Ray's amnesty page

[wiseambitions]

A letter from FXCM is doing the rounds re the SNB debacle:

LeapRate has received a copy of the letter being circulated by FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM) to its clients having negative client balances in their accounts, following large losses by many clients last Thursday on Swiss Franc CHF pairs trading.
The losses left certain FXCM clients with an aggregate of about $225 million of negative equity in their accounts – and left FXCM with a major hole in its regulatory capital requirements, leading to a $300 million bailout of FXCM by Leucadia National Corp (NYSE:LUK).
Interestingly, FXCM tells its clients in the letter that if they hold more than one account with FXCM, any funds from accounts with positive balances will be used to cover the negative balances in another account.
FXCM’s rationale for asking for repayment? The SNB’s surprise move removing the EURCHF 1.20 floor and what followed was a ‘force majeure event’. Force Majeure events usually refer to war, strike, riot, crime, or events described by the legal term ‘Act of God’ such as a natural disaster, or other unforeseeable circumstances.
How a spike in a currency pair accompanied by a temporary loss of liquidity in that pair could be viewed as a ‘Force Majeure’ event – by a Forex broker! – is beyond us.
As we wrote yesterday, we believe that FXCM clients have a legitimate claim to refuse to repay negative balances (or even to have FXCM ‘merge’ their accounts), due to FXCM’s clearly stated policy “not to pursue claims for negative equity against our customers.” Clients with negative equity balances, if approached by FXCM, could simply state that they relied on FXCM’s policy and that they therefore reasonably expected that their losses could never exceed the amount of money they had on deposit.
The text of the letter follows below.
——————-
Dear Client,
IMPORTANT NEWS REGARDING YOUR FXCM TRADING ACCOUNTS
Please be advised that in order to offset negative balances you currently hold in your FXCM account(s), FXCM has transferred funds from your account(s) with a positive balance. The terms of your master trading agreement entered into with FXCM, available online, provide FXCM with these rights.
If after this transfer you still maintain a negative balance on your account, you are requested to remit funds immediately. FXCM accepts deposits by, debit card, bank wire and ACH electronic check. All options can be accessed via our www.myfxcm.com portal.
As you may already be aware, last week, the Swiss National Bank (“SNB”) announced that they will no longer support a self-imposed floor on the EUR/CHF exchange rate. Learn More.
The SNB announcement, extreme price movements and the resulting lack of liquidity were exceptional and unprecedented events causing many market participants to incur trading losses. These events were unforeseen and beyond the control of FXCM, constituting force majeure events.
Record of this transaction is available by generating a Combined Account Statement and referencing the description “Offset Transfer from Account to Account for Negative Balance”.
FXCM thanks you for you cooperation and understanding.
If you have any questions, please contact one of our specialists, who are available 24 hours a day, by live chat, by calling 1-888-503-6739, or by e-mail at info@fxcm.com
FXCM hereby reserves all rights and remedies that it may have at law, in equity, under the terms of any contracts with you. Nothing in this notice shall be deemed to constitute a waiver or settlement of any of FXCM’s rights and remedies.

[immy]

Thanks for Sharing... however, since we don't trade CHF pairs, (i don't because of Michael K's enlightenment a few years ago) we are safe. Forex Market is largely unregulated and thus we have to be careful. One remedy which I used always was to keep only 10% of your total equity with your broker and the rest of hte money in your nice profit making saving account. e.g. if you have a 100K total capital available for trading and you're going to trade 1% that would mean you can do it with a 10K or a 20K account as long as you don't risk more than 10% of your total equity per trade, you'll be fine with the margin requirement. This may not be suitable for everyone. This is not a financial advice, this is only for education purposes. Let this be clear. We ought to take extreme care with how much we risk and must understand the risks involved in forex trading. You can actually lose more than you risk, this was proven in these events!

[wiseambitions]

Just looking back on a phenomenal week.
I was not able to be present to trade during a couple of the exciting moments, so my results may be inferior to the professionals

Strange fact. In 23 trades to my surprise I have a negative total pips. Minus 1 on my main account. But all was not lost, the account grew, and due to variable lot size I actually achieved growth well into double digits % wise. Perhaps there are few weeks I do better, so it means as always that pips are not the only key performance indicator, it is return on capital which is the ultimate test........

