Ingot54

I have identified two things that I believe are contributing to a worse trading record than you deserve, ak14987: 1) For someone who is still relatively inexperienced in trading (2 years is not much experience) you are doing it the hard way by attempting to trade the intra-day markets. I have read some texts that suggest that beginning/new traders should not attempt to trade any time frame shorter than the 4H, and preferably the Daily TF. This takes the heat off immediately, and allows the trader to make entry/exit decisions based on trends where "noise" is less of a distraction. I know I do not speak for everyone, because some traders have been able to grasp scalping or short-term trading relatively quickly. Personally I can not do that - I can not scalp to save my life, and I am not a technical analyst's boot-lace (or maybe that's all I am) after more than 7 years at this profession. Perhaps you could consider trading the higher TF like at least the 4H and maybe the Daily, in order to gain a stronger grasp of the market activity, and grow in confidence with your strategy. When you get that confidence, you will stop doing the things that damage your account. You won't need anything more than that. 2) The second thing that stood out, to me, was your apparent lack of MONEY MANAGEMENT. It seems that you should not have had a position where "the lot was big." It is an easy thing to work out how many lots you can trade with a certain size account. If your risk is 2%, then for a $10,000 account this is $200. If your stop has to be 50 pips away from entry, then you just divide the 200 by 50 to arrive at the number of contracts. In this case it will be $4 per pip, or 0.4 of a full contract, or 4 mini contracts ($4/pip). If your SL has to be 100 pips away, then you must not trade more than 2 mini contracts, or $2/pip. And if you need only a 20 pip SL, then you could trade $10/pip or 10 mini contracts. Trading this way will give you 50 losses in a row before you are wiped out, if you use the same 4 mini contracts per trade. It seems to me that you may not have been using this form of money management. Perhaps you should take a look at it, to see if it is something that might help you remain in the market without blowing up an account. It is always better to keep to the lower amounts per pip, and allow the magic of mathematical compounding to grow your account. It can and will happen for you - just give it a chance - be patient. This temptation to take large lots comes initially from trying to grow a small account too quickly ... ie trading much larger lot sizes than the account can safely carry. You didn't say how much per pip you traded, or how large your account was (you don't need to tell us that) but even if you traded $1 per pip, that would still give you reasonable growth, if you are able to execute a 60% win-rate strategy, and at the same time take your losses as soon as it is clear the trade is not going to do what you expected. Lastly, Phantom is running an excellent thread, at the link in his post above, and there is also another excellent thread here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/trading-psychology/10158-optiontimers-project.html where Optiontimer is kindly sharing a great strategy based on daily charting. Do not give up. Congratulations for having the courage to reach out for help - this forum is famous for traders making an effort to help others, who have begun to help themselves. I know with the right guidance you will make it - I haven't the slightest doubt about it. Kind regards Ingot PS - It just occurred to me that you may be having difficulty taking your losses. If so, it might help if you take notice of how you feel when you actually close a losing trade early. Before yo close a losing trade, the anxiety builds, and you can feel unhappiness and frustration getting stronger. But notice, as soon as you actually close that trade, you begin to put it behind you and calm down, and you begin to look forward again to finding a better trading opportunity. That is why it is so important to take those losses FAST. Do not give a dollar more to the markets than your trading plan calls for. You already know you are going to have about 39% losses, so why not make them small ones? If in doubt about a trade, close it. There is always the next trade. My apology for the long reply, but I think all of these issues may lie at the heart of your frustration.

I I know what they are ... but the difference between them ...? Hmmm. Belief is an absolute. As soon as doubt enters the scene, you don't have belief, you have a theory. Attitude is more a decision ... eg "Today I will ... (focus on my rules / strategy) ..." or "I will not let three losses shatter my belief in my strategy." The difference between them is that belief is a core tenet, while attitude is a decision, at first conscious, but over time becomes unconscious, as confidence develops. And with confidence, comes belief. I do not think belief is possible without proof. Except belief in God. Such "proof" is personal, and cannot be understood or shown to another. Thus the world says "show me God and I'll believe" ... but it is not that simple. An individual does not require proof to believe in God ... that faith is either there or it isn't. Trading is different - it is tangible, and no amount of faith is enough - only the evidence of results will create belief. Clear now? :missy: Great idea for a thread, btw ... and I hope to have these topics clarified further - good contributions already.

