My FIRST Stock Trade in this Blog!

OK, here's my 1st trade in stocks, done at the tail-end of the year 2009 (I did not even bother to wait until the new year)! In this trade, I only took very small position.

I did not want to take a full position yet, because I have not been trading stocks for some time already. So rather than jumping in head first, I opted to simply getting my toes wet in this early days of stocks trading.

So why the cautious approach?

I've learnt from my FOREX experience that there's bound to be more fine-tunings on the trading system that I'm using, before things settle down a bit. I'm bound to make mistakes, goof up here & there in my trades........just like what I've gone thru with FOREX.

My aim with stocks trading at this point is not to make money yet, but to simply learn to trade well - and make adjustments to my trading plan as I gain more experience. The money part will take care by itself along the way.

So here's my 1st trade with MAS (listed in NYSE), where I took a small Short position.

BTW, I will resume trading FOREX possibly next week, if I see a good setup.

Taking Stock of Stocks

Well, we're now on the brink of yet another brand new year!

As I had mentioned in my last post, I've been quite busy preparing my trading plans & strategies for trading the US stocks.

In a way, it is quite similar to my FOREX trading plan, although I did have to make some slight adjustments here and there to the original plan, due to the unique nature of stocks trading.

I plan to start trading stocks soon, together with my usual FOREX trades.

I may post some of my stock trades here, just like what I'm doing now with FOREX......

.......or, maybe even start a brand new blog that is solely dedicated to stocks!

Nah........I'll just post 'em here for a start. If I do well and trade them quite regularly, I may consider setting up a new blog just for stocks.

And if I find that stocks are just not meant for me, then I'll just drop it and focus solely on FOREX.

Enough rant now......Happy New Year, guys & gals!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, folks!

We're now heading towards X'mas & a brand new year! Many of the traders around the world are winding down their trading activities, and it's pretty obvious if you look at the charts - which are pretty much choppy these days.

I will also step away from FOREX trading for the time being, at least until the end of the month. It makes little sense to be in the market when all the big boys are in the holiday mood.

This would be a good time to catch up on other things that I've left on the backburner before. Besides the ubiquitous New Year resolutions that are always forgotten the moment we head into the 2nd week of January (I know, I'm guilty of that as well!), it may also be a good time for me to see if I want to also include US Stocks as part of my trading activities.

I have not looked at stocks trading for quite some time ever since I traded FOREX live. One of the reasons why I like FOREX is because of the huge volatility on a scale that you don't see very often in the stocks market.

Still, markets are markets. It doesn't hurt to be looking at other markets for trading opportunities. As the Chinese saying goes, opportunities can come in ANY directions........and certainly not just from FOREX! Maybe this time I will take another look and see if I can trade both instruments together, as part of my overall trading activities. I still have a few cents left over in my brokerage account where I used to trade US stocks before.......might as well put them to some use.

OK folks, enjoy your holidays!

Not meantg to be.....

My chf.jpy trade got stopped at BE.

New Trade

New trade for the week. Let's see how she goes!

Signing off for the week

My aussie dollar trade was stopped out when news came out concerning the USD. Trend line was broken, and well, that's the end of the trend.

New Trade

It's Friday, so why not end it with another trade, huh? Let's see whether I'll end this week with a bang, or a whimper!

2nd wind

I did not realize that I was taking back-to-back trade with the CAD.JPY pair this week! I lost the 1st round, but I gained it back the 2nd time around.

Yep, I closed the trade that I had entered yesterday for a decent profit. I am not too keen to leave it open thruout the weekend.

New Trade

New trade. I have to admit that I'm kinda edgy a bit, simply because there are a slew of news announcements today.

This trade is based on Daily timeframe. It's not my favorite timeframe (as I am basically an intraday guy), but I feel it is appropriate strategy, given the fact that some of the news coming out this evening could potentially impact the market.

Anyway, let's see how this trade works out.

Bruce Lee

Who doesn't know him - arguably one of the greatest martial artists that have walked on this earth.

Besides his skills & strengths, he also had a couple of famous quotes that still resonate with me, even after he has been long gone.

Here are some of those that I like:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves."

"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

Strange as it may seem, I do find that the above quotes CAN BE applied to trading as well.

