Trading Zen Now

Home Equity Loans

A home equity loan is a loan secured against the equity in your home. It allows you to borrow money you need for home improvements, debt consolidation, pay for other major purchases or for college and educational expenses. With this type of loan you receive a lump sum and are then responsible for making the regular monthly payments.

You can take out a fixed interest loan which means that you know in advance what your monthly costs will be and can plan accordingly.

What are the Benefits of Home Equity Loans

With this type of loan you may be able to achieve the following:

1. You can offset interest expenses against your taxes like a normal mortgage.
2. The set up costs can be lower than refinancing your current mortgage.
3. Avoid Interest rate hikes, when you take out a fixed rate loan.

There are various cost associated with setting up the loan, make sure you are fully aware of them.
Is now the time to take an Equity Loan?

Well, to a large degree that depends on your circumstances, generally the economy seems to be turning around and improving. This means that there is a fair chance that house prices have bottomed out and you may profit from any rise in property value over the next few years. That is by no means a certainty but overall, as seen in the stock market the mood is optimistic.

It is not recommended to take out such a loan for acquiring luxuries that you cannot afford, it should be used to add value to your life and property. For example, paying for college education will add value, improving your home will add value etc. Debt consolidation can be a great help as your monthly bills can decrease and the interest you pay will be much lower than what you pay on most credit cards. Use it sensibly.
Where can You find these loans?

You can approach a lender directly or you can use a broker to ease the process for you, try Easy Mortgage Advisors
Debt Consolidation, Is it worth it?

Are you looking to reduce your monthly expenses? reduce the interest you pay your creditors? Credit cards, car loans etc.

For example you may have 5 credit cards with an average interes rate of 12%, you can negotiate individually with each one and come to an agreement, this is an option open to you. The other option is to set up a debt consolidation program, structured by professionals who will act on your behalf and generally achieve better results. This is their business and they are experts at it. The bottom line is that you can have one monthly payment at a much better negotiated rate. You can have any late fees that you have accrued negotiated and rolled into the one monthly payment. Generally with a good program you can reduce the amount of time it takes you to get out of debt by several years, in some cases 4-5 years as opposed to 20.

Some of these companies will offer counseling as part of the deal and help you set up a personal debt relief program.

Some good sources for advice are:

debt consolidation headquarters

Loan Modification Today

It may be a good idea to get a National credit report to see exactly what your status is - NationalCreditReport.com

Debt Consolidation Loans: Useful Means To Get Rid Of Your Debt

2009-10-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

Debt Consolidation Loans: Useful Means To Get Rid Of Your Debt

You should not be astonished to know that growing numbers of people are looking for debt consolidation loans as a way of managing and lowering their debt burden. Over the last one or two years, the financial sector is undergoing huge accumulation of consumer debt.

The most basic advantages of a debt consolidation loan are the following:

You can merge all your debt payments to one easy and controllable monthly payment that enhances your monthly cash flow. In this way, you can pay off your debts quicker with one affordable debt consolidation loans than you attempted to pay off your debts individually by making the minimum monthly payments.
Merging all your debts into one monthly payment helps you save a lot of money on your interest payments. Rather than paying interest for each and every debt, you just have to pay interest for your consolidation loan.
Debt consolidation loans are useful in bettering your credit history if you pay off the loan totally and on time. This would frequently raise your credit score and it can persuade a creditor to offer credit to you. If they find out that you paid off your consolidation loan entirely and in a disciplined manner, they would be more than willing to provide credit to you for the new car or home you wish to buy.
Debt consolidation loans can better your standard of living. Rather than suffering all the time for making the monthly minimum payments for all your cards, merging your debts into one debt consolidation loan can relieve plenty of strain both in your and your family’s life. It is simpler to make payments for one loan and managing just one creditor. You need not bother about additional charges, late fees and worsening credit that is caused by not paying the bills on time.

There are multiple advantages of a debt consolidation loan. It lets you pay off your debts faster, but, if you’re not cautious, your situation might get worse in the end if you can’t pay off your debt consolidation loan. You might land up piling up further debt. It is essential that the debt consolidation loan is within your means and you’re dedicated to get rid of your debt and making regular payments.

Affiliate marketer, you are doomed to lose your pants with 'Pay Per Click'

2009-09-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

Why? I hear you asking, the answer is very simple, it's all a numbers game. Let us look at a real example and include the numbers to show you exactly what I mean.

