I hope this is as short as I want it to be.
It's really simple. Close to where I stay this Hindu temple held a major event to consecrate the compounds after having being refurbished with new carvings and interiors. I'm sure more than that changed, but I know not how to describe the rest.
The event was amazing. Many people waited in the sun to have a chance to enter the temple to seek the blessings of the Gods they so revere. I didn't dare try, and neither could I afford to wait. But I decided to stay around and see what is happening.
My takeaway? A appreciation for a particular line in a song I've been listening to. The line goes "I pray that enlightenment can be achieved in this lifetime" from Calling the Lama from Afar. I was nearly moved to tears. Probably I cried deep within me. Because that is the cry/plea/wish/aspiration of all devotees. Regardless of faith, beliefs or religion we belong to, we all hope that is achievable. To encounter the divine, to achieve enlightenment, to be reunited with God, to enter the paradise-heaven etc. All those individual perfect endings to the story called "life" hopefully can be attained within this lifetime. It doesn't matter if you believe in rebirth or reincarnation. Because the sum total of any faith is to achieve the perfect state within one's time on earth.
The universality of the line struck me. And for a brief moment, maybe I have a deeper understanding of universal truths, such as that all beings desire happiness.
Monday 24 March 2008
Thursday 20 March 2008
Karma and Compassion
I was totally supposed to write this entry some 2 weeks back. But I kept delaying it and so now I have little to write. But first, I want to tell you guys to expect (possibly) shorter entries. I decided I should break my writing up so that my titles say more about the entry itself.
This title, which I saved as a blank post earlier in a bid to jolt my memory when I finally get to write, is doing no good. But I'll reflect on it from my current frame of mind. But I think it'll largely be on compassion.
I first thing I want to mentioned is the Tibetan term "tonglen". As far as I know, the term can be safely translated into "exchanging oneself for others" and involves the giving of one's merits/happiness for other people's suffering. Rather, it is to take on others' suffering. How is it, by any law of science or natural occurrence, possible, is a question I cannot answer. But I think at the gross level, it is very possible. Like one who pushes another away from the danger of being knocked by a oncoming car. At a subtler level, then one can take on others' misfortunes upon oneself. Again, there exists only circumstantial proof which is far from verifiable.
Stories of great spiritual beings who in their death seem to have experienced signs of many illnesses manifesting their entry and exit in their bodies. And as the stories go, at the very same time, people in the vicinity start to get cured of their ailments and severe degenerative diseases. I'm no intellectual. And I admit it takes quite a measure of blind faith to believe these stories.
But aren't our lives always inspired by events like that? When humans take on and accomplish tasks and ideals beyond what seems to be beyond our abilities? When an athlete breaks records which have never been broken for the past century. When a person gives up his/her life in service of others. When people heal the sick through prayer. When one survives and prospers despite having all odds stacked against him/her.
I might be making mountains out of this insignificant examples. But could our existence bother on the divine and infinite? Could our own nature be that very same potential? Could we be bigger than life?
I've no answers. But I know the inspiration will live on and affect many others.
This title, which I saved as a blank post earlier in a bid to jolt my memory when I finally get to write, is doing no good. But I'll reflect on it from my current frame of mind. But I think it'll largely be on compassion.
I first thing I want to mentioned is the Tibetan term "tonglen". As far as I know, the term can be safely translated into "exchanging oneself for others" and involves the giving of one's merits/happiness for other people's suffering. Rather, it is to take on others' suffering. How is it, by any law of science or natural occurrence, possible, is a question I cannot answer. But I think at the gross level, it is very possible. Like one who pushes another away from the danger of being knocked by a oncoming car. At a subtler level, then one can take on others' misfortunes upon oneself. Again, there exists only circumstantial proof which is far from verifiable.
Stories of great spiritual beings who in their death seem to have experienced signs of many illnesses manifesting their entry and exit in their bodies. And as the stories go, at the very same time, people in the vicinity start to get cured of their ailments and severe degenerative diseases. I'm no intellectual. And I admit it takes quite a measure of blind faith to believe these stories.
But aren't our lives always inspired by events like that? When humans take on and accomplish tasks and ideals beyond what seems to be beyond our abilities? When an athlete breaks records which have never been broken for the past century. When a person gives up his/her life in service of others. When people heal the sick through prayer. When one survives and prospers despite having all odds stacked against him/her.
I might be making mountains out of this insignificant examples. But could our existence bother on the divine and infinite? Could our own nature be that very same potential? Could we be bigger than life?
