Calm down. I haven’t gone crazy and I haven’t overdosed on Angry Birds. I don’t really think that the chicken you see on your left will make a fortune on a EUR/USD position.
For one thing, it may be hard for it to click on the mouse to actually perform the trade, for another, I’m not really sure that this particular chicken has any interest in the matter.
But for all other intents and purposes, chickens make good traders… not the birds, the people who are chicken.
Usually, calling someone a chicken or being called one is an insult, it’s a derogatory term. However, there are timse and situations in life where being a coward, to a degree, has its benefits. It can keep you from losing all your feathers… or money.
In the case of Forex trading, rashness and reckless bravado are more likely to lead to disaster than to any long term success. Being too brave is not smart, it leads to risk taking and to impulse decision, the very worst way to trade.
The first thing any Forex trader needs to do is to protect what he or she has. Profits are a secondary goal. The first and foremost goal is to keep what you got. This requires an approach to trading in which risk management is the main key. Only when you know how to protect your assets, you can actively seek more and more profits. So, being a chicken isn’t so bad. It can actually work to your advantage.
Of course, you can’t be too much of a chicken, you can’t be too scared to actually place trades when your trading system signifies that you need to do so, you have to be willing to take certain risks to trade at all. There is no way to trade without any risk whatsoever. But, it pays off to be just a bit more careful than many traders are.
You need to find that sweet spot where you’re not taking too much risk but where you can still actively trade. If I could sum it up: be a chicken, but one which can actually fly.
A good resource to help you with that is the Disciplined Trader Program, not always available but recommended just the same.


Is the Dollar No Longer a Safe Haven?
Now, when it seems like there is total chaos in the Middle East, the Euro still gained over 0.6% over the Dollar in today’s trading. Are things changing?
Other “safe havens” such as Gold and Silver are still behaving as they should and both metals have risen in value today. But the US Dollar is weak.
One reason may be the rising price of oil. The price of a barrel of crude went passed the $102 mark today. As oil prices are quoted in Dollars, the higher they go the lower the US Dollar tends to be.
But this seems to be just part of the reason. The other reason is that the US economy is in bad shape. The debt is very high and it keeps getting higher. There doesn’t seem to be any political willingness to tackle America’s problem is a constructive and adult way. No one is willing to sacrifice and invest in the future.
In Europe, things seem better. Governments took action when crisis hit and were not afraid to deal with an unsatisfied public. Some of these measures were not ideal but they did serve a purpose to show the rest of the world that Europeans did not avoid hard decisions when they had to be made.
America is Perceived As Weak
I believe that the Dollar is going through a rough time and that it’s unclear if and when things will improve for the greenback. Truth be told, the US looks pretty powerless as its allies in the Middle East appear shaky. No one knows how far the turmoil in the Middle East will go and whether oil prices will continue to rise. Some already speak of looming energy and food price crises. All this will greatly affect the US… should it happen.
At the moment, the uncertainty in the world is not enough to raise the Dollar since much of the uncertainty revolves around the US and its position in the world. For the time being, the Dollar is no longer a haven currency.