Been out most of the day. Arriving back late afternoon.
Took a look at the charts... and can honestly say there was nothing that appealed to me, for the purpose of this blog.

So my position today has been no position. Which in itself, IS a trading position.
Trading properly and to earn a living from this business is to treat it as such and not to take chances.

If you were a window cleaner, you wouldn't clean the windows of a house you didn't know on the off chance that the owner wanted them done at that precise time and would pay up your asking price when you knocked on the door to demand your fee.

You thought they looked a bit dirty and so just jumped straight in and whipped out your washer.
The owner would most likely tell you to sod off.

Same as crossing the road. You would not stand at the edge of the kerb (sidewalk), look both ways, see it was all clear and then decide to wait until traffic was streaming past both ways before then, deciding to step out into the road looking straight ahead with your eyes tightly shut!

What do you think the outcome would be?

It's a fair bet that your attempt to reach the other side would be futile and fail. Most likely a trip to the hospital or the morgue would be the end result.

Same thing with trading. Jumping in with fingers crossed in the hope your 50/50 pays off. and NOT waiting for YOUR set up to appear is the quickest way to decimate your account. These 'half chances' 'boredom' trades. Wanting 'action' trading, is the sure way to become one of the statistics that say most people fail in this business.

There is certainly a lot going against you in trading.
It makes sense to put as many things in your favour as you can before you trade. Then you know if the trade goes wrong you can cut the trade easier because you know you have done everything you can to 'case' the trade out. There is less 'blame' attached to you. So the closing of the trade is easier.

If you just jump in. And it goes wrong; you are more likely to keep holding onto the trade in the hope that it will turn right.
This is just plain gambling and hope.
It has no place in your life as a trader.

Sadly my early part of the day turned out to be very similar to yesterday.
But this time though a quick look through the charts has shown eur/usd to have been strong eur most of the day. So am looking at the chart for a short as the eur pauses for breath. So am looking for a contrarian entry point for a scalp initially.

Reason for interest: Eur has been gaining all day. Price has just passed yesterdays high. Is at previous resistance area on daily chart. Will have hard job to push through.

Entry

Well this trade is highlighting a problem I spoke about a little while ago.

That of broker feeds and chart information.

Here are 2 different broker charts of the same cross. Eur/Usd taken only a few seconds apart.
Which one you are viewing at the time will be enough to sway your trade.

Although these are 4 hr charts, I have seen this on one hour charts a couple of times and certainly more often the lower down the time frame you go.

This abnormality is mainly down to the time of day your broker starts their feed.

The darker chart starts printing later than the light one

The darker chart is showing a very possible formation of a 'pin bar'. A very strong reversal bar. This would put you in the frame of mind to short.

The lighter chart is showing a possible continuation bar. This one is like a pin bar in reverse. (Remember though the bars have not yet closed). So that would put you in the mind of continuing the move.

So what's a trader to do? Two traders. Only one of them will ultimately be correct in the decision. Both traders can each make money on the same trade.

The easy answer is to go with the main trend on the chart you are watching. This is a case of the trend really IS your friend.

Well trade closed for small profit. At times it was bigger and at times it was smaller.

Reason for closing trade; Coming into Usa share market close around 9 pm my time. In truth a good time to have a sleep before Asian open at 12 my time. Prices can and do get up to weird moves and is none other then manipulation and scare tactics by various brokers etc.

Think it doesn't happen?

Jog on son!

1st pic is trade close and the other two are the 4 hr different broker pics after the change.

Is it any wonder it is so hard and you are confused as to what is the right thing to do.

Trading is the hardest way I know to make easy money.

Just shorted. Giving it a bit of breathing room as well.

Serious problems with the 'net this A.M.
A couple of my accounts are slow to non existant and firefox and IE are not playing.
This meant a system restore to a previous good setting. And it appears to have done the trick.
That system restore thing has been my saviour many many times.

Anyway, The running cable trade was very quiet in the Asian session and I actually slept during my night time, But I am a naturally early riser and was up at 5am as usual. Bit bleary eyed due to too much sleep, but ready to go none the less.
Sleep is vastly overrated and should be judged on quality and not quantity. 5 hours 'good' sleep is better than 8 hours tossing and turning,

Because today is nfp day, the only day that has real market turning abilities in my book and because trade has not given enough for a safe margin in the time that it has been running, I intended to close the trade and take the afternoon off.
But I took a screen shot yet didn't close trade off being too eager to sort the system out and left the trade running while reboot took place. Not a good thing to do as anything could have happened to computer, with worst case being computer not playing the game and trade turning from good profit to bad loss in the time it takes to make computer well again.
I had the same trade for real on another account but had stop and tp set on that. With tp being actioned without help from me.
Two charts then, with first one being what I meant to close at, and second one with what I did actually close at. Not a great deal of difference, but a few quid none the less.

Short cable

Typical isn't it. I'm not keen on Monday morning trading. I tend to give everything a chance to settle, what with orders piled up waiting to be actioned. I think the market(s) need time to work out what's happening and where it (They) want to go. So generally I try to wait until after the London open. Got sidetracked with other things for a few hours and missed a nice trend change on cable. Missed too, all the entry points I would have considered.
But price was just at a 'weak' previous support and looked good for continuation. Meters were still showing pound weakness and dollar strength, so the short was taken.
Stop is the top of the entry bar and target is Fridays low.

It is very possible though I have called the exact bottom of this small trend and price will now reverse up and away from my entry point... I do have a brilliant knack for doing that!

Time as ever.

Just closed off.

Had a little bit of initial impetus, But lacked conviction. Got to 3 figures at one point, but do not like how it is dawdling. Outside of my time limit now for movement, so closed off for tiny profit.