The currency market today was as dead as a doornail! There was not much reaction to the reports that came out. Only two scalping trades were executed to finish a slightly negative day. Tomorrow, there are some economic reports that might move the market and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak at 1:30 EST. This might create some volatility, even though speeches are not that great to trade.

Currenex was monitoring our connection today and is doing so again tomorrow. I should have a much better idea tomorrow or Wednesday what the status of our Currenex Trading System project is.

On December 29th, 2006, the Day Trading Tutor family got a little bigger. Kaiser (”Kaki”) was born at 10:52 AM EST, weighing 7 pounds and 14 ounces and measuring 19.25 inches; a healthy baby stud.

Who does he look like? Daddy says like him. The grandparents say like mommy - But mommy says like John Travolta (check out the cleft chin below).

Now I just got to get him hooked on softball and trading. Daddy needs a good cleanup hitter for the Day Trading Robots softball team!

So you thought all day trading robots did was trade? Not a chance!

The Day Trading Robots can also play softball! They have a softball team that plays on the highest slow pitch division on Tuesdays at Tropical Park in Miami, Florida. Well, the players aren’t really robots. That’s just the name of the team - but yours truly, Day Trading Tutor’s Dan Alvarez, is the all-star pitcher. Everyone thinks our team name is pretty weird and unsoftball-like, but we’re actually getting pretty good (after a few interesting seasons and player pruning’s). I’ll try to get our stats and team picture up soon.

Did you know I have a slow pitch curveball and knuckle ball in my arsenal? Shhhh! Not too loud. I wouldn’t want the opposition to overhear. The trading robots will surely lose their key advantage then!

Play ball!

Over the years, I have grown more and more fond of full-time day traders; warriors who sharpen their swords every morning ready for battle - not knowing the shape, size or strength of the enemy they’ll be up against that day.

While the media traditionally frowns upon the world of day trading, this is only a gesture of ignorance. Successful day traders are investors on a higher level; not the level that traditional mutual fund managers are on, where they get paid millions for underperforming the market - but instead, the level where a trader needs to make money on an almost daily basis to pay his bills and enjoy whatever degree of comfort he desires. I’ll invest my money with a talented day trader rather than with a traditional money manager or advisor on any day of the week. That’s why the Day Trading Talent Program was created.

There are many day traders out there that are truly talented. Whether they are just naturally talented or learned how to trade well by building upon the knowledge they gained from my DTT site, it doesn’t matter. They both have the opportunity to trade for DTT and for DTT’s clients; clients who don’t want to deal with the BS of the stock market or real estate; clients who are willing to pay for success.

It’s easy to join our Talent Program. First you need to complete a form with your information. The information is analyzed carefully to determine if you have (or may have) what we’re looking for. If you do, you will be provided with a special trading simulator for us to follow your progress. The simulator process can last from a few days days to a few months. It depends on your style of trading, the number of trades you place, and many other factors.

After the trading simulation stage, we either place you on a live test account for a week or so or simply get you fully funded. The compensation package typically includes an attractive percentage of the day trading profits generated and possibly other perks.

Interested? Visit the Trade our Money section of DTT.

New day traders always want to know how “others are doing it.” This is a natural desire that applies to any subject of interest. It is extremely helpful to know how professionals do their “thing.” That’s why I put this DTT section together.

I have met traders from all over the world; some good, some bad, and some just plain ugly. I work with a handful of extremely talented forex day traders who have become very good friends. This has been a true and priceless blessing for me. My goal is for some of these traders to post useful, in-the-trenches information in this Traders Views section: their take on the market, tips on how to trade, platforms and tools they like, etc. I don’t know exactly what this section is going to look like at the end, but I know that many new and experienced traders should benefit from the written wisdom and experience.

The day trading simulator section provides access to the same MetaTrader (MT4) platform that we use for the trading robot managed account program. MT4 is a very complete trading platform with charts integrated. It also allows the automation of strategies via a set of instructions (programs) called Expert Advisors (EA’s). Automation or algorithmic trading, especially in the forex market, continues to pick up speed - as more and more day traders attempt to take the emotional ingredient out of the equation.

The problem with MT4 is finding a “good” (or should I say, “good enough”) broker to work with. It’s a daunting task, but I think that you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you discover that a great part of the work has already been done for you. I do want you to do a little bit of work yourself, though. You need to at least complete the short form to the right of any page on my site. Yes you have to type! - But everything will be emailed to you once you do.

There is another trading simulator that I also work with (not for managed accounts yet), but you can’t sign up for it with the regular form. It only makes sense for some type of traders though. You will know if this makes sense for you or not once you receive the simulator request email and are pointed to an important page of this site.

Make sure you practice on the simulator and read the free trading e-book (especially if you’re just starting out) before you jump into the live market and start day trading currencies.

To the average investor, scalping might sound a bit like gambling; but it isn’t by any means. Scalping severely reduces a type of risk that’s inherent in any investment: the risk of being in the market. When a trader has a position open, he is exposed to market risk. At any time, the price could move drastically against the trader as a result of the occurrence of an unforeseen market-moving event. The more leverage the day trader uses, the greater the move (or risk). Really talented scalpers, on the other hand, are in the market for a very short period of time - reducing their “holding risk.”

For the reasons stated above, I have become a greater fan of scalping over the years. That’s why I’m constantly trying to introduce talented scalpers into our talent (”Trade our Money”) program. The Day Trading Robot found on this site is also exclusively a scalping program.

Forex scalping involves the trading of currencies with the objective of obtaining small, quick profits from the market.

It is possible to scalp on an ECN-type platform that gives a day trader the ability to play market maker; i.e., allowing him to buy at the BID and sell at the ASK or make the spread. Even though one of our platforms of preference has this capability, I’m not too much of a fan of this style of trading. Since currency prices are erratic, by the time a trader’s BID is hit, the ASK or offer might have moved in the wrong direction against him (or vice versa). I prefer scalping when the price is also likely to go up immediately after buying or down immediately after selling. A scalper that employs this method will also try to exit the market quickly (characteristic of a scalp), but will try to make more than the spread (whenever possible) from the move in price. This type of forex scalping is frequently used by experienced traders during very volatile market environments, like after certain important news or economic releases.

On Wednesday February 7th from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM EST, Day Trading Tutor members will be able to join a free webinar hosted by the firm that provides one of my trading platforms of preference. The forex trading platform is based on a non-dealing desk or ECN model, which is the model that prevailed for stocks in the late 90’s and will dominate the currency trading world going forward. We have considered using this same trading platform for our day trading robot program, but are waiting for the broker to have the ability to control multiple accounts from one master account; an essential requirement for money managers and professional traders who trade for clients.

If you are interested in this event or another even like this going forward, please shoot me an email.

We’re 3-for-3 on the Forex Robot program. Today was the third straight winning day - with 12 scalping trades executed within an hour and a half after the jobs reports came out at 8:30 AM EST.

There were still problems, though; many “off quotes” (14 straight rejections at one time while trying to close out a position) and a position that was closed out at an inexistent price for a larger than normal loss. These sort of “glitches” have occurred during some of our day trading sessions in the past, but have always been reversed in our favor. I have sent all the information to the broker and am waiting for a reply. Overall, the day was still a pretty good, positive trading day, but the loss in question is unacceptable. We eagerly await the launch of the new MT4 trading system on February 15th.

Currenex Trading Platform Monitoring

Currenex started monitoring the connection to their server from our customized order entry platform. The platform worked great during intial testing in the past, but maybe the Currenex prices are getting bogged down in transit for some reason. A few more days of monitoring should pinpoint the exact problem.