Break out Excel See, I suppose I just need to wait til sunday, use the Oanda platform, and see how it works. My biggest fear is that 50/1 changes the numbers on me. I am very used to knowing "If I sell/buy X units, then I should be able to hit Y profits. Different leverage will change those numbers for me. Do I RELY on that leverage...I dunno. I DO rely on knowing those numbers by heart, and this will mix that up.
So, from what I've read on the boards, you and your Hubby go as far as to "take shifts". I bring that up because when you say "do not overtrade" I am uncertain where that line is drawn. How many trades are you making on Oanda in a day? And, if I may be a little bold, what is a "good week" when you guys are trading? I'm not trying to pry, and if you want, you can get me at Jason.Guillen@gmail.com instead of here. I just literally have no way of knowing when I am overtrading, except my own mental status. There are many things about our lives coming together....NOW. We homeschool our children, and eventually, trading will be the method by which we earn money and don't have to leave our kids. But I have to be careful and do it right, and I fully understand that if I get on the horse too soon, it can throw me and I might take a long while to recover. Which is a bizzare and long winded way of me saying thank you, and that your help is appreciated.
I guess you edited and answered me, partially. 40% is your target in a year. after that, division helps for the weekly.
Well we have discovered something temporary. Did you know that all systems fail, eventually. You must always be looking... It's like a salesman needing to scream after 'new meat" to pull a commish. There is not a nest egg like an ATM machine in the living room, effortlessly granting you withdrawal requests. I hope I have not offended you or your family. I have lived with a trader for 19 years and may be a little brash. We have had opportunities of a lifetime TWICE merely to watch them disappear. It takes years for traders to be given the responsabilities we have been trusted with, merely to fail. Electric does not write about failure much. He knows it much too well. I think he moves on and respects failure for what it is and leaves it behind. He greets it and tries to catch failure early enough to realize that he must move on. I have watched him over the years change. I guess that if your lower your expectations and work from the bottom up, always concentrating on drawdown...then secondly, yield.... then you can tune your systematic approach. Consistent, profitable Trading is a "way of thinking". Always compare DD to yield. I will tell you that what I post here is the only way to take the "roller" out of your "coaster". Now Electric would mish-mash this and say find YOUR way and there are several approaches. Well from this woman to your ears...My way is the way to live the life of a stable consistent and profitable trader while dealing with what life throws in your face. I will sign this post. Marlene
I'll admit I haven't read this thread... but I suggest trading signals from the 15m and 30m; from the US morning session until the US close, or perhaps the Japan open. "Best practice" to limit overtrading is to extend duration. I have an account with Oanda for the OTC exotic capability. I trade from the PST time zone and trade options from 6:00am to 10:00pm. I go to bed flat, excluding some carry trades which aren't monitored daily. My notional size range from 5-10mm units and hundreds of options. I've been trading fx interbank, cme and back to interbank. The majority of my trading permissions are in a variety of ibanks through a PB with BSC. Trading fx makes a young person old. You must define a strict trading schedule or you're guaranteed to burn out.
I do not mean to embarass riskarb, but if Electric were here I know he would not get mad at me. riskarb is probably one of the exceptions to traders in general. First he posts on the boards and secondly he does share a little. I do not understand what he says and that is not why I treat him with respect as a superior trader, it is because he does the job. He makes consistent profit and has survived. The fact that he is here in this thread should perk your eyes up and catch what he shares while you can. Others have stopped sharing, we do not know for how long and I cannot comment about that. but riskarb is here and I hope he can shed some light on your trading. For one to share it must fill him up in his or her soul. sure it may be a "calling", but if he or she is not appreciated over and over by many...then what is the use? riskarb we appreciate you and please continue your work...I do not want to be guilty of keeping my mouth shut, unless Electric asks me to. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73299
Mrs has good advice and the things she says about waiting and trading with less leverage is the right thing to do. If you can swallow your pride, then do so. She is trying to save you from making some big mistakes but you know what? She and her husband have in all likelyhood made those mistakes when they started. I know I have. It's part of the path of a consistently profitable trader. It's a long journey filled with many speed bumps and the occasional crash. Can you really take that advice to heart and bypass that part of experience? I do not think so....and that's not neccessary a bad thing. Education and experience through trial and error is a powerful learning tool. It personalizes trading. The actual experience of over leveraging and blowing out 25% or more of your account on a bad trade will test you in all the right ways. But before I go off too much on a tangent, let me bring it back to your original question of FXCM's credibility. I once had a small <$5k account with them and traded their mini account. On a EURJPY trade, I was long during a flat trading session after it had moved down quite a bit so I was long for the bounce. I went to bed holding a long. In the morning I woke up to check the charts. I use Metatrader for my charts and I saw it made the bounce that I was long for. However, when I logged into my FXCM account and checked their charts, they had a spike down on the 1hr bar preceding the bounce. My Metatrader chart and another (I think I check GFX at the time) didn't show that spike down. I had my stop loss placed with them about 15 or so pips below that support line and I was taken out. So I called the FXCM customer service reps and reported what I saw. The CS rep was almost ready for my call as he took my account number and then said he will put me back into the trade at the exact stop loss price. Since then, I trade with Oanda and still do.
The crazy thing is that right now, tonight, there are a few hundred people who DIDN'T take the time to look this stuff up, and just threw their $$ at FXCM. I am so thankful for my hunch, and moreso for you guys and your advice. I know I am only starting, but I get the feeling that FX trading is a difficult enough career to begin with, without having to do it alone. You folks have saved me and my family several thousand dollars I am certain. Thank you. On a different topic... What other feeds do you guys use for your charting info? FXCM has me on intellichart, but now it occurs to me that that might not be wisest...
I've spent years working with pratically all the charting packages out there. And when I started trading forex, I almost repeated the process, cause in forex there are many "other" charts and platforms. My very personal advice is: - the data feed should be a compound feed, aggregating quotes from various sources; - the charting application should support thick bars and volume bars: price action is incredibly clearer when watched this way. I use eSignal for data feed and Ensign or AmiBroker for charting. Ensign is better suited for the chart artist, while AmiBroker is aimed more at the programmer. jm2c