My Online Journey to Financial Freedom

The ClickBank Pirate and no more PIPS

2009-08-13T11:28:00.001+08:00

Do you notice the change in the link with my signature at the end of my posts? In the last few days I have been replacing my ProfitNetBusiness link with something else and today I made a decision to stop the hosting of that website which is my PIPS site. In case you are not aware, PIPS is the Plug In Profit Site that I joined almost one and a half years ago at the start of this Blog. And after this length of time, I have not made any sale so it is time that I move on in other directions. The PIPS concept is getting a bit old as there are more and more innovative programmes in the market. I am sure there are many who are successful using PIPS and there are many more who has failed, myself included. I cannot really blame the system since it is human who fails as I have not really promoted my site other than through by Blogs. PIPS is just a starting point and those who have succeeded have put in a lot of effort so do not expect an easy path in PIPS or in any other internet programmes with very different approaches.

I have been thinking of dropping PIPS for some time but did not do so since I could not find a suitable programme in its place. But last week I found something which is very appealing - the Clickbank Pirate! The main draw is that you do not need a website and it is a 100% turnkey system for making Clickbank commissions on autopilot. Of course there is a monthly subscription fee, how else can they survive without this? Since I could get in with an introductory one month trial offer at a fraction of the cost, I took the plunge and joined as it is much cheaper than my regular web-hosting fee.

If you are interested, this is my link to the Clickbank Pirate. (Actually this is the same as the little square animation that is appearing under my signature in all my blog posts, if you have noticed.)

Meanwhile, I'll be setting up my new website (don't know how long it will take) to replace my PIPS site while I am test driving this Clickbank Pirate to see how much loot I can plunder. It looks promising (doesn't they all do?) so wish me luck. You may also want to give it a try to see if it is suitable for you. It is risk-free as there is a 100% money back guarantee!

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Report Card

2009-02-06T11:00:00.002+08:00

What, already more than one month since my last post? Time really flies. So how's my journey? Very treacherous, full of dangers, hidden as well as in the open and it is never an easy journey. As in all endeavours, there is no substitute for hard work and all those ads that you see with promises of easy money is simply not true. If they are true, than half the whole would be rich, right?

So I have tried 3 different approaches and what are the results so far? Here they are, and as they say in all the ads, your results will be different from what is shown because of so many variables and each individual does it differently with different resources.

First the PIPS, my Plug In Profit Site. No sales so far. I cannot really blame the system since it works for so many others. Part of the reason is that it is so popular and as more people join in (alas, not from me) the competition gets tougher. Thus I am a victim because of the system's success. As many people are joining PIPS, it becomes more and more competitive since more and more PIPS sites are appearing and you really have to be different to attract customers. I have also not really followed all the steps and suggestions given (other than blogging) so like they say, system succeeds but people fail.

Next is the other pips, Forex trading. Here you can see the results immediately as you can make money very fast in the Forex market but you can lose it even faster. You need to be constantly on your toes as the market is very unforgiving and shows no mercy to those who do not respect the market. I am still learning and paying my tuition fees, so to speak. Since only 10% of traders make it so again it is no easy money and discipline is most important, above everything else.

Finally, there is Blogging. This is the only one showing positive results for me so far and in the month of January, I made USD6.43 from Adsense. Not much, but it is a start and shows that there is potential in this area. Maybe I should attend one of those Blogging workshops to learn from the masters to improve my earnings!

My plan is to hang on to all three for a while to see the results in the next few months before making a decision as to which one to drop. It is not easy to tackle on all three fronts (two, really since I'm doing prcatically nothing for PIPS other than let it run on autopilot). Blogging do take up a lot of time and one must really concentrate in Forex in order to succeed. Since I'm just popping in and out of the market, it is definitely not the right way to do it.

So watch this space.

Ronald Kwok

http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

On this Day, in Classical Music

2008-12-31T08:36:00.007+08:00

Today's post title is also the title of my new Blog on Classical Music which was launched on 30 December and can be accessed here. What better way to relax than listening to some soothing classical music after some heart-stopping roller-coaster rides in the Forex market or some intense internet marketing online. Or try some stirring music to gear you up for the next battle ahead in your chosen ground. Learn who in the field of classical music shares your birthday and which classical pieces were born in their premiere or first performance on your birthday. Just grab a Classical Music CD and turn it on.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Forex Trading for Newbies

2008-12-17T15:38:00.005+08:00

Finally, I've launched my new blog on Forex Trading. In fact, I've already published my second post there. Have a look and all comments are welcomed.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Back from Hibernation

