Some weeks everything seems to go your way. It’s true in Forex trading, and it’s true in building the first Forex trading social network. This week at Currensee towers, we’ve been ringing the bell big-time. On Tuesday, we announced our $8M B round of venture financing and the news got picked up all over the media, on Wednesday, our CEO Dave Lemont was on Bloomberg TV, on Thursday we had the biggest daily influx of members in our history, and today we held a webinar with Fox and CNBC guest analyst Bob Iaccino.
Check out our clip from Bloomberg TV’s InsideTrack show with Sara Eisen.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
In business school, we used to say “B’s make degrees” but in the startup world, we don’t settle for less than A’s, and a B round of venture financing makes a lot more than a few degrees of difference. With $8 million in B-round financing from North Bridge Venture Partners and Egan-Managed Capital, we’re going to be able to do a lot more for our trader members, our investors and the Forex world. Here’s our top three:
Accelerate our expansion around the world. Forex is a global market and we’re going to be a global business.
Develop Currensee Market Watch™ and other proprietary social indicators. We’ve been working on the first real-time social sentiment indicator that shows what traders are doing based on actual trades, which will also include advanced data options, such as real-time market depth, and new customization features. You’re gonna love it.
Drive the Currensee Trade Leaders ™ program. The financing will allow us to increase the velocity of the Trade Leaders Program, the first Forex social trade automation service that allows traders to follow the most successful Trade Leaders in the Currensee platform and create their own Forex investment portfolios.
This is no Oscar, and we’re certainly not going to rest on our laurels, but we do need to thank our members – especially the early ones – for being there and giving us feedback and encouragement (and sometimes that other stuff too), and making the community happen. You’ve told us how much you like the Currensee trader network and platfor and that what gives our investors confidence. In the words of our CEO, Dave “El Capitan” Lemont,
“The Forex market is ready for change and we are now in an even better place to accelerate our international expansion and product development to bring that change to the market. We continue to bring trust and transparency to Forex traders around the world and we’ve already seen broad traction from the traders who have joined our trading social network over the past year. We are ready to advance the platform, take the trader network to the next level and become the primary destination for Forex traders.”
Watch this space for more exciting news.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Six months later – and six months is a long time in startup years – we’re back at it again, this time at the International Traders Expo in New York’s Times Square (the most Vegasy part of New York) We left the spokesmodels at home and spent the raffle money on rum & diet coke chocolate babka, but we got a lot more attention. People came to our booth already knowing about us or at least having heard about us.
I’m sure I’m missing somebody but here are shout-outs to some new and old friends we met up with: Jamie Coleman of FXLive, Maud Gilson from FXStreet, author Curtis Faith, David Kaplan from FXCM, Marilyn McDonald from IBFX, Betsy Waters from DBFX, Currensee member Brian Johnson from FXIntel, Elissa Fulop from Gain Capital, Ryan Sindelar from NinjaTrader, Currensee member Clair Wyant from IntegraFX, Todd Hanson from Live Trade Signals, Markus Heitkoetter from Rockwell Trading, and our new bestest drinking buddy, Matt Vann from MediaCougar. Don’t worry Matt, those pictures are totally not on our company intranet.
We gave away hundreds of Trade Leader superheros and talked up the Trade Leader program with novices and experts alike.
What seemed like a slightly wacky idea in Vegas – a social network for Forex traders? Traders willingly sharing information?? - was natural and normal in New York. And New York is a much more skeptical town. In fact, people with background in other asset classes seemed to be flocking to the Forex scene. As much as we’d like to, Currensee probably can’t take much credit for an uptick in interest in Forex, but we welcome it and we think we can help make Forex more welcoming to newcomers and more interesting for old-timers.
So where will Currensee be in another six months? I haven’t checked the tradeshow schedule, but I bet we’ll be in a lot more different places than we are today. There’s some good news I can’t talk about yet coming out next week, and lots of growing excitement about both the Forex trading social network and the Trade Leader program, too. Happy trading, everybody!
