OMG, it took you writing a book to say that you only listen to people whose verified pnl you have seen? For me , I consider arguments, made on the basis of facts and logic as noteworthy and adoptable. Simple as that. And so far nobody has shown a single example or provided credible reasons or a logical argument why tape reading in 2016 works. The "it works for me, that's proof enough" is childish and immature because it adds zero value. I have reason to believe that there are some very angry people around who have either direct monetary interest in some of those order book or tape reading software applications or otherwise benefit from hyping them or this method.
The fx market was created mostly by banks not brokers. Nowadays there are incredibly efficient and deep ECNs where counterparties of various interest provide and take liquidity. As with all other asset classes I am convinced that reading order flow makes no sense here for a retail trader as well.
Please private message me if questions about P$. In case you think I am hiding something, I have answered this in as many words as possible at the start of this journal. I traditionally traded US and Eurex markets, this is my journal / research into Asian markets.. mainly the Mini Nikkei - pretty much to get back in the game after a year and half hiatus, software developing, and yes.. some vendoring. Sometimes even vendors have to learn to trade new markets :|
I don`t care if your hiding something or not,was just wondering why you didn`t mention your own soft.You don`t trade with it? I think Mini Nik is trading on CME,on the US RTH,not during Asian hours.
Yes I use it. I categorize it as one of the automated tape reading tools I use, since forum rules dont let me mention my tools. I can pay some $$ to plug my product... but just journaling a new market here. P$ is not necessary for tape reading in this way, but makes it easier for me. Mini Nikkei trades on Osaka (Asia's most futures volume). Singapore and cme have a large Nikkei contract.
What broker do you trade with that offers Nik on Osaka via Ninja?I`m also in the eastern semisphere.Unfortunately,Ninja don`t offer Asia.
AMP Futures seem to be the first US retail broker to offer it as far as I know. Unfortunately this means you either needed to have an NT license before the AMP Ninja 'breakup' that you can switch to CQG (there is a webpage for doing this, if you need it ask), or use one of the other AMP CQG supported platforms. CQG being the necessary order router. I am using their free multicharts software for now to run the tape reading tools. If I am still committed to the Mini Nikkei when the new Jigsaw Rapid Trader Pro platform is officially released (out of testing) - then I will be using it since they support CQG through AMP. Having said that I am really hoping @Tradovate supports Osaka soon as... well... free comms is hard to beat and I hear they use CQG at the backend. As mentioned, end goal is to automate this, as I don't want to be glued to the markets for the next five years. Assuming I can find some patterns to work with, from observing others it could be likely a year or two down the track to get the machine to trade like me. My (paid for) mentor argued it was easier to get a human to trade like a machine. I still think that's necessary while you find your edge... but ultimately am chasing the opposite. If Ninja have got on board by then with Osaka I like their NT8 strategy engine and development platform... which I will using for testing between now and then. Though will likely end up using the TT API which I am well familiar with through another broker since already have the infrastructure/code to work with. At this stage I am confident the best fills will be achieved through collocated TT routing fwiw. That's the broad plan as far as technology goes and as you can no doubt tell I have mentioned every platform in existence haha. If you just want to see what the Mini Nikkei behaves like on Osaka - hit up a CQG trial through @AMP_Trading and their free Multicharts. It's worth a look since in the timezone.
Thank you,Graham for the detailed reply. If you trade solely off the DOM,plus have a computer science background,it is just really not that hard to semi-automate,there are some really few clear DOM + T&S patterns two work with. I`d agree with your mentor,it`s easier to code a few things and train your self a bit,then trying to fully automate this stuff.I tried it many times,can tell you,you`ll either have to endure some decent DD to make something out of it,or you make change with little to 'no' risk.But that can be applied not only to DOM stuff i guess,as far as the automation is concerned(just like with everything,it moves where vola prevails and struggles at chop).Discretionary you make much more.Some of the best automated guys with the access to the best data in the World make 30-40% per annum at best,but if that`s your goal,then God speed! Thanks for the links.To get the notion how the instrument behaves it`s usually enough to take a look at its margin minimum.
No, Sir, please don't quit an interesting discussion because of one contradictor. From what you wrote, you know what you are talking about. So, I have a question for you: how do you trade around big pending orders ? I mean, orders about 10 times biggers than usual, that you get maybe once in a week or less.