After being away on vacation with my wife for over a week, I started back into trading forex this morning. I watched what the market was doing, performed some technical analysis and decided that the AUD/USD pair had some potential selling short. Well, I was wrong, the market initially moved in my favour, but soon moved up. I moved my stop loss up a few times, hoping that my analysis would prove true. I eventually decided that, with the next dip, I would take a loss and get out. When the opportunity presented itself, I got out, -$510.00 and annoyed.

I took some time off, cycles 25km then ran 7km. I got back home, hydrated myself and took a look at the market again. AUD/USD had some action going on, so I decided to see if I could take advantage of it. WOW, did I ever. Five trades later and in what seemed like no time, I found myself up $850.00 on the day and grinning from ear to ear. I can't believe my eyes, +$850.00 turns out to be a +24.04% day.

On an additional bright note, I am now only $615 away from breaking even from my initial week of big losses.

Week 1
Trading Day	Mon, Jul 27, 09	Tue, Jul 28, 09	Wed, Jul 29, 09	Thu, Jul 30, 09	Fri, Jul 31, 09
Opening Balance	$4,989.92	$3,579.88	$3,084.12	$2,484.40	$2,393.36
2% Risk	$99.80	$71.60	$61.68	$49.69	$47.87
5% Increase	$498.99	$357.99	$308.41	$248.44	$239.34
Actual increase	-$1,410.04	-$495.76	-$599.72	-$91.04	-$10.79
Closing Balance	$3,579.88	$3,084.12	$2,484.40	$2,393.36	$2,382.57
Daily Increase	-28.26%	-13.85%	-19.45%	-3.66%	-0.45%
Total Increase	-28.26%	-38.19%	-50.21%	-52.04%	-52.25%
Week 2
Trading Day	Mon, Aug 3, 09	Tue, Aug 4, 09	Wed, Aug 5, 09	Thu, Aug 6, 09	Fri, Aug 7, 09
Opening Balance	$2,382.57	$2,737.50	$3,179.27
2% Risk	$47.65	$54.75	$63.59
5% Increase	$238.26	$273.75	$317.93
Actual increase	$354.93	$441.77	$356.00
Closing Balance	$2,737.50	$3,179.27	$3,535.27
Daily Increase	14.90%	16.14%	11.20%
Total Increase	-45.14%	-36.29%	-29.15%
Week 3
Trading Day	Mon, Aug 10, 09	Tue, Aug 11, 09	Wed, Aug 12, 09	Thu, Aug 13, 09	Fri, Aug 14, 09
Opening Balance
2% Risk
5% Increase
Actual increase
Closing Balance
Daily Increase
Total Increase
Week 4
Trading Day	Mon, Aug 17, 09	Tue, Aug 18, 09	Wed, Aug 19, 09	Thu, Aug 20, 09	Fri, Aug 21, 09
Opening Balance	$3,535.27
2% Risk	$70.71
5% Increase	$353.53
Actual increase	$850.00
Closing Balance	$4,385.27
Daily Increase	24.04%
Total Increase	-12.12%

Well, today was a LONG day. My Technical Analysis showed the Australian/US Dollar cross to be in a nicely shaped cycle and at 7:30 this morning, the cycle was approaching an ideal entry point. I got in and everything was maturing nicely when all of a sudden, the price dropped 50 pips and I found myself down $365.00. Confident in my analysis, I watched and waited for the down-spike to exhaust itself and then I re-entered with a buy order. Well, all day long, just as the market would correct for the spike, and I would approach getting even, another spike would hit. All day long I played this game until finally at 9:30PM, still 15 pips away from my targeted close price, someone flooded the market and the price rose 50 pips in 10 seconds, filling my target order, making me well over $700.00 to wipe out my earlier losses and still have enough left over to add a tidy $356.00 (+11.20%) profit for the day.

