Making the most of our collaboration

Hi Everyone, it's been another exciting week and so much progress has been made. The hunt for the perfect space continues. Here's a few pics of some spaces that had great potential but were just too small. Next week i'm looking at some bigger spaces just North of Toorak as there are some huge warehouses around the Richmond area.  

On the blog you will now find a page dedicated to the cafe. There are some great ideas to make it both parent and kid friendly like a bottle warming station and a laptop area that will really keep customers coming back. Have a read here.

On the marketing side of things, i have decided that a monthly magazine could be a great tool. We can ask some of our designers kids to model for some fashion shoots, create scenes using everyone's products, show off new designers products, profile designers, write parent interest pieces, have a cooking section, advertise our courses in the learning centre, share tips on great things to do with kids, the possiblities are endless!. We would style it just like any gorgeous designer mag to make it fun and relaxing for mums to read, rather than boring old monthly email newsletters. 

Check out the gorgeous LMNOP Magazine

As another busy week comes to an end, don't forget that owning your own business is great and hard work pays off but make sure you make time for the things you love doing. Have a brilliant weekend everyone.

Happy Designing

Nicole Herrick
KIDS STYLE HUB

Dynamic Trading Related to Context

Optimum trading results are achieved when entries and exits are dynamic. Dynamic means that the targets and exits are related to both market volatility and context. For example, if I have a drop dead stop $300 away but there is a support only $150 below, my stop can be tightened (dynamic) to a break of that support. This way, I can save an extra $150 loss. The same with targets. If I have back tested and my best average target is $150 but in a particular trade I see no resistance before $225 away, I can look to see whether the further target can be reached or touched or whether it fails on the way there. I may be able to exit with a $175 target, $50 better than my average back tested target.

The stock indices were very quiet in the morning, London time. Its hard to be prepared for action when there hasn't been any for hours. Another benefit of algo entry. The first trade on the chart was OK but the others were a wash until the Purchasing Managers came to the rescue with their announcement which awoke the bulls. CHARGE!!!!!!!!

 Nmart news channel start at 17 Aug 2011

news channal dekhne ke liye Airtel ki DTH par bendwith 631 set kare

                   दोस्तों Nmart अब एक Limited Company हो गई हे      और  अब इसका नाम  Nmart Retails Limited हो गया हे .

Getting Market Clarity

The so-called Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times", has become a reality for us all. There has never been anything like this in the financial history of the world. GREAT OPPORTUNITY!!!

As more noise and volatility enters the markets, there are a number of things that I do with my charts to see things more clearly.

My two EMAs are my primary trend identification tools but the bigger CCI also helps. I can up the 45CCI to a 135CCI to get rid of chop. I can also change the range bar or Renko size, either up or down. Making these changes together often gives a little more clarity. This is a "suck it and see" approach and I try some settings, run a back test and then make my choices. THE BASICS STAY THE SAME. My EMAs never change as they have been proven over many years. I may switch backwards and forwards at times depending on time of day or type of day - like using a magnifying glass.

The CCI is just a fancy MA - have a look at the formula. By changing the big CCI periodicity upwards,  I'm looking at a higher time frame trend. By changing the the range bar/Renko size, I'm managing the visibility of vertical development. Dropping to a smaller range bar/Renko can help find a pullback when the larger bars don't reveal them. See today's charts.

You can see my trades on the 2 point box Renko. Lots of trades but choppier. The available trades on the 5 point box Renko were far fewer but targets were bigger and the chart looks easier to trade. The stops, however, were larger too. It's all a trade off.

Having said all this, if the chart is unclear, I don't trade it. There are hundreds of markets available to trade.

“Mobile”-ize your business with Google Sites

By the end of this year, it is predicted that over half of all Americans will own a smartphone. With 51% of consumers more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-optimized sites, is your website ready to take on this growing mobile trend? We understand that time is the most valuable resource for a small business owner, so to help you save time, we’re launching a new tool: Google Sites mobile landing pages. With Google Sites mobile landing pages, you can build a professional mobile landing page for your business in minutes, for free -- and without any coding experience.

You can set up your mobile site in just a few steps:

1. Visit sites.google.com/mobilize.
2. Choose from one of five templates for your site or start with a blank template.
3. Choose a site name and URL.
4. Give your site a description to make it easier for people to find.
5. Choose whether you want your site to be visible to everyone or only certain people.
6. Add text, images, buttons and gadgets to your site to help personalize it and deliver your message.

Watch the video below to see how easy it was for small business owner, Bob, to mobilize his business with Google Sites:

To get started, visit sites.google.com/mobilize, and see how going mobile can boost your business!

