19th November

Hello John

Getting out and chopping down the jungle gym did us both good. It’s so cold out there. When we got outside there were snow flurries and strong wind. Iain thought I’d totally lost the plot wanting to work in the garden but we bundled up warmly and set to demolishing this dangerous contraption.

Despite my loss yesterday I was ok this morning. I was very cautious about trading and lowered my stake just to get back into it again. I so appreciated chatting to you. You really ground me and help me put things back in perspective. I do like the 5m chart and I’ve been studying that today.

Anyone reading this blog will think I’m a head case. One day up in the clouds and YES I can do it. The next day more reflection and slowing from a run to learning to walk again. I do appreciate my losses. They ground me. They make me realise that I’ve a long way to go and three months doesn’t make a master. I have to keep reminding myself of that. I don’t want pampering. I need to be told off when I do something pathetic that I know is wrong. I’d like to sit down and dislodge my emotions and plonk them on a shelf.

And most important of all do what the charts say not what I think they should say. I feel like the charts. My trading can be so random. Darren and Leigh both told me not to be so hard on myself but I am and expect a lot of myself. I always give over 100% to whatever I do so when it goes wrong I take it as failure. So, so wrong. I never realised just how much you learn about yourself through trading. My father judged people by the way they play golf. He never went into a business venture without taking them round a golf course and watching how they play and react to bum shots.

Today I watched an online Forex webinar and they traded the USD/Swiss. They went in at $10 a pip but I stuck to my $2 as I wasn’t convinced what they said would work. They put a 30 pip stop and then a ridiculous limit of over 200 pips. They were purposely trading against the trend and the reason they did this was because an announcement was coming out. Well I entered the same trade and watched it. When I was in profit I trailed my stop and eventually locked in 19 pips and let it run. The spread is 5 but that wasn’t an issue either. They traded on the 1 hour chart. Anyway I watched the 30 minute chart and watched carefully. I saw it reach a support level and then got skittish and took my pips. I am glad I did because it went back up and never went any lower than they had anticipated. Anyone who had set their stops and left it will be feeling sore right now.

After that I watched the euro on the 5 minute and there was a good entry but I stayed out. I didn’t want to give anything back. It also turned when I thought it would so I’d have taken my profits then. As soon as I regain my confidence I will increase my stake again. I am not as despondent as I was earlier on today and I really need that one on one with you and watch you trading. Leigh has the right idea about longer term trading and it works. He was very despondent watching me bag 5 pips and shout eureka. I love the scalping but I realise my limitations and right now I have to perfect getting pips on a longer run. I need to reach my daily target. Only then can I think of scalping.

I keep getting the two mixed up and that’s why I end up with 18 pip losses. The 1m chart can be a killer and when I go to the 5m chart it’s like meeting up with an old buddy. That’s the only reason why I did the webinar trade today. It was a longer time frame trade and it brought me back down to earth. I think Darren prefers to scalp but maybe I need to shelve that idea for now and concentrate on the basics and get that right first. I know I can do it. I’ve proven it to myself.

I explained the two trading techniques to Darren the way I see it. I am not sure if you know what a Lovebird is. It’s a tiny parakeet indigenous to Africa . You get various kinds depending on where you are. Breeders are cross breeding them for variations on colour. The mutations have a heck of a time when it comes to breeding because some of them carry nesting material in their beaks and some in their wing feathers. I have watched a mutation with straw in his beak and totally confused as to where to put it because some part of him says leave it in the beak and the other says stick it in the wing. This is how I see my scalping and regular trading methods. I get the two confused and then try to combine them and it just doesn’t work. Lessons can be expensive.

But coming back to basics helped. I have never fully understood the Bollinger bands and I need to go over your course again. I remember what you said on the scalping course about them. When you mention that it pulls away that it’s a signal to enter a trade do you mean only on the 1 minute or does it apply to the 5 minute as well? I went back and looked carefully at the bands and saw what to me looked like good entry points when it pulled away. For longer term trading you do need a larger stop as some of the candles are quite spiky and I need to take them into account as well.

I tried to put in a trap as you said. It allowed me to put in a buy but not a sell. I need to go over how this is done again. It would not let me place the order for the sell below what the current rate is now. It wanted me to put a higher one than it is. This didn’t make sense so I cancelled it.

I opened a small account with CMC today. Darren was all fired up with it and he didn’t touch currencies today.

Tonight I will do as you suggest and set a trap for 10 pips. It does go flat until around 10pm UK time and that is only 5pm here. I watched it closely last night. It was interesting to see how flat it was and then when Tokyo and Sydney were open it perked up. Being in the States and seeing what the currencies do when Sydney is open was interesting as to me it was way too flat to trade.

Well that’s me for today. I’m exhausted and want my bed. Up at 530am again tomorrow.

Chat soon. Leigh gets back from Bombay crack of dawn so he’ll get back into trading later on in the day.

Sleep well -Desiree


11/19/08

18 pips tra la la

Hi John

Thanks for the conference call. That was a good idea. Sadly you cant use cameras with it but its still good having a three way chat. As we spoke the euro took off like a rocket. I got in after our call and made 18 pips in two trades. I went in on the one click and had 20 pips profit and when I wanted to get out the trade it wouldn’t let me. It totally ignored my 1 click sell to get out. Then about 10 seconds and 12 pips lower it came up with the new price quote which I didn’t take. I got out at 9 pips profit. It looked good so I went in again but this time manually and I picked up another 9 pips. I traded $2 a pip but I’m now happy to increase it again. I went by the 5m chart. It’s now come right down again and I’m happy to be out the trade. I think this is a result of an announcement that came out at 1:30pm today.

I think I’ll give the one click a miss and trade the old manual way. It’s not as fast but the results are more reliable. This way it doesn’t keep re-quoting you and I know it works. It’s the second time now I have lost money using one click.

I’m feeling good again and regaining my confidence. I won’t be beaten by this. So for the week I’m up $114.70. There’s still tomorrow and Friday. Now for the discipline to kick in and not trade again today. I’m over my 10 pip daily target but there looks to be lots of good trading still. I don’t want to give it all back and as I’m on a high that’s what would happen and I’d be back to square one. Leigh can take over now and trade. I’m happy.

Ok that’s me for today. I need to look into the WII exercise as well. What programs did you get? Leigh has wanted to get one for us for a while now and I think it would be bags of fun. I have a Nintendo DS and I love it. I’m big into puzzles and Kakuru but the WII sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll treat us for Christmas. We can chat about this more on Skype.

Have a good one. Maybe we can go ten pin bowling in France . I love it. I absolutely suck at it but it’s still a great laugh and such fun.