Trading update

Well, the CNBC contest isn't going so well...stocks keep falling in value.  Don't really know what to do about that.  The market is just doing that at the moment.  Overall though, I don't know enough about the stock trading side of this contest which is unfortunately 9/10ths of it.  So, I am feeling rather defeated on that front.  Oh well, there is next year I suppose.  I did order some books from Amazon on trading and forex...supposed to be good ones, so I look forward to learning more!  On a positive note, I plan to open my LIVE forex account on Monday :)  So, that is super exciting!  and scary to be honest...but I can't wait.

Day 2 CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Contest...update

After the first day, I am ranked at 95.33% (meaning I am in the top 5%).  All I can say is, how do I stay in the top?  I have chosen my stocks...I will work on building the forex side of the account as quickly as possible, but it is only 1/10th of the total account (to begin) anyway...I am not sure what my strategy should be, but sensing I must be aggressive and take risks to win this.  Of course, if I stick to my medium risk plan, I can hope others burn out and I take the lead that way...

Wine Tasting...

Tonight, I bought a bottle of  Williamette Valley Pinot Noir (Oregon) which was recommended to me by a customer last night.  I don't have much experience with wine but i must admit that I like this!  It's not too dry or bitter, kind of fruity but not really sweet...and smooth.  Will definately get it again, and my curiosity has been peaked...makes me want to try others.  The only other wine I ever liked was a sparkling Shiraz (can't remember the name)...John says it has a black label with fruit (grapes?) in a backwards L-shaped pattern.  I'll look for it again at Hyvee...pretty sure thats where they carried it before.

Starting my live account

Starting my first live account in a about a week!  Pretty excited that I can finally call myself a real trader.  Will also be starting the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio contest, so I hope that these two projects benefit each other rather than being too much to focus on at once.  Lets hope that through risk management, and wise decision-making I can be a success...even if it takes a while to get there.  I will keep this demo account open to use for experimental trades, and things like that, but I will no longer post about the balance of it and such as I don't want to be confusing.  I will only post about my "live" account or my CNBC account results and will be clear as to which one I am posting about.  As for my live forex account:  I will be more specific with entry reasons, price, stoploss and take profit levels.  My method will be price action, primarily looking for pinbars, hikkake patterns (Inside Bar breakouts), hikkake/pinbars (Inside Bar / fakey breakouts), support and resistance levels, confluence of pairs, gartley patterns (wave harmonics) <--- CONFLUENCE OF ALL THESE THINGS MAKES A GREAT TRADE.   Only trade off of daily and H4 charts.  Always trade with the trend whenever possible.  Must be trading on what I believe is a retracement move.  Avoid big news events.  I am looking for a minimum of 2X reward on my risk per trade.  I have decided that I will risk no more than 3% of my account at any one time.  This can be 3% on one trade, or 1% on three trades...as I see fit.  This is a medium (aggressive) approach.  Many people suggest risking only 1% maximum, but as I am starting with a smallish account ($2000) I want to build it up reasonable quickly.  This also applies to the CNBC account, because the point is to make the most gains and winner takes all in the contest.  I will make the same trades on both accounts, so any "homework" I do will apply to both accounts.  Also, I have faith in my methods as they have proven to be accurate about 75% of the time, if I STICK TO MY OWN RULES.  This blog is a form of journaling and analyzing every trade, the good and the bad, and I must be honest and thorough if I am to learn from it.  So, I will try to meet that goal which is no easy thing...

Damn...grrrr

Ok, so Friday I got a little overconfident after my two successful trades based on the gartley patterns (butterflies and bats, oh my).  I opened 4 trades that looked promising:  buy on gbpjpy (why?  because it was approaching the record low of feb. 2011 and i thought it was showing signs of reversal...a line of support around 123.200 and some reversal of price) which probably would have went well, if Greece hadn't been all over the news this weekend with what looks like the "end is near"...default, exiting the eurozone, panic, etc., etc...which leads to two other things that are bad for me.  A flight to safety currencies, yen and usd.  Lets just say that this trade stopped out, and I voluntarily closed out my two other trades that were shorting the dollar.  Cause that is out the window for the time-being.  I do have one trade still open USD/JPY (short) so yen is beating out the dollar for the moment.  That one is about two-thirds it's way to profit, so hopefully it makes it.

Update...the USD/JPY came within a hair of the take-profit goal and then reversed.  I decided to close it out while it was still positive.   Account balance:  $2950.85

Success!

The Gartley method worked for me today :)  I didn't have the guts to stick it out to my TP though, I closed out early with a profit.  I marked lines where I closed out though and will watch the charts to see what happened.  Account balance:  $2,976.16

Trying out the Gartley method

This is a price action method based on wave patterns...got two trades open that were signaled by it and are both moving nicely so far :)  They are AUDUSD sell...and GBPAUD buy.  Will post updates soon.