Monday, November 30, 2009

Bits of bread (again)

Playing safe again with bigger lots. But first trade was of late entry, therefore risky.

Multi-entries effect

xiting a trade and re-entering on the same price movement increases risk and makes trades shorter and less profitable. On this chart i had to exit many times, under minimal signs of reversal. As a consequence, a drop of 40 pips gave me minimal gains, because my first priority is to avoid a loss. Last trade was more natural.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Melody Gardot

The new hot name in jazz/blues singing. She is perfect, she is sublime. Just 24 years old and she sings like the big ladies of jazz. She started writing music and singing to aid her recovery from a serious car accident. Her interesting story is here and a sample here. All the songs on the cd are little gems. But it would take a heart of stone to remain unmoved by the poignant title track "My One And Only Thrill". One of the best albums for 2009.

Friday, November 27, 2009

A sunny day is over

Missed the nice first movement on this but I took the second. There are allways moves to catch.

A nice day is over, with no tricks on Friday afternoon. 78 pips won with fewer trades than yesterday.

New York

Tried the NY stock market opening (16:30 my time) and the repercussions on euro/yen. Going with the flow.

And this

London

Tried the London opening, to check the increased (since yesterday) volatility.

While I was sleeping..

Should I trade in the night?.. Pre-Tokyo was awesome, the poor euro was crashed..

Thursday, November 26, 2009

And this

Stopped for the day after this, with a 48 pips total gain. Payed back 12p in commissions (too many trades).

Thanksgiving...

Turmoil on a Thanksgiving day...I planned to stay away from trading today because of the holiday, but the pair started to move vividly after the beginning of sharp decline on European markets. On situations like this ,the drop is linear and very important but I insisted to trade my method, takind on slice of bread each time and re-entering with tight stops always.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Bits of bread

A series of little positive trades, besides the first risky (late) one and the shy last.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

In a hurry

Some hurried trades today. Hope to find again time and my schedule from tomorrow on.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A few trades

Some trades today, after several days of inactivity (family problems). More potential up but i must leave my post now.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Connection lost

IB price feed was lost just after the close of the third trade. I allways use hard stops, at -4, -5 pips (with 1 or 2 exceptions per month, which inevitably become the mistake of the month, Murphy's law!). So I am not afraid of connection drops and freezes anymore. A friend who likes "mental stops", lost 3000 euros in one trade. He lost connection while open and then price went 100 pips against him...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Shy trades

Several shy trades in a row, then a trusted local breakout. I call shy the trades with very conservative exits, when the effort to avoid to have a loss comes first. I experiment this recently, with highest lots. The bars are perfect to control such trades.

20 years

The night the Wall fell down -9/11/89- i was there, a young photographer covering the event for greek media. I will never forget some images, the East Berliners walking in the West with the eyes of children in a toy store. The happiness of freedom on the faces. The gazes of some in KaDeWe store, admiring the 1200 ham varieties. The chilled people in the night of the next day, after 12 hours walking in West Berlin with temperature around zero, with a Red Cross pot of soup in the hand..

I finished recently reading this excellent book by F.Taylor on Wall's history. You learn a lot about post-war Germany, the Cold War and the fall of communism, all in 500 pages. Fascinating.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Le Pas Du Chat Noir

SUBLIME recording! From the great ECM label, the biggest oud player today, Tunisian Anouar Brahem, together with French pianist Francois Couturier and accordeonist Jean-Luis Matinier. Like oriental reminiscenes coming out from a smokey Parisian bal-musette, hand in hand with Erik Satie.. Unforgettable.. A sample here, just to make your Sunday!...

Friday, November 6, 2009

Post -NFP trades

Many trades after NFP, totalling 67 pips.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Mistake of the month

The price on this topped with two red bars on same level, then started to drop. I was distracted and super-confident, so i didn't close, even when price gave a second chance to do this. The important loss was the natural consequence.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Post-FOMC

Riding the tide, with manually trailing (tight) stop.

London

A few pips on the London opening, going with the stream (up). New York session is more volatile than London recenlty, so i don't trade in the morning anymore. Today was an exception.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

2 years Forexbird

The sparrow is 2 years old! This blog was started on October 31, 2007. The very first trade analysis i did is here. The purpose was to keep a record while scalping the euro pairs, inspired from M. Weinstein's conception (see the motto on the left). Two years and 570 posts later, a lot of things have changed, my style and tools, my attitude towards the market. Back in 2007, although I had allready 2 and half years of forex trading experience on my back, I was still hooked on indicators, "systems" and methodologies found on technical books and the internet. It took me another two years to emancipate myself from all this stuff and to evolve towards simplicity : all I need now is to feel the price movement. Nothing more, nothing less. No indicators, no systems, no trading teachers or gurus. I still have indicators on my charts but I don't pay much attention to them anymore. Trading, scalping especially, is pure geometry. You need time to get your master degree on trading geometry. You only have to study the price movement on (thousands of) charts, for some (long or shorter) time.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Purity

It is written somewhere (in Bhagavat-Gita I suppose), that only flowers and children are pure on earth. A humble price movement can also be pure and beautiful, like the one of my last trade. So evident and simple, like an euclidean theorem, or a perfect circle. 75 pips for today.

Good news

Smooth moves and trades after good news from U.S. economy (pending home sales).