28 Sep 2007

Okay, if we were at bottom a few days ago, it was only a soft bottom!Right now, according to the charts I'm viewing, this pair is trading at 0.9925, which is nearing a penny below parity. I can hardly imagine what such a drastic change in rates, worldwide, truly means to the state of global economic affairs.Perhaps the current administration has done the unthinkable? Perhaps the US predominance

26 Sep 2007

Okay, I think it is nearly safe to say that the USDCAD has hit bottom.Heh, actually, it's probably not safe to say, but it has certainly found some support at and above the 0.9950 level. I think that the downward pressure from speculators has now eased.I also think the downward jump has been overdone.However, assuming I'm right, and I'm finding that often I am, I don't know how long it will take

21 Sep 2007

Well, I'm not sure if the USDCAD has finally hit bottom or not. It's around parity today which is pretty much what people were talking about.Now, I did purchase some before parity. So, I'm underwater, holding my breath, wondering how much time it might take before I'll notice some buoyancy and float back to the surface.I guess this makes me a swing trader, because now I'm looking at holding my

19 Sep 2007

There has been a lot of frenzied action since yesterday's Fed rate cuts.Personally, I've activated an account with OANDA. They allow very small accounts and any size of trade. Also, you can trade less common currency pairs at reasonable spreads. For example, during normal trading, the spread on the EURUSD is usually 0.9 pips. That's great!Anyhow, more experiments under way.I've got some

14 Sep 2007

Down and down it goes, where it will stop, nobody knows.Just how low can the USD go compared to the CAD? Parity is an option. Below parity is an option. However, there have to be some fundamentals that come into play here. The amount of trade between the USA and Canada is huge!Traditionally, the USD has always sat above the CAD.Anyway, I'm not sure parity or below is realistic. I'm starting
I'm dabbling in the EURTRY carry trade situation.Due to the difference in interest rates you can pocket a bit of change as long as you maintain your short position. Obviously, however, nothing is free. The EURTRY market has a lot of volatility complete with sharp price spikes on the order of 1500 pips!This means that you cannot leave a position completely open or you will risk the value of your

13 Sep 2007

Well, whether it is a small correction or not I have no idea, but the USDJPY has gone down enough to remove me from the market. So, my profits have been pocketed and I need to look for opportunities to get back in.The same is true for my AUDUSD holdings.I'm starting to look into the USDCAD, in the long term, but there is always the risk that the US dollar will take a dump when the Tuesday
Well, imagine my surprise to wake up to a hugely profitable swing in the USDJPY.It's too bad that I wasn't awake during the action. I could have increased my position on the way through and grabbed stupendous gains from it. Anyway, I cannot complain, as I've added almost 10% to my account.Isn't it great when you accomplish great things in your sleep?Of course, I should note that I did have some

12 Sep 2007

Sure, you want to have as much capital as possible involved in an upswing, but it's painful having a stake while the market slides.Unfortunately, you have to keep dipping in your toe. At the apparent end of a long slide, or when a correction appears to run its course, it's time to dip in that toe. What happens when you end up tossing your coins into the fray and the market rejects your advances
I've been riding the recent AUDUSD increase.Now, I have some competing issues on my mind. As the AUDUSD hits new highs I have to worry about corrections. However, if this instrument is going to continue rising, I'd hate to not maximize my participation. See my previous post about having to play to win.Anyway, while a more experienced Forex trader might not have to "figure this out", I've
I'm still a little gun shy.I see little dips and corrections, which is only to be expected, and my stress levels go through the roof. That's what I get for playing across the recent job reports news last week.All I can do is remind myself of various cliches. You have to play to win. No risk no reward. Buy low sell high. No guts no glory.I suppose all this concern is healthy. It will

11 Sep 2007

Well, now that I've exited most of my positions profitably, I'm paranoid. What if I put in some more cash and the market takes another massive dump? Heck, it has been a long upward run so I'm sure a correction is brewing at some point, right?You have to play to win.If I sit on the sidelines and fret away the day I'll get nowhere. What I need to do is participate in a guarded way. What I
I don't know if you'll remember it, but there was a commercial on CNN a while ago that had this song. It would talk about stocks, making money and how great trading the NASDAQ was. Something like that anyway.Well, when the markets are moving in your favor, every day feels like Sunday.Yes, indeed, my pip grinding slogfest has been ongoing since Friday, but things have improved so much since then

10 Sep 2007

Well, I've been grinding away at my open positions. Catching the tops of candles and buying in again at the bottom. I guess that means I'm fairly good at reading the short term charts with respect to top and bottom behavior.I've got several dozen trades in the past couple of days. It's probably a little too much work to bother transposing all the data.Suffice it to say that I had some

9 Sep 2007

Not that anyone is counting.Anyhow, I'm looking at my account report and I've noticed that I don't seem to be accruing any rollovers. Perhaps this is a feature of a trial SuperMini account as compared to a standard account?I'll be forced to look for a new trading partner that doesn't penalize small accounts if that is the case.
Given the recent news based rout of the Greenback I am expecting some heated trading and movement when the markets reopen.Everybody has had time to fully digest the news. Everybody has had time to analyze their charts to the Nth degree.I'm going to step out on a limb and predict some short term rebound in US currency. However, at the same time, the recent volatility might put some fear into the

8 Sep 2007

The weekend is a good time to review what happened during the last week, take a look at long term charts, and to think about new trading strategies for the future.As a relative newcomer to the game I'm taking my first good look at the idea of rollover. Basically, when you make a trade, it doesn't really involve your own money. You borrow one currency (the base currency) to exchange it for