This one is a bit of a grey area, but interesting nevertheless. It shows the extent that Boeing goes to, to ensure that both wings remain insitu during anything that can occur during flight! http://tinyurl.com/y5uqmpa

Hi Optiontimer After a mixed week, I am coming around to the discipline of following the strategy more closely. I was fortunate to be watching in time to close my EURAUD position before it ran to loss (after the EURO news on Greece).There is more to be gained through simply following a simple strategy, than breaking ranks and second-guessing entries. You win some and you lose some, but at the end of the day, why change a strategy that works, at the cost of stressing over the "correctness" of an impatient entry. What the exercise of the past couple of weeks has taught me is to simply have confidence in the strategy. That is priceless. I am setting up a new a/c this week to exactly mirror the a/c size I will be using, and with the contract size I will be trading. This is in preparation for my live trading beginning in a couple of weeks. I notice many of the Currency pairs are pulling back nicely towards / touching / through the 21EMA at the end of this week. It could be that we might see entries in a few of these. In particular I noticed these: EURAUD EURCHF EURJPY GBPAUD GBPCHF GBPJPY CHFJPY There may well be others. But these pairs are on my watch-list at the moment. Thanks for your gentle guidance on the thread - appreciated. Best wishes Ingot

Fear can be so easily overcome ... in a word ... confidence. Confidence in the strategy. is all that is required to overcome fear of the outcome. If one has no confidence, then one is afraid. How's that for black-and-white? On the other hand, nothing can help an inflated ego - even the truth will not, for to face the truth requires humility, and humility and ego never went through the same door. It has been said that the original sin was ... pride ... and the evidence of pride is an inflated ego. It is possible to be confident without being proud, but the minute you think you have humility, you've lost it! There are a few threads on this forum where there is evidence of humble traders ... but I have to stress, these are very rare! See how far you get when you challenge a trader to verify a statement about trading! See how far you get when you challenge a non-trader to verify a statement about trading! How quickly the ego springs to the defence ... and please don't ask me to verify that! :rofl:

Hi guys - you are all correct. After re-reading post #8 I have to agree that a signal is not valid unless the price pulls back above the 21EMA. It would be invalid if price closes above the 65EMA. Previously I had believed that the 7StochRSI readings were only relevant when they were overbought / oversold. I was looking for pullbacks to make entries, but had not regarded the fact that price has to pull back to above 21EMA / below 65EMA ... ie between the two EMA's. My application of the strategy has therefore been incorrect. I was keeping my stops tight, and taking every signal. This was leading me to get into some good long trades, but also handing me a couple of stopped out trades. The last 2 weeks I managed some very good pips, but in hind-sight I perhaps should not have taken a couple of them, because the price did not break into the 21 / 65 zone first, before resumption of the trend. I am thinking that we will miss getting into some very long trends if we wait for price to break the 21EMA before looking for an entry. If this is the case, and we are already in a trade, then these pullbacks can be used for pyramiding opportunities as well as entries, but other pull-backs can not be used for either. According to the reading of post #8, entry is quite restrictive. If price needs to break the 21EMA, but misses that mark by 3 pips, then entry is denied. I am unsure if I have interpreted post #8 correctly, but on re-reading it, and from the observations of you all, it seems that I was focused on the activity of the pullback, plus the activity of the 7StochRSI, and not paying attention to the price pulling back as far as the 21EMA. In the attached chart, I explain what I understand by your comments. So far it is working for me, but rules are rules, and I would rather miss these trades than float off into my own set of rules. In the future I will try to take only trades that fulfill all conditions. I do not want to be introducing things that are outside the rules of the strategy. I don't take offence at all - on the contrary - in the future these kinds of observations may save me more pips than I am making through making earlier entries, and entries that are not strictly in compliance as outlined in post #8. When OptionTimer posted in #67 that he didn't see anything wrong with consistently taking the same kind of entry setup (early entry on signal candle, not the next day trigger candle), as long as it was working, he didn't include that it was OK to take entries where price had not broken the 21EMA. Appreciate your pointing that out to me - thanks guys. EDIT: OptionTimer's post #95 clears up the rationale for requiring price to pull back to between the EMA's - 21 / 65. Best wishes Ingot

