PipStop

Hands down, the best trading podcast that I've heard is Steve Croft's "The Mind of a Trader."

Sure I'm biased because I know Steve, and it's a Trading Post production, but if you disagree with me, please say so.

This week is a milestone for what we affectionately call MOT here in Vancouver.

The weekly trading mindset podcast has hit it's 50th episode and to coincide with that we have created a blog for it. From now on you'll be able to instantly access individual MOT episodes at the Trading Post website.

Much thanks to our New Media Developer Ray in getting this done, and slowly but surely we will see about getting past episodes posted as well.

This has over 500 regular RSS subscribers, and its episodes have been downloaded over 90,000 times. And it is flipping free.

Continue the great work Steve, and now listeners have a central place they can comment on individual episodes.

Well, get ready because I have a vast stream of thoughts right now, and I'm sure it will result in back-to-back-to-back-to ... well a few separate blog posts, anyway.

Getting to the positively negative thing.

I was on Facebook last night, where I was busy creating a separate profile so as not to mingle all my personal friends with trading world. I still have my name there but the full listing is Samuel Araki-tpfs, and there is a Trading Post logo as the picture.

We started a Trading Post Community group awhile back which was a closed group, but I'm going to create another one here later this week that will be open to all.

The unfortunate thing to me was in wading through the hundreds and hundreds of "Forex" groups, I can count the number of useful ones on one hand. The others are pretty worthless, and that gets those under educated sucked in and down the wrong path - because there is NO easy money in trading - despite the fact that there is a group billing itself as the "Easy Money" group.

And what has happened is the same people post on every wall, it seems, their pitch. Good for them, but what's good for traders? Surely not the cesspool (one of my favorite words - for some odd reason) of garbage Forex groups on Facebook.

More and more there are worthless pitches online. The easy thing is none of us really need to get our crap filter out if we understand that there is no "easy" path in trading consistently.

Sheez. I can't stand a) garbage, and b) people advocating "their" way as the "only" way to success.

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Getting back to social networking to finish.

It's something that I've personally been very bullish about for the past couple of years.

I have a LinkedIn Profile, although I've been meaning to fill it out with more details. I have, as I mentioned above, created a Facebook profile for the trading world - so now I join the 2 Facebook profile club (that isn't against Facebook rules is it?). I also have a Twitter account, which I have been playing with and will probably share in the coming months on PipStop.

I am also the organizer of the Vancouver Forex Meetup group, which is a testing environment of sorts for me to see what traders are looking for, why they're not successful as they could be, and why they are.

What these website do for me is keep me in tune with technology and people. And lo and behold, trading is made up of technology and people. It's finding the relevant aspects of both and helping to create solutions that I love.

I also author about six other blogs, and I've updated 4 of them already this week. And I'm not bragging. I just love to write.

And no, I do have a balance in my life and none of the others are trading related.

What social websites are you involved with?

And please, MySpace is so, yesterday.

Amidst all that was going on last week, I missed this, and I think many others did too, as I didn't see any other bloggers comment on it. Thanks to Robert who forwarded me this news today.

Last Thursday, Phillip Bennett received 16 years in prison for orchestrating the fraud that bilked investors of over $2.4 billion.

With our previous company I was around when the whole Refco situation blew up and it was not pretty. There were many blind traders not really realizing where they were putting their money.

The regulations surrounding brokers has improved, but in the United States at least none of investor funds are insured, while in Canada with the Canadian Investor Protection Fund funds can be eligible to be protected up to $1,000,000.

Too many times traders are focused on the wrong things. I've spoken with traders who want to find the best off-shore broker to do business with. The assumption is that one can then better shield trading profits from the government.

There are other Phillip Bennett's out there. It's just a matter of if you will be caught in the web of fraud or not. Just as in trading, there are no guarantees, but you can minimize your exposure to risk.

I hope many of you were able to take advantage of the holiday weekend to relax and recharge.

