Desirees Trading Journey

Wed 2nd December

2009-12-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

Hi John

It was good chatting to you this afternoon. Since our last chat I can happily say that my trading is improving by the day. Gone are the indicators like stochs and MACD. All I have on my charts are a couple of moving averages and support and resistance. Since the removal of the indicators I don’t feel distracted by wavy lines telling me when things are oversold and overbought. I now look at my candles and take it from there. I have studied candles quite extensively . I am going for smaller runs and concentrating on getting around 15 pips per pair per day. I am currently trading 3 pairs and hoping to increase this eventually to 6. When I have reached my target I stop trading and study charts and try to predict movements and what will happen. The charts I trade are 15m and 1h.

My confidence has grown. This is partly due to taking a psychology course for traders and working on my mindset. I have joined a South African trader who has the most amazing approach. He used to give trade calls but I never took the trades. Taking trade calls doesn’t suit me as I don’t feel in control. It’s not so much a system he teaches but a whole package that includes teaching me discipline, how to prevent over trading, starting small and working my way up to my full potential when I am ready for it.

He uses blank charts but the folk who are with him trade their own systems and use his approach to trading. I used to look for big runs and would miss smaller runs and by doing so not trade. Now I don’t look for tops or bottoms and get in when the trade looks set to make good pips generally getting in on a pull back. I trade between 6am and 9am and what has not been done by then doesn’t happen.

When in the USA this will mean trading from 1am EST till 4am but that’s ok. I am prepared to do this and most mornings just after Frankfurt opens I reach my targets and then can carry on with my work day. When I have my 15 pips I lock them in and let the trade run but I still have a problem staying in a trade and tend to close too early. If I see the trade winging off without, I am not bothered by it. I have my pips.

This has been a gradual change and the last few weeks my predictions have been right. I still have more winners than losers and now I need to work on reducing the size of my losses. Today’s trade was better. I set a limit and closes when price reached it. My stop loss is 1% tops. If the trade doesn’t allow for this I don’t take it.

The psychology course has stressed that you trade at your own pace and not allow anyone to pressurise you. No two traders are the same. What takes one trader a year can take another 3. There is no contest as to who will make the grade first. I have finally lost this sense of pressure. I am more relaxed and the results are noticeable.

Just because I have not gone to school to learn to trade I find I am not taken seriously and I am constantly asked when I will be making big money. I have had comments like I am wasting my time and should rather concentrate on something else. It’s just ignorance as few understand the time it takes to become a good trader. I have a few trader friends who are taking so much flack from their wives it is affecting their trading. Thankfully Leigh doesn’t hassle me. The group I’m with is over 50 traders yet there are only two women in the group. At first I felt intimidated by this but now I could care less. Everyone is very supportive and helpful and I am able to contribute and even made trade calls which have turned out well. When I trade I switch off and concentrate on my trading. Chatter distracts me.

Looking back a year ago I was nervous, had frozen finger syndrome and terrified of taking losses which eventually stopped me trading for several weeks. Now I understand losses are all part of trading and losing doesn’t hit me like it used it. I have only been trading live since the end of October last year. I think the biggest improvement in my trading started around June/July this year.

And that’s my news. Hope you have a super Christmas in the sun.

Kind regards

Desiree

17th September

2009-09-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

Hi John

Hope you are well? I’ve not written to you in a while. I’ve been away for 5 weeks in the States and moved around a lot while there so very little trading went on. When I’m not trading I’m watching charts or doing some form of research to fine tune what I am doing now. One of my day jobs falls away end of this month so I have hours of uninterrupted time to trade and not work and trade at the same time as I did before.

My trading is slowly and steadily improving all the time and there hasn’t been much to report as its ticking along nicely and I’m gaining confidence albeit in tiny steps. My wins are greater than my losses at around 75%. I would still like to reduce the size of my losses but have been playing around with stops and deciding whether to let the trade stop me out or to call it quits beforehand. Thankfully I am getting my direction right. A few trades I lost through sheer stupidity like closing a trade instead of moving my stop and once or twice the set up was perfect and it was back luck that I got stopped out. The trades seldom go more than 10 pips against me before going in my direction. Some losses were because I went to break even too soon. I like to go to break even at 15 pips and on a few occasions I have been stopped out of the trade. As I enter on one tiny lot I don’t like to give away pips so I’m trying to not enter on two or three lots now and close them as the trade progresses so that I have room to play with. Trading with just one lot has too many disadvantages.

I am learning patience and to keep out of trades and let them come to me. This means on some days I don’t trade. I don’t particularly like trading on Mondays and Fridays but when I have done have picked up some good pips. Usually those days I spend chart watching and reading. I trade off 5m 15m and 1h charts although the 15m is my favourite. The 1m chart is never looked at anymore. I have found the system that suits me and I’m fine tuning it by adding and taking things off the charts. I’m trading two candle formations and support and resistance. I have not completely done away with indicators but they are a lot less then they used to be. I do enjoy using fibs and using them as targets. I have to learn to stay in the trade long enough to reach my targets. I still get out too soon. When entering a trade I set my stop and limit and yet get out too soon. 90% of the time the trade hits my limit.

Finding the right time of day to trade has been a challenge especially while in the USA. In the UK it’s easy to trade London and I enjoy that but in the States I have a hard time getting up at 2am but realise that this is what I’ll need to do when I move over there eventually. To wake up at 6am and see that I’ve missed quite a few moves during London open is disheartening so I have to console myself there’ll be another trade soon enough.

And that’s about it for now. I am seldom on Skype now as I find it to disrupting and I’ve messed up too many trades with interruptions.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Kind regards

Desiree

19th July

2009-07-21T02:43:00.001-07:00

"thank you John . Are you still in France? I owe you an email re this weeks trading which is getting better all the time"

3rd July

2009-07-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

Hi John

I saw a message from you on Facebook but I wasn't at my laptop when you signed. Yes I am still trading, very much so. I trade several times a week and don't enter trades unless I like what I see.

Yesterday and today were sluggish so no trading although I took three demo trades and they were winners which thrilled me as I went completely by the rules. I wanted to prove something to myself and it worked. I have become far more disciplined in my trading and look for good setups and if I miss them then walk away till something better comes back.

My patience is also improving and if I don't trade I don't feel guilty. Most of my trades are winners now and where as before I was thrilled when I made 5 pips, now 15 and 20 are becoming the norm. I have two laptops side by side with the GU and EU up so I can see at a quick glance what either pair is doing at any given time frame without having to toggle between them.

This has made a huge difference as I can see a set up forming and get ready for it. In the past I'd switch from chart to chart and it wasn't ideal where as this works so well. There's no mad rush to enter as I work out where I want to enter. Getting out of trades is still the biggest stumbling block but this week I started using fibo lines as targets and its working. When I have 20 pips I should rather go to break even and let the trade run than close it prematurely.

I know with time this will come as I gain more confidence in my method and am not tempted to take my profits and run. There's not really much to say about the trading except that things are improving weekly and I'm spending hours chart watching. Comparing how the different pairs move and the time of day when things are busy and when not.

I do like the early morning trading but there are some good moves in the afternoon as well so when in the States I can trade US session and not get up with the sparrows. I've spent a lot of time with Ian Kingsbury and as we use the same method its been such fun and educational comparing notes and watching trades together and discussing the set ups.

Apart from that nothing new to report except that every week is a pleasure and my confidence is improving. It's not a gamble anymore. Now it's planning my trade and trading it - hopefully successfully Have a super weekend Desiree

18th June

2009-06-18T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hi John

Good to talk to you yesterday. I will check my Skype and see what the problem is. I know I don’t have call forwarding so cant imagine why it’s showing me as offline.

I set two traps last night and they both bummed so I think I’ll give that a miss and rather trade what I see. I had to recoup those trades this morning. I kept them small and what I thought was realistic – 20 pip profit. The pair was perfect for setting a trap. Very flat and I set them to kick in 20 pips either side. I think maybe my profit target was too high. If I’m only going for 10 pips it’s not worth taking them. Both were hit and then reversed and took out my stops. I had set trailing stops but they didn’t kick in either as they had not gone up far enough for the trail to kick in.

Today I’m waiting for the EU to hit 4050 before going short. I will take a few longs to get there on a smaller time frame. I have set a sell order for 4050 but will monitor it and adjust accordingly

Apart from that trading has been fun. I’m enjoying looking at basically clean charts and wider time frames. I still have hesitation entering trades but I think it’s not just me. Today was a real beauty on the GU and I could have risked only 20 pips. I think what I need to do is take the decision away from myself and set an order to kick in when the price reaches my target. Attached is my chart and entry I had planned. You can see my trend lines and the fractal support and resistance levels all coincided. I think a perfect entry.

I’ll keep you posted me other trades.

Regards

Desiree

12th June 2009

2009-06-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

Hi John

Haven’t seen you online this week. Leigh was here so we spent a lot of time hiking. I did some trading it its going a lot better. I make my 60 to 70 pips a week not trading every day either but I’m hoping to increase that with the coming weeks.

Last week Iain and I went to a Forex workshop in Edinburgh. As it was free I thought it would be interesting to see what they were gong to teach us.

When we got there we saw it was Greg Seckers Knowledge to Go program they were trying to sell. I was a bit miffed as that was clearly not a workshop. Anyway I sat through it and have to admit it was very interesting what they offer. Only 8 attended the ‘workshop’ . At the end of it they gave the price - £4500 for two days which included one on one training afterwards, software and something else which I can’t recall right now. (plus travel and accommodation on top of that).

Then they said because its today they would give it to us for £2900 + VAT. I said to Iain that’s more like the real price. The presenter then started to push folk to sign up (two did) and as I had said I was a trader already I felt it was expensive and I wasn’t about commit to £2900 there and then.

Still no bites then they lowered the price a further £1000. Now we were down to £1799 + Vat. They wanted an immediate £500 down payment. The presentation was good until the end when the sales pitch started. We walked out. Just before the presentation started I overheard the three chaps giving the presentation discuss offering it to us at £2000.

What I found odd was the presenter had been working in this field for over 28 years and he mentioned some impressive institutions he worked with and for yet during the presentation he said he’d worked on a ship for many years. Looking at his age I could see none of this added up. He told us how much he makes yet he has a day job trying to sell this package. I spent the greater part of the 2 hours trying to work out how and when he managed to do all he said

Yesterday the presenter called me. I told him I’m making 60 to 70 pips a week and he asked if I didn’t want to turn them into 1000 pips a week. I said to him ‘listen, let’s cut the bull shit. Your course is expensive, I would rather put this money into my trading account and the e-system you try to sell is a further $120 a month –money you have to make back before you start making a profit’.

He asked me why I came to the presentation and I said because you advertised it as a workshop and if I’d not just driven an hour to get to this workshop I’d have walked out and gone home. I don’t think he expected me to be this blunt. I said if I was a complete newbie I’d certainly consider it as what they offer is good but not at the price they are offering it. I said let me see how I get on with my trading and if I make a complete hash of it then I’ll know where to go to be turned into a good trader.

The chap didn’t have much more to say and clearly knew he was not going to get a sale out of me. Let’s see how long it takes them to call again. I doubt it. Probably have a huge cross next to my name

Apart from that everything is ticking along nicely. Wins are becoming more frequent and losses less.

Have you had good responses to your scalping workshop?

Have a good weekend. It promises to be a lovely one here

Desiree

29 May

2009-05-31T03:17:00.000-07:00

Hi John
I only traded once this week made 68 pips. I was very busy with day job too so less trading. If I can maintain this level I will then increase my lot size again. I want this sort of consistency before I start trading my GFTaccount again. I am following Steve of nobrainertrades on Forex Factory. I like his method which is only support and resistance. Nobrainertrades also have a live chatroom now where you can follow trade set ups and chart analysis. Today we watched the EU amongst others and where it was going and I was in the trade and it felt good.

I had more than one trade running and opened more lots as it retraced My trading journey over the past few months (since February) has been exciting. I felt at one point I was getting nowhere fast. The amount I've learned in the last 3 months is staggering. Talking to other traders and discovering what works for me has been a big road of discovery. I've learned that a method that works for one can be a total failure for someone else. Less is very definitely more and the few indicators I have will be removed soon as I don't feel the need for them.

I still trade with Darren occasionally but more with a chap in Malasia who has the same approach as I do and not to jump into trades but to let trades come to us. I'm learning patience and Andrew who's traded before is a good person to keep me grounded and we support each other. We follow the same approach and trade together. The time difference sucks but I am trading as early at 6:30 each morning and usually done by 10am. That means 1:30am USA time and I can't quite get my head around this trading during the night butLondon time is the best trading time so I'll have to suck it up and do it when in the States.

There are loads of places on the net giving free trade calls (GFT one of them) and I take each one and analyse it. I don't often take them as I want to enter a trade that I have worked out for myself and if my conclusion is the same as theirs fine. With the lower lot size I trade a 100 pip trailing stop. When I get above 30 I move my stop to break even and then let it trail till I'm stopped out.

I just got your email and I've been on Skype all along although when I'mtrading I don't take calls as they distract me but I've not seen you online either. My Skype often shows me as offline when I'm actually online. It seems worse in the UK. I found the comments from Ian very interesting and he is right, I have felt like a butterfly. I have been searching for months as I never felt I had found what I was looking for and knew once I found it I'd be happy with it. It's been a slow progress and finally I feel I'm getting there. I always felt the lot size I started to trade with was way too high for a beginner trader (certainly in my case) and it was a major cause of me losing confidence and trying to find a way so that I would feel happy trading larger amounts and not make massive losses and still remain sane.

My concentration was on not losing money instead of learning to trade. I can honestly say only when I reduced my lot size did I feel I was getting somewhere. This is taking money management into account. My account is big enough to trade larger lots but to me that was throwing good money away tillI had found my feet. I'm a firm believer that you need a comfort zone.

Sometraders work better under pressure, others buckle and I'm one of them. 85% psychology the rest is knowledge. I'm trading with a lady who's made over$250,000 in the last 5 years. She started on micro and then went to mini and she still doesn't trade huge lots but she is very successful because she has a comfort zone that enables her to trade relaxed and enter loads of trades leaving some to run for the week. I've learned a lot from her and she's helped bring back my confidence. We analyse the charts for the coming week and what to look out for. What I am really amazed about is how many traders are out there ready to help you and offer advice. There is so muchkindness out there.

With regard to trading platforms, I'm only using Meta Trader 4. The VisualTrader is ok but once you've used Meta Trader there is no going back. GFT'scharts are also ok when the platform loads. I have days it hangs up and dayswhere I can't even get in. I will use the GFT web version for trading. I think Darren does that as well now. He uses both Meta trader and VT. MyFXCM is such an easy ride. Never a problem like I had with Worldspreads who took me out of trades and went past my stops totally ignoring them. Never had a requote either but then I'm not scalping and since I've stopped scalping my trading has improved. The 1m chart isn't even looked at anymore. 5m is the lowest for entries and exits. If I had to give advice to new traders and learn from my mistakes I'd say

1) demo 4 to 6 months at least. Don't treat the demo as a liveaccount but make it work for you. Use it as a tool to learn how thecurrencies move and try out systems. What I didn't do in demo was to try outvarious trading strategies and I only concentrated on making pips but reallydidn't know what I was doing.

2) open a micro account - it still feels like demo but you can make money while you put to practice what you learned in demo and build up youraccount that way.

3) Become successful making consistent pips. The money that comeslater

4) then once you are consistent for at least three months possibly think about increasing your lot size

5) Don't give up your day job. This is not an overnight success story Isn't hindsight great? At least I didn't loose my shirt as some traders have done.

Well that's me for this week. Leigh is here next week and then I will put onlonger term trades so I can get out and hike with him during the week. Kind regards and chat soon Desiree

24th May

2009-05-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

Hello John
I have not traded much over the past month due to travelling. Its been so EU and GU going down the pan that when it turned this week it took many of us by surprise and Darren and I shorted as did many traders we trade with. All in all it was a disaster and I learned that it is so easy to get used to a direction and when things change to read the charts and trade what you see and not what you have become used to seeing and that is shorting the pair.

My mindset is really improving all the time and the pips I pick up now are in excess of 10 pips per trade. I need to still learn to get out of winning trades. I am trying to let my winner run and have decided when in a long trade to bag anything over 50 pips. I have three runs of over 50 pips recently and I left them but had I recognised a pin bar on a lower time frame I’d have got out. I’m trying so hard not to look at lower time frames. I never look at the 1m anymore. The lowest has been 15m but I’m feeling very comfortable with the 30m and higher. The longer term trades were entered on the 4h.

I’m using fewer indicators. I have fractal support and resistance, pivots and murry math lines which are super. I draw fibos to see how they coincide with my support and resistance then trade from the support/resistance line. There are a few very good threads on Forex Factory which I have been following. All basically the same – concentrating on support and resistance. Its amazing when one starts trading one relies on so many indicators and as you learn you realise less is better. I’m so enjoying my trading journey.

Leigh has not traded in several months. He sees how much work I put into it and I am not sure if he will go back to trading. I hope he does but I’m not pressurising him as that is a guaranteed killer. You need to feel passionately about trading to succeed. There are so many ups and downs and in the beginning more downs than ups but the exciting thing is the downs get less and less. Some get it sooner than others I think I will take my time.

Ok that is all from me. Regards - Desiree

15th May

2009-05-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

Hi John

Hope you are well. I presume you are back in France. I returned to the UK today after a hectic 3 weeks in the States where I hardly traded. I have also been so busy I’ve not had a chance to work on the website either and that will happen in the next few weeks to get that done. Right now the .us domain links back to your site.

Very little news except that when I do trade I’m doing a whole lot better and making 20 pips plus is becoming more normal within a single trade. I’m still not comfortable trading higher lots. Right now I’m still working on being consistent and reducing the size of my losses but every day I feel stronger and more confident.

Have a great weekend Kind regards - Desire

20th April

2009-04-21T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hi John
I hope your course went well and you are enjoying your trip.

I'm sorry I wasout and unable to chat to your group. I'm flying to the States tomorrow andwill be on holiday so am thinking of taking longer term trades. Setting them on the 4h and daily and see what happens. I've spent a lot of time on the larger time frames and this past week and only looked at naked charts using my Murray Math indicator and fractals. It gave me a much clearer picture and my trades were better. I ended the week with good pips and today Monday made a quick 30 on cable. By looking at the larger time frame I'm less likely to get out of the trades as fast as there is only one bar to watch and not the 1m bars which I've not traded in several weeks now I'm finding the more I look at charts the more I am moving away from indicators.

When I draw trend lines on my charts and with my support and resistance I can decide where I'll get in and wait for my entry. If it happens fine and if not that's also ok. I'm still only trading EU and GU. I do enjoy talking to other traders. There is so much to learn and I love hearing their stories of how they made it and those who are still struggling to get there. It puts it all nicely in perspective.

I know you are not in favour of too much research and studying up but I have such an enquiring mind and I'm picking up a lot of new things. I try them if they work I keep them and if not I dump them. Most of the traders I talk to are full time traders doing very well and they are very encouraging. I don't follow their trades. I decide on my own and enter them on my own as well. My EU trade last week I was short while they were long. I regret closing my short as I'd be in serious pips now but that's part of the learning curve. It never came close to my stop. I also check out the free trade calls and if they coincide with what I'm seeing I will enter the trade. Right now the FX360 are saying buy the EU at 2948 but it's dropped quite a bit so I'll wait before I make a decision.

It's quite late in the day as well and I need to pack for my trip to the States so I think may be content with my 30 pips today. I also practiced hedging and I don't like it at all. I can see folk losing alot of money this way. I'm also going for pips and consistency. I will remain on $1 a pip till I make consistent pips. I am not seeing it as money and if I could trade smaller lots I would do so. I find I need to push this time limit of going full time right out of my head as it came very close to destroying me. Everymorning I used to get up and say I need 10 pips today and I have to make this target and wham my first trade took that and more away.

Imagine had I resigned from my day job end of December. I'd be a basket case now. Now I don't care if it takes me a year or two to make it. Where as before I felt I had to get this right so I can replace my day job. Now I've given that idea up as a pipe dream and when entering trades I don't care and worry so much anymore. I'm more relaxed and it's showing in my trading. I need a comfort zone. I know you disagree with this as you feel once I have one I won't make it as a serious trader but my outlook has changed drastically and I have made such strides in the last two months that I believe I will make a better trader as I am not terrified a trade will go against me.

My determinationto do well is as strong as ever. The only thing that's changed is how I'm going about it and the time limit. I spoke to a chap in because his partner feels he's goofing off and having this pressure is affecting his trading. He makes some weird trades and I think he is desperately looking for trades. Enters them and makes one loss after another. This is one of the reasons I love chatting to other traders. Shows to pack for the USA. I will not be around much over the next three weeks due to travelling around the USA and visiting and spending time with Leigh as he's on leave for the first two weeks in May.

Chat when you get back and hopefully my Skype will be performing better Regards Desiree

12th April

2009-04-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

Hi John
I hope you are having a good Easter weekend. I'm home alone. Leigh is in Shanghai, the markets are closed and for me the best time to kick back and cruise the net. It was great chatting to you with Darren this last week.

I've not written many emails as things have been ticking along nicely. Every day I learn something new. I am spending hours on the forums reading different threads and finding out what folk do. There are so many systems out there and its great to see end of the day they all come up with the same results. I'm still working on my system but before I enter a trade now I open the daily, 4h, 1h naked charts with no indicators and draw my trendlines and support and resistance. I do put in the fibo levels to see if they coincide and they do almost every time.

Then I look for possible trades and go to the lower time frames for my entries. I have three trades in mind for tomorrow or Tuesday depending when they happen. If they do great if not that's also fine. I'm seeing that the less indicators you have on the charts the better off I am. My system of late has let me down and it's my fault. I use a system based on the daily and 4h for shorter term trades. Yes they still give me profits but the entries are less reliable. So over the last two weeks I've concentrated on the 1hr chart and although still using my system as a safety net I've been concentrating on looking for entries around support and resistance. Not watching the 1m and 5m bars go nuts I concentrate on 1 candle and with a stop a good distance away and I feel far more relaxed and I've even walked away from the computer.

