UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET'S PSYCHOLOGY...

It's been 3 months without a single article updated in this blog. I had been very busy and occupied with my day job (as well as golfing) that I had even forget that I have a blog to update.

From an oil refinery, project, operation and maintenance nature to a new environment where technical skills are pre-dominantly vital, I believed I need more time to settle in and to re-awake my technical strength in engineering in order to survive with this new assignment.

For now, I am working in KL and no longer in Melaka for good. From Oil Business to Corporate and I'd probably be joining one of the nation's mega project soon in Johor.

Anyway, still the same as before, my key interest is still here with forex trading, a game of probability where 90% of traders lose money. In fact I am still analysing the market on daily basis and open positions accordingly with my demo account. I am still passionate and enjoy the thrill of forecasting the market, though I could and would be wrong on certain cases.

With my live account perhaps only one or two trades per week as I am not really watching the market as closely as before due to time and location constraint.

Perhaps the best tip that I could share with my colleagues adn followers out there who may be asking where were me for the past 3 months is... focus on your timing and risk management regardless of what technical indicators that you may be using.

The deeper you explore this market, the simpler it becomes. Trust me you will know it once you are there. It's just a matter of whether you survive... or give up. You choose.

The best thing is you don't really have to guess where the market is going in this money-makingandlosing-game. You just have to understand on how to read the market properly accordingly to the trend, signs and patterns that were left behind. What the crowd is doing & could be doing has always been my first question whenever I open up my trading charts. The reason I put could is because no one knows exactly... so anyone could be wrong inclusive me.

Though the question may sound fundamental, it is indeed technical as it will be followed by technical analysis on the statistic probabilities.

Keep in mind that guessing blindly is just like gambling. So be wise with your trading decision... and be yet wiser. Don't chase the market... instead let it come to you.

One thing that dissapoint me is that most new traders who were seeking my advice are hardly listening to the advice given until they crashed their account. Perhaps this is normal huh... but what can I say. This could be the nature that brokers want to maintain in order to attract more losers into the market. So be it...

Anyway in short, all I want to say is I am still here and will keep on updating this blog whenever I have the time and ideas on what to write. As mentioned earlier in my first year as a blogger, I am not really looking into becoming a celebrity in this blogging world, instead it is a journal of my own where sharing is the key word apart from keeping them as my own personal referrence.

For those aspiring forex traders out there who just started and wish to make millions from this arena - please take my advice - stick with your dreams but make sure you learn the fundamentals.

If you have 10k for examples to start your trading, spend at least 30% of it on your trading education. It's worth it since even if you lose the rest 70%, chances are you will improve from your 30% investment in education for your next deposit.

Otherwise, you are no better than a pure gambler. You'd never learn and always remain on the bottom 90% who loose 100% of the time. Brokers would love it though...

Have A Nice Day... ;)

A DIRECT EQUATION INDEED...

The longer I stay and watch the market without doing anything, the more I realized and agreed on what trading is all about, regardless of what system or indicators that I am using.

I come to a conclusion that it's always the basic principles that prevail. This is just a game of probability and proper risk management.

The bare candlesticks of  the weekly, daily, 4 hourly and hourly movement are always the best things to study and analyse, plus some Fibonacci levels to watch, moving averages, market volume as well as RSI and Stochastics (and some others as you wish to use) that really serve as road signs on where are the likelihood of these bulls and bears could be running.

Initially, back in January 2008, I thought trading was indeed simple. I can always make money simply by using a 97 dollar robot or system that later proven to be otherwise.

Then I made it into a complicated beast by really studying every single thing that I could, buying every forex book available at amazon.com, reading every single article that I could find from google, and participate in forums that I thought could give me some edge with my trading decision. In the end, I still lose money along the way, as 90% of traders always do. Sounds common and pathetic right?

So, where is this going? I knew by heart that most (if not all) traders felt the same way as I did and 90% of them either keep on losing money or totally pull themselves out of this trading arena.

To me, the key is always about learning. Learning is a must and a continuous process. But not many, and I mean most traders forget about the basic principle of achieving success in whatever they do.

