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Trading Lessons

Variable Fractional Percent (VFP) method

by Gav 12 Comments

Listen, I am going to reveal trading secret again! 🙂

I have been working on position sizing and risk management stuffs recently. I am trying to optimize the return of my trading since I see consistency in my trading recently. So, instead of increase setups or trading opportunities, I am thinking of stick to the old trick but increase position size, etc. However, this is not an easy subject.

I come across Variable Fractional Percent (VFP) from chaffcombe’s site.
He is a full-time currency trader, who is more into automated trading. Here is what I found from his explanation of Variable Fractional Percent (VFP)

Firstly you need to know your daily Net Asset Value (NAV) gain or loss in percent.

Start trading at a conservative 5% FFP (or whatever suits you). But instead of using a Fixed Fractional percent, you use a range say 2%-25%. Move up and down the scale by adding or subtracting half of your last daily NAV percentage.

For example start at 5% FFP

Next day profit on trades = 1.5%
Therefore your next FFP = 5 + (1.5 * 0.5 ) = 5.75%

Say you then lose 3%
Next FFP = 5.75 + (-3 * 0.5) = 4.25%

Obviously use ranges and a daily factor (here 50%) that suits you, but you’ll find this method really rewards good methods, and lightens up very quickly on bad.

The idea that catches my attention is that the method utilizes part of your previous day’s trading profit to determine the position size of your next trade. They put you in the condition that when you are on a roll, you are able to profit as much as possible, while during the drawdown, the system is reducing your position size accordingly.

The prerequisite of this management method is to have a consistent trading system. It doesn’t turn a losing system to a profitable system, but it maximizes the return of a profitable system and reduce the damage from a losing system.

I thought this idea provides some food for thought.

Filed Under: blogs, Learn Trading Tagged With: risk management, Trading Lessons

Cheetah teaches trading

by Gav Leave a Comment

To wrap up the year, here is an interesting video. Watch it, see if you are able to link it to your trading.

She won’t charge, unless she gets really close

Filed Under: blogs, Trading Lessons Tagged With: Trading Lessons

Year end review?

by Gav Leave a Comment

This is the last trading week for the year 2007. It is unlikely for me to trade since I am rushing to finish some work and preparing to head to Sydney this coming weekend for my Christmas break.

Well, if you do not achieve your trading target or your trading ‘dreams’ for 2007, it is too late to make it happens now. Yes, I know miracle does happen, you might hit a jackpot for the coming 4 trading days, but…after all, it is still a miracle. We meet miracles by chance, we don’t plan to have a miracle. Got it?

Instead of struggling to hit your 2007 target at this stage, maybe we should do a review of our real trading problems.

Answer the questions below, carefully and frankly. You will realize some of your mistakes and make a note for the coming year.

  • How much time have you spent on searching for the secret trading strategies in forums or blogs?
  • How much time have you spent on studying markets, developing your own trading strategies and style?
  • How much time have you spent on trading forums (e.g Elitetrader, forexfactory etc) or chart room such as wallstreak (sorry ,ugly) to listen to other people’s opinion (most of time ,nonsense)?
  • How much time have you spent for yourself, thinking deeply, which trading instrument/style/timeframe/market etc that really suits yourself?
  • How many times have you been changing your trading strategies? From dummy to fibonacci, then to breakout or even scalping?
  • How long was the last time you stick to your trading plan?
  • How many times have you been delaying writing or recording your trading journal?
  • Are you spending way too much time in something called ‘trading psychology’ things? It is important, but are you spending WAY too much time on it?

There are still a lot of questions for you to answer, but I guess these should have shown you something. Please be frank to yourself.

The most valuable thing I have learned from the past couple of years is, trading is really a lonely and individualist business.

You have to work out by yourself to figure out what’s working for you and what’s not. Sorry to say that you have to design your own strategies and plan.

Chat rooms and forums are really for entertainment. Purely entertainment. There is nothing called discussion in trading, most of the time, there are just bullshit sharing. It is good to visit forums and chat rooms, for the sake of laughing. :-). The best place to learn about trading and the market is the market itself. These are my opinion and experience. Take it or leave it.

