Come ON!!! SHOW ME THE $$$

New job needed

2011-12-06T11:25:00.000+08:00

Need to look for new job to earn back my saving. But its had to find one, as I have not got 1 year of experience. How???

I need a $3k job at least, if not how to cover back? Next year is getting married, money is needed, but I can't find it if I stay on here. Trading had not been successful, so unable to make back my lost and salary.

I am in a big mess here, how to get out of it???????????????????????

End of dream, time to wake up!

2011-11-21T12:31:00.001+08:00

Just make a huge loss this month, after making much progress last month. Get caught by the market due to Europe and US crisis. Should have know better, but the emotion got hold of me. Try to revenge. Not really revenge, but to recoup loss.

I got the skill to look at market. That's all, I got no luck in trading, my trading habit is damn bad. Meaning I am not fit to be trading.

Year end coming, just drag through this year. Also have to see I shall go from here. I try my best to change job, really study hard to get into this industry. But my habit killed me.

I feel apologetic to my families, especially my wife which trying her best to support me financially, which is too much for her.

Well, time to goes back to earth and see how I can earn back the money and repay them.

Is it so hard?

2011-11-09T11:48:00.001+08:00

I am just trying to survive, why must make it so hard for me?

Everything I do, my intention is to give more to my love ones. Although I never succeed, but I am really trying my best.

Nobody understand, only me who knows it. Can't voice out also.

Everytime is u u u u u u u u... What about me me me me me me???

Tunnel

2011-11-08T14:45:00.001+08:00

I use to be walking in a tunnel, I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, although I had been walking for decades. But I know I am still safe as long as I continue walking, leisurely.
I got sick of it walking for so long, unable to walk out of the tunnel.

One day I decided to try another way to walk through the tunnel. At first it does look promising. But as times goes by, I find myself crawling instead of walking compare to before. Not only did I not see the light, it become even dimmer.

Seriously I do not want to give up. But at the rate this going, I might be gone before I can see some light.

How?! Seriously don't know...

First "warning"

2011-10-14T18:04:00.001+08:00

My boss just whisper to me she will help me get some account. Quarter report is out and my revenue again cannot meet the target. The higher up there is questioning her and she need to do something.

I kind of expected it, nevertheless, I am still very disturb by it. Have to buck up now, be it getting client or trading, the lesser the mistake the better. No much time left on my side, not much bullet left.

October only left 14 more days, hopefully market can be kind to me for the rest of the days left in October.

Rebound back towards the end of 1 hour

2011-10-12T17:02:00.001+08:00

Got playout, market rebounded instead of going down. No setup base on daily candle, so never enter. But seeing all the stocks go up and not participating sure is torturing... Many up $0.05-$0.10, which can be substantial profit.

Short Wilmar yesterday but today rebounded back also. Haven't broke yesterday high, but should break if US close very positive tonight.

Let's see tomorrow if I have to bite the bullet and take the lost for shorting Wilmar... Sianz...

What it takes

2011-10-12T09:35:00.004+08:00

What are some clues that you could be one of the fortunate few that actually could succeed at being a full-time trader?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you think you might be ready to trade futures full-time:

1. Are you a successful part-time trader? You'll need to be successful at trading futures on a part time basis before you think about moving into the full-time trader ranks. Don't be fooled into thinking that trading futures on a full-time basis will allow you to spend more time to cure your part-time trading ailments. In other words, don't say to yourself, "If only I could spend more time trading markets, I could have more success than I've had just trading one lots here and there."

2. Do you have enough money available to live on when – yes, when, not if – you hit a streak of losing trades? A losing streak will inevitably occur, probably sooner rather than later, and it may be a stretch of poor performance of up to six months, or longer.

3. Do you have the psychological stamina to be a full-time futures trader? Quite frankly, most people do not. Can your psyche, not to mention your pocket book, handle six months of mostly losing trades? Ego and emotions can be very demanding forces.

4. Will your immediate family members support you, even during a prolonged rough stretch of trading? For example, if your spouse does not support your decision to trade full-time, then you are likely doomed to failure. The pressure of having to produce winning trades and knowing that your spouse is skeptical of your efforts is almost insurmountable.

5. Will you be able to uphold your family or other important responsibilities even during a rough trading stretch? Or will you brood and kick the dog when it happens to cross your path? Financial strain is not conducive to good relationships and a happy life.

Singapore up 4 days in a row!!

2011-10-10T19:07:00.001+08:00

Although last week NFP is good, but US market turn negative towards the end 1 hour before closing.

Market here open up, move up, move down, move up, move down, move up decisively up after Europe open positive.

I already clear all position as market is uncertain. Overall is profit, but miss the 1k plus as after sold, market still moves up. Again could not hold on the position to get greater gain.

Now have to patiencely wait for next chance to enter, but not sure if can catch the right signal to enter.

Will update again as the days goes by.

Market stop falling as ECB step in

2011-10-07T08:02:00.001+08:00

European Central Bank step in to provide banks with longer-term liquidity to ward off a new credit crunch.

ECB would start buying covered bonds, reopening €60 billion programme it ran between 2009 and last year by spending €40 billion over a 12-month period beginning next month.

The above decision should see some rebound before the down trend resume again. But as the market had fallen too sharply, we might again see side way movement after the rebound before down trend continue.

Temporary bottoming

2011-10-06T17:40:00.001+08:00

Market had drop for about 5 days in a row. US is the first to rebound on Tuesday. It follow through on Wednesday and likely to continue on Thursday.
Singapore market was cautious on Wednesday, but follow through by US install confidence back to traders as they pick up cheap stock for rebound on Thursday. I help my client pick up Noble yesterday. Genting, STXOSV, Indofood today. All 3 is not as strong going up, will be stronger if US can close positive tonight. Noble is still very strong, with Fibonacci, target that it will turn down if it hit $1.50, so need to get ready to take profit when close to $1.50.

Market down 5 days in a row

2011-10-04T16:39:00.001+08:00

Global market had been down for 5 days in a row! And I miss all the shorting action due to the stupid reservist! What the hack!!! Supposedly doesn't have to go for this reservist!! Da ma de!!!

My AUD is being threaten again! 3 more days to go only, shit!!

Option selling

2011-09-29T19:52:00.000+08:00

First loss of the option selling journey. When AUD is at $1.06, sold it at $0.95, premium was $200.

CME AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR PUT 95.000 0.20 07OCT11

Cut loss when premium was at $430
CME AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR PUT 95.00 0.4307OCT11

Make a loss of $230. Premium was as high as $1500, more than tripled the original premium of $200. Didn't follow the rules to cut loss as I was hoping. The prices manage to rebound and the premium drop back down. But the rebound was short leave and begin to retrace again. So cut loss before the premium goes back up again as the price is getting too close. Still got 2 position at $0.93 and $0.925. With 7 more days to expired, the premium should not go up too much.

Will update again when the option expires.

**********************
2 days to expire, 3 contract at $0.93, $0.925, $0.915 should expire worthless as AUD rebounded from $0.94.

Wanted to add one more contract at $0.91 for premium of $70-$80, but was too late as AUD rebounded quite strongly. Will look for opportunity if it can retrace a bit.

Bear won!

2011-09-23T19:59:00.001+08:00

US down 2nd day in a row, -300 plus. Together with Europe down 3%. Asia open low but refuse to go down further. Hk close off low, Singapore also after Europe open. Stocks like Cosco, NOL, Genting close positive.

After Singapore close, Europe turn positive to negative again as the bear take over. US futures also turn negative pointing to negative opening of US session. I bought Genting, now have to see if monday will gap down.

As for AUD, it continue to move lower with no rebound in sight. It certainly look very worrying. Premium have more than triple with 2 weeks more to go. I am dead on the trade!

The long awaited QE3 announcement

2011-09-22T20:29:00.001+08:00

Market had been waiting the the US Fed to announce plan on QE3, but in the end, no QE3 is mention, but "operation twist" was announce. It is by selling short term bond and buying long term bond. This does not bores well by the investor.

US market sell off in the last hour of trading market and close -258. Asia market slide, HSI make new low and close down 900+. The sell off carries over to Europe market with Dax, FTSE, CAC all down 4-5%

Option selling in AUD also take a hit as it fell more than 500 pips in 2 days. Now have to cut loss of AUD falls down further...

Blogging using iPhone apps!

2011-09-21T13:10:00.001+08:00

Well well, this is the first post using iPhone, going to be easier next time to blog about my thoughts...

Something is wrong, something is not right, but I do not know how to fix it

2011-08-26T17:13:00.000+08:00

I am not doing well in trading, lose tons of money, still unable to make back after 5 months of full time monitoring.
I am not doing well in broking, got 30 plus clients, but less than handful trading actively.
I am not doing well in generating commission, owe company few months of pay, yet to be able to repay back.
Only thing doing well is selling option, but so far is only starting with few trades, cannot conclude if it is the passive income I am able to make consistently.

