1% a week on average for a year should be quite easy to do.. but I dislike automated systems.. they never know there's a rate cut coming, what November and the trading day after Thanksgiving means.. etc..
1% a week is very easy. They sel systems that have done that for the last 20 years straight for less than $500. The 3% a week systems cost more.
I heard second hand that programming to IB's API bypasses TWS entirely. If that is correct...would I still have to manually use the security dongle to start a session just to get data that is bound for a chart package from IB's server farm? (No orders on that session) In the process of planning/testing an ATS, I backend Amibroker into TWS. That works great. However, I am finding that an IP link dropout or IB's midnight system reboot retriggers the need to meet a new security challenge. If a pbm happens at 3am...my futures system is offline until I wake up. (Obviously...I need to move to the next level of intelligence since my charting SW doesn't sense/alarm link failure.) I am trying the NinjaTrader demo backended to TWS. It does announce link pbms out of the box, but it will be a long time before I am productive with C#....if ever...I am afraid. I do like IB's dongle/challenge system since I have a lot of confidence my hard earned money will not get wired to a hacker...but it leaves me with a couple pbms to work around in building a rock solid ATS design. (I wouldn't mind paying a few hundred for a PCI but plug in security card that IB could use to authenticate against automatically...but I expect the manual piece is the ultimate strategy for them to have the client actually in the security loop.) Best regards... T200
I'm not sure what the person who told you that the API bypasses TWS is referring to, but I use the Java API to directly set up a socket with TWS. So basically, you fire up TWS, set it to accept socket connections and specify the port you want to use. Your Java code then uses the API to communicate through TWS by identifying the port it will communicate through and the identification of the client. You now have access to the IB server farm. You do need to deal with the IB/dongle security system in this instance and yes you're right, any IP dropouts or the midnight disconnects will remove your connection completely, so you would need to reauthenticate and restart your Java communication to reestablish the connection in these instances.
I thought that sounded fishy... but I guess I just didn't question it or dig deep enough in IB's info. Thank you for the assist!! T
Some really bad trades this week, the fed cut killed my shorts: 9-17 Covered half of RHT for 2.6% gain Covered rest of BBY for .6% lost Covered half of TXI for 2.7% gain (papertrade) 9-18 Covered rest of KBH for 9.6% lost Sold rest of ESIO for 6% gain (papertrade) 9-19 Covered rest of FDS for 9.8% lost Sold half of PAYX for 2.6% gain Covered rest of RHT for 3% lost 9-20 Shorted OXM at 36.21 9-21 Covered half of OXM at 2.9% loss When factoring the position sizing of each trade, the week was a -1.21% So now, I'm going to start implementing some new changes. First, until I get myself completely organized, I'm going to be trading very small. Right now, I'm trading a tiny portion of my portfolio, but I've decided to give an exact amount. From here on until I decide otherwise, I'm only going to trade $5,000, which is about 10% of my available trading funds. I'm also not going to factor in papertrades in my equity amounts. I'm going to start using the 5 grand as the basis for equity and P/L and I'll adjust accordingly with P/L. I'm also getting close to having a better defined trading strategy with risk/reward ratios. So maybe I'll be able to use those next week. If anybody has any comments, suggestions, or criticisms, feel free to comment. I'm open to anything!
if that was true.....why doesn't everyfund or everybody who is SERIOUS get a 1 % return per week...comounded is probably over 100 %....since you make it sound so easy...as easy as buying a System!
<1 % return per week...comounded is probably over 100 %> it's more like 67.76%. it becomes harder to pull %1/wk in later years, though. -wb
Overall, I'm quite happy with my decisions this week. I've modified my system to account for volatility and to take the "rigidness" out of it a bit. Next goal is to improve automation and develop a backtesting system. My profits this week were 26.73. Don't laugh...I'm being very careful initially until I'm more confident. I'll step up the trading as I step up a level in confidence. So my 26.73 on the 5 grand I'm trading for now is a profit of .53%.