Is Rob Booker Forex Training Any Good?

This is a question I receive often and unfortunately I can no longer give an honest answer which is the only answer that I ever want to give. This is due to the fact that I haven’t dedicated myself to Rob Booker’s training since 2006 making my experiences outdated. The good news is that over the coming months, I will be able to give you an honest opinion because I am in the initial phases of giving his tutelage another go. This is possible because he has no expiration date on his training. According to his training contract, "You have as long as you need. You never have to pay me anything again…."

At first glance, there have been many changes to his training. His chart school, which are Rob’s trade ideas for students in video format appear to be more interactive. He provides a web conferencing platform where any of his students can attend and ask questions via messenging or voice. Other basic course materials seem unchanged such as the course introduction, FX basics, backtesting, support and resistance, moving averages, and similar topics. These are really basic though and I don’t see any reason why these would ever change. The course materials are also for the totally inexperienced forex trader, someone who has really never explored Forex outside of this course.

His primary trading system which has many components to it is called the Arizona Rules. He was just developing this system back when I lost interest in his training so I haven’t really explored it. If anything, it seems like Rob’s attempt is to provide his students with a well tested and possibly profitable trading system while also providing a comprehensive trading plan and system that one can take knowledge from to develop their own forex trading system.

I’m just getting involved again so I cannot comment further at this time but keep checking back here in the upcoming days and weeks for more details on Rob Booker Training. You can also read my previous and new experiences at http://www.forexproject.com/category/rob-booker-training/.

Popularity: 91% [?]

New Forex Trader Graphs

I’ve added a new section to the site that will display all different types of graphs of my performance.  Currently I have:

1. Monthly Profit/Loss in USD - This graph shows my profit/loss in USD for each individual month.  A month is treated as a totally separate entity from every other month.
2. My Equity Curve – a graph rebased to a starting level of $20,000 USD.  This shows my rolling profit/loss in USD from month to month.   The value of the last data point on the graph will show my most recent capital amount.
3. Monthly Profit/Loss Percentage - This graph shows my percentage gain or loss for each individual month. 
4. Rolling 12-month Profit/Loss Percentage - This graph will show my rolling percentage profit or loss for a 12-month period.   The value of the last data point on the graph will be my total profit/loss percentage for the year. 

I don’t know how much I’m going to increase or decrease these numbers after this month.  I’ve had an up and down month on the positive side.  I currently sit at +3.0% for March with no open positions.

The link to the graphs will always be located under the "Trader Rich" menu and is titled, "My Forex Graphs." 

Popularity: 4% [?]

Forex and Insomnia

I was mentioning to another trade via email that I have insomnia.  Personally, I’ve found that ever since I got into forex trading, I’ve slept a lot less.  I did burn out though sometime in the middle of 2007 and needed about six months to recover.  Try to pace yourself.  I can’t seem to do this.  It’s either full throttle or bust.  Anyway, I wanted to post this trader’s comments:

I think there’s a great element of sleeplessness for a lot of Forex trading related folk. I know I have it.

I’ve seen the ebbs and flows of a host of traders … Many get burned out, many peter off and do less, and a few break through the wall and come to a happy place where they feel comfortable and where they can still do things they enjoy (other than trading themselves).

I’m one who likes to take in a lot of information and distill it, yet it seems such a counterproductive philosophy when applied to trading. Maybe I’m trying to prove to myself that I can do this too in my own way, that I don’t NEED the absolute focus and structure advocated by others. I would argue that this is my structure and which provides me better focus. 

Whatever it is, I know it’s all part of my trading journey.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Pick Forex Trades Throwing Darts

I listened to an intriguing interview of forex/equity trader, Avery Horton on Trader Interviews yesterday and wanted to summarize some of what I heard.

Avery Horton, who has a Computer Science degree (like myself) is a self-taught trader who has been day trading since 2002.  He strongly believes that traders should not use lagging indicators.  In fact, he says that a better method would be the following:

1. Take any chart printout and pin it on the wall.
2. Walk back six feet from wall.
3. Throw a dart.
4. Draw a horizontal line where the dart hit. 
5. Go long if the price goes up to the line.
6. Go short if the price goes down to the line.

This would be an interesting approach.  Horton states that he is not a fundamental or technical analysis trader, but a statistical trader.   For instance, based on his studies, he feels like more often than not, if Apple stock (AAPL) moves a dime off the open, chances are that it's going to go up 50 cents more during the day.  He calls this milking the cow.  

He also believes that you would benefit most by trading 1 stock or 1 currency pair.

His Forex trading approach simply entails drawing horizontal lines to indicate a buy or sell zone.  Every hour he resets the buy/sell zones.  His real world example was trading the USD/JPY, where the pair opened at 108.53 at 10 o'clock.  He set his buy zone at 108.56 and his sell zone at 108.50.  108.50 was hit first and he took a short trade.  The pair declined to 108.41 and he was happy with the 9 pips he obtained in less than an hour.  He says if you net 4 pips an hour, you're rich.

Horton doesn't believe in traditional backtesting because he feels tick by tick data is needed.  He runs statistics instead.  One statistical example would be to find a stock that has an 80% chance of gaining 50 cents if it increases by 10 cents at the open.  In a specific example, he found that over the past 100 days, Apple (AAPL) has gone up a dollar or more from open to high 70 times.  He does a lot of stock screening looking for statistical advantages.

Popularity: 2% [?]