The US session opened favorably. I moved my SL down to 62.53 from 62.96. As per my trading plan, I opened another position of the same size.
Sold NZD/JPY @62.23, SL at 62.53 Target open
Most forex brokers out there try to lure you into unloading your cash by offering you to win great prizes in their forex contests. You can see from their leaderboards that the best contestants are making hundreds and even thousands percentage points in profit, that is, they are doubling and tripling and quadrupling … their accounts in short periods of time, e.g. a month. You think “My Gosh! If they can do it, I can do it, too.” You sign up and eagerly start clicking away with your virtual $50,000, or whatever the initial balance in the demo account is. If you are lucky (usually when the market is trending) and take enormous risks (i.e. open positions with all the usable margin #$@$!!!), you soon see your account balance doubled or tripled. Even if you don’t make it to the top and win no prize, you think of opening a real account. Exactly what the purpose of these forex contests is. You do open a real account, and then … things change. You lose your account very quickly, usually in less than a week; if you manage to stay in the market for a month I’d call you a very, very lucky man indeed.
So, why is trading on a real account different than demo trading? Because ‘real’ means ‘real emotions’. ‘Demo’ means ‘trading with no emotions involved’; in other words, fake trading. This doesn’t mean that demo trading is of no use. No, it is of use; for example, if you want to test a particular strategy you have in mind, it is better to first do some demo trading. But demoing in crazy forex contests where the top 50 are making fabulous returns is just the wrong way to approach forex. In fact, it is the loser’s way to approach forex. Trust me, for I know 
The point is that you must trade real money in order to learn to control your emotions and eliminate fear and greed. Only by putting some real capital on the line (but not too much if you are a novice), will you be able to experience what forex is all about. Don’t worry when (not if) you wipe out your first (and second) accounts – most good traders have done that, too. But do make it a point to learn from your mistakes, why you weren’t successful in each and every particular trade you took, read up on some good books (the internet is full of crap, but there are some gems even there) and develop a schedule with target and goals for yourself, because without targets you have no direction. Hopefully, by managing a real account you can get to grips with your psychological issues (discipline, hesitation on when or whether to enter, fear, greed, etc.) and begin to consistently make pips. And remember: forex is about making pips, it is not about making money. Making money is a by-product of making pips. And it surely isn’t a get-rich-quick-and-easy thing as the forex contest organizers would like you to believe.
I just finished writing my trading plan. You can find it here: JPY trading plan.
