I came back! (3)

..a new fast move, wider than previous one, took place. I stopped immediately after this to enjoy my evening with family, Wayne Shorter and good white wine...This is my definitive end of month..

I came back! (2)

..then I lost some forcing a new leg down while an obvious range was there. I was ready to give up for the day when..

I came back! (1)

I could not stay with closed pc this afternoon, I was looking at charts again when euro dropped beautifully below the 112,10 hourly support and the pips came in a natural way.

May is over (for me)

A month of many thrills this May. A wild environment in currencies and economy and rumors everywhere, a frightening volatility on all markets. Personally I suffered from serious slippage in my trading for the first time and I am sure it is not the fault of my excellent broker. The price move simply shifts to a gear too high for the scalping level we live in. What does a sparrow in the jungle, anyway? Despite that I had a profitable month and I need to slow down to protect the gains. If I am happy for something, this is not the profits, it's the gained consistency in hard times..

Back to trading

Back to the charts, after several days, as I waited the volatility to calm down a little.

Before the opening

A strong price move, a few minutes before the London opening (10:00 my time), as the market expected a new support for the euro.

Following the elephants

Not much posting recently, I was busy trading...There is a  unique opportunity to make big profits right now, just by following the banks and other elephants. If it is moral for the Deutsche Bank to make billions by shorting the euro (and expressing their fears about the unique currency at the same time), why is not for the thousands of little sparrows who try to make a living.. Anyway, the volatility is frightening now and shows the vulnerability of the system.. A little mistake in one computer is enough to produce a disaster, like the recent one in the Dow.

i had the above chart, among others, on a violent reaction (buying back euros?) to the euro sell-off.

Greed

I had a total of 90 pips gain before the last trade on this (-7), but I wanted more to close the day. In consequence I re-entered early, just after the first red hook, not waiting for a round formation to materialize. As a result I got a -7 on the face, ending the profitable day with a loss.

The euro moves (again)

One more spectacular day, as the euro moved generously again this afternoon and gave easy pips.

Re-entries

Going with the flow again, getting out at the slightest resistance and re-entering at the (or a tad before) the previous exit point.

Go with the flow

..and avoid the contra trades..

And this

And this to end the day. No more trades for today, price can stall in a range before a new correctional leg up (or down, who knows?)..

5 o' clock

The usual volatility around 17:00 my time (10:00 EST). Some pain in the beginning and then a free shot.

My Sunday

I wake up early on Sundays, at 6:00 or 7:00, I don't want to miss the early performance of the birds in my garden. Every Sunday I am offered a sublime 2-hours symphony for sparrows, blackbirds and other species. Although I am mad about music, I have accepted that no human creation can match this marvel in harmony and invention.

Sometimes I make an exception and the human talent comes via the earphones instead of the birds. Coltrane, Bach, Bill Evans, Satie. Today I listened to The Beautiful Voice, of the great Renee Fleming. Not a new cd (1998), but one of her best. The big soprano made a selection, from arias to folksongs, of the perfect  material for her voice. The result is astonishing. You have never heard such a Rachmaninov Vocalise before, or a simple, exquisite folksong d' Auvergne, among other jewels. Moments of serenity and deep emotion on an early Sunday morning. Thank you Renee!..

What a day (again)

These are the last trades for today. One more exceptional day is over, volatility and madness and fear, a sign of the new difficult period we enter globally.

269 pips won today, in "just" 53 trades (98 yesterday), 2,5 hours of trading. 31 winners and 22 losers. Average winner was 12,3 pips and av. loser 5,1 pips. Biggest winner 53,9 pips and biggest loser -12,8. Today I won only 15% more pips than yesterday but I earned 40% more money, with the same lot size, just by cutting the number of trades by half.

I stopped trading after this, to go swimming with the family, in order to preserve the gains and myself from the fatal trading addiction...

Post-NFP (2)

My method is vulnerable when price makes a step back for every little move it makes, just to collect the tight stops like mine. That is why I had mediocre results on the left half of this chart and other small losses elsewhere. When the move speeds up... the sky is the limit.

Post-NFP (1)

Volatility is there to stay, for a while (?), not related with NFP news. The NFP announcement just pushed the button. I entered as soon as the spread narrowed enough after the news and when a direction was profiling.

Just before the opening

Traded this just before the London opening (10:00 my time) and then stayed out to avoid the usual range before the NFP announcement.

A day to remember (2)

Wild evening, as the Dow plummeted  suddenly by 900 points.

