Decisions. I Do Make Them.

     From time to time, and sometimes for no reason whatsoever, I make a decision. I do. I use my brainpower, willpower, and stubborn determination to come up with an idea I usually assume is original, and then I decide something. I often think that the decisions I make are good. I assume they are, and I will act on them. I'm not always correct. I have a history of making poor decisions, but I hope that as I get older and hopefully a little wiser, I can change most of the bad choices I've made. If I can't change them, I hope I can blot them out by making better choices that can override the past.

    Today, but this time for a reason, I decided not to buy a VW Beetle (Classic), and that may shock or surprise a few. I'm really sorry, Jeannie; I know it would have been so much fun, but I think the reasons I came up with for not buying one will be smart, wise, good, and/or otherwise the best choice.  I turn 65 in a few weeks, in exactly 22 days, actually. It's not too old to buy a Bug, but I don't want the headaches of keeping up with a car almost as old as I am. I did the math, which can always be painful. It's not worth it.

    The cost isn't that much, so the original math is fine. I can pay X for a 1968 VW Beetle that's been garaged, restored, rebuilt, etc., but what about the pans? The rust, the engine, the transmission, the fuel system, the 1000 small things that can cause an issue and even leave me stranded. I live in a great community, and I know I could call someone to save me, but that's not the point. I'm a member of AAA roadside, but that's not the point. If I bought a Bug, it would be for fun. I can't have too much fun if I'm waiting on the side of the road for someone to pick me up, or since I don't usually go too far from home, I can't have too much fun abandoning my car and hoofing it back home.

    No, I love the things. I do. I think the world of them, and maybe if I could find a unicorn, one that had a new undercarriage, new engine, new transmission, great interior, and no rust, I'd be OK, but the X I was willing to pay would shoot up to a few more 000s at the end, and again, it would not be worth it. The Bug had me in the 80s. I was smitten! I still love them, still Google them to see them, and I spot them on the road when I can, but I don't need one. I'm not even sure I actually want one. I think I just want to hang out with one now and again.

    When the settlement I'm expecting comes in, I'll do a few things for myself because I think that's best. I think I deserve to be a bit spoiled after all I've been through, but I won't buy myself a VW Beetle. Instead, I'll pay off Stephen (my 2018 Versa), and I'll have him completely detailed, too. I know I could trade him in and, for the same amount I would have spent on a Bug, get a really nice modern car, but I won't.  Stephen has 55,000 miles on him. For an 8-year-old car, that's really good. He's been a great companion, and I think I can stand to live with him a little longer. Why trade something in when it's just getting broken in?

    Instead, I'll use the same amount of money I would have spent on the Bug to promote my books! That's a good decision. I'll let the professionals take a bit of my money, promote the books properly, and see if I can get the authorship off the ground to the point where I can say I'm a paid author, not just a prolific one. Yep, money talks! I will have another profession, of course; I trade now. I'm back into Forex trading, and though it's on a demo account today, I practice my trades every single day. I've hit a 70% average when I am predicting trades, which is amazing. 

    Here's where the math is easy. If I risk $500 to win $650 and do it 100 times and hit my 70% average, I'm bringing in 70 wins at $650, so that's $45,500, and I lose 30 trades at $500 because that's what I risk, that's $15,000, and when you do the math -- I'm up $30,500.  I'll take that every day. I do 20-25 trades a week, and on average I win $650 a day. If that means I'm bringing in $14,300 at the end of the month (because I don't actually lose during trades; if I do, I keep trading until I break even or win), I'll take it.

    I'll have to explain my strategy to you, but I make decisions when I trade. I don't trade and wait to see what happens. If I see it going south and don't believe it will pull back, I get out. I'm not stupid. If I think one will go to the moon, I don't place my target at the top either - I let it go up enough to cover my goal, and I get out. I call it a day. I may go a little higher, but I'm a pragmatic trader, not a greedy one.  Decisions. They help. They not only help, but they also rule. If you don't know yourself, you're lost.

    So, there you have it. I'm over here anticipating a settlement soon. When it comes in, I'll do what I think is best. I'll trade, I'll write, I'll promote, and I'll find someone in the state that will let me drive their VW Bug every now and again on their property. I may pay them to let me drive it around the parking lots. I don't really need to own one to love one.  I will say this: I can't take myself to a city animal shelter just to pet a dog. That would never happen. If you ever hear that I did that, you'll see posts about who I picked up and what I named him or her.  Bugs are different. I can pet one and walk away. I think.

Photo Credit: Streetsideclassics.com 

The Trust - More Than Half Way There.

     I planned to have "The Trust" out by Halloween, but I was terminated, and because of the aftermath, my book was put on hold. I am happy to announce, however, that I am more than halfway finished, and I've shifted the book's central thread to put more emphasis on corporate fraud and deep-rooted corruption than planned. I think I'm making headway on the main events now. I'll find out once it's sold and the reviews return. I'm pretty darn sure it will be a hit. Too many folks like me have uncovered things they maybe should have left buried, but then again, why own a shovel if you're not going to dig something up? I own a few garden tools, but my keyboard does most of the heavy lifting.

    I am halfway through the book; I've incorporated the names of a few old favorites from my other Nick Posh books. Josh Davis returns; the bounty hunter from Stratford. Colonel Kolby Dickerson returns, and very sternly. It's too bad I couldn't bring back a few others I truly trusted before, but I have since realized that my gracious act of including them in my art was met with sad, disruptive behavior. No, I won't go into it, but it makes me sad to think they could have been included from now until the Rapture - but no. Not now. Only friends will be mentioned. Traitors will be dealt with at the Bema. 

