Our returns for May were as follows…
May 2010 PERFORMANCE
Precision FX: +0.70%Chrome FX: -7.66%
Guardian FX: +27.3%
May Average: +6.78%
* Account Discrepancies – Again, please remember that if your returns for a given month do not match our posted returns take note that our numbers are from the 1st of each calendar month, to the last trading day of the calendar month. If you have invested in the middle of the month, your numbers may not match ours. In addition to this, if we have open trades at month end, we calculate our return on the current balance that day, NOT the floating equity. So open trades which have not realised their PnLs yet, will be carried into the next month. For certain systems we have noticed small discrepancies between large investor’s accounts (100K+) and very smaller investor’s accounts. This often has to do with the broker’s min position sizes and how they are distributed with the allocation software in our MAM. All accounts are never out more than a percent, and usually match within a fraction of this.
Our Performance Table has also been updated with the following statistics of interest…
MONTH | PRECISION | CHROME | GUARDIAN | AVERAGE | |
Dec-08 | 32.30% | 72.73% | 52.52% | ||
Jan-09 | 18.70% | -4.19% | 7.26% | ||
Feb-09 | 27.50% | 160.30% | 93.90% | ||
Mar-09 | 29.50% | 21.97% | 25.74% | ||
Apr-09 | -34.40% | 61.33% | 13.47% | ||
May-09 | 53.30% | 33.35% | 3.52% | 30.06% | |
Jun-09 | 23.60% | 25.77% | 4.69% | 18.02% | |
Jul-09 | 10.10% | 20.69% | 4.13% | 11.64% | |
Aug-09 | 26.92% | 10.77% | 4.86% | 14.18% | |
Sep-09 | -0.32% | 5.44% | 5.79% | 3.64% | |
Oct-09 | -4.26% | 20.36% | 6.55% | 7.55% | |
Nov-09 | 10.76% | -20.98% | 30.98% | 6.92% | |
Dec-09 | 9.37% | 15.94% | 10.39% | 11.90% | |
Jan-10 | 33.63% | 27.91% | 16.02% | 25.85% | |
Feb-10 | 15.31% | 14.93% | 22.63% | 17.62% | |
Mar-10 | 15.43% | -5.08% | 3.23% | 4.53% | |
Apr-10 | -8.11% | -9.43% | -0.05% | -5.86% | |
May-10 | 0.70% | -7.66% | 27.30% | 6.78% | |
TOTAL COMPOUNDED RETURN: | 754.06% | 2092.35% | 260.42% | 1035.61% | |
MONTHLY AVERAGE: | 14.45% | 24.68% | 10.77% | 16.63% | |
MONTH-END TRADING RECAP
Precision FX - Scalping was again rather challenging this month. We traded very low risk for most of the month. Right when we decided to increase risk a little we had to contend with 2 large SLs on EURUSD and USDCHF. Overall we exercised caution and restraint and ended the month close to BE but with a small profit. The market was quite tricky in May for scalping and it put our system to the test. We are quite content with the outcome and we still count this month as a victory especially with so many other investments literally folding their cards last month. Every month is not going to be a bank roll for us, but we are certainly ok with focusing on “preservation of capital” as apposed to “aggressive gains” when warranted. We are here for the long haul and need to switch hats like this from time to time if we are going to continue to live to see more months of successful scalping. For those not familiar with scalping please read the article we recently posted found here: http://cayoflow.com/scalping.html .
* Guardian FX – We are very pleased to announce that our Guardian FX system is now setup at our new brokerage in the USA and is trading wonderfully there! We lost a month of trading at SparenFX due to closing down the system there, and migrating it over to the new brokerage. It took us the better part of the month to do this, but it has been well worth it! We have two block accounts setup at the new broker now; one for international clients and one for USA clients. The system trades incredibly well there, especially the s3 single strategy on EURUSD which we anticipate trading on the account the majority of the time. We anticipate this system shall become our new flagship program in terms of sustainability and consistency, especially with recent enhancements and new trade tables incorporated for it to trade properly at the new brokerage. We strongly encourage clients who have been waiting for this system to start trading at the new brokerage to setup their accounts at their earliest convenience now that we are up and running. This is currently our ONLY system which actually thrives in unusual and volatile market conditions. As long as the markets are “moving” we can continue to profit with this system. Now that we can accept USA clients this system has become open to a wider audience, and we highly recommend this system as the first choice for all of our clients as the main “pillar” in their portfolio.
Chrome FX – Last month was the big transition month for Guardian FX, which has paid off nicely, but as of recently Chrome FX has been the account facing the most challenges and changes. We have been actively engaged with the developers of this system to have the new strategies implemented as quickly as possible. But this has proven to be a rather daunting task at times. Last month we took the system off, and had placed a “cherry picking” system on the account until the new system was ready. Unfortunately this light system ended up getting hit with a few losses which resulted in the negative month in May. Since June 1st, the new core strategy has been implemented into the accounts, however at a very very low risk setting to ensure the system is functioning properly. Thankfully it has been! However, we have been trading so lightly with it, that accounts smaller than 10K in size will not get filled with the trades until we increase the risk (lot sizing) slightly. We have started to increase this slightly now, and will continue to do so throughout this week so that all account holders will see the new trades taking place in their account.
