MY 7 COMMON WEAKNESSES AS A TRADER... LATEST...

1. I always have this feeling that if I don't take the trade now, I would probably be left behind by the market. Most of the time, these results in taking bad trade rather than good one.

2. I always have this feeling that the market would behave accordingly to my expectation... but most of the time, it doesn't.

3. I do love to take 'stupid trades' (i.e. I don't want to use the "g" word) once in a while, playing along with my profits gained during early weeks. You see, when I follow my system & rules, I do make money 80% of the time. Consequently when discipline is taken for granted, "shit happens" and I gave back my profit to the market at the end of the week. Reason being : Playing around = Not serious = Punished by the market = The market isn't my friend = Hazardous = Don't play around.

4. I do not time my entry accordingly to 15 minutes, or 1 hour intervals as planned. At times, I do love to speculate the news as well. Though bad for trading, the reward is awesome if I get it right. Still this is a bad habit to retain as a trader. Need to unlearn this immediately.

5. I do ride my losses once in a while. When you are stucked somewhere in between -10 to -50 pips, it is not easy to make decision whether to stay or pull out... Why? When you pull out, the market come back, when you stay, it goes even deeper into the red zones. So what to do? Can someone tell?

6. Mostly, I trade what I see. When market swing against my original plan, the tendency to change my plan is high. At times, I get it right. Most of the time, it's better to stick with the original plan.

7. Sometimes, I am simply unfit to trade but due to "love of the game" spirit within me, I still force myself to have at least one position in a day, though the setup is hardly good or trad-able.

You see, the summary to these weaknesses are all about self-control, and it takes lifetime to correct them if we fail to identify them accordingly.

To me, these are my most common weaknesses that I am still working on to unlearn. We humans can never run away from weaknesses but it is our job to identify them and rectify them one by one. Otherwise, I would never reach the top 3% that I always dream of, making tons of money with unconscious competency within me...

What about you? Are they the same or is it just my problems?

I SEE 'NO' BIG MONEY IN THE MARKET...

Christmas is approaching fast and New Year is just around the corner.

I guess most (if not all) institutional traders are already out of the market, mainly with their swing profit. We could see clearly since yesterday that daily volume as well as range has significantly decreased, unlike weeks before.

Does this mean that the market is no longer tradable in the coming 2 weeks? I guess the answer is close to yes, though not a definite one.

You see, one of the simplest indicator is when "the beast" (ie GBP/JPY) was hardly making any significant range (yesterday was barely above 100 pips range : 145.45 - 146.46 = 101 pips), it's kind of a clear sign that most participants are already out of the market.

Though I may still scalp a few pips here and there, still with lower volume and liquidity, the best is to stay out until new year comes.

Nevertheless, looking at the sentiment and technical structure of the market, definitely the dollar is still on the bull run. No one dares to pick a bottom with this kind of setup so better stay with the bears, at least for a while. After all, the bulls have had their fair share since March 2009 already, so perhaps the bears are taking turn now, at least until first week of 2010.

So, rather than going long on EU or GU, I would prefer to wait for sell opportunities on these pairs, until at least it reaches any of the Fibonacci key support levels on both EU (1.4000) and GU (1.5706).

Till next week, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year....

;)

HAS THE TREND CHANGE... YET?

The majority always re-act rather than act. The fall of Euro and Sterling for the last 2 weeks seems giving an alarm to those who are staying long with their position as taking the top into consideration, it's been over 800 pips declined for the Euro as well as Sterling since their previous top in December.

The question is... what do we do now? Should we go short all the way till New Year, stay aside or just defy the market's movement.

Clearly the third option is not a wise decision.

Now, looking at the gold price as well, it seems like investors are starting to cash-out their dollar investment in this precious metal. The Bloomberg as well as CNBC were talking about the gold support price at 1008.00 but the way I see it the gold could go down to 1000.00 before making a serious rebound or trend to a new high beyond the 1226 level.

At the same time, year 2010 is approaching fast in the next 2 weeks and some speculators are still talking about the fall of Dollars to continue in 2010. Is this a true claim or is it just a blind opinion base on what they believe?

What about us as retail traders? It is up to you actually. If you asked me... of course for now I will remain bearish with the Euro and GBP but of course, will be caution along the way especially with the Fibonacci levels on this new downtrend for these 2 pairs.

