Surprise!

I didn't mean to be gone so long....



I got the chance to take a break, and took it. (Or, to use Mark Twain's line, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated".)

Didn't get much chance to take a break from trading though. When good trades keep appearing, it would be irrational not to take them.

Just when I thought it couldn't be much better than the action in September, October, and November--- December turned out to be a huge month for my trading year. Non-forex markets played a large part (60%+) of my profits the last 2 weeks of December.

Thanks for checking in on the site while I disappeared, and the emails to check if I was dead.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: Don't expect to see much more downside on most of the physical commodities. All the smart money recently on the sidelines is finding a home..., buying value.

What goes Up...,

Up, up, up, down, down, down....

I am impressed with all the movement in the forex markets. And pretty tired.

But happy.

I've had some good trading this week, and some difficulties. When markets ratchet up and down so quickly and you need to put on large positions, you place your trade and within 15 seconds are thousands richer or poorer.

Usually poorer when you're trading breakouts like I do. No matter how long I've done this it still isn't fun to have those immediate losses when you enter a new trade.

Most of you know that I trade many more markets than just forex. I trade the meats, grains, metals, energies, interest rate futures (CME eurodollar is my favorite interest, then the 30 year bond) foods (coffee anyone?) on both longer term and shorter term methodologies. When currencies go into a spin, so do most of the other markets-- so it's been a carnival ride out there for guys like me.

You can get pretty tired after the necessity to stay up longer than you normally have to..., for days at a time. I'm sure it will get better soon. The other people on the opposite sides of my trades have to sleep too, eventually. I finally got some rest last week when the markets calmed down Then this week started it all up again.

Not complaining mind you. This is my best personal trading year. It is this kind of action which provides serious traders most of their yearly money. The majority of traders, banks and hedge funds included; don't commonly have the motivation (or tools) to reap the rewards possible from this volatility. Since this action is relatively uncommon, most trading firms don't get set up to take advantage of the market when it moves like greased lightning. Instead, they are the meat of the move, pushing buttons on large size orders and “hoping” everything goes all right.

“Hope” is not a strategy. FirstStrikePlus is a strategy that has held on fairly good through these crazy markets. And many of you are profiting. I'm glad.

After the markets close on Friday we'll do a recap of the week.

Best wishes to all of you.

Stay as sane as you can.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Wow #2! Up 17.7% this week alone! - Readers respond-- IFCN Wk 54 –Wed- Equity: $2,269.50

I believe that I get some of the more interesting emails any trader could receive.

The people who read this blog are not average. Most have serious intent to trade with a definable edge and go to great lengths to understand it and monetize it.

Most of you know that I use a private money management algorithm for trading ONS and FirstStrikePlus. I have no complaints about it, but many have wondered what money-management direction they should take for their own trading.

Fixed fractional methods are popular and many professional funds use them. Many following this site's systems use a fixed fractional approach risking 1/2% to 2% per trade per week. In other words, a total of 2.5% to 10% of total equity divided by the 5 markets we trade. Those who risk less have done great this year, those who risked more have done VERY well this year.

There are as many different money management possibilities as there are people. Some of you are very concervative, believing that there is a lot of time to conduct trading and others who believe that they want to get down to it and really put their capital at risk for an uncertain but potentially substantial reward.

I received the following email from a gentleman who has been researching money management and offers to show others the fruits of his effort. It isn't a style that I will likely use, but it shows how tolerant the author is to risking his profits. And you can imagine the profits obtained trading this style when markets act like they have the past few weeks.

The email follows:


Hi Joel-

The year is nearing the end I would like to take this opportunity to
express my deepest respect and appreciation to you and your endeavour
to educate the others.

Although I am not sending you emails on regular basis with updates on
my trading, I would like to say that the FSP and ONS has been more
than rewarding to me. I have been able to execute both strategies very
successfully which proved to me that one, as a trader, doesn't have to
spend hours with the charts and just couple of hours per week is
needed for decent profits.

In my previous email I have mentioned that I have been following the
DIBS for the most part of the year. I have however decided to drop
this system in favour to FSP and ONS being the only systems I will be
trading - all starting by January 2009.

I have also mentioned that your money management is staggering. I was
not able to match your performance which kept me thinking and testing
different ideas all over again. With a help from my friend
statistician/mathematician we have derived at the mm that, as you say,
keep profits during losing streak and adds on risk when the system is
winning.

Namely, that I would start the week with 5% for all 5 currency pairs
and should I win say 3% by the next coming Monday; I would invest the
gains for the next week totaling in 8% (5+3). If the following week
was a loser- say by 2%, I would decrease the base risk by 2% next
coming week, risking only 3% (5-2) over the 5 pairs.

This easy system of scaling the risk exposure depending on previous
week profit/loss has been quite a difference as opposed to just a
fixed percentage risk. Observing your mm approach I have learnt that
the profits in forex and any market for that matter is achieved by
sound money management technique with a very simple methods such as
those you teach.

I have mentioned my mm system not because I have achieved something, I
am sure you already know this kind of approach, but rather to
encourage you to talk more about money management in your blog. If it
would be your intention to reveal this approach or something similar
as I am sure many readers of your blog would benefit from it. Please
feel that this is just a suggestion/observation....

Best regards
Xxxx

-----
Thanks Xxxx! I'm sure it will give others something to think about. I do know that if you have a number of weeks in succession which are profitable, your profits can explode quickly. Thank youalso for your sentiments. The IFCN methods have been very profitable as of late, and not just because the markets have been perfect for them.

