E-Design... making my life horrible!!!

I had a tough couple of months and it's only the beginning of the year. This term hasn't been going good at all. I am in my third year of study, electrical and electronic engineering, and I am starting to feel how it is getting a bit tougher but at the same time as though the work hasn't changed. It's a weird feeling and I don't know how to explain it.

This year we have a module called E-Design which we'll have in both semesters. E-Design is a practical module where we have to design and build an electronically operated gate. We were given a basic PCB with a specific layout, Renesas RL78-G14, LCD screen and number of other components needed to design and build the gate.

Our first task was to build a 5V power supply, it wasn't that hard to build because we were given about 12V from a DC power supply and we had to use a voltage regulated circuit to step the 12V down to 5V. After finishing the power supply we had to connect the RL78 to an external UART and then we connected the RL78 to the LCD screen and display a message on the LCD screen showing the current operating mode, test or normal mode. For know nothing has to happen in normal mode except for switching into test mode and displaying a welcome message .

The whole setup gets connected to a computer for testing via the external UART. Different commands are then sent to the RL78. When in test mode characters received that are not commands must be stored in a buffer. The contents of the buffer has to be displayed when the display command gets received. There are commands for opening and closing the gate, reading the current of the DC geared motor and switching the buzzer on and off. There is also a check status command which receives the status of the gate, opened or closed.

For this module we have 4 demos that we have to do, the 4th demo will be the final product, we have tests that we write on specific parts of the project that we had finished and then finally a report that we have to write. The requirements for passing the module is maintaining an average of 50% in all the different assessments. So that is not good news for me because, believe it or not, I failed the first two demos and the first test. Things aren't looking to good for this module but I believe that I can still pass this module. One of my goals while doing my undergrad is not to repeat a module.

So I failed my first 2 demos not because I could not do the work but because I had some bad luck when I had to go and demo my project, The first time my PCB was faulty and while trying to solve that problem I managed blow up my RL78 board and I had to buy a new one. I was allowed to demo the following week but only for half of the marks.

The second time wasn't very different than the first time, one of my my friends who already went to demo his project told me that the lecturer didn't have a problem with the pin of the gate popping out and that the lecturer didn't subtract any marks for that. I thought that I was also going to get full marks for that section, so I went to demo my gate. Before the demo I told the lecturer that the pin pops out and he told me that it was fine and that the pin on his gate also pops out. Feeling confident, that I was going to get all of my marks, we continued with the demo.

When we tested if the gate opened and closed the pin popped out, still chilled and calm. because the lecturer said it was fine And then all of a sudden the lecturer said that it is going to be a problem and that he has to subtract marks. Now I was stressed because I told him before hand about the pin and he didn't have a problem with it and the same thing happened to my friend and he received  all of his marks when his pin popped out. Keep in mind that at this point in time my DC motor could rotate clock - and counter clockwise.

I told the lecturer that I was actually hoping to get all of my marks for that section, it was 5 marks out of the the total that was 12 marks, and he just looked at me and said that that is how it is and if I wanted to I could go and fix it and come back and demo my project again. At this point I was thinking to myself, do you really want to lose 3 out of the 5 marks because a pin popped out... just go fix it and come back... So that is what I did. Keep in mind that there was no need to solder or program anything I just had to take the wire and bend it into a shape so that it would not pop out if the gate closed or opened.

Finishing up the gate I decided to give it a test run... I could not believe my eyes for what I'd seen, all of a sudden my DC motor wasn't rotating in any direction. The DC motor could rotate but not with the control of my RL78 board but by connecting an external power supply to the motor. Now instead of only losing 3 marks for this section I was going to lose 5 marks, and that because of a stupid pin. And that is how I managed to fail my second demo as well, dumb luck!

There are still two more demos left and I have to ace both of them if I want to pass this module, I believe that the tests aren't such a big problem because I can just study for them.      

Forex trading!

