Ups and Downs of a Forex Swing Trader

Hi All,

Just had a roller coaster experience of my trades over the past 2 days and I survived to tell my story! Well, I'm generally a swing trader, which means that I attempt to identify the prevalent longer term trends and then enter trades in the direction of those trends.

About two days ago, I placed a couple two trades shorting the AUD/NZD and going long on the GBP/JPY (with stop losses in place). And as 'luck' would have it, both pairs almost immediately went against me by roughly 40+ pips (AUD/NZD) and 100+ pips (GBP/JPY).

Now I know that all the experts say that you should throw your emotions out of the window when you trade, but I can certainly tell you not many people can be sitting on top of 100+ pips of losses and feel "totally fine" with it. But I stuck on to my view and trading strategy for the past 2 days and finally see them turn into profit!



Click on picture to ENLARGE the image.

As swing traders, you sometimes have to endure days of being in the RED but if you have the correct strategy and the patience (which sometimes mean staying away from your PC!), you will be rewarded for your effort. I'm currently up 409.1 pips. :)

With regards to my emotions, oh well, I guess I still have work to do but it does look like I'm human after all!

Happy Trading,
Leo

Two Videos About Failures

Hello my dear friends,

I just watched two very very interesting short videos on a few very successful people and the challenges they had at some point of their lives before they became successful in what they are doing. Even though I have watched these videos in the past, watching it again reminds me that no matter how tough the going is, we should never give up chasing our dreams if we want to be successful.

Here's are the videos:





I know many people who will shrivel at the sound of the word FAILURE. To them, FAILING is bad thing and should be avoided as much as possible. However, could you imagine what would it be like if no one dared to fail? There would be no airplanes (it took two years of experimentation before the first airplane could fly and that too only for twelve seconds), there would be no electricity (according to Thomas Edison, "I tested no lesser than 6,000 vegetable growths and ransacked the world for the most suitable filament material"), and many other things that you are enjoying in your day to day life.

For those who know how to cycle, you'd probably have fallen while you were learning how to cycle, choked while you learned how to swim, fell as you were learning how to walk etc. Imagine how different your life would be if you were afraid to fail during those times. Well great, we now know that success will only come IF we were not afraid to fail in the first place AND we keep rising up EACH and EVERY TIME we fail.

Here, I leave you with some thoughts for the day. Are you happy with what you are doing, what you have and where you are heading in life at the moment? If you are, then great for you and I wish you continued success and happiness. But, if you are not, what's stopping you? The fear of failure? Whether it is the scars of past failure(s) OR the fear of the risk of failure, AS LONG AS you let either hold you slave, you will forever remain distanced from the door of success.

For failure is really nothing but the stepping stone to success.

Here's to our success (and failures),
Leo

DUBAI: The promised land....or IS IT?

Hi All,

As you've read from my last post, the forex markets were really volatile a couple of days back due to the debt repayment negotiations from Dubai World.

I recently read a really enlightening article entitled "The Dark Side of Dubai". Many of you have probably heard of someone who has gone to either start a business or get a job in Dubai as it is supposed to be a land of plentiful opportunities. Like they always say, the grass is always greener on the other side but what really goes on  there?

Click HERE to read on.

Til next time,
Leo

Big Forex Moves

Hi Guys,

The good thing about trading forex is that global events can move currencies up or down in a big way. If you are equipped with the right knowledge you can easily capitalize on such moves and make some good money.

Yesterday trading on the London Stock Exchange was halted when a group from Dubai issued a statement stating that they seek to delay the repayment of their debts. It is believed that the figure is somewhere around 80 Billion US Dollars. When news of this got out the markets immediately reacted and investors started pulling their money out which saw the USD and Yen pairs gaining strength.

I managed to get a nice bite out of this action as you can see below (Click HERE or on the picture below).

As a matter of fact, I could have gained much more if I had stuck on to my plan but I sold off some other positions earlier. Oh well, I'm happy enough with 965.7 pips in 1-2 days.

I am now working towards building my account size. On a decent sized account, such moves in the forex markets could easily get me a car in 1-2 days! Now that would be nice....:)

Happy Trading,
Leo

Three Stories on Life

Hello!

How are you all doing? Firstly, I have to apologize for not updating my blog. Some of you have kindly pestered me for an update so here I am pushing myself to write one.