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Our sunny CEO Dave Lemont sat down with the smart peeps over at StartUp Beat for a lightning round of early-stage Q&A about Currensee, our business model, our markets and our trader members, which was published today on their site. They didn’t let him go over easy, and asked some hard-boiled questions. We’ve poached a couple for you here:
SUB: Sharing trading tips and strategies on a social networking platform seems somewhat counterintuitive, on the surface. What is it about your site that encourages people to collaborate?
Lemont: Something we continue to hear from traders is how lonely Forex trading can be. We have a video series that profiles “Life in the Basement” and how Currensee changes that world for Forex traders. Traders are looking for ways to connect with other traders in a trusted way. The forums and discussion boards are often plagued with traders talking a big game but it can be tough to know who to trust. Currensee is all about real traders and real trades in real time, so you have a clear picture of the other traders in the network. We also hear frequently that Forex traders have a hard time knowing how well they are doing. It’s easy to burn out when you don’t have a strategy that you can measure over time. We give traders the ability to set their strategy—actually as many as they’d like—and measure themselves over time. It’s the best way to see what’s working and what’s not and it’s an excellent way to connect with other like-minded traders. We are excited to be the place where Forex traders can meet, collaborate and make decisions in real-time. It’s all about making more informed trading decisions and we are happy to be at the forefront of this new, transparent world.
SUB: What are some of the challenges you’ve found in running a social networking site that brings together people from 64 different countries?
Lemont: By its very nature, Forex trading is an international business, and since the Forex market never closes, it is very exciting to maintain a global community that is active 24/5. We are really facilitating communication and transparency between traders from all corners of the world, and I think it’s interesting that a trader in Michigan might find that they share the same trading style as a trader in Okinawa, Japan. Currensee’s model makes it easy for like-minded traders to connect, regardless of geography, by providing a network where they can chat about their trades in real-time.
Be sure to check out the full Currensee CEO interview and Currensee company pitch at StartUp Beat.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
As Currensee Trade Leaders, experienced Forex traders can attract and acquire trade “followers” from the fast growing Currensee trader network and be compensated for trading without the tedious effort of recruiting customers, managing money and reporting results.
The Trade Leader program is a great fit for traders who are confident in their success, open to the transparency of real trade performance and looking for a way to be compensated for trading successfully without all of the administration and effort.
So if you think you can trade Forex and you think you want to be compensated for trading success without a lot of administrative overhead, we think you should apply to become a Currensee Trade Leader!
We are now more than two weeks into the new year and the currency markets remain rangy and searching for a trend. This goes not only for the USD but the Euro, Gbp and Yen which have all been oscillating in ranges thus far. Is this really all that surprising? Probably not given the issues on expected global banking regulations, global tax hikes, the slow G7 economic recovery and the US health-care/political landscape. Toss in a few holidays and many of us can’t wait for these ranges to give way and for the next trend to develop.
Others may not agree though. Some would argue that knowing levels that will act as strong support and resistance or finding divergences is far more important to a trader. For example if you dive into the Strategy section on Currensee the ‘MACD Strategy’ works off 5 minute charts and uses MACD readings for signals. It doesn’t get much more straightforward than that and it has been able to boast positive return since May, 2009.
Others would prefer to scalp the markets and not worry about whether we are trending or oscillating. Just looking at the cumulative return of the ‘Channel Scalping’ strategy used by one trader does not show the entire picture of this strategy. Digging deeper shows that when this trader is scalping EUR/GBP on a 5 minute basis it reveals a 77% win-to-loss ratio. The return is a handsome 13.6% as well. This isn’t the only currency pair that shows strong win-to-loss ratios for this trader as AUD/USD, USD/CAD & USD/JPY all boast ratios of over 50%.
Still others may prefer trends and being able to buy the dip or sell the rally with confidence. I have a daily model that I utilize for EUR/USD; it produces a signal about 2/3rds of the time and utilizes very simple inputs to receive its signal. It went from Long to Neutral in early December and has been idle ever since (snooze). Back in the Strategy section though shows that others have been able to produce models that are a bit more active. The ‘Simple EMA Cross EA’ utilizes 30 minute time-frames and is being used, profitably, on the 4 major dollars.
