PipStop

It's half an hour to midnight on the west coast and I thought I'd offer a few words as I watch a movie with my wife. She thinks I'm crazy, but I'm committed, and it doesn't take THAT much time.

This year has been memorable for many reasons, and Time Magazine has 50 Top 10 lists of everything from underreported news to oddball news.

There is much to look forward to in 2008. Coming home from the video store tonight (where it was an absolute zoo) I drove by a pretty serious accident. Now I'm sure none of you will be reading this until sometime in the new year, but I hope all of you bring in 2008 safely.

I will pledge to be a better blogger, to bring more insight, to share the edge that I regularly have, and really to just be honest in sharing my thoughts.

Happy New Year everyone!

The following is a New Year's message that was included with the regular Trading Post News & Updates. I wish you and yours a happy new year, and I hope the holiday season has been enjoyable for you thus far.

There is much to look forward to on the trading landscape. As I was told by Raymond, our New Media Developer, 8 is a lucky number in Chinese tradition. As we all enter 2008 may good fortune shine brightly in all our lives.

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Much has happened in the past year. In your lives, I'm sure you've seen transitions, additions, evolutions, progressions. It's much the same here at Trading Post.
 
Thank you for your continued commitment to this community. The vision of creating a global community of successful traders continues to burn bright. We may have hit some bumps along the way, but we continue to move forward together.
 
This past year we saw the launch of the Online Trading Advisor concept, the start in the re-development of our course curriculum, the transition to a more streamlined marketing model, employment of Web 2.0 technologies (with various products, YouTube videos,  RSS feeds, and blog), and a new website.
 
Let us be honest in admitting that we aren't perfect. What we collectively believe, though, is that your success is our success. The focus of cultivating success in each individual trader is our focus and we want you to be an active part in sharing your thoughts, ideas, and comments with the Trading Post community.
 
Your increased participation will not only lengthen your capacity as a trader, but will also enrich those around you as well.
 
We are excited about 2008. It will be a year of continued evolution, and we anticipate less disruptions.
 
Some of the things you can look forward to are: the complete release of SystemRunner™, strategic partnerships with system and signal providers, the launch of the Trading Post Affiliate program, completion of new course development, an increased variety of Online Trading Advisors, and a web-based community where Trading Post traders can interact.
 
Within all of this, I'll state again that our theme is - your success is our success - and we will be ardently focused on continually setting higher standards.
 
Sincerely,

Sam

As promised yesterday, I'll share a list of top 80 things to watch for in 2008. Of course like many things on the web nowadays it's entirely subjective, if not a little ridiculous, but the following list does provide for a little humor, if anything.

Of course it's all about JWT (an ad agency) putting this together (a completely random list that can easily by inversed and have the same effect). By the way, what does JWT stand for? And if you have an opportunity to look at its website - does it get any worse than its headache of a website?

There is one Forex trading related mention near the bottom of the list.

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy end to this year. There are only a couple of days left, but I'll be back tomorrow with a special message for all.

Sure enough the end the Forex trading year has finished in an interesting manner. As I've made mention in some previous entries about the overabundance of pundits sharing their views of what is in store for various aspects of the Forex market in 2008, the Financial Times' article on Miserable data halt US dollar's rally queues up what should be an interesting start to the New Year.

Of course I'm not about delivering market insight myself, as much as I am about sharing it, and Francesc Riverola, CEO of fxstreet.com shared some interesting links for all of you to pass some time reading over the next few days as we gear up for a new trading year.

In the coming days before the new year I'll post 80 things to watch in 2008 (which isn't trading specific, but interesting nonetheless) and a message from Trading Post for all.

I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season thus far.

-ska

I've received alot of insight into where the US dollar might be going in 2008. Pundits, prognosticators - or should I just lump everyone into the same "speculator" pile?

