Hello....
I just finished reading Brett Steenbarger's new book "Enhancing Trading Performance" and thought I would I would write down a few of my thoughts.
The bottom line is I loved the book. I have multiple pages of useful notes and endless makers and highlights of key points in the book. It was packed full of useful information. The thing that really hit home with me is that Brett works in a Brokerage firm where he is in touch with a lot of successful traders. Traders that have had the same struggles as us and he has helped them though it. So he is familiar with our challenges and has key points in the book to help us through them. Not to mention he is also a trader. He does a great job of bridging the gap between trading professionally and any other profession whether it be a professional athlete, a doctor, or scientist. They all take hard work and dedication and it doesn't happen overnight. Another key Brett emphasizes is finding the right fit between your talents and interest, which is probably the most crucial step.
So to sum things up I would easily place this book in my top 5 all time trading books and most of the concepts in the book I'll be able to use not only in trading but in my every day life.
Brett's Information...
Website: http://www.brettsteenbarger.com/
Blogs: http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/
Trade Well....
Brent
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
EFX Account is Online
Well EFX has deposited my funds into my account, so I'm back to trading live. I started out light today trading small mini-lots. Speed and execution were a little faster than what I experienced in the demo account. The spreads are relatively small or non-existent. Even the spread for GBP/JPY averaged around 3-4 pips today. During today's trading the spread for GBP/USD was typically between 1-2 pips. Of course I'm paying commissions for my trades. I think the Level II quotes will also come in handy.
By the way my daytrading has really evolved over the last few months. Actually things changed when I setup my new trading area. Just to recap I have 3 monitors two 17" LCD's and 1 20" wide-screen LCD. I only daytrade GBP/USD and I watch the following time frames; 5min, 15min, 30min, 1hr, 4hr, and Daily. Since I mainly trade price-action (with pivots/cams) I'll take a trade off of any of the lower time frames (not the 4hr or daily). However I feel i get my best information from the 5min and 30min charts. It might be obvious to most folks, but it wasn't for me. Watching these time frames just makes things a lot clearer. I mean a LOT!! If you haven't already just try it.
So my schedule is like this. I trade forex via the Europe session, and I "watch" the futures during the NY session. And of course I'm still Swing trading Forex.
This week will be lite trading for me. I'm preparing for a trip to London next week, so I have a lot of distractions. I will daytrade however it will be small mini-lots, and it will primarily be to get a good feel for the Live EFX account.
Trade Well....
Brent
By the way my daytrading has really evolved over the last few months. Actually things changed when I setup my new trading area. Just to recap I have 3 monitors two 17" LCD's and 1 20" wide-screen LCD. I only daytrade GBP/USD and I watch the following time frames; 5min, 15min, 30min, 1hr, 4hr, and Daily. Since I mainly trade price-action (with pivots/cams) I'll take a trade off of any of the lower time frames (not the 4hr or daily). However I feel i get my best information from the 5min and 30min charts. It might be obvious to most folks, but it wasn't for me. Watching these time frames just makes things a lot clearer. I mean a LOT!! If you haven't already just try it.
So my schedule is like this. I trade forex via the Europe session, and I "watch" the futures during the NY session. And of course I'm still Swing trading Forex.
This week will be lite trading for me. I'm preparing for a trip to London next week, so I have a lot of distractions. I will daytrade however it will be small mini-lots, and it will primarily be to get a good feel for the Live EFX account.
Trade Well....
Brent
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
A New Forex Broker....and Some Updates
Well it's been a while. I've been busy trading, backtesting, and testing broker platforms. I decided it's time to quit complaining and move away from Oanda. Not sure if a new broker will be better, but I'm to the point where i need to find out.
The new Broker I decided to go with is EFX Group (MB Trading). They are an STP/ECN broker.
STP = Straight Through Processing
ECN = Electronic Communication Network (basically I'm anonymous)
Even though I'll have to pay commissions for my trades I'm willing to do that in order not to compete with my broker, which is what I was doing with Oanda. The trading platform is similar to what is offered with traditional stock brokers. For example multiple order types, stop losses, time entries, and Level II screens.
So right now I'm currently in limbo. I've withdrawed my money from Oanda (except for a few hundred $$). After EFX finishes setting up my live account I'll wire the money into my new account.
New Trading Environment
I've also setup my new trading environment this week. My office is now setup for strictly trading. I've also purchased a new PC with a 20" widescreen monitor and 2 - 17" LCD's. I have my charts setup on these and I run my broker platforms on my laptop. Maybe I'll post a picture of my office setup sometime.
Journal Entries
I've also started to keep my journal in electronic format. It just makes more sense for the information I want to collect. It will allow me to post charts in the document along with screen shots of my broker account. I'm also hoping I can just copy and paste these entries into this blog.
Anyway I hope everyone's trading is going well....
Brent
The new Broker I decided to go with is EFX Group (MB Trading). They are an STP/ECN broker.
STP = Straight Through Processing
ECN = Electronic Communication Network (basically I'm anonymous)
Even though I'll have to pay commissions for my trades I'm willing to do that in order not to compete with my broker, which is what I was doing with Oanda. The trading platform is similar to what is offered with traditional stock brokers. For example multiple order types, stop losses, time entries, and Level II screens.
So right now I'm currently in limbo. I've withdrawed my money from Oanda (except for a few hundred $$). After EFX finishes setting up my live account I'll wire the money into my new account.
