Another round of OctaFX Champion demo contest is over and we are happy to announce the winners! Here they are:

• 1st place with the award of 500 USD goes to Mr. Alexander Lukyanchikov from Ukraine
• 2nd place with the award of 300 USD goes to Mr. Zainal Abidin from Indonesia
• 3rd place with the award of 100 USD goes to Ms. Zunairoh Zunairoh from Indonesia
• The last runner in the contest, Mr. Alfredo Martinez Martinez from Spain is granted 100 USD

What strategy to choose? Is it a bad idea to put all eggs in one basket? Should you choose a single currency pair or to trade with a few of them? Can an old dog learn new tricks? Is the risk inevitable in Forex? If you are ready to get the answers to these questions, read the success stories of our winners:

1st place - Mr. Alexander Lukyanchikov from Ukraine

Thank you for congratulations! I’m happy to share my contest experience. Have you seen my avatar? I’ve been using it for a few years. It shows the goal that I was pursuing: at the beginning, I was looking in the mirror; now I’m looking out of it. I achieved one of my life goals and I’m happy. On July, 2nd, I’ll turn 65. Thanks to OctaFX, I made myself an anniversary gift. Judge for yourself: my Ukrainian pension equals to $51 a month. It’s a bit more than $600 a year.

I’ve been trading for 8 years and now I’m sure that choosing one currency pair is much better than watching a few pairs’ trends. If you work with just one currency pair, all your funds are localized, it’s easier to manage and control them. However, it may conflict with the idea not to put all eggs in one basket. My strategy is not that good with the sideways trend, but it was perfect with the May AUDUSD trend. In the second part of the contest I started making mistakes, so I tried hedging, and when I realized what my mistake were and I got profits.

I don’t spend all my time using this strategy: when I can’t predict the further movement, I wait for a couple of days to see the trend clearer.

The key factor of my success can be perfectly described by a quote by Mark Douglas:

“When asked for their secrets of success, they categorically state that they didn't achieve any measure of consistency in accumulating wealth from trading until they learned self-discipline, emotional control, and the ability to change their minds to flow with the markets. First, I want to point out that self-discipline, emotional control, and learning to change one's mind after making a commitment are all psychological issues that have nothing to do with news services, advisory services, new exchanges, or technical or fundamental trading systems - computerized or not. Second, from my trading experiences, observations, and research, I have discovered that all traders - both winners and losers - seem to share some very common experiences. Either in the beginning or at some point early in their trading career, all traders experience confusion, frustration, anxiety, and the pain of failure. The few-traders who pass through this phase to accumulate wealth are those who eventually confront and work through some very difficult psychological issues about what it means to be a trader, and this process of realization and change normally takes several years, even for the best of them. … There is some element of truth to the saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, except that it should really read "An old dog won't learn new tricks". It's not that it is impossible for someone regardless of their age to learn something new; the issue isn't ability.”

2nd place - Mr. Zainal Abidin from Indonesia

I am very glad to get second place this time, all my efforts paid off! Time that I use to trade is around 3-4 hours per day. I try to be as disciplined as I can without to much greed. That's the key to my success. And the strategy that I use is SR and MM. I've been trading for about 2-3 years and I am determined to improve my ability to be better. Thank you, OctaFX, for already appreciating my trading skills!

3rd place - Ms. Zunairoh Zunairoh from Indonesia

I’m happy like never before! It’s great to become one of the winners. I didn’t spend too much time trading but, anyway, I was deeply involved. Now I’ll take a short break and won’t trade for some time not to dull the edge of the winner’s pleasure. Then, I will surely go on competing again. I firmly believe that it’s experience that teaches us to be better and to do better. Preferably, 3 years or more - that’s enough to become quite a pro in trading. Experience and patience are the key elements in successful trading. As far as my experience says, the existing Forex data doesn’t necessarily affect the chart, so my advice is not to believe the data blindly. This strategy has always helped me, especially when I got 100 pips in a single transaction.

The last runner in the contest - Mr. Alfredo Martinez Martinez from Spain

I plan to considerably improve my performance in the next round of the contest. I learn a lot when I trade, so this time I learned that it’s rather dangerous to trade with the high leverage, especially if it’s all about the highly volatile assets. Anyways, to win the contest, you have to accept this risk, and risk means losses but also higher gain. Very large gains are needed to qualify for any prize position in the contest.

I didn’t use stop loss this time in hope that the asset would spin in my favor, but the trend was the opposite. As the leverage was very high, it was really quick. This is a contest, so I didn’t lose any real money; I became the last runner which is not so bad considering the prize. So this contest, is anyway, worth accepting the risk. No risk - no gain.

During the contest, I was continuously monitoring the market with periodic checks (every 3-4 hours). At first I got very good yields, but at the end of the first week my balance turned negative. However, my most successful operation was Buy with EURCAD. My favorite tools were Crossing Moving Averages and Awesome Oscillator.

I guess time is different for each person and their circumstances, but I’ve been trading for two and a half years trying many things, and I think I'm close to being a good trader. Now what I need to do is to trade for some time on a demo account just for the sake of practice.

Feeling inspired? Register in the upcoming round and become one of OctaFX Champions!