It's all about hard work and perseverance on top of their learning efforts. Nothing comes easy guys...

Something that I learned from golf, life is full of hazards and risk that you have to face. It's always there. It's either you embrace them or stay away from them. You have the options and you got to take it accordingly to your capability rather than emotional basis.

So when I look back at trading, I always see the hazards and risk involved whenever I start planning to open a position in the market. It is a direct equation of my own action and decision.

What I meant by direct equation is really simple...

1. BIG RISK = BIG REWARD
2. SMALL RISK = SMALL REWARD
3. CALCULATED RISK = LONG TERM REWARD

So, which one do you prefer? For No 1, you all knew the consequences. The aftermath of such risk taking attitude is normally, short and painful.

So, stay out from No 1.

For No 2, small risk could result in long term survival but chances are, you may not make it to the top. Base on research and analysis, small businesses could only prosper if and only if you have the consistent volumes. In this case, unless you have a 100,000 dollar account, then keeping your position small would not be very wise as it could take 100 years for you to build up a strong account. Even that, if you keep on losing on small risk, the final numbers would still be big and equivalent to No 1, considering that you keep on losing, which to me, could and had happened occasionally.

So, use No 2 only on highly uncertain situations. Or best still, don't take risk at all in such condition.

Hence, now it comes No 3 which is calculated risk. This is the risk that you have to embrace accordingly to your capability and calculative skills. The big question is on when and how to take calculated risk accordingly.

This is the secret that i wish to share with you guys... it works very well...

1. Stay out from the market as long as possible... don't even bother to watch... pretend that you are not interested... just do something else...

2. Watch the market without any interest and make your own analysis base on the movement that had happened... treat yourself as a currency analyst and produce an opinion...

3. Factorised both the technical and fundamental aspect of the market and emphatized on what is really going on... still... stay out...

4. Read action forex, check the economic calendar and browse through bloomberg in order to see whether there is any key geo-political news that you may miss out (ie tsunami and nucklear issue of Japan).

5. Last but not least, look at the charts and ask yourself whether is there any reason for you not to enter the market at this point of time? If yes, stay out and wait for the next day...

Those written above may sound conservative at first... but trust me guys... try it and you'll see... Base on the 5 elements, then take risk accordingly to your account size... perhaps 3% to 5% of your account size should be good enough. Sometimes, I do risk up to 10% when the situation is really favorable.

So, in conclusion, risk accordingly and embrace them... you can't get it right all the time anyway. But one thing for sure, if you're wrong... just get out and raise the white flag... don't ever fight the market force.

Fighting the market is like you alone fighting your own government... there's no way you can win.

Till then... take care and have a nice day.

ALL TRADERS MUST SEE THIS...

This video is not produced by me... but rather a reknowned economic expert whom is worth for you to pay attention to. Thanks Sanusi for pointing this out... it is scary indeed...

Just click here.

Have A Nice Day

MY LATEST RULES OF ENTRY...

I've been pretty busy lately due to some ongoing works and personal matters that need to be resolved. Anyway, just to share some of my written rules of trading that I apply personally whenever I am in front of my trading screens... it works so well for me...

1. NO MATTER WHAT... DO NOT ENTER THE MARKET BLINDLY... WE’RE SNIPING HERE SO DON’T WASTE YOUR BULLETS OR BE TRAPPED UNNECESSARILY. THE ENEMIES ARE SMART!

2. Check out Action Forex. Get the general ideas on what’s going on fundamentally.

3. Mark up the key technical levels mentioned in action fx on the trading whiteboard.

4. Check the Bloomberg for any potential breaking news.

5. Later, checkout the weekly and daily economic news release. What and when will be the high volume trading hours probability. Plan.

6. Then technically, check the Fibonacci levels on pairs that you see tradable. Check level on all timeframes from 4 hrs, Daily to Weekly.

