Down and out

Here is the result of my recent trades. Its a bummer.

Lately I am feeling that I am not in tune with the markets and also life in general. I am pondering with the question of why I cannot learn forex trading and be a winner rather than keep on losing on and on.

Then a realization hit me that I had not been putting my 100% into learning forex. I am not practicing trades as I should have. I thought that I have no reason to say that I am a failure in forex after I failed once or twice or so many times because I still have not done any homework yet. I cannot fail if I still have not done anything yet. The only time that I can say that I failed is when I have already done everything and I still keep losing. Then all my effort have gone to naught, it is then shall I know that I have failed.

But for now I say, Keep on learning and keep on paper trading!

Day-to-day Trade update - 8/29

Here are the results of yesterday's trades. After I lost yesterday, I did a turn-around and reversed my trades.

Day-to-day Trade update - 8/28

Here is the result of my trades the other day(8/27). This screen shot was taken on 8/28.

Very bloody.

Google Analytics is Cool!

I recently added Google Analytics to my site. It is sooooo cool. Everytime I open my notebook, that is the first site I go to. Maybe I should change my homepage to that.

Google Analytics tracks the stats of my site. I can see all the page hits, where those people are who viewed my site are, how long they were on my site, etc. Now it made me think that somehow it is creepy that anywhere you go on the web, you are being followed.

Anyway I saw that they were guys from Canada, UK, Brazil, US and Manila(Makati specifically). Of course those guys who are from the US and Manila include my sisters, but for all the other, thanks for visiting! I hope you come back.

Day-to-day Trade Update - 8/27/07

Here is my day trades for today.

It starting to look like a bloodbath at Tokyo lunchtime.

The trends are changing or ranging perhaps.

Monday has always been bad for my "system".

I'll see how this goes at the NY market.

Forex and the Philippines

It seems like forex is already off to a bad start in the Philippines. If you would do a Google search for "Forex and Philippines", you will get the recent news about the Performance Forex office being raided by the NBI. But if you try "Pinoy Forex", you will find my blog on top of the list. Yey!

So if anyone would ask Google on who is the authority on "Pinoys who do Forex", that would be me. Whew! That is a very tall order for someone who just started blogging and recently got a margin call.

My point is, forex trading in the Philippines is still in the infancy of being known as a legitimate investment tool. And before it was able to reach the conscious minds our fellow citizens, it was already tagged as a scam. Take for example the FrancSwiss and the Performance Forex fiasco(I do side with PFEC because they were only the forex broker of that guy who did the scam).

It has always been my belief that for any Pinoy who is interested in investing in anything, be sure to make the necessary research and background check of what or who you are investing into before you dive into the investing game. And if you heard that investing in forex will give you huge returns it is probably true but then you should also remember that it also entails huge risks.

So to end this post I am finishing off with this simple equation of investing:

Returns = Risk

Hey this is a good topic for my next post! Ok watch out for it next time.

Day-to-day Trade Update

Here is my day-to-day trade results.

My daily results are fantastic but I cannot say the same for my intra-day trades.

One thing I should remember about intra-day trading is never to let my eyes off the charts when I have open trades. If need to go somewhere(toilet), or do something else(like work), I should always leave my stops.

Pip Pip Horray!

Can't help but post my Trades lists. Shucks!

I have been paper trading for some time and this is one of the best results so far.

Take note of the Units column. Everything says $1. Noooh!

Total pip count is 1000+ pips. Pip pip horray!

Forex Diet

I am on a forex diet recently. My recent losses has forced myself to quit looking at the forex market and stop trading. Lately I was so hooked on trading that I kept jumping in and out of the market trying to get on the trend until I later realized that I was already down by so much dollars. Now I am back to square one again.

It was just yesterday that I opened my OANDA trading page again. I was trading the AUDJPY( on $1 trades of course) and I felt that this currency pair wants to eat you alive. I traded in and out trying to catch the trend but as soon as you get in, it immediately reverses itself and find yourself negative again. I did this for some time until I got frustrated and tried another active pair, which is the GBPJPY.

