Anyone here into FOREX?

[nhallmark]

Yeah, Music_Producer, news trading(if you know what youre doing) has the least amount of losses and when you do have a loss, its always your fault(or the brokers) and with techs you can say "the system was wrong" which doesnt help you become a better trader.

I find it weird how techs work because if the currency is going to move up 100 pips there is proabably a reason for it. Im sure the guys at Citi arent all "OMG!! OMG!! the MACD crossed...buy $7 billion!!!" :p

For example, today the dollar fell across the board because(from what I could tell from TTN) there are rumours going around that the US is invading Iran this weekend. After that came out, everyone started selling dollars.

Im sure there is some system out there that would have given a signal on that but its always better to know why.

Thats why I was asking about the carry trades a few days ago. Because GBP/JPY dropped 600 pips last week, yet there are so many reasons for it to go back up.

So, according to what I thought, I traded on that and made 72 pips. Then, after I looked a PiP Dictator's system, oddly enough it showed a signal about 50 pips before I bought.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is, yeah, the news wins at the end of the
day because whats actually happening in the world is what causes people(or banks) to buy/sell...but the techs also help confirm it and I get to make money that I otherwise wouldnt be making :)

[Music_Producer]

Lol nathan @ the MACD comment.. that one cracked me up as I was actually imagining it :p

Carry trades will always be inflated.. everyone just wants the interest. Another thing that helps carry traders is that japan *wants* its currency to remain at low levels.. and interest rates low. Nobody would buy stuff from japan if they raised their currency.. I mean, japan is losing out to china anyway.. so why make the situation worse?

If any JPY positive news does come out.. JPY pairs will dip of course.. but then eventually go back up. Also note that a lot of traders take their profits.. accounting for those dips.. and then they get back in the trade. Accumulating all that interest *plus* thousands of pips in profit = bliss.

We might have a good New Zealand trade coming up on sunday (NZD trade balance) Gaucho, this is a good opportunity for you to watch and see what happens to NZD/USD if there is a nice deviation on the report. Shard, nathan..hopefully you guys will trade and not be asleep :p :D

[~Shard~]

We might have a good New Zealand trade coming up on sunday (NZD trade balance) Gaucho, this is a good opportunity for you to watch and see what happens to NZD/USD if there is a nice deviation on the report. Shard, nathan..hopefully you guys will trade and not be asleep :p :D

No worries, I'll be watching that one for sure - no sleeping for me this time! ;) :D

That being said, I'm leaving for vegas on Tuesday for a week and a half, so no trading for me until mid-March...

[nhallmark]

I'll definitely be trading it. I assume CMC will let you trade on sunday?

Im asking because oanda widened their spreads to where you couldnt trade until monday morning.

[~Shard~]

I'll definitely be trading it. I assume CMC will let you trade on sunday?

Im asking because oanda widened their spreads to where you couldnt trade until monday morning.

If the markets are open, CMC should be open and will allow you to trade. I haven't had any troubles with them in the past when I've been logged on on a Sunday night, so we'll have to see about a late Sunday afternoon this time. ;)

The number is expected to be lower than last report which therefore would be construed as negative for the currency, correct? Or, since this lower # is expected, if it does indeed come out as such, will the currency not move at all? Thoughts?

[PiP Dicatator]

In my personal opinion.. *any* system will fail. I've read through all of them and they are nothing more than subtle variations of a main theme - i.e. support and resistance.. and macd, ema lines.

Additionally, another thing I've noticed is that the authors of such systems.. when they make these e-books or whatever, conveniently show trades which are successful.. and their entries/exits are almost always *before* the ema or macd lines cross :p

Sure, they might work.. but I doubt they work all the time. This is just a personal opinion, before you guys swallow me :D Just looking out for your best interest. Trade technical’s, but watch out for any report that can screw up your trade for good.

Shard, tell your wife's friend's friend 'Show me the news and i'll tell you the charts’:p lol.. I jest of course, but I just had to put that in here!! :)

Hey man I am not sure how much experience you have but you are mostly right.

What the system i posted teaches is that you need to be able to use support/resistance and candle patterns. What that means is you need to know how to trade before using this system. At its core technical analysis is just price action and she stresses that you need to be able to understand price action and the MA's, Parabolics, MACD's are jsut a secondary to that.

Anybody can give you a bunch of indicators but nobody tells you that you have to have an intimate knowledge of the market before you can actually make money trade them.

She also stresses fundamental analysis.

To me a real trader does not trade just Technical’s or just News Reports. A real trader knows
1) Economics and how they affect the market (this includes News Reports)
2) Technical’s this ranged from basic price action analysis to the use of indicators.
3) Money Management

That is the only reason why I would share this system with everybody because I am a professional trader and when I see a direct, honest piece of work I let people know about it. That system is not just another system telling you to bunch together indicators it tells you that you need to understand technical’s and fundamentals.

Support/resistances lines and candles are at the core of technical analysis and without understand that this system is useless. The same with fundamentals if you don’t bother to learn them this system is useless.

I wouldn't post just another system (a bunching of indicators) I only post thing that work.

[PiP Dicatator]

It just make me angry when I here people say fundamentals are better than technical's or vice versa. The real traders those of us who have been around for a while and are still going strong and will be for the next 10-20-30-50 years to come are successful because we understand its a balance of both forms of analysis that makes a trader.

It took me 5 years to figure that out but she apparently got it straight away and that's why the girl that wrote that system is already a millionaire at the age of 24.

[PiP Dicatator]

P.S. Market opens at around 4pm (NY EST) on Sunday because this is when the Sydney market opens. The currency trading market opens when Sydney opens so from 4pm Sunday you are able to trade normally.

Oanda allows trading on the weekend, it is only useful if you are holding a position and you hear a report of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster and want to exit.

[nhallmark]

TTN was about 2 minutes late...wow. So, I didnt trade because I didnt get the news. Did you guys get it on time?

Edit: Im talking about NZD trade balance in case that wasnt clear.

[Music_Producer]

TTN was about 2 minutes late...wow. So, I didnt trade because I didnt get the news. Did you guys get it on time?

Edit: Im talking about NZD trade balance in case that wasnt clear.

Nope, saw nzd move before the news came out.. so I suspected something was up. I guess the folks at TTN are all being lazy.. its a Sunday :p

[~Shard~]

Me too - saw things move before the news so I didn't feel confident on what would happen when the news actually came out - further move, or a correction? Didn't trade...

[savar]

Nope, saw nzd move before the news came out.. so I suspected something was up. I guess the folks at TTN are all being lazy.. its a Sunday :p

Does anybody here have a Bloomberg Anywhere (BBA) account? I've been looking all over the web for for more information but BBA is amazingly undocumented. I know a guy who has it (works at a hedge fund) but feel a little silly asking him what his company pays for it. Anybody know?

[nhallmark]

Does anybody here have a Bloomberg Anywhere (BBA) account? I've been looking all over the web for for more information but BBA is amazingly undocumented. I know a guy who has it (works at a hedge fund) but feel a little silly asking him what his company pays for it. Anybody know?

Ive heard its around $1700 a month. Reuters is comparable and its supposed to be $750 a month. I havent used either of the services, so I dont have any details beyond that.

[Music_Producer]

Does anybody here have a Bloomberg Anywhere (BBA) account? I've been looking all over the web for for more information but BBA is amazingly undocumented. I know a guy who has it (works at a hedge fund) but feel a little silly asking him what his company pays for it. Anybody know?

Like Nathan said.. its $1700 a month but its not as easy as just signing up for it online or over the phone. Apparently they send someone over to see if you are capable of paying that much in the long run.. how much you trade.. etc. They require an upfront deposit of $5000 or something of that sort.. and a minimum 1 year contract that cannot be cancelled.

The terminal also has some sort of fingerprint identification software.. so only you can use it.

You might want to check out reuters.. their news should be on par with bloomberg.

[nhallmark]

PiP Dictator, that intraday system seems to be working out good. I made 12 pips yesterday and Ive already made 18 pips today...and Ive only been awake for 2 hours :)

I missed the signal on the main system for GBP/JPY on sunday night(which would have made me 200 pips already), but Ill make sure Im awake next time.

Im trading on a demo account until I make consistent profits...I'll keep you guys updated on my progress :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Nathan, are you talking about that vanessafx system? I glanced through it once but found it a little confusing.. what's the time period on those charts? 4 hours or 30 mins? :confused:

[nhallmark]

Nathan, are you talking about that vanessafx system? I glanced through it once but found it a little confusing.. what's the time period on those charts? 4 hours or 30 mins? :confused:

Both time periods, actually. It says it in the PDF. What I did, though is put the same indicators(except for the awesome oscillator) on the 5 minute chart on oanda. Then I use the 30 minute charts on MT4 to confirm.

The support/resistance helps a lot though. I was looking at the chart yesterday and I would have had 4 losses in a row...but because of the support/resistance lines, I stayed out until it broke one...which allowed me to avoid those losses.

US Durable Goods in 45 minutes...

Edit: yeah, its the vanessaFX system. Its the second one in the PDF.

[~Shard~]

Just traded the US data and made 10 pips! My timing was actually very good on this one, usually I get in too late or out too late! :o ;)

So I'm pretty happy about that - a good trade for my last trade for a while. I'm off to Vegas for a week and a half (to partake in other forms of gambling :p ;)) so no more trading for me for a while. Good luck to you all though and I'll see ya when I get back... :cool:

[Music_Producer]

16 pips on the Durable Goods Orders report.. both came out extremely negative.. was a very easy trade. :)

I want to trade the Existing home sales but there's consumer confidence also coming out at the same time.. I'll probably pass. If you guys are trading.. watch out for any possible conflicts.. if both come out negative, then it will be an easy trade of course. (I think both will come out -ve)

[Music_Producer]

Just traded the US data and made 10 pips! My timing was actually very good on this one, usually I get in too late or out too late! :o ;)

So I'm pretty happy about that - a good trade for my last trade for a while. I'm off to Vegas for a week and a half (to partake in other forms of gambling :p ;)) so no more trading for me for a while. Good luck to you all though and I'll see ya when I get back... :cool:


Hey, have fun in vegas shard! Me and the wife *might* go there for a weekend.. if we do, let's meet up! Don't blow all your forex winnings on those darn coin machines.. technicals don't work there :D :p

[~Shard~]

Hey, have fun in vegas shard! Me and the wife *might* go there for a weekend.. if we do, let's meet up! Don't blow all your forex winnings on those darn coin machines.. technicals don't work there :D :p

Thanks Music_Producer - I think something will be seriously wrong if I don't have fun in Vegas... ;)

As for gambling, I'll be sticking to the poker tables - I know what I'm doing and you're playing against other people, not the House odds, which is definitely the way to go.

I'll be there until March 8th. Were you thinking of going this weekend? ;) Meeting up would definitely be cool... :)

[nhallmark]

I made 10 pips. CMC requoted me on closing my order again or I would have made more. Im up 28 pips for the day though, so Im happy :D

Have fun in vegas, Shard...and dont lose your money...or rather make some so youll be ready to camp out at the apple store if they do release leapord in a few weeks :p

[~Shard~]

Have fun in vegas, Shard...and dont lose your money...or rather make some so youll be ready to camp out at the apple store if they do release leapord in a few weeks :p

Sounds good, will do! ;)

[savar]

Like Nathan said.. its $1700 a month but its not as easy as just signing up for it online or over the phone. Apparently they send someone over to see if you are capable of paying that much in the long run.. how much you trade.. etc. They require an upfront deposit of $5000 or something of that sort.. and a minimum 1 year contract that cannot be cancelled.

The terminal also has some sort of fingerprint identification software.. so only you can use it.

You might want to check out reuters.. their news should be on par with bloomberg.

I wasn't talking about the terminal -- BBA is like having VPN for Bloomberg. It looks just like a Bloomberg terminal except you access it from any PC through a web browser. It's got to be less than the cost of the full terminal, right?

[nhallmark]

Im not sure, savar. they have contact #'s here....

http://about.bloomberg.com/contact/offices/index.html

You could call and ask...although, Im not sure if theyre the type to keep you on the phone all day when you just want the price :p

Hope that helps,
Nathan

[nhallmark]

PiP Dictator, Im still interested in that scalping system if youre still willing to share it.

That vanessaFX system kicks ass. Im looking at it on the charts and had I been trading it, I would be up 1200 pips in the last two weeks alone :eek:

So, a comet would have to blow up the earth for me to miss the next signal on that :p

Thanks for sharing this, PiP Dictator.

P.S. Did you guys trade US Consumer Confidence? I just watched it but it looked like a good 20-30 pip move.

[macman56]

Hey, does anyone know a good signal software for a Mac?

[Music_Producer]

24 pips on the UK manufacturing PMI report. Was an easy trade as well.. as for signal service.. please don't waste your money on any signal providers out there. If that's the only way you want to do forex.. you might as well just throw your money away right now.

There's tons of information in these threads.. technical and news related.. see what works for you.

[nhallmark]

made 14 pips. now that Im getting fast enough on my entries, ive got to work on my exits so I can get out before the retrace. Anyway, Im happy :D

[nhallmark]

Hey, Music_Producer, I know this is off topic but Im thinking about getting a keyboard setup soon. Im deciding between the korg triton "studio" or "extreme", a yamaha motif, or a roland x8.

Ill probably get one as a keyboard and the others in rack units, but whats your opinion about any of those?

[Music_Producer]

Hey nathan, good job :) How's your technical system coming along? I tried it on my oanda demo and i saw a buying opportunity.. and bought gbp/usd.. and the bloody thing went in a loss of -32 pips almost within 5 minutes.. lol. So I think my luck with technicals can pretty much bring any system to its knees! :p

I love the Yamaha motif.. excellent sounds. All those modules have great sounds.. but somehow, in a mix.. the motif just 'fits' better. I'm myself busy on a vintage synth hunt.. not too old.. but stuff from the 80s. Roland jd-800, yamaha dx-7, e-mu synths, etc. Miss those sounds :)

[nhallmark]

Hey nathan, good job :) How's your technical system coming along? I tried it on my oanda demo and i saw a buying opportunity.. and bought gbp/usd.. and the bloody thing went in a loss of -32 pips almost within 5 minutes.. lol. So I think my luck with technicals can pretty much bring any system to its knees! :p

lol...yeah, I lost 8 pips yesterday because I got scared and closed to soon. Then, it turned around and went in my direction by 60 pips :p I should have followed the system and held on until it hit my stop loss..which it never did.

