My First Forex Experience (NNFX)

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
142

Distractions

So today I messed up.

Not a big mess up, but a mess up just the same.

Trading time came, I’m on night shift so at work, but to be honest it’s quiet.

So I opened up myfxbook and my Green Algo (the only one I am trading until next month).

Just as I was doing it, the phone rang. It was IT support on land following up a ticket my collegue had been working with them on through the day.

So I carried on doing my trading while chatting, turned out the guy was ex military like myself, got a good chat…

And I took a trade, totally not remembering to check my “BFF”.

Not all is lost, it was a “Caution” or “half risk” trade, so it’s still made 3% in the last 12 months, but more recently it’s had alot of break even and a couple of losses. So seems that the Algo might not be “Syncronised” with the market structure.

I should have taken 2x 0.5% positions, but took full1% positions.

So I need to switch on and avoid distractions!!!

Best Foot Forward

There were 2 other trades with an entry, both were “DO NOT TRADE” on BFF so I sat them out.

A quick look back at some of my previous losses “BFF” would have kept me out of them quite nicely.
I’m really hopeful over the next few weeks I’ll start seeing some results.

What I can say is I’m in much less trades. This should equate to smaller interest fees and cheaper to run the actual account, then with less trades fighting in opposition I should see an uptick in the returns.

With my “red” algo launching at the end of the month I should be able to deploy the same rules and protection, while increasing trading opportunities.

back to work

So, after a few days or relaxation, celebrating my promotion and generally chatting and doing nothing, I need to get on with backtesting “Red” and getting it ready for launch!!!

Cheers, Chris

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143

Have fun!!

I know this pain. Haha
Do you always check it?

144

“BFF” is new, so it’s not muscle memory yet!!!

2 weeks ago I would have taken the trade and not given it a second though, so I need to make myself check at the moment.

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145

Ok… So I jumped the gun…

I’ve been thinking about joining the 5%ers once I get a load more time and data under my belt, and have more than one algo running.

But, after watching some vids, gathering info etc. I realised that doing 5%ers might highlight things in my strategy that I need to change, or things in my routine etc.

I decided to sign up for the basic account, $255 which gets you a $6000 funded account with DD max of 4%, and 6% target with 6 months to complete.

I launched the MT5 platform, and was ready to make my first trade. This is where I discovered that I need to make changes. MT5 doesn’t allow trailing stops from the web.
The server doesn’t do it, only the Client on a PC.

As I need to do my trading while travelling this wont work with my strategy.

I need to change my strategies to FIXED STOPS!!!

So really it was a good idea, I can now make the changes and build my strategies around fixed stops.

So I quickly tested the one pair fixed stops, and the strategy still makes profit. I went ahead with my first trade.

Later tonight I plan to run a backtest of my exisitng strategy with fixed stops, and if it’s still good keep going with it.

Beyond that I’ll move to Trailing stops when I can have a VPS setup, or a reliable always on computer for this that I can login to. I don’t trust my home connection at this point.

All looking good though, fingers crossed still moving forward and reacting to change.

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146

Personal

So not much new going on here, just playing out my last week of night shift, hopefully for ever.
Looking forward to the very brief time home before the promotion, 7 days at home before I travel.

Looking forward to time with my little boys and my girlfriend.

Mechanical Private trading

So yesterday was the first time in 7 weeks trading the live account that ALL my positions had closed out.
It was a strange sight for sure. It was also nice to see that the closed balance was positive!
I’m not taking that fact for granted at all!!!

BFF held me out of most trade opportunities, but I placed 1 trade yesterday.

Today I was presented LOTS of opportunities, however BFF told me to stay out of 4 or 5 of them.

I took 6 trades, so 12 positions.

Most of these are continuation trades from trend directions that were already established.

As happened in March (17th) there was an inflow of money from Equities, then back into equities the last couple of days, mainly surrounding Bidens comments on Capital gains taxes.

This seems to have subsided and the trends are continuing as they were… Back on them then!

