[robertm]

Originally Posted by max8ion »

I think you shouldn't do it on your own, maybe the best way is gonna be to ask help from the professionals? Probably they will do it in a better way, and you will make your lunch time free from watching your screen!

Then you may as well just give them your money and have them be your fund manager. Doing it yourself is what makes it YOUR system, instead of theirs. Once you have your idea just steal some code and tweak it to fit your logic.

[dsalas]

Hi To all guys, Hi TraderWill. No I have not programmed anything before. I have no idea how to do this. I once attend a course for Visual Chart where they teach you to program based on MA, but it was really bad. I would like to know how to program an strategy, i mean, i dont even know what book to read or which seminar to attend. I use market profile and volume profiles as i titled the thread but that is all. Programming a strategy that could say something like "if the market is trending up and the value are high is touch buy at market with a stop of 2 points in the E-mini sp 500 and a profit target xxx" for example that is the issue i would have to look at levels in the market to determine where are the best entry points that is why i have no idea how to do this

thanks so much for the help guys

Daniel

[Tams]

Originally Posted by dsalas »

Hi To all guys, Hi TraderWill. No I have not programmed anything before. I have no idea how to do this. I once attend a course for Visual Chart where they teach you to program based on MA, but it was really bad. I would like to know how to program an strategy, i mean, i dont even know what book to read or which seminar to attend. I use market profile and volume profiles as i titled the thread but that is all. Programming a strategy that could say something like "if the market is trending up and the value are high is touch buy at market with a stop of 2 points in the E-mini sp 500 and a profit target xxx" for example that is the issue i would have to look at levels in the market to determine where are the best entry points that is why i have no idea how to do this

thanks so much for the help guys

Daniel

the mechanics of programming is easy... you just need to read the manual.

the challenge is not in the programming language,
but in how you define, in plain English, what needs to be programmed.

the computer is just a dumb machine.
it executes actions according to your instruction.
you just need to give it that "Instruction" for it to be smart.

[Tams]

eg.
when you say a "pivot low"... a lot of people will naturally have a visual idea of what you are trying to convey:
a "low"... then a change in direction.
although different people would have different definition of what a "pivot low" is,
most will have a similar visual image.

but a computer has no imagination.
you have to tell the computer in no uncertain terms the characteristics and attributes of a pivot.
you have to define... step by step, line by line, what constitute a pivot.
and you have to do the same for all the logics you use in your trading.

[robertm]

Originally Posted by Tams »

the mechanics of programming is easy... you just need to read the manual.

the challenge is not in the programming language,
but in how you define, in plain English, what needs to be programmed.

the computer is just a dumb machine.
it executes actions according to your instruction.
you just need to give it that "Instruction" for it to be smart.

As a non-programmer (education wise) with an IT background I would have to disagree. Even one of the big quant firms said recently "it's easier to teach a programmer to trade than a trader to program". they hire programmers with no trading background, then feed them logic trees.

Very few programming structures are written "for dummies" to be able to get a handle on. Only those written by a complete novice in their own process of trying to learn come close to being a teaching guide.

I agree that the logic is the key to success, but getting that into code can be a painful, if not impossible, task for some (which is when they come to Tams for help!)

[TraderWill]

Daniel, if you've never programmed before then you have a challenge ahead of you. Look in your charting platform's help file and see if they teach some programming basics there, or maybe there's a link on their website with programming tutorials. Then just go through the tutorial lessons and sample code patiently. Try to program a simple indicator like a moving average, ramp up the difficulty by programming a moving average cross system, etc, just gradually build up the difficulty. A good tutorial will walk you through the process. After you're done with that you can look at the code for the indicators built into your charting platform. I know that you can look at source code for indicators on tradestation, Metatrader and Ninjatrader, I don't know about any other platforms, no experience with them.

It won't be a quick process because you'll be learning a new language. Only after you've learned it can you start coding your own system. Unfortunately there's no shortcut.

Now if you have a friend who knows how to program you could get together with him, share your strategy with him so that he does the coding and as long as you know that you can trust him then you two will be the only people trading it.

Good luck in your trading.