tactical trader

So here we are in another week, will it be as painful as the last one? Who knows?

The pain I refer to is not the markets; it is the never ending diet of football that is driving me mad. When will people realise that not everyone is interested in the World Cup, or any other cup for that matter. It must be getting worse because I just can’t remember quite so much hype in recent times, I was particularly amazed to watch the news last week when the headline story (yes, the headline!!!) had an outside broadcast from a house up in the North that was done up like a Christmas Tree in England regalia.

We were treated to the image of a beer swilling loud mouthed family enjoying the spectacle of England failing to beat Paraguay on anything other than an own goal. I dread to think how much they were paid to behave in this way for the camera (don’t get me started on Big Brother) and I don’t really care, what I do care about is the continual decline in TV standards that make the damn thing hardly worth turning on.

Now,on to the markets.

Certainly there can be little doubt that the correction is now well under way although it concerns me greatly that more and more pundits are talking of major downturns from which we will not recover for some time. It is not helping that there is so much focus on interest rates especially as so little has really changed in the last month. So what are the key points for me this week?

Gold has attracted my interest on the short side, I had hoped to catch it before the break under $600 but I was too late. A short trade with a tight stop is my plan here. Active day trading is proving even more traumatic than usual but there are huge profit opportunities provided careful money management is applied, whilst these profits are not paying back my losses on the longer term they at least ease the pain a bit.

The real challenge on the long side of course is knowing when the buying opportunity comes along and whether, after a roller coaster summer; I will have the courage to buy into it at the levels required. I hope so but time will tell.

I caught a bit of the ITV news last night (the only bit that was not devoted to the blasted football) to discover them talking about the markets. Of particular concern was the idiot who was explaining how everything is now likely to turn around thanks to higher interest rates, as if investors are not spooked enough already. Still, the investors that really decide our fortunes are hardly likely to watch this rubbish and in actual fact bearish sentiment from the populist media is often a good contrarian indicator.

I have been given a trial subscription to a Forex alert service and look forward to trying it out, I’ll keep you posted. I am also read testing a system that claims to be ‘the safest and most accurate charting system ever’, I will forgive you for smiling but I live in hope that one day just one thing will live up to its promise. Once again I will keep you posted.

I am delighted to say that my long awaited second book is now finished, you can find details here Link. The next challenge is to finish the first one (on trading) which was put on hold for the Level 2 one. I am off to Italy soon for a two week writing break; believe this and you will believe that the fat and loud family from the North were for real!

Seriously I must get on with it as it was started a year ago; at least it will take my mind away from the turbulent markets, the World Cup and Big Brother.