This summer at Currensee we are fortunate enough to have a serious amount of intern power. The word “intern” is stereotyped into being a word for someone who is just starting out on their quest for a career and a purpose. But our interns, well they have more drive, motivation, and smarts than any other “intern” I’ve ever met. So here we’d like to give you an insiders look at our awesome interns. Let’s start with Alex and Tanvi.
Alex is a 2nd year PhD student at UMass Boston. Yup, you read that right … PhD. Here at Currensee, Alex works as a QA Automation intern. He not only works here, but he actually trades Forex! Currently he’s +$1.50. Alex is all about finding the right way to do something, and doing it well. He enjoys research and one day hopes to pull together research on something he’s passionate about and say to everyone “LOOK, I did this!” A couple fun facts about Alex: He’s recently married (sorry ladies) and is a guitarist. We are so happy to have Alex on-board and know great things will continue to come from him.
Tanvi is one of our newest interns. She is currently working towards her Masters in Computer Systems from Northeastern. Tanvi comes to us all the way from India – this lucky intern has a mom who works for Air India so flights to and from home are easy to come by. Please keep your tray tables in the up and locked position! Tanvi has only been with us for about two weeks but she’s doing an excellent job on our engineering team. She misses her family, friends, and of course delicious Indian food. Tanvi loves how Currensee works like a team. Maybe she likes teams so much because she’s a sports fan (she’s crossing her fingers for the Celtics to make it all the way next year). Who doesn’t love a Boston sports fan!?
Stay tuned for more updates about our superstar interns.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
Join Currensee Director of Product Shereen Shermak for the straight dope about Currensee. She will explain a few common topics and then we’ll open it up for Q&A and discussion.
What is this Leaderboard everybody’s talking about and how can I get on it?
If you’ve been on the fence about joining Currensee or if you’ve been a member for a while and just have some questions, this informal and informational session is just the ticket.
Sign up here. Throughout the webinar we will be live tweeting via the #currensee hash tag.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
As I walked into the office yesterday morning, pre-iced latte I blinked twice when I saw a sea of colored bandanas. Being semi-new to the Currensee team I hesitated to ask why a colorful gang had taken over the Currensee offices. Come to find out the development and QA team had designated yesterday as “Dress Like Emanuel Day.”
Emanuel Kadziela one of our super-talented software engineer’s has a very typical work outfit: khaki cargo shorts, a t-shirt incorporating some type of fluorescent color, and of course a bandana neatly adorned on-top of his head. In support of his awesome dress-code, because one of our fellow employees is moving cross-country (Jed we’ll miss you!), and because we are a creative bunch of crazies July 27th has been designated “Dress Like Emanuel Day.” You too can partake in this wonderful holiday, any day of the week (guess who the real Emanuel is…).
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
Thursday July 29, 2010 8AM EST, trade live with a pro. Sit in and watch as Russell Rice, long-time professional Forex trader, creator of the Spike Look Fine Tuning Tool and Market Emotion Detector, presents his trading philosophies and techniques. Russell will show off his techniques and take your questions live.
In this informative and practical webinar, Russell will show you:
How to use the Spike Look/Fine Tuning Tool
The perils of chasing a price move after it happens
How to find entry points with the Market Emotion Detector indicator
Sign up here. Also, follow our live Tweets using hash tag #currensee.
About Russel Rice:
Russell Rice in a former AMEX floor trader with over 25 years experience trading all asset classes. He leverages a Spike Look/Fine Tuning Tool that can help immensely to improve necessary trading skills and build objectivity for Forex traders like you.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
I’m asked from time to time what “Trade Together” means. Well, it’s what you make of it. For some people being social is about collaboration, and for others it’s about strategy and community. Currensee is a place for many different types of traders. Some members look in their Positions Table to see the trades of their Trading Friends. Others will send emails using Currensee’s email platform. And still others will collaborate, real-time, to help each other figure out whether it’s time to get into a trade or not (think Instant Messenger).
Feeding the little voyeur in me, and sharing with the rest of you, I’ve attached a real chat between two members (it took place inside the platform!) – it’s a great example of two members who “Trade Together.” The only change I’ve made is to the names … to protect the innocent … or the guilty! Shhhhh, be very quiet, we don’t want to scare them off!
Alain: I really want the EUR USD trade
Ming: Cos the parabolic sar did not change
Ming: RSI showing uptrend
Ming: ma moving side ways
Alain: So when will u enter?