7. Analyse the price action on each pair for the day. BULLISH, BEARISH OR SIDEWAYS?

8. What is the current direction and range so far?

9. Main pairs would be EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD.

10. Crosses would be EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and AUD/JPY.

11. Remaining two’s are USD/JPY and USD/CAD.

12. NOT SURE? Demo trade first and feel the market’s psychology. Watch the 15EMAs closely.

13. Generally we have equal buyers vs sellers, buyers dominance or sellers dominance.

14. LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE. See what is happening and make a choice. Mark it up on your whiteboard. Buy/Sell ONLY at these critical lines – pivot, support, resistance and MA.

15. REMINDER : Normally it is not easy for an established trend to change direction, but you must time your entry and exit accordingly.

16. DO NOT BE TOO CONFIDENT OR TOO FEAR IN TAKING DECISIONS.

17. POSITION ACCORDINGLY BASE ON CALCULATED SAFETY MEASURES.

18. HOW MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO LOSE IN CASE IF YOU’RE WRONG? ONLY TAKE CALCULATED RISKS...

19. THINK...

20. ACCOUNT PROTECTION IS THE MAIN OBJECTIVE IN EVERY SINGLE TRADE.

21. WHEN YOU ARE WRONG, GET OUT… OR AT LEAST STICK TO THE DTR (Dollar To Risk) DECIDED EARLIER.

Have A Nice Weekend... ;)

HAVE I GRADUATED FROM THE FOREX SCHOOL?

I guess not, still plenty to learn for sure... and before I forget, Happy belated New Year 2011 to everyone who is reading this...

There's nothing much to write actually on my 1st post for 2011. But frankly speaking, I am really considering my options to either retire early or changing my careers within this coming months, though not really sure which direction is the best for now.

2010 was full of challenges and some of them are still here for me to face and manage. I am indeed in a mid-career crisis at the moment that requires deeper thinking and considerations before any major decision could be taken.

As far as my forex is concern, I do believe that I deserve a degree after doing it almost every day for the past 3 years, or perhaps at least an advance diploma. This year onwards, I am probably pursuing my master degree already and maybe in the next 5 years, perhaps I deserve a PhD by the time I could have and manage a 6 figure account.

Anyway, most importantly is to make money to survive and prosper. This is a business after all so I should cut all the nonsense and focus on what I need to do to become an even better trader.

As I always said and mentioned repeatedly, this thing requires a lot of patience and discipline in order to succeed. Nothing comes easy for sure but it does become easier as you cruise along with strong patience and believe.The key words here are continuous learning and never give up...

Making Money vs Losing Money... either way it has its own implication. When you make money, you feel like angels, getting it right most of the time, happy and a little bit greedy here and there as you never felt enough... but when you loose money, you learn to appreciate the market better, the importance of proper risk management and ways to control yourself from knocking your head to the wall.

Both have its pros and cons but of course... the consequences of losing money could be greater as not all of us have the strength to take such knocks.

Last but not least... have I graduated from the forex school? I don't think so as learning is always a continuous process. Once you feel complacent about the skills and experiences that you already gained, you will become lazy and careless in which these will be the major killers to the potential growth.

For sure I am more experienced now than 3 years ago but still... the future remains a mystery... I can plan but the rest, I have to leave it to the Creator to decide... perhaps my 1st million will come from here, or perhaps from something else that I never thought about... Either way, I don't mind as long as it comes from a Halal source...

Have a Blessing New Year Guys & Gals... ;)

FOREX... 15 THINGS THAT YOU MUST UNDERSTAND BEFORE YOU START...

1. RISK INVOLVED

After 3 years of doing this, I strongly believe that this should be the utmost importance of all. Without it, trust me, your account is just like a time-bomb. A matter of when rather than how it will burn out. Of course you may not appreciate this at the beginning of your trading journey, but sooner or later you will know that trading successfully is all about prudent risk management. Without it, like I said before, all you need is a single mistake to burn out everything. One simple mistake... that's all. To experience this, just open a real account, regardless of how much you deposited in, risk everything in one single trade and hang-on to your losing position... just see what happen. KAABOOM! (though you may profited initially for the first few trades)

2. IT'S NOT A "GET RICH QUICK SCHEME"

Most (new) traders treat trading like a big casino where they can dump their hard-earned cash and turn it into a million dollar within 3 months. You may get lucky at times, but your luck will definitely running out sooner or later. Try as you may, but I can guarantee that you can never become rich quickly by trading. It takes time to become successful at anything.

