ELECTRICAL ENGINEER IN A GLANCE...

1. Being an electrical engineer for over 8 years now, it tells me that working as a technical person is very much indeed demanding.

2. You have to be the subject matter expert or else other people will refer you as an office engineer, carrying the title without any mean.

3. The easiest and fastest way to earn your knowledge is to get down to earth, do it, log it and you'd remember. In fact skills are obtained only from doing it.

4. You need to find a good colleague and mentor in order to counter check your knowledge levels.

5. Apart from that, Engineers must not neglect the economic aspect of the business. You must know what the operations are doing and how is the overall performance of the company.

6. Ability to present and vocalized your opinion are equally important. Remain in silence will show incompetence and you may be regarded as less-knowledgable engineer.

7. When problems arised with regard to electrical, you are the brain to solve it. Technicians will do whatever instructed & recommended with responsibilities mainly on the engineer's shoulder.

8. Most electrical engineers are not competent in doing electrical switching and hence requires the presence and authorisation from a competent person.

9. To further enhance our credibility, we need to either continue our study to the Masters level or pursue the Professional & Competent Engineer status from the regulating body. (ie BEM and IEM for Malaysia)

10. All in all, most local Engineers are quite underpaid unless you are working with a well known overseas project or consultant companies.

11. Being a good Engineer is one thing, but appearing good is more important. Having both is the best.

12. Since technology evolves without stop, technical competency needs to be continually improve from time to time. Learning process is endless indeed.

13. The best way to retain your knowledge is to do it, apart from continuous reading and giving trainings to the younger engineers.

14. If you are an electrical engineering student, you made a good decision as electrical offers plenty of job opportunities around the globe.

15. Once you work, have a vision and complete all the missions. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

In summary:

I do believe that financial freedom is still the ultimate vision. Whatever job that I am doing now is simply a platform to bring me closer to that vision. Perhaps I could retire by 35 (if not 40).

TAKING LOSSES ARE QUITE PAINFUL

I had 3 major drawdowns today on the 3 positions carried over since last Friday. I was buying the GU earlier @ 1.4511, 1.4435 and 1.4354, which was obviously against the trend and the market sentiments.

When the market was going against me, instead of closing the 1st position, I was averaging up to 3 positions and definitely it was a terrible thing to do.

You may wonder why I did this in the first place as I always use 50 pips as my SL rather than 100. I tell you this was rather an expensive experiment. No emotional factor here but just a plain stupidity in wishing the market to move at least to my 3rd position in order to recoup some of my losses as I was ready to close all three manually @ 1.4354 before the market closed.

But then, it never happened. And as I wrote before, I was asleep 1 hour before the market closed last Friday.It did touch that point earlier but I wasn't around the PC to do it. By right, I should have placed my TP there.

Lesson is, when you were so much in profit for the week, you tend to be careless in certain ways. Fyi, I had banked in over 600 pips for the week, so I thought it was ok to play around with the market on my profits.

Luckily I put my stop loss at 1.4260 for all 3 positions prior to market closed last Friday and this morning the market opened at 1.4253, 7 pips below my SL. All the positions are automatically closed on the spot.

Altogether I made a loss of -541 pips (-258 + (-182) + (-101). That's a huge figure and definitely a shared lesson for those traders who read this.

I must admit that this is rather painful.

CONCLUSION:

DO NOT MESS AROUND WITH THE MARKET. This is just one real example how terrible things can be when you got it wrong. Should have escaped earlier and joined the crowd instead.

Riding Losses vs Riding Profits - Which One?

Instead of riding profits, we traders are more inclined in riding our losses. The question is why? We knew the later is not the right thing to do, but then we do tend to do it more frequently.

Do not blame yourself on this as this is one of the most prevalent problems for traders, including me. I can summarize the issues on these as follows:

1. Whether you agree or not, the market itself is emotional. It is everlasting and will always be.

2. Though you are part of the market, you have the power to control yourself, not the market. So, why should you become emotional too?

3. Hence, in order to take out the emotional factor, some traders advice me to use robots or Expert Advisor. I told them I had among the best EA that I purchased (not FREE) and so far, almost all of these EAs giving me bad experience.

4. So, another solution is to have a mechanical system that I should follow manually based on signals. I'm using 2 main systems at the moment and it work pretty well, though not 100%.

5. But still, when manual control is in place, we as humans do have the tendency to be un-disciplined and try to outsmart the system by taking earlier decision than we're supposed to.

6. This is the problem with manual trading. You need to have patience & discipline in following the system.

7. But then, the market is so dynamic. Though they are patterns for us to see like Fibonacci and Elliot Wave theory, still we can never be 100% sure. This is where risk management plays its important roles.

8. Since we knew the probability is always 50/50 (either up or down) we do have the tendency to act on our own judgement instead of following the system.

9. And these are the times when we make mistakes.

10. At this point, then only we would realize the importance of following a good trading system, especially the one that we had back-tested and proven record.

12. The reason we don't ride our profit is because we don't want to be greedy and we are too afraid that a winning trade turn to a lose one. Normally you or anyone would have this experience at least a few times.