Alain: EUR/USD
Ming: Showing uptrend in 1hr chart
Alain: Yes
Alain: Are u in?
Ming: But there might be a retracement cos RSI in 5min showing oversold … better to wait
Alain: OK
Alain: How do know the oversold sign?
Ming: If u have time u could check out the eur/aud or aud/usd
Alain: OK
Alain: aud usd
Alain: sideways
Ming: Going to shoot down
Ming: Just wait till the 5dma cros both 10 n 20dma
Alain: Going up
Ming: OK then wait
Alain: Are u in it?
Ming: Im in eur/aud
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
A conversation is going on among Currensee members in the discussion board on the subject of trading rates of return. There’s been a fair amount of back and forth about what is a good return, risk, consistency, and all that. The topic of “how much can I make trading” is one which comes up often (and I’ve addressed it in New Trader FAQs), and beyond that there is a common interest in relative performance. I’d like to throw two things out there as thinking points for the discussion.
Thinking like you would about a job
Trading is an active process – more so than investing, for the most part. It requires consistent effort to identify opportunities, research and test strategies, stay up on market developments, and manage positions. For some folks this means hours each day. In other words, it’s like a job (part-time or full-time). So what’s your take home pay? That’s why I challenge the comment of Currensee member Alex when he said “An acceptable return to me is anything that beats the average return for stocks and bonds but at the same time somewhat realistic so there is more consistency for ROI.” How much time was put in to making those investment returns vs. required for the trading returns which beat them?
Admittedly, if you’re a new or developing trader asking yourself how much return you’re seeing for the time you’re putting into trading is probably a bit depressing. As you get an idea of your trading plan and probable return levels, time commitments, etc., though, you can start forming a view of what your hourly wage is going to look like. Then you can ask yourself whether what you’ll be making – after taxes and all other expenses – is worth the time required to earn it.
Currensee member Liam made this point fairly well by saying:
I would consider an acceptable return would be one which provides me with an income somewhat greater than I would earn in salaried employment. However the nature of Forex trading is such that if one has a persistent, substantial edge, there is no fundamental reason why one cannot increase one’s income to a substantially higher level, and it is reasonable to aim to do so.
Of course capitalization is a factor here. The more money you can put to work in the market, the higher the presumed notional return you would anticipate making. If you’re early in your trading career the stake is probably going to be small (it should be!) as you hone your skills. Once you’ve developed a good trading strategy, though, how much can you grow that stake? Partly that will mean gains from the market, of course. Most likely, however, it will be a function of additional funds being deposited. Will you be able to increase your account size to a workable level to make the return on your trading high enough for it to be a good use of your time?
I don’t put this question out there to dissuade anyone from trading. We do all, however, have to think about the relative value of the time we put into different activities.
Comparing your performance to others
Shifting gears a bit, the mere asking of the question about what is a good rate of return implies a question of comparative performance. Unless you are a money manager competing for funds, you really don’t need to get hung up on how your returns compare to those of others. This is something that can really trip traders up. Trading is a very individual pursuit in most cases. We all trade slightly differently, which makes direct comparisons difficult at best. The only way you can properly look at the relative performance of two traders is on a risk-adjusted basis, and that’s not always the easiest thing to calculate.
Regardless of the metrics involved, I’ll tell you the same thing I told many volleyball players when I was a coach. Don’t worry about what someone else is doing. You have no influence on their actions or performance. All you can ever do is focus on your own effort and trying to get the most out of yourself that you can. You’ll get more satisfaction out of things that way, and you’ll definitely develop in a better way.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
As mentioned in my last post, it can be very problematic dealing with the increasing plethora of statistics that bombard you through the trading day. We touched on structure around news events and statistics, and now we look at what this all means in the current economic and therefore trading environment.
Unfortunately the current climate is not easy to decipher as the influence of the American stock market continues to dominate nearly all asset classes. There remain two major counter forces. The first is the perception that major company profits announced this week have been beyond analyst’s estimates. I think it’s worth pointing out that it is in the market participants’ interest to underestimate in order to provide a positive spin. The results season is nearly always positive in the short term, but until the market has received all the information, it can rarely trend. It is also important to remember that banks generally make profits at the expense of everyone else, and moving forward, the new finance bill will erode their ability to generate derivative trading profits to the same degree.