So what now, what to now, how to continue from here? I got the utmost support from my wife, but she got her own career to build on, she is unable to support me all the time.

Well, I am not sure what to do, not sure how to go on from here. Got old bird told me he use 5 yrs to build up the client base, but do I have the luxury of 5 years? If not, what else can I do? I try all my means liao.

I will take this weekend to think over, see if any idea can come out. But sure thing, friday night will be exciting. Everybody is waiting.

Selling Option

2011-08-10T23:10:00.000+08:00

Had started selling option. Had made the first trade successful but violating the rules as I sell option less than 30 days. 2nd trade now is expiring, but highly dangerous as I sell sugar put, but magically, the price went down together with DJ many days in a row. It will expire in 3 days time, price is holding, but not really well.

It is definitely a good lesson to show me that option is not that easy, it still takes some judgement, patience to find good trade before can enter.

I now on puts for Euro, as I see Euro should very good support, and I sell fairly far distance away with 31 days to go.

Will update soon on 2 trade expiring next mon for clude oil and sugar.

Lost money again

2011-08-10T23:04:00.000+08:00

Had been the worst month since I started "full time" trading. I had already follow rules and enter, but still mount to great amount of losses. The sign already showing that many stocks are in down trend. But when bank is moving the STI up, the temptation to trade is still there. DJ continue down for 8 days, but STI hold strong, so isn't it showing that STI is holding up? NO! Because once DJ break down -600 points in 1 day, the whole world broke with it.

I guess this is the most expensive lesson learnt so far, the thought of giving up comes to mind again. Am I really in for trading? Loss money again and again, when will I ever recover my loss?

My wife ask me 1 question, why am I using CMC to long? Ain't I suppose to use CMC to short the market? Well, its true in some sense, but I am suppose to use the tools to trade both direction. I just in the mist of trading, forget all the rules, and become blur. No excuse, but it is really the heat of moment, can't snap out of it, until all is lost, then manage to wake up.

Having say all this, I will become wiser, hopefully, and start trading from the basic. Trading from the basic is not forcing, but come straight to mind, that this trade can enter or not. Hopefully this shorting market, can let me recoup some losses back for the next leg of up trend.

25th July 2011

2011-07-25T10:44:00.003+08:00

0900hrs

Market open down due to the news from US that the debt ceiling had not been raise. Overall region market all down. Tiger start moving around 1000hrs, now up $0.015 at 1045hrs

1200hrs
Market continue to be weak, STI down 31, all 30 components all red except Jardine. Tiger now up $0.03 to $1.18

1400hrs
Market open slightly better but still down, HSI down 202, Nikkei down 82, SSE down 77
Kepcorp turn positive after lunch, driven by dividend payout on 27th July

1700hrs
Market turn up, although still close in red zone, but manage to recover to close negative 11 only.
Europe also turn from negative to positive slowly. US futures also recover but remain to be seen what will happen after market opens.

Update 22nd July 2011

2011-07-22T17:15:00.000+08:00

0900hrs
US market was up 152 points at 12724.
Market open up 20 points in the early morning, slowly go up and do not have pull back. Mostly already gap up, which present no opportunity to buy

1400hrs
After lunch still trading strong, blue chips still continuous to move up:
Citydev $10.93 +$0.42
F&N $6.07 +$0.09
Keppel Corp $11.16 +$0.34
SGX $7.43 +$0.14
UOB $20.16 +$0.17

After a big drop, it is still big cap stocks that moves up, usually using 2BCB to enter, if not is buy bottom or buy on rebound, if not will have no chance to ride this momentum. Cannot use breakout as it will not work!

1700hrs
The market close up 44.44 points to 3182.
Europe is up early afternoon after EU agrees on the final bill out plan
DJ futures are also.
The guess on negative today never happen as the news on Greece bail out materialize
Holding position:
1. Dynamac $0.56
2. Ezra $1.275
3. Osim $1.52
4. Tiger $1.155
5. Wilmar $5.78

Update 21th July 2011

2011-07-21T17:12:00.000+08:00

0900hrs
US market was slightly down -15 points at 12571. Market is weak in the early morning, slowly recover after opening. See-Saw the whole morning till lunch time.

1400hrs
After lunch HSI recovers and move into positive directory, STI follows also, stocks that move the STI are Citydev $10.51 +$0.24
F&N $5.98 +$0.05
Keppel Corp $10.82 +$0.02
SGX $7.31 +$0.07
UOB $19.99 +$0.13

1700hrs
The market close up 12 points. Although Europe is down early afternoon and DJ futures are down. The guess is it will be a negative day on 22nd July, lets see. Not holding to any position at the moment except shorting of Capitaland.

Binary option

2011-07-21T12:02:00.000+08:00

I have been trying the new Binary option, which is trading most on indices on
HSI(HS42), Nikkei(N225) & STI(Sing blue chips)
Germany 20, FTSE, France 40
SPX500, Wall ST

All the trading is done on IG market, not really to my liking but had been the best I can find, which is the local market. Trading on the size of $100k which is pretty easy. So when have to trade on the size of less than $1k, I guess it will be pretty difficult.

Trading is base on selling level which the indices will not go, or buying level which the indices will not drop to. Much testing still need to be done. Will post the result in the future.

Update 20th July 2011

2011-07-21T11:54:00.000+08:00

Market STI up 30 points after bullishness from DJ which up 200 points. But in actual fact, the stocks leading the STI is only UOB, OCBC, DBS, Citydev

Genting was down due to downgrade from Deutache Bank.

Broking....Trading...Optioning...

2011-07-11T12:07:00.002+08:00

It had been 4 months into Broking with CIMB. Not very long, not very short...but I have yet see any result. I regard it as temporary(I hope) failure to the short time frame. But in fact I guess is due to my inability to get client that can trade regularly. I also unable to get more client 4 months into my job, as those that I know already sign up. Those that I do not know, I still trying to figure out how to get them. It certainly not same as before which initially thought I have tons of client I can get to trade with me. How come it is different after I got the job? Hmm.....

I guess unless I start stepping out to meet client, I will not be able to get any more clients. One thing I realize is that I cannot rely on others to recommend client to me. Be it, far friends, close friends, even close one also didn't help. I guess it still come down to this word: "Need to do anything, DO IT YOURSELF!"

Let me start getting my mind set ready and start going out to meet client. Let me just relax 1 more week, very last week, and I will start calling, going out.

As for trading, it still not going anywhere. I follow the rules, enter base on using MA as filter. But still not profitable, the main reason being a big loss is incurred in playing speculation stocks. It happen in May and June also, guess I didn't learnt the lesson, and cannot resist the temptation to enter.

I had been reviewing the method and going to stick to the basic and not tweak anything, or add in any other things, keep it simple as it work best. Hope the trading will start working soon, as I really cannot hold on anymore.

Last but not least, I have completed my option course and have start learning the trick to option selling. The hand holding session had been good, and I had start preparing all the necessary items to facilitate my learning. The white board is up in my room, so I can write all the important and related information on the board to keep track of the market and my performance.

Just got info that the trainer will be reviewing his latest strategy on intraday trading on option selling. He will be holding this session on Monday night, which is tonight, 11th July 2011. The intraday can be as short as 1 day to 1 week. Kind of excited if it really works and I can learnt how to do it. Will keep posted once I attend the session.

I am down to my last chip, no more time to waste, no more chip to lose, I have to start making progress. I cannot keep on relying my dearest to keep on feeding me $$ to keep me going. It is not right, and it cannot work this way. I HAVE TO START GOING!!!

I have been to 4 horse road 2 times, ask for advise 2 times, but both times ask me to stay put, stay at the present position. Do not really know what it means. But anyway, will keep myself on toes and be careful.

Notes from a experience trader

2011-06-19T22:38:00.002+08:00

"Most traders, especially futures traders, have been taught from their first trading lesson that in order to turn a profit, a series of small losses must be accepted to make that one big gain. It is the potential for this one big gain that keeps traders and gamblers alike coming back time after time and losing money time after time."

"Taking many losses in order to make one big gain is very difficult, even for the most experienced investor. Why? Because it goes against human nature. Humans are cursed with the emotion of hope when involved in an investment situation. We hope our losses will turn around for us and look for excuses to stay in our position for one more day. Yet, when faced with a winning trade, the anxiety of remaining in the position is almost unbearable."

How come I find the above 2 scenario so familiar? Hadn't I been thought this way, and hadn't I experience it so many times? Hahaha....well well well....

“Cut your losses short, and let your profits run.” Traders have been drilled and instructed continuously that in order to make any money in futures trading, one must accept a large percentage of small losers while waiting for one or two large winning trades to not only recoup all the losses but also to provide an overall profit."

