Lots of Money (Image Credit: KimDioninc from flickr.com)

Got stuck in the Pre-School of BabyPips’s School of Pipsology… But it’s not the school’s fault. The blame is on Mumsie FX. How the heck does a middle-aged woman figure out the moneymaking secrets of Forex? Aside from reading all available materials that everybody can find on the Internet, that is. One must read as well as comprehend. It’s like listening but not hearing or looking but not seeing.

Enough rambling, Mumsie FX. Get on with the lesson number two of Forex Basics: “How You Make Money Trading Forex”. This is still a mystery unsolved for the mind with any age.

As learned previously, the forex market involves the simultaneous buying and selling of currencies. If you buy a currency, you also sell another currency. During the process of buying and selling, a trader may win or lose. Simple. I have to have my wits with me all the time while trading! Very simple, indeed.

Another way of explanation, forex trading is also similar to the stock market (and other markets such commodity, if you’re familiar with them)

The idea I get here is to study forex through and through — then start live trading when I’m very, very sure of my forex trading ability. Hmm… is demo trading good or bad?

…….. omg!!!

I stopped reading the BabyPips School of Pipsology last April. And when I came back to resume this self-inflicted Forex Education, the awesome school has become more awesome! lol

So I have to start all over again. Good thing, I was a bit slow. lol again.

I am very much tempted to just add updates where needed but it may confuse me more than ever. Back to Preschool for me! agh! I’ll be a grandmother before I finish college in forex!

The New School of Pipsology at BabyPips.com has a moving tab on the left side. It serves as a class card, where study progress is recorded. I find this a bit distracting but it is a necessary distraction. The 0% in all of the levels always glares to remind my lack of progress.

As you can see on the image at the right side, the new School of Pipsology starts on ‘Pre-school’. The first level is divided into 5 parts:

1. What is Forex?
2. Why Trade Forex?
3. Who Trades Forex?
4. When Can You Trade Forex?
5. How Do You Trade Forex?

I’ll stop here to begin with the new school. See you on the next post!

However, this week was not so good for me. (But why am I grinning instead of crying? Hehe!) My weak points were slowly showing up—which is actually good, in my opinion! LOL

Here’s a short list of my weak points:
1. Money Management
2. Aggressive Trading
3. Trading with undeveloped trading plan

There should be more but three’s enough for now!

Theories are easy to learn—but so hard to implement. A lot of tips and tricks on money management are available all over the Internet but, as I realized in a painful way, they are quite difficult to adapt in my own account. Almost all professional traders say money management is the key to successful trading – and I definitely agree with them. Making money with trading forex is somewhat easy (hehe), but losing money is easier especially without proper risk management (haha)

My trades this past week were perfect pictures of my negligence as a trader. I had a total of 11 trades and it took only 1 trade to ruin everything! (omg) The risk on this 1 trade was greater than the other trades I had in the first few days or the earlier part of this week. Yuppie, I listed all the weak points and they could be seen in my statement. Ha! I had been a stubborn little lady again! Repeating the same mistakes: trading against the trend and without any semblance of risk management. That’s ha! again!

As for my penchant to aggressive trading… Should I blame myself again? I believe that ‘taking risk’ is the soul of forex trading. Therefore, aggressive trading combined with a sensible money management is a good thing, right? Right? Right? For me, it is right! But still, I have to tackle my money management more closely ‘coz it is my big problem here. =) Also, I really have to develop my own personal trading plan. And my biggest question to myself: will I include ‘aggressive trading’ as part of my personalized plan? Hmmm… we’ll see…

Most readers would have this kind of reaction: This foolish forex babe had been trading with still undeveloped trading plan? Winning should be a surprise. And no wonder she lost. Haha!

Okey, enough bashing myself. I am currently onto scalping, using Stoch, RSI, and Moving Averages on a 30-minute chart. I simply buy the oversold and sell the overbought while aiming for a quick 10 pips. Yup, I turned into a mad scalper.

I still have my eyes on some higher timeframe – mostly the 4-hour charts – to spot the really ‘big’ moves and breaks out. Unluckily, I missed any significant events this past week.

