THE GREAT BANZAI TRADING TREASURE HUNT

                                           A Game Of Inche

No matter how much math you use, the time spent on development, the number of Ph.D’s on your payroll, the criteria you use; any algorithm [and by default the rules you impose] will at some point go surfing through the Banzai Pipeline. It’s a game of micro inches.

I thought I had laid out completely my “game plan” in prior blogs, but as has been shown by my staff to me yesterday, I didn’t.

We first mark the weekly open [Monday] with a horizontal line that is good for the week. From that price we add/subtract $5. So, if the open is 1300, we have 1295 and 1305. If the market is in this zone we liquidate all open positions, and do not initiate any new positions.

At the start of the week, new positions are initiated when the market makes a new cross of the yellow/plum line past $6 on either side of the open price. The reason I choose this value is to give a buffer from the $5 value.

Once we get into the week, new positions are taken when the weekly range expands or when the appropriate buy/sell signal is given via the yellow/plum line cross. Up and until Asia proves to me that there is something there to watch and trade, I do not follow the market during the Asian session. In addition, the first half of the European session in gold is usually quiet, awaiting the open in New York.

Yesterday, the gold signals crossed [sell signal] right around 1383 from the 1388 open. I didn’t take the signal because it wasn’t a clean signal for me. The next sell signal came late in the day about 35 minutes from the close; too late to really do anything.

Whenever there is an algorithm involved, there will always be “grey moments” [The Ghost In The Machine] no matter where you draw the proverbial line in the sand. If you choose $5, there will be days when it breaks from $4.96; choose $6 and there will be times when it breaks from $5.90. This is one of the big reasons I have always refused to endorse an Expert Advisor [EA] for trading. And these issues aren’t only limited to price; they are just as valid in regards to time.

                                        Not A Trading Model

So, for those of you who think I’m just sitting here relaxing in the sand while the market trades, what I’m doing is simply following the algorithm as best I can. Have patience, we will get our opportunities.

One more thing I want to comment on today.

Over at Zero Hedge [ www.zerohedge.com ] we finally have confirmation that the BLS [Bureau of Lies & Statistics] made up NFP numbers in October 2012 for President Chalky Gobbels. These people are despicable.

What’s it going to take to make the Amerikan Sheeple see the “handwriting on the wall”? What does it take to make you see that your wealth is under attack and for you to get the hell out of “Dodge City” and protect yourself from these robbers and thieves? The decline and fall of the U.S. right in front of your eyes; proof every single day.

Have a great day everyone.

-vegas

P.S.

Since Sunday night, I’ve gotten a blizzard of emails in the last 48 hours. I’m going through them one at a time and if you have written me I will get to your email ASAP.

@EUROPEFAIL

                         What He Sees & Hears Would Shock You

Back in the day before electronic trading, when trading pits were all the rage and people jammed the exchange gallery all day long to watch us act like chimps in heat, the things that really mattered were often ignored and unseen by most traders. It’s what we don’t know that is our biggest problem.

Greece is in the Euro; Greece is leaving the Euro. Greece has money; Greece has no money. Europe is doomed; Europe will survive and later prosper. Banks are bankrupt and doomed to close; we need banks to facilitate commerce. Guess what? It doesn’t matter.

“Only the fly knows what’s really going on, and he ain’t sayin’.”

Buying/selling based on news flow will put you in the padded room quicker than being a chaperone in a room full of teenage girls. The same news that takes [pick your market] up, two weeks later takes it down. You tune in to your favorite “Money Honey” on CNBC or Bloomberg to get the low down on what’s going on and all you get are shills talking their position.

There are bull markets and then there are bear markets. Right now, gold is in a bear market. Sorry if that offends you if you are a “gold bug”, but it simply is the truth. Maybe tomorrow it starts the next leg up, or maybe it takes another 5 years to get back over 1800. I dunno and neither does anybody else.

The best simple advice, as a trader, I can give somebody who wants to trade can be summed up in what I read yesterday on Zero Hedge [in mother approved language of course]: “If you are going to buy the dip, you better be willing to sell the rip.”

Masters of the Universe, hedge fund traders and managers, and large spec retail accounts often mistake their opinions as market facts; next thing you know they are OOB [out of business]. Price means nothing; volatility means everything.

All that matters is the flow of money into and out of a market. You have to be early to every move to get the prices you want getting in, and you have to be willing to leave money on the table on the way out; volatility will hopefully take care of the rest. Reaching for that last dime will kill you.

In bull markets, it is the sudden drops that keep you from getting long; in bear markets it’s the explosive rallies that hurt your short positions by forcing you out. I can give you 5 reasons gold has to go higher; once you absorb this I can give you 5 reasons gold has to go lower. What do you do now?

Understanding money flows makes trading simple; I said simple, not easy.

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas