My view on the trading week ahead

In the past month, we have seen that equities have all pushed very high and their respective currencies have also gone up drastically. For example, the FTSE100 has gone up 300 points since the 15th December and correspondingly, GBPUSD reached almost 1.6580 before being pushed down a bit by sellers. We have also seen the DAX increase almost 600 points from the same time the FTSE went up. Not surprisingly, EURUSD jumped from around 1.3700 to almost 1.3900.

From these observations, we can see that equities and currencies are positively correlated and one or the other will give clues as to which way the other will move.

In this coming week, we may see a sell off in equities as they have risen to previous highs and more sellers may start having the courage to start placing positions. If this happens, I will wait to see if the current uptrend is breached. If the uptrend becomes invalid, then I will proceed to sell. If the market pushes them higher then I will simply remain in my long FTSE100 position.

One very important piece of trading wisdom, that I have picked up through experience, is to always let the market CONFIRM your opinion before you place a trade. It is no use having the opinion that the FTSE is going to go down and acting on it when the market continues to push it higher. Only act when the market says that you are right.

Price is king.

Good luck with your trading,

The Trainee Speculator

Trade 1: BUY FTSE

This is a trade that I am currently in.

I bought the ftse 100 at 6552 on 19th Dec 2013. The picture above shows the current status of the trade today.
At this time of writing the trade is approximately 200 points onside. Even though I have a take profit in the chart above, I tend to not actually use the take profit trigger. I will only close the position if I believe that the uptrend is no longer valid. I have moved my stop loss to 6600. This means that no matter what happens, I will be able to bag myself some profit.

I'll let you know when I close the trade and take profit. In the meantime, good luck with your trading.

The Trainee Speculator

Introduction

Hello everyone!

I am a student studying in London and in my free time I study the art of financial speculation a.k.a financial trading. I have been teaching myself to trade for about 2.5 years and I want to finally test how well I can perform in the real world market conditions.

This blog will serve as a diary of my trades so that I can keep track of my progress as well as share some trading ideas with others.

I will be trading mainly forex as well as equity indices.

Please note that I will be trading using a demo account and I am by no means a professional so do not place live trades using ideas from this blog (unless you don't mind potentially losing a lot of money).

I hope you enjoy reading my blog :)

Happy trading,

The Trainee Speculator