One of my favorite posts in blogsphere is ‘Chasing Success’ written by Trader-x. It is a good read and good reminder. Make sure you check it out.

most people jump from indicator to indicator, time frame to time frame, method to method. They will use something for a few days, hit a bump, and move on to something different altogether. One day the holy grail is a XX period moving average, the next day it is MACD or an oscillator. One day it is a 30-minute chart, the next day it is a 5-minute chart. One day it is buying the break of the first inside bar, the next day it is a pullback from the high.

I call this “chasing success”. The bottom line is the person does not spend enough time on any one method to really understand and execute it properly. They bounce around, and before they know it a lot of time has passed and they are still struggling.

If you pick something and stick to it, you get good at it. Once you get good at it – once you perfect it, THEN you can add something else to your arsenal.

Filed Under: blogs, Learn Trading Tagged With: Trading Lessons, Yearly Review

45 ways to avoid losing money trading Forex

by Gav Leave a Comment

I found this article from a forum. It is interesting. Though I do not agree with everything he says, there are some good points.

According to the forum poster, this list was composed by Jimmy Young, who is a retired professional Bank Forex trader with over 20 years of hands-on forex trading experience.

Pretty long list, but nice read.

1) Knowledge Deficiency Most new FOREX traders don’t take the time to learn what drives currency rates (primarily fundamentals).

2) Overtrading – Trading often with tight stops and tiny profit targets will only make the broker rich. The desire to just make a few hundred dollars a day by locking in tiny profits whenever possible is a losing strategy.

3) Over leveraged – Leverage is a two way street. The brokers want you to use high leverage because that means more spread income because your position size determines the amount of spread income; the bigger the position the more spread income the broker earns.

4) Relying on Others Real traders play a lone hand; they make their own decisions and don’t rely on others to make their trading decisions for them; there is no halfway; either trade for yourself or have someone else trade for you.

5) Stop Losses Putting tight stop losses with retail brokers is a recipe for disaster. When you put on a trade commit to a reasonable stop loss limit that allows your trade a fair chance to develop.

6) Demo Accounts Broker demo accounts are a shill game of sorts; they’re not as time-sensitive as real accounts and therefore give the impression that time-sensitive trading systems, such as short-term moving average crossovers can be consistently profitably traded; once you start dealing with real money, the reality is quick to set in.

7) Trading During Off Hours Bank FX traders, option traders, and hedge funds have a huge advantage during off hours; they can push the currencies around when no volume is going through and the end game is new traders get fleeced trying to trade signals. There is only one signal during off hours – stay out.

8) Trading a Currency, Not a Pair Being right about a currency is half a trade; success or failure depends upon being right about the second currency that makes up the pair.

9) No Trading Plan – ‘Make money’ is not a trading plan. A trading plan is a blueprint for trading success; it spells out what you see your edge as being; if you don’t have an edge, you don’t have a plan, and likely you’ll wind up a statistic (part of the 95% of new traders that lose and quit).

10) Trading Against Prevailing Trend There is a huge difference between buying cheaply on the way down and buying cheaply. What was a low price quickly becomes a high price when you’re trading against the trend.

11) Exiting Trades Poorly If you put on a trade and it’s not working make sure you exit properly; don‘t compound the damage. If you’re in a winning trade, don’t talk yourself out of the position because you’re bored or want to relieve stress; stress is a natural part of trading; get used to it.

12) Trading Too Short-term If your profit target is less than 20 points don’t do the trade; the spread you pay to enter the trade makes the odds way against you when you go for these tiny profits.

13) Picking Tops and Bottoms – Looking for bargains works well at the supermarket but not trading foreign exchange; try to trade in the direction the price is going and your results will improve.

14) Being Too Smart The most successful traders I know are high school graduates. They keep it simple and don’t look beyond the obvious; their results are excellent.

15) Not Trading Around News Time Most of the big moves occur around news time. The volume is high and the moves are real; there is no better time to trade fundamentally or technically than when the news is released; this is when the real money adjusts their positions and as a result, the price changes reflect serious currency flow (compared to quiet times when Bank traders rule the market with their customer order flow).

16) Ignore Technical Condition Determining whether the market is over-extended long or over-extended short is a key determinant of near-time price action. Spike moves often occur when the market is all one way.

