Delivery!

Bad Assed Trader:  This has been an exciting week for Bad Assed Trader...I have finally given birth to my strategy.  I couldn't have done it without the expert midwifery skills of my ever amazing coach Emmanuel so if he's reading this - thanks Emmanuel!

I think the birth really took place yesterday morning when I spent four hours with Emmanuel analysing all the currency pairs and my November trades and discussing what I would and wouldn't trade.  By the time I came away I had a certainty and clarity that had been gradually emerging but now was fully formed - as if it has a life of its own.

It helps that my trading account is now showing that I have turned the corner - up 5% so far this month with another 2-3% sitting in my profit/loss account waiting to be banked (or eaten up by the market).

And who's the father of this strategy?  I have to pay tribute to the massive contribution Rob, another of the excellent traders at Knowledge to Action where I've been training, has made to my trading approach.   So if there is a father of this strategy then it has to be Rob.  I've integrated so much of what he's taught me and many is the time when the penny has finally dropped after I've heard him speak on the various courses.

So after a gestation period of something akin to a year and a half (does that make me an elephant...?) I now know what I am trading.  This may sound like I'm incredibly slow, after all I've been trading all the while so what was I doing not knowing what I was trading?  God only knows but I was searching for my own trading approach, trying different strategies and endlessly analysing my trades to see which types brought the money rolling in.

This has not been an easy journey for me and in many ways it's only now beginning.  There will be many more ups and downs, more testing of my metal and constant analysis and reflection required, but I feel I've passed a significant milestone.

It's such a relief to have come to this point where I'm really clear about what I'm doing.  So...what am I doing?

My trading strategy is very simple and based on the fundamental principles of trading.  Any trader reading my strategy description would say there's nothing new or especially exciting there but hey, it works.

If you want to find out more then read my next blog where all will be revealed.

AUD CAD daily short trade 8-23 November 2011

But before I go, here's a chart of my one of my latest trades.  This was selling the Aussie dollar against the Canadian dollar entering on November 8 (top arrow) and exiting on November 23 (bottom arrow) which generated 2.2% profit.

I could have secured a better entry but I'm still working on improving all aspects of my trading and particularly my stop loss management.

Since my discussion with Emmanuel I've learnt that I probably should still be in this trade and trailing the stop loss behind the down bars but I set a target and it hit it so the money is banked.

More soon...

Tuning in the Radar

Bad Assed Trader:  In the recent assessment I've been through for my diploma in executive coaching I had to give a presentation about how I coach.

I talked a bit about using my radars.  One is an external radar, using eyes and ears to see and hear information being transmitted by my clients through their body language and verbally: what they say and how they say it.

The other radar is an internal radar which makes me feel what the client feels.  Often this is called empathy.

Learning to coach has required a great deal of reflection and self examination and I've had to conclude that I am someone who feels a lot and who feels strongly.  People tell me I bring a lot of energy into the coaching session, that I energise them.  I think this is that I am emotionally charged by coaching and this presents as energy and enthusiasm and I am the sort of girl where what you see is what you get, plain and simple.

Interestingly, when being coached by other coaches on the diploma course as part of their practice coaching I have almost always chosen my trading performance as my issue to be coached on and the coaches repeatedly say that I am similarly energised by the trading.  They often find it a bit much, to be honest, reporting that I send loads of information flying at them from all directions and they don't quite know where to start with it all.

So where does this radar thingy come in when it comes to trading?

Well, when I was being coached as part of someone else's diploma assessment last week this radar thing emerged as a very relevant issue in my trading and what I can do to improve it further.

We were discussing the issue I have been vexed by recently which is that the more I create rules to follow, checklists to tick and targets to meet (in my well worn Faceless Bureaucrat style) the worse my trading gets.

Yet when I relax, watch the charts and just go with the flow my trading takes off and it's just fab.

At my last session with Emmanuel, my trading coach, his answer to my vexation was simple: Go back to what worked.

I followed his advice but I also wanted to understand what was going on and why, so exploring this in a free coaching session seemed like a good idea.

This energy I bring counts for a lot when you're a Faceless Bureaucrat (as I once was in the now rapidly dimming past).  it was often only through sheer will that I achieved some of the things I did to enable service improvements to be made.

In those times my radar was receving (targets, strategies etc) but it was also transmitting strongly too - as persuasion, negotiation and often as this sheer will.

When coaching others I've had to fine tune my receiving radar and become more aware of what I'm seeing, hearing and sensing.  I've also had to tone down my transmitting radar so all it does is reflect back to the client what I've received from my external and internal receiving radars: a bit like a magnifying mirror.

In my recent coaching session what emerged for me was that the targets, checklists etc are all part of me transmitting and this transmission interferes with the market signals I'm seeking to pick up.  It seems I have difficulty receiving when I'm transmitting.  I never was much good at multi tasking.

I know that as a trader I have to perceive the market signals acutely.  I have to be able to technically read them - and I can with a skill that's still developing - but for my style of trading I also have to perceive them - almost feel them.

I know that when I'm at my best trading I look at a chart and can see what's going to happen next without having to go through all the evidence (although of course I do - it's mandatory for me, anything else is "jumping in" or jumping off a cliff as I'd rather see it).

When I say I can see what's going to happen next it's really more of a feel, I feel the weight when price is about to drop and often I can feel the stillness of price action as it pauses before falling off a cliff.

When I'm at my best I'm just working out the parameters for the trade when it starts to happen.  It happened yesterday morning when I placed a trade on Swissy (USD CHF).  It was counter trend but I had the evidence I needed to sell it and just as I was calculating my position size it started to move and I was in.

It wasn't my fastest trade but it hit my 1% target 4 hours later.  A similar thing happened with the Canadian dollar yesterday morning too - also counter trend.

On Thursday I took 3 trades: I sold the Euro against the dollar for 1% profit, sold the New Zealand dollar against the US dollar for 1.2% profit and tried to sell the Aussie dollar against the Japanese yen but got taken out by my broker's spread (price went up to 2 pips short of my stop loss) before price dropped to my target and beyond.  Despite the losing trade - which was my fault not my broker's: I set my stop loss too tight and I did really know it on one level when placing the trade I just thought I could get away with it - I'm content with my progress.

Tuning in to Trade

The reason I'm content is not complacency, I know I've got mountains of work ahead of me, further analysis of the charts, my past trends and myself at every level, but because I'm starting to recognise my best mindset for trading and when I'm not in it.  I'm starting to trust my perceptions more and with confidence.

Emmanuel had suggested I got back to what was working and I did, immediately. And guess what?  It worked.

Now I understand I need to tune up my receiving radar (the satellite dish in my head) and turn off my transmitting one whilst I'm trading.

What a fascinating journey this is.

Still trading...

Bad Assed Trader:  Bad Assed Trader would just like to say briefly that she is still alive and well and trading despite no posts for nearly two weeks.  The coaching diploma assessment is due next week and pressures of this work have prevented blogging opportunities.

But I'm still trading and have, despite a rather rocky start to November, been having quite a good time of it more recently.

Hope to start blogging again by the end of next week when the assessment will be all over.  Can't wait to finally be a full time trader.

Now, back to that presentation and essay...