The great divergence

Right...so here we have it. An interesting phenomena contrary to what should normally happen. Traditionally EUR/USD and GBP/USD normally follow pretty similar patterns. On that basis, and given that the GBP pair is more volatile, typically we see both going green or red at the same time with the GBP pair showing a greater magnitude of change. Yet, here we see that the EUR pair far surpass the GBP pair and the 5 min charts differ.

So I really wonder if this is a sign to buy into GBP/USD. I'm gonna try anyway. To be absolutely honest, I still haven't found the time and discipline to ask what I want outta doing forex, or whether I shld continue. But like I told Firman, I'll be sure to do it before the end of the first week of 2007.

Meanwhile, I pray everyone has a meaningful 2007!

Awakening!

This day is pretty amazing I must say.

I found out that my Google Analytics finally started working! Thanks a whole lot to Cari on the Analytics Support Team.

I watched the movie "Night at the Museum" and was inspired after that. Well, how could someone learn something out of a comedy? And to be "inspired"?? I must be going a little mad.

In any case, I have read and reread Napolean Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" several times by now. And interestingly, there is this sophiscated method of influencing the subconscious in the one of the last few chapters in there. Well, it's actually not too sophiscated, but pretty hard to accept as a practice.

Ever had someone you were inspired by or regarded as very respectable? Say Warren Buffet if you're a fundamental investor. Have you ever felt that you want to be like the person you respect or are inspired by? Now, have you ever harnessed the power of actually being influenced by them?

To a certain extent, we're all influenced by those we are attached to, whether is it in a positive or negative light. And having a "hero" does inspire one to start becoming like them, maybe in small ways in the early stages. In Think and Grow Rich, they offered a conscious way to influence your subconscious. Napolean Hill used this method himself and found it very effective.

The basics are to imagine talking to your "hero(es)" in your mind. Ask them how to handle situations. Ask them to influence you. To mold you in character such that you become like them.
Napolean Hill actually conducted such "cabinet meetings" with his imaginary counsellors every night before he goes to bed. He found that the characters actually come to life after some time using this method, and he was positively influenced by them.

This method or technique is not limited to only worldly gains, but major religions all use this technique. It is usually combined with meditation. The effectiveness of the method can be proven by all who tried something similar.

And how does all this link to the comedy "Night at the Museum" one might ask. Well, in the movie, Theodore Roosevelt and a host of other exhibits came to life every night in the musuem. Pretty chaotic situation I must say. Roosevelt inspired the security guard Ben Stiller to take control of a chaotic situation then and moved every "live exhibit" to salvage a impossible situation.

The movie opened my eyes to how possible it is to actually have the imagination technique work and actually "talk" to one's imaginary heroes. I was inspired by how Ben Stiller united a divided people to work in unison towards a single goal. It's just a movie, yes, but I still have loads to learn even if it's just rehearsed acting. And I sure will look forward to studying the movie and characters again.

And one more thing, I'm gonna put aside some time tomorrow to figure out why I am on the route to conquer forex and to build the belief that I will win this battle.

Up and away of the USD

Met my friend Eusof yesterday, he's also a forex enthusiast. Well, we had a good time talking about some technical analysis skills, but on my end, I really find what I could say meagre in depth and amount. After all, I'm not quite a technical guy, so far my experiments are on whether the fundamentals affect the market directions, and that itself isn't quite going anywhere.

Like I said, I need to figure out my motivation and start believing I can be a forex pro someday. In fact, not just some day but a definitive date like by the time I end Year 1 in varsity or something. Think I better spend some time thinking about this.

Surprisingly to Firman, the USD actually appreciated. According to news, the Fed Reserve Board hinted that there would be little chances for rates hikes over the next few months. This was backed up the core inflation and consumer inflation data being negligible. Controlling inflation has been high on the priority of the current Board, so this ism really good news.

And so how is the overnight interest rates inportant to the economy or speculators? From what I've learnt, interest rates(i/r) are linked to long term loan rates, which then becomes the cost of borrowing for both consumers and businesses. Given a possible drop in i/r, the cost of borrowing would drop and domestic consumption and investment would actually go up, giving a boost to the ailing US economy. That might be the reason why speculators pick up on this piece of news and bought into the USD. However, this piece of news was released on Monday, we still can't figure out how come it hit the market within a short 2 days. As Firman noticed, there where instances where the news took 2 weeks to affect the market.

I think this experiment has to change to find out what are the types of major news that affect speculators and the economy and how long does the effect take to occur.

