thalestrader

However long it takes, Attila, I wish you the million! You certainly have shown that you have the necessary "stick-to-it'edness" that success of any level requires. Best Wishes, Thales

Two days later and price is now trying to rally above the 113.50 level. If the breakout holds, target is 119.00-119.50. Best Wishes, Thales

For old time's sake ... current view of the daily EURJPY ... either long on the BO above current levels (and by "above current levels" I would mean "above 113.50 or so"), or long on a BO and subsequent pullback. In either case, it looks like a 600 pip PT to a 200 pip SL, and I would personally use the 200 pip SL as a "disaster" stop only, and would cut at any failure to hold within 25-50 pips of the BO level ... Best Wishes, Thales

I hope to be back to a more regular though likely diminished level of participation soon. I will probably do a new thread, or perhaps a blog, as this thread has, I fear, long since reached that stage known as "thread bloat," whereby there is much useful information in the thread, but it has become terribly difficult to find it. A new thread would allow me to cut,paste, repeat, condense, and catalog some of the more useful ideas posted in this thread; and a blog may be even better for such purposes. I doubt I will be back to full time day trading before the fall, so I was thinking of doing two "trading the Small Account"-type threads. I would trade a small stock account for one, and a small microFX account for the other. The stock account would aim to double in a year, while the FXmicro account would aim to win FXCM's "King of the Micro," which is a monthly contest. For the stock account, I was thinking to start with 5K, but I would probably use 6.5K as a starting equity, and use a 25% draw down as a "stop trading for 20 days" level. For the micro, I'd start with $500 at the start of each month, as that is FXCM's minimum to be considered for the contest. In the meantime, I am going to start going through this very large thread to identify concepts, ideas, and posts that I feel are of particular value. If anyone has a favorite post, or group of posts, please fell free to send me a PM with the post number(s) and I will try to include those in the new thread and/or blog. I will try to reply to PM's as time allows, but time is something I have been net short of lately, so it may be some time before I can "cover." Best Wishes, Thales

Sicko hasn't even logged in to TL in almost a month, so I would guess he is permanently out. If not for Attila, The Race would be a long dead thread. I must say that while I am not at all surprised by sicktrader's disappearance, I am disappointed that he did not try to make more of a show of it. If Attila wants to continue this thread as his own public journal after the initial twenty week period, I'm sure there are a few TL members who would follow it with interest. And Attila, I'm still pulling for you to hit the million! Best Wishes, Thales

BIDU split 10 for 1 back in May (May 12 or 13 as I recall). Best Wishes, Thales

Love, friendship, and sufficient leisure time to enjoy the fruits of each ... there is no "thing" better than that, my friend, and I am fortunate to have married a woman who understands that truth. Moral of the story: Do not choose a wife until you have chosen your life, and pray that in each case, you have chosen wisely. Best Wishes, Thales

A friend of mine sent this to me, and I thought I'd share it here. Consider it a contribution to the "Weekend Readings." Best Wishes, Thales A fishing boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village. A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took to catch them. "Not very long." they answered in unison. "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families. "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas with our wives. In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. We have a full life." The tourist interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat." "And after that?" "With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise." "How long would that take?" "Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist. "And after that?" "Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting, " answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!" "Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen. "After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, (or grandchildren by that time), catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends." "With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what we are doing now. So what's the point wasting twenty-five years?" asked the Mexicans. And the moral of this story is: Know where you're going in life....you may already be there.

I'd say that it looks like Sicko left the building, got drunk, and has been unable since to find his way back. Well, Attila, I am pulling for you - I think as far as it goes, that unless one of the original Racers comes back actively, you will be the winner by default. I am only able to catch up here on the weekends, but I am enjoying your posts. Best Wishes, Thales

These are issues that should easily be converted to non-issues if you carefully select your FCM and the individual broker, i.e. the actual human individual Registered person who is your "account executive." If you broker is set up to enforce a loss limit, so much the better. Transact, for example, can have your positions auto-liquidated and all orders canceled if an open loss runs to a pre-determined limit. Best Wishes, Thales

Nice work, Attila ... looks like you scared sicktrader away! What happened to you, Sicko? Best Wishes, Thales

Only if the winner hits the million ... Best Wishes, Thales

If I were you, I'd keep posting as you are likely to at least win the iPad by default. I received two updates this weekend - yours showing a balance of 2531.80, showing you still leading the race with 1531.80 miles. I received a PM from sick saying he has not traded and therefore has had no change. I'm following along as I can, but I have had very little time at the computer for anything other than maintaining my stock trades at night. And as you are the only one who is actively trading right now, there seemed to be little need to post a consolidated summary. As things look now, I will likely be unable to return to the race as a participant before its 20 week run ends. Sicko, in his PM, says he is back from vacation and will be back at it this week. Of course, it is Tuesday and I've heard nothing else. So, as far as I'm concerned, Attila, if I were you, I'd keep right at it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates your efforts, and someone ought to win the iPad, after all. And who better than the one who has most consistently and persistently stuck to the spirit of the race? That being said, I have to say that I am very disappointed that we have not seen more action out of Sicko. Best Wishes, Thales