We have had many losses, as any of you who trade the systems can attest. I know that numbers of you almost refused to trade the USD/CHF because of the long string of losses it attained this last year. If you stopped trading it before this month, you are very sorry now. That is the way statistical/behavioral methods work. Very difficult emotionally and practically intolerable for typical traders.

They continue to work.

-----
I got stopped out of the long Gbp/Jpy trade after all the commotion in the last 24 hours. It happens. It also goes to show what kind of profits can be obtained with just a couple very strong pairs.

Some of you have wondered if you should place a trailing stop to protect your gains. Entirely your choice. What if you had decided to take just 150 pip profits on all of the winning trades this week. What would your profit situation be? Better or worse?

You get large equity gains by holding on to winners and letting them decide when they are done going your way.

The week's remaining FirstStrikePlus trades:

• gbp/usd: Long @1.5173, stop 1.4993.. Trade in progress.
• eur/usd: Long @ 1.3676, stop 1.3417. Trade in progress.
• gbp/jpy: Long @139.23, stopped at 135.91 for 332 pip loss.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.1582, stop 1.1763. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 89.21, stop 91.51. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,869.50

Silver position equity: $400.00
(Current XAG price: $11.40 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $2,269.50

As I was preparing this for posting, I got a call from an Oregon trader of FirstStrike-- He said that as of today he was up more than 14% for the week. Congratulations for placing the trades, AND holding on. That is the more difficult part.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

---Wow!--- Up 10.9% in One Day! – IFCN Wk 54 –Tue- Equity: $2,185.61

Wow!

That's all one can say after a day like today. After the Fed news came out this afternoon, markets bolted higher, from currencies to bonds, and commodities like natural gas and silver.

We finally got filled on our last FirstStrikePlus trade of the week, short the Usd/Jpy @ 89.21.

The Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate to a range from zero to 0.25 percent, making the U.S. dollar the lowest-yielding currency of all industrialized nations. This means that buying virtually any currency vs. the dollar is a “carry” trade. Even the Japanese yen, which has had lowest-interest-rate status for years, now has higher interest rates than the dollar.

In addition, the Fed declared that it will “employ all available tools” to stimulate economic growth.

The euro exceeded 11 week highs against the dollar as the central bank said it will expand debt purchases (like buying Treasury Bonds) to fight recessionary pressures, adopting a policy known as “quantitative easing”. The Wikipedia definition of that term is that, “... the central bank prints new money, in order to increase the supply of money.”

Can anyone spell I-N-F-L-A-T-I-O-N ?

A rule to tattoo in your brain:
Money once created never disappears. It shows up eventually, and more money supply without a corresponding increae of goods decreases the value of what money you have.

One of the few places you can directly profit from inflation is through holding commodities, gold or silver, or owning currencies that are not inflating as quickly as the target currency.
Expect more moves like we saw today. Owning silver (XAG) is not a detriment when inflation appears.

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• gbp/usd: Long @1.5173, stop 1.4993.. Trade in progress.
• eur/usd: Long @ 1.3676, stop 1.3417. Trade in progress.
• gbp/jpy: Long @139.23, stop 135.91. Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.1582, stop 1.1763. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 89.21, stop 91.51. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,827.61

Silver position equity: $358.00
(Current XAG price: $11.19 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $2,185.61

Yet another new equity high! This will not continue forever, but the 337% increase to the Challenge account in 54 weeks – with hundreds of individual trades – suggests that volatility breakout methods still can work quite well.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Is the Dollar the New Yen? -- IFCN Wk 54 –Mon- Equity: $1,970.53

The euro traded near 9 week highs against the dollar on the belief that the Federal Reserve will cut the target rate for overnight lending to a record lows. If the Fed keeps lowering interest it will make virtually every other currency a carry trade against the dollar, similar to the situation that existed with the Japanese Yen for so many years.

If this indeed starts turning the other currencies into “buys”, there could be some interesting developments and opportunities for forex traders. “Carry trade” business is one of the major sources of income for international hedge funds. Allying ourselves in their direction; if the trends support the position-- can be a very profitable circumstance.

-----

After exiting our profitable positions from last week, all that remained was an unprofitable position in Gbp/Jpy. We got stopped out at 138.23 and then shortly after got long via FirstStrikePlus.

We got our 4 existing FirstStrikePlus trades rather quickly today. Though currently profitable, after seeing ample profits last week, it wouldn't be surprising for the market to take a breather. Nevertheless, we are positioned for more weakness in the dollar.

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• gbp/usd: Long @1.5173, stop 1.4993.. Trade in progress.
• eur/usd: Long @ 1.3676, stop 1.3417. Trade in progress.
• gbp/jpy: Short @133.04, stopped at 138.23.
• gbp/jpy: Long @139.23, stop 135.91. Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.1582, stop 1.1763. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,730.53

Silver position equity: $240.00
(Current XAG price: $10.60 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $1,970.53

Another new equity high!

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Dollar Weakness Forces Higher Profits! - IFCN Wk 54 –Mon- Equity: $1,928.48

The dollar is beginning to lose the steam of “fear” buying. Last week's FirstStrikePlus and OneNightStand trades were profitable because outside interests can finally see that buying dollars as a temporary stopgap doesn't solve the problem of how to monetize value from current market imbalances.

