As I have said, I trade technically and don't, therefore, enjoy the out-sized impact that this key piece of fundamental news can have on prevailing market sentiment - especially when I'm trading it !
Specifically, price was getting close to a trade trigger point on my favorite (but volatile) pair and my fear that was that if it did open, my normal trade size wouldn't leave sufficient room for the violent price swings that this announcement often generates.
In the event - and thanks largely to the pointed advice of a trading friend - I stayed with it and I'm glad the I did, as my trade opened and raced to its target within 3 minutes for a shade under 8% gain on account.
Initially - and perhaps surprisingly - I had mixed feelings with respect to this result. On the one hand I had stuck to my original plan, but on the other, I was assisted by a very favorable NFP figure. Bad news would likely have cost me at least as as much as I made - and in a similarly short time-frame.
The reduction of a hard earned 12 % weekly gain to small change in the space of a few minutes would have been... err disappointing.
In the end, though, it was Rob Booker who laid to rest my post-trade concerns with this simple observation;
"You didn't give a f**k about NFP in your backtesting so why should it affect your trading decisions now ?"
... and you can't really argue with that !
So, the first week in March has been another 20 percent'er and the Project One Million equity curve is starting to look handsome...
In the meantime I've re-learned 2 priceless lessons:
1. Plan the trade & trade the plan.
2. Rob Booker is still 'the man'.
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