Total Balance 372 pips down

Firstly my dear readers, I apologise for keeping quiet during this down period.

To tell you the truth, once I saw the DD getting bigger I decided besides looking at my end of week email I will not be checking my account and let it play alone. When I saw last week the email with 710 pips down I didnt even know if the position had been closed. Was that suicide?

On Thursday I checked the account for the first time and saw that the position opend on 26.01.09 had been closed on 05.02.09 with 1195 pips in minus, that is a loss of $1'334.18. Since then FxMarkets has been at work and has returned 376 pips worht $414.09, which still leaves me with only $579.17 in equity.

With two weeks left of Febuary, I could break even by the end of the month...

Did FxMarkets learn from his mistake and is trying to remake his wealth? Should I trust him again, or find another provider. The truth is, I am extremely busy this week so I dont have now the time or mind to look for some one.

Your comments are welcome, thank you Jorge, Scott and Take for commenting during my "absence". Yes, I did fall prey to FxMarkets roller coaster. Jorge, I will look at your formulas when I have a claerer mind. Looks promising. Thank you.

Total Balance 710 pips down

FxMarkets has finaly closed the open positions with 1200 pip in minus....

Dear xxx,
Your Zulutrade™ account xxx is 710 pips down this week (1/30/2009 - 2/6/2009). Loss in USD: ($788.31) (includes open positions)

Keep in mind the loss (788.31) is from my total capital not from this trade alone!
What happened to FxMarkets? greedy? Or he believed he couldnt loose?

Total balance 399 pips down

Drawdown has started. Here the email from week 23.01.09 -31.01.09

Dear xx,
Your Zulutrade™ account xxx is 399 pips down this week
(1/23/2009 - 1/30/2009). Loss in USD: ($446.77) (includes open
positions)

Just after calculating I should be trading only FxMarkets. Its the begining of the end for FxMarkets.... we should have closed the position.

FxMarkets alone would have given better results

I currently have max trades set to one, but have three providers to choose from; FxMarkets, Scalpers Group and GBP$. I therefore dont get all the first trades of any, since I might be in a trade whilst the other is placing a new one.

Last week I posted about my next step; to change max trades to 2 but to remove all but one GBPJPY trader and add for example Aradi forex.

I therfore began to analyze which provider I should keep. Currently I have three; FxMarkets, Scalpers Group and GBP$. I therefore manually calculated which trades since 01.01.09 I would have caught if I had used only one provider. As I anticipated, GBP$ lost with only 256 pips, second came Scalpers group with 491 and the winner was FxMarkets with 837 pips.

What suprised me is that with my combination of three providers I only made 755 pips (besides the unfair loosing trade), which means I would have been better off having chosen only FxMarkets. I thought perhaps since I had my loosing trade open almost a week it dragged my pips down; I thereore looked again with trades only since 13.01.09 and the reults are as follows; GBP$ 75 pips, Scalpers group 354 pips, FxMarkets 662 pips and myself I made 644 pips.

I must keep an eye on this, but it might be worth scrapping my three providers and keeping only FxMarkets. and certainly if I want to add another (non GBPJPY) provider and change settings to 2 trades.

But who should I choose? GuruFx is already Characterized as risky and the DD of Aradi forex has grown to over 380 pips on a trade, besides he has now 316 pips DD but I didnt check to see if it is one or more trades.

Total balance 447 pips up

The past week was very good with FxMarkets and Scalpers Group working hard selling the GBPJPY at the right time. Trades were fairly short and there is no trade open now.

Your Zulutrade™ account xxx is 447 pips UP this week (1/16/2009 - 1/23/2009). Congratulations! Profit in USD: $504.06 (includes open positions)

As of last week I was breakeven, and now I back into profit. (Zulutrade mentions $504.66 but it is actually only $499. They failed to include the spread/roll on two trades.) Lets hope trading continues like this.

wishing you all
Many Happy Pips to come

PROBLEM UPDATE: trade executed correctly?

