It does show how inexperienced you are, and I do trade my own money. Google me if you're wondering, under Beau Wolinsky. Cash Cow works, but SPX datafeed is currently down. That's not my fault. And PTQQS is a wonderful system, having beaten the S&P by over 60,000 basis points. Thanks for looking.
Beau, why is this dependent on one datafeed for SPX? The SPX isn't something I'd think it would be difficult to find quotes for...
Bwolinsky is a curious contradiction in terms. When he was grilled about his professional status (presumably by traders who know what they were talking about ... I did not) he produced the credentials that they demanded. But then he talks about a data feed being down for weeks (of the SPX at that) and you just have to shake your head and wonder.
SPX has a unique datafeed native only to Fidelity Investments. There is no other datafeed out there that has this data, particularly the volume data, and I know I've personally made this point to you many times. Scottd's system fails in TS because the data is different than mine, not because my system is anymore different than his save for the removal of the sell on close. Basically, this SPX datafeed has volume data in it, and when I asked what volume data it was, they didn't know. E-signal doesn't have it, TS doesn't have it, and, no, even all the dataproviders in ninjatrader don't have this data. I'm still wondering what it is, but it's not that you couldn't get price data, it's that that's all you could get. The volume data isn't there, and that's the real workhorse behind the whole program is filtering the volume. It's always the hardest part getting the right data to go along with any bit of research. I hear bloomberg charges about $2700 a month for it of pretty much any time frame and any fundamental piece of data you could think about. But I digress. The reason Cash Cow works so well in Fidelity is it's SPX datafeed. It's not that you couldn't get SPX, but that you'd only get price data and have no volume data, which is required to work. ES contracts aren't even the same data, so if you're thinking you go that route you'd have to adjust the volume filters, which is what I did for futures truth when I basically submitted it for third party verification in January of this year. The volume needed to be about 31,500 and not 20,000 in the SPX. When you look at volume in SPX in WL5, you'll see very rarely do contracts exceed 20,000. Not so with ES, and this would be why you'd need the datafeed to work before trading it.
Mandy, it's not so hard to understand. Out of the six years I've traded with Fidelity with five being out of WL, I've never had this problem with any particular symbol. Right now, I'm not even sure when the SPX datafeed will be ready. Till then, we get to test Cash Cow's trades, but we won't be able to forward test without them. I guess I'll report back the trades, because I'd be up like 5% this month and about 2% from last month, but once Cash Cow started its drawdown is pretty much the point where the datafeed broke. I would recommend Fidelity to anybody who asks. Their research is top notch, far greater than Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, Tradestation, but Tradestation is normally where I go when I have an intraday strategy to check. It's kind of depressing that I'm at the whim of my broker to fix a datafeed that should have no problem running, but, hey, I guess that's life. I'll post the cash cow backtest tonight which started with 10k and now has over 90k of profits to show since 5/1/2008.
If only you knew. I hired over 100 traders in my career. In upper tier shops. I've seen many many guys like you being destroyed by the markets. Look, I will say something constructive after reading up on you. Your profile is not that of a trader. You might be better suited as a market analist, product analist, portfolio manager/builder, money allocator or a trade system analist. Studying for a CFA is not going to make you a better trader at all. It's a different skillset and mindset altogether. Even when building systems and being 100% mathematically oriented, you still need a lot more raw and pure market exposure under your belt to be entrusted with large sums of money to trade. So imho, stick to what you 're really good at and carry on with your own system on the side as a private hobby. A track record should be built with real money, your money, audited by a suitable source. I dare make a prediction on your remaining system cash cow: you will drift and linger and eventually give up or jump on yet a new system. In essence, you are curve fitting. I give that system maximum 2 years from now. Best of luck.
Not to pile on, Bwolinsky, but this is exactly where I was leading to in our discussion last week that never had a chance to complete because JH interjected his personality into our conversation. Your beliefs and knowledge do not strike me as being particularly well suited toward being a trader. An analyst, yes, but not a trader. Unfortunately, your beliefs and your temperament will likely prevent you from engaging in even momentary reflection upon whether or not the assessment Nagellis and I have offered is at all accurate, and instead, you will dismiss us. Good luck to you in your pursuits, trading and otherwise, ddaytrader
So you don't see a problem with a system that uses a unique datafeed that even the provider couldn't explain?
Even after this mess you still don't see a problem? P.S. Looks like the drawdown started before the datafeed broke... <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2535638>