I've chosen a pretty popular keyword to start with “Make Money Online”, and using Google's Adwords estimator to have your Ad placed in the top 3 positions of the sponsored links, you'd need to spend a minimum of $2.09 per click, let's call it $1.5 per click as we're happy to our Ad in position 4-7. We'll set our budget at $50 per day during the test period and let's look at the probable outcome. We run the test for 2 weeks, so our total spend on PPC is $700. The estimated number of clicks per day at $1.5 per click is a maximum of 212, and we'll use 200 for arguments sake.

This will have generated a maximum of 466 clicks over a period of 2 weeks and cost $700. Now we know that it is conservative to assume that 1% of clicks will convert and become a sale, which means at best we've made 5 sales costing us $700. This is something that all the PPC merchants hide from you, but we all know that a large number of people just happy click their way around the internet with no intention of buying. A large number of potential buyers, will see your Ad, note the price and product specifications and then go and compare to other products. Even if they do come back to your product, they may have found it through another affiliates site.

Now, let us assume you've picked an excellent product which pays you $50 per sale, you've now made $250 and spent $700, a net loss of $450. This is of course if you don't get refund requests, and let's face it, many people will try a product, realize it doesn't work for then and ask for a refund.

Now, you may say I am harsh, so lets look at less popular keyword (the product will also be less popular). I've chosen a Clickbank product paying $21 per sale with a gravity above 300. I then analyzed the keywords used by the vendors squeeze page and finally chosen 'How to get a six pack'. I've narrowed my sales down to the US, Canada, Uk and Australia as the keyword may not be used in other countries, or may be mistaken for a six pack of beers. So, the average cost per click is $0.30 and we can anticipate around 20 clicks a day (Google Adword estimator). We go through the same excersize we did before. 2 weeks will then cost us $84 and generate 280 clicks, once again we assume a 1% take on so we've made 2.8 sales (Refunds not considered), total gross profit is $58.8, total project is a loss of $25.

Now let us look at the picture from the Vendor's perspective. Look at case 1, which is an example of a potential big hitter. The Vendor is a well know name and has attracted 1000 affiliates, some of them using PPC and some have a big list, so their campaign is much cheaper than yours. Now you're thinking, ok, I'll buy a list, forget it, that is even a better way to waste your money, the veteran affiliates have built their list over months and years and it's a good list with hungry buyers. But back to the Vendor, you have made 5 sales, you lost $450 and the Vendor made a gross profit of $250. Like you 950 of the affiliates made 5 sales each and like you, quit as they were losing money. The other 50 made cheap sales via their lists and via Free Traffic methods we'll discuss later. From the 950 losers the vendor made a gross profit of $237,500 and let's assume the other 50 sold 20 units each, that's another $50,000, total Vendor gross profit $287,000. And you my friend have just lost $450.

Not convinced, still think you can make money as an affiliate using PPC? Wake up fast, don't spend your kids college money, you're better off buying a lottery ticket every week. Why do you think so many big names are selling their 'How to do PPC' systems? They are selling them because they no longer work for them, and because they make their money selling tools, not products. (remember that the only people making consistent money during the gold rush were the tools vendors).

So, is it all doom and gloom for affiliate marketers? NO. There are many ways to get free organic traffic to your squeeze page or even directly to your affiliate link (via redirection). Whatever you do, forget about traffic exchanges, they are full of happy clickers who click for credit, so that other happy clickers will visit their sites. They have as much intention of buying from you as you have of buying from them. Forget about buying lists, these people receive dozens of emails a day through some opt in process and are the same 'happy clicker' variety, keep your wallet firmly in your pocket.

Ok, so here's the deal, you can rank high in any of the search engines and you get lots of free traffic, it's simple to do but requires work and some effort, however, once you start, it starts snowballing and you get a ripple effect (I despise the term Viral – makes me feel like I have a disease). I cannot give this information out for free, as I am sworn to secrecy, just click here . If you are happy to make an effort and see results, go for it, if you're hoping your fairy godmother will wave a wand and make you rich don't bother.

Best Wishes
Mark
http://eslumdog1.com/

Random Traders Thoughts

2009-07-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

1.

‘Do not move unless it is advantageous,
Do not execute unless it is effective,
Do not challenge unless it is critical’

Sun Tzu

When you sleep you sleep, when you eat you eat, when you trade you trade – that’s it.

