Crystal Ball Interface

While most people focus on Signals, Confirmations, Take Profits, and Stop Losses, many overlook the perhaps most important factor...  Precision

My good friend Markus tends to trade like he's got a "Crystal Ball Interface".  That is he has some pretty long term "predictions", "feelings", and "analysis" however he rides the Crystal Ball Rollercoaster when he enters trades.  That is, he makes perhaps the right long term decision but the market takes it turns and valleys in the short term, which leaves his position going from positive to negative, often several times.   That makes for some stressful trading.

Now he is comfortable with that style of trading, and if you are too, and you are successful at it then kudos to you.

My preference is to pick the low hanging fruit (short term market direction) and pick the tougher fruit (long term direction) later, that is I will look for precise entries on lower timeframes, (M1, M5, M15) keeping in mind what the overall long term picture (H1, H4, D1) looks like.   Furthermore I will look for Take Profits using the lower timeframes.   Sure I will make less pips (low hanging fruit) but while you're climbing the ladder to get to the top, I will pick many times over.   That is your trade will go up and down while I'm consistently entering and exiting several times over.

There are far too many Crystal Ball Expert Advisors and Automated Trading Services that in my opinion are attempting to pick the hardest fruit while leaving the low hanging fruit rotting.

So next time you find yourself in a trade that has turned on you, perhaps several times, ask yourself if you would like to pick low hanging fruit or go for the pie in the sky.

Managed Account Update

Here I am in my home town of Vienna Austria (Europe) , that's right, Europe, no Kangaroos in Austria, surfing the net and I thought I'd give an update on my managed forex account.

It has been a good month.  I'm back home and considering relocating.  I'm eating great meals, drinking amazing coffee, and enjoying lots of great Gelato and Sweets.  Trading is going well now that I'm rewriting a lot of Metatrader functionality and adding new functionality with custom indicators and expert advisors, allowing me to fine tune my Managed Forex Account.

As you may know, my managed account was off to a rocky start as it was unattended.  That's the thing about these Expert Advisors and Too Good To Be True Robots, they work for a short time and then they bomb.  Why?  Because you need human interaction.  Thanks to my custom Metatrader code I now spend about 20 minutes a day, an hour max and do a daily review of the charts and then for the most part "Set and Forget". Although when I do check the charts I'm typically exiting a trade early, in the positive of course, and missing out on a few extra pips.  But that's how it goes.

In any event, it has been about 3 weeks since my last update and I'm up 40% this month thus far.  The latest up-to-date numbers are below.

Walk The Walk

A couple of months ago I set up a Managed Account and shared my results on MyFxBook.   It has been up and down.  That's the real world for you.  

The real deal is that you can't just walk away from a managed service.  And you gotta be careful with anyone offering a pie in the sky real service with results too good to be true.  "Past Performance is not indicative of future results."

If you have a closer look at my results you'll find that some strategies and currencies performed better than others.  One strategy in particular has been constantly making gains.  Others have not.   Not a problem.   I have updated the Managed EA and will review again in a month.

This is the real world.   When you get knocked down, you get back up.  And you learn from experience.   All that matters are the results.

Survey - Automated Trading

I have been coding Automated Strategies for 7 years now.  I don't always use Automation to Trade but rather to alert me when trading opportunities present themselves.

 

Backtesting the profitability of certain conditions, pay off factors, and consecutive wins of course help in determining the best strategies to employ.   

The purpose of this survey is to collect and share (successful) trading strategies.  

Results will be made available to the public.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6HPWPLP