The Market Maven Alert
Tuesday 25th August 2009
Hi,
I hope you are mighty fine and trading well.
I'm rather excited and more than a little busy at the moment.
Project Maple Leaf is go!
I mentioned a couple of months back that I was hoping to head over to Canada for 6-12 months, well last week we finally got our working visas. We're off this time next month.
I'm not sure if I technically needed a working visa given the web based nature of trading and my writing, but I have a hard time explaining to my mother what I do, so those immigration officials would have had no chance! Better safe than sorry.
We're off to Vancouver so I'm really looking forward to getting into the outdoor life there and watching the Winter Olympics in February, something I've always wanted to do. Apparently it rains a lot though so at least it won't be too much of a change in that department.
Trading wise, I'll be adjusting my time zones. I'll miss the large part of the London session, but as I mostly trade the yen pairs, there will still be plenty of opportunities trading the Asian session in the evening Canada time. With an early start to the morning, I'll be ready before the US open around 2.00 PM UK time.
I'll still be sending Market Maven and What Really Profits over as normal, I just might take a few more hours to respond to emails as I'll be on the other side of the world. The beauty of trading is that provided you have a good internet connection (and forgiving time difference), you can do it from pretty much anywhere in the world.
Lots to do before we go, not least renting out our flat and booking a wedding venue for when we get back. Thankfully Mrs Market Maven would put a military tactician to shame with her organising skills. This means my trading and testing for WRP isn't as disrupted as it could have been.
I've a large collection of trading systems, manuals and books that I'm going to have to leave behind. This includes courses such as The Binary Trigger, The Affluent Desktop currency trader and a collection of DVDs on training psychology.
I'd like to find a good home for these, but there's too much to post. If you're not a million miles away from Teddington (near Twickenham) and fancy taking this collection off my hands, just let me know.
Speaking of trading systems......
How to create your own trading system
Over the last couple of years I've been working on a number of systems and now trade forex based on some of the patterns I discovered myself.
I'm currently trying to simplify these patterns so other people can follow them. They work, there's not doubt about it, I trade them every day, it's just that I want people to be able to follow them without the need for whizzy software.
I'm getting there and am hoping to get some testers on the case pretty soon.
Developing your own trading systems can be a rewarding process, especially when you go from an idea to a test onto live trading and find that it works exactly as it should do.
There are many ways you can create your own system and you don't always need to have programming or coding knowledge.
Here's a selection of the best tools:
Ninja Trader. My favourite weapon of choice is Ninja Trader. The software is absolutely free and you can grab free end of day data for stock markets to test out your ideas. For more advanced or intraday stuff, you may need to purchase extra historical data (I've got all forex market data going back to 1991) and a live data feed.
I previously reviewed Gary Ford's book on system development which is highly recommended. This uses Ninja Trader as its reference point throughout.
Wealth Lab. A good piece of software with a few more add ons available than Ninja. However given the cost oat $799, it's not that much better than Ninja Trader which is free.
Tradesignal.com. A neat little online trading program that allows you to create and test your own trading systems on various markets. From around £40 per month, its use friendly and won't break the bank.
IG Index. The spread betting firm, IG index make use of the charting functions from http://www.prorealtime.com/en/ for their advanced charting. You can create your own alerts and indicators as well as testing them using the 'assisted creation' mode. It's pretty good considering you can get it all free provided you make a couple of trades a month.
Meta Trader: The ubiquitous, free forex broker platform allows you to create all manner of custom indicators, robots and test them yourself. The only draw back is that you do need coding skills to be able to do it.
Hope this helps folks
Remember to test your strategies before putting live money on them. I've been there and bought the T shirt with that mistake.
My Trades
Last week I mentioned I had bought the S&P 500 on the close of the 17th. I thought it would either be a quick profit or a quick loss. Thankfully, it turned out to be the former as I was stopped out for a nice profit of 40 points with markets reversing last night. Left rueing my caution again with a small position, but I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.
Having a good run with my forex trades and I haven't had a loss in the last 5 days, not even a small one. More luck than anything as I've just missed what would have been losers for one reason or another. It makes me nervous when this happen. Makes me feel like I'm overdue a stinker!
Market Maven recommends
Don't have the time for frantic intraday action, but still want make money trading?
If so, then I've got some good news. You can still make fantastic profits swing trading good old UK shares. ... and I've come across a strategy and a teacher who'll show you how to do just that.
Back in 2005, Alan Rich was challenged to trade live for one month in front of an online audience detailing every trade as it happened.
The result?
He made 3,000 points profit with just one break even day!
Now you can follow in his footsteps and trade UK shares from home around a full time job.
Combining strategies from a DVD series with live weekly webinars, Alan will teach you how to trade like him step by step. Unlike other so called 'gurus', not only is Alan a brilliant teacher, he also walks the talk with you.
Here's what one of his former pupils had to say:
"Alan, just thought you'd like to know after your course I've been making nearly five figures every month trading part time whilst holding down a demanding job." G.M
I will go into more detail on Friday, but if you want to know more from Alan now, follow this link:
Click Events
This week's hot trading buttons
US consumer confidence is the standout announcement today. Tomorrow we've US new home sales and durable goods orders. For Thursday, we've UK house prices pencilled in for the morning followed by US GDP and unemployment claims in the afternoon. Friday brings UK GDP figures then its pretty quiet after that.
Trading Wisdom
"Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry.". Warren Buffet.
Regards
Dave Evans
Market Maven