Brilliant!

I Saw this on kittys forum and just had to share - never a better picture

Grail - Anniversary

Its anniversary time over at the Grail Blog - check it out click here

Predator gets eaten!!

Update then.

Been testing presdator now for four weeks.

the first week on demo took a 10k account to 16k by the end of the week ran at 10:1

the first three weeks on a real account took an 18k account to 16k ran at 5:1

so basically its pants and ive ditched it. I might re-investigate sometime in the future but for now nope.

Testing now moves to the next promising thing which is Mike Whispers promising 'Early Bird' system.

Take care y'all

Predator Update

Looking for an update on Predator? ok.

The two weeks after the first astonishing week did just about what i expected it to - buggar all :)

well, when i say buggar all in week 2 it lost 103 pips over the 6 pairs

in week 3 it won 132 pips

anyway, still thinking that there is something in this - even if it can do a few hundred pips a month on average then it's worth doing.

Well, i don't know about you but i'm about knackered with testing - sick to death of it so I needed an incentive.

What better incentive than to put some money into it?

Myself and Mike Keres have both put five grand each into a metatrader 4 account with Mig investments of Switzerland. The account is denominated in US dollars so we actually got $18,769 ish to play with. (which i thought was an excellent rate by the way)

so, while we got this up and running Trevor and me got to work on the trading robot that would drive this thing.

Trevor is a lot like me. People told him similar things like 'you'll never be anything whilst you've got a hole in your arse pal'.

Well, if they ever read this guess what, both Trevor and me still have holes in our arses and we both make more money than you ever dreamt of so shove that up your ring and suck on it. :)

anyway, i digress.

So, weve funded the account, perfected the robot to trade it and yesterday (Sunday) afternoon it was switched on ready for the new week to start.

It took it's first trade a little after 1am this morning and by the time i had got up it was 70 pips for the better.

so far so good, but one swallow doesnt make a summer.

This robot takes literally lots and lots of trades - around 50 - 100 a day across the six pairs we have tested so far. The settings for each pair are different and rely on two indicators specifically written for the job. No, they arent available in a moneytec lucky bag:)

So, the reason I and Mike have put money into this is that we just cannot be bothered anymore testing without something at risk.

Intially we are risking just 0.1 lot per pair per trade - one pairs where the usd is the second pair, such as EURUSD or AUDUSD then 0.1 lot = 1 dollar per pip - on the others such as usdjpy it's less like 0.78 per pip.

Ok, so we have many things to test.

For example does it make money? is it best to switch off during european trading? what are the real drawdowns like? what kind of staking plan can we use?

All of these i may or may not discuss on here in the next few weeks so if you are interested in seeing how a method of entry and exit changes into a proper system then check back now and again. Finding a method that makes money is only a fraction of the story in systems development, it's what you do with it after that which will make or break you.

It's important to say at this point that this might just turn to shit - the 10k we have put in there is fun money - i cant see this strategy losing the lot but then you never know - instead of seeing a trading system born you might see yet another one turn to complete shite :)

Ill publish the statement at the end of the month - maybe week

Predator is born!

Hi all, thought i'd just make some comments - been a week or so since ive posted so i thought i'd let you know what i've been up to.

Over the past three months ive been refining and testing a new trading system. - it's purely mechanical which is suprising because it does use indicators and i always had the belief that it was virtually impossible to build a mechanical system which used indicators. even more so I didnt believe in automatic trading.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I fell onto this system by accident. Ive slowly been testing an indicator for a while now based on a single setting - it was looking good to produce prob 80-100 pips a week which is good in my eyes.

Just on a side note to tell you that with mechanical systems my nirvana is around 100 pips a week with a low drawdown. I thought if i could make that then it would be a great system to sit aside Grail.

Well, that nirvana i think was a limiting belief - i didnt think it was possible to build a mechanical system that did much more than that and i guess that may have held me back in the past.

That belief has now been not only broken, but smashed into pieces.

During my testing i thought it would be much easier in the interim to have an mt4 expert to backtest the system so i could do many calculations before hand testing. so, thanks to Fluty, Trevor and Myself the 'Predator 'expert was born.

After a few tests which looked ok i wondered just how many different parameters i could get the backtester to test - so into the code i went and placed code so that i could do just that.

when i ran this test the number of combinations was around 117,000. I have a fast pc but even then it was to take over 7 days to do the test.

Well, when the test completed i couldnt believe the results, they were amazing.