Main lessons from the week
1) reduce the stop loss faster when trade becomes profitable
2) don't have the attitude "the next trade will be a winner". It doesn't work like that. Just follow the signals and take losses when the trade doesn't go the right way, and wait for the next valid opportunity

[wiseambitions]

Thanks for Sharing... however, since we don't trade CHF pairs, (i don't because of Michael K's enlightenment a few years ago) we are safe. Forex Market is largely unregulated and thus we have to be careful. One remedy which I used always was to keep only 10% of your total equity with your broker and the rest of hte money in your nice profit making saving account. e.g. if you have a 100K total capital available for trading and you're going to trade 1% that would mean you can do it with a 10K or a 20K account as long as you don't risk more than 10% of your total equity per trade, you'll be fine with the margin requirement. This may not be suitable for everyone. This is not a financial advice, this is only for education purposes. Let this be clear. We ought to take extreme care with how much we risk and must understand the risks involved in forex trading. You can actually lose more than you risk, this was proven in these events!

Thanks, that's good advice - woops I mean educational guidance - about keeping capital in a separate accessible account - not on deposit with the broker until required

[zlabis]

Just looking back on a phenomenal week.
I was not able to be present to trade during a couple of the exciting moments, so my results may be inferior to the professionals

Strange fact. In 23 trades to my surprise I have a negative total pips. Minus 1 on my main account. But all was not lost, the account grew, and due to variable lot size I actually achieved growth well into double digits % wise. Perhaps there are few weeks I do better, so it means as always that pips are not the only key performance indicator, it is return on capital which is the ultimate test........

Main lessons from the week
1) reduce the stop loss faster when trade becomes profitable
2) don't have the attitude "the next trade will be a winner". It doesn't work like that. Just follow the signals and take losses when the trade doesn't go the right way, and wait for the next valid opportunity

Great Ray,
I really like to read your updated journal and those from other fellow AIMSters.
Please keep it running as these journals are huge sources of knowledge and gaining experience of us.

Cheers

Michael

[wiseambitions]

Just looking back on a phenomenal week.
I was not able to be present to trade during a couple of the exciting moments, so my results may be inferior to the professionals

Strange fact. In 23 trades to my surprise I have a negative total pips. Minus 1 on my main account. But all was not lost, the account grew, and due to variable lot size I actually achieved growth well into double digits % wise. Perhaps there are few weeks I do better, so it means as always that pips are not the only key performance indicator, it is return on capital which is the ultimate test........

Main lessons from the week
1) reduce the stop loss faster when trade becomes profitable
2) don't have the attitude "the next trade will be a winner". It doesn't work like that. Just follow the signals and take losses when the trade doesn't go the right way, and wait for the next valid opportunity

Great Ray,
I really like to read your updated journal and those from other fellow AIMSters.
Please keep it running as these journals are huge sources of knowledge and gaining experience of us.

Cheers

Michael

Thank you for your kind words, you definitely seem to be on a roll yourself, hope it keeps like that for you

-------------------------

Monday will probably be a nervous day for the European markets depending what Greece is deciding today at the polls ............

[wiseambitions]

For being an m5 trader in the main I have to wait when the situation is like this. Aims box about 50 pips high, breach of lower level towards purple, prior to gator resting phase, dot alert after the aims break rather than before, and AO not quite back to ZL

Hopefully I will get an opportunity at some time, I did get about 35 pips Tuesday by the end of the day for which I am very grateful

[wiseambitions]

Seems like dax m5 has offered about 200 pips so far today, 2 entries coinciding with the cross of AO and ZL, I am grateful to have been able to take 25

1555, updated winnings to 42 pips net. I went short around 1540 on break of aims level. That's enough for today. :ymdaydream:

[wiseambitions]

I have concluded that apart from the occasional human error and IT interference (bad execution) my problems are about money management and psychology.


Decision for a more stressless trading experience: Wait until 0800 until trading, and go away at 1030 with whatever I get, earlier if target comfortably achieved

I was about 30 pips up by 1045 but 10 down after a bit of whip ................this afternoon's long trade was a nice result though, net 66.6 pips up overall

[wiseambitions]

Alex Hope, the young bloke we might once have thought was good at trading gets 7 years in the slammer

I had seen him in London as his "office" was not far from mine

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z3QPmYBtA2