So, lesson learned. I made 10 pips today on it, though. So, with the news, Im up 24 pips for the day.

About your "experience" with technicals...Im reading this book called "the winning investment habits of warren buffet and george soros" and its pretty much saying "hey, these two guys have almost opposite strategies, but their both successful, so find what works for you".

My point being that maybe news is just your thing. I actually like news trading more because my stomach isnt in knots when I have to go to the store and I have a trade open :p But, Im new to forex trading in general, so Im trying to figure out what suits me best.

I think the only way I'll be able to not have a heart attack with technicals is by having two accounts. One for news, and another with a smaller amount just for technicals and if I really make money at it, Ill keep going and if I lose that whole account, Ill just treat it like gambling and I lost...but it was a small amount so it doesnt matter.



I love the Yamaha motif.. excellent sounds. All those modules have great sounds.. but somehow, in a mix.. the motif just 'fits' better. I'm myself busy on a vintage synth hunt.. not too old.. but stuff from the 80s. Roland jd-800, yamaha dx-7, e-mu synths, etc. Miss those sounds :)

Yeah, from playing the motif at guiter center, it has the most usable sounds IMO. Ive also looked at some vintage stuff, but I dont know whats good and whats not.

What do you do for drum sounds? Right now, Im using "Reason Adapted" that came free with my mbox, but I bought a refill at guitar center and it only works on the full version of reason. So, Ive got a 5000 sample CD sitting here that I cant use :mad:

So, I guess what Im asking is, for drums, do you get sample CDs or buy drum modules(e.g. alesis DM 5) or do you use keyboards? ...or something else. Im trying to go for NIN/Bjork type drum sounds with a little timbaland thrown in...just for the drums.

[Music_Producer]

I only use samples for drums.. I have never used drum machines.. never liked them really. Drums (and bass) are very important to any song's foundation.. so I like to have thousands of kicks, snares, hats, etc at my disposal. Thats only possible with a software sampler and a drum sample library.

Doesn't reason adapted come with ReDrum? You should be able to use those samples from the refill with that (if it comes with redrum)

I use Reason as a basic sequencer/scratch pad for ideas, or basic song structures. Once I get a rough mix done.. I open up digital performer and use reason for the drums.. mach five for other samples and my other hardware synths. I haven't been dabbling in music much these days.. always use 'I need to buy new gear!' as an excuse to make music :p :D

Also, make your own drum samples. Thats what I did when i first started looking at samplers. For instance.. if I loved the kick on Robert Miles' 'Children' track.. I would search for a part in the song where the kick would be fairly isolated.. and sample that :p Sounded fantastic.. and when I was an amateur it really put that 'wow' factor into my little cheap demos!

[Music_Producer]

Got the dreaded re-quote again.. but the move wasn't that big.. would have probably bagged only 6-7 pips. Weird.. ISM next.

[nhallmark]

I didnt trade ISM. The construction spending # caught me off gaurd...I missed at least 20 pips :mad:

Oh well, Im sure Ill live to trade another day.

Reason adapted does coem with redrum but I spent hours moving the refill file to different folders trying to get it to work and there was nothing in the manual and I finally found in the license agreement that "reason adapted for digidesign is limited to the reason factory soundbank only".

...so Ill upgrade when I get some money.

I haven't been dabbling in music much these days.. always use 'I need to buy new gear!' as an excuse to make music

lol, yeah, I use that excuse a lot too. My goal is to move to LA by july though, so I can really start doing something with it because dallas is dead.

[nhallmark]

Made 9 pips on AUD retail sales :) I was lucky enough to get out at the top...I think it only moved about 10 pips.

[Music_Producer]

Made 9 pips on AUD retail sales :) I was lucky enough to get out at the top...I think it only moved about 10 pips.

Me too, grabbed 9 pips. The move was muted because of the current account which came out worse than expected.. so it kind of cancelled out the better than forecast retail sales report.

Edit : Tomorrow I'm only trading the canadian gdp report.. hopefully it should be a nice report because there are no other reports coming out at the same time. I want a 50+ pip move :)

[nhallmark]

How much does CAD GDP have to deviate by for you to trade it? Im asking because Ive watched several CAD reports and Ive stopped lately because they rarely move.

So, for example, its supposed to be 0.3%. If it came out to 0.4%, I normally wouldnt trade that because the deviation is barely there. What's your experience with that?

[Music_Producer]

I would look for a +0.3-0.3% deviation.. a +0.1% wouldn't do much.. but then again there are no other reports at that time.. so who knows. It could have more impact. Here's hoping for a solid deviation (5% lol)

[nhallmark]

Hopefully it will deviate that much and we can end the week good, since thats the only trade today.

I made 45 pips on GBP/JPY with that vanessaFX system. I closed when it hit a support line, then took a 20 mintue break. When I came back, it had dropped another 65 pips. I made enough though, so Im happy. GBP/JPY is insane. Its dropped 900 pips this week alone.

Edit: Now its dropped another 50 pips, so thats 1000 pips this week :eek:

[nhallmark]

...didnt trade. It only moved 10-15 pips anyway.

Edit: I just added it up and I made 97 pips this week :D

[Music_Producer]

Didn't trade either.. just a 0.1% deviation.

All JPY pairs are screwed for now because of what the IMF chief warned about.. the carry trades.. .basically putting fear in all the carry traders. You could have made those 1000 pips had you checked the news .. I made 500 on an AUD/JPY short.. but unfortunately, it was a small lot. Had I put in my normal sized lot.. sheesh I'd be off to Fiji right now :p

Will jpy pairs come back? Yeah, but it might take a while.. it certainly doesn't help jpy pairs if all the financial bigwigs keep warning about the carry trade 24/7.


If the BOJ chief says something like there is a risk of deflation and that interest rates will not be raised or might be reduced.. geez.. look at all jpy pairs to shoot up 2000 pips.

[nhallmark]

What did the IMF guy say? I remember hearing about it but I didnt pay attention because a lot of times the fed guy or whoever will say something and nothing happens.

Ive watched during speeches and he will say something and there goes GBP/USD down 50 pips and I dont really get the significance of it until afterwards...Ive still got a lot to learn.

[Music_Producer]

Nathan, he basically warned about the risks of the carry trade.. about the yen appreciating in value.. thats all. Speeches move markets like crazy.. I didn't think the jpy pairs would drop so much based on the IMF guy's speech.

[lagunacat]

[B]
That vanessaFX system kicks ass. Im looking at it on the charts and had I been trading it, I would be up 1200 pips in the last two weeks alone :eek:



Is that the PDF download? If that is the one, it confused the hell out of me. I think there was too much info left out for a newbie to grasp. Which one have you been using, 30 minute? 4 hour?

[justinf77]

For those of you using the VanessaFX system, can I ask where you found a broker that offers charting with the Awesome Oscillator indicator, that is also Mac-compatible? I haven't been able to find any, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I don't have an Intel Mac, so I can't run Parallels... Thanks in advance!

[nhallmark]

Nathan, he basically warned about the risks of the carry trade.. about the yen appreciating in value.. thats all. Speeches move markets like crazy.. I didn't think the jpy pairs would drop so much based on the IMF guy's speech.

I guess I need to start really watching the speeches and watch what happens so I can analyze why the market reacts to what I would think is a trivial comment.

After japan hiked rates and the JPY pairs went up, I thought we would be back to 241 on GBP/JPY this week, but were sitting around 227...guess I was wrong.

Thats cool though that the vanessaFX system gave the signal to short at the start of the week, but there was a news reason also(and there usually is, its just hard to find, sometimes).

That gives me more confidence in a trade having more reasons than one to take it.

Is that the PDF download? If that is the one, it confused the hell out of me. I think there was too much info left out for a newbie to grasp. Which one have you been using, 30 minute? 4 hour?

yeah, its the PDF download.

The one I was using this week was the 30 minute, but the one that gave the signal for the 1000 pip drop this week was the 4 hour/daily. But, like Music_Producer said, the news had a lot to do with it.

If youre confused by it, the forums on forexfactory have a lot of information on to understand all of it...but use your judgement because there's a lot of stuff out there thats bs.


For those of you using the VanessaFX system, can I ask where you found a broker that offers charting with the Awesome Oscillator indicator, that is also Mac-compatible? I haven't been able to find any, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I don't have an Intel Mac, so I can't run Parallels... Thanks in advance!

Ive been using MetaTrader 4. Its a free download from their site, but yeah, it only runs on windows. I dont have an intel mac either(yet!) but luckily, Ive got a dell that I had before I knew about macs so I use that.

It sucks, but Im willing to deal with windows for money :p

You could look into crossover for mac. I dont know how stable that is because its still in beta, but it allows you to run windows apps without windows.

The only other option is to wait and hopefully more people will buy macs and then developers will start to get on board and well see some trading platforms for mac...but thats probably going to be awhile.

[nhallmark]

damn..GBP/JPY dropped another 400 pips on opening. I found a report on bloomberg that was summarizing what they said at G7 and what the IMF head said.

Ive also heard that its Japan's fiscal year end, so all the companies have to convert their foreign profits back to yen...which means purchasing yen...so thats another reason why its falling.

Are you guys trading UK Services PMI in the morning(3:30am central)?

[Music_Producer]

Yup nathan.. trading the uk pmi report for sure. Right now jpy pairs seem to have stabilized.. again this is because of pending reports from the treasury finance minister (meeting the japanese finance minister) So the markets will move on the comments that come out of this report. The meeting is today and tomorrow.. if they say something like jpy is still undervalued.. you could see all jpy pairs drop 3-500 pips more.

The annoying this is that these are not really news reports.. but comments.. so they don't come out instantly on news platforms.. the markets move before these things come out.

[savar]

damn..GBP/JPY dropped another 400 pips on opening. I found a report on bloomberg that was summarizing what they said at G7 and what the IMF head said.

Ive also heard that its Japan's fiscal year end, so all the companies have to convert their foreign profits back to yen...which means purchasing yen...so thats another reason why its falling.

Are you guys trading UK Services PMI in the morning(3:30am central)?

I like that pair -- it's been moving very decisively this year. That's interesting that the fiscal year end makes companies convert their currency. Is that true of most economies? I suppose you could arbitrage profitably by purchasing at the right time.

Edit: Down 500+ now!

[nhallmark]

didnt trade. Ive never traded this report before, so I watched it to see what it would do...looks like it moved about 25 pips. Did you guys trade it?

[Music_Producer]

Yup nathan, got 11 pips on it.. exited a little early as the gbp was on a up trend before the news came out. Next is US ISM

[nhallmark]

I lost 4 pips on ISM(3 of it was the spread). I got in late and got right back out...it was kind of a delayed reaction though because 5 minutes later it went up 30 pips...oh well

[nhallmark]

Music_Producer, when you trade aussie reports, do you trade AUD/USD or AUD/JPY?

I was looking at the trade balance yesterday and it seems like AUD/JPY moves more.

[Music_Producer]

Nathan, i trade the aud/usd when trading aussie trades. Aud/jpy obviously moved more because it had taken quite a beating (was pushed down all the way to 88.85 or so) So a correction was in order after days of AUD selling. In fact, all jpy pairs fought back today. So it was just a result of that (and a positive aud number)

AUD/USD moves pretty well when the deviation is good. Again, this is because most aussie trades i've traded are on sundays.. when the us markets are closed.. so there is relatively no resistance to the aussie dollar during those times.

During uk reports. i've seen gbp/usd go up but gbp/jpy go down (positive uk number) so be careful if you're trading jpy pairs

[nhallmark]

I made 16 pips on AUD GDP, but Im down $200 for the day because I was trading GBP/JPY and I was up $100 and I closed my position but it didnt close, so I pressed it again and it still didnt close.

So I restarted the software and I had two sell positions open now, so I try to close those...same thing. I finally got it closed but Im still in a $0.17 trade with CMC which is weird because I didnt trade any off amounts and I cant figure out how to close it.

Im pissed. :mad:

[Music_Producer]

I made 20 pips on the aud/usd trade..

Nathan, sometimes I get that problem.. i have to click on either buy or sell (whatever it is to close the open trade) more than 3-4 times.

I look at the spot fx/open trades column to see what profit i have made.. and then when i hit sell.. i can tell if its gone through or not by looking at the quantity left. Don't ever restart the software (unless windows freezes.. in which case i have to restart the damn pc)

for e.g. if i see 100,000 in my open trades column.. thats 100,000 bought.. so i click sell.. nothing happens.. i still see that 100,000 there.. i click sell again.. till it goes away. Then i get the re-quote windows.. :rolleyes: cmc seriously need to revamp their platform.

Were you trading gbp/jpy on technicals? If so, then use oanda.. they have perfect execution.. the spread is not raised during non-news time.

[nhallmark]

yeah, thats what happened. I had the trade open, looking at the "spot/forward fx positions" column and I click sell...nothing happens. I think "ok, I guess Im getting a requote" about two minutes goes by, so I click again..same thing.

Thats when I thought, OK, before I click again, Im going to close the software and restart it to see if those went through. So I did, and when I logged back in I was in two sell positions and my long position was still open.

So, I bought which closed one sell position and then I had one buy and one sell open, so technically I was flat, but my p/l kept going up/down and I was somehow in a 17 cent trade.

After I posted, I called the dealing desk and he said they were in the middle of rollover for the day and it would be fixed tomorrow when I log in.

Then, I wake up and my internet is out because I forgot to pay the bill :p ( Ive got an ADD problem :p ). So I called them and got it back on and when I logged in to CMC they had closed the 17 cent trade and refunded me the spread from clicking all those times which was about $85.

That was nice of them. So, needless to say, it was a long day. I woke up at 1am yesterday and stayed up until 8pm, so I was probably just tired and thats why I kept clicking.

ahh...weve got ADP in 30 minutes so hopefully today will be a better day. (Im writing it off as a "**** happens" day)

Edit: I guess macrumors edits out profanity? Oh well, you know what I meant...

[Music_Producer]

Ahh.. I never wait for the re-quote.. because that takes its own sweet time. If my position is still open, i just click again and again (not rapidly.. but every second) till one order goes through.

That was nice that they gave you $85.. now only if they could that for every re-quote they display to us :D

I was looking at the calendar and for friday.. there's non farm employment and trade balance.. both coming out at the same time, so don't trade that.. or trade a small lot if you feel adventurous.

