A Novice Trader's Quest

pokemaughan said:
[*]Technical - Partial closing of positions is not possible with FXCM, leaving me unable to scale out in a couple trades
[*]Consequence of the above, I put on too much size (3 lots instead of 1 to allow scaling out)
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Hi Pokemaughan,

Just to clarify, it is possible to partially close positions with FXCM. However, your orders to open or close positions must be in blocks of 1 micro lot (AKA 1000 currency units or 0.01 MT4 lots) or more since that's the smallest trade size. That means if your position size is only 1k, then you can't partially close that, but if your position size is 2k, then you can close 1k at a time.
 
Jason Rogers said:
Hi Pokemaughan,

Just to clarify, it is possible to partially close positions with FXCM. However, your orders to open or close positions must be in blocks of 1 micro lot (AKA 1000 currency units or 0.01 MT4 lots) or more since that's the smallest trade size. That means if your position size is only 1k, then you can't partially close that, but if your position size is 2k, then you can close 1k at a time.
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Oh is that so? Forgive me for being incompetent, but is that accomplished by simply entering the opposite order? i.e. buy 1 lot, sell 0.25 lots and you'll be left with 0.75 lots? I was sure that would open both a short and a long as the context menu in FXCM only shows the option to close the entire position.
 
Jakobsberg said:
This is the heart of the issue - how many trade do you need to make to make a real statistically significant decision as to whether your system works or not? And not just works now, but worked last year, with different pairs etc.

Maybe 20 is enough, maybe if its a small edge you need 1000's. Sorry to say but hope isn't enough here - its tricky maths.
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Yeah agree with this sentiment. One of the TOUGHEST things about trading is the difficulty of measuring performance. You can be trading for a long time with a -EV strategy and not even know it. Without a feedback loop of knowing when you're doing something right or wrong, it's hard to refine your strategy.
 
pokemaughan said:
Oh is that so? Forgive me for being incompetent, but is that accomplished by simply entering the opposite order? i.e. buy 1 lot, sell 0.25 lots and you'll be left with 0.75 lots? I was sure that would open both a short and a long as the context menu in FXCM only shows the option to close the entire position.
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To partially close your position on FXCM's MT4 platform, simply reduce the Volume in the Order window before you click on the Close button.

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If you want to publicly trade your system using simulated money, Collective2 provides an easy order entry screen to track your results and help you compile very detailed statistics on your go-forward results.

If your results are good, you can also get subscribers to rent your strategy on C2.
 
francis1 said:
If you want to publicly trade your system using simulated money, Collective2 provides an easy order entry screen to track your results and help you compile very detailed statistics on your go-forward results.

If your results are good, you can also get subscribers to rent your strategy on C2.
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There may be a time and place for that, but now is not it :D Maybe in the future. Thanks.
 
pokemaughan said:
Ahhh, I use Trading Station, unfortunately. Does it have a similar function? Thanks for the tip.
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Yes, Pokemaughan :)

Sorry, I thought you had an MT4 account, because you were referring to "0.25 lots". On Trading Station, that would be expressed as 25k.

That means if you had a 100k trade open (equivalent to 1.00 standard lot on MT4), then you can partially close 25k of it by modifying the Amount in the Close Position window before hitting OK.

LU6ctOh.png
 
Jason Rogers said:
Yes, Pokemaughan :)
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Ah, thanks again. Unfortunately it appears you can only partial close "At Market?" :confused: I need to set limit orders for exits due to management constraints and the "Order Type" field does not appear to allow limit orders.

It seems my only option is to open my positions across multiple orders (4x 25k buy/sell) :eek:
 
pokemaughan said:
Unfortunately it appears you can only partial close "At Market?" :confused: I need to set limit orders for exits due to management constraints and the "Order Type" field does not appear to allow limit orders.
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You can set partial limit orders on Trading Station :)

In order to do this, you must have hedging disabled on your account. If you live in the US, your account will already have hedging disabled to comply with CFTC regulations. If you outside the US, then you must click on the MyFXCM button on your Trading Station and change your hedging functionality from the webpage that loads. This change goes through immediately, so please keep this in mind if you currently have hedged trades on your account.

Once you're sure that hedging is disabled on your account, then you can create Simple OCO (one cancels the other) orders that will function as partial stops and limits for your position. To do this, select Trading > Orders > Simple OCO from the menu at the top left of your platform.
 
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