If you want to know, honestly, I was feeling slightly disappointed in a way. The main reason why this blog was up was because some of my friends have asked me what was forex trading all about and that they are interested in learning how to trade forex. So I churned out a few articles to explain the very basics of forex trading to them AND asked for a response in the form of questions that they have but the very people who have originally pestered me to teach them did not bother to dedicate some time to learn the basics as well as did not bother to send me questions.

Perhaps they have their own reasons, but whatever it is, I'm really not a fan of negative feelings and seek to eliminate such feelings as soon as I can. For those who are into learning, I am looking at perhaps offering some sort of way to be in contact with me for roughly a month so I can somehow guide you through your baby steps. Will let you guys know once I come up with something solid.

Alright, that's enough of complaining ;) Anyway, I really feel like I want to share with you guys a video of a Comment Speech at Stanford by Steve Jobs that I watched recently (if you don't know who Steve Jobs is, click HERE to read about him). You can access the video by clicking HERE. The transcript for his speech is available HERE.

I have listened and watched his speech a couple of times now and I really like it because there were a couple of things that I personally believed in:

1. Things happen for a reason although you may not know why yet
2. Don't shortchange yourself. If you have not found what you love doing, don't settle and keep looking
3. Life is short, we are all gonna die someday. What are the things you would do if you knew you were gonna die soon?

Enjoy his speech and I do hope sharing this will have changed your life in some way, big or small.

-Leo

Evaluating Forex Programs

Greetings from Amsterdam!

How is everyone doing with the last assignment? I hope those that has been following my posts would have learned some forex lingo by now. As I am still in the midst of my holiday, this will be a quick post to answer a question from my last posting.

Someone asked me, "Hey Leo, how about this site for trading Forex. http://www.xxxforexxxx.com. I tried the game...just click Buy or Sell according to their so called system".

To begin with, I will repeat that the forex market is a multi trillion dollar industry and it is therefore not surprising to see many related industries i.e. forex signals, forex education, forex mentoring, forex bloggers, forex books, forex robots etc trying to grab a piece of that multi trillion dollar pie. Every single minute, thousands of people get into the forex industry and will surely in one way or another be exposed to the thousands and thousands of companies/individuals trying to capitalize from "newbies" wanting to get rich in the shortest time possible.

Promises of instant success systems, overnight millions and whatever else by the marketing gurus work on people's greed to grab some money off them. Most of the time, many of the people behind these forex related industries ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL FOREX TRADERS THEMSELVES. That said, there are "a few good men" out there but as the Pareto principle states, it's probably 10-20% of the market.

Here are a few pointers that will help you reduce the chances of throwing money down the drain:-

1. Keep your emotions in control
- Many times, the internet marketers work on your emotion. They know you like success without hard work, they know you like to get rich quick, they know you like amazing returns and thousands of other 'key words' so they work up your emotions in their marketing plans. You have to keep your emotions in check while evaluating these programs and tell yourself that you're looking for facts instead of emotional highs.

2. 100% wins and Be an Expert in a Week!
- This is very easy. Any program promising you the above is 99.99% a SCAM! There is no such thing as 100% wins. Even the best traders out there have losses. It is their money management and winning ratio adjustment that keeps them coming out on top. Be very honest with yourself on those promising that you'll be a Forex Trading Superstar in a short period of time. Think about it, could you play the guitar like a rockstar, perform piano in a concert OR take part in the F1 circuit one week, one month or three months after learning it? Being a good and consistent trader takes time and is a continual learning process. Do not be tricked into thinking you could skip the learning journey. Anything that is too good to be true is probably too good to be true! ;)

3. No follow ups
- Your best chance of being successful comes with some form of mentorship, interaction or support. If the program doesn't provide for this, chances are you won't be doing too well with it even if it's a honest one.

4. Forex Robots are BRAINLESS
- Surely you would like the idea of sitting at home and letting robots make money for you while you sleep, eat, drink and be merry. While this is great, it is again too good to be true. The best robots may work for a certain period of time, but no one robot (at least a number of experts and myself have found) will work all the time without human intervention. Ironically, that makes it not so robotic anymore doesn't it? Don't leave your hard earned money to some robot, learn to trade properly and leave your money in your own hands.

5. Look for EVIDENCE of a Successful Track Record
- Check their experience in trading. Read reviews about them. Ask for live statements AND/OR live signals or trial periods. Make sure that these are not simply photoshopped or selective. You will never be 100% sure  and that's why trial periods can offer you some time to evaluate.