Adding to the inability to find direction is the string of economic statistics that show the U.S. slowing down quickly, whilst Germany in particular garners some benefit of the weakened Euro via an increase in manufacturing. Finally, we had Mr. Bernanke’s biannual testimony, in which I felt he was extremely downbeat on his assessment looking ahead, and most worryingly, gave no specifics about how they would tackle problems if they occurred in the future.
The reality is that the Fed is largely boxed into a corner as rates at the short end and for providing liquidity to banks are already at rock bottom. However for corporates and individuals in the mortgage market, rates remain stubbornly high and the evidence that the recent slide in yields has had no impact on mortgage applications suggests that borrowing costs are still too high. When rates are perceived to be at rock bottom, it appears that all the risk is to the upside, which stifles commitment, entrepreneurial spirit and therefore growth.
The solution is relatively simple, but he shows no signs of considering it. The Fed needs to cap long term rates at a much lower yield than what they are now. A ceiling of 1.5% on 30 year money would in all probability lead to rate moving even lower as demand for any yield would still exist. If businesses and individuals know there is a ceiling it removes the fear, and allows for stabilization in asset prices and an environment for growth. The more proactive this is, instead of waiting for a fresh crisis to develop, the more positive the impact. Unfortunately from Mr. Bernanke’s comments this week, it appears a crisis will have to occur before this policy could even be contemplated. In a jobless recovery, stagnant wage growth and falling asset prices, the risks to that happening are increasing.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Thank you to everyone who attended Wednesday’s webinar. Shaun’s presentation and questions from the audience made for a great discussion. We have posted the full webinar below. Thanks again for your participation.
Analyzing Forex Market Trends with Market Profile webinar with Chief Analyst Shaun Downey.
I came across this blog post and apparently there are trade training programs out there targeting successful online poker players. The main assumption is that playing poker is all about risk management and money management. You never have the certainty that you have a better hand, but with proper money management and risk management you can decide on the better move to play.
It sure seems like trading is providing similar qualities as gambling: “It’s easy to participate, difficult to sustain success. Many just play for the thrills of winning and losing; relatively few systematically learn from experience and build skills over time,” or at least according to Brett Steenbarger.
All of this makes perfect sense when I see the success that eToro, a gambling site for Forex traders, is giving traders the thrill they want and the ability to easily participate in the Forex arena.
The big question I have is while there are so many people trying to make a living from trading, is treating trading as gambling the right approach? What do you think?
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
Market Profile has evolved from a simple day trading tool that was created by hand to a set of sophisticate concepts for analyzing trends in order to understand where price can trend quickly and where it must pause or reverse. The framework of “Price + Time = Market Acceptance” provides guidance for the trading day and highlights times and places where the trader must be active and connect with their existing methods of entry and exit. Market Profile also clearly defines stops.
In this webinar, suitable for all levels of traders, Shuan Downey will explain…
How he created his own Market Profile trading rules
What are the building blocks of a sound trading system
How to understand the connection between long-term profiles and short-term movements to select entries and stops
All webinar attendees will get a PDF sample from Shaun’s book, Trading Time: New Methods in Technical Analysis and a special offer from the Currensee marketplace.
Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.
Currensee is the first social network for forex traders. We bring Forex traders from around the world together to make trading decisions in real time using live trading data.
Alex is a 2nd year PhD student at UMass Boston. Yup, you read that right … PhD. Here at Currensee, Alex works as a QA Automation intern. He not only works here, but he actually trades Forex! Currently he’s +$1.50. Alex is all about finding the right way to do something, and doing it well. He enjoys research and one day hopes to pull together research on something he’s passionate about and say to everyone “LOOK, I did this!” A couple fun facts about Alex: He’s recently married (sorry ladies) and is a guitarist. We are so happy to have Alex on-board and know great things will continue to come from him.
Tanvi is one of our newest interns. She is currently working towards her Masters in Computer Systems from Northeastern. Tanvi comes to us all the way from India – this lucky intern has a mom who works for Air India so flights to and from home are easy to come by. Please keep your tray tables in the up and locked position! Tanvi has only been with us for about two weeks but she’s doing an excellent job on our engineering team. She misses her family, friends, and of course delicious Indian food. Tanvi loves how Currensee works like a team. Maybe she likes teams so much because she’s a sports fan (she’s crossing her fingers for the Celtics to make it all the way next year). Who doesn’t love a Boston sports fan!?
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