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Another day that I couldn’t trade.  Actually, I might avoid trading today as well.  I have a puppy and a hockey game and a job…oh man!  I turned into an adult overnight!!!  This week has just been particularly crazy.  I would have traded last night but I was meeting friends downtown.  So, instead of making money I spent money.  Tis the season!  We had a nice snow storm last night, so a 30 minute trip from downtown turned into 1.5 hours.  The girlfriend walked the dog this morning and apparently he was jumping all over the snow and trying to eat it.  I will try to get that on camera tonight…assuming there is still snow on the ground.  Since I can’t bring you anything Forex or puppy related I will do the next best thing: talk about flow charts.  This continues my trend about straying as far from topic as possible.  Flow charts can be tricky.  Here is a flow chart that teaches you how to follow flow charts.  Thank XKCD for this one!

Sorry for the late post today!  Last night I didn’t get a chance to trade.  It turns out that our bulldog Chubbs managed to squeeze himself between some gates and got into the living room at my girlfriends apartment.  The little monster decided Christmas is too far away and opened all the gifts.  He also thought our tree looked stupid so he knocked all the decorations off it.  Then, he figured the Internet is dumb and went to work on the modem and router.  Luckily he didn’t do permanent damage to anything.  But, it caused me to spend my evening shoring up our defenses.  A couple slabs of wood has now closed the gaps and he is going to have to respect the gate…for now.  This morning we had to take him to the vet just for a checkup.  He looks to be in perfect health and will be terrorizing Christmas trees and modems for many years to come!  I wish I had a pic of the damage he did, but my girlfriend cleaned it up long before I got there.  Anyways, here is a comic from Explosm to reward your patience.

Chubbs and I are a lot alike.  He too can only be distracted from drinking beer by the TV.  This was taken on the first day we got him.  He is a puppy, so he is distracted by anything in our hands.  But he seemed to be especially drawn to my beer.  It was half empty, so I allowed him to like the neck.  I am not sure if it is the beer or just the shape of the bottle that he enjoys gnawing on.  Either way, it is funny to watch.  So funny that I thought I would throw it into a quick little video on Youtube.  I am sure this little monster will be caught doing other entertaining things as well.  He is showing incredible jaw strength and is able to drag large boxes around with ease.  Maybe when he grows a little I will have a video of him dragging a car down the road.

That’s right!  I promised you some big news.  And here it is: my girlfriend and I got a new baby bulldog yesterday.  At 3 months old this monster already weighs in at 26lbs.  He will definitely get over 60lbs when all is said and done.  We decided to name him Chubbs.  It seemed fitting considering his body type.  Yesterday was a pretty busy freakin’ day.  It started by picking up some supplies at Walmart.  This was big because I HATE going to Walmart.  And, it was a Saturday during the Christmas rush.  Scary!  Here is a shot of me outside the Walmart…

Then we had to go pick him up.  That involved getting more supplies and going over all the medical stuff and signing papers.  Julie took care of that stuff while I rolled around on the floor with Chubbs.  Once we got him home we set up shop and let him sniff his new surroundings.  One thing that is definitely a worthy investment was Training Pads.  These things are absorbant pads to use instead of newspaper.  They are apparently scented to encourage the dog to pee on them.  THEY WORK!  He runs right over to it and takes a leak.  Now, he is only 1 for 4 when pooing on the pad.  We are still working on getting him to realize that he is supposed to do all that stuff outside.  I also discovered that he loves beer.  Now, before you people start emailing me telling me how I shouldnt be giving beer to a puppy just relax.  The beer was in my hand and he kept going for it.  He ended up licking the top of the bottle.  I didn’t let him actually drink any.  Even in dog years I think he is still under age.  I am sure I have a ton of stories to write about, so I will save them.  I even have a cute video that I will throw on Youtube tomorrow.  Here are some pics…

*this was at the store the day before we bought him

*Chubbs discovers my delicious sneakers

Chubbs already knows what beer he likes

*who wouldn’t nap after a couple beers?!

Today is a very big day for me. Something big is happening today. I am not sure I will have time to blog about it with proper pictures and everything so I will waste your time with a cool comic. I should be able to blog about it tomorrow though. It has nothing to do with Forex or anything like that. This is personal. And, as a hint, is absolutely adorable. You will find out tomorrow! But, since I love to entertain: today I have a comic from Abstruse Goose. Another relationship type of comic. Very funny!

