Showing posts with label forex trading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forex trading. Show all posts

Saturday, August 23, 2014

How Will News About The Euro Affect Your Trading Strategy

How will news of the EURO affect your trading strategy?


From what I am reading in the articles below, there is a grim situation around the value of the EURO and that situation is not about to change anytime soon. Forex trading has been affected by the bearish move of the EURO for several weeks and there seems to be no end of bad news.


The economies seem to be floundering and sentiment is strong that the EURO is weak.


Something that I have discovered from reviewing some charts is that technically the decline of the EURO may be slowing and, in fact,  an uptrend may be close at hand.


Have a look at these two charts. You can see the bullish pattern on EURUSD and the bearish pattern on USDDKK. These two currency pairs constantly travel in opposite directions and both are showing a reversal pattern.







This leads me to believe that the bearish news may be about to cease as the reversal begins.


Dollar Rallies Versus Euro in Longest Streak Since 2012 on Fed - Bloomberg
Sat, 23 Aug 2014 04:15:31 GMT
Dollar Rallies Versus Euro in Longest Streak Since 2012 on FedBloombergThe dollar rallied against the euro in the longest stretch in more than two years as data from housing to jobless claims signaled faster economic growth, bolstering speculation th ...
Read more ...








Where Next? LATEST Forecasts for the British Pound, Dollar and Euro ... - Pound Sterling Live
 Fri, 22 Aug 2014 15:17:31 GMT
Pound Sterling LiveWhere Next? LATEST Forecasts for the British Pound, Dollar and Euro ...Pound Sterling LiveBritain's pound sterling (GBP) has seen fresh weakness set in following the release of data which points to a cooling in the rate of expansio ...
Read more ...



The Eurozone Is Being Sacrificed Upon The Golden Cross Of The Euro - Forbes
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 17:46:37 GMT
The Eurozone Is Being Sacrificed Upon The Golden Cross Of The EuroForbesWelcome attention is being paid to the way in which the European Central Bank, and European politicians, are sacrificing the economy of the eurozone to that golden cross of the e ...
Read more ...

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Is Macd Worthwhile For a Strategy?

Watch how I develop a trading strategy using the Macd.

There are so many ways to use the Macd. I want to develop an automated trading system which will be based on the Macd.

I will set up Forex Strategy Builder Pro to generate a system, using the Macd as the 'seed'. The generator in FSB Pro is free to change many aspects of the Macd as it is creating strategies with other indicators or price conditions.

Here is a look at how I started this:









I am using 60 minute data of EURUSD for this purpose, 35 per cent 'out of sample' as I want to be able to see easily what I can expect from this system in future.

As I have been typing this article the generator has been working, done just over 1,800 iterations which resulted in 51 potential strategies.

Here is what the screen looks like now.




You can see that the generator has pulled in other indicators as it seeks better and better results




I want to have a look at the 'Repository', there may already be a strategy of interest appearing in there.





You can see that none of these look too impressive, no System Quality Number, appearing even thogh an excellent Win/Loss ratio and nice Net Balance in the selection shaded blue.



I will restart the generator and set the System Quality bar to ensure that new entries to the repository have a System Quality Number. Actually I have set minimums for each criteria so that some good ones will be what appears from now on.





I have set the values low so as to allow the repository to gather some results that may not be satisfactory but which may show some promising indicator combinations that can be tested on their own to see what they may produce.



It should be noted that the winner of the 2006 Trading Championship used the Macd to win first place. Indeed, the Macd as a starting point for developing an automated trading strategy may turn out to be a good idea.

By setting some parameters for the Repository collection, I have eliminated many generated results, however, it is time to get quality instead of quantity and I will have to be patient until some good results appear.  In the meantime all results are being stored in the 'Collections' so that I can peruse them when convenient.

I have some results now that I will share with you, they may not be the best in terms of a system to use but they are of interest. We can have a look at these two and I will give you quite a bit of information from the program.





You can see that each of these has a System Quality Number which is what I wanted to be sure to have.. The first result, the one shaded in blue is of very poor quality because there are no trades in the Out Of Sample Area.

The second result has an abundance of trades and while the ratios may not be pretty there are some things to learn from examining this result more closely.

I will open this result as a strategy and prepare for further examination.

First we will see which indicators make up the system.



.And then we have some statistics and an equity chart.




And then a breakdown between Long and Short trades that we can examine carefully



You can see that the software has generated a system that takes $100 to some great sum, close to $30,000, however, this may be unsatisfactory based on the poor ratios.

Here is an overview of that trading strategy which is quickly prepared by the software.

Strategy Overview

Strategy name: New Strategy
Forex Strategy Builder Professional RC 1
Date: 13/08/2014 6:53:37 PM

Table of Contents


Description

None.

Logic

Opening (Entry Signal)

Open a new long position at Lower Band of Bollinger Bands* (Smoothed, Typical, 4, 4.77) when the following logic condition is satisfied:
  • MACD* (Simple, Close, Exponential, 47, 18, 20); MACD line falls.
Open a new short position at Upper Band of Bollinger Bands* (Smoothed, Typical, 4, 4.77) when the following logic condition is satisfied:
  • MACD* (Simple, Close, Exponential, 47, 18, 20); MACD line rises.