3. TECHNICAL INDICATORS

These are the real instrument that you MUST understand before you trade. Regardless of what system or indicators that you choose to buy or apply, just make sure that you thoroughly understand what the indicators are telling, I mean the market behaviors in particular. There are just too many hypes out there telling you the short cuts of trading. Trading is pretty simple actually but to make it even simpler by simply buying or selling currency pairs base 100% of signals are very very risky indeed. Why, because there is no system that can fit 100% on every market's condition. Each system has its own advantages vs disadvantages.

4. FUNDAMENTAL INDICATORS

Just like technical, fundamental indicators have its own equal share on the market. Some traders even rely 100% on fundamental rather than technical in their trading decision. Talking about fundamental though, to me anything that creates fear or greed is something that worth for you to put your attention on. Why? Because we're all human. We have fear and greed and learning how to control and manipulate these two factors are something that is worthwhile to our trading decision. Fundamental includes political, geological and economic news, calendar as well as economic facts and figures. Easy said, anything that the country or bank leaders are doing has its own effect on the market. My point is, just pay attention and understand the sentiment accordingly.

5. FOREX TERMS AND JARGONS

Though these terms do not guarantee your profit but somehow you need to know them. Otherwise how do you call yourself a trader when you are blurred when people are talking about margin, leverage, spread and all those forex jargons? Got the point? You don't need to remember all but if you can come to a point when you can fully comprehend a report talking about risk aversion versus risk appetite, then you should be ok.

6. WHAT TYPE OF TRADERS ARE YOU?

Well, this is definitely going to take you some times before you can really figure it out. Are you a scalper or a swinger? What type of risk appetite that you have within you? Are you a wolf, a ship, a bear or what? Try to know and understand yourself first.

7. THE IMPORTANCE OF DEMO ACCOUNT

Guys & Ladies, demo account is a practise account that is crash-proof because you don't have real money in it. It is important though because it's like a driving range if you compare it to golf... A place where you start learning how to swing, hit the ball cleanly and drive it to distance. You need to keep your demo account alive regardless of whether you have a live account or not. This is the place where you check your strategy, counter check your temptation and so on. Yes it is easy to play demo, but if you want to listen to my advice, treat the demo like real and treat the real like demo... and tell me the result... That is one of my little secret indeed...

8. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL CONTROL

Are you a balanced person? If you can't control your temper, chances are you can't become a good trader. You need to be very calm, relax and steady during trading or otherwise most of your trading decision would be based on impulsiveness rather than logical and technical justification.

9. WHAT DRIVES THE MARKET?

The point here is to understand that the main driver of the pair prices (ie USD/JPY @ 84.00) are people. People BUY and people SELL regardless of where they came from, banks, institutional, retail etc. The underlying factors of buying vs selling is all depending on FEAR vs GREED... in which people buy when they feel optimist that the price will go up, and sell when they believe that the price will go down. Either way, no one is 100% correct because majority wins. Understand this first before you start learning in detail about Advance candlesticks, Ichimoku, Rising Star etc etc which to me, is less important. This is the most basic element and yet so many fail to appreciate the concept.

10. THE MARKET HOURS AND VOLUMES

The 5 sessions in a day that you need to pay attention to are Sydney, Tokyo, Dubai, London and New York. Normally what matters are mainly London across New York hours but I include Dubai as well as there are surprises coming from the Middle East countries that are worth for you to pay attention as well. Watch the volumes as well as this is a direct indicator of volatility on price actions that you may take advantage of. Compare these hours to your local time and mark them accordingly. The point here is that not all hours are tradable especially the Asian Session where normally volumes are low and price actions are pretty static.


11. HOW TO MAKE ENTRY DECISION?

Have a system or perhaps buy one if you need to. Study and understand how the system works and follow it dilligently. Base on experience, it is easier and more accurate to make a trade decision base on technical indicators rather than fundamental but you need to blend it well with market hours, news and fundamental aspects of the overall market sentiment. Only enter when you have no reason not to enter. If you are 50/50, either stay out or cut your risk factor to 50% than normal...

