Chinese companies bag Melamchi tunnel contract

REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Feb 20: The government awarded the contract to construct the tunnel of Melamchi Drinking Water Project (MDWP) on Thursday.
Officials of the MDWP and representatives from a group of two Chinese companies China Railway 15 Group Corporation and China CMIC Engineering Corporation signed the deal.
As per the agreement, the tunnel needs to be completed by 2013. The 26.3 kilometer long tunnel is to pump 170 million liters of water every day from Melamchi River in Sindhupalchowk district to Sundarijal in Kathmandu.

The selected Chinese companies proposed the total cost around Rs. 4.28 billion, which is 11.14 percent less than the estimated cost. Initially 20 companies applied for the contract. However, only four of the companies were qualified for the final bids.
The government also has a plan to pump additional about 350 million liters of water a day to Kathmandu from the same project in the next phase.


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UK auto sales Stocks in Europe, Asia Climb; Barclays, ThyssenKrupp Advance

Stocks in Europe and Asia advanced, trimming their weekly decline, on speculation that governments will expand efforts to revive the economy and rescue banks. U.S. index futures fluctuated between gains and losses.
Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s third-biggest bank, and ING Groep NV gained more than 2 percent amid speculation the White House will help mortgage borrowers. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. jumped 9 percent in Sydney as the country’s senate passed a $28 billion stimulus package. ThyssenKrupp AG rallied 3.6 percent after Germany’s largest steelmaker posted earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.
The MSCI World Index climbed for the first time in four days, adding 0.8 percent to 844.61 at 8:18 a.m. in London. The gauge of 23 developed markets has lost 3 percent this week as companies from Electricite de France SA to Diageo Plc posted disappointing results and some investors speculated U.S. measures won’t pull the global economy out of a recession.
“The market is very focused on the stimulus plans and we are waiting for details,” Pierre-Yves Gauthier, founding partner of Alphavalue SAS in Paris, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Governments have taken charge of the situation. They are taking steps, even if it takes time for the measures to take effect.”
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.1 percent. The benchmark for U.S. equities yesterday recovered from a 3.1 percent tumble in the final hour of trading as banks recouped losses.

Asia, Europe
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose for the first time in five days, adding 1.1 percent. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index gained 1.4 percent as all 19 industry groups advanced.
The Stoxx 600 is still down 2.7 percent this week, poised for its first weekly loss since Jan. 23. The gauge had rallied 4.3 percent in the first six days of February on optimism that global stimulus packages, a financial-rescue plan from Barack Obama’s administration and interest-rate cuts would help lift the U.S., Europe and Japan out of recessions.
The Obama administration’s housing plan will use government money to help reduce interest rates for struggling borrowers, while asking lawmakers to approve more ways to modify mortgages, according to a person briefed on the proposal. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner intends to make the plan public in coming days, possibly within a week, said the person, who declined to be identified before the announcement.
“This would clearly have the ability to reduce bad debt so the banks rallied hard” in the U.S., Matthew Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets in London, wrote. “European markets will therefore follow.”

Barclays, ING
Barclays increased 3.5 percent to 108.7 pence while ING, the biggest Dutch financial-services company, added 2.1 percent to 5.99 euros.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group jumped 9 percent to A$12.96 in Sydney. Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia’s largest investment bank, added 2.9 percent to A$24.08.
The country’s Senate approved in a second vote a A$42 billion ($28 billion) stimulus package aimed at ensuring the economy doesn’t enter its first recession in 18 years. ThyssenKrupp added 3.6 percent to 18.09 euros. The steelmaker said first-quarter profit slumped 59 percent to 168 million euros ($215.5 million) as demand dropped at the quickest pace since World War II and it wrote down the value of inventories. That beat the 135 million-euro median of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales fell 6.1 percent to 11.5 billion euros.
STMicroelectronics NV climbed 4 percent to 4.35 euros. Europe’s biggest semiconductor maker was raised to “neutral” from “sell” at UBS AG. The bank lifted its recommendation on European semiconductor shares and technology hardware shares to “overweight,” saying valuations are attractive.

