Day 20 & 21 - Free Money! Yeah?

The Federal Reserve has reduced the interest rate down to zero, but the bill collectors still keep coming. Home foreclosures are expected to hit 2 million people, jobs continue to be shed at a rapid rate, and the world is looking to the United States as if we have are the only ones with a problem. If we thought the asian flu was contagious then the U.S. flu will be twice as bad. The Federal Reserve has made a grave mistake, in the process my holdings in the game have moved like lightning, my euro holdings have made over $60,000 in 11 days, unfortunately all indicators are screaming overbought. My gold stocks have jetted up in value as well, too bad I have't been able to get everything moving at the same time in the same account, so now I have two accounts up 30%, but my conservative nature is killing me in the process.

Days 17,18,&19 - Automakers allowed to fail

I am still caugh at an empasse. My returns are double digit, but have not propelled me into the top spot for the week. With the contest 50% over I will have to find the key that will open up the final level to get over the hump. A lot of traders are imploding and so my top ranking is bouncing between the top 2-5% on any given day.

If I am to have any hope of making it to the finals I have to win a week. This will require almost a 100% return for the week, this weekend will be the litmus test for my strategy to see if I can find some diamonds in the rough that will give me the boost.

Day 16- Hard to get back in the groove

I created a 3-hour introductory course for my fully blown "Winning the Trading Game" course and found myself distracted from the CNBC Challenge. The audience at the Denver Trading Group was a blast to meet and it was definitely refreshing to speak to some established traders. That allowed me to move forward quickly without focusing too much on vocabulary. They also helped me clarify some points in my seminar that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted based on the slides I had created.

With all of that being said I neglected my trading duties. So far another one of my accounts is "Winning Portfolio C" and so I exited my positions and I am looking to clean slate. I have fallen in the overall rankings in my strongest acount to the top 30,000. So I will have to move into high gear over the rest of the week and net next few weeks if I hope to make it to the finals.

Day 14&15 - Making trading mistakes

Yesterday, I was preparing for my seminar for the Denver Trading Group in Denver, Colorado and made an early move to buy the Euro's strength. I had a set back and lost $7,000 in the position and was automatically stopped because of my over margining.

I stepped up my playing of the CNBC Bonus Bucks and I am showing greens across the board, unfortunately I still haven't had my second major breakthrough and there are only eight more weeks in the competition.

Day 13 - Hurry up and wait

I am once again battling with my indicators. I am looking for a confluence of events to show up on the charts and basically I am back at square on with my picks. My "Winning Portfolio A", my longshot trades, are still on along with my gold positions in my "Winning Portfolio D". Yet my indicators are screaming for me to wait for a big break in the currencies, in the mean time my ranking is slipping. On the one hand I realize it's time for me get off of the sidelines in my most successful portfolio, but I don't want to be rushed solely because my ground is slipping. I guess this is what comes from having the turtle as your animal totem.

Day 12 - Bonus Bucks

Being out of the market the last two days I have finally been able to add the free money of the game to my account the infamous "Bonus Bucks". Each day a trader can earn an additional $12,000 to their trading capital, which brings in a cool $60,000 per week. I missed out on the first week and while I wait for my indicators to give me the buy signal I will collect the money just like everyone else. In order to accomplish my goal of "playing to win" I can no longer miss any bonus bucks if I want to have a snow ball's chance in winning. I only have 10,000 people to beat to be number one, lot different from 400,000 plus.

Now it's time to switch gears a little play big, play smart. The Euro's failure to break through the upper resistance has lead for a drop back down to support. Looking for a break or a bounce, at the first sign I am going to make a run for it. Too bad I can put a "stop" entry order, the move will be big.

Day 11 - Top 2% Trader Doing Nothing

When I teach my students how to trade I speak of the three "Rule of Threes".

The first rule of three is that the market can move one of three directions - up, down, or sideways.

The second rule of three is that a trader must master money management, technical analysis, and risk management in order to have any hope of being successful when it comes to trading.

The third rule of three is that there are only three ways to approach the market - long, short, or flat.

On Wednesday I exercised my trading discretion and experience with false rallies to exit trading in my most successful portfolio. Many of you saw my trades and at the end of seven days I was up only 39%, that put me in the top 5% of traders. I took a much needed hiatus from trading to enjoy the holidays and a few of you thought I was making a big mistake because of the big rallies last week and you let me know.

Had my experience not taught me otherwise I would have easily changed my position and began

to chase the markets. But my gut told me to sit on the sidelines and stay flat the market, the third rule of three. Today I just shook off 13,000 people that were my competiton. Some of them may come back, but many of them will overtrade during this volatility and continue to be slammed hard. At the end of today's rankings I am trader 9, 190 out of 400,000 plus traders which puts me in the top 2% It is unfortuante that the markets are fluctuating so aggressively, but I am still attempting to beat the game.