Hello,

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to everyone here at the FSS forums. My job at FXCM is fairly multi-faceted. But what I love doing the most is making FSS a better and more enjoyable financial product. I'd like to make myself available to you through this forum as a direct go-to resource.

You can contact me directly at: gminnis@fxcm.com.

I also want to take this opportunity to share some of the things that I, along with my great support team here at FXCM, have been working on to improve the FSS product and experience.

In the near future, expect to see a new and improved FSS home page. It's not quite ready but I expect it to be available really soon (I'll keep you posted). Also, I plan to get some initiatives going that will really boost the value-added resource that our FSS forums offer. Once again, stay posted as they're not quite ready to roll out just yet. But I think you're going to really like the improvements.

Now, MOST IMPORTANTLY, I want to take this opportunity to ask for your help. I want your feedback in all areas relating to this product and the experience you have with it. After all, you're the user, you're happiness and satisfaction with this product is what really counts. Please use this forum as an opportunity to share with me:

1) what you like about the platform
2) what you don't like about the platform
3) what you like about the systems
4) what you don't like about the systems
5) what you like about the forums
6) what you don't like about the forums
7) what you like about our training videos
8) what you don't like about our training videos

The list could go on and on. The point here is, let me know how you're feeling. Share with me what you love about this product and where you see room for improvement. Are you learning much from the currently available forums? Or do you wish to see other topics covered? Are you happy with the live support FXCM offers FSS users, or do you want more assistance in certain areas. Once again, anything and everything of relevance... please share it with me.

I can't stress enough, I'm on your side here so use me as a resource. I guarantee that I'll do everything in my power to utilize your constructive criticism to continually improve on the FSS product and experience.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to talking with you all very soon.

Sincerely,

Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com

I think it would be nice if the Forex sytem selector platform could tell you what the mouse is over.

As an example when I look at the trading station I can hover my mouse pointer over an object and a tiny box will pop up telling me what that object is.

I noticed that the system selector platform does not do this. Otherwise its great. Keep up the good work guys!

MichaelFXSlayer,

Thanks for the feedback. I assume you were referring to the FXCM Trading Station II having a mouse-over feature?

Tradency took a different approach when designing the FSS WebClient. Instead of using mouse-overs they have small "i" icons next to the different features of the platform. If you click on the "i" icon you'll get a description of that feature. I assume they took this approach so a more in-depth description and/or explanation of each feature could be provided.

Had you not noticed the "i" icons before or do you simply prefer the mouse-over feature?

I click on the performance page and it says the page is not available. I am unable to check out the systems. Here is the link to the performance page.
http://fxcm.fx-performance.com/Defau...ng=2:1&filter=

Hello 4xis2ez,

Thank you for posting this information. When I clicked on the hyperlink you provided, the performance page loaded for me without a problem.

Try this link, http://fxcm.fx-performance.com/

If that link above doesn't work for you, please let me know which internet browser and the version (ie Internet Explorer v.7.0.5730.13) you are trying to access the performance page from and I'll do a bit more research for you.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

- Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com

This is what my browser displays when clicking the link you provide. I use IE8. It does the same thing on Firefox.

4xis2ez,

Thanks for the additional information. When you have a chance please also include the version of Mozilla Firefox that you are using. I'd like to see if we can pin this down to a specific web browser version.

Just to let you know, when I first told you I could access the performance page without any problems, I was checking the site from my office computer. I tried again this morning from my home computer and ran into the same error messages that you posted (it is worth mentioning that I was on the phone with some employees from my office at that same time, and they could access the site without a problem).

My home version of IE is 7.0.5730.11 and my co-worker (who got on without a problem) was using IE 7.0.5730.13. I'm doing some more research for you now to see what might be causing this problem.

In the meantime, I want to make sure that you are aware that you can see the exact same performance results from your FSS account. For example, you can log in to a live or demo FSS account and click on the "Performance" tab at the top of the webclient. The information is identicle to the performance page data. Hope this helps for now.

I'll be in touch,

Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com

I am having the same problem. Firefox updated this week. Wonder if that could be anything to do with it?

Thanks for your responses and feedback regarding the FSS Performance Page. Please keep me in the loop if these issues surface again.

- Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com

1. Allow the Max Positions by system to be changed
2. Allow the defualt Max DD to be changed overall or by system. This would allow a user to lower the short term risk and minimize the Max DD.
3. Allow drill down querying, i.e. similar to ebay where you can search within a search.

