Traders Laboratory Forex Trading Contest!

[onemove 10]

Mysticforex, Positive energies to your wife and wishing her full recovery soon!!

 

Looking forward to another contest when you get back - I am enjoying the learning process.

[Ingot54 13]

... She is doing very well.

Her recovery is progressing beyond our best expectations. Our lives are returning to normal.

That was indeed a regrettable incident, Chris, and our family wish your wife a speedy and full recovery.

 

Thank you for persevering with the umpiring of the contest, even though we didn't know the kind of duress that was constraining you.

 

As for me, I will be back for the next contest - I have ditched plans to use Oanda MT4 facility, and will stay with their standard offering now. It clearly cost me the winner's crown for this two-month contest!

 

:rofl:

 

Hope you are able to make it too, and that our current tribe of players can

return for the February battle.

 

I will be trialling my new strategy, which is doing well in live trading ... so ...

take notice all.

 

:cool:

[optiontimer 10]

...I should be back up to speed next month if anyone is interested.

 

I am so sorry to here of your wife's accident and suffering, and it is great to hear that her recovery is going better than you had expected. I join with our friends here in wishing her a full and speedy recovery.

 

I'm sure we'll still be interested.

 

All the best to you and especially your wife,

 

OT

[Mysticforex 13]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mysticforex 13]

So, Should we do it again next? And should we do 1 month or 2 month?

 

Post here!

[Ingot54 13]

So, Should we do it again next? And should we do 1 month or 2 month?

I am strongly in favour of continuing for a 2-month contest.

 

Can we try this month without the draw-down rule?

 

I think this would enable more participants, because I believe there are more

traders these days who are beginning to see the benefits of trading over a

longer period of time, under more volatile conditions.

 

It would not preclude anyone - scalpers can still scalp with their favourite strategy.

 

On another thread, there is a discussion about who makes more money - scalpers

or position traders?

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/trading-markets/15171-who-makes-more-money.html

 

Those who over leverage might get lucky at the right end of the contest ... but

we have already seen what can happen with erratic trading. That is why I

suggest we try without the DD rule.

 

The contest has been a good thing for participants. My own focus has tightened.

 

Also - I understand the commitment you have put into this, Chris. So perhaps we

could move to twice weekly updates, or even end-of-week updates, to ease the

load for you?

 

Your call - I am just very grateful to have you umpiring this contest - I might be

able to share the load with you, but would need to understand the workings of

the contest organiser's role.

 

In any case - I hope those who have committed to keep going at this stage are

enjoying the exercise, and that more traders can join us to the benefit of us all.

 

What are others' thoughts?

[optiontimer 10]

oanda finally, and mercifully, closed out my collosal loser with a final loss of 55% of the account's opening balance. I had started the month with $100K, traded it up to a a bit over $140K, and then saw one open loss consume $95K.

 

While I am out of the running, I'm going to continue to trade the fxgame, and I am going to make my goal the recovery of that $95K, without allowing the account to exceed its current drawdown level.

 

While I have never been a fan of the DD rule, I never thought I'd fall victim to it. However, one missed SL and away I go. I accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish - I recovered the 95K lost as a result of my failure to place that stop loss. Mystic, you can resign me from the contest, or otherwise mark me as disqualified or whatever you have to do.

 

I wish those remaining a great home stretch. Onemove is clearly the on the move this month!

[onemove 10]

Yes, Mysticforex, Thank you so much for your efforts in keeping the contest going!

 

I also lean towards the 2-months time period, but would like to see some max draw down requirement to keep us in check. For a long time I did not understand the concept of a max draw down, which meant that I was using the entire account balance as a max draw down which is scary to even think about. It is akin to driving without a brake. I knew how to step on the gas, but not having a break means eventually crashing. That really hurts. Thus I vote for having a max draw down in keeping with reality. On the other hand if we are just doing it for fun, with no bearing to reality, a max draw down will not be necessary.

 

Optiontimer is such an amazing trader!! Any trader knows that it is much harder to go into a deep draw down and then having to pull oneself out of one with a much smaller balance to start with. So in my mind Optiontimer has surpassed all of us thus far.

 

My development in the current contest is due to Optiontimer's Project thread and the wonderful sharing on this board. Thank you Optiontimer!!

Edited January 16, 2013 by onemove

[4EverMaAT 10]

So, Should we do it again next? And should we do 1 month or 2 month?

 

Post here!

 

It is ok to allow 2 months, but I think you should keep the sign up period open for 10-15 days into the first month. I missed the last one because I went too late to try to register.

[Mysticforex 13]

Ok , so 2 months it is...

 

I get the process rolling later today.

[TTony 10]

Her recovery is progressing beyond our best expectations. Our lives are returning to normal.

It's good to hear she is recovering so well. My best wishes to her.

 

 

re: contest

I think max DD rule is a must.

20% is ok maybe even 30% if others want more but beyond that it's just gambling.

[Mysticforex 13]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Here is the link to the 2 month FEB - MARCH.

 

https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=listContests

[Mysticforex 13]

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

We have 5 entries so far for the Feb - Mar Contest.