    I am halfway through, and maybe a little more. I have 47,000 words written, so if I usually stop around 83,000, I am somewhere around the 56% mark, if I did my math correctly.  Believe me when I tell you that Math is not my best subject. Writing is by far my strength. I've adopted Gemini to help me with the more colorful parts; I can't take credit, and I won't. I always give whomever or whatever needs to be credited their due. I write a chapter, upload it to Gemini, and ask it to rewrite it with flair and color, or maybe I'll say, "make it pop," and let the machine do its best.

    Sometimes I'm happy with what it writes, and other times I scrap it and write it out myself. I like writing; it's fun and therapeutic. I can do anything I want to someone I despise, and if I don't want them to blame me for being mean, nasty, vindictive, or cruel, I change their name. I change the city, the time period, whatever, but I have at least gotten out of my head and spirit what I want to say. I find it refreshing to know I can erase, rewrite, destroy, rebuild, and redo anything I damn well need to, over and over, if I damn well feel like it. 

    I'm retired, I think. I'm not sure. I may go back to work, but right now I'm focused on the legal actions I'm taking, and the writing I'm producing. Both have been eye-opening, rewarding, and informative. I'm learning more about things I never knew, and it gives me fodder to write about. I can research a matter and have Nick Posh or Ralph Ferguson root it out in the book. I can stumble into a situation and ask Chief Ian Moore to arrest someone, or have him lock up the bastard overnight without light, food, or a blanket. Moore owes me. I saved his life in another book.

    "The Trust" is about a land grab organization that turns ugly. It grows out of itself and into something uncontrollable. The monster is bigger than its maker, a Frankenstein of sorts, and like the early twentieth-century monster we remember, The Trust must be stopped before it destroys more in its path of lies and deception.  One of the book's key themes is simple: the good guys win. They go through hell to do it, but they do win.  The ride is the fun part to write. It's never that much fun to live, and I know it. I've been through it.

    The book was going to be about the twisted roller coaster ride I went through trying to buy my house in the country, but it's organically turned itself into that and more. I have now added corporate connections, conflicts of interest, fraud, murder, and a seemingly endless swarm of miscreants whose greed and power struggles leave everyone in their wake injured. It's up to me, the author, to create a stronger force to stand up to their evil, and I have done just that. I like this book. I'm enjoying every bit of it. 

    I think it will be finished by the end of the week. I'll read through it this weekend, and maybe send it up for publishing next week. I'll come back to it in 10 days, go through it again for final proofs, and who knows, maybe by my birthday, it will be published, November 22. A good day to fight your enemies with the strongest weapons on the planet - words.

Photo Credit: Me. 

My Spirit Animal - The Dachshund.

     Before you start laughing, please understand that the standard German-bred Dachshund has been around a few blocks and has many survival stories to prove it. If you've ever had the pleasure of owning a Dachshund, you'll understand exactly what I'm about to tell you, but first, let me say this isn't the first time I've taken an online test about such matters, and the answer was overwhelmingly "The Dachshund." The only difference this time is that it wasn't a test to determine what dog breed I was, no...I was answering questions regarding who or what my spirit animal was or is.

    As a Christian, I don't necessarily believe in that kind of folklore, but I thought it would be fun to answer the questions anyway and see what it said. To be honest, I fully expected the dang thing to spit out either the elephant or the eagle. When it comes to bird breeds, I'm usually a bird of prey; it makes sense. The elephant shows up because it takes a bit to push me to the point of utterly destroying someone or something through my will or might, but it can happen. I don't forget. I never forget. I may forgive, but I will not forget.

    Today, however, the computer AI's choice, then and now, was spot on. It was so close, so intimate, so exact, that I had to laugh. I even copied down some of the more important traits to share with you. If you know me, you'll agree - you'll likely still laugh, but then again, the Dachshund is usually considered a clown, right? (Or is that just a clever cover?)

• Fierce and Fearless: Dachshunds were bred in Germany to fight badgers, incredibly ferocious and territorial predators. They are not intimidated by the size or status of others.
• Never Backs Down: When hunting underground, a Dachshund goes face-to-face with its target in a dark tunnel with no room to retreat; the word dogmatic could have been created for this breed.
• Relentlessly Stubborn: They have an independent will and extreme tunnel vision, so once they set their mind to a task, they refuse to be managed or swayed by outside forces.
• Digs Deep for Truth: "Dachshund" literally translates to "Badger Dog"—their paddle-shaped paws are engineered to excavate deep into the earth to find what is hidden; they will dig as deep as they need to reach their target. Nothing stops them.
• Honest and Loyal: They are fully transparent about their boundaries and don't fake affection; they are exactly who they say they are, and they accept you for who you are.

    The Dachshund is a no-nonsense breed, except for being a constant source of nonsense that makes anyone around them feel happier, healthier, and at ease. They are large lap dogs who double as foot warmers, choose their human immediately, and never change their minds. Once a Dachshund locks on to something, it belongs to the dog, whether someone else claimed it first or not. I'm not quite as bad, but if I want something and believe I need it in my life, it will happen. I won't take it from anyone, but I sure as heck will find a way to make it happen.

    

    There's something else about the dog that, again, if you know me, you'll understand. The Dachshund can change his/her personality to suit whatever situation he/she finds himself/herself in.  They adapt; they fit in immediately, then take over. That's me. I do that. In private, I operate as a fierce one-person shadow, switching easily and seamlessly to a bold center of attention when necessary.   At home, I'm nearly a shut-in. I rarely leave the house unless I need to, but at work - I am the top dog nearly every damn time because being second place was never that much fun.