Instead of trying to learn 10,000 different trading styles all at once, why not just pick one or two and become REAL good at them, before moving on to another trading system? Hell, maybe you just need that one or two trading approaches to make a living, no?

And if the trading style is adaptable to whatever the market condition dishes out at you, so much the better!

Just like water, my friend!

Certainly something to chew upon, since I could not find any trading setup today (that's why I'm ranting now, which is not something that I normally do....)

This Soshi Taste Bitter!

Howzat, huh? Well, I lost the cad.jpy trade. I did not wait for breakout-pullback-continuation pattern to develop, before pulling the trigger.

I guess we all have our own demons to fight with.

This Sushi Taste Good!

Out of my GBP.JPY trade, using two-stage exit plan. The Yen seems to be gaining strength at this time of writing, judging from the way all the Yen crosses are reacting.

There could still be some more trading opportunities with the Yen crosses, but I'm pretty much done for the day.

New Trade

New week, new trade.

Signing off for the week

I just realized that I've entering trades everyday thruout this week. I cannot really remember the last time when I had similar level of activity.

To be honest, I'm not so sure whether or not this is a good thing, because the last thing I want is to get myself into "over trading" zone.

However, it has to be noted that I am now slowly evolving into an intraday trader, so I suppose this is pretty normal. As long as there are valid tarde setups, I'll take it.

My final trade of this week turns out a winner. I'm calling it a day, as the Non-Farm Payroll news announcement is due in about an hour time. I'm not going to risk myself getting mowed down by a speeding freight train.

Bitter Fruit

Lost this trade, when the trend line was broken.

Over & Out!

Well, the news announcement came, and it kicked me out of my aussie dollar trade. There's no excuse......I really screwed myself up on this trade.

I KNEW when the news was coming, and I still entered my order - despite knowing that I'll be walking on thin ice.

Why?

Simple.

I was greedy.

Enough said!

Sitting on my hands

My open aussie dollar trade is currently not making any headway. It totally lacks momentum.

The reason?

There's an upcoming news on Unemployment Claims in the US, which has a high probability of impacting all the USD crosses. All the traders are currently waiting in the sideline.

News announcements can totally blow away all the technical analysis.

In a nutshell, this is a trade that I should not have jumped in.........

So, what do I do now?

Nothing.

I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fireworks, if it happens.

In any case, my stop loss is already there to bail me out, should the pair plummets down after the news announcement.

Let the firework begins!

New Trade

A trend line break, followed by a minor pullback.

Looks good, no?

Well, the market will let me know, in a few hours time, whether or not it agrees with my opinion!

Trade Management

My cable trade was closed out with a net position slightly above BE. All this took place while I was out in my family at a local shopping mall.

I managed to lock in some profits on half of my position, before the market reversed and stopped out the remaining half of my position.

This trade showed why proper trade management is very crucial. Heck, it's even more important than having good entry setups. In this example, I managed to walk away relatively unscathed.

Was I lucky? Maybe. But I did spend a considerable amount of time tweaking on my money management aspects. I cannot tell you the numerous changes that I've made on my money management spreadsheet, as I evolve myself as a trader.

Trust me, spending time to work on money management is definitely a time well spent.

New Trade

A new Short position. Will shut down my computer now and come back in a few hours time. No need to look at the charts all day long.

Enjoying my Kiwi fruit

Exited my trade on nzd.usd this morning, at the end of the momentum bar run-up.

New Trade

It's not often I trade off a daily chart, simply because good opportunities do not come as often as intraday trades. However, opportunity is opportunity......irrespective of timeframe.

Looks like the Kiwi Dollar is moving strongly. I'm about to hit the sack now, so I've moved my stop loss to BE - just so that I'd sleep more soundly tonight!

Let's see how this trade turns out tomorrow morning!

2nd half open position

My 2nd half portion of the GBP.CAD trade was taken out at BE, when the market reversed.

Cash some chips in

Took some profit, and locked in my stop to BE. I'm quite anxious to collect some pips early, because there's a news announcement that might affect CAD in the evening.

Now that this is a risk-free trade, it's time to go to the local pasar malam to buy some dinner for the family.....:-)

Monday Trade

New day of the week, another new trade.

