FOREX trading 27 Nov 08

The week is coming to an end but my trading result is still as bad... haiz...

FOREX trading 26 Nov 08

FOREX trading 25 Nov 08

Was on duty last night hence was not able to sit comfortably in front of my computer to do trading. Thats when my handy O2 Atom Life come into good use. Made refinement to my overall strategy and recovered the loses I made in the day. Still learning and experimenting constantly... ;p

FOREX trading 24 Nov 08

So many thing to blog about over the weekends, like going for WT's farewell dinner, he posting to another unit already, attending EY's son full month celebration party and many more... Anyway since I did not take any pictures I better not bored readers down with words (if there are even any readers) haha...

FOREX end-of-week Summary (17-21 Nov 08)

I don't have to say much, the summary speaks a thousand words ;p

Introducing Acer Aspire Predator

Went over to Courts Megastore last week to check out the new Acer Aspire Predator. The design is so cool and the system so powerful, I brought it but of course after having much consideration. It was delivered to me on Monday (17 Nov 08), immediately I set it up and test run it. I am 100% satisfy with the product ;p

Check out this Acer Aspire-Predator

Liquid Cooling System...

More pictures of my Acer Predator

What's inside...

FOREX trading 21 Nov 08

FOREX trading 20 Nov 08

Sustained heavy loses the past few days, now my account is low on fund again.  Going to have difficulties trading...

FOREX trading 19 Nov 08

Trading wasn't as easy as I thought it is... Sometime it really make me think whether I have the cutting as a trader... Time to visit the academy for trading clinic... 

FOREX trading 18 Nov 08

FOREX trading 17 Nov 08

Was tied down by work as I commence shift duties for the week, however managed to get internet connection and did some trading. No mistakes made just that it never turn out I want them to be... Nevertheless, manage to keep loses to a minimum.  Towards a better day tomorrow... ;p

Madagascar Escape 2 Africa

Movie Plot: When New York Zoo Animals Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo finally leave Madagascar, they find themselves instead stuck in the wilderness of Africa. There, Alex connects with his roots when he meets the rest of his family, but has trouble communicating with them after spending most of his life at the Central Park Zoo.

Finally watch this long awaited animation.  I always love watching animation, and tell you what it's worth the dollars and time watching this one.  It brought me joy as well as tears, told you I am a very emotional guy, easily moved to tears.

Everywhere is starting to put up the christmas decoration, bring along the christmas atmosphere.  I dunno what I'm going to do on christmas, no programs or celebration planned yet.  Anyway I have this feeling that I won't be enjoying this festive season, just hope all turn out well.  I still miss her constantly, day-to-day I will still think of her, wonder whether she's working or not, whether she had left work and what she doing after work and stuff.  I seriously wander why I am still doing so... I do know that she had moved on and is getting along well with whatever she is doing and attaining now.  I sincerely and from the bottom of my heart, wish her all the best in whatever she is doing and may she find her happiness of life soon...

Learning to stop trading

Newsletter from IBFX, I think its a very good topic so I am attaching it here to share...

Learning to stop trading: an introduction

We talk a lot in the trading world about when to trade; we talk about entries and exits and profit targets and stop losses and moving average crossovers.  There are endless threads on massive online discussion boards about trading the news, or whether inside price action "Wicked Fairy" candles are better than "Samurai Warrior Face" inside bars.  The arguments about the best place to get into a trade are so extensive that, by now, it's difficult to tell the difference between the methods.

But we don't talk enough about when it's time to quit.

I found that learrning when to stop trading was just as difficult -- or maybe more difficult -- than knowing when to take a trade in the first place.  For me, one of the real breakthroughs in my trading was when I realized that I didn't have to trade, that not every day (or every hour) was suitable for trading, and a day off could be just as valuable as a day spent staring at the dual-screen setup.

The fact that the currency markets are open nearly 24 hours a day for 5.5 days per week -- and that a holiday in one country doesn't necessarily shut down trading for the rest of the world -- makes it very tempting to open up the trading platform at nearly any time of the day.

 You've certainly got to make your own decisions about what's right for you in your trading, but here are some ideas about why it's a good idea to stop, or when the right time might be. 

 

Stopping when you're losing money

This is probably the hardest thing to do, and I've seen hundreds of traders lose more money than they ever thought they could, or wanted to, because they just simply couldn't stop trading when the chips were down.

For example, when we've just lost money, we often react hyper-emotionally.  I know that when I have a losing trade (especially one that happens really quickly), I want the money back right away.  And that desire to get the money back right away leads to a nearly overpowering urge to trade again -- now that I've seen where the market is really going (or at least that's what I am thinking), I want to take advantage immediately.

If I can get that money back right away, then I don't have to suffer any indignity that comes with a losing trade.

