Analysts Anaylze Traders Trade

It is important to understand the difference between being a trader and being an analyst. The first one tries to make money through actual trading, while the later tries to make money by selling advice in some form. Always trust your own technical analysis beyond any other person's advice, regardless of the source. You MUST have faith in your own ability to analyze the market, and stop waiting for others to tell you when and where to take trades. One of the goals of my new mentoring program will be to teach my students how to think and "see the market" for themselves.

Check out any major Forex message board or chat room and you will see that there are always plenty of individuals willing to offer up their advice. Even better they can be so convincing that others in the room will blindly jump into a trade based on the advice! Best of all you can usually find two equally convincing traders both offering the opposite advice at the same exact time. Never ever enter a trade based on some other person's suggestion. Never ever!

You can even find professional paid analysts offering up contradictory advice, along with pivots, supports, and fibs that all differ from each other. That is why you need to have your own method of analysis that you know inside and out. You may be a day trader that is trading a minor downtrend, while the analyst whose advice you are reading is looking very long term at a major uptrend. Depending on the time frame you are trading it can and will completely change your perspective on things. Know the time frame you are trading. Know the profit you are seeking and stop loss you can accept. Know your entry and exit signals. If you are confused and struggling from month-to-month like many traders, I can help. My mentoring program will be starting within the next two months.

Until then best of luck traders!

New Mentoring Program Coming Soon

Within the next two months I will be launching a one-on-one Forex mentoring program. I will only be accepting one student per month, so obviously access will be limited in the beginning. The price will be reduced for the first few students, as this mentoring program is a new venture. Students will receive my exact Forex trading templates, all the indicators I use, and all the specifics on how I trade the Forex market every day.

I will help each student develop an individual trading plan that suits them. My trading style works quite well for people with limited time. I am very realistic in the fact that most people cannot trade full-time, but that certainly does not mean you cannot make nice profits by trading.

The training will last for six weeks and of course I will provide ongoing support after that period if the student has questions. As a special bonus for any interest student I will provide some instruction in the art of Qigong. I use Qigong daily to calm my mind before trading, and mindset is of key important to any trader that wishes to be successful.

Less is More

In both trading and the practice of Tai Chi, the two things I happen to teach, less is often more. In Tai Chi if you try to hard it will impede your results. You need to learn to let go. To let the ground support your weight, instead of tensing your muscles to achieve the same result.

In Forex trading the same concept applies. Trading less is far better than over-trading. You need to learn to let go of any preconceived notion about which way the market will head, and allow the market to tell you which direction it wants to head. If you wait long enough the trend direction always becomes clear. This is like the mud settling to the bottom of a stream after a hard rain and the waters suddenly becoming clear. When the water is clear, when the trend direction is easily seen, you can now forumulate a plan of high probability entry points.

Wait for the trade to come to you instead of chasing after it. We can think of the Forex market as tides of the ocean. They are either flowing in (high tide or uptrend), flowing out (low tide or downtrend) or in between tides (flat market). First you need to know what is happening at the current moment. I only like to enter during high tide or low tide, as I am a trend trader. If you have ever seen the ocean you know that even during high tide the waves still pull back. I equate this to the pullbacks or retracements you observe on a chart during an uptrend. Price will pull back to various Support points, before it continues the upwards move. Wait for these pullbacks and enter here. Let the current tide carry you on your way to Forex profits. Just recognize when the tide is beginning to switch directions.

Happy trading.

EURUSD 4/21/09

EURUSD is currently hovering around 1.2950, which is a key level during the U.S. session today for intraday traders. Price has already bounced of this level several times on the lower time frames. Watch Price closely to determine a potential Long or Short entry.

Lesson Four: Detachment

"The Master stays behind;
that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from all things;
that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go of herself,
she is perfectly fulfilled."

Detachment is an important concept from Taoism that can easily be applied to trading the Forex market. A good trader should be detached from greed, emotion, as well as any preconceived notion on trend direction. Let's examine this last issue on trend direction a bit closer.

Having a preconceived idea about which way a currency pair is headed is quite dangerous in my opinion. I have seen many traders become 100% convinced that a pair was going to continue heading South, simply because that is the direction the pair had been heading for the last 5 days. This is showing attachment. The trader has become attached to trading Short, perhaps because they have made some easy pips by following the current downtrend.