13. The reason we ride our losses is because we HOPE that it won't go that far against us and will eventually return to our entry point or even beyond for profits.

14. As long as you have a sticky STOP LOSS, I believe it is ok to let the market swing against you as long as you knew what is going on.

15. If you don't have a STOP LOSS, then don't blame the market if they burn down your account. It is ultimately your fault.

16. All these are especially true for new traders.

17. Seasoned traders are more experience, systematic and discipline in their approach, hence giving them a better edge in retaining their profits and make an easy come-back after a series of drawdowns.

My conclusion is - It's your money so do whatever best to grow and protect it from the market force. DO NOT mess around with the market and always go with the trend. Be a GHOST RIDER on the profitable side of the market.

CAREFUL WITH MARKET SENTIMENTS

1. Market is made of people and people acts on what they see, hear & believe. They are somehow emotional.

2. That is why reading and analysing market's sentiment is a MUST prior to taking any trading decision. Technical analysis should come second during this market environment, though still appplicable.

3. It is a great advantage if you can read sentiments correctly, timely & precisely.

4. You can trade multiple pairs at the same time with huge profit potential.

5. Yesterday, Friday 27th March, was a very good example on market sentiment plus the importance of knowing the economic data.

6. Prior to the released of UK 4Q08 GDP @ 5.30pm local time, plus some other news from Eurozone as well as US CPC and Spending @ 8.30 pm, the GU, GJ, EU and EJ pairs seems going south all the way. In fact, the movement has started even earlier at 2pm local time prior to London open.

7. GU moved 226 pips, GJ @ 396 pips, EU @ 335 pips and EJ a@ 451 pips. Those figures are huge for a daily movement.

8. If you were taking say 1/3 movement on each pair, you had probably banked in a minimum of 400 pips in a matter of 3 hours trading.

9. This sort of movements do not happen all the time, but it do happen.

10. The worse thing; I wasn't around to capitalize and taking advantage on these movements. I always think Friday is not a good day to trade.

11. But yesterday movements, which was quite steady in a single direction for the 4 pairs, proved that I should be more flexible in the future.

12. The sentiment is pretty simple: The market is very much worried about the deepening crisis in the UK and Eurozone and thus traders are fleeing away from Sterling & Euro back to Dollars & Yen.

13. The fear is still there and hence this move will probably continue next week unless there is something good being spoken over this weekend for the GBP and Euro to come back.

14. I could probably wrong but if you read the news carefully, this is the sentiment at the moment. People are simply worried.

15. Even the Dow Jones dropped from 7924.56 to 7776.18 (148.38 points) due to these worries & profit taking.

16. The conclusion : CAPITALIZE these movements wisely.

p/s: Somehow I still got 94 pips banked yesterday (from scalping GU) but with 3 open positions unintentionally carried over to next week (with high potential drawdowns)... You know what, my eyes couldn't stand & I fell asleep 1 hour before the market closed, haha!

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HOW TO BUILD YOUR BOWLING SKILLS FROM ZERO

Yesterday I had a chat with one of my junior officemates in KL. One of his interest and target is to play bowling well and he just started the game with a new bowling set (ie bowling ball, bag and shoe), and still throwing a straight ball.

Well, I did tell him that I will write something on my blog so I hope he is reading this. By the way I am not a certified coach at the moment, but I do have numerous experiences and technical knowledge of the games obtained from books, state's coach, being a team captain as well as my own experiences in playing various graded tournaments throughout the country since 2002. The best experience gained when I was representing the company in the ASCOPE Games held in Manila 2 years ago.

Instead of articles type of writing. I would prefer do it in point forms. Of course I could not cover everything, but I will share the 7 gists of the game that you really need to understand in order for you to progress to the next level.

1. First thing first. To become a STAR player, you need to remember S-T-A-R. You need to understand the basics of where to Stand, Timing of your steps (3, 4 or 5 steps), Free Armswing concept like clock pendulum and smooth Release.

2. Learn the basic targetting system by either referring to the boards (39 boards altogether) or the 7 arrows. These are places where your ball should land. Use the center arrow (board 20) as your primary target when playing straight ball. You don't have to look at the pins. I personally use the boards as my target instead of arrows.

3. Do not fancy about getting strikes if you really want to learn how to play. Most important is make sure that your first throw hit only either 1-2 or 1-3 pocket of the pins. For right-hander 1-3 is the aim whereas for southpaw 1-2 should be the pocket.

4. Consider strike as bonus. The key to playing consistently is to be proficient in your spare shooting, especially the single pin spare. Learn the basics of spare conversion from various sources. I am using a 3-6-9 system and the key spares that you need to master are the pin 5, 7 and 10. The rest is a matter of slight adjustments.

5. Always practise. There is no better place to learn than the bowling lane itself. Video your game if you have a camcorder.

6. To enhance your skill faster, you need to find someone who is good at the game to coach you on buddy system. But beware, most self-proclaimed trainers do not even know what they are talking about. So be selective.

7. Last but not least, in order for you to fully tap your potential in bowling, you must learn as much as possible BUT... to apply those techniques that are ONLY comfortable for you to play. Do not force yourself as bowling execution should be based on smooth and unmuscled execution. Only do the things that you are capable to do, but of course if practised dilligently, anything can become easy afterwards.