    Dachshunds pick and choose. They decide who they will love. They decide who they will spend time with. They decide who they will remain loyal to, and if you ever cross one of these dogs, they don't forget you - ever. Their intense loyalty is absolute, but the fierceness doesn't stop with love; it extends to exacting revenge too. I'm not saying I'm looking to bury anything or anyone, but this badass hound and I share a few traits: we both have rather round bellies, and we're both very capable of giving someone the notorious side-eye.

    They are a natural-born entertainer, for sure. You can't stop looking at them. They figure out pretty quickly what makes a person smile; I do that. I want you on my side. I need to decide whether you deserve to be with me. Because they, well, we lack the gene for fear; we don't hide under the couch when a storm hits suddenly. We're looking out the windows and up at the sky, staring into it for more information. They, we, strut into a room, expecting others to notice and acknowledge us. We typically do it to get a reaction.

    So there you have it - the German-bred Standard Dachshund. I can't say I'd be miniature; not my style. I'm a big gal. I stand my ground, I demand things, I'm stubborn, in your face, and sometimes I don't apologize for it, but I'm also the one you want if things go bad, I think. I have plans. My plans have plans. If you are mine, you know it. If you are mine, I will die for you. It's just that simple. I think the AI made the best choice - it was that or the unicorn, but how cliché is that?  I can honestly say I have been drawn to the breed since I was a baby. We had a dog that was mostly a Dachshund; he had a bit of Beagle in him, too.  It could have a lot to do with how I turned out the way I did - he was with me for the first 15 years of my life.

Photo Credit: BuzzSharer.com

Learning and Earning

     With Forex trading, you absolutely learn. You learn all day. You learn so much that after you hang up the keyboard, wipe your head, and say "whew!" you have either just plunged into an unknown abyss or you're floating on top of the clouds. Either way, you're learning. In the trade, they have a saying: "You're either learning, or you're earning, but you never lose."  I see what they mean. You do lose money, real money, but in the process you learn not to do whatever made you lose; you get better each time, or at least you should.

       Today was a WIN day. It was and is a GOLD STAR DAY!! I have little colored foil stars that I literally put on my pocket calendar every single trading day. If I win and lose but still win overall, I put a green star for the profit. If I lose, I put a red star for the losses. If I trade and win them all, no losses, it's a GOLD STAR! Today was a Gold Star day. I made two early trades and won them both!

    Now, here's the rub. I thought I won $675 per trade. I really did. I did the calculations, and that's what I won, but it wasn't. When you're out there trading, you're trading on a platform, buying and selling currencies back and forth, and the people who run those platforms and institutions, and all of that, must also be paid. That's the best way I can explain it, because in some ways I'm completely clueless, but I'm learning that too.

    The "spread," or the difference between the Ask and the Bid on each trade, needs to be considered, and when you win or lose, it must be paid. The brokers charge a small fee by giving you slightly worse buy/sell price(s) the moment you enter. They will get theirs first.  Then there is "slippage".  Because markets move VERY fast, you might get filled a fraction of a pip away from the exact target. In reality, those small costs shaved about $150 off each of my $675 trades, and I ended up making (fake money) $1023.62 today. Not bad for working about 22-25 minutes before my first cup of coffee.

    First thing, I "box off," or put a literal purple box around, what each pair has done on the list from 3:00 a.m. to the moment I am watching, about 7:30 a.m. This is when London is at midday and the NY Market is gearing up to go to work, so there is a big flux. I box out each pair (EURUSD = Euro/US Dollar). I then look at each pair to see the pattern of the last three or four days and decide whether I think it will continue or change, and I won't go into how I do that here, as it's too complicated. I just do it.

    Using the platform's drawing tool, I determine which direction I think price will go in each case and which one gives me the best chance to enter. That takes time to learn too; you need to understand price, spreads, indicators, and more, but it's worth learning. All of these factors really do matter. Then, just as I decide one looks good, I drop from looking at the 15-minute time frame to the 5 and 1 minute time frame to back up what I thought was happening before putting in my trade. I usually trade on the 5-minute time frame. It's faster, and though it's riskier, it fits my personality and my patience.  Waiting 15 minutes for one candlestick to print can drive you crazy.

    So today, I decided to start the day by seeing what it would TRULY look like if I had the money in the account. What would I really trade? How would I set it up? I mocked it up exactly the way I really would, and boom! I won twice.  I put 10 drawing boxes on the board, and I was 80% correct in predicting which direction price would go on each trade. Eight were correct, two were wrong. Yesterday I was at 70%, and the day before I was at 70%. In trading, you only need to be right 45% of the time to profit. I prefer 70%!

    I'll drop the trade to show you what I did. It's on the 5-minute timeline. The drawing tool shows a target in a Bull or upward trend, and the candlestick went through it - it only has to touch it, but it went through it, and I won.  If I could do $500 a day, I'd be thrilled, but if I trade two at a time and win both, that's a great day, like today. If I win one and lose one, I'm even. If I lose both, I suck, but the day is early, and I might (might) try again, or I might not. I'm frugal. This is my business now. I won't be crazy with it.

    

    This was the EURUSD. The colored boxes on the side show the entry price, bid, ask, etc.  Like I said, there is a lot to learn, but it's so worth it. It's crazy and will take you on a wild ride most of the time, but it is worth it. I think I can do this. I can't tell you how many times I screwed up in my practice, so let me encourage each of you: if you are thinking of learning to trade anything (stocks, bonds, futures, options, forex, bitcoin), get a FREE account through a company like Oanda and use Paper Trading on TradingView to practice. Use AI or Chat to discuss your progress, ask questions, and bounce off of. It works most of the time.

Confusion and Chaos!

     I'll start by saying God is so good. He just is. I have been through the wringer lately, and He's been so wonderful. There is a verse in the Bible, Exodus 14:14 that summarized says "He will fight for you, be still".  This is so good. I know I have an advocate; that advocate is King, and He is not only King, but He is also God! It just doesn't get any better than God. 