Posted by Shiv Kumar, Google Mobile Specialist

Random thoughts for Entrepreneurs

I am sitting here at my desk looking at the sunny skies (a change for us with all the rain here in Southeast Missouri) and thinking of the recent increase in entrepreneurial traffic I am experiencing in my center. It is like someone left the tap on and the drain is clogged with the increased traffic via phone, email and in person. As I think about the time when I had my own business - yes I got

Post Mortem

We've discussed pre-trading prep but I haven't talked much about what I do after my trading is over for the day. Yes, a nice glass of wine but there's still work to do.

First thing I do is "check out". This is an old floor habit where I check that I am flat. On the floor it also included checking with my clerk that all my trades had "matched" with my counter parties in the LIFFE computer. No out trades!

Off floor, there's a bit more to do. I go through most of my trades to see how I performed. Did i stick to my TP? Did I enter and exit where I should have? Again, for the most part, I isolate off piste trades and tell myself not to do them. I do a review of my thinking, my pre-trade vision and any adjustments.

And finally, I make marks on my chart for anything i want to make sure I remember the next trading day. Things I saw or thought while I was trading.

Before my first glass of wine I also run any backtesting I need to do. If I had a new idea, I test it.

These things become a habit but consume hours every day. There's no free lunch. "The harder I work the luckier I get".

Mondayitis

I awoke with great anticipation this morning as the Greek thing is hotting up. Euroland is holding its breath for Wednesday when the Greeks decide whether they will bear us the gift of passing the austerity laws to be able to draw down the money they need to avoid what would amount to bankruptcy.

Being an optimist, I am accustomed to frequent disappointments and today was another one. No extra volatility. maybe tomorrow.

Hope is not a trading strategy so I'll trade what I see and take what the market gives.

Today's Euro trades were a little more challenging. I missed the initial break up at about 9.00am London time as it didn't fit in my trading plan and Flo didn't trigger until the consolidation a few bars later. There were a couple of OK trades though as you can see from the chart. Maybe the afternoon shall bring some more action.

APM Qualifications

I regularly receive so many questions about the differences between PRINCE2 and the APMP that I have put together a couple of quick guides to these different sets of project management qualifications. Pls share the links with any of your colleagues who are thinking about career development:http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/51/751-apm-quick-guide-1-0.pdfhttp://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/77/

In Search of the Perfect Market to Trade

There are now hundreds of futures markets to trade. If you add stocks currencies, ETFs, options and others, there are thousands of markets to trade. Yet each market finds it's participants. Traders find a market that suits them and make it their "home", at least for the time that they try to master it and then as they earn a living from it. Some markets disappear after a time due to a myriad of reasons.


But what attracts people to a certain market? Each market has it's own "fingerprint" - the way it trades. The market that took me the longest to master was the DAX. It's now my favourite market. It's super volatile and takes no prisioners. I paid my dues and surely was the source of the money for a few traders to build their swimming pools. Since then, I've been able to pay for my own needs from that market at the cost of the traders trying to master it now. The DAX has the qualities I like: extreme volatility, lots of stops that are run, a good daily range, and large tick size. Others like it can be the Russell2k, Hang Seng and Light Crude.

Chart below is the Russel. I traded the DAX in the morning (London time) and switched to the Russel for RTH.

I'm getting excited!

Don't you just love it when things start falling into place? Yesterday we officially welcomed on board our first design hub tenant! 

Rubble Art specialises in turning reclaimed materials from factories, that would otherwise have gone to landfill, into creative learning activities for kids. They will be running after school classes for kids of all ages, drop in classes for parents who want to shop in peace or do some work in the cafe (free wifi) whilst their kids go off and have some fun for an hour or 2. They are just fixing they're website today so i'll send that through to you all next week.

The running of the cafe has also been sorted as has the party room planners. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, it's all so exciting.  

I sat down for a chat with Alli Price from Motivating Mum on Tuesday which many of you may already know. If you don't, you should. Her forte is providing support and motivation to mumpreneurs with a range of networking events, forums, brainstorming session, club events, discussion boards and loads of other advice. She will also hopefully be running some events from Kids Style Hub which all of you will be very interested in.

The hunt continues for the perfect space for Kids Style Hub. We are looking at places around 800 sq m in size. Ahhh space! We've also been researching flexible wall systems including Styrofoam interlocking blocks which can be clad. That way, if we need to adjust spaces from time to time, we can.

Happy Designing and woo hoo it's Friday!

Nicole Herrick
Kids Style Hub

I went to a meeting of the APM Portfolio Management SIG last night, where we discussed how to get portfolio management accepted into organisations. Go to this link for a summary of the discussion and ideas for how to implement portfolio management http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/48/748-ideas-for-implementing-portfolio-management.pdf

Looking Back To See

I can't believe I've written so many posts to this blog. What started out as part of teaching Kiki how to trade has taken on a life of it's own and has impacted more people than I could have imagined.

Apart from the official students, I have received many many emails from people that describe how the blog helped them get to CP. Terrific and congrats to all of you in achieving such a life changing result!