[Music_Producer]

9 pips on the adp report.. this one almost always whipsaws .. I had 15 pips .. but had to click on 'sell' like 5-6 times (I must look funny doing that.. shouting 'i said sell damn it.. *mixed with various profanities*)

Are you trading nzd interest rate statement? Its expected to be hiked to 7.5% so i won't be trading that.. probably won't even be awake for that trade. But be ready just in case they do something unexpected like hike it to 7.75% or drop it to 7%

[nhallmark]

made 2 whole pips on ADP..lol.

yeah, Ill be watching NFP this time. I lost money last time and like youve warned about over and over, its not worth trading it and losing all your profits for the week. If nothing conflicts(revisions and trade balance) with the actual #, I might jump in with a small lot, but we know how often that happens. :p

[nhallmark]

Are you trading nzd interest rate statement? Its expected to be hiked to 7.5% so i won't be trading that.. probably won't even be awake for that trade. But be ready just in case they do something unexpected like hike it to 7.75% or drop it to 7%

I was planning on doing exactly that...trade if they cut rates or hike 50bps instead of 25bps...otherwise, Ill just watch.

[trinka]

Just curious to see if there are any members here to dabble in the Forex markets.. :) How much of a loss/profit have you made?

I've traded with finotec.com - they have low costs, especially margin requirements and 200:1 leverage. First, I opened a mini account, for $200 and won $5K, I'm still earning here and there - but then it might be just the beginner's luck

[trinka]

Just curious to see if there are any members here to dabble in the Forex markets.. :) How much of a loss/profit have you made?

Hi,
I've traded at finotec.com - they have low costs in general, 0.5% margin requirements and 200:1 leverage. First, I've opened a mini account for $200 and within few minutes earned $5K. Of course I've had my losses too, but I still find it profitable to trade once in a while.

[nhallmark]

the NZD rate decision was crazy...it was a no trade but I was watching to see what would happen and NZD/USD is all over the place. I think its bipolar :p It was only moving up and down 10-15 pips but Ive never seen it happen so fast like that.

Edit: I think its decided to go down for the time being.

[~Shard~]

Just wanted to say "hi" guys and let you know that I'm back from Vegas. :)

Luckily just before my flight last Tuesday I was able to check the markets upon open and see the debacle that happened overnight in China. I proceeded to short the NASDAQ and DJIA100 indices at 10:1, grabbed 50 pips on the USDJPY pair and essentially paid for my entire vacation that morning! :D Not meaning to brag, but man that's a nice feeling. :o :)

I hope trading has been going good for everyone this past week. I'll be watching the interest rate decisions tomorrow morning (any thoughts?) and will hopefully familiarize myself with where everything is at (and more importantly where it is going) in the next couple of days so that I'll be back in the swing of things next week.

Looking forward to interacting with you all again. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Hey Shard, welcome back! :) These trips are even more fun when they're all paid for :D :p Did you make a few 'pips' playing poker as well? :D

Tomorrow..I'll be looking at the gbp interest rate decision very closely.. they throw in surprises all the time, so if they raise.. gbp/usd should go up 80+ pips for sure.

Eur interest rate.. i think they always stick to whatever is forecast i.e. they are going to raise it to 3.75.. so i'll be ready to trade.. but most likely no surprises there.

I might trade the usd/cad on the canadian housing starts with a very small lot, as i have never traded that before. Just want to see what kind of action that has on the markets.

[~Shard~]

Hey Shard, welcome back! :) These trips are even more fun when they're all paid for Did you make a few 'pips' playing poker as well? :D

Thanks Music_Producer - as nice as it is to travel and see other places, get out of a routine and so forth, there is always something to be said for coming back to a home and some familiarity. ;) :)

As for poker, yes, I made quite a few pips actually, so I was happy with that. Of course, since I'm not a pro, I was only trading with small lots.. ;) :D

Tomorrow..I'll be looking at the gbp interest rate decision very closely.. they throw in surprises all the time, so if they raise.. gbp/usd should go up 80+ pips for sure.

Yeah, I'll be watching that one for sure. If they hold rates I suppose the currency won't move much... Or does a sentiment currently exist that they should raise rates due to certain economic conditions? If so, perhaps (even though no hike is expected) a non-hike would be seen as negative?

Eur interest rate.. i think they always stick to whatever is forecast i.e. they are going to raise it to 3.75.. so i'll be ready to trade.. but most likely no surprises there.

Yeah, even though a hike is expected, I think it will still be seen as a plus for the currency, so I'll be ready to BUY and see if I can make a couple pips. If they don't hike though, look out! :eek: ;)

I might trade the usd/cad on the canadian housing starts with a very small lot, as i have never traded that before. Just want to see what kind of action that has on the markets.

I can catch that one just before I leave for work, so I'll watch it at as well. My thing with Canadian announcements is that they usually coincide with US news, and since the USDCAD is the best pair to trade for Canadian data, it may not react as it should if the US data released at the same time is conflicting. Nonetheless, if there's a trade, I'll try to take advantage of it. :)

[Music_Producer]

15 pips on a gbp/usd short.. rates remained the same. I shorted because I noticed gbp/usd rising before the rate decision (about 10-15 pip gradual rise) so I figured that if rates stayed the same.. the gbp/usd would drop a little.

Since this was an interest rate trade, I traded with maximum leverage.. I'm a happy man right now :D

[Music_Producer]

Yeah, even though a hike is expected, I think it will still be seen as a plus for the currency, so I'll be ready to BUY and see if I can make a couple pips. If they don't hike though, look out! :eek: ;)


Not necessarily shard.. be careful with the eur interest trade announcement. I mean, you may be right.. the eur *could* go up if they do raise rates.. but the markets are expecting that.. so watch out.. could go down

Of course, if they don't hike at all.. then short the eur/usd

[~Shard~]

15 pips on a gbp/usd short.. rates remained the same. I shorted because I noticed gbp/usd rising before the rate decision (about 10-15 pip gradual rise) so I figured that if rates stayed the same.. the gbp/usd would drop a little.

Nice one Music_Producer! :) Unfortunately no trade for me on the BoE announcement. The news was as expected and although I saw an initial blip down, it recovered right away and I didn't feel comfortable with trading after that point. (I guess I need to regain some of my speed after being away for a week! :p ;)) Obviously the GBPUSD did go down afterwards, but I didn't want to trade on speculation, rather trade on news, and the moment had passed at that time. Good catch on the pre-decision rise, I'll keep that sort of behavior in mind in the future. :cool:

Not necessarily shard.. be careful with the eur interest trade announcement. I mean, you may be right.. the eur *could* go up if they do raise rates.. but the markets are expecting that.. so watch out.. could go down

Of course, if they don't hike at all.. then short the eur/usd

Yep, understood. :) Just thinking out loud more than anything... ;) Good luck with that trade as well!

[~Shard~]

Oh, and Music_Producer, were you aware of this site (http://www.ecb.int/home/html/index.en.html)? Looks like it has a live feed of the ECB press conference...

[Music_Producer]

Haha.. go back to bed shard.. everytime I come home from a trip (whether its a weekend trip or a 2 month long break) I am always in 'vacation mode' for at least a couple of days and need that time to acclimatize! Imagine if I had to work a 9-5 job.. sheesh, I'd be fired :p

Btw, good job in not chasing the trade.. I always get tempted to fade the spike or do some stupid things.. so lately as soon as I close my positions and make my profit, I just shut the computer down.. that's the only way to resist risky trades!

[Music_Producer]

Oh, and Music_Producer, were you aware of this site (http://www.ecb.int/home/html/index.en.html)? Looks like it has a live feed of the ECB press conference...

Nope, never knew about it.. that's great though.. for trading the speech after the rate decision. That moves eur/usd by 20-40 pips (sometimes more) depending on what he says.

Hopefully that live feed does not suffer from any delays

[nhallmark]

I didn't trade either. It's good to have you back, Shard.

I made 50 pips on the move up on GBP/JPY this morning(just trading with pennies). Im still learning what Im doing but hopefully it will be consistent.

[nhallmark]

just made 7 pips on USD/CHF with that vanessafx system. Im realizing, like PiP Dictator says, that its not a matter of technicals OR fundamentals...its both, equally.

It helps a lot in avoiding losses by only taking trades when both line up. Im really liking this :)

[~Shard~]

I'm glad that system is working for you nhallmark. Now that I am back from vacation I believe I will give it a try myself (just via paper trading for starters of course) once I re-familiaarize myself with where everything is at and what's happened over the past week.

After looking at it, it actually is similar to the systems I use in the equities world and was trying to "port over" to forex. If these end up working (in general) I'll just stick with them instead.

And, of course, as we all know, you need to pay attention to everything and not blindly rely on technicals. ;) I'm first and foremost a fundamental/news trader when it comes to forex. :) :cool:

[nhallmark]

Yeah, Shard, before you jump in be sure to pay attention to price action.

Im not sure if it says much about it in the ebook, but for example, earlier today the SAR and the AO(on the 30 minute system) on USD/CHF gave a short signal but a pin bar had just formed, peircing through a support line and then closing above it.

So, I thought according to the pin bar it was going to reverse and go up, but the indicators just gave a short signal...sure enough it reversed and went up.

Had I just looked at the indicators, it would have been a losing trade. So, Im just saying that paying attention to price action helps a lot ;)

[nhallmark]

Hey, are you guys trading the CAD employment change in the morning?

Ive never traded it, but FF has it marked red. Im assuming its like canada's NFP?

[Music_Producer]

Yeah, Shard, before you jump in be sure to pay attention to price action.

Im not sure if it says much about it in the ebook, but for example, earlier today the SAR and the AO(on the 30 minute system) on USD/CHF gave a short signal but a pin bar had just formed, peircing through a support line and then closing above it.




You lost me at the 'pin bar had formed.. piercing through..' :p

Canadian employment change is very important for the CAD.. so definitely trade that. The trades I'm looking for today are - gbp industrial production and the cad employment change.

Then comes the nasty nfp.. i think i am going to trade that (just for kicks) with only 10,000 units.. so if I do make a loss it won't be catastrophic. Too many conflicting reports.. nonfarm employment change, overall unemployment report, trade balance.

[Music_Producer]

10 pips on the UK industrial production report - came out at 0.1% but i think the -0.2% manufacturing production report made the pound move down a bit.

No big deviations overall.. so move was limited.. but good enough for a solid profit. Next up, canadian employment (2 and 1/2 hours away.. what do i do till then?!) :)

[nhallmark]

I didnt trade...didnt think the deviation was big enough and by the time I caught all the other #'s it was too late.

Oh well, hopefully canada will pull through and let me make some money today.

Music_Producer, I attached a pdf explaining pin bars. Its pretty simple.

[Music_Producer]

Thanks for that file nathan.. I was laughing at the illustration that showed the 'eyes' and the 'nose' :)

8 pips on the canadian report.. stupid conflict caused by unemployment rate.. came out at 6.1% so it subdued the move caused by a good 14+k employment change report.

Next up, nfp.. for kicks :p

[nhallmark]

I didnt trade...again. I told myself I was only going to trade if it was more than 20k in either direction, so I stayed out.

I thought the unemployment rate was good...6.1% v 6.2%E...isnt that better?

[Music_Producer]

I didnt trade...again. I told myself I was only going to trade if it was more than 20k in either direction, so I stayed out.

I thought the unemployment rate was good...6.1% v 6.2%E...isnt that better?

Oops.. you're right.. 6.1 is better than 6.2.. thank goodness for the weekend so i can rest my poor brain :eek:

[nhallmark]

Thanks for that file nathan.. I was laughing at the illustration that showed the 'eyes' and the 'nose' :)

yeah, its kind of stupid. I use candles instead of bars because I hate the way bars look. I think a pin bar is pretty much the same thing as a hammer or a shooting star in candles.(more stupid names :p )

[Music_Producer]

Ahh.. figured out why the move wasn't that great... well apart from the deviation which was good but not spectacular - forgot to check the pre-news canadian $ trend.. usd/cad had already fallen 40 pips since this morning.. so it didn't have much room to fall further.

I was expecting a 20-30 pip fall but I can see why that didn't happen.

Nathan, how's the keyboard search coming along? And more importantly, how are you going to record all these synths with just an mbox?!

[nhallmark]

Well, Im looking at the new 003 which looks like the replacement for the 002.

Theyre running a promotion through june where you can upgrade from your previous hardware for $1700 or something where buying it without the upgrade is supposedly $2900.

I was just looking at it this morning actually. Im dying to upgrade to 7.3...Im still running 6.4 right now.

But, yeah, Im thinking its going to be another month or two before I do that.

Im also thinking about getting that antares rack thing that cher used on "do you believe". Everyone's using that effect these days but Im thinking I could play with it and come up with something new.

[nhallmark]

I stayed out..could have gotten a few pips but decided to play it safe.

[Music_Producer]

I got a re-quote :rolleyes: That was a huge drop.. initially 15-20 .. and then another 20 pips.

[Music_Producer]

Well, Im looking at the new 003 which looks like the replacement for the 002.

Theyre running a promotion through june where you can upgrade from your previous hardware for $1700 or something where buying it without the upgrade is supposedly $2900.

I was just looking at it this morning actually. Im dying to upgrade to 7.3...Im still running 6.4 right now.

But, yeah, Im thinking its going to be another month or two before I do that.

Im also thinking about getting that antares rack thing that cher used on "do you believe". Everyone's using that effect these days but Im thinking I could play with it and come up with something new.

We just got a great deal on the 002 racks in fact (002 rack for $1020 and 002 rack factory bundle for $1200).. the 003 is nothing but a revamped design.. that's all. Don't waste your money on the 003 (mixer) get the rack instead and get a dedicated 24 channel control surface.. will work out cheaper.

And where in the world are you getting those prices from? :eek: 003 is $2200 (I get them lower than that though) Don't be paying retail prices for gear! :)

[nhallmark]

How do you not pay retail? I understand getting gear from ebay and whatnot but I would rather pay more to get it new.

I got those prices from the digidesign website. My main reason for wanting the 003 instead of the 002 is just the way it looks. The 002 always reminded me of a ford taurus(dont know why :p )

I also had the assumption that the 003 allowed you to record in HD without buying HD. Maybe Im wrong.

As far as keyboards, Im probably going to get the roland x8 because I need the drum sounds out of it and I like the way it looks. Then Ill get the motif and the triton in rack units and use the x8 as a controller...I think.

[Music_Producer]

How do you not pay retail? I understand getting gear from ebay and whatnot but I would rather pay more to get it new.

