FXM Live and my journey to success

[laszlo7003]

Mixed results again...

Or more accurately a losing week. Here is what happened:

Monday was as usual, no trading opportunities.

Tuesday- a losing trade (USD/CAD), lost 13 pips.

Wednesday was finally a bit different, many setups materialized and out of those two triggered, one of them resulted in 15 pips profit, the other 7 pips loss.

Thursday- similar scenario, few setups but only one triggered producing 4 pips loss.

Friday- two setups but none triggered. Ben closed the trading room for the afternoon and I was tempted to leave the orders open a little longer but managed to convince myself that it's not a good idea.

My results are just slightly different than Ben's I believe and there are two reasons. Firstly I still don't get all the entries that accurately but improving. Also my spreads are slightly higher too.

Results: losing week and more worryingly my account balance dipped slightly below the opening balance.

On the positive side this week I managed to stick to the rules and recommendations so in that sense I am progressing at least.

Even though messed up a few things last month, June was overall a winner (though by not much), +0.77 up. I do follow some other traders in a different trading room, just keeping an eye on their performance and their return for the month also wasn't stellar. One of them trades very safely (low risk) and he managed to gain less then that. That just tells me that other traders struggle as well in the current market conditions and we just need to wait out until we see some more favourable conditions.

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long...

 

[laszlo7003]

Another challenging week...

Monday was no trades as the FXM service needed a server upgrade. I looked at the charts but nothing jumped at me so I left it for another day.

Tuesday I messed up pretty badly. Two trades triggered and they both went against me which shouldn't have been a huge problem except that on one of them I entered the incorrect value for the initial stoploss, instead of 30 pips I set it to 40. Now I paid more attention to the other pair first (EUR/JPY) because of the quicker drawdown and I failed to lower the stoploss on the EUR/USD when I should have. When that also went against me I was sitting there hoping that it will bounce back from the figure ( 1.3600) which of course it didn't. Two mistakes: not entering the correct values (duh) and not acting quickly enough later. There was also a scalping opportunity I didn't take but many members banked some nice profits. I ended up losing a lot more than Ben ,his loss was a total of -28 pips on the two trades, mine was almost -50 pips loss!

Wednesday – just before Ben's morning presentation I saw a setup and got into a trade which Ben later confirmed as valid. He didn't take it as by the time he started the presentation it was too late to jump in. Price later advanced in mty favor, got very close to my take profit level and it was agonizing just watching it bouncing a little up and down just a pip or two from that level. But patience paid off and eventually price hit the level netting 20 pips. Another trade that Ben published later turned out to be a losing one so that day I did better on my own

Thursday and Friday were both pretty slow, few setups but only one triggered producing 4 pips loss.

Results: losing week and now my account balance is about 1.2 % below the opening balance.

Annoying as I was already considering trading the system on a real (although small) account from next week, maybe I should wait a little longer...

 

[laszlo7003]

This week and the next will be slightly different to my normal trading pattern. I'm on holiday which means that on some days I can't be in front of the screen but when I do I don't have to split my time between trading and the workplace. I was hoping that this could work out well let's see how it went...

Monday as usual, slow and no trades.

Tuesday I was travelling so I did not have a chance to look at the charts. I believe I did not miss out on much though in terms of setups and trading opportunities.

Wednesday- few setups but again none triggered.

Thursday– few setups, one triggered in the morning but failed to hit the target level. Ben took some 8 pips profit of that with a manual close but I missed that notification so I exited at breakeven.

Friday- two setups triggered in the morning almost at the same time. One went in the right direction (USD/CAD) but failed to hit the target level, so Ben closed it manually (which I copied) when the move slowed down hitting a pivot level. The other trade was EUR/USD which was affected by the German Ifo news producing a loss of 15 pips. Interestingly that particular news release is labelled as medium impact on myfxbook but high impact on Forex Factory.

Results: still no great trades, this week is roughly breakeven (-3 pips). Looks like this whole summer might be slow, I might have to lower my expectations too.

 

[laszlo7003]

Another week and finally some results...

Monday as usual, slow and no trades.

Tuesday GBPUSD triggered a trade in the morning, but the move seemed to slow down at a pivot level so Ben closed it manually which I copied faithfully
Making some progress on the discipline front I think...

