Some would read that last sentence and say, "Big deal, you mean you traded 4 Hour charts for 3 months and all you won was 62 pips... why bother???".
If you find yourself thinking this way then you have A LOT of work to do as a trader. The point isn't that I made 62 pips across 3 months, the point is I WAS PROFITABLE AT ALL. To be honest, at this stage of my trading I don't really even think about how much I win or lose anymore. I focus on my process (following my predetermined trading plan including my exit signal) and let the profits accumulate as they may. I know from testing my system (and also trading it live for several years now) what to expect over the long term and I don't let any minor setbacks derail my thinking or my actions.
As a trader this is the stage that you need to advance to if you want to become profitable for the long run. There are going to be losing periods and you can't let these periods shake you out of your process. Even if you're trading a system that will give you a "perfect" 45 degree equity curve, there are still going to be drawdowns. If you backtest a system and see a 45 degree equity curve over several hundred trades, that doesn't mean there aren't negative portions of that curve. If you look at the equity curve with the same inputs in a Monte Carlo simulator for a smaller number of trades (say 20 or 30 trades instead of several hundred) you could even see equity curves that look like mirror images of your "perfect" 45 degree curve that you would never want to trade because they look like they're making you go broke. When this is happening in real time "live" trading you have to remember that these times won't last and if your system is robust and you are seeing the same types of forward results you saw in your backtesting then you just have to keep focusing on your process until the losing period ends and you catch the wins that will pull you out of your drawdown. I believe I've shown this fact in "real time" over the past 5 years on this blog... and I've also seen the profit accumulation in my trading account... that's what keeps me going during losing times.
On to the details about September's results... let's start with the equity graph updated for the 3rd quarter:
As you can see, not much positive gain for the 3rd Quarter, but no drawdown either. Since I've started graphing the equity curve by quarter instead of by month there have been fewer drawdowns showing in the curve and I've recovered from them more quickly. That's another lesson to remember... the higher the time frame, the less volatility that will show in your trading. This is true in both the time frame you trade and the way you track your results... you need to ride out the small losing periods and stick to your game plan!
Here are the results for September on the 4 Hour chart across the 8 pairs I trade with Forex Profit Monster:
27 trades total
13 wins: 1,890 pips
14 losses: 787 pips
Total: + 1,103 pips
Win rate: 48%
Avg win: 145 pips
Avg loss: 56 pips
Avg risk/reward: 2.58 to 1
And the results by currency pair for September:
EUR/USD 2W, 0L +520
USD/CHF 3W, 0L +349
EUR/JPY 1W, 2L +160
GBP/JPY 1W, 1L +145
GBP/USD 1W, 2L +142
USD/CAD 2W, 2L (-70)
USD/JPY 1W, 3L (-70)
AUD/USD 2W, 4L (-73)
The results for 2012 so far:
January: +891
February: +206
March: +1,667
April: (-293)
May: +1,640
June: +2,209
July: (-343)
August: (-699)
September +1,103
That's a total of 6,381 pips, or an average of 709 pips per month.
For more information regarding purchasing Forex Profit Monster (or my day trading system Forex Day Monster), please visit the website at www.forexprofitmonster.com or my eBay page at http://myworld.ebay.com/jimsgr8stuff4less where I list one or two items per week at a discount.
Best of luck in your trading...
Jim
www.forexprofitmonster.com