Thanks

Moorelw,

Thanks for the feedback. Allow me to address your points individually.

1) Allowing the user to define the maximum number of positions traded has both pros and cons associated with it. The pros are obvious; you can limit your exposure and potentially your risk. Obviously, this increases the number of systems some clients are able to consider (when considering capital limitations or possibly, risk tolerance).

The cons are not as obvious, but they are certainly worth addressing. The main problem with allowing the user to control the total number of positions traded is that it can drastically affect the actual performance of the system you are using (to learn more, read Jeremy's post, found here, on this exact topic).

However, you are certainly not the only user that has expressed an interest in this feature. Because of that, I'll keep all options on the table and see if we can't find a reasonable solution for this request.

2) I can't say that I understand your second point exactly. Maybe you can clarify a bit more. The maximum drawdown simply expresses the largest peak to valley loss (in pip terms) the system has experienced for a given time period. This data is based off of the trades placed by the system and has nothing to do with user defined data.

3) If I understand your recommendation correctly, then let me say I'm right there with you. This is a feature I have been dying to see implemented on the FSS webclient. Essentially, you're looking for a way to "filter" the systems, not just sort them. Right?

If that is not what you meant, please let me know (I can't say I spend too much time on eBay to know exactly what you were referring to). However, this is something that is at the top of my list to get changed. Please make sure to let me know if you have any specific features or ways to go about doing this. I'll take a look at how eBay does it to get some ideas.

All the best,

Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com

By the way,

I wanted to make sure that everyone has seen the new FSS home page:

http://www.fxcm.com/forex-system-selector.jsp

There are some great new features on the site that I hope you'll all enjoy. Please make sure to let me know what you think of the site and resources provided.

New features include:

Top Performing and Top Added Systems - this is a great new feature we added so you can always stay up to date, quickly, with exciting systems. Top performing will give you a quick look at which systems have had the best return in pips (for the time frame you have selected). Most popular will be updated on a weekly basis and will fill you in on which systems are currently being used the most on live accounts.

Request Help - this section makes it really easy to get in touch with one of our FSS specialists. If any of you are having a hard time deciding which systems to go with or have any general questions about using FSS, feel free to request a call. My team is happy to follow up with you.


All the best,

Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com

2)

For most trades I change the stop loss by 100pips. i.e. usually 300 to 200. It would be nice to automate this. Yes this would stop a trade before it can rebound but it would minimize the Max DD.

Moorelw,

Now I understand what you are looking for. And unfortunately that's probably not a feature that will be added to the webclient. Let me explain why as this is VERY IMPORTANT for ALL FSS USERS to understand.
Many clients constantly search for ways to limit risk when using Forex System Selector (which is highly advisable, by the way). Some individuals prefer to limit the maximum number of positions that a system can trade. Others, like yourself, would like to automatically have their stops or limits adjusted to reduce the potential loss on any one trade (thus decreasing the overall MaxDD).

Finding ways to limit risk is extremely wise. However, I want to make it very clear,the way in which you are trying to limit risk can only provide minimal results. To better explain why, consider the following points:

1) Individuals select systems based on the system's performance results
2) FSS performance results are accumulated from live trades placed on a demo account since the day of inception.
3) A system's performance results could be (and most likely will be) drastically different if the parameters (stops, limits, early termination, etc) of that system are altered.

I hope these points help to shed light on why adjusting the systems away from the way they were designed, will almost always not be in your best interest.

Going forward, the proper way to limit risk is to do one of the following:

1) Keeping all other things constant, increase the funds in your account so that the drawdown (in percentage terms) is smaller. If this concept doesn't make sense, go back and re-read my 3 points outlined above, specifically point 1. Didn't you chose the system in the first place based on known past performance history?

2) If you are already maxed out on the amount of capital that you can dedicate to Forex System Selector, you simply haven't found the right systems yet, and need to keep searching. Your problem might be that you're trying to make a system that requires $20K in capital work on a $2K balance. No matter how hard you try, the risk is probably way too much for your capital limitations - PICK ANOTHER SYSTEM.

In closing, I've never found a situation where the following correlation doesn't hold true.

AS PROFIT POTENTIAL INCREASES SO DOES RISK

It's important to not get sucked into a system simply because it has spectacular returns. Returns only tells you a small portion of the story. To get the returns you have to be comfortable with taking on the risk as well.


All the best,

Gavin Minnis
gminnis@fxcm.com