I just started trading a month ago. I have some programming background so I felt system trading the way to go and have read that most hedge fund managers are system traders. I opened up a trading account with Tradestation but I lost a lot of account trading with them. I feel that the market is too dynamic to be modelled watching my system losing. Reading posts in different trading site, I noticed most traders use both systematic signals and discretionary feel to trade. I feel that the combination of rational dynamics and quantitative logic is the secret of success in trading. I do not have experience in trading discretion. I have followed Woodie's CCI thread but I have came to a conclusion that CCI does not have any statistical viability but traders use the discretion to trade well. Would anybody be generous enough to mentor me with discretionary trading? Is there a website about discretionary trading? Are there any good chatroom with good discretionary traders helping or giving explanations or his or her trades? Thank you all, in advance.
MrJohnGalt, I may be able to help you. What market(s) are you planning on trading? I can teach you how to win trading forex. Let me know, maybe even in a PM so as not to clutter this forum. Sam
Currently, I have an account with Interactive Brokers because they have low commissions and offers low cost realtime data. I have traded E-mini S&P and Nasdaq. I have read that daytrading stocks are impossible unless you go into a long-term trading so I don't have any plans. Does Interactive Broker allow forex?
"Does Interactive Broker allow forex?" OANDA allows forex: A broker I'd recommend to trade currencies. Sam
Have you traded E-mini products? If you have, how different is it from forex? I have read that there are currency futures market. Is it different with them?
MrJohnGalt: I'm strictly a (forex) cash and carry man. Do you tend towards being a chart trader or a news/data trader? Regards, Saham Gamal Ruach
Because of my programming background, I use technical analysis. I have experience testing Candle patterns, Moving Average, Stochastic, RSI and CCI. I haven't looked into news/data trader. Is this like tape reading? If you wouldn't mind sharing, how do you trade?
Another question is I have had painful experiences with drawdowns. I really get shaky both during market hours when I have a open trade and also when I my account has been negative. From reading posts by others in ET, I know that it cannot affect my trading but still the more I think about it, the more painful it gets. I am currently not trading due to this. I know and expect not to make money with a snap of a finger. But I have had a strong anxiety to computer generated signals. I have tried to stop watching my equity during open positions but that still doesn't help me ignore the drawdowns. I stuck to my system but I am worried and honestly fear the anxiety affecting my discretionary trades. The problems maybe something beyond the scope of asking for a mentor. I have bought and read Mark Douglas' book and finished Van Tharp's Peak Performance Course Exercise. And working on my psychological side of trading. But I am still not sure if that is enough for me to be profitable.
Where do you live? Why have you chosen futures as your trqading vehicle? They are highly leveraged for a newbie. DTP