The article was never meant to be specific I don't think, Nakachalet, but more to serve as a general heads-up that "trading for a living" needs careful consideration because of unforeseen circumstance. Further, Don Bright seems to be saying that there is no need to quit an otherwise comfortable work situation in order to move to trading for income. He seems to be showing that it is possible to trade for income while remaining in the current work situation (job). Such articles can not be expected to be more specific in nature, because there is only so far an article can go before beginning to address the situation of individuals. And down that road, the situations are as many as there are participants. My own idea of "trading for a living" fits in nicely with the suggestions of Don Bright: Firstly, find a trading strategy that fits in nicely with your work-day schedule. Then master that strategy, so that you become accustomed to the things that can go wrong. Finally, begin to move to a situation where you can limit your hours in your former occupation, and move to more active and maybe more aggressive management of your trading. I did not arrive at this scenario on my own. Rather, I mentioned "trading for a living" once, and OptionTimer replied here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/trading/9935-creating-workable-trading-plan.html post #11 He was able to point out that trading for a living doesn't exist. He described it as trading with your capital, but drawing from that capital for living expenses. Now that places things in another light, and to be candid with you, it does make far more sense, and is far more specific than the ethereal term: "Trading for a Living." This will mean different things to different people, but the essence of it all is that you really need to have your living assured as a priority, and THEN get on with trading for further income - even if it is just supplemental to your employment cheque. I hope that view helps.

Here is a trade I entered - also prematurely. The entry at the opening of the new daily candle showed the 7StochRSI was ticking down. The indicator later that day returned to overbought, as price rallied. However 24 hours late the price had closed lower again, and the entry according to the strategy rules, was then valid. I didn't really gain much by "jumping the entry." The trade remains in profit, and I expect it will also go on to make good pips yet., though nothing is guaranteed. I am enjoying the input by other contributors - thank you for your questions. The answers from OT are very useful to me, and I am certain, others who read, but are not yet contributing. Those unasked questions can sometimes be the key that opens big doors. I am fortunate to be using the MT4 platform that has the 7StochRSI available, but as OptionTimer said, the 8.1.1 Stochastic is just as useful, so don't lose heart over that issue. As long as you are consistently following an indicator, the long term results should be similar. I have to say that since using OptionTimer's method, I have reached levels of trading profitability on demo (sim) I have never achieved in the past. Can you imagine how that might feel? I am planning on getting some more experience at the selection process before going live in a small way at first. I have traded both "sim" and "live" in the past, so understand already that there is a huge difference in the psychology. The issues I still have relate only to entry timing, and whether I will persevere with early signals or not. So far this has not made itself clear to me - over the course of many trades I will know. One thing I do want to do, is avoid situations where I experience unnecessary draw-down. But draw-down is a function of risk:reward, so to me it becomes not a question of how much draw-down, but one of managing it. What I call "unnecessary draw-down" is draw-down that is outside system requirements - ie entries that are not system entries (timed incorrectly perhaps), or holding on to trades that have failed. The EURAUD attached explains how I could have suffered "unnecessary draw-down."

I am continuing with my method of entry as mentioned before, even though it falls outside the strict guidelines set in the rules. See posts #66 and 67. I do this in the interests of consistency, though in time I may think twice about it, and conform to tighter rules. This has not been without loss, as I have had three of my past 5 trades go into loss because of this. One of the things I am noticing is that even though for short entries, the 7StochRSI does tick down at the open, occasionally it will NOT still be in the "down-tick" position 24 hrs later. In some cases I have been ahead in pips by taking that signal - and made significantly higher gains: eg the EURAUD and GBPAUD have both been short from 1.3294 and 1.5133 respectively. On the other hand, premature entries have cost me pips, and I have either nipped them short before they ran to too much loss, or I have purposely allowed them to run, as is the case right now with a couple of erroneous entries, in order to learn what I can from the error. (This is off-topic I know) but I have always learned more by allowing errors to fully play themselves out, than by cutting them short and never knowing what might have happened. Consequently, I am looking to see what happens, because at some point, we are going to see some trend reversals, and unless I have an interest in the trade (albeit a demo situation) I would never follow the activity long enough to refer back to entry, and learn what may have been a warning sign along the way. I hope that makes sense. At the moment I don't feel that there is much to be gained by posting losing trades, unless they are examples of false signals. But I will post the EURUSD chart, because it was a failed trade, and at time of writing it is losing 54 pips. I am remaining in this (demo) trade because it is still: a) within 130 pips loss b) still on the "correct" side of the long term trend Note: If this trade suddenly reverses and moves into profit, it *could* teach me erroneous trading methods by rewarding poor habits . But keep in mind I am aware of this, and simply using this as a learning exercise, to try to prevent such premature entries in future. On the other hand, strict adherence to the rules might also have seen this trade closed a day earlier, or not entered at all.