Valeo Earnings
Valeo SA slipped 1.2 percent to 10.28 euros. France’s second-largest auto-parts maker said it posted a loss in the fourth quarter, as customers including PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault SA slashed production amid a global auto-sales slump.
The net loss was 313 million euros ($404 million), compared with net income of 50 million euros a year earlier, the company said. Analysts had anticipated a 317 million-euro loss, based on the median of four estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
London Stock Exchange Group Plc gained 4 percent to 489 pence. The company named Xavier Rolet to succeed Clara Furse as chief executive officer, bringing an end to her eight-year reign at Europe’s oldest independent bourse.

Under Furse, LSE’s first female CEO, the bourse fought off five takeover offers in two years and bought the operator of the Milan stock exchange in 2007. While LSE has remained independent, rivals including Euronext NV, Deutsche Boerse AG and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. have forged alliances, adding to the range of products they offer and giving them greater size. LSE’s shares lost 74 percent last year on concern falling stock prices and competition from electronic exchanges will erode earnings.

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International Air Transport Association

Air France to Cut 2,000 Jobs After EU505 Million Loss

- Air France-KLM Group, Europe’s biggest airline, said it will eliminate as many as 2,000 jobs after lower ticket revenues and dwindling cargo volumes pushed it to a third-quarter loss.
The cuts at the Air France unit will be achieved by scrapping posts when people leave and no one will be fired, spokesman Nicolas Petteau said today. The company had a 505 million-euro ($653 million) net loss in the three months ended Dec. 31 versus a year-earlier profit of 139 million euros.
Air France joins British Airways Plc, Ryanair Holdings Plc and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. in slashing jobs this week as the industry is buffeted by crumbling demand for air travel. The Paris-based company will also cut 1.2 billion euros from capital spending and reduce capacity by 2 percent as it targets a positive operating profit in fiscal 2009.
“I’m encouraged by the moves they’re making to protect their financial position,” said NCB analyst Neil Glynn, who recommends buying Air France stock. “Airlines globally, the flag carriers in particular, are firefighting to try and weather the current storm.”
Air France rose as much as 7.3 percent to 8.30 euros and was trading at 8.15 euros as of 10:35 a.m. in Paris. The stock has declined 11 percent this year.
“Activity in the third quarter reflected the increasing severity of the economic downturn,” Air France said in a statement. “We will continue to assess all our costs in order to achieve additional savings wherever possible.”

Cargo Collapse
The three-month loss came after cargo traffic declined almost 13 percent and tumbling oil prices compelled the company to reduce fuel surcharges to passengers, hurting ticket revenue.
While passenger traffic increased 3.4 percent in the quarter, it slipped 1.9 percent in January, when the drop in cargo traffic accelerated to 23 percent.
Air France said contracts to fix the cost of fuel purchases had a “negative impact” following the 76 percent drop in crude since July and that it would unwind those positions. The carrier will subsequently be hedged on 43 percent of its energy needs for the 12 months through March 2010, a move that should cut the bill by 300 million euros to 5.5 billion euros, according to NCB’s Glynn.
Airlines globally are shedding jobs and routes to help combat losses that may reach $2.5 billion this year as traffic falls 3 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Virgin, Ryanair Cuts
Richard Branson’s Crawley, England-based Virgin Atlantic said yesterday it may eliminate 600 posts across its business in order to “stay healthy” until economies revive. Ryanair, Europe’s biggest discount airline, said it will cut 200 jobs at its base in Dublin.
British Airways, Europe’s third-largest carrier, has cut more than 400 managers through voluntary severance and said Feb. 6 it will meet with unions to agree further reductions. SAS Group, the owner of Scandinavian Airlines, is making the deepest cuts, eliminating 3,000 jobs as it culls capacity by 20 percent and abandons ambitions to operate as a global carrier after more than a year of losses.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s second-biggest airline, said Feb. 3 that it would “react with necessary measures,” to maintain profit and that its business is “afflicted by higher than usual risks.”

Air France reported a 194 million-euro operating loss for the quarter after disclosing on Jan. 20 that the deficit for the period would be around 200 million euros. Analysts had predicted a loss of 217 million euros.

