Post-FOMC

Better take the 50 pips and leave screens, instead of taking the consolidation period also, as on this.

That's all for today.

FOMC today

FOMC announcement is the big event in forex world recently, much bigger than NFP. It happens today, at 20:15 CET. No trades until then.

Late entry

Rectangle

Sold on this rectangle break. The second trade was closed at the contact with the 2 support lines.

The only talented Greeks...

here

The maths of symmetry

During this week I had the time to read this fine book. Not very known as du Sautoy's first book (The Music of the primes) but very stimulating, with a lot of ideas. It explores the mathematician's quest to understand the mystery of symmetry in nature, the art and the universe, from the age of Ancient Greeks (Plato : "God ever geometrizes") to the modern era. The only problem is that the writer has an ego bigger than the egos of Gauss, Abel and von Neumann putted together... Too many I's to grasp for a maths book.. The really great minds are more humble...But the book is worth reading for the stimulation you get.

Back from heaven..

End of one week on the mountains... Spent only one hour on trading for the entire week, with a borrowed mobile card.

Easy pips

Just one trade for today, closed early to keep gains (and go walking..).

Mountain view (down the hill)

Risk taken on the third trade (again).

Traded at Platanos Nafpaktias, 950m altitude.

Some pips

That's all for today. Preparing for a (much expected) week-off on the mountains.

The day after..

Entered this after the fourth higher low, TL break and indicator signals. Closed at +7 on hand.

Back from a serious crash in ninjatrader, i have to remake templates etc, and (our) Easter vacation is approaching...

And this

Morning session

While on the phone with a client I missed this almost perfect entry (in the circle). I insisted to enter after the end of the call ...and about the end of the trend... Closed the trade fastly at least. Re-entered on rejection of 50% Fibo.

Surprise!

Stayed out today, i didn't expect this nice and smooth uptrend, despite the holiday...

First toy

I was digging in my fathers' home attic today and finaly I found it : a terrific Brunsviga 13 KL, THE mechanical calculator of 50's and 60's. It was my favorite toy at age 4 or 5, back in the 60's. A little later, at age 8, I was working in the family shop during the holidays and vacation periods. I was the little boy at the desk, doing the accounts of clients with this machine. Work and pleasure...

Two or three years later, around 1973, the first Hewlett Packard electronic calculator landed in the shop, the famous HP-35 (using the reverse polish notation). Its tiny red led digits impressed me a lot. Followed by the first bloody pc, and so on. The great Brunswiga became a relic of the past and disappeared..

Spent the day cleaning the 9-kilo german beauty and reading on the net about it. Solved some trigonometry equations then, with the help of this lady. It's amazing how many mathematical functions can be done with this apparently simple and totally mechanical device. Former models were used even for cryptography during WW2, both from Allies and Germans. A fascinating world... A new passion for mechanical calculators?..

Fateless (2005)

Director of photography Lajos Koltai made this masterpiece at age 60, his first film as a director. It's about the life of a young Jewish - Hungarian boy in a concentration camp, in 1944. Very different of what you have seen on the subject (Shindler's list, La vita e bella etc). Short scenes full of emotion, almost silent, splendid monochromatic photography and breath-taking atmosphere. Very nice reconstitution of Budapest during the war too.

Based on a master autobiogpaphy novel by the great Hungarian , Imre Kertesz.

Departures- Okuribito (2008)

An excellent film from Japan, by director Yojiro Takita. Departures is the comical and dramatic story of an unemployed cellist who finds work cleaning and preparing the deceased for burial. A splendid meditation on humans and their destiny. Oscar for best foreign film of 2009. One of my best films in the last (many) years. An absolute must.

Easter

Flat day, as expected. No trades. Happy Easter!

And this

29 pips won today in total, in two hours of (mediocre) trading.

Tight stops

Trading with very tight stops and maximum lots gave mixed results, in a rather strong trend.

Lazy morning

First trade was closed in the middle of the move with no reason, an obvious other was missed later. I was sleepy this morning, films and music all night long, not sleeped at all. Bad for the trading business...

Easy afternoon

An easy afternoon, with some late entries..

Correct exit

Entry on first trade was late and that gave a loss. Exit on third was on time (ascending CCI).

That's all for the morning.

Afternoon trades

Better acted in the afternoon, although (very) tired.

Bad trading

On the first trade I had a +8 on hand and waited for a 10 and that turned to a -2,3... On the second, i was super confident that the breakout was coming and refused to close... Price went to -18 and then resumed the up move, i closed at +7,2.

