really? I thought 50% return a year was considered doing very well on the market. and do you think market conditions/motion back in 1996 apply to the current market?
Why are you using IB's demo account instead of an IB simulated (paper trading) account? It's believed that the E-demo account is pretty much useless.
With futures, you have to be very careful as to how you evaluate your return. First, as I pointed out, a simple buy-and-hold over the same period would generate a more than 200% return on investment ($7200 from a $3000 margin). Second, although the posted P&L chart looks impressive, if you study it carefully, you'll see that it suffered a $1500 drawdown, which is a 50% down on investment.
I was going to get to your comment about drawdown, but you beat me to it. Even so, the system thus far is actually performing pretty much as it is supposed to, as Frost has stated, even with the consecutive losses, it still has a pretty decent Win:Loss ratio of 2:1. With a few tweaks (and a lot of work) it can probably go to 3:1 or 4:1. âMoney grows on the tree of persistenceâ Japanese Proverb Best Regards, JJ
nonlinear, Ib's paper account is what I used. I was not aware there was a separate demo account, so I just referred to the simulation account as a demo account. These drawdowns are definetly scary. I wish there was a way to make them smaller without switching contracts, but thus far that doesn't seem possible.
frost, make sure you don' lose your ass. if this is not the case, keep it going. if your papertrading was fine, then don't throw in too early. good luck g
... lets just say that if Frost had those skills, he'd pretty much be a monster in the markets. best regardes, jj
OK, that's better. The "demo" account is just that -- for folks who don't have a real (or simulated) account. The demo has the same login for everyone: edemo/demouser. Try it, although as I stated before, it's pretty much useless.