Alan’s Money Blog

FXCM just released the July 2008 edition of their monthly managed accounts review. The following topics are covered in this edition:

Topics:

• The Performance and trading activity of FXCM’s four Managed Account Programs:
  Sentiment
  Sentiment Aggressive
  Short-Term-Opportunity Aggressive
  Dynamic Multi-Strategy
• Comparing program performance to the stock market and examining a currency account’s place in developing an investment portfolio.

I am mainly interested in the performance and trading activity commentary so I’m going to reproduce only this more relevant content. In case you’re curious, I happen to be invested in FXCM’s Sentiment Aggressive managed forex account. Ok, let’s see what FXCM has to say about the performance of their managed accounts:

Sentiment Programs

In the month of June, the Sentiment Program ended the month at 0.28%, while the Sentiment Aggressive Program finished at ‐0.59%1. While the ranging pairs ended the month profitably, the trending component struggled, particularly due to GBPUSD and EURJPY, both of which were in a very volatile range for much of the month. The USDJPY, which was the best performing trending pair last month, was the best performing ranging pair, and best performing overall pair this month.

Short‐Term Opportunity Program

The Short‐Term Opportunity Aggressive program posted another profitable month at 3.9%1. Once again the short‐term ranging component outshined the others, with its most profitable trades taking advantage of the sideways volatility in USDJPY and GBPJPY. While the breakout component was also profitable, the long‐term component drew down moderately, with the worst pairs in this component being GBPUSD and EURUSD.

Dynamic Multi‐Strategy Program

The Dynamic Multi‐strategy Program finished the month slightly negative at ‐0.11%1. There was a clearly defined segmentation as the more trend focused components drew down, while the ranging and breakout components performed well. As with Sentiment, the best performing pairs were the GBPJPY and USDJPY. Similarly, the worst performing pair was the EURJPY, as it was not able to take advantage of the ranging conditions.

If you wish to read the full report or are interested in the additional commentary please click this link to download the PDF document (opens in new window)