Holy crap I made a trade today!  I finally had some time this late afternoon and I figured I would check out what’s happening on the charts.  I spotted what seemed like a fairly simple play on the EUR/USD shortly before 5pm.  I felt a small retreat on the price would cause some jumping as people bought in.  As usual, I was comfortable getting in on a buy at this time because I am looking for small gains.  It looks like my move was the right one, although my timing could have been better.  My trade bounced around a little bit before it finally broke for a few pips profit.  I managed to grab 5 pips, which is more than I usually go for!  Here are the details.

Trade Summary:

Buy EUR/USD - 1.4962
Close Trade - 1.4967
Pips= 5

Oh my god I actually made a Forex trade!  This is shocking.  What used to be a part of my daily life has slipped completely out of my life.  My last trade was back in mid June!  Some people may see this as slacking.  And, quite honestly, they might be right.  I have slacked a little bit.  But I have also been realistic.  It was easy for me to spend time completely focused on charts back when I had a full time job.  As a student, I just don’t have the time.  I am usually doing some kind of school work or I am working out.  I spend so little time watching the charts that I don’t feel completely comfortable with them anymore.  I am going to try to spend more time at this so I can get sharp again.  Today was a day where I actually had time to do this!  This was different than most of my evening trades.  In those trades, I mark off a safe zone - an area I feel the currency wants to stay within.  When it gets to the top or bottom of this zone I wait for signs that it is about to bounce off and then I trade.  During the day things happen a lot faster and you can’t trust those zones.  You really need to pay special attention to momentum and correlation of similar currency pairs.  When you see those other currencies spike, you know that yours will probably follow.  That is what happened late this morning when I got into this trade on the EUR/USD pair.  I saw a nice spike downwards and I got in.  I was in this trade for probably 5 seconds before I bagged my 3 pips and walked away.  Now, the currency did continue a nose dive and I could have easily bagged another 10-20 pips.  But, I just as easily could have had the thing rebound on me and screw me into a loss.  I always walk away when I have made my safe profit.  I am completely happy with 1-2 pips per trade.  One of the best things about trading mid day is the spread.  At 0.9 pips I don’t have to be too right in order to make money.  The smallest of movements will get me a profit.  Here is to hoping I can get in some more trading like this next week!  As always, the charts and details of the trade are below.

Trade Summary:

Sell EUR/USD - 1.4727
Close Trade - 1.4724
Pips= 3

Ah, finally something Forex related!  I have previously posted about getting your start in Forex.  You can check out that link for some info on how I feel you should start your journey in this world.  And, if you already started, it can’t hurt to go back and learn some shit!  Now this is something that is probably the most simple topic in theory, and the most difficult in practice.  Not trading.  That’s it.  It sounds so easy.  Right now you are reading this so you aren’t trading.  That’s how easy it is, right?  Wrong.  This is probably the biggest mistake people make especially when they are new traders.  I won’t lie, this was something I struggled with when I was first learning the ropes.  I would sit there at my computer looking for a trade even though I knew I had to be out the door in 5 minutes.  The problem was that I made money so if I just got to get in on a deal I could make some quick cash.  More often than not it screws you over.  You force a trade by seeing something that isn’t really there.  You see it because you want to see it.  Trading is all about pattern recognition and if you really want to you can make a chart look like anything.  Not trading is something that must be practiced.  I know that sounds weird.  Practice not doing something.  It actually works.  If you trade with a demo account you need to work it like you would if it was real money.  I know nothing can actually simulate the feeling of using real money, but use your imagination.  Practice firing up the charts when you are in a bad mood or when you are rushed for time and force yourself to not make a deal.  You will try to rationalize it sometimes and say it is only fake money.  Slap yourself on the wrist and try not trading again!  You have to think that you aren’t paid to trade.  You are paid to wait for the perfect trade!  Waiting for that perfect setup is your job.  This isn’t like using a machine gun, trading is like a sniper rifle.  One shot.  That brings me to my next point.  Rebound trading.  You just screwed the pooch on a trade and you bailed on it.  You are sitting on a loss for the day.  This is probably the hardest time to not trade.  It is for me.  The problem is that you know you have a winning strategy.  Odds are your next trade will score you money.  Let’s get right back in there and make back what I lost.  Hell no!  This is the best way to drain your account dry.  This is gambling and not trading.  It sounds similar, doesn’t it.  Only one more.  Let me win my money back.  This is why most people kill their accounts within 6 months.  You can have five and a half months of wins and 2 weeks where you attempted trade after trade just to win back any losses.  At the end you are broke!  A loss is a loss.  Walk away.  You are paid to wait!  The last reason not to trade has to do with outside forces.  Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows that I avoid news announcements like the plague.  Some people trade these times and make a lot of money.  It is way too risky for my liking.  The spread goes up and you can jump 50 pips a second.  I can’t handle that roller coaster.  I like smoother movements.  So, anytime a news announcement is scheduled I stay away for 30 minutes leading up to it and 30 minutes after.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  You can tell when the impact of that news is no longer driving the pattern.  Staying away from the news announcements was a bigger issue when I was trading in the mornings.  Since I switched to the evenings it doesn’t affect me nearly as much.  The best way to find out when all these announcements are coming out is by going to Forex Factory.  That link gives you a daily calendar with everything you need to know.  They even rank the impact of the announcement which is a great thing.  Low impact announcements are fairly safe to be in on a trade at.  Don’t even think about going in when those impact symbols are red!  Once again, this is all based on my style of trading.  I don’t like risk.  I don’t need Forex to provide me with excitement.  I am getting plenty of that with my attempts to become a firefighter.  Forex is my little cash machine.  Part of keeping myself in the black is knowing when not to trade.  There is a reason why my account hasn’t taken any hits this year.  I know when to stay away!  Learn that skill and you will find your win percentage will shoot right up!

