A couple of random scalps

Here are a couple random scalps I took on the 15 minute candles when prices became overbought and oversold.

USD/CHF bought on the break, targeting a 25 pip move as shown by the higher trend line.

The Gold position already broke and hit my profit target. I won't be surprised to see a larger move in gold back to 995 and just as likely 986

CAD/CHF long?

I am really liking the consolidation on this pair right at the 50% channel area. I am watching for a bounce and a break above the short term resistance to run back up to the top resistance channel. If the pair doesn't break by morning I will tighten my entry further.

Maybe an entry at .9770 and a target of 1.0050. Stop below the trend line and tightened to below the most recent low after I make a new high.

When is the best time to trade forex?

I have been asked when is the best time to trade in the forex market. That is similar to asking when is the best time to exercise. Some people like to exercise in the morning and watch the sun rise, others like to go to the gym during the best meat market times and flex in the mirror. It comes down to preference and what you are trying to accomplish.

My preferred trading times are between 8am - 11am EST for scalping/intraday trading and around 5pm-8pm Eastern. The earlier times gives me the best volatility for the scalping and the later times gives me the quietest market to plan the longer term, multiple day trades (the price action from news is already shaken out).

This is just my view, what's yours?

Boy that looks swollen

The CAD/CHF has run from 92.75 up to 1.0050 in the past 3 weeks. The price looks very extended. The question is when is it coming back down and how far. If price breaks and closes (daily candle) below 1.0000 again, this is the confirmation to a short position back to 97.85. After a pull back like that, the swelling will have gone down enough to get back into bullish trades on this pair.

I am the ShadowTrader (fx)

www.shadowtrader.net

I've got a secret...I've been hiding...

To quote Mr Roboto, I I've got a secret...I've been hiding...Can you guess what it is? We will be revealing the secret next week. For those interested, can you guess what it is? and yes it is trading related.

The "Right Question"

I love the book by Isaac Asimov, i Robot. In the movie, there is a repeated pattern of interaction between Detective Spooner and the hologram of Dr Lanning. In the interactions, the detective can ask the hologram questions but many times the hologram responds, "I am sorry my responses are limited, you must ask the right question..." and when the detective asks the question that will lead him to the information he needs, the hologram answers, "That, Detective, is the right question." The hologram never gives the answer just tells him that he has asked the right question. So let me propose some thoughts with a recent report I saw on CNN and leave it up to you to ask the right question.

In 2008, the FOMC has been approved to spend 7.2 trillion dollars and spent 2.6 trillion dollars. Having spent 2.6 trillion dollars, how will this affect the economy?...I am sorry my responses are limited. How will the 2.6 trillion dollars spent affect the strength of the dollar?...I am sorry my responses are limited. How will the 2.6 trillion dollars spent affect the world economy?...I am sorry my responses are limited.

So faithful reader, what is the right question?

(feel free to post what you believe is the "right question" here and I will let you know detective(s) if that is the right question or not.)

Back with some trades

Busy, busy week last week. Busy week this week. Lots of announcements including the Fed and Bearstears being bailed out by the Fed, I mean the government, I mean your tax dollars, I mean JP Morgan (whew I almost said what I thought).

Anywho, last week I lost about 14k in just over 2 days and clawed all the losses back and netted out 3.5k so all in all I was happy with last week, we shall see what this week holds.

No color coordinated images, just longs and shorts.

Feeling a little guilty..but only a little

I feel a little guilty because I didn't get yesterday's positions posted. It was a very very busy day. I did however take all of my trades. As such I had a nice winning day. To prove that I am not making this up, I have included the positions and an image of my account realized P/L and the unrealized P/L. My guilt comes from anyone that may have been trying to trade all of my trades.

The reason I feel very little guilt is because, as you can see here, trade signals are only good if you can execute on them... they are also only good if you understand how the signals are coming so you can trade them when the trade giver misses a posting. I also feel little guilt because the $$$$ are like salve to my guilt, it is hard to feel sad on a good trading day.

Sorry for the miss, I will strive harder to get today's signals posted later this afternoon.

Please also note that the positions in my account are 5 minis per position (the Eur/Jpy is 2 -5 mini positions). The gains posted today are rougly equivelant to seeing $330 realized P/L and about $290 unrealized P/L per mini contract.

Morning update

I may get stopped out in the next few minutes on many of these trades as new home sales come out and as Ben Bernanke talks (adding volatility) but... here they are as is. We have given a few hundred back from last night but considering we had gained about $1000 (based on 1 mini) I am good with today's move so far.

New Forex Trades for 02-26-2008

Here are the new trades for today with the ones not closed out from previous day.

Remember you can click on the image to blow it up bigger.

Update of yesterday's

This is the update of yesterday's positions, closed out and open P/L. The new trades will be published shortly. It was a great day.

This is based on 1 mini contract so making nearly $1000 in one day with minimal risk it is pretty dang good.

quick update, things are moving

Here is what we are looking at now. Eur/Usd limited out (could this be the break out?). Everything else is looking great. I am tempted to widen my profit targets (it is ok to widen limits not to widen stops) I will leave things alone for the next couple of hours but it was looking good so I thougth I would get hisupdate out. I will not be surprised to get a couple of additional limits in the next few minutes.

Great Book to Read

I read a new book over the past 3 trips. It is called Confessions of an Economic Hit Manand I must say it is one of the more compelling and intriguing books I have read in a long time. I am sure there is some embellishing that goes on in the book but I am also fairly sure that even though all of it didn't necessarily happen to the author, most if not all of it did happen to himself or colleagues. Very good book and definitely worth the read.

what a great 8 hours it's been

Here is the update from last night's positions. As you can see I am tightening all the positions stops, we are risking next to nothing of our account but we are risking about $500 if we include the profits gained from last nights'/this morning's move.

Depending on how the next hour orso goes, I may just take profits and call it a good day, many of these are next to resistance or support areas.

Here are the trades for today

As you can see I have added a column to try to make this easier for me to track. If anyone wants to assist in tracking the results we can get these posted in a reasonable time frame. I am up a little for the last week but I am really liking what this week is looking like. We could see the channeling I feared would last 8-10 months come to a quicker end. I am personally watching for a short term break out in these channels against the dollar before a pull back to retest the top or middle level of these existing channels. Just a thought.

Update from yesterday trades

Here is the updated positions. In addition to the limited out trades, I am currently sitting on $254 of unrealized profits. All of the stop adjustments in yellow are very tempting to get out and take the profits as it got so close to the limit target and are showing some signs of pull back. I will look to place more trades on Monday morning, possibly pre market open.

Though it has been win a little lose a little win a little more lose a little more, I am very content with the results so far. It has been a rough market of sudden swings and changes. The fact I am up slightly taking so many intra-day scalps makes during a volatile market give me confidence when we see some directional days we should makes some good, solid returns.

OUCH what an ugly day

The gbp surprised and rallied on good retail sales, the dollar got crushed a lot of surprise reversals set us back about $300 for the day so far. I will get that update shortly but here are the new trades for today.

Back from NY

Just got back from NY late last night. To catch you up on the scalping methodology, we had some winners and some losers and we are back to about break even, rather than trying to catch up 5 trading days and 60 trades, we will start again with tonights. All of these are market orders to get us going. Just look at the hourly charts from roll over to determine that you haven't moved too far from the daily roll over rate.

Here are the trades

pre market adjustments

stops and entries adjusted pre market open in the US