Woah! That’s all for now. I hope I could improve on all my trading weaknesses next week! =) Good luck to everyone and may you all get tons of pips!

~Czarina Cleopatra

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First, I would like to thank my friend Mtu Pienga for inviting me (actually, he did some badgering to convince me–hehe) to join the contest. Yup, he invited me twice so I decided to sign up. (The truth why I refused the first time was sheer laziness. I didn’t want to create an account because I just felt like lazing around that day! Haha!)

Thanks to you, Mtu. I’m really glad you didn’t leave me behind. Without your encouragement, I wouldn’t be having the excitement of a trading contest. Although I was almost always nervous because it’s my first time participating in a competition… Yeah, nervous but still excited. As a novice trader, I was always expecting to fall flat on my face. Honestly, losing my morale was more important than losing my account in the contest.

I didn’t have a trading plan. My initial goal was just try my best to maintain my account on the positive scale and, if possible, be included in the Top 200 list of traders. So I got surprised when I hit the Top 50. While writing this blog, I am on Top 24 – haha! Omg, it’s really exciting. I’m so happy but still nervous because I just got a lot of luck with my trades last week. I couldn’t be madder!

How did I trade last week?

I traded like a mad scalper. I was also crazy enough to trade other currency pairs. But here’s the craziest thing I’ve done!

I got daring enough to trade 8 lots… shhh… Yeah, I know it’s mad, it’s bad, but I got lucky! It’s a well-kept secret of mine. And I shared it with you because you can keep secrets. P.S.Thank you.

You bet, I am now enjoying trading with $50,000 capital! I really love trading with such account. I just hope I have the same starting capital for a live account

On my statement, anybody would see that the highlights of my trades are GBPJPY Watching the charts was frustrating but worth waiting for. The break of symmetrical triangle on the 4hr chart was worth waiting. I entered a buy position on this pair which unfortunately pegged me down at -125 pips or $1,325. However, although I got a negative on this particular one, I’m still feeling proud on the way things had happened in the contest trading.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading my blog.

Good luck traders! Stay on the green side ok!

~Czarina Cleopatra

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(Disclaimer: said account is in demo not live sooo…)

Here’s the result of my first month – on a demo trading with only $250…

I got a total of 21 trades: 10 losses and 11 wins. For the losses, they’re all GBP/JPY except for the black sheep USD/CHF, which unfortunately pegged me down at 120 pips or $11.29 — my biggest loss ever.

Please take note: my first losses were small ranging–from $0.97 to $3.20. Then I they slowly turned to big losses—from 50 pips to 120 pips.

Each loss had its own story. Some were the results of my lack of discipline – I wasn’t following self-imposed trading rules. I lost 3 trades in a row due to impulsiveness and/or forced trading.

One of my biggest losses (-101 pips traded April 9) was very unfortunate because it also happened during a forex ‘gap’. Of course, I shouldn’t blame the gap! So I made a resolution, and that was not to hold trades during weekends.

A friendly reminder: Please do not try this crazy trading style at home ; or better yet, do not try it with a live account! Risking more than 1% of your account is like attempting to commit a suicide.

As for my winning trades, I couldn’t elaborate because I knew I was just lucky to trade what-I-see and not what-I-feel!

(Thanks to Khalif Ford, I literally copied the trading motto that I read in his blog )

My last few trades were results of partly following my trading plan. Well…

So the ‘over-all’ for this month, I was not a break-even for this account–yet. I’m still $9.25 down. But I am hopeful that I can get a positive result in the next! Haha! Unfortunately, I can’t access this particular demo account anymore. Like it disappeared to thin air! (A short review for FX Solution)

I don’t know if this happens only to me; but lately, FX Solution had ‘server down’ several times in just a month. And every time this happened, I lost some data. Here are the bad effects to my account:

1. Data from GBP/JPY Bid Chart starting April 17 to 26, 2010 are missing.
2. My demo account was ‘deleted’. It had been missing until now.