I got those prices from the digidesign website. My main reason for wanting the 003 instead of the 002 is just the way it looks. The 002 always reminded me of a ford taurus(dont know why :p )

I also had the assumption that the 003 allowed you to record in HD without buying HD. Maybe Im wrong.

As far as keyboards, Im probably going to get the roland x8 because I need the drum sounds out of it and I like the way it looks. Then Ill get the motif and the triton in rack units and use the x8 as a controller...I think.

I purchase audio gear in bulk for studios.. so I know quite a few folks in the music retail business.. no I don't buy anything from ebay.

As far as 003 allowing to record in HD.. you wish :p ProTools HD software will only work with HD interfaces. I use an Apogee Ensemble with a 002 rack (needed when i absolutely have to use pro tools) and Digital Performer. I'm waiting for a 8 core mac pro.. :D

[nhallmark]

Oh yeah..one more question...I was under the impression that you could only use digidesign hardware with protools so how do you use a third party mixer?

The only way I can do it on my mbox is to take the output on the mixer and put it on an input on the mbox. So, my mixer has 8 channels but it only records to one track in pro tools.

Is there another way to do it?

[~Shard~]

Slept in, missed the trades. Yeah I know, I'm a horrible forex-er, I have no excuses... :p ;) :D

Looks like it was a wild ride regardless, so perhaps it was best that I did miss out this time... :o ;)

[nhallmark]

Well, Shard, I guess your just living up to your avatar...sleep in, dont contribute to the forum topic but then tell us about how we forgot a comma and we spelled "thier" wrong. Thats a REAL Mr. Bastard :p

(only joking)

[~Shard~]

Well, Shard, I guess your just living up to your avatar...sleep in, dont contribute to the forum topic but then tell us about how we forgot a comma and we spelled "thier" wrong. Thats a REAL Mr. Bastard :p

(only joking)

Haha, you got it! I am the MacRumors Bastard so I have to live up to my title you know... ;) :D It's all good fun, yes... ;)


P.S. You used the wrong "your". You also missed a comma in "dont" and again in "Thats" in your last sentence. :p :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Oh yeah..one more question...I was under the impression that you could only use digidesign hardware with protools so how do you use a third party mixer?

The only way I can do it on my mbox is to take the output on the mixer and put it on an input on the mbox. So, my mixer has 8 channels but it only records to one track in pro tools.

Is there another way to do it?

By a mixer I meant a control surface.. such as the mackie Control Universal (with 8 faders) So with that you can move the faders in pro tools up and down.. using the hardware faders of the mackie.

The way you use the mixer with the mbox is the only way to incorporate a mixer in any pro tools setup. When you get a 003 rack, you'll get 8 inputs. so you can plug in your keyboards in there (4 pairs) .. and use the mackie control surface for everything such as fader control, recording, playback, etc.

Tascam made a pretty good surface (24 faders) and it was cheap too.. don't know why they dropped it.

Shard, I'm a bit like you too.. my wife gets annoyed when I tend to correct people (and her) :p

We've got a good week ahead as well.. lots of trades possible. Couple that with your vanessa fx trading and nathan, you probably will be able to buy your entire studio in a few days ;) :D

[nhallmark]

Haha, you got it! I am the MacRumors Bastard so I have to live up to my title you know... ;) :D It's all good fun, yes... ;)


P.S. You used the wrong "your". You also missed a comma in "dont" and again in "Thats" in your last sentence. :p :cool:

Damn it...I thought I did everything right, except I spelled "their" wrong on purpose.

Thanks for the laugh :p


I purchase audio gear in bulk for studios.. so I know quite a few folks in the music retail business.. no I don't buy anything from ebay.

As far as 003 allowing to record in HD.. you wish :p ProTools HD software will only work with HD interfaces. I use an Apogee Ensemble with a 002 rack (needed when i absolutely have to use pro tools) and Digital Performer. I'm waiting for a 8 core mac pro.. :D

Maybe its just marketing, but here's what the digidesign site says...


"003™ Factory provides powerful hands-on control of Pro Tools® through its integrated control surface and offers a wide range of audio and MIDI I/O, high-definition audio resolution, the creativity and speed of industry-standard Pro Tools LE® software, high-speed FireWire connectivity, and over 80 professional instrument and effects plug-ins, compatible applications, sound libraries, and services, including the new Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 Pro and premium Factory software bundles."

Im not saying I dont believe you, in fact your probably right, but thats where I got the assumption about HD from.

I googled the apogee ensemble and I am sooo confused :confused: I thought the 002 was an audio interface so why do you need two?

And if the apogee is higher resolution(which it seems to be), isnt that like listening to a $2 million production through a cell phone speaker?

Everything I know about recording is all from the internet which is why my mixes suck...so forgive me if I sound completely crazy.

Edit: We were posting at the same time, so I just read your last post...and Im still confused. Do you know of a website that explains all this stuff. I mean, I dont even know why 96khz or 192khz matters...er, I know why it matters but I dont hear it.

Ive got a lot to learn. On my last song, every track is peaking the whole time and I know thats bad but I cant find anywhere online that will teach me what to do about it.

[~Shard~]

Shard, I'm a bit like you too.. my wife gets annoyed when I tend to correct people (and her) :p

Yeah, I am a perfectionist in some ways, but I mostly just do it for fun in situations like this. ;) It's just that on Forums there is so much bad grammar, spelling, etc., it's tough to resist the urge! ;) :D

Damn it...I thought I did everything right, except I spelled "their" wrong on purpose.

Thanks for the laugh :p

Haha, no worries, just having fun with ya... ;) :)

[Music_Producer]

Nathan, when digi mentions high definition audio.. its not really their HD range of units.. it just means.. er.. high definition.. as in.. sample rates more than 48.1 khz (upto 96 khz i believe)

Their HD models go upto 192 khz.. and ProTools HD has more than 32 tracks of audio.. they go up to 256 tracks depending on what configuration you buy. With pro tools le.. you're stuck with 32 tracks (which is not bad.. but for my kind of music its hopeless.. my sound effects alone take up 32 tracks!)

Apogee has the best convertors in the industry. When you record any sound into pro tools.. you're basically converting that analog sound into digital.. so the computer can 'read' that. The quality of that sound depends on the quality of the A/D (analog to digital) convertors

So I connect the apogee to the 002 rack via optical cable.. no analog connections. Basically, the apogee handles all the a/d conversion.. and then that digital stream passes from the apogee to the 002 rack, to the computer. This is only when I'm using pro tools (hence i *have* to use a digidesign interface like the 002 rack)

If I'm not using pro tools.. i bypass the 002 rack.. I just use the apogee.

And don't worry about the quality of your recordings.. you'll get better with time. When I started.. there was no internet! I didn't even have any books.. nothing. I just used to compare my mixes to professional ones and figure out what I needed to do.

You should not let your levels on all tracks jump to peak (not all the time) Use a compressor plug-in.. to maximize the sound without making it go over the peak. That's the beauty of analog tape.. is that you can make levels go higher and analog has a lot of headroom.. so it sounds 'fatter' With digital the minute you go over the '0' level.. it sounds harsh.. like static.

Always play your mixes through your car stereo.. if it sounds good in there, it will mostly sound good everywhere else. I used to find myself adding a lot of bass to every song.. would sound good on the headphones.. but when I'd play them in the car.. my speakers would fart with all that bass.. lol.

[Music_Producer]

Ive got a lot to learn. On my last song, every track is peaking the whole time and I know thats bad but I cant find anywhere online that will teach me what to do about it.

Pull your faders down if the levels are jumping like crazy.. and look at your master fader's levels.. are they pushing past peak? A common mentality when recording is 'Oooh i like that kick drum, let me push it up higher.. so it stands out'

The minute you do that, you think 'oh wait ..now the bass doesnt stand out much.. let me make that higher.. ahhh.. those vocals are cool.. let me push them a bit'.. and before you know it.. you've basically pushed up all the levels of every track. Instead of doing that, just push the master faders up! And tweak every track a *little* to satisfy yourself. I always add a compressor plugin on the master track to get it LOUD.. without distorting.

Play with the settings.. half the time I don't know what I'm doing but if I can hear a change.. then i keep those settings.

[nhallmark]

OK, I'll try messing around with it. I use compressors on everything and generally the track isnt peaking until after I put a compressor on it.

Im thinking thats because I like to put the attack all the up, the release all the way down, and play with the ratio until it sounds good. That makes it stick out more, but it peaks every time I do that.

My other problem is that I can drag a fader down to -inf and even though its silent the meter in pro tools still peaks so Im not sure how to fix that. I tried unchecking the "link record and play faders" but that didn't seem to do anything.

Its funny how we start talking about all this stuff and I get all excited.

I try to learn pin bars, fib lines, etc and its like "who cares"...until you tell me that Ill get to buy more gear and then all of a sudden I love fib lines :p

Anyway, this is embarrasing but this what Im talking about with my mixing skills(or lack thereof)...

www.myspace.com/getposh

One of my friends knows a DJ at the rock station here in dallas and he said he would play my song if I could get him a clean recording, so I guess it sounds worse than I thought.

Anyway, thats my first song that Ive ever fully completed so dont laugh. I could go on and on about whats wrong with it, but I'll stop distracting from the thread topic before Mr. Bastard comes after me :p

[Music_Producer]

That's a great track.. catchy riffs, smart stuff.. but you totally messed up the mix :p Too many delays.. vocals not punchy enough.. washed in reverb etc. Haha, you should have heard my first few songs.. they were totally whacked.

Always start with the source of the recording i.e your instruments. Make sure you're recording at a good level.. play the instrument where you think you have to play it the hardest (so the sound is the loudest) and see those levels. Once you adjust the gain, etc.. then it becomes relatively easier to manage. It's always easier to reduce a good strength signal than try to pump up a weak signal.

Use effects sparingly.. just enough to get your desired sound but not so much that it overpowers the mix. For vocals.. I could go on to make it punchier.. try using distortion effects.

[nhallmark]

wow...Im an idiot :o

I went and played with one of my other songs...I turned down the gain on the compressor and brought down the attack and release so theyre not completely maxed out. Then I turned down the gain on some of the effects and, as if by magic...no more peaking but its still punchy.

I feel so retarded right now. I spent an entire year on that song you heard from start to finish and I never figured it out.

Thanks man. Ive still got some other stuff to figure out re effects, but damn, that cleaned it up so much.

On that song, though, it sounds so thrown together because I had a goal to have 1 song completely done by 1/1/07 so I just threw up what I had.

The vocals in the first verse have that effect on them(izotope trash) and the second verse sounds dry because Ive never had vocal lessons and those were the best takes I had and the effect on the first verse sounded stupid on the second verse so I left it dry.

I could go on and on...but yeah, thanks, Im making progress at least.

[~Shard~]

Glad to see this thread can serve other needs as well - I'm glad we all share such common interests! As I mentioned earlier in the thread my friend and I used to create tracks all the time, mostly electronica using tracking programs and the like. We haven't done anything for a out a year since he moved a way a while ago (that makes it harder ;)) but he's planning on moving back here next year so hopefully we're be able to get back into it. In the meantime, my buddy has been commissioned to do a movie score for a local independent film and also did all the mastering and mixing on a CD for a local group made up of a few of our friends. Most recently he was approached by EastWest (http://www.imuso.co.uk/SearchResults.asp?txtSearchString=eastwest) after they heard some of our tracks and wanted him to be a beta tester for their next software releases. :cool:

Now that I think of it, our/his mixes aren't posted anywhere on the Net that I know of, otherwise I'd send you guys links. If either of you have FTP servers I could upload some tracks to you if you're interested, or perhaps use one of those free storage sites to post some tracks.

As for myself, I don't do any composing anymore (no time) but I still perform with the Symphony Orchestra here (I play clarinet) which is fun. We actually have a performance tonight which I'm quite looking forward to - nothing beats some good Shostakovich... :cool:

[nhallmark]

Who do have for your email, Shard? Im using gmail and they have enough storage to let me upload and attach tracks in an email, so check whoever you use and see if they have enough storage...then email them.

Or, you could make a myspace music account and upload the songs, then well download them and you can delete the account after that.

...just some ideas.

[nhallmark]

damn it...I just realized that daylight savings time is tomorrow. I just got on my new sleep schedule of waking up at 1am and going to sleep at 3pm and now Ive got to do it 1 hour earlier.

...hopefully it wont affect my trading.

[nhallmark]

OK, another question, and Ive traded this before but I dont remember...is the GBP Claimant Count Change on wednesday the # of new jobs or the # of people filing for unemployment?

...or something else?

Edit: I forgot to add that I emailed PiP Dictator the other day and he said he got in a car wreck, but he'll be back soon.

[~Shard~]

OK, another question, and Ive traded this before but I dont remember...is the GBP Claimant Count Change on wednesday the # of new jobs or the # of people filing for unemployment?

...or something else?

Edit: I forgot to add that I emailed PiP Dictator the other day and he said he got in a car wreck, but he'll be back soon.

Sorry to hear about PIP Dictator, I wish him a speedy recovery... :cool:

As for the UK Claimant Count Charge, it measures the change in the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits over the previous month. A falling trend has a positive effect on the nation's currency because working people tend to spend more (and consumer spending is obviously a major driver of the economy.)

[nhallmark]

Oh, thanks Shard. I guess I could have clicked on FF and read that...just didn't think of it.

[~Shard~]

Oh, thanks Shard. I guess I could have clicked on FF and read that...just didn't think of it.

No worries, it was an easy reply for me to make as a result! ;) :D

[nhallmark]

OK, guys what time do you have? I am so confused. I thought UK PPI was at 3:30am(central)?

I read about DST the other day and it said macs will automatically update if youve installed the latest software through software update...and cell phones will update because they check the time from the nearest tower.

So right now my phone, mac, and pc say its 3:37am. I went to trade and the TTN guy was announcing swiss CPI.

So I googled "what time is it" and this site said its 1:28 in LA and 2:28 in houston...but were 2 hours ahead of LA.

This is so frustrating. The only thing I can think of is that, since congress passed this law, its only an american thing...which would mean UK PPI is coming out at the same time, but its at 4:30am...or its already happened and I missed it.

any thoughts?

[Music_Producer]

damn it...I just realized that daylight savings time is tomorrow. I just got on my new sleep schedule of waking up at 1am and going to sleep at 3pm and now Ive got to do it 1 hour earlier.

...hopefully it wont affect my trading.

