It made me think of all the things I do besides be immersed in the trading industry. The obvious ones are to be with my family and be the best husband and dad I can be, but there are so many other things that help me to balance my life.

This season I've really started to love gardening. There's something about growing tomatoes - planting, watering, fertilizing, watering, watching - and to think that my main excuse for starting it all was to have something fun for my daughter to experience. I encountered a bonsai exhibit over the weekend, and one of the things I'd like to do in the near future is take some bonsai classes and get my own bonsai tree.

I also have grown to love yoga. My world is frenetic - it's so busy and especially during the summer it seems like every weekend is occupied with one thing or another. It's nice to take 60 - 90 minutes and escape from it all. I maintain that it's the best total body workout for me.

Being with family and friends is also increasingly important for me. Life goes by so fast, and I've been hit in the face with how fragile it is after losing a few close loved ones.

I won't keeping going on and on, but I must confess as that unhandy of a man I am, I love Home Depot. There is something about looking around our house and wanting to do things.

And of course I love sports, and love my Edmonton Oilers, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Bluejays and BYU Cougars.

So trading is consuming. It can eat all your free time. Don't let it if you do. My question to you is, what do you do besides trading to balance your life?

And I've got to qualify that by saying that I don't know how the trends are being embraced.

In trading the biggest responsibility I feel the industry fails at is the management of trader expectation.

As an example in the group "Best Forex Money Manager" a person named Naji Na (the spelling was changed after Nagi Na was somehow banned - as he would later explain) heads up a group of 1,119 under the headline: "Ask To see statement how $3 K get transformed into $15 k in 40 days!!!!!!!!" Naji explains that accounts he trades returns 30 - 50% a month. Nagi has been responsive in emails that I've sent, but it remains - no website, Internet email account, no license to trade anyone's money.

There's another faceless group named XCVB-Forex, that attempts to enthuse traders with "Forex and the millions, is not impossible! Earn more than +100% of your capital every month!" How it attempts to entice is with its signal service, which it expects you to pay for after a month - which isn't that clear. It's also unclear how much the service is, but that is beside the point.

Then there's Don Shaxon who has created a "It's Who You Know, Not What You Know" with the headline: "THIS IS FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE LOTS OF MONEY! ARE YOU HUNGRY? READ........" He tells his own compelling detailed story, and punctuates it with "Which means the more people you have on your team of friends, the more money EVERYONE makes!! It's how many people you contact with the information I provide to you, and how many listen!!! This is no joke!! Easy, and you'll make some real serious $$$$$!"

I've got my eye on these groups plus a whole lot more, and my message is the same that any sane, rational individual would tell you.

If it sounds too good to be true - it probably is. Ensure that there is always one person who is ultimately in charge of your own life - YOU.

In it you'll read:

+ National Security and the Fate of the Dollar

+ The Euro's Summer Vacation

+ Iceland: No Currency is an Island

+ Interview: Ken Jakubzak of KMJ Capital

+ The Dollar Carry Trade

+ Euro/Yen: Breaking Down the Trends

One thing I can't help but think as I skimmed through the issue ... and it isn't anything new, but there are MANY ads - especially of the broker variety.

This morning I got an email with Weekly Technical and Fundamental market outlooks, and Boris does  great job with it.

He's very clear and states his opinion succinctly.

BKTraderFX Week Preview Part 1 with Boris Schlossberg

BKTraderFX Week Preview Part 2 with Boris Schlossberg

Naturally, I shared my honest feelings with Steve Gregor who runs the service - someone who I have interacted with in the past - and one who has admittedly always focused on his trading then helping others to see increased success in their trading as well. Steve was pretty put off by my email, which I suppose was expected.

It wasn't him that was behind this, nor was it anyone that he's aware of and I just wanted to make that clear - as he made it clear to me. Fair enough.

As I told him, for what it's worth I really don't care too much if someone shares something about other trading solutions here - because if it really is a good solution Trading Post would always be interested in partnering up in some fashion anyway!

My philosophy is - especially with the Forex market, there are too many people who hide behind pseudonyms, try to claw for every penny they can, and always seem to be moving in darkness ... hoping they can't be seen - come out in the open share the good that you have to share and let's all take a look.

Steve is looking to coach a higher level group of trader - all the more power to him, and I truly wish him success.  

So what I did was type my replies out in the Google Translator and then translate his replies from Spanish to English. It was pretty brilliant, I thought.

