997 - Shopping spree

Lately I have been buying a lot of stuff.

• Bridle leather belt
• Rotary watch (regretted the shipping method which costed S$90, which should have been S$18 :()
• Nexus 7 2012 32 GB

Total cost above should be around S$600. I use this company called Borderlinx to ship my US stuff. They are acquired by Citibank I think, but I love their business. Very neat and clear.

Will be looking around for a comfortable working shoes, and also a trainers shoe for causal wear. Currently my working shoe is pretty hard at the bottom, and also tend to slip off easily. O and also a Havianas slipper to replace my current iPana one... sorry I don't know their spelling.

I have the tenacity to shop mostly due to my job promotion, and also change of job scope. Those items I bought are things which I wanted to get a long time, and now it is a time to reward myself :)

Business wise is also going good, even though nothing physical is made yet, but progress is made. Currently, I am just waiting for China's side to receive my ideal cap for them to replicate it.

Forex wise, I am currently reading a book by Steve Nison, called Samurai trading ...something. Haha, as you can see from my  funds, it has stopped moving.

Life is going fine now, better than what it previously was. Keep being humble, keep trying for my goals, and try to keep my spirits intact whenever there is any turbulence.

Thanks!

997 - New account

I remembered last time when reading Katherine Lim... can't really remember if its the correct name. She mentioned that it is very important to identify if it is a Range chart or Trending chart.

If you can identify it, maybe it gives you an idea how the chart might go. Below are 2 examples, one is a Trending chart, the other is a Range chart.

Range chart

Trending chart

I realized for Trending chart, it is harder to draw Support/Resistance line, as prices tend to mostly move in one direction, rather than bounce around.

539 - Deeper understanding (Support/Resistance)

I have 4 channels of hope for finance. Job, Forex, Property and Business.

Currently my job is the only one making improvement. I have been promoted, and I also transferred to another department that is doing more respectable stuff. But I am still a middle level employee. Just less embarrassing now. And last Friday, I rewarded the break through by buying myself a watch on Amazon. Excited to receive in March.

As for Forex, I think I will close my funds in GFT, and shift it to IG (finally).

And just now I am just looking at Candlesticks. No other meaningful things to do. And I guess I had a deeper understanding of things I already knew.

Why does so many people talk so much about Support/Resistance?

Because, that is the level where many big players will take actions. Maybe the government will intervene to stop its currency from further deteriorating. And it is interesting to see how the story unfolds at the level. Maybe the government is unable to stop the frenzy. And this causes a Breakout.

From what I think, it is the most meaningful thing about candlestick charts. And I think many people will feel the same way too. And those that can understand it, might be able to profit from it.

From the above graph, it makes sense why it is reasonable to pay attention to Support/Resistance zones. Quite a few times, Prices react to it and make big movements.

One reason why people react to the zones, is due to peoples' memory. Look at the peak at 1.37 in Dec 2012. 

And in 2014, many people still remember the huge slide in 2012. You can see the price dipping a few times at 1.37 in 2014, due to peoples' memory.

539 - Restart

I want to restart my trading again, and forget what I have been trying.
I will start with my new idea

• I look for a trade which I can hold for around 1 week.

544 - maybe

Maybe I should start trading Stocks, compared to Forex, as I am more familiar with companies, then nations' economy.

Actually, having a rough idea of how a particular product will perform is very important. It is like those people that trade during the bull of Gold. They just have to keep buying. The product will tend to go up in that direction. So it is quite fool proof, even if you enter the market in the wrong timing.

For example, currently, there is no signs that Google will be slowing down. It will just keep going up. They look invincible now, and is currently growing to become the greatest company in the world. And it scares many people, as many people see them as becoming too powerful. So it is very very bullish for them now.

So if I take the opportunity and ride on the bull, I will be able to make some money. As wise people know, they may not be as good as it seems. Peter Lynch always warn of companies that do too much acquisitions. But it will take a long time for the company to crash. And when it crashes, I might have already made money from the bull run, and at the same time protect myself with Stop Loss in case the company collapses.

546 - how bout maybe...

looking back at the charts, I thought maybe why not be a contrarian. Like what someone said, not sure if its Nial Fuller or the Naked Trader book, contrary happens more often then breakouts.

And also, I only want to hold for a few days, it may be a more suitable strategy.