The truth is that we rarely recoup all those lost profits back in one big counter-trade, or one big "reaction" trade.  This can be the type of situation where we start spiraling out of control, taking trade after trade and losing a significant amount of money. 

It's sometimes just best to quit for a bit when we have lost.  This might be for an hour, for a day, even for a week or month.  This time away from the market can give us the space we need to think clearly and get ourselves in a productive state of mind again.

 

Stopping when we are hyper-emotional

One of the worst times to trade is  when we've had a distressing experience.  Ever made a trade after you've had an argument with your spouse or partner about money?  Or when you've had a particurarly tragic event in your life? 

These can be terrible times to trade, because our focus is on the recent emotional experience, and not on what we're doing.  When we're not focused or attentive, we make stupid  mistakes that can cost us a lot of money.

I have seen emotional traders remove stop losses to "prove a point," or get back at someone through their trading.  The trading becomes an expression of their emotions, or an outlet for feelings that they can't say, or didn't say, or can't express in any other way. 

The market, unfortunately, doesn't know us personally and couldn't care less about our individual difficult life experiences.  It's not going to give us a break or go easy on us because we've had a bad day. 

So if you've had a bad experience, consider taking some time to sort out your feelings before you fire up the trading account.

 

Stopping when we've made money

This might sound strange at first, but it can be one of the most powerful additions to your trading plan: a goal for when you are going to stop trading if you've made money.

Perhaps you set a goal to make 50 pips a week, or a month.  That's a goal, mind  you, and I'm not implying that everyone or anyone can make 50 pips, or that the majority of traders can make that many pips (remember, trading forex is risky, and the majority of traders lose money -- that's a topic for another week) .  The fact is, I don't know what the right number goal-wise is for you.  But if  you look back over your trading history, can you start to get a sense for what you are able to achieve, if you are a profitable trader?

I have seen traders, time after time, start the week off strong, and get to Tuesday or Wednesday with a reasonable amount of profit, only to see them lose the money in reckless trading during the rest of the week.

In fact, some of these traders consistently lose money week after week, even though early in the week -- for most weeks -- they are actually profitable.

We sometimes treat profits as "found money," or money that we can afford to lose.  We have a few winning trades and then we give ourselves room to take an "experimental" trade, or a trade just for the hell of it.  This is tantamount to gambling.

Idea: go back in your account and see if you recognize a pattern of making money during the beginning of the day, week, or month.  Are you more successful at the start of the week or the end of the week?  In what ways are the trades you take different at the start of the day compared to the end of the day?  Or week? Or month?

Question: Does this mean that there's never a good time to trade? 
It sounds like it's always time to stop!

Trading is not right for everyone.  And trading all the time is probably not right for many people at all. 

But that doesn't mean that stopping your trading before you start is a good idea. I'm not saying that there are never good times to trade.  Here are some thoughts:

1. Consider having some quiet time at the start of each day before you trade.  My friend Chris McCloughlin has a rule that he never trades unless he's been awake for an hour -- because he realizes (big surprise) that he doesn't trade well if he is super tired.

2. Measure your emotional state.  This doesn't have to be a sit-down with a professional therapist every time you are about to trade.  But it's not so difficult to take a moment and gauge your own emotional state at the start of the day.  If you think you're a complete wreck today, maybe it's a better day to go feed the ducks.  Or see a movie.

3. Have a trading plan, and use it.  Make a version of your trading plan that you can keep near you, or keep you focused.  Not every trader needs to have the entire plan in plain sight, but most of us can benefit from a regular reminder of what kind of trades we're looking for.  It's important to allow yourself to be picky with your trades and wait for the setups that you know you like best.

4. Are you a better trader at a certain time?  When you go back through your trade history, do you recognize times that you are more successful?  It doesn't have to be a time of day or day of the week; it could be near the time of some fundamental news.  It could be around the time when the currency pairs you watch consolidate in a specific pattern.  Recognizing when you do best as a trader can help you get more specific about when you are going to dedicate time to take and manage your trades.

Do you really need to do all this analysis, or all this thinking about stopping and starting  your trading?  Maybe that's not your thing.  And it's up to you how deep you go into efforts to learn more about yourself and your trading.  I've found it to be true  that this kind of deep thinking about what you're doing pays personal dividends -- regardless of how useful it is specifically to your trading.  I hope you'll consider some of the things I've mentioned here.

FOREX end-of-week Summary (10-14 Nov 08)

Time for a weekly summary of my trading... 

Still learning as the days past, gaining valuable trading experiences and knowledge.  As can be seen in the summary, finally you see the graph charging upwards.  Hope it continues so next week... up, up and beyond...