Agree with the idea in principle, Siuya, that several indicators can be interchanged/swapped because they are telling us the same things. I have about 5 "favourite" indicators that have kept me from finding the level of trading success I would like :rofl: But as a visual kind of concrete thinker, I NEED indicators to interpret what I am seeing. And it is possible that many traders are the same - it is no use talking to them about price action versus lagging indicators and so on as if they are the issue. What is essential to you, may be secondary to me and probably vice versa. What we are seeing in this thread is ONE way that works in an unambiguous way (to use OptionTimers words), and for me it works very well, and I hope it does for many others who are having difficulties. It may be - and I hope - that the time will come when I may dispense with indicators, or at least not notice them as much as I currently seem to. But they are certainly no burden, and if to some they are the HG, then there is nothing wrong with that. I agree with what you seem to be saying though, that a constant search from method to method is always going to end in frustration. There is no perfect method. There are only "methods" ... and it is for each one of us to find one that sits well with us, and master it. That is the key ... MASTER the strategy. The methods of Stanley Kroll have stood the test of the past 30 or 40 years - and in reality much longer - but he was able to get it on paper in his book. Thankfully OptionTimer was able to teach us this method, bringing awareness that trading need not be complicated nor stressful. I urge anyone who is feeling frustrated or "damaged" through their trading situation, to download that book from the first post in this thread, and read it, read it, read it.

Thank you OT for giving me confidence in that area. I may just continue as I have been now, because yes, it has been going well for me. But at the same time, I have been keeping a watchful eye on draw-down, to nip the early entries in the bud if necessary if and when they do run the opposite way. I would rather take 10 losses in a row that cost me 30 or 50 pips each, than miss the good moves that nett 600 pips a few times a month. Now that situation may be hypothetical, but one has to be realistic about trading, to the extent that losses are very much a part of winning. If traders could only learn to take their losses early (it took me quite a few years to get a grip on that) then they would also be ready to let good trades run to their potential. For now I remain very much a student. Kroll has so much to teach us and if there was ever a text that "should" be taught in trading school, Stanley Kroll would have to be in the top three or four essential prerequisites before enrolling. I look forward eagerly to learning more about trading - I have just begun. Thank you. Ingot

I was going to post a chart or two with a question about exits, and was reading through the thread from the first post, to see if much has been covered about exits. I didn't get far before I realised I have been very fortunate with my entries! So here is the situation, and I'll put the exit questions on the back burner for now. It is clear from my previous post (above) that I have been breaking the entry rules inadvertently, and getting away with it. While this has been paying off these past 2 weeks, the market may not always be so kind, and could lead to whipsaw activity that may be very costly over time. I have quoted the basic rules from OptionTimer's post #8, and I see I have been prematurely entering my trades. I have been entering trades when the StochRSI turned up / down at the beginning of a new daily candle, while keeping true to all the other rules. Foolish of me not to have gotten that right. In fact the way I read it, the StochRSI should be turned up at the END of the closing candle. Secondly, the entry is still not triggered unless price makes a higher high / lower low than the previous days high / low. This makes a very big hole in the number of pips I had in my pip-basket, but when corrected, it makes those pips very much safer than the quick pips I was able to make by jumping in one day early. It was unintended and thus serendipitous, but in the future I will need to make these entries more carefully. In the mean time I will be reading more of Kroll, to see what he has to say about trade management and exits, because I am being faced with some of these issues as swings occur. I have already closed the GBPUSD I entered on 5th July, and did so by setting a SL before leaving the computer on 12th July - 5 trading days from the opening of that position. So far this strategy is not difficult, and while losses are never far away, it is far easier to make decisions trading Daily charts than it can be trading intra-day activity. Thanks OptionTimer for you generosity in sharing this strategy. Kind regards Ingot

And while we are "back there" let's have a quick look at the late 60's (1967): The Tremeloes" ... Silence is Golden [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03g8nsaBro]‪The Tremeloes - Silence is Golden‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

Old memories ... Badfinger ... this was the sound of the 70's. Baby Blue live on the Kenny Rogers show (and wasn't he a pup!) [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C53QAuOoSgc&feature=related]‪Badfinger - Baby Blue (Kenny Rogers Show 1972)‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

One of the greats performing one of their best! Chicago: "Will you still love me?" [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EO0FB-YjX8]‪Chicago- Will You Still Love Me -LIVE‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

