Cable in the morning. We also looked at what indicators are best and how to read them. At the same time of our discussion cable broke through the level I had set for entry and we all entered the trade.



As the chart says my entry was 16,654, Kate took 15 pips Adrian 12 pips to add to his total of 30 pips so far this morning. I waited a bit more than normal and held on for 20 pips on break of the next pivot at 16,670. Not really my style but my stop loss was at break even so I was playing for free.

Could be a bumper week and I'm looking forward to the announcement today of bank charges. Lets hope the government do the correct thing and allow many people across the UK to claim back the rip off charges.

Even better is if they allow consumers to claim back up to 1995 instead of 2007! Martin lewis will be happy, So will I...Very happy!

To Your Trading Success!

Forex Trading Diary Tuesday 24th Nov 09

Took a nice 15 pips on my Forex pound dollar trade this morning. No bells and whistles, got in underneath the 50 level at 16,545 but I.g filled me in at 41 (Slippage) So I took 15 pips instead of 20. This was due to the pivot at 16,520.

It retracted many times from this level, I could have scalped a total of 45 pips this morning using the same entry points on retraction!



Pivot strategy on usd /cad came in with 28 pips as well as many more on the other pairings I look at. I don't have time to take screen shots so I will leave you with the two!


The weather is still miserable but trading is not thankfully, so be positive and have a great day!

To Your Trading Success!

Forex Trading Diary Monday 23rd Nov 09

No updates for a week, very sorry. The most interesting trade Last week was my loss on Monday, although I did end the week plus 40 pips. So Last Monday (16/11/09) I made a school boy error and fell asleep when trading! Yes I know, I felt so stupid but I did have a good reason.

Trading on 5 mins time frames can tend to mean I'm always watching the trades, instead of leaving it after it has been triggered to do its thing. Had I been awake on Monday I would have noticed that cable failed miserably to break the 50 level three times.

On the third occasion I would have exited the trade. But when I awoke out of my slumber there was an announcement that had sent the trade the wrong way. Not a good way to began the week, 30 pips loss to make up!

Onto this week and today at around 8.10 am I was feeling as sick as a parrot. Psychological warfare of the trading mind is always a big issue. My loss last week was still in the back of my mind. This morning the movement on pound dollar began at 7 am as soon as the markets opened.

It moved for a long trade virtually straight away.I then waited an hour while it attempted to clear 16,550, at one stage I had 16 pips but was holding out for 20. When the ftse opened at 8 am my long trade retracted significantly. This happens all the time and is why I place my stop below the ma 20.


Having loss the previous Monday and also so close to 20 pips this morning I made the subconscious decision not to lose! My stop loss was the other side of the ma 20, I really should have stayed in the trade. But I took myself out at break even.

Trading has that knack of maximizing your mistake. Soon as I exited the trade it bounced off the ma 20 and in 10 mins I would have got my maximum limit of 30 pips!



I continued to observe Pound Dollar while talking on Skype to my trading partner Adrian Clarke. We noted the long term up trend on both strategies so looked for a breakout of the channel. The 16,000 level was going to be the next significant test on the upward trend.

I waited for the retraction after the test of 16,000 and then entered the trade when I gained confirmation of the histogram change at 15,995. With how long the trend had been going for I set the limit to 15 pips only.

Although myself and Adrian had set entries I didn't declare I had entered the trade? Half way through he asked if I was in? I came clean and explained that I was nearly at my limit. At which point Adrian confessed to also being in the trade 10 pips earlier using the forex 1 hour strategy. He is a sneaky bugger Adrian.



I would have only found out about that trade after he had taken the points. We did have a good laugh about it, but in all seriousness I should have taken 45 pips today!

To Your Trading Success!