MadMarketScientist

I sometimes forget about Think or Swim as an option since they have come so far, and feels like out of nowhere in recent years. With the addition of forex there you do get some of the benefits that IB always seemed to have over everyone - forex, futures, stocks, options. Also, whenever I'm at a tradeshow I will say that the most rabid following and biggest crowd of people always seems to be at the TOS booth. People simply like them. Which says a lot for a broker. MMS

AlanP The day trading pattern rules would be the same at any broker -- and if you're referring to stock trading it would require a $25,000 account (with up to 4:1 leverage given) if you are deemed a daytrader. One of those somewhat archaic rules from the times when the markets were crashing following the heyday in the late 90s -- thinking that would solve the problem. Didn't. Anyway, I'm also not sure since that's a U.S. SEC rule I believe that it would apply to an account opened with IB in the U.K. Unless you are aware that the UK has the same regulations -- IB would have to comply. I know though you can open your account in your currency and you do get access to a really good forex clearing ECN as well. MMS

I think Interactive Brokers has accounts that you can hold/trade in the UK. That would be at least one to look at. Personally I'd stay away from the minis in the CME FX futures - at least so far I haven't heard anyone saying there is good enough volumes there. MMS

I have used Interactive Brokers and Ninja for quite a few years now. Dating way, way back to the early days of Ninja. It has worked for me through all the changes/upgrades and I have no issue/problems with IB as a broker. I have heard good things about your other option you mention as well. What I do like about IB is whenever I decide to be adventurous and trade other markets I can trade just about anything you can think of under one, universal account - forex, futures, stock, options, etc... MMS

Does anyone then know using Ninja and one of their compatible forex brokers what the smallest/minimum account size that would have to be opened in order to get the streaming data? It's easy on the Metatrader side with a plethora of free options - and that's an alternative for sure -- but with Gain not providing that free feed any other options that would possible just require a very small funded account somewhere? MMS

A few additional suggestions.... One, I find it hard to trade for "consistent" profits - what I mean by that is I expect my equity curves to go steady up, but they don't go straight up. I have some months where I make 5 times as much as the prior month. Which means either the current month is great, or maybe it means the prior one was a struggle. It's hard to trade for consistent and regular profits like a paycheck might provide. Just be prepared for a lot of variance week to week and even month to month. It's the averages over time that matter. Next, I'd recommend you trade on a breakout basis with trend primarily. Might seem basic but when you are looking to try and put odds in your favor, getting a set-up then requiring that market to go "x" further, however small in that direction before jumping in will increase your trading odds and win percentage. Then, make sure it's the direction of the general trend at the time - doesn't mean it has to be in the direction of some long term trend - just when swing trading of the last week or so would be a good idea. I don't want to get involved in the site politics of making very specific system or vendor recommendations but while there is plenty of garbage out there, there are actually very good vendors with reasonable and realistic courses. Just avoid anything that promises too much.

Hmmm, not sure on that one -- I was able to click and get in -- as long as I'm already logged into TL it doesn't ask me a second time. Anyone else have similar issue? I was not able to replicate what is described.

Nice reply Justaguy. You bring up a good point as well -- if someone makes the change to try trading, even with perhaps the odds stacked against them (much depends on the training you receive early on) you can always go back. And, will you end up regretting and being unhappy because you didn't take the gamble when you had the chance? Sometimes you have to roll the dice. Know what you're getting into, and clearly accept the risks that it may very well not work, but nothing says you can't go back and at least you can say you tried. And, to save you a lot of pain - do you not buy forex robots, do not buy into automated trading, do not buy into anything where the returns seem too exciting. Instead, pursue something where you win more than you lose, maybe it's a 60% - 65% win ratio, the average wins are at least a bit higher than average losses, and make sure it always accounts for commissions and slippage. That's a winning formula but for most it doesn't excite them since it's not 90% winners, 3:1 reward risk, and all hypothetical with perfect no slip executions or costs. If you put a hard set of demands to whatever strategy you pursue that are realistic you'll save yourself countless time and money.

That's a broad based question, one that probably tens of thousands of traders seek the answer to which means there is no easy answer. A few observation and input. One you are clearly looking for a swing trading forex strategy and not day trading given your time. Two, it would make some sense that you can at least "check" on your position more than once every 24 hours. Perhaps you take or set-up trades once per 24 hours, but more than likely you'll need to find at least 2 other times you can at least check on the trades to see if there is any need to update stops, etc.... I think you can avoid having to place trades in those 2 other times and reserve that for your 1x every 24 hours. In fact it's probably smarter to do that and avoids overtrading. I would suggest you pick a time to place trades per whatever set-up strategy used that is right before or at the time the Asian session gets going. If you can trade sometime between 6pm - 9pm EST (New York) I think that's idea because taking swing trades during Asian, European and/or active US market hours is usually not a good idea since you end up getting false signals due to all the news reports. Not to say you won't get whipsawed front-running this news but you'll get less false set-ups at the very least which will help. Keep in mind when swing trading you can definitely beat the 1:1 reward/risk but you're likely looking at risks of 50 - 100 pips in most markets to effectively swing trade -- as long as you watch your leverage that's fine since you'll likely on those same trades be targeting at a minimum 75 - 150 pips, etc.. Anyway, that's just some top level feedback -- it doesn't give you the "system" but at least some parameters to start looking into. MMS

Something I noticed months back with a new release of Tradestation was the ability to chart Kase bars. I did look at them but felt it wasn't something I fully followed at the time to implement. Instead, I just enjoyed their renko and range bars they made available but certainly plan to at some point get my arms around this option as well. MMS

