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!