I've no answers. But I know the inspiration will live on and affect many others.
Sunday 9 March 2008
GRBB and PIPS testing
To take accounts seriously, last week I made 10 trades. 6 losses, 1 breakeven and 3 winning trades. All trades were of size 1 mini lot. Total loss of USD 236.85, winning trades raked in USD 277.48. So that makes a gain of USD 40.63 for a 30% hit rate. Starting capital was 355.87, so that makes my gain over 10% for a week's trading.
I am very happy with this week. Not because of the gain of 10% (after all, 40 bucks is hardly anything) but because I managed to follow my declared intention to use and actively test a system.
And after trading conscientiously for a week, I realised this is not an impossible and unachievable dream. I can possibly trade properly and profitably by the end of the year of so. In fact, I hope it's earlier. But hard work awaits. Another observation: This week was a difficult week to trade. Mainly because many pairs are hitting or have gone beyond historical highs or lows. So it is hard to say if the pairs have momentum, especially when I'm trying to trade using TNT methods.
My consolation is that, many a times, I spot the trade when the price is quite close to the short Moving Averages. So I get really good positions. In fact, my profitable trades ran my floating capital to a high of USD 900+ at some point in time. (But you really have to discount 300 off that because of an earlier mistake, profitable one though)
So that's one more issue. How do I get the best out of a trade? I had trades that ran up to more than 200 pips positive but then hit my protective stop at +120 pips. I think it's probably every trader's heartache. But it shouldn't be. Especially if you are trading according to your system. Having said so, always evaluate your system and trading methods and see if you can get more out of the market. That's where the bookkeeping columns suggested by Dr. Alexander Elder is very useful - maximum paper profit and maximum paper loss after stoploss/profit target levels are hit. That would help one track if one is trading too conservatively or being overly greedy.
Met Firman yesterday. Had a good session of info-exchange. One thing I can never match Kelvin and Firman is in their boundless energies and devotion to trading. From Firman's end, he told me of 5 different methods he tested the last week or so. The most interesting is probably rainbow moving averages. I think I want to put in a picture of that here to show you guys how fascinating the visual representation of price movements can be. So here it is:
Beautiful, isn't it? This picture, of course, shows a downtrend. Unfortunately, the system is designed for scalping. Not my style definitely.
So my next move is this. Oh, before that, I should say my good but unprofitable trades this week mostly were signals from the TNT method. So I'm admittedly in favour of testing the PIPS and GRBB methods now. Quite a powerful indicator in hindsight. As are many indicators. So I'm alerted by Firman to the "REPAINTER effect". Essentially it means indicates change their signals according to past price data so that it appears, during backtesting, that the indicators work perfectly in accordance with trends in price changes.
So that task 1 of the week. Check out if the GRBB is a repainter program. And to have that. Once a day I will take a picture (screenshot) of the currency pairs on my charts and indicate (by putting in arrows) when the last bar is when I took the picture. Then I'll match them to those I see on the following day to see if they changed.
The second part is, certainly, to trade the system. For that I think I want to be thinking of the best time frame to trade in. So I'll put in the GRBB-PIPS indicators on 1 hour charts as well and monitor them according to current trading rules.
So that's my aim for the week. I'll submit my report next week!
I am very happy with this week. Not because of the gain of 10% (after all, 40 bucks is hardly anything) but because I managed to follow my declared intention to use and actively test a system.
And after trading conscientiously for a week, I realised this is not an impossible and unachievable dream. I can possibly trade properly and profitably by the end of the year of so. In fact, I hope it's earlier. But hard work awaits. Another observation: This week was a difficult week to trade. Mainly because many pairs are hitting or have gone beyond historical highs or lows. So it is hard to say if the pairs have momentum, especially when I'm trying to trade using TNT methods.
My consolation is that, many a times, I spot the trade when the price is quite close to the short Moving Averages. So I get really good positions. In fact, my profitable trades ran my floating capital to a high of USD 900+ at some point in time. (But you really have to discount 300 off that because of an earlier mistake, profitable one though)
So that's one more issue. How do I get the best out of a trade? I had trades that ran up to more than 200 pips positive but then hit my protective stop at +120 pips. I think it's probably every trader's heartache. But it shouldn't be. Especially if you are trading according to your system. Having said so, always evaluate your system and trading methods and see if you can get more out of the market. That's where the bookkeeping columns suggested by Dr. Alexander Elder is very useful - maximum paper profit and maximum paper loss after stoploss/profit target levels are hit. That would help one track if one is trading too conservatively or being overly greedy.