Those of you still on the road there, I say this: IF (big IF) you have the passion then keep on working towards your goal. With all the technology available today, getting to CP is possible while still holding down a job and without risking any capital until you are CP in SIM. This may be "normal" to the newest generation but it is certainly a quantum leap for those of us who started trading in the fourth quarter of the 20th century, risking and losing money on a daily basis to learn our craft.

CP is not a dream, but can be a reality. The proposition I put forward at the beginning, that most people can become CP if they are properly capitalised and have the discipline to follow a structured methodology like mine has been validated by both students and readers. Many people have been very successful. Not everyone has been successful, yet.

Today, the Euro future was for sale all day. I'm still short after the pic below. The market was a trend day down and had no real rotation. The chart is a 5 tick box Renko. The Renko seems cleaner than the range bar at the moment, as there are no wicks.

Relative Volatility

In looking at the profit potential of a trade, I look at the relative volatility. What does that mean?  Well, to me, it means how volatile the market is in the now - in the last few minutes or last bars.


This is important because I want to know how quickly a profit target may be hit. If the market is moving slowly, a lot of random things can happen between now and when the target is hit. Maybe even an adverse move that would stop me out. So I adjust the target down to be more compatible with the speed of the market and plan to re-enter after my closer target is hit if there is another pullback.


This protects my win rate and overall profitability and can even improve profitability if the pullbacks eventuate.

Relative volatility also impacts the level of stops and targets. Trading levels are dynamic and related to context. Context is made up of the whole scenario. The key is to get the trade on but only the trades that meet the trading plan. Having a trading plan that explicitly describes the trade picture and trigger is an important feature of CP. making the entry into an algo is even better.


Relative volatility was lower ahead of the FED press conference. There were good trades as you can see but the targets had to be more modest. The attached chart is a 0.75 box Renko of the ES.

Only Trade That Perfect Setup???

Below are the stats for a particular configuration of the FloBot for a recent 21 trading days for just 1 contract. As you can see, it's a fantastic win rate and very profitable with low drawdown. It makes just over an average of 3.3 ES points per trading day. Trading 10 lots, the profit would have averaged a nice $1,650 + per day.

Here are the daily stats. 18 winning days out of 21.

What is interesting is that on many days there is only 1 trade. Miss that trade and the stats look different, either better or worse. But there was only 1 trade that day that met the TP definition of a trading picture.

I could not have sat there all day waiting for that trade and been ready when it showed up. I think that it's partly for this reason that manual traders take trades that are more marginal than their picture definition in their TP. Or perhaps their TP picture definition is more fuzzy, which causes them to take a variety of trades, all of which are really not in their own best self interest. These "off piste" trades are one of the biggest impediments to CP. Often, the newer trader has worked all day to be green and then one off piste trade is taken that loses that green plus 2 other days' profits. A great shame, as it can often be avoided.

One solution is back testing and then using an algo to capture the picture definition that gives the best result for entries, and then managing the trade to it's conclusion, manually. This approach fits the markets as they are evolving. The added noise from HFT requires seeing through that and seeing the real order flow. Using Flo to do that provides a clear backtested result with a predictable expectancy.

Don't Panic Mr Mainwaring

Don't Panic Mr Mainwaring (pronounced "Mannering") was the catch phrase of an old much loved British TV show. Every time there was a crisis, this wonderful catch phrase was uttered.

Today we have a mess in both Europe and the U.S. Euroland is under attack due to the differences in the economies of the countries that make it up eg Greece versus Germany, while in the U.S. we see them trying to bail out the boat by printing money and risking a perception of default by not raising the debt ceiling.

I'm not seeing real panic, yet, and I don't know why. Is it because like the passengers in the Titanic we can't really do anything about our sinking ship and can only dance as the orchestra plays the music?

Some great trades become more visible as more noise is taken out of the charts. My recent post about using Renko charts to do this is one way, although the range bars provide better high/low info as they have wicks.


The Euro chart below shows how sweet it can be.

Live long and prosper

I am a Treckie but a later arrival. I missed the whole point in the early 1980s. I remember being in NY City in about 1981 when I saw a bunch of people in a hotel dressed in "weird" costumes. I had discovered Star Trek.


What has all this got to do with trading? Well, one of the main characters, Spock, is a Vulcan and the Vulcans' most observable quality is a lack of emotion. Perhaps not a lack, but the ability to sublimate emotion to logic. I always thought that Spock would have been a great trader.


As I said to one of my students this morning, off piste trades (trades that don't comply with a trader's TP) are the biggest barrier to CP. A trader works hard all day grinding it out and loses it all in one silly impulsive trade. It is important to maintain focus on your TP all day and measure each picture only against this TP. 


In order to do this, you must first have a proper TP. I teach students to create a first TP and then evolve it, bit by bit, as their skill rate improves and as their screen time provides them with the ability to see better. But it all depends on keeping your cool and having that Vulcan state of mind.


