PipStop

While Trading Metro was the birth of a new company, our friends Boris Schlossberg and Kathy Lien of BK Forex Advisors just launched their new site today.

The look is a vast improvement.  They do focus on their winning track record for the signal service which they should – but it would be made so much easier if there was some degree of automation to them – which I mentioned to them in New York. They mentioned they’re working on it.

And it’s not just signals – they have a live trade room, and a weekly calendar that is great as well.

One day, we’ll partner with them .

Many of you experienced difficulty in accessing your trading services yesterday for which I apologize. We thought we had all our bases covered in the client interface switch over from Trading Post to Trading Metro, but we neither communicated in an effective way, nor did we handle all the technology to make it a smooth redirect for you.

It left a six hour or so black hole yesterday where some services were inaccessible.

We can extend services to anyone who was affected. We’ll tack on two free days. Just let us know at admin(@)tradingmetro.com or call our office at 604.909.3750.

Again, my apologies, and we don’t expect these types of things to happen, and we appreciate your understanding.

I will share more on this over the coming weeks, but I’ve made a leap – how big of a leap? Only time will tell.

I’ve taken all that I’ve learned over the years and founded and started Trading Metro. The vision of creating a solutions destination is still at our core – at this point – and bringing those in the online trading industry together – to consolidate in various ways is what is in my crosshairs.

It’s been a heady time for the team here at Metro. There are officially five of us, and we will look to grow quickly – with the help of traders around the world.

Over the last couple of months that we have feverishly worked to get things rolling, I’ve really got to thank Drue, Karen, Katie and Ray. We’ve gone “live” but are still in pre-launch as we continue to add, tweak, listen, evolve. Look for our official launch in a couple of months.

As a start-up, I guess the question of who will be team member #6 is one I’m looking forward to being able to answer.

Looking forward to the ride! And no – this isn’t an April Fools joke .

Thanks to our Senior Developer Drue for sending this my way over the weekend.

Life is so much greater with a little perspective …

This is perhaps one of the best technology buys I’ve made in the past several years. For just over $400 US I dumped my full-size 15.4” laptop, and I now have a faster, smaller, easier to work with computer.

If you have been wondering about these netbooks (or smaller laptops – if you will), you’ll fall in love with the new Samsungs. I have the white one and paid an extra $25 to double the memory.  

I chose this largely due to the battery life (which stretches to 6 hours for me) and the keyboard configuration was important. Unlike some laptops and other netbooks the keyboard is straight forward without any keys in funny positions.

Take a look at the Samsung Netbook yourself. You’ll find a way to convince yourself.

I’ve always enjoyed Brett Steenbarger’s posts and insight. He’s very clear and shares thoughts on what affect almost all traders. He’s just released a new book, and as he says, “is explicitly structured as a self-help book for traders, focusing on 101 lessons for changing patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior.”

The Daily Trading Coachwas just released at Amazon so you can grab it now.

Also:

+ Goldman Sachs extends target on Euro from $1.35 to $1.40.

+ Loonie gains over a cent against the U.S. dollar

+ Wells Fargo’s CEO Richart Kovacevich calls Tim Geithner’s “plan” asinine.

As another in a long line of Twitter mashups – although the first geared towards stock traders – StockTwits sees a lot of activity – and it’s interesting.

Below is the StockTwits widget.

var BW = new UWA.BlogWidget({moduleUrl:’http://stocktwits.com/stocktwits-widget.html’}); BW.setPreferencesValues({‘limit’:'5′}); BW.setConfiguration({‘title’:'StockTwits – All Updates’, ‘height’:'350′});

It can be debated what is mad. The movements this morning, or the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament which gets started tomorrow.

I’ll start with basketball – and those who are not native to North America – might not understand how college basketball could cause such a big deal – but it does. It’s a wonderful time to watch some great competition. And it’s great that my alma mater – BYU – is also in the tourney.

Here’s a copy of my tourney bracket that I picked in two minutes flat. Brett Steenbarger actually wrote a great post yesterday relating performance in March Madness basketball and trading.

Getting back into today’s trading.

It’s always interesting to read Fed announcements and this morning’s news to purchase $300 billion of longer-term treasuries caused *some* movement. There’s a great looking 4-hour candlestick on the EUR that stretches almost 400 pips.

Perhaps there are some who find NO humour with the current economic conditions, but my friends at VitalSmarts, one of the best places with the best people I have ever spent working hours at have recently created some great, short videos.

Play the one below or take a look at all of them.

**UPDATE: I just read a poll by Gallup that says 29 percent of workers polled say they’re afraid of getting laid off. Bloomberg.com analysts project an umemployment rate of 9.4 percent by the end of the year (up from 8.1 percent or 12.5 million people in Feb. 2009).

This is something special I have been working on and I am excited about the prospects of creating a place where traders can come and get engaged to help them be better and more consistent.

Keep an eye out for www.TradingMetro.com and visit in the meantime to stay up-to-date on the latest and to be notified of when we launch.