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  • BREASTSTROKE's Trading.

    LINKS:
    PERFORMANCE: MYFXBOOK



    ABOUT:

    I entered forex trading about 10 years ago. US brokers used to be a good bunch back then, FXCM used to offer MAM accounts run by their internal team (it lost money, was closed and all records were later removed from their site), MBTRADING use to offer forex trading and their platform used to be world-class, Alpari was a huge UK based giant, MIGBank was still a separate entity and was advertising in car races, MQL use to run EA based trading competitions and myfxbook didnt exist. I left it as I was not successful enough. Plus life happened moved from city to city and country to country. I even made an unsuccessful forex website (long defunct) which most of you would never had come across. Now that I have aged, travelled around, read and re-read tens of thousands of pages, spent what feels like an eternity on charts, and finally found my own personal holy grail, I am back.

    PURPOSE:

    Purpose of this thread is to show the world my trading results, and more importantly to find myself whether I can trade successfully with public eyes on. Signal or MAM is not available at the moment.

    TRADING STRATEGY:

    I call my method BREASTSTROKE. Just like the popular swimming technique. Breaststroke happens to be one of the oldest and arguably the most stable swimming technique. It is not the fastest but using it swimmers head remain above the water most of the time while he moves forward steadily. If market is like water, then trader is like a swimmer and the strategy I use to participate in the market is breaststroke.

    ENTRY:

    As far as entry is concerned, I am pure Chartist. Actually I just trade a single setup which I know very very well. Perhaps I understand that setup better than anyone in the world or at least I would like to think that thats the case. I purposefully neglect all risk events for entry except those I identify to be unprecedented events [1] for lack of better term. Most entries are done using pending orders. Pending orders if not triggered are cancelled after 8-12 hours unless original setup has not been invalidated as per my understanding. A single trade can have multiple positions, but that is done to utilize server-based TP as MT4 does not allow server-based partial closes.

    STOPLOSS:

    Stop losses are always static. They are not loosened once trade has been setup. Every trade risks less than or up to 1% [2]. I dont mind a single bit if a trade ends -1%. Thats ok in my books.
    In fact, contrary to popular trading methods, (ideally) I let the winner runs and hope that price never comes back to entry point, rather than letting the losers run and hoping for price to come back to entry point.
    This stacks odds in my favor in long run. When enough time has passed, I would have a single or a few trades which would have resulted in outsized, gigantic, huge, mind-boggling profit instead of a single or basket of trades which would wipe out months or potentially years of profits if I were to let them (losers) run.


    EXIT and TRADE MANAGEMENT:

    Trade management is done based on technical analysis, risk events calendar, news and fundamentals. Any idiot can enter the market, it takes a good trader to decide when to exit.

    BREAKEVEN:

    In practice, for many trades stop-loss is never moved to BE; so trade is either a win or loss. And for those trades where SL is moved to BE, it is moved once price has reached another price zone. This can differ slightly for different pairs. It can be roughly 40 pips away or at 1:1 risk reward point.
    Because of setting break even on some trades, myfxbook and the likes might show a lower average win but higher win %. Their math is not incorrect. It is just that BE is set at entry price + a few pips to cover for spread. If BE was set at entry price minus a few pips, average loss will decrease, average win will increase while %loss will be higher and %profit lower. So just be mindful of this once you look at stats.

    TARGET RETURNS AND BREAKEVEN:

    As much as everyone would like good and bad opportunities are not stacked uniformly. In all systems, except may be automated HFT systems, one can reasonably expect that there would be extended period of time where a system any system would experience consecutive winners or losers. I dont plan to keep a target for return, but personally I trade to keep drawdown in single digits or in teens. I do believe the longer you trade a system, higher the possibility is to experience higher drawdown [3]. Thats just how odds are stacked in trading. Doesnt mean that I wont do everything in my power to avoid drawdowns. In principle, all drawdowns must be avoided.