Hi Avarice - I'd like to say I enjoy your questions and input. I am wondering if you are concerned about entering at the EOD change because of fear of excessive draw-down? If so, then set your fears aside and relax. Here is what I do: In the past 10 trading days, I have entered at the opening of the candle immediately the previous one ends. The reason is that if the StochasticRSI indicator does not move in our required direction, then It is not a trade for me. There is nothing else to do - you can not "will" a trade into existence - it is there or it isn't - and you have scores of charts to go through to find one that is setting up nicely. Here are my opening trades and the maximum drawdown from opening. I am using demo, so I have not included the spread - just the opening price to maximum DD: USDCHF - 11 pips - still open - +300 pips .......... (opened 4th July) GBPCHF - 15 pips - still open - +596 pips .......... (opened 4th July) GBPUSD - 13 pips - closed + 136 pips ............... (opened 5th July) USDCAD - 9 pips - still open - + 53 pips ............. (opened 13th July) NZDUSD - 25 pips - still open - + 196 pips ......... (opened 13th July) AUDUSD - 51 pips - still open - +28 pips ............ (opened 13th July) Many of these trades have swung back against me, but are still legitimately within the trend, so I have not taken profits yet. At one point I had 1544 pips (incl the GBPUSD I closed) and now there are 1309 pips profit. This is the most pips I have made in a fortnight ever, and the first time I have had a trade run to more than 600 pips ... and still open! I present these numbers from my demo a/c to show that when that StochasticRSI triggers, then you simply ACT on that signal. The draw-down I have showed you means that draw-down is a non-issue. The dates in brackets are the dates the trades were opened, Australian dateline. We are GMT +10 here, so those daily candles / bars close / open at 10am our time. I don't hang around to "see what they will do" - the entry is either there or it isn't ... and I turn off my computer. I have a look in the evening - and that's about it. This gets me my life back - the reason I entered trading in the first place. There is nothing to tweak, no fibs to measure, no other indicators or charts - just me, the 21 / 65 ema, the StochRSI and the Daily chart. These things are foreign to me - I guess all I want is a simple method and I never have to concern myself again with news, economics, technical analysis or waves, zigzags, multi-level charting, data, slippage, spreads or anything else. I KNOW what this strategy can do, and I place my confidence quietly in that. If you are an impatient person, or impulsive, then simply follow the rules, and continue to ask questions. I sincerely hope you stick with this. I have a friend who is a committed scalper and loves it. But after looking at this strategy he is convinced of its awesome potential too. Do not worry about asking questions - I have some too (posts to follow), but I suspect I will have a ot of my questions answered in the Stanley Kroll .pdf posted in the very beginning of this thread at post #1. Kind regards Ingot PS - It must be difficult in your time-zone to trade the same EOD candle - my platform (forex.com MT4) is based on GMT zero. I do not recommend forex.com as a live broker. Nor do I discourage dealing with them - I chose their platform based on the EOD bar closing at zero hrs GMT which is the NYSE close? I use MT4 only for their brilliant flexibility in charting, not for live trading.

Hi sspremj I sent you a private message with two links on this forum where you can simply click on it and download it. Here are those links:: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...project-2.html post #22 http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...tml#post123211 post #19. I am attaching it here for you as well. Kind regards Ingot Stochastic_rsi_forex-instruments.mq4

This indicator is the Stochastic RSI It needs to be set to appropriate levels for it to be useful at all, so be sure you understand what it is that it is indicating. You can find a valuable application of this indicator here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/trading-psychology/10158-optiontimers-project.html Enjoy. Stochastic_rsi_forex-instruments.mq4

