The StockTwits® Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Set-Ups from Real Market Pros

CHAPTER 33

They Call Me Mrs. Cable

Lydia Idem, @faithmight

From my meetings with Lydia and following her writing, I believe she has great trading instincts and much to offer traders at all levels. The currency markets are an extremely challenging world to trade—the leverage alone is difficult to understand but also the markets are always open and active! I am fascinated by the trend followers and traders who aim to master them.

If you want to be a successful trader, you have to learn to read the tape.

—Ilian Yotov

FINDING MY TRADING STYLE

They call me Mrs. Cable; this is because I trade almost exclusively the British pound/U.S. dollar (GBP/USD). The GBP/USD currency pair earned the nickname “cable” from the time when an underwater communications cable synchronized the stock quotes between the London and New York markets. Before I specialized in this pair, I traded different asset classes and currency pairs. I began participating in the markets by investing in equities back in high school. My mother opened my first trading account. Then during my senior year in high school, my economics teacher taught the class how to read stock tickers out of the business section of any newspaper. I was fascinated. The next week, I went to Charles Schwab, spoke with a broker, and placed my first orders on some mutual funds. What started as a trade in my mind grew into a 12-year investment. I tried to trade individual stocks, but commission costs didn't make sense to me when I held no-load mutual ...