ForexSpirit

The euro remained relatively rangebound for the rest of the week.

On at least two different occasions I contemplated closing my lowest open position for a modest 30 pips profit, but refrained on both counts afraid that if I did so I would miss a big up move. Of course, in hindsight now I should have taken those 30 pips, in both cases. I would have been able to easily buy again at my original entry level at a low 1.25 level. After such a dramatic fall in the euro it of course makes sense that it would become rangebound for a time. Why I did not realize this I’m not sure, especially since I’ve made this mistake before.

We remain at the bottom of Q1. Dollar data this week was pretty bad, especially the trade deficit number, with retail sales being nothing to shout about either. Never the less, the dollar stood firm, being bought any time it made a dip. While my long term view is that the dollar will weaken, in the medium term it is looking increasingly likely that the dollar is going to hold its own. Since my trading methodology will generally only make money if my one direction is correct, or if the market is within a consolidation range, the strengthening dollar is not doing good things to my account balance.

I am also begining to review my broker and charting options.

On the brokerage side I am currently investigating EFX Group. They are a true forex ECN, with no dealing desk. They offer 100:1 leverage which is perfectly adequate for my trading style. While their website states that their lot size is $10,000, according to some forum posts that I have read you can reduce that to a lot size of $1,000; in other words micro lots are possible. I have successfully opened micro lots trades via their demo platform, so it seems to be true. The reduced spreads offered by trading through an ECN broker can make a big difference in the long run to the cost of trading.

Similarly, I am evaluating my charting options, as I’m not sure if it’s really viable to be paying close to $200 a month for my TradeNav charting (and associated DiNapoli subscription), when my take home profits each month are pretty close to that amount. The QuoteTracker charts that are free through EFX seem to be a reasonable alternative, although I worry that they won’t be available for too much longer, given the recent purchase of Medved (the developer of QuoteTracker) by an affiliate of TDAmeritrade. I can’t seem to get QuoteTracker to play nice using my demo EFX account. Waiting to hear back from them whether it’s even possible or not.