MANUAL TRADES (Fin Fx) (By SunnyDays)
The user has deleted this system.
MANUAL TRADES (Fin Fx) Discussion
Dec 17, 2010 at 18:56
I will be using this discussion to chronicle the progress of my managed account and comment on particular trades. I will never identify any of my investors (as investors) who might post here as this would be unprofessional. Whoever works with me is nobody's business buy mine and my investors.
Best Wishes everyone
Wayne
Best Wishes everyone
Wayne
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 17, 2010 at 19:05
Unfortunately we started off with a little bad luck. Administrative issues generating an error message saying 'common error' kept me from catching the move up in euro yen last night (my ATC account caught it) and a yet to be determined cancellation of my pending short order (right before the drop) kept us out of a second profitable trade. This short trade was taken for 50 pips profit on ATC account (as you can see). I am researching the cause of the cancellation. So what should have been a 2% account gain (75 pips profit as seen on the ATC account) instead resulted in a big 0 (even negative as i was testing manual trading ability because of the common error message). We'll be in the green soon though. No worries at all.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 18, 2010 at 08:38
Just a note about the cancellation of the sell order we missed out on Friday.
I have located the issue as a correctly operating feature of the EA that needs to be modified because its conditions are overly conservative. The point is that it was not any server or broker error on FinFx part. The reason the trade was taken on the ATC platform is likely because there is a slight variation in stochastic values with this brokers that did not trigger the cancellation function on my EA with them. Within the next week I expect to see a more dynamic and profitable EA as this stochastic issue will be resolved.
I have located the issue as a correctly operating feature of the EA that needs to be modified because its conditions are overly conservative. The point is that it was not any server or broker error on FinFx part. The reason the trade was taken on the ATC platform is likely because there is a slight variation in stochastic values with this brokers that did not trigger the cancellation function on my EA with them. Within the next week I expect to see a more dynamic and profitable EA as this stochastic issue will be resolved.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 18, 2010 at 12:17
Obviously, you understand your EA's logic better than anyone. However, I'd be cautious about changing a feature just because it kept you out of a couple of winning trades. Maybe it has kept you out of a lot more losing trades.... Just a thought.
Dec 19, 2010 at 08:01
Good advice Jprize. Whenever I make a modification to the EA though it is always in the form of a new t/f option-feature so the EA can behave as it did before if I want to go back to where I was at previously.
My normal routine is to come up with a feature or modification based on experience, chart studies of my trades, and the invaluable tool of visual backtesting, then have my programmer implement it and then see what backtesting says. If backtesting doesn’t like my new feature I usually will not even try it live. I believe something has to work on backtesting to even have a chance in live trading (but this is a complex issue).
The changes I’m making to my EA now are only minor now, fine tuning. Experience of seeing too many good trades fall by the wayside because of my current stochastic rules has led me to a hopeful solution I will be implementing soon.
I certainly will keep your advice as an important possibility to be aware of though.
Thanks for your interest
My normal routine is to come up with a feature or modification based on experience, chart studies of my trades, and the invaluable tool of visual backtesting, then have my programmer implement it and then see what backtesting says. If backtesting doesn’t like my new feature I usually will not even try it live. I believe something has to work on backtesting to even have a chance in live trading (but this is a complex issue).
The changes I’m making to my EA now are only minor now, fine tuning. Experience of seeing too many good trades fall by the wayside because of my current stochastic rules has led me to a hopeful solution I will be implementing soon.
I certainly will keep your advice as an important possibility to be aware of though.
Thanks for your interest
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 20, 2010 at 11:03
You will notice a discrepancy between the ATC trades tonight and the FINFX. Unfortunately in setting up on finfx my settings for one of the core features of my EA - my pullback feature - was turned off, so we missed the pullback and only got about a third of the profit as on ATC. I have checked all settings now and we are good to go. At least we got in the green today. Hope i doesn't sound like I'm making excuses, but i want to keep my investors up with any notable differences in the trades between accounts. (also for my own records)
Cheers
Cheers
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 21, 2010 at 03:50
When I woke up today the EA had put me in short on euroyen (the first order that would have been profitable was again canceled because of my stochastic feature I am trying to get changed). ATC did not put me short as the technicals were slightly different (it was a close call).