12. LEARN TO OBSERVE AND DO NOTHING BUT WATCH

Yes, this is all about patience and discipline. The reason behind this is simply to train yourself from being impulsive in making your entry decision. Definitely it is not easy but if you can master this one, the rest are just piece of cakes. Trust me, you will appreciate the market better simply by watching and analysing what is happening in the market.

13. YOUR TRADING HOURS

Determine your best trading hours in a particular day or week. If you have a family to take care of, just like me, you can't take them for granted by simply sitting in front of your trading station all day long. You need to go out and plan your time accordingly. Plan in advance so that you can minimise distractions during your trading hours... but of course... stay flexible.

14. TRADING TOOLS AND FACILITIES

A notebook, pc and a desk should be sufficient enough to start but somehow are not sufficient for you to make good decision with your entries. More screens will give you better perspective on the market's condition, especially the price actions on several inter-related pairs that you plan to trade. Invest a bit because it's worth it... perhaps one item at a time.

15. MARKET CONDITION

Ranging, Trending and Breaking. The 3 basic types of market movement. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and I don't plan to elaborate them any further here. 60% of the time, the market is always ranging. 30% trending either bullish or bearish and 10% breaking out, either up or down. Learn how to identify market mode and take advantage accordingly. That's all. You may need different type of strategy for different type of market's condition.

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All in all, all these may sound too complicated for you especially if you are a complete beginner.

The fact is... IT IS.

But trust me, these things listed above are do-able and master-able, meaning that you too can and will grab the concepts provided you give enough time for yourself to learn.

I tried my best to simplify them. Though trading wise you don't actually need to remember all of these elements, but the fact is you need to know them, one at a time and master the ideas in a pre-determined period of time, say 6 months to 3 years for example.

Just imagine a pilot and a passenger of a Boeing 747. Are they equal in particular? Yes they do in terms of humanity and perhaps physical too. But thinking about the skills, training, experience, competency and responsibility involved... I believe no question is asked on who's who.

The pilots are lesser than 10% from the passengers and yet they are the one who makes money rather than the passengers. Does this sound familiar from trading perspective?

So ask yourself and if you get my point, unless you have the intention to become a pilot in this trading arena which is not easy from the beginning, you better spend your money somewhere else rather than keep on paying the pilots and hoping that someday you will be able to fly the Boeing by yourself just like you did in your PS3 or X-Box consoles.

Trust me, it's not gonna happen unless you go to a pilot school.

HOW TO TIME YOUR ENTRY WELL... FOR SCALPERS...

1. First and foremost, avoid the Asian Session or at least minimise your trading activity. Market volume is particularly low during most Asian Sessions.

2. Trade the London Session only. This session is always the best as it presents a whole bundle of opportunities to scalp either way using a smaller time-frame, in which in this case I always prefer the 15 minutes.

3. Be particularly aware of the 1 hour interval, followed by 15 minutes and so on. Minimise your entry anything in between. I personally do not prefer or recommend the M1 timeframe but there are scalpers using this TF for sure.

4. Check the economic news release time for the day. Either you enter 15 minutes before or after the news or just stay out. Never be caught unaware... It's costly.

5. Watch and mark the daily top and bottom plus previous day top and bottom as well as the week's high and low. These levels are vital for scalpers in order to time your entry particularly during a directionless market.

6. Scalpers should use more technical indicators rather than fundamental.

7. Set your trading plan upfront and stick to the plan, ie 100 pips (ie 10 pips x 10 trades) or 100 dollars. What is your target/aim for the day. Go for it...

8. Study the market condition first. Not all days are good for you to scalp. If the market is not moving, just stay out... don't put blind hope unless you have a technical reason to hold on to your position.

9. Choose your tradable pair accordingly. Do not trade all the pairs or open too many positions that you yourself start to forget about.

