So here are the links to my May results for my Forex and Gold trading services.

Forex Trading results for May 2021
​Gold Trading results for May 2021

Below are company results too for May 2021 as they provide trading signals for customers too.

(Please note - this is my chosen methods and what I’ve done and works for me – its not what you have to do!  Everyone is different and will approach the same topic differently.)

(note: complimentary blog post on this topic is How to use margin % as a guide and tool.)

Automation trading is great, but we will still need to take an active role in understanding what are accounts are doing so we can make our money work harder for us. However, this does not have to be hard and requires a few educated tools to have at your disposal to know what to do when you need to do something.

• Understand your Margin Level % and know your drawdown
• Know when you need to start considering your options
• Know what options you have to choose from 
• Decide which is right for you.

So, to help show these steps lets make up a scenario.  The scenario is that your MT4 says the following (this is an example)

• Balance – 3262
• Equity – 1774
• Free Margin  - 1594
• Margin Level (%) 969
• Margin 183
• There are 12 trades on. They are all sell trades with varying LOT sizes
• Drawdown – 1478

- (Please read my blog post on understanding your MT4 app to know what this information means.)

Understand your Margin Level % and know your drawdown
So you wake up in the morning and you see these figure.  How do you interpret them?  Your first key figures to check are:

• Drawdown (about 45% of the balance)
• Margin Level % - 968%

What do these numbers tell me? 
Well first they help me get clear on the health of my account.  The Drawdown tells me that if I closed all the trades right now, that would be our loss, 1478.  It also tells us how much active money is being traded in our account.  The Margin Level % tell us about how much capital we have left for trading. The higher this number the great capital is available. It’s worked out by dividing Equity by Margin.  (1774 / 186 x 100).  

So 968% suggests we have a good amount of capital available to set further trades if we need too.  With a comfortable 968%, I’d be watching my trades now, and just keeping an eye open on what is going on but not taking any action.  

Know when you need to start considering your options
So, let’s say the drawdown deepens and my margin level % falls to 700% and there isn’t a clear direction where the market is going.  I’d start to feel like I just need to pay more attention to this now and start to feel like I need to think about my options.  
This can vary from person to person.  In the beginning I started to consider my options closer to 1000% but with education and a stronger mindset to trading, I’m comfortable at getting to 500% before I consider my options.  This part is up to you! What we are doing at this point, is getting ready for taking action on our automation account (if we need too).  Ideally, we want the automation to take care of itself but it’s important to stay on top of its activity.
Its also that this point that many start to question the intent of the automation and the professional traders and it’s a natural emotional progression because we see activity going one way and we seemingly are going the other but we aren’t the professionals, we don’t see what they see. 

Know what options you have to choose from
So, our margin Level % is falling.  Our balance is also falling – things look concerning!!  You are not sure what the outcome is going to be, and you certainly don’t what a margin call on your hands. So what options are open to you.

a) You can add more capital.  A quick and simple activity to help raise your margin level % and give you more space.  To protect your account raising your margin level % is a good option for you.

b) You can close a trade.  I’ve done this move because I didn’t want to add more capital and chose to take a loss on an old trade which I knew would take ages to get back too.  Doing this raised my margin level % and helped my account.   Which trade to close depends on several factors but when I was deciding I was prepared to sacrifice old trades so I looked at them and you could take out a higher LOT size trade with a small loss and help release more margin level %.  Higher LOT sizes hold more margin so another useful option when considering closing trades.   You can close more than one trade if you want. Its just takes some decision making on your side.

c) Reduce your overall risk by reducing your LOT size.   This is also an easy adjustment to make but its one I tend not to choose but I share it as an option.  You see with automated trading the likelihood of going into a grid strategy is higher, so we use the larger LOT sizes to help us cover any loss of small lot size trades.  When you see it in action, its pretty cool!  Large lot sizes are a short-term goal to help accumulate profit to cover loss of other trades and to at least break even or close in a profit.   I’ve seen a number of grid strategies come into play and I’ve always broken even or come out with a profit.  It feels like a cleanse when you see a load of trades close on your account! You are then excited for the next chapter of trading.

d) If you have another trading account – transfer additional money (in the short term) from it if the margin level % on that account is healthy and comfortably over 1000% and you are not seeing any heavy market changes in the short term.  I have moved money between accounts when margin on one account was low.  Its quick and the transfer is immediate.  You can always put it back once the margin level % releases back to a healthy level again

Decide which is right for you.
My commentary above are just options.  You can do whatever you feel is right for you, but these are options that have worked nicely for me and helped me deal with the couple of moments of automated trading where you need to take a bit more interest in your account and be prepared. I’ve used 3 of these options.  I hope to discover more as I get better at this.  Ultimately it helps the ‘emotional’ part of your trading journey.

Good Luck.
​(The commentary I write is not financial advice, it is meant to help others with their self knowledge and growth).

Its been a quiet week on the trading from for R2D2 and that's mainly because of the time of the year and avoiding any volatility but last night the traders saw an opportunity and it paid off!!  This morning I saw this beautiful profit on my MT4 app.  I was very excited and its moments like this that I  love automated trading.   Nice christmas present there for sure! xx

I'll share a more detailed note in my R2D2 results but I just had to give this trade a bit of its own glory on my blog.

​These are my own results.  Returns are not guaranteed and any capital is at your own risk.

A great open discussion about IX Global's key products, R2D2 & C3P0.  A more indepth overview to help you see what is going on in the background and how it is serving IX Global customers.  Gold is a key discussion in this interview.

I'm excited to go into Year 2. 

So, this title is inspired by a comment I had on a post from an Mr. A Pessimist. 

