Whoa :eek: Anyway, like Big AAPL said, I've been away from my computer for most of the day. I do appreciate the help a lot! But of course I have questions based on the backtest that you posted. 1. What software are you using? 2. So you held the position until either a) the end of the day or b) your .0065% stop was hit? Was that a trailing stop? The way I was working was to go long or short every time the line passed. It sounds like your backtest different in that you entered once per day and then either closed out and the end or stop lossed. So you had many fewer trades than I do. 3. Was your stop loss triggered if one tick reached the stop loss price, or only if the bar closed at or below that price? 4. Where did you come up with a stop loss of .0065%? Is that .0065% of price? (So if I enter YM long @ 12842, my stop loss would be .0065% away from that? I'm confused here because .0065% is really .000065, which is .83473 in this case... so round that to 1, and I'd have a stop loss of 1 tick on the YM? I think I have something wrong here). Thanks.
1. I backtest/trade with Investor RT 2. Stop was ENTRY*.9935. Each index may need a different amount of slack, depending on system, time of day, etc. Trailing stops suck. Set hard stops and profit targets (can be time, percentage or points), and let them ride. I do one trade per day, per instrument, per system. There are plenty of profits in that without trying to squeeze pennies out of every move. Forget every MA cross. You'll get chopped to death. The backtest I showed you on your own entry specs was for one trade at a particular time of day that I like to enter. There may well be other times when it works as well. Up to you to find out. (THINK: What does it MEAN when price is above or below the MA? What is happening? Why might it be happening at a particular time of day? Everything has a reason. You don't need Jack Hersey or some stupid indicators feeding you a load of crap to figure it out.) 3. Do you own work to find out. You want me to come turn your computer on and push the buttons too? Between my post and the clock that nkhoi posted, you've just been saved about 3 years and 50 grand in tuition already. 4. Okay, so now I've got to make your coffee too? Do some work, and calculate what works for you. You've got the basics already down. Remember, it was YOUR entry specs that I used in the backtest. So continue working on that. Keep it as simple as you possibly can. (I use an entry that is somewhat similar to yours for a particular time of day. But mine is even simpler. And works very well. Can it get even simpler than price above an MA? Well, yes, it can.) Good luck.
I'll have to look into that. Oh, that's different than .0065% I will look into "trailing stops sucking" more. I'd be worried about being like one tick away from my profit and then the price going back down and hitting my stop. I came up with a similar system that was one trade per day for stocks. I backtested it using www.stockfetcher.com and it was profitable (even tho stockfetcher only lets you backtest for up to two years at a time and only using EOD data). It involved buying certain stocks when a certain price was reached and holding until the end of the day. However this system only works for stocks and I can't really apply it to futures. I appreciate all the replies so far in this thread Simpler than price above an MA? Price above/below yesterday's open/close? That's the simplest thing I can think of. Thanks!
I do not believe that Quotetracker receives quotes for Tick or Trin as of yet. They are awaiting a server update that will occur in the near future. Contact Jerry Medved at QT: support@quotetracker.com
ironfist you are getting 30 signals a day - are u insane? to filter out more chop use another filter (like a 15 ma in addition to the 60) - the go long above the 15+60 and short below both. you will still get lots of small losses if you take every single trade and you will still see large profits shrink if you hold too long.......you will never be a good trend trader trading in a strictly mechanical way..........u have to use your experience and intuition to filter out more trades, and to get out before you get an exit/reverse signal.
Maybe you need to take the derivative of the 60-bar EMA. This value will tell you if the MA is accelerating or decelerating. Determine some value of X where trends start, then enter trades when the value exceeds X on the high side and -X on the low side. That way, you jump on board when a trend starts moving instead of being chopped to death between X and -X. If it works, you should be able to ride your winning trades much longer this way... You'll need a new exit signal, however. Waiting to exit on the 60-bar EMA will still kill you. Just an idea. You'll need to test it...
I've been in ur shoes, few yrs back, i know this feeling. You basically hv an atuomated trading and its fun to watch the no. of trades + the open and close prices.... Heres 1 way, though i wont tell u how. Sit in front of your computer and watch ur trades, watch it for 3, 6 months. Everytime its in the green, think abt what u could do. When the PnL starts dropping what can u do. I hope i triggered some thoughts from u.. Eventually in my case i figured out 2-3 algos to "trap" and locked-in the profits, or to, lke u said, open new position. Same trade or a reverse, i leave it up to u. Think abt what u would do as a human, then think how it could be implemented. Hint: Trial Stops. But there are at least 5-10 methods of trial stopping...
Would be interesting to know what made you respond to a 5 year old thread. Conditions change. Rapidly.