Before the GFC, countries like Greece, Italy, Ireland ... and states like California, Delaware, Minnesota 50 States in Debt - The Daily Beast seemed to be well under the radar. But something has occurred that had little to do with Wall Street's criminality and deceitfulness, and more to do with the US Fed Reserve's policy to destroy the greenback's value in order to repay their fiscal irresponsibility. It's not just about the USA any more. The USA has used money printing to export inflation via rocketing commodity prices to any and all countries that are nett importers of food and essential commodities and energy. nakedempire: 'How the world paid the hidden cost of America's quantitative easing' The rising prices of metals, energy, food and other softs has touched countries who have had little to do with derivative gambling, and made it all but impossible for them to survive even the smallest crisis. One of the biggest disasters unfolding right now as we sit in our comfort chairs and stare at our computer screens, in the horn of Africa. Africa Drought Sparks Food Shortage, Child Hunger and Humanitarian Crisis - Save the Children Kind of makes you choke a bit on your meat and 3 veg, doesn't it? But when we have the kind of brains managing the debt of the most powerful country on earth - the wealthiest (are we still sure?) country on earth, this is the result. Your "we want" points above were certainly not wasted on me, Siuya - I agree with many of them - not all - but the list paints a picture of selfishness on one hand, yet a desire (and a despair) for fairness and survival on the other. People like me are always going to bite on these issues, because we are too altruistic and less realistic than is good for us. My pink hide is far to thin and transparent for me to ever be a politician, unless that dynasty of which I would take a part was ruled by a fair and honest authority. That does not make me any more fair and honest than anyone else on earth - we are all hurting in some way - but it would give people like me a framework from which to launch assistance to both the enterprising and the welfare dependent. At the moment, both groups are being neglected in favour of the greedy - which has nothing to do with enterprise and entrepreneurship. So it is hard to see Greece "being ok now" when the US continues to pursue Quantitative Easing as a get-out-of-gaol policy. I believe history will not be kind to these fed Reserve people, nor the FOMC members. They are delivering the world into the hands of people who pull strings ... at no cost! I have to leave this here at the moment, but to nurture your insight, here is a Ron Paul / Ben Bernanke exchange from yesterday. Doesn't exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy to see Bernanke in the wheelhouse! He doesn't seem to have much of a clue about money printing and gold, does he? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NJnL10vZ1Y]‪Ron Paul vs Bernanke: Is Gold Money? - July 13, 2011‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

Doesn't take much to get me going, does it! |:^) I suspect you are taking the public advocate position here, Siuya - a bit rhetorical perhaps. You are correct about the Welfare State being at the bottom of most of the trouble, or at least a bigger part of that, but the corruption of our financiers is at the top. The Reserve bank Of Australia was formed in1960 when the Reserve Bank Act 1959 removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank to it. Reserve Bank of Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It has gone through a few transformations, but has steadily grown in power, while shrinking in political interference. The Board consists of members of both the Bank, the Treasury, other Australian government agencies, and leaders of other institutions that are part of the economy. There are 6 external members - economic figures in Australia (industry CEO's etc) and 3 Internal appointees from the Government and Treasury. Their manipulation of interest rates is supposed to maintain stability in Australian economy, but in fact this has led to the creation of the housing bubble we have here (slowly imploding) and set us up for greater problems ahead, because of their interference in free market forces. I like free markets - they reflect the amount of hard work and innovation put in by hard-working people. Interference by governments and bankers only has the effect of weakening the ability of those who truly drive the economy, and steal their wealth and idea-making ability, and distribute it elsewhere. Governments everywhere are responsible for the repression of ideas and innovation, through their socialist agenda to redistribute the substance of those who truly create economic value. Regardless of everything else that is necessary in an economy, the need to pay the nations bills, and feed it, are still right up there with Oxygen as a necessity of modern life. Government intervention through unfair taxation and manipulation of Interest rates certainly does serve a function that has value - ie supports the less fortunate and lazy, though the two are not synonymous - but ultimately too much of this interference simply forces nations into decline. This is so because banker-control of political function serves to create debt in a society, and wealth in a bank. Woodrow Wilson forced through the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, in the small hours of the morning in a depleted congressional house. Woodrow Wilson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Reportedly he later regretted that: Talk:Woodrow Wilson - Wikiquote "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. "We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." The US Federal Reserve is NOT a Government body, but a private institution. In fact, the requirement for the Chairman of the Fed to report to (and account to) Congress has expired - but Bernanke continues to do so, as did Greenspan before him, because it enhances their reputation and power. The antics of the US Fed have brought the financial world to the edge of the abyss. Had the financial world been allowed to collapse in 2007 - 2009, instead of trillions of dollars being pumped into its foundations, the dust would have settled, rebuilding would be under way, and the sun would have risen this morning like it did yesterday. By the way - the trillions of dollars, pounds and euros that have just stayed the day of execution, could perhaps have been used to cure cancer, feed the world's starving, provided renewable energy, clean water, beaten more diseases and viral problems like HIV, and parasitical diseases like sleeping sickness, malaria ... and ... and ... maybe ... MAYBE we could have seen an end to war. But the difference is that those corrupt manipulators of the derivative markets, Wall Street and Investment banks, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs would all be in gaol today, instead of sitting back with their bonuses and smug smiles, having gotten away with murder. ("Murder" refers to the deaths of those who for reasons of financial ruin took their own lives.) If you think this is harsh - think again. What has happened has nothing to do with free markets. It has been everything to do with political corruption and mateship in high places. Ron Paul wants an audit of the Federal Reserve. He can't get it, because Congress is in the pay of Wall Street bankers who supported Congressional members' election campaigns. Should this be allowed? No. In the USA the lobbyists have taken away the power from the citizens who rightfully own that power. The entire system is corrupt, and there is no statesman or even any leader who has the will to fix that situation. Many had hoped Obama would be the one. The man was given the Nobel Peace Prize 6 weeks into his Presidency - long before he had even done any single thing towards improving world peace. Corruption. They spend their lives scheming to get rich. They get rich ... finally. And ... finally ... they die ... having left in their wake, on their way to heaven, a trail of despair, bankruptcy of others and misery that will take a generation to wipe out. So ... do you think Greece is going to be alright now? In these hands ... no. Remember what the citizens did in Iceland? Enjoy this little read (attached.) Kind regards Ingot Iceland Citizens retain people power.doc

