When I first saw this position still open my trading account...I must say I was overjoyed. But on thinking and rethinking, I realised it is a trade which shouldn't have stayed open. The only reason it happened is because of negligence on my part of even being aware of an open position.
1. Date : 29th Nov 2007
2. Currency Pair : USD/CHF
3. Trade : BUY
4. System : TNT
5. Method : Retracement - Continuation Signal
6. Entry Price : 1.1131
7. Time of Entry : GMT 0539
8. Stop Loss : 1.1101 (later adjusted to 1.150 around 22/11/2007)
9. Target Profit : NONE (THIS IS A MISTAKE!!!) (later adjusted to 1.1630)
10. Exit Price : 1.1500 (On 26/12 GMT 13:07) (Win 369 pips)
11. Commentary and Reflection : Alright. Honestly I love this trade and it shows me the power of longer term trading. But it is a mistake because I did not set a TP at first, and later forgot about the trade. When I saw it is still on around 20th Dec, I went in and put SL and TP levels. Ended up with SL triggered. Could have saved another 19 pips though, because Clarence's advice (which I did not act on) is to change the SL to 1.1519.
I won't say much for now, but this system seems to work pretty well. I've been trying to do backtesting with my sister, but I got discouraged 2 hours into the research. But, well, like the word says , I'll go re-search for the truth.
Do have a wonderful and meaningful last few days. Have a great year ahead!
Friday, 28 December 2007
Saturday, 15 December 2007
The season for trading
12.45 (early) in the morning, 2 weeks non-stop no forex and trading actions, hardly done anything since my varsity hols started...but this is certainly the PERFECT time to blog.
For a few reasons of course. But I won't list the reasons.
I note that it's real close to where and when I'm supposed to start trading. And I actually feel I have a better chance trading in school. I picked up trading again while preparing for my varsity exams. And so going back to school quite excites me - continuous wireless, and my laptop's usually with me.
Talking about that, I spoke to Kelvin last night. In short, he's a friend I met during my national service days. (in the camp where I, thankfully, was allowed to slack for more than 1 year) For a brief period, I got to know this guy with some ideals and ambition, but appeared like an educated Ah Beng to me. Well, years go by, and I realised he's really not a Beng (or hooligan, apologies for the colloquialism), is pretty friendly and has learnt a lot since we parted about 2 years back. He picked up English, surprising me with his vocabulary and fluency, having rejected reading Rich Dad Poor Dad in english when I first got to know him in camp.
Anyway, back to the conversation. He gave me my most unusual request to date. To tutor him weekly (and charge him my normal tuition rate) in forex trading. And that was easy to answer. For many reasons, I can't accept a single cent. Simply because I'm as much a student as he is. But I know what he's aiming for, and I agree we should do as he suggests -- to meet consistently at least once a week to discuss trading and stuff. We'll see what comes out of that in our next meeting.
Next, (I hope you guys are tired of hearing this from me) I finished the ebook "Adventures of a currency trader" once more. The first time was during my extended lunch times in the Times bookshop in Centrepoint. And I still absolutely love that book and recommend it to all traders, but more so for traders for have had a little experience in trading but is going nowhere. The book has no answers, but is a great direction pointer. (Firman, I think you should read the book, if you haven't.)
I'm not gonna say too much now, lest it be repeated stuff. But I must emphasize this point to all fellow traders. Trading is NOT about the system. Everywhere in the market, we see trading systems being promoted and sold. Some claiming to be a sure win, others say they guarantee a path to riches. I'm not saying they are not true or can't do what they claim. But that's TOTALLY MISSING the point.
Trading is about yourself! There is no system that works without the trader clearly knowing what's the rational behind the system. And the system has to suit you, the trader. I clearly know you can't use a system that trades on the hourly chart if you can only afford to go on to monitor trades on a daily basis. (or even less frequent than that)
At this point, I must say I don't really know how to substantiate my abovementioned point, so please do leave a comment if you guys have something to discuss or some questions to direct my posting on this issue.
Just a last point. I attended a seminar on futures. Really great info there, learnt a lot about futures and investment in general.
I'm a student, and I believe we all are on this amazing journey.
ENJOY IT!
For a few reasons of course. But I won't list the reasons.