Mechanical Prop Trading

I’m following exactly my Private trades, with the exception that instead of 2% risk per trade, or 1% per position I am trading 0.5% per position or 1% per trade.

Also there is a reduced list of available pairs, the Majors and Minors only, so no exotics.
Not a huge deal, just means I have one less trade open on there than on my own account.

I have to use MT5 web to make the trades, to calculate the lot sizes I have to use the position size calculator on Myfxbook, as I have to put it in as lot’s rather than the convenient % of equity or cash value you can use through TradingView.

I’m simply opening the trade on Oanda via TV, then using the Pip value in the calcualtor on MT5, and verifying my SL and TP positions against my now open trade on TV.

A nice and simple process, which so far seems to be working ok. No dramas.

I’ve also thrown away ALL my backtested Algo’s as they were all Trailing stops, and started backtesting new ones with fixed stops. My own algo backtests ok with fixed, only a few occasions there’s a little more DD with fixed. I’ve just got to keep the account DD level under a watchful eye.

Automated Trading

So I’ve still been testing the Beta EA that I’m part of, and it’s very interesting seeing the results, and simply learning the process of backtesting etc.

I’ve also been speaking closely with the developer of another system, one that’s already in general release, although the developer is now looking at expanding the risk management model.
After talking, he’s offered me free access for a period, on the condition I give him some feedback and also that I write a review on it.

He seems to think I’ve got enough knowledge now to be able to assist, and articulate what the system can do.

I’m very keen to try it, although I won’t have much chance until June. So time will tell, but it may be something I can play with and deploy to make money while I sleep. The work comes in backtesting and configuring, knowing how to test and how to interpret.

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147

Hi Chris,
It took me about 400 trades one epoch ago to realize what you have realized probably much faster. It has totally changed my psychology around realistic reward/risk estimation. As an ex-boss once said to me (and hundreds since), work smarter, not harder. On the other hand, it’s easy to forget when you are up to your ass in alligators that the objective was to drain the swamp . Picked that one up in Louisiana waiting for a demo job offshore Venice (not Italy!) :slight_smile:

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148

Yea, the losers fighting the winners for equity, and the interest fees…

Just no need.

Trying to learn patience but…

3468d5cdbba7d08542f2bb648a5cd14d
3468d5cdbba7d08542f2bb648a5cd14d1000×918 194 KB

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149

“Just Call Saul”. Sorry I just had to do that from “Breaking Bad”!

That is what they created Crypto for - so you don’t go cold turkey during the weekend. :slight_smile:

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150

Thanks, buddy, I think trading is a community where we all come together.

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151

just thought I’d update a little of what I’ve been doing over the weekend.

Something I’ve been picking away at, @Mondeoman commented before about finding what about the market structure was it that my algo didn’t play well with on the periods it isn’t as good.

I took a think, and i split the time down further for my testing, and now I test in 1 year sections, with no overlap.
So 2012 to 2012 in 1 year chunks. 44 pairs.

What I’ve found is there are a couple of pairs I never really make profit…
Equally there are a couple of years on net, the algo lost over all pairs, although it’s possible with stepping out of the DD using BFF I’d have been ok.

I took a good look, and simply the market is very sideways during these periods. Little movements and basically ranging. My algo gets in fast, catches good money on movements, but lots of false movements.

The good thing is, this leads to LONG periods of DD, but that is good, BFF can pull me out of these periods.

So I took my worst year, one of only 3 I’d lose net (not using BFF), and decided to make 1 change at a time, and see what change I can make that turns that year positive…

BOOM. I found 2 indicators I can use as my secondary, which turn that year positive. Pretty much the winning and losing pairs are inverse to my existing Algo (Green algo).

So I’m going to map this setup for all 44 pair, and all 9 years (or 396 pair/years of data).

I’ll then experiment with other changes ontop of this if it seems a fairly promising Algo.

this will be my Blue Algo once it’s created.

Still going, still evolving.

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152

So today wasn’t a good day at all…

I took a look at my account this morning and I was about 2% up between midnight and 8am.

