Steviet's Live Trades!

Quoting steviet

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Hey Iso!

I've spent the weekend reading 'Bird Watching in Lion Country' and it's spooky how closely the good doctor's view of the market and trading in general correlate with mine. A few obvious differences but you were right lol.

OK, onto your post....

This is how I came up with the 1000 stop loss figure - unless we have extreme moves over a short period of time, these 1000 or so ranges on the daily charts keep cropping up and generally stay within that range for long enough for a good profit to be made. It's never going to be perfect but nothing ever is.

Very quiet day today - so far banked 100 pips and have one position just in profit as I write this. One thing you will begin to see Iso is that virtually every day you'll have at least one position get into the +40's and then reverse. Don't get hung up about it - it's all part of the method and stuff happens.

Just closed my 100th trade today on the managed account and am now at a point where I have 5 stop losses 'in hand'. Of course I'll make more winning trades before one or more stop losses are hit so things are looking very good at the moment. You'll notice that preservation of capital is more important to me than the actual profits. Take care of the first part and the second follows automatically .

Like anything worthwhile it requires discpline & perseverance & if there's anyone on these boards that can do this it's you .

Keep me post & keep asking.

Kind Regards
Steve

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Quoting Isotonic

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congrats on your 100th trade stevie!

for the next 3 months i'm sticking to the rules you laid out as per this thread, so the 1000 stop loss stays! it is really tempting to tweak a stop here and a take profit there but i want to see if i could replicate some of your success, so i'll just wait and see!

i hope i can repay the confidence you have in me with some good results this week.

so far it's been pretty easy. i'm still waiting for things to get difficult.LOL

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Quoting Trumpcard

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curious about this whole grid trading thing. Stevie, understand that you don't want to give away your secrets, perhaps you or Iso could point me in the right direction.

Let's say I identify a range. Then do I place corresponding buy and sell orders 50 pips apart covering a good section of the range? For each trade, set a take profit of 50?

experimenting with this on demo and a grid of 30pips. Over the past 12 hours have had 6 profit target hit for 180 realized profit pips and 5 trades sitting at unrealized losses of 135 pips

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Quoting steviet

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Yes, it is very easy to be tempted which is why I had to put the few simple rules in place.

Take today for example - I'd wager a guess that you newbs () had a pretty good day today pip-wise as you're still building up those positions.

I however had a very quiet day. Currently I have the maximum 10 positions on with longs starting from mid 210's and shorts from mid 208's. This means I sit it out until one or more of my positions is 'freed' up. One of the temptations you speak of is to break the maximum position rule and just 'set one more trade'. This could quite easily lead to disaster long term so I will wait until the market tells me what to do.

This is one of the main differences to trading the 'conventional way'. In days gone by I'd be telling myself that I knew where the market was going next. Yes, we may have a good idea but that's not good enough. It's important to just wait and chill - it's going to clear out some positions at some point.

What you do need to get used to too is carrying some drawdown most of the time. It's all part of the method.

Kind Regards
Steve

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Quoting Isotonic

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it's been a good week so far but i would just put that down to beginner's luck for now. it's always nice to start with a bang, but the real test awaits like you said.

i'm actually quite comfortable carrying drawdowns as long as i've got the MM right, but i can see from when you gave some signals away in december inexperienced people were not following your rules and ended up losing with this system.

still while the going is good i will just collect the pips and bank them for the tougher times ahead.

thanks for keeping me in check, stevie!

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Quoting steviet

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Hey Iso

Great to hear you're off to a flying start! A couple of things to add if I haven't mentioned them before, just so you can understand my mindset.

As you know, on my own account I risk 2% per trade with a maximum of 5 long and 5 short. The maximum drawdown you should ever carry on this basis would be 10% or thereabouts. Over a few months of data the average is around 5% and has just sneaked over 10% once. On my managed account I'm risking more (4.5%), which obviously offers greater potential returns but the drawdown being carried could exceed 20% at times. I would certainly recommend starting at or around the 2% mark until you are comfortable with the whole system. Actually, I'm not even sure if you are live testing this or just demoing at this stage lol.

The other thing I'm always looking at is how my closed trades relate to covering future stop losses being hit. For example, after 20 successful trades or so you would have covered your first s/l being hit and so on. It helps keep your feet on the ground and it's just about doing the same thing over and over again.