When you are trading brutally robust methods and the rest of the world is unsure of what positions to place, “they” react poorly (and usually late) when capital shifts take place, and tend to make us profitable. That was the case this week.

Here's last week's recap-- as of the open of Monday, Dec. 15, 2008: (00:00 CST)

Total Equity from last Monday's open: $1,623.81 (including XAG value)

OneNightStand Exit(s) on 12/15/08 :
Long Eur/Usd @ 1.3408 Friday exited at 1.3484 for 76 pips profit.
Total ONS Profits: $ 23.05

Monday's FSP exits on 12/15/08:
eur/usd: Long @ 1.2859, exited at 1.3408 for 549 pip profit.
gbp/usd: Long @ 1.5007, exited at 1.5038 for 31 pip profit.
usd/chf: Short @ 1.2090, exited at 1.1715 for 375 pip profit.
usd/jpy: Short @ 91.77, exited at 90.95 for 82 pip profit.

FSP closed trades week of 12/8/08 through 12/15/08
-none-

Current FSP trades:
*gbp/jpy: Short @133.04, stop 138.23. Trade in progress.
Current FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) If not exited will be held until profitable on a subsequent Monday's open, stopped out or reversed by next week's positions.

Week's total FSP/ONS profits: $ 146.67
Current FSP/ONS trade equity is: $1,720.48

Special Silver long position:
Silver position equity: $208.00
(Current XAG price: $10.44 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
Weekly total XAG position equity gain: $158.00

WEEK'S TOTAL EQUITY: $1,928.48
Total Gain for Week: $304.67
(18.7 % weekly increase)

Our profits with FirstStrikePlus were significant again this week, as was our increase in value in the XAG (silver) position.

We are again at new equity highs. We have increased the IFCN Challenge account more than 285% in the last 54 weeks. Who would have guessed? :-)

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Dollar Slips Further! -- IFCN Wk 53 –Fri- Equity: $1,843.90.

Friday was an interesting day. The major interest was the action in the Japanese yen.

Late Thursday I got a short FirstStrikePlus Gpb/Jpy trade. I wasn't particularly thrilled with that trade, then or now. The trade was a valid one, but it showed little followthrough after entry.

I wasn't terribly keen about getting any additional OneNightStand sells in either the Gpb/Jpy or Usd/Jpy, and I didn't. But late Thursday we saw tremendous a move in the short Usd/Jpy. Some of you reported that you took some profits on the downside bulge and I'm glad for you. I was managing so many other trades at the time of the Yen strength that I didn't get any additional profits.

There was one OneNightStand trade taken, which looks fairly promising. The long Eur/Usd @ 1.3408 didn't get stopped out and managed to stay in a relatively narrow range until the end of the day. Since we were already long via FSP, this pair has the potential of being quite profitable by Monday's open.

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• eur/usd: Long @ 1.2859, stop 1.2739. Trade in progress.
• gbp/jpy: Short @133.04, stop 138.23. Trade in progress.
• gbp/usd: Long @ 1.5007, stop 1.4651. Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2090, stop 1.2221. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 91.77, stop 93.26. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

OneNightStand trades taken Friday:
*Long Eur/Usd @ 1.3408- to be exited Monday 00:00 CST.

Trading account equity: $1,673.90

Silver position equity: $170.00
(Current XAG price: $10.25 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Current Equity: $1,843.90.

Pretty good action this week.. The dollar is indeed beginning to show weakness. With so many factions long the dollar, it shouldn't take much to get a reaction/impulse move in favor of other currencies.

See you Monday.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Character Counts! -- IFCN Wk 53 –Thu- Equity: $1,851.14.

-A Favorite Quote-

J.P. Morgan: "Lending is not based primarily on money or property. No sir, the first thing is character."

Too bad the world eschewed that principle after J.P. passed on. They'll go back to his type of thinking in the future.

Character counts. In lending, in finding someone to marry, making a deal – and the trust in the capital markets by traders.

I completely believe that capitalism is the best economic system ever popularized, but it has a few flaws; a major one is that it's dependent on rational behavior for smooth running. All economies – whether capitalist, communist or socialist – needs capital assets to keep functioning. Roads, bridges, factories, houses and offices need to be built AND maintained with continuous inflows of capital.

Capitalism is based on the profit motive, a basically pure motive in the hearts of men. It is much healthier than fear of getting thrown in a Stalag because you disagree with a government's economy. But, it is a fickle motivation when people aren't confident that their profits (gained by some amount of risk, personal, financial or both) will be worth what they expect when their business is completed.

In a Communist system roads, bridges, factories, houses and offices get built – with no concerns about how to finance them. Get a bunch of people, tell them they must supply the materials. Get another bunch of people, tell them to clear their calendars for a few years because they will be building things. You can see the world's natural attraction to capitalism.

Under capitalistic societies, the people themselves decide whether they like a certain job based on personal preferences or the job's remuneration possibilities. They decide personally whether to take on more or less debt. The companies they work for decide to issue more or less stock, buy or sell bonds – all of these actions in aggregate creating possibilities to have booms and financial busts.

Capitalism, though strongly robust under most conditions can become unstable unbelievably quickly under a few exceptional circumstances like we see presently.

