March's $10,000 Challenge Winner
FXCM and DailyFX are happy to announce the winners of March's $10,000 Monthly Challenge! March's $10,000 contest came to a dramatic conclusion, with our winner Conrad T. beating a field of tens of thousands of contestants with his return of 1,100% to become our newest Challenge winner! Desiree B. came in second with a commendable 580%. This was followed by a close 3rd place finish with just 1% separating 3rd and 4th place. In the end Hui J (385%). narrowly beat out Henry C. (384%) to finish in third. Finally Jeffrey A. came in 5th with a 375% return. Congratulations to all of last month's winners!
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 March's competition, I was able to interview our 1st place finisher Conrad T. Conrad has been an active trader in the Forex market for the last 10 years. To date his trading has been strictly a hobby, as he primarily focuses on his career as a Chef in Las Vegas. However, with his recent successes he is looking to put more time into his trading, and his strategy development. For him this includes signing up for FXCM's ATG program to take advantage of DailyFX's exclusive trading services.
When it comes to trading, Conrad's specified that he only focuses on US Dollar based pairs. In March specifically, his main focus was on the USD/CAD and NZD/USD. In order to get an opinion of the market he first looked at previous highs and lows to help determine price patterns in the market. He then mentioned employing both the MACD and RSI indicators in his trading. Both of these indicators are considered momentum oscillators and are generally used to help determine the markets general direction.
What is next for the US Dollar? Get our DailyFX Dollar forecast HERE
While Conrad does not specifically consider himself a fundamental trader, he does track the news. Knowing that market volatility normally increases during news events, part of his strategy relies on waiting for the initial surge in volatility to die down, then trading the market after a new directional bias has been formed.
Percentage of Profitable Traders by Average Effective Leverage
Data source: FXCM accounts excluding Eligible Contract Participants, Clearing Accounts, Money Managers, and Hong Kong and Japan subsidiaries from 3/1/2014 to 3/31/2015.
Note: The dollar value of losing trades may exceed the dollar value of winning trades. Additionally, it is important to weigh the relative risk and reward of every potential trade before entering the market.
After learning about Conrad's trading style, I asked him if he had any tips for new traders. His first piece of advice was to learn how to effectively manage leverage. This is an important step for any trader because leverage has the ability to multiply your profits as well as potentially increase your loses. To help traders learn about leverage DailyFX did a study on the Traits of Successful Traders. After reviewing millions of trades the study showed that as effective leverage increases, winning percentages typically decrease.
In addition to managing leverage, Conrad also mentioned that the mental aspect of trading is just as important as analyzing the market itself. For him this means controlling his emotions and never getting deterred by a series of losing trades. He noted that after a loss (or several), it can be easy for a trader to give up on his or her trading plan. As his second piece of advice, Conrad instead suggests that traders should take some time away from the charts, to re-evaluate their trading plan. This time away from trading can help traders clear their thoughts and come back to the market later in a better state of mind.
Learn more about other traits that make a successful trader, Register for our free E-Guide HERE
So, with March's contest now in the history books, I finally wanted to know what Conrad was trading for the month of April. He mentioned that he is still actively trading US Dollar crosses, and working on simplifying his analysis. By keeping his trading simple and focusing on the five main US Dollar based pairs, he is expecting to have another exceptional trading month.
What is the FXCM $10,000 Monthly Challenge?
FXCM wants to thank Conrad T. along with all of our March 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.
April's contest is quickly wrapping up. If you want to follow the action, you can view our leaderboard 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.
Source → March�s $10,000 Challenge Winner