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Ryanair Virgin, Ryanair Cut 800 Jobs as Slump Squeezes Travel

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. and discount carrier Ryanair Holdings Plc will cut as many as 800 jobs as the recession stifles demand for travel.
Virgin may eliminate 600 posts across its business, the Crawley, England-based company said in a statement today. Ryanair said it will scrap 200 jobs at its Dublin base, seek pay cuts from workers and remove four planes from the fleet.

Steve Ridgway, Virgin’s chief executive officer, said the airline needs to reduce headcount in order to “stay healthy” until economies revive. Ryanair counterpart Michael O’Leary blamed Ireland’s introduction of a new tourist tax from April for exacerbating the slump in demand.
Airlines worldwide are shedding jobs and routes to help combat losses that may exceed $2.5 billion this year as traffic falls 3 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association. Companies that support the industry are also suffering, with Swiss aircraft-maintenance provider SR Technics cutting 1,135 jobs as it closes its Dublin unit.
Ryanair fell 2.4 percent to 3.13 euros in the Irish capital, paring gains this year to 5.5 percent. Virgin Atlantic and Zurich-based SR Technics are closely held.
“Most airlines have been reducing capacity for some time and sooner or later that has to mean fewer staff,” said Douglas McNeill, an analyst at Blue Oar Securities in London. “While it is early days, if capacity is going to fall further there is scope for further job cuts.”

SAS, BA
SAS Group, the owner of Scandinavian Airlines, is making the most swingeing cuts, eliminating 3,000 jobs as it cuts capacity 20 percent and abandons ambitions to operate as a global carrier after more than a year of losses.
British Airways Plc, the U.K.’s biggest airline, has cut more than 400 managers through voluntary severance and said Feb. 6 it will meet with unions to agree further reductions.
Virgin said it will consult with workers on its planned cuts and will seek to avoid compulsory firings. The carrier has already frozen pay and offered employees unpaid leave.
“This latest announcement is a real blow for the loyal and hard working crew at Virgin,” the Unite trade union said in an e-mailed statement. “Unite has major concerns for the future of the aviation industry as the downturn in passenger numbers and ever increasing competition affects the U.K.’s major airlines.”

Pay Cuts
Ryanair’s plan will affect pilots, cabin crew and engineers, the company said in a statement. O’Leary will seek pay cuts of as much as 10 percent from workers, he said at a news conference in Dublin, blaming the new 10-euro travel tax for deterring price-sensitive customers from visiting Ireland.
Additional cuts in the company’s winter schedule from the city will be announced later. Ryanair last month reduced the number of aircraft, routes and flights to and from Shannon Airport in western Ireland starting on March 30.
Ryanair had a net loss of 118.8 million euros in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31 after fuel expenses rose. Still, the passenger total rose 11 percent last month from a year earlier as the recession prompted cost-conscious business people and tourists to switch to discount carriers.
SR Technics said in a statement that it’s closing the base at Dublin airport after the loss of major maintenance contracts made the business unsustainable.

The company, which employs 5,300 people, including those in Dublin, was once a unit of defunct carrier Swissair. It was later bought by private-equity firm 3i Group Plc before being sold to a United Arab Emirates-based group comprising Mubadala Development, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and Istithmar World, according to Web site.
“We are fully aware of the difficult economic and labor market situation in Ireland and the personal implications of a closure for our staff in Dublin,” SR Technics CEO Bernd Kessler said in the statement.

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Who's Counting Bush's Mistakes?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, "The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons." And no administration in U.S. history has spoken louder, or as often, of its honor.
So let us count our spoons.

Emergency Management: They completely failed to manage the first large-scale emergency since 9/11. Despite all their big talk and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on homeland security over the past four years, this administration proved itself stunningly incompetent when faced with an actual emergency. (Katrina Relief Funds Squandered)
Fiscal Management: America is broke. No wait, we're worse than broke. In less than five years these borrow and spend-thrifts have nearly doubled our national debt, to a stunning $8.2 trillion. These are not your father's Republicans who treated public dollars as though they were an endangered species. These Republicans waste money in ways and in quantities that make those old tax and spend liberals of yore look like tight-fisted Scots.