I switched my clocks to the correct time today.. and here I am.. waiting for the gbp ppi news .. nothing happened at 1.30 am pst.. lol.. it's at 2.30 am pst. I hate all these time changes :p

Glad nothing happened to pip dictator (sounds strange addressing someone by their nick.. 'pip dictator got in a crash') Hope he's back soon!

Shard always likes to give textbook definitions :p :D

[Music_Producer]

Lol nathan, you're confused too!

The ppi report is an hour from now (well 45 mins from now)

Check out the forexfactory.com website and make sure the time they display is synchronized to your local time. Click on the time link at forexfactory.com.

[~Shard~]

Just woke up, ready to trade - glad it was at the right time! ;) :D

[nhallmark]

made 6 pips on UK PPI...should have waited, it went up more. I traded with a small lot because Ive seen PPI deviate a lot but not move before so I wasnt sure...oh well, its still 6 pips

[Music_Producer]

9 pips on the gbp/usd trade.. got out early though, spiked up higher as soon as I exited. Also up today is nzd retail sales (later during the day)

[Music_Producer]

made 6 pips on UK PPI...should have waited, it went up more. I traded with a small lot because Ive seen PPI deviate a lot but not move before so I wasnt sure...oh well, its still 6 pips

Yeah, cpi makes the currency deviate more than ppi.. but nevertheless.. ppi will get you some pips :)

[Music_Producer]

What is the response time in your platform nathan, shard?

I get it ranging from 320ms to 4560 ms at times.. which is why I could be getting so many re-quotes. Do you use a direct ethernet connection or wireless? I'm wondering if I should plug in the cable directly into my pc.. theoretically that should make the response times faster..

[~Shard~]

10 pips on the UK data - pretty good start for the week! (1.9392-1.9402)

Glad to see you guys grabbed some pips as well. :cool:

[~Shard~]

What is the response time in your platform nathan, shard?

I get it ranging from 320ms to 4560 ms at times.. which is why I could be getting so many re-quotes. Do you use a direct ethernet connection or wireless? I'm wondering if I should plug in the cable directly into my pc.. theoretically that should make the response times faster..

My PC is going through a router acting in bridge mode and then through a gateway (all wired) and whenever there is normal activity is always have a response time of 100ms. When news comes out, like during this morning's announcement, it usually jumps to about 250-300ms. I have only seen it higher when I have other activity on my network. I never thought of connecting it directly, but I don't seem to suffer having it hooked up the way it is. That being said, every millisecond counts of course! ;)

[Music_Producer]

15 pips on the nzd/usd trade.. although the deviation was quite small.. a good move considering there wasn't much action going on with the other currencies at this time of day.

[nhallmark]

yes!...for once I made more than you..lol I got 24 pips on nzd retail sales...of course you were probably trading a bigger lot, so you still made more :rolleyes:

Edit: If I can keep this up, I'll buy you and Shard an iphone for teaching me how to trade :D

[Music_Producer]

yes!...for once I made more than you..lol I got 24 pips on nzd retail sales...of course you were probably trading a bigger lot, so you still made more :rolleyes:

Edit: If I can keep this up, I'll buy you and Shard an iphone for teaching me how to trade :D

Haha, that's because I get out way too fast.. which is bad.. but good at the same time. With my lots.. yeah, I'm happy with 5 pips a day :p

An iphone.. hmm.. no actually, make that the new 8 core mac pro :eek: :D

Edit : 3 trades tomorrow.. uk trade balance, german zew sentiment and us retail sales

[OceanView]

I am new here.
Logged on to MacRumors to get info on buying my first MBP but stumbled on this thread by accident. Glad that I did.

I think its great that you guys are teaching others to make money trading the news.
I too am interested in trading and want to learn as soon as possible.
I am on page 9 of this thread and I am trying to read as fast as possible to catch up to where everyone is.

Just wanted to say hi and thanks.
Keep on posting.

[nhallmark]

An iphone.. hmm.. no actually, make that the new 8 core mac pro :eek: :D


ok...but thats gonna take awhile...thats more than my entire account balance at the moment. :o

we'll see how it goes though...

[nhallmark]

I am new here.
Logged on to MacRumors to get info on buying my first MBP but stumbled on this thread by accident. Glad that I did.

I think its great that you guys are teaching others to make money trading the news.
I too am interested in trading and want to learn as soon as possible.
I am on page 9 of this thread and I am trying to read as fast as possible to catch up to where everyone is.

Just wanted to say hi and thanks.
Keep on posting.

Hi OceanView, yeah just keep reading and practice. Once you understand how the different reports move the prices, then its just a matter of how fast you can click :D

[OceanView]

Hi OceanView, yeah just keep reading and practice. Once you understand how the different reports move the prices, then its just a matter of how fast you can click :D

Thank you.
I did open a demo account at OandA and will be practicing at the critical news announcement times. Guess that means I have to wake up really early or stay up really late. I am in So Cal (PST).

So far it seems like everyone is making money here. Is that the case or maybe I haven't gotten to the parts that some of you have actually lost money.
Just wondering.

[Music_Producer]

Thank you.
I did open a demo account at OandA and will be practicing at the critical news announcement times. Guess that means I have to wake up really early or stay up really late. I am in So Cal (PST).

So far it seems like everyone is making money here. Is that the case or maybe I haven't gotten to the parts that some of you have actually lost money.
Just wondering.

Hey Oceanview.. welcome to the thread.

99 trades are wins.. 1 will be a loss. The losses are usually due to either

1. Platform issues - such as a delayed trade, or a re-quote and then accidentally hitting the wrong button (buy/sell) Things happen so fast that its easy to make a mistake when you first start.. but with practice that is limited. Other things like a software freeze (its windows.. what do you expect?!) can affect trading as well.

2. Conflicting reports - If there are two important reports coming out at the same time, and they conflict.. you could have an initial upward spike.. and then a downward one.. so its best to stay out of such trades.

It's very easy to make up for a loss though. Cardinal rules to avoid losses:

1. If your broker gives you a re-quote when you place a trade.. let it go. Don't chase a trade, it will always lead to a loss. There's always another report that you can trade another day.

2. Don't set a goal i.e. 'I have to make 20 pips everyday' Be happy with whatever profit you make.. eventually, as you start trading big lots.. and 1 pip = $100.. you could be making $500 per trade with 5 pips movement.

3. Don't be frustrated or pissed if you make a losing trade. Don't try to 'revenge trade' and recover your losses by entering into foolish trades.. it's very tempting to see a currency fall by 100 pips and assume that it should recover and rebound.. it can still fall by another 200 pips.. and your account will be wiped out if you don't exit your position.

It's happened to me before.. i.e revenge trading. I made a loss of $70 once and got real mad.. 'How could i make a loss?' kind of thing. It wasn't my fault.. it was the platform. Anyway, I proceeded to carry out a few 'revenge trades' .. when I saw the currency go up.. I would 'sell at the peak' thinking it was going down.. but it went up instead. I exited.. with a loss.. and then my total loss was $150. More anger.. so i traded again.. loss again.. $200.. until I finally stopped with a $500 net loss.

After that, I put 3 stickers on my desk that state in bold fonts "No revenge trading!" , "No emotional trading!" and more importantly.. "Let it go!" lol.. trade sensibly and you'll be successful :)

[nhallmark]

yeah, Ive lost money a few times and I think Music_Producer has had one loss, but once you get it down its smooth sailing for the most part...As you read further into the thread you'll see that none of us are using oanda anymore because they started raising their spreads 10-20 pips during news...its a good platform to learn on though

Edit: Music_Producer got it..I was posting at the same time, but yeah, what he said ;)

[~Shard~]

You know, nhallmark, I'm going to hold you to that. :p ;) :D

Yeah, I know what you mean about getting out too soon Music_Producer - it really comes down to your trading strategy. Technically, if you're trading the news, you should trade the spike, get in and out and your trade should last a matter of seconds - that's trading the news. If you hold onto a trade any longer, you're essentially deviating from your initial plan and you're not trading the news anymore. Not that it matters, and of course it can pay off if there's a trend, but just thought I'd say that for what it's worth... :o ;)

[~Shard~]

Oh, and welcome OceanView. Any questions, just ask. Music_Producer pretty much outlined the basics perfectly for you, so definitely follow his advice. One of the hardest things to do with trading is to stick to your plan. It requires a lot of discipline. You have to remove all emotion from trading, and trust me, that's even harder than you'd think.

Keep reading and post when you can! Good luck with your practice Oanda account as well. :cool:

[OceanView]

Hey Oceanview.. welcome to the thread.

99 trades are wins.. 1 will be a loss. The losses are usually due to either

1. Platform issues - such as a delayed trade, or a re-quote and then accidentally hitting the wrong button (buy/sell) Things happen so fast that its easy to make a mistake when you first start.. but with practice that is limited. Other things like a software freeze (its windows.. what do you expect?!) can affect trading as well.

2. Conflicting reports - If there are two important reports coming out at the same time, and they conflict.. you could have an initial upward spike.. and then a downward one.. so its best to stay out of such trades.

It's very easy to make up for a loss though. Cardinal rules to avoid losses:

1. If your broker gives you a re-quote when you place a trade.. let it go. Don't chase a trade, it will always lead to a loss. There's always another report that you can trade another day.

2. Don't set a goal i.e. 'I have to make 20 pips everyday' Be happy with whatever profit you make.. eventually, as you start trading big lots.. and 1 pip = $100.. you could be making $500 per trade with 5 pips movement.

3. Don't be frustrated or pissed if you make a losing trade. Don't try to 'revenge trade' and recover your losses by entering into foolish trades.. it's very tempting to see a currency fall by 100 pips and assume that it should recover and rebound.. it can still fall by another 200 pips.. and your account will be wiped out if you don't exit your position.

It's happened to me before.. i.e revenge trading. I made a loss of $70 once and got real mad.. 'How could i make a loss?' kind of thing. It wasn't my fault.. it was the platform. Anyway, I proceeded to carry out a few 'revenge trades' .. when I saw the currency go up.. I would 'sell at the peak' thinking it was going down.. but it went up instead. I exited.. with a loss.. and then my total loss was $150. More anger.. so i traded again.. loss again.. $200.. until I finally stopped with a $500 net loss.

After that, I put 3 stickers on my desk that state in bold fonts "No revenge trading!" , "No emotional trading!" and more importantly.. "Let it go!" lol.. trade sensibly and you'll be successful :)


Thanks for those tips! I am sure that took many months (years) of experience to learn those. I will write these down.
Also, I would be happy to just get 60-70% win versus loss averages let alone 99% win percentage.

Once again thanks and I hope to be trading along side of you and everyone else on this thread.

[OceanView]

yeah, Ive lost money a few times and I think Music_Producer has had one loss, but once you get it down its smooth sailing for the most part...As you read further into the thread you'll see that none of us are using oanda anymore because they started raising their spreads 10-20 pips during news...its a good platform to learn on though

Edit: Music_Producer got it..I was posting at the same time, but yeah, what he said ;)


I didn't realize everyone stopped using OandA, what is the new company that you use to trade? Also, do they have a game/demo account?

Thanks

[OceanView]

Oh, and welcome OceanView. Any questions, just ask. Music_Producer pretty much outlined the basics perfectly for you, so definitely follow his advice. One of the hardest things to do with trading is to stick to you plan. It requires a lot of discipline. You have to remove all emotion from trading, and trust me, that's even harder than you'd think.

Keep reading and post when you can! Good luck with your practice Oanda account as well. :cool:

Thanks Shard for the warm welcome!

[~Shard~]

I didn't realize everyone stopped using OandA, what is the new company that you use to trade? Also, do they have a game/demo account?

I use CMC Markets. They have a 14-day free trial but to use their actual trading platform you ned to open an account with at least $2000 and also be an accredited investor (at least up in here in Canada...)

Thanks Shard for the warm welcome!

My pleasure, the more the merrier! :cool:

[OceanView]

I use CMC Markets. They have a 14-day free trial but to use their actual trading platform you ned to open an account with at least $2000 and also be an accredited investor (at least up in here in Canada...)



Oh, I will have to look into that.
Which News reporting agencies are you using?

[nhallmark]

Hi OceanView,

We're using tradethenews...their site is www.tradethenews.com

And Im not sure about having to be an accredited investor...they let me
open an account with 2 months experience, but yeah, there is a minimum
deposit of $2k.

Oh, and with tradethenews, the text is $50 a month and the audio/text is $180 a month...its better to get the audio...its about 1-2 seconds faster, and that makes all the difference in the results, IMHO.

Hope that helps,
Nathan

[Music_Producer]

16 pips on the UK trade balance report. Trade balance came out at -6.2 billion pounds.. which is more positive than the -7 billion pounds expected.

Don't tell me you beat me at this trade too nathan :p :D

[nhallmark]

no we tied :p I made 16 pips too...thats 46 pips already this week :D

[Music_Producer]

no we tied :p I made 16 pips too...thats 46 pips already this week :D

Good.. I see that mac pro coming to me already.. *drool* ahhh..come to daddy :D

[nhallmark]

Rofl

[nhallmark]

I didnt trade on german ZEW, it barely moved...so far.

[Music_Producer]

8 pips on eur/usd on the zew sentiment.. it went up higher after I closed my positions. Again, I had to click on 'sell' to close my position.. multiple times. :mad:

[OceanView]

Just wondering how many people here are doing this as full time basis?

[Music_Producer]

Just wondering how many people here are doing this as full time basis?

I am.. after trading on a demo account for quite a bit.. and then moving on to a real account with small lots. Now I trade bigger lots.. so I can do this full time.

10 pips on gbp/usd.. on the us retail sales report.. came out lower than expected (why am i not surprised :rolleyes: )

[Music_Producer]

Technically, if you're trading the news, you should trade the spike, get in and out and your trade should last a matter of seconds - that's trading the news. If you hold onto a trade any longer, you're essentially deviating from your initial plan and you're not trading the news anymore. Not that it matters, and of course it can pay off if there's a trend, but just thought I'd say that for what it's worth... :o ;)

Absolutely. Hold on to a trade longer than a few seconds, and it could very well go against you in a matter of milliseconds. It's best to mentally prepare yourself for a 'I made 6 pips profit on one trade" rather than 'I could have made 20 pips if i had held on'.. as that often becomes 'I held on a little longer and i lost 30 pips'

[nhallmark]

I made a whole pip! ...that was kind of a delayed reaction. I got scared and closed too early.