    All that being said, I was trading today, as I do every day, on my Oanda demo account. I have been training, losing, and winning a few, and I'm a bit overwhelmed, but it's nothing I can't handle. I have been in the deep end before. I have been in places I had no clue where I was or who might come out of the woodwork to find me. In every case, I have taken God with me, and when I am finally still and trusting Him, He can and will provide for me. He did it again today.

    In Oanda and TradingView, I took a trade I flat-out knew would be great, but it wasn't, and I lost. OK, I get it. So I entered a 2nd trade to break even, not to win the day, but to reset my funds to where they were. I saw on the chart that I won. I was happy about it, then I looked at the order and realized I'd actually lost. How could that happen? I saw the chart! The green candles went right through the helpful little drawing that keeps you informed, and I won! Why would the computer say otherwise, and why would my account suddenly drop when it should have replaced what I had lost earlier? It made no sense.

    Speaking to Chat (Gemini) I found out that the Paper Trading function of TradingView, not the live version, but the demo version, will sometimes glitch like that. Oh, OK! No, it's not OK; I wanted my money back! I found out how to reset the fields, and I did. Instead of just replacing the money I had lost, I decided to reset it completely and start over tomorrow with my new edge: the knowledge I gained today. I feel so much better.  Trading is not relaxing. It is stressful, and it takes a lot of mental work -- 90% mental, and the rest is price! 

    So, here I am...learning. In the trading industry, the saying goes: you never lose; you either earn or learn. It's expensive, but it's true: every time you lose a trade, you should find out why and learn from the mistakes, or from the path price decided to take. You simply cannot predict it. I like to put little drawing boxes on every possible pair to see whether my thoughts or predictions would have panned out. I take only one trade a day unless I lose; then I try to make that trade up, but I don't try a 3rd trade that day. I walk away. Today, I predicted 10 pairs without trading on them and was right 7 out of 10 times. That's amazing.

    The drawing boxes can be green on top and red on the bottom for a long trade (buy), or they can be reversed for a short trade (sell).  You drag little dots to where you want the target to take profit and where you want the stop loss to stop you if you were wrong about the trade. That way, you don't lose everything; it is controlled.  I drew the box out and opened a ticket. I opened a Market ticket, which activates the trade the nanosecond that you hit the buy or sell button. You have time to set up the trade when you open it. I have mine set up so that when I drag the little dots around, it automatically registers inside the trade order box.

    Today, I did exactly that. I opened the trade order, I set it for 1% risk. That means I'm risking 1% of my entire account. I set the stop and take profit levels, in that order, and double-checked everything to make sure it was correct. There are a few other little things you need to do, but I did them. The blog is about the system screwing me over.  Then, after running the trade as a demo with the same data used in the live trades, I won when the candlesticks peaked through the top of my green box! I won! Except the system showed my trade had been canceled.

    I couldn't find where it stopped, even though the system said it did. I opened the trade order and saw that it had somehow entered a % of price for the perimeter of the field instead of price. I had not touched it. It had an internal glitch. I was furious! But Chat says it only happens in demo mode and won't happen to me in live mode. It couldn't. Can you imagine the chaos it would cause worldwide? OMG, you talk about wars! More than $9T (with a T) runs through Forex daily. If the systems failed -- damn!

    I am fine now. I have made back the money I lost this morning on an early trade. I am now trading very early to catch the transition trade trends from when the London Market is running and the New York Market is opening. Lots of trading, lots of back and forth, and if you know what to look for, you can win -- or lose. You can't really control it, but if I'd sat and watched instead of taking a 15-20 minute break like I did, I would have at least closed out with my $400 a day goal. Instead, I let it ride and had a stop-loss in place. I only lost $820, and I made that up immediately by entering another trade on a lower time frame and winning. It's riskier -- yes, but I worked out.

    Since I could start the game over, I did. I will wake up early tomorrow, trade and wait, but I will watch it and not take the break I did. I can wait 30-45 minutes. It just takes me a good slap to figure things out, but thankfully, I did. Let the games continue. I took off the red star and replaced it with a silver star in my calendar, as today was definitely a break-even day. I'll explain.

    I have little foil stars that I put on my calendar each day for when I win, lose, tie, or can't trade for some reason. Green is good, but Gold is better. Gold means I entered one trade and won.  Green means I entered trades and won overall. Red, of course, means I lost, and blue means there was no trade to be had. Silver is a break-even star. Today was a break-even day.   My goal is to win 55-60% of the trades I make, and I can't know my ratio until I do at least 100 or more. It will happen, and I will get better and better, I'm sure. I just have to decide I can do this and, of course, take God with me when I do.

    

Photo Credit: Goodwill Commodities

Faith Walks - Revamp

     I decided after 15 years to revamp the book that needed to be revamped the most. I mean, don't get me wrong, all of my books need, and will go through an entire revamp using AI to correct grammar, spacing, spelling, etc., but there are a couple of my books that I could not redo or get access to because I couldn't find the correct files. That was the case with Faith Walks, about 10 years ago when I wanted to fix it. I couldn't expect the original publisher (Xlibris) to help. They wouldn't send me the file back, and even if they did, I realized it was most likely in PDF format, and I already had that.

    I wasn't aware (either out of technological ignorance or just not thinking it through) that I could change the PDF format back into a Word document. I hadn't saved it as a Word document back then. I thought that was it after I published it. I must have deleted it - and there you go - gone.  In 2023, I was able to force Xlibris to give me the file when I formally closed my account with them, but it was, as I suspected, a PDF file -- I didn't know I could change it until this week. 

