I like instant gratification. Scratch that, I love instant gratification. I like fast food, instant coffee, scratch-off lottery tickets, and instant messages. I don't want to wait for my food to be cooked or my coffee to perk or for numbers to be announced or for mail to arrive. If that means I'm immature, so be it. Patience is highly overrated anyway, I think. It's a virtue? Who cares? I've got plenty of other redeeming qualities. What? Let me ask around and I'll get back to you.
So why I keep playing this forex trading game, I'll never know. Within seconds of my opening trade or bet or whatever you want to call it, I'm losing. Every.Single.Time. It's got something to do with the spread. Kind of like at a casino where the house always has the edge – only difference here is that no one is bringing me an iced beverage to slake my thirst or dull my senses.
Earlier today, though, I put in my trade and it was only a matter of a single minute before I headed into the green (on my forex trading platform, profits are a pretty green – the color of the dollar bill) and I watched, fascinated because it stayed green. And the numbers kept moving higher and higher – still green. After $12.50 in green territory I couldn't stand it anymore and I closed the trade.
Then I second guessed myself, wondering how high it could have gone. So I did something (stupid, I think now, I'll have to let you know by how much later). I put in an identical trade. Only the outcome isn't identical; how could it be? That was then, this is now. It's losing, right now (my time, not yours), even as I type.
In truth, what I was and am waiting for is 2:00 pm GMT, when the European consumer confidence report comes out. Now, I'm not in Europe, but I have friends who are European and they're consumers (or at least live somewhere in Europe and I'm pretty sure they buy stuff). And I'm sure that they're as strung out by their economy as I am with mine. I am positive that consumer confidence levels are going to plummet, which is why I put that trade in. Of course, I'm selling Euros, buying Dollars. (Yes, I know the Dollar is also pitiful but I'm an American, so consider it the act of an insane patriot.)
I should have waited, and put my trade in closer to the announcement time. Now, I've got an hour to go and I'm dying and in the red (my forex platform uses red – the color of blood – when you're losing). I'm down by more than $20. I'm afraid something may give between then and now; either my margin account (I'm at 40%), my nerves (frayed, but not yet raw) or my patience (stretched, but not yet ready to snap). Can somebody please send the cocktail waitress over? Now!