I'm on the fixed percent side. I find it is easy and straightforward and can be calculated in an instant. Plus, it equalizes every trade for me - so if one trade has a risk of 40 pips or 4 points another another 25 pips or 2.5 points, for example, I know that I'm not having a bias to one or the other. It helps me treat each new set-up equally which is important in consistent trading. MMS

I'll let some others hopefully answer since I'm not a big fan of trading right at the news announcement time or just after for the reasons you describe. However, years ago the forex dealing desks figured out how to "break" the news trade strategies -- used to be you were always guaranteed a fill at your stop price so people would simply bracket a buy and a sell, take the first to go and have an incredibly effective strategy - until the forex brokers figured it out and basically disabled it. The fact is you're dealing with a desk and trades that know what people try to do around news and can manipulate things. I believe you'll find less of that with the futures -- though clearly it can leapfrog prices as well but you benefit from one, centralized datafeed and stream of trades -- instead of forex that really is at the discretion of each individual broker. MMS

I'm sure any of us reading this would very much empathize with your situation. I think everyone knows just how difficult trading is/can be. There is no easy or fast solution to riches which is what is discovered eventually by all. Clearly made much tougher when you have the pressure of trying to create a full time income in tough economic times. Those are really difficult conditions to succeed because even in the best of times it can be a roller coaster. With no quick fix at hand, maybe at least describe what you are trading now if anything, and your method/approach whatever it might be. MMS

Thanks for sharing the charts as always! MMS

TheBigMan, Actually what was being described had nothing to do with power outages. Another issue, and really much easier solved like you mention with a UPS. This was literally internet occasional glitch can lead to a disconnect in Tradestation that it does not cause itself, and it has not built in ability to reconnect. It only reconnects if there's a Tradestation data network issue -- if it is related to your internet even for a few seconds it can disconnect and not reconnect on its own.

I have found I have "programming block" so typically when I need some easy language for Tradestation programmed there are plenty of willing people out there that will be quite reasonable -- and get it done in a fraction of the time I ever would. To the self-starters though -- more power to you! MMS

You can always cow t on the fact that there will be more regulations going forward. Once the train leaves the station they cannot resist constant tinkering.

Right. With ninja you can then choose a number of other brokers. Good trading!

I thought this was kinda interesting -- these are the current valuations based upon what these "shares" have traded on for some known names: Facebook $26.28 Billion LinkedIn $2.07 Billion Twitter $2.41 Billion eHarmony $635 Million Linden Lab $239 Million Serious Materials $213 Million If nothing else it's fun to look at the speculation.

This is an interesting website: SharesPost.com You can actually trade shares of venture backed companies which is interesting -- Facebook, Twitter, Lifelock, Zynga and so on. It's basically people at these companies who have been grated shares and would like to get some cash -- before the eventual (hopeful) IPOs. Clearly there is a lot you need to know to participate -- including the fact that most likely some of these go way behind the valuations they should. In order to receive the listings and participate there are requirements of net worth, etc... At any rate, I just find it fascinating especially in these days where you don't see as many companies able to get quickly to IPO that a secondary market like this has formed. I'm sure it will ultimately be a list of some winners and some losers. MMS

MetaDavid- There is likely no "right" answer for all cases. However, I remain behind the general theory that no more than 1% - 5% of your capital should ever be at risk on a single trade. In fact, as your account grows you want to get that below 1%. In addition, you need to be aware of correlation. If you have one trade long on the EURUSD and another on the GBPUSD and risk 5% each there is plenty of correlation between the two - not 1 for 1 but it's highly correlated so you really are risking 10% -- probably not quite that much but close. So that plays in. It would be like buying all internet stocks and risking 1% on each and feeling you have 1% risk when in fact due to correlation it might be much higher. At any rate, from there what I would suggest is do simple calcs. Starting account for example = $10,000 Risk 1% to 5% -- so that means $100 to $500 risk on a trade. Let's say you decide it's 3% or $300 that is going to tell you what size you can trade based upon the full risk on the initial trade. Let's say you are trading Russell e-mini that means you can have a 3 point risk (or less) and be fine with a contract. I honestly feel if you can keep it there or lower you'll buy yourself time. My other recommendation is when you first start out, even if you can afford a larger position size based upon the calculation trade the absolute smallest position size you can because you're going to make plenty of mistakes. Better it's not with your capital. Hope that helps. MMS

It's a great book - Outliers. The very best chapter as it applies to traders I believe is the 10,000 hours discussion. It will really ring true to experienced traders, and if you're a beginner it will act as an important reminder of the road ahead of you. It's worth it if you can stick to it with trading, but it helps to be realstic about the effort it will take to get there. MMS

TheDude, That's an interesting way to look at it and as I read what you described I can see what you mean. You make a good point and I agree it is important to look at both aspects - money and risk. And, without a doubt ultimately it comes down to what you can personally handle psychologically. Everyone is different -- you don't want a trade to cause a heart attack or insanity - that's my filter! MMS

Well, it had appeared there was a volunteer(s) to be in the room and we did promote it in the email newsletter. Not sure if people didn't show up or the people who announced the date/time didn't appear. I could of course volunteer to moderate something if people would show up -- so I'm not sure what happened on the 26th since we were just providing the chat room and the announcement in the newsletter to encourage people to attend. There always seems to be a lot of beginners who state they want to participate -- it might be a different story when it comes to showing up and being pro-active but I'm still willing to help this and we can try again if need be. Let me know. MMS

Good question - for me it hasn't been too bad -- under 10 pips for sure was the most I've experienced. I've done much worse in spot forex since I've had it literally reprice and reprice in news and make it nearly impossible to get out. MMS