2013 Retrospective (and results)... Yes, I am still trading Forex Profit Monster :-)

As I sit behind my computer at 6 AM on Christmas morning having just put a turkey in the oven for Christmas dinner, the rest of my family is still sleeping and I actually have a few spare minutes to jot out a post on the FPM blog. My apologies to everyone who reads this blog for not updating it regularly during 2013... especially those who have contacted me personally through email over the past several months.

Although I think everyone who emailed me received a personal reply, I probably indicated that I would soon be posting results again... and since the first emails starting coming in back in April or May I obviously didn't begin posting again anytime soon. As I don't want this blog to become like so many other trading related blogs littering the internet where one day the posts just stop and everyone is left wondering why (my guess is usually because the person found out how tough trading really is and gives up), I'd like to explain exactly why I've been MIA for the past 11 months.

The reason for my inability to continue posting the results as I did in the past are two fold. First, if you read some of the posts immediately before this one you know that I began a mentorship with a very well known and respected commodities trader in 2012 (as mentioned before I don't use his identity here out of respect for him and his privacy). I have followed this trader for a long time and am a fan of not only his teachings but the philosophy of the person who mentored him (Ed Seykota). The year 2012 was a critical year for me; it was the first time I accepted guidance from anyone but myself regarding my trading education, and what I learned was invaluable! Mainly during the mentoring I've reaffirmed that I'm definitely on the right path and that the methods and systems that I've developed on my own (Forex Profit Monster in particular) are where my focus needs to be as far as my trading is concerned. I've also learned that the psychological/emotional work I've done on my own is "spot on" and that I just need to maintain that forward progress.  Not only did I "come to peace" with my own development over the past decade as a trader through this mentorship, the insights, feedback and knowledge gained during my mentoring afforded me more professional opportunities in regards to trading that were time consuming... and unfortunately this blog paid the price.

The second reason I've been unable to keep up with posting here was probably the most exciting event for me over the past year... I was able to start my own fund.

Starting in January 2013 I began managing a small fund that included mostly my personal money... but also some money from friends and family. This fund that I've begun is a mix of systems across different markets (not just Forex), but one of the backbones of the fund is basically Forex Profit Monster being traded across 8 currency pairs as it has been for the past 7 years with one slight change. To provide a better balance and correlation between currency pairs, I've replaced the GBP/JPY with the GBP/CHF. (While this change made sense from a portfolio standpoint, it probably cost me some money this year LOL).

Anyway, the reason I bring all of this up (besides explaining why I've been absent from posting) is that I plan to continue posting the results for FPM from the results of my fund. There will be some slight changes... instead of tracking pip by pip results for each currency pair which would require me to track my results differently than I do now (and would likely cause me to fall behind reporting results again), I will be posting the quarterly results BY PERCENTAGE OF EQUITY GAINED. This number will reflect ONLY the results of Forex Profit Monster as it was traded on the 8 currency pairs and NOT the results of the fund overall. I will wait until trading concludes for the year at the end of the week to post the 2013 results, but as it stands right now FPM has delivered a +33.43% return for 2013 with a maximal drawdown of 17.84%. (FPM was at an equity high for the year of 39.4% just a couple of weeks ago before the year end volatility caused by traders/hedge funds closing out for 2013 and repositioning for 2014 kicked in.)

Obviously I think that no matter what happens over the next few days I can be assured of another great year of performance from this system... and I will post final results with more details within the next week or two.

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.

Happy Holidays and all the best to you and your family for 2014 and beyond... and of course, best of luck to you in your trading!

Jim
www.forexprofitmonster.com