Jahagee, we discussed this before, I showed you a screenshot of my system (anyone else can search on my name). The only way I was able to get it modestly profitable was with the standard money management algorithms I use on everything. In other words, AS I HAVE PROGRAMMED IT it doesn't work by itself. That said, doesn't mean it can't be done, just that I can't do it ;-)
I will help out a little. I am not able to day trade trade yet due to having a business,. Hopefully, I will also be invited to join the trade room when I am able to trade futures full time. An advanced method is pattern recognition. For example, they will trade the dragon pattern. Another note about this method is that you may have a low win ratio, but they will let the winners run and sometimes average cost into the winner. My own method of trading is different, not better or worse but it is also based on price. However, I have a higher win ratio which may be help psychologically for a trader. <img src=http://elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2201752>
Sometimes looking at the same thing the same way leads to the same unanswered questions. Einstein did this but with a small twist. He knew that expecting a different result was insanity. Lets look at AHG v4, AHG v6, AHG v13, AHG v27, AHG v45 and AHG v92. Where will the shifts in viewpoint occur? So far there is little to go on since the AHG just emerged from a fee based trading sponsor's operation. The AHG is 66 pages including a replayed admonition to sideline if you do not know what is going on. The chief feature of PA is being on the sidelines since using an ATS hasn't happened so far and everyone is on the same page with the same Q's. As Steve Nison said "How do you guys get beyond Candlesticks?" (Google "Beyond Candlesticks") Steve mentioned a takeoff from point and figure when he brought Candlesticks to the US. He also mentioned bricks (a noise filter) which minimized noise (google Renko). He also spoke in black and white for the same reasons (Google 3 line break). One of you posted a chart with upper and lower boundaries which I annotated in another thread (google Kagi to see where it appeared in the late 1800's, LOL) As you see people have taken time and noise out of the picture for hundreds of years. AHG takes being in the market out of the picture, mostly. Being in the market all the time made smoke come out of anek's ears. Going down from 47,000 possibilities means taking a bar out of the picture. With two bars and a HH and HL (long) or LL and LH (short) sort of thinking all that is left to look at is the elephant in the room. The elephant, of course is what isn't the Long or the Short. This is anek's statement so commonly made "go to the sidelines". Obviously, this tweak is what is necessary to eliminate your continuing statements of "I can't program" and "I can't make money" so you can make new statements of your problems. Trending and non trending ruins AHG so far. But three or four newer versions can differentiated these two now that you know they exist and programming for only one doesn't work you already found out. Program for both. LOL. This will lead to a new level or so since now you notice that all that too late timing (see my chart annotation mentioned above) is coming into the picture. No one can trade with timing that lags as just as your thinking does. Get in too late get out too late; both reduce profits. To take AHG up to a few new levels, think about trades ending or RESUMING their profit making. This is the fourth elephant in the herd so far. This is a trend characteristic that you are still unaware of. Elsewhere there is a thread that uses two parts (components) one speaks first, the other verifies and confirms. All ATS's need this so go get it to raise the AHG another level or so. Bing bong. You have to have the bing and the bong. So far AHG has not taken the step to switch from a vertical orientation to the money making orientation. Vertical deals with price and the other deals with making money. Making money is done with what is called timing. AHG can't get to timing until all the levels above are taken care of. For trading, money is made by doing the right thing at the right time. Programming ATS's is always based on this single principle. It is easy to understand if you look up the word "signal". In ATS work, the coding will be generating what are called signals. There are two kinds involved in money making: first and last. Between AHG 45 and AHG 92, say in time around 2011 or 2012, timing the markets will be under refinement. Someone will discover that two independent groups do programming on AHG have opposite signals coming at the same time. One is a last from one group and the other is a first from the other group. This will be an indication that PA makes money all of the time. By this time the herd of elephants that you can't see now will be so big that the herd will seem endless. Well, that is because for the AHG orientation the herd is endless and so huge it won't be seen by any AHG traders since they won't hang around long enough. The smoke coming out of Anek's ears when he considers just what is what in making money is not unusual at all. He has the 47,000 possibility problem and always will. There are two groups of possibilities. One group has two the other group has seven. They have to be sorted (filtered first). Once sorted, you do NOT get price outputs from the ATS. You get horizontal signals (As Clinton once said "its the economy, stupid"; in this case its the timing signals, stupid.) ATS's are built for timing and not price. At around AHG 81, Someone will figure out that price moves left and right. In trends the movement is to the left which is away from the trend line. I almost posted today at 1:57pm when peckelo said something about 840 today and 2:00pm. It would have been too funny since price was getting ready to move to the left quite harshly. The covering grew and grew as the majority took their losses and the minority made the movement. Roughly, speaking, at this point (AHG v2, 3 or whatever) is just about assbackwards. AHG is is at the state where the pronouncements would be "down (a vertical comment) is bad" and "high volatility (a vertical comment) is dangerous" or something of that ilk. Being a beginner is a long or short process. It is like being a carpenter. One kind of carpenter has 20 years experience of doing the first year over and over; the other kind learns something each year of the 20 years. AHG 20 for example. All the mistaken principles used stay with a person. You get the consequences of each new mistaken concept you CHOOSE to use.
Of course the real issue is not how to trade a dragon, but do you really see a dragon, or are your eyes tricking you into seeing something that is not there. Another issue is to realize that patterns only have a probability of being right even if you spot them correctly. This means that you could have done everything right, and still lose money. Then the real problem comes, you have lost money, and want to revenge trade and/or hold onto a losing position instead of looking for a new opportunity. This now comes down to money management and psychology ie setting rules for yourself that you need to not break. Just having a system is only 15% of the equation.
My goal is to figure out how to stop making the same mistakes. And to become profitable enough to be able to trade full time as a career. How to achieve these goals: 1) Promote one of my employees to manager so I don't have to work at my business full time anymore. 2) Trade a small amount of money till I can prove to myself I can actually trade profitably. 3) Add more money to the account from selling some out of the country real estate investments once I am sure that I can handle trading. Or invest in a couple of AI trading programs that I know of and then figure what I want to do with my free time. 4) Have a backup plan of working in my field of expertise say doing consulting with some national firms and move back to my primary state so I can do consulting there while I have my employees work in another state. 5) Work on getting some sales for our business through the Internet rather than all walk in as it is now. 6) Jack, I will try to take a look at your futures strategy also since you feel its a better system than AHG, of course AHG seems easier to learn, but maybe its too simple.