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MadMarketScientist
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Posts posted by MadMarketScientist
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One advantage for you if you go the IB route and use Ninja is you have an easy connection between them for data to charting and trade execution.
You can also program custom indicators in Ninja or have someone do it for you - there's enough people out there who now how to program for Ninja (and for that matter Metatrader or Easy Language for Tradestation, etc...)
Plus you can have all of the benefits for a low to no cost.
Appreciate the suggestions. IB gets a lot of thumbs up I noticed so looks like I will go down that road - I am in Australia so the international access will come in handy also.Just a matter of pinning down charting software. The pain is I have a few custom indies that I will need to transduce to a non MT4 platform. Ninja seems to look ok but theres quite a few to choose from.
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I know there are a lot of really smart traders on TL. Whenever I read the forums posts and replies I'm usually pretty amazed. Really with few exceptions.
I'm not sure about you but seems like the marketing angle this fall to sell products/services is to take the "end is near" approach. My inbox is filled with services saying we are going to crash.
I realize this type of stuff is what sells -- nothing like some good 'ol fashioned fear. We see it everyday in the news.
However, I'm curious what the consensus is here on TL. Are you expecting the markets to go up or down between now and 12/31/10?
If up or down -- any thought on what type of move we are looking at? Is it the beginning of the end or will the market defy the skeptics and improve?
And, what are your reasons either technical or fundamental?
I'm going to formulate my thoughts shortly and post. I'm still debating between my desire for it to be positive and optimistic with the reality of the real world out there....and not trying to be jaded by the doom and gloom marketing I'm seeing either.......
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Good point on futures. One thing I liked as well is doing a tax return. When I was a very active stock day trader years back I had to report every trade -- I'm sure these days brokers make that easier -- back then it was a real pain. Still, you have to make sure you account for all the rules, whereas with futures (and forex) I've always found reporting gains (or heaven forbid losses
on the tax return far easier.Not saying that's a reason of course to pick one over the other - but it's a nice benefit.
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All interesting/good points above.
I would agree that much of this comes from those who lose money, then play the blame game. And have complained endlessly to regulators who then feel they need to step in to protect the innocent. Of course those innocent were really just super greedy and didn't want to face the reality of their stupidity.
When I lose I have learned that ultimately the buck stops here. Sure, if a broker pulls some shenanigans, or doesn't execute right that's a different story. And, I'm all for the regulators to require these brokers to be registered and put up capital because the reality is when that wasn't the case there were truly brokers simply stealing funds.
As to whether we need 100:1 or 200:1, etc... I would say no if we weren't talking about parking funds somewhere else like one of the replies above. Strictly from a trading standpoint I don't see how someone can really utilize 100:1 and make money. If you do, let's say put $1,000 into forex and use the full 100:1 to buy a standard and lose a small amount like 25 pips you are down 25% in one trade. Totally unsustainable and only luck will make this work.
I am already getting emails from brokers like FXDD who make it super easy anyway to get around these rules - like using FXDD Malta and I'm sure all the other majors like FXCM have their own alternatives.
This is what happens though when there's no personal accountability - we get lots of regulations.
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I've always been a proponent of using a target that is dynamic to the market -- when I try to force the market to bend around my will of a preset target like "1.50 points" it seems to be ineffective after a while. When I base targets on ATR I do much better.
I'm also changing my thoughts on trailing more - lately I've been doing more exiting half the position at a preset target and trailing the second half. While the second half tends to be more erratic on the equity curve it is enabling me to recover quite a bit quicker when I hit some prior losses because it seems like a big runner almost always follows some chop that I get caught in.
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I believe what's being referred to is just making sure you have a Google account -with that you have access to everything including Google Docs, Groups, Gmail, Calendar, etc... pretty cool stuff.
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Now that the CFTC has finally weighed in on the proposal to reduce the leverage allowed in forex I'm curious what you all think?
Here is a summary from them:
http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/forexfinalrule_qa.pdf
These go into effect on October 18, 2010 so about 6 week or so.
My interpretation is the leverage will be 50:1 on "major pairs" and 20:1 on exotics. It's unclear what is what - but I would assume the usual's like EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY are major - though you have to wonder what the GBPJPY will be considered, etc... That part is unclear plus it appears they are keeping open the ability to move pairs between these two leverages.
It does appear that anyone who introduces forex accounts now must be registered though they do not have to be guaranteed by the broker if they meet capital requirements. That doesn't impact the retail trader but gives an indication of the regulations being required.
There has been some debate I've seen elsewhere that this somehow removes the ability for US traders to have overseas accounts, which is what many did to avoid the hedging and FIFO rules when those came into effect a year ago. However, I don't see where that is clearly spelled out one way or the other.
Obviously there was a fear they could rule and make it 10:1 so this is probably a good development from the worst possible.
Thoughts?
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Daedalus,
Maybe I missed it but any thought of what you go for with the profit target? Are you trying something fixed or more dynamic?
I would probably think about using an ATR and depending upon the timeframe I'm using maybe somewhere like 3x to 5x that ATR.
Also, a trailing stop as well in case you catch a flyer off the open. Maybe a 3 bar stop strategy - trailing the stop for example on each new high (on a long) count back three bars looking for lower lows and trailing below that.
MMS
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I've removed a few posts since there was unnecessary name calling -- keep it on topic please. Thanks!
MMS
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We'll have our tech team take a look - seems like working for some, but not in this case. I'm sure they can figure it out. Thanks.
MMS
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With Tradestation you'd have Radarscreen (I think that's what it is called) available to you which definitely could monitor those 100 stocks to your criteria and let you know immediately which ones qualify.
Maybe you can also look at Think or Swim which I think would have the capability to do the same as a scanner and has a good reputation.
Did you ever consider straight calls or puts for your stock swing trades?