10. Above all, always apply strict money management rules. You will be wrong at times for sure but prudent money management strategy will protect your account. Of course this is easy said than done...

Last but not least, set your TP and SL accordingly, normally in a close range in which from my point of view, scalpers shall focus more on entry accuracy rather than aiming for a home-run in each trade.

It's a bit tedious but statistically, it has shown that scalping is more exciting and profitable to me.

Have A Nice Day.

SWINGER VS SCALPER... PROS & CONS...

Swinger

1. Using bigger time frame, normally 4 hours, Daily and above.
2. Used a lot of technical indicators and confirmation before a good setup is identified, particularly with Moving Averages.
3. Hold position up to weeks or even months on a single trade.
4. Need a lot of patience waiting for the best setup.
5. Normally swinger used bigger stop loss or hedging position in order to protect their position.
6. Swinger goes with bigger profit target with 500 pips and above.
7. Need lesser works compared to scalper.
8. Success rate normally lower but one good swing trade can cover a number of unsuccessful trades.
9. Normally applied by institutional or more experienced traders whom hardly spend time a lot in front of the  trading screens.
10. A bit difficult to enter during high volatility period in the market.
11. To get the best entry for a swing trade is the hardest part in which most of my profitable positions turn to be on breakeven even after having a 300+ pips in profit.

Scalper

1. Using smaller time frame, normally 15 minutes and below.
2. Hit and run concept, some even take profit at less than 10 pips per trade.
3. Generates a lot of trade in a day, normally more than 10 trades.
4. High success rates, typically between 70% to 80% if wisely done.
5. Need more works compared to swinger.
6. Chances of making mistakes are significantly high if poor or no money management applied in trading.
7. Tendency to get greedy is normally high with scalping.
8. Significantly dangerous during high volatility.
9. Easily done in a range or trending market movement.
10. Scalpers are on disadvantage side during a market breakout, in which taking a small profit even the opportunity to hit a home run is there.
11. Last but not least, you need to be highly accurate with your entry. When wrong, cut losses immediately by closing that losing position without second thought and stupid hopes. Trust me, blind hopes will only kill your account.

One way or another, there are pros and cons for both type of traders. I couldn't say which is which is better as I personally tried both. Frankly speaking, I prefer to scalp rather than swing as it is not easy to get a good entry for a swing trade.

Scalping is a lot easier especially if you have a strict risk management strategy that will protect you in the long run. All you need is a sound strategy and a good system that gives you the cutting edge in winning trades every now and then.

To me, being a swinger is also ok but perhaps I am more on the scalping side. My own statistics have shown that I made more money with scalping rather than swinging.

But nevertheless, I do believe that either way is ok as long as you know what you are doing. I will swing once in a while with perhaps 1% risk factor (or less) compared to scalping with normally 2% to 3% is at risk.

Bottom line is... just decide which type of trader you are and plan a strategy that you want to apply... then focus on making money and cutting losses. Stick to these rules and success shall prevail.

Have A Nice Weekend.

DEAR MY FELLOW FOREX TRADERS...

I may not be that experience (compared to those who've done this for more than 10 years and above) in trading forex but by the end of next Month (December)... it will be my 1095th day, 36 months or 3 years in this arena. I still consider weekend as part of those days as even though I did not trade, most of the time I still used those time to think, study and analyze my trading skills, mistakes and analysis for the following week.

Along these 3 years period, I have a number of students of my own and there are people and friends who believe that I am already doing this exceptionally well and ready to take it on full time.

The fact though, it is not as sweet and easy as my original plan. I did make big profit at times but at the same time, I did encounter big losses as well during these past 3 years. All in all, I am more on the breakeven side rather than significantly profitable.

Though technically I may be a better trader compared to 3 years ago, but financially, I still need a little more time to be on the freedom site, meaning that I still have to be in my day-job office from 8 to 5 weekly. The security to take this on full time is yet to exist though fundamentally I feel ready to take it on full time basis.

Anyway, as usual there are reasons for me to write this article. The points below are those reasons that I would like to reiterate to my fellow traders, especially those who just started.

