for the record, i’m not a professional trader.  neither am i a successful trader by any count.

after publishing my LIVE statement on the blog, i’ve received a number of very encouraging emails (THANKS!! :O)… and also a few not so encouraging ones that insinuated that the statements were doctored or that i was hiding things by showing only snapshots of my account.

like i said in the comments in the last post, i am not trying to boast my performance, nor am i trying desperately to market PIPforia’s EAs and seminars.  i’m merely telling the world what has worked for me.  to be totally transparent, here’s the investor read-only password to my LIVE account at InterBankFX.  you can see every trade that i’ve made since June 2007.

** account info removed.  please refer to earlier post for trading history **

this small account was trading purely with the PIPforia HGM since Sept 2008.  have withdrawn a big chunk out to put into Alpari(UK) which seems to have better spreads than IBFX.  if you have been trading with IBFX, you’ll know how ugly the spreads get at times.

although i’ve been singing praises about HGM, i must also add that it’s not a strategy that would suite everybody’s trading psychology.  having a drawdown or floating loss is part and parcel of the hedging/gridding strategy.  the way i use it, i prefer to specify my own entry prices.  with a relatively good entry, the drawdown can be reduced significantly.  however, when an entry is bad or when the market is ranging and choppy without a good trend, the drawdown can sometimes grow to 5-20% if left unattended.

how much time do i spend trading the HGM?  well… i would say about 1 to 2 hours a day.  i sometimes watch more than i should, but frankly… watching it more did more harm than good :O)  anyway, i just specify the entry levels and the EA does most of the work.  however, i do watch it closely and do an assessment of the situation when the DD gets above 10%.  i’ve had to bail out of a trade cycle that brought the account down 15%. in Nov, but it was still a profitable month in the end.

personally, i like the fact that it’s not a 100% automated Expert Advisor.  trading it semi-automated has it’s benefits.  a friend once termed this “Cyborg Trading”.  he runs a blog too : http://optionstrader.joymastery.com

“Cyborg Trading“… half man half machine.  that’s trading with the human’s intuition and intelligence, and execution with the precision and speed of a robot.  and since the entry levels are decided by the trader, this, in essence, is “real-time” optimisation :O)

i’m happy enough getting  15% to 20% per month…. so “Cyborg Trading” it is.  having a 100% automated EA that is consistently profitable would be wonderful!…. but we all know how difficult it is to find one.  i believe they do exist… but not commercially :O)

good trading to all!!

ps : i like coffee  :O)