17) Emotional Trading When you don’t pre-plan your trades essentially it’s a thought and not an idea; thoughts are emotions and a very poor basis for doing trades. Do people generally say intelligent things when they are upset and emotional? I don’t think so.

18) Lack of Confidence Confidence only comes from successful trading. If you lose money early in your trading career it’s very difficult to gain true confidence. The trick is don’t go off half-cocked. Learn the business before you trade.

19) Lack of Courage to Take a Loss There is nothing macho or gutsy about riding a loss, just stupidity and cowardice. It takes guts to accept your loss and wait for tomorrow to try again. Getting married to a bad position ruins lots of traders. The thing to remember is the market does crazy things often, so don’t get married to anyone trade. It’s just a trade. One good trade will not make you a trading success; rather its monthly and annual performance that defines a good trader.

20) Not Focusing on the Trade at Hand There is no room for fantasizing in successful trading. Counting up and mentally spending profits you haven‘t made yet is mental masturbation and does you no good. Same with worrying about a loss that hasn’t happened yet. Focus on your position and have a reasonable stop loss in place at the time you do the trade. Then be like an astronaut sit back and enjoy the ride. No sense worrying because you have no real control. The market will do what it wants to do.

21) Interpreting FOREX News Incorrectly Fact is the press only has a very superficial understanding of the news they are reporting and tend to focus on one element and miss the point. Learn to read the source documents and understand it for real.

22) Lucky or Good Your account balance changes don’t tell you the whole story about your trading. Fact is if you are taking a lot of risks and making money you will eventually crash and burn. Look at the individual trade details. Focus on your big loses and losing streaks. Ask yourself this, “If I had a couple of consecutive losing streaks or a couple of consecutive big losses, how would my account balance look?” Generally, traders making money without big daily losses have the best chance of sustaining positive performance. The others are accidents waiting to happen.

23) Too Many Charity Trades When you make money on a well thought out trade don’t give back half on a whim. Invest your profits from good trades on the next good trade.

24) Courage Under Fire – When a policeman breaks down the door to a drug dealer’s apartment he is scared but he does it anyway. When a fireman climbs onto the roof of a burning building he is scared but does it anyway, and gets the job done. Same with trading. It‘s ok to be scared but you have to pull the trigger. No trigger, no trades, no profits, no trader.

25) Quality Trading Time I suggest 3 hours a day of quality, focused trading time. That’s about all your brain allows. When you are trading, be 100% focused. Halfway is bullshit – it doesn’t work. Don’t even think that time spent in front of the computer watching the rates has any correlation to profitability – it doesn’t. Spend less time but when you’re trading, be 100% focused on trading.

26) Rationalizing Killer. Absolute Killer. Put your trade on and let it run. If it hits your reasonable pre-determined stop, you’re out. Think of yourself as a prizefighter. You just got knocked out. Moving your stop is like getting up after being crushed with a knockout blow. It’s pointless. Things will only get worse. Don’t ignore the obvious. You’re wrong get out. Come back the next day and try again. A small loss will not hurt you – a catastrophic loss will.

27) Mixing Apples and Oranges Have you ever done this? You see the EURUSD trading higher so you buy GBPUSD because it hasn’t moved yet. That’s a mistake. Most of the time the reason the GBPUSD hasn’t moved yet is because it’s already overbought or some 4:30 am UK news was bearish. Don’t mix apples and oranges. If EURUSD looks bid, buy EURUSD.

28) Avoiding the Hard Trades Bank FX traders have an axiom “the harder the trade is to do the better the trade”. This I learned from experience. When I needed to buy EURUSD and it was hard to get them, that‘s when it‘s necessary to pay up and get the business done. When it’s easy to get them, then sit back and wait for better levels. So if you are trying to get into a trade, or more importantly get out of a trade, don’t putz around for a few points – get your business done.

29) Too Much Detail If your trading more than 2 indicators then you need to clean house. Having many indicators stifles trading and finds reasons not to trade. A setup and a trigger is all you need.

30) Giving Up Too Easy Your first trade of the day may not be your best but certainly, it’s no reason to quit. I have a preset daily trading limit and I use it. You can’t make money by making excuses. Getting trades wrong is natural and should be expected.

31) Jumping the Gun Don’t be penny-wise and dollar foolish. Wait for your trade signal to be clear. Put on your trade and give it a decent size stop loss so that you don’t get knocked out by random noise.

