Trading is not about staring at the screen the whole day. Nor is it gambling on quick punts hoping to get-rich quick. Rather, trading is an intellectual game – a game where one understands the charts and the markets, and makes an intelligent guess as to where prices are moving next. Of course, this is easier said than done, for it requires discipline, patience, risk management, psychology, and a good understanding of behavioral analysis.

Once a trader is familiar with these, all is left is to put it into practice, by confidently taking trades. This will allow you to create the trading lifestyle you desire, giving you the freedom to choose your timeframe, holding period, risk appetite, markets, and products. There are no shortcuts to trading, but the rewards are worth it.

Today, I shared this AUD/USD trade, using a leisurely 1-hour timeframe for my chart selection, and since no special software is needed, all you need is an iPad to key in your trades, which can be done anywhere. After observing the price behavior carefully, I felt that the time was ripe, so I went in to harvest my 82 pips from the market. As long as you bother to do your homework, the opportunities will also be there in the market.

During the seminar Q&A session, someone asked me about my view on the AUD/USD, as shown in the slide below.

My reply was that it would bounce up in the short-run, then get ready to short for a big move down. This played out almost perfectly as predicted, but of course it would still require your timing skills to enter and exit at the right time to capture the turning points and the big swings that followed.

Such price movements are not hard to predict, once you understand the concept of market behavior and how the Big Boys play the markets. In my next sharing session, besides the usual stocks analysis, I will also be covering a bit on forex and how behavioral analysis can be applied without volume.