Try these 7 items first and I shall give you another tips on my later bowling posts.

Happy Bowling !

AKU TERDENGAR...

Al kisah malam tadi aku bersama isteri keluar sebentar untuk menikmati hidangan roti canai , manakala aku pula memesan sepinggan roti nan bersama ayam tandoori. Memang sedap lebih lebih lagi aku yang belum makan malam sejak pulang dari Rawang petang tadi.

Sambil menunggu roti aku sampai, aku ternampak sekumpulan pemuda lebih kurang sebaya aku, dalam 6 orang sedang membelek belek sebuah laptop. Salah seorang sedang bercakap, tersenyum dan begitu yakin dengan apa yang diperkatakannya.

Aku tidak nampak apa yang tertera di skrin laptop tersebut dan tidak berminat untuk mencuri dengar apa yang dibincangkan (maklumlah bukan urusan aku pun), tapi nak dijadikan cerita, orang rumah aku pula yang nampak.

"Yang, i nampak macam graf forex you je", orang rumah aku berbisik.

"Ler ye ke, budak budak ni tengah bincang pasal forex la gamaknya ni", aku berkata perlahan. Sejenak itu aku terus memasang telinga ingin mendengar apa yang diperbincangkan.

Memang sah forex. Aku kagum dengan keyakinan 'brother' yang sedang memberi penerangan sambil beberapa kali menekan butang 'mouse' komputer riba tersebut, aku agak sedang menunjukkan pelbagai jenis graf dan indikator forex yang digunakan.

Dalam banyak banyak perkara yang diperkatakan, cuma satu saja yang aku kurang setuju.

"Senang je Man aku nak trading ni, aku ikut je signal yang ada. Tup tap tup tap, untung duit masyuk dalam akaun"

Wah, dalam hati aku berkata power betul brader ni. Macam main guli je bunyi dia menerangkan forex. Aku yang dah bertahun ni pun kengkadang menggelupur nak betul betul faham pergerakan pasaran. Tapi siapa tahu, mungkin dia memang power, manala tau kot kot aku boleh belajar dengan dia pula.

Setelah beberapa ketika memasang telinga, aku yakin yang brader ni rupanya tengah cari modal nak main forex dari member member dia. Patutlah beria sangat menerangkan. Dari reaksi kawan kawannya pula, aku rasa ada yang bagi brader ni duit suruh mainkan. Tak tau la berapa banyak.

Tapi apa apa pun, aku tak masuk campur. Setakat mendengar, itu pun yg sebenarnya tak patut. Cuma yerla, dah topik perbincangan tu sesuatu yang menarik perhatian, nak buat macam mana kan.

Untuk memendekkan cerita, pandangan aku cuma satu. Kalau baru baru nak belajar forex ni, janganlah pakai duit member untuk dilaburkan seolah olah kita betul-betul mampu untuk menghasilkan keuntungan bagi mereka. Kesian member kalau terkena. Walapun secara teknikalnya mungkin sesuatu yang bijak (sebab kalau hilang pun bukan duit aku), tapi perbuatan ini boleh dan akan merosakkan persahabatan. Maklumla perihal duit ni macam macam boleh jadi.

Lagipun ini bukan kali pertama aku dengar member pakai duit member nak main forex. Kalau sikit takpe, ader tu aku dengar labur sampai puluh puluh ribu suruh kawan uruskan, yang akhirnya ditimpa kerugian.

Punca utama cuma 1 : kurang ilmu. Yg lain tu termasukla kurang sabar, kurang disiplin dan perancangan rapi tentang pengurusan risiko.

Jadi biarlah kurang duit (jangan takde langsung) tapi jangan kurang ilmu. Ada ilmu boleh cari duit. Tapi kalau tiada ilmu, laburlah sebanyak mana pun, lebih lebih seminggu je boleh bertahan. Kalau tak percaya cubalah. Silap silap sehari dah habis.

Aku ni pun masih belajar. Nasihat aku kalau nak 'venture' dunia forex ni, cari sumber bacaan yg baik dan main dahulu akaun demo sampai betul betul faham dan bersedia, kemudian baru mula dengan akaun sebenar menggunakan wang sendiri.

Permulaan tak perlu besar, memadai dengan akaun mini atau mikro dan modal serendah 25 dollar. Broker tu pandai pandai lah cari. Boleh refer kat forum (contoh Nogold.com) kalau nak senang. Cuma kalau tanya aku, aku cadangkan fxdd atau fxcm dan mula dengan USD500 ke USD1000, itu pun kalau ada modal. Kalau tak, USD25 pun boleh dgn akaun fxcm micro. Main 1 pip = 0.10 dulu. Lepas tu sikit sikit besarkan posisi kita berdasarkan amaun ekuiti yang ada.

Yang penting perkasakan teknik kita dalam menawan pips pips yang ada dalam pasaran forex tu. Ada bermacam-macam teknik yang kita kena belajar & cari sendiri. Bila wang sudah berganda, tekniknya sama sahaja cuma kita gandakan lot kita dari mikro ke mini, dan kemudian mini ke standard. Ini yang dinamakan 'calculated risk' atau pengurusan risiko.