    So today, I uploaded the PDF, used Word to convert it back into a Word document, and used AI to make changes. Boy howdy! Let me just say that literally every single page needed to be redone. I didn't have as many mistakes as I thought, but the way I said things and the lack of punctuation were just amazing. I used "like" instead of "as" about a million times. I didn't hyphenate correctly on just about any word combination, like second-grade or well-deserved. I just didn't. So if you're lucky enough to have one of the old books, and you buy the new one, you'll see that I took out the Memorial page and added an Author's Note page. (two pages)

    The book doesn't have space between paragraphs, which is how I write, but because it was originally set up that way, I didn't change that. I did remove two lower-quality photos. I added one, plus a short blurb about Faith's passing and an update for our family. It's been 15 years!! Copeland was literally a baby when the book was published. He'll get his driver's license in about 5 months! Wow...just wow!!

    I've uploaded it, and it will be approved tomorrow and back on sale on Amazon after that. I've not changed the Kindle yet. I still don't know whether I will need to pay for that service. I thought I would have to pay to change the books, but the last two books I've changed or revamped have gone up without me being asked to pay their $25 fee. I'm not arguing with it. If they don't want to charge me, I won't volunteer.  I just hope it goes off without a hitch.

    This book is up, and Murder Book has been revamped. I'll do one or two this week, and keep up the process until they're all redone. I'm starting with the ones someone else edited, then I'll get to my own. Most of the books will be the ones I edited, and I've already regretted doing it without AI's help. I need AI. I mean, you just can't find your own mistakes, but AI can! Let me say that out loud! AI can find things I never realized I said. I can read it three or four times and not catch it, then see it when I apply the corrector -- damn.

    So, there you go - things are getting redone, and that makes me happy. If someone is spending money to read one of my books, they don't need a bunch of misspellings, bad punctuation, or wordy sentences that could be reworded to meet standard novel-writing standards. Sometimes I disagree with the AI, but not as often as I agree with it. I'm amazed at how many small points I missed. I'll give you one more example: I said "so" when the word "still" would have been better. It could be a Southern thing, but the more acceptable thing was to start the sentence off with "Still".

    Even now, you'll never see how many issues AI helped me fix just inside this one blog!

Photo Credit:  Google Play

Explaining the Trade

     OK, fine, I'll explain the trade and why I decided to take a Bearish short SELL rather than a Bullish long Buy position. First, you can make money in the market in an upward trend and in a downward trend. You have three market moves to watch: the upward trend, the downward trend, and trend consolidation. Most of the time, the market isn't moving up or down; it's battling between buyers and sellers out there in the ether, where you can't see them doing their thing. You only see the results after a candlestick prints.

    Candlesticks are either green (bullish) or red (bearish); green ones show the market (or price of something) is going up, and red ones indicate it's going down. When the sticks are shorter and they tend to hover around the same spot, that's consolidation. It's a very general overview, of course, but for explaining this trade, it makes sense.

    I use two "indicators" when I trade. I also "box" out my trade before I trade each day, and I only trade when the dots connect, the conditions are right, and the indicators confirm whether a trade is worth entering. I'll try to explain, but again, you can't learn the entire game in one session. I can't tell you how many times my big cousin Gene smashed me at Chess before I finally figured it out, but by my 12th birthday, we could play and I could come close to winning. By my 16th birthday, he had an opponent!  Things take time.

    Look at the chart. There is an obvious DOWNWARD trend in the EUR/GBP (Euro vs. the British Pound). I boxed the trade, meaning at 8:00 a.m. I turned on the computer, opened TradingView and Oanda, made sure I was on the DEMO account (not a live account), and set my time frame to 15 M. I drew a big purple box around everything the market did from 3:00 a.m. until then. I raised the top of the box to the top of the tallest candle, and the bottom to the bottom of the lowest candle. That is the box. That shows me where the market was and has been for 5 hours. This is the time when the New York Market opens, and the London Market is about midday. They've all but stopped, but the NY market is just getting started.

    If price moves out of that box on the next 2 or 3 candles while I'm watching the 15-minute time frame, above or below it, I watch the next candle to see where it goes, whether it strengthens or weakens the trade, and I keep watching. Now, however, I switch my gaze to the indicators I use. I use the RSI at the bottom to show me where the market is being pulled; the numbers vary, and it would take a while to explain, but if they're between 30 and 50, I'm ready to strike. They have to be closer to 40 before I pull the trigger on a sell (Bear), and closer to 48-52 before I buy (Bull).

    The EMA is the exponential moving average; it tells you what the last 50 candlesticks have done. You can lower it if you like, or raise it, but I keep mine at 50. The line is a ribbon that drapes over, at, and under the price, and where it is matters before you buy or sell. If the line is above price, you can sell. If it is below price, you can buy. If it is stationary at price, you need to wait - it gets tricky, but this is a general rule. Of course, there are exceptions. There are always exceptions when the market changes literally every nanosecond of the day.

    I saw the market trending down and staying in that trend. I watched the RSI and saw that it was hovering in the 30-50 range. I also saw the EMA above the candlesticks, and it kept bouncing off them, so I had to wait for buyers and sellers to show who was in control. Then, just before I hit the drawing tool to set up my trade, before I hit the SELL button to secure it, there was one more thing to consider: SPREAD.  The ask price and bid price differ; that difference matters. It can make you lose more than you want immediately, putting your trade at risk even if all the other conditions seem favorable. Check the damn spread.

    The spread between the ask and bid shouldn't be more than 20-22 pips, and yes, we'll have to go over pips soon too. You're not actually trading right now, so trust me when I say you'll need to make sure the ASK and BID bars on the right side of the screen are only about 20-22 digits apart. When they are closer than 22, HIT THE TRADE BUTTON!  I hit the sell button and made sure my risk was in the right place. Again, it's another lesson on what risk-to-reward is and how much of your account you should risk. I only risk 1% of my account on each trade. I'm not trying to become a millionaire, and I'm not loose or crazy; I'm being practical and frugal. I treat this as if it really is my actual job.

