The most important is his charting platform which he is taking the beta wrapper off of in the coming days (three to be exact). He’s calling it Trade Interceptor a robust Forex charting platform which is multi-feed (Dukascopy, FXCM, FX Sol, and his own feed) and comes bundled with TrendRisk, which is a SUPER analytic.

He’s been working on this for a few years now and I was able to watch the genesis of this at that time. A lot of hard work has gone into this – although Rodolfo is quick to realize that this isn’t a finish line – it’s really the start of something he hopes will be significant. It’s a great product.

He also mentioned a new FX magazine that he’s started, which is currently on its second issue (it’s a quarterly publication). It’s still very young, but it looks like they’ve done a pretty bang up job of putting this publication together. And it’s aptly named FX Trader Magazine.

People like to talk about the “is trading gambling” thing, but again they are two separate things.

Can you gamble within trading? Sure you can, it happens all the time, just like in our lives we gamble with all sorts of different things. We gamble that we’ll get to a destination faster by driving faster (only to get a speeding ticket), we gamble that we can hit that green in 2 on that par 5, but we come up woefully short on that second shot and hit the water hazard, we gamble that everything will be alright on the north shore of Oahu despite there being weather reports for clouds and rain.

So are there gambling characteristics that can come into our trading? Heck, yea there are. But trading in it’s proper form is reliant on rules and success is dependent on following those rules. Of course the market is not beholden to your will so despite stacking the probabilities in your favor you’re not going to win all the time.

That’s where I get into the talk of money management and … we’ll stop there before I get out of hand.

Met some great people who are doing some good things.

In Utah some of the folks who I met with were:

- Javier Paz who is doing some wonderful stuff (filling a necessary niche) running www.ForexDataSource.com where he provides independent rankings and research on retail Forex brokers. Much more substantive than the run of the mill broker “rankings” websites out there, especially Forex Peace Army – which has gotten better than it’s Forex Bastards days but is still too anonymous, and too questionable. Javier seems to have the experience and perspective to provide the service the industry needs.

- Jed Norwood with www.ForexStrategySecrets.com. Jed’s been around for a bit and it’s always interesting coming across niche services such as FSS. With the direction we’re going, I think there is great opportunity to help Jed in his endeavours.

- Marilyn McDonald who is the VP of Customer Experience with InterbankFX. The last time I visited the office in Salt Lake City (Oct. 2007) they were still growing with just shy of 100 employees. Now they have 176. If they weren’t doing some good things they wouldn’t be growing like they are. It was nice to catch up with Marilyn – if there is one thing about her – it’s that she’s connected with others in the industry.

In Texas a couple of my meetings stood out – and Austin was my destination – it’s a great place with lively nightlife – although I’m not a “nightlife” guy:

- ProAct Traders. Scott, Jim, Bob and an appearance by Jerry in the middle of a very important day for his family. It was a great visit because they truly believe they have the best charts with the best proprietary analytic to trade Forex. They really are passionate about what they do and about helping people. Customer service is something they stress and it is apparent in what they do.

- Rockwell Trading. Visited with Markus and Rollie. This is a solid outfit and I was impressed by their ethos. I think a passage on the About Us of their website spells out what I understood perfectly, and I look forward to working with them. Markus also gave me his book “The Complete Guide to Day Trading” and I’ve got to say that especially for the newbie, this is a clear and straightforward book that is a necessary read.

Rockwell was launched to fill the void of quality trading education in today's industry. Our company, our methods, and our products are based upon years of first-hand knowledge and experience when it comes to live trading in today's markets - including floor trading - and we are 100% committed to making sure that our students are the ones who benefit from this. Our goal is to give our clients an edge in this business, allowing them to trade successfully at a level that most traders in the industry have never reached before.

There were more folks, and more things that I did (some of which I posted on my family blog), but that’s a shorty of what happened and who I saw. I have to thank everyone who I met for their time in welcoming and sharing with me.

The mission here is clear and I’ll share more as we move forward. I’ve just had some inquiries into possible investments into what we’re doing and a request for formal business plan – so I figured why not go beyond the map in my head and on my office white board .

It’s basically all booked for me, but I’ll be meeting with traders, current and potential solution partners, and potential investors in Trading Metro.

My destinations are Utah and Austin, Texas – so if you’re around either areas and you’d like to get together, just contact the office and we’ll see if we can make something work! There’s nothing better than meeting those in the online trading industry and seeing what synergies exist to further help traders.

I’ll see if I can get a little camera and take some video of my week.

But this past week he sent out an email for his Australia seminar, pumping it by saying that his friend Kurt Hanks set a goal of making 50,000 pips in 30 days – and ended up making 67,000 pips.

I have issue with the general nature of the hype, because I even get to thinking gosh I can make 50,000 pips in a month! Actually I shouldn’t even say I have an issue with it – I find it more curious than anything else. It’s a eye opening, attention grabbing way to push people over the edge to come I suppose.

Watching people do great and outsized things is super. Looking into their accounts, asking them questions of when, where and why, and having them explain to you how they do what they do.