2008-12-15T10:18:00.006+08:00

Wow, it has been more than 3 months since my last post so I think it's about time to be posting again after my hibernation. If you have been following my travel blog, you'll know that since then, I've been to Perth and also to Kuching in Sarawak. After that, I attended an advanced Forex trading course under Forex Investology in November and I have been looking at the Forex market more actively. I have not been profiting from Forex as yet but has been breaking even regularly so it is a plus when compared to the earlier days when I used to lose more than I win. The next step is to win more than you lose and you will be then on your way. I am also convinced that you can really make money from Forex; you just need a little more care, discipline and patience. There is also no substitute for experience, you need to get your feet wet in order to learn. More cash or capital will definitely help but more about that later in my new Blog on Forex Trading that I will launch shortly.

I have also launched a new blog last week about current happenings and "this and that" that don't fall into my other blogs. The first two posts are about my new netbook, the Lenovo S10. Check it out.

Next will be a blog on Classical Music, one of my hobbies from younger days. So watch out for the launch soon. You must be wondering what on earth is happening, all of a sudden so much activities. You see, I attended one of those free previews on "Making Money from Blogging " (not the exact title but something to that effect) last month and I also believe that you can make money from blogging. I must say, it was one of the best previews that I have attended in that you can get a useful information from it and it is not just a sale talk like in most other previews. I'll talk more about this in my later posts.

They revealed that one of the reasons why they make big money from blogging is that they do not just have only one blog (unless you are one of those famous and top bloggers) but have hundreds running the same time. They mentioned something like a minimum of 10 blogs to start with if you want to see some results. So I thought to myself, why not start with 5 blogs? Hence these activities. For anyone who actually blogs himself/herself, he/she will know that it does take some effort and time to regularly put up new posts of certain quality and contents; tackling 5 blogs is quite a handful. You must be thinking how to have 100 of blogs running the same time. There's no secret, many if not all the blogs are outsourced and there are plenty of people out there in cyberspace offering to write your blog for a fee. (Frankly, I won't mind to write your blog if you pay me well enough, just e-mail me!) Don't worrry, all of my blogs are genuine, original and 100% my own; cannot afford to pay somebody to write my blogs, at least not yet.

OK, I think that's enough to whet your appetite, I see somthing stirring in the EURUSD market.

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

Back from Perth

2008-09-02T11:16:00.003+08:00

Hi folks, it's great to be back! Some of you might have thought that I've given up but no siree, I'm still around. True, I've lost some of the enthusiasm that I've had when I first started but I'll soldier on. In fact, after learning how many emigrants to Perth have given all they have to start from scratch after arriving in Perth and made it, I'm more determine to carry on in my journey. So after the major distractions to Greece and to Perth, now I'm ready to roll as there will now be any more major trips planned until next year. Stay tuned. You can read all about my trip to Perth in my other blog, http://www.travel-with-ronald.blogspot.com/

Ronald Kwok

http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

On the road again

2008-08-10T22:23:00.005+08:00

How time flies. I did not realise that it is almost a month since I last posted in this blog. Well, I might have become lazy or have lost interest. I suppose everybody go through some phases where you want to give up when things are not moving the way as what you have expected. But hey, I've picked up the pieces and I'm back again. Maybe I've lost my momentum when I went on my Greece holiday and when I got back I was too busy writing about my holiday in my other blog. Then I was caught in the roller coaster ride in the Forex market. For one week the USD was moving down and the USD pairs were reaching and breaking their psychological barriers and in the last week it went the opposite direction. The USD strengthened and the EURUSD pair was plunging down and down to their lowest levels in months. We will not know how the market will move tomorrow as every trader will be wanting anxiously to see it the trend will continue or reverse direction once again. So there is definitely move action in pips than in PIPS right now as they are two very different creatures.

Well, before I can keep up my posting in this blog, there will be another major distraction ahead because this weekend I will be flying off to Australia (Perth to be exact) for two weeks holiday. My main aim for this trip is to attend my godson's confirmation in Perth to give him moral, physical and spiritual support. Since I'll be spending so much on my airfare, I may as well have an extended stay in Perth. When I'm there, I'll also look up some old friends who have migrated there. Then when I get back at the end of August, I'll be writing about my travel in Perth. Isn't life exciting?

