Ingot54

No worries Mystic - closing out early instead of when I got home from my night shift only cost me about .33% and wouldn't have made any difference to the results. My trades beginning to mature now, but unfortunately as far as the contest is concerned, it is a little late for the counting.

Congratulations Youri, Mystic Forex and Obsidian. Well done to all of you. Looks like we have some close competition between the three of you. Noice to see. Youri - I really appreciate your dropping out this time - I need all the help I can get!

Starts Monday 1st October.

Of course I am - I used to be Enderbery's speech-writer. We no longer speak, and he refuses to answer my emails.

It may be that tomorrow will be too late, Obsidian ... I missed the cut once before because I didn't get my entry in early enough. Perhaps you could open a second a/c and use that - it would be better than missing the cut.

Totally unbelievable!

Cheers mate. Thanks

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum. Most of the threads will address specific issues, and this one is about reasons traders fall short of their desires. What kinds of things are you hoping to discover - perhaps if you expand on those, we can help. I guess if I had to nominate a single issue, it would be "Attempting to trade a Time Frame and instrument before fully prepared to handle it."

Mystic, can you nominate again for us (me) the correct time that positions need to be closed? I may not be around (work) and want to grab the most strategic time, as the commodity I am trading has turned around and looks like restoring some respect to my account. Let's hope there is time for it to recover before the close of the comp. One of the things about trading contests is the deadline, and there is a bit of difficulty in these volatile times in selecting a trade that will have time to survive a bit of draw-down, and get on with its trend. For this reason I was unable to place the trades for the contest that I would have preferred. Instead, my own live trading is doing better, because I am not needing to have it mature by the closing time. Is anyone interested in extending the time to a couple of months, for future contests? I am not making excuses - but my trading time frame lends itself to longer term trades, and it would do me good personally to be able to compete on a slightly extended TF. What a great finish it looks like being :fight:

Looks like you are vindicated in your position on front-running and HFT MM. While the SEC is only picking the low-hanging fruit on this occasion, they truly lack the balls to go after the big guys at the top of the tree. "A New York-based brokerage allowed overseas clients to run a scheme aimed at distorting stock prices by rapidly cancelling orders, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission." ... read more ... SEC Says New York Firm Allowed High-Speed Stock Manipulation - Bloomberg Clearly those of us on this thread who believe in market manipulation are not alone ... Matt Taibbi, Eliot Spitzer Discuss Eric Holder's Failure | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone I don't agree that Eric Holder has no balls ... he clearly is getting a small amount of testerone from somewhere, but it may be from one ball, and that one may be very small. As the top prosecutor in the USA, he has failed to act on many issues of corruption, according to these articles. No satisfactory explanation has been forthcoming to this moment, and I am not going to hang by a rope until we get one.

This lobbed in my email box just now, and may be of interest. Raghee Horner discusses "10 Mistakes Most Traders Make"

Bob - these are not Kangaroos as such. They are Australian feral bush cats. The one pictured was recently weaned! When they grow up they may be classed as Kangaroos by some people. Is this a serious approach to trading, Bob? I am not into Astrology and can't link Astronomy to trading. Am I missing something? So far the theory is standing up, because on Friday the rally that had me smiling quickly collapsed, taking my profits with it. I am still a net 16 pips positive in Gold, but down from a net 68 pips Friday. My wife who is the hind-sight expert in these things reminded me I should have taken profits right at the peak on Friday. That helped a lot. Now I have two things not to smile about!

They play golf at night in the Kalahari :confused: :rofl:

Bob must have his catalogue printed in China! I want my money back! White Chinese Lanterns - Chinese Lanterns

There is no option - the "cheque" arrived this morning, and the "prize" is $100 credit to be spent in Bob's Chinese Imports shop "within 30 days." I'm going to purchase $100 worth of assembled Chinese Lanterns, to take advantage of Bob's "We-post-anywhere-for-free" policy. I get 20% more chucked in for free too, if I order online. :rofl: I have just entered the next contest. Be afraid ... be very afraid!

No. I will have a 150-pip trailing stop, after the trade passes the break-even point. At "some point" (discretion) I will be tightening this stop. That event will involve observing what is happening in all TF. Yes - everything concerns me in trading, without being a smart-ass for putting it that way. The market often ignores my best plans. While these things look nice on paper as a "heads-up" event, at some point markets exercise their right to remind me of just who is in charge. Reversals occur without warning. In this case, previous activit is working out, but it won't always do that. I have not entered yet - there is plenty of time. These channels/trends have a high failure rate, and have a habit of spiking out for one last desperate rally. I am not afraid to be the last to the party on these time frames. Having established that, my entry will have 150 pips breathing space. I tried trading what "other participants" define, and had my trousers handed back to me sans ass! No. I can only trade what I see, and take my risks based on probability. That "probability" is based on what I observe on all TF, and unless those things agree, I don't trade. While the use of indicators is restricted, I like to use a couple of lagging ones (generally only one) to indicate reversed momentum. Excellent observation - I used to see the correlation, but markets are evolving now. With the GBP/USD/JPY/EUR pairs all affected by their respective central banks printing money these days, I take less interest in what "other Euro pairs" are doing. I still look though, because there are always technical reasons why charting behaviour manifests itself. The bellwether is no longer the EURUSD, as both central banks are corrupting their currencies poste haste. I don't know, mate. I'm easily hurt, and sometimes I take a couple of weeks off trading (and sometimes 3 months) to get my mind clear of prejudices and bias based on opinions. Thanks for responding, BlueHorseshoe. While the posts are a heads-up for everyone, I know people still take their entries in their own head-space comfort, and in their favourite TF. Initially I will be looking at the Daily and 4H TF to grab the least risk entry, but after that, I will not look at the 4H again intentionally. It will just sit in the 6-chart template displayed on my first screen. I don't usually trade Mondays, but having said that, the momentum can not be denied, and as I write, I am looking at both GOLD and the EURAUD for possible action. I don't know many traders who still use line charts - I do ... especially for setting trend lines on the higher TF. Was that the reason for your statement: "Other participants may define the top of the channel slightly differently ..." ?