This administration is so incompetent that you can just throw a dart at the front page of your morning paper and whatever story of importance it hits will prove my point.
Katrina relief: Eleven thousand spanking new mobile homes sinking into the Arkansas mud. Seems no one in the administration knew there were federal and state laws prohibiting trailers in flood zones. Oops. That little mistake cost you $850 million -- and counting.

Medicare Drug Program: This $50 billion white elephant debuted by trampling many of those it was supposed to save. The mess forced states to step in and try to save its own citizens from being killed by the administration's poorly planned and executed attempt to privatize huge hunks of the federal health safety net.
Afghanistan: Good managers know that in order to pocket the gains of a project, you have to finish it. This administration started out fine in Afghanistan. They had the Taliban and al Queda on the run and Osama bin Laden trapped in a box canyon. Then they were distracted by a nearby shiney object -- Iraq. We are now $75 billion out of pocket in Afghanistan and its sitting president still rules only within the confines of the nation's capital. Tribal warlords, the growing remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda call the shots in the rest of the county.
Iraq: This ill-begotten war was supposed to only cost us $65 billion. It has now cost us over $300 billion and continues to suck $6 billion a month out of our children's futures. Meanwhile the three warring tribes Bush "liberated" are using our money and soldiers' lives to partition the country. The Shiites and Kurds are carving out the prime cuts while treating the once-dominant Sunnis the same way the Israelis treat the Palestinians, forcing them onto Iraq's version of Death Valley. Meanwhile Iran is increasingly calling the shots in the Shiite region as mullahs loyal to Iran take charge. (More)

Iran: The administration not only jinxed its Afghanistan operations by attacking Iraq, but also provided Iran both the rationale for and time to move toward nuclear weapons. The Bush administration's neocons' threats to attack Syria next only provided more support for religious conservatives within Iran who argued U.S. intentions in the Middle East were clear, and that only the deterrent that comes with nuclear weapons could protect them.
North Korea: Ditto. Also add to all the above the example North Korea set for Iran. Clearly once a country possesses nukes, the U.S. drops the veiled threats and wants to talk.
Social Programs: It's easier to get affordable -- even free -- American-style medical care, paid for with American dollars, if you are injured in Iraq, Afghanistan or are victims of a Pakistani earthquake, than if you live and pay taxes in the good old U.S.A. Nearly 50 million Americans can't afford medical insurance. Nevertheless the administration has proposed a budget that will cut $40 billion from domestic social programs, including health care for the working poor. The administration is quick to say that those services will be replaced by its "faith-based" programs. Not so fast...

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central bank Thai Central Bank Says Crisis in 2009 Less Severe Than 1997

- Thailand’s central bank said the nation’s economy will be able to better withstand the global credit crisis than in 1997 because of the resilience of local companies and banks.
“Since the last crisis, we have put in a lot of effort and energy to strengthen our system,” Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase, 59, said in an interview yesterday in Bangkok. “Our capability to withstand the storm is very much different than in 1997. Banks don’t have solvency or liquidity problems.”

Thailand and other export-dependent countries are cutting interest rates and rolling out stimulus packages to buoy consumption as their main markets in the U.S., Japan and Europe contract. The Bank of Thailand and the government plan to ease curbs on foreign ownership of local banks and consider new banking licenses to lure overseas investment and spur lending.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is also boosting spending and waiving taxes to spur expansion.
Tarisa said she still expects the economy to expand in 2009, even after a contraction in the fourth quarter of last year and probably another in the current period.
Gross domestic product may expand no more than 2 percent in 2009, the slowest pace since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, the central bank said.
The economy probably contracted 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter and may shrink in the three months to March 31, the Finance Ministry said Jan. 29.
“This is the crisis that happened elsewhere and we don’t have a lot of control over it,” Tarisa said. “The effect will come through the trade channel. Now, we have to pin our hopes on domestic investment and consumption.”

