Chris wrote:I actually have some long and short setups on the JPY pairs, so hopefully whichever way it decides to go I will be in.

nanningbob wrote:

Pedigree wrote:

nanningbob wrote: MM is the key to surviving. A SYSTEM may help you win but learning to cover your butt when things go bad is the other. I jumped on those fake crosses of WP last week also but My lot size to account size prevented a wipe-out and i dropped enough losing trades to keep my DD under 20%. That is the other part of trading one has to learn also to be consistently profitable. You cant have one without the other.

I love your method of simply watching your % DD and keeping it below some very definite level. How do you do this at a glance? You previously quoted some account stats that included specific currency-pair percentage effect on your balance over some period. You were able to say something like "the Swiss pairs were responsible for xx% of my losses in March" Is there some processor that derives these stats or do you have to reach for a calculator each time?

If you have 2000 dollars in an account 10% is 200 dollars DD total all trades. 20% is 400 dollars DD total all trades. The only time I get to 20% DD now is if something really unexpected happens, like Dragon Mouth going Blah Blah Blah. Even though I knew JPY would come back I stuck to my rules took my losses and moved on. You do that no matter how confident you are because you never know if the big boys will take advantage of the situation and/or more unexpected news comes out. The whole key to Forex trading is keeping your money that you have and trying to add to it.

This helps me because I know I can earn more than 20% a month so if the whole set of trades sucks i will take the whole hit of 20% (done that twice in the last 3 years) but most of the time I will shave 3-7% because those are usually the trouble trades anyways. Now people who dont earn or cant earn better 20% in a month may want a lower threshhold like 10 or 15%.

The next thing you learn is home many lots or trades you are running. I get nervous if a certain amount of lots are being run. Since I enter a lot of trades, I will close trades to keep my number lots to account size within a range. So a big moves happens, trades are entering and I may have 2-4 trades going on 10-15 pairs. Well a sudden reversal would kill my account or cause damage anyways so I will constantly close profitable trades to keep the #of lots account size in a range also.

For example I hate 20% DD so I will close a bunch of trades for small losses to keep it from getting there and deal with the rest later. These things are all part of MM. If you trade lots of trades like I do this becomes very important. If you only trade a handful of lots then your MM plan will be different. Everything must be kept under control. Trade in a way that allows you to trade another day.

Pedigree wrote:

nanningbob wrote:

Pedigree wrote:

nanningbob wrote: MM is the key to surviving. A SYSTEM may help you win but learning to cover your butt when things go bad is the other. I jumped on those fake crosses of WP last week also but My lot size to account size prevented a wipe-out and i dropped enough losing trades to keep my DD under 20%. That is the other part of trading one has to learn also to be consistently profitable. You cant have one without the other.

I love your method of simply watching your % DD and keeping it below some very definite level. How do you do this at a glance? You previously quoted some account stats that included specific currency-pair percentage effect on your balance over some period. You were able to say something like "the Swiss pairs were responsible for xx% of my losses in March" Is there some processor that derives these stats or do you have to reach for a calculator each time?

If you have 2000 dollars in an account 10% is 200 dollars DD total all trades. 20% is 400 dollars DD total all trades. The only time I get to 20% DD now is if something really unexpected happens, like Dragon Mouth going Blah Blah Blah. Even though I knew JPY would come back I stuck to my rules took my losses and moved on. You do that no matter how confident you are because you never know if the big boys will take advantage of the situation and/or more unexpected news comes out. The whole key to Forex trading is keeping your money that you have and trying to add to it.

This helps me because I know I can earn more than 20% a month so if the whole set of trades sucks i will take the whole hit of 20% (done that twice in the last 3 years) but most of the time I will shave 3-7% because those are usually the trouble trades anyways. Now people who dont earn or cant earn better 20% in a month may want a lower threshhold like 10 or 15%.

The next thing you learn is home many lots or trades you are running. I get nervous if a certain amount of lots are being run. Since I enter a lot of trades, I will close trades to keep my number lots to account size within a range. So a big moves happens, trades are entering and I may have 2-4 trades going on 10-15 pairs. Well a sudden reversal would kill my account or cause damage anyways so I will constantly close profitable trades to keep the #of lots account size in a range also.

For example I hate 20% DD so I will close a bunch of trades for small losses to keep it from getting there and deal with the rest later. These things are all part of MM. If you trade lots of trades like I do this becomes very important. If you only trade a handful of lots then your MM plan will be different. Everything must be kept under control. Trade in a way that allows you to trade another day.

Thanks for the MM break-down again.

With a 2000 account, 200 is 10% - that's neat. But my account balance is always going to fluctuate up and down so that, after a while, and with several trades running, it's no longer so glaring what DD (tick to tick) constitutes 10%. I believe iProfitTracker's Current percent stat is the answer to this.