Now i know what you are thinking, ive seen many backtests which look great and turn to crap when you run them - ive seen them too.

I can remember an expert called AIP (alwaysinplay) that did millions in the backtest but when you ran it live crashed your account quicker than an israeli retalliation.

So, when i'd optimised this and put it on seven pairs on a demo account i believed it would crash and burn.

It didnt,

well, not yet anyway.

Ive only ran it for a week so this isnt a good enough sample size but get these results

account started at $10,000

186 trades taken

155 wins

31 losses

win percentage 81.87%

Overall Pips Gained 534

Cash gained $6133.41

Gain on account 61.3%


Now ths looks pretty damn good i'm sure you will agree but i guess time will tell. Nevertheless I am swiftly opening an MT4 account to trade this with some real money and i'll keep you updated with the results from the test until the live account is open.

ps, before anyone thinks this is some slick marketing - it's not for sale nor will it ever be.

keep tuned in :)

Do you want to learn to trade?

Hi, long time no write :)

Just thought i would let you know about a great service that's aimed at helping you to learn to trade.

It's basically a chatroom, but much more than that.

During the day several forex traders from around the globe are in this room showing examples of trades they take and making calls live as it happens.

It is not just a signals service - these guys actually train you how to trade.

It's ran by a friend of mine in New York and occasionally I plan to do some training sessions myself in there also in which i will focus on systems development and psychology issues in your path to being a trader. At the moment i myself am not in there much but the guys who are training are good.

The great thing about the room is that it uses real time voice and also features constant screenshots that the traders use to show exactly what they are looking at.

They dont just say - ok, im going long cable here - they actually explain as the trade is setting up what they are looking at and why they are considering a trade.

I dont get paid for this before you think - 'oh, this is a scam' but you should know that after 10 day trial period there is a charge OR you use one of their brokers to trade so they get the kickback which then means you get the fees back as a refund from the brokers.

Im plugging this on here for two reasons. 1. cos my mate is running it and i think this is a great thing he's doing and 2. the trading and information that goes on in there is in my opinion priceless.

I think that you will think the same. You can sign up for a 10 day trial anyway with no cost at all and see what you think, so there's nothing to lose.

check out the website at www.radiantforex.com and tell em soul sent you :)

the Grailtrading Blog has been updated

Day Trading ends!!

Hi all,

Wanted to take some time out this morning and have a chat with you all, this might be a long post and it might be the last one ever.

As of this week I have ceased to be an active day trader.

Yes, you read right - I'm giving up 'active' day trading.

I now run three separate accounts using the grail system developed by myself and Mike, my partner.

One account (the main one) is the million pound experiment account which you have been reading about in the grailtrading blog. This will continue to its target which should mature at the end of 2007 or thereabouts. What a nice Christmas present that will be.

The second account is what I call my income grail account. This account does not compound but plays the grail system in exactly the same way as the main account with the difference that money is taken out of the account on a regular basis. Basically every £4000 invested into the account returns around £1000 per month in income and this will be my 'wage packet' for the foreseeable future.

So, why after all this time am I giving up day trading and what advice can I offer for aspiring traders?

When I say I'm giving up 'active' day trading that does not mean I'm giving up day trading altogether. Grail in itself is a day trading system. By 'active' day trading this is what I mean.

For the past 5 years I've been an active day trader. Using indicators, multiple timeframes and multiple currencies etc. I sat there all day long waiting for the right setup and I placed my trades and took my profits or losses as we all do. Day in day out sat in front of 5 monitors getting a tan from the radiation given out :)

Five years is a long time in this game, most don't make longer than six months and disappear without trace. After five years I'm tired of the constant up and downs of the job. When you are hot you take four steps forward and one step back soon to be propelled forward again. When you're cold you step four steps forward and five steps back getting nowhere. Day trading using an indicator lead system is like this all the time as all indicators can ever tell you is what has already happened. That's not to say I think indicators are useless, far from it, used properly they give you an increased probability that your chosen direction will be the right one.

The problem with this style of day trading is that its so bloody frustrating and this takes it's toll on you, I'm not prepared to go through that anymore.

The grail system that we use is easy, no indicators apart from price, no discretion and no real heartache. it either wins or it loses and the wins are more than the losers, simple as that. My edge with this system is only around 5% so I have around 55% winners - it only actually equates to around 8-12 pips per day on average and you may think to yourself ';whoopee doo' 8-12 pips is chicken feed. but let me ask you this, do you have a system that takes 8-12 pips a day on average EVERY DAY - by taking EVERY TRADE that your system shows? - chances are that it does not and if it does then ill join you in Monte Carlo for a beer one day soon.