I looked at my Prop trading account and was up about 0.6%.

Part of me though to just say dam it and close out my trades, lock in the gains!!! But that’s not what its about!!!

So left it and went to bed.

I woke to find all my trades pretty much have gone against me. So my equity now on my private account is about back to where i started 7 weeks ago.

My Prop account is about 1.5% down out of a max 4%.

Looking at the trades themselves, it doesn’t look too bad to be fair, not one single trade looks horrific, and to be fair, about half of them look to be moving back in my favour slowly, just a couple likely to get closed later.

Looking through my myfxbook it is the largest loss in equity I’ve had in a single day since starting.

It’s making me wonder if I should be looking to reduce the amount of new trades I open in a single day, or find some other rule that I can try. But I don’t want to dive straight in.

I’ll just have to think carefully and see what I can come up with.

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153

Definitely a time saver.

Great quote!

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154

Where you at? Haha

I’m waiting for an update!
How’s it going? I imagine you’ve got your hands full.

Hope all is well! I’m looking forward to your next post.

155

Sorry for the gap in posting here.

Trading wise I’ve just been ticking over really.

I took a fair bit of Drawdown, as posted above.

My personal account is yet to recover, but was still moving the right direction on Friday, my Prop account recovered, and was in positive territory on Friday close.

i have news however, I found a house I wanted… put the offer in and have had is accepted. This has directed alot of my attention, that and the fact I was only home for 7 days I spent alot of my time with my boys and my girlfriend.
i basically jumped on my trading at 9pm, and that was it trading wise.

I’ve decided to focus my efforts on the prop account for now, so have decided to go close only on my live account, just to free up some cash.

I have quite a lot of money in my Crypto account at the moment, having made about $5,000 profits in the last week alone.
As much as I can I don’t want to touch the money that is in there, so better using all my other available funds.

I’m back on the rig, getting myself settled.
I took a couple of Quantitive trading books with me, so will be spending time learning about ways to improve my Algorythm building and testing.

My plan on my manual trading is to keep learning, keep improving and hopefully launch a better algo in the next couple of months.

I’ve still got my EA running at home doing optimizations also, and hope that once I get settled in the new house it will tie in with the Beta finishing and the production version to be launched.

I will then use my first months investment money to purchase the full version and deploy an account auto trading and see what happens from there!!!

So little changes, all positive, and moving forward at a decent rate still!!!

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156

Congratulations!!! This is very big news!
Great job!

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157

I did forget to add last night, I am also still running a “price action” demo aswell, I have been running it for 7 weeks.

Literally only using the MK1 eyeball for direction of trend, and setting my TP/SL based on Support and Resistance.

This is currently at 15% gain in 7 weeks, and although a completely different approach to my Quant approaches it’s just as fascinating.

I’ve litterally spent approximately 20/30 mins per week on it to this point.

I added an extra couple of trades last week. There is no journal or anything of the sort attached to this, it was purely a mess around to see if there was genuine positive expectancy from it.
I’ll be honest I’m surprised.

My plan with that one is simply keep it running, don’t thing too hard about it, don’t over complicate it.
If come September/October and I start pulling serious profits out of my Crypto accounts I will put some money in my Oanda account again and trade this more regularly.

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158

Congratulations on the offer acceptance. Understandably, short term priorities change. Will be looking out for any future posts. BTW thanks for sharing that EA with me. I do not profess to understand it at all, but with time I am sure I will. I haven’t done much with the Trading View learning yet. I have decided to go through the entire NNFX material, and have made a training plan that is about 120 hours long. I have also read 2 of 3 books recommended by VP. I just received the “Discipline Equals Freedom” yesterday, and look forward to reading that one too.

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159

Just a little update, and as much as anything want to keep popping in and not lose touch with my journal.

So I have closed out my last trade in my Live account, and moved the money back to cover my legal cost for the house.

At the same time, another algo I developed using my tester was showing MASSIVE promise.
I’ve decided to move to a close only position with my old algo.