Wednesday – finally a bit of excitement! Two setups triggered but both went against us after the release of US ADP Non-Farm Employment news, almost hitting stoploss levels. Luckily the Advanced GDP figures from the US was better than expected, suddenly turning both trades around. EURUSD hit the profit target, but USDCAD was slowing down according to Ben so he closed it manually ( which I quickly copied as I should). End result of the two trades : 28 pips profit.

Thursday– no trades.

Friday was all about the NFP release. In the trading room Ben explained the approach, how to trade it also which pair he picked to set an order up. Unfortunately the price spiked the other direction so the order didn't get triggered.

Results: finally I took some profits (although modest) this week so now I'm only marginally in the red. In terms of trading approach August will be slightly different according to Ben as apparently many institutional traders are on holiday. So the focus in the trading room will be more on economical data and fundamentals as opposed to technicals.

A member of the trading room shared a link with the rest of us which was a Bloomberg article about the volatility drop in the FX markets. Again let's hope that we will see a bit of increase in volume after the summer...

Here is the link in case anyone interested:

Global Currency Trading Falls Amid Volatility Drop, Market Probe - Bloomberg

 

[laszlo7003]

A very uneventful week but at least it's not a loosing one.

Monday – one setup that did not trigger.

Tuesday I was travelling so I no trades for me. I did not miss out on much though.

Wednesday – two setups but annoyingly I missed out on one which was a 15 pip winner (I was on the way to work). The other one that triggered was going in the right direction and I was very tempted to stay in a little longer even after Ben closed it (as he needed to leave the trading room) before it has reached the profit target. I hesitated for a few seconds but for now I just want to replicate his results so I closed it too and I pat myself in the back for being disciplined...

Thursday and Friday I could not trade because of technical issues.

Results: one small win (about 8 pips) which hasn't changed the bottomline much. I guess I'm doing a good job sitting on my hand when there is nothing else to do. Looks like we have to deal with a slow and mostly boring month but at least I get to learn a bit more about the fundamental approach as that is the basis of the setups until the end of this month.

In the meantime I found a very interesting website that introduces to the idea of cognitive biases
(I never read Kahnemahn's book on the subject but planning to). There are some great video lectures and a free one that explains the Gamblers' fallacy which I think is especially useful for traders as it shows how our thinking can lead to serious errors of judgement.
Here is the link in case anyone interested:

Home - Critical Thinker Academy

 

[laszlo7003]

Another one of those slow weeks. The focus in the trading room is still on the fundamentals which means that every day Ben tries to find a news release that might trigger a reaction and will set a buy or sell stop. Alternatively if there was a market moving news overnight then we will try to trade the retracement of the move.

As usual nothing on Monday.

Tuesday – one small loss (10 pips)

Wednesday – made up for the loss from previous day winning exactly the same amount

Thursday was a bit of disappointment.
After one small loss in the morning I was looking for the afternoon news release (US uneployment claims) to see if I can get a winner. But just before I placed my order which is normally about 5 mins ahead of the release my PC blue screen-ed. NO, NOT NOW! Ran downstairs to get my laptop and I managed to place the order just on time. Phew... The order triggered and slowly moved towards the profit target so for a few minutes it seemed like we are onto a winner. But suddenly the price spiked to the opposite direction hitting my stoploss and with some slippage! So I lost 20 pips instead of the normal 10 which is the usual stoploss for these news release trades...
Checking the price on other chart confirmed that this wasn't just the broker's trick to hunt for stops but there was no apparent reason for the spike. Maybe a 'fat finger' trade?

Nothing on Friday so no more trades for the week.

Results: because of that 'spike' this week was a loser (-25 pips) so I'm down from my opening balance by 0.8 per cent. But we are halfway through August and hopefully in September we might see some increased volatility and market movements which we can take advantage of. Can't wait...

 

[laszlo7003]

August is almost over which I can't wait as the expectation is that we will have more trading opportunities in September as opposed to just trading the news releases.

This Monday surprisingly we did have a setup though it did not trigger so no trades.

Tuesday – the morning started up with a losing trade which was published in the trading room by Ben. He said he'll set up another order to get back into the same trade but I did not feel like doing the same. Also Ben pointed out the news trading opportunities for the afternoon. The idea is that just before the news release we set up an order a few pips from the actual price and if it gets triggered we close it within a few seconds (hopefully with some profit). Now my EUR/USD order got triggered by the news but unlike after most high impact news releases the price wasn't going anywhere for a while. I was about to cancel the trade when suddenly it started moving! Again with this type of trades it moves so fast that it has to be closed within a few seconds but since it was moving a little slower I waited to see if I can get about 20 pips out of it (which was also where the next pivot level was). It came close and I closed it which netted exactly 20 pips, yay! The move did slow down afterwards and it seemed it won't go any further. At least I managed this one well on my own...

