February and March review

Hi,
Well I must confess that I left forex trading for a while. It seems I am not so good how I thought I was in reading price action. With trending market conditions it seems okey, but when it comes dealing with ranges or trending ranges I am failing to make consistent profits. Maybe I  forgot some content from price action trading books and got "little" emotional after loss streak, or maybe I got tired from "not making money" with pressure to make xxx for a living, maybe that drowdawn is caused by my health problems... In short - objective, patient, calm mindset is gone away again - it's worst thing in my trader's life, it's like trading depression. So after January consistent profits I got February consistent loss(both months left me with small total loss), and I decided to put forex trading to the side for some time, until I manage to make some consistent income from bf horses to save for a living and until strong inside motivation to trade forex will come back. Some shitty market reads ...

It still remembers me how inconsistent I am. Sometimes it's funny then I can notice periods of "how good I am in reading markets, how clearly I can see what is happening and making calm objective decisions and  consistent profits" and true opposite "can't see nothing and getting emotional".  I believe these mindset's shifts makes all the difference of being winner or loser. I am sure that time will come when I will dive again to the full time trading/learning forex markets :) But first let's make some consistent results in trading bf horses, here is last Chelt week's PL - with a new record per one market +84.18. I wish that Cheltenham festival lasts whole year ...

Total profit is not huge, but most importantly results was consistent and I am very happy of that. Summer is coming closer and closer, stagnation from a winter time is going away and I believe I will manage to make some nice green. After these green days/weeks/months I am gonna start to look back to part time forex trading too. Maybe 3 days forex and 3 days bf horses in a week.

Few more things to say - I am getting fat! I got more 10kg on my ass and belly after I quit smoking 3 months before, but I am very happy and proud that I did it! In summer time weight will get down for sure. When things is not going so good, I always remember myself  "at least you stopped smoking" :) One more thing to say that next week I will have my nose surgery at last, and I am expecting that chronic sinusitis/infection will leave me for all time. I have hypothesis that my health problems causes my trading inconsistent periods... when you don't feel healthy how can you hope to achieve something? Particularly in so competitive trading arenas.


That's it, have a nice and green day.

Review of my trading and plans for the next year

Hello everybody, how are you today? Was not posting for a while, I think today is a best time to update my trading journal. 2011 is over and I can proudly say that I succeeded in "not failing" with trading :) In my first pessimistic post of this blog I gave to myself one more year to do everything what I need to do to become a winner, and I did it. So my trading journey continues and becomes even more interesting then I start to understand more and more about what I am doing and what need to be done :) I had very nice consistent and profitable months, however there still was inconsistent and hard periods, but somehow I survived them. After each inconsistent and stressful period then I felt I found a way to stand up, to clean the dusts, and I believe I became stronger.

At this time I am in the crossroad, betfair horses or forex? I can't do it both full time... I must choose one and try to be best trader what I can be in one trading arena. Any mixing becomes distractions and I will get worse results than I would be trading just one arena... I made huge progress with forex scalping. I started to trade eur/usd with real money account in this month, and most importantly it seems profitable and understandable, less stressful and cleaner. I think I will leave pre race horses for a while. I am not saying I am quitting it for all time, but I need some time period to trade forex alone, and see results. If they meet my expectations and plans, probably there will not be any need to look back in the betfair trading. Time will show :)

At the moment I am fully immersed learning "price action". In financial markets and pre race horse markets I find lots of similarities with price action, it seems these rules/patterns works fine for collective market behavior and remains the same like in any other market, for example I can see these things/patterns happening: extreme test in a trend, failed breakouts, double tops/bottoms, head and shoulders, trending highs/lows, pulbacks, bull/bear flags, etc, etc ... Actually every trader who have no any idea about horse form is trading price action, they just do not have these names for patterns, and doing it more instinctively/subconsciously, than making conscious reasoning. However in the horses things happens extremely fast and lots of the time things are somehow more confusing, spoof money there, spoof money here, real money there, very big real money here, but I am too late, this one can't go down, unless fav reverses ...I believe I would be better trader only with one ladder and one price chart, doing more swing trades, however it's hard to change trading habits, and sincerely I don't see any need to change them, if I could profitable read price action in the horses, so I can do that in the forex too, what I am doing and it seems not bad at all. So it's easier to say bey bey for the pre race horses and concentrate to the more perspective trading arena where is no any "PREMIUM CHARGES" and any limits with getting matched your stakes :)

Few more things to say, I smoked my last cigarette in the December 7, at the moment it seems that any intention to have one more cigarette has gone for ever! In this week I ordered some books for further price action/trading education, hardcore three volume reading by Al Brooks "Trading Price Action Trends, Reversals, Trading Ranges" totaling 1647pages... and another one "Forex Price Action Scalping: an in-depth look into the field of professional scalping" by Bob Volman. I think I will have what to read the whole year :)

For the end of this long post some random pictures for you, what I traded real money with one pip value of 1.5EU.

That's it folks, good luck

November review and FX scalps

Hello everybody,
November was harsh month, in my trading and also in my life. It seems I am having chronic sinusitis for two months, so was feeling bad for very long time. Probably health problems had influenced my trading results too. I was taking runs(jogging) for a few weeks in the mornings, but after my body rudely alerted me that I am sick I got a visit to a doctor. At the time I finishing to drink 3rd pack of strong antibiotics and some other medicines. And next week I am gonna ask for surgery to my splay(?) nose's septum(?), because these sinusitis repeats almost every year for me. I need to fix it finally.
I traded this month only 303 horse race markets in betfair (in September 631 markets). Lost due in play 420 euros, average win per market is 6eu from 201 markets , average loss is 11eu from 102 markets(in play losses included). Total finish is +120eu. That profit is small ... but what a heck, it's still profit and I worked hard to stop that in play problem and I am sure I will not do that again! Next following months will be more profitable I am sure.
After using exercise from my a last post I never had even small temptation to go in play again! However I got involved one time by accident, then I saw time to the off is 00:00 I canceled my exit lay stakes and wanted to exit by current price, and can you imagine that 5f market got in play in that split second time when I was pressing on the current price? I had a back bet on ~20 odd horse, so exit was impossible. I lost ~70eu by this. This shitty thing happened at least few times in my trading carrier. I must BE MORE CAREFUL in the  last seconds of the pre race market and close my trades little earlier.
I believe I am getting back to the right traders mindset - calm, concentrated, free from frustration and anxiety, trading in the now moment. Its hard to come back from harsh period but I will make it :)
November's roller coaster:

I bought a book "Trade With Passion and Purpose: Spiritual, Psychological and Philosophical Keys to Becoming a Top Trader" , not so good and interesting how I though it will be, but still, I find there few very good insight. I am in the middle of it.

Forex scalping
I am still trading/learning Forex markets with demo account. Almost every morning I am watching what eurusd is doing and trying to apply knowledge what I got from hardcore reading book "Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar". Well, learning process is not short, and I need much more experience before I put real money, though my demo account is on profit with ~55% win ratio, but I think it will get harder with real money due psychological pressure. Perspectives in Forex financial markets are amazing in long term, only if I can manage to make consistent profits on weekly basis, let's say only 50 pips, I would be millionaire after few years by increasing my position size and keeping risk not more that 2% per trade on my trading account. I believe time and efforts will make me successful long time winner.
Here are some examples what I saved for you from my demo trades what I made in the real time.

So that's it folks, have a nice and green day.