Hakikatnya, memang boleh buat duit (dengan banyaknya) melalui forex. Tapi kena ingat, pada masa yang sama kita juga boleh hilang duit (dengan banyaknya) jika tidak berilmu & berhati hati.

Pokok pangkal, tiada jalan singkat. Kalau nak buat, buat betul betul. Kalau nak 'gamble', pergi Genting, jangan main forex. Sebabnya banyak liku liku dan selok belok pergerakan asas (fundamental) dan teknikal pasaran yang perlu difahami sekiranya benar benar ingin berjaya. Kalau betul nak buat duit, jangan labur buta-buta. Kalau dah hilang tu buat sujud syukur je la, jadi beringatlah sebelum terkena. Itu sahaja pesanan ikhlas aku.

Apa apa pun, mamak ni punya roti nan memang best! Buurrrppp. Syukur Alhamdulillah (sambil tangan menyapu perut ;))

HOW TO PREDICT THE PRICE MOVEMENT?

One of the heart-fainting aspects about forex trading is the dynamic movement of the prices. On certain crazy occasions, it can swing up 100 pips, going down 50 pips, and then move back upwards another 100 and so on, within minutes to several hours. Sometimes, it even defy technical indicators reading and is especially true if you look at the GBP/JPY and GBP/USD pairs. They seem to be quite hard to predict.

When the price starts dancing swiftly, you are likely to jump in a way if you do not plan your trade wisely, you will end up trapped in various losing positions, especially if you are day trading.

We as traders, especially individual traders who are less informed and handicapped in understanding the market in full swing, are normally bombarded with questions like 'how can I know where the price is going?"

The fact is, you will never know, no one ever will but of course you can calculate the probability by applying both technical and fundamental analysis in your trading approach. Remember the key here is PROBABILITY.

Base on my own experience, there is no hard & fast rules. If someone told you he knows something for sure, he is lying. And don't forget that even a balance approach is not a guarantee for you to make profit. But surely you have better chances.

Since technical analysis is a very broad subject that I assumed most of you already knew (or shall be discussed later separately), I will only mention the 4 fundamental aspects that I personally remember (by heart).

1st fundamental key is to keep in mind that the market is always right. Do not argue with them or else prepare for the consequences.

2nd fundamental thing is to understand that these volatilities are always due to ongoing battles between the bulls and the bears ie buyers vs sellers. The buyers are pushing the price up and the sellers are pulling it down. Clearly the majority will win. If the trend is strong in one way (say bullish), or when a breakout occurs, it shows that the market is in consensus on where the price should be heading.

After times when it starts to slow down, stop moving and showing tiredness, it is likely that the bulls (buyers) are running out of steam. This is the time when most short term traders (like me) start to run away by taking their profits and stay out for a while. These shorting activities on profit taking (and shorting scalpers too) are normally traps that new traders need to be aware of. Some might thought that the market is reversing, hence open a short position and later caught when a new batch of buyers come in and start buying the pairs again. Same applies on bearish trends.

The ways to avoid this strap is to:

1. Calculate the daily range movement. Normally if it is still below 100 pips range, the movement will likely to continue. Otherwise when it stops, it could be a reversal and major corrections. Watch out the 4 hours and 1 hour candlestick interval as confirmation.

2. Be particular with the daily pivot, resistance x3 and supports x3. These lines are the easiest way to plan for entries & exits. Hence if the current movement is yet to reach any of these lines, the best is to stay out.

3. Instead of trying to predict reversals (or picking top or bottoms), join the trend with minimum risk at stakes. Use the 5 minute candlestcik to time your entry well. Enter when there is a sign that market is start buying again (for bullish trend).

3rd fundamental is to analyse the daily news, economic calendars, stocks, crude & gold prices as well as sentiment index readings (available at www.fxcm.com/forex-news-software-exchange.jsp). Sounds too much right? It isn't that complicated actually.

In simple words, you need to emphatize the market, feel it, look at the chart and try to understand what the majorities are doing. If you can't do the above, easiest way is to study the daily bias (up or down) and the 4hr candlestick. These 2 alone speaks for the majority.

The 4th fundamental is to look at the 5 majors and see whether the movement is about USD, JPY, CHF, GBP or EUR. Just check the news. Weakness or strength in dollars, swiss franc, sterling, yen or euro has significant difference in terms of movement correlation. So be extra careful not to blindly buy the EUR/USD pair when you see GBP/USD pair price is jumping up.

Hence, back to the topic on predicting price movement, my conclusions are:

1. There is no hard and fast rules in predicting the price movement precisely. Use various fundamental & technical indicators as your best bet. Beware, surprise do happen at times.

2. Trend is your friend, going against is crazy but joining blindly is lazy. Not all friends are
really friends. At times, friends do trap you. So be extra careful. Analyse the RSI and Stochastic for any Overbought or Oversold signs.

3. Watch out the daily pivot, resistance and support as well as the Daily and 4 hours bias (up or down). These are among the easiest indicators on what's next.

4*. Trading is a life lesson. If you are serious about trading, you must learn and take an educated approach. There are no shortcuts in becoming successful in anything.

