Somebody has defined trading as 90% boredom and 10% terror. I don’t recall who was it or where I heard it, but sometimes it seems to be true. The boredom applies to periods when trader is supposed to wait for the right set up to materialize. This can be very challenging since it requires great deal of patience- something most people or in short supply of. Everybody envisions trading before engaging in it as some kind thrill ride full of rewards. Reality is very different, as a lot of it is waiting game. Even scalpers, individuals who try to get in and out of the market, often within minutes, sometimes have to wait for hour for the a trading signal to materialize. For them it is an eternity. What happens very often, people are trying to bend rules of their trading strategies, in order to enter the market. These usually turn out to be questionable trades, bringing on losses. I think something like that has happened to everybody who has been around for a while.
Since I trade number of strategies across several accounts, I stay relatively busy, but today was much slower for me than an average day. The trade I featured yesterday, long AUD-JPY was testing my resolve. Few times I almost entered earlier but managed to control my emotions.
This is where I stand now.

Price made couple of runs on the entry level, but didn’t penetrate. As of this writing, order is still valid and remains open.
I looked through all kinds of charts while sitting on my hands, and this caught my attention, GBP-NZD. To be exact, it was 1H chart that i looked at first, but that would look too confusing if shown in such a small snapshot, so I went up a level to next magnitude chart, 4H graphs.

Fairly large congestion are has developed. Eventually price will breakout out from this zone. In light on miserable GBP performance, it looks like a drop is likely. This cross has high cost of trading, anywhere from 20 to 35 pips spread is the norm, so objective and stop have to proportionately large. I’m looking for a target of 2.700, risking about 200-250 pips.  Now i wait and work on this patience thing, supposedly a sign of good trader.

Mike K.