Anyway, I was not happy about another short as the pair has fallen so much already, but I held through consolidation. Asia then came in and seemed to send the message of time to go long (with what I consider a breakout candle on eurousd), and with a boj press conference on the docket I decided to manually intervene and cut losses and then take the long side. This is very rare for me to intervene this way but my belief is that it is the right thing to do to get back the losses incurred. If we can finish up breakeven today I’ll be happy. This has been a tough couple of weeks for my EA. Pips aren’t coming easy.
We will get through this soon and on to profit.
Anyway, I was not happy about another short as the pair has fallen so much already, but I held through consolidation. Asia then came in and seemed to send the message of time to go long (with what I consider a breakout candle on eurousd), and with a boj press conference on the docket I decided to manually intervene and cut losses and then take the long side. This is very rare for me to intervene this way but my belief is that it is the right thing to do to get back the losses incurred. If we can finish up breakeven today I’ll be happy. This has been a tough couple of weeks for my EA. Pips aren’t coming easy.
We will get through this soon and on to profit.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 21, 2010 at 09:50
What a day in forex. 3 changes in momentum. After abandoning the short trade the EA put us in, the long looked promising due to the obvious breakout, but when the move fizzled out I jumped out of most positions at breakeven. The long then looked promising again leading into London, until Moody’s made their announcement of a threat to downgrade Portugal and the EuroYen dropped like a rock. So much for the long trade.
My ATC EA happily stayed out of the whipsaw volatility today, but finfx got us in a short early that had me trying to play catch up with selective manual trades that wouldn’t pan out.
I don’t plan to involved manual trades much in this account - except when the signs seem obvious as the long was before Moody’s messed up the trade plan. Any manual trades I do will be at a small to moderate size with around 50 pip SL. (If a move seems promising i might take a couple shots at it but will get out in many cases at the first sign of danger, resulting in many 5 pip loses, or breakeven trades)
My ATC EA happily stayed out of the whipsaw volatility today, but finfx got us in a short early that had me trying to play catch up with selective manual trades that wouldn’t pan out.
I don’t plan to involved manual trades much in this account - except when the signs seem obvious as the long was before Moody’s messed up the trade plan. Any manual trades I do will be at a small to moderate size with around 50 pip SL. (If a move seems promising i might take a couple shots at it but will get out in many cases at the first sign of danger, resulting in many 5 pip loses, or breakeven trades)
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 21, 2010 at 14:41
I think you may have been a bit too anxious to make a good showing in the first few days in the managed account. The last two weeks of the year is a tough time for trading .... fake breakouts etc. I'm sure you will be in positive territory soon enough if you just wait for your EA do what you built it to do.
Dec 21, 2010 at 19:10
As of 2 PM December 21, 2010 I am cutting off the stochastic feature that has been causing me problems. I woke up today to see that my ATC EA had put me in a successful short while the FINFX EA had not. I then realized I cut off the stochastic feature on the ATC account a day ago to compare differences. So this was trade number 3 in only a few days that this stochastic feature (which backtesting has told me helps profit) that has made me miss out on profit for my investors.
Jprize gave me good advice to not be too reactive based on a small time window, but I have noticed a pattern over the long term regarding this feature. I need to do extensive backtesting with the most recent 6 months included (that I have not done recently). I think I will also think about more complex modifications based on currency in tight ranges that seems to be the problem for this feature.
The bottom line is my programmer is now working on this feature with me and it I will have a nicely modified new version by next week. Until then, I will cut the feature off as on both my accounts and watch the EA very closely. I have a variety of features that control the canceling of pending orders. Not just this one.
Thanks for your vote of confidence Jprize. I certainly have wanted to make a good showing, but you are right, this is a bad time to start charting an account. I think, however, that I have had an extra dose of bad luck at the start. Things will be looking good soon though.
Wayne
Jprize gave me good advice to not be too reactive based on a small time window, but I have noticed a pattern over the long term regarding this feature. I need to do extensive backtesting with the most recent 6 months included (that I have not done recently). I think I will also think about more complex modifications based on currency in tight ranges that seems to be the problem for this feature.
The bottom line is my programmer is now working on this feature with me and it I will have a nicely modified new version by next week. Until then, I will cut the feature off as on both my accounts and watch the EA very closely. I have a variety of features that control the canceling of pending orders. Not just this one.
Thanks for your vote of confidence Jprize. I certainly have wanted to make a good showing, but you are right, this is a bad time to start charting an account. I think, however, that I have had an extra dose of bad luck at the start. Things will be looking good soon though.