Finally, I like to use the word "taking advantage" on the market movement for my trades since normally I do not bias to either side. Both ways are profitable as long as I get it right.

p/s: At times, I always smile to myself, feeling greed everytime I exit a trade, taking half of my TP, and later on looking at the price moving to my original TP, and even went another 100 pips above. (talking about buying). Last time when I sticked to my TP, the market reverse and I lost the trade. So, how? ;))

Btw today is another great day. 177 pips from 11 trades. All winning ! Took advantage on the GU and EU movements.

copyright Ó 2009 by shahrul nizam hussin

Why Do Traders Get Emotional?

Humans are emotional by nature, so as traders. Base on my trading experience, the main reasons to trading emotionally are due to:

1. You are trading beyond your comfort limit.

2. You are looking for a big hit with a bigger position, wishing the market to move accordingly to your desire.

3. You knew if you got this wrong, you are likely finished, or you gonna lose big time.

Simple right, but not so simple.

At times, during my earlier year as a trader, I did like to open bigger positions as well especially if the setup is 90% good.. The nerve ticks every second and the tounge couldn't stop saying, please please... be on my side this time. The bad news is, I was hardly correct everytime I did this and I learned my lessons. Period.

Though it feels good when you hit it, but it feels like suicide if the position went against you. I knew straight away that this is not the way to trade if I were to survive in this field. It is indeed a bad habit.

Hence, the only cures to this emotional tradings are:

1. Do not open big position if you can't take it. Risk only 3% and below of your total equity size.

2. Only dare to open bigger position using the house money, i.e. the daily profit that you secured earlier of the day.

3. Trade small, and increase your position slowly if the market is with you. Play several small positions and close those in profits as insurance. Remember timing is the key here.

4. Plan your trade carefully. I normally trade the London session only.

5. Try not to pick tops or fishing bottoms as those entries are very risky, though you may get it correct at times.

6. Always calculate upfront on how much you are willing to risk, say USD100, USD500 or USD1000. U knew u gonna lose this much if you are wrong.

7. Set Stop Loss. The market force is so immense so if you don't plan to have any SL upfront, prepare to face severe consequences.

8. Read the news and do your own analysis. Comprehend the market sentiments by studying the daily, weekly as well as monthly price actions.

9. Use whatever indicators that are comfortable to you. At the moment, I am using a Kuasa Forex & ProFx indicators bought online, plus some other built in indicators within MetaTrader platform. Simpler is better. Personally, I love having a few indicators as confirmation. My main charts are the 4hr, 1 hr and 15m candlesticks. I discovered that most major movement continuation and/or reversal starts at the 1 hour interval.

10. Stick to your plan. Do not jump in or jump out easily. Market swings between 20 to 30 pips are normal, that is why I always use 50 pips as Stop Loss and 100 pips as my Take Profit (2 to 1 risk reward ratio). At times, I do quit earlier when I am scalping the market.

That's it. All the best to your trading.

p/s: I made over 200 pips today with 34 winning & 1 losing trade ! Of course I was scalping.

BEWARE - DO IT AND YOU'LL DOOM

1. Trading big lots with big leverage
2. Losing patience & perspective in situation
3. Rushing for revenge trading
4. Complacent with account size and recent winning streaks
5. Blow up everything in single day or trade
6. Did not plan the what if's
7. Too FEAR or too GREEDY
WHAT MATTERS ?

1. Keep things in perspective - steady - cool - wait
2. Trade like when you are having USD100 in accounts
3. Be AFRAID. Be very afraid. Admit that you're WRONG, when you're WRONG.
4. Always say ; I can control myself… but not the market…
5. MAKE MONEY - per day and per week target basis
6. STEADY equity growth
7. Prior to opening any position, Visualize it. What are the chances & WHAT IF ?
8. SELF CONTROL - Do not ENTER when you feel not to.
9. Play the PSP when waiting for ENTRY chances
10. RIDING ON THE profitable SIDE OF THE MARKET

In Summary... IT'S ALL ABOUT SELF CONTROL...

If you can't have this within you, then use EA's (ie Robots)... one of the best now is FAPTurbo... even that I do not trust it 100%. I still prefer manual trade ;)
All the BEST to your tradings.

copyright © 2009 by shahrul nizam hussin

What's Going On with Malaysian's Politic Today?

First, I'd rather be careful with my writings as excessive comments may put me in unnecessary risk of being detained under the ISA (Internal Security Acts).

To my kind readers, be reminded that these are just my 2 cents.

Yeah I knew by heart that the world is not fair and full of hypocrites. But anyhow, I do feel like speaking my mind after years of unspoken opinions over this matter. It may sound generic but I do have my points.

In my honest opinions, let's get back to basics.

1. What politicians should know about the people?

- We don't care who's up there as long as our welfare are being taken care of.

- People want a peace & stable country, it is good for business.

- People want prices of goods maintained at reasonable rate, in good ratio with our monthly average income.

- People want the Government to enhance the quality of public services and amenities.

- People want more opportunities to enhance their income, life quality as well as their lifestyles.

- Anything that is good for the country, the people will support.