I always loved FX Solution even though they have monstrous spreads. So these bad effects definitely got me worried! Thank goodness, it’s just a demo account. But what if it was my live account? That would be the end of the world! Hu-hu! I can’t take that!

Well, that’s all for now! Thanks for reading my blog!
~Czarina Cleopatra

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My gains for this week: I made a total of 129 pips. It’s been a good week. Yes, really. I’m quite happy to see that my once malnourished account was plumped back to having $240.75. I posted my trade review for April 27, 2010 here. Please, look for my trade last April 29, 2010 at my mt4pips.com account.

I should be preening but–honestly, I’m not satisfied with my trading performance. I don’t know how I could stop myself from exiting my trades early. Maybe, I’m still too scared to stay long in the market. Too coward for my trading. Too interested on profit protection. Too everything. Which is better: protecting the profit or missing some profit? Whichever you chose, I still think that discretion is the mother of self-discipline. I’d be like “Darn, I missed the peak!” most of the time; but it’s better than like this “Oh! I’m gonna faint! I busted my account!”

To cut this long story short, I deliberately chose the measly amount of $250 for my demo account. I was curious and eager to know what will happen to my GBP/JPY trades using a micro account. Trying to tame the ‘Beast’ with a very short whip was quite exhilarating. This gutsy challenge seemed odd and foolish. Yet the first month was a bit successful—but for how long?

I would like to hear from my fellow traders. Please share your thoughts. Email me this message: “Stop this craziness, young lady! You can’t possibly trade GBP/JPY with a crazy account like $250! Think again!” at…

my hotmail

I dare you all

Again, thanks for reading my blog!
~Czarina Cleopatra

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Original Trade Setup:

Trade #1

Entry: 145.33
Stop loss: 146.08 moved to 145.23
Take profit: 144.33

Trade #2

Entry: 144.89
Stop loss: 145.89
Take Profit: 143.40

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I shorted GBP/JPY at 145.33 after I spotted a regular bearish divergence both on 1-hour and 30-minute charts.

I hope I was not imagining things!

To cut this long story short, GBP/JPY went along my way – without me watching it. And when I peeped in later, I saw the glowing 55 pips in my account. Oops, it wasn’t the end yet. I didn’t want to close my trade until I reached my take profit so I decided to move my stop loss at 145.23. Ha! My bad luck slammed in when my second stop loss was hit. Oh well, I was kicked out of the market with 10 pips. *not bad*

My second trade was patterned on my first trade. I re-entered at 144.89 targeting 143.40. But same behavior as last week, I closed my trade rather early. So I missed another opportunity to swim in pips. Ha!

View my trading account on mt4pips.com

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But hey, it really had been a crazy week! ***Fundamental news here and Goldman Sach fraud there*** I think, in some ways, I had made the right decision. What if the price went against my trade? I didn’t want my pips to turn into a stone! (So, right. I’m procrastinating for not following my trading plan huh!)

Anyways, I’m still happy because I was not tempted to do some crazy moves – just like what I did last week. First, I didn’t force a trade. Second, I didn’t trade on Friday (Although, I have missed some good setups, I still didn’t forget that Friday is a tricky day!). And last but not the least; I was able to write a review for my trading week performances. (This is a big accomplishment!)

I’ve taken a total of two trades for this week. Yes! This week, it is positive! But for my whole account, I’m still -6.40% down. Hey, it is still not the end of the world! I’ll have a positive account soon! (Wish me luck and more self-discipline, haha!)

By the way, here’s my trade setup that I didn’t follow:

I bought GBP/JPY at 139.98 because the setup looked ideal. The price just bounced on the 200 periods moving average and was confirmed by an oversold condition on Relative Strength Index (RSI). I’d also checked smaller timeframe to confirm the direction of the market. Luckily, all timeframes show an oversold condition on RSI.

Although I didn’t follow this trade completely, I still managed to grab a total of 193 pips. Of course I got a bit disappointed because I cut my profit-making early. Lesson learned!