As other things come to mind I'll post them here but any questions please feel free to ask.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I interviewed a guy yesterday at the building society who used to manage a team of traders in spot forex for a bank in New York for 5 years before he retired. We got talking like you do lol & he was asking about my method & basically he said what I'm doing will work as long as I stay disciplined and follow my rules

Kind Regards
Steve

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Quoting Isotonic

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Glad to hear your advice as always!

I share the same opinions as well. This approach is all about managing drawdowns - something that 99% of all traders can't handle too much of - whilst collecting pips to hopefullly cover them and eventually come out ahead.

When I first read of something like this in BWILC then I was still unconvinced of how this concept could work. There was a lot of talk here on FF but then it fizzled out. You seem to be the only person here (I know of) who has succeeded in this and given the nature of trading, few will copy and succeed.

I like the approach since it increases the frequency of my trading and my analysis remains the same. Whether I too can manage the drawdowns and perhaps eventual losses remains to be seen. (Currently have 2 stranded shorts but I'm use to drawdowns anyway).

I'll post a statement close of tomorrow...stay tuned!!

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Quoting smjones

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Steve, I have been following this journal since the beginning, as you know.
About a month ago I decided to try this with USDCAD and GBPJPY, because the two have little in common as far as currencies can have little in common. Also, USDCAD is relatively interest neutral.

I was wondering if you would mind if I posted my results here. I figured my SL and TP, by taking your figures 50 1000 and getting a ratio based on a 14 day ATR of the currency and then transposing it to other currencies. So, to make a short story long, I have been using 30 330 on USDCAD. I also have been using about 3% instead of 2%. So far no losses and have not come close to the SL

If it is alright with you, I could post the detailed report, of Usdcad. No need to post GBPJPY, because everyone arleady knows it's potential.
No problem if you would rather I do not.

You da man, Stevie.... Scott

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Quoting steviet

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Yup,

It's certainly something most will not be used to. I remember that when I started, the tightish stop loss was drummed into me on just about every thread.

If you think about it though, it's still conservative with only a small % risked per position. The thing you do need to get used to is the minus 600's, 700's, 800's etc. This can be quite scary at first until you realise the 600 would only be a 1.2% drawdown (using 2% risk).

I've had my maximum 5 shorts on for some time - all under 208 so I've just been making my pips on longs.

So far closed 3 longs on my own account and 2 on my managed today. Also have been out all day in London with the family visiting the dungeons and now it's retraced have added a new long at 210.45. Just shows that sometimes it's better I'm not around to cock it up

Look forward to seeing your progress so far. One more thing - I agree that few will attempt to trade this way but those that do and remain disciplined have a very good chance of succeeding long term in my humble opinion.

Kind Regards
Steve

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Quoting steviet

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Hi Scott,

Of course I don't mind lol. I tell you, if it wasn't for people like yourself & Iso, there's every chance I wouldn't have made it this far.

What your doing with USDCAD is along the lines of what I was thinking, by using the ATR on other currencies.

Oh I forgot to say, I'm due for my first payment on my managed account next Friday . This will be the very first cent/penny I've ever withdrawn in my 18 months trading so it's a pretty special moment for me

Look forward to seeing your results Scott.

Kind Regards
Steve

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Quoting smjones

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Well congrats Steve, i cannot think of anyone who has worked harder or deserved success more than you.

It look like this is from the first of February. That is when I started. If you take the total off of equity, and not balance, it is up about 6.5% for 3 weeks the balance is up about 7.5%.

I'll post this once a month for a few more months if that is ok. then I think if it is still doing it's thing, I will fund a small account for it. I like this trade, because among other things, it is somewhat intellectual and I enjoy the discretionary part of it.

So here is the statement

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Quoting pearsonfx

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Is anyone else having trouble opening the USDCAD.zip file....I downloaded it but when I try and open it, an error comes up saying that C:/...USDCAD.zip is invalid....never had this happen before...any ideas?

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Quoting smjones

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I just downloaded it and extracted it. no problem. don't know what to tell you!!

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Quoting smjones

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Well congrats Steve, i cannot think of anyone who has worked harder or deserved success more than you.

It look like this is from the first of February. That is when I started. If you take the total off of equity, and not balance, it is up about 6.5% for 3 weeks the balance is up about 7.5%.

I'll post this once a month for a few more months if that is ok. then I think if it is still doing it's thing, I will fund a small account for it. I like this trade, because among other things, it is somewhat intellectual and I enjoy the discretionary part of it.

So here is the statement

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