So I have been doing a bit of research on forex, foreign exchange trading, and at first it looked easy.  Watching a lot of YouTube videos of different success stories of traders getting rich and buying nice houses and cars. With every trade you have a 50 percent chance of making a profit. The nice thing is that you can trade anytime during the day or the week and if don't want to trade that day or week then you don't have to. Because forex trading is so volatile you could either make money very quickly or lose it very quickly.

When trading forex you have a certain amount of gain that you can make or lose on your trade, this is called your leverage. Different brokers give different leverages. The higher the leverage the higher the risk is of losing money but the faster you can make money. The lower the leverage the lower the risk is of losing money but it takes a bit longer to make money.

For first time traders it is usually recommended that you trade with low leverage and as you gain more experience to work your way up and increase the leverage. It is important to set a stop-loss and always check what the spread is of an instrument before trading. The spread is the difference between the buy and sell price. For a high spread you'll have to make a few pips before you can make a profit, so you basically start off with a loss. Pips are the smallest significant digit of the buying or selling price of an instrument, it is usually the fourth digit after the decimal point. A lower spread causes you to start with a lower loss thus making it "easier" to make a profit on your trade.

My days as a forex trader was short lived. If you can even call it forex trading. It started of with me opening up demo trading accounts just to get to know how forex trading works. I managed to make a nice profit but I wasn't trading with real money so the profit I made wasn't real (it still gave me a bit of satisfaction when I made a profit). Using a demo account you would take larger risks because you are not using your hard earned cash but when using your own cash the game changes slightly. I traded with different apps like trader212, meta-trader 4 and etoro.

I liked how these brokers kept me up to date by sending me emails of daily market analysis done by professionals and what is to be expected during the next couple of weeks. Then I also tried other brokers as well, but made a mistake of opening an account with easy-forex (not because of scamming or anything). A few days after opening the account (remember this was only for trading demo accounts) they gave me a call. It was a nice lady on the phone telling me about all the different options and offers they have and because I wanted to try it out, this was a done deal for me.

They offered me free training on how to use their trading platform, they even sent me a link with videos for beginner traders telling them what forex is and how it works. At first I was a bit afraid to risk my own money but I then decided to make my first transfer. I went with the lowest starting amount which was 25 USD, which is like nothing in the forex trading world. I didn't understand what they meant when they told me that the minimum amount for trading was 25 USD but I found out quickly what it had meant.

So after making my first payment my trading account was now active and I could start trading. I remember just sitting in front of the laptop starring at my account balance, not knowing how to trade. I waited for my trainer to call me and start our first lesson. The first lesson was about getting to know the platform and how to make a trade, set a stop-loss and choose trading instruments. I was so excited because I thought this was it, using my money to make money.

While being trained via cellphone the trainer told me to make a trade, I was so confused. All the YouTube videos I had watched told me that I should analyze the market before deciding to make a trade and here this guy was and he told me to make a trade without thinking about it. Luckily with easy-forex your first trade is risk free, meaning that if you lose money they will pay it back but even better if you make a profit they will double it. And feeling at ease I made my first trade. I remember my trainer telling me to look at the chart and asking me to tell him whether the currency will rise or drop, I went with drop because a previous high peak was reached and I saw a bit of resistance. But what a trader should always do is not only look at one chart but at many different time intervals of the chart. We were just looking at a 5 minute chart and I made my decision based on that. So dumb right!

Any way, I thought that the currency will drop and I started selling. My trainer then wanted me to set the stop-loss as low as possible so that I would not lose a lot more than I have. As I was busy looking at the amount of profit I was making and I didn't feel good about it, I guess that is the difference between trading real money and fake money. The profit was red and I was on the edge of hitting my stop-loss, as it turns out I lost a few dollars but got it back the following day.

Feeling the urge of just making a profit I started trading that day as well (just as I gained my money back). One thing you should never do, and this is a big no, revenge trade. I made a trade, lost money, made another trade and lost money again until eventually my account was empty. It was a bad day for me, but I still want to be a trader but not as a full-time thing maybe as a hobby on the side.

I am saving so that I can have enough money to trade again and then hopefully learning from my mistakes.