Closing (Exit Signal)

Close an existing long position at the end of the week.
Close an existing short position at the end of the week.

Handling of Additional Entry Signals**

Entry signal in the direction of the present position:
  • No averaging is allowed. Cancel any additional orders which are in the same direction.
Entry signal in the opposite direction:
  • No modification of the present position is allowed. Cancel any additional orders which are in the opposite direction.

Trading Size

Trade percent of your account.
  • Opening of a new position - 8% of the account equity.

Protection

The strategy does not provide a permanent loss limitation.
The strategy does not use a Take Profit.
--------------
* Use the indicator value from the previous bar for all asterisk-marked indicators!
** The averaging rules apply to the entry signals only. Exit signals close a position. They cannot open, add or reduce one.

Strategy Properties

Handling of Additional Entry Signals

Next same direction signal behavior - Does nothing
Next opposite direction signal behavior - Does nothing

Trading Size

Trade percent of your account. The percentage values show the part of the account equity used to cover the required margin.
Maximum number of open lots- 5
Number of entry lots for a new position- 8% of the account equity

Protection

Stop Loss- None
Take Profit- None
Break Even- None

Indicator Slots

The slots show the logic for the long positions only. Forex Strategy Builder automatically computes the proper logic for the short positions.
Strategy Properties
Same direction signalNothing
Opposite direction signalNothing
Stop LossNone
Take ProfitNone
Break EvenNone
Bollinger Bands
Enter long at Lower Band
Smoothing methodSmoothed
Base priceTypical
MA period4
Multiplier4.77
Use previous bar valueYes
Signal shift0
Indicator symbolDefault
Indicator periodDefault
MACD
MACD line falls
Smoothing methodSimple
Base priceClose
Signal line methodExponential
Slow MA period47
Fast MA period18
Signal line period20
Use previous bar valueYes
Logical groupA
Signal shift0
Signal repeat0
Indicator symbolDefault
Indicator periodDefault
Week Closing
Exit the market at the end of the week
Base priceClose

Statistic Information

Input ParametersAccount Statistics
Profile nameDefault profileAcceptance criteriaFulfilled
Data source nameFSB Demo dataNet balance28674.80 USD
Strategy nameNew StrategyIntrabar scanningAccomplished
ChartEURUSD H1Ambiguous bars0
Data bars30000Profit per day16.33 USD
Time of updating2014-08-13 17:00Max consecutive loses4
Time of beginning2009-10-26 08:00System quality number2.10
Spread3.00 pointsSharpe ratio0.21
Swap long2.00 pointsAverage HPR3.35 %
Swap short-2.00 pointsProfit factor1.42
Commission0.00 pointsTested bars29932
Slippage0.00 pointsMinimum balance79.35 USD
Interpolation methodPessimisticMaximum balance33754.80 USD
Initial Account100 USDMax balance drawdown6645.00 USD
Leverage500Max equity drawdown7390.00 USD
Account exchange rateNot usedMax equity drawdown76.61 %
Auto scanSwitched onAverage profit1352.60 USD
Trade until Margin CallSwitched offAverage loss-1273.57 USD
Executed orders501
Winning trades143
Losing trades107
Win/loss ratio0.57
Time in position91 %

Additional Statistics

ParameterLong + ShortLongShort
Initial account [USD]100.00100.00100.00
Account balance [USD]28674.8015320.2013454.60
Net profit [USD]28574.8015220.2013354.60
Net profit [%]28574.8015220.2013354.60
Gross profit [USD]96710.6448799.8547910.79
Gross loss [USD]-68135.84-33579.65-34556.19
Profit factor1.421.451.39
Annualized profit [USD]5953.083170.872782.21
Annualized profit [%]5953.083170.872782.21
Minimum account [USD]79.35-1149.80100.00
Minimum account date11/12/200904/06/201026/10/2009
Maximum account33754.8017815.2016944.60
Maximum account date12/07/201325/10/201305/07/2013
Absolute drawdown [USD]20.651249.800.00
Maximum drawdown [USD]6645.003635.005075.00
Maximum drawdown [%]0.0032.3029.95
Maximum drawdown date26/10/200930/12/201102/05/2014
Historical bars300003000030000
Tested bars299322993229932
Bars with trades272331283614397
Bars with trades [%]90.9842.8848.10
Number of trades250117133
Winning trades1436974
Losing trades1074859
Win/loss ratio0.570.590.56
Maximum profit [USD]2920.002455.002920.00
Average profit [USD]676.30707.24647.44
Maximum loss [USD]-2560.00-2560.00-1910.00
Average loss [USD]-636.78-699.58-585.70
Expected payoff [USD]114.30130.09100.41
Average HPR [%]3.35-24.325.09
Geometric HPR [%]2.294.393.75
Sharpe ratio0.21-0.110.27


You can see that there are many measurements recorded for evaluation.

The next step  that I will do is to take this result and place it in the generator to see if there can be an improvement in the ratios. Certainly the 'Week Closing' could be improved upon, I will see what the generator can do with it.