Live long and prosper!

The DAX this morning, London time, was doing its magic. Nice trends and nice pullbacks = Ching, ching! The chart is a Renko chart using MarketDelta with a 2.0 box. Similar to a range bar but no wicks. A very clean chart.

Market Profile Context and Vision Today

The Market Profile context set the agenda for my start today in the DAX. These same techniques apply to the ES and other markets.


The DAX opened gap down and I was looking to sell the DAX, as my vision was for more bearishness in the opening. Price rallied to the VAL of yesterday and gave me a great sell confirmed by my Range bar chart. The trade unfolded and I scaled out. There were pullbacks that allowed me to reload what I had scaled, resulting in me carrying an almost full position for most of the move down. I have untoggled the TPOs in the Profile so you can see the move down better.

Discover new local gems with our new city pages

(Cross-posted on the Google Places Blog.)

Over the past six months, Google Places has ventured into Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Diego, California; and Madison, Wisconsin. Our goal for each of these campaigns was to celebrate the strong local business communities thriving in each of these cities. To do that, we’ve carried out a range of activities: hosted a bus tour to find the best barbecue in Austin, held a concert series showcasing some of Portland's favorite music venues, and met with thousands of small business owners to show them how Places can help them connect with customers.

Our team has loved becoming a part of your local communities, connecting with small businesses and bringing Places users together. In the spirit of continuing that mission, we’re excited to introduce our new community city pages. Now you can get up to date info about all things Google happening in Portland, Austin, San Diego and Madison.

On these sites, you'll be able to browse a list of some of the top businesses recommended by Portland locals by rating, by category ("Restaurant"), and by filter ("Family-Friendly"). Check back often as we'll be continuing to build out this list of places.

You'll find a page featuring the latest news about the Google Places community, as well as a list of upcoming Google events in that city:

And if you’re a business owner, we've got a special page just for you. Use it as your one-stop-shop to find out how to manage your presence on Google. Bonus: These pages have a fun set of video testimonials from small business owners using Places.



We’ve got big plans for these pages, so stay tuned in the coming months to see what’s new.

Posted by Cecelia Stewart, Local Marketing Team

Google Offers beta launches in Portland, Oregon

(Cross-posted on the Google Places and Google Commerce blogs.)

Nothing beats a good deal, and during these couple weeks we saw that first hand. We teamed up with Floyd’s Coffee Shop in Portland to launch the Google Offers beta, a new product that brings Portlanders daily deals from local businesses.

On launch day, we asked Portlanders to sign up for our first deal: $3 for $10 worth of drinks and treats at Floyd’s, a local favorite. And you guys wasted no time! Starting at 7:30 a.m. the following morning, customers rolled in to Floyd’s to redeem and even scored Google Offers t-shirts.

  

Since Floyd's, we've also had Offers at the Uptown Billiards Club, Karam Lebanese Cuisine and with Le Bistro Montage, Ground Kontrol and Mississippi Studios and Bar Bar. And there are plenty more awesome deals on the way — in Portland and soon in other cities. Subscribe to our e-mails at google.com/offers to learn more about new Portland deals, and to find out when we’re coming to your city. If you’re a business owner who wants to set up an offer, just send us a note.

We’ve had an exciting first couple weeks, and we look forward to many more! Stay tuned to us on Twitter for more news and deals.

Posted by Kim Cianci, Account Manager

Just when everyone thought it was safe going back into the water

As an Aussie, I'm always looking for those dangerous things that lurk under the water.


Yesterday they were all playing 'Happy Days are Here Again'. Today China showed some more of its cards and the market reacted. The ES was down when I woke up and had the For Sale sign out all morning here in London. I was trading the DAX, ching ching, more bang for my bux. It's just before RTH as I write this and there has been no rotational trade so far, although we are sitting on the VAH of two days ago so I'm not trading the ES Gap trade unless I see that order flow has reversed upwards, though there may be a scalp in the bounce off the VAH.


VAH held and there was a nice ES trade after a bounce off the POC of two days ago. It started as a scalp but as it went up through 1272.75 and hit the zipper, it was clear that there was more profit in it on the upside.

Time... to do the things you really enjoy.

Good morning everyone

I hope all of you that were lucky enough to have a long weekend last week enjoyed it as much as I did. I spent my time in a lovely house down on Phillip Island with beautiful sunny days and a cosy fire place at night.

Speaking of getting away for the weekend, this is a little boost for all of you who have ever done weekend markets to try and sell your products.

What do you usually think about whilst you’re sitting there...

“Will I sell anything today? What if someone has negative feedback about my products? Is the fixed fee that I paid going to leave me with any profit? Are people going to be put off by my prices because they expect a bargain?”

It can be a stressful morning I know. Now I want you to think about what you could be doing instead of sitting in a hall somewhere.