Leonardo Plank Test-

If you put a thick, 2 foot wide, 10 foot plank between two close buildings and the offer to pay crossers $10 every time they cross it– most people wouldn't be terribly afraid to cross it – especially if it was only 10 feet off the ground. The higher the altitude of that plank, the number crossing it comfortably would be proportionately fewer. At 100 feet off the ground and the offer of $100 per crossing, there would be a determined group of brave souls who trust their abilities, the plank and its moorings – to cross the gap. With a $500 offer to cross and a 500 foot height, you would still find people crossing every minute of the day and night.

Unless there was an earthquake or even the possibility of one. Then nobody would cross.

Capitalism tends to shut down for financial earthquakes, and even though the earthquakes may be finished, the little tremors following keep reminding even the “brave” among us that the earthquake might not yet be done. (Side note: In a communist system they would send you across anyway, at the point of a gun, and if you were successful would just take the $500 and send you across again. Another reason why capitalism wins the hearts of people despite some drawbacks.)

Capitalism wins over time because it allows the public to exert their personal confidence in their financial decisions. If you don't think that prices of homes are going to go up for the next decade, you will probably opt for renting – which tends to be cheaper most of the time. If banks think the same thing, they are going to be reluctant about lending (unless they are confident that they will be bailed out forever and ever – which seems to be the capitalist story).

The same principle applies in business. If a company builds a new factory and invests in research and development; profits and yields create higher prices. Which encourages more of the same until competition forces development in other areas. They won't do any of this unless they think their future looks stable.

The "Plank Test" is working. We are seeing little hints that the financial world is not going to disappear for these capitalist risk takers. Expect to see the dollar soften a bit and other assets get some play. That is definitely good for us.

-----

We got filled on our FirstStrikePlus Usd/Jpy sell @ 91.77. At the time of writing, this trade is profitable, which is always welcome. The Euro and Swiss Franc are extending their gains, as is XAG. Good to have a strong week going.

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• eur/usd: Long @ 1.2859, stop 1.2739. Trade in progress.
• gbp/usd: Long @ 1.5007, stop 1.4651. Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2090, stop 1.2221. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 91.77, stop 93.26. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,643.14.

Silver position equity: $208.00
(Current XAG price: $10.44 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $1,851.14.

And yet another new equity high....

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Dollar Weakens FSP Responds! -- IFCN Wk 53 –Wed- Equity: $1,767.89.

New equity watermark today! $1.767.89. That is a 253.5% increase in the last 53 weeks. At the very least-- better than T-Bills.

Any idea how many trades we took in the last year, both FirstStrike and OneNightStand-- ending this Monday morning? Definitely more than enough to be statistically viable.

-----

The euro strengthened in the last two trading days, trading near two week highs vs. the dollar as worldwide financial maneuverings to mitigate bank insolvency appear to be working.

Canada, Europe, the U.K., Sweden, Australia and New Zealand all lowered their interest rates this month. Few as much as the dollar. Last week the Fed auctioned off Billions in T-Bills with a 0% interest rate and sold all of them, almost instantly.

The only reason anyone would buy a T-Bill for zero return is so they could put it on a balance sheet. The idiocracy continues.

Right now, the Eur/Usd is one of the world's best carry trades, when you account for spreads and ease of transaction. A full 100,000 unit contract returns around $1.40/day. At the very least, now it doesn't cost you anything overnight to hold the Euro.

Maybe the market may begin to figure out that mania high prices for the dollar are just as dangerous as mania low prices were a few months ago.

-----

We almost got filled on the FSP buy of Gbp/Jpy @ 140.82. Who knows, maybe later in the week? Still no fills on either the FSP Usd/Jpy buy OR sell. Maybe it'll just be a blank for the week. We have decent action in the Euro and Swiss. Could be a big week.

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• eur/usd: Long @ 1.2859, stop 1.2739. Trade in progress.
• gbp/usd: Long @ 1.5007, stop 1.4651. Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2090, stop 1.2221. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,599.90.

Silver position equity: $168.00
(Current XAG price: $10.24 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $1,767.89.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Transition Week Returns Profits! -- IFCN Wk 53 –Mon- Equity: $1,623.81.

After the “terrible” employment news on Friday, currencies started gaining on the dollar, along with XAG and XAU (silver and gold). That helped out the Challenge account this morning with the XAG giving us additional profits, almost creating a wash after all the action we experienced last week.

When the dollar starts weakening, we could easily start making large gains from FirstStrike AND the XAG position. Time will tell.

Here's last week's recap-- as of the open of Monday, Dec. 8, 2008: (00:00 CST)

Equity from last Monday's open: $1,631.75.

OneNightStand Exit(s) on 12/8/08 :
-None-
Total ONS Profits: $ -0-

Monday's FSP exits on 12/8/08:
-None- (the official system had exits, but I exited my last three positions on Friday- see below)

FSP closed trades week of 12/1/08 through 12/8/08
*eur/usd: Long @ 1.2742, stopped at 1.2585 for 157 pip loss.
*eur/usd: Long @ 1.2848, stopped at 1.2644 for 204 pip loss.
*usd/chf: Short @ 1.2062, stopped at 1.2225. for 163 pip loss.
*gbp/jpy: Short @144.02, exited at 135.75 for 827 pip profit. (pre-emptive exit)
*gbp/usd: Short @ 1.5149, exited at 1.4640 for 509 pip profit. (pre-emptive exit)
*usd/jpy: Short @ 94.38, exited at 92.39 for 199 pip profit. (pre-emptive exit)

Current FSP trades:
-None-
Current FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) If not exited will be held until profitable on a subsequent Monday's open, stopped out or reversed by next week's positions.

