My FTMO journey: trials, trials and maybe more anytime

[IlIlIlIlI]

I started another free trial on Monday and I failed the objectives on the first night when I held positions overnight.
I used the new swing account which is also available as free trial.
First I proved that it is too easy to violate the rules with the reduce with a 1:30 leverage.
Now I'm trying to hit and hold the profit target in the seven days left.
Today I traded with variable lot sizes by opening a different number of trades (usually 1.5 lots each) when I traded a direction.
The chart and the statistic block don't show the full desaster, but the objectives are calculated accurately.

The results are removed as soon as the first rule is violated.

last trades:

 

[trendie]

re: overnight positions.

Did you set a SL?
Did the overnight result in wide spreads causing a stop-out?
Or did the market simply move away from your position?
Are you trading just 1 instrument for this Challenge?

One thing I am noticing on other FTMO Challenges here, is that the trades seem to push to the boundaries of Max Losses.
I wonder if trying to get past the winning post in 1-2 days is the cause of so many fails?
(I know I did this! so not criticizing)

If you planned to pass in 5-10 days out of the 20, would you still be in the game?

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

I removed the SL for the overnight trades.
I held short positions and the market ran up.
Unfortunately positions were closed by my trailing stop EA at market opening which was not planned.

When I started the swing trial account, the margin was calculated wrongly so that you could only trade 2.5 lots of US100.cash with 80k EUR. I asked them via email whether that is an error and they corrected it. Now I can trade up to 9 lots of US100.cash for 80k EUR which is enough to violate the rules.

You need to trade at least 10 days for the challenge to pass the first objective, but after passing the profit target you can continue trading 0.01 lots with at least 1 trade for 2 seconds so that the daily counter is incremented. I know from their videos that they don't like it.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Back into profit zone with mostly scalping trades. Fastest one needed 4 seconds to make more than 40 EUR. There are 6 days left to pass the profit objective, more cannot be shown with this account.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

After the last free trial expired, I started a new one yesterday - motto: never give up

Account type is a free trial swing account with 80k deposit.

Strategy is changed to hold for a longer period with reduced total size and much bigger ranges for sl and tp.
This has a higher risk if positions are held overnight.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Violated the rules again on day 2 of the free trial challenge.
Tuesday is difficult on my learning curve. Survival would have been possible by cutting the open trades to 1 or better: not opening the rest in the moment I opened them, but at least half day later.
Serving the trial until it ends and trying to close with significant profit.

Most trades were closed on my trailing stop EA, only 5 closed on the tp.
There was no manual intervention besides setting sl and tp.

Unfortunately FTMO removed the equity curve (even if it was never exact while checking it only all 10 minutes).

Boooom!!

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

The balance today hit the profit target, but not the equity.
There were not many trades made in the last days as most positions still stay in DD.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

There are still open position, but the profit target was reached today.
There were several small trades closed, the majority on the trailing stop.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Yesterday there was some activity after posting here.
Currently there is no trade open.
I don't know whether I will take a break or continue trading tonight.

 

[trendie]

You really are blasting it.
What trigger are you looking for for taking the Challenge?
You seem to have some quantifiable consistency.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

The problem is the daily loss limit which is nearly always exceeded in the first 3 days (I only kept it in my first trial when I stopped trading the typical volume on day 3 after reaching the profit target).

This time most trades were closed on the trailing stop but it worked with small but nice results.

To reduce volume generally to something like 20% to keep in line with the daily loss requirement is not a solution as the probability to fail the profit target is much too high.

As I couldn't trade for about 3 days (or was it 4?) during this trial because I was fully invested (using full margin) and sitting in a DD, I will try to reduce the number of simultanous trades and keep the volume in the next trial.
I did the same today and it worked fine.
If that also works to keep in line with the loss requirements and reach the profit target I'm ready for the challenge.

 

[The Erect Trader]

If that also works to keep in line with the loss requirements and reach the profit target I'm ready for the challenge.

