I followed with great interest the post and threads for "trading plan" A couple of things I would like to know more about are the systems that are mentioned one "r breaker r levels" The r I assume is resistance. The other is a scalping system. Both are said to be offered by FT. Does anyone know whether these are viable systems? Also I plan to try trade prospector for the free trial , any views on that? I tried Longbull but there are a couple of things that I wished were different about their system. In one case are you buying a system ( i.e. R breaker and scalping) and in the case of trade prospector are you renting a system. I am obviously new and want to trade modestly but not lose too much. I don't need the income from trading to live on, thank goodness, but of course don't want to bleed money while getting my feet wet. Thanks to all. I love this site.
Breezy, This is just my opinion, and I don't know about either system. Take the X dollars that you plan on spending for a system and buy some good trading books. Hell, buy some shitty trading books too. And then spend all your free time studying them. Develop a methodology and try it out. Then go back and re-read all the books, you will be surprised what you missed or did not comprehend the first time around. RealMoney.com, although not the be all end all site costs about $100 for a year fo the basic membership, and provides daily commentary from a wide population of traders with different styles. TC-2000 or another end of day charting software gives you a good idea what is going on in the markets. I would guess that all of the above would cost less than you plan to spend and yield at least the same if not much better results. Mac
dont buy anything and dont rent anything if its more than month to month with no commitment.almost everything out there is worthless.if they wont give you a free trial run away.
If you lease or buy a system, make sure you it's not a black box and that you understand the underlyings of the system. If it's a "gray box" where some of the methodology is disclosed to you, that might be worthwhile in that you can be an astute observer and perhaps be able to define your own trading methodology over time. For example, if you like to buy dips and sell rallies but the system you buy buys strength and sells weakness then you the system is not a psychological fit for you. I personally prefer a fully disclosed method- but you have to realize that if the fully disclosed method was that good of a method to begin with, it wouldn't be available for lease or purchase. As always, do your due diligence and ask for past performance verification, including brokerage statements and compare them to trades generated by the system.
The best place to go to find out about a system is FuturesTruth. R-Breaker and R-levels have been top-ranked S&P systems for some time. You might be able to talk to the actual developer and get some insight into how they work. I believe you need TradeStation to operate them. Look at the FuturesTruth website to see a list of virtually all available systems. Before you plunk down money to buy a system, I would read all I could about system trading in general and that system in particular. Most of the better systems require pretty large accounts to trade, because they trade a group of commodities. typically, they are volatility breakout systems, and make money by catching one or two big trend runs a year. You can expect drawdowns of 40% or so.
I view successful systems as successful traders that allow you to look over their shoulder in realtime trading. I suppose some people buy them to trade, and originally I did too. Now, I'm more interested in learning the thought process behind the trade and what the system is trying to capture. I bought R-breaker because it had been out since Jul. 1993 and had done well over the years. It has 11 parameters and is designed for the SP market. I couldn't use it for my purposes because it was profitable only 35% of the time and the drawdown was too high relative to the profits. Also, it tended to lose money in 1/2 the months. It's max drawdown was over 20k, so you need to be well funded. Plan on a drawdown of 2/3 of the yearly profits. R-levels is included if you buy R-breaker. It lost money in 1999 and also is only right about 35% of the time. You get the rules, so if you want to analyze the ideas, plan on taking a month to understand what all the rules do. Rich can be reached at (914)741-2147. One system I find very interesting is RUSH. It's only been out since 10/2000, however it has done well and has a high percentage >60% of winners. Low drawdowns as well. Only 8 parameters. I don't know if it's disclosed, though. If interested, the developers can be reached at (703)683-2405. I've got my hands full right now. If things work out, I'll be buying this software to learn from it.
Breezy I have spent thousands of dollars on books and seminars. I have used Trade Prospector since its beginning. Its one of the few things I've purchased that is worthwhile. Trade Prospector is like having a team of research assistants working on your behalf for something like a dollar a day!!! Try the 2 week trial and find out for yourself. Sterling
Can you expand a little more on your use of Trade Prospector? I mean do you use it for postiion trading, daytrading? How long have you been using it successfully? Went to their site, it looks very interesting..... mrktwiz
does anyone know of a site that does technical analysis for you?? i wouldn't mind paying someone to take the few hours/ day necessary to look through all of my charts for important levels. thanks.