The big thing is to take profit. On Thursday I entered a Dow trade, was 15 pips in profit and as we had decided to let the trade run didn't take profit. It turned against us and I stopped out at 20. My stop was actually at 35 pips away but once I saw things turn I added new trendlines and saw immediately I was in the wrong trade and stopped out at resistance. I'm mad at myself for not listening to my gut feeling to get out when I had the opportunity. But it was only 20 pips and they are easy to get back. I'm also entering trades and if they go against me go in the opposite direction and make back my losses. This way I have been able to either break even or make profit and out of 14 trades I've had 1 loss. I try to only trade with the trend now and if my entry isn't correct and it goes against me enter at a higher level and then have two trades running. I'm not usually greedy and take my profits when I see them.

My son is trading with me and when I make 27 pips he'll be making 50 by having two trades running using what I just described. I am still nervous about losses and my kibbles and bits strategy has paid off time and again. I've signed up to several rss feeds for free trade calls and although I don't always take them I do like to check on my own charts and what they are seeing saying. Gft have a good one that I've followed for a while now. If I like what they see I enter the trade.

I'm using three websites for these trade calls and it's interesting to see how close they come in their calls. I won't follow these trade calls blindly but it's very satisfying seeing that I am on the right track. I keep learning and when I think back to 6 months ago when I went live I shudder. I wasn't ready. What I thought I knew then was total ignorance and wishful thinking. Only now do I feel confident to go live. Demo trading isn't a good indicator at all of how good a trader you are.

Rather open a micro account and trade at 10c a pip using real money than demo. You get to practice without killing you and you can make money while you learn. If you lose money you've not lost your shirt. I think I mentioned this in a previous email. I've also read so many reports and spoken to folk who have had beginners luck when they go live only to have it turn and bite them and clear out their accounts even faster.

Thank goodness I've not had that problem as I'm overly cautious but talking to traders who could not go wrong at the beginning I am becoming seriously sceptical because as Gabe my friend said you become over confident and think this is a breeze and wham it bites you in the butt. He made $15 000 within a couple of weeks and lost $30 000 even faster. So it will take me longer to make a living but when I do make a living I will understand what I am doing.

There are days when I don't trade and I wait for trades to come to me. I easily make 50 pips a week sometimes in two trades but some times it takes a few days to get those pips but I don't feel pressured to trade every day. And that's it for now. Take care and kind regards Desiree

22nd March

2009-03-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

Hi John

I see I missed a few of your calls today. I've not been at my computer.It's been a very busy week with the day job and new clients so couldn't devote the time to trading that I wanted to. I made quite a few trades and they were profitable. I lost a few which annoyed me because I didn't go to break even when I could and ended up in a loss albeit a controlled loss as I got myself out so pips lost were small - 10 or under. Had I taken profit at support or resistance I'd not have had a single loss this week. Hindsight!! But this week I will go back to taking my profits even though they may be small or breaking even and let the trade run.

As you know I've been looking at wider time frames and that's why I stopped out. It all goes back to having large enough stops to accept retracements. So this week I will concentrate on recovering my small losses. I never trade without a stop. This has become second nature to me now and I'm grateful that you drummed that into me. It's a good feeling when losses are small you can get them back a lot easier. I'm still recovering from the NFP (non farm payrolls) January disaster.

Sometimes it's so tempting to move a stop but it's not worth it because it can really keep going the wrong way. With the system I follow,especially on the higher time frames, when you enter them you are seldom stopped and assured of pips IF your stops are big enough to take the timeframe into account. It's up to me to see how long I can stick it out. I'm still too tempted to get out early and time will teach me to stay in as my confidence in trading increases.

I know you don't agree with filling ones head with too much information butI love doing research and reading up about other traders and how they madeit. It's not an over night success story at all. Its hard work. I'm trading with a group on Skype - they're from Moscow, Australia, Singapore and Florida, and we discuss the trades and then enter on our own. Everyone has their own trading style and its fantastic chatting to experienced traders who trade for a living. I feel very small next to them but realise that I will get there if I keep doing what I'm doing and have faith in my system and be patient and wait for trades to come to me. One chap has blown several accounts because he was greedy and impatient. He's back to square one and gone back onto the demo for the next month.

Your courses have had the best grounding to keep me focussed. Listening to others who've jumped in boots and all without any education is scary. I'm becoming more relaxed trading but there are still days when I'm afraid. When I feel like that I'm learning to walk away. On Friday I was busy but still watching the charts. There were a few good runs but I was reluctant to trade as my mind wasn't 100% on what I was doing and the phone kept ringing. Now two days later I'm glad I stayed out because I could be sitting here telling you of my Friday cock ups. It's happened too often that I made good pips throughout the week only to give them back on a Friday.

I have also learned that I cannot put a finger on when I can call myself a trader. But every day I see progress and when I look back I can see how far I've come. Yes it's been frustrating as I should be trading higher lots but on the other hand I could be starting a 2nd account having wiped out what I started with. Ok that's me for now Have a great Sunday. Regards Desiree

14th March Later

2009-03-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Dear John

It’s been a very exciting trading week for me and the week I took off has really helped me with a lot of issues. I appreciate your call yesterday butI never traded yesterday as I spent the day and most of the night thinking about what you said.

Trading affects people in different ways and each one has to find his groove. I know you disagree with the ‘comfort zone’ but I am not someone who can take pressure and I need to keep my wits about me when trading and added pressure will kill my trading as it so nearly did two months ago.

Having traded now for half a year this is what I have come to realise. Demo trading is fine to learn how to trade but it doesn’t teach you anything about money management and the psychology of trading. Only when you start with real money does reality sink in. I also find that to start trading with larger sums right away can break you before you are comfortable trading. So my thoughts are to get started and learn the basics, then open a small account (maybe a micro account) and trade small amounts so that you are happy to enter and exit trades even if they go against you. Only once you are making consistent profits albeit small ones as your stake is smaller should you consider increasing your lot size.

To me trading will eventuallybe my bread and butter and I have found a system that I’ve mentioned in previous emails. Because I previously traded higher lots I was terrified to enter trades in case I got zapped. Reducing my lot size I can absorb losses and am not afraid to enter more than one trade a day. In the past I made a few pips and got out afraid I’d give it all back, now I am happily making40+ pips a day and feel I’ve achieved something.

I’m getting to the point where I will be happy to increase my lot size. I’m not there yet but I’m close. I discussed our conversation with my son and he agrees with you that if you are under pressure you will be more focussed. To me it’s the opposite. I need to be relaxed entering a trade because fear clouds your judgement and I enter too late missing a good opportunity because I need double confirmation I’m doing the right thing and by doing so cock up my entry.

Every time Iincrease my lot size I lose money and I’ve halved my account by trading beyond what I feel is the right amount for me till I feel more confident even taking money management into account. To me that confirms that I wasn’t ready to trade bigger lots. Building up my account again has been a hard slog and it’s taking longer because I decreased my lot size but my thinking is if you can consistently trade smaller amounts for longer periods by the time you have recovered your losses you will know more, feel more confident with your system and then are ready to trade higher lots.

I can see you reading this and shaking your head. It’s all about being consistent and a week or two of consistency is not enough. I intend to be in this for the long haul. Wiping out my account trying to get there won’t make me a better trader. I’ve spoken to other traders who started trading and beginners luck made one profitable trade after another. One trader did so well he doubled his account within a few weeks and got confident and as quickly lost what he’d made and half of his original account. His mistake cost him $30 000 and he’s gone back to square one and trades £1 a pip and has to work up to what he lost.

I don’t intend going down that road. Despite his small lot size he makes his living trading and when the trade looks good adds a few more lots to it. If I look back over the past few months I can honestly say that only now do I feel I’m becoming a good trader and I understand the trades I enter.Before it was often hit and miss with too little knowledge of what was going on. The indicators cluttered my charts and I didn’t understand what they were telling me. Had I started demo’ing a system from the beginning I’m sure I’d be a lot further today however that is hindsight and I think there are very few traders out there who begin consistently and remain so till they find their trading feet.

On the plus side I’m making good pips. My losses are smaller and when Ienter my trades when the signals don’t fully line up I get bitten. Thankfully the bites are getting less and the wins are overtaking them. Outof 10 trades 7 were winners. I entered a trade on a longer time frame too late and instead of bagging my 30+ pip profit I gave the trade lots of room to move wanting to stay in for longer and it went against me and I lost 30 pips. I closed the trade as I didn’t want to risk more. Of course the trade did eventually continue to make over 200 pips. Its areas like this that Ineed to become more familiar with. Analysing the trade I saw it had reached major support and that would have been a good place to lock in profit as it retraced all way back again. I made those pips back again in subsequent trades. Its ok to stay in a trade for a longer period but I need to lock inprofits. Getting there …..

I look back to when I started and can see the progress. In 3 month’s time I’ll do the same again and see further progress. Most important of all I am extremely grateful for your help and support and pushing to do better. Have a good weekend Regards- Desiree

14th March

2009-03-14T03:02:00.000-07:00

Hi John
I am writing an email and will get it to you later on today I didn't trade yesterday. I couldn't get into the zone.
I will follow with a long email later on explaining why Regards Desiree

6th March

2009-03-07T01:56:00.000-08:00

Subject: thank you for a super holiday.

Dear John I have just gone through Leigh's photographs and here are a few of you which are super. I love the one of you at the restaurant on Sunday.

We had the best time and can't thank you enough for your hospitality and kindness to us while we visited you in your lovely home.

It was a much needed break and although we didn't trade or talk much about trading the few times we did touch on it your information was invaluable. I can't believe I didn't open the charts for a full week. Just goes to show how desperately I needed a holiday away from trading and work in general.

Hard to believe but this morning I was awake at 6am with the busses going by. I slept so well in Huelgoat and the only sound was the rain on the windows of the birds on your deck. You have a super home and we felt so honoured to be invited to spend time with you in your French home.

The area is spectacular and we'll definitely put this on our list of places to visit again. Thank you for the loan of the car and taking us to all those lovely restaurants. I think my favourite meal out was the routier (?)

You have an ideal spot for new traders to come and get one on one instruction. A perfect place to focus on trading and absorb your knowledge. I had a long chat to Darren this afternoon. He made over 30 pips on a Euroshort. We are looking forward to trading on Monday. I can't wait to getback to the charts.

Now I'm home all I want to do is trade. The system I sent you will be revised on Monday and I'll send the new pdf to you Thank you so much again and I look forward to chatting to you on Skype soon

Desiree and Leigh

21st February

2009-02-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Thank you for your support this week and your Skype calls. It’s so good to have someone who knows his stuff to talk to and get encouragement and when I mess up get told off :-)

This has been quite a week. Very exciting. As you know I went back on to demo to test a new system a few weeks back that I feel works for me. This Monday I went back live. I made consistent wins when I followed the system.I had no losses and my daily target was 10+ pips a day. Never did the tradeg o more than 6 against me.

Usually I was instantly in profit especially when trading the euro with its 2 pip spread. Cable took 4 pips to get into profit due to its spread. I joined up with a trading group on Skype. I met them on the Forexfactory forum and was invited to join their group. They have traders from Californiato Hong Kong and I felt privileged to be invited. They trade together but each one enters on his own and does his own thing.

The leader of the group has been a serious full time trader for quite a few years making a small fortune. He obviously has a large bank and trades big money with very wide stops. He looked at my system and made some comments which were very positive. As I’m new he’s taken an interest in my progress as well.

Yesterday they asked me to join them in going long on the Euro. We worked out a good entry and stop and profit taking and away we went. All went well I thought. My signals had told me to enter at 2591 but they said to enter at 2635 after it broke resistance. We worked on the 1h chart but the lower time frames didn’t agree. I thought what the heck I’ll go with them as they know what they are doing. It went to 2635 and they entered automatically as they had set an order. The stop was 2595. A bit too big for my liking but Iwent with it on the larger time frame to give the currency space to breathe.The euro was going to rocket right?

Personally I felt that to enter you need a new candle to break 2935 for proper confirmation. I didn’t like wheret he previous candle ended and to me that wasn’t confirmation especially on my system. The trade went against me and took me out at my stop.

All myprofits of the week went with it. They kept saying stay in this will turn and they widened their stops by a further 30 pips. I had committed to 50 togive it room to breathe and refused widen it. 7 hours later the trade went the way it should and I was right that I needed a clear cut entry over 2635 or better 2650 and set an order with a tiny stop as by then the trade was on its way. I learned a lot by this. Stick to what you know. The markets are random as you keep saying and nobody really knows exactly what will happen.

You havetaught me well and everything I have learned since the courses has been tof ine tune the way I now trade. The euro messed about over quite a range. A beautiful range on a much smaller time frame to go short and long and make good pips. Probably more pips than the final run up and not wasting 7 hours to get there. If your system works despite what the ‘experts’ say follow your system. I had quite a few chuckles reading the forums as some would go long at the same point where others went short. What does that tell you?

So I ended the week down due to the last trade yesterday but am still veryhappy because I proved to myself I am confident in the trades I am now enter using my system. I can place smaller stops even on larger time frames if the entry is correct and feel confident that it will work and if not I’ve not lost much.

Your results of 75% wins since the beginning of this year is the target I want to reach. You do what you teach. That’s awesome. I’ve told many aboutyour courses I am going to increase my £ per pip next week and work my way up. You are right trading smaller time frames on smaller amounts won’t feed my family BUT I had to become confident of my system before increasing my stake and now I feel I can do it.

My system works well on small and large time frames. A great week and I’m taking the weekend off and doing little. May be someback testing on larger time frames to work out stop sizes. Can’t wait for our trip to France on Thursday and to spend time with you and learn even more. I had a terrible blow to my confidence since middle of December with one loss after another and couldn’t work out what time frame works for me. To be honest I still don’t know. I would rather a longer time frame but I find now that the time frame isn’t really the issue. It’s to find a system that works for me and to understand why I enter and exit trades and to stick with my plan. Previously every trade felt a bit like Russian roulette now I don’t feel that way anymore. I also need the gym now for cardio workouts as the trading isn’t giving them to me anymore :-) Have a super weekend and chat tomorrow Desiree

16th February

2009-02-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

Hi John
Just as well you are not trading today. It's an American public holiday andthe markets are flat. I picked up 6 pips at 7.30 this morning and haven't traded since. I have gone back live. Now I'm watching the charts. I think the risks today are greater than the rewards so I'll maybe close VT for today and practice demo on dealbook to get the hang of that platform again I have a few questions re our visit. Do you have a hair dryer? What plugs do we need to get? I don't have any European ones. Regards Desiree

5th February

2009-02-05T03:47:00.000-08:00

Subject : Going back to basics and practice, practice, practice

Hi John

Hope you enjoyed your few days away. This last weekend I decided to spend this week practicing my entries and exits and to try out whether to go long term or short term. To do this I went to my demo account and spent the last few days going in and out of trades. Where as before on my demo account I was so cautious and treated it as real money as I just wanted to bag pips and avoid any losses. This way I didn’t learn much so when I went live I had a rude awakening as I had had two months of solid good ‘safe’ trades that were very carefully chosen and didn’t practice like I am doing now.

It’s been quite a revelation to me and this week I decided I want to perfect what I’ve learned since going live and do it on the demo over and over again until I am successful. The first day out of 30 trades I won 10. I broke even end that day. The second day I won 4 out of 6 trades and ended the day with 8 in profit. Yesterday, Wednesday I won 2 out of 3 and ended my day 20 pips in profit. I spent the weekend back testing and on Monday I felt ready to start practicing. I’m feeling a lot more positive now as I feel I’ve found something that works. It may be simple and I may miss pips before getting into the trade but end of the day the trades I do enter are mostly winners.

What I did was follow the indicators and go with support and resistance and what I learned on your courses. When I stuck to the rules I did well. With my losses I had purposely entered too early and too late and was bitten every time. As soon as I went back to the basics and the rules I was fine and my wins were successful. I set the parabolic to .03 after doing some research on it and I am now getting in on the 2nd parabolic. Sure I miss out on a few pips till the second parabolic appears but by the time it does I can see whether the trade will run or peter out. I’ve found by entering on the 2nd parabolic I am lot more consistent and yesterday had a run of 4 pips (got out at support although it did keep going south) and then a run of 35. I was able to trail my stops. By doing this I found I’ve been in profit almost instantly and it seldom goes more than 5 against me. I comfortably set my stops at 10 and keep a mental log of when I will hit the button to get out. I went over your lessons on the scalping course again and have learned so much. When you are new you learn a lot on the course and once you have a bit of knowledge and then go over the lessons again you pick up so much more. Setting your stops and then mentally trailing works well for me. If the run is good then I trail the stop on VT manually but if it’s a short run I set a stop and then trail it mentally.

I also tried the 15m as well as the 1m chart. I gave myself a 50 pip stop on the 15m and watched the trade. It never went close to 50 but it messed about between 20 and 30 for what seemed forever. I’ve sat at my computer watching the trades all week, getting into the rhythm and while doing that I found I was wasting my time on the 15m chart because the pips that went against me before I went into profit I could have picked up on the 1m or 5m chart. Instead of waiting 45 minutes to make a few pips I could have bagged double my daily quota in half the time while it was messing about between 20 and 30 pips against me on a smaller time frame. This got me thinking and so I put away the 15m and went back to very short term. I still use the longer time frame for the trend. I had previously put away the 1m chart as I’d had such bad runs with it but with my bank being small and to build it up again I have had to return to smaller time frames.

I am fortunate in that I can watch the charts and entering and exiting on the 1m I was able to pick up some good pips going with the trend. When I saw a hesitation I got out as I found that more times than not on the smaller time frame that’s the start of a reverse. Eventually when I have a fat bank I think I’ll prefer the longer time frames but for now and as I have the time to do so, I can watch the 1m and get in when the runs are good. I watch and trade the euro, cable and euro / pound. I’ve done most of my trades on the euro and cable as the runs are bigger. The setting of .03 on the larger time frames works too.

Yesterday Leigh and I watched the trades together and he also felt a lot more confident because he could see this makes sense and so this is what we will be practicing for the next couple of weeks and keeping an analyser to see how we do. As you said one has to find a system that works for you and stick to it. I’m also watching the charts a lot earlier but with this system there is always a trade sometime during the day. I realise I should have found a system a lot sooner but its taken me a lot of time to find my feet. So let’s see where this takes us. I’ll keep you posted

Have a good day - Desiree

3rd February

2009-02-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I was demo trading yesterday as Mondays don't work for me. I worked on my entries and exits and made tons of trades and won a1/3 of them. Carrying on today to perfect this. picking up pips more reliably and will do this for a few days more then go back to real time. Seeing what I did wrong and it feels good to make some winners again Enjoy your time off Desiree

27th January

2009-02-05T03:42:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I am so pissed. I entered a euro trade when all signals were in my favour and thought I'd chance 10 pips as it could have been near the end of a run but it was retracing and I got in after a retracement to sell. I set my stop at 10. VT accepted and then it didn't execute for whatever reason so no stop. The currency wasn't racing anywhere so no reason for it to requote or ignore it. Then sods law the euro went north instead of south and I was at-15.

I tried to get out again. Nooo lets play with Desiree today. It ignored my request a second time to get out and eventually after banging ont he get out button it took me out at negative 31. If it was around an announcement when things go mad it would have made sense but on a regular trade with not much activity it made none. And joy, 10 pips later - it went all the way back down and I would have made a healthy profit. I was trading the smaller time frame so didn't want a stop larger than 10.

There I was consoling Leigh at his two losses yesterday and what do you know I go and do the same today. Now he's consoling me. Feels like a see-saw around here today. Not in the best humour right now. I've closed VT and will try again tomorrow

Have a good evening Desiree

24th January

2009-01-25T03:33:00.000-08:00

Hello John

I am so sorry I wasn’t available yesterday afternoon to chat to your group. The afternoon just got so busy and I had to step out.

It’s been a roller coaster week for trading. I am entering trades a lot more confidently but I still have a confidence problem and am doing some reading on improving this and hopefully it will work out. I have always been a fan of Paul Mc Kenna and I got his book on improving your confidence this week and am working my way through it. I have already found that a lot of what he says makes sense and I bought it with trading in mind.

I entered 8 trades in one day and lost 3. My losses were big but end of the day I broke even. I took to heart what you said about trading on the longer term and entered the euro trade with you and made 26 pips. The currency was in a channel all day and only broke away end of that day or the next day. It was a great channel to be in and I could have made pips long and short but once I recouped my losses I stopped trading for that day.

I understand I need big stops for longer time frames and I used this method on Thursday when I entered a cable trade. Cable was going down fast and the news on dealbook constantly said that everyone was dumping cable so I thought ok lets go in for a longer sell. I made a few big mistakes.

1 the first error was that I should have entered when it was at ..80 but as I’d just logged onto the Vt I wasn’t in the zone yet. Something said to me at the time enter at ..80 but I was afraid to enter after only just signing up to the charts so I waited.

2 The other error I made was having the 15 chart, 5m chart and 30m chart all open together. This meant I had three charts open on one screen but they weren’t fully open. Know where this is leading to???? You guessed it. When I entered the trade at ..42 I put in a 40 pip stop and then let the trade run and left it as you had suggested the previous day. I came back and saw I had been 13 pips in profit and then it whipped back up and took my profits and my stop out. I was so mad at myself as I felt I should have stayed and watched it but as I was going in for longer term I didn’t want to sit glued to the machine making myself mad

3 After my loss I had a good look to see why I was stopped out. All the time frames still said to stay in but I had stopped out for some reason. Had my stop been 100 I’d have been smiling as it did turn around and come back and dropped several 100 pips. The reason I got stopped out was that I entered at support which I only noticed once I had opened the charts fully. ..42 was support and had I looked at the 5 minute chart more carefully I’d have seen that it went flat there several times and stayed out and waited for a breakout. So best action was to stay out or go long for a while and then go short when it turned and dropped like lead again.