OneNightStand 12/5/08 entry(s):
Short Usd/Jpy @ 92.06, stopped at 93.06 for 100 pip loss.
Short Gpy/Jpy @ 134.10, stopped at 135.10 for 100 pip loss.

Week's total FSP/ONS profits: $ 106.06
Current FSP/ONS trade equity is: $1,573.81

Special Silver long position:
Silver position equity: $50.00
(Current XAG price: $9.65 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
Weekly total XAG position equity loss: $114.00

WEEK'S TOTAL EQUITY: $1,623.81.
Total Loss for Week: $7.94
(0.5 % weekly decrease)

Our profits with FirstStrikePlus were significant this week, offsetting the losses in our silver position. When the XAG starts a solid rally the account could explode in value.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Traders Respond #2-- IFCN Wk 52 –Fri- Equity: $1,597.81

I'm posting some more of your emails-- readers and successful traders who were willing to share your experiences.

Your responses are valuable to others because trading is a very mental process. As a mechanical process, almost anyone can physically enter a specific forex trade consistently. Nevertheless, personal attitudes about value and conviction are involved, making consistent execution of a methodology-- even one you have determined should be successful-- a veritable leap of faith similar to the belief that a parachute will open when you jump out of a plane.

Reportedly 3,.000,000 skydive every year. Not all survive.

Total Skydiving Fatalities since January 1, 2004 (http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/)

Failing at trading isn't as bad as risking a jump to your death – for most people. But it is hugely challenging and any valid insight can save capital and heartache for many others.


--- “ value of placing trades each and every time...”

Hi Joel,

I've learned so much from your website and I believe there are many traders out there with a similar story to me.

I jumped from FOREX strategy to system looking for that great performing one that made 100 to 200% returns a year. I thought that if I found that system, I would have the key to trading. Your blog and articles have taught me that that thinking isn't correct. I needed to train myself to be a good trend follower.

I learned from you the value of placing trades each and every time, especially in times of drawdown. I've learned to manage my emotional bias by looking toward the positive expectation of the system and not each individual trade. This can only come by proving to yourself that your system has a good edge. I've come to believe that with these things, along with realistic, consistent position sizes, you can be a successful trader.

I began trading FirstStrike and OneNightStand in the middle of September, 2008. The very first week we began FirstStrike Plus, I hit a 42% account increase (back in October)! Now, I'm almost at my 50% milestone!

Yes, drawdown will come again. But thanks to you, I have the tools to continue to be profitable in the long run. This is not luck, it's consistency.

Please feel free to share my story.

Gxxxx Nxxxx


----- "Up about 40%" -----

Hi Joel,

Just wanted to drop a note, congratulations for the first year of your excellent blog. Thanks for all the time you put in there, I really, really appreciate it.

After all the problems I had first 6 months my fx accocunt is now up about 40% (not counting the open profit this week).

Thanks,

Txxxxx

----- "currently up 99% from March 2008" -----

Hi Joel,

I have had great success trading your systems this past year. I am currently up 99% from March 2008. Through reading your blog and finding the edge of each system, I was able to devise a money management strategy that has allowed me to add an additional 29% for the year compared to when I was just using a trend filter. I can see how want-to-be traders have a hard time trading FSP and ONS. After trading them for almost nine months, I have not exited my profits early once. It has been extremely difficult at times, but when you look at the edge of the system and see those numbers it gives you confidence to keep holding onto the trade. Thanks for answering all of my questions. The only website I read about trading now is yours. So much knowledge and little hints everywhere to help FSP become more profitable.
--
Thanks,

Bxxxxx

----- "Volatile Returns!!..., by design----

Joel,
I haven't been following your trades for a year yet. I think it was May when I ran across your site after Peter Crowns posted one of your missives on Forex Factory. I think I'll look back on that event as having been a fateful one. Since I started following your trades, I've had what I can only call stunning success in my trading. I've taken the $120 that I allocated to the Challenge account to over $300 since May. Obviously I'm taking more risk per trade than you do in the Challenge account. I set my spreadsheet to calculate for 5% equity per trade and I just focus on tolerating the awful drawdowns. I've seen that account equity over $700! It stands this minute at about $385.

(JR's note: That's 265% return at present--- at peak > 480% return)

I'm sure you know well what that kind of extreme risk feels like. Part of what knocked me so hard was actually the trading in Silver. I let myself believe the 'fundamental story' and get too cavalier about catching falling knives in XAG. I blew at least $200 tilting at that particular windmill. In typing this, I'm somewhat surprised that I needed to learn that lesson again. I will have to be ever vigilant to keep myself from doing something similarly stupid again.
Now for the even more extreme trading, I took another $111 and started taking trades with 15% of the account equity at risk. I'm blogging the experience here:
Forex Rollercoaster of Death - http://forexcoaster.blogspot.com/

My 3 inspirations for the idea have been yourself, Larry Williams, and Van Tharp. (in descending order of importance). It has indeed been a rollercoaster of death! I've traded that hundred bucks all the way down to $18 and change, and all the way back up to $467 or so. Just now it stands at $323. I'm compiling a lot of statistics as I go along, which I publish every trading day after 10 am. There's also a little race going on between myself and another trader. I publish a simple line chart of both our equities, but I can't let myself care who wins, since I don't want it influencing my decisions. Mostly, however, I have very few decisions to make. I pick entries based mostly on hourly DIBS setups, although I sometimes play for reversals. My only real edge appears to be that I always honor my stops without fail, and I try not to trail the winners too closely. I calculate the historical expectancy of my trading as I close each trade. So far it's at about 0.63% per trade, which seems to me to be screamingly, stratospherically high even with the huge risk I put on. That's averaged over 100 trades so far. I fully expect that number to come down. I've tried smoothing it with a moving average, but I think my sample set is to small for that to make sense just yet. As it stands now, I'm about 1,300 trades away from $1 million. (I track and publish that statistic too.) Optimistically, that means I need to take something like $5.8 million in losses along the way, so I try to focus on that in order to keep my psychology on track. That ain't easy, as we both know.

