Hitting A Trading Milestone

As a part-time trader who has an intense longing for success, I hit an important milestone today.

Back in November, I recognised some good trading opportunities. As a result, I started running and managing my two metatrader accounts and also a CFD trading account at the same time.

During the past six months, I funded another metatrader account with profits and had actively traded with those accounts.

Today - my five figure CFD account has just been doubled after a six-month period. I appreciate my past efforts in blogging which, somehow, made me a better trader. Despite my tight schedule nowadays, I recognise the importance of running the blog more often.

A Year of Performance Tracking

It has been more than a year since I first started to measure my daytrading system performance on a monthly basis. Here a couple of charts I put together to see how I have been fairing:

These graphs tell me that I have been doing the right thing all year long by:
1) Generating the right trading ideas at the right time
2) Diversifying my money in two different market places, i.e. Major Pairs and Yen Crosses.

I am able to make steady gains with the two systems, simply by betting against the short-term moves for the US dollar and Japanese Yen day in day out. The combined results say it all. I have made more gains than losses, 10 positive months out of 14, averaging about 310 pips each month.

Worth mentioning, the only one time my system made a triple-digit losses was back in July 2008, that is -140 pips. Others are -50, -70 and -25 pips in May' 08, Nov' 08 and Jan' 09. Also on the plus side, the system is capable of hitting four-digit monthly gains, which so far outstrip the recorded losses by many times. This has already happened twice: +1175 pips in Aug' 08 and just recently +1055 pips in Feb' 09.

Overall, my system did incredibly well even when the market was volatile. I hope my system can continue to make gains for me and you as the economy recovers.

Here are my monthly daytrading reports:
March 2009 Trading Performance
February 2009 Trading Performance
November 2008 Trading Performance
October 2008 Trading Performance
September 2008 Trading Performance
August 2008 Trading Performance
July 2008 Trading Performance
June 2008 Trading Performance
May 2008 Trading Performance
April 2008 Trading Performance
March 2008 Trading Performance
February 2008 Trading Performance

Manual Trading and Goal Recap

Back in Dec 26, 2007, I wrote:

Below you will find my 10 goals for 2008 which are to be achieved by the end of the year.

1. Generate $5000 in monthly trading profits
...

Above you will find the number of pips I collected in this month (May 08) so far. I am one more step closer in achieving the main goal of 2008.

My expert advisor trading was forced to put on hold in February. I knew that my system was not quite ready at that time.

But since then, I have been actively involved in developing a new forex day trading approach, setting up my own day trading group as well as logging and analysing all of the executed forex trades consistently. I share all of my trading insights and results here.

As this half way stage, I feel confidence about my method. Lately, I also allow myself to be more flexible with my manual trading execution.

Rather than chasing big wins on every single trade, I try to breakdown the original trade ideas into several positions with smaller targets.

Rather than hopping from one market to another in search for the next trading opportunity, I try to hang on with the original trade ideas a little longer than usual. I'm not afraid to reenter more positions when I see the price is right.

Note that all of my forex trade ideas and their entries/exits come directly from my daily "automated" trading routine. I wrote about this before.

This is my first 2008 goals recap post. There will be more related posts in very near future to make sure I have a fulfilling year by achieving all my goals before year-end hopefully.

My Top 5 Forex Day Trading Winning Habits

As long-time readers know, one of my favourite trading method when I started this blog was swing trading which I attempted to capture gain in forex prices within one to three days. I used only simple technical analysis, i.e. breakout pattern, to look for prices with short-term price momentum.

I found some success using this simple method immediately but I got too focused on winning back then. My impatience and lack of strategic planning got the better of me. Since then, my new goal in forex trading was to improve on the mistakes I made, and to build upon something I did right.

Here are my top forex trading exercises which put me back on the winning track:

1. Seize opportunity to learn and grow
In trading, don't be afraid to fail and startover again. It's important to remind ourselves that failing is an integral part of learning. Make sure you eradicate your mistakes and if possible, make small positive changes at a time. The small changes do add up over time which can give you a solid foundation to tackle trading obstacles.

