Fed's Powell on the Trump Trade

I don’t know what was yesterday’s event but apparently the Fed Chairman was quoted as saying some things. I do check the Economic Calendar but I don’t do it as thoroughly as I should on a daily basis. Hallmark of the nonprofessional.

Trump Trade

So where are we with the Trump Trade? Believe, we are still in it. Trump wants China to fold, and that hasn’t happened.

Read: Reason No. 7 (Why the US Dollar Is Struggling)

So when Powell said something that went against what Trump wanted, you can imagine what happened next. And that’s almost all the information you need to assess direction!

What was said:

Federal debt is on an unsustainable path. We are now running crisis-level deficits at full employment.

Economic Outlook video below. Powell on the uncertainties created by Trump’s significant policy changes and their effects on prices, employment, overall economy.

Trading Lessons (For Me)

The thing I’m always reminded of is:
Price will tell you what the news is. So it’s okay if you don’t read the news calendar ahead of time and the headlines when they’re released. The thing that kills most traders is they either have a whale of a position open, or run with trades with no Stop Loss and Take Profit, or both – and end up blowing up their accounts.

My Apr 16 results could have been up more than it was but I got hit with a SL when the Euro inflation numbers came out – and I wasn’t prepared for it.
Lesson: SLs will protect you from your blind side.

The focus for me yesterday was the Apr 15 trend continuation. I ended Apr 15 and Apr 14 so poorly because I did not implement a daily max loss limit which would have kept losses at a lower amount.
Lesson: Set a daily max loss limit and stop trading once that loss limit is hit. It will save you a ton of time trying to recover from the drawdown.

My account had went into 9.7 percent drawdown, so I almost lost the account, but Alhamdulillah I’m starting Apr 17 with a 4 percent gain. I know my trading edge works so I have to keep myself disciplined when trades don’t work. And they don’t work 60% of the time; my win-rate is only 40%. Time to recover: 2 months.

What do I mean when I say “The focus for me yesterday was the Apr 15 trend continuation.“? It means I did not change my strategy. I collected myself after a massive one day loss and reapplied my analysis. When the conclusion is to do the exact same trades that got me that massive Apr 15 loss, I stuck with my strategy.
Note to beginners: This will blow your account if you have no proof your trading edge works.