Since I will be a contrarian trade, I will identify those charts that are ... can't remember the term from Kathy Lien book. But it is the opposite of trending. Which means that the currency pair tend to move up and down rather than 1 direction.

O... that term is 'Range'.

548 - The trades that died

NZD/CAD

GIMP

Gimp super basic

I am thinking of setting up a business.

It should be low capital, and it is also good to at least try to own a business once in my lifetime. I will never know if I will be good in it. The business I am thinking of is weekend and online based, so I can still keep my silly job to keep my main income flowing in. 

So for now, I have 2 other hope of having additional income, Forex and Business. For Business posts, I will put the word 'Business' in front of the title.

My business require me to use a software, Gimp. It is like Adobe Photoshop, but a free version of it. I had spent some time playing around with it today. The below is the most basic and important step to do, after you installed it. Which is to set it up for an easier interface. My current Gimp is version 2.8.

1. Go to Tools, New Toolbox
2. Drag it wide, and you can see 'You can drop dockable dialogs here'
3. Go to Windows, Dockable Dialogs, click Tool Options
4. Drag Tool Options into the Dockable Dialogs area
5. Go to Windows, Dockable Dialogs, click Layers
6. Drag Layers into the Dockable Dialogs area

Wah La~ you have a neat GIMP interface with only 2 windows.

Gimp again

I am starting to like this software.

Today I try to get quotes from China regarding my product. The sample is freaking expensive (USD 80), but I hope my bulk order will not be. If not it will kill my dreams of starting the business.

Back to the software, I learnt some more things today. One of the useful skill I can learn is to turn any photo into a cartoon. It will be super useful to my designs, and there will be endless things I can do if I can learn it well.

Anyway, about some things that I learnt:

• When I use Free Select tool, I am unable to get rid of the dotted lines. And when that is on, I cannot do any other things like Brush or Pencil. Solution : Click on Rectangle Select tool and then click on the image.

• When it comes to photo editing, GIMP arranges the top bar in order (below).When editing photos, go to Colors. Most basic feature to edit will be to use Brightness & Contrast. Another important feature is Threshold, though I have not use it yet. After Colors, go to Filters to add special effects.

Below is a video about what awesome thing GIMP can do, even though it is using Photoshop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB0SVZ27vfk

More knowledge bout GIMP

Learn many more things from watching youtube videos and trying it out myself.

• To resize an image, go to 'Scale'
• Fuzzy tool is one of the most amazing tools. If it don't work, remember to right-click the layer and 'Add alpha channel'
• To add new image, copy it, and paste in GIMP.
• If image is bigger than the checker background, go to Image, Fit Canvas size to Layers

I finally know how to sketch!

1. Filters, Artistic, Photocopy
2. Colors, Threshold, then adjust it.
3. Then use white paint and remove those dirty spots and make the sketch cleaner.
4. Next step is to use the original image again, duplicate and go to Colors, Posterize. This is for applying shading, which is very important for my cap designs.
5. Next step we go back to Threshold again and adjust the Posterized layer.
6. One very useful step is to flatten images into just one layer, when your layers start piling up. Of course, remember to save into a different file first before you regret. From there on, it is easier to make the image cleaner and also to change color.

Yeah!

Anyway, for better description, go to the below video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtQohJi9Mkc

How to convert certain colors in an image to another color.

(you might need to flatten the layers first)

1. Click on 'Select by Color tool' (Beside fuzzy tool)
2. Click on the color of the image you want to change
3. Once selected, run your brush all over the image

Another important feature is to convert all white color to Alpha (transparent).

This is very crucial to be able to print pictures onto a color of a cloth.

1. Go to Color, Color to Alpha

Yea~

I really made some good progress with the software, and produced some professional looking jobs. I am excited about my new venture!

Why sometimes I cannot use paint brush?!

• Because Paintbrush opacity is not 100%
• Because some areas are still being selected. Go to the Rectangle select tool and double click on the image.

How to save image with transparent background

• Export as .PNG 

How to scale image size properly

• Hold Control key and scale it. It will scale it in proportion

How to have a bigger background

• go to image, go to canvas size. type 3000 for height and width.

563 - strat

• Try Stop Loss Stop Profit ratio of 1:1
• Still play with support / resistance. Enter when it breaks through either one. 
• Enter after the first dip. Set Stop Loss below the low of the minor dip.

564 - Rethink

• which trades are more likely to win if I hold them for 5 days?
• It still involves resistance/support lines