"While we have to agree with this concept in a general sense, applying it in a real-life trading account is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for most individual investors. Stops can be placed to limit losses on futures positions, but floor traders tend to have a feel for where large concentrations of stop orders may be sitting. While we are not suggesting that these floor traders would run these stops deliberately (of course not, floor traders and professionals care about you and would never do that), it is very curious how a market will often crack a key point of support or resistance only to turn around and make a large move in the opposite direction."

"Books on trading answer this by telling you not to be emotional about your trading. How can you not be emotional about your trading? This is your money that we’re talking about! You’re going to be emotional about it no matter what you tell yourself."

"What about deciding when to take profits? Letting a winner run can be even more psychologically difficult than cutting a loss short. A trader is so excited about seeing the market move in her direction that she becomes terrified that it will reverse and take back the profits it so willingly granted her. We’ve seen more traders go bust in not knowing where to take profits than we’ve seen traders who get buried with one or two large losses. The result of this fear is that most traders take profits way too soon, even when they have a nice winner going. There are no hard and fast rules as to when to take profits. Nobody knows if the market is reversing on a given day or only experiencing a short term trend correction. This is one of the many reasons why futures trading is so difficult."

Wrong Wrong Wrong

2011-06-16T16:08:00.000+08:00

Wrong timing to enter the job, Wrong timing to trade, Wrong timing to enter the market....Almost everything is wrong....sigh...

Market heading for bigger correction...

2011-06-15T18:00:00.000+08:00

The market in June wasn't much better. In fact it is worst then initial thought(My thought), it is heading for a bigger correction. Stocks didn't break down 1 by 1, but take turn to break support and make new low. Even if overnight wall street close very positive, Asia and Singapore will close weak to negative.

Even if got rebound, it will be 1 day affair, the movement will go up on 1 day and come down the next. Shares bought on up day, will have no profit, losses will be incur and close position with losses. Contra can be virtually impossible, holding will see the price getting lower and lower.

If this still goes on to July, then I will have a hard time going by. Only thing is I am on lesser and lesser trade, which is good thing as i incur lesser loss than in May. Must be able to stop trading until direction is clear!!

The month in May and June really sucks, but I can only take this as a lesson to learnt, although a very expensive lesson! I need to remember this 2 month and do not happen in the future again. I can't do anything about the losses for now, only to take back when market is better.

Start blogging again

2011-06-08T11:16:00.000+08:00

Hi, been long time since I blog, 4 months to be exact...The last time I blog, I was still and Engineer, now I am a AVP with CIMB! Well, enough of that, I shall get down to business.

I have been in CIMB for 3 months already, times sure flies! It not been a great 3 months for me as the market had not been trending...worst in the month of May as I forgot all my basic and try to trade using my ass instead of my brain. I was trading well in March, not so well in April, but worst in May.

Had the thought of giving up, since I can't make it even I am monitoring full time. My salary sure doesn't support me in paying for the loss. Just when I am in dilemma, I went to 2 seminar which make me reconsider my decision.

The 1st speaker spoke of his experience, which he loss many many more money that I have lost, considering of giving after that also. But he tell himself if he gave up after the loss, he will never had the chance to recover back the lost at all. This thoughts make him go forward by acquiring more skill in trading, better trading plan, and finally he make it. Although I do not know how true is his story, or he is just trying to sell his product, but it sure makes me much clearer what I have to do.

The other speaker in the 2nd seminar, an option trader which spent 40k in learning to trade the market, speak clearly his trading journey of 8 yrs before he can make consistent profit signal to me, my journey is still long ahead. From the way he talk, he sure sounds like a trader which knows what he is trading, and can trade. I will be going for the seminar to see if I can afford the course fees to learn from him in trading option.

US market is really the market to trade as the size and variety of the market is much more bigger, there is higher chance of finding a trade then in Singapore market.

I am also reviewing my technique, to go back to the basic and no more fanciful stuff. The most basic is yet the best method to trade.

Market starts, I shall stop here, soon I will be updating often on my trading result so as to keep track how I am doing.

My journey to be trader...

2010-10-11T19:14:00.000+08:00

Had been awhile that I have blog about my journey as a trader…Been busy with engineering work for few months…Well, a little bit, just little bit, is because of laziness. Well, 2010 had not been a good trading years for me. STI have rise from 2000 to 3100 as of Oct, but I haven’t gain anything from it. In fact, I have paid quite a handful of times to the market, as well as money.

Luck has not been with me, most of the time I enter, base on break out, the market already exhausted. So every time I contra, I lost money. Actually, lost more than gain, so still is losing year for me. I will be going for my oversea installation trip next week, 16^th Oct to mid of Dec and year end trip to Korea. So I can consider my trading year close for 2010 already.

I always question myself, should I have trade when I have no time to monitor the market? Well, so what if I can monitor the market, will I be able to gain and not lost? I am not so sure about that. In fact, when we are trading contra, the risk of time running out before the counter moves are always there. When I have not much capital to pick up the counter, when times out, T+5, no matter win or lose, I still must close my position.

Last year was easy, contra win, contra win. This year seems that the market behaviour change. Most of the time, the moves last only 2 days, sell within 2 days to make money. Hold longer and face losing money. Sep is the month I decided enough is enough, I shall trade demo, record the trade I was suppose to enter, and see how it goes at the end of T+5. Amazingly, I make a lot, too bad its demo, which of course I didn’t recoup what I lost. When I decided to enter real, again I face the same pattern which I encounter in my previous month.

I ask myself, could it be this is really not my year? Or my trading method is wrong? Or is it due to I do not have time to monitor market? Should I stop trading contra since it doesn’t bring me any success? So what can I do when I myself become broker, should I or should I not trade? Or do I trade CFD instead since it can allow me longer time frame and I do not have to sell within the contra period? Who can answer the above question that I have for me? All this doubt is making me thinking should I really quit going for a low paying job which may or may not bring me success in the future.

Now I started to understand why the Asia charts trainer tells me to accumulate more capital before going full time. I guess he faces the same problem I am facing also, except that he can monitor full time, and he can make a lot by teaching people. So he doesn’t really need to trade for a living. When(If) I become a broker, I do not have to trade for a living, I just need to work hard to get more customer, which bring me to think, can I really get a lot of people to trade under me regularly to sustain my salary? This entire question will not be known until I go and try it out. I told myself, my wife that I need to work something out before I turn 40. Because when you reach 40, you can’t choose to do what you want anymore. You will be begging people to employ you instead.

Now I am waiting to see if I can get my license before deciding to quit or not and when to quit. I was suppose to learn how to cook Japanese soup, but was too busy working, before I know it; I need to go oversea already. So now, where do I go from here? I left 2 more years before my customary wedding; can I get my job stable before that? I think 2012 is the year I need to have the wedding already, it had is almost 9 years since I ROM, can’t drag any longer, where is the limit if I drag 1 more time?

(While writing this blog, I have 1 very good entry counter(Noble), again cannot make money, close position with the same price I bought. Lose on commission)

1 thing for sure, I will know the answer to all my question 5 yrs down the road. For now, I can only reflect on what I have been trading and gain experience from there. I got all my trades recorded, will go through all my trading this year while I am oversea, hopefully I got time to do that.

It never easy to be a trader...especially contra trading. I have cut down on my trading already, until I am confident again in trading the market. Currently, I just stick to my demo trading.

Shorting

2010-05-25T11:39:00.000+08:00

The month of shorting started in May 2010...lets see how long it last...My guess would probably last till July, after the world cup 2010.. The market may just correct 50% down from the rally high...

Wilmar being sell down due to Tax invasion news

2010-05-24T10:58:00.000+08:00

Wilmar gap down on 19/05/10 due to the news that it is being investigated in Indonesia for tax invasion.
It is sold down for 2 days, including the 3rd day, which gap down when open, due to the 300 points sell down in DJ overnight.

Midway through the 3rd day, reversal happen. (Rebound bound to happen as the sell down was over-reaction) By using 15mins chart, it close the gap on the 3rd candle, sign of reversal is going to happen. Entry point can be when it close the gap, but risk is there.

For confirmation, wait for further sign to happen. It make day high on the 5th candle, pull back on the 6 candle. Entry point is the break high of the 5th candle. Exit point is the close of the long tail candle.

DJ, STI update

2010-03-04T00:08:00.000+08:00

3rd of March, DJ is moving up slowly, it is moving above 10438, I see it should be testing 10508 today, but probably this is the level it should be resting. Its a significant resistance

STI manage to stay above 2772 after sideway, see saw up and down the whole day. I see STI should test 2808 on 4th of march. 2808 is more resistance than 2772.

IndoFood

2010-02-25T19:38:00.000+08:00

Out of the 3 counter I bought, only Indo did manage to sell higher. Contra loss on Cosco for $100plus, while I pick up Ho Bee, as I see the correction is temporary only...hope I am right...