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I for one never realized there were so many trader psychologists out there. Personally I wouldn't take advice from someone who hasn't walked the walk. No matter what their training.
I think you could argue you can read a Mark Douglas book or two, then read them again and again and probably gain quite a bit more than most docs could teach you.
However, I personally feel that psychology and the mental game plays a huge role in trading. I've worked with and trained a lot of people in my time and this always has been my biggest struggle - dealing with each persons psyche and overwhelming need for some reason to blow up the trade plan. That need to be right all the time is tough to battle.
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I'm with Kiwi on IB. You could also use their data and hook it directly into NinjaTrader which would give you some really powerful order entry/order management plus charting at minimal to no cost for that. That assumes you don't need full streaming charts as Kiwi mentioned.
If you do, I would consider Tradestation or another that has a rabid fanbase would be Think or Swim especially for equities/options.
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I'll give you a few of my favorite movers - but like mentioned above a lot has to do with what your strategy is to whether these would be for you. However, with that said these have fit my criteria now or in the recent past:
GOOG
AAPL
WYNN
UWM
SH
QQQQ
AMZN
IWL
ADSK
NETL
NFLX
IWC
BIDU
PNRA
VPRT
Hello Everyone,I wanted to ask the Day Traders out there is they have a list of stocks they trade on a regular basis?
I'm trying to gather a list of stock to trade on a regular basis.
Thanks in Advance
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Yader, first of all a big welcome to TL. Thanks for joining the trading conversation.
I'll echo the prior comments that you can get Tradestation for no charge - they have a promo now I believe where it's free through the end of the year - though you would need to fund and trade an account there. However, it is quite powerful and probably would satisfy almost anything you'd want.
There are many other options of course -- if you were a forex trader you could focus on a broker with the Metatrader platform which is free of charge.
Or, think about Ninjatrader which can do quite a bit on charting and order management and can be very close to free depending upon the data provider and also where you trade.
Most of all, do not let free or low cost be your decider on trading platform. I've been in this business working with and trading along individual traders and one of my biggest pet peeves and source of failure I've seen is people trying to cut corners on things like data and charting, then without hesitation putting hundreds or thousands of dollars at risk with the click of the mouse. With a solid platform it will pay for itself many times over.
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I think Brownsfan has done a great job categorizing your three potential market choices.
And, I think it's important to recognize his point that they are really going to trade differently. It's one thing to be deciding between the Nasdaq e-Mini and the Dow e-Mini - you know they will move similar, trade the same times and have the same general feel.
What I can say is I think CL is a better daytrader than the 6E. You'll have virtually every session, let's say from 9am - 11am where you can get off 3 to 5 trades consistently. Not that you should or want to trade that frequently (nothing wrong with one and done) but you'll have that opportunity. I stay away from trading it the morning of the Crude Oil report and wait until 2 minutes after that report is released for some of my best trading of any market.
The 6E I think you approach more from a swing trading basis - or if that's not your thing, think of it as a market you might want to try and capture bigger intraday swings (40 - 60 pips, etc...) -- and you will not have that multiple trade opportunity everyday -- unless of course you could be up at all hours for the Euro and US session.
ES not my cup of tea but there are certainly others who would disagree.
I think you've chosen 3 good markets to choose from - but also three very unique markets so make sure you study each very closely before making your choice on which to focus on.For example....
ES: Highly liquid, esp during EST trading hours, can get very range bound / choppy at times but when it catches a trend it will go.CL: My personal favorite as I think you get great moves every single day. Even the range bound moves here can be substantial when compared on a dollar to dollar basis to other markets.6E: Personally I have a love/hate with this thing as many times the substantial moves occur while I am fast asleep so I awake to trading a tight, range bound market. When you do catch a trend here it can be substantial.IMO you've got 3 very different markets there and it will come down to your risk tolerance and what types of moves you are looking for. I would not choose the ES purely based on total volume traded there daily as that will not be an issue for a very long time for you starting out so don't use that as the basis for your decision. I get tired of reading how new traders focus on the ES purely b/c of the liquidity there even though they will be trading 1 contract to start.
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This was all resolved. Let me know if still getting any message from Google - if so it shouldn't be for long since our tech team was able to resolve. Thanks.
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James was on here some time back when the transaction took place -- I think back in May. Yes he did sell the site and his primary reason was starting a family and other full-time commitments he had. He was going to be unable to devote any time or resources to the site and we stepped in at that time. He's doing well last I heard. Having owned internet businesses since 1996 I can vouch for the fact that they are quite demanding so I certainly understood his desire at the time to find more balance.
MMS
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Let me know if still an issue. Had been told it was resolved. Thanks.
Still not fixed. After a week of vacation, and 462 unread messages, would be nice to just mark them read. -
It's only on the video site and we have the tech team working on it now. Thanks.
MMS
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You guys are all great. I appreciate the voices of reason and positivity and somehow feel we will survive the tragic loss of UB.
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Thanks for the other comments from the rest of you. Tl will always be a work in progress. It wont be perfect but we will keep working on it. We do appreciate the loyalty and maybe we can all get back to talking trading
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Urma
So what there are some ads. They all over the Internet, magazines, tv, newspapers. It isn't stopping you from complaining clearly. Nor do I recall an offer from you to pay to use tl. It isn't free to run and last I checked there isn't any government sponsored bailouts for forums.
Again if you don't like the ads or don't like an occasional tech issue then go elsewhere.
MMS
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Urma
Tell you what. As much as I welcome feedback and good suggestions you just gripe. So if you'd like to buy the site take out your checkbook and make an offer. Since you know it all I'm sure it will be great. Or just find another forum to complain about.
We will be just fine.
MMS
Strategy Running Balance
in Automated Trading
Posted
Did you mention the software/platform your using?