“Spending quality time with the partner and kids... Relaxing and watching an old favourite movie... Taking a walk in the sunshine... Having lunch at a fabulous cafe... Catching up with friends... Teaching the kids how to ride a bike...”

Don’t get me wrong, markets are a GREAT way to start off your business, but who of you are ready to get your goods into stores and have them do the selling whilst you concentrate on your products AND on realising that dream of working for yourself to have enough time to do the things in life that you really enjoy.

Now I want you to think about a few months time when you can walk into Kids Style Hub and say to yourself “THIS IS MY STORE!”. We want everyone to feel that way. Whether you create tiny little accessories and sell on consignment, or you rent a studio and run your business from our design hub, you should all feel proud of what we will have achieved in creating an amazing selection of designer products.  

Dream big, because you really are amazing.

Happy Designing

Nicole Herrick
KIDS STYLE HUB

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens wrote about it. Traders ponder about it. What profitability should I expect from my trading?

One of the first times I met Pete Steidlmayer, the inventor of Market Profile, he spoke about the three main stages of a trader's development:

1. Losing Trader - Buying the Highs and Selling the Lows
2. Break Even Trader - Buying High and Selling High, Buying Low and Selling Low
3. Profitable Trader - Buying the Lows and Selling the Highs

It's then a matter of how long it takes to progress from stage #1 to stage #3 and whether the trader has the financial juice to get through the non profitable period.

I have students who are progressing along this same path in SIM. They still have a job and spend all their non working time trading SIM, very seriously, in order to get to CP (consistent profitability) so they can then solve the only remaining issue - the transition from SIM to risking real money, all while they have a steady income stream from a job.

This requires a huge amount of dedication and effort and sacrifice, but they have decided that the end is worth it - CP without major financial risk.

I recommend this approach to everyone.

Today the ES was already up in orbit when I woke up 6am London time. I had to be very patient to find good entry points. It was really trade #2 that I loaded up on and at trade #3 I was still long, but bought back what I had scaled out.

Introducing Descriptive Terms in Local Search Results

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long and Google Places blogs.)

Whether it’s to find a great place for dinner or to grab a cup of coffee, I often look up places directly on Google Maps. Evaluating my options and making a choice just got even easier thanks to the list of associated terms that now appears directly in the local search results.

Starting today, Google Maps search results in the U.S. and Great Britain will include some of the phrases which are most frequently used to describe those places. These phrases come from sources all across the web, such as reviews, web pages and other online references, and they can help people quickly identify the characteristics that make a particular place unique. It’s like an opportunity to ask the business owner or its patrons “What’s good here?” or “What do most people get here?”

For example, if I’m looking for a place to relax and enjoy a great cup of coffee this weekend, I can see at a quick glance that Cafe Grumpy could be the perfect spot. Besides being known for their “latte” and “great coffee,” they have a “no laptop” policy — exactly what I was hoping for since I’d like to unplug and take a break from work this weekend.

Or if I’m planning to visit friends on the west coast and need to organize a night out, Rose & Crown could be an excellent choice given their “great beer selection” and “trivia night” games on site!

Whether you’re looking for local businesses in your neighborhood or in another city, these descriptive terms can help you find the places right for you. We hope you use these terms to discover new and interesting places on Google Maps, and watch for this feature to appear in Place search on Google.com and Google Maps for mobile soon!

Posted by Manjunath Srinivasaiah, Software Engineer

More Exits

I exit in one of two ways: All Out or Scale Out.


Which one I use depends upon the context of the trade and the risk that I see. For example, If I am seeing a trending market with lots of pullbacks, I will try and trade every trough and peak- All Out. If I put a trade on leaning against a Market profile VAL or VAH with a view to going to at least the other side of value, then I will Scale Out. During the Scale Out, I may also cover what I have scaled out on a pullback if the original reason for entering the trade is still valid.


The attached pic shows the two long trades being All Out and as soon as the VAH of Friday was touched, I went short with a view to trading it to the VAL of Friday. As you can see, I made money twice on the way down. I sold at the first touch and started Scaling Out. The market rallied and touched the VAH a second time and gave me the opportunity to sell what I had covered again so I made more after it hit my VAL target.

Using Market Profile Today

Today's vid is my DAX trade using Market Profile. MP is a powerful tool for the discretionary trader. Having a "vision" for the trade ahead of time is an advantage, as I am fully prepared for the trade if it unfolds the way I envisaged it. If it doesn't then that tells me a lot too- a la Sherlock Holmes' The Dog that didn't Bark in the Night.


Here's the vid.

Good News!
Royalty Income increased from rs 100 to rs 150

Picking Which Market To Trade

As volatility drops in many markets, it's probably a good time to talk about picking which market to trade.


More volatile or less volatile? That is the question, as The Bard might have said.