My new algo generates similar results in backtest to my current one. There is however a massive difference in the Algo…

This one uses NO exit indicator, only TP and SL.

So trade maintenance is a thing of the past with it. Litterally it’s a case of check for new trades at 9PM, set and forget.

It is a very powerful algo in backtest, with over 100% gains at 2% per trade for YTD, and over 230% for 2020.

I don’t like the idea of going the full 2% on my 5ers account however, so have scalled position sizing innitially back to 0.25% but will go as far as 0.5% per trade once I move away from the BE point and have a few more % buffer in the account.

I plan to also trade this in my own account again once I am in the new house and settled.

Research wise, I’ve had the best intentions to read my Quant books, but so far I’ve been too busy in the new role to have any time. Working approx 14 hours a day I’ve just been too tired.

Once things settle down I’m sure I’ll find the time to catch up.

:slight_smile:

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160

I read your whole thread and the information you shared is good, but I would say that no doubt you should set some goals for yourself but don’t burden yourself with the pressure of accomplishing them. I would rather advise you to set those goals that you can achieve and extend your comfort zone a little everyday. Do manage your risks side by side.

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161

Sorry for the lack of updates on this, the new role has been consuming leaving me really tired with no time to fill this in or work on my Algo.

@wilburburke I absolutely agree and my goals aren’t rigid, but more something to work towards than to get disappointed with not reaching. I appreciate your input. Every step forward and every new thing learned should be seen as a win!

So I lost a little faith with my Algo if I’m honest. I was working on it, improving it but I’ve not had the time to keep going with it lately.

But one thing I did have was my other demo account that was discretionary trading, based on Support/Resistance and Pullbacks.
This was position sized for 1% Stop Losses and was 15% up for the 3 months I’d been doing it.

As I’d started the 5%ers based on my old Algo, and dropped 1.5% out of the allowed 4% I decided to call it for now and suspend it.
Then rethinking the whole strategy I decided to deploy my Discretionary trading just to keep my 5%ers going mean time.

So I’ve been taking trades which are purely SL/TP, once they are set they are left to it. No trade management during the trades, so no need to monitor daily if I can’t login for whatever reason!

I started with a lower risk, 0.5% or less, but have now deployed a couple of trades at 1% risk.

Basically I’m looking at the charts and looking for major trends, then establishing if something is in a period of confluence, but not at a major historic Support or resistance area. Most likely this will continue on it’s merry way before too long and head for the next resistance. I’m setting a SL far enough back to avoid the last low/high and a TP before the next resistance.

If the price reverses and breaks a trend of higher lows, or lower highs, it’s most likely invalidated the trend.
More likely is a bit of noise then a push to above the local high/low or even to move all the way to the next resistance if there is one. Most JPY stuff is in price discovery so playing pullbacks and looking to TP just above the local high is safer and gives a point of reference.

GBPNZD

An example of a trade I have open is the GBPNZD. This was a pullback play which although in a healthy position, has loads of time left to run.
This is in a clear uptrend, it pulled back over 3 days, making a new local low, a higher low. The next daily close higher was the entry.
The SL was below the local low, which if broken could suggest the theory is invalid. This would be a 1% loss.
The TP is set to above the local high, theory being the pullback is done and we are on to break the local high in a few days to a week or so. This would be a 2% or there about win.

So things are playing nicely. I’ve turned the 1.5% DD to a 2% gain at this point, so 1/3 of the way to completion.

I have 6 months to get to 6%, with 6 weeks currently used up.

Long term I want to focus on using algos or better still an EA to take the decision and emotion out of the equation. But at this point I felt the best course was rather than let time run out and lose the $250 I put up, I should take what I have working and put that forward.

Fortune favours the bold, but 5%ers likes a risk manager. It’s a case of playing the risks and taking the chance to complete and at least get my money back.

I can take things much slower and just take a trade every few weeks to keep the account alive once pass, buying time to get a strategy I am really confident in again.

Chris

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