My examples:
>> Realisation after blowup
>> Learning and trialing new trading methods


2. Keep a journal
"A journal keeps you constructive, keeps you learning, and keeps you working on the things that are most important. It is not a tool for simply rehashing the day or voicing your feelings; it is your tool for self-development: your means for coaching yourself." (ref: traderfeed )

My examples:
>> The use of a trading journal (on this blog)
>> Be specific on mistakes and focus on positves (on daytrading blog)


3. Write/share a plan
You should have a detailed trading plan. In addition, it feels really good if you are able to share your particular expertise. Moreover, it feels even better to know that someone, somewhere, might find his or her trading outcomes improved by something you’ve written.

My examples:
>> Creating trading knowledge out of ordinary
>> Finalising a simple forex daytrading strategy


4. Organize a group
What makes you passionate about forex trading? "Being around other people who are passionate about the same thing would make you even more passionate about it. Seeing a group grow and take off can be tremendously awarding - but even failing can teach us important things too." (ref: lifehack)

My example:
>> Setting up a forex daytrading members group


5. Practise a simple daily routine
Especially when comes to dealing with the Forex market, we are expecting full-on, non-stop price actions around the clock 24/5. Thus, having a simple plan would definitely help to focus on our trading edge and also improve trading mentality.

My example:
>> Having a simplified forex daytrading routine

Achieving day trading success isn't something that should be left up to chance. We should not simply bounce from one reaction to the next throughout our trading adventures. Having real goal or plan in mind is a far better winning strategy.

My New & Simplified Day Trading Routine

Old Day Trading Routine (originally posted here on 18 Jan 08)

• Scan for swing trading opportunities on H1 chart (2 x10 minutes) - revised
  
• Monitor open positions (ongoing) - revised
  
• Follow live economic news releases at 9.30 am and 1.30 pm (2 x 15 minutes) - revised
  
• Watch live price action during lunch break/evening on M5 chart (more than 30 minutes)
• Review expert advisor trading results (15 minutes)
• Gauge market sentiment of the US dollar on daily trend chart (15 minutes) - revised
  
• Demo aggressive style discretionary trading strategy (started recently)
• Read market news (when free)
• Write blog posts and research new trading ideas (when free) - revised
  

New Day Trading Routine

• Scan for daytrading opportunities on M30, H1 charts (3 x10 minutes)
• Monitor open positions (on hourly basis)
• Follow live economic news releases (throughout the day, 2 -3 minutes per news event)
  
• Gauge the technical sentiment data of the US dollar and Japanese Yen (10 minutes)
• Review daytrading results
  

After a hectic start in January, my forex trading routine was made easy last month. I am currently seeing a great improvement in my daytrading results by following a stringent plan.

Quote (Brett Steenbarger) - Success comes to traders only when they overcome normal human biases.

Blog Income and Trading Report - February 2008

It's a new month and that means it's time for the second blog income report for the year 2008. Back in October 2007, I decided to run a little experiment and wanted to see if money can be made from blogging. Before that time, ScoutForex dot Com was simply a personal trading blog that didn’t make any money from blogging.

Last month, the blog made $1,019.99. Not only it was a new income record, it was also the first time the blog broke $1K. Being the shortest month of the year, February normally results in less income than January. However, I managed to break another new record again !

Below is the income breakdown in the context of my own/referred trading program & services and the general blog monetization options.

Total Blog Income for February 2008: $3,113.49

• Text Link Ads: $59.36
• Google Adsense: $133.01
• Private Ad Sales: - new
  
• Review by Me: - new
  
• Affiliate Commissions: $543.8
• Signal Provider Rebates: $364.54
• Automated Forex Trading Program: $1139.8
• Day Trading Service and Software : $872.98

Blog traffic for February was increased to 16,797 page views from 6,138 unique visitors, according to statcounter. If you take the blog income and divide it by the blog page views, you will get a site wide eCPM of $185.36. What this means is for every 1000 page views, ScoutForex dot Com makes $185.36 or 18.54 cents per view. (Using this calculation, I beat John Chow by 58% with this month eCPM figure ?! Judge it yourself HERE, lol ..)

