Euro-yen moves again!

Having charts open side by side for the two pairs I monitor, I saw the move on eur/jpy and I traded it. At that time eur/usd was quite immobile.

7 movie masterpieces - 2

2. Duck soup (1933),  Marx Brothers.

What can I say about this.. Just one thing : I have watched this marvel 23 times in a row, in the 80's, having fun and discovering new things every time, when I was a student in Paris (in Action Ecoles tiny theater), spending all my francs. I still remember all the dialogue, I even copied the slightly yiddish accent of Groucho. Then I bought a wig to  imitate Harpo, the absolute genius for me. And thinking that the real name of the guy was Adolph... I am thrilled that yesterday my little daughters loved the film and the fellows too..Especially the classic mirror scene..

Not much

Not much today, a quiet Monday as usual, plus mediocre entries/exits.

7 movie masterpieces - 1

(I can't move from home this summer because of my accident, so every night since July 24 we have an open air movie session in our garden, with family and friends, a projector and my laptop. For the last seven nights, i pick the best of my collection.)

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003), by Kim Ki Duk.

A sublime movie from S. Korea and director Kim Ki Duk.  The setting is a floating monastery in a pristine mountain lake, where an elderly monk teaches a boy the lessons of life. The seasons, the images, the poetry. A beautiful buddhist fable wich clearly shows how close to life is buddhism, how deeply understands the human...Some of the exquisite images on the trailer here. A big  lesson of wisdom for a few bucks.

" The protagonist in this film is life, and the antagonists are time and change. Nor is it that simple, because to be alive, you must come to terms with both of those opponents."  Roger Ebert, in his fine review.

A nice move

Nice drop on eur/usd while the eur/jpy pair was stuttering again.

And this

Zen

Second day enjoying the calm and simplicity of eur/usd (and the 0 spread!). I need only 5-15 pips per day, I can play with the highest lots, as the pair is more safe, less unpredictable than eur/jpy. Just 3-5 trades per day, one hour or less, 4-5 pips stop, no stress, no fear, almost zen.

Lazy afternoon

A lazy, awfully late entry on first trade and then some pips, on a quite summer afternoon.

Plaster

I count and recount the days remaining till the day (Aug. 26th) I will get rid of the plaster who locks me on the chair all day long..11 days  left. Yesterday night  we made a projection in our garden, the film was Rear window, by the big Alfred..Splendid, as always (I have seen it 5 times). You know, it is about the photographer with the broken leg (and bigger plaster than mine), who cannot do anything else than piping with his camera in the courtyard and finally sees a crime. I have also, 20 days now, my camera by hand while sitting on the bloody chair for hours, but I haven't seen the slightest crime, only trees..

Stephan Micus

Listening all Sunday long to several cds by Stephan Micus. What a musician! How can a German understand so deeply the eastern spirituality on sounds and incorporate it, so beautifully,  in his western craftsmanship? Some of his best works, for those who may be interested : Twilinght fields, To the evening child, Desert poem, The music of stones, Darkness and light. All published on ECM.

Time for thinking

No much activity recently, I need some time to clean my mind and plan the new season. Today I was just watching charts of eur/usd and eur/jpy, side by side,on same time periods. A very obvious remark : Eur/jpy had lost most of his shine. The leader now is the euro-usd pair. It is as spectacular as it was the former in the near past. Eur/jpy is a follower now. It cannot lead the movements, its moves are only adjustments of price between eur/usd and usd/jpy. Given also its erratic summer behavior and the bigger spreads, it is maybe time to trade eurusd. But I always have a look on eur/jpy's ADX, to catch the (fewer) high volatility periods.

Risk

Good timing for these but the last trade was soo risky.. Momentum cannot guarantee anything..

Le livre de ma mere

Albert Cohen, at age 50, speaks about his late mother. A SPLENDID little book that every son should read. I re-read it yesterday and had a big relief thanks to it.

Unavailable in english right now (on Amazon). The french original is here.

Une femme douce

My mother died yesterday, fifteen days after the death of my father. She passed her last six years immobile on a bed, totally paralyzed and almost unconscious, after the horrible stroke she had on 2004. Only her eyes were vivid all these years, the eyes who gazed me, with her unbelievable tenderness, every single day since then, when I was visiting her, for an hour or less every day. I was seeing my mother dying day after day after day, for six years long.

Fifteen days ago, my father died first in the adjacent room of their house. I am sure she understood what happened, she was very anxious after this. Two days later, I disappeared myself from her house, I could not visit her anymore, because of my broken foot. At that moment, she maybe felt that everything was over for her, that the persons to whom she totally devoted her life had left for ever. She died peacefully in her sleep, a few days later, at age 81. She was kind and tender all her life long, her life was love and devotion, nothing more, nothing less.

I lost my mother and I am unable to cry now. That is the most awful.

Splitting

A move of 50 pips like this on chart gave only 19p profit, as the continuous exit/re-entry diminishes the gains (and increases the commissions expenses). Splitting is the insurance to pay against a sudden reversal of a thin, summer market, for me at least.

Just one

Just one trade for today. Eur/jpy becomes erratic or flat on summer, as the major pair, eur/usd, takes most of the available liquidity and attention.

Back to work

Back to trades slowly after several days of inactivity, with these 4 little winners and a null. Last trade was average : late entry/early exit. It takes time to believe in the continuation of opposite trend.