4 although cable was falling the candles were very iffy. One was long the next shorter and the spikes were very long. Afterwards we watched a 15m candle and saw that it jumped over 50 pips in that time and not slowly, it would rush down 30 and then whip back up 50 and then rushed down again. Every candle would have stopped me out. I compared the previous day’s euro trade to the cable one and saw immediately that the euro candles were far more even in length albeit shorter and although they moved 10 pips either way over a 15 minute period it wasn’t a mad rush and the fluctuation was easy to handle.

This set me thinking again that I just don’t have an account big enough to weather 100 pip stops. So as much as I’d like to trade the 15m chart I can’t enter it unless I get good confirmation on the 1m and the 5m charts.

Yesterday morning just as we logged onto the charts I saw an opportunity to go short on the euro for a few pips on the 1m chart. I said to Leigh ‘look here the Bollinger band has turned, the MACD has turned and a sell would be good at 22 and risk 6 pips and get out if it goes beyond that.’ I wasn’t expecting him to enter this trade. He did at 20 and it went up to 27 and then turned and fell all the way down to 02.

He freaked as he said ‘what the hell am I selling for when this is clearly a buy’ and I said ‘it’s the 1m chart and there is a retracement, the trend is down anyway and the 5m will give you the same confirmation soon’. It did and he got out when he broke even and felt sick when he saw that it dropped a further 18 pips after that. This trade made me sit back and think and I tested it in my mind twice more to see if I was right in getting in when the Bollinger band turned. Every time it worked. This is how Darren trades and does so well.

Later on the euro went up while we weren’t been watching it. Another mistake to get in. We both got in. I set my stop at 20 and so did Leigh and would you know it as soon as we entered it turned and went south. I baled at 15 pips as I didn’t want to give up too many pips on a 1m chart trade. Leigh stayed in. it turned at 19 pips against him and went all the way back up and he made a 27 pip profit. Yes I could have stayed in but I realised it was a bad trade to enter as I wasn’t sure if it had reached the end of its run. It had. Leigh took the last pips to be had at ..77 and the euro went all the way back to 00.

I find I keep doing the same mistakes. Entering on a run that could end at any minute. Rather walk away as there are always more runs to be had.

I’ve been trading three months now on real money and it is nothing like my demo days. I have learned so much since I’ve gone live and there’s so much I didn’t try out on demo instead reducing my bid to the minimal and using real money to try out things like support and resistance which I can see now was hit and miss when I did demo and my demo successes were to me a fluke. I only learned proper trading when I went live. To go back to demo trading wouldn’t do it as your mindset is so different in demo as it is in real money’ and so I will carry on the way I am and keep learning and hopefully reduce my continued mistakes over time.

And that’s my trading for this week. I’m still not disillusioned. I still dream of charts and when I visualise trades I never think of losses only wins. Early days I keep saying but boy do I get frustrated when I screw up.

Have a good weekend
Desiree

17th January

2009-01-18T02:12:00.000-08:00

From John Bartlett - I sent Desiree a copy email from one of my students received today to give her encouragment - Im enclosing this for Blog Followers :-

From Desiree "That is awesome. I intend to get to that level too. How encouraging"

JB's reply to Bob - Bob - There is NO target level – why set barriers? the Art is GET OUT when charts tell you either 1 pip or 40 – Regards John Bartlett

PS at £10 per pip that’s £2320 this week !!!!! (If only)

From: Bob Sent: 17 January 2009 10:53To: john@puriton.eclipse.co.uk

Subject: RE: this weeks trades to 16th 2009

Hi John, I did 58 trades on VT this week and I am + 130 pips 22 were losing trades or 62% winners. some of these went seriously wrong though and I spent a lot of time trying to get back lost profits. I just could not. I am trading the bollinger bandwith macd and rsi. How do you decide the target profit for a trade?

I also made six trades on World Spreads and of these 5 were winning and one loss of 3 pips. total +102 pips on world spreads. 83 % winners So all in all I am up 232 pips on the week. 64% winning trades. Regards Bob

18th January

2009-01-18T01:51:00.000-08:00

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

16th January

2009-01-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Well I set up tornado on all my charts for the shorter time span and I still need big stops. I got into a Euro sell which went well but I entered at the wrong time on a spike and then sadly it stopped me out. I had a set a really large stop on tornado as all the signs said stay in and when I got stopped out it still said don't go. I realise that 40 stops are not enough.

Todaythe markets are also here and there but I have followed tornado and the other indicators. Now that I'm out watch this puppy fall all the way back. Sods law. This was the second trade of the day. The first one was in profit and I trailed my stop and I was then taken out of the trade with my stop which thankfully was in profit.

Win some loose some. I'll keep looking. I'm flying back to the UK tonight. Chat to you when I get home Regards - Desiree

12th January

2009-01-17T01:01:00.000-08:00

Hi John
Removal of 1 click
I have also decided to do away with 1 click and go in manually. With 1 clickyou click either sell or buy and I've twice clicked the wrong button taking me in the opposite direction. I discussed this with Leigh who has made thesame mistakes so it's not just me getting the two confused. With the manual method I have to go through three processes on VT and if a trade appears tobe a short run and I need to get in quickly, then that wasn't a good tradeto be in.

I gave trading a lot of thought over the weekend and I've decided I'm going back to $5 a pip. I am only entering trades that look good on the 15m chart which cuts out a lot of bitty trades and then I wait for the right moment.With support and resistance and tornado I have more winners than losers.

Iain is back and he's done no trading while away so he's back to square oneon demo. He has Vista and no end of problems getting onto the platforms. Leigh is studying brushing up on tornado. Let's see how it goes.

Re our visit to France. It appears we'll be arriving closer to the 20th if that is ok with you? The Ryan air option doesn't suit us and we'll be using Air France. Price wise it just about comes to the same as we need to get down to Luton first. The only hassle is we get in at 10pm. We will also look at the option of taking the train from Paris so that we get in at a better time.

Did you have a good weekend? We had another 10 inches of snow and the tempsdropped even further and it was freezing. We had some lovely walks in the snow and got some strange looks but it was fun to be out. When we arrive back to Scotland on Friday it will feel quite tropical!! I look forward to hearing from you Regards -Desiree

10th January

2009-01-10T02:09:00.001-08:00

Hi John

subject : Non farm pay rolls - don't trade then unless you want to be crucified

Today I learned an expensive lesson. How stupid can I get. You'd think after all these months trading I'd not make this error of trading around an announcement and especially this one. I will never trade on announcements again. (I'll try anyway )'m amazed it actually let me into the trade. Leigh is seriously pissed with me. I am pissed at myself but strangely calm as I have learned yet another valuable lesson. Argggg down that road again we go.

The Forex factory server was on overload and unavailable for 30 minutes before. Hint one that everyone was waiting. Then the mad scramble and off it shot in my direction and that profit turned into a massive loss seconds later as I had no time to put in a stop. Thank goodness I was trading a $1 a pip. I had waited to get in but obviously not long enough despite using the 5m chart as my entry. I now know that the 5m chart in cases like this is like being on the 1m chart. When I entered my buy trade on the euro it shot up as the result was negative and then it turned. It was too fast to let me add a stop and so I sat holding my breath as it went the other way within seconds. I eventually got out as my order was put on pending and then when it offered me a quote I took it and got out as it continued going even further against me. I didn't get out when I could have minimizing my loss as it recovered slightly but it didn't go all the way to the recovery. At that point I had a chance to get out but again you don't go on hope you go on what you see and just then it went the other way and dropped some 200 pips.

Yesterday I traded on Deal book and it was great. The trailing stop is magical. What I did wrong was not have my stop wider than 10 - even on currency. I realize with the Dow it needs to be massive It went my way and I decided to stay in the trade and let it run and not get out as I usually do. Well this time it did continue in my direction however it went back up after a while and stopped me out thereby ending the trade. Its like fine tuning a car or should I say in my case trying to get our coal stove to work. Leigh lights a match and voila it works. I try the same and end up using electric heating and spend the rest of the day glaring at the stone cold coal stove.

and that's me for now. I'm not going to trade now for a while as that may feel like revenge so I'll get up and do something else

have a good weekend

Desiree

9th January

2009-01-10T02:04:00.000-08:00

Hello John

I’m sitting in my lounge in PA and its snowing. The suns out and it’s so pretty. If I dare venture out I’ll be met with an inch of ice at my front door ready to turn my steps into a kiddy slide. This gives house bound a whole new meaning.

Despite my loss today I’m actually feeling ok. Leigh is flying from Delhi to Newark and hopefully will simmer down before he lands. I am getting used to loosing and not letting it keep me from sleeping. Generally speaking my losses are very low now. Leigh was having kittens while I was in the trade but you know whereas before when in a loosing trade I’d have a cardio workout, now I seem to chill and wait for an exit. I have lost the fear of trading. We were talking on Skype and when I clicked buy while watching the charts. He said ‘what have you just done?’ I couldn’t very well lie as he heard the tell tale dings of the platform. Why to these darn things make a noise when you enter them? I need to go into the works and see if I can disable the sounds. They should let us suffer in silence without having to get a bleating down the phone line from whoever you are talking to telling you how clever you were to enter a daft trade especially as I had just told him I wasn’t going to enter this trade yet but wanting to wait for the right entry. The lecture was worse than the trade.

I walked away from the trading even though there were some good opportunities to make it or at least some of it back but I decided one mess a day is plenty and Monday is another trade. ooops I forgot I don’t trade on Mondays. Make that Tuesday.

A tip. When you create your layout on VT, export it to desktop and save it for ‘in case’. In case happened to me this week. Remember I told you I had lost my connection with VT at one point? Well during that loss of connection with it went the layout I was in at the time. I had to redo it. Iain was telling me this happens to him on occasion but this is the first time it’s happened to me. When I clicked on the currency pair all I got was a blank work space.

Have a good weekend. I’m back in the UK end of next week. - Desiree

8th January

2009-01-10T02:03:00.000-08:00

hello John

I'm glad you did well on the Dow today. I have been watching it as well as the currencies. As you say every trade is a new trade yet when I entered a long on cable and my order was not accepted I saw it going up 200 pips and nothing I could do about it. Eventually the order was cancelled and I had no trade at all. Even when it came back down to where I went in I thought it might trigger my order but nothing happened. That put me off my stride for a while and I watched the charts. As its the 15 charts I waited for opportunity but none came for a while.

Then I decided to close VT and now I'm on DealBook. I entered a Cable trade and set a trailing stop of 10 which was silly on a 15 minute and it went well and then took me out at £1 loss. I'm not complaining as I am getting used to Dealbook and the more I use it the happier I am. I have the Dow 1m and 5m charts up and on currency the 5m and 15m using the 5m to enter. I feel so much more in control and wait for things to happen and then enter. This way I trade less but what I do trade (if i only put my trailing stops wider) I do make nice profits. So far I've only had 2 loosing trades in the past week but more winners.

I had some technical issues with Dealbook and they gave me the same spiel they've always given me by adding the new URL and disabling firewalls I dont have enabled. The told me to manually go into my Dealbook files and delete old folders and such so I'll give that a try. this is what they said, you may find it useful

Manual Removal Location of folder: C:\Programfiles\DealBook360\storage In storage you will have displayed demo.gftforex.com 8080 or/and live.gftforex.com 8080 (depends on the port used) delete these folders

You know my dad always said to me about living in different countries. He'd say every country has its own problems, you just need to decide which problems you'd like to live with. I feel the same with the platforms. They all have their niggles but by and large I do like the Dealbook and it's charts. VT is great too and generally lets me into trades but it doesnt have trailing stops so I have to sit and watch those.

well that's all for now. Will be in touch later - Desiree

5th January

2009-01-06T01:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Clive

John Bartlett sent me your email and I value your comments re the book. I do agree this would be a great idea but right now John has had so much on his plate getting the new scalping course out and organising the January live course that this is something that will take place in the future. We wanted to get the blog out ASAP. To answer some of your questions. I do keep a trading analyzer and it’s sent to John each week for comment. Also some of my emails in the subject line will say 18 pips yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay and that of course doesn’t reach the blog! This is something I will start to add to my emails.

John’s advice is like gold and when he tells me to do things I put them to practice and always do well. There is nothing like having a mentor like John. He is tough but I appreciate it as pussy footing doesn’t get the job done. I have only been trading live since the end of October and although I have made losses I have made more profits. My biggest stumbling block is trading with higher amounts. Let me trade on £1 a pip and I go sailing away. Put me onto £5 or more a pip and I turn to jelly and everything goes off kilter and I make serious losses.

Money management is the key and so I increased my bid it was because my bank account wasn’t at the stage where I can weather a 20 x £5 pip loss yet. So I have gone back to basics and I’m back to £1 a pip which is seriously boring but I’m making steady gains and recovering what I lost. That in itself is a lesson. Recovery of losses take foreeeeeeeever.

I had a spate of more losses than wins for a good two weeks and I can see where folk loose heart and leave trading. However I am seriously determined and have put aside several thousand pounds to learn. This is my college fund so to speak however it still hurts like heck to chuck £50 away on a stupid move. All my losses were seriously stupid moves on my part. I had platform problems and you shouldn’t blame a platform but it cost me £140 in trades due to no fault of my own. I’m on my 4th platform now.

I am the first to admit when I do something daft and when something like this goes beyond my own control that makes me loose confidence and I’d say my biggest loss of confidence was due to the platform problems and not so much my trading as it’s a horrible feeling when you are in profit and try to get out and you can’t. The market happens to be seriously volatile during that time and you get whipped about and can’t get out. I went from a profit of £45 to a loss of £60 trying to get out of a trade. A trade I should never have entered as it was done around an announcemenbt. That did not sit well with me and I turned away in disgust and left trading for the following day. I

don’t trade on Mondays. Fridays are iffy too but they are better than Mondays. I find that’s when I make my biggest losses. I have also gone over Johns courses several times and taken what I want to concentrate on and studied as much as I could on that particular subject (support and resistance) and practiced it on demo. This will be an email on the blog. Over Christmas I decided on a trading strategy and will stick to it. That has been my biggest downfall to date. I needed a strategy and to stick to it.

Hindsight I can see where I went wrong and now I will try not to let that get me down again. I found I need to work out a time frame that suits me and have finally found one. I thought scalping was for me but right now its not. I love the excitement of it but for now I have had to shelve it. I need the longer time frames to get me zoned in and work out the best entry and exit signals. I’ve put the 1m chart away completely and my smallest time frame chart now is the 5m. I concentrate on the 15 now and it doesn’t whip me about like the 1m did which is where I made my biggest losses.

Happy trading. This is going to be a good year for me. I’m determined to give up my day job and do this full time Kind regards Desiree

January 3rd 2009

2009-01-06T01:49:00.000-08:00

Email from Clive Holland (Thailand) to John - Copied to Desiree

Hi John,

firstly I would like to wish you a happy New Year. Thank you for sending the link to Desiree's blog, I am around halfway through it and have found it very interesting, she seems to have been through all the emotions I have. I have not traded for a while due to other commitments, which sadly have taken me away from my computer. This will be rectified in the coming weeks as I am serious about making some sort of income from trading and to be honest I am missing the fun of it.

I noticed your suggestion to Desiree about turning her blog into a book, if I may add my tuppence worth, I think you would have a winning combination if you complied the book together. From what I have read she regards you as a good mentor and is obviously very pleased with the advice she receives from you. Why not go all the way and write your replies so as to give both sides of the coin. It would be very interesting to see your replies to her questions and how she has reacted to them. Also a weekly or even daily total of trades and a profit and loss account would show people how the concept of mentor pupil is working out, does she make more profitable trades after a chat or email from you, does it take a couple of days before your advice sinks in and is acted upon, or does it not make a noticeable difference.

I am starting back to trading on the 12th January, this will give me time to go through your courses again to refresh my memory. In the last year I have lost 1,000 pounds due to my own stupidity and will not be making the same mistakes this time around. OK I may find a few more mistakes to make, but will try and eliminate them before damage is done. I am sorry I didn't get to meet you when you were here, but my wife was rushed to hospital with gall stones and that was obviously my priority. Perhaps next time. All the best Clive. (Thailand).

17th December

2008-12-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Well I’m in the USA now and its Wednesday and I’m watching the Euro. USA markets open soon and I’ll move over to the Dow. This is the first time I’ve looked at the charts in a few days. What I did today was to add an S+R line at the 00 in another colour. What an eye opener. All my other lines are in green but I made these in pink and the euro is dancing around 1.4100. Having changed the colour it really stands out and I’ll do this in future to really make me aware of the 00 coming up.

I’m hoping to put a lot of work into the new website while I’m here. I think my day job may fall away and of this year which means I’ll have more time on my hands and I can really concentrate on the trading and not be distracted like I’ve been with my day job lurking at the back of my mind. I also think not having this job I have to put even more into the trading as it will become my main means of income. So psychologically another approach and I feel I’m up for it. I will keep my bid low till I am comfortable and will trade within my money management. Once I have the trading taped – I want to concentrate on the 5m and longer time frames – I will then sink more money into the account and increase my bid.

I’ll stay in touch

Regards

Desiree

12th December

2008-12-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

Hi

I am feeling a lot better about my trading. Today I bagged 21 pips on the euro. I ended the second trade as I need to step out. What I did was set a huge stop and let it run. Sure it went against me 26 at one point but I didn’t let it worry me. I carried on working and I came out 12 on top. I ended the trade myself. I thought I have to go for this and take some risks. Not stupid risks but take the bull by the horns and go for it.

So to day I’m up 21 pips on two trades. No losses. Yesterday 3 trades and 20 pips and again no losses. I’ve not done the Dow today but I will look at that in more depth this afternoon. I am using my VT as a training and I feel so much better about it. Watching s and r closely and checking where to put my stops.

John I WILL make it.

Till later

Desiree

11th December

2008-12-27T04:27:00.000-08:00

HI John

How did your day go? After we spoke I made 20 pips on VT. I showed Leigh how to use the DealBook before anything good happened to trade. Then I went out and when I came back to trade DealBook told me there was a fatal url error and I had to log in again and since then I’ve not been able to get in either on my laptop or my desktop. I have been in touch with them and waiting for them to get back to me. A real bummer as I was so fired up to trade today and making good trades without any losses.

I felt happy going into trade and the euro did some super gains. I didn’t go in for a long buy as I wanted to and now wish I had, I took my gains and got in again but didn’t let it run which is something I need to make myself do. Set bigger stops and then let it go.

Watched a VT seminar on channel trading and they showed several but the presenters favourite is still the Bollinger bands. It was interesting to see that we really need to let our trades run and today was a perfect example of allowing the Euro to run

Anyway that’s it for tonight . I hope dealbook is better in the morning

Cheers

Desiree

10th December

2008-12-27T04:26:00.000-08:00

Dow
Dear John

Well I came out in profit. I watched it go horribly against me and I sat it out. I moved my stop to the top of the Bollinger band which was 72 against me but I sat it out and left it. Sure trepidation at a few points but generally I said if I stay in this trade I have not lost any money and all the signs were it was going down. I ended up making 14 points profit. I wasn’t sure it would let me out in profit so when it got to the point where I was happy I set a trailing stop at 4 and let it run and it went down nicely.

I learned a few things. I should not have got into the trade as a sell instead a buy and made some points. There was ample room to make money there. There were times I wanted to get out but I thought nope I wont learn this game if I get out so that’s why I stayed. Then on the way down it started going my way. very strong resistance at a few places and at one point when it was 35 down my stop was at 50 points. I then added a new stop closer to profit.

Tomorrow I will trade like this again and I will increase my stake but for now I’m staying where I am to get familiar with the volatility in ‘real’ money time and then go up. I am thrilled to end the day in profit. It has continued to go down and had I not gone so much against me I’d have sat it out longer but the relief to make profit make me take my gains. It stopped me out when the green candles appeared. Darren unbeknownst to me also traded and made money going pu and down.

I learned a lot today. Every day is a learning curve and I’m thrilled that I stayed in the trade. This is what I did in demo and it always came back to reward me.

I’ve closed Deal Book and now have some day job work to do. I can see that the real runs start after 4pm which suits me fine. In the USA that is 11am and suits us fine too as we don’t have to get up before the sparrows.

Have a good evening John and I hope your trades go in your direction

Cheers

Desiree

8th December

2008-12-27T04:24:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Today I’ve got my Euro charts up, put all the S+R lines in and watching and asking myself where I’d get in and out. Last week I’d have done the opposite. I was chatting to Darren and showed him the charts and pointed out places where before I’d have gone in the opposite direction but now I’ll read the charts differently and every time I was right. The Euro is falling now and I won’t get in whereas before I’d have got in at this point but I can see where I should have got in and made good pips. It’s now hit my support line and bouncing back into a bit of a buy. I don’t mind demo’ing this for a few days to perfect it but I feel a lot happier with my weekend’s research and what I’ve learned.

Trade2win has amazing articles and I read the forum and articles with such interest. There is one article I am attaching that I found interesting although I’ve not studied it in depth. Maybe you’ve also read it. They speak of the EMA of 100. The Dealbook has its set at 25. I tried to put in 100 and it was three inches below the actual chart. Obviously I’m not reading this right and don’t understand what I did.

Last week Monday I sent you a screen shot of a breakout I tried to trade. I lost 20 pips as it went the other way. Yesterday I put in S+R lines onto this chart and if it had been a week later I’d not have sold instead have bought. I probably have too many S+R lines but that will also ease up with time. Right now to me they are additional alert signals and I’m fascinated by what the charts are telling me now

This is such a learning curve and I can see the fewer indicators you have the better off you are. I know you’ve been telling me this all along but I need to find these things out for myself through trial and error. I mentioned this in an email a few weeks back.

