Simit Patel

I'm in the process of putting together a few posts going into the details of my trading strategy and my approach to the markets. With that in mind, I wanted to start by posting my trading record. Click on the link below to get my trade history for the past four years -- from February 2005 to February of 2009.


A few things you should know about my forex trading history in the link above:

1. The numbers have been fictionalized for privacy reasons, though the percentages are real

2. What is not shown is leverage. I was using more leverage before (probably too much), although since the second half of 2008 I've cut down to between 2:1 and 1:1 in terms of leverage ratio.

3. It has been sterilized for deposits/withdrawals

4. Interest rate profits/losses have been factored into the numbers (though they are negligible and I don't really care about rollover when trading forex)

5. Does not factor in my floating gains/losses on my precious metal trades. This is worth noting because from a risk management perspective I am looking at things from the perspective of my whole portfolio, so that affects my money management practices in my forex trading account.

I'll go into greater detail shortly, but my approach is basically as follows:

1. Develop a big picture outlook based on fundamentals

2. Use moving averages, support/resistance levels, candlestick patterns, and chart patterns to find when momentum is favoring the big picture fundamentals identified

I'll be to my trade history regularly. If you have any questions on it, please don't hesitate to ask them here in this thread.

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uahmed

Hello Simit,

What is the actual leverage you use?

Thanks!

Ali

Simit Patel

Hey Ali, these days I use between 1:1 and 2:1 reward/risk ratio (or sometimes even less if I am just testing out an idea). Back in my younger and more reckless days I was more around 4:1 or 5:1. That worked great for me in 2007, though not so well in 2008 as the markets became more volatile. If we can ever return to conditions that were more like 2007, I might go to higher leverage.

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Unregistered

Hello Simit,

I hope you are not confusing leverage with risk to reward ratio. I think you are saying you take trades of 1:1 to 2:1 Risk to reward ratio. But leverage I too am curious. Are you using 10:1, 5:1? I'm meaning that if you have a $30000, a 3 mini lot trade would be using 1:1 leverage and 1.5 STD lot would be 5:1 leverage.

Thanks

Ron

Simit Patel

Hi Ron,

My apologies -- I was referring to leverage, and I've since corrected the original post to make that a bit clearer. Prior to the market volatility we started seeing in the second half of 2008, I was using more leverage -- like 4:1 or 5:1. Now, though, my leverage ratio is between and 1 and 2.

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Ruben..

Hi Simit!

I have a question, You started an live account with ONE MILLION DOLLARS?, and I ask you this because, Im starting to Swingtrading and I cant be able to start my live account with 1,000,000 usd, because Im from Mexico, and here 1 million dollars are like 13 millions of Mexican Pesos, so that is SO MUCH MONEY at least for me, so im a little worry about that, because I think that to be a swingtrader you had to have a big capital (like you, 1,000,000 usd is a big capital for me ), so what do you think?? ´cause I was planning start my real account with just 1,000 usd , Do you think this is not enought to swingtrade? Do you think I will need more money?

See you around! and good luck!

Demolition Man

Sonuvagun... I went through your record thinking that your starting balance was 1000 units. Only now after Ruben mentioned it, I noticed that you are quite well financed, my friend.

Gotta give it to ya, to keep going after those three major losses in the beginning of 2005, with that kind of capital... You, Sir, have balls of steel and I salute you.



-Demolition Man

EDIT: And only now did I bother to read through the actual post which states that the figures are fictional. Oh well, I guess it's still too early for my brain to have kicked in.

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Simit Patel

hey guys,

yes, the numbers are fictitious -- i am working with a far, far smaller amount of capital. the percentages are real though.

thanks
simit

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Ruben..

Ooh I can see it now, haha sorry for the mistake.