Friday FTSE close

It's actually the FTSE close at 4.30pm now.. for some reason, blog posts via Blogger are an hour out.

EUR/GBP got stopped -19 points

I also thought there was an opportunity to binary bet the FTSE to close higher with a price of 20 - 25 or so which mean if I won, I would have won around 70 points or so. There was 30 mins to go and we picked up some short term momentum towards the upside.. just 6 points to reach the opening level. Anyway, it fell short and went back down so I lost 24 points! :(
Anyway, I back it to go down with 10 pips to gain.. with binaries, I go in at 5x normal stake.. so that won me the equivalent to 50 pips.

I also closed AUD/USD for +50

I have currently one position open (the short AUD/CAD) and so far it's at -34 pips.

Not a great week.. made back some gains today but overall, my account has taken a bashing!

The markets are very volatile currently.. not sure what's going on but in these conditions, best to steer away!

Pants all round

Hmm.. things have suddenly gone from bad to worse.. yesterday I was long EUR/GBP at 6791 and got stopped out at 6779.

A long USD/CAD at 11611 which got stopped out at 11584

A long AUD/USD at 8089 which got stopped at 8064

Each trade was at double the level once again but alas, I took a bit of a bashing and my account is slightly above it's starting level.

Markets change so quickly and what worked before quickly stops working and you need to find another way to make consistent profits.. it's very frustrating, I'm now at the level I started at a few months ago.. so alas, all this work has amounted to nothing.

Anyway, I have some trades open currently...

AUD/CAD short from 9307
AUD/USD long from 8064
EUR/GBP long from 6807
GBP/USD short from 19577

Lets see how we get on!

Pants day

Yep, a bit of a pants day today!

The EUR/USD last night got stopped out.. it went down a little more though so I nursed a loss but it could have been a lot worse.



Also, I made two fresh trades this morning.. short USD/CHF at 12101, stop 12142 and long EUR/GBP at 6799, stop loss 6780.

USD/CHF looked liked it was heading south but it hit support at 12085 and headed upwards hitting my stop..



EUR/GBP is still currently open... it's retracing out of my favour at the moment but lets hope it goes the right way! I'm slightly down on this trade currently.



To top it all off, I have doubled my stakes as I was doing so well.. so what should have been a 70 pip loss or so is the same value as a 140 pip loss! OUCH!

Remember what I said about being confident in the markets? You can never afford to be, it just comes back and kicks you in the 'nads!

Evening trade

I am just watching the markets again and have put on another trade.. I know it's the evening and generally I don't put anything on at this time.. not sure if it's safe to do so or not. Do people manipulate the markets at this time I don't know? Time will tell.
Anyway, just seems to be a flurry of activity on EUR/USD and it's pushed up. It's been in an uptrend since January and just seems to want to go upwards.
I'm long from 13363 with a stop at 13345.. lets see where it goes. It's retraced just now but medium term looks good. I don't like too deep stops but it's a combination of the length of time I'm in a trade and the amount of time I'm prepared to spend staring at charts (which isn't much).
Anyway, as I speak, the long trade doesn't seem to want to go my way.. oh well! Let's see what happens!

Another busy day at work

Another busy day at work meant less time to look at the charts. This morning, I sold AUD/NZD at 11265.. it went almost to 11225 but then came all the way back to where I sold.. as it was another busy day in the office, I didn't get a chance to look at it until almost home time (5.30pm) but realistically, if I were watching it, I probably would have got out at 11245 or so for a 20 pip profit. Anyway, I closed it for a 4 point profit! PAH!

I also closed my EUR/GBP for a small 10 pip loss.. it subsequently went higher so I done well with a small loss.

The USD/JPY trade from yesterday woke up.. I closed at 11826 after it came against some resistance and started to fall again.. as I write, at 19.18 it's at 11792 so I did well to close. I made 29 pips on this one.

Overall a small up day with 20+ odd points.. not much but at least I wasn't nursing a loss. Could have caught another 20 points if work wasn't so busy but as per my post yesterday, as a successful trader you can't dwell on these things.. just accept that there are also opportunities to make a profit every day!

I'm now 42% up on my initial account from a couple months back... wahey!

Over and out!

Busy day at work, not much happening in the markets

I had a long day doing the day job. Two of my colleagues were out.. one is on holiday for the week, the other went to pick up a drugs prescription but got ill on the way and didnt come in. On top of that, a colleague from Bangladesh turned up and I was chaperoning.

Anyway, not much happened with the EUR/GBP short.. it went as far as 10 points down at one stage (WOW!) but currently it's still flat.

I opened another trade when I got home.. USD/JPY long. The MAs are aligned towards the upside in most timeframes and MACD indicates a long.. so far, a few points up but as far as I'm concerned, nothing has happened.

Not a terribly exciting day with the markets but at least I've not lost anything today, points for today currently stand at around +5.. both are still open!
I usually also like to play the binaries 30 mins before close for both FTSE and DOW closing times.. however, didn't get a chance with the FTSE closing (due to work.. as above) and no opportunities presented themselves on the DOW closing. OH WELL!

Anyway, I was thinking of the emotions that one needs to control to become a successful trader.. I am by no means a successful trader (YET!) but I have felt all the emotions and I have found that I have become a better trader the better I control my emotions. Consider the below scenarios.. if you can seriously say that you wont feel 'emotional' after each one then you're well on your way...

• You have just put on a long bet on the DOW with a tight stop.. you're sure it's going to go up. Within 5 mins of doing so, it plummets 20 points and you get stopped out. Suddenly, it shoots up 150 points.. at £5 a point you would have made a cool £750 but alas, the whipsaw saw you lose £100. You got the right side of the trade but got stopped out...
• Ok, after the market shoots up 150 points you put in your bet, another long. It goes up 10 points.. you're £50 up but then the rally abruptly stops... it then falls 50 points. You're now currently down £200 (net loss is 40 points). What's going on? The market went up and you're nursing a cumulative total for the day of -£300.

Who can seriously say that they wont get pissed if the above happened? Similar situations have happened to me many times.. I don't get annoyed any more, I used to get annoyed for ages and I didn't want to take it out on anyone so I'd just be a miserable sod. Anyway, these days, if I miss the initial rally.. I'd see if there's a pullback and go long. I wont chase a moving market.. more often than not, you get burnt. It is rewarding if you can catch a biggie but more than likely, you'll end up with a big hole in your pocket. Looking for low risk trades.. they may not earn you big bucks each time but at least it's consistent returns.

Trading is also a game of losing.. losing is inevitable, no one likes to lose.. least of all me but you'll have to accept that you will lose probably as much as you win on positions. The trick is to ensure that your winnings eclipse the losses. I never used to understand that, I thought the best traders would win 90% of their trades... I'm sure there are people who can do so but the extra effort required to do so it just too much. I want a painfree approach to trading (if that's possible) so I tend to only look at the market a few times a day.. keep it stress free.

Ok, thanks for reading if there's anyone out there. Oh, I saw that I have at least one reader, Roman.. thanks, it's good to know that there are people out there like me, following the same pursuits!

Good night!

26th March - Too early

I'm feeling a little bleary eyed.. I'm not too keen on Monday mornings. I've had just 6 hours sleep but I look at the charts before I go to work.
This morning, I've put on a short on EUR/GBP... I went to brush my teeth and it's already 6 points up.. well, still early days.. about 20 point swings I consider still to be background noise so in effect, nothing really has happened.
Anyway, reason for entry? It has fallen through short term support at 6770 and it's crossed certain moving average lines
Let's see how this runs throughout the day...
Ok, off to work....