Week 2
Trading Day	Mon, Aug 3, 09	Tue, Aug 4, 09	Wed, Aug 5, 09	Thu, Aug 6, 09	Fri, Aug 7, 09
Opening Balance	$2,382.57	$2,737.50	$3,179.27	$3,535.27	$3,888.80
2% Risk	$47.65	$54.75	$63.59	$70.71	$77.78
5% Increase	$238.26	$273.75	$317.93	$353.53	$388.88
Actual increase	$354.93	$441.77	$356.00	$0.00	$0.00
Closing Balance	$2,737.50	$3,179.27	$3,535.27	$3,888.80	$4,277.68
Daily Increase	14.90%	16.14%	11.20%	0.00%	0.00%
Total Increase	-45.14%	-36.29%	-29.15%	-22.07%	-14.27%

Today, believe it or not, was actually better still. I made +$441.77 (+13.9%).

That's up $796.70 in just two days with a starting balance of only $2,382.57 that's an increase of 33.44% in only 2 days.

I think tomorrow is going to be my last trading day for a little more than a week, because my wife and I are going on a vacation.

It certainly is refreshing to see my trades making money again. Actually, the humbling experience of loosing more than 1/2 my bank-role had a beneficial outcome in forcing me to investigate a better, more reliable and logical means of analyzing the charts and planning when to enter and exit a trade well in advance of actually putting money in. I now wait for a trade to develop instead of trying to fish for a trade and hope. The hope game almost wiped me out.

As for the differences between live and demo accounts, I agree, I certainly took much more risk on the demo account than on the live account. I actually was nearly paralyzed at the though to wagering real, hard-earned cash on my first trades. Forcing myself to put money into the market, I believe, contributed to the loosing, trade and pray method of last week. Then, after loosing money on a trade, the gambling strategy would kick in and I would double my risk capital and re-enter the trade, hoping to make my loss back. Throwing good money after bad was definitely a failure of a technique. Day trading is not gambling, armed with a logical thought process, technical analysis tools and a patient demeanor, I am confident that my profitable trading record will continue. Technical analysis is looking like an insanely superior technique.

Today was a true test of my new technical analysis methodology. I actually watched as I was down 25 pips (>$100) and felt confident in entering another trade in the same direction as the first, only to watch in amazement as the market falls into the expected cycle. The mistake made my initial $50 expected return into nearly a $200 return. Although it was a winning trade, I did learn from it. I entered a trade WAY too early in a down cycle, expecting it to rebound 1/2 way through the down-cycle with almost zero logic as to why I was entering a trade there instead of waiting for the expected cycle to complete. Interesting how one can learn from success as well as failure eh. Second major lesson leaned and reinforced today was patience. If you believe the logic behind your analysis is valid, have the confidence to be patient as the market falls into the expected cycle. Only exit the trade if it starts to fall outside of the expected cycle. I ALMOST back out of what turned out to be big return trades because the market wasn't running through the cycle that my technical analysis predicted. Although the limits of my analysis proved to be accurate, the amount of time it took to traverse a cycle seemed too long, but with some patience, it all worked out.

Week 2
Trading Day	Mon, Aug 3, 09	Tue, Aug 4, 09	Wed, Aug 5, 09	Thu, Aug 6, 09	Fri, Aug 7, 09
Opening Balance	$2,382.57	$2,737.50
2% Risk	$47.65	$54.75
5% Increase	$125.32	$143.99
Actual increase	$354.93	$441.77
Closing Balance	$2,737.50	$3,179.27
Daily Increase	12.97%	13.90%
Total Increase	-45.14%	-36.29%

After spending my weekend reading and watching video tutorials that are available to members with over $1k in their live account, and building on what I learned in week 1, I am back on with my 1st live profitable day. Making $354.93 or 12.97%.

Technical Analysis FOR THE WIN!

Once again, 5% per day doubles money in 15 days. Expanding on that, 10% a day quadruples money in 15 days. Expanding on that, greed will loose the entire bank roll in less time that you think.