Ask yourself why you trade, and avoid the obvious answers, such as I want to make money, money is the result; money is just the end product, a reflection of your energy. Think, you can get a steady job, no risk, and make regular good money.

Why do some people play music, even if they don’t become as big as the Beatles? Why do some people become charity workers in Africa?
Your reason for trading will to a large degree determine your level of success. Do you love doing it; does it make you a better person? Be truthful, perhaps you are a gambler by nature and are busily satisfying your addiction right now, Remember the unexamined mind is a wild beast.

There are many factors that can contribute to your failure as a trader and possibly only a few that contribute to your overall success. First, examine your own behavior, examine your own expectations. Do you expect to make a killing every time? Do you expect it to be easy? Do you expect it to be damn easy? Your expectation will determine your results, one way of another. If you’re expecting to make a killing, you probably will at some point, but you will possibly lose the same amount again and again in the process.

This document is deliberately as unstructured as the market; as it is only out of the chaos that islands of high probability arise. Firstly, invest in yourself, it’s easy to be fooled by the massive hype and marketing out there, the systems that are put on auto-pilot to produce vast riches while you sleep or play golf. “Secrets” that have been handed down and are a guarantee for immense wealth, ha. Old ideas re-packaged and sold to the desperate masses that have been used and abused over the years. Mostly, all these ‘new age’ ideas are a re-write of Lao Tzu, ‘The Tao’, now called manifestation, the Secret, the law of attraction and other cleverly marketed buzz words. Search the web and you will find millions of sites that have the answer.

All this sounds pretty depressing, is there absolutely nothing out there that works? Maybe the answer lies within, not some easy, quick-fix that will make it all right. Think about it, you say things like ‘I am a trader’. Who is? Indeed, what is that I am? Where was “ I ” before you were born and where will that “ I “ go after you’re gone?

Everything that exists, exists only in your perception as if you were not there. If you had no consciousness, would it exist at all? One can have no certainty about that. Does a tree falling in a forest, when no one is present, make a noise?

So where is all this leading to, and what has it got to do with trading?

I believe that all exists in the mind, and in the mind alone. The results of your trading are already know to your mind, as your mind is part of a much bigger mind. You are a representation of something much bigger, an all knowing something, an all encompassing something, or maybe nothing.

So, let us assume for a moment that your mind is capable of knowing when to pull the trigger, and when to enjoy your prey and that if you allowed your mind to trade for you and you left everything that clutters it out you would become a master trader.

Alas, our minds are full of all sorts of ideas and notions. Stuff we’ve accumulated over the years, mostly due to our deficient education system, our obsession with defining the indefinable and placing everything in neat little boxes which we can open at will when we need to. I will not go into the background for all this, get yourself a copy of the Tao and convince yourself that your formal education has not been as beneficial as it’s made out to be.

Let me describe some trading scenarios you may be familiar with, bear in mind that I am not going to describe any trading system or methodology as I am writing this for those who have already recognized the need to have a basic system they can follow. Although, having said that, let’s look at a completely non-structured approach to trading first.

We all know that the market goes up, goes down and consolidates, and that even while it consolidates it does not remain static, it may move 5 points up and the 5 points down and so forth. So think of this; you turn on your trading platform and you bring up a chart of any instrument you like or even one you’ve never traded before. You have a quick look at it (lets say a 1 minute chart) and determine that it’s in a minor up trend, so you buy it, you now have a 50/50 chance of winning. It goes up 10 points and you’re happy, you think, hmm, I’ll hang on to this for 100 points, it continues to nudge up slowly, you leave your stop loss order say 15 points below where you entered to give it ‘room to breath’. Suddenly it drops 40 points completely out of the blue as far as you’re concerned, as you have no way of knowing that some big player has just sold his first few lots. Your stop loss is now 3 points away from the price and you think. I’ll give it more room to correct, I can’t be wrong, I refuse to be wrong, and so you move it 20 points down. unbeknown to you, that same big player now unleashes the rest of his position on the market and it drops another 50 points, your stop loss is now toast and you’ve been slipped, so now from being up 30 points, you’re down 50.
Something happens to you now, you get angry. damn this, you think, just a stop run and you buy it again, this time you place the stop 60 points below your entry, so they don’t do it to you again. Other market players small or big think differently, they start selling and there you go again. This process may be familiar to you.