    INSTRUMENTS:

    I am trading all pairs of 8 major currencies (28 pairs; 8 C 2 for those who like maths).

    BROKERS:

    I personally prefer brokers which charge commissions instead of widening spread. I believe after hundreds of trades has been executed, there are bound to be handful of profitable trades which would have ended at SL just because spreads were artificially wide to cater for no commissions. Currently I am using Pepperstone, but really any regulated, trustable, commission based broker should work. I am going to create a brand new account with portion of my trading capital for purpose of public record and trade on that.

    I have said enough. Generally it is uncharacteristic for me to say so much. Now let the trading begun.

    Don't sweat if I am not super quick to reply on this thread. Participating is new to me. Otherwise I have always been a silent lurker. I'll do my best to come back to the thread once or twice a week.

    - BREASTSTROKE.


    [1] Biggest example of what I call unprecedented news in recent times is interest rate hike by Feds after 8 years in late 2015. Now many people would not remember it and that is because all went according to the plan. But that doesnt means that this was supercritical and the single most important risk event of last 1 year.
    [2] SL is something I am currently considering to increase. And I might be increasing it to 1.5 - 2% per trade in near future.
    [3] Reading Market Wizards, one realizes that even living legends and billionaire investors like Paul Tudor Jones once faced drawdowns that wiped out their capital. They learnt their lessons eventually, learned to size the positions accordingly and to get out of losing trades. But the point is that drawdowns are a reality in trading. An unfortunate, unwanted, disgusting, repulsive reality. All we can do is the plan accordingly and learn to survive today so that we can participate in market tomorrow.



    DISCLAIMER:

    Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a HIGH LEVEL OF RISK, and may not be suitable for all investors. Any opinions, news, analyses, or other information posted by me are provided as general market commentary, and does not constitute investment advice. I will not accept liability for any loss which may arise directly or indirectly from use of or reliance on such information. I am not licensed by any regulatory authority including NFA, CFTC, ASIC, FCA, FSA, FINMA, CySEC and FCSM.
    Last edited by breaststroke; 12-29-2017, 11:22 AM.

  • #2
    I like the idea of the name
    But do you mind sharing a myfxbook link?
    Also i can't find the signal on the SimpleTrader website!

    Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

    Comment


    • #3
      Okda, I am going to share the myfxbook soon. I am opening a new account and will be trading from that. Will connect it to all popular services like myfxbook, fxstat, forexfactory and will share the links.

      As there is no signal available yet, there is no simpletrader link.

      Let's first see how this public trading goes

      Comment


      • #4
        This all sounds interesting and I look forward to seeing more details.

        One question at this point - you say partial closing of positions is not possible with MT4, but I regularly open a single position and then make partial closures as the trade develops. Am I missing something?


        Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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        • #5
          Originally posted by withnail View Post
          This all sounds interesting and I look forward to seeing more details.

          One question at this point - you say partial closing of positions is not possible with MT4, but I regularly open a single position and then make partial closures as the trade develops. Am I missing something?


          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
          He said from server side
          Which means setting tp for a part of the lot opened

          Which is true, since you can only set tp and sl for the whole trade not part of it

          Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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          • #6
            I have made a new account at pepper stone.

            Funding it might take 2,3 days because of the Easter holidays and the delays it is causing.

            But I have connected this new account to myfxbook and fxstats. For some reason, Forexfactory's trade explorer is giving me error. I have submitted a support request, hopefully it should be sorted shortly.

            Links to myfxbook and fxstats have been added in the first post.


            I believe in spirit of transparency, I should mention that I have a similar thread at 2 others forex forums to interact with a wider audience.


            Originally posted by Okda View Post
            He said from server side
            Which means setting tp for a part of the lot opened

            Which is true, since you can only set tp and sl for the whole trade not part of it

            Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
            Thats completely right. Thanks Okda.

            Comment


            • #7
              change the myfxbook link to the below one , since the link you shared is your own private link

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              • #8
                wow alots facts and information i like that and i think alot others probobly do too.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I have touched on major points on how I trade in first post. Following is some more information which might interest readers.


