… 5 more hours and i’ll be on a 5-hour coach ride up to Kuala Lumpur to attend a seminar (with 18 other traders from Singapore) by Julius Figueroa - the creator of the Basket Trading System that was mentioned in the earlier post.

feeling excited about the trip, i’m looking forward to learn from the man who have made currency strength the backbone of his forex trading strategies.  the concept has been dicussed and documented in many places…so it’s nothing new.  Google “Tom Yeomans” and you will find some interesting read on the topic.

i first learned about it from Chris Lori way back when i attended my first LIVE forex trading seminar in Singapore.  then Clarence Chee (T3B) and CL Lim (Asia Charts) spoke about it at their course… although they only talked about it very briefly.

at a recent webinar, the chief trader of SolomonFX used a graphical currency strength meter that they have developed themselves to help them determine which currency is strong/weak so as to determine which currency pair to trade and in which direction. “The Forex HeatMap” by Mark Mc Donnell explains the concept  with excellent clarity.

and just a couple of months ago, i realised that a friend/mentor who has been trading professionally for over 25 years has also been using a currency strength indicator extensively.

reading about Trader101’s Basket Trading System was like a “eureka” moment for me.  where others have only used currency strength as a small part of their trading strategies, Julius (and Mark), on the other hand, had designed all his strategies around this very logical and sound concept.

to kick off my new year resolutions, my “Trading” resolution for 2010 will be to learn and trade the Basket Trading System profitably.  i’ll document my journey on this blog as i progress over the following weeks.  wish me luck! :O)

yours truly,

CK

PS : yeap… this post has nothing to do with expert advisors or automated forex trading.  however, i am sure the manual trading strategies from Julius will provide some inspiration for those who are interested in trade automation… me included of course :O)

if this is your first time reading this blog, i would guess that you have just been bitten by the “get rich trading with an Expert Advisor” bug.  no offense though… as i’ve been bitten as well… too many times in fact :O)

Time to Reflect

got my first bite in early 2007 after the conclusion of the Automated Trading Championship 2006.  that’s 3 years ago.  nowadays, whenever i see one of those emails or ads that say “Double your money every single month!“, it makes me wonder if there are still people out there who belief such ludicrous claims.

after realising that most of the commercial stuff out there are crap, i went on a journey of searching… and later attempted to build… to see if there was indeed a way to achieve 100% ROI a month.  saw some promising results from a couple of EAs that came my way, but they either could not perform consistently, or the creator just vanished and stopped responding to my emails… still wondering why… :O)

worked with a few talented traders, and the best we could confidently achieve (still testing) was 5% - 10% per month with reasonable risks, which was very good ROI IMO.  the more i dabbled into the EA business, the more i understood why real winning systems will never be sold.  intellectual property concerns and lucrative earnings from trading activity are just 2 of them.  you’re more likely to see them being marketed in other creative ways.

Trading for a Living

…more accurately, i was disillusioned by the thought of an EA trading “FOR” my living :O)  i realised that it takes a lot more than just buying an EA off the shelf.  even with a truly profitable mechanical manual trading strategy, automating it and keeping it constantly optimised to make consistent profits is probably going to take as much time as trading it manually.  very challenging, but not impossible :O)  manual trading has taken center stage for me lately, after being exposed to a few strategies and approaches to trading that all seem to point in the same direction : (1) money management, (2) trade with the trend, (3) don’t chase the price, and (4) the importance of knowing currency strength*

Continuous Learning

is there an end to learning?  i guess not.  a very successful trader that i know who have been at it for over 25 years swears by it.  he researches extensively, and keeps refining and innovating to stay ahead of the game.  but who are we really up against?

anyway, 2009 has been a year of learning and growing for me.  objective was to be able to trade independently, and to be consistently profitable month after month.  i’m not there yet, but i can feel i’m getting close :O)  ego aside, discipline is one of the key areas i really need to work on.

Basket Trading System

as my first “investment” in my continual trading education in 2010, i’ll be traveling 360km north across the border with 18 other trading friends to attend a seminar by Mr Julius Figueroa (aka Trader101).  revealing his Basket Trading Strategy in ForexFactory back in Sep 2008, it has received many accolades from traders all over.  it’s neither technical nor fundamental…. it’s trading what price is showing, with an emphasis on currency strength and an innovative way to detect when its likely to change.  18th Jan 2010… a date i’m really looking forward to :O)

New Goals for 2010

…and time to review 2009 as well :O)  i’ve not achieved my 2009 goal of becoming a full time trader, but i did trade and did nothing else for a short duration last year which probably doesn’t count :O)  i’m not giving up, although my perspective towards trading full time has changed.  personally, it’s not about how much time one spends trading, but more about how well one can trade while living a well balanced life.

(1) family, (2) career, and (3) making baskets of money at the same time!  these will be my areas of focus this year.  these goals will need to be well defined and precise… so that’s what i’m going to do.  i’ve got till Chinese New Year - that’s 14th Feb… yes… i’m buying time :O)  if you have not set your own 2010 goals yet, i hope you are glad to know that you still have some days left before Chinese New Year arrives :O)

Happy New Year Everyone!

:O)