View my trading account on mt4pips.com

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I called him “Friday trade monster”. He kind of look like this guy:

Overall, this week was terrible. All my trades were executed badly. I didn’t want to end a negative week so I had to force trades. Grr… They were the three consecutive red digits on my mt4pips.com account traded April 16, 2010.

To avoid the previous week’s losses due to the crazy gap, I decided to close my short position at 142.61 with a loss of -43 pips. Argh! It was really a bad decision because I somehow managed to avoid a profit! Grrr… GBP/JPY opened at 140.20; I could’ve made 200 plus pips.

But then again, I really should not trade on Friday. I’d always keep in mind that Friday is a tricky day–and it is also the day when the ‘Friday trade monster’ comes out!

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The first one was a short on GBP/JPY at 143.28 which made a swooping -101 pips! I took this trade on a crazy Friday and was left open over the weekend. So, it joined list of hapless trades that were badly affected by the forex gap.

Good for the bulls, bad for me! Grrr…

The second trade was a long position on USD/CHF. Hmm, I had no one to blame anyone but “I, me, myself” for this loss. I shouldn’t take a trade just because someone had taken that same trade! Lesson learned!

Have you, guys, noticed that USD/CHF is the only pair that I have traded aside from GBP/JPY? My focus was stronger on only two pairs but the U-C still managed to be my worst pair! Hmmm, maybe trading is just not my forte… Haha! Just kidding!

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I’ve been very busy ‘making myself busy’ these past few weeks: with studies, with work, with life, and mostly with my struggles as a teenager entering the serious world of adulthood. Serious! (But seriously, I was trying to be a ‘super woman’!).

All through these confusing events, I was not able to update my online trading journal regularly. So to start somewhere, I checked my mt4pips account (though my new account can be found here: czarinacleo) and analyzed my account statement. My latest trade was registered last March 12, 2010—with the same position but different TIME and RESULT. I bought GBP/JPY–BEFORE and AFTER–the USD Retail Sales Economic event during that time.

The trade I took ‘before’ the event made me a whopping 37 pips; but the trade ‘after’ the event, my pips fell down to negative 27. I call it an emotional trade. I let GREED rule over my trading skill and opened another trade after I got those gorgeous 37 pips. I let FEAR push me to press the button when that trade showed -20 pips—and stopped my trade with -27 pips. I was about to leave to lick my wounded pride in private when the darned pips zoomed up to 50! It’s like sprinkling salt to open wounds!

I decided to leave my trading for a while. But forex must be in my blood now, because I returned after 20 days. Haha.

Another glaring mistake that I noticed on my fated account statement: I did not use both ‘Stop Loss’ and ‘Take Profit’. I found this bad habit of mine in most of my earlier trades. And now that I’m just a little bit matured did I notice that ‘the more I trade without stop-loss and take-profit, the more I lose my pips’! Yikes!

School Girl Studying (Image Credit: gababoutbeer.files.wordpress.com)

Analysis of My Trading

Problems:

• Emotions dominate and ruin the trading plan
• Trading without stop-loss and take-profit

Solution:

• Paper Trading

Yep! I’ve started to take all my trades down on my notes! Since I included SLs and TPs in all my trades, the intervention of ‘greed and fear’ was minimized. Note: My paper trading technique was made successful through the help of InstaForex MetaTrader4 demo account. Unfortunately, their MT4 platform does not work properly on Windows 7. Shhh, I just gave W7 users a tip!

Anyway, I don’t recommend paper trading at all. There are advantages as well as disadvantages—unfortunately, the cons outweighed the pros. On paper trading, taking new trades seemed easier but quite unrealistic. You don’t do trading by just writing your trade alone. You can’t have the true ‘feel’ of trading at all. Personally, I find executions of trades rather stressful but exhilarating. Yes, seriously.

What are my future trading plans?

I will go back to actual ‘demo-trading’ to help me ‘de-stress’. I will also read more trading books to help me improve my trading strategies and sharpen my frayed nerves—hehe. Forex trading requires some nerves of steel. Actually, I have claws of steel… like Wolverine! Joke! Well, I’ll be holding on to these: “If there’s a will, there’s a way” and “If others’ can do it, why can’t I?”

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