New Trading Environment
I've also setup my new trading environment this week. My office is now setup for strictly trading. I've also purchased a new PC with a 20" widescreen monitor and 2 - 17" LCD's. I have my charts setup on these and I run my broker platforms on my laptop. Maybe I'll post a picture of my office setup sometime.
Journal Entries
I've also started to keep my journal in electronic format. It just makes more sense for the information I want to collect. It will allow me to post charts in the document along with screen shots of my broker account. I'm also hoping I can just copy and paste these entries into this blog.
Anyway I hope everyone's trading is going well....
Brent
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Update...and other stuff
Hello...sorry for the lack of posts lately. Between traveling, backtesting and getting my taxes ready I haven't had much free time. Trades are going well this month. I'm on the plus side so that is always good.
My traveling will slow down over the next few weeks and it looks like I'll be home most of April. I'm looking forward to getting back in my office and start day trading again. In order to accomplish that I have two major goals. Backtest my day trading strategies to get my confidence up again, and finding the right broker.
As far as backtesting i'm going to state something that might be obvious for most, but it wasn't for me. I've come to the conclusion that you can't backtest on one tradeing platform (ie MT4) and trade live on another. For me the results are entirely different. The prices are different and the candles are different. I've talked to a few other folks that trade professionally and they said that they even found out that the strategy didn't work with some brokers and works well with others. Which will bring me to my next paragraph. Anyway backtesting is going well and I'm currently testing my 30 min strategy on GBP/USD. It doesn't produce a lot of trades a month, but it's consistant. I think most people give up on backtesting because they start and see their strategy missed a big move, so they adjust their method and start again. The cycle never ends. If you really want to know if your method will work go completely through your testing. Review the results and then fine tune if you need to. If you don't have a large enough sample you can't make educated decisions.
Okay now for the second goal finding a broker. I have two brokers i trade with we'll call them broker A and broker B. Broker A has a smaller spread that broker B, except during news or slow times. So what i've been doing is placing entry orders on both brokers (mini lots) this way I know i get in at the same price. Stop losses and profits are also set identical. What i have found thus far is that broker A is always a few pips against my trade. For example if I'm short their close pice is anywhere from 1-3 pips above broker B. If I'm long their always 1-3 pips under broker B. Now how's that possible if their spread is smaller? There has also been three times that my profit mark has been hit by broker B, but not broker A. Again I'll say how's that possible if their spreads are smaller? The has also been 2 times that broker A filled my position and broker B never did. Both trades ended up going against me and hitting my SL. Broker B's trade was never triggered. Again I'll say how's that possible if their pip spread is smaller?? I'll continue to do this for a few more weeks to get a larger sample size then I'll have a decision to make. The obvious decision is to move to another broker. That's a given. Right now i'm debating on whether to get one of my friends to open trades with against with broker A. I'll have them open a short while I open a long. When we do this his close price should be the ask and mine the bid, so we should see the true spread. If the spread is not what they display on their trading platform then we have a serious problem. Bottom line is it would be proof that they are misleading their customers. Anyway I'll keep you updating on my testing. I really hope things change and I don't prove what my initial beliefs are about broker A.
Trade Well......
Brent
My traveling will slow down over the next few weeks and it looks like I'll be home most of April. I'm looking forward to getting back in my office and start day trading again. In order to accomplish that I have two major goals. Backtest my day trading strategies to get my confidence up again, and finding the right broker.
As far as backtesting i'm going to state something that might be obvious for most, but it wasn't for me. I've come to the conclusion that you can't backtest on one tradeing platform (ie MT4) and trade live on another. For me the results are entirely different. The prices are different and the candles are different. I've talked to a few other folks that trade professionally and they said that they even found out that the strategy didn't work with some brokers and works well with others. Which will bring me to my next paragraph. Anyway backtesting is going well and I'm currently testing my 30 min strategy on GBP/USD. It doesn't produce a lot of trades a month, but it's consistant. I think most people give up on backtesting because they start and see their strategy missed a big move, so they adjust their method and start again. The cycle never ends. If you really want to know if your method will work go completely through your testing. Review the results and then fine tune if you need to. If you don't have a large enough sample you can't make educated decisions.
Okay now for the second goal finding a broker. I have two brokers i trade with we'll call them broker A and broker B. Broker A has a smaller spread that broker B, except during news or slow times. So what i've been doing is placing entry orders on both brokers (mini lots) this way I know i get in at the same price. Stop losses and profits are also set identical. What i have found thus far is that broker A is always a few pips against my trade. For example if I'm short their close pice is anywhere from 1-3 pips above broker B. If I'm long their always 1-3 pips under broker B. Now how's that possible if their spread is smaller? There has also been three times that my profit mark has been hit by broker B, but not broker A. Again I'll say how's that possible if their spreads are smaller? The has also been 2 times that broker A filled my position and broker B never did. Both trades ended up going against me and hitting my SL. Broker B's trade was never triggered. Again I'll say how's that possible if their pip spread is smaller?? I'll continue to do this for a few more weeks to get a larger sample size then I'll have a decision to make. The obvious decision is to move to another broker. That's a given. Right now i'm debating on whether to get one of my friends to open trades with against with broker A. I'll have them open a short while I open a long. When we do this his close price should be the ask and mine the bid, so we should see the true spread. If the spread is not what they display on their trading platform then we have a serious problem. Bottom line is it would be proof that they are misleading their customers. Anyway I'll keep you updating on my testing. I really hope things change and I don't prove what my initial beliefs are about broker A.
Trade Well......
Brent
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