Biggest Threat
The slowdown in global economic growth and the credit crunch have overtaken inflation as the biggest threat to Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, said Tarisa, who has led the bank since 2006 as the bank’s first female governor.
Abhisit, elected by parliament in December, plans to spend an extra 116.7 billion baht ($3.3 billion) on cash handouts to the elderly and free school supplies among other measures. The funds are in addition to 10 billion baht in tax breaks aimed at boosting property sales, supporting tourism and helping small businesses.
Loosening restrictions on foreign banks is aimed at “bringing benefits to the financial sector, to the consumers,” Tarisa said yesterday.
“The government’s measures can alleviate the problems, but they can’t solve them,” said Prasarn Trairatvorakul, president of Kasikornbank Pcl, the nation’s third-largest lender. “There are limitations.”

Worst Performance
Thailand’s benchmark equity SET Index posted its worst annual performance in 11 years in 2008, falling by almost 48 percent. This year, it has dropped another 2.1 percent.
Asian governments have unveiled more than $685 billion worth of stimulus measures to buffer their economies from the worst global recession since the 1930s. Singapore last month announced a $13.7 billion spending package, while Malaysia is planning a second round of measures after a $1.9 billion program outlined in November.
The Bank of Thailand has lowered its benchmark interest rate to 2 percent in cuts totaling 1.75 percentage points since December and “has the room” to continue cutting borrowing costs when policy makers next meet on Feb. 25, Tarisa said.

Slashing Costs
Thailand’s central bank is unlikely to lower borrowing costs to zero because the country is “not at the epicenter of the problem like the U.S. and the U.K.,” Tarisa said.
Consumer prices in Thailand dropped 0.4 percent from a year earlier in January, the first contraction since October 1999, and may decline in some months this year, Tarisa said.
The baht currency has extended last year’s 15 percent loss against the dollar on speculation a deepening economic slump will prompt foreigners to further trim their holdings. The baht, which has fallen 1.4 percent this year, was 0.1 percent lower at 35.16 per dollar as of 7:53 a.m. in Bangkok.

[Sigma Contract Specification]

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Trading Hours
Sigma Dealing Room operate 24/5 from Sunday 23:00 CET until Friday 23.00 CET.
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Margin Requirements
The margin requirements must be respected by Friday at 23:00 GMT and before holidays.
One of our dealers will contact you if you are below your margin requirements at that time. Your margin requirements will depend on the client's account equity. However, if you approach the level where the loss of your open positions approaches the balance of your account, you will be stopped out and your positions will be closed. Stop positions will be executed when there is only around 50% equity of the required margin left in your account.

Streamline Dealing
Clients will not suffer Price Re-Quote that you can buy and sell directly on real-time prices without a request for quote (RFQ).
Clients taking advantage of wrong price quotes in the Market Watch will be requoted.
Sigma Forex effort is taken to ensure correct pricing at all times. However, there are rare circumstances when wrong prices are given.

Stop Order Execution
Volatile market conditions can result in prices gapping, which may prevent the execution of stop orders (sell stop, buy stop, stop loss) at the price you initially requested. However, our dealers strive to execute all stop orders at the price, or failing that, at the best attainable rate the market allows.

Lot Types
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Multi Currency Denomination

Sigma offers the ability to set-up accounts denominated in the following currencies:

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• Euro (EUR)
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THE MAIN 'PLAYERS' IN THE FOREX MARKET

The five broad categories of participants are: consumers, businesses, investors, speculators, commercial banks, investment banks and central banks.Consumers, including visitors of countries, tourists and immigrants, do need to exchange currencies when they travel so that they can buy local goods and services. These participants do not have the power to set prices. They just buy and sell according to the prevailing exchange rate. They make up a significant proportion of the volume being traded in the market.Businesses that import and export goods and services need to exchange currencies to receive or make payments for goods they may have bought or services they may have rendered.Investors and speculators require currencies to buy and sell investment instruments such as shares, bonds, bank deposits or real estate.Large commercial and investment banks are the 'price makers'. They are the ones who buy and sell currencies at the bid-and-offer exchange rates that they declare through their foreign exchange dealers.Commercial banks deal with customers on one hand, and with the Interbank or other banks, on the other hand. They profit by utilizing the bid-and-offer spread. The bid price is the exchange rate that the buyer is willing to buy and the offer price is the exchange rate at which the seller is willing to sell. The difference is called the bid-offer spread. They also make profits from speculating about whether the exchange rate will rise or fall.Central banks participate in the foreign exchange market in their effective duty as banks for their particular government. They trade currencies not for the intention of making profits but rather to facilitate government monetary policies and to help smoothen out the fluctuation of the value of their economy's currency.