 

Here's the current Contest:

[Mysticforex 13]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mysticforex 13]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mysticforex 13]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[nicoacademia 10]

Yes, Mysticforex, Thank you so much for your efforts in keeping the contest going!

 

I also lean towards the 2-months time period, but would like to see some max draw down requirement to keep us in check. For a long time I did not understand the concept of a max draw down, which meant that I was using the entire account balance as a max draw down which is scary to even think about. It is akin to driving without a brake. I knew how to step on the gas, but not having a break means eventually crashing. That really hurts. Thus I vote for having a max draw down in keeping with reality. On the other hand if we are just doing it for fun, with no bearing to reality, a max draw down will not be necessary.

 

Optiontimer is such an amazing trader!! Any trader knows that it is much harder to go into a deep draw down and then having to pull oneself out of one with a much smaller balance to start with. So in my mind Optiontimer has surpassed all of us thus far.

 

My development in the current contest is due to Optiontimer's Project thread and the wonderful sharing on this board. Thank you Optiontimer!!

 

you my friend onemove have some detailing to do

you just hit 89%.

and i have noticed how your curve has built up.

it is really really admirable.

you really have the right view of the market.

would love to be able to sample your methodology

i am very impressed!

[nicoacademia 10]

my opinion about the DD rule is that it should still be there as it will help traders who trade real money.

 

personally i have come some way in learning not to over-lever. and it has also kept me in the game.

 

i have been tweaking my strategy over the last 2 months hence the large large equity swings( and i nearly blew my DD too ). still fine tuning but getting somewhat closer.

[Mysticforex 13]

my opinion about the DD rule is that it should still be there as it will help traders who trade real money.

 

personally i have come some way in learning not to over-lever. and it has also kept me in the game.

 

i have been tweaking my strategy over the last 2 months hence the large large equity swings( and i nearly blew my DD too ). still fine tuning but getting somewhat closer.

 

Ok, The 20% DD rule still applies.

[Perrin 10]

I agree, I don't think it would benefit anyone if it were possible to gamble too much and win due to there not being real money at stake. The most sensible way of proceeding is to encourage people to treat the game as if there were real money on the line.

 

The DD rule won't eliminate bad trading, but it might help people try to do the right thing and treat the game in the right way. As long as everyone knows why it's there and why removing it might be detrimental to the game & players, then I think it should be kept.

[nicoacademia 10]

I agree, I don't think it would benefit anyone if it were possible to gamble too much and win due to there not being real money at stake. The most sensible way of proceeding is to encourage people to treat the game as if there were real money on the line.

 

The DD rule won't eliminate bad trading, but it might help people try to do the right thing and treat the game in the right way. As long as everyone knows why it's there and why removing it might be detrimental to the game & players, then I think it should be kept.

 

take it from me i started out with a -80% account at the end of September 2012 contest. was also kicked out of the October 2012 one(so no record exists) and had -40% for November 2012.

 

i could and should have continued to trade that badly. but the DD thing force cultivated some habits.

[onemove 10]

you my friend onemove have some detailing to do

you just hit 89%.

and i have noticed how your curve has built up.

it is really really admirable.

you really have the right view of the market.

would love to be able to sample your methodology

i am very impressed!

 

Thank you for your kind words. As for the methodology, I am following the idea from Optiontimer's thread http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/trading-psychology/10158-optiontimers-project.html to trade in the direction of the main move when it is ready. I set up the simple chart in oanda, then in the evening scroll through the pairs searching for the ones that are ready for a trade. If you recall earlier in the thread i asked why Optiontimer selected EJ and not the others. I experimented by entering trades in EU, EJ, CJ, UJ (actually GU also looked ready, but it was hard for me to enter EU and GU in the opposite direction - something to be worked on). After a few days the results of the trades were

 

EU +1.37%

EJ +2.31%

GJ +1.37%

UJ +0.90%

 

The next time the signals were ready, I entered heavily on the ones that perform the best. In this case it was EJ. I entered EJ heavily and pressed it by entering more positions when it went my direction (I call it my snowball trade). Strange that EJ was outperforming GJ. I tried entering some exotic pairs and those pairs with XAU and XAG also, but I find that the instruments that do not show a definite sustained direction were not performing as well. Ofcourse this was just a very small sample and need further study.

 

I was very lucky to catch a wave when the position was so large. I am still having trouble with the stop placement, especially when the position gets to be so large. In order to have the stop <1% the positions should have been much smaller. But that would also hinder the idea of pressing while the directional energy was active. Does anyone know how to resolve that?

Edited January 29, 2013 by onemove

[Mysticforex 13]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mysticforex 13]

A Super performance by Onemove. First place with 89.09%

 

Second place and another very, very good performance by optiontimer with 42.23%

 

Third place and deserving mention, nicoacademia !! with 28.47&

 

Great job to all.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ingot54 13]

A Super performance by Onemove. First place with 89.09%

 

Second place and another very, very good performance by optiontimer with 42.23%

 

Third place and deserving mention, nicoacademia !! with 28.47&

 

Great job to all.

Thanks Mystic. Fantastic trading there by all - congrats to OneMove and OptionTimer ... and Nicoacademia finally cracks a placing!

 

Looking forward to the next episode