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Out of action, twice

2008-07-12T16:27:00.005+08:00

This week started off badly. My PC was out of action as I could not surf. Checked the physical connection, it was good; the PC was working normally as long as it is off line. So what went wrong? My son who is using a Mac had no problem so I thought it must be the Windows OS (I'm using XP) since I remembered it has done an automatic updating recently. My son did some troubleshooting and found nothing wrong with the PC or with Windows. A quick check on the internet using his Mac soon found the problem. The latest update by Windows, KB951748, for a security fix does not like my Zone Alarm Security Suite (or is it Zone Alarm does not like the update?) and the PC just cannot surf. The simple solution was of course to remove the latest update. Once this was done, I could surf like before. However, this update got installed automatically whenever I shut down my PC and I need to remove this update repeatedly. From the Zone Alarm site, a better solution was to lower the firewall setting from high to medium and this would tolerate the new update. Finally, Zone Alarm released its own updated version (7.480) that would coexist with the Windows update. You can read all about it in the Zone Alarm site here.

Though it is all over in a few days, it has caused a lot of inconvenience and anxiety to millions of Zone Alarm users. Who is to be blamed, Microsoft or Zone Alarm? Don't know but hope it is lesson learned by all parties concerned.

Then I was out of action. I took some laksa (curry noodle cooked with coconut milk) with yummy semi-cooked cockles (the poor man's oysters) for lunch. Then I had a sinful portion of chocolate with nougat. Don't know whether it was the cockles or the overly-rich coconut milk or even the chocolate (or the unholy combination of the three), I started to have diarrhea the early next morning. This continue throughout the day as the body did its best to purge the offending items from the system. Like all purging, the good went out with the bad. (Unlike the remove feature in Windows, the body cannot do a selective update removal but removed all updates!) But it worked, the diarrhoea stopped after the purging and following a long night's rest, I was back on my feet the next day. Tired, exhausted and hopefully wiser to watch what I eat. The line between illness and well-being is very thin and it can be triggered unknowingly until the symptoms show. When I was down, it felt so terrible that I could not blog or trade Forex, you need good health to do the things you want, so watch your health.

The week did end quite well as far as my Forex trade was concerned. I was able to make over 100 pips in a day for the first time by longing EURUSD. Buoyed by success, I entered again and made 15 pips in 11 minutes. Blinded by greed, I entered the third time and I lost 15 pips in 9 minutes. I switched off my trading platform and let the bulls fight the bears without me joining in. The moral of the story - you can lose faster then you can win and be content with what you have made and never let greed takes over. The only good thing was that I did not forget my stop loss and set it to equal my second gain. That saved the day.

How strange we never value the times when we are healthy until we fall sick and it's only during the unfortunate time that we realised how fortunate we have been. We never value peace until there is war.

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

The NFP strikes again

2008-07-04T17:53:00.005+08:00

Happy 4th of July holiday to those who celebrate it!
Since my return from the holidays in Greece, things have been rather quiet in my PIPS as well as in the Forex scene. My main activity was posting on my travel in Greece at my other blog www.travel-with-ronald.blogspot.com I did a few trades in Forex and results were mixed because of a very volatile market. Of course the pros would love such a volatile market but for newbies like me, it's caution time as one may get caught with the pants down if one is not careful.
So as the time for the NFP (Non-Farm Payroll) report draws near, there is some anticipation of more volatility. Since the Fourth of July falls on a Friday, the release of the NFP report was brought forward to Thursday. The market did moved after the release of the report but this time it was not as fast and furious as in previous months. Maybe this was because there was another major announcement around that time by the ECB (European Central bank) on interest rate increase. Together with less than favourable comments from the Chairman of ECB, the USD rose against the other major currencies, against majority expectations. Such is the unpredictability of the Forex market.
I did the usual trick of buying and selling the same currency pair with EURUSD and USDJPY but only the EURUSD pair made some profit. The USDJPY was a double loss since my stop loss was set too close and the USDJPY dipped far enough to hit my stop-loss before it rose and rose. This was only a matter of 2 pips and it would have survived. Well, that's Forex for you and you just have to take it in your stride and trade another day.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Back in business

2008-06-24T10:20:00.003+08:00

Hi folks, I'm back from my holidays in Greece and it's home sweet home. You can read all about my trip in my travel blog (http://www.travel-with-ronald.blogspot.com/) in a day or two when I've fully recovered. So here's it's back to PIPS and pips after that wonderful distraction and now need to work doubly hard to get back what I spent on this trip. It's my most expensive trip so far but it's money well-spent though.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

It's NFP time again.