OK, you’re not stupid, you have your system and you look for high probability set ups only. But the same thing happens as described above, except here, you are really furious as you stuck to your rules and still came a cropper. Now your whole stance becomes charged, you start seeing set-ups where none exist, you start your revenge and end up losing double what you were willing (assuming you were) to lose, and the cycle goes on.

Here’s another one, you play your set-up and it works beautifully, you make a killing, more than double what you expected; now your ego is well happy and pleased with itself. You have just made 100 points, so you think, hmmm, I’m in the zone, I’m on a roll. The next set-up arrives and boy, you’re in faster than Speedy Gonzales, but alas it’s a loser; 20 points down. Never mind you think, still up 80. This goes on, and by the end of the day you’re down 100 points, you’re angry as hell and feeling depleted and frustrated. Sound familiar? No? You’re a master trader, close this document and call me and I will take lessons from you.

Still reading? So you know what I’m talking about, good, we can move on from here.
Let’s take a look at how we can correct these scenarios and trade consistently and successfully. These are my views and are based on my own experience, you can take them or leave them, or you can take some and not others, hey, you are a free person.

Meditate before you trade, why? Because it will stop the incessant chatter going on inside your head, it will stop you thinking things like ‘if I lose this my wife will kill me’ and others…. It will let you focus on the trade itself. The trade has nothing to do with you, it’s neither personal nor impersonal, and it is just what it is. If it’s a good one you will make money, if its not you will have incurred an expense (not a loss) and you will objectively move on. What type of meditation? Any at all, as long as your mind is empty of garbage. I use a form of Zen meditation that I’ve adapted to my own needs, if you’re looking to strictly follow someone else’s discipline , think again, do what suit you, but get the mind to stay quiet.
Transcend greed and fear, both will harm your trading. It’s often said that when all are greedy, become fearful and vice versa. To me that is nonsense, all you can do is react to market conditions, without any emotion at all. The market does indeed represent a plethora of emotions, and you need to respond to them as you see them happening right in front of your eyes, if you add yours to them you will become just another statistic. The market neither knows nor cares about your hopes, aspirations and needs. The charts you look at are a completely objective picture of what is now.
Have a clear idea of what your set up is, and how much you are willing to spend to see if it works, coupled with your money management system (I won’t go into that). Simply stated – never spend more than 3-5% of your working capital in any one day, and if you have 3-4 days like that consider taking a break as something is amiss.
Have a daily target in mind and once you achieve it go and do something else. Unlike most professions, you do not get paid for doing more or spending more time. You are your own boss, be gentle with yourself. If you have to go on after you’ve hit your target and you’ve satisfied yourself with the answer you’ve given, trade tiny lots, as now you are only doing it because you love it and have nothing else to do. Better, get another hobby, go to the gym, read a book or just go for a walk or even an afternoon nap. Why have a target at all? Because your mind then has a clear idea of what’s expected of it and will not come under further pressure. It will have achieved the goal you set for it and as you reward it, it will learn that it has done well and do it again.
Trading is like hunting, you spend hours in the bush and only pounce when the best opportunity arises, anyone can pull the trigger but only a few can hit the target time and time again, so when you are not pulling the trigger you are still in ‘trading mode, even though it appears that you are doing nothing. In fact you are doing the most difficult part of this business.
Many books say ‘let your profits run and cut your losses short quickly’, easy to say, less easy to do. Sure, by all means, if the deer gets away, don’t chase it, preserve your energy for a better opportunity; few tigers go hungry for long. As for letting your profits run, here you can employ various methods, you can remove profit in stages as you see it accumulating, or you can remove all at the first sight of any retracement, and the wait for good place to re enter with a very small stop loss, not risking more than a fraction of what you’ve already banked. In either case you may have left 100 points on the table, that’s fine, other tigers need to eat too, feel gratitude for what you’ve got and off to the golf course you go.
Be thankful for what you get, many others are giving it away. You see, trading is a very natural state, we are always trading, whether it be emotions, feelings, goods or what not, there is enough, more than enough for everyone

So, have I given you any practical advice? Probably, but will it help your trading, that is the question

It will only help if you are willing to accept what is, that’s exactly what the market is, a statement of ‘what is’. If you are part of the herd, you will be prey, if you separate yourself from the herd you will become the hunter.

