My experiences with FX Autotrading a live account

Discussion in 'Automated Trading' started by FX245, May 15, 2007.

  1. FX245

    FX245

    That's interesting info - thanks for that - will use this way of thinking in my money management.

    anyway you could add this as a stat in the list of signals ?
    now that we're asking .... do you plan to add the intratrade DD ?
     
    #21     May 17, 2007
  2. FX245

    FX245

    daily statement of 17May2007 - see attached.

    We had a very good day today: +103

    2 closed trades:
    +24 pips - ForexFighter-KO-GBPUSD
    +89 pips - Quants-MP40-GBPJPY

    3 open trades

    balance: 6105 (+1.75%)
    equity: 6144 (+2.4%)

    cool.
     
    #22     May 17, 2007
  3. FX245

    FX245

    daily statement of 18May2007 - see attached.

    We had a very bad day today: -176

    5 closed trades:
    -148 pips - Quants-MP40-GBPJPY
    -38, -41, +17 & +14 ATRChannel GBPUSD

    3 open trades

    balance: 5929 (-1.2%)
    equity: 5891 (-1.8%)

    bummer.
     
    #23     May 18, 2007
  4. FX245 - I had a bad day as well which is why I haven't updated my blog today :( I'll get to it Sunday night I hope.

    The thing that scares me a little is not the atr channel but when it opens up 2 positions then Forex Fighter KO opens in the same direction. That's why several of my trades I have closed manually - just because of over exposure.

    Minnelli
     
    #24     May 19, 2007
  5. FX245

    FX245

    Thanks for that info !
    I'll look into that and see how to handle that ... guess we'll have more of these situations, since many of the pairs are very strongly correlated ....

    have a great weekend!
     
    #25     May 19, 2007
  6. I don't know anything about FX, but I do know if you ever want to make money consistently on trading any vehicle, you have to learn to do it yourself.

    Any blackbox system(if you even get one that works) that tells you when to buy and sell and you simply listen will only lead to frustration.

    The road is long ahead... and you may not make it. But, you definetely won't make if you rely on other people.

    If you don't want to learn, but want the money, why not put your money away in a mutual fund?

    I don't really understand how you lost money in an index over the past 10 years unless you never learned how to cut your losses...

    Read a basic investment book (not buy and hold till inifinity book) and go from there.

    My $.02.
     
    #26     May 19, 2007
  7. FX245

    FX245

    Dear kidPWRtrader,

    Thanks you very much for your input and advice !

    I agree that the best way to be succesfull on Fx is to become a good trader yourself ... but that is not everybody's interest ... I'm just not a trader, never will be ....

    you advice me to put my money in a mutual fund, but isn't that just the same what I do with fx-auto ?

    a mutual fund is a black box, where somebody else sells and buys financial instruments (stocks, ..) on my behalf.

    an automatic fx system (or a managed account for that matter) is the same thing, no?

    so what makes a mutual fund then better then an automatic fx system or a managed account? (its just a different risk-return profile ..)

    If you're not a specialist you need to rely on other people - that what mutual funds, private banking, and now autotrading are for ....

    thanks for the debate !

    PS: which basic investment book would you advice ?
     
    #27     May 19, 2007
  8. fx245 is being nice. I'm a little more on the aggressive side. First off having someone trade for you is the best. I have a real job and don't have time to follow the markets and forex. My job demands a great deal of my time and I need professionals to manage my money. I was a stock broker/ investment advisor for about 6 years with Merrill Lynch and Citi Bank. I managed millions of dollars of other peoples money. You know what we used -- mutual funds and high end money managers. Currently, I have the majority of my investments in US index funds which I spread a nice allocation between the sp500 and midcap.

    Most people that trade forex on their own will lose money. During the last 5-6 years I've blown away several accounts. The money I just dropped in forex is my attempt to get back in the market with a small portion of my money. This way I don't end up looking for the thrills in my SEP by buying Google options :) My Fidelity money is my future, the $3500 in forex is a drop in the bucket to have a little fun.

    I would recommend that everyone learn as much as they can about regular investing. By a Investments for Dummies, but bottom line in this area. Most mutual fund managers can NOT beat the index they manage against. So why not just buy the index funds.

    As for forex these strategies are not necessarily black boxes. We see the actually live results, we see the stop limits, we can make the decision on who we invest with. Just like selecting a mutual fund. The only difference, this is a 10x more risky than just buying QQQQ or SPY.

    Thanks for listening and remember you don't expect your plumber to do your taxes. It's okay if you no nothing about investing or forex. The key is know your limitations and use professionals...PS everyone should do research and trim down expectations - you are not going to turn $5k into $50k in a year...

    Minnelli
     
    #28     May 19, 2007
  9. First of all well said Kmini.

    As far as mutual funds not performing index funds... true for the most part. Look at some out there, however... many outperform by a pretty decent margin year after year/quarter over quarter. Just like anything else, it takes a little research.

    The problem I see with the FX autotrade type deal is that 1, it is really risky, and 2, you will never make longterm profits if you don't actually learn the underlying methods.

    What if you learned a basic method of timing the markets? "All about market timing" for instance shows really simple strategies to trade index funds. Use ETFs and you can significantly reduce your exposure to the market (risk... as you are out when your rules are broken) and increase returns.

    I am talking about real simple stuff like buying moving average crossovers and selling when they reverse. Use some leverage if you like... you will probably spend a few hours at most a month making trades and you will see more consistent returns.

    Very basic, long-term stuff is what I am talking about especially if you don't intend on getting too involved with it. Learn how to do position trading with a holding time of a minimum of a few weeks if your position turns profitable and a few days if it goes against you.

    How to Make Money in Stocks by O'Niel is a great primer for fundy stuff... that coupled with the book I mentioned before should give you some ideas.

    Also... once again I do admit my ignorance on FX and I am young (19) so i do admit I still have a lot to be learned. Take my opinion with a grain of salt... but I do seriously believe that this would be more realistic for you in the long run.

    PS... limitations is the name of the game. For me limitations means trade simple and long term, paper trade any new methods, and go into cash at some times fully into I am ready/confident in my methods.

    It's an ever changing game...
     
    #29     May 19, 2007
  10. Point taken - forex is my play money. No intention of making more money or building my forex accounts to more than 1-2% of my overall investments. It's again, just something to "dream about" at night. Like that would be cool to make a ton of money. It does help clear my mind of other issues and it is pretty fun. I understand I'm not leaning anything about trading by having someone else trade my money, but I play around with idea and systems on the side.

    As for the real market - I don't play the timing game. I learned years ago and educated my clients that missing a couple good days in the market by trying to time it will cost big percentages over the year. Just missing a couple of the best days really hammers you. Of course, I would love to avoid those big down days, but that's life. You just liquidate your retirement accounts, or the kids accounts, let alone the 401k plan. You need to ride it out and think long term.

    I know from history that if I can get 10% a year that will double every 7 years. So in 21 years when the kids are grown and moved past college I can look forward to 8 fold the portfolio I have now. i.e. time for golf not coming up with ways to pull an extra couple pips a week :) Remember for me forex is just an means for some fun, not retirement...

    So let's keep following fx245 and see how he does. Plus you can visit my blog and see my results. Personal systems have not been posted or tracked...yet.

    Minnelli
    http://minnelli.com/forex
     
    #30     May 19, 2007