Exactly the right questions, Siuya. Here's more: Why did the IMF travel the world when the GFC began, telling EVERY nation that they had to go into debt (spend money they didn't have) by a multiple of their GDP - even nations that clearly were not involved directly in the crisis? This, under the guise of "stimulus" and was largely unnecessary and useless as a panacea, but hugely successful as a muscle-flexing exercise by the International Monetary Fund and World bank. The Politicians and policy-makers of the world naively followed "instructions" to avoid a crisis - dazzled by the intellect and sheer "savant" of those "in control" of the situation. Yeah. Why do the central bankers think that as long as a nation is showing GDP "growth" then it is ok to increase debt? Apparently the magic number "GDP" is the key that unlocks the door to borrowing - even when that GDP is a hollow number, propped up by false numbers by desperate treasury departments. Bankers and Politicians have been shown to release false numbers (we used to call this "lying" when I was a small boy) to the markets on a regular basis, when it is clear to everyone who is following their antics, that the numbers are not stacking up, and are unsustainable. The definition of "employment" is one hollow number that shows that a person can be claimed to be "employed" even if they are employed for ONE hour a week, and idle for the other 39 hours. Then the GDP uses this number of "employed" to construct the basis for working out how much GDP we will have, and thus how much debt we can service. Clearly I am no economist, but according to the Ingot54 household records, we could not balance our weekly budget if we did it this way - how can whole nations do it? So if the Ingot54 household can not pay its debts, it is forced into bankruptcy, and after a cooling-off period of five years, may then get on with the business of running its household. Last week the world was singing the praises of the Greek bail-out, while the Greek people were fighting for their very sovereign freedom. This week Greek debt is rated as "junk" - bond yield spiked to 31%. November 2010: yield about 10%. Italian debt rated as junk - this week bond yield spiked from 3% to 4.1% - Italy is the third biggest bond market IN THE WORLD, and Europe's 4th biggest economy. November 2010 yield: 2.5% Irish debt rated as junk - bond yields spiked to 17.7%. November 2010 yield: 5.2% Any traders see a useful pattern developing here? People who are thinking about this need keep a couple of things in mind: Iceland defaulted on its debt in 2008, and as a result its 3 biggest banks went into receivership. Today Iceland is happily rebuilding, and is untouched by any sovereign debt crisis. Secondly - the Central Bankers have too much power, and no idea what they are doing. Since 2008, they have printed money, borrowed money, bailed out bankrupt firms and generally thrown money at the problem until it is nothing but obscene. Today, the US government is admitting that they have failed to stop the bleeding. The European central bank has clearly no ideas either - the dominoes are falling, and can not be propped up. Italy is too big to be supported, and will be a bigger crisis than Greece, who have only 2.5% of the Euro economy. The crash will come when they discover Italy can not be saved ... but this should be the turning point, as nations everywhere begin to realise that the best response is to allow the markets to work ... clean out the debt, bankrupt the bond-holders (speculators) and get on with running their national economies. And they should then resolve never to allow a banker into the policy boardrooms of government ever again. Central banks have to go ... and go in national disgrace everywhere. They have misled, lied and manipulated whole economies in order to shore up power they never should have had in the first place. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves ... Ireland will collapse before Italy, and without serious re-writing of the terms of association, the Eurozone will find itself a smoking train-wreck. However, too many think that the world economy is recovering, so we still have a lot further to go before any real progress can be made towards accepting the bankruptcy of nations, and moving away from this silly bail-out mentality, that only further impoverishes and enslaves nations. (I quote Iceland as an example of a nation who said"no" to central bank "solutions" and survived. Russia also did it a couple of times, devaluing the Ruble etc in the 1990's. The sky is definitely still in place.) They have to get the central banks out of their policy-making rooms, and put them back where they belong - outside their policy-making decisions. They have to stop receiving "advice" from the IMF and World bank. Bankers are plotters, and politicians are plotters. They are a very dangerous association when both are seated at the same table. You can be certain that the citizenry will not have their interests placed ahead of these two, now or ever. Religion and Politics are said not to be a good mix. Try Banking and Politics, and see whether that is any more palatable! The whole scheme seems to be that if all the nations of the world are indebted (to whom do they owe this debt???) then all the nations of the world MUST then do the bidding of the entity to whom they "owe" this debt. Any thoughts on who this "entity" might be, and why it is in "their" interests to keep pushing more and more debt as a solution, when clearly that has been shown to exacerbate the situation. I have long said that the ultimate goal of the Money Power is to have the nations of the world living in "peace" in a "master-slave" relationship. This can be brought about in one generation: firstly by gentle coercion using force of indebtedness, and later through "education of the generations following. Oh - a serious war or two might also occur, as the finishing touches are applied. But I doubt you want me to elaborate on that here. Can be done in 40 years, and will then last a millennium. But few others think so ... a few think it over the top ... a few others don't even think. It is better to think ... and be wrong, than never to have thought at all! Kind regards Ingot |:^)

