It will be. Just make sure whoever provides your data is good and you are not encumbered by data backfill or other headaches. Out of curiosity, why not just trade ES? Better tax treatment, if nothing else...
Why not trade ES? Coz i don't want to go out of business pretty soon.. i'm trading SPY and once i have proved consistent return then move up to ES.. thoughts?
Well, Trading ES basically means trading SPY at 500 size lots. Only you can tell if that is too much for you or if you need smaller increments to scale in / out for example
because I can guarantee you that you will lose money over time if you believe you can be net profitable looking at one single asset. The market is highly integrated, correlated and sometimes currencies lead, sometimes bonds, sometimes cash equity, sometimes news hit markets in Europe and carry over to US markets, sometimes it is Asia, sometimes the US. If you honestly believe you or any algorithm or any bank or hedge fund trader can limit him/it-self to one single symbol and decipher market dynamics then you must be a genius. I have never come across such genius in my over dozen years as professional trader. Do you honestly want to listen to charting software salesmen? If they knew about financial markets and knew how to extract value trading rather than selling software do you really think they would pay a bundle to advertise their software here? Think about it for a second and draw your own conclusions. If you tell me you only looked at one symbol and traded in that way for more than 3 years and every month were net profitable then I draw my hat and bow in reverence. I doubt, however, that this is even remotely close to the fact. Think for a moment why bank traders shell out thousands of dollars in high quality data feeds, multi market real-time data subscriptions, even if they only trade one single asset (such as a JGB futures and options trader). Why are some people so limited in logic and intellect that I am afraid they will not even follow this kind of reasoning? Of course you may be lucky and have been profitable over a short period of time but again if you had applied your claimed approach over 3 or more years and had been profitable each and every single month then we can talk again. Otherwise you should maybe first overthink your whole approach and thought process.
I loaded .NET and also found the two symbol restriction inconvenient and overly restrictive. I believe the two symbol restriction is fair and acceptable for execution, however, the inability to load more than two symbols is overly restrictive as it does not allow one to fully test the product in the manner is which one intends to use it. I hold a Multicharts license and found the MC Discretionary trader a nice compliment for monitoring on secondary systems. Execution, performed on the licensed product. It was a fair and acceptable approach. I was greatly dismayed when MC-DT was abruptly scuttled and un supported. I have uninstalled the .NET version from my systems for two reasons. A, I trade multiple instruments and markets, and the two symbol restriction doesn't allow me to test the product in the manner that I would use it. B, I have no desire to invest time into a product which may be scuttled again without notice.
Yes it does. I believe it is called DRM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management You can not log onto MC on multiple systems simultaneously. It contacts MC servers to confirm license, hence "calls home".
You raise a good point of stresstesting but the reasoning is wrong. If you want to stress test and see how MC.NET performs trading 200 symbols or 500 symbols, you can always use the 1 month trial to see how MC.net works under fully loaded conditions. I think the right way to use MC.NET is following: 1) get Ninja for free and use it to chart and monitor 50 markets if you wish. Thus you will know what is happening all over the market. 2) Get MC.NET and trade only 2 products using this : say 6E and CL. or AAPL and BIDU. The above combination is completely FREE. Had this combination been available, I would have never spent 1500$ on MC before. Uhhhhh. For anyone who wants to trade more than 2 products, this deal has nothing for them.
For those who trade multiple instruments, the term "scan" comes to mind. I find it acceptable that only two instruments can be traded at one time. However, you can only load two instruments in the program rendering it useless to scan, monitor or chart multiple instruments which cobbles the program. If MC is targeting "one trick pony" traders, I congratulate them as they chose an effective marketing approach. MC is offering their product for free in hopes of converting people into licensed product, that's business. This is the marketing approach they chose. I choose to vote with my feet and not invest my time in a product I can not use in the manner which I am accustomed to. It may work for others, doesn't work for me. 30-days trial is a valid argument and for those seriously interested a viable option. I am not interested at the moment. I will wait for the stunning reviews from those who MC migrated to paid licenses compelling me to reload MC.Net. Until then, I will stick with my current charting and order entry platforms. Even then I will be hesitant. MC-DT left a bad taste in mouth, as does the multiple year long unfulfilled promises of T&S in their previous flagship licensed MC product [burr in my saddle]. I have no desire to repeat my frustrations. I am also concerned that MC-Net may make current MC obsolete and is a covert marketing strategy to "extract" a second license from existing owners. As MC.NET gains in popularity, existing MC owners may need to upgrade to benefit from any new functionality due to MC.Net getting the lions share of R&D while the current program stagnates. i.e. the current MC lacks T&S as I previously mentioned, the DOM is basic and unpolished and all focus allocated to MC.NET. Bottom line, this is only my opinion and my reaction. It may be a wonderful opportunity for others who have different needs than I. If one has the time and desire, it doesn't cost anything but time to try, unfortunately time is the one commodity I cherish the most.
Good points. Imo, aim of this promotion is to motivate ninja users to try MC and to target people who trade just 1/2 products and don't need to scan. Regarding stunning reveiws. It is very hard to get a reasonable review for any product imo. There are various reasons for it: 1) Most of the customers who have bought a product will always be careful in criticizing the product - since in a way they are criticizing their own decisions since they bought the product and who wants to be proven wrong (who wants to experience cognitive dissonance). 2) Most of the customers in this business are amateurs, people who are trying to become profitable. For this set of people, it is hard to really understand what a super-good product can do for them. E.g. someone who has never used a dom, might find it hard to understand the specifics of a good dom. 3) For most people, it takes time to really understand the limitations of a product. Only when you start coding hard and complex things, do you start discovering limiations of easylanguage etc. 4) Most of these software vendors (MC, Ninja, Amibroker etc.) are sponsors on most of trading forums. So, to expect forum owners to allow uninterrupted criticism is to expect too much. 5) Till last year, MC was enough for all my needs. But now I have outgrown MC and I am having to create a lot of infrastructure for my own use. So, all-in-all I would say - MC is a good basic product for beginner traders - it allows them to avoid getting stuck into data management issues, it already has most of the basics built-in. So, it allows beginners to start creating strategies very quickly. However, as a trader becomes an advanced trader, he is forced to go down the route of writing either add-ons or creating alternative infrastructure to service his needs.