7 Sep 2007

It looks like The Rookie has survived another week. Although, I have to admit I'm holding my breath on a few underwater instruments this weekend.In particular, the USDJPY took a heavy knock on the jaw and is lying face down waiting for the three count. Maybe the weekend will be long enough to let the coach clean up a few wounds while the dollar catches it's breath for the next round? Get up
I'm learning. Every day I'm learning.Some fundamental news came out this morning. That was great, and I got some profits because of it, but at the same time I had limits on a lot of my positions to help ensure that I'd get out of positions and free up margin room.This means I've left a lot, and I mean a lot, of gains on the table. That's too bad.In the currency exchange market, finding the

6 Sep 2007

There is an important difference between Forex instruments and stocks or bonds. The nature of this difference requires that you adjust your thinking.When you buy a stock, the presumption is that with inflation or growth that the stock will eventually always climb. That, at least, is the goal.Trading on exchange rates is a different ballgame. The rate of exchange is a ratio representing the
Well, the so-called sideways market just took a major jump down across a fair number of currency pairs.I added some equity to my account just to make sure I would not suffer a margin call in situation that I feel comfortable waiting out.I need to be careful though. If I add equity just a few more times I won't be playing with peanuts -- at least not according to the small quantity of assets
The market has been rather docile today. Well, at least in the currency instruments that I have been nurturing.What is going on with all this sideways action? The Forex gods must be crazy!Without getting into particular positions and so forth, here are some things that are currently sitting on my piled-high plate:AUDUSDEURCHFEURGBPEURUSDGBPUSDUSDCADUSDJPYPresumably I'll be able to lighten my
Since the currency market was soundly trouncing me I've adjusted my trading. One thing I have done is move to a slower chart. I'm now trading on the 1hr charts instead of using anything smaller. Another thing I've done is spread my risk across different instruments.With this, I've found I'm more able to judge movement potential. I'm also able to be more patient when I have some items on the

5 Sep 2007

Okay, time to show that I'm not absolutely wrong 100% of the time. So much for the inverse signal idea... damn, foiled again.B CADJPY 109.36 -> 109.61 = 2.17B EURUSD 1.3645 -> 1.3658 = 0.30I had a fair amount of margin on my account and figured I'd unload the EURUSD on a spike so I could leave myself a bit more wiggle room with respect to other open positions.
Based on recent performance this new signal operates at near 100% efficiency. From now on I'll blog about entering long and short positions in near real time. Whatever I do, just do the opposite. You'll be rich in no time!I highly recommend grabbing my blog feed.
Now that I'm playing in the currency trading world I have a much better understanding of all the Forex advertising floating around. As a rank beginner plenty of the ads are hard to understand but a few are geared towards you:Learn how to tradeTrade with usCommission free tradingThis can help you enter the market while advertising that talks about pips, signals and so forth may not be relevant

4 Sep 2007

Okay, so it's too late now, but dammit, I was right! Every single open position I had to unload is now in the money. Of course, that aforementioned $ss chapping is in progress too.Anyway, rest assured that I'm laughing about the whole day at this point.
Hey, it's important to have a good attitude, so don't get me wrong. Right now I'm in the process of being spanked for being in the wrong side of the forex market. Again, if you are just dropping by, I'm only dealing with a $100 account. It's not that big a deal and I get to learn a lesson.I should close my EURUSD position and take a hefty percentage loss.However, it would really chap my $ss to
Oh oh. I might be about to get spanked. It's really strange, because you look at things and come to a conclusion, but the market certainly doesn't have to give a damn about any of your thoughts, calculations or conclusions.Today I've been selling the EURUSD at the top of some price spikes. The only question is, are these really spikes are just some short term pauses on a large upward movement?

3 Sep 2007

Well, I wasn't sure whether or not to take it seriously. What, you ask? The Forex educational material talking about what days and times to do your trading.In terms of trading, today was a very boring day.Very little movement. What movement there was happened at a snails pace. Maybe next time I won't glue myself to the market during a holiday.
I guess since I crow about profits, I should also disclose some recent currency trading losses. I mean, that is the whole game right, win some and lose some. The key is to make sure you regularly win more than you lose.B EURUSD @ 1.3643 S EURUSD @ 1.3649 = 0.60B EURUSD @ 1.3638 S EURUSD @ 1.3605 = -3.30 (S)B EURUSD @ 1.3634 S EURUSD @ 1.3619 = -1.50 (S)B EURUSD @ 1.3630 S EURUSD @ 1.3619 = -
Okay, so I'm no genius. However, I am admittedly a rookie, so that is no fault of mine.Anyway, I've just discovered the joy of setting price alerts. I can have my system play a wave file when one of the items I'm interested in arrives at or crosses a certain price point.The value I currently see in this is that it can alert me to a situation that might represent an opportunity. When the alert

2 Sep 2007

As I blogged recently, I had left myself in an open position with no stop order. If some world news event had occurred and greatly changed it's value, I could have lost up to the current total of my account. I could also have made a good deal of change too.However, upon opening a few minutes ago the price raised a few pips. So, no major changes and I've had time to add stop orders to those
Only three and a half more hours...
I can hardly wait. In another five hours, approximately, the Forex currency trading markets will start another week of operation.Will my open trades bust my account? Sure, it's only a SuperMini, but I'd rather not simply throw my money away. On the other hand, perhaps the EURUSD will go up and I'll end up looking like a hero? The suspense is awesome...I've been doing my best to learn more

1 Sep 2007

If you are anything like me, you probably imagine that it is difficult to become a foreign currency trader. Perhaps there are rules, regulations and other hoops that have to be jumped through. Maybe you need large amounts of cash in order to get started.No.Becoming a Forex currency trader is incredibly simple!Get A Demo AccountAs I beginner I'd suggest you sign up with Oanda. Not only do they

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