I would not have any problems too. I never told I use charts but you assumed I did. Now you assume I run a fully automated system, which I don't. I have to do some manual interaction as the system runs not full automatic. So I always have to click the mouse.
You missing my point. Yes, Edge alone is not enough of course. But it is first and foremost important ingredient of successful trading. If it is not there, nothing else will matter. If an athlete can not run, no mental state will help him win.
Programming can easily create errors, but that is what back testing and forward testing are for. 1) BackTest 2) Forward test live on sim account (compare results every week to a back test of the week against sim trades - it must match) 3) Go Live on Small account (compare results every week to a back test of the week against live trades - it must match) 4) Increase size and use compound wisely.
Yes,... and a positive mental state begins the journey for an athlete to excel at running. Repeated losing in competition will stimulate the desire in some athlete's to train better and others to give up. Sure there is nature talent in most activities one can engage in and there is an additional quality one can bring to bear that builds on those natural talents. It's simply a different path up the mountain, as the aforementioned example of the turtle traders (given an proven system in that moment in time) demonstrates. Without a positive mental state how could one discover and create for themselves what you describe as edge?
When you say you don't use charts as such, but data, are you using excel spreadsheets or do you have a program which number crunches your data such as Amibroker? (as an example). Which program do you use and is it time delayed or live?
I first develop in Excel because it is easy to make changes to formulas and to do a quick first test. Then I put the system in Tradestation or Ninjatrader for testing on more data. What I don’t use: MACD, RSI, moving average, Bollinger Bands, stochastics, CCI, OBV, ParabolicSAR, Pivot points, Fibonacci, S/R, trendlines, Candle sticks, ADX, DMI,Volume… Because the calculations are easier to read in graphic form then in numbers, I put everything in charts. Everything runs live and is updated every 0.5 seconds. As I don’t trade in very short timeframes that is more than enough. More updates would only keep the computer busy without any added value.
Is is easy to convert excel data into tradestation or Ninjatrader? My modeling, testing, are in Excel/VBA but I don't know how to directly input that into my broker's trading system automatically.
Thanks for the helpful response. Excel is a great program. When I was a schoolboy, I was never that good at anything, all I lived for then was to leave school and start work, study was not my forte and maths, struggled with. When it came to my final year of school, I failed the leaving certificate, so I was forced back to school another year. For some reason when it was again end of year I gained the 2nd highest maths score, man was I stoked. Since then, absolutely love maths and excel is a great program to be able to use a wide swathe of different formulas, still getting a buzz from it even now, and I'm a retiree!
I programmed, with some help, all the fomulas in TS and NT. Took some time but works perfectly. As I am not good at all in programming I continue to research and develop in Excel as it is less time consuming and far more flexible to quickly build, test or change new things. I don't use any broker's trading system, and trade manually in the order systems.
Yeah I wish Amibroker was as simple as Excel for coding, alas it's not, so I struggle a tad with that. That is if I wish to create something totally unfamiliar. I will add this, I had personal assistance and mentorship from a truely great AB coder for a number of years, 'Kaveman', absolutely brilliant guy! I have scores upon scores of coding he has done for me. However with much perseverance, I usually get there finally in Amibroker coding when attempting my own from ground up. Finding answers for Excel formulas is a cinch online, not so Amibroker, my membership with it has lapsed, I haven't upgraded neither computer nor AB for some years, turned all software updates off, found updates and upgrades were just too much hassle, always ended up with issues which took hours to sort out, so now trying to keep things simple and stock standard. Trading is done via a seperate vehicle. Amibroker is for algos which point me to the opportunities.