Do One Thing Right

Piptopia, Rob Booker's site has a short post that says to do one thing right instead of getting tangled up with multiple financial instruments, indicators, time frames, and trading systems.  I've said this in the past and that's why I was concentrating on 1 currency pair and 1-2 trading systems associated with this currency pair.  But what happens when this system doesn't work anymore in the current market conditions? This is probably where patience comes into play.

I'm in the situation right now where my trading system isn't working out like it once was but I am sticking with it and trying to remain patient.  At the same time, I'm trying to explore other ways of trading and to be absolutely honest, don't know where to begin.  This has happened in the past to me, a period of confusion that sets in and takes me over.  I'm not trading recklessly but I feel frozen, unsure of anything.  My patience is being tested as I start to move away from my primary currency pairs to other currency pairs and multiple time frames.  I'm searching for something, anything but maybe I just need some time away to regroup.  Should I trade short-term or long-term, should I trade just the GBP/USD or start incorporating new currency pairs, should I try discretionary trading again or stick with system trading, should I….  What to do.  I wish I knew at this point what to do but one thing I do know is that I shouldn't jump in and start trading with this uncertainty hanging over me.  I'll continue to put trades in based on my systems but I'm not about to do something rash that would threaten my account balance.

When this confusion has happened in the past, some people have recommended that I just start trading in my demo account but I always felt that I couldn't take my demo account serious enough for it to be much help.  If I start using my demo account this time around, I'm not sure if anything will be any different.  Maybe I should consider trading smaller lots but this is just throwing away money at the expense of trying new things.  Therefore I'm going to try something new to see what type of involvement I can get from others to make trading more competitive and perhaps, more meaningful.  I've set up a FXContest on Oanda in which anyone can be a part of.  Quite simply, as long as you have a demo (FXGame) account with Oanda, you can join the contest.  FAQ's regarding the contest can be found at https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=help#q6.  If you already have an FXGame account, it's as easy as going to the "Forex Project Contest 1" and joining.  You can do this at https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=contestDetails&contestId=130.   If you currently don't have an FXGame account, they will instruct you on creating one and then you can join the contest.  The contest is slated to begin next Sunday, March 25th and will end 2 weeks later.  Performance is based on portfolio return.  They talk about this more in the FAQ's link above.  

I don't know if this is of interest to anyone but if it is, feel free to join.  I thought about offering some sort of prize that goes to the winner but I'd rather wait to see what type of involvement the contest gets first.  

Lastly, I just want to give credit to Booker's post that's mentioned in the first paragraph; you can find it here:  http://www.robbooker.com/blog/2007/03/20/do_one_thing_right.php