I note that it's real close to where and when I'm supposed to start trading. And I actually feel I have a better chance trading in school. I picked up trading again while preparing for my varsity exams. And so going back to school quite excites me - continuous wireless, and my laptop's usually with me.
Talking about that, I spoke to Kelvin last night. In short, he's a friend I met during my national service days. (in the camp where I, thankfully, was allowed to slack for more than 1 year) For a brief period, I got to know this guy with some ideals and ambition, but appeared like an educated Ah Beng to me. Well, years go by, and I realised he's really not a Beng (or hooligan, apologies for the colloquialism), is pretty friendly and has learnt a lot since we parted about 2 years back. He picked up English, surprising me with his vocabulary and fluency, having rejected reading Rich Dad Poor Dad in english when I first got to know him in camp.
Anyway, back to the conversation. He gave me my most unusual request to date. To tutor him weekly (and charge him my normal tuition rate) in forex trading. And that was easy to answer. For many reasons, I can't accept a single cent. Simply because I'm as much a student as he is. But I know what he's aiming for, and I agree we should do as he suggests -- to meet consistently at least once a week to discuss trading and stuff. We'll see what comes out of that in our next meeting.
Next, (I hope you guys are tired of hearing this from me) I finished the ebook "Adventures of a currency trader" once more. The first time was during my extended lunch times in the Times bookshop in Centrepoint. And I still absolutely love that book and recommend it to all traders, but more so for traders for have had a little experience in trading but is going nowhere. The book has no answers, but is a great direction pointer. (Firman, I think you should read the book, if you haven't.)
I'm not gonna say too much now, lest it be repeated stuff. But I must emphasize this point to all fellow traders. Trading is NOT about the system. Everywhere in the market, we see trading systems being promoted and sold. Some claiming to be a sure win, others say they guarantee a path to riches. I'm not saying they are not true or can't do what they claim. But that's TOTALLY MISSING the point.
Trading is about yourself! There is no system that works without the trader clearly knowing what's the rational behind the system. And the system has to suit you, the trader. I clearly know you can't use a system that trades on the hourly chart if you can only afford to go on to monitor trades on a daily basis. (or even less frequent than that)
At this point, I must say I don't really know how to substantiate my abovementioned point, so please do leave a comment if you guys have something to discuss or some questions to direct my posting on this issue.
Just a last point. I attended a seminar on futures. Really great info there, learnt a lot about futures and investment in general.
I'm a student, and I believe we all are on this amazing journey.
ENJOY IT!
Monday, 3 December 2007
Reflections and (re)Awakening
I'll be honest, I don't know how to start this post.
It's just a mini looking-in-and-looking-back exercise.
The whole deal of getting any more affluent (not to even mention rich) was partly propelled by my wish to see something and funds and energy being done for and to people who are worthy. I know the words more commonly and easily understood include "unfortunate", "poor", "needy" etc. But that's not what I mean or who I want to refer to on two counts.
One, help should not be blind, even if someone is commonly thought to be in need (eg. African starved babies), not everyone deserves it. I'm no one to judge, but I learnt through my life experiences that one can only make full use of help or additional resources when one is willing to help oneself first.
Two, people who are worthy, deserving help, are not "needy" or "unfortunate". They are the people who truly live their lives (and use their hearts to achieve their goals) They are more than deserving. To me, people with purpose are sacred. (I'm really not apologetic if someone thinks this word should be in the domain of religion)
And these few days, events (again, I can't remember what happened, but I preserved the lesson) told me to look again at this aspect of myself and my desires. I remember setting aside money out of my income when I was working to be used to donate to a cause I thought is worthy.
Well. I failed and succumbed in the face of financial need (rather, wants) of my own. Well, I should say it was desire and wants to caused me to steal my own money and betray my integrity to splurge it on myself. All that money quite a few cents) came from my "charity pool".
I think I owe it to myself, not even to anyone else, to do something about that.
And I will. But when?
It's just a mini looking-in-and-looking-back exercise.
The whole deal of getting any more affluent (not to even mention rich) was partly propelled by my wish to see something and funds and energy being done for and to people who are worthy. I know the words more commonly and easily understood include "unfortunate", "poor", "needy" etc. But that's not what I mean or who I want to refer to on two counts.