2008-06-07T21:11:00.007+08:00

I can put in one more post before I start my trip to Greece early next week. I spend most of the time this week in testing out my new Lumix FZ18 camera. You can see my comments on this camera and some sample photos that I took at http://www.travel-with-ronald.blogspot.com/ .
Well, yesterday was NFP report day for June so again the pips were flying up and down. Just for fun, I entered the market to experience the excitement first-hand. Since nobody can say for sure which way the USD will move after the NFP report, I did the usual trick of both buying and selling the EURUSD pair at the same time, with a narrow stop loss set for both. I will end up winning since my gain will be more than the loss whichever way the USD moves. That is provided the stop loss has not taken you out before the major movement in the opposite direction after the NFP report. Otherwise, you'll lose both ways. Luckily for me, I survived and made 50 pips in just one minute. Whew!

That's all folks and there will be no new post until I'm back from Greece in two weeks' time. See you then.

Cheers,
Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

Major distraction ahead

2008-06-01T22:19:00.006+08:00

How time flies, I'm already into the third month of my online journey and there will be a major distraction in my journey this month. No, I don't mean the NFP report this Friday but I'll be going on another journey, my annual holiday; this time it is to Greece from 10 June. I've just started a new blog so that I can post on this holiday as well as those that I did in the past. You can follow that blog here.

How I wish I can say that I earn my holidays through my internet business in PIPS or the pips from Forex trading. Well, it is not and it is still too early in the game; maybe my annual trip next year will be sponsored by pips of either kind or by both. So I'll be taking a break from both PIPS and pips in classical Greece until I'm back in the latter part of June.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Digging for traffic and hunting for Doji

2008-05-24T16:03:00.003+08:00

The major currency pairs are moving in a sideways direction so it gives me more time to look at my PIPS. The main concern now is to get more traffic. One of the ways is to join those social networking sites so that you can promote your web sites and hopefully other members will pay your site a visit and hopefully something fruitful happens after that. I stumbled upon two such sites that actually pays you for participating in their programs One of them is myLot that I have highlighted in my previous post. This has rather smaller number of members as it appears more controlled. Another one is Yuwie which has much more members but to an Internet newbie and an earthly oldie like me, I find it rather flashy and intimidating. Anyway for the sake of promoting my website and hopefully get paid by them, I joined both myLot and Yuwie. You can also do the same by following this link to myLot and this one to Yuwie. Both are free to join so there's nothing to lose.

Another method to promote your website is to join those programs that use viral marketing. I found this particular one, TrafficDigger, in one of the Traffic Swarm pages that caught my attention. Since it is absolutely free, I joined immediately. You can find out how it works and also give your site free promotion by joining Traffic Digger here.

So I've covered digging for traffic and you may ask what about hunting for Doji? For those of you familiar with Japanese candlesticks, you can skip the rest of this post and quickly proceed to join myLot, Yuwie and Traffic Digger straightaway. For the rest of you, you can read on. The Doji is a particular candlestick pattern that is formed when the open and close prices are equal so there is really no wax on the candle stick and is just the wick. To traders, the doji is very exciting; it is the possible start of a bull or a bear run. With the appearance of a Doji, traders will watch the subsequent candlestick patterns and prepare for a buy or a sell order (together with other signals). Don't know what are candlesticks? Come join my Forex class. LOL.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Claiming my Blog Lot in MyLot

2008-05-21T11:16:00.005+08:00

myLot User Profile

Hi folks, this post is to enable myLot to claim this Blog as my own so that it will appear in myLot. Have you got your lot at myLot? MyLot is one of those social networking sites where you'll actually get paid for participating. Isn't that great, get to do what you like to do and get paid for it? Just follow this link and sign in, it's all free. See you there.

Cheers,
Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

The Newbie Cash Machine

2008-05-19T11:37:00.004+08:00

Last week, our good friend Ewen Chia (generally known as the world's No.1 super affiliate) released his latest offering, a Newbie Cash Machine. I'm not too sure if it's a brand new release or a re-release but it doesn't really matter. So for all you newbies out there who wants to get into this Internet Business fast, here is your step-by-step guide by Ewen Chia himself. You can check it out at this link.

You will notice that he also promotes the PIPS (or Plug In Profit Site) and I believe he was one of the early birds who took up PIPS and grew from there. Anyway, if you wan to try PIPS, don't go through Ewen Chia but go through my website as it is really the same thing. Only difference is that you'll be helping a newbie (me!) and not helping a rich getting richer (him!) LOL.

Talking about the rich getting richer, I can relate that this is really the case in my dinning experience last night and how life is so unfair. I was at this popular eating-place at Serdang and I waited for a full 45 minutes before I got what I ordered and there was a constant flow of diners coming in and waiting patiently for their food. Nearby was another eating place where there were hardly any people. I bet the food at this other store was just as good or maybe even cheaper but since the first store has already built up his clientele, he will continue to draw in the crowd even if he drops his standard or increase the price. See how the rich is getting richer? (What he goes through to build his reputation is any story.) The second shop could also be trying very hard but he will still be staring at his empty chairs and empty tables. As a new diner in that area, I would not visit the near empty shop and would rather wait at the crowded one. Herd mentality?