Lastly, don't hesitate to ask me my opinion. I certainly am not the best trader out there but I have my fair share of experiences in the 'forex related industries'.

Here's to better trading!

-Leo

Hi from Manchester!

Just short little post to say Hi from Manchester! Finally met up face to face with my little niece for the first time since she was born a few months back.

How is everyone doing with the lessons from babypips? Do update me.

You know, seeing the innocence and joy of my niece makes me think about life. We are born, raised up, go to school, get a job, get married (some of us), grow old and finally die. Along the way, so much of our freedom is lost and never gained back for many as we are told by society to go to school, study hard, get good grades, get a job etc.

While there are a few lucky ones who love their jobs and have the nice pay to go with it, many I have spoken to do not have this luxury and freedom. I'm sure many of you would had many conversations with people complaining about their jobs (demanding clients, @sshole bosses, long hours, low pay etc). In fact, you may be even one of them. Even some of them who have amazing pay packages do not have the freedom to choose when to work and when not to work as they know that when they stop work, the amazing pay packages stop as well.

So my question of the day to you is simply this. What have you done to gain both your financial freedom and to regain your freedom of time?

As usual, thoughts and comments appreciated. Meanwhile here are some pics I took.

 

Til then,

-Leo

Forex 101: Learning the Talk

PRELUDE: As some of you guys have already know, I'll be away to Europe for 3 weeks. May not have as much time to post then but you can still keep those questions coming in and I will post up the answers when I can.

Ok...the post some of you people have been waiting for. Before we can proceed further, we need to be speaking the same forex lingo. Basically when I mention terms like Moving Averages, London Open, margin calls etc, you will need to know what I mean.

It's gonna take me ages to come up with a good curricular for Forex 101 so I'm gonna leverage on other people's good work and direct you to somewhere else where they have a pretty good beginner's guide to forex trading.

The site I am recommending is babypips. Now before you click on the link, do finish reading this post so I share with you how to optimize your learning experience:

1. Just focus on the 'school' section of the site. Go through from Pre-School to College. DON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE for now.

2. Take the tests at the end of each section. If you fail, do it ALL OVER AGAIN!


3. Take your time to master the sections. Remember Success is NOT OVERNIGHT. Some people may take longer, some people can catch it faster. It's alright to be either one as long as you put in the effort to master it.

4. Once you pass ALL the tests, REPEAT ALL the above steps TWICE.


5. Lastly, have a notepad ready by your side and JOT down any questions you might have. Post them to me and I will try my very best to answer them.

Do take note however, that while www.babypips.com/school is an amazing resource to learn the Forex lingo, please remember that going through all these lessons are almost the equivalent of learning tourist speak, it's a good basic but will not qualify you as a master debater.

I guess that should be enough homework to keep you guys busy for the 3 weeks I am away.

Happy Learning!

-Leo

Forex: Risky OR not?

I'm very very very very sure that most if not ALL of you want to know - "Is Forex Trading RISKY?". Why am I so sure? It's because I have been asked this question so many times that it's easier for me to count the number of steps it takes for me to walk from my home to Singapore than it is to remember the number of times I have been asked this question. Slight exaggeration but you get my point ;)

Now, I totally understand why people would think like that. There are probably about 8,811,967 horror stories out there of how people have lost money through scams or trading forex themselves. But I can't help feeling agitated when people tell me that "Forex Trading is VERY RISKY" when they themselves do not even know what it is all about! Think about it. It's like someone who has never played a game of soccer/football and commenting on a professional player's performance on TV. "Oh he SHOULD HAVE kicked the ball slicing it with his outer foot, bending his body at 49.67 degrees angle to get a better balance and shifting his left hand so that was aligned with the energy of the sun."

SO...Is FOREX TRADING RISKY? Well my answer is ALWAYS this. It depends. That's it?!? No direct Yes or No? I'm sure you would love a Yes or No answer but here's why I say it depends.

Is driving a car risky? Yes or No? Well, it depends! Is the driver a 5 year old? Has the driver been trained to drive a car? Does the driver have vision acceptable for driving? AND EVEN IF the driver has been trained and is reasonably suitable to drive a car, does it mean that driving is 100% risk free? I'm sure you all know the answer is a BIG NO! (I would have typed the NO in much bigger font but it will screw up the text formatting). However, through training AND experience, you would have reduced the risks of driving a car  drastically!