Mondays are not good trading days for me. I always make big losses so today I’ll watch and learn and demo

Darren has gone to the gym. He wanted to have a wee chat with you. He’s done amazingly well this last week and I think he’s on a roll and he appears far more confident every week. It’s a pleasure to see. Maybe I’ll get to that stage too one day. I certainly will give it ALL I have to get there. I have a client coming to see me this afternoon so I can’t even think of trading before 4pm today. That’s fine until then I will watch the charts and work out what I’d do and see if I’m right.

Chat later. Regards

Desiree

7th December

2008-12-27T04:23:00.000-08:00

Support and resistance
Good evening John

I know I can hear you thinking this girl needs to get a life. True true. I did have fun today and I came home to an empty flat and crap on telly. I was itching to learn more about support and resistance and have read the threads on T2W which are brilliant and then went into VT and drew S+R lines onto the charts for the 1, 5 and 30m charts. What an eye opener. Darren speaks of getting into trades with a minimum of risk and looking at my lines I can see where to get in and risk very little and where to think of getting in. I can see so clearly now I get I way too late. Interestingly my s + r lines are mostly around the 0’s and 00’s or within 10 pips of them. Adding trend lines further confirms what you’ve taught me. I did some reading up on the MACD and again found I use it too late.

I’ve never used the S+R lines properly despite putting them in to identify channels but I’m slowly getting an AHA moment. Keep them coming and I will win at trading.

Getting there. Off to bed more than likely to dream of charts and entries and exits

Good night

Desiree

6th December

2008-12-27T04:22:00.000-08:00

Trading – I’m a slow learner

Hi John

I’m not sending you an analyser this week as I was most demo’ing and trying to find my feet with Deal Book.

Yesterday I traded with Darren and will go back to spending time with him. I bet you have this huge question mark over your head but here are my reasons. When I traded with Darren before he used to go into trades that made little sense to me. Sure he made money but he also lost money. Since he’s been on the Dealbook he’s been trading differently and I spent yesterday afternoon watching him. He’s really fine tuning what he’s doing now and I admire him – I have always admired him but I can see he’s had this revelation and the effect it has on his trading. I still want to enter trades on my own but I think it has finally sunk in with me why I am making these losses.

1 I enter trades too late – that’s my hesitation and also fear of being wrong
2 I buy at resistance and sell at support. Darren and I were both guilty of this previously but he’s worked out we need to sell at resistance and buy at support. I have lost money doing the opposite. I look for a breakout which doesn’t necessarily come and then I enter a trade thinking it will continue in the direction its going and wham it turns and hence my losses of 20 pips as it goes against my stop

I now have to practice getting in at the right time and heading in the right direction. Right now my trades are hit and miss. I need to let the MACD work better for me. Yesterday we did the Dow. I tried to enter a live trade but it gave me a different response to what it does on the demo and I cancelled the order. I am glad I didn’t go in as it would have gone 30 against me before bringing me into profit. I had tried to buy at resistance. Darren did the same. He managed to hold on till he broke even and then afterwards we saw it was at resistance and we should have sold and not bought. Sure it did return and then broke the resistance and went on into a beautiful rally upwards. However I’d have baled at 20 and made a loss and not let it turn and go in my direction. Fear.

The Dow is definitely the way to go. I’m picking up points there I never did before. It is very volatile and I need to be sure of a good run as I found that when I demo the volatility is such that when I try to get out in a profit by the time it lets me out I’m in a loss. I have a strategy for getting out that I want to put to the test on Deal Book. I can see the importance of the stops with the Dow – on any trading really but especially with a volatile market like the Dow. There are a few things that don’t make sense with the Deal book. For instance, every time you enter a one click you need to then reconfigure the ticket to allow for 1 click. It let me in the first time and then when I tried to sell it took me through two clicks before I got out. This cost me valuable points. When I had a run of 27 points and I wanted to get out it took me out at 21 points loosing me 6 in the process of getting out. Now I can’t work out whether this is my internet connection or if the volatility doesn’t allow me to trade shorter runs and therefore boots me out at a loss. It happened three times in a row and the 4th time I was so well in profit I was able to get out in profit. This is still on the demo.

The Dow compared to currency is so interesting. Darren and I compared a candle on the Dow to one on the Euro. The Dow’s candle was 20 points and the equivalent on the euro was between 2 and 4 pips.

I think although I so want to go into real time trading I need to go back to the Demo for a few days to get the entries and exits right. I’m so keen to trade but until I can get to grips with Dealbook and my entries etc I am going to be throwing money away as I’ve been doing. I will stay at £1 a pip and if I see a good rally up or down I will enter the trade and let it work for me but I need to perfect a few things. So back the course again. I can see where Darren learned a lot from watching you trade. Nothing comes close to watching a master at work. I will have Dealbook open on my desktop pc as the live account and the demo on my laptop. That way I can practice the shorter runs with s+r and enter live the longer runs and have the time to put in stops and manage my trade without getting into a flap. If my internet connection doesn’t allow for serious volatility then I will need to be content with longer runs that will give me leeway either side. There are enough good trades for me to wait for them. Yes I hear you say don’t sit in front of the computer but until I get this system licked, I have to spend time practicing.

Yesterday I committed a cardinal sin. I entered a trade on the Euro as it shot up – two lessons learned. I should not have entered this trade because it went up so fast that I was mesmerised by it and forgot my stop. When it reached the top – over 30 pips away I tried to get out. It took my deal ticker away and replaced it with a green box. Nothing happened for quite a while and I thought ok I’m nicely in profit. NOT. About a minute or more later it came back with a re-quote of negative 39 pips. Looking back all the markets moved at that point and I guess I have no idea why but maybe it wasn’t a good time to trade. Had my stop been in place I’d have been ok. I feel safe with stops but this one went so fast it took me by surprise and only afterwards did I reprimand myself for being an idiot and then I closed VT and went out and had my hair cut.

I felt so low about yesterday but today a new day I have new insight and ready to try again. I’ve recognised my stupidity and now can work on getting it right. I learn something new about myself every day. In the past I’d have chucked in the towel but not now. I have found a career that can work for me and I want to get in on it. I’m so grateful to have you and people like Darren and Leigh and my son to support me.

Hope you got back ok and your wine nicely stored in your cellar!! Its cold here and I’m about to head out for a walk. The pavements are scarily slippery. Hey, I may be in Japan for Christmas. Leigh is in Tokyo and the loads are so wide open I can go along. So it will be nice not having to spend a lonely Christmas on my own in a country where I don’t know anyone close-by.

John, have a good weekend and we’ll chat on Monday. I’ve given my CMC account and money to my son. He can’t afford an account with Dealbook but I’ve left just under £300 in my CMC account for him.

Cheers for now

Desiree

4th December

2008-12-27T04:21:00.000-08:00

Indices may be the way to go

Hello John

Last night I was chatting to Darren and we looked at the Dow. I had set up my templates but still need to work out how to do the 1 click. While chatting to him the Dow was rising and Darren went in for a buy and I was on demo so said I’d go in too. The first trade I got cut out at 25 pips but that was a silly entry as things were turning and I got caught out. I then set a 30 pip stop and went in again after better confirmation. I made 64 pips in a few minutes. I have never had such a good run before on anything except last week when you got me into a Dow trade and that went to 84 pips.

I set up various templates – Dow, Dax, FTSE, Euro, Cable and one other I cant think of right now. The indices had clear runs up and down and the currencies were all over the place. Comparing the two I can see how you can be messed about with currency. As you know I made two losses yesterday because I stopped out too soon – and traded when I shouldn’t have - but on the Dow run I set myself a stop of 30 and let it work for me. Ok this was demo but even in my demo days I never had runs like this. I can see why you need to give yourself room to move on the Dow and if I’m trading at £1 or £2 a pip its easy to do. I will demo trade this for a while to see how volatile they are and get the feel of them.

Today I will trade on CMC until I can get the DealBook sorted.

This has really given me food for thought. I got up too late this morning and missed the cable and euro morning run. Now its channelling again and I wont enter that as it will bite me like it did twice yesterday

Iain did his first real live trade on euro and made 5 pips. He was lucky as it wasn’t a good time to trade. He will do well. He has the right mind and is emotion free. He’s applied for a job with the European Space Agency. I hope he can secure a job with then. Its only a one year contract for newbie masters graduates but I think would be wonderful experience and great on his CV.

GFT are opening a second account for me in my name. I tried to open on jointly for Leigh but he doesn’t have any utility bills going into this country so it wont work. This may be the way to go as I really want to get into staying in trades for longer. I feel more confident as the days go by and once I have settled into the new platform I will be happier still.

Ok back to my platform. I’m steering clear of the euro and cable as its very choppy at the moment

Chat later

Desiree

3rd December

2008-12-27T04:18:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I entered two trades after we spoke but my stops were too short and I was spike out. Had they been bigger – 20 instead of the 8 I would have been fine both times.

Apart from the big drop this morning, it’s not been a great day for trading and the two opportunities I picked were after the announcements. I should have known better than to trade in a channel. The candles looked strong and at a breakout. I entered a buy and then it fizzled out as fast. A while later it looked the same again and wham the same scenario. Before my stops were too big now they are too small. I feel like Goldilocks. I wish I’d find the right bed and get into it. So after the second trade I set up the Dealbook charts and was amazed at how much choice there is when you add other indices to the pot. I’ve been looking at the Euro and Cable with little in them to make me want to trade, yet the other charts have so much variety. I did a couple of demo trades and made money!

I chatted to Darren and he said he’s ready to go live on DealBook. I’m not too sure about a few things so I need to ask some questions before I start to trade.

I asked GFT if I could open a second account and they said absolutely. I’m opening an account for Leigh. I set up the Dow, Ftse, Dax, Aussie 200 and the currencies and then I flicked between the charts. What a difference in trading. The currencies are so choppy and the indices seem more even. I’ve been studying their charts and I’m so grateful for this added opportunity to trade something else.

Leigh didn’t trade again today and is now playing his computer game. It’s bitterly cold here still and promises to get colder. What a wonderful time to sit snuggled in and trade NOT!! I’ve closed the charts for today.

I analysed my demo trading results and although they were much better than I’m doing now, my stops were huge compared to what I’m doing now and my trades always came back and went into profit. I would sometimes widen my stops because I knew the trend was on my side and then when it turned and came back I would reduce them. I see now that was wrong to do. I don’t regret loosing 8 pips in two trades because it could have been worse and I could have lost 20 pips in each trade with the currencies being as they were today. There wasn’t really a trend. Being real money I don’t risk the same amount anymore and that’s why I’ve had this spate of losses.

I’m amazed at my change in attitude. Whereas before losses really crippled me. Now I take them in my stride and accept its early days and I won’t make a master without practice. I also realise to practice on demo isn’t the same unless I want to try out something new. So I’ll keep my stake small and concentrate on pips and not £’s and my attitude is changing. I want to consistently make my 10 pips a day and once I can convince myself I can do this I will be ok. Leigh is amazed at how cool I am with my losses. Before I had sleepless nights, now I chalk it up to experience and the learning curve. So there is progress with me in so many ways and I think my emotions will become more detached as I go along. There are so many sides to trading and I see the similarity with golf.

What I love about your course and your way of approaching trading seems very different to what I’ve seen elsewhere on the net. MTI are all for huge gains and high risk and when they start talking its this typical American in your face stuff. I think the Americans like hype. It turns me off.

Ok that’s all for today. Chat tomorrow

Cheers

Desiree

2nd December

2008-12-27T04:16:00.000-08:00

Tuesday trading broke the spell

Dear John

Well today was better. I traded by myself. Leigh also traded but he never told me when he entered trades. I was hesitant at first not because of the money y because of the money (I have decided I’m putting away money as a training so I have taken a more relaxed attitude) but I was bothered by all the losses.

Trade 1 = 2 pips, trade 2 = 4 pips and trade 3 = 34 pips. Trades 1 and 2 were on the Euro which wasn’t good today but the 34 pips were on cable. We didn’t get into the climb of this morning. We were away from our computers and when we got there it was in a good trade but we couldn’t make out if it was ending the run or not. You did tell me to trade breakouts and I had a trend line indicating break out. Yes the breakout happened as I predicted and over 100 pips were to be made. What fascinated me was that each candle was over 50 pips long and the drops in each candle were 40 pip drops. That is serious volatility and if we’d been in that trade we’d have been re-quoted time and again.

I took the smaller pips today and when it hesitated and I got out. I don’t think the Euro was the correct currency to trade today. I was also in profit almost immediately which again showed me my entry was good albeit short lived.

The 34 pip was showing a decline and we both decided to enter that trade. I went in later than Leigh as I waited for it to retrace more before entering and it did go as much at 15 against me at one point but then it turned and kept going down. I thought to get out at 0 because it was messing about so much between -5 and -10 but when it raced past 0 it was ok to stay in. I then trailed my stop till I was 15 pips in profit. I kept trailing it. I feel very secure when I have my stop in. I’ve had trades that went so fast there was no time for a stop before I got out but when the stop is in place its ok and I can then decide where to get out mentally. When it reached 34 pips I saw it was approaching the support level and the hesitation started again between 32 and 34 pips. When it reached 34 pips and hesitated I said to Leigh I’m getting out and he followed suit. We closed VT immediately and didn’t keep looking in case we were tempted to get in again. I find when I’ve reached my target I’m quite happy to walk away.

Right now I’m concentrating on pips and not $’s I see the sum in my account as pips and that’s helping me to keep the money side away. With my recent losses I’ve got so nervous to loose even more than I’ve not taken the plunge when it looks good but this afternoon with cable I said to Leigh ‘sod it I’m going in’ and I’m glad I did. It feels good to be able to write and tell you I made a few wins.

Working on my own is also better. I have two computers running and I can watch and work. I have set alerts a few pips before my entry point so I can decide what to do. The cable was in an interesting position today. Not only was it in a horizontal channel but there was also a diagonal channel within it. I had trend lines for both and I said to Leigh when it pushes beyond the diagonal trend line it’s a buy and wasn’t it just. We just stood there and gaped. Had I been alone I’d have entered the trade and traded the 5m candle on its own. I really need to separate myself from everything around me.

I want to learn more about the various triangles. I use trend as well as support and resistance lines but know too little about triangles although I do draw them in I need to work out when the breakouts occur. I find at time when there is a strong buy or sell that the support lines give false signals and they cause me to hesitate about going in.

Today I started on the Deal Book 360 tutorial and spoke to GFT a few times. They have assigned Yamile Moss to me and she’s been amazing. I have inconsistencies between my desktop and laptop and the platform doesn’t like two instances running at the same time. VT doesn’t mind if you run your account on more than one machine but I need to work a way round the Deal Book and see if it’s possible. Anyway they showed me how to put the bid and ask lines in and I was even able to help them with a problem they couldn’t work out. So now I’m setting up my charts and trying to get used to the layout. VT has spoilt me but I think I’ll love this too. The few demo trades I’ve done have been super. I will follow all their videos.

Re our conversation and the Dealbook and difficult for beginners. If you teach them DealBook from the getgo they wont know any different and will learn to read the charts from Deal Book. Its only us who’ve been spoilt with VT that know different so don’t be deterred by that. I will help in all ways I can being a newbie myself and I like to keep my workplace clean and simple. Once I get the hang of exporting setups I’ll email them through to you.

I think putting a blog on your site is a brilliant idea. I’ve feel I’ve disappointed you in not reaching my target as I had envisaged. I am still determined to give up my day job and today was a quiet day and I was able to concentrate on the charts and get zoned in. However I think a fall after a good run should be shown to folk that its not all roses and you will have times when things just don’t go right.

Great chatting to you. Hope you win tonight at ten pin bowling

Cheers. I’m off for a walk

Desiree

1st December

2008-12-27T04:14:00.000-08:00

Orders

Ok today wasn’t a good day to put in orders or breakouts. I got both wrong.

I had drawn support lines and set my order to kick in below the support line. I had set my order possibly too low and when it kicked in I got 3 pips and then it went straight back up again and I stopped out at 14. I didn’t want to loose more but at the time I felt if I had possibly had my stop too close when I did it. The trend was very much down and the parabolics looked good to me to get in. I got in when the one separated but obviously my order should have been higher up and not where I had set it. I think I’m giving it too much distance and loosing out on the good stuff before that.

Looking back now with the trend going UP now I’ve decided to call it a day. Enough losses for one day but I’m happy that I was able to control them and not give them more room to mess me about

Talk tomorrow. I shouldn’t trade on Mondays. They always cock up for me

Cheers - Desiree

1st December

2008-12-27T04:12:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Thanks for today’s chat. I will work on breakouts this week. After I spoke to you I had my trend-lines in place on the triangle and where I estimated the break out to be I waited a few pips and then set my order. You can see the arrow. It started well and showed to become a sell and then turned and spiked me out at 17 pips. Looking at it now I can see that it hadn’t completed the triangle and I was wrong to put my order in where I had. I had my stop set at 8 but I could see that wasn’t a good idea. So I moved my stop to the top of the previous candle which would allow for movement and unfortunately it went the other way. I then left it and went for a nap and when I came back saw that my breakout was indeed false and it turned into a buy instead and after a while did indeed drop down into a sell. When I got back it was too late to enter the trade however I could not have set my stop that far ahead to account for movement as it clearly wasn’t ready for the breakout down that I anticipated.

I also had an order set at 1.2623 but I cancelled that as I thought the trend was up. Looking at it now I should have rather used parallel lines for a channel and instead of the triangle and I would have been more accurate. I’m also glad I cancelled that order as the trend is showing a buy again.

I want to concentrate also on limiting my losses. Was I right in giving it more room to 17 pips instead of the automatic 8? It turned at the spike and then went up but the candle looked so good and strong that I made the decision to increase my stop because of that. Had the candle been weak I’d have got out immediately and taken a smaller loss of 7 pips.

I am now going to watch and wait for 130pm and see if another opportunity arises.

Ok that’s me for now. If I have a good trade I’ll get back in touch. I like the idea of setting orders and waiting for confirmation with alerts than watching the charts. Right now I don’t know what to expect and where to put orders.

Chat again later. Have a good one. Its bitterly cold here

Desiree

28th November

2008-12-27T04:11:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I did record trading today – 1 pip. I would have had 8 but the euro is so volatile today that VT wouldn’t let me out the trade three times. I got three re-quotes one after the other and then thought sod it I’m not playing this game right now. Leigh had the same problem but he managed to get 16 pips. We woke up as the euro had plummeted and were not sure if it was going to drop further so we waited for a retracement and then when it went down again got in.

I was about to hit sell when the phone rang and GFT called about my account. From what I could make out on their website you have to trade £10 per pip and I wasn’t having any of that just yet. Then I called them and they came back and said I am allowed to trade £1 per pip and on a £1700 account the max I can trade is £7 per pip. So with that in mind I may go ahead and open an account. First I have to see if Worldspreads have paid me back. They said they have but my bank statement doesn’t show it so I need to check this out online.

I may be flying back to the States next week till Christmas as I need work done to my teeth. I do like being here in the UK with three markets open when I’m wide awake and not falling out of bed to drag myself to the computer to trade.

We are off to town for a bit. Will be back around 5ish if you would like to chat. I have nothing to put in the TA for this week. It’s been a rocky week with platforms and losses. A week I’d like to put behind me and start again. This weekend we’ll go over your first course again for a refresher. We both need it.

Hoping to see my investor friend today if possible. He wrote back and said I’m doing fine and he’d let me know if I have a worry. Watch this space Mr Bartlett.

See ya

Desiree

27th November

2008-12-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

Hello John

Leigh has just come back from Bombay and is sleeping and I’m sitting here watching the euro. I’ve gone into a couple of trades and made 4 and lost 5. I went in on the second trade too late.

Today I am going to work by myself. Although I enjoy working with Darren I feel that I am lead into trades through his decisions and not my own. He’s a good trader and I tend to listen to him and we’ve traded as a team. By doing this I’ve lost my confidence and there have been times when he’s entered trades I’ve stayed out of and he’s made a loss and I just sat and watched and its been vice versa although more me staying out of trades.

I would say to him this is a trade to get in at such and such a point and he’d question me and then wham it takes off and neither of us have entered it. It’s happened time and again. My hesitation kept me out. This happens the other way as well and I stop him entering trades because of my hesitation.

After a lot of thought I’ve decided I need to start trading on my own again and regain what I’ve learned and let the charts talk for me. I find I get into the zone better, see when to keep out of trades and when to get in. My frame of mind is clearer as I’m depending on my own knowledge and for a while I want to do it this way. I did fine on my own before I met him and still did ok when we worked together but by and large I have to be honest and say I do better on my own.

I will still chat to him and discuss trades but I’m finding to be successful I have to be a one man show. He’s not to blame. It’s me. It’s so easy to let someone better than you lead you. You don’t learn like that. When watching you trade, I could have entered the trades as well but I’d have followed you blind and not looked at the facts.

That’s why I watch you and listen and learn. After we end our conversation I think to myself that you are probably saying silly woman here’s a perfect opportunity for her to get into trades yet she watches me. The same with the webinars. I’m done with them. The last one was a disaster and we got out even. Iain went into the trade with us and he said ‘Mom there are no indications that say you must buy here. The opposite, you should be selling. ‘. Iain was right and it made perfect sense. When it got to 0 we heaved a huge sigh of relief. The following day we heard that they lost 35 pips.

Darren is so good and so kind and my nature lets him lead and I follow and by doing that I loose my knowledge. This is not good. So for now I’m fully back to basics to test what I have learned and not be influenced by when to enter and exit trades. Last night I made 5 pips on the DAX while on my own. I felt comfortable. I discussed this with Darren later on and he said he’s tried to get in then but he kept being re-quoted. I think his internet connection in Budapest isn’t great as I never had a single re-quote yesterday. I didn’t close my CMC account and messed about with it and as it allows me to bid smaller amounts I am able to set my stop and trail it. It’s complicated but until I’m ready to trade £10 a pip I will stay with this and VT. VT is my favourite and I may end up keeping one account only. The indices are great and I’ll get there as my knowledge of trading gets stronger again.

