$50 challenge

maybe because of the spread. crypto pairs are high in spread.

I've decided to repeat my folly with a (possibly) honest broker this time.
I might know a few more things than I did a few years ago.
This time I'm starting with $20. It's now at $60 and change. No time limits, no bragging and no details. Purely for my own records and amusement.

I got to $100 today so that's 500% since 2022.11.17. Just under 60 trading days? If I could grow an account at this rate to any decent size I'd be fairly chuffed, but I suspect that's not going to be permitted. Also if I could get this sort of smooth curve in any of my EAs I'd be equally chuffed. At any rate, let's see when the pushback begins and how hard it is. Next goal is $500 I suppose.

I got up to $125 and then got clobbered - hard. This was a result of (at least) 3 amateur mistakes.


1. I was doing just fine trading forex majors, but for some reason decided I knew something about the direction of the Dow Jones. They saw me coming. This account is way too small to trade even a mini index.
2. I didn't pay attention to the news announcement. I knew it was today, and I knew when it was coming; I just wasn't watching the clock. I should not have had any trades in at all until after the announcement anyway.
3. I was overtrading even without taking into consideration the margin requirement of the mini index. A single 0.01 is all this account can afford and it can't even afford that. This is pure impatience. But worse than that when things started to go against me I didn't immediately exit and stop trading for the day or at least 'switch tables' and go back to the forex. The market seeks out 'wounded quails' and once you've become one the best thing you can do is stop for the day. I didn't want to because I wanted to keep the run going. Now I've set myself back days or weeks.

I feel foolish and it's confirmation that I should not be trading anything bigger than this without automated assistance.

It's interesting that you've repeated most of the first trial's mistakes

Painfully accurate, my friend.

This is why I came to the conclusion that I'm unsuited to trading manually, and yet as we've learned from our labours, it's nearly as difficult to create an EA that has the discretionary judgement of a human being. I make money faster by trading manually compared to using any EA, but the EA in the long run is much safer.

Maybe I have been arrogant to assume that my psychology is not the problem, and that's where I should be attempting to bolster my weaknesses?

The small capital might have influenced the mistakes in these trials.

The lack of discretionary judgement in EAs is both a disadvantage and an advantage depending on the situation

March was a fast-moving month and this time I stuck to my principles and made up some lost ground and then some. It became quite a bit easier once I held trades longer and passed the $500 threshold. Then I started to put in some serious hours near the end. I can't recommend trading this way with money you care about as the risk level required is reckless.

However, in case there was any doubt about what is more profitable, manual or algorithmic, I think this settles the debate (at least for me). I know some people will dismiss my change of heart as someone who is not serious, but I think good traders must be willing to abandon old beliefs and conceptions especially in light of new evidence.

I wonder how successful some old hands on this website might be if they were more willing to tinker with their habits. I understand the reason they don't - it's expensive and painful most of the time until you find something that can withstand the test of time.