Translating the above to Forex Trading, here's what you need to do to reduce the risks of Forex Trading drastically!

1. Education
- This is the first and the most important task if you want to Succeed in Trading Forex. You'll be surprised if I tell you how many people want overnight success in forex trading but refuse to invest in education nor do they diligently learn the in and outs of being a successful forex trader. Spend time and effort on your education and be one step closer to successful forex trading.

2. Experience
- Education alone will not take you there. You will need forex trading experience. Experiencing the vast range of emotions that tag along with forex trading, the different behaviors of price movement etc. is similar to driving in the real world. Getting a driver's license will not make you a good driver. You need to have on the road experience.

There you are, my answer to whether forex trading is risky or not. So what will your answer be the next time someone asks you about the risks of forex trading?

Comments and questions welcome as usual.

Til then,
Leo

20 Minutes work and Conversations with the Old Man

It's been a very very busy day for me. Spend the day running around doing errands and such. For those who don't know, I have a trip to the UK planned next week and will be visiting England and some of Europe. So I had to spend a lot of time booking my flights and planning with the nice people whom I will be meeting.

Ironically, the best part about all these is I worked a total of 20 minutes today. The rest of the busy day were all chores.

For those who know how to read the table above, you can see that I'm up 80-90 pips nett (could be 8 USD, 80 USD, 800 USD, 8,000 USD or 80,000 USD depending on your contract size). Certainly not bad for 15-20 mins of work (though it doesn't mean it will happen every day!). I'm posting this not because I want to brag but simply to show you the freedom forex trading can bring. Though it will probably take you awhile before you can achieve consistent results.

And a side note to my two tweeter buddies who think I'm a millionaire/billionaire, I AM NOT. At least for now...:p

NOTE: For those who know how to read the table, PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW MY FOREX TRADES. Following it without knowing how I trade is VERY VERY RISKY! You have been warned ;)

Conversations with the Old Man
After I finished my chores, I drove to my parents home which is about 2 hours from where I live. Took a drive out with dad after dinner just circling town and outskirts and really enjoyed the 1-2 hours spent with him in the car headed nowhere. He has just sold off his business and retired and I took the opportunity to thank him for providing for the family and bringing us up. If you had not had such conversations with your dad, you should try one day if you can.

One of the questions I asked him was whether he had wanted to do anything else as his career besides what he did. Instead of answering, he asked me back the same question and I told him I really love trading forex and also one day I would love to be involved in some sort of a movie or do some singing (fat hopes but we'll never know if we don't hope right?)

That will certainly not be my last drive with dad. I told him that when I'm more successful in my forex trading, I will certainly be able to spend much more time with the family.

LOVE YA DAD!


So you see, forex trading is NOT about money only. It's about having the freedom to live life with your loved one AND being able to enjoy life.

Keep those questions coming!

-Leo

p.s. Apologies to those who are waiting for me to tell you how to get started. I will be posting about getting started very soon.

Charting Software: To Pay or Not to Pay?

Ok...so I got a message from someone just now to ask me to look at this particular charting software for X dollars a month. Here's a part of the transcript (name changed for privacy reasons):

[11:02:16 PM] JLo: u heard abt XXX charting?
[11:03:03 PM] Leo: no
[11:03:05 PM] Leo: what is it
[11:03:23 PM] JLo: http://somesortofchart dot com
[11:03:31 PM] JLo: it's a charting software
[11:03:39 PM] JLo: quite good but gotto pay
[11:04:09 PM] Leo: ic
[11:04:13 PM] Leo: why do u need it
[11:05:39 PM] JLo: :)Hee... they have lots of indicator and the charting is easier
[11:05:53 PM] Leo: do u need a lot of indicators?
[11:06:04 PM] Leo: will it make u a better trader?
[11:06:57 PM] JLo: Well... (think) no
[11:07:06 PM] Leo: ok
[11:07:08 PM] Leo: there u go
[11:07:34 PM] Leo: so u can now donate 50% of the money u were planning to spend to my paypal account

There you go. Unless you have a particular need for a specific indicator that is not offered for FREE or you're trading millions of dollars, there is almost no distinct advantage of having to pay for charting software. Those available for FREE will do the job perfectly most if not all of the time.

So there you go, don't pay for something you don't need. If you insist, ask me for my Paypal account first ok?

Happy Trading!

-Leo

Why Trade Forex?

