Now Available at Attain — Forex Trading Systems !
March 27, 2006
You have begged, pleaded, and demanded Forex trading systems for most of the past two years. But despite the gaining popularity in online Forex trading - there were not many developers catching onto the trend and developing Forex based systems. Sure, you could trade system like Dollar Trader or Aberration in the Forex market - using their signals on the futures markets and executing in Forex. But Forex traders wanted systems that actually operate on Foreign Exchange data.
And we have wanted to provide you with Forex systems to trade. We just could never find anything worthwhile, and that was taken by many to mean we didn't believe in Forex trading. Now, don't get us wrong; Attain still believes allowing people to open online Forex trading account with a credit card for $500 should be illegal. But there is no denying the gigantic size and liquidity of Forex or the potential for profits in the often wild swings currency markets make.
Well, hopefully the old saying about good things coming to those who wait applies to Forex Trading Systems, because we have finally put all the pieces together in regards to Forex trading systems, and are now trading Forex based systems on behalf of clients. A table showing the hypothetical performance of our top rated Forex systems is below:
Hypothetical Model Account Performance using Computer Generated Fills:
Why the long delay from Attain before launching Forex trading systems. There were several issues to overcome.
1. Lack of clean data - The biggest problem for Forex trading systems was the data. Each firm, or dealer, makes its own bid and offers, meaning each dealer has a different price history. That's quite a problem for trading systems designed to operate on one set of data. The dealers also didn't have much interest in saving their past data, meaning reliable backtesting data was hard to come by.
2. Need 24 hour trading desk - one of Forex's strengths (24 hour trading) makes it very difficult on brokerage firms to execute it for clients. Keeping a professional staff on hand overnight was not cost effective for Attain, meaning it would be too costly for the client.
3. Inability to cross margin with Futures Accounts - a great FX system doesn't do much good if you have to split up your equity and send part of your money to an FX firm and part of it to a Futures clearing firm. Most investors prefer to park their excess funds in T-Bills on the futures side, something not readily available to Forex accounts.
4. TradeStation issues - a final problem was that TradeStation, the platform of choice for trading system developers, uses only bid prices for its Forex prices, and has no utility for levying pip costs for slippage and commission. Where would one get filled using TradeStation data but another dealer's pricing?
Attain Solutions:
So, what exactly has changed to allow us to offer Forex trading systems to our clients in the past few years? Well, for starters, Attain can now back test Forex trading systems over the past 3+ years. While, we would typically like to see a larger sample size, 3 years of data provides us with a reasonable amount of data to test systems across, and is a big step up form the data available just a short time ago.
Second, the quality of trading systems available to trade has increased significantly with well respected developers like Lincoln Fiske, Don Ostrowski, and John Watters offering systems through Attain.
Third, Attain's introducing broker relationship with Peregrine Financial allows Attain clients to hold money in segregated futures accounts, while using those funds to post margin for their Forex account. This creates a simple and more secure account structure for trading futures and Forex systems in tandem.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, Attain has partnered with an Institutional Forex trading desk which allows us to trade systems at the "true" spreads offered by the major banks. 1 Pip in EUR/USD for example, instead of the 3-5 pips retail traders execute at online. This partnership has also allowed us to execute system orders 24 hours a day, around the clock.
Attain Forex Trading System Benefits -
1. Ability to auto-execute Forex based Trading Systems 24 hours a day
2. Ability to cross margin futures equity and Forex trading account.
3. System orders executed at "true" spread on institutional platform.
4. Access to top rated Forex Trading Systems.
What is FOREX?
FOREX or FX simply refers to transactions in 'foreign exchange', where one currency is exchanged for another currency at a certain "exchange rate". Anytime you go overseas or "exchange" currency at the airport, you are trading Forex. Forex trading is buying one currency and simultaneously selling another.
For example, you could buy 1 Euro for $1.20207 USD as of 7 PM EST today, and several hours or days later sell back that 1 Euro for $1.20307, making $0.0010 US Dollars. As you can see, the movements in foreign exchange rates are minuscule on a single dollar basis, thus trading is usually done on a minimum basis of $100,000. In a $100,000 'lot', the profit on the above trade would have been $100.
Foreign exchange trading is done across any and all currency combinations, but most of the volume is on the so called 'majors', which are the cross currency rates between the United States dollar and the: Japanese Yen, Euro, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar, British Pound, and Australian Dollar.
Talking about the "FOREX Market" is a bit of a misnomer, as there is no actual Forex marketplace. You can not visit the Forex exchange as you can the Chicago Board of Trade or New York Stock Exchange. The Forex market is comprised of hundreds if not thousands of large banks, institutional investors, and investment houses. This "large money" has been at the Forex game for decades, assisting governments and large corporations in exchanging foreign monies into domestic currencies, but it has largely been the realm of $1 MM plus accounts.
Hurricane FX -
The first system Attain has begun trading for clients is the Hurricane FX system. Hurricane is a swing trading system which operates on the usually volatile "Cable" spread, or British Pound - US Dollar cross exchange rate. Attain has been monitoring Hurricane since the end of 2005, and took our first live trades this month. The system has done well so far, making $810 in its first full week. The system's hypothetical performance report is below.
IMPORTANT RISK DISCLOSURE
Futures based investments are often complex and can
carry the risk of substantial losses. They are intended for sophisticated investors and are not suitable for
everyone. The ability to withstand losses and to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading
losses are material points which can adversely affect investor returns.