Another case in point. Look at these two doughnut outlets, J Co and Big Apple. Everybody I know agrees that the doughnuts at Big Apple is finer in texture and just as tasty as those from J Co. But look where the queue is? It is always at J Co and never at Big Apple? Why is life like that? So folks, please get your doughnuts from Big Apple the next time you are near one and not at J Co. Seriously, I'm not an affiliate for Big Apple and I'm just fighting for the underdog. I wish they have an affiliate program so that I can collect commission from them! Anyway, enjoy your doughnut wherever it came from; you've paid for it.

Cheers,
Ronald Kwok.
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Make everyday Mother's Day........

2008-05-14T14:26:00.007+08:00

It has been a depressing week, no, not because I lost in Forex trading or I did not make any sales from PIPS and definitely not because it was Mother's Day this Sunday. It was the many losses of innocent lives that has made the headlines. Not long after the cyclone Narjis has hit Myamar, a major earthquake has shaken China. Thousand of lives were lost and millions more will be suffering in the aftermath. These are the natural disasters that we have no control and yet there are many man-made disasters which could have been avoided - the never-ending conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, the hatred of mankind against fellow men.

Back to Mother's Day. I was having a family dinner with my son and daughter and their mother (i.e. my wife) to celebrate Mother's Day at Chili's in KLCC. We had attended earlier a wonderful concert by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) at the magnificent Petronas Philharmonic Hall. It was an all-American programme of Bernstein, Barber and Copland. This was my son's first live concert and it was my way to help him ease his pain of breaking up with his girlfriend recently but I'm not sure if it helped or did it make it more painful with the tragic finale of the Symphonic Dance from West Side Story? Relationship, like life, can be very fragile and it can end before you know it. Anyway, we enjoyed our dinner and we also had a wonderful view of the glorious KLCC park from where we sat. The park also has some delightful fountains that dances in different formations. But it will always come to an abrupt end, and like life, extinguished at short notice, or none at all.

We take life for granted and until we lose it, we do not appreciate the many beautiful things around us. Sure, not everyone will enjoy an afternoon of classical music (my daughter found it boring and was feeling sleepy in an earlier concert) but everybody can enjoy a stroll in the KLCC Park and take in the majestic view of the Petronas Twin Towers for free while it is still there. I hope it will not go the way of the other twin towers but you'll never know what men can do.

We must be thankful to our own God (in whatever form or name you call him) that we can wake up in the morning alive and begin another day; that we can still breath the dawn air, although a little polluted; that we can still read our emails and trade online although the internet connection is a bit slow. We must appreciate whatever that we have (maybe so much less than our neighbours) and treasure our loved ones while they are still around or when we are still around. So in our pursuit of financial freedom, let us not forget that we are only in transit on this earth and let us spare a thought and share some moments with those that we may have neglected. It need not be 5-star dinning or a 5-star concert, it can be just some words that were not said or some gestures that were not made.

So let's make everyday Mother's Day (or Father's Day, or whatever Day you want to call it) and share a little time with the ones you care for as some of us may not see Mother's Day next year.

Cheers,
Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

The (unwritten) laws of Forex trading

2008-05-09T16:17:00.005+08:00

After been in Forex trading for almost 3 weeks, I've discovered some unwritten laws in this fascinating and exciting world. You may or may not agree with me but here they are.
1. The currency pairs that you put a buy order will move down almost immediately after you hit the buy button.
2. Conversely, the currency pair that you put a sell order will move up almost immediately.
3. After you have manually closed a losing trade that is rapidly coming down, it will miraculously move up almost immediately.
4. Conversely, after you have manually close a losing trade that is rapidly going up, it will (again) miraculously move down.
5. The stop loss that you set is always only a few pips away from the reversal that starts after you have been taken out by the stop loss.
6. The charts that you see after making a losing trade looks totally different from the one that you see when you place the order. (Another RSI, Relative Sight Illusion!)
7. Your wife (or husband) will always just appear to look over your shoulder after you have made a losing trade. (And you have to think of a quick reason for this, like "it must have been the after effects of the Cyclone Nargis............" or something similar.)
7. Your demo account will make more money than your live account.