                  --

                  Account has been funded. So I am looking for trades now. Fxstat and Myfxbook live links are given at top of the first post.
                  Last edited by breaststroke; 03-29-2016, 03:47 AM.

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                  • #10
                    All the best. Follow your PLAN.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      ARTICLE: How to avoid Armageddon events like SNB removing CHF ceiling in Jan 2015


                      You can't. You are most likely too small a fish. Events like this wash out large hedge funds. You are just a boat in an ocean, you can't fight with ocean waves. You can only adjust your sails and be prepared.

                      Events like this are only thing which personally scares me from trading. Not losing x% of my account on a single trade. That is cost of doing business. So I have given it a long hard thought on how to avoid complete capital wipe-out in such in instances. As I believe it is matter of time before a next one appears. May be next time it would be meteor or tsunami and not a central bank. But you can bet your ass it is going to come. Following is what I personally do to save my own trading capital:

                      HAVE PENDING STOP ORDERS. ALWAYS.
                      STOP TRADING PAIRS WHEN BROKERS ARE REDUCING LEVERAGE.
                      Brokers like dukascopy and many others are vigilant and they reduce the available leverage on selected pairs if they expect large sudden movement in them. They do it to save their client balances going in to negative. By the same logic, we should avoid those pairs as well. This simple trick would have made many stop trading CHF pairs early 2015.

                      DON'T FIGHT CENTRAL BANKS.
                      Sorossingle phone call from central bankers to interbank dealers will likely wipe out your capital if you over leveraged.

                      LET ONLY PROFITS RUN.
                      Seriously! What is worse? A position already in 400 pips in profit getting wiped out with sudden movement of -500 pips in pair or a position in 400 pips loss and getting hit with another -500 pips of sudden movement? SAVE YOUR CAPITAL, keep your head above water and survive for another day.

                      USER BROKERS WITH LARGE LIQUIDITY (and fast execution).
                      USE HIGHER LEVERAGE ACCOUNTS.
                      My broker allows me to choose leverage. In cases like this, always always choose the highest leverage account. Even if you are not going to use high leverage, this will give yourself some room to avoid unexpected margin call when you are in multiple positions and unexpected happens.

                      DON'T KEEP ALL OF YOUR TRADING CAPITAL IN TRADING ACCOUNT.
                      Not always, but brokers are less likely to chase negative balance even if you were to experience one despite following all the above tricks. So use leverage to trade. For example, you trading capital is $10000. Put $5000 in trading account and use same lot size as you were with $10000 in account. If $5000 gets wiped out. You still have half of your capital available to rebuild another innings.
                      Last edited by breaststroke; 03-30-2016, 12:18 AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I almost trade naked, other than a couple of moving averages which I use for basic filtering there is nothing else on the charts.

                        I especially did away with any thing which can not be overlayed and required a separate small window at the bottom of the main chart (oscillators etc) long time ago.

                        Use of ctrader is mainly for flexibility as its charting is many times better than MT4. Actual Order are executed on MT4 in reality. From time to time, I also use web based tradingview for the charts.

                        Favourite time period to look at is H8.

                        charts.jpg

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                        • #13
                          BREASTSTROKE's Trading.

                          How often do you trade on average?

                          Edit: and what are your average returns/dd etc.

                          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
                          Last edited by withnail; 03-29-2016, 10:28 PM.

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                          • #14
                            @withnail:

                            I expect somewhere around two dozen trades in a month. We will soon find out about average return however I won't set target for it and I prefer to go with the flow and try to take everything which market is giving me instead of closing whole trade once a set RR is achieved. An excellent return for a period of a month can be around 20% using 1% risk per position, however it is impossible to replicate this every month. In reality there can losing months followed by winners.


                            Stay tuned.

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                            • #15
                              Week 1:

                              I had 1 break even, 3 losing and 1 profitable open BE Trade:

                              Attached Files

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