Feature | Week In Review | Chart of the Week |
Feature | Week In Review | Chart of the Week |
***Overview***
Stocks were very slow last week ahead of Tuesday’s FOMC meeting. Most traders expect the Fed to raise interest rates ¼ point this week, but most chose to stay out of harm’s way last week seeing as how this is Ben Bernanke’s first meeting as Fed. Governor. For the week, SP futures fell -0.35% and NASDAQ futures were down -0.41% both on light volume. Smallcaps picked up some of the slack with Russell 2000 futures climbing +1.31% and SP Midcap 400 futures pushing +0.38% higher.
In commodity trading the energy markets were range bound with Crude Oil, Unleaded Gas, and Heating Oil prices all ending the week unchanged despite a big sell off and subsequent big run up. Natural Gas futures did pick up some ground gaining +3.45%.
Metals pushed higher with Palladium rallying +4.47% higher, Platinum up +1.70%, Copper +1.46% higher, and Gold s climbing +0.97%. Meanwhile, grains continued their descent led by the wheat markets which saw CBOT wheat prices drop -4.20%, KC Wheat prices were down -4.08%, and Minneapolis Wheat fell -3.32%. Corn (-1.24%) and Soybeans (-0.48%) also traded lower. Finally, the meat markets were mixed with Live Cattle falling -1.25% and Lean Hogs rising +0.82%.
In currency trading the Greenback made a comeback last week gaining +1.31%, while the Swiss Franc fell -1.71%, the Japanese Yen was down -1.51%, and Eurocurrency fell -1.39%. And just like the stock markets US Bond futures ended the week virtually unchanged ahead of the FOMC.
***Day Trading***
S&P futures traded sideways last week with a trading range of just sixteen points. Trading activity was extremely light with the exception of Tuesday when S&Ps traded up near yearly highs only to sell-off sharply down to the weekly low. The Russell and Midcap provided some better opportunities than the S&Ps and Nasdaq but overall the results struggled across all stock index futures, both foreign and domestic.
Several systems made it through the week near breakeven after merely testing the waters with one or two trades. BetaCon ESX had one trade last week for a small loss of -10€. Impetus eRL had one trade from Wednesday that lost -$10. Bounce eMD MOC went long on Wednesday and lost -$250 on the trade. SPMD went long on Monday on a little bit of early market noise and lost -$300 on the trade. .
Another group of systems were more active last week and saw moderate losses. Epsilon 12/12 Bund lost -330€ on five trades. Theta Dax had five trades as well that lost a total of -362.50€ for the week. RC Success ES was more active than usual with four trades and lost -$445 per contract.
Elsewhere, BetaCon Dax had one trade that lost -512.50€. RC Success eRL took a step back last week with losses of -$850. Beta v2 Dax had a total of four trades for a loss of -1,225€. The system can take up to two contracts per signal depending on the market conditions. R-Mesa SP had three trades for a loss of -$1,566.67. Finally, Compass had two long trades that resulted in a loss of -$1,675.
***Swing Trading***
Last week was the time for this year’s rookies to shine – out of 20 active systems the top 3 performers of the week came from our 3 newest track records.
Topping the list was the Ping Systems portfolio which earned +$1,225 for the week – the portfolio has had a fantastic start to the year and is currently earning 43.8% or + $13,140 per 30k invested. The Athena eRL system also had a good week earning +$1,200 – the system is up 7.4% or $740 per 10k invested for the year.
Also topping last week’s returns was the latest addition to the Attain suite of systems - Hurricane FX (see below for more information). The Hurricane system locked in closed trade gains of +$810 trading the "Cable" spread in the Forex market.
Other weekly index results included the following; Axiom eRL +$720, Tzar NQ +$140, Tzar ES +$7.50, Delphi eRL -$220, Bounce eMD -$250, Tzar eMD -$300, Delphi eMD -$367.50, Axiom NQ -$490, Eclipse eRL -$910, Tzar eRL -$980, Axiom ES -$1,097.50, and Axiom eMD -$1,719.10.
Bond and Crude trading were mixed for the week- Mesa Bonds gained +$187.50, Mesa Notes added +$62.50, while Jaws Narrowneck Bonds lost -$1,150. In the Crude prices held steady for the week resulting in a loss of only -$60 in open trade equity for Axiom CL 90 and 135.
***Long Term***
It's in trend following systems nature to look for the “Home Run†trades in the markets they monitor. After all, these systems are designed to let winners ride while cutting losses short. Even the best long term systems are going to have marginal winning percentages, so the key to success is making sure the system you are trading is catching excellent long term trends when they present themselves.
For example Live Cattle futures have fallen over 16% since their January highs and has been a great downward trend for systems like Aberration which is making +$3210.00 per contract (open trade), Trend Simplicity which is making +$2320.00 per contract (open trade), and Axiom LT which is making +$3210.00 per contract (open trade).
Another market with a great downward trend is Cotton which is down over 11% since early February. Systems with short trades on in Cotton include Axiom LT which is making +$1315.00 per contract (open trade), Andromeda which is making +$675.00 per contract (open trade), Brix which is making +$3,500 per contract (open trade), and Aberration which is losing -$200.00 per contract (open trade).
Markets that traded against trendfollowers last week include Bean Oil which has fallen nearly -9% after rallying earlier this month. Systems wit stopped out long positions include Aberration which lost -$1214.00 per contract and Andromeda which lost -$756.00 per contract.
Please Login to: http://www.attainaccess.com for the latest updated statistics.
IMPORTANT RISK DISCLOSURE
Futures based investments are often complex and can
carry the risk of substantial losses. They are intended for sophisticated investors and are not suitable for
everyone. The ability to withstand losses and to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading
losses are material points which can adversely affect investor returns.