This is my foot!

I managed to broke my foot, two days after the death of my father. For an admirer of Freud like me, this is not simple bad luck... During all August I will be in the plaster, foot on air...It happened at the moment we were planning the so needed vacation for the family...So sad that I am laughing right now...Time for reading, music, and some trading at present.

The artists creating on plaster are my daughters..

New life

This is Matilde, the new born daughter of my friend Andrea from Italy. She is just 27 days old and already a beauty! She has the eyes of an old glory of italian cinema, Claudia Cardinale!

Andrea is also in the forex world, he is a very talented person, the most intelligent computer programmer I ever met. We worked together in the past years on some indicators and forex trading and our exchange of ideas was always VERY stimulating. We created a "trading bomb" for fun, he was Dr Oppenheimer and I was Dr Neumann..Our long conversations over the internet will be published some day, I am sure about that! Διάλογος, discussion in ancient greek, means that two minds can produce more ideas when they are in contact than separated, according to Plato.

All the best, Andrea, with the new woman in your life!

Farewell

My father passed away yesterday morning, after a long agony. This little video, the best I ever found on YouTube is for him. Three minutes of pure spiritual force and human greatness, by the big Yehudi. In fact, my fathers' life was like this Chaconne : grave et triste, an endless fight.

No much trading

My father is on his final agony these days and I didn't have the time or the desire to trade during the week. I traded only this on last Thursday and the number of compulsive or unnecessary trades on the chart proves the obvious : I am emotionally and physically exhausted.

Range

...when I wake up, the move was stopped and trading inside the range was quite difficult.

Mediocre day

Not in my best today, with late entries and poor concentration. Started with two little winners, which were below the dynamics of the move.

Slow train (again)

Back to action

First interesting day after 4rth July's somnolence. There was some action today. Stayed aside on Monday-Tuesday.

Post-NFP (3)

And the last trades, splitting the trend ad nauseam. I stopped after this to see the disaster of my star, Kaka and his team Bresil against the mean (and much more clever) Dutch gang..

Post-NFP (2)

..the market then slowed down, the breakouts didn't work and I had mixed results.

Post-NFP (1)

4 fast winners after FOMC announcement. I could end my day at this point  but I wanted more..

Stupidities

An awfully stupid contra-trade here, which I can explain as an unconscious revenge for the missed previous uptrend...An R2 line in the vicinity is  also an explanation but this kind of trades is very risky in the ultra short term perspective.. I was lucky to close at a -4,8.

No trades today. Ends of month are either flat or too risky recently.

A nice move

When price moves straight up or down, my cautious (manually) trailing stop is not triggered and the gain is considerable.

Same scenario

3 little winners again today, an almost identical setup with the one of previous post. No more than 3 trades on the same move, as the correction becomes more and more probable. If you trade with relatively big lots, you don't need more than 12 pips daily.Time to enjoy the evening now..

20-minutes session

20 minutes in front of the charts  and 3 trades only for today.

Post-FOMC

Finding my fast reactions again and grabbing some 30 pips in a short, post-FOMC session.

Bad day

I have my moments of stupidity when trading, rather less frequently now than in the past. My own symptom of stupidity attack, is the prediction euforia. On these moments I can "predict" where the market is going, i can anticipate on price move. To feel more clever than the markets is the supreme stupidity in this job and the perfect suicide method.

The same mistake twice within minutes today. That means that I am in VERY bad shape and I must stop NOW. The reasons can be several : bad sleep, fatigue, a father in critical condition and so on. But no reason can be an excuse. Better stay aside for a while.

5 trades

First trade was ok, at the break of long base. Second trade was unnecessary and risky.  The third was late and the fourth closed in time.

Loyal friends

I want to say a big thanks to the unknown friend from Spain (Avila?) who, according to my blog's tracking data,  has visited this page 1005 times in the last two years.  I hope to have helped you a little in anyway, my friend.. Second is a friend from Vancouver, Canada with 597 visits and third a guy/gal from U.S. with 258 visits.

You (or anybody else) can write about you in the comments, if you wish. Thank you again.

No trading in the last days, as I had to cope with a serious family problem. Hope to find the time (and the mood) to trade again in the next days.

Mistakes last for ever

That was immediately after the previous chart. Buying local tops is a recurring bad attitude. It happens on my bad days, when I am not in shape. I entered long and waited an eternity to turn positive, while price was making several lower highs and lows, a sign of a probable reversal. It went to -10 and moved again to my favor just one pip above my stop. Very lucky indeed and very bad scalping manners!..

Splitting a trend

Splitting -again- a trend to several trades when on high lots. Minimizing the risk this way but also the gains. The range of last days does not let me trust the market anymore.

Get out and re-enter

For me, the best trade on this chart, is the second one, a loser. I didn't let price to go to -10 (or -40, who knows), I exited early to re-enter on the new tide.

Back to trading

Back to my base and trading. Relatively quite session around London opening.

On the road

No trades in the recent days, as I am on a trip and I never trade via the unsecure hotel's connection.

I will try to write here, starting on Sunday, about my new setups, as I promised to my friend Christian (sorry for the delay Christian!)

Late entry

The 10,6 trade was inexcusably late, as the long rectangle was off way before I entered. This kind of reaction not only cuts the gains but also makes the trade a lot more risky..

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.