Well I'm sure all the people who are new to trading forex will have this question, "Why trade Forex?". Besides the potential to make BIG $$$ which all of you would already know, here are some reasons why trading is such a great business:

1. You CONTROL your own TIME
- Once you are able to achieve a certain level of trading mastery, you are able to determine your working hours. Whether it's 15 mins a day or 1 hour a day or 6 months a year, you dictate it.

2. You CONTROL where you work
- As long as there is decent access to the internet, you can work from wherever you want. Hong Kong for breakfast, China for lunch, Japan for dinner and Spain the next day? All up to you.

3. No STAFF, no RENTAL, no INVENTORY
- If you are in a business or are planning to start one, you will probably know the amount of headaches the above can give.

4. Your business is SCALABLE
- Once you have achieved consistency in your trading (NOTE: NOT EASY), your same strategy that is used to make ten dollars a day is the same strategy that can be used to make one hundred thousand dollars a day. You just have to adjust your position sizing and your account size.

5. LEVERAGE
- IF you have a profitable trading strategy, leverage will increase your profits. Some brokers offer up to 400 to 1 leverage (NEVER use such high leverage unless you absolutely know what you're doing). The other way round and your account could be reduced to dust. Double-edged sword.

6. LIQUIDITY
- The forex market is the MOST LIQUID market in the world with AT LEAST 2-3 trillion dollars traded every single day! In comparison, the DJIA volume is about 200 billion dollars daily. This assists price stability and allows for much better execution compared to other markets. Such huge volume also makes it very very difficult if not impossible for any single party to manipulate the markets.

7. LOW Transaction Costs
- Compared to other markets, forex trading has one of the lowest (if not the lowest) cost of transaction around. Depending on your broker, you are charged either a low commission per trade or a few pips per trade.

8. Ability to make money in any market condition
- Due to the nature that forex is needed irrespective of economic conditions and that you can buy/sell a particular currency pairing, money can be made irrespective of whether the market is up, down or sideways.

9. LOW cost of ENTRY
- Demo accounts are available for FREE for you to try your hands on trading. Basic education is also widely available everywhere and HERE ;) Trading accounts can be setup with just a couple hundred of dollars (USD)

10. You get to know your PAIRS well
- Unlike some other markets where you have 100s of counters to choose from, most action in forex takes place in only 4-6 currency pairs. This makes your job of tracking them much easier.

There you go, 10 Reasons why currency trading makes a great business.

While I have provided the PROs of why choose forex trading, there are certainly A LOT of challenges that you would have to go through before being a successful currency trader.

As with any other thing in this world, IF you have the desire, education, discipline, commitment and the patience, the fruits from forex trading are certainly very very tasty.

As usual, contact me with questions if any.

Have a great day!

-Leo

My Foray into Forex Blogging!

Just a little background to why I am writing this blog. I have been trading forex or the foreign exchange for almost two and a half years now. Been through lots of challenges while doing it. Even to the point of scolding my monitor and punching it. Finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of my labor now.

A Blog About Forex

I'm not much of a blogger but ironically that's not the point of this blog. I have been receiving a lot of requests to "teach" forex recently and I realize that the best way is to actually start a blog so that I won't have to answer the same questions over and over again over endless chats and messages and everyone can benefit at the same time.

*DISCLAIMER* - I have always said time and time again. I'm not good enough for teaching at the moment but I am willing to "share experiences".

Sharing My Experiences

What I will be sharing, is how to walk this journey of trading (from my point of view), pitfalls to avoid (as well as pitfalls to fall into) - yes I'm serious! as well as how to not lose your money to thousands and thousands of self proclaimed educators, get rich quick, 100% wins, best robot in the world and God-only-knows scammers riding on the coattails related to this multi trillion dollar industry. While I will not be sharing my actual trading methodology, I am considering posting trades taken from time to time just so I can explain certain things.

Ask Me Questions about Forex Trading

Lastly, for those who know me and wish to learn more about the forex trading, please don't hesitate to start sending me questions and ask away (if you know me, you should already have a way to contact me). I will answer and post them onto this blog WHEN I can. For those who don't know me, I will try to come up with something where you guys can post some questions to me (like I said, I'm not a blogger, so let me know if you have any ideas to optimize my blog and/or how to make it better).

Take care my friends and I do hope I will have shared something useful with you whether or not you end up to be a successful forex trader at the end of the day.

-Leo

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