OceanView, Im doing this full time but only because Im in a position where I dont have to work right now...Im not paying my bills from it(yet!)

[Music_Producer]

I made a whole pip! ...that was kind of a delayed reaction. I got scared and closed too early.

OceanView, Im doing this full time but only because Im in a position where I dont have to work right now...Im not paying my bills from it(yet!)

Yeah, that happens to me at times (NFP time :p ) I get even more anxious when I've had 2 good trades.. and then there's a 3rd one. All sorts of thoughts cross my mind 'what if i lose my previous profits on one stupid trade' etc.

Lately though, I've been more concerned with my stupid windows machine. It shuts off randomly at times.. I think it gets too hot. So i usually turn it on 10 minutes before a trade is going to occur.

[OceanView]

Glad to hear people are doing this full time. I want to as well as my industry is dying and I need to find my next cheese.

I made 15 pips on todays retail sales numbers on my demo account.:)
But my lot size was too small. Initially I started it at 10 (first trade mistake) :mad:

[Music_Producer]

I made a whole pip! ...that was kind of a delayed reaction. I got scared and closed too early.

OceanView, Im doing this full time but only because Im in a position where I dont have to work right now...Im not paying my bills from it(yet!)

This is nhallmark's first bill he has to pay (from me), lol:

70113


Jokes aside.. nathan.. why don't you start trading with a bigger lot? I think you've traded enough to step it up a bit. You don't have to double your lot size.. maybe increase it 10-15% more or so.. instead of a 100% increase. That makes it easier to get used to trading larger numbers.

[nhallmark]

Well, I haven't been wanting to tell you guys this, but a few weeks ago I had a signal on the vanessafx system as well as 5 other systems and the news according to bloombergs site..all telling me to take this trade on gbp/jpy.

So, I had already stepped up my lot size some on news trading but with this trade I got greedy and went all in with $10 a pip on my account of $3k and I lost $600 :o

Ive heard over and over again, "dont trade gbp/jpy unless you can afford a 100 pip stop loss" and of course I didnt listen.

So, when it went down 60 pips I got scared and closed...then, of course it turned around and went 300 pips in my direction.

...should have followed the system. Actually that was my second mistake, the first was trading that much money with what little I had.

So, Ive learned my lesson and Im just watching and I refuse to trade that pair at all until I know what Im doing.

The good news is that Ive made it all back except for $50 from news trading over the past two weeks.

Ive taken a few vanessafx trades with $1 a pip, today I made 13 pips on USD/CHF doing that, but the only reason Im going that far is because that pair is a lot safer and I understand it...Ive made about 4-5 trades on that pair over the past 2 weeks and they have all been profitable.

But, yeah, I have stepped up my lot size for news trading only, because I have proven to myself that I can be consistently profitable with that.

Anyway, thats the story...its so cliche. Everyone seems to have that same story more or less.

The important thing is that I learned my lesson and I wont do it again.

Nathan

[~Shard~]

And Im not sure about having to be an accredited investor...they let me
open an account with 2 months experience, but yeah, there is a minimum
deposit of $2k.

Okay, then the rules are definitely different in the US versus Canada. Here, to use such a platform you have to be an accredited investor which means you need to meet one of the following criteria:

- be registered under the securities legislation within Canada as an adviser or dealer
- have a net income before taxes which has exceeded $200,000 in each of the last two years
- alone or combined with a spouse, own financial assets with an aggregate value before taxes (net of any liabilities) exceeding $1,000,000
- alone or combined with a spouse, have net assets of at least $5,000,000

So yeah, not just anyone can do it. ;) :cool:

Oh, and with tradethenews, the text is $50 a month and the audio/text is $180 a month...its better to get the audio...its about 1-2 seconds faster, and that makes all the difference in the results, IMHO.

Yeah, I noticed a big difference during my free trial between the text and audio. The audio is much better, but at this point in time (and since I don't do this full time) I can't justify paying $180/mo for the audio. If I start trading more often or trade bigger lots like Music_Producer then maybe I can justify it, but right now, my monthly expense for it would equate to a decent percentage of my profits... ;)

Well, I haven't been wanting to tell you guys this, but a few weeks ago I had a signal on the vanessafx system as well as 5 other systems and the news according to bloombergs site..all telling me to take this trade on gbp/jpy.

So, I had already stepped up my lot size some on news trading but with this trade I got greedy and went all in with $10 a pip on my account of $3k and I lost $600 :o

Ive heard over and over again, "dont trade gbp/jpy unless you can afford a 100 pip stop loss" and of course I didnt listen.

So, when it went down 60 pips I got scared and closed...then, of course it turned around and went 300 pips in my direction.

...should have followed the system. Actually that was my second mistake, the first was trading that much money with what little I had.

So, Ive learned my lesson and Im just watching and I refuse to trade that pair at all until I know what Im doing.

The good news is that Ive made it all back except for $50 from news trading over the past two weeks.

Ive taken a few vanessafx trades with $1 a pip, today I made 13 pips on USD/CHF doing that, but the only reason Im going that far is because that pair is a lot safer and I understand it...Ive made about 4-5 trades on that pair over the past 2 weeks and they have all been profitable.

But, yeah, I have stepped up my lot size for news trading only, because I have proven to myself that I can be consistently profitable with that.

Anyway, thats the story...its so cliche. Everyone seems to have that same story more or less.

The important thing is that I learned my lesson and I wont do it again.


Sorry to hear that nhallmark, but as you say, you've learned your lesson and in the grand scheme of things, a $600 loss is nothing (well, okay on a $3K account it is I guess, but still... :o ;)) I've lost thousands before in the markets. Your analysis is right though, in terms of sticking to the plan and knowing what you're getting into, so I don't even need to make any comments since I'd be preaching to the choir. ;) The only thing I'll say is yes, that GBPJPY pair is extremely volatile - I don't even watch it as a result...

As I always say, "nothing is a waste of time/money if you use the experience wisely". Don't worry, you'll make back your money sooner than you think. :cool:

[OceanView]

Music Producer or anyone else:

I don't know if this has already been discussed but have you tried using straddle to trade the news or is this just too fast to set up a straddle?

Just wondering.

[~Shard~]

Music Producer or anyone else:

I don't know if this has already been discussed but have you tried using straddle to trade the news or is this just too fast to set up a straddle?

Just wondering.

Dangerous and not worth it in my opinion. The price can move so fast your order might not even fill, or a blip could fill it as it spikes the other way. If you're trading the news, trade the news, i.e. trade the facts. Starddling is not trading the facts. If you want to straddle, that is fine of course, but you aren't really trading the news in that way, so you might as well just take a position in the currency before the move and pray that you're right after the release. Of course, there's no logic to that, so you might as well just put $100 on red at the roulette table... ;)

My thoughts at least. Everyone has their different styles though, so I am by no means trying to be judgmental or overcritical. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

If you are straddling then you might as well give all your money to me.. because that's what the brokers are going to do. Your stops are going to be hit before you know it. Brokers love straddlers.. they make the most money out of them.

There are only 2 ways to trade - technicals and news trading. I prefer news trading, because it works for me. I can't deal with setting stop losses.. and then seeing those stops being hit. I would rather have regular, 5 pips a day.. then 300 pips one day and then a 400 pip loss the next day, and so on.. too much of a rollercoaster. Technical trading gives me heartburn, news trading does not (because i'm used to it now)

Like nathan mentioned.. all the signs were in place for gbp/jpy to go the direction he intended it should.. but it didn't. Nathan, you got lucky that you only lost $600.. and not more. Just one statement from any Bank of japan executive could have pushed it down 300 pips and you wouldn't even have had time to react.

I could setup my own trading system.. buy or sell at any given point and employ a 500 pip stop loss. Eventually, the trade will go your way.. but is that any way to trade? No.. any setup where there are huge stop losses is basically a risky setup. Period. You should be confident enough that your strategy is good and will work, everytime.

[~Shard~]

Sound advice Music_Producer, well said. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Bloody whipsaw time.. got out just in time with 4 pips :o A lot of selling pressure on the pound today, both reports came out positive though.. and the pound still refuses to rise!

[nhallmark]

yeah...I just stayed out. I haven't traded it before but Im glad I didn't get in.

[Music_Producer]

yeah...I just stayed out. I haven't traded it before but Im glad I didn't get in.

Yeah, this was one of 'those trades which are best not entered. Funny thing is, usually this report does move the currency quite a bit.. and the numbers were a good deviation.

The aussie employment change report's next (later in the day)

[~Shard~]

Didn't get up to trade this morning. Watched the US data a few minutes ago, but not much of a move there - at least nothing I could capitalize on. AUD employment #s are due out later today so I'll be watching that one. The forecast seems rather high compared to the previous report so I have a gut feeling the numbers might be lower than expected, but I guess we'll see.... ;)

[nhallmark]

I watched the US data also...GBP/USD didn't really move but I had a USD/JPY chart open in the background and it jumped up 20 pips...might be something to keep an eye on for future reference.

[~Shard~]

I watched the US data also...GBP/USD didn't really move but I had a USD/JPY chart open in the background and it jumped up 20 pips...might be something to keep an eye on for future reference.

Actually I think that might be due to the Nikkei nhallmark. Which, yes, is a factor you can take into account as well if you like, but if you're going to do that you should probably also familiarize yourself with all the other indices as well and their resultant impacts to currencies. In the end, it's a lot more to think about so it's your call. I know personally, being a stock market guy first and foremost, I watch the indices and commodities (don't have time for t-bills, bonds, etc. anymore!) and it's quite a lot to keep track of. I do enjoy it though - it's really cool to see the big picture and see why a move in the Asian markets adversely affects the US markets, causing bonds to rise, causing the USD to drop, which then triggers a rise in gold and... well, you get the idea. ;) :cool:

[nhallmark]

no trade on the AUD employment change. The # came out good but the unemployment rate went up so I stayed out.

[Music_Producer]

I watched the US data also...GBP/USD didn't really move but I had a USD/JPY chart open in the background and it jumped up 20 pips...might be something to keep an eye on for future reference.

The US data today wasn't really that important to trade with anyway.. and usd/jpy has a mind of its own (all jpy pairs) Like shard said.. has to do with the asian stocks.. and of course, anything related to carry trades or jpy reports (significant ones)

On aud/usd trade I got a re-quote..

[~Shard~]

Employment was good, but the unemployment rate went up - didn't trade due to conflicting reports. AUDUSD didn't seem to do much anyway...

[nhallmark]

Are you guys trading the Swiss Interest Rate Decision at 3:30am(central)?

Any thoughts on that?

[~Shard~]

I won't be getting up for it myself. They are planning on raising the rate 25 bps and that is what the market expects, and I don't see them deviating from that so I doubt there will be a significant move. Of course, never say never!

[OceanView]

not much of a mover on the CHF.
Squeaked out 3 pips though.
If your sleeping, your not missing much.

[nhallmark]

Yeah, I was just going to watch. ForexFactory says it was delayed though. That's probably why there was no move, OceanView, but thanks for the update. :)

[Music_Producer]

I would advise to exercise caution while trading the US PPI report.. another report coming out at the same time is the Empire State business conditions index. At the rate at which global markets are looking at us manufacturing activity to look for any positive signs in the US economy.. this report might actually turn out to be more important than the PPI report.

I'll be personally trading a very small lot on these 2 reports.. chances of conflicts could arise.. with resulting whipsaws.

[Music_Producer]

Stayed out.. both reports conflicted.. but like i mentioned earlier.. the empire state business index was more important this time.. and also the fact that it came out way worse than expected!

[nhallmark]

Damn it, I guess I should have checked the forum before trading...lost 8 pips trading PPI..didn't realize the empire state business index until afterwards. :mad:

I'll be aware of this in the future though.

[Music_Producer]

I'm tired of god damn re-quotes $$!#$@.. this was an easy 20 pip trade.. TIC report came out fantastic. Bloody hell, looks like cmc doesn't want to keep me as a customer :mad:

[nhallmark]

I didn't even try...I just stayed out because I wasnt sure how "good" the #s were...I'll know next time though

[Music_Producer]

No trade.. no deviation from core cpi.. however I made a few pips by trading gbp/usd (shorting) when it hit 1.9500. It bounced down to 1.9485 and I exited my positions. GBP is seeing quite a bit of strength .. probably wants to go back to its previous 1.97 levels :p

[nhallmark]

yeah, i didn't trade either, but I made 15 pips this morning on usd/chf when it broke 1.21...it was a good week.

[~Shard~]

No trade for me either this morning. Ah well, there's always more trades next week... :)

I did try that VanessaFX system on a couple practice trades after following it to the letter and getting all the "correct" signals, and it didn't work for me any of the times I tried it. I think I'll stick to trading facts instead... ;) :cool:

[Music_Producer]

No trade for me either this morning. Ah well, there's always more trades next week... :)

I did try that VanessaFX system on a couple practice trades after following it to the letter and getting all the "correct" signals, and it didn't work for me any of the times I tried it. I think I'll stick to trading facts instead... ;) :cool:

Welcome to the club ;) I wish we all stayed in one place and pooled in funds to open an account that featured a Currenex or FXall platform (used by major banks) No re-quote hell.. ahh, that would be sweet.

Next trades I'm looking at are on Tuesday.. UK and Canadian CPI.

[~Shard~]

Welcome to the club ;) I wish we all stayed in one place and pooled in funds to open an account that featured a Currenex or FXall platform (used by major banks) No re-quote hell.. ahh, that would be sweet.

Next trades I'm looking at are on Tuesday.. UK and Canadian CPI.

No worries, I was always a part of the (news trading) club I think... ;)

[nhallmark]

damn it, industrial production was an easy 20 pips...i didn't trade it because I was watching...it usually doesn't do anything.

Shard, err...i dont know about the vanessafx thing. Its been working for me but I only take a trade when its a really good set up and thats maybe 3-5 times a week.

[~Shard~]

Ohhhhkay...

Wasn't planning on trading the 7:15 data, but I thought I'd watch it for fun and am I ever glad I did! Bagged 15 pips on shorting the GBPUSD! Was going to get out immediately but held on for just a split-second longer than I normally would since it was heading down so fast. A nice way to start the weekend... :D

[~Shard~]

Shard, err...i dont know about the vanessafx thing. Its been working for me but I only take a trade when its a really good set up and thats maybe 3-5 times a week.