The key which drives an increased traffic to my forex trading sites is writing personal trading experience and reviews based on my own trading knowledge and passion. Please also note that I only recommend trading products/services which can bring BENEFITS to my readers, including myself. Hence, I like to stress the keys to an increase in the blog revenue are always: VALUE, VALUE and VALUE, plus DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, and DIVERSIFY (some examples given).

For your information, I have already achieved my year-end blog monetisation goal of 2008 in just a span of two months. No doubt that SETTING CLEAR GOALS helps a lot ! I have to revise my goal this month if there isn't any problem of maintaining the site revenue.

On the other note, my first goal of 2008 - chasing a monthly trading profit of $5000 - is currently lacking behind. My main focus for the rest of the year will be achieving THIS GOAL. Personally, I don't think I am too far away as I have already revised/refined all my trading strategies, i.e. day trading, automated trading, discretionary trading using the first two months of 2008. I will keep updating this blog as usual with useful trading contents and tips.

Creating Value (Knowledge) Out of Ordinary

I know that I am not promoting 'top-notch' trading software, but I manage to add value for my readers. Sometimes, I even think my instructions are more valuable than the software. They provide you with a software tool, and I do my utmost to provide you with the right knowledge and support.

As a proof, here is a latest reader's feedback on my value (knowledge) creation, i.e. the bonus set of trading instruction/strategy which is a giveaway to you guys.

Thanks so much.
Following your method, I managed to nail 30 pips last nite (or morning US time) trading GBP/USD.

I hope I can keep this up and will let you know as I progress.

xxx, Singapore

Thanks for the good feedback. (I appreciate it, please keep them coming, good or bad.)

Back to knowledge creation, right now, I even 'own' a right channel - my day trading service along with live trading sessions and daily updates - to disseminate my humble knowledge in the forex trading arena. I like my blog (with new goals), I like trading and I am here to provide value + support to you guys ... Go blog go ! Yipee !

Jan' 08 Blog Income and Trading Report

It’s a new month and that means it's time for the first blog income report for the year 2008. Back in October 2007, I decided to run a little experiment to see if money can be made from blogging. Before that time, ScoutForex dot Com was simply a personal trading blog that didn’t make any money from blogging.

January 2008 will go down as the month to break above the $1,000 mark. Here's the income breakdown:

Total Blog Income for January 2008: $1,019.99

• Text Link Ads: $40.12
• Google Adsense: $75.68
• Banner Ad Sales: $40
• Zulutrade Rebates: $108.88
  
• Affiliate Commissions: $755.31

Blog traffic for January was increased to 11,097 page views from 4,482 unique visitors, according to statcounter. The key which drives a lot of traffic to my forex trading sites is writing personal reviews based on my own trading experience and knowledge. Some examples can be found here, here and here. Please note that I only recommend trading products/services which can bring benefits to my readers, including myself.

Improved Trading Performance
If you’ve been reading ScoutForex dot Com, you will also notice that I do a lot of forex trading myself. Here is a full account of my daily trading routine and you will notice that I run several trading strategies at the same time. Never put all eggs in one basket.

Last month also sees a significant improvement on my trading performance as I continue to learn new trading knowledge from my blogging routine. Here are the positive outcomes and hopefully they can set the tone for the rest the year:

Trading Results for January 2008

• Semi-Mechanical EA System: +34.6%
• Improved Day Trading System: +155 pips
• New! Discretionary System: +998 pips (currently in demo mode)
  

My Daily Trading Routine

Balancing full time work and 'part-time' trading (and also blogging) is never easy. Especially when comes to dealing with the Forex market, you are also expecting full-on, non-stop price actions around the clock 24/5.