I’d like to thank them for their comment because its comments like this that help me drill deeper into helping people see the power of automated trading service for those that are truly skeptical, like Mr. Pessimist.  His comment reflects probably a large percentage of people who remain skeptical of other ways to earn an income outside of the traditional l banks, saving plans, pensions and financial tools. All tools I have in my financial kit too because they are worthy services.  His comment also reflects the negative press forex trading gets which is heavily created by the ridiculous claims that are often shared or people with images of fast cars and tonnes of money.    So, I respect his opinion and I hope that he finds the answers he’s looking for. 
 
The opening sentence was ‘Losses after losses?’  They punctuated it with a question mark, so here is my answer.
In this year of trading I’ve had 2 losing weekly moments.  They just happen to coincide with one another in the same month.  The first one was the US General election (US$31) and then I lost my profit earned from the month of November (US$141).  At the point of the loss my profit was actually up at US$119 so it had been a great month.  This loss was caused by a technical glitch which has now been resolved.  IX Global worked super hard to turn this around and given that I know the teams I was pleased to see the action taken quickly and the communication of the error being spoken about. There was nowhere to hide so it had to be addressed with the many IX global customers.  A bit like when TSB had  IT issues with customers bank accounts.  Technical glitches can happen. 

What I lost was profit not capital.  In my opinion that money was not real to me unless I had wanted to withdraw it from the account.  What I lost in Noember was a percentage gain which equated to 3%.  Overall, since my account started I have earned well over 50% over and above my capital.  Which is far more than my bank or current retirement plans are earning me.   Yes, forex trading is riskier, but the returns are far more lucrative.  If you can be emotionally detached from your trading, then you are 80% there.  Initially I was bothered by the loss, but when I put it into prospective, I found calm in my head.  My rational:

1.  Its 3% of the account.  When I’ve gained over 50%, over the 2020 annual period. We must look long term when we are trading.
2. Forex trading is risky.  You must know that and be prepared for what could happen and learn to detach yourself from the trading activity.  One of the pillars of trading is ‘risk management’.  The majority of the time we ahve really good weeks but we must be prepared for weeks with losses.
3. Trust the team doing the trading on your behalf.  It’s in their interest too, to have a successful algorithm and decision making otherwise their business model isn’t worth it!  Get to know the brand and the team.  Look at their historical results. It doesn’t guarantee future profits but it’s a healthy insight into the phycology of the company.
4. I lost profit, not capital. I’d be more upset if my capital investment had been compromised.

Their next sentence: ‘Why are you getting people to sign up to this’.   Also finished with a question mark, so here is my answer to that part of the question.
Through my blog I’m sharing my trading journey.   I openly share my results, learnings and answer questions so that those curious can get a real picture of what its like on a weekly basis.  I remain open, honest and transparent about my results because at the end of the day this service is riskier than guaranteed profits return you would get through other financial tools and I want people to see if for what it is. 

This is also an industry that is completely alien to a lot of people who have been taught that we should be saving money and using banks, ISA’s and retirement tools that guarantee income.  These tools offered by banks and financial institutes also use the forex markets to make money from your money invested.  They are doing it, why can’t we!  Deutsche Bank is the world’s largest foreign exchange dealer with over 21% in market share.  Another reason I hear often is forex trading is just for the rich people and not acceptable to the ordinary person in the street.  Its not acceptable to the ordinary person in the street because its not offered to them as an option. Its also presents itself as a walled opportunity.  Only open to those that are math whizzes and those that have a ton of time to read charts.  Automated trading gives you an option to tackle these two issues and get yourself into an industry which could make you a good return!   People make their own decisions based on their own due diligence if this is right for them.  I share my journey as evidence of what automated forex trading can bring them.
 
The last word, ‘Scam’.
Well that is an opinion and if I’m part of a scam then I’m very confused by the success and results of some of the other IX Global customers.  I’ve connected with many customers to share forex questions, insights and experiences. Each week these customers rave about their returns and share the glory of their money growth because they are more than delighted with the results so far.  I see them posting their results on Facebook and happily express to world another great way to earn a passive income and really feel money abundant.  IX Global is changing people’s lives and that is exciting too watch and see.  I’ve also been a customer for a year now and if I hadn’t been seeing my capital grow, I would have stopped this journey a long time ago.  Its been worth it and I’m very excited about 2021.
​
Mr. A Pessimist, thank you for your comment and thank you for helping me think about your post and adding more clarity around the opportunity for forex trading. Its been a pleasure.

Merry Chirstmas to everyone at IX Global, all my forex friends and Mr Pessimist!  

This afternoon I signed up to the C3PO - Gold automated service offered by IX Global.  A few hours in and we are up US$9.  I'm so excited about this new service and watching it over the next few months!  

​Caroline is a respected money coach and has been in the financial industry for 20 years. She's has helped many form a better relationship with their money. She started her forex journey back in July 2019. She started with using trading alerts and quickly migrated to the automated trading service provided by IX Global. In this interview she shares her journey, her challenges her learnings and she advise to those thinking about considering forex automated trading services to help them towards residual income.

Yes you can increase or decrease lot size.  eg.  if you start with 1000 then the lot size is set at 0.01 and when your equity rises to 2000 then you can increase to 0.02.  As the equity in your account increases you can increase your lot size.

If you withdraw funds from your account then it is important to decrease your lot size too.  This ensures your capital is managed with the appropriate leverage and you are adhering to good risk management guidelines.

Risk management is an important pillar in trading and its important that one understands this.  Alot of people lose money with forex trading because they have over leveraged their trading account and are risking too much of their capital on trades.

I've seen this a number of times now when people send me their screen shots of their MT4 app and its very upsetting to see this.  When you don't adhere to proper risk parameters many find themselves where their trading accounts just bleed money.  If you are risk averse then this is also an important pillar to learn.