    When the risk of the trade is 1% of your account, and my account is $92,000 (fake money) I am literally putting $920 on the line hoping that my calculations are correct, and that the market is going to do what I want it to do. I set the drawing tool at 1:1.4, meaning that if I do win, I win more than I lose. I will win $1288 if price shoots outside my target range, and I will only lose $920 if it shoots out the other side. HOWEVER...I watch my trades, and the moment I see it going south, losing me too much before it pops back into the green, I am likely to stop the trade and call it quits. If the lower time frames show the market is reversing, I will stop the trade.

    That being said, I won't stop it immediately. I give it a few candlesticks on the lower time frames to see whether momentum is truly moving away or will spring back in my favor. You trade at a higher time frame, then use the lower ones to gauge the market and its tendency to flex. It can go either way. There is no set pattern. There is no forgiveness. The market is a live, flowing river of pushing and pulling, and there will be no single second of security, only trend. If it is trending and seemingly holding that trend, you have a good shot at making the trade work in your favor.

    That's what happened with this trade. I saw it. I took screenshots with my snippit tool and showed ChatGPT what I wanted and my goals. ChatGPT came back and warned me about getting in too soon, explained why, said what the RSI and EMA were likely to do, and literally saved me from entering too soon about 11 times. Finally, when the numbers matched what could be a good chance, I entered. I watched, I waited, and I won -- but if I had left it alone and gone to lunch or something, I would have lost!  When the lower time frames started to say it was reversing, I got out.

    As it turned out, the market did reverse, then it came back to trail down a bit more, but since I was up $675.00 out of the $1,288 I could have won, I closed it. I closed it and walked away. My goal each day is $400, so after losing $117 earlier in the day and winning a $3.00 trade because I didn't use the right risk-to-reward, I decided ending at $675.00 was the best move. I am happy, and I get to put a big gold star on my calendar. It was a good green day in the world of Trading with Jude!

Photo Credit: TradingView

The Trading Post.

     OMG... maybe I should start a new blog just for trading. I'll think about that as I progress. I'm not sure many people would be very interested in hearing how I scream at ChatGPT for giving me information that's incorrect, unthought-out, or completely misses the point I'm trying to make. Some would say, and probably be right, that the problem isn't ChatGPT at all, but me. I can concede, but in the middle of my tantrum, it wouldn't be a good time to point that out to me; trust me.

    I started a free trading account with Oanda and began trading about two weeks ago, but I wasn't sure what I was doing and just couldn't connect all the dots. I gave myself until today (meaning yesterday) to draw a line in the sand, making it exactly two weeks of training, and then I began trading for real.  I began with $92,000.00, (again free fake money on a demo account) a fresh start, and so much more knowledge than I had two weeks ago.

    Before you think, "Wow, she lost $8000 in two weeks," you would be wrong. I lost it in about 2 days. I was up, doing most things correctly, then I decided to take a chance on what is called a non-traditional pair, which wasn't that non-traditional; I wasn't trying to trade rubles for lira.  I was trading USD/JPY, the U.S. Dollar against the Japanese Yen. It wasn't the same as trading a traditional pair like EUR/USD. Even the reverse, the USDEUR, is considered a non-traditional pair.

    At one point I traded them against each other, which means if you win both you do well, but if you lose both you double your trouble, and in some cases, because the spread was so much higher on the USDEUR than it was on the EURUSD, I would have lost a great deal more. I got out of them both before they could close and strip me further. I did lose on both, but not as much as I could have; being able to watch or monitor the trades, rather than simply setting a stop loss and moving on, is the saving grace.

    Don't get me wrong, I still set a stop loss; I'm not stupid. I don't want to lose more than I need to, but I will move it if I think the market will reverse after a quick spike in the opposite direction. I've been stopped out at least a dozen times because I saw the candlestick but didn't see the wick until after it closed, and damn -- out!   Oh well, knowing when to move the chains is part of the game, and if it is actually your business, then yeah, you're supposed to work that entire time and keep a good eye on the results. Know your game.

    Today was supposed to be my first two-trade day. Now I allow myself only two trades a day to see if I can hit my goal of $400 a day.  I figure if I'm making $400 a day for 20 trading days a month, I'm bringing in about $8,000, so if I'm up in the middle of the month, I may just pay myself and keep trading, allowing the rest of the money I've earned to stay in the pot and grow the account. That sounds like a good plan. My actual goal is to earn $400 a day and pay myself only $2000 a month, letting the rest compound. 

    With Laura working and me paying myself a little, we can still do what we need; I can focus on trading, get better and better at it, and never have to go back to regular work again. It's a lofty goal, but absolutely attainable. I just have to get the real live active account up to $50,000.00 first so I can do this -- and that's where Jesus takes the reins. I have a plan, and it's a good plan, but I know His plans are greater, His ways are better -- I'll wait. Just like a good trader waiting on a reason to enter -- I'll wait.

    Today did not turn out to be a two-day trade. My computer was lagging, we had internet issues, and the online demo account canceled me 3x for either setting the wrong numbers or leaving the take profit and stop loss toggles on when they should be off. I accidentally set two limit trades instead of market trades, had to get out of those, and by the time I was ready to go back to a market trade, I had lost momentum on one of them. I was furious!

