December’s $10,000 Challenge Winner
DailyFX.com -
FXCM and DailyFX are happy to announce the December 2015 winners for our $10,000 Monthly Challenge! Rosti S. took first prize with a 314% return for the month. This month’s first place finish was followed by Craig S. (282%), Virgil B.(265%), Kadry Y. (233%) and Tim H. (232%). These traders competed all month and topped a field of tens of thousands of participants to become our newest Challenge winners. Congratulations to all our winners and participants for the month of December!
The 2015 trading year concluded with gusto; December’s $10,000 contest was highlighted by a series of close finishes and featured a variety of trading philosophies at work. To find out more about December’s contest, I interviewed our 2nd place winner Craig P. Craig is a full time engineer who likes to trade as a hobby in his free time. To account for his busy work schedule, Craig utilizes the 24-hour nature of the Forex market, placing most of his trades at night. In trading at the time most convenient for him, Craig is also able to enjoy the lower volatility normally seen during overnight trading sessions.
To expand further, a 2015 DailyFX study, which reviewed 24 million trades, revealed that trading performance might vary widely by time of day. Since Craig focused his analysis and trading for December on the EUR/USD, he directly benefited from trading during the evening hours. To get a full picture of how profitability may be affected by specific hours of the day, you may refer directly to the graphic below.
Likelihood of Trader Profitability by Hour of Day in Top 5 Currency Pairs, Q2, 2014 – Q1, 2015
Data source: Derived from FXCM Inc. accounts excluding Eligible Contract Participants, Clearing Accounts, Money Managers, Hong Kong, and Japan subsidiaries from 4/1/2014 to 3/31/2015 across 15 most traded currency pairs.
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When it comes to strategy, Craig primarily focuses on finding trending markets and pricing patterns. He does this strictly through price action analysis, and elects not use any technical indicators when trading. This allows Craig to keep his charts clean, so he can clearly gauge the markets direction. When I asked about his trading strengths, Craig mentioned that he considered his ability to judge the trend as his greatest asset as a trader.
While fundamental analysis did not directly influence Craig’s trading decisions for December, he does admit that he tracks news events that may affect the EUR/USD. In his opinion, these events can influence price action in the short term, as well as develop longer-term trends for the pair. One specific event that Craig monitors actively is interest rate decisions. Going into the 2016 trading year, he thinks that interest rates will be the driving factor behind the EUR/USD and is curious to see if the ECB raises rates later this year.
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Having a solid strategy and view of the market is important, but Craig mentioned that he ultimately thinks risk management and capital preservation are equally if not more important. I personally could not agree more with this sentiment! Craig told me that he is still working on perfecting his risk management system, and in doing so mentioned that traders should not be too greedy. For him, this means knowing when a trade idea has technically concluded. By exiting losing trades early, Craig proactively tries to contain his losses before they have the potential to build.
After learning a bit about Craig’s 2nd place finish in the December $10,000 Trading Challenge, I concluded the interview by asking him what he has in store for the 2016 trading year. After finishing strong in December, Craig is excited to continue trading in the New Year. While waiting for clear trading trends to emerge in 2016, Craig plans to actively work to improve his market timing and overall trading skills. For him, this plan includes reviewing the Traits of Successful Traders E-Guide which is offered to all traders FREE from FXCM.
What is the FXCM $10,000 Monthly Challenge?
FXCM wants to thank Craig P., along with all of our December participants, for taking part in our December $10,000 Monthly Challenge. If you are unfamiliar with the contest, the $10,000 Monthly Challenge is a currency-trading contest hosted by FXCM, which gives away $10,000 in total cash prizes every month: $5,000 for the trader with the highest trading return, $2,500 to second place, $1,500 goes to third place, $750 for fourth, and finally a $250 prize for fifth place. For more information on the $10,000 Monthly Challenge and to read the rules for entry and how to win, click here.
January’s contest is quickly wrapping up. If you want to follow the action, you can view our leader board at any time. Click HERE for more details!
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