As you can see in this pic, the generator is compiling more strategies although it has not found a solution which will be acceptable so far.






As time passes it will keep generating strategies and as long as I let it run it will find more and more and perhaps will develop something that I can trade with.

In this article I wanted to display how a strategy can be generated by FSB Pro and some of the tools in the software for evaluation. There are several more tools that I did not include in this article.

The reader may want to have a look at other articles in the blog about FSB Pro, there is a lot to the program for strategy generation.








Sunday, August 10, 2014

Top 25 Forex Opinion Leaders



 Necessary for our trading strategies to work is information. Information as to what works and what does not work and also we need to know what may be happening in the market place. Fortunately for us as traders there are people who research and develop great content  and make this available to us on their sites.

Here is a list of great authors created by TradersDNA, these people are influencers in their area of expertise and I wanted to share this great list with you today.





Seeking Alpha: Top 25 Forex Opinion Leaders - Traders DNA ...
http://www.tradersdna.com Tue, 28 May 2013 08:00:34 GMT
Staying informed and making sure that you are as knowledgeable as possible about the markets is one of the cornerstones of any Forex trading strategy. However, with so much information and noise out there, how do you know who you should be listening to? Sometimes, it can pay to tap into the wisdom of crowds, to see what other traders find to be the most useful and profitable sources of information.
In the fast forward and ever changing world of digital and social media all industries are seeing an increase of the importance of personal branding and specially thought leadership. Forex Trading is as well an industry that as it grows needs value creation thought leaders. Influence is the gold of the present times as influencers can change and lead the way companies go and the way the markets go and act. In Forex the right influencers can reach big audiences and advice them in their trading activities and how to use platforms, trading instruments and Forex brokers.
Read more ...

Friday, August 8, 2014

Weekending Wrap Up Of Forex News

Here is a selection of news articles which may help you to digest that action of the past week and adjust your trading strategies for the coming week.

There is a lot of uncertainty in different markets as tensions appear in parts of the world.

One great thing about the forex markets is that the surprises come often and without much of a warning.





Some of these articles are already close to being updated, forex news is sometimes difficult to keep up with.



.
Dollar Index Drops on Profit Taking and Consolidation — Forex News
http://www.topforexnews.com Fri, 08 Aug 2014 13:08:31 GMT
US dollar index is lower today, thanks in large part to profit taking and consolidation. There is a lot going on right now that should be dollar-positive, and the greenback's recent gains are sufficient reason for a bit of a breather ...
Read more ...
Weekly CFTC Trader Positioning Data - Forex News, FX News ...
http://www.easyforexnews.net Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:50:43 GMT
Bearish EUR sentiment is rising and weighing heavily on the near -term outlook for the currency. The net short position is now the largest since mid-2012, standing at -$22bn. It is extended, however the large week-over-week ...
Read more ...
Loonie Gains Against European Counterparts — Forex News
http://www.topforexnews.com Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:41:01 GMT
Canadian dollar is heading a little higher this week, gaining ground against European counterparts, thanks in large part to the latest trade surplus data. With the Canadian dollar looking for gains related to its economic ...
Read more ...
Forex - EUR/USD holds gains in subdued trade - Investing.com
http://news.google.com Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:52:04 GMT
Forex - EUR/USD holds gains in subdued tradeInvesting.comInvesting.com - The euro remained higher against the U.S. dollar in subdued trade on Friday, as investors continued to monitor developments in Ukraine and Iraq. Forex - EUR/USD holds gains in s ...
Read more ...
Euro Higher Now, But Likely to Fall Next Week — Forex News
http://www.topforexnews.com Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:08:47 GMT
Euro is a little bit higher today, logging gains against its major counterparts. However, many think that this is the result of profit-taking, and a bit of readjustment. Expectations are that the 18-nation currency will show weakness ...
Read more ...
Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary - Forex News, FX News ...
http://www.easyforexnews.net Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:52:56 GMT
Trade Ideas, Forex Signals, Forex Strategies, Forex Rates, Forex Charts, Forex Forecast, Forex Calendar, Forex Analysis, Forex Books, Forex Brokers, Forex Market, Learn Forex, FX Guide, Forex Secret, Currency Report, ...
Read more ...
We Stay Short EUR/USD - Forex News, FX News, Forex Rates ...
http://www.easyforexnews.net Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:13:04 GMT
Trade Ideas, Forex Signals, Forex Strategies, Forex Rates, Forex Charts, Forex Forecast, Forex Calendar, Forex Analysis, Forex Books, Forex Brokers, Forex Market, Learn Forex, FX Guide, Forex Secret, Currency Report, ...
Read more ...
FOREX-Yen, Swiss franc advance as global tensions escalate - Reuters
http://news.google.com Fri, 08 Aug 2014 15:09:27 GMT
FOREX-Yen, Swiss franc advance as global tensions escalateReuters... * Move towards safe havens squeezes out euro bears. * Approval of U.S. air strikes dominates market mood. * Dollar hits 2-week low versus safe haven yen (Updates prices, adds commen ...
Read more ...