Interestingly the top performing currency pair in the ‘Simple EMA Cross EA’ happens to be GBP/USD. The length of the average trade is just under 1 hour and it has widely outperformed EUR/USD in closed P&L.
I’m sure though if you or I looked for strategies that favored another currency such as the Yen there would be strategies in the Strategy section on Currensee that are worth taking a look at. This may be of interest for those that trade during Asian hours or want less sensitivity to economic sensitive news (with zero interest rates).
Point being that if you are trying to build a model of your own or just trying to find the right currency pair to trade then you may want to dig a little deeper than scanning the targets and cumulative returns. Sometimes not all currency pairs trade in a similar fashion therefore finding the right pair for you may make all the profit and loss difference in the world.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
2009 has been an amazing year for Currensee and our community. We started the year with a handful of employees, a great vision, funding from our investment partner North Bridge and not much else. We’re entering 2010 with over 20 employees and over 2,000 members of our social trading network many of whom are logging into the platform every week and every day. Hundreds of our members have now made purchases in our new marketplace helping Currensee to continue the support and development of our free collaborative platform.
We’d like to thank you all for being part of what we celebrate as this year closes. From those early adopters who struggled through our first “dashboard” to those who have recently joined and quickly become part of our community – you are all part of our success. We’ve enjoyed speaking with you, listening to you, and integrating your suggestions along the way. We look at the Currensee site today, and although it largely looks like our original vision, we’re excited that it’s incorporated the vision of so many of you as well.
As we look forward to 2010 we’re excited report that we are just at the beginning! So many innovative new developments are in the works; from collaborative charting tools, to creating your own special interest groups inside of Currensee, to the ability to see who the top traders are and follow their trades.
Please keep sharing your feedback with us, telling us what you like, telling us what you’d like to see and helping us to spread the word about Currensee. We are steadfast to our vision to build the largest global social trading network where real traders can meet and collaborate on real trades.
Together we can continue to change the Forex trading world with transparency, authentic information and the fun of trading together!
Happy New Year!
Dave and the whole Currensee team
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Today we announced Forex expert, author and mentor, Shaun Downey, is joining the Currensee trading social network team as our Chief Market Analyst. Shaun brings a wealth of Forex trading experience to us and our trader network and, in addition to being an active member on the Currensee platform including sharing his strategies, discussions and polls, he will be writing market commentaries, trend topics and blog posts to bring Currensee social analysis and data to the outside world.
If you haven’t read Shaun’s bio, it’s pretty impressive. He started trading at the age of 16, accomplished a litany of impressive positions with top-tier firms and shares my passion for boating, which I couldn’t appreciate more.
If you’re a member of Currensee, go ahead and send Shaun an invitation to be trading friends. Not a member of Currensee? What are you waiting for? Go ahead and join the Currensee trader network.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
I love to see partners, like IBFX, putting social media to work for Forex traders. Today, IBFX announced a pretty cool new Facebook app that they’ll be showcasing at the Traders Expo in Las Vegas later this week.
According to the press release, “Available through the Interbank FX Facebook page, this new application will facilitate Micro Mini Challenge participants to connect with Interbank FX and their fellow traders through Facebook—allowing winners to tag and share their photos and winning certificates.”
The Facebook app is a great idea. Why? Well, Facebook is all about leveraging your social graph, an intricate map of how people are related (socially, that is). People typically connect with other people on Facebook based on a common thread. For some it might be friends they went to high school with, others might be family dispersed all over the world, still others business groups and colleages. That’s the power of a social graph. It can combine all of these different people based on how they’re related. These IBFX traders all have a few things in common – 1) they’re Forex traders 2) they won this contest and 3) they use Facebook. The idea of giving these traders a fun and unique way to communicate and collaborate is what makes social media such an exciting strategy for brokers and financial firms alike.
“Our Micro Mini Challenge is a fun way for traders to engage in friendly competition,” said Marilyn McDonald, Vice President of Customer Experience at Interbank FX. “We at Interbank see the growing trend for traders to incorporate social media into their trading strategies, and we’re excited to facilitate a social connection between our Micro Mini Challenge participants and our Facebook page.”
