A book for Christmas

The memory chalet

Tony Judt was a brilliant British historian who died last August. I started reading his last work, wich was  composed while he was totally immobilized by the motor neuron disease that was to lead to his death within a few months of its publication. The book is a touching reminiscence of his life, a testament to his courage and a fitting memorial to a great historian and a wise and humane man. Fascinating reading.

Dangerous market

I usually avoid trading during the Christmas period, but today I opened charts again. What I was afraid of, was there : a thin market, violently moved by the big guys, to make extra gains before their vacations. I had a 2,5 pips trade and the market, IMMEDIATELY after this, moved 40 pips in the opposite direction, precisely at the London opening (10:00)!.. I could stay with the long open and no stop and get a -40 on the face in 3 seconds.. I took fastly 11 pips on the right direction but this is gambling, no trading. Got a little more and closed trades for a week at least. Leaving by now.

Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah!

Flat

Lost some on a perfectly flat, boring pre-Christmas session. I should go packing and leaving for the mountains instead.

5 o'clock

Nice steady move, on a pre-Christmas dull Monday. 32 pips in 12 trades and done for the day. I should learn (in 2011) to have those pips whith fewer trades. I had to exit and re-enter often today, because of the thin market and for maximum seciurity.

O'o

O'o is the name of a extinct Hawaian bird and an excellent album of John Zorn. Vivid, magnificent music and cover! One of the best albums of this (very prolific) great musician.

Expectations

A serious mistake here : in the middle of a strong move and after some green bars, I believed it was time for a retracement. I went contra-trend and...I lost 7,6 pips. I had the  "honesty" to accept my fault relatively quickly and then I entered in the right direction and got the pips back.

I wrote this a million times before : Our beliefs, expectations, assumptions are the perfect way to perdition, especially when trading. What every zen monk knows very well.

Out of the box

Range bars show ..the range much better than candlesticks. 4,9 easy pips here, just by putting a buy order above the rectangle. BUT, if I wanted more, I would be kicked off with a loss. That is the edge of the scalper : he needs a few pips only, he is modest. Otherwise, he's lost.

Slowly down

London opening

Same scenario

Same scenario as on the previous fx post : collecting pips when bying ascending supports and getting anxious, having fewer pips, if not losses, when bying breakouts It is very simple, isn't? Some cunning fellows charge you (a lot of) money to teach you this..

Valery Gergiev

Valery Gergiev conducting the famous Mariinsky Theater Orchestra at the Athens Megaron. I was lucky enough to be in the audience. He gave an astonishing performance of Mahler's 5th Symphony, a big revelation for me, although I have listen to this masterpiece hundreds of times, in the last 30 years... All the tension is in his hands, which are like rubber..On the first part, the exquisite Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, soloist the great Leonidas Kavakos. An unforgettable evening..

Ascending support vs. breakout

The trades who gave 12,4 and 5,1 pips on this chart were entered when an ascending support (after retracement) was observed, while (almost all of) the rest of the entries were at (local) breakouts. Look how more relaxed and easier are the former.

Greed or addiction?

Some mini-losses inside the range and then a good shot which gave 12,9 pips. Followed by six little trades which totalled -1,5 pips, plus commissions. The session should stop after the mandatory stop to preserve the 12,9 pips gain. Why did I continue?

Morning session

Move forward

Rather cautious at the start of the move, I trusted it more on the next wave up.

Bloody Monday

A rather easy to trade Monday opening was transformed to a few pips loss. Looks like I lost my fast reflexes during the weekend.  On fourth trade for example, a "smart ass" anticipation of reversal costed me 11.8 pips. Silly, silly.

Post-NFP (2)

The "good" shot came immediately after the previous trades.

Post-NFP (1)

Not much on this first attempt to trade post-NFP. Mainly due to the tight stop loss (my safety net under high volatility conditions).

Before NFP

Usually I don't trade at the London session before NFP announcement. Today was an exception. Volatility was slightly bigger than expected.

Morning session

Too many trades, again.

Slices

Getting slices only out of the afternoon move, as I didn't trusted much this downtrend/correction. Ending the day with 39 pips gain in 11 trades, trading significantly less than on the last days of November. I consider this fact a big plus. Don't get hooked. Life is elsewhere. Steve Kuhn on the stereo right now.

Risk

Silly risk taken on the first trade of the month. The rest was more easy.