I haven’t posted anything to do with Forex in a while.  There is a reason:  I haven’t done any trading!  I have been busy most evenings and just don’t have the time to sit in front of the charts.  Tonight would have been ideal but I have already ruled out trading because of a large drop on the EUR/USD that takes any of my usual ranges out of play.  Anytime the currency hits a new high or a new low then I am sitting back and waiting for another day time to trade!  The spread is also at 3.5 pips and that is way too high considering that I have such small pip goals.  So, I look to other things to entertain me.  How about video games?  It has been a while since I have posted a Zero Punctuation review.  So, here is a gem.  This could be one of the most bitter and angry reviews ever.  I have to say that I agree with him for the most part.  I hate the Sims games.  Why would I spend my free time telling some little character to work and eat and sleep…that’s all shit I have to do!  I want to do things I won’t ever get to do in real life like score a goal in the NHL or car jack a guy after beating a cop to death with a bat.  Perhaps I have said too much.  Check out the review for yourself.

My god I actually managed to get a trade in!  This was a pretty easy one to see.  I like it when the currency settles into a little valley down near a low for the day.  This makes it easy to get into a buy trade with some confidence.  That’s exactly what I saw when I fired up the charts at 5:45pm and immediately got into a buy on the EUR/USD.  I didn’t have to wait long for this one to pay off.  At 5:49 I got a swift little jump upward that went about 3 pips in my favor.  I decided to walk away at that point.  This early in the evening you generally get very small movements in the 5 minute candles.  I didn’t want to stay in this trade just on the hope I would squeeze out another couple of pips.  Besides, my strategy is all about small gains that add up over time.  3 pips is more than enough for a couple of minutes of work.  I know I haven’t traded much at all this year, but I have managed to make pips every time I do.  I can’t wait until school is done so I can do this more often!  I know I have yet to release any kind of strategy guide on how I trade.  I honestly didn’t think school was going to suck so much of my time.  I am in the middle of my 2nd of 3 semesters.  3rd semester is a lot lighter.  Hopefully I can put something together at that point.  I would be happy to see how much money people could make using my strategy!  Here is the chart for today’s trade.

Trade Summary:

Buy EUR/USD - 1.3834
Close Trade - 1.3837
Pips= 3

There have been some big changes in the EUR/USD since my last trade on the 14th of May.  The biggest thing is that the currency pair has risen almost 400 pips!  That kinda sucks because my account is in US dollars.  Oh well.  Thems the breaks!  Once again, I really wish I had the time to be looking into the charts more often.  I have easily proven that I have a method to making money.  I just need the time to act on it more often.  My method isn’t about big gains, but small controlled gains that add up over time.  Once I am a fire fighter I will have more time to dedicate to this business.  This evening I fired up the charts before 6 PM and found a nice little range that seemed fairly predictable.  I was able to spot a small sell trade almost instantly so I didn’t even wait to find an ideal price entry.  I jumped in at 5:46 PM and was out 5:50 PM with a nice little 3 pip gain.  I really don’t have some grand lesson to teach you because this one really didn’t take much work at all.  All I can tell you is that 3 pips doesn’t sound like a big deal.  But, if you are working with $100 pips then you just made $300 bucks in 4 minutes.  That’s not bad at all.  Here are the details.