Mange Your trading System With SigmaForex

Many times the traders talk about trading systems they wrote themselves that worked for awhile and then mysteriously stopped working. They assumed that there was something wrong with their system, so they moved onto another approach. But the problem may not have been the system, but rather that the market environment had changed and the trader did not recognize it.
This happens quite often and is one of the main reasons that good trading systems get tossed aside. So to keep this from frequently happening, the first rule of any trading system should be one of the oldest pieces of advice from many experienced traders.SigmaForex advises you to always trade in the direction of the trend.
If the market is in an uptrend, only look for buying opportunities and if the market is in a downtrend, then only look for selling opportunities. This would seem as obvious as knowing that walking downhill is easier than walking uphill, but yet traders get so caught up in looking for that perfect entry, that they forget to take a step back and take a look at the big picture, which is the direction of the trend.
Quite often the best approach in trend analysis is to create a daily chart of the EUR/USD with one year of trading activity and make a note of your opinion of the trend. You then work your way through all of the other currency pairs to do the same. You can then compare to see which pairs are in the strongest up trends and strongest downtrends. These would be the currency pairs to use when looking for a trade.
You should be very picky as your trading results will depend on your choices.Since you also have a directional bias based on the direction of the trend, the process of finding a trading opportunity becomes a little easier. For those of you who like to quantify your choices, we have posted a daily chart of the EUR/USD with three months of trading activity. Also plotted on the chart is the most popular of all technical indicators, a 200-day Simple Moving Average.Note that all of the candles are above the moving average.
This is an example of an uptrend. If all of the candles were below the moving average, then this would be a downtrend. If candles were both above and below the moving average, we would consider trend weak and not trade that particular currency pair. You can use any moving average value on any time frame chart, but the technical analysis on the longer-term charts are more reliable, with the daily chart being the best.
But by quantifying it like this, we are each able to find what combination works best for our own system. That is what using a system is all about. Next week we will look at the activity within a trending move to find a trading opportunity.

SigmaForex Teaches SigmaForex Teaches You How To Control Fear And Greed In Trading

There is an old saying that the market is driven by fear and greed. Anyone that has placed more than a couple of trades will surely have experienced these two emotions.
All traders experience emotion. The distinction between a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader comes down to how they deal with that emotion. Let's look at how these emotions affect a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader in various scenarios:
1. The trader's three previous trades have been losers. The unsuccessful trader will consider this before placing his next trade and be fearful that this trade will also end up a loser. This might result in a delay in placing the trade whilst waiting for the price to confirm that they were right - thus missing a perfectly good entry. They might suddenly discover that some other factor, previously unconsidered, is a reason not to enter the trade at all. Basically they will be fearful of another loss.
The successful trader will have tested their strategy extensively and will be aware that a series of losing trades is very probable. They will also measure their success on whether they place the trade according to their system rather than whether it is purely a winner or a loser. They trust their system and place the trade when the set-up occurs. The fear is removed from the trade because they know that several losers in a row is to be expected.
2. Once a trade is entered it immediately moves against the trader. The unsuccessful trader will fear that they have made a mistake. They fear making another loss so they wait and hope that the market moves back in their favor. The fear of taking another loss now controls their trading decisions , they might move their stop further out so the market doesn't take them out for a loss. They might ignore the trade, hoping that it will get back to at least breakeven - the day trade becomes a position trade of a few days and then it becomes a long term 'buy and hold' strategy.
The successful trader, of course, will know from extensive testing of his system that such trades happen and that the trade might come round or it might hit the stop. His stop is in place and it will remain in place - the system dictates where the stop is, not the trader's fears.
3. Once a trade is entered it immediately moves strongly in the traders favor. The unsuccessful trader will suddenly see a villa in the sun or a new sports car flashing before his eyes. This trade is going to the moon so he removes his price target and decides to let it go. Greed has now completely taken over his trading decisions and the previous plan (if any) is ignored. Of course, markets rarely move in one direction for long and when the market turns the greed turns to fear as the dream slips away and the trader tries to hold on until the price gets back to where it was. The day trade becomes a position trade...
The successful trader has set a target, either a certain price or a timed exit and will stick to it. If the trade only takes 5 minutes then that's just great, there's plenty that won't.
Fear and greed are human emotions - we can't do anything about that. But, when it comes to trading we need a way to control those emotions. Here's a few tips:
1. Know your system. If you have confidence in your system this helps to override those feelings of fear and greed. Confidence can only come from designing and extensively testing your own ideas. You can never be fully confident when you rely on someone else's tips or signals.
2. Automate your system. Computers do not suffer from fear and greed, they won't hold onto a loser praying for a miracle or screaming at the screen that the market is wrong - they'll just cut it if that is what the system says to do.3. Money management. Quite simply, no matter how good your system you must only risk a sensible amount - and always money you can afford to lose

