Hi everyone I know it has been a while since I've written a blog. This blog entry is about a book called "Screw it let's do it" written by Richard Branson. I must admit I found the title was rather strange but you can't judge a book by its cover. The book is about the "rules" Richard Branson followed to get where he is today. For those of you who may not know who Richard Branson is, he's a billionaire, who started the Virgin Group which has now expanded into international music Megastores, air travel, mobile, financial, retail, music, internet, drinks, rail, hotels and leisure, with around 200 companies in over 30 countries. As you can see Richard Branson is a very successful and powerful person.

    I learned good principles as well as useful business tips. Something that really stood out to me was his optimistic take on things. Instead of sitting around thinking of how a challenge was keeping him from his goal, he would think of ways to overcome the challenge. Now when I'm trading, instead of stressing over the fact I'm losing money, I'm going to try different parameters. This is good for starting a business because there are obstacles you have to overcome. If you let the obstacles stop you instead of trying to overcome them your business won't go anywhere.

     I found out that I and Richard have something in common; our response to a question is usually "yes." For example when John asked me to come and work for him I said "yes". Instead of letting the fact that I couldn't trade stop me, I learned how to trade and be successful. I'm glad that I took this chance because I enjoy working with Trade the Markets. This brings me to Richard's next point "if you enjoy what you do you will make money." I think this statement makes sense because if you enjoy your job you are motivated to contribute to the company and make it better.

    When someone tells me I can't achieve a certain goal I try even harder to achieve that goal. Richard faced this problem when he stared up his airline company. All of the other airlines and his bank told him he would never succeed. Despite all the people who told him he couldn't do it he was persistent and became very successful. Richard took many chances with his businesses but he always had reasoning behind his decisions. Similar to how in trading you never take a trade based on chance you use indicators as "reasoning."

     The first business Richard started he did almost entirely alone. As his business's grew more people became part of his business "plan." Soon after he realized that he would have to depend on himself to make his business a success. Also he had a board of people and felt that they were "taking away his freedom." Richard wanted to do things his way and not have to be told how to run his business so he went back to running things, for the most part on his own.

       As he went through life he had many near death experiences so he started to realize that he needed to life each day to the fullest. In addition to living life to the fullest he wanted to have no enemies so he "mended bridges". Another thing he realized was the past is the past you can't change what has already happened but instead live for the moment with no regrets. Since life is short you have to be sure that you take time out to spend with your family and relax. If you are always rapped up in your business life then you'll miss out on the more important people your family and friends.

       I would recommend this book to anyone because it has lots of useful information and Richard gives good life examples. It's very well written and could help someone who is trying to start their own business or you currently have your own business but need some help. The book again is called "screw it, let's do it" (the expanded version) and the author is Richard Branson. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog hope you enjoyed it.      

Trading, trading, trading, it's such an adventure. Today I traded the mini DOW using the TTM squeeze indicator and the 89 TICK chart. I traded 3 lots, with a stop of 20pts, and my targets were placed at +3, +6 and +20.    

Trade 1

This first trade was based off of the TTM squeeze indicator that fired off short. I sold 3 lots at 11024; my first and second targets were hit for a total of +9. I left the last third open, until I got a TTM Scalper reversal bar, on the 89 TICK chart. My stop was now 10pts away from my entry point. The TTM Scalper reversal bar never appeared but the market reversed and I got stopped out at 11034. After this trade I was at negative $140.

Trade 2

My second trade was also triggered by the TTM squeeze indicator. I sold 3 lots at 11021. Again my first two targets were hit for a gain of + 9 and my stop moved up 10pts. The last third was still open and the squeeze still had momentum. Unlike in the first trade the TTM Scalper reversal bar appeared and I flattened my position at 11001. At this point I was negative $145.

Trade 3

The last trade I took was again based off of the TTM squeeze indicator. I sold 3 lots at 11064. Almost as soon as I got in the trade my first two targets were hit. The last third was open and the market continued to go lower and lower. I stayed in the trade until I saw a TTM Scalper reversal bar on the 89 TICK chart. At 11043 a white TTM Scalper reversal bar appeared, so I flattened my position and ended up with +30. Since this was the last trade of the day I ended up positive with $5.

Last week was a tough trading week and hopefully this week will be much better. Today was certainly a good way to start off the week. It's always good to end the day with profits. Hope everyone has good trading.

Hello, hope everyone had good trading. Today I didn't take any trades but I'll start trading again on Monday. Instead of trading I went to see John and Magda's "get away". It's a nice ranch out in Wimberley with a house and a guest house. Travel time was about an hour so I got in a good nap.

Once we got to the ranch John gave us a tour. The main house had three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The guest house had a kitchen, living room and a bedroom upstairs. To me the best part of the ranch was the land! Being outside in the country was much different than being outside in the city. In the country there isn't a house in sight and you're surrounded by nature.

Today was a relaxing and peaceful day. This will help me, be very focused on Monday when I trade. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Hi, everyone hope you all had great trading. Today the markets were quiet and very boring. I had a couple of winning trades and some losing trades. My profits would go negative then I'd get them back to positive. In the end I came out negative $625.

Instead of trading the ES today I traded the mini DOW. All of the trades I took today were based on the TTM squeeze indicator. Since the market was choppy the squeezes would end quickly, there would be times when I'd take a trade and then get stopped out in a matter of seconds. Another thing that would happen is that I would take a trade, then a reversal bar would appear on the 89 Tick chart so I flattened my position. This is pretty much all that happened today, sorry for the short blog but the markets didn't do much of anything.

Hope everyone had a great trading day. Today the markets were even more "cruel" to me than yesterday. John tried to help my negative trading turn positive, but it was no use. The markets were too choppy and unpredictable.

Today, I focused only on the ES. The day started off good and slowly went from bad to worse. In my first trade, I sold 9 lots at 1275.50, my first target was hit and I had 6 lots left. I got an exit signal from the TTM Squeeze indicator, so I got out of the last 6 lots just as the momentum of the TTM Squeeze faded. After this trade I was still on the up side, this is when things started to head south. I went short 9 lots at 1271.00 this TTM Squeeze signal looked as if it was ending even though it had just started. I waited for the exit signal from the squeeze or ticks but it never came. I ended up getting stopped out and was negative $1,800. At this point the markets were doing absolutely NOTHING! The markets continued to do nothing as I headed out for lunch.

When I got back from lunch, John had taken a trade. He took the trade based on the fact that the pivot level had been reached and there would be a bounce back up. I observed John as he analyzed the charts and he briefly explained the market internals to me. The market never did rally back up, it sunk below the pivot level and just kept going down. The reason that the market didn't rally back up according to John was because the bulls never "stepped up." I ended the day down $7662.50, not a great trading day for me. I am hoping to be able to implement some of the new stuff John has taught me and have my first positive trading day.