Wednesday, June 30th

This afternoon I decided to open my latest trade, a short CAD/JPY. There wasn't really any logic behind this decision; I just saw one of the dailyfx analysts recommend it as a good trade to keep open for the next few days. Beyond that, I didn't really do any more research on the specifics on what is going on with these currencies. What's more, I just noticed that John Rivera (the analyst who recommended the pair) made this trade last week...Since then he has closed the position, but I suppose I might as well wait until tomorrow. It's been doing ok so far, so hopefully prices will continue to drop.

All of my work time yesterday as well as today was spent writing the story for the Kid's Club "Choose Your Own Adventure" with Alex and Ashraf. Basically this is a story where kids can decide what they want to happen (do you work at a grocery store or open your own lemonade stand?). It's been a bit of a challenge keeping track of all the story lines and figuring out how to incorporate financial decisions, but I think that it turned out pretty well.

Today we also went on a walking tour of the area and got to simulate open outcry trading like is done in the mercantile exchange. I was completely terrible at it- I think I bought a bunch of times when I was supposed to be selling...

It was really interesting anyway and I learned a bit about something I knew nothing about beforehand.

Tomorrow morning we will hopefully edit the story and start working on another activity for the kid's program.

Well at least I was right about one of my CAD trades...

The long AUD/CAD didn't go quite as planned, and so on Thursday I reached my stop loss and the position closed itself. In total I lost about $600. Luckily, I was correct in my prediction that the CAD/CHF was dropping out of its trend and should put in a short trade. Overall, this position was able to make up for the losses from my other trade as well as about a $100 profit in total. I closed this trade out Friday afternoon before the market closed for the weekend.

Thursday morning, Alex and I continued to work on the activities for the new "Kid's Club" program. One of the scheduled events is money origami, so we looked up a few directions online and learned how to make a ring and a bow-tie out of a dollar bill (at least Alex did). We also wrote out a little script for the lesson on what Counterfeiting is, and found some money templates so the kids will be able to design their own currency- obviously fake, of course. We still have some more events to work out, but I think it should turn out pretty well.

wednesday June 22nd

Unfortunately, the prices did not recover on my USD/CAD short, and as a result the position closed itself at some point on Monday as per my stop order. In total, I lost about $600. I just opened two new positions (finally stepping up!), but I'm really worried because nothing seems that stable/sure according to dailyfx (that, and 'Rogue Trader' has made me even terrified about taking risks).

Interestingly enough, for my next two trades I decided to do the opposite of my previous trade- instead of buy CADs I'm selling them. More specifically, the first is a short CAD/CHF. According to dailyfx "The Canadian dollar is rapidly losing its appeal as a currency that leads through growth and interest rate expectations." Looking at a bunch of charts, it looks like the canadian dollar is facing losses against most of the other major currencies. Looking back over time with the CAD/CHF, it seems as if the canadian dollar has been following an upward trend, and is now starting to break out of it. Hopefully I'm not wrong again about the CAD, and will start to see a profit.

For my second trade, I decided to do a long AUD/CAD. Australian prices are currently on the rise against the canadian dollar, and it appears as if prices are returning to what they were in the past.

This time I'll be sure to put in stop losses right away...

For my new rotation, Alex and I spent the morning in the gift shop and the afternoon at the front desk. In the gift shop, we learned a lot about what the shop offers for sale and spent a bit of time writing descriptions for some of the objects to be sold online (care for a charming Bull statuette?). We also learned about the education program that Jess and Ashraf started. I think they have some great ideas and I'm excited to help bring the program to life.

Heres hoping I'm not the next Nick Leeson...

june 21st

Sunday night I decided to put in a short USD/CAD, since I read on dailyfx that the dollar was continuing to fall and the canadian dollar was doing fairly well. Today, I started my new job and as a result could not check up on the trade throughout the day. Unfortunately, I have just returned home to see that I've lost almost $500 dollars, due to an unexpected bump in the dollar (something that has to do with China I think...). I had not put in a stop loss, and as a result am now faced with the devastating consequences. I put a stop order in place, and I'm going to leave the trade open a little longer in the hopes that it miraculously turns itself around...

Oh well. I guess my beginner's luck was bound to wear off eventually.

june 17th and 18th

Overall my last trade (USD/CHF short) seems to have been a success. On Thursday the price continued to drop, and I ended up closing the position at a profit of a little under 2%. (it started at 1.13328 and I closed at about 1.11427). Looking back, I could have kept the trade open for a bit longer since the price continued to go down, but once I started making a profit I became terrified that I would suddenly lose it all. In addition to my other trades, I now have a realized P&L of about $3,500. Hopefully throughout this week I will be able to increase this amount.