Wayne
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 21, 2010 at 19:34
Wayne, your EAs are working and they're making money on real accounts. The numbers are not bad. That is what matters.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If I was a prospective investor, I'd have the impression that you're not 100% sure of yourself and your system. But the EA works as we see!
You remind me John Romero, the famous computer game programmer. 😁
'In 2002, Romero put his heavily modified Ferrari up for auction on eBay. Some of the modifications included a parallel port from the engine compartment into the cockpit next to the passenger's seat which one could plug a laptop into, and tune the engine while the car was running.'
https://rome.ro/ferrari.htm
Have a good Christmas.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If I was a prospective investor, I'd have the impression that you're not 100% sure of yourself and your system. But the EA works as we see!
You remind me John Romero, the famous computer game programmer. 😁
'In 2002, Romero put his heavily modified Ferrari up for auction on eBay. Some of the modifications included a parallel port from the engine compartment into the cockpit next to the passenger's seat which one could plug a laptop into, and tune the engine while the car was running.'
https://rome.ro/ferrari.htm
Have a good Christmas.
Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you and who have no agenda for your reform.
Dec 22, 2010 at 11:31
1.3% loss tonight from my manual trades. No more manual trades on this account. I realize my investors did not join me because of my manual trades, but rather because of the performance of my EA. It has been very frustrating having bad luck and my stochastic feature making me miss 3 winning trades in the last 3 days (while my ATC account has had all the good luck) so I have tried to make up the slack with manual trades the last two days on this finfx account (and this market sucks). I will not continue this strategy on this account anymore. Zero manual trades.
To satisfy my desire to take selective manual trades for myself and my investors I will create a second managed account at finfx tomorrow that will explicitly be for my EA and my manual trades together. If, then based on my track record at this second account my investors so desire they can put some funds with this mixed account.
I am very organized and have good self-control so quitting the manual trades on this first account here will be no problem. This is the right and professional thing to do. I give you all my word on it.
Merry Christmas to all my friends
To satisfy my desire to take selective manual trades for myself and my investors I will create a second managed account at finfx tomorrow that will explicitly be for my EA and my manual trades together. If, then based on my track record at this second account my investors so desire they can put some funds with this mixed account.
I am very organized and have good self-control so quitting the manual trades on this first account here will be no problem. This is the right and professional thing to do. I give you all my word on it.
Merry Christmas to all my friends
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 23, 2010 at 02:45
The FINFX account was the winner today, generating a positive trade for 1.2 % account profit. My ATC account put me in late to the trade because ATC had a 5 hour period of chart gaps last night and this threw my emas off. Interesting how being put in 18 pips late made a difference between success or failure.
I also created my second managed account at FINFX today and will have it on fxbook next week. I will confine my manual trades to that mixed account and it will be fun to compete against my EA. I think i can add another 15% monthly profit to the account with manual trades, but time will tell.
Cheers
I also created my second managed account at FINFX today and will have it on fxbook next week. I will confine my manual trades to that mixed account and it will be fun to compete against my EA. I think i can add another 15% monthly profit to the account with manual trades, but time will tell.
Cheers
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 23, 2010 at 21:51
I finally have all issues and settings worked out and matched between FINFX and ATC accounts. Today's trade was exact between the platforms. This is what my investors want to see. I will likely keep the EAs off until after the weekend as the market is oversold, low in liquidity, and ripe for a potential reversal on the Yens. The conservative approach is the best way to go.
Seasons Greetings to All
Hope everyone enjoys some time with friends and family
Seasons Greetings to All
Hope everyone enjoys some time with friends and family
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 25, 2010 at 08:24
HOLDING OVER THE WEEKEND
I was planning on cutting off the EA, but I also noticed the Yens had found support in London, and,
after 5 days of throwing down the Yens we seemed ready for a rebound. Did you notice how hard and fast London threw down the Yens right at London open Thursday morning, and yet they would not fall much further (after 5 days)? This is support demonstrated IMO.
So I cut on my EA and it wasn’t long before we were in the long on Euro Yen on both fin and atc (exact entries).
I was aiming for a short term profit target at the 15 minute 200 ema -- about a 30 pip trade. We got up 15 pips at the high, but the market lacked momentum – going sideways for hours.
