Short Euro, Long Dollar, Long Oil, Long Nat Gas

These are things that I am CONSIDERING taking positions in and out of.

I have been scalping the Euro on the short side, bouncing in and out, but I am not willing to hold anything for any significant period of time. It is just entirely too dangerous right now, especially coming into the end of the year. I made no trades today during the U.S open market hours, but I did make 4 Euro Futures trades between last night's currency open, and today's U.S. market close. These were all very small, only 1 contract. It's always good idea to slow your position size, entries/exits, and overall trading if you are going to participate during this period of the year. A lot of 'nonsense' takes place on the accounting side of things from Wall Street.

Overall its been a challenging year for traders, but the volatility has been something, which if properly respected, presented many amazing opportunities. I hope everyone has had a great year and is preparing for another interesting and exciting one in 2009!

I will most likely not be taking any major Index Option Scalps into 2009, my plan is to wait for things to calm down into some early year data, and the complacency that I believe will set in once President-Elect Obama is President Obama. Do not be surprised if you see the market trading lower a month from this post....

Regards,
Hawaiitrader

$RUT scalps, /6E scalps(EURO fx futures)

Aloha Nui Loa traders....

A few trades just closed up...My apologies for not posting, but it was hectic open, had to execute. Remember, our Zen/Samurai trader energy....Stay in the zone.


$RUT

RUW AZ 500 strike calls..
bought to open 20 contracts @ $21.20
sold to close 20 contracts @$24.20... booya trade. I could probably get a little more, especially with all the bullshit that the option writers are trying to get done today on the upside, but oh well. Profit is a profit, and that's a nice one. $6k in about 45 mins.

I also closed out a /6E futures scalp (Euro FX futures) . I had a short on 3 contracts from the break of the H+S pattern that formed and confirmed last night on the 1 min, 5 min, 30 min, and even the 1 hr chart. It was thing of beauty. With the currency trading, as of late especially, traders are finding the fundamentals which usually drive this market place are being given up for panic-book-squaring and massive liquidation/hedging by foreign banks and governments as everyone reacts to the quantitative easy and ZIRP environment. Expect further volatility throughout the end of the year. Things should become less PURELY technically based (currencies always are fantastic technical trading vehicles) an return to little bit more normal environment. What? 12 handle range on the EURO in 48 hours, that's not normal? I WISH!

Anyway my short /6E was taken at 1.4250 EURO and covered at 1.3970, 1.3960, and 1.3950. Very nice profit indeed, and we are on a bit of a run here, so I am super pumped that the weekend allowes for a natural break. As traders, taking breaks at the right moment can extend streaks, break slumps, and in general can be thought of as being similar to proper execution of entries/exits, but instead for your psychology. Do not ever assume that you can trade every day, all the time, and exercise a consistent ability to implement your edge in a way that is cold, objective, and unemotional.

GOOD LUCK!
Aloha...

HELLO TRADERS!

Aloha Everyone! I am back, refreshed, and ready to rock with plenty of new blog entries, trade strategies, and some interesting adventures into new markets. My apologies to all of you who follow the blog (its a small group of us!), the past two months have been extremely busy and challenging to say the least. Ebbs and flows, ups and downs, such is the life of a trader. I hope everyone is managing to do well, or at least hedge off portfolio risk during what has been a most historic period of time. In regards to my own trading, I am chugging along day by day, but I have picked up a few more markets than I have traded in the past, so I have been busy learning, researching, and trading. I hope we can all learn from these new experiences, as well as continue to do so with the core of my trading, option inflection scalping. Just wanted to let everyone know that there will once again be current updating of my ongoing trading, and definitely feel free to once again ask any questions via email!
Regards,
Nigel/Hawaiitrader