Old bad habits never left me, they are just less frequent now. Trading is an endless fight for a better self control.

Textbook London opening

First trade was wrong: trendline break not confirmed, CCI falling and trade against the spine (thick blue line). The trades that followed were more straight forwarded, net total of 13,6 pips for this session.

Price had a false break of the Asian low, just to collect some stops and then continued the other way. A textbook reversal of London opening. I learned my lesson and closed early to keep some pips.

The big Vladimir

I found this on YouTube and wanted to share it with you : In 1986, Vladimir Horowitz, one of the biggest pianists of the 20th century, returns to Moscow for a concert, after 61 years of exile. He is an old man, just 2 years before his death. He plays Schumann's Traumerei, as an encore. All his life in 2 minutes of divine music. The audience, all the audience, is crying.

Post -NFP trades

Back from my trip, I had these trades on Friday afternoon, in the rather dull post-NFP session. Playing before and after the trend line break.

Late entry

Late entry on the 1rst and correct on the second.

April's fool

Mediocre start of the month, as I was trapped inside the tight range at London opening and pre-G20. Price stalled an eternity inside a small triangle in the hourly chart, tried both sides to break with no success. That makes traders impatient, my impatience generated the 3rd trade here. After this I missed the most important setup on this chart.

I went off line then and missed the big move up which followed an hour later.. Enough..

Exiting the range

A better exit

Entry and exit based on CCI signals. Exit was spot on, just before the resume of the uptrend.

Monday opening

Second trade was not closed early, risked 10 pips to close finally at +1,5..

Good bye Mr. Svensson

Last one

On the run

I was alerted by a friend about the big drop and re-opened charts. I tried to enter on reaction at 4H low (2nd trade), I was lucky to close fastly because price moved through this in seconds... Very risky, not to consider again. Then I went with the flow and had some pips.

Pre-London

A few pips before London opening and back to my daily schedule. I will try the Friday closing, in the afternoon.

NY

A much smoother NY opening.

Range again

Another flat london opening, due to the flat day on the European markets too. Should I change my trading time slot?

In the range

I insisted to trade in the tight range and very close to a hourly low. Not a real thrill. 4 winners, 3 losers. Total : 11 pips.

Two trades

Two trades only this afternoon.

There was a perfect setup at 18:22, as Andrea Oppenheimer suggested in the comments, but I was distracted at this moment and missed it. More setups to come :).

Coitus interruptus

Simple maths

Pre-London. 3 winners, 3 losers. I kept losers smaller than winners. By doing this i had a gain of 10 pips, even with this bad w/l ratio of 1.

Second trade could be closed with small gain or breakeven.

One more

...had 1 more trade before I leave. The late entry had some risks.

Monday morning

10,6 fast pips this morning and back to my day schedule. First trade was closed at b/e whith no reason.

I will try to be back around 14:00 UK time.

The age of stupid

The year is 2055. Most of London is under water. Sydney is in flames. Las Vegas is being swallowed by the desert. The humans have perished. The Archivist lives alone in a concrete tower in the middle of the oily ocean somewhere around Norway with a museum collection of stuffed animals and priceless works of art. He sits in front of a transparent space-age screen and rifles through genuine newsreel clips, wondering why we failed to fight the 2 degrees of global warming that pushed the planet beyond the critical point in 2015. Why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?

'The first successful dramatisation of Climate Change to hit the big screen', wrote The Guardian.

I had the chance to watch this terrific and terrifying film by director Franny Armstrong, at the Thessaloniki Doc Festival. Opening right now in UK and around Europe. Don't miss it!

http://www.ageofstupid.net/

Last one

Here again, cci knew about the end of the move.

A week ago, i watched a webinar of the cci guru, Ken Wood (Woodie). I don't like his fanatism about cci but, speaking of indices (YM mainly), he demonstrated how range charts are better for this indicator, eliminating the noise of time charts. I think that is more than truth with forex.

No trades tomorrow, I will be travelling. I will miss the fixing of Friday afternoon, which, with the huge movement of this week, will be tremendous, I presume.

And this

First entry was late, second trade was closed on divergence.

CCI again

Started the day very badly, cci was ignored as I refused to accept the reversal and had a -15,4 on the face. Silly me!.. I followed the wave up then, with scared trades and then went for the reversal again, following cci for entry/exit with precision, for a change.

This chart is a good summary of my "discoveries" and uses of the cci, together with the rainbow. It shows also my big problem, the refusal to accept the obvious, like a losing trade.

After the party

I was busy with my day job and missed the big move up (120 pips) around NY opening. That's life... Had some pips after this.