November 2017 performance review

Here are my performances for November 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

+0.75% on Trend Following account

Towards the end of November the trend following system has closed out the winning trades that were opened in the last 2 months. It is doing exact what it's designed to do so there's no need for me to interfere.

Last month I wrote that I would be returning to my regular day trading. Unfortunately, one of my long term employees in my business had to stop working so I was occupied with posting job advert and doing interviews.

On the options trading side, I've had 2 wins out of 2 trades so that's encouraging. You can see the trading videos on my YouTube channel. End of year is only 3 weeks away and I will be doing my 1st year day trading review over the Christmas and New Year break.

October 2017 performance review

Here are my performances for October 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

-4.62% on Trend Following account

Market has been shy of strong down trend in the last few months and this is reflected in the trend following performance since August.

I did not get much trading done during October because of other family commitments. November should be much better in terms of getting back to my regular routine.

I am also currently doing a case study for members of a trading forum. This has higher priority than making my own live trading videos so I would need to balance it out. This project will finish by 31st January 2018 at the latest.

September 2017 performance review

Here are my performances for September 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

-3.40% on Trend Following account

The short-only trend following system has been active for 2 months and it is beginning to pick up trades on the short side. There are currently 5 open positions out of the 12 pairs that I trade.

For day trading, this quarter (July, August, September) have slightly less trades, with 12 trades compared to 22 for the 1st quarter and 23 for the 2nd quarter. I am on track to achieve the goals that I have set out for day trading this year (see below for a summary of my day trading statistics).

Last but not least, recently I have been studying options trading as a way to expand my trading knowledge. I have transferred out 5000 GBP from my day trading account into an options broker and I will be making small trades to apply what I have learnt.

August 2017 performance review

Here are my performances for August 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

-3.27% on Trend Following account

The short-only trend following system has started trading again this month. Currently many of the 12 pairs that it trade is either neutral or in uptrend mode so there are very few trades opened. I would expect the frequency of trades to reduced by half compared to the previous 2 years when it was trading both directions.

I've got 3 more months to go on the day trading side until my end of year review. As you may know, I am very active in the review and analysis side of trading because it's the only way I know to improve myself.

The goal of my 1st year of day trading is to build an efficient, repeatable process to allow me to find the setups that I know how to trade. Part of this process is to record 1 of my trading session per week and review it over the weekends, looking for weakness and find improvements.

Trend following 2 years review

Performance Review 2nd year prop trading

My performance review for 2nd year of prop trading:

July 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for July 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

+8.53% on Trend Following account

On 21st July the trend following system has completed its 2 years of forward testing. I closed out all positions and am in the process of analysing the statistics. I will also make a video to show what the new change will be. Then the system will resume trading on the same account but with more money in it.

The video for 2nd year audit has been delayed because I've had a cough for the last few weeks. I just began doing the audio and look to finish it in the next few days.

I have also done 7 months of live day trading since January. July was a quiet month for day trading with not many opportunities. Here's a snap shot of my performance so far in the last 7 months of day trading:

June 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for June 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

-2.59% on Trend Following account

I have completed my 2nd year of prop trading and just received my audited results. I have not accepted the terms and conditions of my new contract therefore I have stopped prop trading. I will make a video cover it more in depth.

The trend following system will reach 2 years on 21st July. I will then shut it down to make changes and will resume it in August with more trading capital.

I have also completed 6 months of live day trading. Results so far are positive. Another 6 months to go before I can go public with a new account to track my performance.

May 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for May 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

+6.55% on Trend Following account

0.00% on PAMM Growth account

Trend following enjoyed the largest monthly gain so far this year. The system closed out many profitable trades with some larger than +5R. No trade was taken on the growth account. With only 7 days to my 2nd second performance review, it looks like that account will finish as it is right now.

My performance review is due on the 15th and the audited result is planned to be completed by the 15th. I will be doing another view analysis on this so keep an eye out for it.

I moved into a new house just last week and will be setting up my home office for trading. I didn't have a chance to day trade in the last 2 weeks of May but I finished the month with a small overall gain. I will resume day trading as normal from next week.

April 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for April 2017. Performance summary and account statement pages have been updated. 

-3.1% on Trend Following account

-0.57% on PAMM Growth account

Trend following was hit hard with choppy market conditions in March and April. Market have since been trending and the account is holding onto a few very big winners at the moment. I have already started doing statistical analysis in preparation for the 2 years review coming up in July. I have already found 2 small adjustments which could make the system profitable long term.

My performance on higher time frames trading continues to go south. I had 2 losses this month. It certainly is painful but I will not give up. My annual performance review is coming up in 6 weeks.

Much of my time has been spent on discretionary day trading so far this year. I hope that the lessons learnt from day trading will allow me to progress further as a trader. It's a daily struggle to improve myself. If I stop then I will fall behind. So I must embrace the pain and continue moving forward.

Live trading videos

As part of my trading development plan, I record one live day trading session per week to review and evaluate myself. The goal is to be a better trader by fixing my mistakes. I want to be better than myself each week.

March 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for March 2017. Performance summary page have been updated. 

+1.02% on Trend Following account

-0.02% on PAMM Growth account

I'm waiting for Pepperstone to address a glitch on the account statements which is showing the date as 1/1/1970 for trades taken before 1st June 2016. I recently discovered this while looking at last month's statements.

I am going through a difficult last few months where my trades would get close to target and then turn around completely. It is happening a lot more this year. Market conditions change and perhaps I will also need to adjust my trading. Still, I continue to trade my plan and I look forward to the annual review in 2 months' time where I will be looking to find possible adjustments.

3 months performance summary for day trading

One of my goals for this year is to take up discretionary day trading as part of my personal trading development program. I am trading a strategy created by my trading group. It showed good potential during its development. Being a discretionary strategy, it cannot be back tested at all so trading it live is the only way to find out if it works long term or not. I don't do back testing by eyes because of hindsight. I'm trading with small position size for now, about £10 per trade. I started in January this year and now have 3 months of trading statistics.

February 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for February 2017. Account statements and performance summary pages have been updated.

-1.78% on Trend Following account

-0.01% on PAMM Growth account

This month gave me 2 trades on the growth account. In both cases, price was going nicely in my direction then it turned around very fast. It certainly is painful to see so much profits disappear off the table but that's the reality of trading. I don't take partial profits because I want to get the full reward for my risks. This pain is the price that I pay to get what I want.

Trend following has closed out some good trades which brought the monthly total to much smaller loss than it was at the beginning to the month. Just 4 months to go because I can do a full range of statistical analysis on the last 2 years of forward testing to find improvements. I know that trend following has positive expectancy in other markets. I am willing to take more pain to find the right trend following model for the forex market.

Why I stopped making the weekly outlook videos...

January 2017 performance summary

Here are my performances for January 2017. Account statements and performance summary pages have been updated.

-5.43% on Trend Following account

-0.17% on PAMM Growth account

Short and simple post for this month because I am preparing for the London Forex Show as well as a few other forex related projects for the year. I cannot say what it is until the official launch.

Wishing you a profitable month for February.

Live trading at London Forex Show February 24th

I will be trading live on stage from 1.20pm to 2.50pm on the day. You can find more information here.

December 2016 performance summary

Happy New Year for 2017!

I want to wish you great year in 2017 for your own personal trading. I was pleasantly surprised that many readers of my blog sent me Merry Christmas and Happy New year messages. Thank you for all of your kindness. I started this blog with the goal of sharing the reality of trading to others. Judging by the emails that I receive, it has been making a positive impact. Once again, thank you for sharing your stories and I hope my blog will continue to benefit you in some ways.

Here are my performances for December 2016. Account statements and performance summary pages have been updated.

-1.47% on Trend Following account

-0.06% on PAMM Growth account

The growth account registered a small loss from only 1 trade. I am now half way through my second year of proprietary trading. The first half of this 2nd year had 11 trades, 10 losses and only 1 winner. The account is down -1.59% compared to the beginning of the year. This is risk management in action. Considering that I risk on average 0.5% per trade, this is effectively showing that I have taken 3 losses instead of 10. I work hard to give back as little profits as possible during the more difficult periods of trading. The reality of trading is that every trader will go through periods of draw down and my number 1 priority in trading is to survive the down periods as best as possible.

This year will bring along new projects for my trading. February 24 is my live trading challenge with Charlie Burton at the London Forex Show. I am also doing day trading using multiple strategies, systematic and discretionary. One of my goals for 2017 is to take up more discretionary trading to gain more experience with different market conditions. You can see my progress on Twitter (check the photos).

Wishing you a profitable year for 2017.

Viet

PS: I accidentally deleted the post for November 2016 :(