One, help should not be blind, even if someone is commonly thought to be in need (eg. African starved babies), not everyone deserves it. I'm no one to judge, but I learnt through my life experiences that one can only make full use of help or additional resources when one is willing to help oneself first.
Two, people who are worthy, deserving help, are not "needy" or "unfortunate". They are the people who truly live their lives (and use their hearts to achieve their goals) They are more than deserving. To me, people with purpose are sacred. (I'm really not apologetic if someone thinks this word should be in the domain of religion)
And these few days, events (again, I can't remember what happened, but I preserved the lesson) told me to look again at this aspect of myself and my desires. I remember setting aside money out of my income when I was working to be used to donate to a cause I thought is worthy.
Well. I failed and succumbed in the face of financial need (rather, wants) of my own. Well, I should say it was desire and wants to caused me to steal my own money and betray my integrity to splurge it on myself. All that money quite a few cents) came from my "charity pool".
I think I owe it to myself, not even to anyone else, to do something about that.
And I will. But when?
The shock continues...
And what's the shock? That so much time has passed since I posted in August. In any case I'm starting again, and with a BANG! (I hope)
Anyway, here's a trade I did based on the system of Clarence, my mentor in forex.
1. Date : 28th Nov 2007
2. Currency Pair : USD/CHF
3. Trade : BUY
4. System : TNT
5. Method : Retracement - Continuation Signal
6. Entry Price : 1.1057
7. Time of Entry : GMT 0430
8. Stop Loss : 1.1027 (later adjusted to 1.1087, then 1.1127)
9. Target Profit : 1.1147 (later adjusted to 1.1192)
10. Exit Price : 1.1192 (at GMT 12:45) (Win 135 pips)
11. Commentary and Reflection : Well, the price went really smooth, in part I attribute it to that the price has been above the PIPS pivot level for some 8 to 10 hours. Also, remember Clarence mentioned about how he observe prices suddenly shoot up upon contacting the MA line? Well, it sure happened here!
Yeah! so happy! (to finally get a proper trade which wins)
This is just a common email that I get within Clarence's yahoo group, full of forex enthusiasts, experts and noobs alike!
The post is a little outdated though, do pardon me for that. I will try to post more trade on the blog to share with everyone too!
Maybe you guys could share your trades with me too?
Anyway, here's a trade I did based on the system of Clarence, my mentor in forex.
1. Date : 28th Nov 2007
2. Currency Pair : USD/CHF
3. Trade : BUY
4. System : TNT
5. Method : Retracement - Continuation Signal
6. Entry Price : 1.1057
7. Time of Entry : GMT 0430
8. Stop Loss : 1.1027 (later adjusted to 1.1087, then 1.1127)
9. Target Profit : 1.1147 (later adjusted to 1.1192)
10. Exit Price : 1.1192 (at GMT 12:45) (Win 135 pips)
11. Commentary and Reflection : Well, the price went really smooth, in part I attribute it to that the price has been above the PIPS pivot level for some 8 to 10 hours. Also, remember Clarence mentioned about how he observe prices suddenly shoot up upon contacting the MA line? Well, it sure happened here!
Yeah! so happy! (to finally get a proper trade which wins)
This is just a common email that I get within Clarence's yahoo group, full of forex enthusiasts, experts and noobs alike!
The post is a little outdated though, do pardon me for that. I will try to post more trade on the blog to share with everyone too!
Maybe you guys could share your trades with me too?
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
What?? IT'S ALREADY THE END OF NOVEMBER!?!?
The last post was in August...And to be totally honest (I've been using that phrase quite a fair bit I noticed) I feel like I've been asleep for the past 3 months. (Wait, August-September-October-November, maybe we can count that as 4 months). Anyway I'm in the midst of studying for my exams. My first in NUS (National University of Singapore). Been the most ill-disciplined guy who goes to library almost daily (because I sleep).
The MOST IMPORTANT (penting sekali) thing that motivated me to write again (other than trading again) is an act of kindness by someone on the streets of Singapore. And he/she was walking in the vicinity of Novena MRT station when I dropped 3 cards. Three very important cards - IC, Ezlink card and ATM card. And just today, I picked up a brown envelope sent to my address. There was something flat and hard in the envelope. Well, I gave the story away, but the cards came back to me in an envelope, anonymous, with no return address. I wish I knew who he/she was. I want to thank the person for saving me a lot of anxiety (and money too).