So, what's the verdict for next week?

Though I clearly mentioned that I will remain bearish on these 2 pairs, it doesn't mean that I will blindly shorting them without any safety precaution. As of the daily candlestick is showing a doji formation on the last day of trading for this week (on both pairs), it could be an early sign that the bear is running out of steam.

Hence, for next week, though bears are clearly in control, the bulls are likely to make a brief come back and push the price a little bit higher to the 1.4600 level for Euro and 1.6350 for the Sterling. Those 2 levels are the 38.2% retracements for the price falls between 1.5144 - 1.4262 (Euro) and 1.6879 - 1.6050 (GBP).

Contrarily, if these 2 pairs ever continue its downward journey straight away on Monday, Euro could probably try to break the 1.4122 levels and the Sterling will probably move South towards its next support at 1.5706.

On the long run, as long as the Euro do not breach the 1.3500 level and the Sterling stays above 1.4900, chances are they are still on the bull run. But if any of these levels are broken, then prepare for a long term downtrend for these pairs as well as long term uptrend for the dollars.

Yeah sure I could be wrong. But you must remember that in this "anything can happen" market, the market will do whatever it believes. And the reality is :- there is no such thing as top or bottom because if you look closely, the market can either be topless or bottomless... as far as there are buyers or sellers who are willing to push the price further...

In summary, my advice is always :- just be careful with your trade... The tribe has spoken and the price itself is the real indicator above other indicators that you could be using... Hence, always stick to the market's decision as they are always right no matter what...

BE HUMBLE GUYS...

I happened to discover that there are just too many people around me who seems busy and trying hard to tell people how superior they are, though the fact is clearly otherwise.

The thing is, I do love to get around and be around wonderful people who are skilfull, knowledgable and experience in what they are doing. The more good people we know the better we become, especially if we have the chance to learn from their experience.

Nevertheless, unlike these people, the common trait that I used to discover with people or persons who are really good is:

THEY ARE EXCEPTIONALLY HUMBLE...

They never tell people that they are good. Instead they simply demonstrate their goodness, competencies and skills via their actions and results. Normally they are down to earth type, never humiliate anybody and always treat people with respect regardless of who they are. To certain extent, some may perceived that they are weak though the fact is they are laying low beneath their actual strength.

Well, though I knew the fact that this writing would probably not going to change anyone, I am just sharing my thoughts on dealing with these "they thought they are good" type of people...

Still remember one of the golden advice from my former BM Teacher in Victoria Institution, Datin Maimun. She always reminded me that "if you want to be the best, never ever think that you are the best... just do your best" (ie kalau nak jadi yang terbaik, jgn sekali kali fikir kita ni yang terbaik... usaha sahaja)....

Hmmm... I guess after 15 years of leaving my secondary education in VI, I believe that is one of the best advice I had ever received.

Yeah sure you can be good and arrogant, but what do you get by doing that? People may curse you, they are hypocrite upon you and probably God won't bless you either. Just think about it.

• Being humble doesn't make you weak.
• Being nice doesn't mean you are not firm.
• Being considerate doesn't mean that you are not strict.

These are all poor perception and beliefs for those who are stucked-up with their limited knowledge and experience.

Guys, why not take a step behind and look back into yourself and define what you want in life.

To me, who you are in this world is hardly meaningful to anyone else but you. So, my point is... there is no point of being snobbish, stuck up and arrogant (ie. keturunan syok sendiri dan perasan best) because you get nothing from it.

Be strong in terms of who you are from the inside is much more important than what you want people to perceive you from the outside. Just remember, quality speaks for itself... you don't have to tell people that you're good coz if you're good, even a 5 year old kid can tell.

Belows are some of the most successful people that I personally knew are humble but with dragon hearts inside. I believe if you plan to become arrogant and/or snobbish, you must at least achieve a step higher than these humble Dato's, Tan Sri's and Tun's... Otherwise, you don't deserve to be haughty with your limited achievement...

Just to name a few... you think you knew these faces? Trust me... They are exceptionally humble...

TAN SRI SYED MOKHTAR AL-BUKHARY

TAN SRI DATO SRI MOHD HASSAN MARICAN

DATUK ADUL SAMAD HAJI ALIAS

TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD - OUR FORMER PRIME MINISTER

NOW WOULD YOU BELIEVE ME THAT REAL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE MOSTLY (IF NOT ALL) HUMBLE?