Trade Summary:

Sell EUR/USD - 1.3989
Close Trade - 1.3986
Pips= 3

I didn’t post anything yesterday because it was my birthday and I was running around having fun.  Today was spent recovering from that fun.  Since I was laying around I figured I might as well check out the charts to see what was going on.  It turns out conditions actually looked good to make a little trade.  I had a very small range in which the EUR/USD pair was moving in.  I got into a sell trade just after 7 PM.  It moved slowly but finally hit a small profit of 3 pips at 7:21 PM.  This was a pretty simple sell trade to get into.  The Euro was coming off a daily high earlier in the day.  When I got into my trade it was right after some upward movement lost momentum.  I figured this currency had a rock in it and it wanted to drop.  I was right so I made money!  Hopefully I can actually get some trades in this month.  I have been trading so rarely that I almost felt like I should remove the “day trader” title on this blog!  Here are the details.

Trade Summary:

Sell EUR/USD - 1.3633
Close Trade - 1.3630
Pips= 3

I really do need to spend some more time working the charts.  I suffer from the same problem as many of you though.  Time.  I just don’t have it.  When I do have it, I tend to rush thinking that I have to make a trade to make the most of the time.  That is a dangerous mentality to have when trading.  I managed to get some time yesterday evening and I did manage to make a little bit of money.  My problem was what my problem always is when I am rusty.  Timing.  I got into the trade too early and then exited too early.  The reason I exited so quickly is because I was tired from being in the negative as a result of my bad entry.  Had I got in when I should have, I wouldn’t have felt beaten up and would have been able to stick this one out for about 10 pips.  Instead I walked away with just over 2 pips.  I know that isn’t bad but things setup well enough that I should have made this easy hunting.  This trade went against me almost immediately to the tune of 9 pips.  It almost hit my stop loss but it stayed on the nice side of things and came back down.  Oh well.  It was nice to shake off the rust and get back in the game.  I probably won’t have time to trade for the rest of the week unfortunately.  Like I mentioned before, I am still in exam mode in school.  From what I hear our 2nd semester is a little more practical and a little less academic so I am hoping that translates to more trading time!

Trade Summary:

Sell EUR/USD - 1.2926
Close Trade - 1.2924
Pips=2

Holy shit it has been a long time since I made a Forex trade!  I just haven’t had time with school and everything.  So, last night I finally had a little chance to fire up the charts and see what was going on.  I honestly didn’t want to do too much thinking.  I just wanted to take the most basic information and pick my direction.  More than anything this trade was just about getting my feet wet again.  Lucky for me my timing was perfect.  I noticed a large downward movement earlier in the evening.  Normally this would keep me off the charts but I really needed to trade.  I saw an opportunity for a sell trade and I jumped on it without hesitation.  I sold the EUR/USD at 9:46pm.  I was in the trade for about 1 minute and then I walked away with a 3 pip profit.  I know, not a huge gain.  It did feel good to actually make some money in the brokerage account of mine again.  Hopefully with the end of my first semester on the horizon I will be able to get more trades in!  Here is the chart and details of last nights deal.

Trade Summary:

Sell EUR/USD - 1.3358
Close Trade - 1.3355
Pips=3

Oh my poor little robot.  I had already mentioned that last Friday my robot got the shit kicked out of it on a couple of bad trades.  This was mostly the result of having weighted these trades very heavily.  It’s tough when one loss is about 10-15% of your capital.  Things started to look back up for the start of this week.  I was hoping to be able to report that the robot managed to get back to where we were last Wednesday.  No dice.  The robot got pimp slapped on some trades during the day and I am now down about 23% from my initial deposit into the demo account.  Again, I am using a demo because I don’t know anything about this robot.  I plan to give it another couple of weeks to see how things go and then I might scale back the pip target/stop loss down from the default setting of 40 pips.  But, you do need to give these things time to work out.  Every trading system will have some losses.  As you can see from the details below, I do have one large trade still open and it is in profit.  If it hits the target I will be back to last weeks total.  One thing that you should notice is the drastic rise in buy trades.  It was something I bitched about over the last two weeks.  I noticed the EUR/USD rising and couldn’t understand the sell trades.  It seems the robot figured it out and has been buy happy all week.  Since the currency actually was rising I think the timing on the entries was poor because these stopped out even though the currency ended higher.  One obvious way to solve this is to make the stop loss much larger.  That is not what I will do.  I like the security of the 1:1 risk:reward ratio.  You can click on the image below for more specific details on the robot’s activity to date.  The graph is a great visual as to what has happened.  You can see the very sharp drops.