Honorary Member Q&A: Buckscoder


Buckscoder a.k.a Gottfried Grosshans

###1. Tell us something about yourself. (Where you come from, your favorite dish, are you married, do you have kids?)

I was born in Europe, living now partly in the US. Oh I have sooo many favorable dishes – salmon with pasta or sometimes I just like steak and potatoes or a pizza or a salad. Still passionately single and no kids, though my former girlfriend had 2 nice girls.

###2. What would be a typical Friday night for you?

There is no ‘typical time’ regarding me. If am working, it doesn’t matter what day or time it is. If I am on vacation or every now and then, I like to go out for a movie or dinner as many others or I could visit a state park, museum or having fun or a lazy minute in the motel, at home or at the beach.

###3. Is there a story behind your name ‘Buckscoder?’ How is it related to trading?

Yes and to make it short: I started with forex to develop profitable expert advisers and so I ‘code my buck;’ hence the name.

###4. What are your thoughts about Stochastic and Zigzag indicators?

I do not use those indicators in my expert advisers and have no idea what statistical value they have. They might have relevance, but I guess as most indicators just in combination with some other tools. There is no Holy Grail tool.

###5. What do you think is the beginning of a Beginner’s Disaster?

I guess most people make the mistake to move their point of view too low. What I mean is that they look just up then and not down. A winning streak is nice and dreaming of quick millions also, but without looking down first. I guess it’s impossible to become a consistently successful trader. A proper edge, risk and money management for money protection are the keys for long term success.

###6. Do you have a certain strategy or principle that you go by? Tell us about it.

I am an investor since long ago, love to speculate, and made a killing already while buying gold when it was dirt cheap (though even by that time most experts told it was expensive). If it comes to forex then I let primarily trade my expert advisers. The strategy is based just on statistics and most of it on price action and is self-adapting to the markets.

My best ‘horse’ trades in ranging and trending markets as well and has a positive expectancy in both markets. There are about 65% winning trades and my average risk/reward on each trade is 1:1. My expectation of the strategy is an ROI of 50% or higher in a year with a maximum drawdown of 20% or less and a typical recovery time of less than 3 months.

###7. Among the other Honorary Members, which one has the closest, if not the same, trading style as yours? Why do you think so?

I am not aware of any other member who has the same style. I also think that if you want to become successful, you need to find your own style and the more individual that is, the better.

I have a little knowledge in the field of banking/investment, economics, management and computer science. All of it made up the mixture which leads to my trading style: Searching for a statistical edge first, working out a precise trading strategy and implementing it with an expert adviser and then let it trade. If I look for an edge, my investment experience is of value as well.

###8. What’s the latest movie you’ve seen? Did you like it? Any other movies you’re looking forward to seeing?

The last movie I’ve seen in the cinema which impressed me was The Lord of the Rings. Besides that, I have a ton of movies on my hard disk, but unfortunately not much time right to watch.

###9. Of all your gadgets, which one can’t you live without? (Not literally of course, kind of like can’t go a day without it.) Why?

Oh, I can live months without any gadget if I am on a road/flight trip and somebody else organized it. Albeit if I could choose one over the other, I’d say it’s my Android phone, and definitely not used as phone! It’s like a ‘’car in communications.’

###10. Which threads do you suggest noob traders must subscribe to? Why?

I leave that tot the reason a reader/writer is joining the forum. Somebody might just be interested in getting an answer to a question and the search button would be of more help than I now.

I would rather suggest reading more from the School of Pipsology. Often I see newbies asking over and over again the same simple questions which are already answered in the excellent school, where I also learned the first steps to becoming a forex trader.