At the end of the day I wish Rob would focus more on “YOUR OWN SUCCESS IS DEPENDENT ON YOUR OWN TRADING METHOD.” There is only a certain amount you can piggyback off someone else. And there has to be realistic expectations. I wonder how many of these traders who show up to Rob’s “big” events actually can make small – but consistent gains. If they aren’t able to do that but they get to thinking that all of a sudden they can go for the aggressive riches – it just doesn’t jive with me.

But then again, maybe I’m totally out to lunch?

The NFA has implemented this rule because they believe clients “employing this strategy do not understand either the lack of economic benefit or the financial cost involved”. The NFA also believes hedging “eliminates any opportunity to profit on the transaction,” and “it increases the customer’s financial costs”. The NFA has listened to arguments and suggestions for alternative remedies however the, “NFA believes that the potential for misuse outweighs any perceived benefits from allowing customers to carry long and short positions in the same currency in the same account.” http://www.nfa.futures.org/news/newsNotice.asp?ArticleID=2273

FX Solutions for their part has also come up with the following “solution” after May 15, 2009 when the rule will go into effect.

For any client wishing to continue to be both long and short as part of their trading methodology, FX Solutions will provide two separate accounts on one platform which may be used to maintain offsetting positions. (When employing hedging as a trading strategy, traders should be aware of the costs associated with offset trading. Although hedged trades are opposite of each other, the trades will be treated as independent trades. Traders will pay the entire spread twice (buying at the high end of the spread and selling at the low end). Additionally, at the end of day, rollover/interest policy applies to both trades involved in the hedge; this may result in paying or in some cases receiving interest on both the long and short position. A hedged trade may limit your ability to benefit from market movement.

Surely more dealers will come out with their own set of solutions. One additional thing that FX Solutions mentioned is a traders ability to open a live account with FX Solutions Australia – where hedging is allowed – as long as the trader is Non-US.

Phew, is anyone just getting sick of all this?!?

With the move of GFS Forex & Futures out of the US market yesterday, it makes you wonder who’s next. The adjusted net capital continues to climb and until the very end dealers will tell you that they will meet the new requirements until you hear otherwise at the last minute.

I see iTradeFX was fined by the NFA recently and it’s adjusted net capital number is hugging the minimum so it will be one of the FCMs to keep a close eye on.

The NFA has articulated it in the following way:

NFA has received several requests to extend the effective date due to the complexity of the programming changes required to comply with the FIFO requirement. After considering those requests, NFA has decided to extend the effective date for the FIFO part of the rule until July 31, 2009. Therefore, FDMs may not carry offsetting positions in the same account if either of those positions was established after May 15, 2009, but FDMs may offset positions on some basis other than FIFO through July 31, 2009.

There have been many questions by traders that I’ve received about this and I’ve already witnessed a surge of accounts going overseas. I’ve also seen and been in communication with some NFA registered FCMs who are looking to somehow leverage their overseas entities to allow some form of hedging.

The NFA ruling on this, fairly or unfairly, has been considered somewhat of an anti-competition thing, and it will be very interesting to see how everything falls into place in the coming months.

As you can tell from the cover this month’s issue of Currency Trader Magazine offers the following articles.

- The Inflation Scenario: What it Means for the FX Market

- Intraday Pattern Trader

- The Euro/Yes as a Risk Barometer

- China: Currency Manipulator or Not?

- NFA Changes Forex “Hedge” Rules

- Forecasting and Time Frame

You can always sign up for free subscription to Currency Trader Magazine at www.CurrencyTraderMag.com or Download it Here.

The significance of that is we’re gearing up for the official launch of the website at that time. At the beginning of this month we went live in pre-launch mode with Trading Metro, knowing we weren’t where we really wanted to be.

But our members needed to be able to access their services, so we really had no choice but to go live a little early. In the weeks since, we’ve added resources, and we will continue to add resources and shape the website so it becomes a better place to come for all self-directed traders.

Some of the things we’ve added include:

- Charts – including the big and bold FX360 chart

- Real-time Interest rate graph on our homepage as well as a prominent Quick links box

- Resources section called MetroSource – We’re constantly adding to this and the more you check back the more you’re sure to find.

- We’re also revamping our online store where you can purchase an increasing number of our partner solutions, our Member Zone where members of the Trading Metro community will be able to better interact with one another, and more solutions – we’re always looking out for more as we want to help increase your trading consistency and success.

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It’s really a heady process – and what you see now is not what you’ll see months from now. We’ve received some great feedback already and always welcome more.

In the meantime continue to enjoy, continue to comeback and we’ll continue to do our best to help you.

I’ve also included some very important information at the end of this post for traders to contact the NFA directly, if you feel that the NFA has overstepped its bounds, and has no right to dictate trading strategy.

One part of the new compliance Rule 2-43 that no one really has mentioned is the Price Adjustment rule [2-43(a)]. Read it and see if the NFA is actually trying to help traders in some way. There are Forex traders out there who think there is some sort of conspiracy to somehow screw them, but how many of you have had prices adjusted on you?

