18th January

Subject: Million Dollar Traders
Hi John
It was great chatting to you this morning.

I enjoyed the Million Dollar trader but there is no way I would go in for this type of trading and to let so many loose with this much money is scary. Surely they would demo trade for a while to find their feet? If the guy loses his million bucks he can blame himself. And to trade with cameras on you will add even more pressure.

I’ve been thinking of trading and time frames and I think every one needs to find their niche as to what suits their temperament. Of course if you go for a larger time frame your stops must to be bigger and in turn you need a bigger bank too which we have to work up to so for now ‘long term’ for me is 15min.

In my opinion if you are a risk taker than scalping is for you but for many and especially novices I think a slightly longer time frame is better on the nerves. Since I packed away the 1min chart (and I don’t even use it as an entry signal anymore) I approach my trades far more calmly and feel confident I will make pips. How pips may remains to be seen as this week the currencies did some weird things. Let’s see what next week brings.

I’m glad I have the indices to fall back on. Now here is a question for you. If youare in a good run like last Friday after the announcement and the euro went into a lovely 200+ pip fall. It was a steady fall over a lengthy period of time. If you entered a trade say using £5 a pip and you saw its going well surely you could go in again at £10 or even £15 a pip and scalp that way? You don’t need the 1min chart for that.

Hi Desiree - your really not Scalping then - what you are doing is day trading and yes you can roll up for longer trades provided your Bank, Margins and stops are positioned - the emphasis is always Money Management and risk control. The importance of watching the changes on the charts and having your exit strategy - THE KEY - Yours JB

I also find with the larger time frame the trade seldom goes against me for more than 8 pips and most times it goes right into profit. The trailing stop is what takes me out. Maybe I need to use a regular stop first and only once the trade is running I’ll turn it into a trailing stop.

Yes D always put your standard stop on First - Then when in sufficient profit you can change to a trailing stop (for blog readers we are talking of GFT Deal Book) remember Wide Trailing stop but this really is a swing trade - longer time frame to give it room - always try to get in a no lose situation first. - John B

Tornado is great and you can wait for the perfect trade before you enter. I’ve put it onto all my charts and indices. I love it. Sure there are days when you won’t find a trade. However, the good trades have longer runs. I have to still get into my head that not every day is a trading day. Mondays have never been good trading days for me but I want to get over that as well and see if trading longer term will be different. There is always somethingto scalp but for now I’ve packed that away as I get the two hats confused and with me it’s a case of one or the other.

When I trade the Dow I put the currencies away. If I try and mix the two I make a mess. My concentration has to be especially sharp when I trade the Dow. A friend was commenting that despite a huge loss I still come back for more and refuse to give up. Now after a big loss I pack the charts away for the day as I find can’t make a good decision about entering a new trade. I guess with experience and time this will change. Small losses don’t bother me but a whopper needs walking away from the computer and doing something else.

Thegreat thing is I don’t get sleepless nights over losses anymore. I still can’t get into the DealBook and its 6 hours since my first attempt. I wonder if they are doing maintenance. This is a typical example of the much needed stop and limit as my DealBook closes for no reason and all it says is that it is shutting down for some violation and wham it’s gone. I also have problems creating duplicate charts and I get an error that I haveto submit to them and after submitting the docket the platform freezes I have to use control alt and delete to exit the program. Apart from those few glitches I like the DealBook. And that’s me for today. Have a good weekend - Desiree