But more than that, I want to highlight how paranoid we can be sometimes. Immediately after discovering my loss, I called up the banks and transitlink offices to cancel the cards. The officer from the latter even advised that I waited for a few days to see if the card is returned to me. And I rejected that flatly. Not that it is a bad decision, but the mindset that I had is ultra-skeptical. I supposed someone would misuse the cards, or at the very least, not return them. I even suspected a particular restaurant's staff and customers of possibly finding but not wanting to return the card to me. When the envelope came, I thought (in a passing thought, maybe as a sort of joke to myself) that maybe it contains unidentified objects which are meant to terrorise (with anthrax or sth) (and, again, I overestimate my importance here). BUT...in the most unassuming manner, someone kind out there returned my lost items. And (pardon my meagre knowledge) all the religions I know of advocate this sort of kindness. Here I am though, to say a sincere thanks and pay tributes to whoever returns stuff to others, hopefully making someone's (like me) day and an unending cycle of "paying it forward".
One more thing. Here's a big "Apa Kabar? Bagaimana Kabarnya?" to all our indon friends. Took up a very basic course on Bahasa Indonesia here on campus too.
I guess the biggest news for myself is that I started TRADING forex again! To be totally honest (there I go again) I haven't been winning many trades. I think it's just a matter of refining my discipline and skill in choosing the right trades. I'll get down to business and talk about trading right after my exams. And my aim remains a constant. I want to trade at the end of this year - LIVE!
Hope you guys haven't been affected by the drought of news from me. (haha, there I am overestimating myself).
And congratulations to my fellow trader, Morris, who is going "live", or getting a-live(-account), very very soon. Phenomenal progress for a newbie when he started just 3 months back with Clarence.
Till then, have a great trading journey!
The MOST IMPORTANT (penting sekali) thing that motivated me to write again (other than trading again) is an act of kindness by someone on the streets of Singapore. And he/she was walking in the vicinity of Novena MRT station when I dropped 3 cards. Three very important cards - IC, Ezlink card and ATM card. And just today, I picked up a brown envelope sent to my address. There was something flat and hard in the envelope. Well, I gave the story away, but the cards came back to me in an envelope, anonymous, with no return address. I wish I knew who he/she was. I want to thank the person for saving me a lot of anxiety (and money too).
But more than that, I want to highlight how paranoid we can be sometimes. Immediately after discovering my loss, I called up the banks and transitlink offices to cancel the cards. The officer from the latter even advised that I waited for a few days to see if the card is returned to me. And I rejected that flatly. Not that it is a bad decision, but the mindset that I had is ultra-skeptical. I supposed someone would misuse the cards, or at the very least, not return them. I even suspected a particular restaurant's staff and customers of possibly finding but not wanting to return the card to me. When the envelope came, I thought (in a passing thought, maybe as a sort of joke to myself) that maybe it contains unidentified objects which are meant to terrorise (with anthrax or sth) (and, again, I overestimate my importance here). BUT...in the most unassuming manner, someone kind out there returned my lost items. And (pardon my meagre knowledge) all the religions I know of advocate this sort of kindness. Here I am though, to say a sincere thanks and pay tributes to whoever returns stuff to others, hopefully making someone's (like me) day and an unending cycle of "paying it forward".
One more thing. Here's a big "Apa Kabar? Bagaimana Kabarnya?" to all our indon friends. Took up a very basic course on Bahasa Indonesia here on campus too.
I guess the biggest news for myself is that I started TRADING forex again! To be totally honest (there I go again) I haven't been winning many trades. I think it's just a matter of refining my discipline and skill in choosing the right trades. I'll get down to business and talk about trading right after my exams. And my aim remains a constant. I want to trade at the end of this year - LIVE!
Hope you guys haven't been affected by the drought of news from me. (haha, there I am overestimating myself).
And congratulations to my fellow trader, Morris, who is going "live", or getting a-live(-account), very very soon. Phenomenal progress for a newbie when he started just 3 months back with Clarence.
Till then, have a great trading journey!
Sunday, 19 August 2007
1(st) post in August!
