Chart of the Day: GBP/USD

Happy Friday all! And what an interesting week it has been, hasn’t it?

I must admit that the erratic movements in the markets have had me a little on edge. Which way to go? Am I making the right decisions? It’s been a mixed bag of results to tell you the truth. In a prolonged rolling market, leaving trades unmonitored is not the wisest decision. You have to be literally implanted in your chair, eyes glued to the computer screen to avoid getting yourself into a precarious situation.

Anyway, I will keep this post as short and pain-free as possible!

Let’s take a look at the chart for GBP/USD:

Over the course of the past day,  around 7am PST yesterday til now, the pair has moved nearly 300 pips to the upside.  It has made the most significant moves of practically all the other pairs but if you look at the entire chart, it is basically rendered trendless/rolling. We have been trendless since the beginning of June and will have to wait for a significant breakout or breakdown to be back on track again. In my opinion, a break to the downside may be the most plausible. The pair has already hit its highest point three times during this month, the highest it has been since Oct. 30th, 2008….8 months ago! So, like I said, a breakdown most likely will be coming and we should keep an eye out for that.

We are 3 trading days away from the end of the month and no real critical data will be out until mid-next week.

USD: ISM Manufacturing PMI

USD: Unemployment Rate

USD: Pending Home Sales

USD: Consumer Confidence

EUR: Interest Rate Decision

JPY: Tankan Manufacturing Index

CAD: GDP

AUD: Retail Sales

AUD: Trade Balance

GBP: Manufacturing PMI

Just a few important data releases to be aware of.

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend! Until next week…!

Forexgal_1.

Observations: Rolling Market Action

Hey friends!

Hope everyone’s having a splendid week so far. It seems to be a bit dragging for me, especially on the trading end. Not so many AMAZING trades going on out there. Trust me when I tell you that there are trades out there but hardly any that you would expect to hold overnight unattended. I lost a bit of money a couple weeks ago due that error, which made me upset and angry with myself. After a bit of mourning(those of you who have experienced the sheer agony of a big loss know what I’m talking about)I had to decide that I could not let this market eat me alive. No way, no how. So, somehow I had to bring myself back from the brink of near madness and give it another go. It’s all a learning experience, as it should be. We all make mistakes sometimes, and have got to roll with the punches instead of completely falling apart. Am I right?

So, as previously mentioned, the market has been in rolling stages for the past few days. Here is a typical chart for you to observe:

Most times when we are in a rolling trend, most trades do not last more than roughly 3-6 hours maximum. It is up to us to be aware of what is going on and always be prepared for a sudden change in direction.

Also, let’s not forget that we have to pay special attention to any economic data that may come out whose effect could swing the market in the opposite direction. Tomorrow economic calendar includes:

CHF: Libor Rate 12:30am PST

GBP: Retail Sales 1:30am PST

CAD: Core CPI 4:00am PST

USD: Unemployment Claims 5:30am PST

That’s about it for today, guys. If you want to know what I may be trading tonight, check my twitter page Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Forexgal_1.

Quote

Been on the grind and haven’t been blogging much lately due to WordPress issues etc., but I wanted to make a quickie post. Here is a quote I came across:

Success or failure is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacity. – Sir Walter Scott.

Simple, straightforward and very very true. Half the battle is believing in yourself and what you can achieve, not only putting in the work.

Forexgal_1.

I’m back!!!

Hi friends!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? My sincerest apologies if you’ve been checking in frequently or even just on occasion only to find no new updates. I have now returned from my impromptu month-long blogging hiatus…and am ready and rearing to go! Hope you’ve all had successful trades in the past few weeks. I have been updating my twitter page(bottom right on this page) frequently so to those of you who have been checking in on that, I am grateful for that!

The last month for me has been a learning experience. I’ve had my ups and downs, moments of triumphs and stumbles, and I have taken them in stride. Anyone would tell you that life will not always be a bed of roses but when things do go sour, the best route is to assess the situation: identify the good and the bad and move on. At times I have to remind myself that failure comes with the territory, that I shouldn’t be afraid to fail because it means that I am making progress. Everytime we fail, it’s an opportunity to improve, make new plans until we finally succeed. Even when we succeed, there is always room for betterment, which is another thing to keep in mind.

Five things I learned while on my hiatus are:

1. Stop losses are for the most part, hugely ineffective. I made my most devastating losses using stop losses. I found myself paying more attention to how far away my trades were from being ‘stopped out’, hoping and praying for things to turn around, instead of cutting my losses manually due to poor choices. When I ended my use of SLs, minor fluctuations didn’t bother me as much, somehow I became more confident in my positions and the number of losing trades dropped dramatically. I don’t know if it’s all merely trading psychology but having an increased number of winning trades makes me extremely happy.

2. Going with your gut is an important part of trading successfully. After analyzing the data and putting everything together to come a decision, make sure that the trade not only looks right but feels right. Whenever I have doubts, I don’t get into that trade, and in the end I am usually right. Of course, there is a difference between doubt and fear of trading, which is not getting into a trade for fear of losing. Controlling our emotions is a huge part of trading but over time, this issue can be overcome.

3. Using too many secondary indicators can be detrimental to trading. Not only does it crowd the chart, it can cause you to lose valuable time in making a proper decision. The basic idea of trading is knowing how to read the chart correctly. We don’t need to look at any unnecessary data to confuse us when we need to make quick, yet thorough, decisions.

4. No second guessing. This goes hand-in-hand with #2. Whenever I second guess, it’s like I’m throwing all my initial analysis and confirmations out the window. Being confident in your trades is so vital and I’m still learning not to doubt myself at times.

5. The trend is your friend. This is self-explanatory. Being impatient and going against the trend never ends up well. Timing is everything, and trading a pullback can be profitable, but doing your analysis and trading in accordance to the trend is will yield even better results.

Hopefully, this post will prove helpful to at least some of the readers of there. Everyone has their own systems and philosophies and I think it’s great to read what others are thinking and going through. I’m here for anyone who have any questions they would like to have answered about Forex. There’s so much to learn, so much I have to give myself time to find out and implement into my ever-evolving trading system. Forex hasn’t been open to many people, it is not nearly as talked about as the stock market, and is still pretty much the world’s best kept secret. My new goal now is teaching my dad how to trade and I have already begun to do so. He’s very keen on learning and that, I believe, is a great sign of what the future holds for not only myself but my family. It’s an amazing privilege to be able to teach and pass down knowledge to others, I also plan to teach my son when he is older so he can have a foundation for his future even if he doesn’t make trading his primary interest for a career prospect.

So, I’ll end this now as I have rambled on long enough. Please feel free to email me anytime at forexisthefuture@gmail.com , I love hearing from my readers. Also, don’t forget to follow me on twitter, you can message me there if you’d like!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Forexgal_1.