In fact, I could never manage all trading tasks by myself, and quite often, have to rely on my missus's assistance. Here's my daily trading routine at the moment:

Daily Trading Routine

• Scan for swing trading opportunities on H1 chart (2 x10 minutes)
• Monitor open positions (ongoing)
• Follow live economic news releases at 9.30 am and 1.30 pm (2 x 15 minutes)
• Watch live price action during lunch break/evening on M5 chart (more than 30 minutes)
• Review expert advisor trading results (15 minutes)
• Gauge market sentiment of the US dollar on daily trend chart (15 minutes)
• Demo aggressive style discretionary trading strategy (started recently)
• Read market news (when free)
• Write blog posts and research new trading ideas (when free)

A couple of explanations. As for the swing trading, this day trading method needs very little time for maintenance. I simply monitor and exit open positions at predefined stop and limit levels. And I manage to execute the trading plan with discipline. At present, I also spend most of my time watching other expert advisor systems in action and researching new trade ideas.

My own running ea system has been very active so far and it does help me to predict better the market movement. Although the trading account is not progressing much, but its trade entries and end results are quite useful for identifying important price retracement levels and generating hidden 'secondary-level' signals for my discretionary trades. I wrote more about that here.

As for the discretionary trades, I am getting involved again in the last few days. I wish to sharpen my trading skills continuously and apply what I have learned so far in this new year. I also challenge myself by opening and handling multiple positions at one time.

Overall, this daily routine serves to instill purpose in trading and ensures that I'm moving towards my goals.

What's your daily trading routine?

A New Year, A New Treat

I just bought myself a new desktop system to take over the task of automated trading from now on. Due to the increasing need for speed and efficiency, I have decided to retire my old companion although it has proven to be reliable running around the clock 24/5 without failure for the past two months.

My latest addition - HP Pavilion Slimline AMD 64 duo core 2.3 GHz 2048Mb RAM on Window Vista


My trading station - Dell Dimension Intel Duo Core 2.8GHz 1024 Mb RAM on Window XP


My old companion - Fujitsu laptop Intel Pentium III 833 MHz 256 Mb RAM on Window ME

ScoutForex dot com: 10 Goals for 2008

As many of you probably know, I started my forex blog back in March 2005 just to share my thoughts and trading methodologies as I was learning through my forex trading experience. There were no big plans for it and there were also no significant trading results to be proud of even till today. Nonetheless, the last few months of 2007 went beyond my own expectations and it could possibly be an important turning point for this blog as well as my trading career.

This time last year, I was in total disarray and a bit of shock after some trading setbacks. I spent many months afterwards just to regroup and reorganise myself. Still, I found myself without a clear direction and many of my goals seemed to be out of reach at time. Therefore, I am sure that, having outlined my goals for 2008, it should help me to focus my attention and prioritise my activities in the new year.

Below you will find my 10 goals for 2008 which are to be achieved by the end of the year.

1. generate $5000 in monthly trading profits
2. generate $2500 in monthly site incomes
3. reach 500 RSS subscribers (currently at 100 140 170 )
4. reach 1500 daily page views (currently at 300 940)
5. enter the Alexa top 100,000 (currently at 584,309 285,724 259,694 )
6. keep writing good contents for readers
7. review one new forex trading strategy every month
8. compare their trading results every month
9. research one new forex topic every month
10. prepare one short forex trading course every month

Finally, a big thank you to all the readers and supporters of this blog. Hope you will all achieve your goals in 2008.

Summing Up 2007: My Journey So Far

Jan - Mar: Recovering From Setback
Realisation
What's Next (1)?
What's Next (2)?
5 Trading Pitfalls To Avoid

Apr - Jun: Trying Too Hard?
US Session Trading
Europe Session Trading
Losing Trades and How to Cope

Jul - Sept: Learning To Be Systematic
Aiming the Impossible?
Zulu My Trades
Real Ways to Grow Your Trading Money

Oct - Dec: Making New Ground?
Continuous Learning via Blogging
Back to Swing Trading
ScoutForex dot com & its Popular Swing Trading Site
Top 5 Reasons for Using Mechanical Trading System
Get to Know My Own Trading System
My Expert Advisor Goes Live

November Blog Income Report

It’s the start of the month and let's find out how much ScoutForex dot Com made last month from blogging.