2. What should the politicians do?

- Win the people's heart. Do the right things, please! We are tired of too much chronism issues.

- Bring back the principle of "Wakil Rakyat" ; leader who works for the people, with the people. Not only during elections.

- Maintain a clean image with less scandals (no scandal may sound too ideal). We knew that no one's perfect, therefore minor defects are acceptable.

- Walk the talk. Do it when you say it.

- Create a Vision. Lead the people to a common goal, say a revised Vision 2020.

3. What else should the politicians know?

- Most Malaysians now are borned post-Independance era (after 1957). Hence, it is not easy to remind them the hardships of the older generations. It is the future that matters.

- The country is full of young blood, hip hop and westernized mindsets due to the internet borderless world phenomenon. Hence, new approach is inevitable or else...

- The young generations are hardly interested in political scandals and gossips. Most understood on what is happening and all they need is a dynamic leader who can walk the talk.

- It is indeed challenging to lead the country with more and more sophisticated people and generation being breeded, hence being weak is not an option.

So, be it. If we don't have a leader who has a genuine interest in leading this country sincerely and proficiently, we will surely fumble and scuffle. Not to mention the 'ready to bake' sensitive issues on races, equality and indigenous citizenships. So leaders, listen to this, do something and we shall remain united and prosper.

In short, I do hope (since it's not within my control) that our upcoming new Premier will do all the good things for the people as well as the country. "Take care" on those who have shown undivided support to you all these while, but do not forget the reason why you are there in the first place. It is all about managing and leading the people towards prosperity and unity that matters in the long run.

Win the people's heart and you shall have their undivided support, too.

Sincerely written by: Shahrul Nizam Hussin

What Did I Do Correctly when I am Making PROFIT?

1. I have a solid system

2. I have the patience to wait for the perfect setup.

3. I read the market correctly, getting in just before a breakout took place .

4. I closed losing position immediately. Execute ESC plan when I have to.

5. I have the discipline to stick to my plan.

6. I did not jump & overtrade the day.

7. I risked small amount of my equity in each trade, normally 3% to 5% only.

8. I had enough rest prior to trading.

9. I have a proper trading schedule.

10. I am RATIONAL rather than EMOTIONAL in my approach.

11. I am focused in making money.

SIMPLE KEYS TO MAKING PROFIT in FOREX

The ways to generate profit is definitely to trade correctly & profitably all the time. Easier said than done, the thing is like in any sports or games, it is impossible to win all the time, every time.

In tennis, look at Roger Federer for example. He doesn’t need to ace every serve in order to have a career gain of over USD44 million. It’s all about playing it smart and winning the whole battle at the end of the day that matters.

Same applied to us as traders, the KEYs to winning trades consistently is to apply the right principles, techniques and indicators in justifying our decision to enter a trade. Since we could not make it 100% correct all the time, this is where good money management plays its role in protecting our equity in case we're wrong.

So, Rule #1; TIMING is the key. You have to look at the time for entry especially the Daily bias, 4H, 1H, 15M and even 5M for a perfect entry setup decision. Always stick to the maintrend though there are a few exceptions that I shall discuss later.

Prior to entry, you must always question whether it is a good setup or otherwise. What do the charts pattern and price actions trying to tell you? Is the market moving sideways, channelling or trending? Read the reports from various sources to confirm your understanding. Is there any major NEWS coming out soon?

Either way trading is a game of probability. You take your bet base on what the market will likely be doing since going against them is definitely unwise. It is not an exact science where A plus B will always equal to C. It is an art, just like a lady that you should carefully learn, appreciate and comprehend. It takes time for sure. But with proper skills, techniques and respect, you shall succeed.

Other than timing, the next key is Rule#2 : RISK MANAGEMENT, or so called money management. The only questions thate relate to this will always be:

1. How much to risk for this single trade? (ie 5%, 3% or 1% of my equity, than translate them into pips SL)
2. What is the best position size to take for this trade? (ie 10 std lots, 5 std lots, 1 std lots or 1 mini lot)
3. What is my profit target? (ie 200 pips)

Some people put this thing first on top of timing but the way I see it, there is no point talking about accepting minimum losses when you keep on losing. My argument is, though you may manage your risk pretty well by putting only a tiny amount of capital in any trade, you still loose substantially if you keep on losing.

Hence, you need both or you will just end up as bad as those gamblers who put everything at stakes.

In summary, the fundamental keys to generate profit in forex trading is:

TIMING (SETUP : ENTRY : EXIT) + GOOD RISK MANAGEMENT = CONSISTENT PROFITS

copyright Ó 2009 by shahrul nizam hussin

THE 3 GOOD THINGS ABOUT…

1. Being An Electrical Engineer
- You get the chance to fully understand how electricity is generated, transmitted and distributed
- Learn NOT to mess around with something that you can’t visually see
- Chances to make more money and earn higher credibility by enhancing your competency to Professional Engineer and Competent Engineer.

