PipStop

This isn't meant to be a permanent thing, but I love having this run in the background. I personally like Bloomberg and CNBC.

We're putting together a Resources page on the Trading Post website, and I'd like to see some unique additions that will be helpful to traders including a clip type service below.

My question is, with the continual advancement in technology, especially with tv streaming online, do you find yourself watching Internet TV more and more, or still not at all?

I'm back in the saddle now after being camping with my family at one of the most beautiful places here on the West Coast. It's amazing how things go. I brought my laptop and cell phone, but both ran out of juice, rendering them useless for much of the trip, which was a good thing.

I also confirmed my flight to Las Vegas for the Forex Trading Expo in September, as has one of our Trading Coaches Nikhil Patel. So we'll be roaming the floors of Mandalay Bay Resort - if you want to join us, we'll be happy to have you there with us.

This will be short post with some general thoughts on my visit to the Bright Trading office for a trading workshop last night. It wasn't really what I expected. It wasn't trading workshop (which I wasn't disappointed by), as much as it was about what Bright Trading does.

To put it simply Bright Trading is a company based out of Las Vegas with an affiliate office in Langley (which is a suburb of Vancouver). It is a prop trading firm - the type of firms Dr. Brett Steenbarger has been writing about in his blog in recent months.

It was highly intriguing, and the presentation by Don Bright, Rob Friesen, and Darren Clifford. The whole concept made me want to be a trader with them. The bottom line, I guess is if you take trading seriously and want to be a full-time trader with the backing and support of an experienced group, getting in with a good prop trading firm seems to be a good solution.

I'm going to get together with Rob next week, and we definitely have a similar type of philosophy of helping others. He's open to writing a variety of articles and perhaps even presenting from the perspective of a professional trader.

Heck, maybe I'll take some time to be a trader for a prop firm like Bright.

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The more I think about it; the more traders I come across - and this is truly ironic because I'm in a business where it's seemingly a no brainer that more traders = more business - but I always seem to come up with more reasons for people NOT to trade than TO trade.

I touched on this yesterday, but the expectations of traders coming into the Forex market are totally out of whack for the most part. Read Dr. Bruce Hong share his 10 reasons who shouldn't be trading. Interesting thoughts.

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As much as Forex traders will have you believe that the Forex market is the best to trade and you don't need to look at trading other markets - that sentiment is unfortunate. There's focus, sure, but don't feel a need to artificially confine yourself.

I've always maintained that self-directed trading is not for everyone. Many of the retail Forex brokers out there I'm sure will tell you the same thing, from FXCM to FX Solutions to InterbankFX, etc., who all contradict themselves when they say open an account with a minimum deposit (usually $300 or so).

That would indicate to me that they're looking for anyone willing to experiment and open an account. I'm not criticizing that approach as there is more to a brokers target audience than what I've shared above.

I was speaking with Kevin from CitiGroup which has recently waded into the retail FX arena and Citi's philosophy is starkly different. There's a higher minimum, a lower leverage, and a target towards experienced traders.

Which brings to mind the overall view on trading. So many traders get into the Forex arena (because it's hot) and think that there must be some course, signal, system, fund that can pave their road to riches with gold.

It's enticing to Google Forex Riches and not want to get sucked in by one "amazing offer" after another.

There is so much more to trading than signal, though. I've mentioned the importance of the mind before, but there are lots to the mechanics of trading that can cause failure.

I was talking to a trader, Mon, yesterday about a hypothetical situation of how a trader can have a 90% winning rate, but still be a losing trader. It happens often - the rules of leverage and money management never made it to the table of importance in the traders mind.

So Mon sent me the following of the types of investors/traders there are - which categories do you fall into?

I have thought about this and there only the following ways you can trade/invest your money.

--You can give the money to a managed fund
--You can subscribe to a signal service
--you can buy a software program
--you can have server-based auto trading system (like SystemRunner)
--you can be a self-directed trader

I'm always open to attending trading related events - especially when they're local to Vancouver.

I came across a rather inconspicuous ad in the Vancouver Sun on Saturday advertising a trading workshop put on by a company called Bright Trading.

Somehow there is an affiliation with a company called PairCo, LLC, but I'll get the relationships straightened out when I head on over tomorrow night. Or hopefully I make it out - I'm still being tugged at by a friend for a twilight tee time.

The trio of Don Bright, Rob Friesen and Darren Clifford are going to be talking about the following:

Trading Workshop Overview
Scalping
Crutch Trading
Execution Edges
Pair Portfolio’s
Relative Strength and Hedges
Dividend Strategies
Statistical Bets vs. Trading  Parameters

If you live locally, register and come on down. I'll share some thoughts on it when I get back from the workshop.

It's the mind. Your mind and how you condition it, drives your trading. Whether your trading gets driven up or down - well that's part of your own trading journey that no one else can control.

Steve Croft has been recording the Mind of a Trader podcast for over a year now, and there are more traders than ever subscribing (to the RSS) and listening (over 100,000 total downloads) than ever.

In response to Steve's Aug. 5 podcast "Use Circumstances to Build Discipline," listener Phil DiMartino shared his comments, part of which I'll include below. Keep up the great work Steve, and I hope all of you continue to enjoy the Mind of a Trader.

I honestly can't thank you enough for putting the time into these podcasts for us. They are absolutely life changing and so dynamic when it comes to dealing with the trader's mind. Actually they have changed my life and I am sincerely grateful with all of my heart to you for making them available to us!!!!

You are so right on the money with this new one about our decisions shaping our circumstances. Always being in that state of mind that is learning from past experience and growing from it. Truly making the decision to move forward with our trading and create the circumstances we want rather than being victims and statistics of people who choose not to be personally responsible for their success.

Since I shared some thoughts that Pierre Charlebois has sent out yesterday, this morning I thought I'd share a note that Trading Post Trading Coach Harold Fretheim shared with the Trading Coach team yesterday.

And the more I read comments like this from the Trading Coaches, the more I think we should create a blog that they can all contribute to when they have thoughts.

Harold always seems to have great insight and information to share.

We are now facing events that could shift the fundamental ground substantially.

The most significant of these is the Russian invasion of Georgia [the country in the Caucasus, not the State in the South where my son goes to school- No the Russians are not about to burn Atlanta. Tiblisi may be another story]. 

This has reached the point where a major oil pipeline to Europe is actually threatened.  Oil is already rising in response to this.  The immediate response of the EUR/USD has been to drop even more sharply. I saw the [Trading Post Client] email quoting Bloomberg's report noting that Paqk Lai Ng in Singapore sees the EUR/USD coming down to just over 1.52. Bloomberg is a little behind the curve on this one- the pair has already touched 1.49, and is trading at 1.4968 as I write this. 

This makes sense- it is the pipeline to Europe which is threatened.  But in the broader market the rise in oil prices may interrupt the dollar rally (and it was probably time for a correction anyway). August may be a very active month after all. 

I have tried to show my students that fundamentals extends far beyond central bank rate decisions and economic announcements to include all significant news that moves the market.  We may be about to get a major example to illustrate this lesson.

This is just  reminder that the Trading Coaches do a terrific job in the Online Training Rooms.

Pierre Charlebois, Trading Coach with Trading Post and advisor with the GTC Group just sent the following short thoughts out to his group members preceding their live session tonight.

I love bullet points and thought Pierre's points might be of interest to you as well.