SO IF YOU'RE NOT HUMBLE, CHANCES ARE YOU ARE NOT REALLY SUCCESSFUL...

:))

DEVELOP A WINNING MINDSET... always tell yourself that "I AM THE TOP 10%"...

One of the common question that we would always ask ourselves after taking losses or being attacked by a sudden big move in the market is: -

"Why the h**l did the market went against me in such a cruel manner? Why can't it happen before I entered this position so at least I can refrain myself from taking this trade, or at least do the reverse?"

Sounds common huh? Well... that is just part of the game. At times, you just feel that the market is always against you. Whatever you did, the market will just do the reverse. When you buy, it goes down and when you sell, it goes up... and it feels like the market is playing against you all the time. If this is true, then how are we suppose to make money from this market? The answer is...

Though you may feel that you are being bullied, or perhaps someone somewhere like the trading brokers or tycoons are controlling the market etc... the fact is indeed otherwise.

The fact is - the market doesn't even know that you're there in the first place. It's just you and yourself... whether you make or lose money, whether you're there or not, whether you ride your losses or profits... the market doesn't even care at all...

That is why I always like to use the phrase of taking advantage on the market. Second phrase is always keep yourself emotionally detached from the market all the time. Last but not least the third one is - regardless what your indicators are showing, always analyze the price actions first.

Let me explain in little bit detail why those 3 phrases are important.

1. Making Profits by Taking Advantage on the Market

- I never consider my presence in the market as important. I am nobody and any transaction that I am doing with my trading have no or maybe some pico-effect on the price movement. So, never ever think that you could move the market - NO WAY. But... it is the collective actions of traders who choose to become either bulls or bears that really create the big moves, apart from the BIG BOYS (ie Banks, Market Makers, Tycoons, Institutional Traders etc) whom normally provide the kick-start to these movements that later fuel up by the collective trades by the retail traders like us. The point is - the market is BIG and we small traders can only make money by taking advantage on this movement made by the market itself. We alone cannot move the market. That is the reason why instead of chasing the market, we should wait for the market to come to us and take the advantage accordingly. Never ever go against them.

2. Keep Yourself Emotionally Detached From The Market

- The main idea of keeping yourself emotionally detached from the market is to ensure that you could always make the correct assessment and analysis on the market. You see, normally when we do not have any open position floating in the market, we don't care and we look at the market objectively without any bias or prejudice opinion on the market condition. What we see is what we believe is happening. The case is different when you have an open position though. When you're emotionally attached, your judgment will favor your position and no matter what is happening in front of your eyes, you keep on looking for excuses for you to hold that position, especially a losing one. Try to be emotionally detached and you will feel the difference. The best part of this is on the defensive side, in which an objective analysis will either provide you with justification to hold or exit that particular position.

3. Always Analyze the Price Actions First


- This is another simple mistakes that new traders tend to neglect every now and then. Even if you have a proven winning system that wins 90% of the time, still you need to study the current price action itself, especially on the 1hr and 15M chart. Normally price action is in direct relation with market volumes and hence the higher the volume on that respective time frames, the clearer the price action is. My favorite time frame for intraday trading are always the 15M and 1HR candlesticks. In fact, using these two TF without any further indicators are good enough for me to scalp the market every now and then, by using the price action itself. But of course, the point of analyzing the price action on each TF here is to get the best possible entry regardless of what your trading decisions are, long or short. So say it is clear on the daily and 4hr bars that the market is going down, you need to check on the 15M as well as 5M chart on where the price is heading towards at that moment. If it goes up on these two candles, it may be worth for you to wait a little bit until it settles down due to small-bull fighting or due to short-sellers profit taking. Trust me, it's worth to wait.

So, in conclusion... this article is all about developing the correct psychology for trading. If you do not plan to develop this top 10% winning mindset from the beginning, chances are you can hardly survive in this market, blaming the market every now and then.

Remember, trading is a zero-sum game. There is no way for everyone to make money here because not everyone is like you willing to read this article until this line. But if you put enough effort and will power in mastering this market, the reward could be beyond your imaginations.

Just like Manchester United who won the Premier League last year, they didn't have to win every game for them to retain the title. It is the winning mindset and consistent performance in winning most of the games that counts towards becoming a real Champion...

Safe trade...