Set and Forget

good shit.

lay it out all on there.

watch the open trade equity though..dont get caught believing in "balance" performance

Exactly - it is always about Equity. Balance means nothing if you still have trades open.

Getting a little behind with the updates....

Week ending 31Aug18

The last week of August meant the month closed out in negative figures. Only 3 orders placed for the week, 2 taken, although we opened another AUDCHF trade too. There were 4 TPs hit during the week. So not a great month all up, down 6.0% on the AUD account after another losing week of 0.4%

The AUDNZD also lost some ground, so on the overall account we are down 1.0% for the week, and 5.4% for the month.

Overall drawdown is still a fraction over 10%, and this is 7.6% down from our equity HWM. There will be very few trades opened again next week.

Still catching up....

Week ending 08Sep18

Not a great start to the month. with a drop in equity of 2.7% in the first week . Doubts over Brexit plans have hit the GBP quite hard, and I have a few trades open in this currency. The continued decline in Silver isn't helping either. 4 new orders placed, all taken, and I had 4 TPs hit.

So that takes the AUD account down to only a 2.0% equity gain YTD for 2018. Over the last 12 months, we are only up 10.9% (the first week of September last year saw an increase in equity of 4%+ so that has influenced this).

Overall drawdown from Balance is now 13.7%, and I think that is an all time high (although we have increased %target per trade). We are down 10.1% from our equity HWM in mid July this year.

Just riding out the storm at the moment, conscious that I will be closing all trades before Xmas to reset the account. I need a couple of good months to improve the ROE for the year - at least get into double figures!

I did not have a very lucrative month work-wise either, so no additional deposit to the NZD account this month. I will look at an increased deposit in Oct to offset that, as the goal is still to have 50% of all FX funds in a bank account here in NZ.

Week ending 15Sep18

I have been so busy at work lately that not only am I short of time to update the thread, but I also forgot to place any trades at the start of last week too! So no new trades taken this last week, and there were 3 TPs hit. A good week overall though, with CAD in particular gaining some ground back, and GBP also rising a little. Gain in equity for the week on the AUD account was 4.3%, leaving us up 1.4% MTD and 6.3% YTD 2018.

That leaves us with 17 trades open (2 on AUDCHF), the oldest being the Silver trade from the beginning of July.

Overall, in NZD terms, we are up 5.2% YTD, with total drawdown from Balance at 10.9% and drawdown from HWM at 6.3%.

Obviously, we are down on our profit targets, but still in the positive for the year. Let's see what the rest of September brings!

Week ending 22Sep18

A mixed week this week, with a gain in equity of 1.0%. We had been on track for the best week ever, until Friday, when the GBP took another dive....c'est la vie. With talk of a snap election and Brexit terms up in the air, I'm beginning to wonder if those GBP trades I have will be sitting there untill Xmas at which time I'll have to close all of them at a loss.

At any rate, up 2.5% in equity of the month to date, but still down for the quarter. YTD is 7.4%, and last 12 months is 14.1%, so quite a bit down on our 30% target, but still better than the bank

Currently 18 trades open, the oldest from early July. Most exposure is to AUD, GBP, and Silver.

Overall drawdown is 10.6%, and drawdown from the HWM on the AUD account is 5.3%, so still within acceptable levels.

Week Ending 29Sep18

A good week to round the month out, with 3.3% increase on equity in the AUD account. As we still have quite a few trades open, we only placed 3 orders last week, all taken, and we had 2 TPs hit, so below target. As we also close out the month, this means we are up 5.8% for the month, and 0.6% for the quarter. YTD we are up 10.9%, and up 17.8% over the last 12 months. As mentioned in earlier posts, this is still down on our 30% target, however I am fine with these returns.

With 17 trades left open, Margin Used is about 30% of NAV. The oldest open trade is still the Silver trade from the beginning of July.

Overall, with the AUDNZD hovering around the 1.09 mark and not doing much, the account was up 2.9% for the week, and 9.0% for 2018 so far. Overall drawdown (from Balance) is 8.3%, so back in the green zone, and the drawdown from the HWM on the AUD account is only 2.3%, so pleased with that.

If we get a bit more of a upwards move in the GBP and AUD, we could well see a new HWM hit this week.