Things to consider include whether you want to trade:

1. Lots of contracts with a small mark up
2. Lots of trades a day
3. Making quick decisions or with more time to analyse
4. Long trends or short swings

While a change in the volatility of the market you usually trade is a problem, as the fingerprint of your market has changed, a low volatility market is not necessarily a bad thing. On the LIFFE floor, one of the large volume markets was the Short Sterling market - short term UK interest rates. This market had a basic range of a few ticks per day and people traded for one tick but with large size.  Then we had the German Bund where the ranges and volatility were much bigger. Days of 50 tick ranges were common. There were 1 contract traders and 100+ contract traders.


Finding what suits your DNA is one of the challenges of becoming CP. Having said that, a CP trader should be able to trade any market after a few days of lurking.

Thoughts on Decoding the Digital Consumer

Next Monday I’m speaking on a panel at the NYT Small Business Summit. The theme of the panel is ‘Decoding the New Digital Consumer’ and since I know you can’t all be in New York, I wanted to share a few thoughts more widely.

We all know that online technologies have completely changed the way we find information. If I wanted to buy a new bike, for example, I’d visit a search engine to research my options and scour websites to educate myself on specific models. I might event visit YouTube to see bikes in action or check Twitter to see the latest announcements from certain bike manufacturers. When it’s time for a test ride, I would likely look up locations of stores and more information on my mobile device.

As a digital customer, I have endless ways to access information. And as a small business owner, you have more options than ever to reach me when I’m looking for your product or service. More options can also mean more effort. Here are some tips for understanding and engaging online customers:

• Research your company. The first thing I tell any small business owner is to research your company online (yes, Google yourself! And also search on YouTube and Twitter...) to see where your customers are engaging with your brand. What are people saying about your company and where are they engaging on the web?
• Go local. One out of every five searches on Google.com is location-based. Verify your business address on Google Places so you can appear on Google.com and Google Maps. With Places, you’ll receive a monthly email with insights on how customers are interacting with your page.
• Talk to your customers. For businesses that fit well with two-way engagement (tip: not all do!), Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all great channels for social interaction. You can ask for feedback, promote special offers to loyal customers, and even provide product education for zero to little cost BUT a significant effort can be required.
• Measure your efforts. Use a web analytics tool such as Google Analytics to understand your customers. With a simple piece of code, Analytics allows you to see which sites or search engines your customers visited before they arrived at your site. You can also see aggregated information on your customers’ geographic locations. So, for example, if you see a lot of visits coming from a certain city or state, you can target online ads to that region or make a special call out to these folks on your social media channels.

The online world has really leveled the playing field. Now, small business owners can reach customers they would not have acquired when marketing was limited to expensive TV and print ad campaigns. I encourage you to spend time researching your online customers and some of you should consider building and interacting with an online community of customers and prospects. Without even spending a dime, you can build an online presence and potentially expand your customer base and your business.

Posted by: Claire Johnson, VP of Online Sales

I was in a department store last week and overheard a conversation between one of the sales assistants and her manager about career development. The sales assistant was expressing her desire to get on in the company, and was explaining the extra responsibilities that she had recently taken on and how she was enjoying the experience. Her manager replied that her enthusiasm was great, and that all

Using Yesterday's Market Profile, Today

I use yesterday's Market profile (or the previous distribution's MP) to trade today. A great example was yesterday's RTH Profile for the ES.


You can see from the Profile below that the RTH close on Tuesday was 1285.00 and the market was sold off leaving a big zipper down. The VAL is around 1289.00.


Now look at what happened next: after the RTH close, the market rallied back up almost to the VAL. The 99EMA held the market. The 0.75 Range Bar chart showed a double top and a failure of the rally. Order flow quickly reversed here making one of our typical patterns of a pullback and thrust in the down trend.


SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"Funnily" (what a coincidence he says with tongue in cheek), the market came down and was helped by my Fav Fib, again forming a double bottom.


This is bread and butter text book stuff for the purely discretionary trader. Making trades like this on a discretionary basis is necessary to make good money, otherwise, using an algo to grind out those repetitive with the trend trades over a longer period of time is the way to go.

Small Business Organization - Are you ready for a system?

Gotcha - you thought this was going to be about LLC, corporations, partnerships etc didn't you! Well it is not. In fact I won't even touch on the LLC, coroporations and partnership topic at all. How is that for you?Actually I was reading the other day in one of my magazines and came across an article that I would really sink my teeth into - office clutter and how to get rid of it. Now I am not

Is it like scuba diving?

Putting on a trade is like an extreme sport. I'm not a sky diver but I can imagine doing my training and then blindly jumping out of the plan with my harness and silk attached to me. I do scuba dive and I remember my first dive after my training and going down into the depths with that cylinder on my back, knowing that I had to believe I could keep breathing under the water and that I had to time my dive to leave myself enough air to be able to resurface without nitrogen poisoning my blood.


