S.A.M week 5

1st week of June...

A shorter trading week because of the Bank Holiday & NFP, okay gains on the account.


Growth now just over 64%, ammount raised for Plan International now £2053.73. Achieved over 100% growth on the original £1k so quite pleased.

The next few weeks Im going to be v busy with stuff going on in my life, so likely will only have time to focus on my account and donate a % of the trades, next time I run the SAM strategy though stake size will be £1.30 per point.

In terms of the SAM strategy itself it involves trading with overall market sentiment/trend utilises no indicators, and has a rather unconventional signal criteria (not ma's or candlestick patterns or a HH HL sequence) Its based upon good old common sense more than anything.

All the best

Limey

S.A.M week 4

Final week of the month on the Charity account, been a solid week a few scratch trades and small losses but some decent winners.

Finish the month just short of 51% growth, and its given this SAM strategy a strong start. The ammount raised for Plan International is now £1927.26. June unit size will be £1.17 per point for the first week.

MyFXbook charts below and final balance on Oanda. Will post up some charts of trades soon.

All the best

Limey

S.A.M week 3

Another positive week utilising this SAM strategy for the charity account. Growth now just over 35%. £1783.00 now raised for Plan International.

I did this week on occasions utilise a slightly different timeframe chart for entries based around the same methodology, and also ran live some of the ideas for optimisation.

I did auto enter a GJ trade with a limit, but didnt change my default paramater for stop!! , anyway took quite a hit due to this error, ended losing 90 pips, should have been half that, was having a fight with Oil at the time on my own account so wasnt paying too much attention, would have probarbly finished the week higher without this and not adversely affected my drawdown stats so much.

Also ran more multiple positions on different pairs and transferred another £150 from the other £750 to allow this with the 1:50 leverage. Now taken the £150 back out as no real need from the conclusions Ive drawn. I'll put in the other £750 in full after a few more months of ironing out the creases.

Getting close to finality, probarbly will take less trades than this week and have no more than a couple of open trades at once.

In terms of compunding  week 4 unit size will be £1.03 per point. (I wont revert back if I have a losing week, it just wont go up, otherwise compounded accounts can often tread water)

Overall pleased with things so far (apart from my errors!) % gain is way too high, the most important thing and the killer with compounded accounts can be the consistency, but so far so good.

All the best

Limey

S.A.M week 2

Been a solid second week for the S.A.M strategy for the charity account, now achieved just over 22% growth on Cap, taking the ammount raised for Plan International to £1666.00.

22% in 2 weeks is over double the minimum I hope to achieve with this strategy in a month, and strangely its still to have a losing day.

The fundamentals and criteria for entries/set ups are set but trade management I do need to crunch the numbers more, so will hopefully spend some time on that next week with some data work.

MyFX book somehow splits scaled out solitary trades into 2 seperate trades so the stats below the graph are off somewhat, perhaps it doesnt take into account Oanda tran codes, not sure.


It lists largest winner as £20.85 - this is only half of one trade, the highest should be £38.61. Attached a grab of the Oanda statement to show what I mean.

All the best

Limey

S.A.M week 1

As promised though a little late (sorry)the beginnings of the mechanical strategy Im running on the charity account.

The first week of May was the first week of the forward test/live trading.


Monthly target is 10% to be compounded weekly and left. Its been backtested quite extensively.


Trade management optimization as ever is tricky/pain in th a**.

Ive used half the balance (£1500.00) of the account, so £750 initially. The RR on some of the trades is solid, small stops with this. The targets will be larger than at present.

It works across the more lively pairs (cable, EJ, EU etc) and Ive been running it prior to my full trading day really kicking off early am UK time.


Heres the 1st week of the forward test (myfxbook documented, click images to enlarge) of what Ive imaginatively named SAM, lol. (semi automated mechanical)

Risk is no more than 2%.

1/1000ths pip unit size to account size as trade ammount e.g £750.00 = 0.75 unit equivalent per pip.

Weekly compounding, so this week 0.81 per pip.

Its still early days but am hopeful this is the answer to giving the account regular attention. If it isnt satisfactory then obviously I can donate a % of my own trades and document around that.

All the best

Limey

Semi Automated

Taking a bit of a break at the moment for Easter but in the process of transferring the trading funds to Oanda to help with the compounding as they offer any unit trade size.

I have been working hard on finalising some semi automated/mechanical strategies to run on the account enabling me to trade the account on more of a set & forget basis more frequently, as opposed to looking for opportunities outside core hours when frankly I've had enough staring at charts.

The projected return wont nearly be as high as discretionary trading but the expected weekly returns should hopefully help the compounding cause. Hopefully this way the account can get some much needed action without interfering with my own.

It will be more of a steady drip than a torrent, and a case of patience over greed. The compounding doing more of the work - working a smaller edge harder.

It should mean more frequent posts on the blog along with (fingers crossed) the associated growing account statement. The Monday after Bank holiday Monday everything should be in place.

Cheers

Limey.

Cable (again sorry!) 9th March

Cable again. This is a trade I took on 9th March on my account, it was about 5 to 8 in the morning so I was focusing on numerous potential set ups and levels on numerous pairs. Anyway managed to press record for the entry, but in playing it back realised I hadnt switched on the microphone!

So basically theres two videos in one - the silent entry and the trade criteria.

The trade didnt run as far as I'd wished and ideally it was best to play shorts in the macro range still in place. But I was pretty certain of a bounce off this level for a long. It achieved the 1st scale out target and the other two thirds was a scratch. I supposed its a good example of achieving profit even if the trade doesnt play out as if you choose the right levels a bounce is often assured.