This is the story on indo. I was MC on the last day of contra T+5. So was able to monitor the counter while I am resting. It started to move after lunch, but was wondering how high I can sell. Saw the Fibo level at $2.18, since it is last day, why not queue $2.18. It is not likely to go much higher as the whole market is not strong. Bingo!!!, manage to get out at $2.18 as it never go higher than that.

Only thing is I got in again at $2.16, as the break out seems valid.

New pattern for entry, usually happen after few days sell down.

2010-02-23T13:08:00.000+08:00

Use this pattern cautiously, yet to be proven by William Wise. This pattern should be good during bull run correction. As for bear period, remain to be seen how effective it is.

Market got panic sell

2010-02-21T11:50:00.000+08:00

Asia market got panic selling after the FED announce rising discount rate by 25 points to 0.75 after market close.
Futures was down as much as 80 plus in the early morning, before Asia started trading. Was prepare to braise a bloody Friday as I bought 4 counter on Thursday.

The whole day trading was selling, selling and more selling...Some how 1 hours towards the end on the trading hours, Europe open positive, with futures pare loses, STI started to attract bargain hunters. It manage to bounce off the support line 2731 and close down 12 points. This is seen to be positive. With DJ close positive, Monday should see less selling, might even turn positive if china can be up. Lets see how it goes, lets hope the trade will turn out positive and not losses for the start of the tiger.

Market observation for 18th Feb 2010

2010-02-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

Long time never write on blog already. I shall update on my market observation in this blog from now on. This should tell me in the future have I learn to understand the market better....

Market has rebounded from the low of 2664 for 6 days going into CNY. It gap up on the 1st day of tiger trading day, gapping up above the resistance level 2772 and hit the high of 2797 and close almost same as opening 2793.

Today profit taking comes in and close 24.87 at 2769, just below the resistance level. Counter that I bought yesterday which shows potential of further upside base on chart pattern and break out, but today pull back with low volume. Will have to see if the entry is correct for all this counter. If correction resume, then have to be careful next time not to buy when counter continue to moves up consecutive for 5 days.

This is the meaning of moving sideway

2009-07-08T19:52:00.003+08:00

STI is trading side way, very difficult to trade now as market is uncertain, volume also starts to dry up. When Dow Jones close positive, STI gap up but close lower. When Dow Jones close negative, STI gap down but close higher. This is showing market uncertainty and bull and bear got no clear winner.

Had not been making money for 4 weeks already. Its still okay not to make money now considering I am not full time trader now. But it will be VERY POTENT if I turn full time trader and still cannot recognize this and never stand side ways. It will be like digging my own grave yard.

What? When? How?

2009-06-14T01:35:00.004+08:00

What is stopping me from resigning? Well, after talking to the trainer, it makes me a bit worried and wary. Not so much as I have not gone through the market cycle that he mention. But more on I will face problem only trading 1 market. I will not be able to survive only trading Singapore market because once it move side ways, I will not have chance to trade, hence unable to generate income.

For market cycle, I can still go through it trading full time, with the alert from the trainer, I should go through it safely.

For trading another market, I opting for Forex trading. I am going for my 3rd Forex course in 2 weeks time. The reason for going to this course is after I search through the web and find positive review on it. They also provide weekly mentoring, which I believe will help so that I will know where I take the wrong signal and when to take good signal. If with the help of mentoring I still not able to trade well, then I might as well forget about trading Forex.

My trainer also mention its better to trade part time, if it permit me to, so that I have a stable income, at the same time generate more capital to pave way for me to trade full time later on. Well, its true, which I cannot disagree on. But its getting a bit difficult since my boss is in the same office with me now, not like last time which he is in different office.

I am also getting a bit impatient on the way he handle things, and the instruction he pass down. I also foresee what I will went through if the company really get the project. With the current capability of the designer and the mind set, I am sure I will go through hell alot during the assembly of the line. If it can happen to small project, what sudden change will make them become so good that the line can be built smoothly? I will not be an Engineer when this happen, only will be shit cleaner!

Well, I have been cleaner for so long, why am I so reluctant this time? Last time I feel it is worth it, as I believe I will go higher once I complete what is assign to me. But what actually happen? I still the same old cleaner in a new company, cleaning the same type of shit every time a project is ON. I will be a cleaner as long as I stay in this company. What is my future when I am working in this type of environment? I seriously cannot see any, only thing I will get is the monthly salary, but how long it can last me, 1 year, 2 year or 3 years? If I decided enough is enough, what can I do except trading?

So what should I do now?

Resign now
Resign after the Forex course
Resign after the Forex course and make some money
Resign after the company confirm getting the big project
Not resign yet, continue do shit cleaning, trade part time, until I get a huge pool of capital
Not resign yet until I master both Stocks and Forex
Not resign at all

Who can tell me what to do?

Money

2009-06-14T01:09:00.003+08:00

The reason for people working so hard: Money
The reason to trade: Money
The reason that make one so hard to resign from work: Money
The reason that make one from buying things: Money
The reason that make one from moving forward: Money

DBS

2009-06-09T12:48:00.003+08:00

Above is the chart for DBS. It has been trending up for some time, but actually the movement range is not much, as it tries to goes higher, it met alot of resistance.

But the purpose of posting this chart is not to show how difficult it is that this counter is going higher. I am trying to show that there is a long term trend line, and this trend line actually turn from resistance from earlier phase, to support line recently.

As market is having correction phase recently, we shall see if this support line can hold. Break of this line and no rebound means more down side to be seen. If it manage to bounce off this line, then we still have our up trend.

Lets see how it goes....

STI Movement

2009-06-06T23:22:00.007+08:00

STI has met strong resistance this week. The resistance level is not only strong, as it is tested many times, but it also coincide with the FIBO 38.2%

The 1st trading day of the week, STI head towards the resistance decisively, but close short of the resistance without testing it

The 2nd trading day of the week, STI gap above the resistance due to overnight gain in DOW, but unable to hold, all counter subsequently is being sell down. Although towards the last hour, the rebound was strong, but it still close below resistance

The 3rd trading day of the week also gap up, subsequently move high, showing signs of going higher, but it turn out to be a fake as it didn't break the high it make the previous day and was again sell down after the trading resume after lunch

The 4th trading day become restless as the whole day was trading side way

The last trading day of the week actually gap up again, but was far from testing the resistance, and it didn't manage to close above 2399

From the above situation, need to remember that when near strong resistance, its best to stay aside, as what up side will be sell down by weak hand, so when trading for break out, the upside is limited.

Make mistake of trading during this period and actually return potion of the gain earn over the month back to the market as:
1. Not quick to take quick profit
2. Buy on breakout but most of it is false break as there is no market force to push it up
3. When penny stocks start to run, and break out without follows trough 1 by 1, PLEASE STOP BUYING!!

Like what my trainer always say, trader needs to know when to stay aside.
Need to stay side line whenever it is trading near resistance as the reward is certainly not great and the risk is definitely higher, so the chance of making $$ is slim. Better not to make money than to return the profit earn to the market

Impatience vs Wisdom

2009-04-06T12:43:00.001+08:00

Definition of Divergence and Convergence

2009-04-06T12:40:00.001+08:00

Forex System Addiction, Don't Let This Happen To You!

2009-03-29T14:00:00.001+08:00

It is a process many new traders in forex go through. Find a system that people seem to be making money with and start trading it. At fist you make some pips but inevitably you experience some losses and then move onto the next system. We have all fallen victim to this process, it's what kills many new traders. At the first sign of a loss you move onto the next best thing and this process repeats its self over and over. Some traders can be trapped in this circle for many years.

It is the quest for the perfect system, let me assure you there is no perfect system, you will not find a system that never looses. However you can find a system that wins more than it looses, this is all you need in order to make money in the forex market. All we are looking for is an edge, an edge that over 10-20 trades will bring you out on top with a profit. Once you have this edge all you need to do is keep trading it, trade it like a machine.

Trading for a living can be very boring at times, we all enjoy experimenting with the latest indicators and systems but try to keep them separate from you main bread and butter trading system. Don't let new systems distract you from your trading routine, it is imperative in this business to find a system you like and stick to it. Focus on your solid edge that will pay you over time.

If you are wondering which profitable edges you should trade I recommend you study some price patterns, find one that appeals to you and back test it manually. You could then add this edge to your favourite system as a filter or trade it with discretion. You will be surprised how much price action can improve a system's results. Record your back testing results over a large period of time so you can know what to expect in your live trading.

Let's take a simple system and add price action to demonstrate this. For my example I will use a simple 10ema 21ema moving average cross. Everyone knows if you just trade every cross of moving averages you will end up losing your account, however this is not what we are going to do. The cross of the moving averages is our signal to look at price action. I will only use one candle stick pattern in this example the 'engulfing candle'.Once you have a cross of the moving averages look for a small retrace with an engulfing candle in the direction of the cross, take the trade on the close of the candle with your stop behind it. I can guarantee you will be surprised with the results of this simple system, go ahead and test it out, try shooting stars also as they can be a great formation to trade on with the trend.