Done for the day

Well, my 2nd half position on the chf.jpy trade was taken out at BE. No worries, that's just the way things go.

Active Trade

The market is moving down pretty strong on the CHF.JPY pair that I'm trading, so I'm taking off half of my position in order to bank-in some pips. I have also moved my stop to break-even on the balance of my position, effectively making this a risk-free trade.

I am increasingly more in favor of doing this, rather than "all or nothing" type of trade management which I used to do before.

New Trade

Took a short position on CHF.JPY pair.

The Swing That Did Not Take Place...

Well, I got "swung out" of my GBP.CAD trade, as soon as the London boys came into the picture.

New Trade

Entered Long on GBP.CAD. Like the way price has rebounded from its recent swing low point.

Quickie

Took a quick profit on the CAD.JPY trade. Market did plunge, and I was out barely 5 minutes into the trade.

New Trade

Shorted this pair, on the break of the trend line.

24 Hr Trading, Anyone?

One of the reason why I switched to FOREX (I was trading US stocks before this) is due to the time flexibility that the FOREX market offers.

Ot to put it in another way, I could trade ANYTIME I want, because the FOREX market runs 24 hours a day, 5 1/2 days a week.

Cool, no?

Well, not quite.

While it's true that you can pretty much trade at anytime of the day (or night), I quickly learnt that in order to have a fair success win rates, you cannot simply trade whenever you feel like it....

....especially if you're an intraday trader!

Whenever I take intraday trades, there are a lot more things that I need to consider, before pulling the trigger.

Firstly, I avoid trading during the Asian session. I like trading 'em during the Euro session.

Secondly, I need to know when the key news announcements are going to take place, as these can (and do) rock the market like a tsunami.

Also, intraday trades are more prone to fail, so I need to be picky about trade selection, as well as all the other potential roadblocks that may derail the price movement.

Sounds like a lot of work?

Yep. Frankly, the easiest ones to trade are the Daily setups.

On the Dailies, I don't care about the news, and I pretty much don't care the time of the day when the trade is to be taken.

Enjoying my Kiwi fruit

I have started to do more intraday trades. Here is a trade that I took on 15 minute timeframe. It is actually a trigger for my hourly setup chart.

As you may have noticed, I have change my chart settings a bit. I've added a bit more pizzazz to enhance some of the things that I look for in a price chart.

I plan to do more intraday trades.

I'm back!

It's been 3 weeks since I last place a trade. The reason for this mini sabbatical was due to being stuck in "lab" mode - spending endless hours learning/researching/fine-tuning my overall trading plans.

I have found that whenever I'm in this mode, it's best to stop trading altogether so that I can fully focus on the stuff that I need to do in order to further improve my trading game.

Well, I'm now out of my lab cave and am now ready to trade the market again. However, the market today is pretty dull......

......and dull market means NO TRADE, as there's simply no momentum for me to ride on.

There's also plenty of news this week, so I need to keep an eye on them as well. Don't want to be caught in a FOREX Tsunami that could very well occur during these times.

Looking at the intra-day charts, I don't quite see anything that would warrant any interest. The European traders are just not making any waves today after the London Open.

Methinks I'm just gonna call it a day. Let's see how tomorrow shapes up.

Taking a Break

I've been busy in the past few days.

No, not in active trading but rather....actively learning and researching new twists and approaches that I could use, in order to add to my trading arsenal.

All this while I've always traded based on single bar price action off major horizontal support & resistance lines.

Nothing wrong with that......but sometimes waiting for the right setup can be as exciting as watching paint dry.

You see, my own psych is such that I'd like to have several tools that I can use at my disposal, so that I can respond appropriately to the prevailing market conditions.

Since there's no such thing as "one tool for all market occasions", what better way to address this shortcoming than to simply learn and research things out, no?

I am targetting to complete my little "lab work" by the end of next week. I hope to have a few strategies in place by then.

Then, I'll forward-test them and tweak them as I go along.

Well, that's the plan. Will post once I have something useful to write.

Forgot about this one!

Oh, and here's the only winner that I got from my 5m demo trade.

As I said, I think this time frame does not suit me.

Maybe next time....

5 Min Time Frame

I've done a couple of trades based on 5 minute time frame. They're all, of course, on demo.

