Current Standings 3-24-06

Escaping from Dollars, Safety in Gold

New home starts came in lower than anticipated today, 1.08mm actual versus 1.20mm expected. This pull back in new home starts appears to be what moved the dollar today. My guess is that not only does it reflect a slow down in the real estate market in the US but it also confirms the lower PPI and CPI that the economy may be slowing which would encourage no rate hike.

Many investors have felt that more rate hikes were coming up. The numbers showing no justification to a rate hike would decrease the demand for the dollar and the increased demand in gold.

I flipped the gold trade as explained earlier. My anticipation is that the run for gold could last a week or more. The surprising thing is we were not taken out of any of the other trades. I tightened the stops on all the trades and we will see where this goes now.

The EUR/AUD bounced back up and looks like it set up for another run. Hopeful hundreds of pips run like last time.

Flipped gold position from short to long

Flipped the trade over. Gold is running up
I will post the trades and positions tonight.

Current Standing 3/23/06 at 5pm est

Beginning of a new day

The day rolls over at 5pm est and we are in one trade and waiting for another. Very bullish short term for the USD. I find it intriguing that gold is moving opposite of silver. Silver has been a rocket over the past 6 months.

You will notice the difference in the smaller account and the larger account. This is partially due to the slightly larger positions as a percentage in the larger. Don't let this sway you into playing bigger trades. Though this is great during a run, going larger on your account risk can destroy you in a drawdown period.

Current Standings

Down the Rabbit Hole

I feel a little bit like I am going down the rabbit hole with my new effort.

Effective 3-22-06, I will be posting all of my trades and running account values using some money management.

I have had people ask if it is possible to trade the forex with very little money. I am going to trade a $500 account with a dealer that allows base 10 or unit based trading.

What does unit based trading mean? This means that if I have $500 (493.60 after transfer fees) account and have a trade where I would normally place 2.5% at risk, I can actually invest $12.50 in the trade by investing 1,250 units or 12.5% of a mini contract. Unit trading allows exact money management.

For those that are using a dealer that trades based on mini and full size contract, I will be starting with $5385 and be buying 2 mini contracts for most trades.

I decided it is time to show that a conservative approach in the currency market can still generate good returns whether you are trading a small account or if you are trading a large account. As such I will not post my scalps or more other account, just the accounts as described above.

Because I am posting account results, I may miss a trade posting but all trades can be verified by the account report.

Be aware that if I post a trade late I will post my actual entry price and exit price and can verify the time if you are interested. There may be a little disparity between the two accounts as I am manually placing the orders and stops and they have different spreads.

The smaller account allows for trading the spot gold and spot silver markets as well as the South African Rand (Usd/Zar) where the FXCM $5385 does not. I will be taking gold and silver and USD/ZAR trades on the smaller accounts.

My current positions consist of:

Position
Pair
Entry
Stop Loss
Current
Long
Usd/Jpy
117.3
116.42
117.69
Short
XAU (gold)
550.6
552.90
551.00
Short
Eur/Usd
1.2078
1.2109
1.1979
Short
Usd/Zar
6.2729
6.3299
6.3034
Long
Usd/Chf
1.3144
1.3115
1.3160
Short
Gbp/Usd
1.7337
1.7400
1.7361


Current Equity
$494.33

Current P/L
$0.69