Hello, good luck! From my side, i will start soon the My Forex Fund 200k Evaluation Standard.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Hello, good luck! From my side, i will start soon the My Forex Fund 200k Evaluation Standard.

What is better at My Forex Fund than at FTMO in your opinion?
I'm missing a trial to check it out.
I'm also missing any postal address.
And not enough reviews for a more real picture:

My Forex Funds review: Is MFF a legit or scam prop firm?

I am MFF client for a long time and traded many accounts. Last week, 2 of my accounts couldn't trade and support was not helping, not even knowing what to do.

www.forexpeacearmy.com

 

[The Erect Trader]

Good morning,

I tried the FTMO free trial but i didn't tried yet My Forex funds. So, i don't really know. If trading conditions are similar (spread/commissions/slippage), i would prefer My Forex Funds for some reasons, especially 3 reasons. The target which is lower (+8% vs. +10%), the split which is better and the fact that we can withdrawal our profits every 15 days. My Forex Funds is also more "professionnal" because they don't call this a "Challenge", they call this an "Evaluation". That's mentally better for a trader.

I paid yesterday the highest price possible ($979) their but still don't have my 200k account. They say it could take 24h/48h. But i trust them, i think it's the best company to put FTMO in competition.

Here is an interview of the CEO who is a bitcoin early investor millionaire from Vancouver (Canada) :

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

This trial is running out on Sunday, so I didn't place any new trades tonight.
My Darwin's (ILR) trading account is served by a trade copier and I want to link the new FTMO trial account as soon as possible to it.
I'm very pleased with this result and traded the last 3 days in the way I want to trade my next trial.
The only micro loser was the result of (a bug in) my trailing stop EA, I forgot to restart it as usual every morning before the first trade. I will also change the setting for GER30.cash so the error should not be repeated.
There were only long trades in this trial, but I don't know which direction is to trade in the next two weeks. So it will be exciting.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

New week, new trial!

I assume that I should stop trading for today as this looks like an unpredictable ranging anywhere Monday to me.
I had to reduce the tp of my second trade (entered 16:32:24) from 15174 to get it closed with some profit.

 

[trendie]

Just to clarify, aren't there these new rules about not having a position open a couple of minutes before and after the session opens?
You are trading the opening US session, US100, and your trades congregate around 2:30pm?
I might have to dig uo the changes, as I cant find it on the FTMO FAQ.

As an aside, are you finding any noticeable slippage and requotes during these times?

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

Just to clarify, aren't there these new rules about not having a position open a couple of minutes before and after the session opens?
You are trading the opening US session, US100, and your trades congregate around 2:30pm?
I might have to dig uo the changes, as I cant find it on the FTMO FAQ.

As an aside, are you finding any noticeable slippage and requotes during these times?

This a a swing account again and the only rules shown when I openend it are the loss limits.
They explicitely show that I can hold positions overnight, over the weekend and the account is not affected by the news release rules.
I don't know anything about restrictions during the stock market openings, so if you find something, please let me know.

And this is a rule I don't understand completely as I don't know a "maximum capital allocation rule". My positions in the market are limited by the margin used, as far as I saw it with my trials. Maybe they mean the EAs activity or that they don't allocate more than 400k to a strategy and if more than one trader uses the same EA they limit the capital allocation of all traders to 400k and deny to accept more traders with the same EA/strategy.

Slippage:
The worst slippage I remember trading the stock market opening was more than 40 pips so trades shouldn't be placed with a tight stop loss when trading the opening minutes. But that wasn't today.
Edit / market opening hours:
They changed the market opening hours so you can't trade the first or last 5 or 10 minutes when the Forex or CFD market is opening. Maybe that's what you have read. But that restriction is not related to the stock market opening hours in London/Frankfurt or New York.

 

[IlIlIlIlI]

On day 2 of my free trial I made only three scalping trades.
I can't hide that I love to trade the US stock market opening.
My average daily profit target (EUR 400) was exceeded again.