Although you may think that this is far too simple to work, I assure you this is why 95% of forex traders fail, they try to complicate trading too much. Keep it simple and you will succeed.

How To Easily Profit From The Forex Market Using Daily Pivots

2009-03-29T13:59:00.000+08:00

Forex pivots are a fantastic way to predict the future movements of a forex currency pair. There are several ways to use pivot points to minimize your risk while trading the forex market and to help you in your trading decisions.

You can use the daily pivots to access where the market is heading, always keep an eye on them during your daily trading. If price breaks through one of the daily pivots you can expect a retrace back to the closest support/resistance or back to the pivot point it has just broken though. These retraces are exceptional places to get into the market with the intraday trend if you catch them early in the trading session.

Quite often you will find that support/resistance will coincide with the daily pivots giving you a confluence area that if broken would be a great place to get into the market.

Another way to use the pivot points is to determine how far the market may move if you are already in a position. Price may already be at the higher daily pivot point so you would want to think about liquidating your positions for the day. On the other hand if price is at one of the outer pivots and you get a signal to go with the trend you know that your chances of success are far less due to the daily range so far in the trading session.

I personally like to use the daily pivots not as and indicator to enter the market but more as a road map to where I can expect price to go giving me the ability to take only the trades with the higher chance of success.

I'm going to share with you something you can really take away and make money with, are you ready? Using candle stick price action with the daily pivots is a trading system all on its own and once mastered a very profitable one indeed. I wouldn't go any lower than a 15 minute chart when using price action though as the signals tend to be not as accurate. Focus on the shooting star formations and railroad formations fist, then start looking into engulfing bars and inside bars. All these formations along with pivot levels can create some fantastic trades. "Why do the markets react to these areas?" you may ask? Well there are many explanations for this, however I believe that it is because the major institutions and banks watch these levels and open/close orders around these levels which makes the market react to them as they do.

All in all the pivot points are defiantly something you may want to consider if you day trade the forex markets, they are a very important tool used by Forex market traders to analyze the market.

5 things you need to know about your forex trading system

2009-03-29T13:55:00.000+08:00

1. Risk Reward Ratio - The risk reward ratio of your system should always be 1-2 or more, for example if you are risking $1 then you need to get $2 back or more. If your risk/reward is 1-1 or less then you have to win more than %50 of the time just to break even let alone make any money! However if you raise the risk/reward to 1-2 then you now only need to have 33% winning trades to break even. Are you starting to see how important this is in the long run?

2. Win/Loss Ratio - The win/loss ratio is how many winners you get for every loss on average, this goes hand in hand with risk/reward. You should expect at least 1-1 win/loss ratio or more in a good system. Any less that 1-1 and you would need a higher risk reward ratio to make the system viable.

3. Draw down - The draw down of your system is the number of consecutive losses in a row you will encounter. Hopefully this should not be more than 3 on average. However again if you have a very high risk reward ratio then you would be fine with more losses.

4. Past Performance - Getting data on past performance of your system is vital to your confidence and your trading account. Knowing that it performed well over the last 10 years would be sufficient.

5. Average Trade Draw down - Although this is not vital it helps to know how far a trade will go against you on average before moving into profit, in your testing if you find that your trades retrace often you may find it more profitable to set your entry at the retrace.

You may be thinking "how do I go about finding this information about my system?" well its really simple, you don't need complicated software or anything like that. All you need to do is have your trading system rules in front of you and move forward candle by candle on your chart and make notes of your entries and exits, profits and losses. You will soon see if you system has stood the test of time.

Once you have a trading system that you are confident has passed all the above points then you can feel sure you have the best chance of success trading it. Be sure to stick to your rules and trade the system as you have tested it, now you have a good feel for how your system should perform on average you can soon see if you are making mistakes in other area's.

By: Dean Saunders

Trading Forex For A Living The Right Way

2009-03-29T13:54:00.000+08:00

Welcome to my article, I hope I can give you an accurate description of what to expect if you are planning on trading forex for a living.

Getting to this stage of trading for a living is no easy task, you may well blow out several accounts if you do not get the correct training from the beginning. You must not come into this business with a small account of $1000 and expect to make a living from it, you would be under immense amount of stress to provide and pay bills plus you would have to hugely over leverage your account which is a disaster waiting to happen.

Remember the markets will be here longer than you, don't rush into this business trying to make a living, build up your small account with the goal of trading for a living in the future. Once you become profitable I highly recommend you to cut down your hours at your day job or take a part time job to take the stress off of trading before you completely go full time.

While you have a full time job Plan and trade the longer term charts which can be done between you work, focus on taking only the very best of your setups. Keep you goals realistic, 10-15% a month is easily accomplished with patience and strict money management. This may not seem like much on your small trading account but if you sit down and work out what 15% monthly compounded is in 2 years I think you will be very surprised.

Although you may see currency trading as a very exciting business you couldn't be further from the truth. Once you are trading your system consistently following your rules you will find that like any job it becomes routine and boring. No longer will you get excited about a 200 pip gain or depressed about a loss, you will have stopped thinking about day to day profits and only focus on month to month results. However this job has no limits in potential of how much you can earn, many traders have taken a tiny account and turned it into millions.

Do not expect to have no losses in this business, you must lean that they are just expenses like in any business, accept them and move on.

Professional traders always keep a journal of each trade they take so at the end of the month they can review the bad trades and try to avoid them in the future. Writing down feelings you felt throughout a trade can also help you determine if you exited a trade by your rules or out of fear and greed.

The bottom line is don't rush the learning stages of this business remember doctors and lawyers study for years before they are ever allowed to use there skills, just because the markets are available to you dose not mean you should jump to full time trader before you have gained your stripes, you will end up with the 95% of traders who fail to extract money from the markets.

By: Dean Saunders

The Best Forex Trading System You Can Put To Use Now!

2009-03-29T13:19:00.000+08:00

Finding the best forex trading system is no easy task, many people have spent thousands of dollars looking for a good forex trading system. You may be one of them but do not despair I will now show you a easy stress free way to trade the forex market.

The first thing I want you to do is get all those ideas about making millions quickly out of your head. This is a business like any other and it takes time to build up to a point where you will be making a decent income.

It is a fact that in the forex market it is very hard to trade on the intraday charts. The Higher the time frame you choose to trade then the easier it will be fore you to make consistent profits.

The majority of my profits come from trading the daily charts or higher, why? Because it's easier! I am going to explain a profitable way to trade daily charts that anyone with a little patience can put to use straight away. Let's get started. Choose a daily candle/bar chart for your favourite currency pair and plot the key support/resistance areas with horizontal lines and trend lines. When price approaches these areas we are looking for a certain candle formation that will give us the opportunity to get a very high probability trade. The formation we are looking for are pin bar's (also know as shooting stars) , for it to pass as a reliable pin bar it must have a nice long body that touches or gets very close to the support/resistance area. This formation is a very strong signal that price may change direction.

I have manually tested hundreds of pin bars back over past data on 11 pairs and I found that when a pin bar is formed at one of these key levels then price retraces the pin bar by 50% at least 75% of the time before taking off in the direction of the trade. This gives us a great low risk high reward trade.

Once you spot a good pin bar at a key support/resistance level and everything looks in place you entry order at the 50% retrace level of the pin bar. To find this measure the total size of the pin bar for example 70 pips, then divide it by two. You may often notice that the previous bar to the pin bar also stopped at the 50% mark of the pin bar, this gives us even more confidence in your trade. Once you have placed your order make sure you set your stop 5 pips above the pin bar, if price ever breaks the pin bar then the probability of the trade being profitable is low.

During the next days trading price will generally come back to the 50% level of the pin bar and open your position, usually not long later price will take off in the direction of your trade. Sometimes I have pinpointed the entry to the pip! It is important that you move your stop to break even once you are in profit by the same amount that you risked. These trades can easily catch 500 pip moves as you are trading on the daily charts. Each pair will have around 2 good setups a month so if you want to trade more simply add more pairs.

This is the best forex trading system for those who have a full time job, all you have to do is check the charts once every evening for possible trade setups and enter your orders with stop losses and take profits. Take a look over your charts I think you will be pleasantly surprised how affective this system is.

By: Dean Saunders

Getting Started In Forex The Right Way!

2009-03-29T02:44:00.005+08:00

Almost all new traders coming into the forex market have one thing in common, they want to make a lot of money and they want to make it fast!

This is the most important thing to get out of your head, I'm not saying you can't make a lot of money trading forex but I can assure you it doesn't come easy.

The first thing you should do is decide what your first target will be. If you currently earn $3000 a month at your job then you may chooses this as your monthly target in order to start trading for a living. It is very important to always have a realistic target in mind and focus on achieving it.