The blog made $302.94 in October 2007 as a monetized blog. And here are the results:

Total Blog Income For November 2007: $620.00 (Increased by 104%)

• Text Link Ads: $17.75
• Google Adsense: $37.65
• Affiliate Commissions: $564.60

The affiliate program has gone from strength to strength last month, simply due to to its high demand and online popularity.

Blog traffic has increased to 9,111 page views from 3,296 visitors, according to Statcounter. The site has received a spike in traffic never seen before.

However, if you take the blog income and divide it by the blog page views, you get a site wide eCPM of $68.04. That means this blog makes almost $70 every time 1,000 pages are viewed. It works out to $0.07 per page.

Although the revenue from Google Adsense was increased by 88%, it was still underperforming in general. I should not deny the fact that the ads are not well-received amongst my site visitors. Hence, I am thinking of removing the ads for good and looking elsewhere for other fixed monthly income. Perhaps, site sponsors will be invited in near future.

So, as a side project of mine, check out my new site from time to time for more info on stepping into probloggers' footsteps to make money online through blogging.

One-Week Hiatus

My job load has eased. My home internet connection is now working normally. Here is an update with regard to my trading activities for the past seven days:

Discretionary trading = none
I have temporarily stopped discretionary trading . I found myself less and less time to watch the markets these days due to my increasing work loads and responsibilities.

Auto trading (expert advisor) = none
The system was meant to go live last week. The new metatrader account is still waiting for my fund to arrive.

Autopilot (proprietary software) trial testing = none
I just received a new updated version of forex killer software (2.14) with improved features and signal generating algorithms. I will conduct more scenarios testing soon.

Everything appears to return to normality, I should be happily looking forward to new challenges ahead.

A New Domain Name, A New Challenge

Today is a record-breaking day for the US dollar simply for the wrong reason. In my opinion, it is usually a tough trading time when market is breaking new high or near record high. Price swing actions are beyond the rationality and the logic of technical analysis.






Scoutforex dot com
Today also marks the first day of a new domain name for this site. And I have to put this statement down after almost 3 years of trying. There is definitely no easy way and surefire success in the field of forex trading. But, I am going to work harder on trying. I think I have seen enough "actions" in the forex market as well as its constantly-changing market behaviour in relation to both technical and fundamental developments . My immediate next step will be adopting a fully-mechanical approach in dealing with the market. This includes finding or even developing for myself a suite of intelligent diagnostic tools and autopilot trading systems. And most importantly, I am up for the task.

If you are re looking for a little more information about me, go here.

Progressive Learning via Blogging

I learnt a lot of useful things from my unusual blogging routine last month. Rather than blogging about my repeatable forex trades, I tried to deliver something else - something that my site visitors wish to find out about - and in the same time, to realise the monetization potential of my blog.

During the whole process, I managed to deliver some contents based on my experience in the field of forex trading. Not knowing that the process has actually helped me achieve and realise some of my other true goals, besides the blog monetization goal as detailed in my previous post. Below are some other positive outcomes I gained from the whole experience:

Increased site traffics
By delivering new contents on this site, I managed to increase the exposure of this blog by bringing in more new site visitors and hence an improvement in alexa traffic ranking recently.

Self-learning
Mainly in the field of forex trading. I did my own research and learnt more about automated trading, signal providing service, other forex systems, expert advisors, and etc.

New perception in forex trading
I am a discretionary trader. Forex trading will always be my true passion. And now I believe mechanical, autopilot trading is my real chance for scoring great trading success. Very soon, I will be trading live with my own mechanical system.