I set up the charts on GFT and went into a few demo trades. It is a pleasure trailing your stop. What I wasn’t able to find is the spread band line. I went to support and they were very helpful. They told me my demo account is for a limited time only and once I open my main account I will have access to a demo account as well.

Please bear with me and don’t get frustrated that I’m whimping out. On the contrary I am more determined than ever to get this going but right now I feel as if I’m building a house on beach sand and the sea is eroding the foundation. I will get back on track again but there has been a dip in my confidence and trading and I need to get that back again. I am also going over your first course again. I know I can do it. I’ve proved it to myself and I need a bit of time to get back into the groove.

I managed to find the spread-betting section on GTF and I see I have to open an account with £1700 and also trade at £10 a pip. Ouch. I’m not there yet so for now I will stick with VT. See how you get on with the platform and take it from there. Leigh told me as a non resident in the USA I only pay a very small percentage on a pathetic interest anyway so that’s not an issue. Not at the level I’m trading now. In a few months time I intend adding quite a lot more money into the account so I can bid higher.

Today being Thanksgiving it will be interesting to see what the markets do. They euro is sluggish and in a channel. One thing I’ve learned is when to stay out and the channel is too narrow to make any proper moves. What I’ve done is reduce the charts to a more realistic look. The 1m tends to have long candles and what I’ve done is reduce it so that the spread line is the same thickness as on the 5m chart. That tells a different story. Too often I’ve entered trades when the candles were unrealistically long, looking as if they span 20 pips yet in reality only 5. I use the 1m to get into the trade and then the 5 to stay in. I have to get my entries and exits sorted again. I hesitate too much.

Fear of loosing and when entering the trade that it goes 10 against me before it turns shows I’m entering at the wrong time. Now that I stick to the money management and bid smaller and with realistic stops I feel better and I will increase my stake as my bank increases. A serious case of back to basics. Every trade I entered today I was able to control and twice got out at 0.

It’s warmed up here a bit and the snow has melted. I need to pack now and get ready to head out after lunch to the airport for our flight to EDI. Thank goodness the flight is not that full so we’ll get first class seats. The flight is very short 6 hours and you cant get much sleep but the food is worth staying up for.

We really want you to come to the States and visit. I will get the website going and I want Tanya my daughter to design a cover for the cd for the American market so it’s got a different look to the UK one.

Have a good one

Regards

Desiree

26th November

2008-12-27T04:05:00.000-08:00

Hello John

Thank you for sending me the link to GFT. I am about to look into the tutorials and get acquainted with it. I closed my CMC account completely. I told them I didn’t like their platform and I made some messy trades. I did manage to pick up 4 more pips today. Whoopee doo but I’m happy to be out. The Euro seems to have taken the day off as well.

As soon as I have the new platform installed I’ll get back to you. Trading on the chart is the way to go. It takes the nerve wracking search for stops and such away. Today when I traded I wasn’t able to see what profit I was in. nah that’s not for me

Chat tomorrow. I’m off to the post office to pick up Leigh’s Christmas present. I got him a Leatherman Wave with all the bits. He’s always doing things around the house and he’d never splurge on something like this for himself so I’ll do it instead.

Have a good evening.

All the best as always

Desiree

25th November

2008-12-27T04:03:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Thank you so much for your call today. I felt a whole lot better after our chat. Please do not feel bad about anything. It was all my fault and I should know better with the money management you taught me. You were right in thinking I had a bigger account as I did when I was with Worldspreads but I hadn’t told you that I wasn’t able to increase my VT account until I got home so for now I’m on $500.

I will go over the basic Forex course again and get that embedded on my mind. I will put the scalping away for the time being till I am comfortable trying to scalp again. The course is tremendous but it affected my trading. I doubt this will happen to others but I think in my case I did both courses too close together. They are two different entities and being so new to the trade I am mixing them up and making a right hash of things. If I was more comfortable trading the transition to scalping would have been a breeze but my trading skills are still too erratic and that’s why I need to go back to basics. I don’t mind. I do like the idea of entering a trade and letting it work for me. Had VT not done what it did I’d have made over 60 pips on the rally but I console myself there are always more opportunities and that’s a great feeling that you never miss the bus.

I went in on the Dow and made 59 pips. I trailed my stops and at one point I was 88 pips in profit. Then just after I moved my stop to the allowed limit the Dow turned and shot up and I stopped out at 59 pips. After we chatted I saw Darren was online and he showed me how to trail the stop. It is very complicated especially if you don’t intend being in the trade for long. I had so many windows open I was in a knot. Also every time you want to trail your stop you have to cancel the one previous one and open a new one. I did this 4 times. I can see why folk don’t put in stops on CMC and try to stop mentally. It took me several minutes to see what I was making. At one point I had 5 windows open!

After that I watched the charts and went back to VT. Then I went into a buy on the euro. It shot up to 16 pips profit before I could put my stop in. When I wanted to add a stop it wouldn’t allow me and the platform froze on me. So I had to shut it down and open it again. I reopened the VT and decided to take my 16 pips which had in the meantime gone down as far as -4 and then up to 16 again. It would not let me out the trade. It hung up on me again. By the time I got out I was 3 pips in profit. I went into two further trades after rebooting the computer a second time and with both trades I was more than double in profit yet when I wanted to get out it froze and I lost half my pips (16 pips both times). So on the euro today I made 18 pips and the Dow 59. I am happy with my gains and feel scared to trade more today because of the unreliability of VT today. Every time I tried to view my report on VT I got a fatal error. To me this is a sign to call it a day.

So now I’m working on my day job and will watch the charts. As soon as I’m back in the UK I want to put more money into the account because trading with such small amounts is painful but at least its allowing me to build up again albeit slowly.

Leigh will be in Bombay around noon my time. I have a dentist appointment at 1 so I am now going to sit back and let things run. The Dow and the Dax both look sideways to me right now and I’m happy to stay out. It was amazing how fast the Dow shot up 100 points. The 5 minute chart looked like a 1m chart.

Have a good day and chat to you later on again. Thank you for everything. I owe you so much because you have changed my life. I have gone from being frustrated and heading towards burnout in my day job to being revitalised and so full of energy and to think that with all my messes and platform issues I’m not giving up and I’ve learned a lot about myself. I don’t give up when I know I’m onto something good. I still dream of trades and charts and never once think of failure or losses. Even after a bad day I will go over entry and exit points in my head and imagine winning trades. One book on psychology I read said you have to think this way if you want to be a trader. It comes naturally to me to think positively. My parents brought us up to always see the half full cup.

Cheers - Desiree

24th November

2008-12-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I should never trade on a Monday. But I did and started the day off ok with 4 pips. I set my one click to $5 and when I went into the first disastrous trade I knew realistically I wasn’t able to set the proper stop for $5 that I should be able to weather comfortably on a lower amount. So I lost half my money by getting out when I would usually have stayed in and weathered it and ended up in profit as it turned back in my direction. The trend is up today but the spikes against me were too big for a comfortable $5 trade. So I lost royally and I have put more money into my account to compensate. I’m 100% to blame for today’s fiasco.

Tomorrow I will go back to basics and start again. I have put the 1m chart away completely and not use it as an entry signal as I did today. I will regain my confidence levels and bid very low and make my regular pips and feel ok setting bigger stops especially when I know the trend is in the right direction. I got into a panic with my second trade and ended up putting a 1 = $10 the manual way and that cancelled my other trade and put me into a trade going the wrong way. That was a double whammy but I was in a panic and got out instead of letting it regain and come back again.

I feel pressured and I now know I am not ready for $8 a pip. I have to carry on for a while with a smaller amount to get my trading back on track. I’m not jumping ship; I am going back to the basics of money management. As my income grows so my pip size will increase. Once I have made consistent wins again I will increase it but for now I’m making one cock up after another. Taking a step back I can see that I’m not coping with the pressure I’m under and so I’ll have to go back and take smaller steps and it’s going to take me a while to regain my losses. But that’s past and tomorrow is a brand new trade. That is something I’ve learned.

This will take time and I have to take a deep breath and start again. Am I despondent? Yes a bit but I’m not put off and as in snakes and ladders, I hit a snake and went down to the bottom only to have to start again. I’ll get there. I also have to look at the bigger picture and gain some perspective. I will do it. It’s easy to make pips, as easy to loose them and as easy having to start again. If trading was that simple we’d all be traders.

I am annoyed with myself for going against my principles and what I’ve learned from money management by bidding higher than I have in my bank to put bigger stops on and not panic if it goes against me.

My goal is to resign end of the year and trade full time. Maybe I’m not good enough to go full time. Thank goodness I have any private clients that boost my income. The main job is going to decrease substantially as from January from a full time position to only 8 days a month. They will offer me a new contract but unless it’s financially beneficial to me I won’t take it on. This will give me more time to study the charts and get in at the right time and not jump on after the train has left the station. So many times I miss opportunities because I’m working and what I should be doing is either work and pack the charts away or pack my work away and concentrate on the charts. Doing both together doesn’t work.

Mostly I feel I’ve let you down, I feel I’ve let everyone down and that the book is being delayed but I guess this is one more chapter in the rise of a newbie trader, warts and all.

Leigh is off to Bombay tonight USA time and gets back 8am on Thursday. Our plan is to fly to EDI Thursday night. I’ll then be home till after Christmas and return here for a week or two. Iain flies to Oregon tonight so I’m home alone with my trading for a few days. I’ve packed VT away for today and won’t look again till tomorrow.

Chat to you tomorrow, have a good evening and hopefully when I speak to you in the morning I’ll have gained some pips. As I’m alone I will get up earlier and settle in studying VT before my day begins

Cheers - Desiree

21st November

2008-12-27T03:55:00.000-08:00

Hi John

This week’s trading for me was a mess. Most frustrating was that I didn’t have the proper time to devote to it. My day job got in the way and I missed good opportunities. Then coming to grips with the VT cost me valuable pips so all in all I’m not happy with this weeks results. Today I got stopped out at 8 pips and that didn’t bother me as it showed the VT stops are a lot closer than they are on the demo platform. You could say this week was another learning curve for me. I also found out you can get into a one click trade on VT and then get out manually. However you do get a re-quote using the manual way as well if there is volatility.

I closed the Worldspreads account and opened the CMC Markets account. I will do the CMC tutorials this weekend and familiarise myself with stops and limits. Darren did show me but I got it horrible wrong. I’m glad I didn’t get into any trades while you traded as I’d not have been able to set any stops.

The week ended on a very special note for me. Probably the highlight since I’ve started trading. Trading with you was a revelation and I am so grateful for the opportunity. Watching you enter on the second candle and being shown when it moves away from the Bollinger band and when to get in. I shared your lesson with Darren and he followed what you did and made £300 profit after our discussion. I was very happy for him as it put a very positive end to his week. When I spoke to him a few moments ago he was so excited. I felt as if I’d won as well because he put this new knowledge to the test and the results were all positive. When I spoke to him at 1am this morning he was so down after his losses.

There is nothing like watching a pro at work. I have been following the course religiously but actually watching you trade is worth the course many times over. You could charge people to watch you trade. I’m wondering when you redo the beginners’ course if you could put in actual trades to demonstrate what you are teaching. You have them on the scalping course but to see you in action is the best teacher. Ever thought of doing what you did for me this afternoon and charging people for the privilege? I think you’ll have many interested parties. It just brings you back on track if you get side tracked and forget the basics.

I spent the afternoon before my dental visit watching the Dow and Dax with Darren and it’s so different to the currencies. I will enjoy trading these new markets as well. I love the opportunity to do something else if currencies are flat. The euro didn’t do much for me today except stop me out. When I watched you do the Dow it showed me there is more out there.

Darren paid me the biggest complement. He said I have such discipline with my trading. I call it fear J . You know what I’m looking forward to? Looking back a few months down the road to see how far I’ve come.

Last night MTI had another live trading session. What a crock o’ shit. They did the cable and set stops 35 pips away and the limit 35 pips. Well it was clear that the cable was on the way up and they put in a sell. Only for a few seconds were they in profit and then it turned into a buy. They tell you in their presentation that their course is $5995 and is going up in the New Year. They also said they give these live trading sessions to help people recoup some of the package price back. Well good luck to them. I have done two of their live trading sessions this week and both were as disaster. If I’d gone to bed and left the trades to run their course I’d have no money to speak of today. I also note that they now speak of trading as a ‘secondary’ income.

They’ve changed their tune. I bet someone got onto their case. I will not be suckered into their so called deals. The funny thing is that when you’ve attended 3 of their trading sessions you are denied access to any more. I can see why. 1 out of three wins doesn’t give for very understanding clients. I had to laugh, they asked people to raise their hands who were interested in the packages. I bet after last nights trade many of those hands were lowered.

And you know despite this week’s poor performance with my losses and learning to use a new platform again plus all the changes that go with it, I am FIRED up for next week. I am not despondent. Listening to Darren and watching you makes me itch to get in there boots and all and trade. I wish I’d traded with you today but I am also very glad I didn’t as I was able to give you 100% attention to what you were doing and not panic if I lost money. Thank you SO much.

Next week I will set the night traps on VT. I now know how they work and will set them 20 pips either side. Looking back over the past weeks this is definitely a good entry point.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to trying your fish and chips. I also give good haircuts so if you need one when we get to France I’ll keep most of your hair intact J

Kindest regards and thank you again. - Desiree

19th November

2008-12-27T03:48:00.000-08:00

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.

15th November

2008-12-27T03:32:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Sorry I didn't get this to you yesterday. Attached is my analyser for theweek. I will start a new one using the USA chart next week. I added all my trades for this week as well as the 4 done on the VT. Yesterday was quite an eye opener to me (I've never had so many in years)and I managed to get out at a loss of $44 - 22 pips. I guess if I had waited I'd have come out at a profit but wasn't going to risk any more money.

I practiced on the demo after this mishap and worked out what was wrong. Thank goodness Leigh was here to help me. I was in a panic and his calm way of telling me I was screwing up didn't produce a loving response from me. VTcouldn't do much for me (they are not quite au fait with the new platform yet) and I did submit a ticket but not sure they will do anything about it.I'm not fussed. I made three trades. A $33 and $18 in profit and 1 @ $44loss making my daily profit for the day $7. In two days I've made $187 so Iwas happy with that. Losing doesn't hurt so much anymore. It's all partof the business. View it as a bad debt.

I'm disappointed in Worldspreads and let's see if they refund me. Darren hada few mishaps with them again yesterday as well and I think he'll close his account and concentrate on his other account in the UK. Having traded with him for three weeks, this past week he spent a lot of time on the phone to them to get him out of trades. I also want to concentrate a bit more on Tornado for longer runs. I needthe short term trading to fulfil my trading desire and cardio workout. Leigh did some really good trades using it and I went into three trades using Tornado and I like it.

Darren wants to find out more about it as well and we've a conference call organised for this weekend to go over Tornado. I ams o excited about this. I get more fired up every day. I never ever think of trading as a losing experience. When I lie in bed I think of winners and how I can improve on what I'm doing. I am good at telling Leigh and Darren when to get into good trades and when and why to keep out. Why can't I uset hat same knowledge on myself? Leigh was getting disheartened with his losses but once he got stuck into Tornado there was no holding him back.

Canyou send me your paypal email link so he can pay you for the course please? Once his pay cheque comes in he wants to pay for his course. Darren was in awe of Leigh picking up 50,60, 70 pips at a time and we are battling to get our few wee pips in.

What a week, but I'm chuffed to bits with VT.

Sally Nicholl wrote to me. I see she read my email to you re the book. This is what she wrote to me
"Hi Desiree,

John Bartlett was kind enough to forward me the email you sent him that mentions my book Bets and the City. I'm so pleased you enjoyed it... and delighted to know it kept you awake! Hope you enjoyed it beyond the first four chapters.... and that you'll be able to profit by not repeating all thebeginner mistakes I made. Are you enjoying your trading? And making money? Good luck with it all. If you want to find out more about me and my (lessreckless, these days!) trading, check out my website at www.sallynicoll.com And if you have a moment to do me a quick review on amazon, that would begreatly appreciated! Best wishes, Sally x "

Ok off to do the ironing for the week. Leigh is working on his son's bedroomand Iain arrives from Boston later on today. If you could come to the States and give a course that would be brilliant. We could make it either in Newark which is just outside NYC or in Philadelphia which is an hour's drive fromhere and you can stay here. Interesting prospects. Let's work on them.

Leighwanted a new business venture and how he's got one and he believes in what you do so it could go well. Have a good weekend. It's pouring here. Cheers Desiree

14th November

2008-12-27T03:27:00.000-08:00

Dear John

It was such fun chatting to your on Skype and I hope you have hours of fun with your WII. I am also looking forward to designing a website for learntrading and we bought the domain name learntrading.us. Leigh is very excited to get this show on the road. He’s a good salesman and believes in your courses so much that I think he’ll have a great time selling it. Also pilots are always whinging about their money and made do trade so lets see if we can peddle this to them as well.

Now back to trading. I reinstalled the VT and latest JAVA and rebooted. Then I decided to test it and went onto the 30 minute cable to put in a longer running trade. I had set the one click on my demo account and although the charts all transferred nicely from the demo to the live platform, the one click didn’t and so when I clicked sell I nearly took off when I saw I was$100 in the red. I froze and Leigh said let this ride as the trend is on my side. I sat watching this totally dumbstruck and within a minute I was in profit and then it gave me 18 pips within about a minute. Leigh said get out don’t be greedy and I have to admit I was happy to get out.

Actually he had said get out when I reached zero but the candle was rushing down so fast I thought nope I’ll sit this one out. I should have trailed my stop and I’d have been 30 pips in profit but the shock of going in at $10 a pip insteadof the $1 as I wanted to test the platform certainly got my attention. So a valuable lesson. Even though your demo settings are transferred to the live platform the one click does transfer but the default lot amount of $10still applies. I had intended trading on $1 a pip but ended up trading at$10 a pip which was a terrible shock. If I had been trading the 1 minutechart I’d have lost my nerve but looking at the broader picture certainly helps.

I learned something else. When it’s looking good like today it’s only really a mindset between $10 and $5 and $1. Trading $10 on the demo was a nobrainer its different in real life. But with the pound falling like it is it won’t feel any different to trading £5 a pip which is what I’ve been doing lately. I am going to use the Tornado more. Maybe for longer trades on one currency and do hands on trading on another currency. The cable on VT is a 4 pip spread but those 4 pips meant zip. I am so glad my first trade on theVT was in profit.

Starting off on Worldspreads with two losses in a row was such a psychological downer. Darren and I have been using the 1 minute chart as entry and exits but wef ound we started relying on the 1 minute instead of 5 minute. Every few days we have to go back to basics and it always works. I’m done trading for the day. I’m off to play. Chat tomorrow Cheers Desiree

13th November

2008-12-27T03:24:00.000-08:00

HI John

Yes that is nice. I really think you need to branch out into the USA market as well using the VT. Its so user friendly. With Worldspreads the way itis maybe you can tailor your courses to be more worldwide. People are ready for you here. Possibly have a .com version of your site for USA viewers. And if postage is a problem I'll mail them out from here. I fly over every two weeks. You have an excellent product. The prices they charge here are crazy.

My VT account is open but I will start small. I also have a lot of work towade through today do until I have that off my back I cant concentrate on the trading. Yesterday were some lovely opportunities. Yes Leigh has losses. Poor guy. He's trading $1 a pip but felt rather go in using real money than the demo. He'll learn. I need to get hold of VT because when I enter a 1 click trade it opens two. I have desensitized my mouse in case that is the problem. They are so good and attentive I will like working with them Enjoy your time off. Sales will pick up again. Ok back to the grind stone for me Chat later Desiree

13th November

2008-12-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

Hi John

How has your day been? Mine has been frustrating. A true lesson in patience!! I had so much work today from my day job that it's coming on for 5pm and I've still not traded. However I did open my charts and wanted to put in a cable sell on tornado and I got a java error saying there was a security problem. So I had to reinstall VT2 and get the latest java, reboot and now I'm hoping it will be fine. I don't want to test it without a sell/buy opportunity.

On the other hand lord muck here is doing famously with tornado. If he'd listened to me he'd have bagged an additional 61 pips today but he's been entering only on the tornado and picking up pips in one morning that takes me a month to do., needless to day he's recovered all his losses and a nice healthy profit. When it spikes he goes out, bags what he has and then goes in again.

Cable did a massive spike today taking him to 77 pips in less than5 minutes. He set his stop and wanted it to run for the day but I suggested he take that money and get in again. He didn't and so only got 20 pips which are fine too. Since then he's gone into several more trades and picks pipsup like we took ticks off our dogs. I will keep you posted. Frustrating but a lesson in patience. I reallythink for the good trades tornado is the way to go. You need to up yourprice on that one. It's brilliant.

With Leigh pfaffing around the house hecan't keep watching the screen. He sets alerts , comes to check and wham he's 10 in profit instantly. I think the shorter trading is fun but it takes up a lot of time

Sooo back to the drawing board, check my charts, see which currency is tanking or rising and then put a long term trade on that. I guess I need to lower my stake as I'll be trading less money? Then I can trade on the other currencies. It's like having a new baby in the house. What works best to keep it quiet and happy. If I make headway with VT I'll be back Kind regards Desiree

12th November

2008-12-27T03:11:00.000-08:00

Dear John

Apologies for not writing yesterday. After my Worldspreads fiasco I took the day off and had the carpet layers come and in generally walked away from trading. I sent Worldspreads a detailed letter and they came back and said this will take a few days to sort out as they have to test the software glitches that may have happened during my complaints etc. I am not holdingout on a refund. It’s cost me £140 so far. I blame myself as I’m a new trader but Leigh literally stood over me when three of the cock ups occurred and saw it wasn’t me. Now to prove it to them. Is it worth the fight? Nah,take it as a loss, get used to losing and realise the next trade is another opportunity. I see this as learning to walk. Baby steps and once I find my groove I’ll be ok.