Once you have a clear target in mind its time to create a trading system and plan. The most important thing you have to remember at this stage is to keep things simple. The simplest systems succeed, weather you simple buy/sell at breaks of horizontal lines or at 00's just keep things simple.

The following are two things you simple must have in order to succeed in the forex market.

Discipline - You must develop the discipline to follow your trading system every day without fail, deviation from your rules will result in you making mistakes that will move you further away from your monthly goal.

Money Management - Keeping your risk as low as possible when you are still learning is essential but you should never risk more than 3% of your account on any one trade. Remember that your stop loss is only there for protection, you do not need to wait for it to be hit if a trade is not going in the direction your anticipated then close it straight away, you can always reenter again later.

Follow these simple points and you will stand a far better chance of success than the 95% of traders that loose their account in the first 3 months.

By: Dean Saunders

Forex Trading Tips You Can Not Afford To Miss Out On!

2009-03-28T22:31:00.002+08:00

Forex Trading Tip #1
Specialize - It is a good idea to pick 1 currency pair you really like and study it, get to know how it feels and how it trades. Specializing in 1 currency pair will drastically improve you chances of success.

Forex Trading Tip #2
Demo First - Sign up for a demo account before you ever think of going live. If you can not make money on demo then you have no chance when trading live. Once you have been consistent for at least 3 months then move to a mini account.

Forex Trading Tip #3
Rules - Create a trading plan and keep it by your side as you trade. This will help you avoid making mistakes while trading brought on by greed and fear.

Forex Trading Tip #4
Keep It Simple - What ever system you decide to use make sure you keep it simple. The simpler it is the higher chance of success you have.

Forex Trading Tip #5
Dont Over Trade - Over trading is responsible for the destruction of many new traders accounts, try to limit yourself to a certain amount of trades per day.

Forex Trading Tip #6
Cut Losses - Cutting your losses short is the most important thing you can do, it is important that your winners are larger than you losses for you to survive in the long run.

Forex Trading Tip #7
Let Profits Run - This goes hand in hand with tip number 6, cutting your winners is the last thing you want to do. Although it may feel good to cash in those profits in the long run it will have a destructive affect on your trading account.

Forex Trading Tip #8
Trade With The Trend - Trading with the trend is placing the chances of you trade being a success much higher. Always keep the longer term trend in mind when planning a trade.

Forex Trading Tip #9
Risk - Always keep the risk placed on each trade to a maximum of 3% of you account, try to remember there will always be more opportunities the markets will be here for longer than you, so there is no rush.

Forex Trading Tip #10
Treat It Like A Business - Trading is not gambling it is a business and like any other business it has expenses (losses). Try to keep your mind focused on the larger picture like the monthly results rather than the day to day results.

By Dean Saunders

Forex

2009-03-26T12:46:00.002+08:00

Above is to show that when there is good support, accompany by nice candle sticks pattern, it will move in the way it wants.

Below show the results, a nice 100 pips, and it is not even buy from the low...Too bad I am not prepared to trade live with this pattern for Forex...

Oh well... have to see if the probability of this type of trade is high...but need time, since this type of pattern does not happen often... Or at least I have trade long enough to see this type of pattern happening very often...

Good trade!!!

2009-03-19T12:34:00.003+08:00

Its a good trade...but the funny things are, I am not into the trade...But it match nicely for the definition of H&S...

Why I am not into this trade? Well, had not been doing well, capital getting lesser, so the potion of capital is tie up with other trade, which is not doing well also...

I guess I am still not out of phase 2 of becoming a good trader...that's why I am still part time trader... and its getting extremely difficult, because I am a slow learner, and to juggle between work and trading and learning... time not enough!!!

Wonder how long more before I will transform to phase 3....

Enough of the sad talk, back to the counter, earlier post I put the estimated target will be $0.60... well well...it touch $0.6 and bounce up...

Base on rebound, 2 bar count up, long price at $0.675...not the price is $0.76...such a nice chart pattern...and guess what, I am not into the long trade either....

I shall close the topic example of H&S pattern since pattern is complete. New pattern will follow from here, but we won't know until it is form...

The road to be Full time trader

2009-03-07T17:01:00.005+08:00

The 5 Steps to becoming a trader

Step One: Unconscious Incompetence.
This is the first step you take when starting to look into trading. You know that its a good way of making money because you've heard so many things about it and heard of so many millionaires. Unfortunately, just like when you first desire to drive a car you think it will be easy - after all, how hard can it be? Price either moves up or down - what's the big secret to that then – let’s get cracking!

Unfortunately, just as when you first take your place in front of a steering wheel you find very quickly that you haven't got the first clue about what you're trying to do. You take lots of trades and lots of risks. When you enter a trade it turns against you so you reverse and it turns again and again, and again.

You may have initial success, and thats even worse - cos it tells your brain that this really is simple and you start to risk more money.

You try to turn around your losses by doubling up every time you trade. Sometimes you'll get away with it but more often than not you will come away scathed and bruised You are totally oblivious to your incompetence at trading.

This step can last for a week or two of trading but the market is usually swift and you move on the next stage.

Step Two - Conscious Incompetence
Step two is where you realize that there is more work involved in trading and that you might actually have to work a few things out. You consciously realize that you are an incompetent trader - you don't have the skills or the insight to turn a regular profit.

You now set about buying systems and e-books galore, read websites based everywhere from USA to the Ukraine and begin your search for the holy grail. During this time you will be a system nomad - you will flick from method to method day by day and week by week never sticking with one long enough to actually see if it does work. Every time you come upon a new indicator you'll be ecstatic that this is the one that will make all the difference.

You will test out automated systems on Metatrader, you'll play with moving averages, Fibonacci lines, support & resistance, Pivots, Fractals, Divergence, DMI, ADX, and a hundred other things all in the vein hope that your 'magic system' starts today. You'll be a top and bottom picker, trying to find the exact point of reversal with your indicators and you'll find yourself chasing losing trades and even adding to them because you are so sure you are right.

You'll go into the live chat room and see other traders making pips and you want to know why it's not you - you'll ask a million questions, some of which are so dumb that looking back you feel a bit silly. You'll then reach the point where you think all the ones who are calling pips after pips are liars - they can’t be making that amount because you've studied and you don't make that, you know as much as they do and they must be lying. But they're in there day after day and their account just grows whilst yours falls.

You will be like a teenager - the traders that make money will freely give you advice but you're stubborn and think that you know best - you take no notice and overtrade your account even though everyone says you are mad to - but you know better.

You'll consider following the calls that others make but even then it wont work so you try paying for signals from someone else - they don't work for you either.

You might even approach a 'guru' like Rob Booker or someone on a chat board who promises to make you into a trader (usually for a fee of course). Whether the guru is good or not you won’t win because there is no replacement for screen time and you still think you know best.

This step can last ages and ages - in fact in reality talking with other traders as well as personal experience confirms that it can easily last well over a year and more nearer 3 years. This is also the step when you are most likely to give up through sheer frustration.

Around 60% of new traders die out in the first 3 months - they give up and this is good - think about it - if trading was easy we would all be millionaires. another 20% keep going for a year and then in desperation take risks guaranteed to blow their account which of course it does.

What may surprise you is that of the remaining 20% all of them will last around 3 years - and they will think they are safe in the water - but even at 3 years only a further 5-10% will continue and go on to actually make money consistently.

By the way - they are real figures, not just some I’ve picked out of my head - so when you get to 3 years in the game don’t think its plain sailing from there.

I’ve had many people argue with me about these timescales - funny enough none of them have been trading for more that 3 years - if you think you know better then ask on a board for someone who's been trading 5 years and ask them how long it takes to become fully 100% proficient.

Eventually you do begin to come out of this phase. You've probably committed more time and money than you ever thought you would, lost 2 or 3 loaded accounts and all but given up maybe 3 or 4 times but now its in your blood.

One day – In a split second moment you will enter stage 3.

Step 3 - The Eureka Moment
Towards the end of stage two you begin to realize that it's not the system that is making the difference. You realize that its actually possible to make money with a simple moving average and nothing else IF you can get your head and money management right You start to read books on the psychology of trading and identify with the characters portrayed in those books and finally comes the eureka moment.

This eureka moment causes a new connection to be made in your brain. You suddenly realize that neither you, nor anyone else can accurately predict what the market will do in the next ten seconds, never mind the next 20 mins.

Because of this revelation you stop taking any notice of what anyone thinks - what this news item will do, and what that event will do to the markets. You become an individual with your own method of trading.

You start to work just one system that you mould to your own way of trading, you're starting to get happy and you define your risk threshold.

You start to take every trade that your 'edge' shows has a good probability of winning with. When the trade turns bad you don't get angry or even because you know in your head that as you couldn't possibly predict it it isn't your fault - as soon as you realise that the trade is bad you close it . The next trade or the one after it or the one after that will have higher odds of success because you know your system works.