The city of Las Vegas has been built on a 1% edge. That's right - there is on average only a 1% edge in a casino and of course that is in the house's favour. so please don't scoff at grail's constant 5% :)

So that's that, as of now I'm no longer a day trader, swing trader or position trader as defined by most traders definition.

So why bother reading this anymore?

Every now and again I come up with some pearls of wisdom that I like to give, so the blog will continue albeit on a very sporadic schedule.

I'm going to start by giving my opinion about how you can get yourself to the stage where you give up day trading too. Now you think that I'm going to sell you something, and nothing could be father from the truth. Ive stopped selling systems totally and I'm not about to start again, the hassle from assholes like baruch and others who couldn't trade for toffee just isn't worth it. These guys won't be able to make money whilst ever they have a hole in their arse.

I'm going to give you the secret to making it in this game of Forex. In my opinion anyway.

First of all you need to dedicate at least 10 hours a day to the market. What's more you need to do this for two years at least using indicator led systems. You need to lose money, win money and lose it again. You need to go on this never ending cycle until you give up Forex.

The reason for this is that I have to tell you the only way to keep your sanity and make it in Forex is to have a completely mechanical system that wins more money than it loses.

That's simple to say you may think but you really need to read that again. The only way to make it in Forex is with a completely mechanical system that wins more money than it loses.

Here's your problem though. You are human, you have thoughts and processes going on in your head that completely stop you from following a completely mechanical system until you are really really pissed off with trading.

Up until that point you think that the superior intellect of the human race (debatable) can make decisions based on factors of news, char patterns, indicators, gut feeling etc etc. You get excited by trading, your pupils dilate when you have a winning trade the same way they do when you see an attractive member of the opposite sex. You enjoy taking the risk and see it as a 'sexy' way to earn a living. even if you don't think you have discretion you do - your mind automatically want to play and have some fun.

You are drawn to the market and you don't see that you're losing money, you see that if you get this right you can make more money than you ever thought possible - no-one to stop you in this free universe apart from your own creativity.

and herein lies the problem. As a human being you are programmed to solve problems - constantly. this in-built problem solving subconscious stops you from following a completely mechanical system and as such stops you making money.

Because your trades have discretion in them you cannot consistently repeat the same thing over and over again and I don't care what you say, anyone that uses indicators to trade does not have a completely mechanical system. You may say that you do and you have that right - but let me ask you the following based on hat you consider to be your 'completely mechanical system'

1. Do you have very precise rules for entry and exit of a trade? and I mean precise.

2 Do you take every single trade which meets the rules mentioned above no matter whether news is due, there's been an earthquake, or NFP has just come out 20 seconds ago?

3 Do you EVER hang onto a trade longer than your system tells you to or close out before your system says so?

you know what the answers should be. Yes, Yes and No

Basically what I'm saying is that you should spend your first two to three years in Forex trading as every other newbie does. Test systems to the hilt, use discretion, swing trade, use 1 min charts, use 4 hour charts etc etc - really explore the market and get to know it.

One day you will realise one thing.

You cannot make money discretionary trading with enough consistency!

Sure, you will have good runs, and then you'll have bad runs, you might get to a break even point where you are trading but making nothing and losing nothing but until you really really get bored and pissed off you will not develop your own Grail system.

The only way to be successful in Forex is to have a 100% discretion free mechanical system which gives you an edge.

After about 3 years you will get so demoralised by the market and bored that you begin to look at ways of NOT to trade. That's what a truly mechanical system is. You don't 'trade' in the real sense of the word in that you aren't looking at charts and studying fastidiously. you will look and develop a system of trading where you have no decisions to make whatsoever. You enter and exit every trade exactly to the pip and your head never even has to think about it.

You win and lose with no emotional content because you know (through testing see below) it will make money, hell you don't even check the charts when your trade is in.

To get to this point you will have gone through 3 years of hell suffering stress and loss of belief in yourself but you'll also have had a lot of fun and learned a terrific amount.

Then comes the rewards.

If you are at the stage where you want to give up trading after 2-3 years then well done. you are at the point where you could really make a breakthrough. If you still enjoy the up and down world of day trading then you aren't here yet. When you are really ready to throw in the towel come back and read this again before you do..

you need to work on a system that uses nothing which could in the slightest way offer discretion. You need to test it and test it and test it again, optimise it constantly spend your whole working time working on this one system till you have either proved it works or proved it does not. Your objective should be to prove that it does not work.