Finally, to become a ‘master trader’ you must master yourself first, and this is a lot harder than it sounds, there is a sentence in the Tao that says ‘Intelligent people know others but enlightened people know themselves,

Here is a list of books/sites that I find highly useful:

Related Ezine article - Mindset
“Tao Te Ching” – Lao Tzu
“Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” Charles Mackay
‘Trading in the Zone” – Mark Douglas
“Fooled by Randomness” Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“Come into my trading room” Alexander Elder

Finally, our own website:

This is the chatroom I co run during the week

No marketing hype, here we call some good trades and better even, keep each other out of bad ones. You will also find various videos of trades and set ups, and in the room itself, 3 trading plans by 3 successful traders.
click here

Best wishes and great success,

Mark Meir

By the way, if like me you are into Video games (I find playing them is a very good practice for scalping), you can get paid to test new games, check out here.

Cool Laptop site Here

Living without fear

2009-05-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Living without fear is the only way to make it in the trading game, in fact it is the only way to make it, full stop. Check out this video, Guy Finley's course has been by far more effective than any trading course I took.

Financial Crisis

2009-05-11T06:25:00.001-07:00

I've attached a link to some truly inspiring commentary on the financial crisis. It is in fact the previous financial crisis that got me trading for a living and I've never looked back. Check it out and I hope it helps.

Financial Crisis

Posted using ShareThis

The UnPossessable

2009-05-09T07:22:00.001-07:00

Check this out, some more stuff that has inspired my trading and life...

The Un-Possessable

Posted using ShareThis

A+Special+Welcome+Message+From+Guy+Finley+-+The+Secret+of+Fearless+Living

2009-05-07T01:25:00.001-07:00

Hi,

I've added this video from Guy Finley as this and all of his material has contributed immensley to my trading success. Please check it out.

A Special Welcome Message From Guy Finley - The Secret of Fearless Living

Posted using ShareThis

Guy Finley's Wisdom

2009-05-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a sample of Guy Finley's teachings, I have found them immensley beneficial to all areas of my life including my trading ability:

Real Success is not measured by what you are driven to achieve, but by what you can quietly understand.

Letting Go is the natural release which always follows the realization that holding on hurts.

Why seek answers to tormenting questions when it is possible to realize there is no intelligence in torment? So simply drop those painful questions.

See the upset not as an exterior circumstance to be remedied, but as an interior condition to be understood.

Your secret strength knows that your secret weakness isn't really yours at all.

Letting Go is all about finding out what you are not, and then having the courage to leave it at that.

Instead of always asking how to get others to approve of you ... learn to ask: What do I really want, the applause of the crowds or to quietly have my own life?

Chasing after a pleasure to ease a pain is like running after a breeze to cool you down.

Real freedom is the absence of the self that feels trapped, not the trappings that the self requires to make it feel free.

Letting Go of yourself is Letting Go of your problems, for they are one and the same.

The only thing you lose when you Let Go of something you are afraid to live without is the fear itself.

Go along with your longing to be Limitless.

- Guy Finley "

Trade conscious

London open trades

2009-05-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

Hi,
I am posting a video of this mornings trades, I recorded them after the event as I was unsure how the recorder will affect the speed of execution. Seems ok so I will take recordings of live trades later and post them here.
On the whole I meditate for an hour prior to trading as this places me firmly in the here and now and allows full focus. See my recommendations for sites and resources in previous posts.

Just to remind you that becoming a master trader is not the goal, the goal is to master yourself, excellent trades will then be natural. Breathing and a calm state of mind are crucial.
To assist you with the right frame of mind consider purchasing Guy Finley" rel="wikipedia">Guy Finley's Secrets of being unstoppable

I occasionally have some spare capacity in our live trading room, leave a comment with your email and I'll send you an invitation when seats are available.
So here's the video, enjoy and commentc

Free Forex Trading Tools: Factors That Affect the Forex Markets in the Short Term

2009-04-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

Free Forex Trading Tools: Factors That Affect the Forex Markets in the Short Term

2009-04-28T06:26:00.001-07:00

To exchange blogging links go to http://ping.fm/lnCHF

2009-04-22T09:05:00.001-07:00

As we enter the doldrums, best to stop trading, unless already in a profitable position with the stop at breakeven. Off to Gym, have a blast

2009-04-22T07:09:00.001-07:00

Crude oil inventories out soon, watching the price action reaction. Staying reactive to benefit

2009-04-22T06:50:00.001-07:00

If you'd like to take advantage of economic announcements try this http://ping.fm/DKGZ5
I have been using it for 2 years, great software and makes news trading easy.