I keep hearing my mom saying Lehrgeld (German for tuition). Then today I tried to trade but got out at 0. Darren went into a trade and I was on VT. Worldspreads froze and he got out at a loss. Then he went into another trade a while later and it froze again but he called them and they took him out at 25 pips profit. John I can’t work like that. I can’t keepcalling them if their platform freezes. I can’t depend on their cock ups tomake money. It makes it difficult for me to gauge what is my good trading or a screw up that made me money.

Darren’s two freezings this morning firmly encouraged me to contact them andwithdraw my money. I have left a £100 in the account and may work on smaller amounts. To be honest I will wait and see if they improve their platform and then see if I want to go back to them. I have put in $2500 into VT. I had an idea and not sure if this will help you. Can you on your course mention that you use Worldspreads but that there are other companies? This way you free yourself from possible criticism and you then concentrate on the scalping and not the platform itself? It’s up to folk then if they want to use VT or something else. Also this way you can see your course in theUSA.

Until my money is in the account I will trade on Leigh’s account. He’s mades ome losses so I am going to work on that getting used to the trading platform and take it from there. Yesterday after 4pm when Worldspreads went to 3 pips there was a super sell and if I was trading I could have made good money. I’ve always stopped at 4pm but realise now with the VT I can really adjust my trading times. Then I don’t have to get up at 4am in the USA and can chill out and trade when it suits me.

Leigh prefers the Tornado and I am looking more seriously at that now as well. That’s all for now John chat to you later on, hope you are enjoying your time in France. Its’ freezing here Cheers Desiree

12th November

2008-12-27T03:08:00.000-08:00

Hi John

This is an email I wanted to share with you. Regards Desiree _____ From: Katerina Noreli [mailto:knoreli@cmsfx.com] Sent: 12 November 2008 18:54
To: 'Desiree Bruce'Subject: CMS-Forex

Great Desiree, I know John Bartlett- he is one of my favorite clients-please tell him "Hello" for me! I certainly made note in my files that you are his referral. He should get credit also for sending you here. Stay well Sincerely, Katerina Noreli

10th November

2008-12-27T03:06:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I have gone through the process of opening a live VT account. I will startwith $2000 and then add to it. I also wrote to Worldspreads and will call them tomorrow. Let them start their day with my email!! I know one must never blame the software but this is happening too often for comfort. Chat tomorrow when I know more. Thank you for the referral Kind regards Desiree

10th November

2008-12-27T03:03:00.002-08:00

Hi John

Today wasn't a good day trading. Worldspreads got stuck when I was 6 pips inprofit and when I went out I lost 1 pip. Then I made 3 pip profit and gave it a rest till an opportunity arose again. Then I went into trade and set mystop and Worldspreads didn't kick me out at my stop so I went further than I had stopped. I then made at 2 pip profit. I have decided I will use the VT. The charts don't mess you about likeWorldspreads.

I rather pay tax on my earnings than go through too much of this. Darren also had to call them twice because of hitches. This is making me loose confidence in my trading. Leigh is doing so nicely on the VT. He goes in with the 1 click and gets out and has made super profits while we went and lost money. As soon as I hear from you I will get the VT account set up. It takes 2 days and I'd like to be up and running latest end of this week Have a good evening. I'm thoroughly pissed with myself for even bothering to trade when WS was mucking me about. I kept saying this my fault I should know better and then I look across to Leigh and he's merrily in and out of a trade taking profit. Chat tomorrow Regards Desiree

10th November

2008-12-27T03:03:00.001-08:00

Hi John

Worldspreads got stuck again today and I lost 1 pip which is a no brainer. Please would you send me the friend referral link so that I can get the ball rolling with VT. I watched Leigh trade on it last night and its so much easier and he was able to control his stops so nicely. I think I’d be happier dealing with them. As they are also spread betting I guess the tax laws are the same

Chat to you soon. Its freezing here

Kind regards

Desiree

8th November

2008-12-27T02:37:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Well I didn’t trade again today. I was too busy with work and that frustrated me. I had a good day with Darren and he seemed a lot calmer today and we went back to basics and kept in mind what we have learned and put it to work. You know that’s the only way to go. We had good entries not so goodexits –, as we still get out too early but it was a much calmer day trading.

I explained to him my feelings and I said this to me is my bread and butter and roof over my head. I need to be careful and not try risky tactics until I’ve perfected them on the demo. I have to hand it to him, he is one of the nicest people I’ve met and so humble.

I have a funny story. This afternoon Darren and I wanted to enter a sell trade at 50. When it got down to 50 I said to him to wait. He said why andI said I didn’t like the hesitation, the look of the shadows etc. It had shot down and passed the support line at 52 and in all intents and purposes a good entry. My words were not cold when it shot up over 80 pips in seconds. If we had clicked sell at that point we’d not have had time to even get our stop in as it went up so fast. At the top I said lets sell as it came down so nicely but we didn’t.

I prefer trading spikes on the 5 minutechart but this one was a real classic and even on the 1 minute was workable.It was such a surprise and we had a good laugh because Darren was puzzled by my reluctance to enter the trade and then wham this happened. Actually as he said why it shot up and I said mm that’s why Darren. I made my trade before I spoke to Darren and basically was done for the day. I used the 1 minute as my entry. I much prefer watching the deal ticket in Worldspreads to thecharts on VT as the numbers and the rate they move have more impact with meand help in making my decision to get in and especially out of a trade. plusVT is so often out of sync with Worldspreads especially when there is massive movement.

Darren and I have worked out why we leave trades too soon. Whenever we’ve gone into a trade that has gone 20 against us before turning around by the time it reaches 0 we are so relieved we take what profits we can and heave a huge sigh of relief. This is a sure sign we enter trades at the wrong time.When we enter trades and it only goes about 6 or 10 against us before turning around, we are relaxed when we get into profit and then are prepared to let the trade run.

A perfect example was today. Darren wanted to get inat 192 for a sell and I suggested he wait because it was right at the tip ofthe candle just out of the shadow. I suggested he wait till it goes back to 201. He was itching to get in but he saw the logic so when it reached 202 hewent in and had a lovely 30 pip run down into profit. It went into profit almost immediately and he was able to trail his stops. This proved to both of us how important right entries are. Leigh got in on a spike yesterday and had his ass handed to him. Thank goodness he was on the demo.

Today I only traded the euro and felt comfortable trading it. Cable to me is too volatile and unless it’s a good clear run you can really get into hotwater because each candle fluctuates so much. In comparison the euro is so much slower and like an old donkey in comparison. But saying that after the news came out this afternoon the euro went mad for several hours and the 30minute chart was a mess.

This morning at 5am EST - 10am UK time I drew some trend lines and at close of day those trend lines were still accurate. I had a trend line on the 30 minute and it never went over the resistance line all day. So a good indication that the trend was down. Last night I thought a lot about putting trades in, giving them room to breathe and then trading shorter time frames on another currency. I need to work this one out andI’ll go over your course again to get me into a longer term trade. It makessense and makes more money too.

We also had an internet outage which made me reluctant to enter another trade for a while. This is scary as here in the sticks these things happen.So all in all I am happy with my 14 pips and more so that they were made in one trade. Monday it’s up to £5 a pip. I wanted to trade £5 today but the opportunity to trade again didn’t materialise.

VT is down now and we can’t get into Leigh’s live account and that will be put on hold till Monday. I do hope the live accounts are in better shape than the demos.

My friend Carolyn Stuart in Perth will be ordering the basic Forex forbeginner’s course soon. She will have it delivered to my home address as she’s at work all day. It will be interesting watching her trade as she can’t trade all day. She will need to place her orders before work and thenl et the trade work for her during the day. I told her I’d be on standby for any help she needs. Her son Adrian is also interested and she’s getting thecourse as a Christmas present to herself and her kids. Let’s see if she cando it. She needs to make £175 a week. I hope so. She doesn’t make much money but I am fully aware that not everyone can trade so I’m keeping an openmind. She’s had a good scout around your website.

My friend Carrie Thorne from Namibia said she has written. Has her email arrived yet? She wants the same course. I think she’ll do well. She wrote to the Puriton address. Carolyn will write this weekend and then place the order online. Attached please find my two trading analysers – the real one and the simpler one Iain designed. I’ve made a mistake in calculation because Iain’s one says I have less money than I actually have. I’ve asked Darren to send me his so I can make a screen shot of it like the ones I attached. Ok that’s all for today. Have a safe trip across the wee pond. Can’t wait to see your home in France. Kindest regards Desiree

8th November

2008-12-27T02:33:00.000-08:00

Hello John

Thank you so much for your time today. I went for a long walk yesterday and discussed my strategy and trading methods with Leigh and came to the conclusion once again I have to trade what I feel comfortable with. I felt disheartened end of day yesterday despite my 16 pips but after a good nightssleep I woke up feeling ready to ride this baby again and do well.

After our chat I set up my charts and studied them with Leigh. I then entered a trade very calmly on my own. Set my stop to 20 but it didn’t even get past 6 which told me my entry point was ok and then it turned and I made a slow and steady 14 pips in one trade. I traded at £4 a pip. I will now increase it to £5. I feel calm, I feel can do it and I feel I’m back in myzone.

I did write to Darren and I will talk to him today as I love to share ideas with him but if I don’t trade again today, I’m happy, I reached mytarget. I also went back to the euro and it moves slower and with less bounce than the cable which I know makes you more money. I also want to start trailing my stops more. I got in at 89 and had my stop 20 up. I then moved it to 79 when I got down to 75 and when it got down to 71 I said I’d get out at 74. My mental stop was 75 but it started bopping between 76 and 74 for about 30 seconds and then I took my profits.

It was agood time to get out as its changed direction and I now have work to do and will sit it out till a very good opportunity presents itself. If it doesn’t that’s cool too. Last Friday I also went out on 14 pips. Yeah this is doable I feel good and the resignation letter is starting to
form in my mind. Leigh did a great demo trade today.

The VT live account will be available for real trading on Monday. So then we are both on a roll. To Leigh whether he trades $5 or $10 or even $20 a pip doesn’t have the same mental pull that it does for me. It’s a pleasure watching him trade. His pilot check lists come into play I’ll send an update later on if there is new news Regards Desiree

6th November

2008-12-27T02:17:00.000-08:00

Dear John

Today to my mind was a weird day for trading. I didn’t feel very confident at everything went haywire after the announcement this morning. In fact it went crazy for the whole day and the 30 minute chart was proof enough to show nobody really knew which way to go. It was in a lovely channel of 100 pips but cable fluctuates so much within candles that you can be seriously battered about. I was very impressed by Darrens guts to trade and he went into trades I’d not even think about but I watched and he came out smiling more often than not.

I am too cautious a trader to take these risks but I am willing to learn all I can. He was happy to risk 5 to 10 pips on every trade but I kept thinking that will be £10 per pip for me and I’m way too chicken to try that.

I did trade and I had two successful runs of 8 pips each. I will go onto the £5 a pip tomorrow. I stuck with £4 today mostly because I was so bemused with the trend of rather lack of trend today that I wasn’t willing to go swimming. As I get more confidence I will venture in longer but I keep the 10 pips and anything else a bonus in my head and I’m happy. I’m happy that I got 2 runs of 8 pips each and in the second trade is only went 10 against me before coming back.

I find the euro a safer bet for me. Its slower, maybe less pips but not the heart stopping stuff that cable chucks at me constantly. With time I will gain the experience to trade cable but I think Darren is far more experienced than me to play with fire like that. Tomorrow I’m hopeful it will be quieter and I can get into more assured runs.

Today was a scalping day and Darren spent most of his time buying and selling. To me that is going against the trend and I was too nervous to risk money doing that. His reasoning made perfect sense and I look forward to hearing what you think of his ideas. I feel Darren needs to spread his wings and I worry I’m holding him back. He is so kind and I have a very soft spot for him but today I felt so out of his league I lost confidence to even enter any trades. After we said our good byes I went in and got my 8 pips. Then I said that’s me for today and now I’m putting pen to paper to you

Have a great evening. I’m still working this side and will be for a few hours more. I CANT WAIT to give up my day job. I know I will be more focussed when that happens but John I am starting to think of every trade I enter as being a tenner and that’s why I tend to be cautious and only enter trades when I feel they are safe. There are plenty of opportunities for safe trades during the day and I’m prepared to wait for them. Am I a chicken? My parrot seems to think I am !!! Back to the euro for me

Cheers - Desiree

5th November

2008-12-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

Hello John It was good chatting to you this morning.

I went in at £4 a pip and made two losses however I was cautious and got out at -16 and -20 at each point.The currencies are messing us about today. Then I went in for cable at 1.2772 and Worldspreads got stuck. I was in profit 25 pips and the deal ticket still said 1.2772. so I called Worldspreads and they took me out at 1.2797 and I made 25 pips.

I asked what’s wrong and they said their system has crashed and they are having to take folk out manually. They said not to trade anymore till the system is up and running again. I think they are in chaos right now as I had to wait to get put through to them. When I spoke to the chap he laughed and said their phones are ringing off the hook.

Darren is talking to them as I write this as he’s in a similar trade and can’t get out. So for today I am only -11 negative. I kept my cable at £4 a pip and shouldhave gone down to £3 but I thought no I am in control and will ride this.

The VT and Worldspreads are not in sync which is causing a lot of problems and so I will now sit tight until things are up and running again. W/spreads said that this will take quite a while to sort out so I’ll take breather and relax knowing in am now only 11 pips down on the day I went to bed at 8pm last night. I’m still in UK mode and I was awake at 3. I decided why lie here not sleeping when I could be checking my charts and possibly trading. So when you called I was all bright and breezy and happy to be online working away.

The office in Perth were seriously confused as they wrote back and said ‘go back to bed its 3am!!’ Both losing trades I did today showed all the indicators were on my side when I went in. I entered at the right time and then it went against me almost immediately. It was quite a shake up to not rely on the indicatorsall the time. I can’t work out whether it was the charts being out of sync or me. Either way I’m giving it a rest for now and then will see what happens later on today.

I’ll carry on this email in a few hours time. Have a safe trip back home Later…. Trading came to a grinding halt. I am £4 in profit for today. Someone hacked through the cable outside Worldspreads successfully cutting them off from their server and with that any more trading for the day. Thank goodnessI ended on a profit after my two disastrous losses. I have to get used to losses. They irk me and I feel a failure when I make one. This is something I have to come to grips with and I will. I wasfortunate to make money after the two losses and just about recovere verything but taking Monday and Tuesday into account I’m only up £4.

Iwill see if they do come back online later on and if I can get into the zone I may trade cable. There is a lot of movement today and the pound is recovering nicely against the dollar. If I don’t trade again today that’s also ok. I’ll go take a nap instead Kind regards Desiree

4th November

2008-12-27T02:08:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Desiree Bruce has recommended that I contact you regarding the forex course that she is busy with.

I am in Namibia and have been on the website and feel that its something that I can really get my teeth into without getting "taken over"?! I worked on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange some years back and enjoyed the trading process but not the sales kill... so to do something like this with my own funds and nurture it will be more worthwhile.

Is there any reading material or specific websites that you can recommend me and how can I place an order from here? I am a bit concerned about the postage as we have had problems before. Payment can be done via internet or credit card.

Many thanks - Carolyn du Preez

Hi Carolyn best contact me via www.skype.com my name is forexshepherd - John Bartlett

4th November

2008-12-27T02:01:00.000-08:00

Dear John

We’ll I’m in the USA now and jet lag had me at my desk at 5am until midday my time. Darren met up with me at the same time and we did some good trading. We missed out of a perfect opportunity as we got out too early. I made 6 pips and I watched this puppy fall big time. Anyway I had lost my rhythm so I waited for an opportunity as I felt that there were so many support levels that it threw me. Hindsight I could see I was wrong. But thatis history and this is now.

Then at 4pm when cable went to 3 pips it tumbled and I went in again and made 10 pips. Darren made 30 as he stayed in longer. So for today I am up 16 pips. I’m also working solely from my laptop and I have to get used to the smaller candles to what I’ve become used to on my desktop.

Darren and I have also learned and its confirmed not to trade just to trade.unless the opportunity is there we don’t hit sell or buy. We have got this down well. Now we have to learn to ride the trades longer and we’ll be in serious profit. I am not concerned as I can see we are very much on our way.We are more relaxed, our approach is very clear and we do not enter trades unless all the signs show us its safe to go in. today was a perfect example with the euro. It showed a sell but the MACD was too horizontal for my liking and so we kept out. Of course once we closed down for the day it plummeted but tomorrow is another day.

We went over our target and you know I am very happy to get out then. I don’t feel the need to jump in and cash in on some more pips. I keep thinking there are many more opportunities like this and we had that shown today us today. We were ready to call it a day with my 6 and Darrens 3 and then cable dived and we went in calmly and I went out when I reached 10 pips.

What really excited me was by this stage the spread was up to 3 and it made no difference to our trading. We wentinto profit immediately and rode it But this is Monday. We have the week ahead of us and I am 16 pips in profit. I feel good. I beat my daily target of 10 yet again. My account isnow running at £1,189. I am still on £3 a pip. Shall I up it to £4?

I feel very comfortable at £3 but I was happy at £4 as well Hope to connect with you soon. Have a great evening. Leigh and I are about to head out and buy grout forour kitchen floor tiles. Then this afternoon its back to basics and working our home I am attaching my proper trading analyser for you to go over Kind regards Desiree

31st October

2008-12-27T01:58:00.000-08:00

Dear John

This afternoon I watched a demonstration webinar on the new VT platform version 2. This is very different to the one we have and from what I can gather is that the existing one we have now on our machines will be phasedout. If you have it installed you I presume can continue to use it but obviously if you run into problems support may not be available anymore. If you get new students this is the only platform they will be able to download. The said that they are encouraging all their current users to change over.

Its very good, very user friendly and I like the one click entry to trades.I have not installed it but Iain has and he is really enjoying it. You can also use it on the move. For instance you can install it onto a portable external drive and then pop it into other computers and run it successfully from that drive. And if you are addicted to trading .. Then you can have it on your pda too. Wow weeeee.

Once I have it installed which will hopefully be tonight I'll report back.You are also able to have both the existing VT as well as the new one on your machine. It will not overwrite the old one. Iain has a question for you. He is not that keen on Worldspreads and prefers to open an account with VT. I still think he should open one with Worldspreads. My question is will he have to pay tax in this country on his wins seeing this is also trading with a spread? Kind regards from a freezing Perth. Desiree

Great Report Yes Definitly to £4 - Going back to UK today Run out of StockJB

31st October

2008-12-27T01:42:00.000-08:00

From Darren

Hi John it has been another profitable week but only just. I managed to finish the week £101 up. My analyzer is attached to this email. I had a interesting conversation with Desiree today and we both believe that the 1minute chart is cutting us to shreds. The both of us make a great team and we both have a serious aim to pack up the day job and do this thing full time. I feel that the passion is there and that's why I believe you invest alot of time into us because you see it also.

Next week we are going to be concentrating on the 5minute chart. Trading is a serious business as you know and I believe the returns are alot more serious when looking at this chart without being cut to shreds. I believe the same rules apply about trailing your stops as I know it is important to control my losses.

I don't want to have fast returns but simply want to end each week in consistent healthy profit. Hopefully on Monday or at some point during early next week we can look into making sure myself and Desiree have the correct approach for this style of trading. Please let me know what you think.

This weeks trades start from No. 162

Warm regards - Darren Benjamin

30th October

2008-12-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I’m so glad we connected this morning on Skype. Today was a good day. I traded £3 a pip and I never made a single loss. I set my stop at 20 but my mental stop at around 15. At one point it went to 19 but I hung in there and then I rose right up and I bagged 10 pips. That was my final trade of the day. I made 26 pips. I felt in control, a lot more relaxed but the first trade of the day is always nerve wracking till I get into the zone properly.

I only traded after I’d checked out the 5 minute chart and was happy to go in. I never opened the 1 minute at all and depended only on the 5 minute. I have to learn to let my trades run but this is early days. I’m back to what I did on the demo and it feels good. Also John with the demo I didn’t stop at 10 or 20. but today when I had reached my daily target of £60 which is what the company pays me I was happy to stop.

It takes 20 pips on £3 to get to my £60 a day but next week if you feel I should I will go up to £4 a pip. Obviously my stop will be shorter but these are very manageable amounts to handle and if I had to lose 20 pips I’d not be breaking the bank.

Darren and Iain get chatting on Skype and the two will also trade together I think. Darren has a similar nature to Iain and I think the three of us will learn together. I fly to the States on Sunday and then Leigh will join the chats on Skype to Darren and we’ll conference call while trading. This was the best idea to get Darren and I to trade together. We’ve bothlearned so much this past week. What is also good is we balance each otherwhen greed, fear and revenge want to strike.

There were some lovely gains to be made after we reached out targets but seeing we were both on a high we decided all we’d do is give it back. And its ok to get out at 20 or 10 pips. If I can keep this up I’ll make £300 a week soon. I realise its early days and I’ll have off days but as my kitty increases and I increase my £ per pip I’ll be ok.

On an entirely different note. Iain got his results for his masters from Imperial College yesterday and he passed with Merit. I am over the moon with happiness and pride. Now real life starts and he has to find a job but withtoday’s climate being as it is I am so glad he’s got into trading.