I reckon that to properly test a system it needs a good 3 years of data which is HAND tested - sure, use wealth lab or another test engine initially but then when you find one that looks promising TEST IT BY HAND, try every different parameter you can and TEST BY HAND EVERY TIME.

I reckon that to test a system properly takes about 6 months of full time work, that's about how long it took us to develop grail and since that time we have spent additional hundreds of hours in testing different parameters, different pairs, different timeframes etc etc etc - to test a system, a single system, could take you years to check every variable!

We now have a system which we believe (and tests support that belief) will make us multi millionaires in a few short years.

This blog will remain here but wont be added to much at all, if you would like to see our progress then check the grailtrading blog every month - that's where the real action is.

I, like you went through emotional hell to get this far and now have secured a very prosperous future (according to the tests and the results so far)

Was it worth it ... you decide.

For those who can see the diamonds planted in this page - see you in Monte Carlo one day :)

From The Desk Of ...

Soultrader

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

grailtrading updated

The Grailtrading Blog has been updated.

You may find it very interesting if you trade with Capital Spreads

scratch that

all orders scratched - all trades closed for a 70 pip loss overall

 

too much happening to trade so ill make a fresh start after easter

 

have a good one :)

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

well

sorry for the lack of contact, afraid it might get more and more.

 

anyway, i have taken some other trades just have not had the time to post them, and as im not one for posting retrospectively ill leave them off the record.

 

closed urusd break even

 

tonight im putting in the following orders

 

gbpjpy short @206.95 if seen stop at 207.48 not looking for massive profits on there - will be careful at 206.65 and 206.28 from there we will see

 

also taking a small trade long usdchf immediately @ 1.2993 stop 1.2940 target 1.3042

 

another small position long @1.3940 if seen on eurcad stop 1.3790

 

short gbpchf @2.2690 if seen stop 2.2790

 

eurgbp long @ 0.6926 if seen stop  0.6895

 

short audusd immediately 0.7320 stop 0.7340

 

hope most of these will close tomorrow for easter

 

catch ya later

 

 

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

back to swings

had some work come in - back to swings again

 

short eurusd 1.2104 stop 1.2184

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

end of day

thats it then - had a chance this afternoon to get in the short but missed it for a cofee!

 

total for the day is +37 pips - close to target but hasnt it been sloooow!

 

catch you tomorrow

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

16:08 long 1.7429 added 7419 closed 7422 -7 and +3

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

afternoon session

13:10 long 1.7444 added 7439 closed 7441 -3 and +2 (too early)

 

13:44 short 1.7443 closed break even

 

14:04 long 1.7443 closed 7451 +8 pips

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

first session close

last trade of the session  10:35 short 1.7457 added at 7469 closed  7458 -1 and +11 pips

 

= 34 pips for the morning session

 

off to do a few miles on the treadmill now :)  back at 1pm

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

continued

09:27 short 7453 closed  7444 +9

 

 

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

monday first session

OK, back in intraday mode then - im using only the 1,5 and 30 min charts at this point.

 

all trades will be based on hilda setups coupled with the thing i got from lucy which helps pinpoint profit taking and possible reversals.

 

As ive not traded intraday for a while im going to target just 20  pips per session - 2 sessions a day 7am - 11am and 1pm - 5pm for this week and ill be happy to take them in small bites. it may take me a while to get back into this after 3 weeks position trading.

 

all cable trades and all times are BST (british summer time which is GMT+1) and all rades have an automatic stop loss at 24 pips

 

08:00 short 1.7455 closed 7451 +4 pips

 

08:09 long 1.7454 closed 7461 +7 pips

 

08:16 short 7455 closed 7456 -1 pip

 

08:23 long 7457 added at 7451 closed 7456 +5 and -1 pips

 

taking a break now for 30 mins - coffee time

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com

 

closed

closed eurchf +23 pips and flat for the week

 

I have taken a few short term trades not mentioned here - but for the swings the week has ended up -274 pips, not bad for the way it turned on me this week.  i recon with my other trades im prob down 100

 

so thats the swings over, got a lot of work done over the past 3 weeks so as of monday im back to intraday - will be posting here as we go.

 

have a good weekend.

 

From The Desk Of ...

 

Soultrader

 

http://www.simpleforexsystems.com