Week ending 06Oct18

Quite a good week to start the month, with a 1.2% gain in equity in the AUD account, and 1.4% overall with a small rise in the AUDNZD. We had 9TPs hit during the week, so above our TP target of 5, and one of the better weeks for a while. The rise in the CAD has helped this week. That leaves us up almost 20% over the last 12 months.

There are still 15 trades open, the oldest still the Silver trade from the beginning of July. It is still the AUD, Silver, and GBP trades where we need to get some ground back.

Overall, the NZD account is about 10.5% up for the year in equity. We are still a little shy of our HWM on the AUD account, but only 1.1% down from there. Drawdown from Total Balance is 8.6%.

At least with the 9 TPs hit last week there will be a few more orders I can take this week, although I might not re-enter all the GBP trades (e.g. GBPSGD had a very good week and might see a pullback).

I haven’t been able to add more funds to the NZD account for a couple of months now, hopefully I can do so at the beginning of November – the aim is to have 50% of total funds in a NZD bank account. At the moment I have about 11.7% of total funds in NZD.

Week ending 13Oct18

Another positive week this week, with a 1.4% gain in Equity on the AUD account. I placed 5 orders this week, all taken, and 3 TPs hit. We have now hit an all-time Equity high, setting a new HWM. The increase in Balance leaves us in a Balance to Equity drawdown of 7.8%, but once more it is only the Equity line that matters in the end. In that regard, we are up 18% for the last 12 months, and 13.8% YTD for 2108.

On the Total account, with a small drop in the AUDNZD, we are showing a 2.5% increase for the month so far.

While there were some fluctuations in some currencies during the week, overall I’m still seeing many of the trades in a relatively sideways move and would like some more movement.

Here’s looking forward to a very positive 4th quarter!

Time for more catch up.......

Week ending 20Oct18

After setting a new Equity HWM last week, a slight dip this week down 2% for the week. 7 orders placed, 6 taken, 2 TPs hit. YTD we are up 11.5% on Equity in the AUD account.



Week ending 27Oct18.

After a good start for the month, we had a drop last week followed by another significant drop of 3.2% this week. Only 2 0rders placed, both taken, and again only 2 TPs hit. That takes our gain year to date down to 8%, and 15.8% for the last 12 months.



Week ending 03Nov18.

A week of recovery, with no orders placed this week but a 3.9% gain in Equity. We had 2 TPs hit, and also had the two AUDCHF trades close out just over BE. That leaves us with 17 trades open, the oldest still the Silver trade from July. A little boring these last couple of months, in that they are trades being placed, few TPs hit, and only relatively modest gains. However, I'm pleased in that this is very good from a self-regulating point of view, we are only down 1.4% from our highest ever equity level, and 12.2% for 2018 (so far) still isn't a bad return at all. Yes, well below our target, and with a 10% drawdown from Balance to Equity, it looks like many trades will close with losses before Xmas, which is only a few weeks away now.

Despite this, I'm still happy with the progress, and I have just made another deposit into the NZD account. That means I have about 13.5% of total funds in the NZD bank account.

You're still going strong Steve! Keep up the great work!

Cheers Dave,

Unfortunately everything has been put on the back burner at the moment, I was in hospital a couple a few weeks back for an op (nothing serious, but looking at a few months before being back 100% fit), and everything else has taken a back seat.

So no trading for me for about a month now, and not doing anymore until well into new year either. Other things to focus on.

I did have a few trades hit TP, but the GBP trades have taken a bit of a hit too. Equity was up over $21000 mid-November, but has dropped right back to about $19500 now. I may need to pull some funds out of my account (hopefully not the AUD account) due loss of earnings, but I'll worry about that when the time comes.

Have a great Xmas/ New Year, I'll be back on line in Feb or March.

Steve.

See you in the New Year Steve! Get healthy soon!

Dave

Same here, I hope you get back in good health soon, and we'll see you back at 100% in the new year.

Cheers,
J-F

Wish you a speedy recovery my friend. Take care!

Start of 2019!

On a personal note, op went well, shoulder came out of the sling this week, and started rehab yesterday. Back at work, and starting this weekend back into the trading too.