FOREX trading 14 Nov 08

FOREX trading 13 Nov 08

FOREX trading 12 Nov 08

FOREX trading 11 Nov 08

Mission in Batam Indonesia 10-11 Nov 08

Wake up early on Monday morning and took a cab to HarbourFront Centre to catch the first ferry out of Singapore to Batam, Indonesia.  Was there earlier than expected and had time for breakfast before boarding the ferry.  At about 915am I arrived in Batam Centre and was picked up by the driver and proceed to Hang Nadim Airport for the mission.  Once I board the car, it started to rain heavily.  What luck! We waited in vain for the rain to stop, the mission was called off by the Captain for the day and we proceed back to the Hotel... We waited for 3 hours!!!

 

Once I had checked in, I went to the cafe for my lunch before checking out my room.  Rest in the room the entire day and watch James Bond Casino Royale on TV in the room.  After the show, I walked over to the spa opposite the hotel for facial, manicure and pedicure ;p

   

The 3 treatments (facial, manicure and pedicure) were carried out simultaneously.  Haha... Three beautician serving me at the same time and I paid less than SGD50 for the treatments.  After the treatment, we back to the hotel's Korean Restaurant for dinner.

Sa Rang Bang Korean Restaurant

 Recommended by the restaurant

look at the way the watermelon was cut... Just nice for your finger to hold... ;p

After dinner went back to my room and laze around, then went to the wine bar and NoName Pub for some light drinks and retire for the night.  Second day of the mission was more lucky than the first.  At least we were able to get airborne, when we landed it started to rain again... so isn't it lucky?

For those still can't guess, what I'm doing in Batam, maybe this pictures will help... ;p

FOREX trading 10 Nov 08

Make a few positive trades in the earlier part of the day.  Had already achieved my daily target, but thinking I might be able to recover abit of what I had loses in the previous week, I had a few more trades.  Wrong choice!!! :(

FATS (Demo) fortnightly updates (27 Oct - 7 Nov 08)

Since I setup my FATS on 27 Oct 08, the account had been making profit daily till today.  Two weeks and its already profit by over 20%.  Looking great.... :D

FOREX end-of-week Summary (3-7 Nov 08)

Though the final weekly result is negative, I had learnt that my strategy does work in  a way as the negative had been greatly reduced compared to the past weeks. ;p

FOREX trading 7 Nov 08

FOREX trading wasn't as easy as I thought it was... Still learning and gaining experience and knowledge daily.

FOREX trading 6 Nov 08

Seriously, you won't believe this, everything goes against me...

FOREX trading 5 Nov 08

Traded well, wonder whether I can maintain this good result...

FOREX trading 4 Nov 08

Having a strategy and following it was easy but executing or rather sticking to it wasn't an easy one. I had to constantly remind myself to stop once I hit my daily target. Made some positive trade yesterday. Really have to constantly discipline myself to make sure I dun make any more mistakes.

FOREX trading 3 Nov 08

Was really busy at work and was not able to monitor and made many trades.  However, was able to breakeven the loses within the same day.  Sticking to my strategy defined earlier and shall continue to discipline myself. ;p

Go-karting @ Permas Jaya

Woke up early and linked up with RL @ Rivervale Mall and took a cab to Woodlands Regional Interchange to meet up with the rest. wish6188 from Toyota Wish Club Singapore had organised a go-kart event for us. Had my breakfast at Mcdonald's before the rest arrive.

We set off at about 930am for our destination, Permas Jaya Go-karting Circuit.  After setting off from the McDonald's to clear the customs, we stop along the roadside to R/V with everyone...

Once everyone had cleared the customs, we proceed on for our destination and stop over at a Shell petrol station for those that need topping up. Ever seen a petrol station filled with Toyota wish?

After filling up the tanks, the convoy of 13 wish continued on our journey.  What await ahead of us was a bumpy and rocking rides :(

Finally, after the longest 4km drive I ever had, we arrived at the Go-karting circuit. The long drive was because of those wish with body kit and those who had lowered their rides. Due to the terrain, we had to go extremely slow...

The track and the karts we going to use for our mini twcsg race...

Before the warm up and race, everyone (kart drivers only) take a pictures...

And... Here we go...

We were divided into two teams with ten drivers in each team.  After one warm up round, the second round was qualifying round, only the top five could make it into the final... and guess what? I'm among the top five for my team... Getting ready for the final race...

After the race, we left the circuit and proceed to our next destination... LUNCH!!! We were all very hungry by then... and of course we still have to get out of the long 4km drive... R/V outside the entrance at the end of the bumpy road...

Our lunch destination was by the seaside facing Singapore... nice place with sea breeze, just too bad there wasn't any when we were there, but the food was great (maybe we were hungry) and the services was really very fast...

After lunch, some went shopping with their family while some when for car wash before proceeding back home.  

As for me and RL, we followed the wash car group and came back to Singapore.  A tiring day for me but it was well spent!