It is important for traders of every market to be focused in the present moment; detached from what Price has done in previous trading sessions and focused on what it is doing at the moment. Obviously we want to use the past as clues to the future through technical analysis, but the key word here is "clues". We should not be so focused on the past that we forget about the present. Far too many times I see traders in the forums become attached to a trend, even to the point where they will use enormous stop loss levels, no stop loss, or continue moving their stop loss level further and further away in hopes that the trend will reverse and continue in the direction they desire.

Be detached in your trading and your profits will increase. Find the flow and truly see the market instead of injecting your preconceived notions upon it. Most people live a little bit in the present or the past. They worry about what they should have done and they worry about what they are going to do next. When you learn to find the flow you stop fighting yourself and things come much more naturally. You are finally living in the present. This takes practice and hard work...but it does pay off!

As always, happy trading!

EURUSD 3/24/09

I should probably mention first that I trade EURUSD almost exclusively, as well as Forex being the only market I trade. For me it is enough to focus on trading one pair and one pair only. There is plenty of money to be made trading one Forex pair, and if you cannot trade one pair successfully, I seriously doubt if you can trade multiple pairs any better.

Today I entered Short @ 1.3537 and closed half my position @ 1.3458. A profit of 79 pips, which I'll take any day. I am allowing the remaing half of my position to try and run for the moment. This is my normal strategy, until I see a convincing reason to close the remaining half. I am currently watching my Murrey Math levels at the moment on the 4 hour time frame, as there is some support at the 6/8 level. Also, the pair is currently oversold on the shorter time frames, so most likely there will at least be some retracement.

Lesson One: Balance

Balance is the first lesson I learned myself that led to being a better trader. I was anything but balanced in the very beginning, spending countless hours watching charts, taking way too many trades, and watching with great anxiety as my over-leveraged trades went against me. I'm sure this is a very common and perhaps familiar scenario to some of you, whether currently or at some point in your trading endeavors.

In Tai Chi or Qigong we are always seeking balance, and trying to align ourselves with the Tao or "the way". When you are aligned with the Tao things seem to unfold effortlessly. You stop fighting yourself and live much more in the moment. Everyone has certainly experienced times where everything just seems to be going perfectly with little effort, and also times when you can't seem to get anything right no matter how hard you try.

Trading often reveals how balanced you are in a brutally honest fashion. If you are centered you will be making logical choices and if you are unbalanced you will be making emotional decisions, possibly caught up in such a whirlwind you are unable to stop yourself.

To find balance in trading the first step is to become aware. You can create awareness by simply slowing down. If you are not breathing in a relaxed manner you should not be entering a trade.

I encourage you to spend a few minutes practicing the following simple exercise before you begin trading for the day

• Rest your hands on your lower abdomon (also known as the lower dan tian).
• Close your eyes
• Breath slowly and deeply in a very relaxed fashion. Do not over-exaggerate your breath. Try to feel your abdomen slowly expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale
• Just focus lightly on your lower abdomen while taking several breaths
• After several breaths you should remind youself to be aware, remain patient, and trade calmly today

To some of you this exercise may seem silly. Perhaps so, but give it a try for a few days and see if it makes a difference. This simple exercise accomplishes some wonderful things in regards to trading. It calms you, provides focus, and most importantly brings you into the present moment.

From a Tai Chi perspective we start to shift from Monkey Mind to Alligator Mind. In which state do you think you'll make better more balanced decisions? When your mind is all over the place or when you can sit calmly for hours waiting for just the right moment to act.

I hope whomever stumbles upon this thread finds some enjoyment from it.

Happy trading!

365 Trade: Finding the Flow

One of my new goals with this blog will be to post lessons learned from my perspective as a both a trader and Tai Chi/Qigong teacher. Assuming there is any interest I will try to make somewhat frequent posts.

The title "365 Trade" is a concept taken from a book called "365 Tao", which gives the reader a valuable lesson each day taken from a Taoist point of view. Although I don't trade every day of the year, I look at my charts almost every day of the year, and lessons can certainly be learned even when a trade is not taken.

A brief background about me: I have been trading Forex since 2005. It wasn't until 2008 that I ended a calendar year with profits. This learning curve is quite normal. Somewhere towards the end of '07 I began to actually "see" the market. It doesn't mean I am now always right. It just means I enter trades with purpose and understanding.

I credit my meditative practices hugely with giving me the patience and calm to trade profitably, and I hope I can encourage others to give some sort of mind-body movement a chance. It may just improve your trading, and relieve some of the stress and anxiety that will cause you to make bad decisions and negatively affect your health and well-being.

In my next post, i will tackle the first lesson.