Luckily for us Forex traders, there are also some golden written rules.
1. Losing is part of the game
2. Nobody wins 100% of the time.
3. Even successful traders have stretches of losing streak.
4. A pro is able to take a break and come back stronger.

So folks, I'm no pro but I'm taking a break so that I can become stronger. And I can have an excuse now to look more into my PIPS there since I'm not getting any pips here.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Failure of Success University

2008-05-07T14:32:00.006+08:00

It's all quiet at the Forex front after the reactions following the release of the NFP report last Friday. I stayed away from the directional trade since things are still not obvious (to amateurs like me) and just took a hedging position on USDJPY/GBPUSD and it doesn't look very promising at the moment. Almost negative all the time from the word go. Well, I'll just leave it to run its natural course.

So I turn my attention to my PIP site. Since I was not getting any sales so far, I look at my running cost and decided to cut down some of the paying affiliate programme to conserve my budget. It was easy to pick the first one to cut and it is Success University as it is the most expensive (at USD49.95 plus 5.95 p&p monthly). So I cancelled my account online and waited for a response. There were none, no emails to confirm the cancellation let alone one to say thank you for having joined their program and hope to have you back again. I have terminated several trial programs before and I have always received an acknowledgement and a thank you email. That's customer care for you. As far as Success University is concerned, it is a total Failure to me.

OK, another distraction. Since I'm serious into Forex trading, I went and bought myself a new desktop as the trading platform (in this case, Metatrader 4) need to run continuously for it to properly manage hedging positions. I do not want to risk my laptop and run it to its death. I have a choice of getting a branded or a no name desktop. In fact nowadays some of the branded desktop like Acer, HP and Dell are not that much more costlier than a nameless one. I opted for a nameless desktop since it will be much easier for DIY maintenance or upgrading since you can just get a part you want to replace or upgrade off the shelf and plug it in. For some of the branded ones, you can't even open the casing! I stuck to the good old tested Windows XP for my OS instead of the over hyped Vista that is very resource hungry and I don't need the new features for my purpose. So after installing all the necessary software, I'm ready for business and now I alternate between using my laptop and the desktop which does the overnight shift. I hope the new desktop will bring me new luck!

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Twinkle, twinkle currencies.......(after the NFP report)

2008-05-04T20:30:00.010+08:00

Last Friday was the release date of the monthly Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) report in the US. This is one of the most influential report on the forex market as far as the USD is concerned. As a newbie in Forex trading, I was advised to stay on the sideline and watch the fireworks that will result from this report as nobody will know for sure how the market will react. This is the time where scalpers will make a killing or be killed. So I closed all my floating positions and waited in front of my laptop. Sure enough the market reacted and the USD shot up against all the major currencies in the next fifteen minutes after the release of the report, like a rocket launch.

Being in a creative mood and since the market was closed for the weekend, I took inspiration from Lewis Carroll, one of the greatest creator of parodies, to record the reaction of the market after the NFP report. Carroll's piece was twinkle, twinkle little bat....... and mine is twinkle, twinkle currencies.......(This is best sung to the tune of twinkle, twinkle, little star.....)

Prologue

Twinkle, twinkle N-F-P
What you get’s not what you see.
Where more is low and less is high,
When I see sell, you turn to buy.
Twinkle, twinkle N-F-P,
Please don’t bring me to my knees.

The reactions

Twinkle, twinkle E-U-R,
Like the plunging Niagara.
I’ve been praying for your rise,
I have paid a heavy price
Twinkle, twinkle E-U-R,
You will need some Viagara.

Twinkle, twinkle G-B-P
What a trick you played on me.
When I sold, you took a bend;
Now I have to say amen.
Twinkle, twinkle G-B-P
Thanks to you, I’m lost at sea.

Twinkle, twinkle C-H-F,
When you dive, there’s nothing left.
Lower, lower down you go,
I’ve been battered, blow by blow.
Twinkle, twinkle C-H-F,
You have put me in deep cleft.

Twinkle, twinkle J-P-Y,
On the downward path you fly.
All my profits, they are gone;
I’m better off to trade the won.
Twinkle, twinkle J-P-Y,
My poor pocket, you wring dry.

Epilogue

Twinkle, twinkle U-S-D,
How I wonder where you’ll be.
Up the charts you rise so high,
Oh as if you’ll reach the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle U-S-D,
I just wander, woe is me.

So much for pips. More on my PIPS in my next post.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Remembering Labour Day

2008-05-01T22:44:00.005+08:00

Happy Labour Day! Being a holiday here so today there will be no PIPS or pips, just a post of total distraction. I remember in my school days, I used to enjoy reading MAD magazine and my favorites were those parody poems. In fact I tried my hand at that and wrote from time to time but now I could not find the pieces. You see, there were no computers then where you could save your work on CD's or a thumb drive. Anyway, I could remember a few lines to one of my creations and I just added some lines to complete the following. With apologies to Thomas Hood.