Yes, putting on a trade is doing the prep to recognise the picture and then just diving in. Using an algo to do this for you can be a great help. It takes away those seconds of indecision or analysis paralysis that may make the difference between a timely entry or an entry after the move has happened. It ensures the consistency and discipline that is needed to trade a specific setup that repeats over an over again, in order to meet the stats that I produced from my backtesting. It's a tool that really helps me make money.

Patience

Patience is not just a card game, but a requirement these summer days.


As volatility drops, I find that I need to be more patient than usual (difficult for me) and wait for that trading picture to evolve. There are few of them on most days.


I know that when a market opens and there has been overnight activity, it can be out of balance and if it is, there's a trade.


I know that when news comes out that is unexpected, the market has to find a new balance, and there's a trade.


I know that as the market sets up for the close and there has been a good move during the session, there's a trade as others catch up or day participants exit.


Because I know all that, I've learned to be more patient. It's the invented trades that cost money.


It's going to be a long summer with days of huge activity as the economic situation either clarifies or becomes more obscure. Either way, I know I need to take advantage of those great days and just make sure I'm there when the market makes its balance moves on the other days.

Long fun day.

We drove otu to FAR last night. We arrived on site about midnight, and the great glowing ball fusing hydrogen (aka sun) rose promptly at 5:39.

I made three atttempts to capture a rocket launch from my autopilot euquiped helicopter. Its currently setup so I put it into position by RC then hit the freeze mode and it stays there in that exact position and orientation until I unfreeze it. So I can take shelter while the rocket launches toward the helicopter. The first attempt we were too far away and the goproHD just caught the rocket launch leaving the frame. The 2nd and 3rd attempts were with my workhorse HPR rocket and I was less concerned about playing chicken with someone else's rocket.

I have video from both the air and ground for all three shots. My video editing setup is currently not installed on my current computer so I can't edit the video.
So I uploaded the helicopter view from the 2nd attempt and the ground view from the third attempt unedited. These are the only ones that are short enough to be reasonable in size. The helicopter view interesting part starts at 2:36.

I would usually resolve this before posting, but I'm catching plane on Sunday and I just won't get to it.

After playing with the helicopter we ran the small printed peroxide/gar motor for the 3rd time. I have video of that, but its really boring, the rocket exhaust is completely clear, and you just get 3 minutes of hearing hissing noises. So I probably won't post that one. Other than leaking valve on the test stand the test was perfect. So I have finally killed my cat pack issues. This cat pack has run three times for at least 3 min each time, over a period of 3 months with no maintenance. This means I can static test a motor, and then put it in a flight vehicle with confidence it will work as desired.


The link for the ground based camera is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zOFmxN6Hb0

Video from Helicopter...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_1PpBMtGrA

Slightly Edited video from the Helicopter with Slo-mo replays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cm_wrL54lM

Adjusting Your Microscope

Trading at the speed of thought is the result of our electronic markets and the influx of the 'bots. I want to say again that I am having my best years of trading ever. However, I am making accommodations to the speed of change in the markets' volatility and volumes.


MY METHODOLOGY STAYS THE SAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am trading the order flow - identifying the trend and trading the pullbacks in that trend.


So what changes? I adjust the strength of my microscope. Just like any scientist, I turn the knob until I can clearly see what I need to see. The knob in my case is the size of the range bars and sensitivity of my trend measurement tool - the longer term CCI.


I have been posting these variations during the last few months so you can see the possibilities. There is no "right" setting other than the one that enables you to clearly see what "they" are doing.


The summer doldrums are upon us, but with the back ground of severe world financial problems. I see it like a square that I used to make as a kid out of ice cream sticks- pinning four of them into a square, but which I could make into a rhomboid of varying types just by moving two opposite corners. The only way I could keep the square was to add a fifth stick, a diagonal.


The problem in the world today is that there is no diagonal and our square can become a rhomboid of any shape.


The Euro came back to life. A couple of my students are test-driving Flo. One of them emailed me that the Euro "was like shooting a fish in barrel". I must say I agree with him. Just look at all the trades on this chart.

Weekend Plans...

On Saturday I'm going out to FAR and plan to run two tests.
We will test the small printed stainless motor.

I've been working on my software development helicopter (A trex 600) This is the vehicle I used to develop the software for the blue and silver ball's. It had not flown in awhile and I had to re-familiarize myself with the software and behavior. I've modified the code so instead of just flying the LLC profile you can drive it around the sky with the RC controls then hit the freeze here button and have it stay in place. So my helicopter goal for this weekend is to capture video of a rocket launch from above. I'm not sure what is launching at FAR this weekend, so we'll bring the HPR along as a stand in if necessary.


In addition to the helicopter I've been looking for a smaller less scary platform to do some IMU and GPS testing on. I've now got an Arducopter flying. I'd never played with a quad before and its amazingly stable. Right now its 100% box stock, but the first modification will be to put on a Netburner CPU for more horsepower and probably a test IMU with 3 or 4 different sets of sensors for comparison. Analog devices has some new MEMS rate gyros designed for high vibration environments and I have high hopes for these as a suborbital capable IMU with very little external aiding.