Things are working out ok here. For those who like a big punt, the probabilities are favouring this to deliver the bikkies. It's a mortgage muncher if you get it right ... or a destroyer if you don't! Right now we are 800+ pips from support ... are you game? It's low-hanging fruit! :missy:

The bottom line is that we can no longer assume that gold trading is a no-brainer. No longer can we just buy a few contracts and wait for the next month's QE to kick the price higher in terms of the value of the USD. Only in currencies not denominated in JPY - GBP - USD - EUR will the value of gold contracts rise. Good luck with finding an exchange that will offer that! We saw a new recent high for gold on Friday, notwithstanding the all-time-high on 6th September 2011. However, no sooner had it hit the high ($USD1787) than it plummeted right back to the baseline it had been cooking at all week - $USD1773! How did that happen? Who sold it down? How many contracts were sold? What is the net COT on Gold atm, held by whom, and why? Never lose sight of facts. Gold is a commodity, albeit different from pork bellies and orange juice. And when there is a perceived crisis, instead of gold going higher, it will get sold like any other to meet urgent liquidity requirements. Sentiment is a very big driver of prices, and when we see risk-on and risk-off mood swings, beware the price of gold. We gold traders are funny life-forms!

For the first time in years, the Indian government is troubled by the bleeding of its foreign exchange reserves to off-shore gold markets. In effect, the country's private gold purchases (which are substantial) are funded by the banks. But the Indian regulations forbid the banks to deal in commodities; instead, they are allowed to finance commodity business, and to meet funding and capital requirements of commodity traders. India Considers Banning Banks From Selling Gold Bullion Coins | ZeroHedge Put my previous post together with this one, and you have a whole new set of conditions. 1. Central banks redoubling efforts to weaken their currencies and thus stimulate the attractiveness of their products/exports 2. Governments like India beginning to realise the effects of gold hoarding, and sabre-rattling to try to restrict the trade 3. The issues worthy of consideration have been broadened by the entry into the serious money-printing business (quantitative easing) by countries other than the USA I accept that these countries have already been involved in this, but not to the extent they do now. For example, Britain (BOE) has printed much more money as a percentage of GDP than the USA has. And when considered in the context of activity by central banks to weaken their currencies by direct (futile in my view) intervention (selling/buying currencies in the market) gold traders have many more factors to consider than previously. There is a head of steam building in the EURCHF that is going to end in tears. No bank can hope to restrict the level at which their currency can trade on the free market. At some point there is going to be a serious challenge - just as soon as someone sees a "Soros-style opportunity" to take on the SNB, and it will happen. When it does, the only hope for the CHF will be for another country to come to their aid, to defend the franc ... and that dog ain't gonna hunt! The situation is not that the franc is going to be sold ... it is going to be bought! Wait until the EUR begins to decline further - the pressure can not be contained. And what will that do to gold?

I think we are looking at a "New World Order" for Gold. During QEI and QEII gold hit new highs as the $USD weakened with the dilution of its currency in response to the counterfeiting by the Fed Reserve and the US Treasury through funny money bond purchases. China is holding over $USD1.2trillion, and can see where this is headed. As the world's largest gold producer, China forbids the export of gold - forcing it to remain in Chinese hands at home. The Chinese Central Bank has not released gold holdings since 2008. And they remain - along with India - the largest buyer of bullion. They can force a revaluation of gold once they hold enough of it, and that day approaches - yes - even with every full moon it gets closer! the biggest But there is a circuit-breaker in the price rise now - and traders better be ready for the wild ride ahead in gold. Think what would happen if the ECB began to print just as much money as the USA is printing. Think what would happen if the BOJ began to print just as much money as the USA is printing. Think what would happen if the BOE began to print just as much money as the USA is printing. For the first time we are seeing a fight-back by three large competing self-interest groups - the ECB (Euro), the BOJ (Yen) and the BOE (Pound Sterling). So what does this mean for the other currencies ... and gold? ... Read on ...

Oh ... I got no friends

I wouldn't like to see you miss the contest, Mystic. I am certain others would not object to your continuing participation - particularly since you have no chance of winning. After all we have ForexTraderX and Obsidian to beat ... and of course myself! Everyone can see that I am a late finisher ... :embarassed: Apparently Bob has already mailed the $100 to me.

Send the cheque now, mate - I've been playing possum to give the others a chance. $100? Small? That's generous mate.

Gosh, Bob ... should I be depressed? :embarassed::embarassed: I got in on a swing, and ended up in a position trade - pretty happy with it, and will end the contest in the black .... or some time next month maybeeee Are you entering next month?

For a moment there I thought you were going to add Commodities to your list of "most reviled." I guess the mystery of it all will never be revealed ... and the mystique of the guru is perpetuated ... never to be fathomed, and always to be desired. So we have the 5M's under control ... but we are now trading the wrong instrument. Bummer. What are we gunna do, Roger? I found nothing in your post that even addresses the topic in a constructive way, but plenty that adds to the confusion that gurus love to cultivate, before stepping in to salve their angst. This is the first post I have read of yours, but already I can see that you and Steve46 share the same DNA. I'll have to look around to see what else you have to say ... maybe I'm using the wrong paintbrush, but sure sure looks like some Steve46 feng shui to me