WatchingDarren who is very similar in age to Iain (4 years older), chatting together on Skype today I feel that’s a good intro I made there. Have a great day. I’m off to brave the cold and do some shopping for the weekend. I’ll be in touch re the possible new clients Thank you so much. I think you have changed my life. Kind regards Desiree

28th October

2008-12-27T01:20:00.000-08:00

Dear John

It is always such a pleasure talking to you. You fire me up so much. Today’s trading has been interesting and I think you’d be very proud of me.Today was all about control and getting out at -4 and I did it every time.Sure I made three losses but hey they could have gone way beyond 4 pips. I was so strict. I could have ridden the trade as it did go my way after it went to -10 but I got out at -4 and watched and boy was I glad. I also set a couple of orders.

The first went wrong and I lost £32. My fault. I should have tested this on the demo first. The next one went well and I made £20. I think this may be a good way to go especially when I anticipate a break out and I’d appreciate your comments. I also set an alert on VT 2 to 4 pips before it kicked in so that I was ready to place my stop.

Worldspreads did a number on me twice this afternoon. Ok the loss was minimal but Darren was caught out at the same time. I went to -1 when I am positive I concluded the sale at 0. It happened twice in a row. I want to give Worldspreads a ring and chat to someone. They do offer over the phone tutorial help and I have a few questions I want to ask them. Maybe I clickout of a trade too fast for it to register. Darren was caught out by thisas well.

Our discipline is also getting really good. We don’t enter a trade just to trade. Sometimes the opportunity takes an hour to get there. I think if Darren and I carry on like this we’ll make a good team. I am very cautious (I thing sometimes over cautious) and I do sometimes question why he enters a trade when he does.

Now he waits and realises I’m right. I have a lot of respect for him. He is very humble and takes to heart what I say. He doesn’t have a massive ego and I appreciate that. I take advice from him all the time too. It’s give and take. Darren did one really good trade. He made 30 pips and I made 15 but in two trades. Where he rode the trade I went in twice as I got out at a resistance level and made £24 and went in again after the level and made a further £36. I was so chuffed. Anyway he was on a serious high after that (don’t tell him I’m telling you this please) and he wanted to get back in. I said Darren go for a walk you are too hyper and if you enter a trade again you will lose money.

He had said he was not trading again today as he’d bagged £150. Well he went in for two more trades and lost £100. Please let him tell you this himself. Oh my gosh. I felt his pains I’d have called it a day and closed down the computers. But we are all human and make mistakes. But John this was a valuable lesson for me as well. I learn from his mistakes. I look at my 4 pip losses and I cringe that I threw money away. I keep thinking of the £276 which will take me ages to recover.

I feel so positive. Tomorrow is another day and I will start making a profit. I won’t listen to others who tell me to forget stops and ride thetrades. I keep the mental stop firmly in place. And one other thing. Todaywe both had the 1 minute chart up next to our Worldspreads set up. Before I had the Worldspreads on my laptop and the charts on my pc. You get distracted when you look from one monitor to the next especially in both Darren and my case where they are not exactly next to each other.

Today I followed the dealing window closely and the charts gave me confirmation.Another good move you taught us. We scalped today like you taught us but with small amounts. If I can maintain what I did today I will feel confident trading larger numbers. I’m in training to be a scalper. That’s my target. When I entered my winning trades and even the losses I was able to set mystop and when it went to -4, I didn’t give it a further thought but to clickout.

It felt so good to be in control at -4 instead of -10 and let the trade hit the stop. I didn’t look at what could have been. All of today I felt Iwas in charge. I didn’t make a huge profit + £20 in all but I feel today was good. In fact every day has been getting better and I look forward to startmaking decent profits soon. I’m only £50 from my £1000. I chalk today down to a success. I wasn’t in a hurry to enter trades; I took breaks between and entered them when I thought I was ready.

Darren and I worked well together and you know we both came out happy end of the day. When I had the mess up with the order I was shaking so much it wasn’t a case of frozen finger it was a case of getting your finger on the mouse and not hitting the desk next to it instead. If I’d practiced it with the demo I may have been ok. In fact tonight I will demo trade to practice this.

The lady Ms CS never puts stops and she writes to me now in a chatty way. She told me that yesterday she made $600 and today before 7:45 another $600(last night’s email she was actually in profit $2500) something must have konked out along the way. She went out for a few hours and came back with all her winnings down the pan and now has to start over again making this money back. Ouch.

I now fully see your logic of making 10 pips a day. It’s the discipline of sticking to a set number. If you make more fine if not you’ve also done well. But you have a target. If I make more that’s good if I don’t that fine too. But I think the key is consistent wins, albeit small ones, and not major windfalls and then losses. It’s what we spoke about today. Get into the monotony of the trade and ride it like a pilot with his checklists.

Leigh told me every time he gets into the cockpit it’s the samecharts and the same routine that he’s been doing for the past 15 years.Nothing has changed and nothing will change. Every day is the same. This is how we need to view trading. Only that way will we win at this game. I’d be very interested to hear what you think of the article I sent you. I’m attaching it again with the image in case that wasn’t attached to the word document. I am being very good at not reading too much however I did some research into scalping while waiting for the course and came up with some articles. This one in particular interested me. Have a good evening. Its 4 degrees here. Only 1 up on this morning. Snow is already falling north of here. Take care Desiree

26th October

2008-12-27T00:58:00.000-08:00

Hi Desiree
Unfortunately, neither John or yourself have acutally answered my question!

The question is; Does John's course "Scalping the Forex" require a spread
betting platform, e.g IGIndex, Capital Spreads etc. and use spread betting
techniques or not?

I currently scalp/trade the forex, but I do not use spread betting
techniques, nor do I use a spread betting platform like Worldspreads- - I
use a Forex trading platform supplied by a Forex Broker e.g.www.forex.com
and www.fxcm.com.

I can't see how you would scalp the forex using a spread betting platform-
for a start the spreads (pips) for the currencies are horrendous! The
trades have to move 12-40 pips before you can be in profit! With a straight
forex trade you can be in profit after 2 pips! e.g Euro/USD.

For another, the speed of execution of each trade is far too slow using a
spread bet platform.

Also with a good forex broker, you can hedge your trades- I doubt if any
spread betting platform allows this! At least I haven't found one that
does! - Cheers - Ms CS

John - Please help me answer this question. My knowledge regarding her questions is
too little to help her without me looking like a total Wally. - Kind regards - Desiree

Desiree Hi, Copy and paste the answer below - Sorry I got you involved
Regards John B

"Answer - We go into profit after ONE pip - Yes you do require a
spreadbetting Platform - John recommends Worldspreads you can also go to a
broker direct - John uses CMS in the USA -

WS has 1 pip spread and CMS two,
on certain currencies during certain hours - Its also instant execution
with trades under £50 per pip - CMS direct has 2 pip spread with hedge
facilities. Any further questions please refer to John on 07753748320
Regards Desiree

25th October

2008-12-27T00:52:00.000-08:00

1 Put your mouse on the Bar at the bottom of VT blank bit

2 Click the Mouse

3 Use the scroll button to move chart !!

4 It wont jump back

5 Smile

JB :)

25th October

2008-12-27T00:47:00.000-08:00

From Darren Trading Analyser

Hi John, it has been quite an week and what I have learnt has been amazing. I have been speaking with Desiree everyday and we have been really getting behind one another. My discipline has increase greatly this week. I have been alot more careful about what trades I get into. I'm happy with the idea of sitting and NOT trading when there is NOT an opportunity. I feel this has been a real problem before.

In the end I managed to finish the week £431 in profit. Please find the analyzer in the attachment for my trades. This weeks trades start from number 132. You will see from Wednesday (after the run of losses) that I started to focus more on quality trades rather than looking at something that is NOT there.

This is where I want to continue to focus next week as I feel it is hard to do that. It is worth while WAITING for the right opportunity rather than FORCING the move that isn't there.
Anyway hope to catch up on Monday.

Darren Benjamin

25th October

2008-12-27T00:43:00.000-08:00

Dear John and Darren

As it’s such a miserable day and I’m on the couch with my laptop, I went over your scalping lesson 9 again. You mention to pull the little bar at the bottom of the VT chart across so you can see the past history and try and predict what happens. I found that didn’t work for me because if you let go it moves instantly back to the most recent activity.

What I then did was take a piece of cardboard and aligned it up with the chart and MACD and looked for entry and exit signals. Just using the MACD and the Parabolics and moving very slowly across at the rate that the real chart would move I was able to accurately predict every entry and exit signal and when to stay out. Every time a coconut. I’m so excited about this and wanted to share this with you and Darren.

I took the 1 minute euro chart and went back about 2 days but even with the 5 minute you can do this and it packs quite a punch. I need to move my MACD and RSI around. The photo was taken with a cell phone but it gives you an idea. It felt like real time. Now to put this into practice tra la laaaaaaaaaa.

I hope I’m not teaching you guys to suck eggs but this to me worked way better than anything else I’ve tried to predict the future.

Have a great weekend. We are being blown away but I’m dragging myself and my son out and we’re braving the wind and going out for a pub meal

Cheers - Desiree

25th October

2008-12-27T00:42:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I’ve been looking at the conference facility on Skype and mine says you can conference up to 24 people. They don’t even have to have Skype. You can call regular phones as well. Their number has to be on your Skype list. I have Skype credit and use Skype as a regular phone as well but if you only use the free version of Skype without credit then you won’t be able to do this except chat to other Skypers - Desiree

25th October

2008-12-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Ms CS

John Bartlett forwarded your email to me re your question on
scalping. I have taken both of John's courses on CD - Forex for beginners
and his scalping course and I have an account with Worldspreads and I am
proof that his system works. I am still in training yet I am already making
more than my weekly target in pips by scalping the Forex.

If you would like to discuss this further with me please feel free to email
me at xxx@blueyonder.co.uk (email excluded) I am not trying to sell Johns courses.
I have done extensive research into this topic and John's courses answered
all my questions and John himself is the best advert for his courses because
he takes an interest in those who do his workshops or buy his cd courses. I
sound like an advert but I'm a skeptic however after taking his course my
son, my daughter and my partner have all started scalping using Johns
methods.
Kind regards - Desiree Bruce

26th October

2008-12-26T03:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Ms CS

Your probably not going to believe me! However it’s a fact I developed this technique over a year ago and been teaching it in my workshops - Why not talk to one of my students try

Darren xxx@googlemail.com or Desiree Bruce - xxx@blueyonder.co.uk (emails Protected)

Perhaps they might respond to your comments!

They Scalp using my methods every day! Plus many many More including 13 new students who I trained Yesterday and the many who have been on my courses in the past 12 months!

Regards John Bartlett

25th October

2008-12-26T03:33:00.000-08:00

Dear John

Great to hear your course was a success and thanks you for calling me this morning. You are tough but I like that and that’s the only thing that will make my emotions take a back seat and make me tough. I do get emotional and this is a good lesson to control it. Pampering will never turn me into a good trader.

Have a great weekend. The wind here is so bad a lady this morning had a bag of dog-food fly out her trolley while going to the car

Cheers

Desiree

24th October

2008-12-26T03:32:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Here is a summary of this weeks real life trading. I have taken a rest. Finished my day job and have time to reflect properly. Did your class think I was a total bimbo?

I am emtionally whacked. It’s been quite a roller coaster ride and despite all the things that I did wrong I am thrilled to be in this game and I am determined to improve and do well. I know what I’m doing and can recognise my mistakes and to me at least that’s progress. I still have to get out of trades faster. I feel like I did when I started demo trading. Very nervous and scared to push the button and not sure when to get into a trade. Now several weeks down the road, I am past not knowing when to get into a trade but the nervous finger is still there although getting better. Clicking sell and buy was fun.

It’s been great trading with Darren but I was thinking he’s doing so well and then I have to remind myself this is very early days for me and in a few weeks time I will look back and think I’ve come a long way. He has done extremely well and we get on well too. He’s the same age as my daughter. I keep reminding myself this is a new venture and career move. To learn a near trade you need to invest money to get your training and that is how I am seeing this now. Once I could get my head around that I felt a lot better. I also worked out that although I did pure crap yesterday I was below my 5% per trade. My only regret is starting at £5 per pip. I wasn’t ready for that and after the first mess up should have lowered my stake. I did that this morning on day 2 and it went so much better. I was less afraid after I got over the frozen finger syndrome but after that and talking to Darren and doing the maths I let it go and got on with the trade. When I reached 9 pips I was elated and left the trade as I was in profit despite being able to make 35 but the sheer joy of being in profit had to be captured.

Darren and I went over some of his mistakes of getting into trades too late. When he grasped that he was away and did so well. We pooled our limited experiences and they worked for us.

Second trade was a repetition of a mistake done before when I wanted to get out at -9 I clicked sell instead of buy and had two trades going. Darren also got caught out in this one. The one trade ran away to -21 while I tried to get out of it and the other went into profit at +12. So with my first trade of the day and the next two I broke even. Then I went and got a further 4 pips and ended the day on +4. I feel great. I don’t look back to yesterday’s losses as they are history. I look forward and went home happy with 4 pips. The image attached shows the trade that caught both Darren and I.

Trading £5 a pip was too ambitious for a start although I see why you made me do it. My losses on £1 would have been less but would I have learned from it? I don’t think so. That huge whack hit me in the butt and brought me to my senses that this is REAL LIFE. Demo trading is nothing like the real thing although I felt differently about that yesterday but having a day and night to think about it there is no comparison. Sure you learn the basics on the demo but nothing prepares you for the real thing. You enter unknown territory on your own because until you trade for real you don’t know your level of fear and reaction to when things go wrong. When things go right it’s a doddle but it’s when things go wrong that makes you a good trader end of the day.

I had to smile. Darren traded at £5 a pip and made over 40 pips today. He lost in the same trade as I and was seriously bummed by it. He then went in again and made £165. Worldspreads got stuck and he cashed in on it. I was so struck dumb by the glitch I froze. What I found interesting is he said ‘I wish I’d been trading £10 a pip’ and I said Darren you are £165 richer than you were three minutes ago. It’s the ego thing. Iain and Leigh are the same, I’m content with my wins and as I get better so I’ll increase my stake.

Please don’t get me wrong and think I am blaming the software. I’m not. I am completely at fault for what went wrong yesterday and today. Never did I expect the two platforms to have glitches and now I know they do and I don’t enter a trade unless I check to see they are in sync. When our VT account is live I will try the live platform and see if that makes a difference. I sure hope so.

Speaking of VT and its quirks. Iain made a massive loss today. He was in a trade and doing well with tons of pips to his advantage. He hadn’t trailed his stops. Another lesson learned. He wanted to get out as it started going against him. When he clicked sell VT gave him an error and a yellow dialog box flashed in front of him and disappeared before he could read it. When he tried again to get out and it wouldn’t let him. His entry line wasn’t there either. When he eventually exited the trade he was miles away. He was seriously bummed by that but it was humbling as he’s had 2 weeks of solid profit trades.

Do you experience these strange delays between VT live platform and Worldspreads of is this rare and we just caught them at a bad time?

Despite everything, I feel elated and ready to carry on. I can see why many loose heart and get out. I’m here to stay. I love it. I’m hungry to do well.

Have a super weekend. I hope the course was a success. What did your students think of the eBay forex scheme? Don’t you think that is an awesome example of crookery?

Desiree

24th October

2008-12-26T03:31:00.000-08:00

Dear John

I hope it wasn’t a downer for your class when I had to tell you about my day yesterday. Despite all things going against me I still take full responsibility for yesterday and should have stuck to my demo account when the VT went haywire. Today its fine and I entered a trade at £1 and I made 9 pips. I feel back on track. I was calm and no heart pounding and entered the trade and when I got to 9 purposely got out just to prove to me I can do it. Darren stayed in and made 25 and made serious profits

Then we entered a trade together and the trade turned against us with a massive spike. I clicked sell instead of buy and had two trades going. I lost on the one and gained on the other. So I’ve broken even today.

Worldspreads got stuck and Darren made £165 because Worldspreads were out by 20 pips and Darren cashed in big time with that. So he went into a buy and had a lovely run at Worldspreads expense.

It’s been a fun day trading and I am feeling a lot more upbeat today.

If anything else happens exciting I’ll write again

Chat soon - Desiree

24th October

2008-12-26T03:30:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I have a serious case of frozen finger syndrome. I’m at my desk and there have been good opportunities but I just cannot bring myself to hit the button. After yesterdays trashy day I’m not happy and wondering whether I should go back to the demo for a few days. I also wondered whether I should go down to £3 or even £1 a pip just to get some confidence and when I have that go back to £5. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Although yesterday I felt the same emotions as on the demo today it’s a whole new ball game with having spent time thinking about it. The euro is on a definite down slide still and I could have picked up 30 pips this morning. Maybe I’ll go back to £1 just to get into the feel of winning and regain some confidence and then up my stake.

Have a good day with your class. I see you are on Skype and in session. Not sure I want to talk to your class today. I think with the way I’m feeling it will have a negative effect on them. VT is behaving better today but I will feel better when I’m using Leigh’s live account to log into for updates.

Regards - Desiree

23rd October

2008-12-26T03:29:00.000-08:00

Hello John

Tonight Leigh opened a small account with CMSFX and he used you as a referral. I hope you will benefit from this. I am hopeful that the charts will not spit out the crap they did today. In some ways I am scared but in others so grateful for only bidding £5 a pip

Have a good evening

Regards - Desiree

23rd October

2008-12-26T03:27:00.000-08:00

From Ms CS

re; New course Scalping the Forex

In the video John talks about "spreadbetting the Forex". In my view it is not possible to scalp the Forex using spread betting techniques.

To scalp the Forex, you need to do so via a proper Forex broker not a Spreadbet broker!

Can you clarify this please!

I have accounts with both Forex and Spreadbet brokers.

I scalp the Forex at the moment using a Forex broker- not a Spreadbet broker. Scalping is a technique which demands instant execution of trades. Spreadbet brokers cannot work and do not work effectively using scalping techinques.

I am aways willing to learn more however, and am interested in this course, but need to clarify this point.

thanks - Ms CS

22nd October

2008-12-26T03:26:00.000-08:00

Dear John

I have just watched chapter 11 and it hit me between the eyes. You looked right into the camera and it felt as if you were talking to me. Everything you said had an impact because I am guilty of everything you said. You said it so well and all my questions and fears were answered. I will watch this lesson over and over especially when things are not going the way I'd like them to go. I was totally taken aback when you mentioned talking to me in Scotland. I never expected that!

I was chatting to my friends who live in Denver and they also traded the euro dollar today but made monumental losses. They got their timing out and traded in the narrow channels but they could not see them!! They have the Wizetrades software and buy or sell when its green. I told them to download the VT (They won't because they've been suckered into believing in the software they have and really are not fully aware of what is going on). they've been trading for 2 years seriously yet I feel I have learned more in 2 months.

Darren and I had a good days trading together. I have found that I make my best trades between 2 and 4pm. All my 1 or 2 pip trades are in the mornings yet my runs happen after 2. Today it started at 3pm. I traded £5 a pip to get the feel of the £5 and my first trade I made £70 and the second I made £80. I then made a further £85. After 4pm when the spread reduced to three pips I put in a sell on the VT and got the 2 pip spread on the euro dollar and made 54 pips. I kept pulling my stops down and so was always at 10 pips behind. That gave me such a good feeling because I had a guaranteed profit, I was relaxed and let the trade run. It stopped out at 10 because it turned around so fast and spiked me out. So you could say I lost control at the end and didnt cut and run before 10. I think to date that was my most successful trade. I was in total control over a period of about 20 minutes or less as I was doing the 1 minute chart. I had the 5 minute open to guide me.

Darren wants to change his trading times to the afternoons as well. My biggest losses are in the mornings yet I always seem to do well in the afternoons with very low losses. That suits me fine as I dont like getting up that early even though I am awake. urg. I dont trade unless I have all my ducks in a row and my workspace is organised. Darren made super profits today. He made losses when I made mine earlier in the day when we were not chatting. In fact we've been on Skype several times over the last week and traded together. Darren would say he is going in and I'd say but look Darren its at the stop of spike or whatever other reason and then he'd see where he went wrong and made the change and got out with a profit. He did the same to me alerting me to indicators and wrong entry points and we learned a lot from each other. He was beaming at 4pm this afternoon.

I envy those at your seminar. Leigh and I are making a holiday of coming to France and when I give up my day job that will be very doable as I'm not chasing my emails.

The courses - both of them are awesome. I hope the John you introduced me to will get into it but I do realise that if you are not hungry and dont have the strong desire to do this you wont make it. I have a tendency to embrace new ventures and go for it hammer and tongs and when I find a venture that holds my interest like trading, then it will have my attention for years just like web design has done for me over the past 8 years. I have several qualifications. I am a trained forensic document examiner but never worked in the trade so that was more of a qualification because I have a passion for forensics. I am also a handwriting analyst. Once I give up my day job I can get into the forensics and handwritring analysis because I'll have the TIME to do it.

