sevensa

I agree with all the rest, but don't think it would be hard to find another broker with better customer service. Fortunately, you don't need a lot of customer service with IB, but when you do, it is pretty much non existent.

Roll-over to the March '10 contract occured last week and the December contract you look at, expires this week.

I know what my average is, but I think you miss my point. Saying that you should stop after 30% of your average is one of those things that sound locigal and easy, but when you actually do it and think about it, it is not that straight forward. What I am asking is, in your example, how did you get to your $100 average? Is that before, or after you stop trading after losing 30% of $100? If this includes the 30% stop rule then this isn't your real average which can be higher or lower. Let me give you an example. Trading day 1: Profit after trading all day: $80, max draw-down for day $20. Trading day 2: Profit after trading all day: $120. However, your first two trades were losers for total of -$50, so if you stopped trading, your profit for the day would be -$50. So, how do you calculate your average to base your %30 on? ($80 + $120)/2 = $100 or ($80 - $50)/2 = $15? I am still not clear why you say that your profit/loss ratio must be 1:10? (btw, I think you mean risk:reward and not profit:loss ratio.) Why would 1:5 not work? Isn't that dependent on your win:loss ratio?

How do you calculate your average positive day then? Do you ignore the 30% loss and trade all day to get to your average positive day? And if you do that, is that valid then to calculate 30% of that to stop trading, since your avarege positive day might be completely different if you stop at 30% loss, which will invalidate the average you start with. Why must p/l ratio be 1.10? What is signifcant about that and not 1.05 or 1.20?

Couple of points. First: A month ago, you asked about forming a corporation to manage your money as you have been a consistently profitable trader and now you are asking very basic questions about margin. Something doesn't add up. Second: You are answering your own questions already. This is how margin works. Your account need to cover initial margin to open a position and should be enough to cover maintenance margin once the position is open. With many brokers, you actually won't get a margin call; they will just close your position automatically if your account doesn't cover margin. Third: For your second question, can't you do the math yourself? If you need X dollars in your account, how much do you need to maintain X after you lost 50%?

Have you tried plotting CLOSE? What happened?

What commodities do you trade that are not futures and how do you trade them if they are not futures if you say futures are long term trading, but you trade commodoties on tick charts?

Can't you replace graphics cards on Macs? If the problem is with Radeon and they don't have a solution, but there are no issues with Nvidea, why don't you get a Nvidea card?

I think you and that other dude who feel that all taxes should be banned, should get together for a cup of coffee. The JFK Conspiracy Museum in Dallas would be a good place for your little get together.

I don't really understand what you mean by this and how this made you profitable? Can you provide an example where that is applicable to trading please?

Did you get confused and thought you were on ET?

In the post from sep34, replace this line: variables:Text_ID2(0),one tick(0); with this one: variables:Text_ID2(0),onetick(0); When copy and pasting code, it should be encapsulated with code tags (the # sign in the menu do that), otherwise formatting gets lost.

Try investopedia. This should give you a good starting point.

What doesn't work about it? Do you get any errors? What doesn't it do that it should? What does it do that it shouldn't? If you do not clearly fomulate what it is you want, no one can help you.

How do you define/program UpColor, DownColor and color?

Can't you say that for any methodology you use, that it is just to give you the comfort to provide a reason about why you take a trade? Whatever methodology you use and think to be correct, I am sure that someone will be able to provide different reasons than you did to take any of your trades.

Maybe the buyer and vendor can use the vendor's own forum for support and not a forum to give him free advertising?

Why are you sad about it?

Not to mention that the post from bootstrap is over a year old and that he hasn't logged on here since February.

And why do you end every sentence with an exlamation mark? Is there a reason that you feel you have to shout everything?

In all fairness, yesterday you just said it is an interesting setup. I count numerous other inside bars also in the chart you have posted that didn't result in anything. It is easy after the fact to point out the breakout when you ignore the inside bars that didn't do anything and only focus on the one that preceded a breakout.

What should the software do? Charts, trading, something else?

Sounds like something you would be able to get from their website?

Why not post the code you have so far? If you post what you have so far, someone might point you in the right direction. Otherwise you are expecting someone to guess exactly what you want and write something from scratch. I doubt you will find anyone here willing to do that.

How would you define "right" education?