Thursday morning, Alyssa and I finished labeling the boxes in the storage room (88 in total), and I spent the rest of the day in the library helping to organize and figure out which books were accounted for on PastPerfect. Friday morning I worked a little bit more in the library, and got to shadow a tour for the first time.

Next week I begin my next rotation working in public services/education with Alex.

Thursday, June 16th

So as of right now it looks as if my short USD/CHF is going fairly well. When I first started the trade the price was set at 1.13328. Currently, its shown at 1.13080. I checked the trade at several points throughout the day, and at one point my account showed a profit of almost $500 (I sold one standard lot). However, I decided to keep the trade open for a bit longer, and my unrealized P&L has gone down a bit since then. I think I'm going to keep the trade going for one more night, and hopefully I won't lose everything I've gained so far.

Eventually I will start opening more than one position at the time, but for now I'm still obsessed enough that I don't think I can handle following multiple trades. I might also start trading more than the standard $100,000, but I'm still terrified of losing all my money so I don't want to risk too much.

This morning, Alyssa and I finished up cataloguing another stocks and bonds binder. After that, we spent the remainder of the day organizing boxes in the storage room off the auditorium. Overall that room is pretty messy, so our goal was to try and figure out what was stored in each box. So far we have gone through 68 boxes (most of which contain Listing Statements for the New York Stock Exchange). There are probably about 20 more left, so we should finish tomorrow. I now understand why the application for the internship said we should be able to lift at least 40 pounds! I'm also going to make sure to wear clothes I can get dirty tomorrow, since a lot of those boxes are really dusty as well as moldy due to water damage.

June 15th

So my last trade was a complete failure. I thought I noticed a trend about to start, but it never materialized and so I found myself closed out when the price reached my stop loss.

For my next trend, dailyfx has noted that "The benchmark US dollar tumbled for the fifth time in six days Tuesday; and there is little sign that momentum is letting up". Although this made me think that I want to sell USD in favor of another currency, I've been having a bit of trouble figuring out which pair to use. Dailyfx has also commented on the rising price of the Euro, but I'm not sure I'm confident that this trend will continue (though I'm not really sure why...). In the end, I decided to do a sell USD/CHF, just because the candlestick chart looks as if prices have been unusually high. With the weak dollar, I'm hoping that this will start to change

In terms of what I did today, Alyssa and I continued to go through binders of bonds and stocks to make sure that they were accounted for in PastPerfect. Most are related to Railroad companies. While some have been accurately described in the program, there are a lot that either have completely incorrect information (usually the date) or don't seem to match up with any entry's description. We also helped place new labels on some of the boxes in the archives.

For my latest trade, I decided to sell AUD/NDZ following a posting on dailyfx about the sinking economy in Australia. Looking at the graph, I thought I saw a trend developing in which prices had just bounced off the top limit (I don't know proper phrasing for this), and would begin to decline once again. However, unfortunately as soon as this trade happened prices began to rise again, going against my prediction. I have a stop loss in place just in case prices continue to go up, but I'm hoping that soon the trend will resume downwards. I also have in place a limit for just around the lower trend line, just before prices should bounce back up.

My first trade

For my first currency trade this past wednesday, I decided to buy GBP/USD, in all honesty for no particular reason (I am still learning to read charts and understood even less then than I do now). I decided to trade a standard lot as per Leena's advice. The next day, I was pleased to find that prices had gone up and were continuing to do so. I also decided to put in place a limit and a stop loss in case the numbers suddenly changed. However, as the upward trend continued throughout the day, I continued to alter my limit and stop loss accordingly (which I realize kind of defeats the purpose of a limit in the first place). When I checked back Friday morning, I found that my price had reached its limit and closed itself out. According to my activity record this was set at 1.47526- a random decision once again. Looking at the charts, this turned out to be extremely lucky for me, as the price peaked soon after (I can't quite figure out the exact amount on the graph but it appears to be around 1.4758). In total, I earned a profit of just under $2000.

Because fxGame is currently down and will not be up and running until tomorrow night, it's difficult to say what my next move will be. By then prices may be completely different than what dailyfx is predicting now, and so I will just have to continue to check in.