Yesterday was a pretty remarkable day trading wise and whilst my TUFXP method missed trading I did manage to secure several decent trades and a handsome profit was made, it’s brought July well into the green zone and it’s always a good feeling to get on the winning train.

The original TUFXP method had a win but not before a big scare when Moodys downgraded Portugal’s status. Here is the chart:

I didn’t enter this trade as the 50 SMA was still trending down but I suppose an excellent entry was possible when the trade went to -25 or so before rising all the way back up. It seems to return to my dilemma last week when I was questioning whether to avoid invalid trades or take a significantly better entry. On this occasion I didn’t take advantage of the better entry but I have made annotations in my results.

I’m finding my results are an invaluable part of my trading as when I need to find something I know exactly where to find it. I’ve always been big on keeping strict results and it stems from my racing days. Ask your average punter their P+L and they’ll 9/10 reply with an inconclusive answer. I imagine it’s the same for a lot of traders. If anyone would like any help on how best to record trading results, just let me know, I’d be happy to help out.

So the scores for July for the TUFXP method are -25 pips for the original method and -14 for my method despite not trading yesterday.

1.5000 was also a major concern and when it bounced to 1.5027 I thought my goose was cooked but thankfully strong selling pressure won out and a nice victory was gained and I also managed to hang onto it for +33.

I’ve always questioned the wisdom of TUFXP employing a sole company to providing a data feed and they swear blind they do not receieve any commissions off IQFeed which I find extremely difficult to believe. Why is it the likes of Fxpro, FXDD, Alpari, OANDA can all provide excellent feeds for no cost yet IQFeed charge over $88 a month for a sub-standard service that regularly drops out which in turn affects the outcomes of PTPs.

A friend in the trading room, Mike, mentioned you can request to pay 12 months upfront and you can receive 50% discount on your subscription. Thanks for that Mike!

I hope everyone enjoyed Graham’s first post, he’s still having a few problems logging onto the blog but I’m sure he’ll get around the technology soon

Onwards and upwards..

I used to play golf a lot and when I was a teenager I had aspirations of being a touring professional and I managed to get my handicap down to +1 (below 0), I also majored in it at University. Playing for University and County meant there were occasions when the pressure was really on to perform; a clutch putt or a great iron from trouble. However, I always had a tendency to over think things. I’d say to myself, ‘okay make par here and the next two holes are easy birdie holes and then par in.’ Speak to any professional golfer and they’ll tell you that thinking ahead is a game killer. I’d try to force things and more often than not I’d end up with a worse score than my plan had allowed. I remember when I was 16/17 actually filling in a blank scorecard before a competition or match and then checking it throughout my round!!

What on earth does filling in a scorecard have to do with trading? Well, quite a lot. I have several spreadsheets with past results and current performance and I frequently use these as predictions for upcoming weeks/months. When these predictions don’t come to fruition I feel disappointed and wonder why my plan isn’t working. That is precisely my trouble; thinking ahead. My Dad used to try to drill into me to take one shot at a time and only focus on that particular shot, and let the round come to me. Whenever he caddied for me, I frequently played some of my best golf. So, from now on I’m going to do my best to focus on each trade as an individual event and try to not worry about how my week/month is going. It all boils down to staying calm and not rushing under pressure. It’s obviously a lot easier said than done but having a ‘one trade at a time’ mentality should help me keep on the straight and narrow and away from my trigger happy finger!

The saga of our shipping is in limbo as I’ve been told it could be another 4 weeks BEFORE it actually leaves Dubai as it’s a part consignment. It struck me as odd as to why they were so much cheaper than other companies and I guess I now know why!

So a simple short win for TUFXP today and I’m ready to switch off and relax and watch Deal or No Deal until later this evening when I’ll look at my EURUSD trades. They’ve been in a frustrating pattern of late but I’m taking it in my stride and thinking long term instead of small windows of time. I’m also doing my best at keeping everything nice and simple, I’ve read quite a few good articles recently about traders trying to over complicate matters and getting caught out, which lead me to finding out about a guy called Dan Zanger. It the late 90′s during the I.T boom, he set a world record for the biggest % gain in a personal portfolio. Guesses? 29,000%!!! $10,000 into $18,000,000. The tools he used? A simple chart pattern and volume.

CM doesn’t trade on NFP Fridays but I personally find them to be a profitable day if you can be done and dusted before a few hrs of release and then once the news has settled in, a significant trend usually forms. My first trade was a loss with TUFXP for 26 pips and I had to wait several hrs before my next trade which thankfully won, so a small loss of 6 pips for TUFXP yesterday.

One thing that has been troubling me is to which strategies to trade as I believe I have at least 4 profitable strategies now.  I have decided upon 2 strategies for my main bank and I will dedicate a 2nd bank for the other 2 in due course. One thing I did learn from my previous run was that trading all strategies on one bank isn’t ideal.

I got an excellent email from a friend regarding trading and I’ll expand on that on my next post but for the moment I’ll leave it here as I’ve got the house to myself for the first time this week and I’m going to take advantage of some P and Q.

Hope you’ve had a profitable week and have an enjoyable weekend.

What I do not want to happen is the sheer cliffs of last time, I want to keep draw-down to a relatively reasonable level and avoid the severe swings I was enduring.  A look back over my previous stats showed a loss of over 500 pips in unnecessary trades that were not part of any strategy other than greed and bad discipline. I’ve setup anoher Myfxbook page which I’ll add to the blog in the next fewdays. I have daily reminders to keep things simple and I plan on doing just that.

Here we go then!

My own particular Dubai Strategies are going through a mixed patch. One is doing well whilst the other is treading water, it’s neither performing terribly or well. At least one of them is still going well despite the trades being fairly rare of late. Overall I’m pleased with how my portfolio is looking, the usual downside being my discipline and trade management. It’s getting there but it is a desperate battle to stop myself from over trading. I am my own worst enemy by trying to hit a homerun everyday and as a friend mentioned, this attitude will lead to failure eventually. Slow and steady wins the day not sporadic mammoth days followed by mammoth losses.

Last few days now left for me in Dubai and I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my time here, I came here as a young 20-year-old without a care in the world and leave a married man and a  father to a beautiful girl and a whole heap of responsibilities. Time for the next chapter..

It was nice then to get off to a good start and it means I can plot my course carefully today as TUFXP signalled an early winner. It’s a feast of economic news releases this week so fingers crossed I can get some action out of SNW. There are roughly 9 reports worth trading and I’ll be disappointed if at least 1 or 2 don’t provide action.

I’m going to pack the racing on the head for now as the time difference in Australia will be +9 hrs which means racing won’t be getting underway until gone 11 PM which is just to late in the day for me.  Trading will be a little out of sync also with me starting at 3pm local time and hopefully finishing by 9-10pm. At least it means I can get jobs done early in the day and then be ready for trading in the afternoon.

Well, I’ve got boxes to pack and things to sell so I best get to it.

Amongst the list to do is to renew passport, organize garage sale, storage for items that we’re keeping and shipping, find a foster home for the dog and cats, the list just goes on and on!

I’ve noticed Cash-master is a running a trial of the upgraded The Ultimate Forex Predictor so I’ve decided I’ll run the same test following exactly his rules. My one hesitation is that the stop is always larger than the scalp meaning two losses and stopping will probably take 3-4 wins to recover. Anyway, should be an interesting comparison. I’m surprised he doesn’t use the pivot points available as I do actually find they are incredibly useful for exiting a trade or using as a guide to placing your stop-loss.