Cleaned Up the Blog

Hello Everyone.

I've been struggling with this for a while, but i finally pulled the trigger today. There was a lot of content in this blog that was very misleading, so i decided to clean it up and take out the trash. The only pages left are the ones i feel are relative to trading. The others held a lot of misleading ideas, concepts and advice from someone that was not qualified to be giving it.

So what's next for this blog. I'm not sure really I've turned a major corner in my trading over the last year, and part of me would like to put some of the things down on this site that helped me do that. I think as long as i relate it to "My Experience" that is something that would be okay. Just need to think on the delivery. Also I'm not looking for something to take up too much time. I'm already dealing with a pretty demanding training schedule that I've placed upon myself and fitting one more thing in might be difficult, so we'll have to see.

Until next time.....

Trade well,
Brent

Some Clean-Up

Okay decided to open my blog today and do some cleanup. I removed the junk blogs from the menu and just added the ones i fequently visit. I also took some time to remove the spammer messages.

So what's the plan.....

I'm going to try to put some life back into this journal. So you can expect some updates on my progress, some things that have helped me get to where I am.

I've spent some time reading over my old journals hard copies and electronic ones from the beginning. It was interesting to see my progression and my mind set during those times. With that said I'd like to start putting down some frequent notes again. It probably will not replace my complete journal but just some things that i can look back on (and possibly others) in the future.

Till then....

Trade Well....
Brent

Found a Mentor

Well I decided on a Mentor. I chose the author of "Bird Watching In Lion Country" BWILC; Dirk du Toit. I've been participating in his MP 2008 class since January. During the last two months I've met some great people, who are also trying to make it as a FX traders. Over the next few months I'll try to give some highlights of the class without giving away to much. So I'll stick to what I'm going through and my progression instead of talking about the material we are covering.

The last two months have been truly amazing. I had my first ah-ha moment and I now realize how much of the wrong stuff I know and how little of the right stuff i know. Dirk has thus far been a true mentor. It's like going back to school. A lot of work....it's fun but it is work. It takes an honest effort to stay on track with the other folks. I feel i have made more progress these last two months than i have over the last 2+ years. To be honest....it feels great. We start a new series of exercises this weekend and I'm looking forward to getting started with them.

Until next time.....

Trade Well...
Brent

Maybe it's time for a change.....

I read and hear this a lot so I though it was worthing writing about. We all know the old say 90% of traders lose, so here's something to think about. We all follow the same rules, read the same books, and visit the same websites...

For example we've all heard these great sayings...

• Only trade x% of your account
• Cut you losses let you profits run
• Your reward to risk ration should be at least 2:1
• Plan your trade and trade your plan
• Backtest, backtest, backtest
• Price is king

Okay quick question....anybody consistently making real money following these rules?

I know my blog is full of these concepts, and I'm actually thinking about removing them because I feel it misleads people.

Bottom line is your are doing what you are suppose to, but you are still in the 90% losers section, so obviously these phrases, books, and guidelines are not working otherwise there should be a lot more winners.

Maybe it's time to take the road less traveled on....

Trade Well....
Brent

Fundamentals

This entry is about something that total changed the way I approach the FX market, and it's Fundamentals. Back in May of 2007 I had just finished two books that both caught my attention. The first being "Bird Watching In Lion Country" (second read), and the second being "Way of the Turtle" by Curtis Faith.

To make a long story short there was a phrase in the "Way of the Turtle that really made me think. Faith referred to the currency market as a "Fundamental-driven market", in which the trading is not the primary force behind the movement. Rather larger macroeconomic events and forces drive the price. Faith also stated that this kind of market has the greatest liquidity with the cleanest trends and are the easiest for trend followers to trade.

Now this sounded way to familiar. It was the same information I learned in BWILC, so I started to reread BWILC. However this time i caught onto more things then my previous read. Different mindset I guess.

So I made it a goal to find out who the main players were in the FX market and how they make their trading decisions. Well 41% of their decisions are based on Fundamentals and 26% is based on Technical Analysis. Those statistics told me that I was trading at a disadvantage, because about 90% of my trading decisions were based on Technical Analysis.

So i had to change my game. I started to research these macroeconomic events and I researched what Fundamentals drove the markets. I needed to find out how a particular news event affected the market, not only in the short term, but the larger picture.

This changed everything for me because i realized i didn't know enough about the market I was trading. I was good at my IT job because I knew a lot about it, and I was confident in what I knew. I wanted that same feeling when trading, and that's what I'm continue to improve on in 2008.

Also thought you might find this below link helpful...

http://www.ny.frb.org/education/addpub/usfxm/

Trade Well....
Brent

New Layout - RSS enabled

I've changed my template to allow a site feed. So for those that have requested me to enable RSS it should be working now. You can subscribe via the right menu or at the bottom of the page.

Trade Well...
Brent

Book Review - "Enhancing Trader Performance"

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