Not a great deal to say about these trades other than I tried to trade in a different way than I usually did - with the trend other than on the swing.


There was one trade of interest there, the one with the largest loss where it jumped up to my stop then fell back again:


I don't know why it jumped up like that but it would seem that currently my account is too undercapitalised to survive long swings because that was the most I was willing to risk and I set the trade to the minimum amount. So I think at least for now I'll need to stick with scalping.

This time I was able to stick to my guns and stay in the trade until it closed. I did realise though that factoring in the spread I shouldn't have taken this trade because the risk/reward ratio was greater than one (19 pip potential loss over an 11 pip potential gain).


Today the EUR/JPY briefly broke out of its trading range from it's past few days and I wasn't sure what to do. So now I've come to the understanding I'm going to have to start using indicators in conjunction with basic support/resistance levels to help find turning points and the strength of trends. Though it was fun to trade just using the barest of tools for a tidy profit; I guess the way I want to trade needs to be simple so I can quickly identify and jump on a trade. This means I'll be taking Occam's Razor to the trading systems I look at (my own and one's I find or are suggested to me).

What can I say, other than that instead of closing the trade station and forgetting about my trades, I left it open so I could "monitor" them. The volume of the first trade was $140 and the second $100 (I was too hasty getting into the latter and forgot to check the amount).


So I can still pick them correctly, it just seems I don't have the conviction to back my judgement and just watch the trade happen yet; which I find very disappointing because to me it means I'm a long way from stepping up to a larger account. I need to be confident enough in my decisions to leave the trading platform open and to only make adjustments when something wildly unexpected happens.

But the more I trade the more I learn, so I guess there's only one thing to do.

Once again no indicators just S/R levels. It almost backfired when I was one pip away of getting stopped out on a count of having a premature entry.


It did gain another 40 pips on that but now I feel it doesn't matter that the price overshoots my TP level because it's much better to take profits than to almost take profits. I know I should trade more now that it's the holidays but I've only flicked on the tradestation a couple of times and no opportunities have jumped out at me until now. Speaking of which, I finally finished that book by Dr. Elder. It's a good read, I still recommend reading it even though in parts it is long winded.

Now as for uni, got my results back from this semester and they are as follows:

• 2102AFE Financial Accounting: Pass
• 2105AFE Introduction to Business Law: Distinction
• 2201AFE Corporate Finance: Credit
• 2204AFE Financial Institutions Management: Distinction

Which is good for a GPA of 5.25. Apparently if I get a GPA of 5 or above next semester I'll get some sort of cool award. It should be possible because I'm only doing two subjects towards my major and the others are just degree fillers.

On the physical front I sprained both my ankles again a couple months ago so I can't tumble anymore. That being said, I started tumbling again a couple weeks ago . I'm working on doing one-legged calf raises trying without holding onto anything for balance in an attempt to tighten tendons and ligaments on the anterior of my foot. To make sure I'm not going to sprain anything on the floor only I'm going to practice flics and whips for the rest of the year.

I'm also determined to get my six pack abs by August the 18th (this year). So much so I've given up alcohol and enlisted the help of Alex Azarian (prepbyalex.com) and now I've got a meal and exercise plan to follow instead of just doing whatever in a somewhat disorganised way.

I'm getting pretty close to a one armed chin-up now, last week when I tried I only need a 12.5kg assist to get me up there which means in percentage terms I'm 79% of the way there.

Well that's all for now, but I do hope I'll put on a few more trades this month.

Made this one a little before going to bed the other night after I remembered that I hadn't placed a trade in ages. No indicators on this one, just used support and resistance levels which worked out quite well for a solid 23 pips (stop loss in red at 163.20).


I'll probably become more active in a few weeks time after I finish all my exams and such.

P.S. I'm still trying to finish reading "Come into My Trading Room"

Stopped this one because the direction looked indecisive, original stop was 163.00 with T/P @ 162.50. My account is now over $14 again; looks like I can give up work and retire at long last.


I just checked the charts again and it seems that EUR/JPY rose a little (to around my original of 163.00) and is now more or less sideways.

Two exams today, Corporate Finance and Intro to Business Law. What's them to say about them...I nailed the first and hopefully I knew enough and managed to fluke enough on the other questions to get through (in most cases I managed to cut the choices down from 5 to 2, I know multiple choice should be easy but I did say that it was Law).

I had a dream the other night when I was sick after watching "Neon Genesis" and listening to "Godspeed You Black Emperor!". There was some other stuff said but I think it was gibberish so I didn't make a point of remembering it. The thing I did remember went something along the lines of:
"We're living in a world where the extent of man's imagination is his suspicion of the other."

It really tripped me out (even for a dream) when the person said this in the context of distrust. So yeah, does it makes sense by itself or does it work better if "suspicion" was replaced with "distrust" or "dishonesty"?

P.S. On another note, now that I've watched "End of Evangelion" right after the series it all makes sense, it fits together perfectly (especially the mystery about Gendo). Though I did prefer the series end simply because I wanted Shinji to become a man.

P.P.S. These CTP excesses are going to send me bankrupt if I ever do hit somebody, not that that's hard to do being a uni student and all but seriously if you're going to be a driver be not a male and over 25.

I heard this story yesterday on the radio and decided to share here (source: Economic Times)
LONDON: Guess what gives the markets a boost? Testosterone, according to a study. The male hormone is known to boost confidence levels and also increase appetite for risk—but too much of it can prompt irrational behaviour, the study found.

For example, stock market traders with high morning testosterone levels make more than average profits for the rest of that day. But too much of the hormone would begin to have the opposite effect on a trader’s profitability, by increasing excessive risk-taking.

Cambridge University researchers followed 17 male traders for eight consecutive business days. They took saliva samples at 11 am and 4 pm daily, to measure hormone levels, before and after the bulk of the day’s trading.
Testosterone levels were significantly higher on days when traders made more than their month’s daily average takings than on other days.

Testosterone is a steroid hormone controlling competitive encounters as well as sexual behaviour. Testosterone in male athletes, for example, will rise prior to a competition and rise even further in a winning athlete (but decrease in a losing one).

During the study, traders experienced acutely raised cortisol in association with higher volatility in the markets and increased chances of making money during periods of higher volatility.
Cortisol is likely to rise in a market crash and, by increasing risk aversion, to exaggerate the market’s downward movement.

John Coates of Cambridge University and lead author of the study said: “Rising levels of testosterone and cortisol prepare traders for taking risk”.

In the radio interview it said that funnily enough the people with higher testosterone levels were the quieter, poker-faced ones in the corner.

Opened this one and went to bed. No indicators, no long analysis, just a quick look at the current price and the S/R levels adjacent before I made the trade with the appropriate stops. When I opened my mail this morning I saw a nice +21 pip gain: (Short @ 161.21, cover at 161.00)


And just a quick note, out of curiosity I checked out Pipsnipers again and it seems that after the paid subscriptions started everything went downhill including Kinn and other getting kicked without reason. I hope nobody here got caught up in it, how were we to know after all the great trades before March?

I made this indicator for an indicator and coupled with my New Wind indicator tried applying it and got a not-so-great result. Rules for entry were red crosses above green on both indicators within 1 period of each other:


I think a new rule would be when StochRSI < ~20 or > ~80. This will discount a large number of trades, but it should only leave only very high probability positions:


May add one more before the week is out, stay tuned!