No trade for me last night.  I only had time to look at the charts early in the evening and I did not like what I saw.  The Euro was trading considerably higher that it was the previous day.  That added some uncertainty to an already tricky time to trade.  So, I skipped it and went on with my life.  There are some basic rules you learn as a young man.  Touching the stove when it’s on will hurt.  Vegetables taste like shit.  And, when Mario has star power he cannot get hurt.  As we age, these simple rules become clouded with areas of gray.  I always had faith in the fact that Mario was still unable to be hurt when he had star power.  And now, that rule has fallen too.  See now the tragic comic that broke my last hold on childhood.

Hey, another great source for web comics.  This comic is from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.  The site has a cool design.  As usual these comics are pretty much guaranteed to have nothing to do with Forex, but they are funny as hell.  I definitely suggest you check them out.  In this comic we discuss what would happen if holy forces eliminated sex from our population.  Interesting consequences!

I just found these 3 comics online and thought they were funny.  And, they are relevant too!  They just sum up everything that is going on with the markets and the financial industry in general.  I am always amazed at how the worlds money is all run and controlled by some of the damned dumbest people in the world.  What a joke.  People will talk about this current crisis changing everything.  Bullshit.  Once things get stable again everything will go right back into the hands of the old boys.  Well, we might as well laugh at it.  Enjoy!

Alright, last night went a little better than Monday.  I was worried I would be either too jumpy and hop into a bad trade or I would be too cautious and watch opportunity after opportunity pass me by.  Not quite.  I put up my charts and took a look at what was happening with the EUR/USD.  I noticed a nice little pattern forming for me and I decided to grab it.  I got into a sell trade after the Euro went a little over my upper barrier but came right back down.  I don’t mind if the currency flirts with my barriers…you know…play a little “just the tip” for a while.  I just can’t have it fully penetrated.  OK, enough sexual innuendo.  My timing on the sell trade was interesting.  As soon as I got in it bumped up by about 2 pips.  That is my only regret.  I was watching my entry price and I was hoping to get it to that level.  After that it went against me for most of the time I was in this thing.  Hell, this thing even went back and played with my barrier again.  I didn’t get out of the trade because it was still set up to drop.  I know sometimes I bail on trades even when I am even, but that is when the conditions have fundamentally changed.  When I look at the charts and realize I would enter into the same trade then I wait it out.  That patience was rewarded.  It finally shot downwards and I closed off the trade.  I took my profit of 5 pips.  I debated staying in longer, maybe looking for 10 pips.  I didn’t want to get too greedy after a bad trade the day before.  I prefer to get more bold when I have already made a good profit on the week and I am willing to take some chances.  Today I may not get to trade.  I have a hockey game and am going to a friends place straight after work.  If I do manage to fire up the charts then I will post the details.

Trade Summary:

Sell EUR/USD - 1.2940
Close Trade - 1.2935
Pips= 5

I was really excited to trade last night.  Market conditions were good too, I managed to get a 1.8 pip spread from the broker!  In retrospect I was way too excited to get trading today.  One thing I am always cautious of is getting into a buy trade when the currency is coming down off a high for the day.  When the currency has peaked and is dropping you can’t count on upward movements.  Sure, things may move into a new high…but it just isn’t likely during the evening hours on the eastern part of the North America.  Last night I had the EUR/USD coming down from a high for the day.  I watched some movements and looked at the last couple of hours and drew a strong upper barrier and a very weak lower barrier.  I knew this.  I avoided getting into one buy trade simply because of this.  For some reason, I lost my focus and just wanted to bag a few cheap pips and end my day and brag to you all about how amazing I am.  Yeah, the market bitch slapped me a good one!  I saw some jumpy upward movements which I mistook for momentum and got into that buy trade.  I hit even a couple of times but the momentum failed and things started dropping again.  This trade looked bad at negative 4 pips and I decided to pull out.  I went to close out at negative 5 and the fucker slipped another 5 damn pips on me!  That closed my trade out at negative 10!  that one hurt.  I was glad to just get out.  I looked at things and figured I could go for a larger and longer term sell trade.  I turned off the computer instead.  It would have worked out and I could have easily made up my losses.  I do my best to avoid trading twice in one night.  Especially when I was a monumental idiot and didn’t follow my own rule: don’t buy off a high.  So, I was likely to have a fucked up perception of things and needed a revenge trade.  It probably would have worked out but it would have been bad.  It would have excused my lesson.    That would be worse I think.  I have my rules for a reason.  They keep me in profit.  I only wish my timing to exit this trade was sharper as it would have save me 5 pips.  Oh well.  New goal for the week: recoup my losses today.  This should be fun!!!

Trade Summary:

Buy EUR/USD - 1.2928
Close Trade - 1.2918
Loss = 10 pips