February's $10,000 Challenge Winner
FXCM and DailyFX are happy to announce the winners of February's $10,000 Monthly Challenge! February's $10,000 challenge proved eventful with one contestant clearly running away with the victory. Our winner Eduardo G. stood out among a field of tens of thousands of contestants with a return of 815% to become our newest Challenge winner! Tasha O. (468%), Tyler T. (396%), William H. (364%), and Antoine M. (355%) also had incredible trading months that placed them into our top five contestants for the month. Congratulations to all of our winners and participants for the month of February!
Past Performance: Past Performance is not an indicator of future results.
Contest winners leaderboard shows the top five contest winners and does not represent a typical contestant's return. Please be aware that trading in this contest does not guarantee positive returns. All contestants have the potential to experience losses in excess of deposited funds.
To gain some insight into February's competition, I was able to interview our second place finisher Tasha O. Tasha is an active fundamental trader who has been following markets for the last two years. She is a part time trader, who enjoys trading in the morning before her day job as a marketing project assistant. Even though trading is currently a part time hobby for Tasha, she sees herself continually learning more about markets and increasing her trading in the future.
Tasha's trading heavily relies around fundamental analysis, and believes her greatest strength as a trader lies in developing a fundamental picture of the market. This means that she actively monitors the latest news, and keeps an eye on the current week's economic calendar. For Tasha, tracking the news and analyzing market themes allows her to get a basis of the markets general direction prior to opening any positions. When asked about which events she follows, Tasha specifically mentioned reserve bank interest rate decisions. This makes sense as Forex prices typically adjust based off of changes in monetary policy. To help track all of this information, Tasha said she likes to use the FXCM mobile application, as well as read articles directly on DailYFX.
USD/JPY Sentiment Totals
Data source: Speculative Sentiment Index, Chart source: Python. Prepared by DailyFX Team
Learn more about SSI and get the Latest sentiment figures HERE
Sentiment is another tool Tasha uses in her analysis; when making trading decisions she often considers the Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI). Sentiment analysis specifically looks at what traders are trading and whether they are buying or selling the market. DailyFX.com tracks sentiment using SSI, which is a proprietary tool unique to FXCM. Typically, traders use SSI as a contrarian indicator. When a large number of positions are long in the market, sentiment traders will look for opportunities to sell. Conversely, when sentiment values are showing increased short positioning, sentiment traders will look for opportunities to buy the market.
One way Tasha took advantage of sentiment for the Month of February, was by trading the USD/JPY. As the pair declined as much as 1052 pips for the month, sentiment values consistently had readings over +2.0. Knowing this, Tasha was able to pair sentiment with her fundamental analysis to institute a series of short positions to capitalize on the move.
What are the traits of a successful trader? Learn more with our FREE E-Guide HERE
When it comes to risk management, Tasha admits that knowing when to close a position is one of trading's hardest battles. Tasha suggests that in order to handle market risk, traders should always be in control of their emotions and learn how to lose. While losing is never an easy skill to master, one way that Tasha suggests that new traders get a handle on their trading is to do a lot of demo trading. This way, traders can directly work on their risk management skills while watching the market in real time.
Now that we know a bit about Tasha's approach to the market, I lastly wanted to know what was next for her trading. Tasha noted that she is looking forward to continuing her Forex market trading. With an eye on consistency, Tasha wants to keep improving her trading skills. This way she can expand her market knowledge, while working on trading as a professional pursuit.
What is the FXCM $10,000 Monthly Challenge?
FXCM wants to thank Tasha O. along with all of our February participants, for taking part in our $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.
March'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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Unique experiences and past performances do not guarantee future results! Testimonials herein are unsolicited and are non-representative of all clients. Past performance is no indication of future results.