We are excited to have hundreds of Forex traders and members as Currensee fans on Facebook and an integration with Facebook in the Currensee dashboard. It’s an exciting way to connect with other Forex traders and we give the new IBFX app two thumbs up.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
In this guest post, Currensee welcomes Tim Mazanec, CMT, a 14 year veteran of the foreign exchange and global markets. Tim combines technical, fundamental and flow analysis to develop his forecasts and Forex trading decisions.
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Monday marked the 3rd consecutive Monday that US equities opened the week on a strong note with the last two Monday’s seeing a surge in equity prices. Currency traders are well versed though that EUR/USD has only partially kept pace as it continues to trade around the 1.50 level. This begs the question of whether or not we are starting to see a divergence between traders in the stock market and in the currency market?
A quick check on Currensee on Monday afternoon shows that 61% of EUR/USD traders remain Short this pair. Their average entry price is 1.48323 stating that they expect this upward move in risk-taking to dissipate. If you take a look at one of the stock market bell-weathers, GE, you’ll find that there was a 7% decrease in shorts this past week. So at first glance there is a divergence in what Currensee and equity traders are thinking.
Those not willing to be long EUR/USD or those that are more risk averse have more than a few economic indicators that they can point towards to support their case. These can be found easily enough on Currensee’s Economic Calendar on the Research Dashboard. Consider last week’s US Treasury budget. Within the budget it shows the monthly federal withholding taxes that are deducted from everyone’s paycheck. The beauty of this figure is that it is an actual figure. It is not derived from a survey and not subject to revisions and/or changes in benchmarks. The data shows that individual tax receipts were down 22.2% y/y in October. That is the lowest monthly figure since May 2004. Normally the months of Sept. & Oct. are “incoming” season for the Treasury due to tax extensions but when comparing this Sept/Oct to last year it was even worse at -30% y/y.
Of course these figures more closely resemble the current 10.2% unemployment rate rather than the improved NFP figures. That said the US economy remains reliant on the consumer after all and less income (lower taxes points to less income) and fewer jobs may equate to a subdued economy ahead.
As we alluded to though more a few traders, especially equity traders are a little more bullish. If the global economy is getting better then more investors may not only be willing to put risk back on but also go back into the buy-and-hold strategy that we used to be accustomed to. If you go back to the Economic Calendar on Currensee’s Research Dashboard you’ll notice more than a few economic indicators that are due this week. They range from CPI/PPI to Capacity Utilization midweek before finishing off with the latest Leading Indicators and Jobless claims. Improved economic figures may help build confidence for equity traders to remain long ahead of potential profit-taking season.
Of course Bernanke threw his 2 cents in on the dollar on Monday but that was literally it as within his 6 page speech there were literally 2 sentences that touched on the Dollar. Not exactly enough to frighten one out of a position either way. Very much overshadowed by Bernanke was Bank of England’s Sentence, who suggested that ‘the impact of (their) interest rate cuts are only just being seen’. You could have seen this on the Thomson Reuters IFR squawk Box (that can be found in the Currensee Widget Gallery) as his suggestions would have been harder to notice without this widget.
Either way there are enough arguments on both sides of the debate to keep bulls in one corner and bears in the other.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Currensee is the first social network for forex traders. We bring Forex traders from around the world together to make trading decisions in real time using live trading data.
Lemont: Something we continue to hear from traders is how lonely Forex trading can be. We have a video series that profiles “Life in the Basement” and how Currensee changes that world for Forex traders. Traders are looking for ways to connect with other traders in a trusted way. The forums and discussion boards are often plagued with traders talking a big game but it can be tough to know who to trust. Currensee is all about real traders and real trades in real time, so you have a clear picture of the other traders in the network. We also hear frequently that Forex traders have a hard time knowing how well they are doing. It’s easy to burn out when you don’t have a strategy that you can measure over time. We give traders the ability to set their strategy—actually as many as they’d like—and measure themselves over time. It’s the best way to see what’s working and what’s not and it’s an excellent way to connect with other like-minded traders. We are excited to be the place where Forex traders can meet, collaborate and make decisions in real-time. It’s all about making more informed trading decisions and we are happy to be at the forefront of this new, transparent world.
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