Oh, the challenges of being an algo trader. While I have mentioned a rough June so far, algo trading involves minimal effort on my part. Besides shuffling some money around, I mostly sweat when there is some drawdown. With the last half of June being a vacation, I am trying to make decisions to avoid “BIG” sweats while gone. As part of this plan, I am doing what I can to avoid big bites from the drawdown demon.
I may not have been so careful if Dalio had not been in a drawdown before my wife and I left. In that sense, I am grateful it scared me before the trip rather than during. The success of my strategy will only be confirmed after we get back, but this is what I am trying.
- I don’t want to jeopardize the rhythm of any existing “riskier-pairs” trades the bot is involved with. The 4-5 Forex pairs considered risky are now off “auto-resize”. This caused me to put them on “fixed” with the same lot size they had while on “auto.”
- My two new bots will go dormant. Since Stable and Turbo Trend are within the same account at OX Securities, the funds can easily be moved. They have only been trading a couple of weeks. When “auto-trading” is turned off within MT4, I should have a small gain when the open trades are closed.
- Once “auto-trading” is turned off, I must move the funds to the Dalio account. I do this from my OX security account.
- The margin will immediately rise once the transferred funds arrive in the Dalio account. The bot will know the new funds are there. But because I took the risky Forex pairs off “auto-resize,” Dalio will still trade these pairs as if the new funds were not there. The Forex pairs on “auto-resize” will have their opening lot sizes raised. Hopefully, this should keep the account healthy while I am gone.
I am still weighing whether I should trust my gold bots while I am gone. I am leaning toward lower lot sizes, but I have not decided yet. If I knew my bots better, I wouldn’t worry as much. Maybe next summer…