Alright...I'm getting a little too excited and flustered about varsity that I hardly can spend time on anything else. Even Miranda was pretty pissed actually. But anyway...here's my first, and possibly the only, post for the month of August.
Now, I guess I shouldn't bother you guys with any further info about my newfound varsity life, should I? But just to summarise, it's basically equivalent to having lunch with people, finding time to do non-academic activities, visiting libraries (even on Sunday, yes) and most importantly, to be buried under piles and piles of readings. I estimate I've to read and digest some 200 pages of material and research papers each week. But that aside, school is pretty cool and fun. Learning is supposed to be fun and interesting isn't it?
And as for Clarence's course, I guess that first session was meant for some Forex basics. But honestly, I think I wouldn't be able to learn that many technical terms and understand Forex trading in a 3 hour session. In fact, it was after quite a bit of experimenting and trying out the platforms that I figured out what it is all about. And I still don't understand why my limit orders sometimes are activated immediately when the order's price level hasn't been triggered.
In any case, it is a good refresher. Was really hoping to learn how to read the current market situation though. (Cos, interestingly, major US-linked currency pairs are undergoing major market corrections in favour of the USD.) Studying the GBP/USD, I found a nice doji at the end of the slide downwards for the past week. And the head and tail ends are pretty long, reflecting a whole lot of market uncertainty. Personally, on a pure gambling tendency, I bet the pair will head north now. Well, at least the stochastics agree. Parabolic dots are waiting to reverse, but I guess I'll need both to confirm my suspicions.
As for the system, I'm very glad to know I'm gonna learn alot more than just entry signals. My current belief is any system can work, as long as I can define a appropriate position size and stoploss system to take advantage of the expectancies of the entry system.
Another thing that surprises me is that Clarence's TNT system is applied on all 4 major currency pairs and even others like the EUR/JPY. In fact, he is looking at including the aussie and kiwi too.
As for the project to track my expenditure, and, in general, my entire personal financial accounting effort have been suspended for about a month now. I'm gonna try my very best to bring it on track by settling my financial spreadsheets today. And to truly implement my income management principles I set in place for myself.
Well, the GBP/USD didn'tmove northwards as I thought it would. Haha. Can you imagine? I actually wrote this entry over some 3 days. And so here's my mini-reflection-cum-updates.
Have a great week! Well, at least half of it is left.
Now, I guess I shouldn't bother you guys with any further info about my newfound varsity life, should I? But just to summarise, it's basically equivalent to having lunch with people, finding time to do non-academic activities, visiting libraries (even on Sunday, yes) and most importantly, to be buried under piles and piles of readings. I estimate I've to read and digest some 200 pages of material and research papers each week. But that aside, school is pretty cool and fun. Learning is supposed to be fun and interesting isn't it?
And as for Clarence's course, I guess that first session was meant for some Forex basics. But honestly, I think I wouldn't be able to learn that many technical terms and understand Forex trading in a 3 hour session. In fact, it was after quite a bit of experimenting and trying out the platforms that I figured out what it is all about. And I still don't understand why my limit orders sometimes are activated immediately when the order's price level hasn't been triggered.
In any case, it is a good refresher. Was really hoping to learn how to read the current market situation though. (Cos, interestingly, major US-linked currency pairs are undergoing major market corrections in favour of the USD.) Studying the GBP/USD, I found a nice doji at the end of the slide downwards for the past week. And the head and tail ends are pretty long, reflecting a whole lot of market uncertainty. Personally, on a pure gambling tendency, I bet the pair will head north now. Well, at least the stochastics agree. Parabolic dots are waiting to reverse, but I guess I'll need both to confirm my suspicions.
As for the system, I'm very glad to know I'm gonna learn alot more than just entry signals. My current belief is any system can work, as long as I can define a appropriate position size and stoploss system to take advantage of the expectancies of the entry system.
Another thing that surprises me is that Clarence's TNT system is applied on all 4 major currency pairs and even others like the EUR/JPY. In fact, he is looking at including the aussie and kiwi too.
As for the project to track my expenditure, and, in general, my entire personal financial accounting effort have been suspended for about a month now. I'm gonna try my very best to bring it on track by settling my financial spreadsheets today. And to truly implement my income management principles I set in place for myself.