Thank gaawwd it's Friday... party time?

This week we have been thinking about what else the KIDS STYLE HUB space can do to help other designers and services. We could also include a "PARTY ROOM" which could be booked by customers. We could have a portfolio of entertainers such as; face painters, balloon artists, clowns, magicians, karaoke services etc to choose from and book.  As well as catering options including specialist cake makers. The parents can relax in the cafe or (more importantly) shop whilst their kids are having fun at the party. A no mess, no fuss kind of approach for parents. This could also be an opportunity for a party planner to take on and house their business with us. What do you think? Suggestions of entertainers would be great.

We've also been looking at the numbers more to try and pin point an on consignment percentage for you. I've heard of other on consignment places charging 50% commission which i think is far too high. Our concept is designed to help emerging designers, not exploit them, after all, i'm a designer too. Tell us how much you've been charged in the past and what you think is reasonable.

Lastly don't forget to send this on to friends. The more people we have on board the more customers we will attract.

Happy Designing

Nicole Herrick
KIDS STYLE HUB

Renko or Range Bars

I've been playing around with Renko charts as an alternative to Range bars. They are very similar. Renko has an advantage of less overlap and takes away even more noise than the range bars.


My MarketDelta platform has Renko charts with wicks, like candlesticks. Why are wicks important? Because Renko's are normally drawn without wicks, which means that you cannot see the real range of the bar as they are constructed using the Open and the Close, High and Low being ignored. This makes it difficult to back test as you cannot see when and if you would have been stopped out or whether your target has been hit - a major problem for Renkos.
By enabling the "wick" option in MarketDelta this drawback is eliminated.


I'm not necessarily recommending a change from range to Renko yet but suggest looking at it - with or without a wick - if you are finding that the range bar periodicity you are using is not doing the job.


Additionally, I play around with the brick size of my Renkos. I can drop it down to as small as 0.75 points on, say, the ES or 2 points on the DAX and get real visibility of the order flow when using the other tools.

Here's this morning's (London) DAX.

Change

Every now and then I have to stop and smell the coffee and look at the big picture.


As usual, it's easy to see everything clearly in hindsight.


In October 1982 I left Australia to live in the U.K. My first stop was Switzerland for a CompuTrac conference sponsored by the Swiss Commodities something or other. I can't remember the exact name of the organisation.


What I do remember, however, is that the main presentation was by a guy expounding what was coming, basing his views on the Kodratieff wave. The Dow Jones 30 Index was at about 883 on the day of the conference.


We had just gone through a major change in the world as the Gold price went from a regulated (Bretton Woods agreement) $35/ounce to an unregulated $900/ounce and then a crash after the Hunt Brothers debacle. But it wasn't just the Hunt Brothers. Back in 1972, Nixon has changed the law allowing U.S. citizens to hold Gold. That was after he unpegged the U.S. Dollar from the Gold Standard in 1971. This was my first major world financial realignment experience.


Well, back to the professor and the Kondratieff wave. He laid out a whole set of arguments why the Dow Jones 30 index would more than double in the near future - I can't remember the time frame. The U.S. stock market had been in the doldrums for years. There were no S and P futures until 1982. How timely, in retrospect. One of the people at the conference was a guy called Dr Richard Sandor, an academic who had invented financial futures - 30 Year T-Bond. He was working for Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette, a major, major broking house of the day. He had a younger guy there with him from the firm who also made a presentation, mainly to get brokerage business from the attendees.


All three of us ended up in my new office on Saville Row in London, smoking Cuban cigars, the favourite of both Richard Sandor and me. I guess I had an inflated view of myself at the time. I opened an account with DLJ and we spoke about the Dow and the Kondratieff wave prediction. None of us saw what was to be the biggest stock market boom in history. See the chart below.

That was my second major world financial realignment experience.


In April 2007 I sold all my real estate as I thought the stock market was way over heated and I knew the cycle would be stock market down and then real estate down.  I did not foresee the extent of the carnage, but I did foresee a big down move. That was my next major world financial realignment.


There has been another realignment going on for quite a while. In 1970 I bought a bunch of shoes for myself at the Bally shoe shop on the Bahnhoffstrasse in Zurich. They were very kind and delivered them to my hotel at the Baur au Lac at the end of the same street and on the Zurichsee. The exchange rate at the time was around 4.5 Swiss Francs for every $US. Now the two currencies are around par. What a change. The $US has been in a steady decline. There is a hidden inflation in the U.S. as the cost of both imported goods and now even locally grown, mined commodities increase dramatically.


The chart below is the $US Index. This is a current major world financial realignment still underway.

Today's DAX was very kind. Taming this market takes a little more time than others, but it's worth it.