Well, let me wrap this up by saying that it's definitely been a fascinating, frustrating, gut-wrenching, fantastic, exhilarating journey. Looking back, I can scarcely believe how ill-equipped I was for this trip when I began it. I think I'm less so now. Your inspiration, example, and guidance have been a tremendous help along the way. Thanks again!

-Dxxxx
aka Archiphage


THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE!!!!! And to the others I didn't get to publish - your strength of character impresses me.

-----
Friday was an exciting and turbulent day.

There were two OneNightStand trades taken which resulted in losses. The short Usd/Jpy, and the short Gbp/Jpy. I was already short both of these markets with FSP from earlier in the week. I only added minimal size on these trades (we are extended to extremes on the downside over many weeks) so my losses from the failed ONS trades were relatively insignificant.

The first Friday of the month has the US employment report which usually has significant impact on trading. This week was no different in that regard.

The United States' Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Non-Farm Payrolls for the month of November fell by more than 533K, the greatest drop in 34 years. The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, the highest level since 1993. At first this news caused some currencies to gain on the dollar in knee-jerk fashion like you would expect, then the dollar got amazingly strong. But, as time went on and the dollar couldn't dominate any longer, the Euro and Sterling regained strength. This kind of trade tore up many traders who primarily trade news events.

The eur/usd FSP trade; entered Thursday-- got stopped out Friday after the news hit. Then the market stopped falling and recovered nicely..., but without me.

The usd/chf trade, still on from last week-- got stopped out when the dollar got stronger after the employment numbers came out, and then exhausted itself.... the Usd/Chf fell back by the close without our short trade.

In fact, the action of all of the forex pairs, and the lack of continued strength in the dollar after the significant news-- caused me to exit the short FirstStrike Plus trades: gbp/usd, gbp/jpy, and usd/jpy at technical price areas exceeded after the news and their subsequent reactions. My exits were much better than their respective Friday closes.

I normally would prefer to exit the remaining FSP trades on Monday as usual. With increasing dollar weakness as the day went on and the day's news was digested, it became obvious that exiting early was the advantageous thing to do.
-----

Friday's FirstStrikePlus trade executions:

• eur/usd: Long @ 1.2848, stopped at 1.2644 for 204 pip loss..
• gbp/usd: Short @ 1.5149, exited at 1.4640 for 509 pip profit. (news failure exit)
• gbp/jpy: Short @144.02, exited at 135.75 for 827 pip profit. (news failure exit)
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2062, stopped at 1.2225. for 163 pip loss.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 94.38, exited at 92.39 for 199 pip profit (news failure exit)

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

OneNightStand trades taken Friday:
Short Usd/Jpy @ 92.06, stopped at 93.06 for 100 pip loss.
Short Gpy/Jpy @ 134.10, stopped at 135.10 for 100 pip loss.

Trading account equity: $1,573.81

Silver position equity: $24.00
(Current XAG price: $9.52 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Current Equity: $1,597.81.

I know that many appreciate the emails you readers of this site have sent in about your results.. Thanks again for all of your responses.

I am flat for the weekend. Next week might be the start of dollar weakness. How extreme can the dollar's value get? (answer: Very extreme, but everything comes to an end, as we've seen in many examples this year.)

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Traders Respond #1-- IFCN Wk 52 –Thu- Equity: $1,600.25

I got a plethora of emails from intelligent and brave traders who were willing to share their experiences.

I will share a few in this post and share some more later. These responses are incredibly valuable to others as they delineate the process successful traders must traverse.

_______

---- +182.36% ----

Hi Joel,

In your Blog, you asked about other people's results.

I started following your methods (FS and ONS)on 26th May
2008, but I diverged because I started trailing my stops
from 1st September.

Then I did only the first week of FSPlus (really I should
not have done it, because the minimum risk I could have
with my Broker was far too high (>20% for the 5 trades
combined since I can't risk less than 1GBP per pip).
After that, I reverted to your later version of FS with 100
(G/J 150) for the break and 120 (180 for G/J and E/J) for
the initial StopLoss. Yes, I changed the currencies a
little at this point, dropping U/CHF and adding E/J and
U/CAD still using (bigger) trailing stops after the initial
StopLoss. I suppose that I have developed my own trading
method based upon FS. Anyhow, the results are pretty good
(though I recognise that we are in unusual times and so I
don't expect them to carry on like this):-

26th May to 1st December 2008 + 9,118 pips (including some
doubled positions) which I calculate as + 182.36% (I have
used a single account for all my trading and allocated an
initial 5,000GBP to trade FS and ONS).

Feel free to put this on your blog if you want to.

