Leading Currency Trader is #7 in Entire Contest!

The leading 3 contestants in the currency trading contestant are still holding onto their top spots. Edward Burke currently has the highest portfolio value, overtaking Chi Ming Wong, who was the leader on the Wednesday. Carols Godfrey is holding on tight to his number 3 slot.

Edward's scalping approach continues to be the key to his success. Over the past 24 hours, he has made more than $30,000, bringing his total portfolio value to $342,411. Not only is he the leader in the currency trading portion of the contest, but he also has the 7th highest portfolio value in the overall contest. Edward trades only the EUR/USD and the GBP/USD and 3 minutes was the longest that he held onto a position yesterday and that was only on 1 out of his 87 trades. Edward comes in with size but he only has one position on at a time. His holding pattern is anywhere between 5 to 180 seconds which is only really feasible if he uses 1 click execution.

Chi Ming Wong, who currently ranks number 2 lost his top spot by being short AUD/JPY. He initiated a large position in AUD/JPY 4 minutes before the Australian Trade Balance numbers. Given the sharp drop in Australian service sector PMI a few hours before and the decline the decline in manufacturing PMI Monday night, it appears that he was banking on some weak trade numbers. Unfortunately the data was right in line with market expectations, leading to zero reaction in AUD/JPY. Instead of closing the position, Contestant number 2 held onto it until after the US non-farm payrolls report. His portfolio value is $311,967.

Contestant number 3 on the other hand is slowly closing the equity gap between himself and the two other leaders. On Tuesday Carlos Godfrey's portfolio value was 50k less than the leader and as of last night, it was only 40k. His portfolio value is currently $302,719. Like Contestant number 1 most of his wins were also in the EUR/USD but unlike Edward, he holds positions for hours rather than seconds. He went long Euros a few hours after the hot Eurozone PPI numbers. Judging from the charts, the position was initiated when the EUR/USD dipped down to the 50 and 100-hour SMA.

Congratulations to our top traders and good luck!

Kathy Lien, Chief Strategist of DailyFX.com