Getting Started in Currency Trading, + Companion Website: Winning in Today's Market, 4th Edition

Chapter 21

The 30-Trade Campaign Program

Introduction

YOU ARE HERE—You should have selected a trading platform, a broker, and a backup broker. Your mechanics are in good shape, your process tools are in place, and you are refining a trading method by trading a demo account. This chapter will fill in a few blanks, dot some Is and cross some Ts for you. You will soon be ready to fund a small account and begin a career as at least a part-time currency trader.

The 30-trade campaign program was originally developed by commodities trader Bruce Gould. I learned of it through reading the excellent market letter he wrote in the 1970s and 1980s. The Bruce Gould Letter is full of good advice on all aspects of trading. You may still purchase them on Mr. Gould’s website—www.brucegould.com.

Of course, I tailored it to the Goodman approach to trading, and Mr. Goodman much approved. The 30-trade campaign benefits your trade plan fivefold:

1. It efficiently allocates your capital so you get the most bang for your buck, whether the grubstake is $400.00 or $40,000.00.

2. In putting it together, it obligates you to soul-search several important variables for which you must make a decision early in the game.

3. It helps you keep track of all your trades as they occur. It is a worthy process tool and belongs in your trading plan. Once a candidate on your tracking log becomes a trade, you move it to the 30-trade campaign worksheet.

4. It is central to your review and diagnostics process, through which ...