Thanks for all the pips,
Ixxxx

__________

----My account is currently up 134%!-----

I am fine for anyone to say I am lucky. Luck prevails with those who are persistent. I have followed the rules with some minor discretionary adjustments to trades and some additional ones that have helped improve (and hurt) my trading on the margin. I am lucky that I found this blog and have had a chance to meet and discuss ideas with you and some other traders. Trading has profoundly changed my life and i don't mean financially but philosophically. I am better for it.

When I started trading I was quickly up 30% in a few months and thought I was the next Soros. Visions of grandeur danced in my head. I picked out the G5 I was going to buy. The following several months thereafter I suffered a 60% drawdown from original equity and seriously questioned the wisdom of my decision to trade. The visions of grandeur changed to scenes of Oliver Twist living in a rooming house with ragged clothes. It was quite painful for a while as I am not trading a small account and the dollars were very real. I manually backtested the original FS system and ONS to my satisfaction. This was the source of my confidence to keep trading. Frankly, I am very grateful to have suffered a significant drawdown early on. The first one was hopefully the hardest. Right?

I doggedly stuck with it and kept hammering away on the trades week after week. My account is currently up 134% (on original equity). "Wow" doesn't begin to describe it. I have no expectations of being able to reproduce that record anytime in the near future for all the reasons you state in your blog. I would actually be up higher but I took a risk on some trades to see if i could get them to run longer then the system dictates. I also added a few other system trades along the way (Turtle, DiBS, SY). I will continue to do that from time to time if I feel the market may continue to trend in the right direction. I religiously enter all trades but follow the other parameters about 95% of the time. I might add more size to a trade because I erroneously believe I can pick the direction of the market or I may exit a trade sooner than the system states and watch it promptly reverse profitably right on the pippette I closed the trade. Amazing.

My currency trading career started on May 19th, 2008. I have made some really dumb mistakes along the way. Stupid ones that you would laugh at the idiocy of the decisions (hell you received some of the early morning questions created by a sleep deprived deranged mind). Most of the time the actoins weren't fatal. Go to any book where they discuss the fallacy of new traders and I can place a big fat check mark next to most of them. Dumb mistakes!!! Through it all, I have kept plugging away and working on increasing my knoweldge and determining how i can take it to the next level. And i will.

Jxxx Bxxxxx

-----
Thanks for the kind words and useful material for the readers of this site. The help you've shared is immense.
JR

-----
I got a new trade today. I bought the eur/usd as seen below. Earlier in the week we were stopped out of our long eur/usd from last week. 99% of the time that would mean that a short for that pair would have been executed. It wasn't.

This week's eur/usd FirstStrike Plus long entry (not specified in the FirstStrike Plus email from Monday morning- sorry about that..., didn't imagine we'd need it) is 1.2848.

We are still short the usd/chf, which is working nicely. The week's other profitable trades are backing off somewhat because of softening of the dollar. Will it continue? We just take the trades at this point.

There is so much news, for and against stability that the best thing to do is stick with our methods which do have an edge in these times. At least our risk is defined.

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• eur/usd: Long @ 1.2848, stop 1.2644. Trade in progress.
• gbp/usd: Short @ 1.5149, stop 1.5420. Trade in progress.
• gbp/jpy: Short @144.02, stop 146.90.Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2062, stop 1.2225. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 94.38, stop 95.51. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit)

Trading account equity: $1,560.25

Silver position equity: $40.00
(Current XAG price: $9.60 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Current Equity: $1,600.25.

I'll include some more of your emails soon. Thanks again for all of the responses.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

FirstStrike Plus Is on a Roll! -- IFCN Wk 52 –Wed- Equity: $1,568.34

As the currencies have little strength this week, the short Sterling, and Sterling/Yen trades are doing quite well. Amazingly the short Usd/Jpy and short Usd/Chf are doing ok too. As this group of specific trades rarely profit at the same time, it will be interesting to see which, if any, remain profitable by the beginning of next week.

While the FirstStrike trades increased in value, the XAG dropped in value somewhat. Still, we had a little gain today.

There is a lot of hand-wringing going on the TV financial shows. Nassim Taleb was on the “Charlie Rose” show tonight. He was not at all positive about the world's stock markets recovering after the severe drops endured. But at the same time he believes incredible inflation will take place. Very interesting!

The fact that there is so much doom and gloom predicted may, all by itself, stem a lot of the feared reactions. The idea that corrections should and already do take a lot less time than they used to-- was also discussed by Taleb.

Either way, we are living in interesting times and will likely have the chance to continue profiting from the indecision of the masses. But not if you don't take the trades.

The week's existing FirstStrikePlus trades:

• gbp/usd: Short @ 1.5149, stop 1.5420. Trade in progress.
• gbp/jpy: Short @144.02, stop 146.90.Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2062, stop 1.2225. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 94.38, stop 95.51. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,548.34

Silver position equity: $20.00
(Current XAG price: $9.50 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $1,568.34.

I've received a number of emails concerning the profitable results obtained by readers and followers of the methods followed on this site. With the permission of the writers I will publish a number of them tomorrow. The lessons they've proven should be of help to others who want to have an edge in forex and monetize it properly.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

The Trend..., Is! -- IFCN Wk 52 –Tue- Equity: $1,549.88.

After Monday's opening and the taking of a couple of profits from Sterling dominated trades – the Pound promptly started falling decisively, triggering the FirstStrike Plus sales of gbp/usd and the gbp/jpy. At the same time, we received a new sale in usd/jpy seen below.