Wednesday and Thursday was a bit of disappointment as none of the trade setups triggered.

Friday - the focus was on the 1:30pm news releases. The idea is that we place a buy or sell stop just a few minutes before the actual release to see if the order get triggered. Unfortunately my order wasn't close enough to the actual market price (should be about 5 pips away when placed) so the spike in price was enough to trigger it but then it quickly retraced hitting my stoploss (which is only 10 pips away with these type of trades). Fortunately Ben has a new ace up in his sleeve which is an app that will make these trades a lot easier as it will place the trades using preset values as opposed to placing them manually. The app is still being tested but I beleive it will be released soon and that should help me a lot.

Results: not much difference compared to last week, 1% down from my opening balance. Fortunately August is almost over, one more week to go...

 

[Randall Ibara]

As every body say it will be good in September

 

[laszlo7003]

This week was still about trying to find trade opportunities based on fundamentals and news releases. What's new is that the News Trader app for MT4 is now released and since it was heavily discounted for FXM Live members I bought it quickly. It's an EA but unlike most EA's t won't trade on it's own unless all the parameters are entered. That just means that within 24 hours of major news releases you just need to enter certain values (such as when to place trades and when to close it). Should make life a lot easier

This Monday was a US bank holiday so no trades.

Tuesday – there was one news release in the morning but since I did not set up the app properly it did not trigger for me (luckily as that would have been a 10 pip loss). Another release in the afternoon but it failed to generate any moves so no trades.

Wednesday was slow and no news releases.

Thursday night there was an important aussie news release which some of the members in the trading room managed to take advantage of for 20 pips profit. Need to keep an eye on the overnight news from now on...
There were a few news releases from the Eurozone in the morning and at 1pm but failed to moved the market. So I was looking forward the 1.30pm US release as there were a group of news to come out. Set up the app which placed my orders as it should (very nifty little tool indeed) and EUR/USD triggered but the move was really disappointing and quickly slowed down s I closed the trade with 1pip profit... Is that it? These news used to move the markets big time if I remember correctly, where did the money go?

Friday – there were a couple of news releases at 10am and a trade triggered for Ben but for some reason my didn't. Not sure why, possibly messed up the values or maybe something else, need to keep on eye on this thing. Ben took abut 5 pips at the end on that particular trade.

Results: again not much difference compared to last week, 0.5% down from my opening balance. August is over, hopefully the next few weeks will bring some volatility back...

 

[laszlo7003]

Well...a bit of a disaster...
I was expecting a bit more action this week but I was hoping to catch winning moves as opposed to accumulate losses.

Monday – no action for me.

Tuesday –since the average daily range was still very low on most pairs Ben only traded the news. There was one news release in the morning, for that I used the EA to enter. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of slippage when the trade was opened so when the trade went against me and hit the stop-loss level that meant 20 pips loss as opposed to 10. Quite a blow... Need to finetune the settings somehow. Another release in the afternoon also triggered and since I could not keep an eye on it I only closed it in the evening with a few pips profit.

Wednesday – not much better unfortunately. Few setups, one of them triggered (opened by the EA) which was a news release: BOC statement. Again the spike it created was only to get me in the trade but quickly reversed and hit my stoploss within a few seconds. At least this time the loss was not more then my normal risk which is 1% on a single trade.

Thursday- total disaster. Now it seems quite obvious that I cannot just 'set and forget' the trades related to news releases. There were several releases that I planned to use the EA to take advantage of, the problem was that I did not have a chance to monitor the trading room or the individual trades. So some of the pairs I chose weren't the same that Ben traded and on the top of that I did not have a chance to watch and close them manually if needed. So several issues but I can still see the potential here, good thing that it's still a demo account...

Friday – there were a couple of news releases at 1.30pm. I followed Ben's advice so I got two trades triggered, one winner , one loser but the net result was a profitable day. At least the week ended on a more positive note.

Results: definitely not what I expected from this week, almost 4% down from my opening balance (for some reason myfxbook does not show Friday's trades yet). So not great results but I can see the potential and if I could be more accurate and careful I should be able to get some more winners mirroring Ben's and the trading room's results. We'll see..