(From 4K to 4250, annnnd back again !)

So, here we go again…

The week before last I launched a new variant of an algo that I’ve been working on for sometime.

Built to exploit the Gold (XAUUSD) market it’s a cheeky little piece of code that’s designed to pick up on high-volume high-momentum moves.

In fact there’s two of them; one designed to run the long-side, the other the short-side.

I do this as I’ve discovered that the two sides of every market behave very differently: In this case up like a feather and down like a brick as I like to say.

Last week wasn’t the best as the whole Gold market was pretty rangy, opening at around 3980 and closing around the 4005 handle, with much volatility and a weekly low circa 3930 in between.

Despite this the both algos were quite active and I closed out the week some 6.2% up.

Yeah, happy with that…

This last week however was another story entirely, opening at 4K we saw a ton of big moves both long and short, which is exactly what this generation of algos are built for.

>>> Full weeks game-play, dashboard and chart below >>>

So Gold opened the week at 4K and immediately started to rally.

Thankfully I remembered to boot up the servers so I was riding the wave right from Sunday’s 22:00 GMT open.

As a result I woke on Monday to a healthy profit. Nice !

Monday closed out at around 4125 with several realised long profit trades already in the bank.

Then came Tuesday… Hmmm, seriously sideways…

All algos hate that condition; they try, but just get whipsawed in and out, over and over, so a minor loss set against the previous days profits.

Wednesday: Much the same throughout the Asia and Euro sessions. I played along anyway.

Wednesday lunchtime: Ah, the yanks are back in the game, and we see a 4100 low rally through to a 4200 high in pretty much one big move on the US open.

Blink and you missed it !

Thankfully, algos don’t blink !!

Thursdays Asia session didn’t really know what to do with that, so they did pretty much nothing.

Europe woke up and we saw a steady rally into the 4250 weekly high handle.

Then, the yanks… Yeah, they woke up Thursday really pissed about something and clearly had other plans for the day…

Enter the slide back to the 4150 handle – perfect for the short-side algo to kick in and bank some Benjamin !

The long-side algo simply shut down, not giving back too much profit, but this coupled with the Tuesday and Wednesday ranging Gold market meant that although still in profit I was somewhere below where I wanted to be at that late stage of the week.

From here my servers were pretty much just sitting idle, biding their time from Thursday’s US close until Fridays EU open when my short-side algo kicked into gear at the 4200 Apac session high and went to work.

And boy did it ever go to work ! 

…Here’s Friday’s Short-side dashboard…

Yup, that 7 trades and and damned near $5,300 – In just Friday’s session !

And here’s the day’s chart…

Check the balance at the bottom

I carried a 4% short-side profit over from the previous week (the long-side carried over around 2.2%) but this week the Short-side really shone closing out at  $12,156.25 or 12.16% !

So…

You can see from the bottom of the chart that this short-side algo closed itself out with an account balance of $112,156 / 12.16% over 2 weeks.

I did good !

To be fair I was already having a good week, but having separated my algos into long-side and short-side operations, acting completely independently of each other, I’m able to optimise each algo to the point where they can engage and disengage themselves at will depending on the underlying market conditions – even in a fast moving, Trump driven Gold market.

The results are clear; they’re good… They’re very bloody good !!

Mail-order anyone ?

Now these algos don’t just arrive by post (if only !).

No, they are the result of many, many hours of observational analysis, conducted by me.

I ignore the hype.

I don’t take “tips” from other “traders”.

Hell, I don’t even believe what I see, hear or read in the myriad of financial news outlets !

Nope. Instead I do things the old way, the structured way, the methodical way, because it works !

I develop MY trading strategies – and subsequently MY algos – based on WHAT i CAN SEE.

Based on my analysis.

Based on my charts.

But you said 14.6%….?

I know… I know…

I did say my long-side ops took a bit of a hammering during the Tuesday/Wednesday ranging…

And yes they took a further hammering as gold took a nose dive on Friday…

At one point my long-side ops were up around 5%, which I’d have been happy with for the week.

All things considered, the long-side ops got out at a net profit of 2.44% – which in itself would not have been the worst week I’ve ever had at my desk !

So add that 2.44% to the astonishing 12.16% my short-side ops returned, and, well, there it is.

Want me to help you level up YOUR trading ?

Charles is a Professional LEI Registered Prop Trader, a Full Partner at TradingHUB Codex LLP & Certified Coach with over 12 years professional experience.