And the results?

1 win, 2 losses, 3 break-even trades.

Perhaps I can tweak this further, but I think I'll stop here.

I just don't feel comfortable trading this way. Trading decisions have to be made quick.

I feel that I need to rush when making trading decisions with 5m, and I can't say that I'm comfortable doing things this way.

In other words, this time frame simply does not fit my own psych profile.

Charts attached.

Trading Using 5 Minute Time Frame

In my last post, I mentioned about my plan of diving into the roller-coaster world of 5 min trades.

Well, I've spent a good amount of time mapping out my game plan over the weekend (and sacrificing my usual Sunday morning long distance round island bike ride)....

......as well as putting up with strong coffee smell everytime I hit the bathroom!

Yep, I drank copious amount of Nescafe just to keep the creative juices flowing, so to speak!

I think I have my trading plans all worked out, but like all new trading strategies that I had tested before, I need to put it in demo first to try it out.

Since the timeframe is very short, I will not have time to post my trades live as they happen....will only do so after I've closed them.

This is because I will have to stay glued to my computer when my trades are active. I simply cannot afford to walk away and do other things while the trade is still in progress.

OK, that's it for now. Will post charts once they're available. Should be a pretty interesting week ahead!

Strategy Review

My trend trades (those that were based on trend lines) have not been performing well lately. I need to stop taking such trades for now and review my entry requirements - maybe even do a bit of tweaking here and there.

My assessment is that I am taking a lot of "B" or C" grade trend trades, instead of gunning for "A" trades. It means that I need to go back to my cave and do a bit of research on this.

Yes, it's all about being extra picky. Being picky helps in this business!

I will still continue to take trades that are based on horizontal Support & Resistance lines, as I'm already quite comfortable with it.

On another note, I am also expanding my trading tool box to include trading in shorter time frames (5 & 15 minutes). I am now doing some research on it - will probably paper trade them next week.

Another Loss

Stopped out of AUD.JPY trade. Price broke thru the descending trend line, taking my stop out.

Another Loss

Trail stop hit on my CAD.JPY trade. Lucky it wasn't a full loss. That's what the trailing stop is there for.

Another Trade!

Yet another Yen cross, this time AUD.JPY.

Another "Yen" for Trade

Added another Yen cross, this time the CAD.JPY pair.

Bitter Fruit

Lost the Kiwi Yen trade, when the market reversed.

Kiwi fruit, anyone?

Took a short position in Kiwi Yen pair. This time, my plain is to let the market take me out via trail stop, instead of the usual hard profit target that I normally use.

Enjoy the ride!

Big News Day

I am primarily a technical trader. However, that does not mean that I ignore news completely.

For instance, I will not put in any orders today. Reason is because of the impending Non-Farm Payrol (NFP) news this evening.

This particular news event can certainly cause a lot of upheaval (I refrain from using the word "earthquake" or "tsunami", out of respect to those who have suffered such calamity recently in Padang, Indonesia and Samoa) in the financial markets.

So for now I'm gonna be sitting on my hands and just see what happens, once the NFP results are released in a few hours time.

Broken Trend

EUR.JPY trade was stopped out today, when price broke thru both the daily trend line . as well as the 150 level.

Quick Luch Money!

Did not have time to post this under "Active Trade" post. I put my order in, and promptly went for my after noon nap.

Woke up, saw price struggling to go past the bar lows, took my profits and run.

EUR GBP

Out of this trade with profit at the 1st trouble area.

Another new trade!

Hitching the Shinkansen train ride, this time heading to Europe!

New Trades

Knocked in a new trade today, the EUR.GBP pair. Looks like there's a good chance of reversal after shooting up to the statosphere.

Will it come back to earth? We'll find out in the next few days!

Shit happens....

My cable trade was stopped out, after missing my Take Profit target by just a few pips. Although I was royally pissed, these sort of things happen all the time and I just had to pick up my broken ego and move on.

New week, new trade

Kicked off the new week by hopping on the cable pair that is now trading downwards.

So near, yet so far away

Exited my EUR.AUD trade at BE+1. When price was about 15 pips away from my exit target, I moved my stop to BE+1.

And I was promptly taken out of the trade when price reversed on me.

Next trade, please!