After about 4 hours of holding the long (around 11 pm EDT) I could see Euro/.Yen was going sideways and drifting down so I decided to close the trades.
At 11 pm my time I closed the trade on ATC platform, and then when I tried to close on FIN FX I received a notice that “trade was disabled”. I received no notice that this was going to happen. Great customer service FIN Fx. Way to go.
----
So we are long Euro Yen for Sunday open, holding 2 mini lots, and I actually expect a slight gap up. I will take profit at 20-30 pips. I wish I had not closed my ATC position.
If any investors have strong wishes about holding positions over the weekend let me know. In short, both backtesting and my own experience has told me that if my EA puts me into a position from price running up toward the end of market close on Friday, etc. that this will 4 out of 5 times result in a gap up/down in the direction of the trade on Sunday open. We should be fine.
(this reminds me of a program I used to reference in trading stocks that would look for any stocks rapidly increasing in price at the end of the trading day, and would automatically look to buy those stocks) Just thought this might be interesting to someone.
Merry Christmas, Quanza, or Hanukkah
Wayne
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 26, 2010 at 22:18
Well, thanks to FinFx’s failure to notify their clients that they would be shutting down trade at 11pm on Thursday, I was stuck in the long on Euro Yen (ATC allowed me to close the trade). My stop was at breakeven. And as the market has gaped down at the open the long was instantly closed out for a loss because when price gaps over the stop loss it is closed out at the first nearest print (I tried to move the stop but it happened too quick). So we get a 1.5% loss to start the week, but I truly believe we will be up 3-5% percent in the green before the end of the week. Amazing we can’t catch a break for the start of this account. No worries though.
Let’s have a great week!
Best
Let’s have a great week!
Best
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 26, 2010 at 23:48
Folks, i have to say, i was blaming finfx for not notifying me about the closing time on Thursday, but it was really my responsibility to find this information out. Most of my other brokers would send out emails, but I dropped the ball on this one.
Please note that the ATC account is again experiencing charting problems (missing a large block of time) so EA trades will not be synced between the accounts until who knows when. I will contact ATC about this issue.
Please note that the ATC account is again experiencing charting problems (missing a large block of time) so EA trades will not be synced between the accounts until who knows when. I will contact ATC about this issue.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 27, 2010 at 21:14
A difficult decision comes to me on Sunday afternoon in terms of deciding when to turn my EA on. I almost always wait for Asia to come in and liquidity to increase. This Sunday we suffered a gap down that jumped over my breakeven stop for the long and closed the position with an instant 75 dollar loss.
I said the ATC platform had charting issues but I found out the difference was because ATC did not cut off trading until 5 pm Friday, so charting was for an additional 17 hours past FinFx, resulting in a different chart configuration that tricked me (if I would have had my system on on Friday I would have likely been put in the short).
Because price had gapped down and was moving in the direction of the gap I decided to cut the EA on early. I was then put in the short on finfx but not atc because their chart was different as explained.
This morning I saw the EA was one small condition away from issuing the long (so hedging the euroyen position) and because I was aware of certain news from the BOJ and not confident with the short, I manually closed and took the long. I may hold the long for a couple of days as I like the long here. I assume ATC will go long this evening. (I will not allow a short at this point).
Please note I am using the same EA on both platforms but arbitrary circumstances are producing different results right now. Also note that my results on ATC are not from me simply turning my EA on and not touching it. While all entries are via the EA, about 30% of the time I manually cancel pending orders issued or take profit or loss early based on my decisions. That is what has got me this far.
This has been an extremely difficult time to begin this managed account and we have had no luck go our way. I expect a change soon. The results at finfx will match up with atc in the medium and long term.
I said the ATC platform had charting issues but I found out the difference was because ATC did not cut off trading until 5 pm Friday, so charting was for an additional 17 hours past FinFx, resulting in a different chart configuration that tricked me (if I would have had my system on on Friday I would have likely been put in the short).
Because price had gapped down and was moving in the direction of the gap I decided to cut the EA on early. I was then put in the short on finfx but not atc because their chart was different as explained.
This morning I saw the EA was one small condition away from issuing the long (so hedging the euroyen position) and because I was aware of certain news from the BOJ and not confident with the short, I manually closed and took the long. I may hold the long for a couple of days as I like the long here. I assume ATC will go long this evening. (I will not allow a short at this point).