No worries, I'll keep an eye on it for fun and will not abandon it - I'll still do practice trades with it. But that's the whole point - it's not a big deal for me, because these have all been practice trades - it's not like I've lost actual money or anything, so I'm not upset! I always research things thoroughly before investing any real money, so in this case, it was money well unspent. ;) :)

[OceanView]

Good to hear that everyone made some money this week.
I am still playing with a game account but hope to soon join everyone and use real money.
Just wondering, how long did it take you to play with a game account before you transitioned to a live account?

[~Shard~]

It took me a few months, but keep in mind that I am a "veteran investor" of the stock markets, so I had a fair bit of experience in general before embarking of forex trading. If it was all new to me, I would have took even longer, but it's different for everybody. Do what feels right for you, and above all else, exercise patience. :cool:

[nhallmark]

I didn't trade UK CPI, but I got 34 pips on Canadian CPI. :D

[Music_Producer]

50 pips on the UK cpi report ( I got in a bit late.. after the core numbers came out the same.. but the y/y came out higher and so did the RPI .. rate of inflation. :D

35 pips on the Canadian CPI report.. coulda made 40 but hey, its CMC re-quote fever that always causes a 5-10 pip loss all the time :p Sweet day!

[Music_Producer]

I didn't trade UK CPI, but I got 34 pips on Canadian CPI. :D

Awesome! See that's the musicproducerfx system.. you like it huh :p :)

Edit : Nathan, you trading US housing starts? I just feel like it won't be a mover.. so Im debating whether I should stay up for a potential 8 pips profit or not.

[nhallmark]

Awesome! See that's the musicproducerfx system.. you like it huh :p :)

Edit : Nathan, you trading US housing starts? I just feel like it won't be a mover.. so Im debating whether I should stay up for a potential 8 pips profit or not.

Yeah, that's my favorite system. :D

Uh..Im probably going to watch it, but Im thinking it will be more important next month, since today's data is from last month...but if there is a huge deviation I will probably jump in.

Man, I cant believe I missed UK CPI...woke up late. I'll be ok though

Edit: US Housing Starts moved a whole 3 pips! ...I stayed out.

[~Shard~]

Grabbed 5 pips on the GBPUSD pair from the US data this morning, but that's it.

However, I did an expriment with a very small lot ($25K) yesterday based on a strong BUY indicator I received from one of my MACD techniques on the USDJPY pair. :D Made 65 pips and got the hell out before the interest rate announcement and before it started tanking. So, technical trading does have its place from time to time! ;) :cool:

[OceanView]

Grabbed 5 pips on the GBPUSD pair from the US data this morning, but that's it.

However, I did an expriment with a very small lot ($25K) yesterday based on a strong BUY indicator I received from one of my MACD techniques on the USDJPY pair. :D Made 65 pips and got the hell out before the interest rate announcement and before it started tanking. So, technical trading does have its place from time to time! ;) :cool:

That's awesome!

Does MACD work with trading the news strategy or is this a completely different strategy?

[Music_Producer]

The pips keep rolling in! 55 pips on the GBP/USD trade.. I love any Bank of England report.. they always move the markets. BOE minutes vote came out at 8-1 (8 ppl voted for no hike.. only 1 person voted for a rate hike)

Next up, Canadian retail sales.

[Music_Producer]

Btw nathan, I got the opportunity to check out the 003 in a studio... no difference in that and the 002 (supposedly they have better convertors.. uh, yeah right) :p Good old Digi.. always upgrading the look but not the features!

[nhallmark]

I didn't trade Canadian Retail Sales, it deviated by 0.1%.

I watched the BOE meeting minutes but I didn't trade because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking for.

Yeah, Music_Producer, Im thinking I will get the Apogee or something from Focusrite...not sure yet, but I did decide the 003 was a rip off, so thanks for confirming that :p

[OceanView]

Well I made $2048 in the game account on todays Interest rate announcement.
The newsflash on OandA is really slow.
I jumped in when I saw the spike take off.
The actual news did not show up on OandA until 2mins after the announcement and after all the movements, what a joke.

Can everyone tell me which news and brokerage is the best at this point?

I want to use real money by May 1st and want to get use to their format.

Thanks


EDIT: Still rising!!! Hope you made some good money.

[nhallmark]

Damn...Rates were left unchanged, of course, but I figured that the Fed is "dropping their inflation bias" = no rate hikes(for the short term) = bad for the $.

So, I jumped in when it started going up and I got 27 pips :D

Edit: OceanView, I use tradethenews. Their site is www.tradethenews.com . They have a 1 week free trial(they let mine go for 3 weeks though) and I trade with CMC and Im 90% sure that Shard and Music_Producer use the same. CMC's demo is only for 10 days though...I think.(could be wrong)

[OceanView]

Damn...Rates were left unchanged, of course, but I figured that the Fed is "dropping their inflation bias" = no rate hikes(for the short term) = bad for the $.

So, I jumped in when it started going up and I got 27 pips :D

Edit: OceanView, I use tradethenews. Their site is www.tradethenews.com . They have a 1 week free trial(they let mine go for 3 weeks though) and I trade with CMC and Im 90% sure that Shard and Music_Producer use the same. CMC's demo is only for 10 days though...I think.(could be wrong)

Thanks,

I was temped to buy the Euro before the announcement as all indication was that the rates were going to be left unchanged.

[~Shard~]

Does MACD work with trading the news strategy or is this a completely different strategy?

Oh no, it's purely a technical method. Some technical traders would argue that the news is priced into the technicals, so they know what's going to happen before it happens but I'm not that naive. :p ;) :D I have have a few indicators set up and when the stars align, I see what happens. :cool:

I didn't trade Canadian Retail Sales, it deviated by 0.1%.

I purposely traded the correction and nabbed 5 pips. Not bad.

Can everyone tell me which news and brokerage is the best at this point?

Trade the News, as Nathan said, is the best news service (unless you want to dish out for the Bloomberg service! :eek: ) and we're currently using Oanda and CMC here. Both have the strengths and weaknesses, but no platform is perfect....

[OceanView]

Oh no, it's purely a technical method. Some technical traders would argue that the news is priced into the technicals, so they know what's going to happen before it happens but I'm not that naive. :p ;) :D I have have a few indicators set up and when the stars align, I see what happens. :cool:




Shard
:
Is the MACD strategy that you are using capable of giving high percentage of wins like the Trade the news strategy?
If so, it might be good for the times that we are not trading the news.

Also, where are you in Canada?

[~Shard~]

Shard
:
Is the MACD strategy that you are using capable of giving high percentage of wins like the Trade the news strategy?
If so, it might be good for the times that we are not trading the news.

Also, where are you in Canada?

I definitely wouldn't say it's high percentage - if it were, well, I'd be using it all the time! ;) :D As well, it subject to interpretation in a way. A rounded top formation may indicate a short signal to some people, whereas to others it is a TC. That's why I look at fundamentals first and other factors, then look at what the technicals are saying. If I get a few different indicators agreeing, then I'll take a trade, such as I did earlier with USDJPY.

But no, it's not an exact science. The type of method I usually use is actually a little similar to that VenessaFX system Nathan mentioned, with respect to MACDs, SMAs and EMAs.

It's a good complement to trading the news, but nothing more. Plus, trading technicals requires longer timeframes for trading, so that spikes due to news events do not adversely effect the longer term trend. As a result, you're looking at 4-hour or daily charts, so you may only get 3-4 solid signals a week, if that - and that's if you're watching when they hit - if a BUY signal comes in due to a MACD crossover but it's 2:00 AM and you don't see it until 8:00 AM and 30 pips have already gone by, well, you missed the boat... ;) :cool:

[~Shard~]

Whoops, forgot to answer your last question - I live in Regina, SK. Great place, I love it... :cool:

[Music_Producer]

30 pips on the gbp/usd - retail sales came out much better than expected. Lately UK reports have been deviating like crazy.. good for us :D

[OceanView]

30 pips on the gbp/usd - retail sales came out much better than expected. Lately UK reports have been deviating like crazy.. good for us :D

Awesome!

I could not get up to trade this one.

Has anyone looked into this company for currency trading?
http://www.cmsfx.com/en/

I've used there demo account before and I like the interface but I dont know much about them.
I did hear a few recommendations from websites before.

[OceanView]

Whoops, forgot to answer your last question - I live in Regina, SK. Great place, I love it... :cool:

Looks like a place you can take a deep breath (not like LA):(
What do you do in the winter? I am allergic to cold by the way :D

[~Shard~]

Looks like a place you can take a deep breath (not like LA):(
What do you do in the winter? I am allergic to cold by the way :D

Yep - we have nice, wide open prairie, amazing forests to the north, and further north, over 100,000 lakes with amazing fishing. (Yes, that's correct, I didn't add an extra zero. :D) You can get anywhere in the city in 20-25 minutes max and yet we're not a "small town" by any means, and have everything "the big city" has. ;) The cost of living here is extremely low, so many people end up paying off their mortgages in 10-15 years or so and having a lot more money as a result for other fun things, without having to be in debt up to their eyeballs. Great quality of life as a result, no complaints. :)

Winter sucks at times, but compared to other possible problems, such as flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes (not that they happen often!) and all that, it could be worse. ;) You just learn to bundle up and layer, and there's a really only a couple weeks out of the entire winter when it is stupidly cold, i.e. -30 to -40. :eek: The spring and fall are great times, and the summer makes up for the winter, when it can easily get 100-120 degrees out with LOTS of sun. :)

[OceanView]

Yep - we have nice, wide open prairie, amazing forests to the north, and further north, over 100,000 lakes with amazing fishing. (Yes, that's correct, I didn't add an extra zero. :D) You can get anywhere in the city in 20-25 minutes max and yet we're not a "small town" by any means, and have everything "the big city" has. ;) The cost of living here is extremely low, so many people end up paying off their mortgages in 10-15 years or so and having a lot more money as a result for other fun things, without having to be in debt up to their eyeballs. Great quality of life as a result, no complaints. :)

Winter sucks at times, but compared to other possible problems, such as flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes (not that they happen often!) and all that, it could be worse. ;) You just learn to bundle up and layer, and there's a really only a couple weeks out of the entire winter when it is stupidly cold, i.e. -30 to -40. :eek: The spring and fall are great times, and the summer makes up for the winter, when it can easily get 100-120 degrees out with LOTS of sun. :)

So how much is a typical 2,000 sq.ft. house there?
And your taxes are about 48%?

[~Shard~]

So how much is a typical 2,000 sq.ft. house there?
And your taxes are about 48%?

Taxes are higher than the States, yes, due to our smaller population base, however not quite 48%. ;) A 2000 sq ft house would depend on the area of town and the age of the house, but it would probably run you between $200K-$300K CAD, which would be about $170K-$260K USD. Our house, for example, was built in 1984, is a 2-storey spilt with vaulted ceilings, 3 bedrooms, finished basement, renno-ed practically brand new, 2400 sq. ft in total, in a great area of town and we paid $200K for it. It's nice not having a mortgage and paying all that interest! Leaves me more money for trading. :D

For one other example, my friends just bought a brand new house in the "high end" area of the city for $380K ($325K USD). It's 3400 square feet, 4 bedrooms and has an amazing indoor pool along with a 8-person hot tub. Pretty nice! :cool:

[OceanView]

Taxes are higher than the States, yes, due to our smaller population base, however not quite 48%. ;) A 2000 sq ft house would depend on the area of town and the age of the house, but it would probably run you between $200K-$300K CAD, which would be about $170K-$260K USD. Our house, for example, was built in 1984, is a 2-storey spilt with vaulted ceilings, 3 bedrooms, finished basement, renno-ed practically brand new, 2400 sq. ft in total, in a great area of town and we paid $200K for it. It's nice not having a mortgage and paying all that interest! Leaves me more money for trading. :D

For one other example, my friends just bought a brand new house in the "high end" area of the city for $380K ($325K USD). It's 3400 square feet, 4 bedrooms and has an amazing indoor pool along with a 8-person hot tub. Pretty nice! :cool:

Indoor pool in a 3400 sqft house? Wow!
I guess you would need an indoor pool for your winters could be an indoor ice rink too. :p

[~Shard~]

Indoor pool in a 3400 sqft house? Wow!
I guess you would need an indoor pool for your winters could be an indoor ice rink too. :p

Precisely! :D

[nhallmark]

I woke up too late for UK retail sales yesterday, but the way the data is going, we could see another rate hike soon :D

I got 10 pips on US existing home sales this morning, though.

[~Shard~]

I had the good fortune of being home yesterday instead of being at work. I had my CMC terminal open all day while I was woking on my Mac and rode the big wave! I was closely watching the support levels and shorted EURUSD from 1.3350 down to 1.3320 after getting a clear signal, then, once it stabalized a bit, went long at 1.3324 and got out at 1.3334 where it stalled. I have never done that before (since it was bascially speculation trading) but it was fun! And, it wasn't just blind trading, as I was paying very close attention to the MAs for where support and resistance lines were, and they were pretty much bang on - watching the 5 minute candles helped too. It was almost scary how accurate they were, and I timed everything pretty much perfect.

Can't say I'm eager to try it again though any time soon - too hard on the nerves!

So, for once, my "technical trading" has performed better than my news trading for the week. Either way though, I'm not complaining - pips are pips! :D

Should be another good week next week - happy trading everyone... :cool:

[OceanView]

I had the good fortune of being home yesterday instead of being at work. I had my CMC terminal open all day while I was woking on my Mac and rode the big wave! I was closely watching the support levels and shorted EURUSD from 1.3350 down to 1.3320 after getting a clear signal, then, once it stabalized a bit, went long at 1.3324 and got out at 1.3334 where it stalled. I have never done that before (since it was bascially speculation trading) but it was fun! And, it wasn't just blind trading, as I was paying very close attention to the MAs for where support and resistance lines were, and they were pretty much bang on - watching the 5 minute candles helped too. It was almost scary how accurate they were, and I timed everything pretty much perfect.

Can't say I'm eager to try it again though any time soon - too hard on the nerves!

So, for once, my "technical trading" has performed better than my news trading for the week. Either way though, I'm not complaining - pips are pips! :D

Should be another good week next week - happy trading everyone... :cool:


Good for you Shard!
Maybe staying home is a good thing!
I need to do that more often myself.

[~Shard~]

Good for you Shard!
Maybe staying home is a good thing!
I need to do that more often myself.

