Have you ever seriously considered how you enter a trade? Do you enter the market as a market taker or a market maker? When I say market maker, you might picture a guy on the offer at $550.25 on ARCA for 50k shares of APPL to provide liquidity because it’s his job. Obviously most of us don’t carry the responsibility to trade that way or have access to that kind of capital. But there are lessons we can learn from market makers that will immediately improve your entry prices, and thus your performance will improve.

In the latter half of 2008, the EUR/USD and major equity indices experienced a tight correlation: Where the S&P 500 went, the EUR/USD went.  The reason being lower equity markets heightened global risk aversion, and as a result, the US dollar was the direct beneficiary. So, lower equity markets produced a lower EUR/USD.

The world's oil supply is traded in US Dollars. And the USD (shown in blue against Euro) has been declining since the turn of the century. As the value of the USD falls, the price of the world's oil supply should rise reflecting the greater number of dollars required to purchase a single barrel of oil.

Todd Gordon, currency strategist and active trader, Forex.com shares each of his January trades, pointing out the lessons learned from his successes and losses…

Todd Gordon describes his approach to discovering and sharing trading signals. He says that it is important to own your losses as well as your success.

With twin boys, a baby girl, and nearly 20 years in the trenches trading his personal capital, frequent CNBC guest and professional options savant Todd Gordon knows what it takes to stay balanced and focused. Trading requires humility and flexibility in analytical methodologies and trading vehicles. Todd describes his approach to stock and options trading and shows how YOU can excel in today's challenging and volatile markets by applying some of the same concepts.