There is one book that introduced me to investment.

Zurich Axioms

The Zurich Axioms (amazon link) by Max Gunther.

I will not even try to describe how powerful that book is, I will just quote the first chapters or axioms so you can understand why it’s so important to read this book.

On Risk:
– Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health – if you are not worried, you are not risking enough.
– Always play for meaningful stakes – if an amount is so small that its loss won’t make any significant difference, then it isn’t likely to bring any significant gains either.
– Resist the allure of diversification.

On Greed:
– Always take your profit too soon.
– Decide in advance what gain you want from a venture, and when you get it, get out.

On Hope:
– When the ship starts sinking, don’t pray. Jump.
– Accept small losses cheerfully as a fact of life. Expect to experience several while awaiting a large gain.

“Forex averaging is great!” -Lisa, 28yo

Everywhere you look for advices about Forex, you will mostly read how averaging down (or up if you are short) is a dangerous strategy. The arguments is usually about how you are putting more money in a loosing trade.

But like of most mainstream advices, the few successful trades are doing the exact opposite.

Let me show you why I average all the time.
First, even for someone with great experience in forex trading and following a custom strategy, its still very difficult to pick up tops or bottoms. (Well not that kind of bottoms you pervs).  So if you are waiting for a perfect entry, its all good, thats what I advocate, but at the same you have a big chance to miss that opportunity.

As you all know, I trade exclusively contrarian. And yes that pic of a girl trading upthere is a joke, girls cannot trade. Anyways if you combine the averaging mentality with contrarian trading, you get something very interesting. Let’s say I want a maximum of 10 lots in a pair. If I see an opportunity, a up spike for example, I will enter short but with a first trade of 2 or 3 lots depending on the high of the spike. If price goes down already, I will take my profit. But if price goes up, I will be looking to average another 2-3 lots. Basically if my strategy predicts the retracement of that spike at that specific time, all I am doing is spreading my risk over the chart. Instead of putting one big order, I follow the price movement.

Let me show you a real life trade example, from yesterday actually. The Yen pairs were quite green near the end of the session so all I was waiting for was a nice up spike. It was a bit slow so I decide to instead take a short early. Well price didnt go down right instead but started to breakout as I wanted previously, so I just added 2 shorts. Then when price crashed I closed all my 3 orders (you could notice the first one was breakeven).

forex averaging – 3 shorts

So here you go folks, I hope I convinced you that averaging is not necessarly a bad thing. Again just to resume I think its good because of 2 main reasons:

– To pinpoint exactly the highs or lows for a perfect entry is fantasy
– Instead of one big chunk of order, you can spread your risk over the evolution of the chart

I just updated the comment section so feel free to post if you have anything on your mind. Ciao.

The most important item will obviously be the laptop. And no that does not include eePC or tablets. The processing power on these is just enough.

So when I started to get ready to leave in the end of 2010, I really wanted to get the best laptop possible for me. Macs are known for their build quality but I didn’t go for them and I am very glad I didn’t. Instead I bought a Thinkpad. It was the first of the “s” serie, the thin and light version of the T400, the T400s.

t400s in budapest

I met a lot of people who also traveled with their laptop and they were all impressed by my laptop choice. The mat screen has amazing visibility in difficult conditions. Most importantly, its made of plastic composite and not glass. I have seen dozens of broken glass display from traveler’s laptop. The Thinkpad keyboard is also famous for its quality and its even water resistant! Of course the model I selected was ultra light, which is something you need when you plan to travel. An other plus over the macbook for example, is the polymere body. It is extremely durable but also allows a little flex. The macbook is a one piece aluminium design, so in a travel bag it is kinda dangerous to transport.

Next item is the bag. I chose a carry-on sized bad. Since you will be traveling for months or even years, you will need something very durable and resistant to friction. Nylon is known for that. Even better is the ballistic nylon, named after the first attempt to make bullet proof vests (true story!). I chose a duffel bag from Filson, an american company that still makes their bag the traditional way.

Filson Duffel Bag

So here you go, I hope this got you into the mindset of archiving a location independent lifestyle! Now back to your charts !