400 pips/contract? Congrats on compounding 50% or so each month then, you should be retired on your own private island in a couple years.
Im happy for you who can consistently make professional returns, as im personally only trading signals and im so far profitable. and feel very bad about it, and not something I can feel proud of. I feel very uncomfortable investing my money in something I dont understand, and simultanously be aware of the fact that they might stop their service or stop improving their result. I think it is important as a trader to do it himself, and feel the reward of improved results, and know what your are doing. The immense popularity of forex signals, tells me that everyone wants an easy way wealth. I even searched on dc++ for forex ebooks, and found mostly bullshit about w.d gann. Im however using the profit to trade with another account, where ive been consistently making losses every month. I have however not followed a set of system, and been rather emotional and speculative. I really have the urge to create my individual system. Im currently very busy, but I will have 2 month off very soon, and Im prepared to devote 12 hours for 60 days to work on my system based on indicators that I believe is most useful for the strategy employing, as well as the best possible combination. I did however read in another post that learning to automize your system with tradestation, will take years. If that is true, is there any service or company that can do the work for you and that have a proven track record of being reliable.
hey drasfs We are in his for one thing...Profit. Thats all thats it. hey congrats on your signal service! I find that these systems can stop working, so be on alert to know when enough is enough...don't give back everything, before quitting... I hope that it continues to be profitable for you for years to come, just do not get too comfortable...ok? Michael B.
i am in the level where i am starting to figure it out. i am developing a feel for it. I have caught a couple large moves (ioo pips) within the last month and many smaller ones. As soon as i can add a little more knowledge, i think i will be able to do this consistently. I am wise enough to know that the market can whup you any time, i could take a beating on a trade and turn it around the next trade. Thats why i love the markets, i believe there is no failure, just concentrate on the goal. Remember you don't have to get rich quick. Just limit your losses and hit a few singles and doubles trades and you will hit your share of Home runs, maybe even a grand slam once in awhile.
True. What really matters are not how many pips you can make, but how you can keep your losses to a minimum, and how many winners you can make. Im getting sick of knowing everything in theory, but still perform like a cow on the field.
Exactly. But I know that it must feel unfair, to see a newbie make good profit without putting any effort into it, when you have done it the hard way. I would however prefer to do it myself, and I envy people who can be profitable by doing it themselves.
I made 6,340 pips within the first 2 weeks of the month that most people here know about. http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57444&perpage=6&pagenumber=12
One of the most important things that really matters is Expectancy: % wins x average win + % losses x average loss. Disregard breakevens for this purpose. Another thing that really matters is your frequency of trades. How many at-bats do you get per day, week, month, quarter, year? Positive Expectancy + Adequate Frequency = Holy Grail. For example, if you had to choose from these 3 trading methods: % wins, average win, average loss, # of trades a month 1) 35%, $1,000, $154, 16 2) 50%, $1,000, $500, 20 3) 80%, $1,000, $2,750, 32 which would you choose and why, everything else being equal? In my view, expectancy could well be one of the most under-appreciated, inadequately understood, if not ignored altogether, elements of trading. Have you read Van Tharp's very first book, "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom"? If not, I cannot recommend it highly enough (never mind the cheesy title), in part because of its expectancy discussion. There are more in-depth treatments of expectancy and other elements of trading elsewhere, but that book lays down a strong, logical foundation to build on. The other things you mention may or not be important at all. It is entirely possible and, depending on your trading personality, may be even preferable, to have a great system / methodology which has either some sizable (relatively infrequent) losses or only a few (relatively large) wins. To get back to your original post... as for that nearly universal emphasis on pips in the forex world -- no, make that, Obsession with PIPS -- I always think of it as "opium for the people". Pips only begin to matter in the context of key questions such as "at what leverage?" and "how much risk?" The further you get away from that externally imposed, tunnel vision, pips-driven mindset, the better off you are going to be as a currency trader.