    But in the end, I had 3 active trades today. I won two and lost one because I had to close when I miscalculated. I lost $117, which, if that had happened in real life and I had lost $117 in less than 1 minute, I'd be really upset with myself. The key is not to be. Not to be upset. You can't trade if you're emotional or chasing the $$$. You can't; it will never work for you. So, in one trade, because I had the numbers completely too low, I won, but I only won $3.00!! In the other one, the one I did correctly, I won $675!  So, all in all, at the end of my trading day today, at 12:13 p.m., after working less than 4 hours, I earned $561 (fake money).

    Gold star day!! I'm going to get a little book with a calendar in it and mark off my green and red days...maybe buy some gold stars, and really treat myself. If I win, I get a candy bar! If I lose, I don't get a candy bar, and that could be devastating for me; enough to make sure I never lose. Some things in life are actually worth fighting for.

    There you have it, today, my first real pretend day without giving myself too many passes, I earned $561, and I will indeed enjoy that Milky Way bar. I have a rule about them too; only the fun size will do. I'm not going to pull out the full-sized bars daily, which is how many times I think I will win. I could lose a trade every day and still make my goal by winning a trade every day. I just have to cover the $400 spread that I want every day, so if I lose $500 but win $900, I'm good.  It's a really fun way to work; I hope I can do this full time soon.

    Some people trade all day. Some people trade all markets. I trade early in the NY market, usually from 8:30 to 10:00, and watch the trades grow or fall between 10:00 and 12:00 -- after that, the day is over for me. If I haven't won, sure, I'll linger to see what happens, or if I can pick something up, but your chances go way, way down as the day goes on. I trade Forex, by the way, not stocks, not gold, not Bitcoin. I only trade Forex. If you're interested in how it works and what you could do to learn it, I would suggest giving yourself a full year and searching YouTube for "The Trading Channel" with Steven Hart. He's good.

    There are dozens, if not hundreds, of other trainers, and they are usually good-natured and mean well. They really want you to do your best, but I think Steven breaks it down the easiest for me anyway, and after I learned the basics, I started with a free online DEMO account from Oanda and use TradingView as my platform. I trade on TradingView, and I use ChatGPT on the side to show it what I'm thinking of doing and see what it thinks. It's right most of the time, but let me say this: you can't rely on it, NO, YOU CANNOT!  Let your own brain do the work, but having the AI reiterate what I think I know, or correct this or that, has been very helpful.

    The hard part? Figuring out the RSI, the EMA, and the SPREAD, finding the entry point isn't that hard, but pulling the trigger isn't just about making a sell or buy trade; there has to be a reason. The numbers have to line up across the chart, not just in the candlesticks. You'll learn. It really does take a full year to get it all inside your brain; I'm glad I waited and that I'm using a fake account to work out all the bugs.

    This is the trade I won today. I closed it short because I could see that it was about to reverse. I earned $675 instead of $920, but I could have lost $$ too if I had just set the stop loss and gone to lunch. Nope, I watched it, closed it, and called it a day.

Back to Coffee -- Well, Half Back.

     Today, and honestly, I think I should say, I started drinking coffee again yesterday. It has been one solid year since I was a "coffee drinker". I sold my fancy espresso machine, and I gave away my little drip machine as well. I wasn't drinking coffee, so I didn't need it. I gave away the 1/2-pound bag of Peet's and about 40 or 50 pods because if I wasn't going to drink it, someone else could at least enjoy them. That was my thought process.

    Around this time last year, I discovered drinking mushroom coffee, and after trying about four different brands, I chose Yege because it didn't have chaga mushroom in it. I know I'm not an expert, but I did some research, and chaga has properties that can cause or worsen kidney issues. I mean, there have to be underlying issues, I believe, but I didn't want to risk it. No chance at all, whatsoever, none. I have had kidney stones, and I do not like them. No!

    Well, there were three reasons I decided to go without coffee, and the first is one everyone already knows: it has caffeine. I had already dropped from full caffeine to half caffeine, then even tried full decaf, and it just never stuck. I did try it, and Green Mountain was the best I had found, but it wasn't tasty, try as I may, and I did try.  

    The second reason was the cost. For some reason, I thought I might be spending more on coffee than on mushroom coffee, and, honestly, it was too close to call. I paid about $17.50 a bag for Yege and got 24 cups of coffee out of it, or I could pay $17.50 for 24 pods of coffee and get about the same. Now, if I'm buying ground coffee, then coffee wins every time, and there was no challenging that - it was a fact.

    The third reason was that mushroom coffee makers were swearing up and down that drinking mushroom coffee would be better for my waistline and my mental state. This was a big draw for me, but again, as with most things, that too was a myth!  I didn't lose a single pound, and I was no more focused with mushroom coffee than with regular coffee. Both have all the antioxidants I need and want. Both have the polyphenols that I want and need -- so it's a wash!

    About a month ago, I bought a little coffee maker for about $20 on Amazon. It makes one cup at a time, and that's all I need. I can empty a pod or scoop in ground coffee; I have pods now, so that's the route I'm taking. It's been two days, just two, and I already know I'm going to stick with the coffee and do the mushroom coffee occasionally; both have 40-50 mg of caffeine, so neither will be drunk after 11:00 a.m.  Fully decaffeinated coffee has about 4 mg of caffeine, much less, and I'm OK with the half-caff. (Again, Green Mountain tastes great and is a really good value.)

    So, there you have it -- another time-tested experiment, and this time I can honestly and genuinely say I stuck with it; I gave it a year. I put all the research, time, effort, and money into it, but in the end it was just a wash; nothing changed, nothing stood out, and it wasn't worth the effort, but at least now I fully know, and can verify, that I put in the time. I waited ONE full year, and I think I discovered that organic this or that doesn't work for me either. I tried an organic decaf blend about a month ago. I tried two brands - both bad. Nope, I'm going for the cheaper one, but I tried Green Mountain again, and I'm giving it a thumbs-up.