Please note I am using the same EA on both platforms but arbitrary circumstances are producing different results right now. Also note that my results on ATC are not from me simply turning my EA on and not touching it. While all entries are via the EA, about 30% of the time I manually cancel pending orders issued or take profit or loss early based on my decisions. That is what has got me this far.
This has been an extremely difficult time to begin this managed account and we have had no luck go our way. I expect a change soon. The results at finfx will match up with atc in the medium and long term.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 28, 2010 at 06:55
We recovered all our losses today. I will see this as the first sign of good luck. Both accounts are in sync and we are long spread throughout this current pullback (more like a sell on rally). This market is bad right now. I'm changing pullback configuration. I'm still shooting for our profit target of 3-5% up by the end of the week. That would be a 10% gain though this week and that is tough in this market. Let's see.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
Dec 28, 2010 at 21:33
December 28TH – The Day of the DrawDown
I feel I must document this event for future reference.
I am quite depressed today and feel like a total idiot. About 30% of the time I manually cancel pending orders issued by my EA or take profit or losses early. This is not particularly bad in itself, though based on my experience so far doing so has actually decreased my profits as seen on this account.
Last night, however, I crossed the line, and took out manual positions against the signals of my EA. After Euro Yen ran up last night and then “pulled back” I was sure another run up was coming and I was mad my EA missed the run up (price moved too far too fast). Since I am moving my manual trading money to a second managed account at FinFx (where I planned to do manual and EA trades together only on that account) I had no funds to manual trade with except my EA accounts. But, hey, it was a sure thing, right?
Not long after entering my long positions my EA actually issued sell orders which I immediately canceled (since I knew better). I then turned off the EA and let my positions ride with TP and SL. I woke up to devastation of my profits and to a lesser extent loss of my investor profits (as I was not risking as much there). It was a big sell off.
I hope this lesson has hit home that (for me) manual trading that does not follow technical indicators is too risky and should only be done on a separate account and with very limited exposure. This one act has ruined my chart, made my EA look like a failure, and lost profit for me and my investors on my managed account.
When I get my funds in my new manual trading account I will only do manual trades there, but I had already promised no to do any manual trades on my managed account, so I don’t expect I can be believed. Maybe my honesty of admitting what I have done will pay off a few months from now when I will hopefully have an account to demonstrate where I am doing my manual trading and 2 EA accounts to demonstrate where the EA is trading.
The only solution I see is to get my manual trading account funded and never do another manual trade on any account other than that one. I have a strong urge to manual trade when I think I see opportunities, but I have not proven that I can be successful over the long term from this. My EA has a much better track record.
I feel I must document this event for future reference.
I am quite depressed today and feel like a total idiot. About 30% of the time I manually cancel pending orders issued by my EA or take profit or losses early. This is not particularly bad in itself, though based on my experience so far doing so has actually decreased my profits as seen on this account.
Last night, however, I crossed the line, and took out manual positions against the signals of my EA. After Euro Yen ran up last night and then “pulled back” I was sure another run up was coming and I was mad my EA missed the run up (price moved too far too fast). Since I am moving my manual trading money to a second managed account at FinFx (where I planned to do manual and EA trades together only on that account) I had no funds to manual trade with except my EA accounts. But, hey, it was a sure thing, right?
Not long after entering my long positions my EA actually issued sell orders which I immediately canceled (since I knew better). I then turned off the EA and let my positions ride with TP and SL. I woke up to devastation of my profits and to a lesser extent loss of my investor profits (as I was not risking as much there). It was a big sell off.
I hope this lesson has hit home that (for me) manual trading that does not follow technical indicators is too risky and should only be done on a separate account and with very limited exposure. This one act has ruined my chart, made my EA look like a failure, and lost profit for me and my investors on my managed account.
When I get my funds in my new manual trading account I will only do manual trades there, but I had already promised no to do any manual trades on my managed account, so I don’t expect I can be believed. Maybe my honesty of admitting what I have done will pay off a few months from now when I will hopefully have an account to demonstrate where I am doing my manual trading and 2 EA accounts to demonstrate where the EA is trading.
The only solution I see is to get my manual trading account funded and never do another manual trade on any account other than that one. I have a strong urge to manual trade when I think I see opportunities, but I have not proven that I can be successful over the long term from this. My EA has a much better track record.
A strategy must significantly profit in a 10 year backtest to have a chance in Live trading - Mine Does!