I don't know much about Boyzone, strangely, though they have been around for the better part of 16 years. But their music can be addictive, and I found myself listening to this one three times (so far). I found it superb on the full screen - the resolution is excellent for that. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eul_Vt6SZY]YouTube - ‪Boyzone - No Matter What‬‏[/ame]

Hi Folks Following along very closely, and indeed I have three open positions - all short: GBPUSD from 1.6046 GBPCHF from 1.3681 USDCHF from 0.8491 While wanting to remain in theses trends, I am also wary of fundamental reversals, and am wondering if anyone has discovered a mechanism that works for them, that they'd like to share, that provides a reasonable exit. I have no issues with leaving pips on the table at the end of a trade - that's the nature of trading well. But I am also mindful that it is still ok to exit and re-enter if the termination was taken prematurely. My question is aimed at avoiding premature exits, but also finding "correct" exits, if indeed such a beast exists. Thanks in advance for ideas and replies. I am still soaking up what Kroll has to say about these, and as he is the backs-stop authority here, I will be tending to place a lot of weight on his recommendation, and of course OptionTimer's experience and thoughts on it too. By the way, I am currently stalking the USDCAD as a possible short. The WEEKLY is in a beautiful downtrend, and it seems the DAILY will signal that it is conforming to that trend again soon. I did actually hold a short over the past 8 hours, once reaching +31 pips, but I closed it at break-even this morning, because it is simply not ready. Here are the charts of USDCAD Weekly AND Daily for your perusal. Kind regards Ingot PS - Am I being too cautious by waiting for the extra parameters to align ... such as the weekly trend? (I know the weekly can not turn short before the daily does.) Regardless of the weekly, I would probably still enter this short from the daily as usual IF ... if the StochasticRSI does signal an entry. I would use a stop of about 120 pips, which is 1.5 x daily ATR. Thoughts?

This Aussie band no longer plays and records, but they left us some great sounds. Here is the story of their sunset tour unique mid-air concert: Powderfinger perform in mid-flight | Perth Now I think this is possibly one of their best tracks, taken from their Album: "Odyssey Number Five" ... but that's just my opinion. Odyssey Number Five won the 2001 ARIA Awards (Australian Recording Industry Association) for "Album of the Year", "Highest Selling Album", "Best Rock Album", "Best Cover Art", and "Best Group". "My Happiness" won the award for "Single of the Year", while "Like a Dog" was nominated for "Highest Selling Single" and "Best Video". At the 2002 ARIA Awards, "The Metre" was nominated for "Best Group". The album was named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone Australia readers, with "My Happiness" taking out "Song of the Year" and Powderfinger receiving "Band of the Year". [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fBbKtq_Li8&feature=related]YouTube - ‪Powderfinger - My Happiness‬‏[/ame]

Not me, mate! I'll take death-by-a-thousand-trades any day! I had to take a couple of metoclopramide and have a good lie down after watching that stuff! Later I found some nicotine stains in some amazing places! Yikes!