I came across an interesting thought by Raghee Horner today, whose RSS feed I'm subscribed to. Obviously the question of where the dollar is going in 2008 is a popular question, one that Raghee tackles and I'll share a snippet of her comments below:

"I really have mixed feelings about it because frankly it doesn't matter to the trader in me ... As a trader my main concern is movement ... beyond that I avoid two common mistakes:

1) trading with a directional bias
2) expecting reversals

I think these two mistakes are common psychological traps many traders fall into and as '07 comes to a close I think many traders start thinking about the more mental aspects to their trading game.

I wake up each morning with no expectation of anything:  up, down, or sideways I wait for an opportunity.  I have seen the price action over the years so many times that it's much like an golfer who is setting up a familiar shot or a quarterback recognizing a defensive play.

Many traders, especially traders watching the dollar, are anxious for a reversal...again, if I find myself waiting for a reversal it's because I am not in the current trend.  Think about it:  If you are short are you anxious for any kind of reversal?  No way! You hope the trend will last forever.

I take it one step further.  I like to look at both sides of any trade.  When I am setting up a buy, I think about what a trader would perhaps see if they were looking for a short.  Any good attorney or debater would do the same:  look at both sides of the argument.

Ok, so where is the Dollar going in '08.  Honestly I don't know and I don't care.  But what I can tell you is what the chart is telling me."

Everyone has an opinion on the US economy I'm sure. And it all seems to be based on the subprime lending crisis. Dom Armentano offers his rather bleak insight as we head into 2008. It won't be a very happy new year in the US, according to Dom.

When you have imaginary illnesses or ailments you could be referred to as a hypochondriac. What is a cyberchondriac, though?

Since online Forex trading has brought us all together, I'm sure we're all on our computers and connected constantly. So when I came across an article about cyberchondriac's on CNN.com, I thought how interesting. When's the last time you were sick, then googled the symptoms, only to misdiagnose yourself? Pretty stressful I bet.

So in the time we spend on the computer trading, learning, and surfing around, remember not to get too carried away.

Tomorrow is the last Trading Post Tuesday of the year. I think I’ve mentioned it here before but TP Tuesday has really evolved since it was introduced (in a dizzying weekly format before we moved it to a more settled monthly basis).

It’s slowdown time of the year as well all lock into holiday mode, but I encourage you to come see what’s going on. The new Trading Post Calendar is not only great to look at, but is extremely functional too. Big time props to our New Media Developer Raymond for continuing to come up with great solutions.

A simple cross-section of what’s going on tomorrow …

- MIND OF A TRADER: Steven Croft, vp sales, will be conducting his overview on his Mind of a Trader series. Since the introduction of the series in early August of this year, cumulative downloads of all episodes has surpassed 20,000! Active subscribers is currently just shy of 400.
- PRO-ACT TRADERS: Scott Barkley from Pro-Act Traders will go over the “Wild Card” trade. Pro-Act has been consistently drawing attention to its proprietary analytic. There is also over three hours worth of tutorials on Pro-Act in the Trading Post ILC to support those who decide to subscribe.
- GTC: Gold Rush Trading Club is undergoing a transformation to gear up for 2008. This evolution is based on the feedback of current GTC subscribers. Join Advisors Marilyn Burnett and Pierre Charlebois for this special session where they will also share their special promotion of a FREE month of service in January with you!

Then the highlight session of the day happens in the afternoon (or early evening depending on your time zone).
- SYSTEMRUNNER™: Automated trading has been tried and tested, but success has been fleeting for the vast majority of them. SystemRunner™ is an intelligent automated trading solution which execution has been technically tested, offers a vast library of tested trading strategies, and now it’s available for you to see and test drive. Come learn about Trading Post's newest partnership initiative.

So all in all it’s going to be another full and exciting day of forex trading, trading psychology, trading strategies, forex education, and automated trading. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Login at http://breeze.tradingpostfinancial.com/tptuesday starting at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and remember to consult the schedule to see what session is when.