TraderGav.com

Gav's trading blog - Perseverance, Consistency, Confidence

Gav

Left or right side of brain

by Leave a Comment

Eyal posted an interesting photo on his side.

If you see it turning clockwise then your analytic left side is more dominant while anti-clockwise means your creative right side is more dominant.

image001.gif

At first sight, I saw she was turning left anti-clock wise, and then right-clockwise. I found it pretty difficult for me to switch from right to left. Uhm…same result …which means, I am always being uncreative.

Strong or stubborn opinion – discretionary trades

by Leave a Comment

I would say that these trades are discretionary. Maybe you can say I am bottom fishing, but I have no idea about where is the bottom. I am just being bullish about Aussie dollar at the moment.

I am currently long AUDUSD, USDSGD, USDJPY, AUDJPY. I opened these positions since starting of Asian session yesterday. We saw a wild swing throughout the day and all positions are in the money at the moment.

I am watching the market closely. And these trades should last for days if not weeks. In addition, I am having the advantage in term of interest payments for these long positions.

Let’s see how it goes. I am still trying to refine my trading strategy.

Tapping or knowing where to tap?

by 2 Comments

Having a chance to involve in consultancy profession, I found the story below is so true. My boss (well, at least for the current project) sent this to us in the early Tuesday morning.

What are you doing today? Tapping with a hammer? or showing people where to tap? it is your choice.

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. 

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars. 

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!” 

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read: 

  Tapping with a hammer …………………… $ 2.00

  Knowing where to tap ……………………. $ 9998.00
 
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

The stable lion currency

by Leave a Comment

sing100.jpgSINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) – The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said domestic inflationary pressures remain well-contained and do not require a change in its monetary policy.

‘Abstracting from the one-off effects of the goods and services tax (GST) hike (from 5 percent to 7 percent), underlying inflationary pressures remain generally well-contained for the current advanced stage of the business cycle,’ MAS said in a statement.

The Singapore government continues to expect inflation to come in within its 1-2 percent target for this year despite a recent spike in consumer prices. The consumer price index rose an annual 2.6 percent in July as the GST hike took effect.

‘MAS’ monetary policy stance of a modest and gradual appreciation of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) policy band remains in place. MAS will continue to monitor closely the price and cost developments in the economy and review the policy stance in October 2007,’ MAS said.

The MAS manages the Singapore dollar NEER against a basket of trade-weighted currencies.

Original article here.

With the strong (and overly strict?) government in place, Singapore dollar is always my favorite when considering some long term low risk way of parking some of my savings. One of the big catch to me is that the monetary policy of Singapore is centered around the exchange and the MAS steps in to curb the volatility.

And here is another idea that suggest Singapore Dollar May Fund Carry trades.

Chart of interest: AUD/USD end 30-AUG-2007

by Leave a Comment

Winter doesn’t seem to be over yet for Aussie dollar. It takes another week or so to see if a higher low can be formed and resume it’s uptrend. It just failed to close above 200-day moving average, while weekly, it is stuck between the zone 20-week and 50-week average. I am not turning bearish right away, though it does look ugly for bulls now. I am watching the support around the area of 0.865.

[photopress:audusd_daily31aug2007.gif,full,alignleft]

Living

by 8 Comments

So I have stayed here for 2 months. how much is the basic living cost of Melbourne?

Here are the approximate daily essential expenses:

  • Rental (for a 2 bed room apartment) :AUD 44
  • Transportation (Assuming you are staying in the Zone 1, cost will raise when staying in Zone 2) :AUD 3.4
  • Food & drink (3 basic meals a day): AUD 20
  • Utility (Water & Electricity): AUD 5

So , by doing nothing, you need around AUD$72.4 (~ USD61.54) a day to live in Melbourne city.

So you need to at least earned AUD 2300 (USD 1955) a month from your day job if you wanna survive in  this city.

I am not sure about other countries, but in Singapore, it is roughly as below:

Daily expenses:

  • Rental (2-bedroom flat): SGD 40
  • Transportation: SGD 4
  • Food & Drink : SGD 15
  • Utility: SGD 4

Daily total: SGD 63 (~ USD 41)

These are all very basic livng cost, excluding alcohol, weekend dinners, entertainment etc.

Looking at this, well…work harder buddy.