Zulutarde is claiming that my trade was actually left open by FxMarkets and there is no error on their part. The loosing trade is now in the preformance history as hitting the SL. When they agreed with me that the trade was left open and had been closed by FxMarkets it was a software glitch which blocked them from seeing open trades, but it was really still open on FxMarkets side aswell. And the closed trade we saw in FxMarkets history was a second trade open in the same minute but this was actualy closed with 16 pips profit.
After reading my email reply below which is within the email text of zulutrade, please let me know which version you believe. I have no solid proof and I might have to give up the fight but besides the $500 lost, I have bad feelings trusting them with my money if my assumptions are correct. Lets hope they are correct and I was unlucky.

Dear Zulutrade,

I will respond within your email on the points you mention and then afterwards I will continue my comments. Only 2 days ago you explained the problem being caused by timezones problem. How can it take over two weeks to realize there were "two trades" on the same minute and mine was the unlucky one?
Please read it all through.
thank you.

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:41 AM, zulutrade support wrote:
Dear xxx,
Yes, we admitted we do have a problem and the same as you we though that the trade of 14:20 has already been closed.
However as it turned out later the problem was not in missing signals, but there was a glitch in our system due to which we could not see the open positions of a signal provider as mentioned in previous email. Neither our staff, nor the clients. That is why this confusion took place.

I am sorry but in my first mail I mentioned I checked the Excel sheet of
FxMarkets and saw the closed trade with the SAME provider ticket of 11.633... I also checked the dropdown and chose FxMarkets on the "positions" tab in my acount and I saw OTHER live trades but no trade opened on 31.12.08 14:20 so I did not suffer from a glitch and I saw clearly a live trade closed with the same provider ticket and other live trades not closed.

As we could not identify a problem at that time because it has never happened before, we assumed the same thing as you did because we saw the closed trade which has opened exactly at the same time as your trade did. However when our technical department started analyzing the issue together with FXCM (because they informed us that they will take responsibility if the signals were missed), we found out that none of the signals were missed and that FXmarkets sent two signals at the same time 14:20 (2:20 pm or 9:20 NY time). One has been closed at 16 pips profit, the other has closed when it hit the stop at -487 pips. Please check signal provider's history page more carefully. There are two trades executed at 14:20, not one. But because of the glitch in the system our staff could not know that at the time.

I dont know if there were always 2 trades from the same minute, but my trade was the one which closed correctly in profit since i have the same provider ticket... please check my email from whislt the trade was still open.

And it is not correct to say that fxmarkets has never let the trade to go
up to 271 pip profit.

I mentioned FxMarkets doesnt let the trade get to 271 in PROFIT, not in DD. When ever he had such high profits it was closed shortly later at the most 104 pips away. Ofcourse in DD he goes even further then 271, and even further then 487 pips and would have gone over 700 pips and not let the trade close in Loss.
He uses a trailing stop or something like that and wouldnt have let the trade reach such high profits and then go back again into minus.

Please check his history page. Sometimes he opens short term trades, sometimes he leaves the trade open for a week with a huge drawdown, but closes the trade in a big profit. He likes to place 2 trades at the same time,

FxMarkets is a responsible provider and doesnt leave a trade in 270 pips profit to go into minus again, He always takes profit much before reaching 270 pips anywayTrades which are opened together by FxMarkets are closed almost together, he just waits for a retracement.

so now we are aware of this and will be more careful when a person gets in contact with us claiming that his position has been closed by fxmarkets, but appears open in zulu from now on we always check the provider tickets of the trades instead of looking at the times of open trades

and that is exactly what i did, checked the provider tickets and not the time, and my ticket matched the closed trade

and will check the open positions of a signal provider with technical department in order to avoid such misunderstandings. If you know any person whose trade of fxmarket (31/12) did not close after 06/01let us know, because we did not have any complaints about that. Everybody have either closed their trades manually earlier thinking that the trade appearing in fxmarket's history is their trade and avoided further losses, in other accounts the trade has been closed by the stop value of a signal provider.
We appologize for inconveniences. In any case after analyzing everything carefully we do not see any reason for a refund as the trade has been executed correctly.
Kind Regards,
ZuluTrade.com
Customer Support
48 Wall Str.,New York NY 10005, 10th floor suite