2009-04-22T06:19:00.001-07:00

With the UK budget surpises and earning, been a busy morning here in London. Stayed conscious and made a pile. New York session looking promising.
Cheers, Mark http://ping.fm/26W2z

2009-04-22T03:02:00.001-07:00

Hi,
I trade for a living but do it in a unique way, please check my blog at http://ping.fm/yeG7P
Cheers
Mark

Trading Zen in the Now

2009-04-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hi,

My Background

My name is Mark Meir, I live in London (UK) and I have been trading for a living since 2001. Prior to that I owned and ran a Software consultancy, managing large projects for clients around the world. By the end of 2001 I had decided that I'd had enough flying all over the place and managing large teams of people, so I then decided to focus my attention on day trading. I have been trading part time for over 25 years and have had some success and some failure, overall making enough money to convince myself that I can do it full time.

I read dozens of books and went on several training courses and managed to stay pretty much at break even for a couple of years. Luckily I had enough reserves to sustain my family from the time I ran the software business. About 2 years ago I discovered (or internalised) what I now call 'trading in the now'. This is based on my understanding of a combination of Zen, meditation and other contemporary writers about the now.

How it Works?

There are numerous ways to trade and there are many different systems and methods published in both books and on various 'paid for' websites. Some are good and some are useless, but what they have in common is that they do not necessarily fit with the way you are, and that is the most important factor. In recent years we've seen the rising of numerous trading robots, which are simply programs that trade on your behalf, some work some of the time and some never work, the main reason I don't use them is that I love trading and I love the ability to create something based on my own knowledge and understanding. If you log on to clickbank market place you will see numerous robots for sale, see how their sales surge initially making the software writers rich and how the sales diminish over several months. Let's face it, if they worked all the time and made consistent money why would the authors sell them in the first place? Just put them on auto pilot and go and do something else.

So, why trade at all?

If your sole purpose is to make money, you may do well for a while but after some time you will notice that it becomes less profitable and you may even start losing money. Trading is an art and an activity that you must love and enjoy doing to be consistent, like most things in life. For some it is love at first sight and for others it takes time to fall in love, but as you fall in love with the action of trading, there can be no stopping you, you will learn to enjoy both the winning and the expense (what others call losing) trades, as each expense takes you closer to the winner. I will explain later how to ensure that the expenses remain low and the winners grow.

You can easily train yourself to trade successfully, and there are numerous books that I've read, although there are now only 3 books that I would recommend to avoid confusion and information overload:

Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas
Come into my trading room by Alexander Elder
Day Trading the currency market by Kathy Lien

Self realization

I believe that to trade successfully you must understand yourself, understand what motivates you and act in the Now, then you must learn several methods that you apply consistently and prosper from. You need to understand your time frame, some people keep a trade open for days and weeks, and some for minutes and hours. My personal style is the very short term, between a few seconds and a few hours, sometime a scalp (very short term trade) develops nicely and once you can bring it into profit you can decide to let it run for longer for greater profits. Most importantly, never let a winning trade become a loser. You also need to discover the best times of the day to execute your trades, I trade the London open (08:00 GMT to 10:300 GMT) and the US open (14:30 GMT to 17:00 GMT). Occasionally I trade the last hour of the US close. The reason I chose these times is that they are usually the most volatile and hence your trades move fast. Secondly I do not like to sit in front of the screen for too many hours, so often I can make my daily target (more about that later) within the first hour and then decide whether to continue or go for more. It is very important to trade what you see and not what you thinks, stay in reactive mode whilst trading and when you feel tired or confused stop trading. Know your own limits and stay conscious at all times, this will stop you from taking both revenge trades and trades that do not match your own setups.

Meditation:

As I live in London, I get up pretty early (around 05:30 AM) and meditate for an hour before breakfast and before I start trading. The reason for this is that places me firmly in the Now, removes all illusions and puts me in a calm and alert mode. I then read a very limited view of the market and what happened overnight, as I do not want to start my day biased one way or another. Bias can be dangerous and a fixed mind can cause you to throw money at your beliefs rather than at what the market is so clearly stating. When it comes to meditation, there are numerous types and you need to select what is best for you. The benefits stretch way beyond your trading (but that is out of scope for this blog). Personally I use a Zen meditation technique but if you google mediation you will surely find a form that suits you.