In regards to trading, as I do every Xmas period, all trades were closed and the AUD account "reset". Given the previous months activities, especially the drop in GBP, most of those trades were closed at a loss, and equity closed at around 5.5% lower than our HWM of approx $21000 (which we reached about mid-October from memory). That meant that in the end we had a gain in Equity for 2018 of 8.0%. This figure is well below our target of 25%-30% per annum, but still not a bad return looking at alternative investments in NZ. If 8% is a bad year, I will take that!

I'll will be making a few small changes for this year, which will lead to slightly riskier trades with greater chance of hitting, and fewer of them, which will also reduce holding costs (with over 20 trades open, it was costing me about $6.50 a day - that's over $2000 a year!) In fact, MyFxBook & Oanda are showing a realised profit of $6876 since the account opened, and while it started very small, I have made a total of A$15000 in deposits. As my Equity is $19880, net profit is $4880.....so that is over $2000 in swap costs over these last two years....and the account is only going to grow.....

I will keep adding to my NZD account, although given the time off work I have had funds are a little light, so that probably won't happen for a little while.

So here is the starting snapshot:

Week ending 26Jan19

Well that was an interesting start to the year, with some good volatility over many pairs.

I placed 21 orders last Sunday, with 10 TPs hit during the week. I woke up this Saturday morning with the AUD account up almost 2% for the week, so I proceeded to close all remaining trades (6 in profit, 5 in loss) and take what was on the table. So only 1 week's trading and already a "reset" done.

That is one of the changes I am planning to undertake this year:

i) More "resets" as this locks in those profits - especially if a week, month, or quarterly target gets hit. Yearly goal is 30% ROE.
ii) As the NZD account grows, I will be converting all funds back to NZD and using the % movement on the overall funds to calculate return.
iii) Not work out Drawdown from Balance. For me Balance is irrelevant unless all trades are closed, so Drawdown will be calculated as a % from the Equity HWM.

In summary, Overall account is up 1.5% this week, and therefore YTD too. All trades were closed, so 2019 HWM is NZ$24,793. No drawdown at present.

Week ending 02Feb, 09Feb, and 16Feb

A couple of weeks of busy work, and a week fishing on a lake down south means the updates did not happen. The fishing trip was some good time away after convalescing after the op, but we didn't catch a damn thing - so we renamed it a camping trip. And had a lot of fun.

So after a relatively good first month, continued falls in the AUD and GBP, and then the EUR, saw the account drop quite a bit. While the Equity in the AUD account was at $20,305 on 02 Feb, it had dropped to $19,300 by 09Feb, and $19,167 by 15Feb.

I placed 21 orders the first week, all taken, and had 14 TPs hit. 7 trades left open, Equity up 0.1% for the week

The second week, before going away, I place 13 orders, all taken, and had 6 TPs hit. However, overall Equity was down 4.6% for the week, a significant fall. I could not get a screenshot as we were camping, but the AUD account dropped back to $19300.

The third week, with no access to the account, no trades were placed, however we had 1 TP hit.

The AUDNZD is at the lowest it has been since June 2017, and while there does seem to be further downward pressure currently, we are in a zone that historically this currency spends little time in. Unless there is some major macroeconomic changes, it is only a matter of time before we see this back at the 1.06, 1.08, 1.10 levels. Currently our overall NZD equity account is down 4.0% YTD.

Week ending 23Feb19

A very good week this week, with a 5.4% increase in Equity on the AUD account. We placed 7 orders this week, all taken, and we also had 7 TPs hit.

The AUD did gain some ground during the week, just to lose it all by the close on Friday, so we are still down at 1.0414. As such, we are up 1.6% on the AUD account YTD, although up only 0.6% overall.

We currently have 14 trades open, with Margin Used at about 31% of Equity. Greatest exposure is on GBP and USD, with 5 trades and 17% each of total exposure. Current drawdown from HWM is 1.2%

If the account was to reach about A$20700 this week, we will do a full reset.

27Feb19

I woke up this morning to see the AUD account was up over $20850, which means we are above our target. Therefore, as I stated I would in the previous post, I have done another "reset".

That brings our gain on Equity YTD to 4.9% on the AUD account, and 3.4% overall (given the AUDNZD is still down somewhat).

Of the 12 trades I closed this morning - some in profit, some in loss - I have just reopened 9 of them. I will leave the GPB trades out for now.

So, this year tracking above target so far on the AUD account.