I've been at this a while. Also, I've been using Tradestation even started with their SystemWriterPlus in I think 1988. I've been down the road with fancy, complicated, systems that relied on "rocket science" math. I put in many hours looking at almost every system printed in TASC. In short, I busted my hump at the computer. Also, I've read somewhere around 50 books on trading. I almost joined the "3000" club by purchasing an expensive system. Did not do it, but I did join the "300" club by buying a less expensive system that was trash. After about a year of this and not really finding anything that worked to my liking, I had a discussion with my father not about trading but about baseball players in the Hall of Fame and who our favorites were. His favorite was "Wee Willie" Keeler, sort of an average guy who worked his butt off on the little things. His motto: "hit 'em where they aint." That is what lit the light in my head. So now, I trade things most people will not consider. Currently these are relatively low cap stocks using simple TA. I've found that my "edge" is not how I trade (ie-the system) but what I trade. Doug S
Vanilla2, I too am just getting started, and am a bit slow to process - well, IMHO and IMO abbreviations for example. I have been working with AmiBroker for about two months and learned the coding via trading systems in Teresa Loe's Trader's handbook (not sure if that name is correct). Doing this not only helped me learn the code and how difficult it can be to translate a few simple rules into an automated system, but inspired me to do some tweaking. The 4-6 Bar Rule was a wash, mostly because it was my first attempt and I never quite got the code right. Next I tried the "Holy Grail," which was simpler - a scalp based on ADX and EMA rebound. I haven't translated the system to real-world trading yet but atleast it is profitable in the backtester. I could go on, but for brevity sake, while tooling with this system I have been following one stock. No systems or indicators per se, very little in the way of "fundamental" study, mostly just watching the 5-min, 10-min, Daily, etc. charts. After having had some early success, followed by some not-quite-so-early failures and broker problems I am back in black so to speak. The moral of this all is that I have not given up on the system developement but feel I have learned a great deal more simply watching and trading one stock. My account was small and still is but I have a much better feel for what is going on with the market. I played poker too so I know what it is to play with and against the odds, go on tilt, get rattled, and be in the zone. I have had none of those experiences typing Iif(Cross(MA(20),C) AND ADX(14)>25,1,0)...
I forgot to mention that when "in the zone" occurs (as experienced by myself on the athletic fields and at the poker tables) it is not thrilling. I have not pinned down an exact definition of what the zone is exactly, yet, but have a few descriptions: Relaxed Concentration (see: The Mental Game of Baseball), nearly meditative, pure focus, etc. Thrills are for craps players - the profit is in small percentages, which are not exciting in the classic sense. It is however very entertaining to watch someone sit down with a stack of chips, leave with none, and know you have caused their downfall.
links, thanks so much for your ideas regarding channel breakouts, I've been trying to code this so that the signal is taken from COMPX and executed in QQQ, with one prob. That beautiful equity curve flips totally upside down. Also having difficulty translating the 1 point stop from a channel breakout in COMP to a stop in QQQ. Do you use the stop on this strategy? thx!! v2