Category Archives: Trading How-tos

February 2010 Trading Performance Review

I barely traded this month.  The total number of trades in February for my forex demo account is ten.  That’s far from my regular 150 – 250 trades a month.  Ever since my trading system was broken because of technical difficulties, I’ve changed my priorities in trading.  I spent most of my time in February [...]
Also posted in Self Assessment | Tagged monthly review | Leave a comment

On reactive trading and why I don’t make market forecasts anymore

It seems to me that the popular trading blogs have one thing in common.  They all make some form of forecasts about the market, or even better, calling out to a particular stock or currency pair.  My guess is that there’s a lot more people looking for trading ideas for quick profits than actually interested [...]
Also posted in Trading Strategy | Tagged market analysis, reactive trading | Leave a comment

What aspiring traders can learn from an Olympic athlete

Tales of great traders like Jesse Livermore, Paul Tudor Jones, or George Soros are inspirational. But there may come a time when a trader look at their trading performance over the years and say to themselves, “Why am I wasting my time with these average returns? I could never be like them!” [...]
Also posted in Self Assessment | Tagged motivation | Leave a comment

What to do when life gets in your way of trading?

Sometimes, things in life will get in the way of your trading. From down with a cold to your internet service provider acting up, there are times when your are not able to trade in your ideal zone. What do you do in these disadvantaged circumstances? Do you take some NyQuil or [...]
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January 2010 Trading Performance Review

2010 didn’t begin well for me.  I experienced my biggest drawdown so far at -3.95% (see Figure 1 for my account balance graph) in my demo account.  Given that I only risk 0.2% per trade, this is a relatively substantial setback. Ironically, I was in the process of filling paper work to open a live account [...]
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Barred from Trading at Work: A curse or a gift?

Well, they’ve done it.  The IT guys at my day job have blocked access to streaming market data.  I can’t trade at lunch anymore or even doodle on charts!  Yet, this event merely pushes my agenda forward as I’ve never intended to trade actively at work (i.e. no intention of getting myself fired).  Although I [...]
Also posted in Trading Strategy | Tagged paper trade | Leave a comment

Closed EUR/CHF and GBP/CHF Shorts: Best. Trade. Ever.

As I was saying earlier this week, I have been stockpiling in EUR/CHF short in my demo account (Fig. 1).  Aside from that, I’ve also stocked up some GBP/CHF shorts this week (Fig. 2).  Both positions are now closed because of my adjusted stops.  These positions have single-handedly lifted me half way out of a [...]
Also posted in European Crosses, Self Assessment | Tagged CHF, EUR, exit, FTC, GBP, good trade, paper trade | Leave a comment