PipStop

The summer has zipped by and not only are we into September, but we are approaching another Non-Farm Payroll Data release. Remember, REGISTER, to join us for our free Non-Farm Payroll Webinar with our Trading Coach team starting 30 minutes before the official release of the data (5 a.m. Pacific; 8 p.m. Eastern; Noon GMT).

I can't believe how fast it comes every month, but I was reminded by an email that I just received from Interbank FX, which included the following ...

Nonfarm payroll (NFP) employment continued its downtrend in July with U.S. employers shaving 51,000 jobs, marking the first time since May 2002 that the economy lost jobs for seven consecutive months. The Labor Department also reported last month that the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent—its highest level in more than four years—erasing all job gains made over the last year. Revisions to May and June's payrolls showed a total of 26,000 fewer jobs were lost than previously expected, bringing the number of jobs lost so far in 2008 to 463,000.

Several key factors are thought to have influenced the August NFP. They include:

• Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while health care and mining continued to add jobs

• Notable decreases were also seen in retail trade and wholesale trade—each down 17,000 for the latest month

• The decline of 51,000 in payrolls represents a 0.04% drop that is consistent with the recent trend of declines at about a 0.5% annual rate

• Hourly earnings rose by 6 cents, bouncing back to a 0.3% gain over the month

• Average weekly hours slipped to 33.6 hours in July from 33.7 hours in June

Join Harold Fretheim, Nikhil Patel, and other trading coaches as we all observe the news release and subsequent movement of the market.

I've always been a fan of technology. I love it. It is always evolving, it's fresh, and it makes our lives easier - especially online technology.

But one drawback is that technology evolution moves so fast and there are new applications seemingly everyday. It begs the question of, who cares if these new technologies are coming online. You're probably comfortable in your web chops that it all becomes on giant distraction.

Indeed, what do you need to trade Forex? You were probably told early on that it's just an Internet connection and a computer. So do you NEED all this other "stuff" to trade? The simple answer is not really.

If you're like me, though, and your existence relies heavily on online activity, to be able to save time, do things easier, and have things available in convenient ways is great.

Today, Google (and everyone here knows that I am an enormous Google fan) released the beta form of its new browser - Google Chrome. And nowadays there are so many who get lost in the negative of everyone that they need to find a way to criticize the new Google initiative. I think it's great, and it will get better - you can be sure of that.

It' feels like such a lightweight application and the search function is blazing, although it's regular surf speed is comparable to Firefox, which I use, and slower than Safari, which I rarely use.

So what do you think about technology? Are just simply overwhelmed? Or do you keep up? Or do you even care?

I got an email newsletter from the BKForex Advisor on Friday which is run by the tandem of Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg. In it there is an excellent article, which I agree with completely.

The philosophy they hold is similar to the one I have. Generally traders are beaten to death by information. Paralysis by over analysis rings true for traders in this day and age. Information, or too much of it, can be overwhelming.

With that I'll share the entire article that the BKForex Advisor put out, since I can't find it anywhere online.

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Learning By Doing

When it came to the subject of trading I used to read everything under the sun, but a funny thing happened to me this week. I received a notice to renew my subscription to Futures magazine and for the first time in more than a decade I actually thought to myself - "Ah why bother? It's a waste of time." Don't get me wrong - Futures is a fine publication but its usefulness died out for me a long time ago. Let's face it - I could easily do without one more article on a glorified moving average cross over system or another fluff profile of a CTA. Furthermore, my opinion did not just pertain to Futures but extended even to those magazines that I write for such as SFO and Active Trader. I still read them cover to cover but my enthusiasm for them has curbed significantly the longer I trade.

This is not an anti-intellectual rant. Quite the opposite. I continue to be a voracious reader of any news from Auckland to Zaire, but when it comes to financial literature I have simply become a lot more discriminate in my tastes. When you are first starting out in trading it is vital to read everything you can in order to build a foundation of knowledge. I once told Jack Schwager to his astonishment that I read Market Wizards 50 times, and I think I actually undercounted the number.

However, once you've build a solid base of knowledge true progress in trading only comes from doing. Many novice traders believe that all knowledge comes from doing and never bother to crack open a book or read an article. This is a huge mistake. Whatever trading proficiency they gain by simply staring at the screen will be minuscule and highly limited lacking depth and context. Imagine deciding to become a brain surgeon by slicing up hundreds of heads without any understanding of anatomy or neurology or biology. What a colossal waste of time and resources. Yet I've seen countless traders dive right in with predictably depressing results.

On the other hand I've never met a successful trader that did not continue to educate himself throughout his career. My point is simply this. Once you achieve a certain level of competency in this craft, additional knowledge tends to come more from work rather than academia. "You gotta be in it to win it" is an old trading adage that rings true to this day. Markets like all parts of human civilization continuously evolve and our mastery of them lies in our constant participation in the game. Ultimately you can't learn from the sidelines. So on this Labor Day week-end here is to work and more work - its what makes better traders every day.

I've mentioned my initial experience with Bright Trading a couple of weeks ago, and since then I invited our Trading Coach Nikhil Patel to join me in a visit to the Bright Trading offices in Langley, B.C.

It's a proprietary trading firm and where many have gone by the wayside in the past 10 years, Bright Trading and its office in Langley led by Rob Friesen is thriving. The office itself will probably accomodate 16 or so traders with a similar type set up you see behind Nikhil, Rob, and I.  