A day to remember (1)

Another exceptional day - the euro under heavy speculation. Instability and risk aversion are everywhere, nobody knows when this new crisis ends.

232 pips won today, in 98 (!) trades, although I traded 3-4 hours only and missed many "free falls". 54 winners and 44 losers. Average winner is 8,1 pips, av. loser is 4,7 p. 60 pips given back as commissions cost.

Patience

With a little patience, a second leg down was created and gave the final pips.

A long, exceptional day is over, with many pips and many trades.

Insisting

Trying to force price to continue down while a correction was there.

High volatility

A high volatility day (because of euro collapse). A relatively easy setup, just follow the price.

A lot of trades

i need to trade less.

Addiction

Stayed out for two days to avoid 'overheating". I have symptoms of trading addiction again, as I had on January last year. I will try to write about this.

Going down

Missed the first leg down and after an unnecessary (and costly) contra-trade, I took the obvious direction to grab the pips.

The promise

But there still telented individuals in this country, suffocated in the generalized mediocrity, like Vassilis Tsabropoulos who made a superb album in 2009, The Promise.

The sinking of Titanic

This sublime work, by the great British composer Gavin Bryars, describes perfectly the mood and the situation in my country (infamous Greece), the catastrophy, or greek tragedy or whatever you like we live now, which  I saw coming a loong time ago..Crooked politicians ruined a country by spoiling the people..

Fibo line

A double bottom AND a strong rebound on fibo line 50% (pink line) gave the longer shot at the finish of my day/week. Time for my music and my family now..

The correct direction

It took me some time (and money) to get the right direction. The higher lows and highs gave then the easy pips.

Local support (double bottom)

On this, many trades session (again), the easiest was the last trade: an instant local support, something like a mini double bottom, gave the easiest pips at the end of my time slot.

Overtrading

Lots of trades.

Gifted "kids"

Tomasz Stanko's young pianist, Marcin Wasilewski, formed his own trio and gave a superb album in 2008, January. Astonishing piano and mood. Here is a sample:

Thrills

On the first trade, I was short and around break even when, at 13:06:05 precisely, sudden news came out from NY and price moved fastly against me. My stop was at -5 pips but was filled with slippage, at -12. Surprised, it took me 12 seconds to be convinced about the strength of the move and re-enter long, just in time to grab 22 pips and breath again. Then I had some smaller gains, as the big guys were taking profits...VERY risky and very consuming..

Forex is often a lot more risky than the worst, suckers oriented, casino game.. Without this slipped stop, I would be served a -60 pips loss, in no time...Ended the day with a +26.

No doubts

...then euro/jpy decided to speed up. Easy trade, no doubts there.

Doubts

Splitting a trade into several ones. Price moved slowly down, therefore a need to lock tiny gains and avoid a sharp reversal. But this increases the risk of the next trade.

Euro vs. $

A few pips on eur/usd while eur/jpy was awfully stuttering. The major is the playground for now, all the move and thrill are on eurusd  these days, the euro must get a medium term direction soon.

Back to trading

Back to my monitors, after 8 (splendid) days off-line in Italy. The eur/usd had again a better volatility during my trading slot today.

Easter

Taking a week off, travelling in Umbria. No trades till April 12.

Eurusd

Starting the month with eurusd and two tiny trades.

Books for Easter (2)

""The book is a stupendous achievement. Truly, can one think of another book (in only 800 short pages) that is able to contain a complete century, and all the countries, of Europe? And he does it with an artist's eye. Lord, how well this man can write."" wrote a enthusiastic reader on Amazon.

Dutch journalist Geert Mak  travels during a year in Europe. He narrates the story of the 20th century of every place of the continent, via the people, the places, the memories of the biggest human achievement and biggest slaughterhouse in the world, Europe. Astonishinig!

Morning session again

A better than expected volatility on pre-London session.

Books for Easter (1)

We used to think of the 20th century as the era of the two devastating wars, or the time of communism and nazism and their massacres. But they were also writers, scientists, painters, philosophers, musicians in this century. These people also changed the world forever and gave the most important mind creations of the modern times. The Modern Mind  is a splendid narration of the best part of the 20th, the creative one. Very stimulating reading, if you can forget the awful cover...I skipped trading in the last days to read this, 850 refreshing pages..a shower for the mind..

pre-Easter

Relatively flat market and a boring session. Just one trade, as I hesitated to enter long after this.

Micro-trades

Micro trades today, with maxi lots. going for 1-3 pips each time, first priority is to stay above zero on each trade and then to earn some.

Just three

Just these three trades in a busy, heavy day.