While these profitable trades were stacking up, the XAG position took a lot of heat, silver dropping $1.00/oz from Friday's close. Just when you thought it might be safer to be in the markets....

About the serious profits we've logged in the IFCN “challenge” accout--- we're apparently not alone.

According to Parker Global Strategies LLC., Foreign-exchange funds had their biggest monthly returns in October since 2003.

John W. Henry International Foreign Exchange Program of Boca Raton, Florida, was the top-performing fund in October, gaining 32.7 percent.

Parker Global further went on to say, “The month saw a continuation of the dollar appreciation due to a combination of a flight to safety out of risky emerging-market currencies and into the stable dollar and the hoarding of liquidity by U.S. banks, creating a vacuum of dollars.”

Most of the funds that Parker Global follow gained in October, with 46 of 71 programs reporting positive results and 25 posting losses. They added an interesting footnote: funds which are generally based on computer models gained 3.02 percent, while discretionary traders, were up only 1.43 percent as a group.

That probably has to do with the “surprise factor” which semi-mechanical methodologies profit from.

As a personal side note: John Henry, while using numerous mechanical methodologies, also uses a fair amount of discretion concerning how much size he trades. Hence, his larger than normal returns.

I congratulate JH on his success. Since he is the consumate trend follower, he obviously was selling the Euro and Pound Sterling at the same time we were.
----

The week's current FirstStrikePlus trades:

• gbp/usd: Short @ 1.5149, stop 1.5420. Trade in progress.
• eur/usd: Long @ 1.2742, stopped at 1.2585 for 157 pip loss.
• gbp/jpy: Short @144.02, stop 146.90.Trade in progress.
• usd/chf: Short @ 1.2062, stop 1.2225. Trade in progress.
• usd/jpy: Short @ 94.38, stop 95.51. Trade in progress.

FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) See complete rule-set for effective trade management.

Trading account equity: $1,509.88

Silver position equity: $40.00
(Current XAG price: $9.60 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
TOTAL Equity: $1,549.88.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!

Challenge Account- 226.3 % Gain after 1 Year! -- IFCN Wk 52 –Mon- Equity: $1,631.75

Some would be beating their chests after a great return like I experienced with the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge account this past year. I'm not. At least not very much. I've had great returns before, and less wonderful returns too.

I happen to know that this year we've had some very significant events contributing to the gains, major financial shifts that don't get repeated that often. Also, the methods I used to obtain the year's end results tend to work best when the rest of the world gets surprised. It will be hard to surprise the whole world again until things calm down a bit.

If any of you following this site have had similar (greater/lesser) success following these methods, feel free to drop me an email. I'm happy for anyone to make profits in these dangerous financial markets, and have no doubt that more people following robust methods – such as highlighted on this site – will improve the chances for a private trader's profitability.

Hearing about your positive results might assist others to eventually take action and improve their own trading. Some think that I'm just "lucky". I would disagree with that general characterization. I have been "lucky" to find out that you can improve your "luck" by being ready to trade in the correct directions over and over.

Here's last week's recap:

The data below is as of the open of Monday, Dec. 1, 2008: (00:00 CST)

Equity from last Monday's open: $1,493.55

OneNightStand Exit(s) on 11/24/08 :
-None-
Total ONS Profits: $ -0-

Monday's FSP exits on 12/1/08:
*Gbp/Jpy: Long @145.49, exited at 1.4618 for 69 pips profit.
*Gbp/Usd: Long @ 1.5126, exited at 1.5353 for 227 pips profit.

FSP closed trades week of 11/24/08 through 12/1/08
*usd/jpy: Short @ 95.39, stopped at 96.59 for 120 pip loss.
*usd/jpy: Long @ 96.59, stopped at 95.05 for 154 pip loss.

Current FSP trades:
eur/usd: Long @ 1.2742, stop 1.2585. Trade in progress.
usd/chf: Short @ 1.2062, stop 1.2225. Trade in progress.
Current FirstStrikePlus trades will be exited on Mondays at 00:00 CST if profitable. (First-Profitable-Open Exit) If not exited will be held until profitable on a subsequent Monday's open, stopped out or reversed by next week's positions.

OneNightStand 11/28/08 entry(s):
-None-

Current FSP/ONS trade equity is: $1,467.75

Special Silver long position:
Silver position equity: $164.00
(Current XAG price: $10.22 – 200 unit position average: $9.40)
Weekly total XAG position equity gain: $128.00

WEEK'S TOTAL EQUITY: $1,631.75.
Total Gain for Week: $138.20
(9.2 % weekly increase)

Now on a completely different note:

At the moment there is an extremely serious issue taking place north of the American border. Quite literally, there is a coup d'etat under way in Ottawa. (http://smalldeadanimals.com/) It may not interest many Americans because they never hear much about Canadian news. (Or for that matter – little other news than the latest about Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt) The situation is very strained, but when fear reigns because of economic instigation, people react, and usually react badly.

It should concern any and all democratic lands, because if the bastards in question succeed it will only further chill financial markets we already have to handle with warm kid gloves. (search: coup d'etat Ottawa – in Google for both side's opinions. It isn't good!)

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

PS: To receive the FREE! trading rules for the Infiniteyield Forex Challenge ($499 value) and the semi-monthly newsletter about this challenge, send an email to: newsletter@infiniteyield.com and tell me to which address you would like it sent. Please do not use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo addresses. They've been known to filter out more good mail than actual spam. Try a Gmail address. It's free, simple and perfect for traders!