You stop looking at trading results from a trade-to-trade perspective and start to look at weekly figures knowing that one bad trade does not a poor system make. You have realised in an instant that the trading game is about one thing - consistency of your 'edge' and your discipline to take all the trades no matter what as you know the probabilities stack in your favour.

You learn about proper money management and leverage - risk of account etc - and this time it actually soaks in and you think back to those who advised the same thing a year ago with a smile. You weren't ready then, but you are now. The eureka moment came the moment that you truly accepted that you cannot predict the market.

Step 4 - Conscious Competence
You are making trades whenever your system tells you to. You take losses just as easily as you take wins You now let your winners run to their conclusion fully accepting the risk and knowing that your system makes more money than it looses and when you're on a loser you close it swiftly with little pain to your account.

You are now at a point where you break even most of the time - day in day out, you will have weeks where you make 100 pips and weeks where you lose 100 pips - generally you are breaking even and not losing money. You are now conscious of the fact that you are making calls that are generally good and you are getting respect from other traders as you chat the day away. You still have to work at it and think about your trades but as this continues you begin to make more money than you lose consistently.

You'll start the day on a 20 pip win, take a 35 pip loss and have no feelings that you've given those pips back because you know that it will come back again. You will now begin to make consistent pips week in and week out 25 pips one week, 50 the next and so on.

This lasts about 6 months

Step Five - Unconscious Competence
Now we’re cooking - just like driving a car, every day you get in your seat and trade - you do everything now on an unconscious level. You are running on autopilot. You start to pick the really big trades and getting 200 pips in a day doesn't make you any more excited that getting 1 pips.

You see the newbies in the forum shouting 'go dollar go' as if they are urging on a horse to win in the grand national and you see yourself - but many years ago now. This is trading utopia - you have mastered your emotions and you are now a trader with a rapidly growing account.

You're a star in the trading chat room and people listen to what you say. You recognise yourself in their questions from about two years ago. You pass on your advice but you know most of it is futile because they're teenagers - some of them will get to where you are - some will do it fast and others will be slower - literally dozens and dozens will never get past stage two, but a few will.

Trading is no longer exciting - in fact it's probably boring you to bits - like everything in life when you get good at it or do it for your job - it gets boring - you're doing your job and that's that.

Finally you grow out of the chat rooms and find a few choice people who you converse with about the markets without being influenced at all.

All the time you are honing your methods to extract the maximum profit from the market without increasing risk. Your method of trading doesn’t change - it just gets better - you now have what women call 'intuition'

You can now say with your head held high "I'm a currency trader" but to be honest you don’t even bother telling anyone - it's a job like any other.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this journey into a traders mind and that hopefully you’ve identified with some points in here.

Remember that only 5% will actually make it - but the reason for that isn’t ability, its staying power and the ability to change your perceptions and paradigms as new information comes available.

The losers are those who wanted to 'get rich quick' but approached the market and within 6 months put on a pair of blinkers so they couldn’t see the obvious - a kind of "this is the way i see it and thats that" scenario - refusing to assimilate new information that changes that perception.

I’m happy to tell you that the reason I started trading was because of the 'get rich quick' mindset. Just that now I see it as 'get rich slow'

If you’re thinking about giving up I have one piece of advice for you .... Ask yourself the question "how many years would you go to college if you knew for a fact that there was a million dollar at the end of it?"

Wise Word

2009-02-26T13:03:00.002+08:00

Taking a profit too early is just as dangerous as not cutting your losses!
Hope and Fear

Hope your profits will become much bigger (so give them plenty of slack)
Fear your losses will get much bigger (so cut them off)

But in the market for most trader, its the complete the other way round. They Fear their profits will disappear so they cut them off too quickly. They hope losses will turn into profits so hang onto them far too long.

Truth and nothing but the truth:

* No MAN ALIVE, or system on earth can ever, or will ever be able to predict the future market behavior. If someone tells you they can, RUN AWAY
* Simplicity is the key. Complicated technical systems are trying to baffle you into parting with your $$$'s
* Systems have three main components:
1. trade entry/exit rules
2. Money management/Position sizing
3. Trader psychology

95% of trades will put them in the order listed above (i.e. in order of importance)

Example of not to buy in a bear market

2009-02-25T12:48:00.003+08:00

Market sentiment are bad, but players are still willing to buy. STI gap up due to DOW Jones over night gain. But its should be just a technical rebound than recovery, as DOW had not close this low for many years.

Few counter moves up higher, tempted to buy but didn't enter, as no confidence that the market had turn around. Will see if this is correct.

Greed? Inexperience?

2009-02-25T12:42:00.003+08:00

Still new to forex, news are coming out from US Treasury, not sure what is the impart, but the currency pair USD/CAD moves down. It was down quite violently and hit my suppose target, but I took it out before it hit my target. Why? GREED <-----

Waited for awhile more and the currency starts to move back up. Just before the close of the bar, the currency moves all the way up and form a long tail. Profit earn? From $100, left $11

Good trade?

The Beauty of Trend line, Support & Resistance

2009-02-21T22:57:00.002+08:00

Nothing to explain, you can see clearly how the trend line show the support and resistance for this counter. This counter is not the most highly traded volume stocks, maybe because it is government base.

So I am not sure because of this reason, the support and resistance is highly visible and I have no problem drawing the trendline. I just need to draw 1 line, and copy the other trend line to get 4 line as shown in the chart.

Performance of STI

2009-02-21T21:30:00.002+08:00

20th Nov 2008 STI make a low of 1594.93, but close back up 1613.95
Amazingly, 20th Feb 2009 it make, and close low at 1594.94!!

On 20th Nov 2008 where it make a low of 1594, it rebound back up. The next day, it open much lower and rebound up 90 points! Will it happen again this time round?

The next support for STI will be 1570. Base on TA, this will be the support it must break for STI to go lower. If it goes by normal behavior, STI will touch and rebound from 1570. Or it will break 1570 and rebound back up and hover around that level and consolidate before the next move.

On 20th Feb, DOW break its low of important support level of 7449 and close 7365. As there is no good news insight, DOW might continue drifting down. We should not see the selling spree we saw in Nov 2008 though.

So going by the performance of DOW, STI should follow suit. Meaning it will test 1570, break and drift lower to 1474. Maintain shorting position until support level is breach.

Update on Head & Shoulder Pattern

2009-02-21T21:02:00.003+08:00

As you can see from the chart, although it start the Head & Shoulder pattern, it will not continue downward pattern, it will tend to rebound back to the support it break earlier, after then it will continue downward pattern. If no good news to support this counter, it will continue down trend.

Base on the the pattern of H&S, we can estimate the amount of the counter it will retrace. From the high of this counter to the support it broke, the difference will be how much it will retrace from the support.

So: $1.07 - $0.835 = $0.235

The estimate will be $0.835 - $0.235 = $0.60

Typical Head and Shoulder pattern

2009-02-10T12:48:00.002+08:00

CapitaComm is the first counter to moves up while others still consolidating. Had been bullish until recently it retrace lower then its last low recently. And it forms a typical Head and Shoulder pattern. From this point onwards, it is very bearish now. It might pull back higher after it break it previous low, but medium term still bearish... Lets review again in 1-2 weeks later...

2009-02-09T12:59:00.002+08:00

SPC had been moving up while others moving down. Last friday it shoot up to a new high of $2.78, which break out of $2.68, the last high which is made on 5th Nov 2008.

Today it hit the up trend resistance and pull back, which actually is quite a nice pattern. Now is half day trading gone, with the market trending downwards, I do not think there will be any up trend any more for this counter. Can consider shorting.

Rebound from low but never follows through

2009-02-08T23:01:00.003+08:00

The counter rebounded from the low of $2.62, rise to $2.83, but didn't follows through but consolidate and trade $2.68 - $2.83

Will not be able to contra(5days) and profit from this kind of trade if the counter rebounded but consolidate. CFD will be much better choice.

Break out of Triangle pattern with high volume

2009-02-05T15:39:00.002+08:00

This NOL, had been trading within tight range since december forming smaller range as it goes. It forms a nice triangle, but start to show signs of breaking it yesterday with volume picking up. Today break the down trend line with high volume. If can close above the line and trade higher within the next few days, then higher upside should be possible.

Had bought 5 lots using CFD as this counter range is small, so 5 day contra might not be able to see much profit form. Will check back again to see how I fare in this trade.

Disapointing with Singapore market recently!!!

2009-02-04T23:31:00.005+08:00

AGAIN, Singapore market under perform other Asians market. Asians market leader Nekkei, HSI, SSE index all rise up nicely following the over night gain of US Market. Only STI is not moving but trading range bound, WORST!! It close lower by -5 points!!!