I remember, I remember,
the school where I was taught.
The smelly toilet by the hall
Where smokers would be caught.
The noisy classrooms in a row
With shaky wooden chairs
The screeching sound of broken chalk
whose dust would fill the air.

I remember, I remember
The teachers that I had
They came in all shapes and sizes
And some were not too bad
A lovely missus taught me science
Oh how I loved her skirt.
A grand old man he drilled me maths
And helped me got my cert.

I remember, I remember.
The HM who brought fear
With cane in hand he walked around,
A pin drop you could hear.
And so I miss the good old days,
The innocence of youth
For now in later life we learn
It hurts to know the truth.

What me , worry????

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

Great expectations

2008-04-29T11:19:00.008+08:00

While Pip was having great expectations of wealth and power, I was having great expectations of pips, of the Forex kind. Currently, this still remains as expectations only. After the excitement of the first week, my second week so far has been a bit dull. You see I went into trend trading and also took a hedging position and this can take days before you can close your positions. As they say, plan your trade and trade your plan and most important of all, stick to it. So I'm sticking to it , like a leech!The EUR/USD is now on a sideway waltz but I was almost taken out by my stop-loss when it went on one of its upward swing. And hedging is a bit like insurance so it is not a short term thing so it may take weeks before you see the results. The good part is that you can do your other things while the battle is ranging in the Forex market. On the other hand if you look at the charts, you'll see many instances where you can make a killing in a matter of minutes. That's what scalpers do. But then, any fool can tell you when to buy and sell looking at historical charts, after the fact but trying doing that when it's live.

Now onto the other PIP, my PIPS. Is more time on the Warrior Forum and trying to read up on topics that caught my attention. One thing I learn from comments in the Forum is that it is not necessary to submit your URL to the search engines; no need to find them, let them find you. You need to get plenty of backlinks to your site and you'll rank high. So my task is to submit articles to e-zines. Heck, my line is very intermittent so I better post this before I get kicked out.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

I'm a Warrior

2008-04-26T19:53:00.007+08:00

Well, my first Forex trading week has ended and I can take a breather. It was the most exciting, adrenalin pumping experience that one can get if you choose to watch your profits rise and fall with the market all the way down to a minute by minute tracking, 24 hours a day. I experienced the four cardinal sins of trading - fear, hope, greed and doubt - and being unable to control them at times, I was at the losing end. But thanks to stop loss, I was bruised but not beaten and I survived to trade the following week. Since my first trade was a loss of 110 pips, I was determined to ensure my second trade is a win so I manually close my position (USD/JPY that was moving up and down like a roller-coaster) when I caught it positive. So it was a win of just ONE pip! A win is still a win. I've been taught to overcome my emotions but heck, I'm only human. In Forex, he who trades and runs away (with stop loss), lives to trade another day (and take profit).

Yesterday, I finally became a warrior, no, not a Forex warrior but I joined the Warrior Forum. This is one of the elite internet forums where many of the internet marketing gurus hang out so you can rub shoulders with them if you so wish. But being the small pips that we are, the forum also has a special section for PIPS member to post questions and exchange ideas before they more to higher ground. Here you can also have backlinks to your website which will hopefully boost your search engine ratings. If you get a hosting service from Host4Profit, you'll get a free membership to this Forum. And again there is so much posts to read and I feel so overwhelmed. My unread e-mail is again building up.

Money Saving Tip. There is one very important point that you must remember if you ever subscribe to those free for a week or so trial offers. Make sure you mark you free expiry date and unsubscribe before that or you'll find yourself charged for the monthly fee. They never remind you of the free expiry date and time really flies when you're on the net and it is very easy to miss the date. But if you do get caught, then grab whatever benefit you can from your subscription and unsubscribe before the next round unless you find it worthwhile. The same applies to those money back guarantee that has a deadline for products that you are not happy with.

It is now Income Tax submission time again. Why must I leave it late as usual? That's bad habit, no good for trading! Now I need to look up all my receipts for my claims.

