What I Had Hoped For Has Not Happened

I'm still struggling this week, now down a total of 131 pips in January.  It doesn't look as bad because I started out January with 247 straight winning pips.   Since January 8th, I'm down 378 pips. What I'm trying to get at is that things could be better.  Things could be a lot worse too though.  I haven't strayed from my trading strategy and have not impulsively took on trades.   One thing that I had hoped for though hasn't happened.  I was hoping that by using the Lien Schlossberg service, their trade signals may balance out my own personal losses.  What has happened mainly is that I've broken even for the month and their signals have been most of the share of losses.  It may sound like I'm placing blame but I'm really not.  Since I'm mixing their trades in with mine, I want to make sure I keep everything in perspective so that I can still accurately measure my own performance.  I'm sure there will be a time when I am contributing more to the losses and their signals will be helping to balance things out.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  

I'm not exactly sure how long I'm going to use their forex signal service.  I'm definitely going to give it until the end of February.  The more I listen to other people's signals though, the more I doubt them and the more faith I place in myself.  This may be ultimately where I stand at the end of February; using my own judgment only.  

Popularity: 2%

Enhancing Trader Performance Review

I mentioned Brett Steenbarger's book titled "Enhancing Trader Performance" back in November.  See http://www.forexproject.com/Blog/Investing_and_Trading/Enhancing_Trader_Performance/ to view that post.  "The Miseducated Daytrader" talks about the book on his blog.  He likens the book to Trading in the Zone but for less experienced traders.  You can check out the review here:

http://flatwallet.blogspot.com/2007/01/enhancing-trader-performance.html

Popularity: 1%

Soultrader Speaks

Soultrader has a new post addressing the pundits who say his experiment to get to 1 Million in 1000 days is over.  He always seems to get a rise out of other traders so it's interesting enough to continue following.  My take on it is that I'd never wish for anyone to fail as a trader and I certainly don't wish that of him.  If anything, I think that his one moneytec post that I've mentioned in the past on this site is enough for me to give him thanks.  This is a link to that beneficial post.

This is a link to his most current post titled, Stop Assuming.

Popularity: 1%

Getting Kicked Around

Trading Forex this month has proved difficult.  The last couple of months of 2006 was smooth sailing compared to the first 17 days of January.  Similar to yesterday, I've had a couple of losses that have dropped my monthly tally to -76.  http://www.forexproject.com/My_Forex_Goal/

I've lost a couple of trades on my own today and Lien Schlossberg had a losing call today also.  I've lost 110 pips using their service this month.  On a side note, I received an email from them yesterday asking me to confirm that I wasn't giving away their signals on this site while a trade was still open.  Supposedly, a visitor to this site sent them an email saying that I may have been.  I've never posted anything in real-time stating any of their trade specifics so I don't know what they're worried about.  

This is sort of unrelated (or is it) to the email I was talking about above but I'll continue voicing my opinions and critiques with integrity.  I'm sure I'll continue to get emails from people once in a while who aren't happy with them.  I don't usually mention these emails because it's better to just address it with them directly and then let it go.  There should be an understanding that this site expresses my opinions and my opinion only.  If someone isn't happy with my take, they are certainly welcome to comment.  I don't censor comments and never will.  

Popularity: 1%

The Oanda Spread Bites Me

I had a long position during the European session and was stopped out this morning.  My profit targets "would" have been hit if it were not for the 27 pip spread Oanda had due to the GBP Core CPI announcement.  I'm not complaining, just stating my frustration because in the months trading with Oanda, I've never had issues other than platform crawl.  This could just be a coincidence.  I'm also not making excuses for losing on this h-system trade this morning.  They increased the spread, I was aware that they increased spreads during economic releases, I took my chances, and I lost this time.  My perspective on Oanda spread increases has changed a bit due to an email that David sent me late last week.  He has a very pro-broker view of spread increases.  Though it is pro-broker, I find it hard to disagree with him.  Thanks for the email David.