Shanghai Composite is the best performing index for the last 2 weeks, now is testing the resistance level of 2100

Sometimes it really makes me wonder, if it is worthy trading Singapore stocks or better to switch to other markets. But then again, like my trainer had mention before, its better to trade the time frame that suits you than to trade when its time for you to sleep.

Well, since I am still part time trader, on the way to be full time trader, its better to get all my technique right, have stable profit no matter market is moving up or down, before thinking of trading other market.

But of course, no harm picking up another skill in trading indices or forex, so that to have another source of income when I become full time trader. Will be finding one course that really suits me and I can have confidence with, then I will go for it. Really sucks for the last course I attend for the forex course, I wonder who actually profit from the course.

Its either I am stupid, or I do not how to use the technique taught to me, or the course doesn't work at all!

Rangebound Trade at Mid Day

2009-02-04T12:58:00.002+08:00

Singapore stock market quiet as investors reluctant to build up positions ahead of Friday''s U.S. jobs report, although rise in most Asian markets after Wall Street''s advance helps STI retain modest gains.

STI trading in tight 1719-1731 band so far today, STI unlikely to extend gains beyond last week''s highest close of 1766.

The volume is so thin and the index is stuck in such a tight range. No way to trade if you are day trader.

Volume at 470.3 million shares vs 649.4 million for whole of Tuesday.

Interesting, found a stock that actually showing bullist sign in this down market!!

2009-02-01T22:43:00.005+08:00

Look at this stocks, CapitaRetail, had make a new low last year end of October. Since then, it had rebounded from the low of $0.405 to make a high of $0.635, before retreating to make a higher low of $0.455

Then it started to make new high again $0.63, but not enough strength to hold at that level and immediate retreat, but again retrace to $0.55 to make a new higher low.

It make another new high of 0.725, but same as the previous high, it start to retrace to $0.605, this time takes longer time before it recover.

It make a slightly new high last friday touching $0.735, but didn't manage to follows through. Although the price didn't run up higher at the end of the day, but they is still chance for it to goes higher.

Scenerio that will happen next week:

1. Retrace from $0.735 together with the broad market before making new high again

2. Retrace from $0.735, this time retesting the support of last low at $0.605, rebound from it might be a good sign, break the support and goes lower might prove the end of up trend for this counter

I got in at the high of $0.735 last friday, a risky and stupid move, some might call, but going by the stocks movement, I am quite bullist on this counter. Of course going by probability, I might be wrong and have to take losses. Lets see how it goes next week, will check back again on this counter next week. Cheers!!!

It is not nice, but this is the truth!

2009-01-30T14:17:00.000+08:00

Only trade when you have a high probability set up. You don’t have to be trading all the time
15-20% of your success will come from your entry, so don’t waste all your time trying to find the holy grail
Some of the best traders in the world are correct less than 40% of the time and still make excellent $$$ returns trading
The best traders use many methods for entry including “buy low, sell high” and “buy high, sell higher”

Some common misconceptions

2009-01-30T14:13:00.002+08:00

You have to be right more than 50% of the time to make money
The only way to be successful trader is picking the perfect entry, nothing else matters
There is a holy grail and I am not going to stop until I find it
The only way to be successful is to buy low and sell high

Rally never follows through, DISAPPOINTING!!!

2009-01-29T23:43:00.004+08:00

STI open high due to US over night RALLY, but within 15mins(refer below chart) it close the gap and traded side ways...This shows that STI is very weak compare to other asia market. Nekkei for one, had been up for 3 days...

Looking at the 30 STI counters, in actual fact, the overall market is bad, STI ended 0.64 points higher are due to the support of Singtel, Wilmar...

Long this counter base on rebound

2009-01-29T00:01:00.002+08:00

This counter is SPH, use to be $7 stocks back in 2000, but had been bashing by traders until a low of $2.62 four trading days ago. Have to goes all the way back to 1998 to find this sort of price. The price had been dropping and dropping like no tomorrow, even when STI is up, it did not go up also. It had been dropping from $3.3 to $2.62, and it bound to have rebound after dropping for 3 weeks.

The reason of monitoring this counter is because I wanted to see how low it can go as Singapore Press Holding is not a bad company, and the shares should not fall so much, of course shares and how well the company is doing does not actually relate to each other.

So I was looking for short and long opportunity if it present itself. And true enough, the first sign appear last week where it stop dropping and price start to consolidate for 3 days at around $2.60-$2.70. Today it rally $0.13 together with STI, closing at $2.77.

I got in around $2.73 which it break the high of $2.72 last Thursday. Stop loss at $2.61. Lets hope it got bigger rebound especially it had continuous dropping for 3 weeks, and with the help of overal market, it can rebound higher for me to make some profit.

Lets check back how I fare again after I close the position.

The Rally I have been waiting for

2009-01-28T23:16:00.004+08:00

Today is the first trading day after Chinese New Year, and the long awaited rally finally arrive.

It is not an accurate prediction by me, but rather the help from US as DOW continue going higher on 1st and 2nd day of Chinese New Year. Nekkei Rally almost 400 points yesterday, which is also another key factor why the rally in Singapore.

STI rose 80 points to 1766, not yet above MA, but stuck in between the 3 MA lines.

In TA, usually trading is not by guessing the market, but by reading the charts with help from different indicator. As mention earlier last week, everyone started to short the market but me, 1 of the reason is I still hoping for the Chinese New Year Rally. This should not be the right way to trade the market, but well, I am already into long, not yet hit my stop loss(almost, due to the 20 points loss in STI last week) so might as well take a risk and see what happens over the long holiday. Already lost the way to CNY, might as well I thought.

I will not trade by guessing the market after this, MUST NOT!! But lets enjoy this sweet correct prediction for now. HSI will not open until Friday, so if HSI store the power and Rally on Friday, it might help that STI might follows through.

The all important stimulus package suggest by Obama will be pass tonight, if it fails, then have to prepare a red sea tomorrow, hope it do not happen.

Smart comment by Smart Trader

2009-01-24T15:43:00.003+08:00

OBEY THE SIGNALS --- Obey your trading signals and don't let bad trading habits form. If you do make mistake, don't dwell on it; just vow to do better the next time. Close your eyes and visualize making the same trade, but this time obeying the signals.

BIG LOSSES USUALLY COME FROM SMALL ONES --- "I watch a loss grow until I can't take it anymore," "Then I sell two days before it bottoms."
If you use a stop, you won't have this problem. Don't let those small losses grow into big ones, and don't allow a profit to turn into a loss. use a STOP-LOSS order on every trade.

One counter price broke out downward from a symmetrical triangle. Then it closed there. That was the sell signal, the next day, it was sold for a $300 USD loss. (Good trade I thought, keep losts small) Two days after the counter was sold, the stock started to recover. Price shot out the top of the triangle, moved 15% higher (shit) in about a week, and continued climbing.

The author started wondering if bad luck has started coming in, but later on laugh it off. This was the perfect busted trade ---- when price moves down a small amount before shooting out the other side of the pattern. Is the counter sold too soon??? If had held on the counter a little longer, the trade would have worked out just as the author expected, but from his experience, he knows that this was a fluke(stroke of good luck).

When price breaks out downward, sell immediately and don't look back. There are other chart patterns begging for your attention like abandoned puppies in an animal shelter.

What would have happened if the author decided to hold on? By ignoring a sell signal and having a winning trade, it would be reinforcing negative behavior. Next time, every sell signal would be question and the losses would grow in step with trading anxiety...

Above are taken out from the book " GETTING STARTED IN CHART PATTERNS'' by THOMAS N. BULKOWSKI

Every smart trader already started selling but ME!!

2009-01-24T15:25:00.003+08:00

Just using the simple MA(Moving Average) will be able to indentify the overall market trend. I had been hoping for the Obama Rally, Singapore Budget Rally, CNY Rally... But forgetting the basic of charting which when trading using charts, all news, rumour, etc... are all throw out of the windows..

This is an expensive lesson which will, and must, to be remember in-order to become a sucessful trader...

Going to the trader hub is definitely benificial as is not only teach me new things about the market, it also re-emphasize those thing that I have learnt but forget about it as the trading goes on...

Every students trading in the hub already shorting like no tomorrow, I am the only person in the hub(the first time trading in the hub since the 2009 rally) still looking for some CNY Rally. Which prove to be hard and a dream as STI close lower 20 points going into CNY next week

Sell into Strength on any post-budget rally

2009-01-24T15:20:00.001+08:00

The budget cannot fundamentally turn the fortunes around for a small open economy.
The STI almost always falls off post-budget, sharply in the case of the recession budgets in 1998 (-18.3% after 3 months) and 2001 (-17.2% after 3 months). Expect a replay!!!

2009-01-15T12:18:00.000+08:00

15th of Jan 2009, can consider BLOODY THURDAY for world market!!

Had not been so RED for a long while... Maybe resume short term down trend as major indices had broken the trend line...