We are very excited to see this system get off the ground here, however this is not a 100% “done deal” yet as there is still one issue in which we are sorting out with the brokerage, and that is an issue of partial position closes occurring on the MAM which we need to have the ability to do. We are waiting on our broker to have this functionality implemented and then we should have the system functioning at 100% with its new strategies fully optimized. In the meantime we are trading conservatively with the new core strategies and are at the point where we are gradually increasing risk as our comfort grows. We realise that these changes often take longer than we anticipate as there are many unknowns along the way, but we have been making this one a huge priority and is the last focus of all of our systems now. We are simply in the final optimizing stages but we are already trading with the new strategies, and are looking forward to getting this system back in black for June!
Moving forward into June – Our main focus for June is tying up the loose ends with Chrome FX so that all systems will be finished receiving their updates and changes and will be set to trade uninterrupted for a long while. Our apologies once again to our investors for the pile of upgrades/changes happening the past few months. We are working very hard to get ALL systems running smoothly like a well oiled machine so that we do not have to spend all our time and efforts and money on transitioning these. Please do not worry when you see changes occurring in the accounts in terms of new strategies as you have seen lately, and as you may continue to see. We try to explain this to all of our investors that especially with regards to automated systems, adjustments in response to market conditions are very necessary from time to time and the key to longevity. The real key is implementing them quickly and efficiently. We will be approaching the markets with a watchful eye this month to ensure we end it on a positive note again.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Option for USA Citizens - We are very excited to announce that as mentioned above, we are now able to offer our Guardian FX system to USA clients. We are trading this through a reputable USA based brokerage, but who obtain their liquidity from overseas. This brokerage looks like it may be suitable for Chrome FX to eventually trade at as well, but for now our main focus is getting the new Chrome FX running 100% smoothly at our original broker first before setting up in the USA. Right now Guardian FX is the only system open to USA clients through this brokerage. We are pleased that this is available first since in our collective opinion this is the most important of all our systems to be added to a portfolio mix. We look forward to welcoming some of our USA clients on board.
New Systems – As we continue with our R&D efforts, we are focusing very strongly on building an arbitrage system. To be quite frank, we want one of these really bad! We are now working with 2 groups and our brokerage to quite possibly have one of these fully constructed from the ground up. We are doing whatever it takes including fund raising to help with infrastructure in order to get this off of the ground. While we are a little ways away from this, we are looking forward to rolling this out eventually as one of our latest and possibly greatest products!
McLaren FX – We are now trading an old MAM of ours with a revision of the old McLaren FX strategy. The system has had a bit of an overhaul on it, and we are currently trading it with very aggressive settings. We will not be posting our returns for this system on the website, nor will it be available to the public. This will remain a private account opened only to our existing clients/IBs/partners, and those with risk capital looking for aggressive profit targets. We are targeting very high profits each month in this account. But please be mindfull of the aggressive nature of this account, and the possibility to see large drawdowns of equal size as well. This account is for the sophisticated investor, with aggressive profit targets, and trading with risk monies only. We would advise clients to be responsible with their account and portfolio management, and on the more aggressive systems like this, pull their profits out regularly and move them into more stable systems. We would be happy to advise on strategies with any of you. We have a relatively short history with the system, since it is a “modified” strategy of the original McLaren strategy and it would simply not be responsible of us to not mention this. We have been trading under the revised strategy since April 21st. The new strategy is not so news dependant, and relies more on price action which although similar in its fundamental strategy, makes it trade much differently. We recommend our clients to treat the account as an aggressive account, be mindful of their profits, and always stay diversified.
SUMMARY
We are exited to get back into the markets this month with all systems and our new broker as well. We would once again like to remind our clients that we are not going anywhere and are working harder than ever to ensure we keep an edge and remain profitable over the long haul. Because of this, we always want our investors to understand that we must treat all our systems as “annual systems”. By this we mean that we use short-term strategies for “long-term gain”. We will inevitably encounter periods of tough performance from time to time as it’s simply the nature of the beast. However year after year we are looking to live up to our lofty goals of producing well above industry average returns!
Please visit our website and blog for frequent updates and newsletters, and do not hesitate to contact us at any time should you have any inquires or concerns you would like to discuss.
Thank you to all our current investors for your trust once again in trading with us, and sticking through these transition times with us as we make adjustments to some of our systems. We look forward to making June a “full house” month of healthy profits for all of our systems.
Warm Regards,
The Cayo Flow team