In any case, I'm hoping I'll see some work done for my tuition flyers initiative. Maybe I'll go out and distribute some of those today.

Pay(and its effects) and doubt

Today I followed my friend-partner's advice of just putting a minimal amount on each currency pair I'm interested in to track its movement. Basically I was on EUR/GBP, EUR/USD and GBP/USD. That I'll leave as open positions to track over this week. Basically I'll try to establish the relationship these 3 pairs share since they are largely dependent on one another.

My current theory is that since the EUR/USD and GBP/USD tend to appreciate/depreciate in the same direction. The difference in the volatily of these 2 pairs would make a difference to the EUR/GBP. In general, the GBP/USD is alot more volatile than EUR/USD. To be very honest, I don't know what's the exact relationship, and therefore I'll need time to find out. As of now, I opened long positions on all 3 pairs at 11am this morning. Currently, there is almost no change for the EUR/USD. GBP/USD is down 56 pips. And EUR/GBP is up 21 pips. That still seems to make sense still as the value of GBP goes down, and EUR's value stays constant, EUR/GBP appreciates.

I received my pay from the job agency for my efforts at the starhub roadshows. I don't feel extremely elated to receive my pay, but it sure makes me less unsure of how I'm gonna survive the coming days with 70 bucks in my bank. And that gives me an indication of how I would feel when I get my paycheck if I choose to work in future. The sigh of relief that there are no more tight finances at the end of the pay cycle. But that's not what I desire, in fact, not anyone's desire at all. All of us hope to have good things in abundance. The only difference is who is willing to take the risk. I'm gonna take a risk soon using an alternative method of finding students for my tuition. Being alive is about running risks, someone said.

I'm sort of in a slump. I'm beginning to doubt I can make it to riches or wealth. Not that I've tried hard enough, but it's just a sentiment. Which I can recognise it is not supposed to be since I haven't even attempted to get rich. In any case, all things go through the cycles of ups and downs...so I shall sit this out and believe in what my friend tell me: "I'm sure you'll make it big."

And I want to tell everyone else who are trying and failing and facing difficulties the same thing, that if we all endure and continue working and learning along the way, I'm sure we'll all "make it big."

Back finally

Finally! I'm back from 2 weeks of Starhub roadshows and 1 week at a Buddhist camp. First, let me just briefly touch on my experience doing sales. From the depth of my being, I really enjoyed my time at the roadshows learning how to handle difficult situations and serving customers, albeit I would prefer having the luxury of serving each and every one of my customers to the max (which can't be accomplished at a roadshow). There were also embarassing moments when I make mistakes, but I managed to learn from them.

That aside, now on to the topic of my Buddhist camp. I must say it is utterly interesting since it served as a platform for me to rediscover Buddhism which I once was very involved in for about 3-4years during my secondary school days. The theme, doubtlessly, had to do with Buddha's teachings. However, I found the link to other non-Buddhist events extremely strong. Basically the idea is about the successful completion of objectives. In the Buddhist perspective, it is to attain enlightenment.

FAITH ---> EFFORT ---> MINDFULNESS ---> CONCENTRATION ---> WISDOM

I'm sure all these words look like they should only be used in the context of religion or spirituality. However, faith can be explained as interest/motivation. Essentially, when we want to achieve a certain goal, say have a harmonious family, we first have to possess the faith that such a goal is indeed possible.

With such faith and interest in the goal, naturally effort would arise to move towards accomplishing the objective. The next step would naturally be mindfulness of all elements which can influence the success of accomplishing such an aim. The next stage would then be to focus on the process itself and with the experience and analysis of the stages in achieving the aim, one would be able to find the wisdom of how to achieve the goal in the most efficient and best possible way.

I think I'll remember to use this process to check on my efforts in future so as to see if I am on the right path. Of course, I'll still be looking out for other processes to base my progress on. Most importantly, Buddhist knowledge proved once again to be useful beyond spiritual practice itself.

As I've been really busy, I didn't do any forex trading for the past 3 weeks at all. I left many open positions using my virtual account and decided to start afresh today. So I closed all positions, of which mostly are in the reds. However, due to the right expectation of USD/CAD going north, I still gained a profit of 200 bucks from a 10000 account. In any case, I'm grateful I didn't lose too badly as I still need my virtual cash to learn.

I've been on this backslide from the current project of establishing the relationship between news and forex directions. Haven't read financial news for the past 2 to 3 weeks. So I think I really need to understand my motivations and restart the experiment.