Another thing I'd like to address is that when you talk about the
spread being poor during news releases I think it might be misleading. 
This is my take on it: because the FX market is opened 24/7 the majors
don't experience what is common in Futures and Stocks which is
gapping.  Say overnight Microsoft Vista was hit with a major virus or a
major coffee producing country had a major eatrhquake or hurricane or
other smilar event the price would probably open at a significantly
different price than when it closeed.  All limit and stop/loss orders
placed in that gap would automatically be filled at the open price when
the Stock Market and Futures market opened.  The poor spreads during
news releases isn't soley based on an an abitrary descision by Oanda to
increase their profits by raising the spread, its just a reflection of
the volitility that comes during 15 or so minutes following the
release.  Like gaps in Futures or Equities between market open and
close. Remember many other platforms will requote if you try to enter
at Market during a news release.

My losses today cut my profit/loss down to +3 pips halfway through January.  This was a lot of work for a lot of nothing monetarily but for experience, this was priceless.  I'll have to fight my way back.  This should be fun….

Popularity: 2%

Why Forex Trading Signals Haven’t Worked For Me

The Lien Schlossberg forex trading signal service hasn't worked out well so far.  It isn't so much the losses they have incurred as much as the inability to act in an expedient manner to execute a trade based on their signal.  Here are a couple of reasons why it hasn't worked out for me:

1. I lost a little bit of confidence in them last week.  They made a couple of trades last week that I felt were impulse based on previous losses.  This is strictly my opinion because there is no way I could actually prove this.  I could be totally off base.  They did state in a weekly recap email that they made "boneheaded" calls.
2. As I've stated before, their trade calls have to be followed very closely.  When I get a text message or email from them, I must execute the trade right then and there.  They have sent out trade calls during many different times so I've had to be on my toes.  I can't always be in front of a computer with my trade platform open though so this has not been easy.  For instance, yesterday I was in a USD/CAD trade that had a set profit target and stop loss.  They jumped in at 7:15 am to tell me to get out of the trade.  I couldn't because I was in transit.  Instead of making a tiny profit, I lost 4 pips.  This is totally acceptable to me considering the ever changing market conditions so this is not a knock on them.  This is more a question of whether these type of trade calls fit my schedule. 
3. I haven't received the trade calls via text message because they failed to be delivered.  I don't have real-time access to my email all of the time but I do to my phone.   They finally stated after I had asked them a couple of times that Verizon was failing to deliver some of their text messages due to overload.  It seems like they may have addressed this issue.  I'll have to wait and see.

I'm going to stick with this for now because I've never used a forex signal service and I want to experience it for myself.  There is no question that Lien Schlossberg have a lot of pressure on them this month.  At the end of this month if you are not happy with the service, you can get a full refund. So if they don't turn a profit, many people may exit in droves.  I know that a month doesn't tell the story so I'm not going to cancel.  I feel like they are realistic in their expectations of the market and that is what I do like about them.  From what I can tell, they are being honest and up front with me.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see if using a service to "diversify" my trades is viable…

Popularity: 1%

Forex Signal Services Are A lot Of Work

The Lien Schlossberg signal service I've been using in addition to my own trading signals kept me very busy last week.  As I've said before, they don't send out signals that allow you to place a limit order.  All of their signals require a market order and if you aren't sitting in front of your computer with your platform open, you may miss the entry.  I was still able to enter a trade for every one of their signals with minimal slippage.  They didn't have a great week though, losing 91 pips.  

I lost only 12 pips using my own signals.  I had a decent trade on Friday that captured 78 pips.  It was a good trade because I did not violate my rules like I had in the past.  After I entered into a 3 lot GBP/USD position, my positions fluctuated from profit to loss.  I was not once tempted to exit before my targets were hit.  I may be able to attribute this to the confidence I have in my system.  Over the past 5 months, my h-system has been profitable by 900 pips.  http://www.forexproject.com/H_Trading_System/

Halfway through the month of January, I'm up 127 pips.  I'm still shooting for 5 straight months of profitability.

Popularity: 1%

Forex Rookie Oanda Issues

Thanks to Forex Rookie for his comments.  I feel his pain.  I have had more than the usual disconnects from Oanda this week.  Their IT folks better find out the root cause this weekend.  I can't say whether Oanda would have refunded my money if it was more than 16 pips but they're probably not even aware I have this blog.  I wouldn't hesitate to throw the weight of this site around if any of you or I have issues that we feel are unfair.