Met Firman yesterday. Had a good session of info-exchange. One thing I can never match Kelvin and Firman is in their boundless energies and devotion to trading. From Firman's end, he told me of 5 different methods he tested the last week or so. The most interesting is probably rainbow moving averages. I think I want to put in a picture of that here to show you guys how fascinating the visual representation of price movements can be. So here it is:
Beautiful, isn't it? This picture, of course, shows a downtrend. Unfortunately, the system is designed for scalping. Not my style definitely.So my next move is this. Oh, before that, I should say my good but unprofitable trades this week mostly were signals from the TNT method. So I'm admittedly in favour of testing the PIPS and GRBB methods now. Quite a powerful indicator in hindsight. As are many indicators. So I'm alerted by Firman to the "REPAINTER effect". Essentially it means indicates change their signals according to past price data so that it appears, during backtesting, that the indicators work perfectly in accordance with trends in price changes.
So that task 1 of the week. Check out if the GRBB is a repainter program. And to have that. Once a day I will take a picture (screenshot) of the currency pairs on my charts and indicate (by putting in arrows) when the last bar is when I took the picture. Then I'll match them to those I see on the following day to see if they changed.
The second part is, certainly, to trade the system. For that I think I want to be thinking of the best time frame to trade in. So I'll put in the GRBB-PIPS indicators on 1 hour charts as well and monitor them according to current trading rules.
So that's my aim for the week. I'll submit my report next week!
Monday 3 March 2008
The battle analogy (permission of Kelvin)
If any single one thinks trading is a boring sport, involving only clicking, then I'm pleased to present to you an extremely creative and engaging version of what really happens on the market. This was from an email from Kelvin, which he allegedly spent half an hour on. (Now, don't tell him this, but I think I would have taken as longer as he did)
On 28th February, Kelvin shared his trade with us: (adapted)
"Here comes the interesting part: i would hereby present the screen shot of this movie titled The Battle at the Fort.
The leader of the white soldier is planning an attack at the fort( 213 area). but knowing that the 213 fort is a very strong wan, he needs to motivate his soldiers. so he play solo and starts his attack, he slaughtered many black soldiers and each time he advances, the black soldiers is getting less and less defensive. (Higher High, Lower High), which leads him nearer to the fort. thus he thinks tt he had completed the first part of the plan which is to lead his soldiers into thinking tt it is indeed possible to get near the fort and eventually break it, in other words he had managed to motivate his soldiers and fill them with fighting spirit.
And finally the attack began, he told his soldiers, 'guys, if we manage to break their fort we will win this battle and beyond the fort contains food that we all need and lots of chiobu that we may need too, so give it all your best' and all his soldiers said 'Yes Sir!'
if u look at the hourly chart, u can see massive attack at the fort, chaos is happening there, firing of arrows, sounds of swords clink clung clink clung, shouting and fighting, heads and hands flying around, blood spilling etc etc. the best fighting action of the movie is at the 30 min chart. u should take a gd look at the 30 min chart now.
As u can see white soldiers give it all their best but the fort is just too strong. what the leader did not realize that he is putting himself in a 'either u win or lose position' the battle of the fort decides the outcome of this battle, if he conquered the fort, he'll win and price will rocket. but he is commencing a full force attack and put all his soldiers at risk. if he cannot break the fort, he will have not much soldiers left for defence. as u can c he cant break the fort and now the leader of the black soldier says: "hey guys, they do do not have much soldiers left, it's time to counter attack. he does not need to motivate his soldiers and bluff them that there's a lot of food or there are white lady to f*** if they win because all the black soldiers know that they can win easily.
as they were counter attacking, black soldiers face some problem at the camp of the white soldiers. this camp( upper triangle ) is where there are still some white soldiers and the upper triangle( res turned support) had managed to push back some black soldiers. when the leader of the black soldier saw this, he employed the bluff tactic now and say to his soldiers, hey guys if we can take their camp, beyond their camp has lots of food and white ladies, I'll give u all the permission to fcuk them if we win. the black soldiers became so highly motivated that they killed more than a hundred white soldiers in an hr! if u look at hourly chart that's 110 pips in an hr. and well that's the end of the battle and the black soldier won. but it's not the end of the movie yet, this movie is forever and the eternal battle between the white and black soldiers will keep goin on.
The last attachment is a 4hr chart, but the triangle is drawn is a bit different from the previous wan, this is drawn on a 4hr chart. initially i plan to say that let's see if S3 holds. but as i was telling my story i realise S3 not only hold but push price back to 212.
anywae that's the end of this email, i spent half an hr plus typing it! my typing speed slow bo bian. also dunno whether my story make sense not or I'm just wrapped up in my own world of story telling world which has no link to the real world (market). LOL!"