Your assumption is that it would apply to my case. It would not apply to me. Best Wishes, Thales

MM, have you ever read Gerald Loeb's The Battle for Investment Survival? Or Darvas's How I made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market? How about William O'Neils's How to Make Money in Stocks, or Bernard Baruch's My Own Story. You seem to own a line on what is and is not possible, and your mind has been closed to the possibility that you're line is crooked and leads you in the wrong direction. The 5K to 100K using common stocks would actually be a much more interesting project to me. Perhaps once The Race concludes... Best Wishes, Thales

I too would like to see this. After all, if it had not been for Sicko assertions, I would never have thought to start this thread. Let's Go, Sicko! Best Wishes, Thales

A surprising but welcome post from MM! Best Wishes, Thales

It certainly looks as though the field has dwindled considerably over the last week. From what I see, it would seem that only Attila is still actively in the running. Hey Sicko! Where did you go? I figured if anyone would keep to the course it would be you! I intended to run the entire twenty weeks, but other demands have been placed upon me that were not at all anticipated and which I still find quite surprising. For a long time, it was my normal life to trade from September through May, and then be involved during my business's strong season from May through September. Then I made other arrangements during 2006-7 which removed me from my day to day responsibilities to the company. A perfect storm of slow economy, low staffing levels, and, now, an unforseen and sudden flurry of new demand has once again brought me into the day to day. We are so busy that I am in fact working the entire day today, Saturday, something which I haven't done in years! But you do what is demanded of you when the demand is there. At any rate, I am still considering funding a small stock account in order to resume my participation at a minimal level. I am thinking, however, that given the leverage restrictions of stocks and options, that a 3K max is not workable. Does anyone have any objections to allowing a larger max for a non-futures, non-forex, non-insane leveraged, plain vanilla equities and equity options account? I figure I would start it at 5K, but would like the option of bringing it up to 25K. Anyway, for anyone who still is in The Race, send me a PM with closing equity. I will be out tomorrow and then on the road much of next week, so the next update will likely be a summary of this past week's activity and next week's as well. Happy Father's Day to the dads among us! Best Wishes, Thales

Hi Sicko, We need you to post your latest statements here in the thread. Best Wishes, Thales

The Race - Week 7 Summary ... and then there were three ... Here is the current active field as I have it as of today, 6/13/2010, with Attila holding a slight edge over fxCowboy. But all three remaining have battled back from significant peak to trough draw downs, and I for one am enjoying the nightly horse race when I check in at the end of the day. Best Wishes, Thales

I have no problem with that so long as no one else does. If anyone objects, speak up before noon tomorrow. If no one objects, we'll consider it acceptable to post weekly results so long as we can follow the trade by trade results. Best Wishes, Thales

The Race - Week 6 Yet another lead change. Congratulations to FxThunder, who tops our active racer list this week. Best Wishes, Thales

Hi Folks, I'll post the updated summary by tomorrow night. Remember, you must PM me your weekly ending equity if you wish to be included in the weekly results update. And what happened to Sicko? Did he quietly make his million this week and take off for Vegas without us? Best Wishes, Thales

The Race - Week 5 Summary Hi Folks, First, let me say, "Ride 'em, fxCowboy!" What an impressive exhibition of bucket shop trading. I will very much enjoy watching you pick Oanda's pocket to the tune of $1,000,000 as we go forward! Also, please note the following changes to the weekly summary this week: 1) I removed myself and bathrobe from the summary, as neither one of us are currently active in The Race. When one or both of us do return to active trading of our Race accounts, then I will resume tracking that activity from the point at which we each left off, respectively. 2) I only included those who have posted a starting equity in the thread and have PM's me a week-ending closing equity. I do not have the time to search the thread forensically to put together the weekly summary. For those who have declared themselves to be in The Race and posted starting balances and daily blotters, I will include you going forward if and only if I receive a PM with your week ending balance by noon on Sunday. As for myself, I had hoped to fund an fxMicro account for The Race, but I have been putting in 14 hours days in my business, a string of which that now extends through Thursday July 1. At the end of the day, it is all I can do to muster the energy to review the day's market activity and review my stock and option trades. What I think I may have to do for the time being is to swing trade a small stock account for The Race, as that is all I really have time for at present. I have two already open accounts, one at Optionsxpress, and one at Tradeking, both of which have a zero balance. If I choose to trade one of those, I would fund it with the maximum allowed 3K. I I wish you all a great week. Have a wonderful Memorial Day, and give at least a moment for remembering those to whom this day is dedicated. Best Wishes, Thales

Hi Folks, I need your week ending equity PM'd to me by 12 noon on Sunday even if you posted it in the thread. It just makes it easier for me to update the spreadsheet. I may be late on the update as this is Memorial Day weekend. Best Wishes, Thales