1. Anything can happen in this market. Don't be overconfident with your analysis. You can't be right/wrong 100% of the time. That's for sure.

2. Don't fight the market. Surely they are stronger than you. If you're wrong, just ESCAPE.

3. Money management is the key to profit and survival. Without it, your account is just like a time-bomb. You only need ONE MISTAKE to burn everything. ONE MISTAKE... that's it.

4. You need a good system that has the cutting edge for you to win trades most of the time. Find it yourself. There are various systems out there. Only one thing to remember, there is no PERFECT system.

5. You need to stick to your trading plan. Self control is the key.

6. You need to be accountable on every trade decision. Don't blame your spouse if you make bad trades.

7. You need to stay out from the market once in a while and enjoy your life by doing something else, especially on the weekend.

8. Invest on knowledge as well as tools for you to trade. Learn, undertsand and respect the market. I don't see people making millions by buying a USD96 system and trading from a single notebook all the time. Proper knowledge and trading station are vital for consistent trade results.

9. You need to make a thorough analysis prior to making your trade decision. You and anyone else could be wrong in one way or another. No one's perfect.

10. Above all... you need to have PATIENCE and DISCIPLINE in order to become a successful trader.

Remember guys, trading is a game that has the odds against you almost all of the time. The brokers are like casinos that make money regardless of whether you make money or not. So be smart when playing this game. Being emotional will only kill you...

Hence, though I do not consider myself as a gambler by trading, I still believe that in order to make money in this market... You have to strive to become the top 10% of traders in the world.

Being ordinary or average is not an option. Like in any game or sports, average players do not make the headlines, fortunes or money in anything that they do. Though it is easy to say that trading is just as simple as clicking the BUY or SELL button on your trading station, the fact is... it is not that easy when it comes to dealing with real money.

Emotion, greed and fear can easily creep into your decision without you even realizing it. So be aware of these trading virus every time you sit in front of your trading screens.

So fellow traders... in short, I just want to say that like all the successful traders out there, you too can be successful but you must have the guts to:

- Learn, Learn and Learn... there is no shortcut...
- Take losses when you're wrong.
- Have strong patience and discipline to stay, survive and prosper in the long run...

Nothing comes easy for sure... but at the same time, nothing is impossible too...

Have A Nice Day!

WHAT LIES AHEAD IS ALWAYS A MYSTERY...

Humans are always in puzzle, thinking about the possibilities and the potential outcomes on everything that we commit to do. The ratio between risk versus reward is always a big question before we take any step forward.

If we were too much on risk aversion, chances are we may not make any progress at all by being too afraid to take that first step all the time. But at the same time if our risk appetite is too big, chances are we may unnecessarily open ourselves to potential surprise that could bring disaster to our personal well being.

So which way to choose? Stay aside and play safe all the time? or risk it all in a single decision?

Though playing safe may sound the most conservative option that would protect us in the long run, the fact is you can never run away from risk. In anything that we do, there's always risk involved.

Hence, whenever this question pops up, the answer will always go back to risk management. That is why when someone approach you saying that this or that investment is risk-free, he is definitley lying.

One way or another, there is always risk for sure.

The only important matter that you must consider is...

IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG, HOW BAD WILL IT BE TO ME...???

Hence, regardless of how small or how big your next investment is going to be, always ask this question to yourself... repeatedly.

I had done a few terrible mistakes in the past by not installing this question in my subconscious mind. Hence, when things went terribly wrong, I was always in trouble that requires serious escape plan.

As per written on the topic above, the reason to this is always due to the fact that we humans are always wondering what lies ahead of us in the next 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or even 1 year from now. Something good or bad? We all don't know for sure. We can be optimist and positive, but sometimes being optimist alone is not enough in ensuring the success of our efforts.

Though the keen motivators can always tell you that we all can shape our future and destiny through proper planning and hard works, there are just things that you have to leave to fate and chances especially those that are beyond your control.

So the point is... do what you what you want to do but always focus on risk management rather than thinking too much on the rewards. Dreaming is good for sure but most of the time, you have to wake up from your dreams and face the realities.

Have A Nice Day.