Songs my mother taught me

for Martin from Brno, like Magdalena

Not just a beautiful woman, Magdalena Kozena is the biggest mezzo-soprano of our time. Sublime czech language in my ears, an exquisite way to pronounce the words, supreme eloquence and inner noblesse. My best cd for Christmas eve IF my daughters allow to listen this... Savoured with a glass of the big wine of your taste and the warm presence of your beloved.

Merry Christmas to you all!..

Paul Krugman

This is the blog I never miss, I read it every single day. Inspiring thoughts, deep knowledge of economics and today problems and transmission of this knowledge with a few words.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

Paul Krugman published a very good book last year with the same title.

Two more nice blogs : http://fistfulofeuros.net/ is about european countries and their problems, and http://blogs.lexpress.fr/attali/ , Jacques Attali's thoughts and comments (in french).

Scalping, chess, life

When I tried scalping for the first time, I was impressed by the analogy between scalping and fast chess ("blitz"). In fast chess , like in scalping, you have to act very quickly, based on intuition, experience and intelligence. There is no place for endless analysis.

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How life imitates chess is an excellent book from the former world champion, Garry Kasparov. It's not about chess, it is an easy approach of very important subjects, like decision-making, strategy development, crisis managment, intellectual evolution, game theory, perception and intuition, and so on... A lot of ideas in 270 pages and for 10 bucks.. Very inspiring.

Carcassonne

An idea for a gift this Christmas : Carcassonne, an excellent strategy boardgame for adults and kids. Very amusing, very simple rules and countless possibilities, like in the japanese game of Go. Thanks to this game, my 5 1/2-years old got very deep notions of strategy in a weekend , she would need several months to match this level in chess learning . Now she wants to play online with "ranked players"... A lot of communities, forums, online versions for this game. Just google it.

Kirschbluten

for Christian

A splendid film from Germany, by director Doris Dorrie. Emotional and sincere, all the delicacy of humans and their sentiments, in this little masterpiece. And the human destiny is treated seriously (german way) and poetically at the same time, with feminine touches. Splendid images too, I never saw Japan filmed that way before. Don't miss it!

P.S. I have a serious problem, I admit it : I cry in the movies. I watched this film with my wife and her (many) sisters. I was the only one who cried during the film!.. Women are getting tough these days..

Nice Friday!

Santa Clauss (high volatility) came to town again bringing presents ...

I must close the week, my best ever (+105%), AT THIS POINT, because I am able to wipe out everything in a Friday afternoon, I have done this before. Better read something or play chess..

Volatility, the party continues

Easy money, going with the flow, in a high volatility day.

Eur/usd drops like a stone, like the good old eur/jpy...

Euro/dolar again

The party is here!

I had a look yesterday in the charts after FOMC announcement (smashing interest rates again in U.S.) and realised that the party is going to take place in the euro/dollar fields. So i switched today to this pair and had quite some pips in this NY session. I didn't catch all the move but i do not look for this. 110 pips won in total.

Bits

5 o' clock

I could have a better entry on this, anyhow some fast pips and good exit.

Had some small trades after that one, 8 winners and 2 losers in total today, 47 pips won, +13%. Done for the day. Must keep the maximum rate of 10 trades per day. A lot payed in commissions recently..

Love Mondays (again)

Easy money on (almost) every Monday London opening.. I will stop here till 10:00 EST (17:00 my time).

Never (trading) on Friday!

Lesson learned from last week..

Continuation

It took some time to take off and have this +18. Before this I had a faulty reversal trade as i didn't waited the break of previous low and trend line. But it was closed in time, for a change...

Risky, risky...

Forcing things..

The conviction that price SHOULD resume down gave this late exit.

Slice of bread

I didn't trusted this earlier, so i got just a portion of the downfall.

Closed early

Closed early, although this is my preferred (safest) setup and i trust it.

Earlier today

Nice London opening effect. Second trade could be closed at breakeven.

Life (and passion) goes on..

Still alive and trading..

Under fire

Athens is under fire tonight. Our house, which is centrally located, is 100 meters from the fires. Heavy smell of police chemicals. Total chaos and fear here...

How to wipe out your gains

Friday afternoons can be tricky.. Large swings around London closing time today, big nervosity and indecision in the market gave me this disastrous finish of the week. In 3 lousy trades I managed to wipe out the 20% weekly gains I had before these. Price went very clearly against me and I could not close.. I can find excuses : I was very tired, the kids were making a lot of noise and so on... But the fact is there. An ugly way to waste one week's efforts...

Easy money makes you greedy

Easy money again today, by just following the direction of the markets at their opening. If European markets open down, eur/yen goes also down (the opposite is not always valid). This can produce a dangerous confidense sometimes and this is visible on the third trade on the chart... 12 trades in total, 10 winners, 2 losers. +7,5% on account and then i stopped for today, and was happy to do this.

I wanted to share this because there is a striking difference with my attitude yesterday. Yesterday it was an identical market, I made a fast 10% on the London opening, by following the DAX...The easy money made me greedy, I wanted more, I continued in the afternoon and was trapped in a consolidating market. Result : I gave back the nine tenths of the gains, little by little.. My frustration was bigger than the lost gains..

We learn something every day, each day adds to the big unwritten archive named experience or screentime ot whatever you like...

I love Mondays!