My FTMO journey: trials, trials and maybe more anytime

[IlIlIlIlI]

I'm done for today.
The discipline to stop trading when my daily profit goal is reached is sometimes harder than to continue fighting.
The last two positions were closed manually because of this.
The tp originally entered was failed in the dip afterwards by less than 2 pips.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Survived day 4 of the free trial until now.
Started too early with a bad trade set because I ignored my main direction indicator: Darwinex vs. FTMO prices.
That should be forbidden during a challenge as I nearly doubled my daily loss, but didn't have bad luck so I stayed in the limit. FTMO can calculate an RRR now.
The FTMO vs. Darwinex indication still shows a tendency to go short in moving ranges.
There were tons of trades made and the "normal" trades at the end of the US market opening made the difference.
The weekly profit target is made so there is no need to trade tomorrow if I can't forecast the market with an acceptable timing.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

I inserted two trades at noon but they didn't perform as expected. There was more potential, but ..
I closed them with small profit to shut down MT4 for being on the road in the afternoon.
They added some profit so now the average profit for 6 days is shown on the track record.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Made 3 trades today in the late morning.
Daily profit target was just reached when closing the last trades on their tp.
So disciplne tells me to stop trading for today as it is Monday.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

WTF .. I really dislike to trade like I did it today.
I expected more volatility this week but not this way.
Positions were open too long.
Then I added some small scalping trades from time to time.
The daily loss was exceeded by some 100 EUR but the limit not endangered.
Didn't feel ready for the challenge besides my forecasts were right - so we'll see what happens tomorrow.
Trials are only passed when all objectives are green on their last day, an email will tell me.

 

[trendie]

Thats proper scalping, most of your trades are out within minutes.
A couple, though, you held on for something like 90+and 80+ underwater, before they came back!
Thats nerves of steel, for sure.
Does US100 have good reversion properties?
You seem to take an overall direction for the day, and aggregate into one direction?

Good, consistent, sizable winning days.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Does US100 have good reversion properties?
You seem to take an overall direction for the day, and aggregate into one direction?

Currently I use the price difference between Darwinex and FTMO as indicator for the day direction the marketmakers (or big boys) want to see. It's funny, I don't even know whether there is a reason for the difference, but currently it works. I assume they have different providers with different price calculation models for CFDs.
For US100 it helps me together with the daily chart and yesterday's high/low/close to decide a direction at the beginning.
As you know, nothing is 100% sure with trading. And later in the US session there can be a clear turnaround.

For timing I look for reversal or developing price action and at the RSI on the 1 minute chart.
There are more wrong RSI signals than profitable ones if you are only watching the 30/70 levels and wait for the hit, for sure RSI is not a holy grail for newbies.
But experience with it helps.

I've also written an indicator for my MT4 terminal which shows me "my" trading zones. It's not perfect, but maybe I should offer it at the mql5 market anytime as it might be also interesting for other traders. I don't trade it, but I regard it.

Generally I try to get an impression out of all of it for an idea what will happen in the next 15 to 30 minutes or the next two hours before I place my first trades. That impression is more than indicators. Of course I'm not always right. The two trades you mentioned - I would have felt worse if I would have closed them with more than 1k losses. I missed the point to turn the positions early for short term trading, as I didn't have the intention for a reversal this time. And the basic idea for this US session was still intact - and stayed intact.

If a trade does not work for me, I cut my profit target to close it with some profit or close it manually with some pips on my side - it was just bad timing. Done. And I don't look back. Bad timing is bad timing. Happens again and again.

I don't use tight stop loss anymore as I lost more working that way than accepting a higher DD and the risk out of it and be more patient.
I love to use my trailing stop EA if I can set a break even stop loss to secure some pips profit. In the last weeks there was not much to do for this EA, US100 and DAX30 are more difficult for me than in some earlier weeks.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

The free trial is successfully done now - everything is green
I assume I can continue until it runs out on Sunday, while a challenge would be successfully mastered now.
I'm not sure whether that happens only overnight or neartime. Unfortunately Emanita is not here anymore who would know the procedure of a successful challenge. I really hope @trendie will know that also in a few days.

The trading situation was not perfect, as I got to eat a DD again, but less than yesterday.

Now I have to decide whether to continue (as I would as a funded trader) or to be happy to get it all green.
Also thinking about the decision to start a challenge now.

And if somebody is interested to see it, this is the analysis of my first two 18-minutes scalping trades today with my stone age trading tool MT4.
Placed both sells when my zone indicator implied entering a ranging market in my main direction of today (short).
The trades were placed when the RSI crossed the 70 line from above.
The tp was set above the upper border of the lowerbound of the zone regarding that bid price is shown and ask price is needed for closing the trades.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

The "Darwinex vs. FTMO indicator" was not usuable today as it changed to ranging while I was at the bottom of my range with open positions.
The profit target of that short trade was failed by the ask price, but hit by the buy price.
That didn't matter as I was out of that position before.
Because of the "indicator" change I had only one intention: run out of these positions 🏃‍♂️

Additional we have a future and monthly options expiry day tomorrow and trading during that week is dangerous and usually volatile 💣 .