Here are related books that I recommend based on my own experience:

Busting loose from the Money game by Robert Scheinfeld
The Way of Zen by Alan W. Watts
The essential laws of Fearless Living by Guy Finley
The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the hidden dimensions of your life by Deepak Chopra.
The Power of now by Eckhart Tolle

Just check the reviews in Amazon.com and choose one or two that tickle your fancy, all are excellent.

There are numerous others which you can find for yourself, and there are many free website with further information and resources. You can also find free MP3 with guided meditations that may be easier to start with. My favourite is http://www.freemeditationmusic.org/.

Another program that I highly recommend is Guy Finleys' audio visual material (some of it free and some for sale) available at:Guy Finley Organization

Finally, and just to reiterate, a daily meditation will enhance your trading and will enhance your life.

Trading Methods:

There are numerous methods and systems out there, I will show you 2 simple methods that I use here and will update this blog with additional methods and videos of their use over the coming days and weeks. I use very few indicators and rely mostly on my focus and ability to react to the price action. This is easily achieved when you remain focused, based in the now and avoid all distractions:

For charting I use MT4 which is a free charting package and it has all the instruments that I trade, namely – currencies, Index futures, Oil (WTI) futures and Natural gas future.

To download MT4 go to - http://www.metatrader4.com/

You will need to select a broker that has the instruments of your choice. You do not have to open an account with that broker and the package is completely free.

Method 1 – Scalping the index futures:

This is a very simple method and is based on momentum trading, it's very fast and requires 100% focus and attention to what is happening in the market. In my morning (US time) I trade the Dax futures based on the tick chart, 1 minute chart, and I also have a 5 minute chart up and running to see the bigger picture. I also have a Dow 5 minute and 1 minute chart open as the Dax (or FTSE) tend to follow the Dow. Over the coming days I will record this type of trade and post it here, so stay tuned. The same trade can be executed on the S&P futures, again watching both it and the Dow charts.

This trade is usually entered a few minutes after the US stock exchange opens. My charts have the following indicators set up:

10 ema, 14 period Bollinger Bands (standard deviation 2) and another set of Bollinger band (standard deviation 1).

When the price hits a Standard deviation 2 BB, I watch the reaction to the event and as the price is rejected (if it is) I enter a trade in the opposite direction, as this is a momentum trade I do not allow it any “breathing space”, it either works (usually) or does not, there is no hanging around. If the trade goes against me by 2-3 ticks I exit and wait patiently for the next one. If the trade goes my way I continue to watch the tick and 1 minutes charts and exit the position once the momentum has stopped. Again, no waiting is involved, you exit and if the trend continues, we can re enter again on a retracement. The areas to watch out for are the mid BB and the 10 ema as they may offer support or resistance, once the 10 ema is cleared there is a stronger likelihood that the price will make it's way to the next BB. If the price does hit the opposite BB, then exit and wait to see if it kicks that band to an extreme. If it does, do not jump in again, wait until the price comes back to either the 10 ema of the standard deviation 1 BB and then re enter. Once again, no leeway is give, 2-3 ticks against you tell you to get out and wait for a better opportunity. If it does go your way then trail your trade (manually) and exit once the momentum dries up.

This is a typical reactive 'trade in the now' type of trade and I often have over 100 of these trades in one day. You can tailor the number of trades to your style, or you can set a daily point target which once reached you stop trading. I usually set my target at 50 points (achieved most days) and stop trading once hit. This can be achieved in 10 minutes and can take 2 hours sometimes, obviously the more the market trends, the easier it is.

Method 2 – Scalping the News:

This is a method I've been using for several years. There are numerous economic announcements during each month, some of them are tradeable and others are weak. As a rule of thumb, the bigger and more important the announcement the better the trade is likely to be. The main events are employment figures from the US, UK and Australia, CPI figures from most of the G20 countries, GDP figures, Interest rate announcements and many other. These trades are what I call 'Spike trades' and entered as the news comes out and exited a few seconds later (usually). It is not possible to enter the trade manually so I use software that is programmed to hit the sell or buy button once the news is out. These type of trades make a good profit, but require good timing and focus. This software is available from Fast Economic News

You will find training videos and set up instructions.

Finally,

This is just the tip of the iceberg, no further complications exist, just experience and a desire to do it. I will continue to update this blog with more methods and videos over the coming days, so please feel free to come back and check.

I participate in a daily chatroom that both educates and makes various calls throughout the day. If you'd like more info please check http://grouptraders.com/