I look forward to chatting to you after the course. I bet you'll be so busy over the next two days. Enjoy

kindest regards - Desiree

22nd October

2008-12-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

Hi John
here is my conversation with John. I think its best to send it to you in its entirety and take it from there
[10:34:36] Désirée Bruce says: I bought his forex for beginners course on the 28th August[10:34:36] Désirée Bruce says: and I started on that immediately. I then opened a demo account and have been trading demo since then . when the scalping course came out i bought that. in fact I was his first customer and I am finishing the course today. tomorrow i start trading real money
[10:34:52] Désirée Bruce says: i spent hours and hours going over the lessons many times[10:35:00] Désirée Bruce says: learning from my mistakes and starting again
[10:35:13] Désirée Bruce says: the scalping course is very different to the forex course. not every one is a scalper
[10:35:17] Désirée Bruce says: it doesn’t suit everyone
[10:35:53] Désirée Bruce says: it suits me as i take what i have and run. i dont have the patience to let a trade run . with practice and time i will enter longer trades, i did a longer trade last night - an over night one and i made 34 pips
[10:36:13] Désirée Bruce says: but that’s a one off for now.
[10:36:54] Désirée Bruce says: i have consistently on the demo that is made between 15 and 30 pips a day
[10:37:04] John J says: well, I’m the same sort of person. not the patience to hang on to a trade for days or weeks
[10:37:12] Désirée Bruce says: do you have the beginners course?
[10:37:19] John J says: yeah, just received it
[10:37:30] Désirée Bruce says: the mind set from the beginners course and the scalping are different
[10:38:07] Désirée Bruce says: may i suggest you digest the beginning forex course and do demo trading for about 1 month. then do the scalping. by then you will have learned good habits. Don’t try any short cuts. they come back to bite you
[10:38:33] Désirée Bruce says: follow John religiously. He’s been at it for 30years.
[10:39:06] John J says: but so far you have done well with the systems ? do you get many scalping trades during the day ?
[10:39:14] Désirée Bruce says: yes I only scalp now
[10:39:55] Désirée Bruce says: the best times to scalp are when the euro takes a pounding when America goes to work. between 1 and 3 you have three markets open and the markets are more volatile. but the markets are random and they don’t always do what history suggests.
[10:40:04] Désirée Bruce says: I am more than willing to walk you through it
[10:40:14] Désirée Bruce says: stay in touch with skype or email and I'll help
[10:40:31] Désirée Bruce says: I take 4 to 8 pips and get out
[10:40:49] Désirée Bruce says: I have the saying a bird in the hand firmly implanted in my brain. that will ease with time as i gain confidence
[10:41:07] Désirée Bruce says: also treat the demo as if its real money. ask yourself would I do this with my own money? if the answer is no then don’t do it
[10:41:27] Désirée Bruce says: and trade realistic amounts, if you are opening a 1000 account for real don’t trade £10 a pip on that as you wont start on that
[10:42:37] John J says: how much are you starting with in real money, if you don't mind me asking ? how much are you pessimistically (bad English) looking to take per week/month/year ?[10:43:06] Désirée Bruce says: I opened an account with £3000. I will start on trading as if i only have £1000 in it. when i get better I will increase my bank
[10:43:19] Désirée Bruce says: I stick with 10 pips a day
[10:43:26] Désirée Bruce says: if I make more whooppee doo.
[10:43:30] Désirée Bruce says: you get good days and bad days
[10:43:58] Désirée Bruce says: but when you have made your profits for the day then get the hell out because after that, your heart takes over and you don’t think the way you should and you make bad moves
[10:44:06] Désirée Bruce says: my target is 10 pips a day
[10:44:37] Désirée Bruce says: there will be days when you don’t make that many and there will be days when you make loads more. treat those days as making up for days you cant trade[10:44:41] Désirée Bruce says: i want to make £300 a week
[10:44:59] John J says: ok. and is £300 a realistic goal do you think ?
[10:45:15] Désirée Bruce says: to start with yes. once i am good at it i will increase my stake to £25 per pip
[10:45:29] Désirée Bruce says: I've been doing that quite well this week
[10:46:10] Désirée Bruce says: start SMALL and as you gain confidence you increase your stake. you wont be a millionaire in a year. you cant give up your day job next month. i am having the two run concurrently and once i am consistently making 300 a week I will resign
[10:48:05] John J says: thanks I'll probably send an email, a bit later
[10:55:15] John J says: but have you had any wild swings each week, ie.-500 pips one week, then the next week + 1000 etc, or has it been consistent gains ?
[10:58:07] Désirée Bruce says: i have had massive losses but mostly gains. give me your email and I'll send you my trading analyser to see how I've done
[11:01:34] John J says: ok thanks for the help. I'll look at it
[11:02:56] John J says: you really put a lot of effort into this. I can tell. really impressive[11:03:36] Désirée Bruce says: you see I am determined to make this my career. I take it very seriously. I want to give up the way I am working 12 hours a day. I have made more money on the demo within 2 hours than I make in a day
[11:03:45] Désirée Bruce says: you cannot go into this venture with a
[11:03:54] Désirée Bruce says: i'll give it a go attitude. you are doomed to fail
[11:03:59] Désirée Bruce says: if you are not serious about it don’t do it
[11:04:26] John J says: yeah I can see that LOL. yeah I think I really need to take out all the stops, if I want to make a success of it
[11:04:50] Désirée Bruce says: my sister is keen but she said to me 'oh you do the research and then telll me what you learned.' she will NEVER make a trader
[11:05:01] Désirée Bruce says: yesterday she told me to trade for her. I told her to go pound sand
[11:05:25] Désirée Bruce says: its worth the effort and if you are hungry you will make a success of it
[11:05:44] Désirée Bruce says: if you are feeling mediocre about it don’t even start John.[11:12:08] John J says: yeah, that’s a decision I need to make. I currently just getting info about the whole forex trading market. hence me getting the starting pack from John
[11:13:34] Désirée Bruce says: I would suggest you go over the course. once that is done you will know if this is for you or not . John does not mince his words and he will tell you that you will make losses. 90% don’t make it. he teaches you to be one of the 10%
[11:13:57] Désirée Bruce says: its 6 hours., easy to follow lessons and see how you go, ask me any questions as you go along
[11:14:27] Désirée Bruce says: and don’t be conned to spend a whack on trading packages. they dont give you any more. I have done extensive research into them too. all they do is make you poorer
[11:16:18] John J says: yeah, that’s why I have my reservations about all system, but seems like John knows what he is talking about
[11:16:30] Désirée Bruce says: john doesn’t sell a system
[11:16:44] Désirée Bruce says: what he sells is the knowledge to use what is free out there and to make money and not line someone else’s pockets
[11:17:37] Désirée Bruce says: when I bought the course I didn’t have a clue . I thought I had to purchase currency and I'd be sitting with wads of pounds and dollars and yen.
[11:17:45] Désirée Bruce says: i was completely clueless .
[11:17:57] John J says: lol. I’m not much better
[11:18:03] Désirée Bruce says: i only knew i wanted to trade but didn’t know how to go about it[11:18:36] Désirée Bruce says: you basically follow a trend and you buy and sell when it rises and when it tanks and you make your money that way
[11:18:43] Désirée Bruce says: you never own currency
[11:18:58] Désirée Bruce says: you only make money on your prediction in what direction it will go to
[11:19:27] Désirée Bruce says: if you are right you are in the pound seats , if you are wrong you loose money but john teaches you how to minimise your losses and not loose your shirt.

22nd October

2008-12-26T02:59:00.001-08:00

Hi John

I woke up 34 pips richer!!!

I don’t do cable I did the euro dollar. Shall I rather do cable? I've got
into the habit of only using one currency pair

Yes they are going up. I'm doing in and out of trades today. I went against
the trend and got caught. Now I'm taking a closer look and getting there.
Not letting my losses go less then 4 pips or less and mentally moving my
stop.

Switched off phones and just focusing on what I'm doing. As I write this I'm
not in a trade

Desiree

21st October

2008-12-26T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hi John

I have put an overnight trade onto the VT and will see what I get tomorrow. I am setting my stop at 5% and letting it ride. I want to gain 30 pips so let’s see what the morning will bring.

Here is something to prove your point about someone making a killing out of gullible folk (link witheld-JB)

Regards - Desiree

21st October

2008-12-26T02:56:00.000-08:00

Dear John

I promised to detail my days trading into an email following our phone call and Skype chats.

The day started really well. I picked up three pips in two trades but then I lost control of two trades and it went wrong. I stopped out on both at the max. I am guilty of committing the worst offence and I got them back. I had walked away from them and thought I would try to get them back by increasing my stake which I found is wrong but I did this because the trend was strong, the fall was strong and I regained the pips back without any problem. One can look at it as revenge but I did it as an exercise as well and when I entered the trade I knew because I told myself I’d never do this with real money. It went my way both times but I do realise I made a massive mistake and I learned through this. I learn from my mistakes and this was a good one. Today happened to be a good trading day and after recouping my losses I went on to make a further £250 using £25 per pip. I baled after 4 pips each time. I made my final £50 in two pips. I went very wrong here as well. The trend was a strong sell with long and regular candles and I increased the size of my stop to accommodate spikes. All indicators were strong and in my favour and I entered in when the parabolic dots were quite wide apart as well. I need to get it into my head to reduce my stops for scalping. It will come with practice. I need to practice to get out without a loss being more important than a win.

The lesson I learned here is yes it was a great trading day and I was able to make good money however it could have been a mediocre trading day and I could have gone out with losses. I am frightened of loosing and once I can accept that a days trading can go against my by 4 or 5 pips I will be able to relax. To see a minus on my Trading Analyzer kicks me in the gut every time

I also learned that the smallest distraction costs me dearly. Both trades went out of control with the phone ringing and an email coming in for my attention. I have decided that when I trade my MS Outlook will be closed down; my phones will all be in a box in the kitchen cupboard where I won’t hear them. Distractions and loss of control due to distractions have been the reason for my worst mistakes. When I am focussed I enter trades relaxed and get out relaxed as well.

Trading £25 a pip is a whole new ball game and I don’t enter trades unless it looks promising. Because a smaller number of pips add up to larger sums of money, my approach is different and when I do enter a trade and the run is good I tend to be more relaxed than when I traded £1 a pip and took more risks. I’ve got it into my head not to look at a range under 40 pips. There must be enough time to have two confirming strong candles before I enter the trade. I will practice with the veridical line ruler on VT as I found when I put that in place when the MACD converges and moves over 0 that it gives me a good indicator of an entry signal. I saw several times when the market did random things yesterday while trading with Darren. It convinced me indicators are just that – indicators.

I could have kept quiet and just absorbed the losses and regains but I’d not have learned by it as I had to be chastised for cocking up and breaking a cardinal rule. To be honest I feel worse at the thought that I disappointed you than in the loss. I value you as a mentor and to be honest you must have a mentor to guide you. It’s part of the whole package

My interview went well. They tried to talk me down and I told them to go pound sand I was not backing down. They were amazed and then backed down as they thought I desperately need the job. Now I can decide when I want to give this job up when my trading will slot in place. I am lucky I have an inheritance that I can fall back on but I don’t want to. This is purely for emergency purposes and I’m good at money management so I’ve good savings as well. I also have many jobs so fingers in many pies. I need to amalgamate and get a life.

Enjoy your beers -

Kind regards - Desiree

21st October

2008-12-26T02:55:00.000-08:00

Yes Prorealtime Free EOD real time Subscription & Well Done Regards John B

21st October

2008-12-26T02:54:00.000-08:00

Wow John well done

Today I picked up 1 pip at £25. I got out at 1 as it was teetering and although all the signs were looking good I think it got in too early so I’ll wait a few minutes and then see if I want to get in again. There was a good sell run earlier on but I didn’t get in as I was doing something else and I couldn’t give it my fullest attention, however, I watched it. Right now I’m learning to like up all the indicators and then see when to get in and when to wait. There is a good 40 +pip spread so its definitely got some good trading possibilities

Regards - Desiree

20th October

2008-12-26T02:53:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Well I’m quitting for the day. I made 15 pips and £375. I gained some good pips when the Americans got up. Now I’m waiting to see what the news flash will do with this afternoons 3pm Bernanke talk.

Darren and I were on Skype together from just before 2pm and we entered a couple of trades together. I let one trade have a much wider stop because all signs were there that it was going down and I was right. I went out at 8 pips but had I stayed I’d have probably made twice that much. It was a very hairy moment for me. My son made a packet again this afternoon whipping up 24 pips on one trade. It was also a good experience for Darren who’s not traded during this time of the afternoon before. I really enjoyed the experience and chatting to him about what we’ve learned in the course.

Without a doubt this is the way to go. £1 a pip is fine for practice of it I want to let a trade run but it’s not worth the hassle. I also found that using only £1 per pip I was not as alert as I am with £25. Using £25 per pip all your senses are sharp and every indicator counts for you. I found I made silly trades on £1 which I’d not dream of entering on £25.

I’ve learned to make the indicators work for me and its great. I’m getting into the swing of the 1 minute and only use the 5 minute as a trend guide. There are also plenty of opportunities during the day where you can pick up
‘safe’ pips when you get nice long runs with thick candles where you have time to get in, think about your stops, lower your panic level and then get out.

I have a question. You mention the prorealtime. Are the charts only available if you subscribe to it?

All the best. Byeeeeeeee - Desiree

20th October

2008-12-26T02:52:00.001-08:00

FANTASTIC

20th October

2008-12-26T02:50:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much for sending lesson 9. it works and I’m so grateful

Now off to town to get my specs fixed

byeeeeeeeeeeee

Hello John

I’m sorry I missed your call. I’m home now and not going out again. The wind nearly tossed me over while crossing the road - Desiree

20th October

2008-12-26T02:49:00.000-08:00

Dear John

I am looking forward to lesson 9. This morning I set up my charts and I could not make out a trend so I left it. The 60 minute shows a sideways channel but the 1 minute and 5 minute were iffy. I then set up the Worldspreads chart and there was a perfect example of the trend going sideways away from the Bollinger band just like in your exercise and I could hear you say that this is not a trading opportunity and to come back later. I also saw the W/spreads MACD was horizontal giving me more evidence not to trade plus the spread was only around 20 pips.

Anyway I then waited and although its still not here nor there for me anyway, I was able to capture one sell opportunity as all the signs were good – MACD, parabolic SAR, RSI and Bollinger bands. I went in with a bid of £25 per pip and calmly set out my stop checking the right direction to put it first and then watched. I mentally brought my stop down and said I had to pass the point where I’d make a profit. I watched the chart and the blue till I could see I was in profit. I got into 4 pip profit and saw it started to teeter and the indicators looked iffy. So I closed the trade £100 in profit with 4 pips. Wow what a feeling. I have to admit I was terribly nervous this morning as I’m trying something new but when I finally went in I remained calm and got my 4 and made my £100 and am happy. Yes I have 6 more pips to go but I will get them in the same manner I got these. After I got out, the trend changed and I’d have lost it all.

What was especially interesting is that last week I was trading £1 per pip. (please see attached image) I now see where this was a good exercise because the row above my 4 pips and £100 profit said 6 pips and £6 profit. That to me was a wow moment. I can actually call it a day if I want to but I think another opportunity will come in however as I’m to make £500 this week and I’m 1/5 of the way there it feels good. I only make £60 a day in my day job so I’ve already upped that. I need eye openers like this for the penny to drop. My mindset is changing rapidly and I can’t wait to see your lesson 9 on VT as I have to admit I’m nervous but I KNOW I will crack it.

More later. Cheerio - Desiree

19th October

2008-12-26T02:47:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Thank you so much for your call this morning. I look forward to chapter 9 as that will me more familiar to me using the VT. I am so excited by this and will go back to my £10 a pip as I did before and forget the £1 per pip. It really is a waste of time.

I entered the new venture of trading knowing nothing and just by following your advice and training in the beginner’s course for trading and now the scalping course I have learned good habits and the correct procedure from the start. Your scalping course has given me the confidence that I am able to trade full time and I feel relaxed about giving up my day job. I found out there are no short cuts.

If you try to cut corners you come a cropper very quickly. What especially impressed me was watching you trade in lesson 7 and the rhythm you get into. This course is seriously good value for money and you can potentially make more money trading than you would with a degree in a specialised field like medicine, law or engineering PLUS you can achieve this by working less than 4 hours a day. There is no course on the net (and I’ve done extensive research) that offers amazing value for money, extensive training plus your ongoing interest and feedback.

My son has a degree in physics and maths as well as a Masters in advanced mechanical engineering yet I am convinced (as I have seen him perform on the demo account ) that he will make more money from trading than from any of the three qualifications he has. He has already proven he can do it just by following your beginner’s course. There’s no limit to the levels we will reach with the addition comprehensive scalping course.

The attached sheet is the stops he chart he created for me.

If you want me to make changes I will gladly do so. Regards - Desiree

19th October

2008-12-26T02:46:00.000-08:00

Hello John

You’re a star. Thank you so much. I am so fired up now. I cat wait to test what you taught in this course

Have a good weekend. We’ve just spent the day Christmas shopping so the rest of the weekend we’ll like very low
Regards - Desiree

18th October

2008-12-26T02:44:00.001-08:00

Hi Desiree New CD in Post – Personally Tested it – Dump yours in Bin – Now Back in UK

Regards John B Nice Post

There are many people within the trading industry which will make you promises and part you with your hard earned money! if you are new to trading then I suggest you take a few moments, and check genuine testimonials (not false ones) Check me out by visiting this link; (if you have time) http://www.learntrading.co.uk/learn_trading_testimonials.htm

17th October

2008-12-26T02:43:00.000-08:00

Dear John

Well I didn’t do any trading today but this evening I’m on the VT and as an exercise I’m going in and out of trades, setting my stops and then quitting when I’m -2 and taking my profits when I am +2 or 3. I am also seeing for myself the pip distance isn’t 50 and proving as you said that this is a ridiculous time to trade. The spikes are so random and despite the trend being down the spikes are so long that on a 10 pip stop I get spiked out.

I know it’s not a good time to trade but I wanted to show myself that this is a bad time to trade. Its good watching and hearing you say you need a big pip difference and by doing it when there isn’t one I can see it’s a pointless exercise. I learn by trying and so this is my exercise for tonight to get in and out of trades with a minimum of loss. I am trying to visualise the £25 trade and despite the 10 pip stop I force myself to go out at 2 or if I’m too slow at 4. I am finding that the spikes are too long – longer than the candles and it’s too risky. If the spike went in one direction either up or down that would be one thing but tonight they are so haphazard.

There is a lot of practice involved here and I will keep one of my demo accounts just for exercising and once I feel I am on the right track will I go back to my serious demo account and count pips. Right now I’m loosing more than winning but on the other hand I’m preventing my losses from being big. A 2 pip spread makes it s much harder as well to gain pips.

As you said the markets are random and that was also proven to me today. For the past month or so every afternoon euro and cable took a pounding. Today it was a bit of both. When Bush was speaking the cable got stronger but then it turned around again. So my 2pm every afternoon theory went for a ball.

I think it will take me a while to get used to the 1 minute chart. I will keep the 5 and 1 minute open and compare the two but seeing we are talking £25 per pip I won’t enter trades unless I am assured I will capture one or 2.

And that’s my lesson for tonight. Kind regards Desiree

17th October

2008-12-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

Dear John

I’m sitting at my desk going over the course. Today I did chapter 8 taking control. All I can say is wow. Its like I have bee walking around in my underwear and now I’ve got the clothes on and it’s given me a whole new way to enter a trade and take control. I will go over chapter 7 and 8 a few times and the others as well but those two chapters really clinch it for me

Now there is one small wee problem. Chapter 9 Software and entry and exit points. After two minutes into the lesson it stops working. The actual file is faulty. When your course arrived I copied it onto my desktop so that I can pack away the CDs. When I did the transfer it refused to copy chapter 9. I thought nothing of it till I tried to listen to it and there is very definitely a problem with that particular chapter.

Would you like me to send you the CD’s back and then send me a replacement of CD 2?

I’m not going to trade today. Ex mother in law here for the weekend and I cannot trade unless I have full concentration so I will concentrate on the course and then start again on Monday. The euro has a very narrow range on the 1 minute – only about 15 pips and to be honest I can’t make head nor tail where the trend is so I’ll do what you say and take the dog for a walk. In this case it will be mother in law and son round the park!!

Chat to you soon and hope you had a super time in Prague.

Kindest regards - Desiree

16th October

2008-12-26T02:41:00.001-08:00

Dear John

I have sat here riveted watching your course since lunchtime when it arrived. I completed disc 1 and tomorrow will start on disc2. What I found very exciting is that your way of trading procedure is similar to mine so I’m definitely on the right track. I follow what you do closely and apart from you using the Worldspreads charts which I find hard to understand even though I had previously added all the indicators you mention in this course I can’t come to grips with candlesticks so I have the same screen set up using the VT instead. Despite the charts there once I’m in the trade I watch the red and blue box with my finger on the trigger to capture my profits.

What really excited me is the time you take to place your stops. I imagined scalping would be super fast and little time for stops. As my maths is atrocious and I get the direction of putting the stops wrong at times, it’s encouraging to know that I have time to think it through and place my stop. I will place it at 10 and not 20 anymore and get out before 10. As an added insurance but I can see the charts are not accurate enough and that is having two instances of Worldspreads open so I can watch my open summery bets and the trading window to close. They are delayed and I have to keep clicking refresh to get an accurate account. However now having watched you I’ll just watch the red and blue boxes to count my profits or losses.

Tomorrow I will start practising. This is so do-able I can’t wait to start. I know I’m doing the right thing. Every night I dream of charts and have done since I started the first course.

More tomorrow - Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee - Desiree

16th October

2008-12-26T02:40:00.000-08:00

Hi John

Thank you for the call from Prague. Well I am on lesson 5 of the course – I go over it and then go back over the lessons again. It s very exciting and I cant wait to trade. My worry is still putting on a stop with speed. The course ‘speaks’ to me and I think it’s the missing link.

I am also up 35 points. I am trading the euro which is what I do almost exclusively now and when I said America opens shop the euro will drop is exactly what is happening. It started at 2pm our time and I picked up 29 pips. Iain picked up 40 in one run. Then he called it a day because he says when he’s on a winning streak and he goes in again he ends up loosing it all which is the psychology aspect of it. He said ‘mom that’s the greed aspect.’ Yes I am tempted to keep trading the euro as its just plummeting but I’m getting out while ahead.

Have a good evening and enjoy your first beer. So without further ado I’m off to learn some more

Kind regards - Desiree

16th October

2008-12-26T02:39:00.000-08:00

Dear John

I hope you are having an awesome time in Praque.

The scalping course arrived. Thank you so very much. Let the lessons begin. Tra la la

I got 8 pips this morning in a few seconds and then it didn’t look too good to me so I got out. The Americans are at work and I’m waiting for the euro to take a pounding or a rise.

I’m off to study
Bye byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee