April Trading Contest

I know we aren't competing for anything "material" but nevertheless, good luck to the other 22 participants.  A demo account is what it is and you can't turn it into what it isn't but hopefully the competition will bring more "realness" into the contest.  

Anyone can check up on the progress of all 23 traders involved at https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=contestDetails&contestId=150

You can view number of trades, volume of trades, maximum drawdown, sharpe ratio, and portfolio return.  

My 2 Live Trades Last Week Lost

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX_hgW76Obs]

Last Chance to Enter April Contest

I just wanted to throw it out there one last time that you have until 11:59 p.m. EST this evening to enter the 2 week April trading contest.   Since making a call out yesterday, we've added 6 more participants for a total of 20.  Very good turnout.  
Join now.  http://www.forexproject.com/Forex_Contests/

Forex Top 210+ Websites Updated

The first update of http://www.forexontop.com occurred this evening.   The forex website with the greatest positive ranking change was http://www.radaforex.com, an emerging market and exotic currency broker moved up 26 spots to #183.  Don't ask me why it had a gain in traffic, the site looks absolutely useless to me.

The forex website with the greatest negative ranking change was K.B. Advisory Ltd., a subscription based currency analysis and recommendation website.   The site lost 12 spots to #204.

Action Forex debuted at #90 probably because they were just approved by DMOZ.

Saxo Bank remains #1.  Forex Project remains at #22.

To see the top 210+ forex sites, go to http://www.forexontop. 

April 2 Week Trading Contest

There has been a good turnout for the April Trading Contest where currently there are 14 participants.  Anything traded in your Oanda FXGame account starting from this Sunday, April 15th until Monday, April 30th will be counted.   You still have until Saturday (1 day left) to join the April contest.  It's for fun but I'll be competing to win.  I hope you will too. 

Join now.  http://www.forexproject.com/Forex_Contests/ 

7 Reasons Why I Should Not Be Trading Forex

This seems like the same old drivel coming out of my mouth but I can't seem to get back on track with my forex "project."

These are reasons why you (or I) should not be trading forex right now:

1. You lack the motivation – Personally, I really need to get back to live trading because this alone is a motivator but it wouldn't be wise to do so if I have no plan.  It's sort of a catch-22, the need to trade live to continue my learning but the inevitable failure that will accompany this if I have no plan.  Is it as simple as developing a plan? Here lies the lack of motivation.
2. You lack the time – It's one thing if you lack motivation but if you lack time also, it's tough to get into sync to make real progress.  This is the same old story.  Don't we all need more hours in the day. 
3. You lack the money – After all, you can't just expect to do this full-time if you have $200 and a dream.  You need a nice comfortable base capital if you plan on doing this for a living.   With everything that has gone on with me in the past year, I need to build up my reserves, more than what they are now. 
4. You lack a strategy and plan - You can dive right in and start trading like a mad man but what hopes do you have for success.  I find myself sitting in front of charts forcing myself to find a strategy so that I can trade.  Putting this pressure on myself to find a strategy isn't working at this point.  I'm lost right now with no hopes of recovering.  I've been able to in the past but this time, it isn't happening so quickly.
5. You lack organization – Lacking organization could be the reason for #4.  I've been trying to organize my life so that I can better organize all aspects of my trading life.  Right now everything seems in disarray and this lack of organization makes it hard to develop a real plan. 
6. You lack the tools – The tools I'm talking about are charting platforms or books.  Books are important but there's enough free information out on the internet to make your brain spin so not having them shouldn't halt your progress.  I've found most of the information in books repetitive anyway.  A charting platform though is a necessity for trading.  If you're only interested in trading forex, you can use Metatrader for free.
7. You lack experience – Yet another catch-22, you need experience to trade successfully but you can't get experience to trade successfully if you don't trade.  My solution to you would be to trade in micro-lots or compete in some trading contests that add more meaning to your demo account.

Unfortunately most of these reasons apply to me at this point in my life but hopefully they won't always.  I think the #1 reason why personally I shouldn't trade is that I currently lack the motivation. Don't get me wrong, I think about forex everyday.  I think my lack of motivation is created from the lack of time, strategy, plan, and organization.  The harder I search for these, the less motivation I have.  This isn't a "poor me" post but it could be the last words from a failed trader.  There are so many failed traders out there that just decided to not fight through the difficulties and found it easier to give up either because they had to (they were dead broke) or because they no longer wanted it.  I still want it, which to me is financial freedom.  Is trading forex the way to get it? I don't know, that was the point of this whole website but I'm still trying to figure that out.  I've been here before, standing at the edge wondering if this is just destined to fail.  But as I've said before, I really need to give myself to this for 5 years and I'm only 2 years in.  

Most Visited Forex Websites

I spent the day extending the functionality of the Top 200 Forex
Sites.  Now included are changes in ranking from last week and also
forex trading websites that have fallen out of the rankings.  The
statistics will be updated weekly.  Here's a little picture snippet:

 

 

 

 

I have also created a new domain to host this at http://www.forexontop.com.

If your site isn't listed, it could be due to the following reasons:

1. Your site is not in the DMOZ. 
2. Your site isn't ranked high enough in Alexa traffic reports.

Forex Trading Contests

I've already received some interest in the two separate Forex Trading Contests; one for April and one for May.

I've created a link in the "Trader Rich" menu to the left titled, Forex Contests or you can browse to http://www.forexproject.com/Forex_Contests/ directly for all information on joining.  

I Haven’t Traded Read Money In April

I just wanted to give a quick update on the state of my forex trading.  I'm clearly in a transitional state personally and trying to find the time to trade not unlike a lot of you, I'm sure.  My full-time job has moved in line with forex trading as a priority as it probably should have all along.  After all, in order to make money trading or attempt to reach that ultimate goal, you need to have money to do it.  It's certainly a lot easier collecting that paycheck every other week opposed to making that same amount of money trading.  

I'm approaching my two year anniversary of forex trading and though sometimes it doesn't seem like I've made progress, I would find it hard to believe that I haven't.  I'm a bit confused these days about my trading and not sure what to do about it yet.  I'm definitely still on the "keeping it simple" side of things and I feel the need to concentrate more of my time on risk management.  Other than that, I can't say where I'm going to be with my trading next year or even next week.

Due to these times of confusion and limited time, I'm trading a lot less and haven't traded live this month.  I'm still trading my GBP reversal strategy but there was only one opportunity so far this month (on Thursday) and I missed it.  I'll make it through these hard times like I always have.  My expectations aren't what they once were and I'm willing to crawl towards my goal because I know it can take years (if ever) to be successful as a trader. 

I hope everyone else is progressing with their trading.

I Won The Forex Trading Contest

Yes, I won the Forex Project two week contest that ended today but I'm not bragging for a two reasons:

1. Only 1 other trader and myself participated.  Others did want to join but I messed up the setup and it locked them out from joining.
2. My portfolio return was only .05%

My trading statistics for the two weeks were as follows:

Total Trades: 20
Volume of Trades: 549,866
Maximum Drawdown: -1.36
Sharpe Ratio: -.01
NAV Change(%): .05 %

The only other trader that participated had these statistics:

Total Trades: 88
Volume of Trades: 33,888,434
Maximum Drawdown: -9.68
Sharpe Ratio: -0.41
NAV Change: -17.41 %

I obviously wish there was more competition but I have to honestly say that it did put more meaning into my demo account.  I actually used my demo account more than ever and for this reason, I think you should all try it.  

I'm starting two more contests, one for the last 2 weeks of April and one for the entire month of May.  The 2 week April contest will be my second attempt to see what type of participation it can garner.  I will be giving away a prize for the May contest which I don't have details for yet.   

If you want me to send you an invitation, send me an email at rich@forexproject.com.

If you want to join on your own, go to the following links:

April Contest (You can join up until April 14th.  Contest runs April 15th-April 30th) https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=contestDetails&contestId=150 

May Contest (You can join up until April 30th.  Contest run May 1st-May 31st)
https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=contestDetails&contestId=151

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