So what would you do ?

I promise you all 100% that this is not any sort of sales pitch at all. I am genuinely looking for advice. If this is mis-interpreted as a sales pitch I will remove this post. Of course if anybody wants to give me a job then thats different

If you had built a mechanical trading system, that you were happy with. It was profitable not only on a backtest, but forward tested on Paper Accounts with real slippage and commision figures built in to the testing. There is no curve fit, no profit targets, no scaleout, just an honest, consistent mechanical system that enters and exits the market according to generated signals. In four months it has never hit a stop-loss mainly because it is capable of picking up a reversal first.

However your funding is limited, too limited to comfortably trade it. How would you proceed ? It could be an automated process (already is on a Paper Account), and would trade 24 hours a day. So far its tested as working on Forex, Currency Futures and Index Futures. I would be prepared to consider *any* idea, I am in full-time employment, and currently 'dropping everything' (although that would be my ideal) to trade full-time would mean that trading would instantly have to provide me with an equivalent salary due to the lack of capital. This system makes money, and has been now for a few months so I am very confident of its capabilites. I want to trade. I was thinking of adjusting the order execution maybe to work with a Mini-Forex account and trade with a relaitvely small amount of money as proof of concept, but I think frankly that would be delaying the innevitable.

Ideas Anyone ? Thanks for your time.

me, do not release it.

scale down your work, start trading mini,s do you need to be present when a signal is alerted? well i would want to be anyhow. if you can start very small . then get an account which lets you trade any size. Oanda for instance lets you do exactly that from less then 1 to 10 million at quoted spreads. all at same spread.

fxmarkets said:

me, do not release it.

scale down your work, start trading mini,s do you need to be present when a signal is alerted? well i would want to be anyhow. if you can start very small . then get an account which lets you trade any size. Oanda for instance lets you do exactly that from less then 1 to 10 million at quoted spreads. all at same spread.

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I think you may be right, scale it down and build it up slowly. I don't need to be present no, but for the first few days I would like to be to gain some confidence. I have built it in E-Signal so would probably look to an integrated broker. Thanks for your comments.

All the best with it, I just think if this is what youve worked so hard at for a chunk of time if indeed thats how you feel with it, then you quite rightly deserve to reap full total benefits.

the more of a track performance in real market the more appeal to potential others too. but I can see that bringing on a lot of potential headaches .as well as cash. its something that naturally pops into our heads etc. but I would like to , if it was my work, run it for myself.

fxmarkets said:

All the best with it, I just think if this is what youve worked so hard at for a chunk of time if indeed thats how you feel with it, then you quite rightly deserve to reap full total benefits.

the more of a track performance in real market the more appeal to potential others too. but I can see that bringing on a lot of potential headaches .as well as cash. its something that naturally pops into our heads etc. but I would like to , if it was my work, run it for myself.

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Its not really my intention to sell it at all. I have spent 3 years putting it together, I have lost money putting it together ! The last thing I want to do is hand out meal-tickets on the back of my hard work. I may produce in time a more 'diluted' version of it that still is profitable, just not to the scale of my own version which perhaps could be sold. I have trialed this and it is possible. As for real market-time, I agree that would make it more attractive, but if we are honest, how 'real' are some of the System Vendor claims anyway, I think we all know the answer to that

I created a mechanical system because it is the way I am happiest trading, I don't have the mentality to be discretionary in my trading, and in fact I admire successful traders that are.

There's no substitute than actually running your system for real with a small amount of money. If three months down the line you are still making money then great - but be warned - paper trading is very different to real trading!

Your answer is to use leverage - either through spread betting or other FX direct access accounts. It entails greater risk because losses on your losers will be higher - however if you have the confidence that your system works then that shouldn't be a problem as long as you can cover a down period from the offset.

For your info I operate a purely mechanical system which I visit once a day. I tested it with a modest £750 and through gearing and a bit of luck it doubled within 2 months. 6 months on I have now added to the pot and making plans to give up the day job later this year.

Hoggums said:

There's no substitute than actually running your system for real with a small amount of money. If three months down the line you are still making money then great - but be warned - paper trading is very different to real trading!

Your answer is to use leverage - either through spread betting or other FX direct access accounts. It entails greater risk because losses on your losers will be higher - however if you have the confidence that your system works then that shouldn't be a problem as long as you can cover a down period from the offset.

For your info I operate a purely mechanical system which I visit once a day. I tested it with a modest £750 and through gearing and a bit of luck it doubled within 2 months. 6 months on I have now added to the pot and making plans to give up the day job later this year.

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Thanks Hoggums, it sounds as though we have a little in common, I understand your point about live trading, I have been trading (with varying and inconsistent degrees of success), for about three years now, which is sadly where most of my account went. However I am confident about this mainly because of its consistency so far. I think you are right (and FXMarkets), I think I will start small and see what happens. I am concious of leverage though, since the whole point of the excerise is to manage risk which is why I don't want to abuse leverage for the sake of making a fast buck !

GammaJammer said:

Definitely trade it yourself. If it's as consistent as you are saying, then even a very small stake will rapidly grow in size. Find an account that allows you to trade during working hours (assuming that you aren't in a job where this is illegal).

My only word of caution would be that if your funds are so limited, don't be too quick to start pyramiding if results go your way. If the system is good enough, this won't be necessary in any case.

Good luck

GJ

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I appreciate that thanks GJ.

If there is only a small pot and I was comfortable with the system, I would be aggressive with money management (as long as the system has a high enough expectancy to over come the drag affect of the money managment MM).

This will enable the account to grow quicker and one could later reduce the aggressiveness of the MM when the pot has grown. However, the downside with aggressive MM is larger draw downs. I'd do a lot of monte carlo testing to see what sort of distrubuiton of draw downs to expect.

Getting comfortable with the draw downs for me is the main thing. If I have any doubts at all about a system they all come out in a draw down.

Tuffty said:

If there is only a small pot and I was comfortable with the system, I would be aggressive with money management (as long as the system has a high enough expectancy to over come the drag affect of the money managment MM).

This will enable the account to grow quicker and one could later reduce the aggressiveness of the MM when the pot has grown. However, the downside with aggressive MM is larger draw downs. I'd do a lot of monte carlo testing to see what sort of distrubuiton of draw downs to expect.

Getting comfortable with the draw downs for me is the main thing. If I have any doubts at all about a system they all come out in a draw down.

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Thanks Tufty, I will bear that in mind.