32) Afraid to Take a Loss – trading is not personal, it’s business. Don’t think that a poor trade is a reflection on you. It could be you’re just ahead of your time or a commercial order hits the market and temporarily creates a small unexpected move. Again, place your stop beforehand and NEVER increase your pre-determined risk. If it’s going bad, it will probably get worse. I think that’s Newton’s body in motion tends to stay in motion

33) Over-Relying on Risk Reward There is zero advantage in risk-reward. If you put a 20 point stop and a 60 point profit your chances are probably 3-1 that you will lose. Actually with the spread its more like 4 to 1 (from entry point if it goes down 17 points you lose, or up 63 – you win; 17/63 is close to 4-1).

34) Trading for Wrong Reasons Because the EURUSD is going up is not in itself a reason to buy. Buying EURUSD because it’s not moving much is even worse. You’re paying the toll (spread) without even a hint that you will get a directional move. If you are bored, don’t trade; the reason you’re bored is there is no trade to do in the first place.

35) Rumors Rumors are rumors almost 100% of the time. Think about where in the motion you heard the rumor. If EURUSD is up 50 points in the last 15 minutes and the rumor is dollar negative, well – then you missed it. Whenever you in motion with the trade, determine where you are entering.

36) Trading Short-term Moving Average Crossovers This is the money sucker of the century. When the shorter-term moving average cross the longer-term moving average, it only means that the average price in the short run is equal to the average price in the longer run. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this is bullish or bearish. Easy to set up on software, complete with lights, bells, and whistles, and good for the seller getting thousands for the software but in terms of creating profit – it‘s a zero.

37) Stochastic Another money sucker. Personally I think this indicator is used backward. When it first signals an overdone condition, that’s when I think the big spike in the overdone currency pair occurs. To be overbought means strong and oversold means weak. Try buying on the first sign of overbought and selling on the first sign of oversold. You’ll be with the trend and likely have identified a move with plenty of juice left.

38) Wrong Broker A lot of FOREX brokers are horrible. Get a good one. Read forums and chats in several different places to get an unbiased opinion.

39) Simulated Results Watch out for black-box systems. These are trading systems that don’t divulge how the trade signals are generated. The great majority of them are absolute garbage. They show you a track record of extraordinary results but think about it. If you could build a trading system with half a dozen filters using the benefit of hindsight, couldn’t you too come up with a great system. Of course, going forward is an entirely different story. High-speed number crunching capabilities allow for building great hindsight trading systems, so BEWARE.

40) Inconsistency Every business (FOREX trading included) requires a business plan (trading plan). Unless you have taken the time to write down a set of rules that you can and will follow, it’s likely your trading will remain unfocused and directionless. Make a plan, have rules, follow them. Set goals that are realistic and you will achieve them.

41) Master of None Focuses on one currency for technical trading. Each currency has a unique way of trading and unless you get intimate with it, you will never truly understand its underlying idiosyncrasies. Don’t spread yourself too thin focus, master one currency at a time.

42) Thinking Long Term Don’t do it. Stay in the moment. Especially if you’re a day trader. It doesn’t matter what happens next week or next month. If you are trading with 30 to 50 point stops, restrict your thought process to what’s happening right now. That is not to stay the long-term trend is not important. It is to say the long-term trend will not always help you when your trading a significantly shorter time frame.

43) Overconfidence Trading is simple but not easy. Statistics show a 95% failure rate of those attempting to become traders. If you’re doing well, don’t take your success for granted. Always be on the lookout for ways to improve what you are already doing.

44) Getting Pumped Up The trick is to maintain an even keel. When you are in a trade, you want to think exactly as you would if you didn’t have a trade on. To do this requires a relaxed disposition. This is not a football game. Don’t get psyched up. Relax and try to enjoy it.

45) Staying in the Game– I don’t recommend demo trading because traders learn bad habits when trading with play money. I also don’t think “letting it all hang out” right away is wise either. Start off doing trades and taking the risk that is relatively small but still makes a difference to you if you win or lose. About a quarter to a third of what you expect to reach as your trading matures is reasonable.

Filed Under: blogs, Learn Trading Tagged With: FX, Trading Lessons

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