I think translated the PipStop blog homepage through the translator and having some Japanese ability I could see that the translation from English to Japanese really wasn't that bad at all.

Barriers to doing things in life are falling every year. And having something like this just continues to amaze me. 

Then later this morning a weaker than expected ISM manufacturing report came out and killed the chances of the continued dollar strength.

It was the best turnout that we've had for the Non-Farm Payroll webinar since we reinstituted it three months ago. Our numbers touched 50 and there was some good interaction. At the end of the day the novelty of huge numbers will always be trumped by a good engaged group.

One thing that bothered me, that was unfortunate is a participant came in with the sole purpose of flogging his own website, pipclub.com. This particular individual was private messaging everyone in the room with a message to go to his website. I know the guys that run it, Steve Gregor and Josh Dilingham, and I've since sent Steve a quick email - that it's an unfortunate way to market ones own company.

If there is any promotion to be done, do it out in the open. Don't come in with a pseudonym, and be sneaky. There's too much anonymity and sneakiness going on in relation to Forex trading to begin with. It's pretty cowardly.

Join our Trading Coach team led by Fundamentals expert Harold Fretheim.

To access the room you will have a reserved space if you pre-registered, otherwise click on the following link at 5 a.m.!

http://breeze.tradingpostfinancial.com/webcast

In the same BusinessWeek issue a video sharing upstart named YouTube was profiled (YouTube: Way Beyond Home Videos), describing the potential rewards and pitfalls of what it was doing at the time. Six months later (Oct. 9, 2006) Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Facebook and YouTube are two of the most trafficked websites in the world. Where in the past it took companies decades to build multi-billion dollar market caps, in this day and age seemingly anything is possible.

So as I look at it, I don't get overly concerned about the "state" of the economy as much as everyone else wants to harp on all that's bad.

I like Paul R. La Monica and his opinion on consumer confidence is shared by me. The Consumer Confidence Index is made up by people too smart for the average folk.

Believe me, I like the truth that numbers bear, but in this case we just have to look around us - or in my case I have to look around when I cross the border. I agree with La Monica that it's far more important to gauge what the consumer is DOING over what they are FEELING.

One point that wasn't really covered in this article is consumer debt. Many Americans have proven to be extremely resourceful when it comes to having to find money to buy things they don't really need.

Just like the currency markets can move in huge swings, so can seemingly anything else in life.

LaMonica illustrates:

Even with July's small rise in confidence, the last time the Conference Board's consumer confidence figures were in a range this consistently low was in 1992. The economy was already out of the 1990-1991 recession at that point. But it didn't feel like the recession was over yet. Consumers were dealing with housing woes sparked by a severe banking crisis. Oil prices were soaring. And it was a presidential election year. Sound familiar?

And in case you forgot, the economy didn't fall into the Second Great Depression in 1993. Stocks were back on track and the economy was on much better footing. The S&P 500 gained 7% in 1993 while the Dow and Nasdaq both rose nearly 15%. The lesson? Sometimes you have to be brave when everyone else is fearful.

What's disturbing to me is that Bennigan's has gone out of business (minus some of its franchisees, I guess). I actually don't drink and only loved going to Bennigan's whenever I was in Chicago because they make a great Monte Cristo.

Also, Starbucks struggles have now hit Australia, where it will close 61 stores and keep 23 open - an alarming ratio. I guess consumer doing in Australia as far as Starbucks goes is NOT good.

One thing that I always chuckle about is a Starbucks by where I live. It used to be open 24 hours, but now it's open until 12:30 p.m., but its transaction system closes out at midnight. So anyone going between midnight and 12:30 a.m. gets a free whatever they order. 

Trading Post also has also created a trading spreadsheet that is available in its Total Trader course, but for those brave enough (or have time to do it) I recently came across a free (for personal use) online spreadsheet application.

EditGrid isn't unique in being an online spreadsheet application - there are many out there - but it's a lot of fun seeing what other users have created out there. There are quite a number of trading related spreadsheets, and if anything they can serve as inspiration for you to create your own.

The cool thing is you can also integrate live data sources into your spreadsheet (A delayed Yahoo Finance feed is available free). 

There have been many pros and cons of starting up our own user forum, and this is one area that I wish we had one so we could have user collaboration on a trading spreadsheet we can call our own.