The DD I had to take today had 4 digits again - bad timing again - and I decided never to have so many positions simultaneously open in a challenge (up to 5) as I had today.

But I survived all of it and I'm happy that I stopped trading after my first trade set.
I could relax on my rule to hold discipline and stop trading when the daily profit is save on closed trades.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

💣 on the last day of this trial:

Some thoughts about that:
In a challenge I would have stopped trading when all objectives would be green.
But what would I have done as a funded trader?
At least the first month as a funded trader must be profitable to write an invoice, otherwise the fees are also lost, just later.

So I will start a new trial next week.

 

[ffsear]

FTMO featured in bbc doc..

BBC Three - Instatraders

Can you really make money by learning how to trade foreign exchange?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

FTMO featured in bbc doc..

BBC Three - Instatraders

Can you really make money by learning how to trade foreign exchange?

www.bbc.co.uk

Thx, I know that video from UTube.
The analysis about FTMO in that video is not deep enough and the guy didn't even try a trial.
I know FTMO since 2016 when I met a guy of them on an event in Frankfurt, and I cannot forget his priceless eyes and face when I denied to sign for a challenge after a 15 minutes talk while he was so convinced. 🤣
But he kept his composure and gave me a lot of information about this startup and the idea behind it.
If I remember it right, conditions were much harder 5 years ago but unfortunately I lost his flyer.

 

[trendie]

💣 on the last day of this trial:
View attachment 304799
Some thoughts about that:
In a challenge I would have stopped trading when all objectives would be green.
But what would I have done as a funded trader?
At least the first month as a funded trader must be profitable to write an invoice, otherwise the fees are also lost, just later.

So I will start a new trial next week.

What!
How did it get to -10K?
Did you trade your normal 6 x 1.5lots, or a larger grouping?

Really surprised at the scale of drawdown.
Commiserations.
Fresh week, fresh account.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

What!
How did it get to -10K?
Did you trade your normal 6 x 1.5lots, or a larger grouping?

Really surprised at the scale of drawdown.
Commiserations.
Fresh week, fresh account.

yes, I can't trade more than 6x1.5 lots as I have a 1:30 margin on the swing account (which I would recommend, It's enough to blow the limits).

I was in before the market opening and didn't watch it in the first 15 minutes as I had a working day and there were some issues. To leave it alone was a bad idea.
First it looked like I survived with 3.956 daily loss, but then it exploded.
It was a trial account, so I don't care about the account, but I think what could be done better.
Trading a maximum of only 2 positions with 1.5 lots?
I have the weekend to think about it.

 

[trendie]

Just been thinking about this.
Kudos to you for trading the plan consistently, and continued trading even though you met the objectives of the challenge.
I realised that some players would just hit the Profit Target, then scale back until the Min Days was met.
In real life trading, you can't do that, and you traded the account like a real account, not a game.
I wonder how many players trade to the FTMO rules, and not the market itself?

I think, long term, your account will be one of the consistent ones.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

I wonder how many players trade to the FTMO rules, and not the market itself?

I think there are too many traders like this, and most try only to pass the challenge and don't think about the funded period.

I analyzed my trades of this accoount and the market of Friday again.
I had a similar situation on Thursday last week (12th), then I turned the position and the day was closed with profit.

On Friday I saw a daily loss of 3.956 EUR - very closed to the limit - while the account showed "only" 2,500 EUR DD and the market was crawling in my direction. Instead of being aware that a spontanuous update of my morning analysis was urgently needed, I continued to concentrate on my job duties instead of taking a 5 minutes break for the analysis - and so I did nothing.
So I believed instead of checking the situation.
There was a good opportunity 15 minutes later to turn the positions where also a "low level" long trading signal appeared which I don't trade. I saw it much too late.

And I learned again: trading is not a church for believers, behaviour should be more like in a warzone.

 

[Farm Yard Forex]

Did well to not psyche yourself out on that dip you had. Well done for persevering!

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

New free trial account was taken, but no trades were made today as I spent several hours outside.
I assume the new trial will start with its first trade.

 

[The Erect Trader]

Why don't you buy, at least, the lowest Challenge at 10k and start to have a bit of real money in the game ?

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Why don't you buy, at least, the lowest Challenge at 10k and start to have a bit of real money in the game ?

If I buy a challenge, it would be the 80k EUR swing account.
I got accustomed to the figures generated in it.
I'm sure it will come.

I'm just clearing the ground for that.
As I had more than one login for FTMO for historical reasons (knowing them since 5 years and didn't know that only one registration is allowed as I never read their T&C just for testing them) , I asked them to delete the other registrations where I got the confirmation for the last outstanding deletion this morning.
At the moment I have to work too much on my job during the daytime because of the holiday season and I want to be connected to the market again first. That means, I want to see relaxed profitable trial days again first.