    Maybe in a month or so, or maybe, I don't know, for my birthday, I'll buy a better coffee pot. I don't need it, but some things just find their way into my house, like the two feral kittens that happened to find their way in two weeks ago, and no, they haven't left. One is older than the other, but I bet they're related. Laura has her hands full with them; I'm just trying to live my life as peacefully as possible, and I think settling the whole should I drink coffee again issue is done!

Photo Credit: Pinterest.com

In the Market - Sort of.

     So, I'm trading again, not with my own money, but with fake demo money from Oanda. I'm using the TradingView platform and practicing...practicing. I'm completely lost one moment and know where I am the next, so I have to get back to the point where I am no longer confused. I will open a buy or sell trade and change my mind about the stop loss, and when I do I don't know if I've activated my new stop loss or not. I get scared and close the position to avoid a loss, which is dumb since it's a demo account.

    Nevertheless, the first rule about pretending that you're trading is to treat it like it's real, so if you don't know, you don't know, and it's better to cut bait than to swim with the sharks. Since I'm using fake money, this is a good time to tell you that when I do get back into it for real, I'll use a prop firm to trade for the first month or so. It's a way to use other people's money, so I don't lose my own.  I'll explain.

    Prop firms, sometimes banks, sometimes other people with enough to lend, will let you trade with their money if you can prove you know what you're doing. You apply, pay their fee to evaluate your abilities, then trade on a fake account until you earn $8000 or lose $3000, whichever comes first. If you win the $8000, they let you keep it; if not, you lose your fee, but you learn a valuable lesson: don't pay someone a fee to use their money unless you're damn sure you can earn before you lose.

    The market is unforgiving, and it doesn't care. It doesn't care who you are; it doesn't care whether you'll win or lose. It is what it is, and that is the market. Price is what price is, and you either accept it, or you die really fast in the game. That's it: trading isn't a game; it's a very real thing. The best thing you can do is practice using strong, disciplined strategies. Your risk management is your key; it's your bread and butter, and it's your anchor to hold onto! You don't trade if your risk management conditions aren't met.

    People fall into two very distinct categories when it comes to trading. Some think they know everything; others realize they don't. I'm in the smarter category, the ones who realize we don't know everything; you can't. The market is unpredictable, and it moves the way it moves, so guessing where it will land is never a good option. If you diligently have a working strategy, the best you can hope for is around a 65% win ratio. Believe me, a 65% would be wonderful! I'm hovering around 52% now, and I need to get to about 55% before I feel comfortable using real money.

    My strategy was developed after watching a few really good investors who have their free workshops on YouTube. I haven't joined their paid subs yet, and I hope I don't have to. I may end up doing that when I pay for the Prop, but if I can get away with making 2 or 3 trades a day and hit my minimum, I'll stick to it and let the others pass me by. I am not in it to become the next Warren Buffett - I'm OK being exactly who I am.

    My plan works so far, and if it keeps working, I'll share it with anyone and everyone so they can follow the same plan, but I don't want to put it out there until I've done it at least 100 times and can say it works. That means for the next 99 days I'll keep records diligently so I can do it correctly, without feeling like I'm lying to myself or anyone else.  I'll report my findings on or near January 15, 2027. That's 100 days since I started this path.

    I've been testing this path for a few days, but I officially started it yesterday, and it worked then and this morning. I may keep you posted every week as to how I'm doing, but I won't tell you the method until I've done it 100 days in a row and can say with confidence that I have a 55% win ratio -- by that time, I may have my own money, or I may be able to do a prop firm turn and use someone else's money, but for now, I'm going to assume I'm using Oanda's demo account. It's $100,000 and they automatically leverage me at 50X so I'm only really spending $20.00 per trade - again a fake $20.

    Today's wins and losses? Both wins: I traded EUR/USD and USD/CAD for wins. I began practicing away from the official scoreboard and lost 4 and won 2. I won't keep track of those because they are later in the day, and my plan is to trade only very early in the morning, picking up as the London market transitions into the NY market. You can trade 24/7 from 5:00 EST on Sunday to 4:00 EST Friday, but you're in the Australian and Asian markets until 3:00 a.m. EST, when you hit London, and 8:00 EST for the NY market M-F. There is no trading on Saturday and Most of Sunday.

    If you want to watch a few YouTubers that I trust, you can go to THE TRADING CHANNEL with Steven Hart and JOOVIERS GEM with Josiah Stewart. Both are really great.  It is free, free, free to get involved, and won't cost you anything to learn and practice. It's 100% worth the fun and learning experience, but if you don't have patience, you'll never get good at it, and it will eat you alive faster than you can spit!  (no matter how fast or slow you spit) The market is NO PLACE to play.

    It is NOT gambling - you need to know that. You are not throwing money at it; you're not risking without knowing what you're risking, and if you don't have an exit plan, you should never hit the buy/sell button -- you are in control of that. It's a business, a real business, and it must be treated as such. Do people go crazy? Yes, they do. Do people succeed? Yes, they do. It's a law-of-large-numbers thing; you must be patient, use your own strategy, and manage your own risk. You'll learn what's best for you, and you'll either control it or let it control you -- simple as that...and as difficult as that.

    If I were actually trading the money I fake-traded today, I would have earned (not won) $2400.00 in one hour. It does not and will not happen every hour -- it's not like that. Many pairs never get into a buy/sell position worth opening, and if they don't, you don't! That's the thing. You only enter if the conditions are right to do it -- they were for me, so I entered the two trades, both before 9:00 a.m., and they were done by 9:12 a.m.  I'll let you know how it goes and if the strategy works -- I think it will.

Photo Credit: Me. This was my win trade today.