2. Being A Bowling Player
- Appreciate & understand the importance of Focus & Strong Mental Games
- Chances to compete with the best Bowlers in Malaysia – even the Malaysian Players ;)
- Release your stress by visualizing the pins as your problems (e.g. Your Boss)

3. Being A FOREX Trader
- Improve heart strength in Taking Losses (huhu..), Patience & Self Discipline
- Making more money and being humble at the same time knowing the facts that the market is so powerful to be denied.
- Ability to develop your Sixth Sense in a way to balance both technical and fundamental approach. The 6th sense tells you when to and not to proceed with any trade, especially when whipsaw occurs.

4. Being A Constant Reader (at least 1 new book a month)
- The easiest way to gain knowledge endlessly
- Leaders are Readers. Read and you shall lead.
- Continuous exposures to new ideas and technologies. I even read the bowling books!

5. Being A Husband
- Improved mutual understanding, communication skills as well as learning how to stay cool & patience – 24/7
- A dedicated place to be romantic where love should be channelled
- Apart from work, this is another platform to prove your productivity level

6. Being A Father
- Having a podium where you can reward your loved ones
- Sense of being importance when everything needs your approval
- A place to improve your coaching skills and to fill up the gaps on whatever

you wished your father had done for you.

7. Being A Frequent Traveller
- Expand your views on different cultures by exploring the world & later learn to appreciate your home soil
- You get more points for your Enrich.
- Travel in Business Class (sometimes 1st class due to free upgrade) when it is business trip.

copyright Ó 2009 by shahrul nizam hussin

ARE YOU A RISK TAKER?

Life is a risk and no matter where we go or what we do, there are always risks involved. Even walking in a bathroom is much riskier than crossing a road with heavy traffic. Not to mention the different risks that you have by living in one place compared to another.

The question is, how strong and how brave we are in taking risks? Do we have a choice?

Working in an oil refinery has always taught me that safety is not something that can be compromised. The best mantra of all, written in every work permit and safety signage is “No work is so urgent that we cannot take time to do it safely”.

And it’s true. If there is anyone who has the guts to argue this with the safety personnel, the solution is only one; GET OUT & DON’T COME BACK!

Looking at the risk behaviours of people or so-called risk appetite in trading, it makes me wonder what criteria that contributes towards such and such brave act in different persons in doing things. Shouldn’t we play it safe all the time? Take time to do it slow and safely so that no one get hurt.

The answer is very subjective and it is you to define which level of risk that is comfortable to you. In fact in business, it is an authentic believes that you’d gain nothing if you don’t take risk. A spineless businessman will never make it big time.

Talking about risk definition, some people dare to do skydiving but not speed racing. Some has the guts to invest millions in new business but no guts in trying the bungee jumping and so on. The list is indeed endless.

One of my best idols is our former Premier, Tun Dr Mahathir. If he didn’t have the guts in taking calculated risks in doing things for the country, I do not think we are where we are today. Even that, there are still plenty to be done, yet.

In short, certain things that we dare to do is not necessarily easy for others to take, regardless of what venture it is. Too much risk or no risks at all will twist things to dangerous or too boring to be endeavoured, hence killing the interest in doing it. But surely, when there is zero risk involved, the chances of safety is close to 100%.

Personally, I love risks as risks keep me alert all the time. Being too comfortable and satisified with what I have is simply not me. Sometimes I did take stupid risks, unintentionally. But whatever that didn't kill me will make me stronger.

My advice is simple:
Take risks but do not take stupid risk. You must consider the consequences. The pain is sometimes too much to take. Hence, it pays to be extra careful in taking risks.

copyright Ó 2009 by shahrul nizam hussin

HOW COME? : TYPICAL FX Q&A

COPYRIGHT Ó 2009 BY SHAHRUL NIZAM HUSSIN

Q1 : How come every time I opened a position I am already losing money?
A1 : This is due to spread imposed by Brokers

Q2 : How come I always entered wrongly?
A2 : Lack of patience and analysis could be the main keys. Speculating wrongly could be another factor.

Q3 : How come I always quit a profitable trade too early?
A3 : You are afraid that your winning trade could turn to a loser if you don’t act fast enough

Q4 : How come I lost too much money with FOREX?
A4 : You don’t have a sound money management system, probably risking more than 3% in each of your trade.

Q5 : How come I always ride a losing trade, instead of quitting and come back later?
A5 : Most of the time, it is due to you cannot take small losses and the habit of always adjusting your stop loss. Fighting the market is not a wise decision. You are being irrational and losing control on your single trade, resulting in a complete wipe out of your overall account. Most probably you don’t have a trading plan and system at all. Wishful thinking is the main culprit too.

Q6 : How come I always opened a position every time I sit in front of my trading station?
A7 : You are a jumper and does not have the discipline and patience to wait for the best moment to enter.

Q7 : How come the market hardly had a breakout when I plan to swing trade my position?
A7 : It is not meant to be and you are wishing for the market to move to your desired direction whereas the market thinks otherwise. Stay patience, it will come.

Q8 : How come the price never move in a straight line?
A8 : It never will. Buying and selling will always keep the pair volatile, big or little. There are always buyers and sellers in this market.

Q9 : How come small traders always lose money?
A9 : This is not true. Big time traders lose money too, with even bigger amount. To make money in FOREX regardless of your account size, we should take ADVANTAGE of the price movement instead of wishing the price to move in our favour. There is no one who can control the market hand. It moves whenever and wherever it wants – regardless what the report says. Respect the market and do not mess with it. They have no mercy on your account, at all.