I think oanda only refunded your money cuz you have this HUGE blog and
they don't want the bad publicity…lol:D…Anyways yesterday i think we
all experienced problems with oanda, i had a personal experience of my
own.

Yesterday
At BOE news release i was in a USD/JPY trade that was in profit of 130+
Pips. due to the unexpected resuts it fell 50 pips where i decided to
take profit before things got worse, So i pulled the trigger to close
the order for 84 pips, and in that split second i was disconnected from
the server, When i finally got back into my account i was in profit of
111 pips..LAMO….I exited the trade this morning for a lesser profit
of 90 pips….The moral of the story???? IDK..lol..I just wanted to
tell my story.

Popularity: 1%

Oanda Credited My Account

Oanda credited my account for the 16 pip loss that occurred with an h-system trade yesterday.  It occurred because my take profit order fell within the spread due to major slippage.  When my order executed, Oanda had raised the spread to 20 pips.  I don't like when Oanda raises spreads but if I don't like it, I should make sure that I don't have any open orders during economic releases.   Oanda credited my account but they didn't have to according to the following email:

Yesterday morning at about 07h00 EST the Bank of England announced that
it was hiking Interest Rates 25 basis points. This decision surprised
the market sending the Pound sharply higher against all major
currencies. As the market sought new equilibrium, global liquidity
essentially dried up, resulting in large price gaps as prices literally
jumped to new levels, in a matter of seconds. This action caused
considerable slippage to ensue on your GBP orders. While it is
unfortunate that such slippage occurred, these orders were executed in
accordance with our execution policy on the price available on our FXTrade servers when the order arrived for execution.

• Ticket 1 was filled by Ticket 2 and was closed by Ticket 3. When 2 was executed, your embedded Take Profit Order fell within the spread, resulting in a loss upon the execution of 3.
  Due to the unfortunate nature of this circumstance, we have credited
  your account in the amount of this loss.  This credit is reflected by Ticket 4.
• Ticket 5 was cancelled on a BV:TP (Bounds Violation of your embedded
  Take Profit Order). This means that the price had exceeded your Take
  Profit level when it arrived for execution. The server cancelled this
  order with no action taken, as you had indicated in your instructions
  that you no longer wished to be in that trade when the price rose
  beyond 1.9457.

Popularity: 2%

Oanda Issues and Comments

Thanks for the comments on Oanda everyone.

Terrence says:

I recently discovered your blog and think it's excellent. You have
inspired me to create my own blog that I will link to my website
www.forexnetworth.com. I use the OANDA trading platform to trade and
like you, I experienced serious problems with the trading platform this
morning. I emailed them about the problems and they replied stating
that the system did in fact experience some technical difficulties this
morning prior to the GBP rate meeting. I still managed to capture 68
pips, but really missed out. I am awaiting further updates from OANDA.
Apart from this morning, how have you found OANDA so far? All the best.

Terrence,
I have yet to hear from Oanda regarding this morning.  I just sent them
a follow up email to get some sort of explanation.  Oanda was also
having disconnects during the Japanese session yesterday and into the
European session.  I'm not one to complain much about brokers.  If you
want to trade Forex, you accept what you get right now with hopes of
future improvement for the retail trader.  Oanda has been O.K. but I
really do think that the slowdown of their platform during busy times
is totally unacceptable.  In addition, they really don't have features
with their platform that help you in succeeding.  You take the good
with the bad because no broker has had all the features I'm looking
for.  If you want all the features, you use the API and write your own
software.

Michael D. says:

That's troubling to hear. I use Oanda to trade GBPUSD as well. Oanda is supposed to be pretty reputable.

My
guess as to what happened is that Oanda probably widened spreads and
your order got filled above your take profit, making your take profit
below your entry. That's just my best guess though. Good luck dealing
with the issue and keep us updated on it. I'm very interested in
hearing how it turns out.

Michael,
I agree with you.  They probably widened the spread on the GBP/USD to
30 pips due to the BOE interest rate statement.  To be honest, I wasn't
following any fundamental news and wasn't even aware of the interest
rate statement coming out.  In addition, the interest rate hike was a
total surprise.  Thanks.

I'll let everyone know what happened this morning when Oanda responds. 

Popularity: 2%

« Previous Page — Next Page »