Below you’ll find communications from InterbankFX and FX Solutions explaining this rule for the first time to the public. I think both can do a far better job of clarifying things in how the change in no hedging will affect the lay trader (the use of examples would help). But this is all new to the dealers as well, so they have to digest things first, and I understand that.

Patience is the key here.

Interbank FX, along with all FCM's, has received information from the NFA that we wanted to pass along to our customers. All registered FCM's have received a new Compliance Rule 2-43 regarding forex trading. On May 15, 2009, forex customers will no longer be allowed open "hedged" positions in their accounts. Please see an excerpt from the new NFA rule below. If you are currently using Hedging as a trading strategy, we would encourage you to use the Interbank FX Demo accounts over the next month to help modify your trading strategy. Also, for those of you who utilize hedging strategy with your "Expert Advisors", we would encourage you modify your code and test your advisor on the Interbank FX Demo servers as well. In order to assure a smooth transition for our customers to the new NFA Compliance Rule, Interbank FX has set May 8, 2009 as the last date that customers will be able to Hedge open positions.

The following is similar to a notice that will be sent to FX Solutions clients:

Notice to Traders:

The NFA HAS ANNOUNCED A NEW RULE REGARDING FOREX ORDERS; the CFTC has approved NFA Compliance Rule 2-43 regarding Forex orders. The new rule will prohibit customers from carrying offsetting positions in the same account a practice referred to as hedging. The new rule requires an FDM(Forex Dealer Member) to offset positions in a customer account on a first-in, first-out basis, thereby prohibiting hedging. A customer may, however, direct the FDM to offset same-size transactions even if there are older transactions of a different size. The rule is effective for all positions established after May 15, 2009. Hedged positions that were established prior to the effective date do not have to be liquidated, but once either position is closed out after May 15, it may not be reestablished as a hedge.

For more information, click the link below.

http://www.nfa.futures.org/news/newsNotice.asp?ArticleID=2273

To contact the NFA with your comments and thoughts on these new rulings:

Edward Dasso, Managing Director, Compliance
(edasso@nfa.futures.org or 312-781-1551)

Lauren Brinati, Senior Manager, Compliance
(lbrinati@nfa.futures.org or 312-781-1215).

General Feedback Form
http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Feedback.aspx

Take a read. I’m sure some of what he shares will resonate with you. Are you paralysed in your trading/investing?

Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize–winning innovator in the field of behavioral economics who says:

“You no longer know the world you live in,” he said. “You played by the rules, the rules benefited you. The world functioned according to some regularities. Right now, it’s unclear what rules apply. There is a new regime. What seemed prudent earlier has disappeared. I’m surprised Americans aren’t more panicked. Americans seem to accept a level of insecurity in their lives that Europeans wouldn’t tolerate. Paralysis is one response to this level of insecurity.”

I think Reviewpips is a great concept – not a new one, of course. Forex Peace Army has been doing a covert job of being the “unbiased” review site for Forex traders. I just wish that all three websites were somehow just melded into one. But I understand the separate web properties from an advertising perspective too. It just makes it less of a seamless experience.

There’s a little left to be desired on both although to the credit of FPA, it has toned down its act since its Forex Bastards times. What is left to be desired is that anyone can comment on any of these products even if the service or product is something they’ve never used or experienced.

A higher level of ranking, commenting on various trading related products and services really DOESN’T exist in the industry. I’d say some of it is helpful, some of it is amateurish, some of it is bias, some of it is everywhere in between.

As I contemplate how we can put things together here at Trading Metro, allowing members of the site to rank and comment on specific products and services is something I’ve given a lot of thought to.

Should we let only those who have purchased a particular product rank and comment, or do we allow commenter's to post anonymously, etc. It’s the balance that we’re trying to find moving forward and I’m sure many of you will share your thoughts on this too, which is always appreciated.

He did mention the following:

The NFA had done a pretty good job in shoring up the OTC FX Market, they increased the net cap requirement to insure the financial well being of the clearing members, they  developed and enforced standards for marketing and promotional material, they increased enforcement actions against fraudulent and deceptive practices and they have required that trading platforms being tested and audited.

Indeed the NFA has been more visible in helping make the FX market more regulated, but I think there is sentiment amongst the NFA registered FCM’s that further restrictions imposed by the NFA will create a wider gap with FCM’s that are not overseen by the NFA.

Many traders will always try to stack as many things in their favor as possible, and often do not have the foresight to appreciate what the NFA is doing. This will surely case many fickle traders to bristle against the NFA’s new rule and try to find safe haven elsewhere.

We’ll see what kind of ripple effect this has.

Personally, hedging for many is not a strategy but is more of a way to try to cover losses for initial poor trades. It’s a crutch that is unnecessary and will end up hurting more people than helping.

One area it will surely hurt is with those Expert Advisors that rely on hedging.

But for now, let’s wait and see what transpires, how it effects traders, and what it means to you. It’s only a few short weeks away.