I liked the GBPJPY much better. The currency moves where it wants to go. It does not stop and reverse every so often like it wants to whip out every trader who steps in the market. The price moves are smoother. There are several periods during the day where the pair moves significantly which if traded properly might give you a pip or so.

I looked at the 15 min chart of the GBPJPY and saw that the pair moves significantly before and during the Tokyo, UK and NY open. Right now 2:53 AM(Seoul time) it is moving again. I don't know what is happening right now, maybe it is the near the close of the NY market.

Just to show how nice this pair is, I opened a trade before I started writing this post and placed a take profit of some pips above my entry(I just placed it before the next resistance level) and next thing I know the price jumped through my take profit. Ayos!

I will definitely do paper trading on this pair from now on and see whether I can day trade it profitably.

Trading Journal Files

Here is the trading journals that I made of the past week. The results shown here are pretty fantastic. The long term trades registered up to 11,000 pips at one time and the short term I think came to about 1,000 pips in one day. I wish those pips were from legit trades, but unfortunately I just made those on $1 trades. Sayang!

Those were the crazy days. Now it seems like has the market has already awoken from their pip busting dreams.

Here are the link to my journals:
http://camacho.crane.googlepages.com/8-13-07to8-14-07.doc
http://camacho.crane.googlepages.com/8-14-07to8-15-07.doc
http://camacho.crane.googlepages.com/8-15-07to8-16-07.doc
http://camacho.crane.googlepages.com/8-16-07to8-17-07.doc
http://camacho.crane.googlepages.com/8-17-07to8-18-07.doc

Recent Trading History

This is my trading activity as of last February up to now.

http://camacho.crane.googlepages.com/tradinghistory-short.xls

For entertainment purposes only. Rated GP ;).

Trading Journal

I created a daily trading jounal/commentary lately after my margin call. I made it so that I can keep track of what is happening to my account and the forex market during the whole 24 hours of the day.

It is also an exercise in articulation of my thoughts about the market and my trading.

Please see my next posts for my trading journal.

After the Margin Call

What does a wannabe trader do after a margin call?

Anything but trade I suppose. My broker has forced me into that predeliction. I am still happy with my broker OANDA (http://www.oanda.com/). After the margin call, they still left me with the original capital that I deposited in my account. So basically they brought me back to square one. I was able to bring my account up to 1550%+ and back. It was an exciting, educational and humbling experience.

After the carry trade dust has settled down, I am looking at my trading history as to why I got creamed.


With regards to my trading methodology, my money management sucks. I kept on trading the same amount of risk even as my account got depleted. I will remember to stop trading or minimize my risk to almost zero the moment I start getting bad trades.

As to my trading psych, it seems that it is largely swayed by the news. I tried to look for trading ideas from the news. I forced trades when I see some good news come up but end up with a loser probably because of bad timing. Recently I was able to trade better when I was not looking at any market related news.

In retrospect, I am still happy with everything that happened. I got a very expensive learning experience. Trading tuition they say. I hope this would be the first and last margin call I would ever get.

Margin Call

I got a margin call.

That statement says it all.

The Carry Trade is Back

The JPY crosses are moving again. I got burned big time(300 pips and counting) on my gbpjpy short, fortunately I just put in a very minimal trade. I'll close it tomorrow on my scheduled trading time.

I did earn some pips on my CHF and AUD vs JPY longs though. I read that Australia will raise interest rates so I felt that the carry trade still has some flavor into it. "May asim pa ang Carry Trade";).

Most of the majors are moving. The GBP, JPY, EUR and AUD. No big moves seen on the USD.

I will try to close my other GBP shorts tomorrow and add to my JPY winners. I would very cautious on joining the carry trade fray though. Too much volatility on the the JPY crosses has caused me to earn (100%+) and eventually lose (75%) of my account in a span of 1 week! It was a very humbling experience. I was trading full lots during the carry trade unwind but now I am down to minimal positions to calm my nerves.

First Post

Here is my high-low analysis for today:
jpy
usd
eur
chf
aud
gbp