So that ends the story, but not without some clips!
Enjoy!
On 28th February, Kelvin shared his trade with us: (adapted)
"Here comes the interesting part: i would hereby present the screen shot of this movie titled The Battle at the Fort.
The leader of the white soldier is planning an attack at the fort( 213 area). but knowing that the 213 fort is a very strong wan, he needs to motivate his soldiers. so he play solo and starts his attack, he slaughtered many black soldiers and each time he advances, the black soldiers is getting less and less defensive. (Higher High, Lower High), which leads him nearer to the fort. thus he thinks tt he had completed the first part of the plan which is to lead his soldiers into thinking tt it is indeed possible to get near the fort and eventually break it, in other words he had managed to motivate his soldiers and fill them with fighting spirit.
And finally the attack began, he told his soldiers, 'guys, if we manage to break their fort we will win this battle and beyond the fort contains food that we all need and lots of chiobu that we may need too, so give it all your best' and all his soldiers said 'Yes Sir!'
if u look at the hourly chart, u can see massive attack at the fort, chaos is happening there, firing of arrows, sounds of swords clink clung clink clung, shouting and fighting, heads and hands flying around, blood spilling etc etc. the best fighting action of the movie is at the 30 min chart. u should take a gd look at the 30 min chart now.
As u can see white soldiers give it all their best but the fort is just too strong. what the leader did not realize that he is putting himself in a 'either u win or lose position' the battle of the fort decides the outcome of this battle, if he conquered the fort, he'll win and price will rocket. but he is commencing a full force attack and put all his soldiers at risk. if he cannot break the fort, he will have not much soldiers left for defence. as u can c he cant break the fort and now the leader of the black soldier says: "hey guys, they do do not have much soldiers left, it's time to counter attack. he does not need to motivate his soldiers and bluff them that there's a lot of food or there are white lady to f*** if they win because all the black soldiers know that they can win easily.
as they were counter attacking, black soldiers face some problem at the camp of the white soldiers. this camp( upper triangle ) is where there are still some white soldiers and the upper triangle( res turned support) had managed to push back some black soldiers. when the leader of the black soldier saw this, he employed the bluff tactic now and say to his soldiers, hey guys if we can take their camp, beyond their camp has lots of food and white ladies, I'll give u all the permission to fcuk them if we win. the black soldiers became so highly motivated that they killed more than a hundred white soldiers in an hr! if u look at hourly chart that's 110 pips in an hr. and well that's the end of the battle and the black soldier won. but it's not the end of the movie yet, this movie is forever and the eternal battle between the white and black soldiers will keep goin on.
The last attachment is a 4hr chart, but the triangle is drawn is a bit different from the previous wan, this is drawn on a 4hr chart. initially i plan to say that let's see if S3 holds. but as i was telling my story i realise S3 not only hold but push price back to 212.
anywae that's the end of this email, i spent half an hr plus typing it! my typing speed slow bo bian. also dunno whether my story make sense not or I'm just wrapped up in my own world of story telling world which has no link to the real world (market). LOL!"
So that ends the story, but not without some clips!
Enjoy!
A fresh start
Well, if you notice I'm always giving myself fresh starts, I must admit apologetically that it is true. But I hope it is not of any consequence and have not become a habit. Last week, I stopped trading altogether (which I realised, today, wasn't entirely true). Well, I didn't trade in my dreams, or sleep-trade (cf. sleepwalk), but I did make the same old mistake again. The profitable one. This time it is EUR/USD. Longed the pair on the 21st of February, set the SL and forgot all about it. Today I've closed the trade at a positive 350 pips. A nice gain, but again, a mistake that shouldn't have been committed in the first place.
But maybe I should tell you guys a little about why I took a break. Well, the simple and apparent reason is to focus on my academic obligations. I have a backlog of 6 weeks' worth of material to review and integrate into my being before my tests within the next 2 weeks. I've had many thoughts and, as undisciplined as I am, many other non-academic activities along the way.