From the profit on this trade Ive donated a % of £47 straightaway to Plan & will match this again to keep the account at £1500 and the 50% growth. A bit of a mini celebration as it were.

I've had quite a few emails of support and encouragement so I'd like to say thanks its appreciated

All the best

Jon

Cable again! March 3rd

Another day another fade, this time at 1.5120 on cable, Mondays move creating a large range, price for now moving within..fireworks to come with NFP and the high & lows to be tested perhaps.

The live trade video is in two parts, the latter covers a lot of different factors and subtler nuances so is more informative, the first is pretty much the entry. The trade netted a another 50 pips for the charity account, and as a top pick went well and as planned. Again the twilight hours meant no trade management just a common sense target derived from the PA.

As an update the ammount raised so far for Plan is £453.00 discounting %'s from my own account trades. So almost 50% growth on Cap. I intend to try and run the account up to at least £2k before moving to Oanda, really in order to cover margin for having multiple positions open as leverage is 1:50 tops. So for now all profits held in.

Part 1



Part 2

Cable March 1st

Monday saw a large move on cable, here's a live trade video of fading the rally short as price reached 1.5000. The trade netted 50 pips, but if I had been up and not sleeping!.. with basic management would have produced greater.

Variety of factors I cover in the video hope some people find it useful/interesting. My voice level is quite low as didnt want to wake my other half! Converted to avi so should be okay quality, Feel free to ask any questions by comment or email if you want.

All the best

Cable March 1st from Jon C on Vimeo.

In case the above doesnt work same video, non avi.

EURUSD & GBPCHF

Been ultra busy in recent weeks mixing trading my account and organising events in my life (good ones!) so the charity account has been a bit neglected. Heres a live trade for the charity account on EURUSD back on the 11th feb nets just over 80 pips, also includes a review of a GBPCHF trade that I took on my own and donated a %. I'm still fitting in charity trades in the evenings mainly and then just donating a % of mine from the day.

Anyway hopefully the video is more concise with better voice clarity and less rambling!

Have videod some more live trades this week so will post those later with an update on the ammount raised so far.

Trading with Man Flu

Heres a couple of videos of a GJ trade, you will have to forgive the rather ropey production I never done videos before, I think I need to convert them to AVI to make them clearer but okay for a first attempt. Ive been a bit poorly so my head wasnt fully engaged in conveying everything as clearly as I'd like in the video..but they can only get better! Cable to follow.

All the best

GBPUSD

Taken 5 trades on the charity account the last week, 4 out of core hours and 1 in as I'd made target by then. 2 winning trades on Cable for 99 pips total , a loss on GBPJPY for 23 pips and 2 scratches on EUR/USD. Total raised so far now £284.00.

AU & GJ

Been some good opportunites inside core trading hours the past week despite presidential words! and the situation surrounding Greece, less so in the quieter hours, didnt see too much I liked had 3 trades on the charity account: a scratch, a small 10 point loss on cable and a sucessful trade on AU for 38 points. From the trades its another £26.00 in the pot taking the ammount raised to £208.00.

I got to target on my account Thursday and did my usual and scaled down size for Friday, which is never a particularly good day, anyway took a short trade on GJ off previous support , used a tick to confirm the entry. Probarbly left a little to much on the table but was good for 90 points, I will donate £24.00 a % of this trade as well.

Chart scans are from MT4 as my PRT wouldnt load up for some reason.

I've added an email to my profile if anyone has any questions etc, or you can leave a comment on the posts I believe.

Cheers

Trading the zone on Cable

Completed another trade, on Cable this time round, probarbly the greatest influence on my trading is good old fashioned support and resistance, arguably subjective but an essential factor which I base my trades around. 4 hr major sr zones in blue and red (the red level I was expecting to hold as support) orange on the 15 minute minor SR which I waited for price to clear and hold before entering long.

1.6300 has been a very much a used and abused whole number in recent weeks and days, fading whole numbers is viable but how often have they been hit and have they been respected..Other levels were far more likely to offer resistance. I exited on a quickly developing pin through another zone.

Slightly higher risk on this trade as was in at 2 pounds a point, 58 points profit. To keep things even Ive donated 34 straight away to take the ammount donated so far to a 100, and will keep the remainder in the account to help us on the way to BARX.

Speaking of brokers I've opened a seperate account with Oanda for the charity account, the dirt cheap spreads opens up more pairs for the scalp trades and the any unit lot size will aid in compounding quickly no end.

And we're off and running

Been busy trading my own account as always and been figuring out the best way to fit in the charity account alongside!, I hope to dedicate an entire week to just trading the charity account in the next 6 - 8 weeks, I've found some free video software so am hoping to document the week as well.

I expect in the long run I may just trade my own account and dontate a %, but I'm really up for a big cardboard cheque from a broker one day for a charity, so I'll see if I can do some simulataneous trades along with my own

As for the charity account starting capital is £1k, risk wise I'll probarbly push up to 5%, little bit aggressive but Im pretty certain I won't bust it.

The first trade was on EJ, an early evening opportunity after I was done for the day paying bills, tight range of around 40 points encompassing around 12 hours trading time, , , i'd been scalping the range quite a bit in the day and was pretty certain of a true break to the upside as imminent. Did okay in this one, long for 66 pips at a pound a point, caught the top in terms of profit taking okay as well.

I donated all the profit on this one, moving forward I hope to grow the Capital up to around 5k and transfer the trades to BARX so will probarbly just compound or take out a %.