As I mentioned on Friday, this week, I'm sure I'll share a few things that are running around in my head, that some of you may be interested in.

In the meantime, I came across the following grid a week ago, and since I'm a numbers/stats guy, I love to look at things like this.

In terms of Internet broadband (if anyone is attempting to trade on anything less than broadband - you're crazy) penetration Canada leads the US, pecentage wise.

I always ask myself this question when hit by a holiday.

For me, there is always so much to be thankful for, and it seems like I have such little time to give that thanks back.

This week with Canada Day (July 1) and Independence Day (for state siders on July 4) have proven to be a busy, but good week. It's also put me into a pondering mood.

I'll share more of what I've been pondering in the next couple of weeks. Some of the good and not so good of Trading Post. Challenges have abounded, that's for sure, and I definitely have a few thoughts to share and points to make clear.

Without getting too hot and heavy, though, I wish all who are celebrating the US holiday long weekend, a safe and joyous one. It's a great time to be sure, and BBQ season is definitely one of my favorite times of year.

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A note on yesterday's special Non-Farm Payroll webinar led by Michael Syvertsen. A few of our regular trading coaches were unavailable because of July 4, and I'm grateful that Michael carried the load for all those present.

Last month we had Harold and Nikhil share some fundamental and technical perspectives and this month Michael applied his expert knowledge of Elliott Wave to the market. If anything I am of the mind that exposure on our trading path's have to hit varying levels with varying approaches.

We want to continue to bring unique experiences to you, the trader. If you missed the session, you can listen and watch it, or you can just be on the lookout to register for next months special Non-Farm Session.

Thank you again Michael.

I'm continually impressed with Currency Trader Magazine. The publication consistently has quality content, even though I'm sure it's on a shoe-string budget.

The fact that it's only available in e-edition cuts down the printing cost and when you target people who spend their time online anyway, what's the big deal whether it's PDF or hard copy?

With that said, this month you can look forward to the following features:

- ON THE DOWNSIDE: Yen and Swissy

- TWEAKING THE EURO: Momentum Strategy

- PRICE RUNDS: In the Dollar-Swiss Pair

- BEHING THE KIWI: Breaking Down the New Zealand Dollar

- CHINA CURBS: Currency Speculation

It's officially just over three hours to the time that the United States will release its Non Farm Payroll data. Not only that but preceding that by 45 minutes is going to be the ECB interest rate decision.

Trading Post is holding a special Non Farm Payroll webinar for the second consecutive month and this time around there is expectation of fireworks. Trading Coach Harold Fretheim will not be available as he spends the July 4 holiday with his family, but he did make a few remarks before he left.

First, 45 minutes before the Nonfarm payroll the ECB will announce an interest rate decision. The ECB is expected to raise the rate from 4% to 4.25%.  And the press conference starts 45 minutes later. Which means that Nonfarm Payrolls will come out at the very moment that Trichet first opens his mouth to speak. Given that that press conference frequently moves the market more than the decision the result could be lively.

Don't forget that the market frequently gets a second wind as the stock market opens up in NYC.  As the stocks respond to the NFP the currency market responds to the stock market.

And, even after that, at 10 AM EDT you get yet ANOTHER major announcement: The Non-Manufacturing ISM will be coming out.  So the fun may well continue.

I look forward to a potentially volatile morning, and hope to see all of you on the webinar.

Trading Post trading coach and GTC Group Advisor Pierre Charlebois offers the FX Weekly Report blog, but he has also been picked as a featured blogger by our friends at FXstreet.com.

The new blog, entitled "The Disciplined Trader" kicked off this week. Congratulations to Pierre for getting picked up by FXstreet!

By the way for all those who live in the Pacific Northwest, Pierre will be teaching a live workshop and he conducted a preview webinar tonight that was recorded. It'll be a great day on July 12, and if you can make it, I will also be there! Register today!