BUT the reason isn't that simple. I stopped trading because for 2 straight weeks, and on two weekly meetings with Kelvin and Firman, I reported losses. None of my trades went right. And the reason? Because I confused the two systems, PIPS and TNT. (taught by my mentor)
Also, Miranda, my girlfriend, awakened me to my low sense of commitment and urgency towards learning and ultimately professionally trading Forex. I have no doubt I can only see forex trading as my way out of this rut - this situation of (relative) poverty and non-self-sufficiency. And as aware as she was, I knew I was committing enough to my cause. I traded infrequently, and often not adopting any proper system. The tragedy occurs - I fail time and again to keep a demo account afloat. Then the irony sets in, for I repeatedly advice people to trade by a strict system, for it helps not only personal accountability but also in tracking the reliability and efficiency of any system.
I decided to start again. But with what but a bad load of trades and loads of ill-discipline on my hands? Well...remember the extra-academic activities I did? Part of that was thinking. In part an angry response to an event, I thought long and hard about idealism. That is too much of a word to encapsulate the essence. I should say "dreams". And I went wondering, why do people set goals way beyond themselves, when the aims are remotely possible or maybe totally impossible? I watched The Last Samurai two times and tried to figure what is the value of a romantic ideal of self-sacrifice and directing all of one's energy and time to perfect one single task. Why aim for the moon? Why try to be perfect?
Motivation. That's the answer I got. How possible would becoming rich be if one never starts to think it possible for him/herself? The fact is, romantic and far-fetched ideals attract us. The ideas of saintliness, holiness, compassion, power, riches (in all its perfections) are inclinations within us.
So I uncover another layer of meaning and significance behind the mental practices as advised by Napolean Hill in Think and Grow Rich.
My Plan
I shall build my forex trading and training program in steps. The first is my basic code of conduct, the rules I shall trade by regardless of the system I choose to adopt in future.
(I think I'll talk more about them later this week)
The intermediate step is to implement the two trading systems - PIPS and TNT separately. For that purpose, I've totally segregated the indicators onto 2 different charts.
My immediate concern is twofold. One, to design the excel sheet to properly account for, and later analyse, my trades. Two, to trade both systems on 4hour charts.
My ultimate goal: TO GO 'LIVE' BY THE END OF JUNE.
I hope it is not too late then.
But maybe I should tell you guys a little about why I took a break. Well, the simple and apparent reason is to focus on my academic obligations. I have a backlog of 6 weeks' worth of material to review and integrate into my being before my tests within the next 2 weeks. I've had many thoughts and, as undisciplined as I am, many other non-academic activities along the way.
BUT the reason isn't that simple. I stopped trading because for 2 straight weeks, and on two weekly meetings with Kelvin and Firman, I reported losses. None of my trades went right. And the reason? Because I confused the two systems, PIPS and TNT. (taught by my mentor)
Also, Miranda, my girlfriend, awakened me to my low sense of commitment and urgency towards learning and ultimately professionally trading Forex. I have no doubt I can only see forex trading as my way out of this rut - this situation of (relative) poverty and non-self-sufficiency. And as aware as she was, I knew I was committing enough to my cause. I traded infrequently, and often not adopting any proper system. The tragedy occurs - I fail time and again to keep a demo account afloat. Then the irony sets in, for I repeatedly advice people to trade by a strict system, for it helps not only personal accountability but also in tracking the reliability and efficiency of any system.
I decided to start again. But with what but a bad load of trades and loads of ill-discipline on my hands? Well...remember the extra-academic activities I did? Part of that was thinking. In part an angry response to an event, I thought long and hard about idealism. That is too much of a word to encapsulate the essence. I should say "dreams". And I went wondering, why do people set goals way beyond themselves, when the aims are remotely possible or maybe totally impossible? I watched The Last Samurai two times and tried to figure what is the value of a romantic ideal of self-sacrifice and directing all of one's energy and time to perfect one single task. Why aim for the moon? Why try to be perfect?
Motivation. That's the answer I got. How possible would becoming rich be if one never starts to think it possible for him/herself? The fact is, romantic and far-fetched ideals attract us. The ideas of saintliness, holiness, compassion, power, riches (in all its perfections) are inclinations within us.
So I uncover another layer of meaning and significance behind the mental practices as advised by Napolean Hill in Think and Grow Rich.
My Plan
I shall build my forex trading and training program in steps. The first is my basic code of conduct, the rules I shall trade by regardless of the system I choose to adopt in future.
(I think I'll talk more about them later this week)
The intermediate step is to implement the two trading systems - PIPS and TNT separately. For that purpose, I've totally segregated the indicators onto 2 different charts.
My immediate concern is twofold. One, to design the excel sheet to properly account for, and later analyse, my trades. Two, to trade both systems on 4hour charts.
My ultimate goal: TO GO 'LIVE' BY THE END OF JUNE.
I hope it is not too late then.
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