Yeah, it was a nice break, but I don't think I could ever be a true day trader. You always have to be "on", watching multiple things, high stress, no guaranteed income nor benefits. ;) I'll just stick with my stable lower stress job and do this on the side, I think. ;) :cool:

[Music_Producer]

24 pips on the US new home sales trade.. when is the Fed going to learn that they need to raise the rates.. housing is NOT going to recover anytime soon :rolleyes:

[nhallmark]

I got 15 pips. I got out early because gbp/usd was already moving up so much before the report.

Did you guys trade the NZD trade balance yesterday?

TTN was really late on the news so I didnt get in, but it moved 10-15 pips.

[Music_Producer]

I got 15 pips. I got out early because gbp/usd was already moving up so much before the report.

Did you guys trade the NZD trade balance yesterday?

TTN was really late on the news so I didnt get in, but it moved 10-15 pips.

I tried getting in after the spike (to fade it) but got a stupid re-quote. Been getting them on 50% of trades now.. not a good sign.

[~Shard~]

Had to go to work today so wasn't able to trade - but that's okay, there'll always be another report to make pips from. ;)

Interesting though, I was watching EURUSD and GBPUSD since early this morning and based on the technicals, they were giving strong BUY signals. Then, just before the report came out (when I had to leave) they started going up further - then the news came out and cofirmed their move - it was somewhat interesting. ;) Do people truly know the news before it comes out via leaks? Is the news somehow priced into the markets ahead of time when/if this occurs? because I've seen it happen on a few different occassions as of late... Hmm, so what would have hapened then if there was a big positive surprise for the US? What an interesting game we play... ;) :D

[nhallmark]

Are you guys trading the German ifo Business thing tomorrow? I watched it last time, but I cant remember if it moved or not, so Im not sure if its worth trading.

[JAM3]

Unknown

[Music_Producer]

Had to go to work today so wasn't able to trade - but that's okay, there'll always be another report to make pips from. ;)

Interesting though, I was watching EURUSD and GBPUSD since early this morning and based on the technicals, they were giving strong BUY signals. Then, just before the report came out (when I had to leave) they started going up further - then the news came out and cofirmed their move - it was somewhat interesting. ;) Do people truly know the news before it comes out via leaks? Is the news somehow priced into the markets ahead of time when/if this occurs? because I've seen it happen on a few different occassions as of late... Hmm, so what would have hapened then if there was a big positive surprise for the US? What an interesting game we play... ;) :D

Heh.. you techies get too carried away :p The reason the pound went up was because of talks that the BOE was going to raise rates on April 5. As soon as this came out, gbp started going up. Yes, sometimes news does leak.. but it's pretty rare. Another fact is that it's simply banks who are buying/selling to avoid any of their stops being hit.. and they usually do this before or after a news report, because that's when most action takes place.

I've seen the opposite take place.. for instance.. before a report, gbp will go down.. and keep going lower.. thereby creating an illusion that the news has leaked and the number is US positive. However, news comes out US negative.. and all of a sudden GBP reverses its course. I love those type of spikes obviously because of a larger range and more pips attainable.

[OceanView]

Are you guys trading the German ifo Business thing tomorrow? I watched it last time, but I cant remember if it moved or not, so Im not sure if its worth trading.

I am gonna try to trade it if I can get up. Going to bed now for a few hours.

[~Shard~]

Heh.. you techies get too carried away :p The reason the pound went up was because of talks that the BOE was going to raise rates on April 5. As soon as this came out, gbp started going up. Yes, sometimes news does leak.. but it's pretty rare. Another fact is that it's simply banks who are buying/selling to avoid any of their stops being hit.. and they usually do this before or after a news report, because that's when most action takes place.

I've seen the opposite take place.. for instance.. before a report, gbp will go down.. and keep going lower.. thereby creating an illusion that the news has leaked and the number is US positive. However, news comes out US negative.. and all of a sudden GBP reverses its course. I love those type of spikes obviously because of a larger range and more pips attainable.

Heh heh, thanks for the insight. And don't call me a techie! I'm a news trader first and foremost when it comes to forex! :p ;) :D

[nhallmark]

I got a damn requote on the German Ifo thing :mad:

Oh well, there are plenty of reports this week that will make up for it.

[Music_Producer]

I got a damn requote on the German Ifo thing :mad:

Oh well, there are plenty of reports this week that will make up for it.

I was able to get in fine.. saw a 7 pip profit.. tried to exit.. but got re-quoted a zillion times.. eventually I made 0 pips :rolleyes:

[Music_Producer]

From 12 pips to 1 pip.. re-quotes are killing me.. what a waste of time to stay up to trade and then make close to nothing.

[nhallmark]

No trade on Consumer Confidence, but I had something weird happen....5 seconds before the report until 5 seconds after, my buy/sell buttons blanked out, meaning they were "non-clickable" and my response time sent to like 2000 milliseconds.

I wasnt doing anything different than what I normally do, so the only thing I can think of is its a glitch in the software or CMC froze my account during the news release because I always trade news. :cool:

Hmm...I dont know what to think, but hopefully it doesnt happen again. :mad:

Edit: Hey, Music_Producer, I dont know how much capital you have but I was reading about currenex the other day and one guy was saying he trades the news on currenex through ODL, which is white label so the deposit is $25K, but he was saying he trades 40 lots without a problem.

...something to think about, I guess.

[Music_Producer]

No trade on Consumer Confidence, but I had something weird happen....5 seconds before the report until 5 seconds after, my buy/sell buttons blanked out, meaning they were "non-clickable" and my response time sent to like 2000 milliseconds.

I wasnt doing anything different than what I normally do, so the only thing I can think of is its a glitch in the software or CMC froze my account during the news release because I always trade news. :cool:

Hmm...I dont know what to think, but hopefully it doesnt happen again. :mad:

Maybe they just don't want you to trade.. with me, it's as if they want me to open an position and then never close it.. or close it after I go in a loss. I'm moving most of my money out.. it's a little scary what they are doing.

[lagunacat]

Anybody else having issues with Oanda's timeframe/prices not staying current? Since yesterday I noticed the platform lagging behind. This morning it was more than 2 hours. To get current I need to log out and log in. Using Safari.

[JAM3]

I'm a little confused on when to jump into a trade.:confused:
I've never traded but plan to start practicing and will trade only EUR/USD, make it easier on my brain:)

BASED ON FUNDAMENTAL TRADING...

For example: You're trading EUR/USD and got an announcement from an economic calendar and on the day of the the official announcement via live trading news the interest rate for USD goes up, would you jump in by buying EUR with USD? Then, once you feel you've made enough profit (excluding the fact that you might lose profit) would you sell the EUR to buy back the USD?

If so, what would be the case if it was the opposite, USD interest goes down...Would you stay out and not buy or sell?

Also, when trading EUR/USD do you look out for news pertaining to EURO rates going up or down? Because the way I see it right now if it were both ways you would never lose money??? Please shed some light on this.

I understand most of the basics pretty thoroughly like basic terms, margins, etc. but just a couple things keep confusing me.

[~Shard~]

Maybe they just don't want you to trade.. with me, it's as if they want me to open an position and then never close it.. or close it after I go in a loss. I'm moving most of my money out.. it's a little scary what they are doing.
Anybody else having issues with Oanda's timeframe/prices not staying current? Since yesterday I noticed the platform lagging behind. This morning it was more than 2 hours. To get current I need to log out and log in. Using Safari.

Sorry to hear about these experiences. It looks as though no one is with a service that does not have its issues, whether it's CMC or Oanda! If anyone finds one, please let the rest of us know! ;)

I'm a little confused on when to jump into a trade.:confused:
I've never traded but plan to start practicing and will trade only EUR/USD, make it easier on my brain:)

Let me try to help...

For example: You're trading EUR/USD and got an announcement from an economic calendar and on the day of the the official announcement via live trading news the interest rate for USD goes up, would you jump in by buying EUR with USD? Then, once you feel you've made enough profit (excluding the fact that you might lose profit) would you sell the EUR to buy back the USD?

First of all, no - if the US interest rate goes up, you want to go long on the USD, not short. Higher interest rates may technically be bad news from an economic standpoint, but from a currency valuation standpoint it is positive. In this case you would short EUR/USD and then to close your position and secure a profit (hopefully!) you would then buy the same lot size.

If so, what would be the case if it was the opposite, USD interest goes down...Would you stay out and not buy or sell?

If the US interest rate went down, I would buy EUR/USD.

Also, when trading EUR/USD do you look out for news pertaining to EURO rates going up or down?

Of course - if you are trading the EUR/USD pair, then Euro-related news is just as important as US news in terms of what might move the currency. Again, if EUR rates go up, I would buy EUR/USD.

Because the way I see it right now if it were both ways you would never lose money??? Please shed some light on this.

I do not understand what you mean by this, can you please clarify this comment?

Any other questions, just ask! :cool:

[Music_Producer]

JAM3, I would simply advise you to read this entire thread.. you have your basics wrong. There are a lot of topics regarding interest rates, how currencies move if there is an *unexpected* interest rate change.. etc.

Don't confine yourself to trading only interest rate decisions.. there are tons of economic reports to trade.. just read this thread. It's hard to explain everything that has already been mentioned.. in a new reply.

Shard pretty much explained what happens when interest rate goes up or down.

Shard.. I don't understand why brokers would do this i.e. freeze trades.. cause customers to go in a loss, etc. I mean, they are making their money on the pip spread anyway.. that's the whole point of the spread. So when I see people state 'Oh, if you make too much money they go in a loss' How does CMC go in a loss if we make money on trades? :confused:

[nhallmark]

Shard might know more about it, but from what I understand, the reason CMC(or whoever) goes in a loss when we make money is because they are taking the other side of our trades...so if we buy, they sell...we make 20 pips, they lose it.

Supposedly, our trades never touch the real market, unless a lot of the customers have trades one way, then they will place a big order in the actual market to cover all those trades.

I don't know if any of this is true or even why they do it, but thats what Ive heard.

That's why I was saying above that supposedly you dont have these problems with currenex...even though its a white label thing.

Speaking of which, I found a video today that shows what happens during news in the real market(currenex) compared to oanda...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CSbzera08o

I could be completely wrong on all this...Im just relaying what Ive heard.

[Music_Producer]

Nathan, that's kinda what I've heard too. If this is true, and it must be.. it seems as though all these brokers (market makers such as oanda, cmc, etc) are all out just to make money out of amateur traders ($400 mini accounts being destroyed in a matter of days, or hours) since most of them don't even know what they're doing.

It's amazing how they are allowed to operate like this.. if a 'one click dealing' is advertised.. it should be one click.. and not multiple clicks to deal with re-quotes.. slippage, freezing, etc. Just plain ridiculous :mad:

Brokers offering currenex, well I hope they don't do the same thing, I mean I wouldn't want to put all my money in there and go through the same thing all over again!

[Music_Producer]

Real smooth trade this time. 15 pips.. gbp gdp *and* current account came out lower than forecast.. so there was no other way for gbp to go but down.

[nhallmark]

Damn, I got another requote :mad:

We've got 3 more trades today though, so I'll be happy if I get one of them.

Are you trading the swiss leading index in 45min?

[Music_Producer]

Is your response time in the platform more than 500 ms? Mine was , luckily, 172 ms.. so my trades went through. Yes, I'll be trading the CHF report..hopefully no re-quotes!!

[Music_Producer]

Barely any deviation.. but i got in anyway and made 2 pips :p

[nhallmark]

No trade...didn't deviate enough. Yeah, my response time was between 300-500ms. I usually never have a problem...its always 110ms, but its been doing this for every trade this week.

[Music_Producer]

I didn't even try and trade this one.. it took me 6-7 attempts to log into CMC's platform (at 5.15 am) .. when I finally got in, the response time was 2100 ms :eek: I let this one go, although it would have been a beautiful trade.. durable goods report came out horrible.. the US economy is looking pretty screwed right now.

Would have been a nice 30+ pip profit had the f$%^@@# platform allowed me to trade

[nhallmark]

I actually fell back asleep so I didn't trade it. I would have thought the move would have been bigger by looking at the #s.

Maybe everyone's waiting on bernanke today.

[~Shard~]

You're not alone Music_Producer - CMC seemed to be "experiencing technical difficulties' this morning, as I could not log in either. Too bad, because as you say, it would have been a good trade. Oh well, what can ya do... I'd look for other forex brokers just to see how they compare, but here in Canada my options are a little more limited, as I do not want to hand my money over to a US operation for security and tax purposes...

[nhallmark]

Hey...I just got an email from CMC apologizing for the service outage this morning.

...at least their acknowledging the problem.

I guess we'll see if it gets better on NZD today :rolleyes:

[~Shard~]

Hmm, I haven't received one yet, if I don't perhaps I'll contact them and try and get compensated for the virtual trade I would have made. :p ;) :D

[OceanView]

I didn't trade this morning cause the news from OandA was confusing.
The news looked like it was good news for the dollar but obviously it was not cause the Euro spiked.
Now that I look at the Forex Factory results from this mornings Core Durable Goods Orders, I can see why the Eur/USD went up.
I hope the Tradethenews service is much clearer on the news.

[~Shard~]

The news looked like it was good news for the dollar but obviously it was not cause the Euro spiked.

What exactly did Oanda's report say to give you that impression? Just curious...

[OceanView]

What exactly did Oanda's report say to give you that impression? Just curious...

I can't go back that far on the news reports but there was about 6 or 7 news flashes that had durable goods info, it didn't say -0.1 but it had 2.5 or something like that. There were many items with many different numbers.
That is why I was confused.
How did Tradethenews report it today? Was it just one line that had -0.1% ?

[~Shard~]

I can't go back that far on the news reports but there was about 6 or 7 news flashes that had durable goods info, it didn't say -0.1 but it had 2.5 or something like that. There were many items with many different numbers.
That is why I was confused.
How did Tradethenews report it today? Was it just one line that had -0.1% ?

Weird... Yeah, TTN is usually pretty simple and accurate. I can't speak to what it said for this specific report though since CMC decided that I wasn't tradingn this morning... :rolleyes: ;)

[OceanView]

Weird... Yeah, TTN is usually pretty simple and accurate. I can't speak to what it said for this specific report though since CMC decided that I wasn't tradingn this morning... :rolleyes: ;)

OK, I am gonna sign up for TTN today and hope that its better than OandA.

Thanks

[~Shard~]

OK, I am gonna sign up for TTN today and hope that its better than OandA.

Thanks

Keep in mind it isn't free. ;) Text is $40/month and audio is $180/month. The audio is noticeably faster.