NYC Trader's Expo

Here is a summary of what I learned at the International Trader's Expo:

Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg with GFT

*Most informative speaker

• A quick lesson in current Macro-economics
• EUR/GBP may have topped
• GBP may be first currency pair to rebound...
• *Extension Fade* by taking the history of currencys if a pair has 7 up days in a row...chances the next day will be a down day.

John Person

• Use Person pivots to confirm trends

Jeffery Baskin with FXDD

• Look into Ichimoku cloud for another technical analysis tool...it is a future looking indicator.
• Cash is a position...don't always feel you have to be in a trade
• In this market trade technical...fundamentals are out the window
• Look into Vegas Tunnel on the 1 hour chart

Timothy Sykes 

• Cut your losses quickly...to survive as a young trader

Peter Bain with Forexmentor

• Never trade a pair that isn't trending properly
• Buy the dips on a bullish trend
• Sell the rallies on a bearish trend

Highlight of first trader's expo experiance:

• Exploring NYC with good friends
• Learning a lot from free seminar
• Inexpensive mini-vacation
• Trading currency against a hedge fund manager (Who can say they will ever have the chance to do that?)
• Treasure hunting-signing up for countless drawings (from laptops to multiple monitors...probably going to end up with inbox full of junk mail)
• Meeting young traders or trainees...they inform us what life is like working in NYC
• Meeting and seeing my mentor's Tim and Peter present their material
• Seeing my friend Aynul attend his first expo and win a $500 raffle!
• Great food

Small Ball Poker and Day Trading Currencies

Daniel Negreanu is one of the few professional poker players that never seizes to amaze me. He is well know for to reading player's hand on national television (ESPN). If you go through the poker forums, Google, or his vblog...you'll be sure to find that small ball poker strategy is the strategy that successful pros use for tournament poker.

Daniel's tutorial that has shaped my poker play tremendously and I use the same fundamentals on arbitrage.

Small ball in a nutshell:

1. Keep pots small
2. Try to get into as many hands as possible without paying much
3. Play small suited connectors...to see the flop. If you miss...easy lay down...If you hit HUGE pay out.
   
4. Bet out in consistent amounts to hide strength of hands

Uses in day trading (in mini-lots):

1. Risk 3-8% of account portfolio (In my case trade 1 mini-lots until comfortable with Forex)
   
2. Stop loss set at 20 pips I 'cap' my pot commitment to $20 per trade...trading a lot has actually burned me (my broker probably loves me).
   
3. If the trends run the correctly I rake in a 20-200 pip gain. The idea is to risk very little to rake the reward (kinda like drawing on straights and flushes). Reset stops once you're on a run to cap profits...example: set stop at 10 pips once it breaks +20 pips...set 20 pips otb +30 pips...etc. Basically protect your hand.
   
4. Don't get cocky and put the entire fund at stake on a 'hunch'. Play this game by the books and grind it out.
   

The climb up...

Items to improve on:

• Watch mentor's AM review everyday (He was not showing the AM reviews...for most of January...much of his information could have prevented much of my bad habits.)
• Be patient...trading mini-lots makes me more likely to enter trades w/o a thought out process...trading a standard lot would make me slow down on my decision making...I need to treat each trade like it's my only one for the day.
• Stop speculating and start 'trading' - I am not following what I have been taught. Ugh.
• Limit losses at 20 pips per day...
• Don't be afraid to get back in...I got burned real bad last month...and I have seen a lot of entry points but I have fear of loss prior to getting in (stop being emotional).
  

Trades:

February 1 pip

2/12
EUR/USD 0 pip
2/3
EUR/USD 1 pip

Total Account change: $190.56 (201 pips)