Well, the GBP/USD didn'tmove northwards as I thought it would. Haha. Can you imagine? I actually wrote this entry over some 3 days. And so here's my mini-reflection-cum-updates.
Have a great week! Well, at least half of it is left.
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
The coming of August
Here's the significance of this month is multifold. But of course it's mainly financial.
The first being that I decided to go back onto the tedious but rewarding and informative process of noting my exact expenditure again. I abandoned this project quite a few months back. February to be exact, if I'm not wrong. I did it for a full 2 months and found I spend some 700 bucks each month. And about two to three hundred goes to food. Haha. So here's an experiment to see how true is it that one tends to spend less in varsity. And it'll help in planning my expenditure in future. Well, to be honest, it's not quite in my policy to budget and to stick to one. I rather expand my means.
The second event, as I've been mentioning countless times, is that I'm starting my varsity life proper. And this is truly and exciting new phase. I just realised, today, that there is an investment club in NUS. But the people at the booth, two of them, weren't quite that active in getting people to know about the club. Nevertheless, my conversation with the two gentlemen led me to a shocking discovery that one of them is a fund manager. He said he deals with Forex too. Well, I'll definitely be going for their seminars to learn about whatever they have to offer and to network with some people with similar interests. Wonder how many in NUS is interested in their financial future though.
The third is to give a booster-start to my Forex trading. I, still, am keeping in mind that I intend to go live in Forex trading coming January 2008. Clarence's course would tell me what to do, but finally I need to understand myself and what style I want to trade, and best trade, the market. Reading "Trading your way to Financial Freedom," I understand that the Holy Grail in trading is really an internal search to understand oneself and how one reacts to the market than a perfect system which would gain constant and unfailable rewards. It really mirrors Kiyosaki's comment that investments AREN'T risky, only investors are. So the challenge is not so much to get this perfect system that uses loads of indicators that proves, according to historical data, that one can gain from the market, but to discover how our emotions and mindset limit and make our trading riskier.
And of course it means we have to deal with some of the assumptions and false beliefs and psychological barriers that we, and especially, I, hold about trading and the markets we are involved in. And the discipline to withstand loses, that's one tough nut to crack. But it will become a source of victory in due time as I progress along this path.
The future's exciting and pregnant with countless possibilities.
May we all have a great time ahead!
The first being that I decided to go back onto the tedious but rewarding and informative process of noting my exact expenditure again. I abandoned this project quite a few months back. February to be exact, if I'm not wrong. I did it for a full 2 months and found I spend some 700 bucks each month. And about two to three hundred goes to food. Haha. So here's an experiment to see how true is it that one tends to spend less in varsity. And it'll help in planning my expenditure in future. Well, to be honest, it's not quite in my policy to budget and to stick to one. I rather expand my means.
The second event, as I've been mentioning countless times, is that I'm starting my varsity life proper. And this is truly and exciting new phase. I just realised, today, that there is an investment club in NUS. But the people at the booth, two of them, weren't quite that active in getting people to know about the club. Nevertheless, my conversation with the two gentlemen led me to a shocking discovery that one of them is a fund manager. He said he deals with Forex too. Well, I'll definitely be going for their seminars to learn about whatever they have to offer and to network with some people with similar interests. Wonder how many in NUS is interested in their financial future though.
The third is to give a booster-start to my Forex trading. I, still, am keeping in mind that I intend to go live in Forex trading coming January 2008. Clarence's course would tell me what to do, but finally I need to understand myself and what style I want to trade, and best trade, the market. Reading "Trading your way to Financial Freedom," I understand that the Holy Grail in trading is really an internal search to understand oneself and how one reacts to the market than a perfect system which would gain constant and unfailable rewards. It really mirrors Kiyosaki's comment that investments AREN'T risky, only investors are. So the challenge is not so much to get this perfect system that uses loads of indicators that proves, according to historical data, that one can gain from the market, but to discover how our emotions and mindset limit and make our trading riskier.
And of course it means we have to deal with some of the assumptions and false beliefs and psychological barriers that we, and especially, I, hold about trading and the markets we are involved in. And the discipline to withstand loses, that's one tough nut to crack. But it will become a source of victory in due time as I progress along this path.
The future's exciting and pregnant with countless possibilities.
May we all have a great time ahead!
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