How do you organize your trading accounts?

Hi All! I currently have:

1. One Account in USD to trade Majors - in trend direction only (with FXCM)
2. One Account in USD to trade Everything - in both directions (with Duksacopy)
3. One Account in EUR to trade GOLD & SILVER only (with Dukascopy)
4. One Account in GBP to trade Commodities (with Plus500)

How do you split your account?

Thanks!
David

- one institutional managed account FX platform
- one Long allocation account (40%)
- one Short allocation account (40%)
- one reserve clean-up account (20%)
- only pairs that have a specific Volatility, Volume and Magnitude profile are used
- all accounts are rebalanced at the end of every week back to a 40/40/20 split
- currencies only

The "clean-up" account is another way of saying: "one I screwed this up really bad and need to correct things quickly account." It is like a housekeeper account. It just goes around cleaning up messes wherever it finds them.

That sounds like a valid idea! Are you maintaining all the accounts with the same broker (I guess this facilitate the money flow from the clean-up account)?
Also, can you tell me bit more about the institutionally managed account FX platform pls?

Thanks!
David

Same PB agreement. One platform. Multiple accounts. I don't know your level of trading experience, but I don't typically recommend and institutional platform for novice Traders. Not because it is an institutional platform, but because of the initial investment one has to make to get said platform and the temptation that novice Traders have for over-trading without really knowing what they are doing. So, I typically suggest that Traders first focus on learning how to grow capital and learning that on a "good" retail platform is one of the better ways to do it - not the only way, but a good way. Given the nature of bucket shop business models, the deck is entirely stacked against you for a number of reasons. So, by learning in that environment how to be consistently profitable, it makes trading on an institutional platform significantly easier.

If one has the personal self-discipline, they may launch their education on an institutional platform. However, that's a slippery slope and here's why. I was a well trained pilot, multiple college degrees and believed sincerely in my heart that I was truly self-disciplined enough to initially throw a few thousand dollars onto a platform while "getting up to speed," which I very naively thought would take no more than 3 months total time. Three years later, I had blown everything multiple times during that "getting up to speed" phase, which in reality took more than 5 years before I at least knew what was necessary to optimize. It took even more time to fully optimize my tools to work the way I needed them to.

The point here, is that until you get to a point where Trading pays all the bills, you won't really learn who you are as a Trader. That means you won't fully appreciate where you are in the spectrum of Trader's Psychology, which is THE biggest hindrance to most Traders, without them even realizing it. People destroy their own trading careers without even understanding WHY they did it. They walk away having convinced themselves that trading is gambling, the markets are completely unpredictable, no one can ever make a profit consistently and anyone who thinks they can is a damn fool. This "mindset" was established because that Trader never peeled back the onion on their own internal, psychological and emotional problems that causes them to consistently jeopardize their trading results.

There is no way to teach this. A Trader has to go through the process of Self Discovery through the physical act of researching their trading ideas and then attempting to implement them with real cash, until they have a portfolio of trading experiences that can help them find the keys their own limiting beliefs, self-doubt, insecurities and feelings of incompetence. Yes - this business will make EVERY Trader feel VERY incompetent at times and it is HOW one deals with that in their own mind that determines the outcome of their future career as a Trader.

Therefore, Trader Psychology is a huge less that needs to be learned and I do not typically recommend that one attempts to learn such lessons with $300k sitting directly under their index finger on a mouse with fancy charts flowing across a computer screen saying "come and get it!"

However, if you wish to learn more about such platforms, you can visit this site: http://www.lcgfx.com/platforms

I'm no telling you to open an account with LCGFx. I am posting the site because it contains some of the more common Institutional and Commercial Forex Trading Platforms all on one page. I trade on one of those platforms (which shall remain undisclosed) listed on that page and have at one time used at least two of them. You can click on the their respective links and then google the sites to read about how they work, what they offer, so that you can figure out how they stack up against each other. But, again, I would not toss $300k just so I could say I was on an institutional without first knowing who I am as a Trader in my own heart and mind. That includes emotional stability and psychological stability as a Professional Trader.

One can cut their teeth on a retail bucket shop platform with a lot less risk involved by not being forced to open an account with several hundred thousand dollars and non real clue about who they are as a Trader.

Hope that helps.