I am very interested in using fractals in trading as i beleive tht they are useful...any info would be appreciated
What do you mean by "fractal"? This term gets thrown around quite a bit here but Im not clear on its exact meaning. The dictionary says: Etymology: French fractale, from Latin fractus broken, uneven (past participle of frangere to break) + French -ale -al (noun suffix) : any of various extremely irregular curves or shapes for which any suitably chosen part is similar in shape to a given larger or smaller part when magnified or reduced to the same size - fractal adjective Does this definition fit yours?
Composite Fractal Behavior : http://www.jurikres.com/catalog/ms_cfb.htm#top Mandelbrot, B. B. [1999] "A Fractal Walk Down Wall Street," Scientific American, February 1999, pp50-53.
The only thing I recall from that was the point that from a typical chart alone, without a legend, you can't tell the time period.
I have always substituted timeframe for fractal. I use them in pairs and use the faster to time my entries. Whats very cool is if you use 2 pairs with one timeframe that is the same. It gives one context that is immensly helpful to calming oneself while trading. Price is not going to fall off the earth although emotions might let you think that at times....my newb days. lol.
If you're interested in fractals, you will want to read the books by Bill Williams (eg, "Trading Chaos")
Perhaps a good demonstation of fractal is that you cannot tell what timeframe a chart is by the bars alone.
I saw that book at the store the other day, might give it a shot. Some of the math is likely to be over my head, but it looks like he spends time talking about why certain types of math aren't adequate to analyze the markets, then gets into fractals. Overall, is it worth the read?
I sat down and thumbed through the Mandlebrot book in Borders one day. I tried to just hit his major conclusions -- many of them are things that traders already know...like the markets are much riskier than you would think...some interesting stuff, but I think I'd either get it from the library or thumb through it again. But then again, I'm a cheap bastard.