Ronald
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

A Tale of Two Currencies

2008-04-23T16:25:00.007+08:00

It wasn't the best of times, it was the worst of times, it wasn't the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it wasn't the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it wasn't the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it wasn't the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. And so my dear friends with this opening, you can guess how my first forex trade ended. The two currencies, GBP/USD, that I traded was closed by my stop-loss with a loss of 110 pips. Even though I was mentally prepared for the loss, it is still very disappointing as I have hope for a profitable maiden trade. (Why is it that all the demo trades turned out beautifully but when it come to the real stuff, things go awry? Is Mr.Murphy also in the Forex market?) Well, the one good thing is that it proved that the stop-loss worked and this is very important in any trade as your loss is controlled. Even though the general trend indicates a Buy, I entered at the wrong time. The GBP fell to a multiday low against the USD and I was caught in this down swing. (Actually, despite the bleak opening lines above, there is no bitterness in my part, just disappointment.)

So I took the loss of pips in my stride and carried on with my life, my life with PIPS. Since Suzanne has optimised my PIP site I must now resubmit to all the search engines and hope that this will get me more traffic.

Meanwhile, the great Ewen Chia just launched his latest item, "Working From Home Secret Report". This guy is great, you can really learn from him by just following his sales strategy from the e-mails you get from him. I could not get into the website promoting this for a day or so as it was so jammed. Now traffic has eased, so you can give it a try at this link. Actually for USD9.97, it is great value as he throws in a lot of other free stuff, as usual. The price is supposed to go up pretty soon so be quick. Anyway, he is giving a 100% money back guarantee so you have really nothing to lose. (I can tell you this is genuine as I have recently asked for a refund for something else and I got it with no questions asked.)

Excuse me now, I need to read the Secret Report myself.

(P.S. I found this Debt relief community so I know where to turn to in case I run into debts (heaven forbades) in my Forex trade.)

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/

My first Forex trade

2008-04-21T17:22:00.006+08:00

My live account with Interbank FX was activated last Saturday but since it was the weekend where there was no trading, I had to wait. Well, I placed my first live Forex trade today which is a buy on GBPUSD! But alas, it is currently on a downward path but hey, I am not taken out yet by my stop loss so I will just let it run its course but it is really dangerously close. So I thought I better write my blog instead of watching the red candlestick lengthens. As a Forex trader, you must be able to accept some losses as there is no 100% formula that you will win all the time. I was hoping that I can announce my first profit in my first trade but looks like it is not to be.

Now back to my Plug In Profit Site. It is now just over a month old and it is also running its course but there is no sign of any opt-in subscriber, let alone any sale. I have already submitted my keywords to Suzanne to optimise my site to see if there is any improvement. The next course of action is to promote my site in all the ways possible, first starting with all the free promotion acitivities before going into Adwords promotion. But first I mst read all the e-mails and e-books on this subject of website promotion and there is a lot of catching up to do. There are also tons of reading material from all the affiliate program that I joined and in fact most of them I have yet to open their FAQ's and the Starter page.

To make it easier to read and to retrieve all the information, I have invested in a new Samsung Laser printer ML-2010 (mono, of course) so that I can print and file a hard copy since you may remember seeing something important but cannot remember where in you PC or the web page that it is in. And since my laptop harddisk is filling up rapidly with all the free downloads, I also bought myself a Western Digital portable external harddrive (160G Elements) to store even more downloads. So now it is off to some more reading. You can read some users reviews on the Samsung Laser printer in Amazon here.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

It's only words.....

2008-04-18T18:58:00.005+08:00

I was fascinated (and at the same time frustrated) by this keyword business that I actually took up the free 7-day trial of Wordtracker that was offered. You can give it a try if you are interested but be warned, you may be so enthralled that you may spend a lot of time playing with it. Also you must cancell you free trial before the 7 days are up or you'll be charged a monthly subscription fee unless you want to continue to use it after the 7 days. You can also enjoy some free videos and ebooks on the subject (SEO) during the trial. The best part is that you can test out all your keywords, for free.

So I am still looking for my elusive keywords for my website before I send the words over to Suzanne to optimize my site. You can actually do this yourself if you know some basic HTML (she has the instructions in her e-book) but since I've already paid for this service, I might as well make use of her expertise.

Now onto the other front of Forex trading. I applied for a trading account at Interbank FX and was quite worried if it would be approved since I'm a retiree and has only a small monthly income from my pension. You can imagine my relief and joy when I received an email that opens, "Congratulations, your application has been approved ............" Actually it was pretty fast considering the different time zones involved; I submitted my application at about 11.00am local time and got the approval at 9.30pm the same day, well within 12 hours. The next stage is to deposit some funds into this trading account. So I went over to my friendly neighbourhood bank and did a TT. Once this is transferred and my account set up, I will be able to start trading. So watch out for my first trade which will hopefully be on this coming Monday.

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/