The members of the group (just over 100) probably don't want to be called guinea pigs, but to a great extent this is a lab of sorts for me as I learn more of what traders are looking for, and what they're going through.

As Trading Post continues on the road of being a true solutions provider to traders, I find it's increasingly important to reach out in various ways. Maybe not a perfect answer, but a reply on the fly and I thought it would give insight to some of the questions I get daily.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sam,

I haven't been able to attend any recent meetups, although I 
would have liked to been available for the webcasts...

I'm still looking to learn FX trading, but isn't there a way to 
actually get into this huge market with someone's services. Is 
there any company that you dont have to have $10K to start an 
account with?  I'd really like to start leveraging some of my 
money I'm earning from my day job.  Or is it just not a smart 
move to do?? 

Hi:
I'm trying to make sure that there are always resources for traders in the Meetup whether it be live Meetups, webinars, etc.

I would give you a qualified general yes to the questions you ask below. I think it really bears a conversation more than anything else, but I'll share a few short thoughts with you.

Trading isn't for everyone. There is great potential reward, but there is great potential risk. Don't trade looking to hit a homerun, and don't trade with money you can't afford to lose. Successful trading requires a commitment to be successful - and that varies by person. You have to be willing to give it the time - it's like saying you'll get in shape but go to the gym once a month - it isn't going to do much for your overall fitness goals. Be prepared to invest in making yourself a good trader. That doesn't have to be $10K - it can be something more nominal but very few things of value are free in this world.

I have seen the good, the bad and the really bad. Let me know what stage of your learning you're at, what resources you've used, and what your goals are and I can give you some additional thoughts.

Technorati Tags: forex trading

Many of you have marked the announcement of the Non-Farm Payroll Data down on your calendars. The other is the debut of Lewis Evans and LEFT Brain Trading Course.

This isn't a new course - Lewis has written a book, created this course and has taught it to many traders already. Trading Post came to a partnership agreement with Lewis to deliver this course and we're all excited.

Judging by the testimonials and first-hand accounts of those who have taken the course - the mindset and techincal aspects of it - we're confident that it will continue to help traders be better and more consistent.

This is the culmination of Lewis' trading journey combined with the strong mindset aspect his wife Olga Sheean provides.

Browse around the LEFT Brain Trading website, download the new ebooks and register for the course. Remember, to register by Thursday to take the course on Friday.

And, lastly Lewis was on our most recent TP Tuesday and you can view his presentation.

++ "What is Left Brain Trading" with Lewis Evans

Yesterday, Randy Pausch passed away. Since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006, Pausch inspired many, including me with his approach to his illness.

The one thing I can't beat to imagine is how this will affect his two sons, 6 and 4, and 2-year-old daughter. My oldest child is 3, and when I'm away from home for any prolonged period (beyond one night) it's always an event with her when I come home - I'm sure most every parent feels the same.

Pausch's famous "The Last Lecture" speech given in Sept. 2007 has been viewed over 4.3 million times on YouTube, a clear million more than had been viewed yesterday.

It's a another reminder, reminders we seem to get regularly, of how precious life is, and how there is really no reason to hold grudges, to be unhappy, to be angry, to not enjoy life as it should be enjoyed. We're all lucky people, and it shouldn't take the Randy Pausch's of the world to remind us of that.

Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" given at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 18, 2007

I won't soon forget what Tom Sosnoff the founder of thinkorswim.com said in a session at the LA Trading Expo last month. In essence it was, if you want to be a successful trader, trade ALOT.

The point that he was making which was a light-shining moment for me last night was - effort and consistency. Just like going to the gym once a week or once a month or once a year isn't really going to make a difference, trading every once in a while isn't going to do too much good either.

What happens at these points of inconsistency is we try to make up for all those other days, weeks, months that we missed out on. We try to pack a full body workout lifting weights we were used to lifting (when we were in a workout routine), and similarly traders seem to take a go big or go home type of approach when trading sporadically - ESPECIALLY when small gains are made - there's a feeling to push that much more.

Really, though, Forex trading or any trading, whether it be equities, commodities, etc., can be related to most things in life.

When you're in the zone of trading, you'll relate everything to life. You walk around, you drive around and everything is relatable. And it should be. Trading shouldn't overwhelm our lives, it should be a part of it.

-----

I can't believe how fast the days and weeks go by. This past week was particularly crazy. It just seems like Monday was yesterday.