Challenging Times

While I realize the world went through a bit of an unwind, before and after the Dubai incident, I've been busy with work and family issues instead.

Things have just been incredibly busy!

In any case, what with the volatility and unwinding that has been going on it's probably a good time to be inactive. I did manage to blow up my small discretionary account (my robots are far better traders than I am) but that's insignificant.

However, the big news, from my own point of view, is that I have some tweaks for my up-and-coming robot. Basically, I need it to detect a downward slide quickly and then decide not to waste it's risk capital on redundant positions.

Maybe I'll have some time to do some blogging and tweaking this week?

Margin Call Today

Well, it had to happen. After I was forced to make a withdrawal from my account due to the fact I was surprised that someone had given me an NSF check. There simply wasn't much capital left.

This means that any sudden moves, as happened today, would cause my account to run out of cash. Well, it did.

It's not fun, but at least at this point we are talking about a very small amount of cash. So, though I was considering myself a microtrader, I now am forced to consider myself a nanotrader.

We'll see if I can manage to crawl back out of the depths and get my feet under me again. Wish me luck!

Recent Non-Success

Today's fed announcement caught me with an unprotected position. Needless to say, as the floor dropped out of the AUDJPY market, I was given a bit of an unpleasant ride.

However, I didn't blow up my account, so hopefully things will settle down and drift towards "the middle" so I can get out without too much pain.

Trade Free Weekends

It looks like The Rookie has survived another week. Although, I have to admit I'm holding my breath on a few underwater instruments this weekend.

In particular, the USDJPY took a heavy knock on the jaw and is lying face down waiting for the three count. Maybe the weekend will be long enough to let the coach clean up a few wounds while the dollar catches it's breath for the next round? Get up Rocky, get up!

The Australian dollar was showing a little strength. Better yet, the AUDUSD was bobbing up and down and I was able to shave some pips here and there right up until the last couple of trading minutes. A couple of extra dollars in the account can make a big difference -- not so much for the value as for the extra margin buffer.

Personally, I was disappointed by the EURCHF. Cheffy, my pet name for the CHF (pretty clever, I know) was busy chomping on the Euro's nuts from the moment the US jobs report came out. Come on, we don't need the Euro to be a surrogate for the US dollar. Anyway, I'm just grousing because it would have been nice to see a little more traffic going in the opposite direction to the recent stampede.

Speaking of stampedes, the EURUSD was feeling pretty uppity. I'm afraid a large portion of my potential gains were penned up via some, in retrospect, cautious limits. That's really too bad, but as my last post said, I got some learning out of that too. Maybe one of these days I'll know enough to catch a bit of ka-ching here and there.

Heck, I guess I was spread all over the place. Pretty aggressive for a complete rookie if I think about it. Anyway, the GBPUSD was a bit ambivalent about the recent news. Sure, it left the dollar in the dust for a while, but the pound suffered from a guilty conscience and came back to offer encouragment. However, by the end of today it was tired of waiting up.

I'm thinking that once I can clear out of my current positions I'll move to trading within a basket of somewhat offset instruments. Heck, I'm sure I can figure out tons of ways to give away bits of money here and there. Most importantly, yes, it's still fun. I'm still stuck to the screen like a fly on a lightbulb. Yes, I am aware that usually this isn't too good for the fly. I'll change my analogies when I'm a cash magnet.

Reporting Some Losses

I guess since I crow about profits, I should also disclose some recent currency trading losses. I mean, that is the whole game right, win some and lose some. The key is to make sure you regularly win more than you lose.

B EURUSD @ 1.3643 S EURUSD @ 1.3649 = 0.60
B EURUSD @ 1.3638 S EURUSD @ 1.3605 = -3.30 (S)
B EURUSD @ 1.3634 S EURUSD @ 1.3619 = -1.50 (S)
B EURUSD @ 1.3630 S EURUSD @ 1.3619 = -1.10 (S)
B EURUSD @ 1.3627 S EURUSD @ 1.3619 = -0.80 (S)
B EURUSD @ 1.3611 S EURUSD @ 1.3617 = 0.60

The four stop orders were the positions that I had left open over the weekend. I recently blogged about leaving those positions open without having any stops in place, so I was happy to add them in when the market reopened.

What does get frustrating is that it seems that the price will drop right down to your stop point, sell, and then rebound back up. I guess this is the whole point of developing discipline. I know it is imperative to protect your capital but it still can be annoying to see this behavior.

Perhaps my new found ability to set price alerts will let me analyze things in time to decide whether or not to remove a stop order.

Onward with my Forex education...