Trading Strategies and Performances: Diversification at the heart of the FlowBank Championship

The race for performance among traders was fierce, and Pierre Gasly did very well by applying a strategy based on diversification. By investing in large-cap stocks from a variety of sectors and diversifying his portfolio using CFDs (Indices, Forex, and ETF Large and Mid-Cap Emerging markets ex-China), Pierre Gasly managed to increase the value of his portfolio by 42%, posting the highest percentage of growth throughout the competition. By using CFDs on US Tech and Wall Street indices, on 01.06.2023, Gasly was able to generate a profit of $41K, which continued to grow thanks to leverage, reaching $152K. In order to limit the risks associated with portfolio volatility, CFDs were sold in the final days to secure his place as the champion!

Market trends during the championship:

In the United States, activity remained strong, with low unemployment, but inflation seemed to be slowing down. In Europe, economic momentum remained fragile, inflation remained high and numerous elections were held. Finally, the Chinese economy is slowly recovering, while Japan showed signs of a relatively strong economic recovery. Overall, global markets remain fragile, and leadership is right.

Pierre Gasly’s Stats:

101 trades made (49 on CFDs [4 CFDs Commodities / 23 CFDs Forex / 17 CFD Indices / 5 CFDs Crypto] and 52 Stocks)

Global Strategies (Stocks & CFDs):

SHORT strategy: 12.1% of trades / Profitable in 75% of cases / Traded Volume: >$320K / P&L Realized: $1'771.33

LONG strategy: 87.9% of trades / Profitable 86.2% of the time / Traded Volume: >$7.3M / P&L Realized: $42,727.51

Strategies on CFDs:

SHORT strategy: 23.5% of trades / Profitable in 75% of cases / Traded Volume: >$320K / P&L Realized: $1'771.33

LONG Strategy: 76.5% of his trades / Profitable in 100% of cases / Traded Volume : >7.25M$ / P&L Realized: $42'538.39

All Players Stats:

828 trades made (380 on CFDs [5 CFD Commodities / 216 CFDs Forex / 1 FX Metals / 24 CFDs Equities / 111 CFDs Crypto / 23 CFD Indices] and 448 Stocks)

Global Strategies (Stocks & CFDs):

SHORT strategy: 4.3% of trades / Profitable in 58% of cases / Traded Volume: >$6.18M / P&L Realized: $2'723.97

LONG strategy: 95.7% of trades / Profitable in 55.4% of cases / Traded Volume: >46M$ / P&L Realized: 77'030.68$.

Strategies on CFDs:

SHORT strategy: 8.8% of trades / Profitable in 58.6% of cases / Traded Volume: >$6.18M / P&L Realized: $2'723.97

LONG strategy: 91.2% of trades / Profitable in 37.9% of cases / Traded Volume: >$45.3M / P&L Realized: $50'910.67

Global Statistics

Top Traded Instruments

Why did they trade these instruments?

EUR/USD: this is one of the most popular and liquid currency pairs on the forex market. It represents the value of the Euro against the US dollar. Traders can profit from price movements in this currency pair, as it is generally quite volatile.

YMAB.NASDAQ: YMARK Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are traded on the NASDAQ and represent a basket of companies in the healthcare sector. Trading this ETF allows investors to gain exposure to the healthcare sector and benefit from the appreciation or depreciation in the value of these stocks.

BCH/USD: Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that trades against the US dollar. Trading BCH/USD allows investors and traders to capitalize on the cryptocurrency's volatility.

AMZN.NASDAQ: Amazon is one of the world's largest companies. AMZN allows investors to invest a portion of their portfolio in one of the world's largest companies, which has enjoyed almost constant growth since its IPO.

ACER.NASDAQ: Acer is a computer electronics company listed on NASDAQ. With its products widely used in many homes and businesses, ACER offers investors an attractive opportunity to capitalize on the ever-increasing demand for its electronic products, as well as to diversify their portfolio in the IT industry.

                Top type of traded instruments

Safest Portfolio:

Of our 9 Athletes, 7 traded CFDs to take advantage of leverage and gain an edge on the championship.

But was this really the case? What about the 2 athletes who only decided to participate in the fair by taking stock positions?

In the safest trader’s category, we'll name Alexander Zverev and the Mystery trader.

Their choice to trade only stocks didn't put them at a disadvantage, quite the contrary, with a performance of over 6% and 7% and finishing in 4th and 3rd place respectively.

Diversified portfolios:

Amna Al Qubaisi: Stocks and 90% Forex CFDs

Dimitrij Ovtcharov: Stocks and 100% Forex CFDs

Kevin Mbabu: US Stocks and 1 crypto CFD (at the beginning ETH and at the end DOGECOIN)

Riskier portfolios:

Gianmarco Tamberi: 1/3 stocks + 1/3 Forex CFDs + 1/3 Commodity/IndicesCFDs

Pierre Gasly: Throughout the race, Pierre kept his portfolio diversified, but mainly in stocks, with little exposure to leveraged products.

On the home stretch, his strategy was much more offensive, maximizing his positions with CFDs on Indices (EURO STOXX 50, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones) as well as on CFDs on Forex, mainly on EUR/USD. Most of his positions were long.

The smartest:

Jan Blachowicz: A few tests on Crypto CFDs (BTC/USD) at the start of the championship to test the platform.

Afterward, he took positions in stocks with high valuations to ensure certain stability.

On bonus day, Jan bought several 10 million EUR/USD Forex CFDs for the trader who achieves the best performance in terms of volume, in order to secure the additional $1k reward (as per the challenges in the rule book). Once obtained, he returns to the end of the championship in stock positions with large American and German companies.