Starting about eight years ago with himself and another trader, Rob has built a professional equity trading team that is 76 strong now.

He was gracious enough to let us visit and listen in to some of his daily activities (even though Nik had to be shused because he was talking a little too loud to me as they were trying to hold a conference call).

There is much to be learned by me not just to add perspective to my responsibilities at Trading Post, but as a trader as well. I thought Nikhil would be interested in the set up and possibly become an equities trader with Bright himself.

One particular comment by Rob that has stuck, amongst a host of other things is that in trading there are winners and earners. And I'll apply this to the Forex market. Every once in a while a trader will catch a run and pocket a couple hundred pips in one trade. Well that's great and all - a winner - but can that trader replicate that consistently every couple of days?

In contrast, if you have earners, you will have developed a system that can consistently reward you with trading success.

Earners and winners. Too often traders are so fooled by the winners that's what they fish for instead of focusing on what can consistently earn for them.

Overall it was a great visit with Rob, and now it's up to me to find areas where he can share his knowledge in our community, because he is open and willing.

The price of relevance is high.

By that I mean that as Trading Post continues to become more relevant - at least in the online world there seems to be an increasing interest of individuals and companies doing business with us.

This includes Forex brokers, other Forex education, support, training, trading companies or individuals; online marketing companies; list sellers, and the list goes on. In the past two days I've received 5 unsolicited offers to do business.

Then there's the other side of the coin where we proactively seek relationships with companies we have an interest in working with ourselves. Personally I pursue relationships with those I see are doing good in the industry.

I believe in strength in numbers, and consolidation - or working together if you consider that dirty word is what is necessary for individual trader success. Why this philosophy? I will expound on it at a later date.

I'm just sitting back thinking of really how overwhelming this is from a variety of perspectives. It is a heck of a challenge, and one that I absolutely love.

For all the naysayers out there who a) think they can do things on their own, b) scoff at the idea of what Trading Post is doing or are simply caught up in the past MLM whoredoms, or c) think it should be done a different way, let me say that there is no on way to success for all traders.

Trading Post's vision is to become the ultimate solutions destination for traders. Come work with us, come trade with us, and don't expect things to be patient, but expect that we can forge a long-term relationship and everyone, especially the trader will win in the end.

By the way Trading Post Trading Coach Nikhil Patel and I made a visit to Bright Trading's office here today and I'll post on that later tonight - and I'll include a pic too.

For years FX Solutions had built up a client base heavy in super mini (1K) accounts.

I've touched on this before when I originally heard about it at the Los Angeles Traders Expo, but now FXCM has jumped into the fray with its www.forexmicrolot.com website.

Only the marketing schtick here is not Open an Account with $300, but open one with a  mere $25.

The general concept makes me wonder if this really engenders trading success. My personal opinion is that it doesn't and I'm not a fan. This isn't a broker ranking or review, but just my thoughts on the concept of these microscopic accounts.

Managing trader expectations is my primary responsibility at Trading Post. There are too many "traders" who are more gamblers than anything, who expect maximum returns for a minimum investment.

By and large it doesn't work that way. You are not going to take $25 and make it $1 million in a year.  Trading requires a more substantial investment of risk capital.

But what do you think? Does your experience dictate otherwise?

One thing that has really been a salvation to my communication with traders - and they're increasingly from around the world. 

Between Facebook, my email accounts, instant messaging accounts, Twitter, etc., it becomes an enormous task to keep a pulse on and update everything. It's easy to just fumble around from application to application wishing there was something that could consolidate all these services into one platform.

That platform is Digsby. Thank you Digsby, I am in love and I have officially thrown my Trillian into the tech waste of my recycling bin.

Like a prize fighter quitting in the middle of a boxing match, I am going to say No Mas to the Forex Hype.

Really I'm getting sick of amateurs skewing the expectations of traders. It's continual, and it sucks.

I just received another email today (from a "fund manager" who does so through InterbankFX). Read it and tell me what you think. I have a headache now. And no I'm not being over dramatic.

And NO I'm not endorsing him. Just saying that at some point he's going to crash, just make sure you aren't riding with him.

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Hello dear friend,
you can find in this mail as attached 3 statement one with agrressive strategy i transform 3000 $ into 15 000$ in 40 days and one for a client i hide his name but you can see that it is trading by me from the LPOA that give me the permission to trade his account.
if you have any more questions about money management feel free to ask iam here to help you
God Bless you ,
Good trade Good day

how does the Manage Account Work?

You will open an account under your name with interbankfx and you will give me the power of attorney to just trade your account nothing else.

Profit Sharing

We are taking 30 % of the profit at the end of every month and you keep the 70%

Final Risk Control and Guarantee

Note that you owned your account and if at any time you feel concerned that your account is not well managed you can call the shot at any given time within 24hrs by removing the Power of Attorney from me. Also I will stop trading the account immediately If my loss falls to 2/10^th of your initial opening account balance. For example, for an account with $1000 opening balance your risk is only US$200.00 and you can stop me from trading the account and withdraw your power of attorney from me if you wish.

P.S: Our accounts are giving from 30% to 50% profit every month.

Because we are working rather than speaking and we believe that actions speak louder than word, you just have to try us for one month, and remember you will not risk more than 2/10^th of your account.