New challenge
This blog could be unique in a way that it combines online monetization and forex trading. When on 'Autopilot', the sky is the limit. (So, watch out, JohnChow, it could all happen in a year or 5 years before catching you up, it does not matter).

In summary, this blogging 'business' has somehow renewed my faith in forex trading by giving me new ideas and inspirations. And now I have more focussed goals than never before.

October 07 Blog Income Report

Last month, I am running a case study to examine if my personal trading blog can make money via affiliate programs by giving them my personal reviews. Here are the results so far.

Total Blog Income For October 2007: $302.94

• Affiliate Commissions: $269.48
• Google Adsense: $19.96
  
• Text Link Ads: $13.50

This blog made $269.48 from the affiliate program. You have to keep in mind that my first review was not posted until October 18th, so the results represent only 13 days. That works out to $19.24 per day, which isn’t too bad when comparing to the like of google ads. Overall, it is a decent part-time income and a quite enjoyable blogging exercise.

On second thought, there is actually more (important) positive outcomes from this monetised-blogging exercise. I shall lay out more in the next post.

Every giant leap starts with tiny running steps.

What's Next? (2)

2. Keeping a daily journal

Let be honest. I was completely lost and bruised in the past 2 months (Dec, Jan). I was totally out of focused and was unable to follow my trading plan and rules which had brought me some success in the past (i.e. Aug' 06 +622 pips, Sept' 06 +687 pips, Oct' 06 +451 pips, and up to first three weeks of Nov'06 +678 pips). Then, everything just went pear shape, so quick so fast that you just couldn't cope and you finally lost your plot. Eventually, I had to give back some of my hard-earned fortune back to the market and I subsequently lost my interests in blogging. This is completely fair and justified because, on hindsight, I know that only the fittest, the toughest and the greatest could consistently perform no matter of what market condition. They are the ones who survive indefinitely and are the ones who ultimately leap the benefits for being on top of this game.

This week, everything seems back to the old (winning) routine. I started reporting my thoughts and daily trades again since last Sunday (first What's next? post). By doing just that, I had the chance to review my performance and to regroup my thoughts. This week, I made 218 pips.

Thanks for the motivation, Forexreader.

This blog is not much to write home about but the guy is good for beginners who'd like to assimilate as many strategies as possible before they begin their own trading activities. The blog basically attempts to find the right mix between fundamentals and advanced technical tips.

You made me realised again of what my strength and core strategy are about. I know that I'm way off being the top forex bloggers, but I'm determined to keep this blog going.

What's Next?

1. Reading the News

Let do the basics again. What kind of news can make the forex price to tick, to swing, to change its direction or to drop/rise further? Timing is of great importance if you are a daytrader and choose to trade the intraday price movement.

It is my wish to become an excellent intraday technical analyst. From now on, it is my aim to use less time, less effort and less risk to yield better and more promising results.

19 Feb Economic Releases

0:01 GBP Rightmove House Prices (MoM) (FEB)
0:01 GBP Rightmove House Prices (YoY) (FEB)
5:30 JPY Nationwide Department Store Sales (YoY) (JAN)
5:30 JPY Tokyo Department Store Sales (YoY) (JAN)
13:30 CAD International Securities Transactions (DEC)
13:30 CAD Wholesale Inventories (DEC)
13:30 CAD Wholesale Sales (MoM) (DEC)

Realisation

After a string of losses last month, I only realised that:

• My trading strategy, which I devised back in last August and allowed me to yield a huge amount of pips (1 Aug– 25 Nov), has lost its edge in current market situation.
• Since the market is in a rally mode, you get punished heavily if you back the wrong trending direction.
• There are a lot of false breakouts (traps) due to extreme price volatility and non-justifiable price action.
• Trading based on emotion, aggression and hope will cost you dearly.
• Discipline and cool mind are all you need when you are down and despair.
• A fragile soul (of mine) takes 7-8 weeks to recover from mistakes.

Now, I think I am ready to make a comeback and be better than ever.