Q10 : How come I always miss the BIG MOVE?
A10 : This is not your fault as market breakouts could happen at any time, even during the early Asian Session. This is the advantage of full time traders compared to those who trade on part time basis. Anyhow, you must understand and plan your trade accordingly as on occasional basis, market made a big move with a reason, and you have to find out why. Most of the time, it is probably due to major economic data release, speculation or statement issued by certain respective countries especially Japan, UK, Europe and United States of America.

Q11 : How come it is not as easy as I thought and told to be?
A11 : Making easy money with forex is a propaganda so that more and more green traders come to the market with new and big money. Technically speaking, the trading operation itself is easy as it only involves BUY, SELL and CLOSE, unlike operating any other machine. Some even use EA’s or a robot that is operated simply with a single click of a mouse. Anyhow, the truth is otherwise. Simply buying and selling a pair blindly is a sure way to clean your account. You must take an educated approach to trading in order to survive and make consistent profit in the long run. Losses are inevitable but controlling your losses when you get it wrong is the utmost importance for successful trading.

Q12 : How come not everyone can make money in this market?
A12 : This is a very good question. You must understand the concept of zero sum game. It is either you take the money away from the market, or you giving YOUR MONEY to the market, hence creating an equal balance in the market equity. The only fair thing that you have is control over this matter by trading wisely. The way I look at it is there is no such thing like everyone can make money in this market. That is why I do tell my students that you cannot be averaged to become a consistent winner. Life itself is not fair, so as trading. Imagine a war without a winner, a football game with a draw result, or a CEO who earns as much as his cleaner. It is not going to happen. There is and will always be one Cristiano Ronaldo in the football world. If all footballers in the world could play as good as him, then FIFA will be having trouble in deciding who deserve the footballer of year award. But as a smart trader, you have a choice whether to make or lose money by taking an ingenious approach, education, skills and experience by constantly learning.

Mandatory Skills To Become...

1. A Good Person?
- Religion & Attitude

2. A Good Father
- Academic & Negotiation

3. A Good Husband
- Loving & Buying Power

4. A Good Son & Son-In-Law
- Respect and Solidarity

5. A Good Engineer
- Sensible & Vocal

6. A Good Bowler
- Focus & Fighting Spirit

7. A Good Trader
- Patience & Discipline

We can always elaborate these points for sure, but those are the keywords.

One tip - Being good in anything you do should be your primary aims or otherwise someone may end up crying....

But in this case, my daughter cried because I took away her ice cream... too much in a day.. ;))

HOPE IS GOOD BUT...

copyright Ó 2009 by shahrul nizam hussin

Hope is a very common word that we use daily. One way or another, each of us must have had hoping for something, whether we admit it or not, especially when those things are beyond our control and achievement.

Looking at the reality of hoping, I wonder if there is any difference whether we hope or not? Will hope affect the outcomes of certain results or events? If the answer is none, then why do we hope? The key is because it is a universal trait of human being that even a 5 year old kid knew what hope is all about. (ie hoping papa will buy me a playstation for birthday etc).

Hence if we look hope from the trading perspective, frankly speaking H-O-P-E is the most unwanted four letter words that we should not apply in trading.

Why? There are at least 7 reasons that I could recall.

1. Hope kills. The more you hope the more money you’d lose and the more emotional you become.

2. Hope will encourage you to trade blindly and carelessly. You simply hope that you are correct without thinking on the consequences.

3. Hope will encourage you to ride your losses as you are hoping the market to reverse.

4. In case you are right, hope will turn into greed that keeps you losing money. Say you are at 200 pips in profit and hope that you could make it another 100 before exits. Without proper analysis and realistic target, this kind of hope will surely kill.

5. Hopers are not realistic. They set ridiculous TP and gigantic SL. They wish for a home run that seldom happens. Again it kills.

6, Hopers live in different world. They put even more hopes in their trading when they managed to get their earlier hopes successfully or perhaps by chance. It only takes one mistake for these hopers to be flushed out of the market.

7. Hope will make you forget about all your previous mistakes. You will never learn and hence you can under no circumstances improve your knowledge and skills as a trader.

In short, hope will keep you frustrated when it is not happening. So, don’t hope.

The only thing that good about hope is it keeps your dream alive, well at least within your imagination. It may happen and it may not. At times, it is inevitable to hope when there is nothing else you could do. It is more to religious slant that turns one to become more humble and subservient to his God.

Anyhow from trading perspective, instead of hoping, you should trade with open eyes. Digest and analyse the market data that are available to you. After doing all that you can, then only you should consider taking informed decision whether to take the trade, wait or otherwise.

Finally, you should decide base on facts and the reality that if anything goes wrong, you can and probably have swallow all the paints upfront simply by understanding the consequences of your trading decision. Good risk management as well as patience in getting the right entry are all it takes in getting profitable trades. Not HOPE.

All the best to your trading!

Hari ini dalam sejarah!!!

Akhirnya secretary peribadi aku tolong juga aku buat blog.. Syukur!!