Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Ben Bernanke, Font of Information! --IFCN Wk 32 -Tue- Equity: $737.12

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke had his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today. Remarkable things were said.
  1. “There is speculation in the oil trade.”
  2. "There seems to be adequate oil in the ground.”
  3. “There is no "magic bullet" to deal with high commodity prices.”
Thanks. I feel much better now. And to think these guys make the big money for sharing this crucial information.

Even so, this type of rhetoric swung the markets around, and sent oil down more than $9 at one point.

He could have said something really interesting, like, “I can't tell you what I plan on doing about high oil prices, the slide in the dollar and interest rates because my magic 8 ball got broken!”



The Gbp/Usd has still proven to be the strongest trade of the week. At one point earlier today, our equity stood at $759.50. And then, after Mr. Bernanke spoke, it fell off substantially. I'm not too surprised, as I was quite impressed with having any profits at all this week with all the news stories whipping up the masses.

The following is the status of this week's FirstStrike trades:
  • Eur/Usd: Sold @ 1.5848, stopped out at 1.5908 for a 60 pip loss.
  • Gbp/Jpy: Long @ 212.11, stopped out at 211.21 for a 90 pip loss.
  • Gbp/Usd: Long @ 1.9906, stop 1.9846. Trade in progress.
  • Usd/Chf: Long @ 1.0240, stopped out at 1.0180 for a 60 pip loss.
  • Usd/Jpy: Sold @ 105.95, stop 106.55. Trade in progress.
Note: Any FirstStrike trade not stopped out before Friday gets exited on Friday just before 15:00 CST.

Current equity is $737.12.

See you tomorrow. Keep your stops in.

Joel Rensink
www.infiniteyield.com

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1 comment:

David A. Loboy said...

Joel,
I asked the Magic 8-ball the same question, and it said 'Outlook not so good!'... At first I thought maybe it wanted one of us to lose, but maybe we didn't really ask it the same question. I figured you meant the all-time, cosmic, universal, never-to-be-exceeded top. Perhaps you were asking about something more near-term.
Anyway, I'm about halfway through 'The Trading Game' by Ryan Jones. Have you read it, and if so what did you think?
For me, I think my money management approach to the challenge (and in general) is about to change. So far I've been using a fixed-fractional approach of 1.5% per trade. I haven't figured out yet if I can apply his method to OANDA with its infinitely customizable lot size, but the exercise will be worth it- especially if I get into futures or back into options.
Well, Mr. Jones awaits. Take care...