Hehe...

Week 2
Trading Day	Mon, Aug 3, 09	Tue, Aug 4, 09	Wed, Aug 5, 09	Thu, Aug 6, 09	Fri, Aug 7, 09
Opening Balance	$2,382.57
2% Risk	$47.65
5% Increase	$125.32
Actual increase	$354.93
Closing Balance	$2,737.50
Daily Increase	12.97%
Total Increase	-45.14%

Okay, so, it appears as though live trading is slightly tougher than demo trading.

Week 1
Trading Day	Mon, Jul 27, 09	Tue, Jul 28, 09	Wed, Jul 29, 09	Thu, Jul 30, 09	Fri, Jul 31, 09
Opening Balance	$4,989.92	$3,579.88	$3,084.12	$2,484.40	$2,393.36
2% Risk	$99.80	$71.60	$61.68	$49.69	$47.87
5% Increase	$262.47	$188.30	$162.22	$130.68	$125.89
Actual increase	-$1,410.04	-$495.76	-$599.72	-$91.04	-$10.79
Closing Balance	$3,579.88	$3,084.12	$2,484.40	$2,393.36	$2,382.57
Daily Increase	-39.39%	-16.07%	-24.14%	-3.80%	-0.45%
Total Increase	-28.26%	-38.19%	-50.21%	-52.04%	-52.25%

On Thursday, a trading consultant from forex.com contacted me and gave me some pointers. On Friday, he called again and went over a few more techniques that have helped. After loosing 1/2 of my initial investment in just 1 week, I thought my wife was gonna kill me. Instead, she has been quite supportive and insists that I learn from the experience and grow from it.

Here's to hoping week 2 has a better ending.

With 3 weeks of learning and 1 week of successful, uninterrupted growth under my belt, I have applied for a live account with http://www.forex.com/.

I have supplied all of the documents necessary and am awaiting word on getting accepted, at which point, my wife and I have agreed to deposit $5,000 ($CAN) to see if my demo strategies are feasible when applied to a live account.

It started out as a day that looked like I would hit my +5% in less than 1 hour again. When 8AM (EST) hit though, I held a position in the EUR-JPY that got hit hard right at 8AM and hit my stop loss. Holding the line, and 20 minutes later or so, the price came back and made me some nice quick cash. The rapid movement ended up seeing me gain more than 5% again today.

All-in-all, not a bad trading week. 41 successful trades and only 14 losers for a gain of 40.49% on the week. Still well on track for doubling in less than 15 days.

Week 1
Trading Day	1	2	3	4	Today
Opening Balance	$2,000.00	$2,249.98	$2,355.81	$2,477.68	$2,639.43
5% Increase	$100.00	$112.50	$117.79	$123.88	$131.97
Actual increase	$249.98	$105.83	$121.87	$161.75	$170.38
Closing Balance	$2,249.98	$2,355.81	$2,477.68	$2,639.43	$2,809.81
Increase	12.50%	17.79%	23.88%	31.97%	40.49%
Week 2
Trading Day	6	7	8	9	10
Opening Balance	$2,809.81	$2,950.30	$3,097.82	$3,252.71	$3,415.34
5% Increase	$140.49	$147.52	$154.89	$162.64	$170.77
Actual increase	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Closing Balance	$2,950.30	$3,097.82	$3,252.71	$3,415.34	$3,586.11
Increase	47.52%	54.89%	62.64%	70.77%	79.31%
Week 3
Trading Day	11	12	13	14	15
Opening Balance	$3,586.11	$3,765.41	$3,953.68	$4,151.37	$4,358.94
5% Increase	$179.31	$188.27	$197.68	$207.57	$217.95
Actual increase	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Closing Balance	$3,765.41	$3,953.68	$4,151.37	$4,358.94	$4,576.88
Increase	88.27%	97.68%	107.57%	117.95%	128.84%