SigmaForex Teaches SigmaForex Teaches You How To Control Fear And Greed In Trading

There is an old saying that the market is driven by fear and greed. Anyone that has placed more than a couple of trades will surely have experienced these two emotions.
All traders experience emotion. The distinction between a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader comes down to how they deal with that emotion. Let's look at how these emotions affect a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader in various scenarios:
1. The trader's three previous trades have been losers. The unsuccessful trader will consider this before placing his next trade and be fearful that this trade will also end up a loser. This might result in a delay in placing the trade whilst waiting for the price to confirm that they were right - thus missing a perfectly good entry. They might suddenly discover that some other factor, previously unconsidered, is a reason not to enter the trade at all. Basically they will be fearful of another loss.
The successful trader will have tested their strategy extensively and will be aware that a series of losing trades is very probable. They will also measure their success on whether they place the trade according to their system rather than whether it is purely a winner or a loser. They trust their system and place the trade when the set-up occurs. The fear is removed from the trade because they know that several losers in a row is to be expected.
2. Once a trade is entered it immediately moves against the trader. The unsuccessful trader will fear that they have made a mistake. They fear making another loss so they wait and hope that the market moves back in their favor. The fear of taking another loss now controls their trading decisions , they might move their stop further out so the market doesn't take them out for a loss. They might ignore the trade, hoping that it will get back to at least breakeven - the day trade becomes a position trade of a few days and then it becomes a long term 'buy and hold' strategy.
The successful trader, of course, will know from extensive testing of his system that such trades happen and that the trade might come round or it might hit the stop. His stop is in place and it will remain in place - the system dictates where the stop is, not the trader's fears.
3. Once a trade is entered it immediately moves strongly in the traders favor. The unsuccessful trader will suddenly see a villa in the sun or a new sports car flashing before his eyes. This trade is going to the moon so he removes his price target and decides to let it go. Greed has now completely taken over his trading decisions and the previous plan (if any) is ignored. Of course, markets rarely move in one direction for long and when the market turns the greed turns to fear as the dream slips away and the trader tries to hold on until the price gets back to where it was. The day trade becomes a position trade...
The successful trader has set a target, either a certain price or a timed exit and will stick to it. If the trade only takes 5 minutes then that's just great, there's plenty that won't.
Fear and greed are human emotions - we can't do anything about that. But, when it comes to trading we need a way to control those emotions. Here's a few tips:
1. Know your system. If you have confidence in your system this helps to override those feelings of fear and greed. Confidence can only come from designing and extensively testing your own ideas. You can never be fully confident when you rely on someone else's tips or signals.
2. Automate your system. Computers do not suffer from fear and greed, they won't hold onto a loser praying for a miracle or screaming at the screen that the market is wrong - they'll just cut it if that is what the system says to do.3. Money management. Quite simply, no matter how good your system you must only risk a sensible amount - and always money you can afford to lose