So my dear zulutrade, lets sum it up:

• I saw FxMarkets other live trades when you say there was a software glitch which prevented checking open trades.
• I checked the provider ticket of closed trade in the excel (which has since been removed) and compared it to my provider ticket on the open trade FxMarkets is a responsible provider and doesnt leave a trade in 270 pips profit to go into minus again, he always takes profit beforehand anyway
• What a coincidence that just that trade which is mistakenly "thought" to be
  closed is one out two from 566 FxMarkets trades which are closed in loss, when this problem has no connection with it being a loosing tradeTrades which are opened together by FxMarkets are closed almost together, he just waits for a retracement.
• Only 2 days ago you explained the problem being caused by timezones problem. How can it take over two weeks to realize there were "two trades" on the same minute and mine was the unlucky one?
• Why have you removed the Provider ticket from the Excel sheet? It was very useful to identify a trade.

I therefore feel something is missing in this issue which doesnt let me understand your reasoning.

Thanking you in advance I am awaiting your feedback.
kind regards
xxx

PROBLEM UPDATE: a bombshell

This is a suprise to say the least. They are claiming now the providers trade also got stopped out and was never closed in profit. I am 100% sure this is not the case. (I apolgise the trades data in zulutrades email is not very clear. in my email it was in a table)

Dear xxx,
Your request for a refund has not been confirmed. In signal provider's account the trade has been closed by stop:

LIVE2008/12/31 14:20SELLGBP/JPY132.849 2009/01/06 09:06137.715
271-487-72-487.0 pips-$5,267.66
In your account:
FxMarkets 12/31/2008 09:20 SELL1GBP/JPY132.8012009/01/06 08:32137.715264-491-491.0 pips-$526.47

Signal provider GBP/JPY FxMarkets 12/31/2008 2:20:25 PM 1/6/2009
9:06:03 AM 132.849 137.715 Stop Hit
User GBP/JPY FxMarkets 12/31/2008 9:20:19
AM 1/6/2009 8:32:03 AM 132.801 137.715 Stop Hit

The trade has been closed by the stop of a signal provider in your account as well and we do not find any technical issues. Your signal provider has sent 2 signals at the same time 14:20 UTC (2:20pm UTC or 9:20am NY time that you see on your broker's report), you can see both of these trades in the history of signal provider and the provider tickets for the trades match 11.633662864032423648, so the trade has been executed correctly. The closing time differs as the broker is more accurate in price flactuations and closes positions more precisely than we close in signal provider's account (as he is not linked with the broker).

The problem that we were experiencing at that time is that we could not see open positions of signal provider from live accounts and we had some time zones problems (the opening time of the trade in your account has been taken from FXCM when we normally use UTC time). However it is fixed now. The closing reason we see on our system is STOP HIT for both - your and signal provider's trades. As we see now FX markets is putting unreasonably high stops in order his trades not to close when the stop is hit and he leaves the trades open for few days and eventually closes them in profit, but with a big DD.

In any case we do not see a technical problem or missed signals in your case.
If there are any further questions do not hesitate to contact us again.
Regards,

this is what I replied.

Dear Zulutrade,

I am shocked. Clearly your records have been manipulated.

I saw on the trades of the signal provider on the web, I saw in the Excel sheet of his trades, Rasa from zulutrade chat agreed, you agreed in your first emails that the trade was closed in profit. 16 pips to be exact. You agreed you have to investigate why my trade, and others, were not closed together with the signal provider, you even added the provider has so many users.

Friends in the blog sphere have also mentioned either their trade in the demo was not closed and one guy closed it manually after realizing the providers trade was closed already. Never ever has FxMarkets allowed a trade to reach 270 pips in profit or even close it to it. It does not make sense, and after seeing earlier different records I just don't believe it.

Could you please give me a phone number of the person responsible who also knows about the trade and the problem.

thank you

My dear Bloggers, perhaps I will need your help...

Is there by any chance anyone whos trade closed succesfully with a couple of PIPs profit?