Cya 4DTrader <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cJOZp2ZftCw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cJOZp2ZftCw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> :eek:
Samuel Beckett has some nice quotes (as ever) that relate well to the experience of trading when things don't quite work out: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Enough. Sudden enough. Sudden all far. No move and sudden all far. All least. Three pins. One pinhole. In dimmost dim. Vasts apart. At bounds of boundless void. Whence no farther. Best worse no farther. Nohow less. Nohow worse. Nohow naught. Nohow on." Worstward Ho (1983) See also: "The tears stream down my cheeks from my unblinking eyes. What makes me weep so? From time to time. There is nothing saddening here. Perhaps it is liquefied brain. Deplorable mania, when something happens, to inquire what. In order to obtain the optimum view of what takes place in front of me, I should have to lower my eyes a little. But I lower my eyes no more. In a word, I only see what appears close beside me, what I best see I see ill." The Unnamable (1954)
i feel you my friend. trading is tough. very very tough. i began my trading career 16 years ago. the reason it is so hard to make money trading is because the market atmousphere is always changing. things that effected markets only a few years ago now arent a factor as to other things that are. as a matter of fact every day is a different animal. trading is like doing a new job every day. its interesting to hear you say you quit. over the years i have quit trading many times yet i still get back in again. you are saying something more than you. you always have to change your plan. every day in the market is a new challenge if something worked for you or didnt work for you when you lost now needs to be changed again again and again. of course it all depends on the duration of your trades as well, but that changes your plan yet again as well.
If trading is so easy for you, why did you pay to be a sponsor at ET? You could trade all day everyday w/o distraction and make millions. You wouldn't need to waste any time or money trying to get website hits like you are doing. Care to rephrase your statement?
Dang, I can't believe the ET sharks didn't swarm a new sponsor who said trading was "very easy". You guys are slacking
Execution of trading is EASY, but I doubt anyone WHO successfuly trades for a living would say trading is easy. Trading means adapting, and for some it is easier. Trading is a business. Trading can seem easy, IMO from one day to the next - yes - BUT overall I would think those who last in this business soley living off their trading income THINK trading is MORE a CHALLENGE, a never ending pursuit. And, I agree SWORD - IF trading were so easy, why in the heck would anyone try and sell something!
It is not so difficult to test a TECHNICAL strategy depending on a certain timeframe without real trading, even if it is a little judgmental (which often constitutes to a good system). In Metatrader the answer is the F12 button and changing the position of the gray triangle in the left down corner (when auto scrolling is off). You have to move it to the right down corner. This way You never see the next price bar untli You press F12. You can download a pair history, which You don't know. If Your system is good, it should work on different pairs (better or worse on each one of them). XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Then start scrolling the data in a totally random way and "guesss" using Your indicators, what will happen in the next bar. If You think, there is a high chance of a certain move of a price, (virtually) set Your limit orders for the next bar (and note them) or enter at the closen price, which was at the end of the last visible bar. DO NOT FORGET to specify the exact stop-loss price BEFORE moving to the next bar!!! After that press F12 and check if the stop loss or a limit order was hit. If it was, write down an entry point or a loss in points in Excel (add spread to the loss now or preferably later at the end of testing). If You entered the trade on limit or the stop loss was not hit, move the stop loss to protect the profit or lower the losses (if desired) or close the trade and write down the profit or loss (adding and subtracting the spread) in Excel. Then proceed to the next bar with F12 button or.... GO TO POINT XXXXXXXXXXXXX THIS IS THE WAY TO TEST YOUR JUDGMENTAL TRADING STRATEGY. REMEMBER: It is essential to test Your system first for at least 100 trades. You are profitable this way if: Your_profits - Your_losses - spread*number_of_trades >= number_of_trades (It means that You should have at least 1pip (point) average profit on 1 trade (including spreads)). If You are so lucky to see this effect, then make a chart of the total amount of points vs number of trades. THE CHARTED CURVE SHOULD GO UP ALL THE WAY with deviation down (preferably) less than 23% of the total amount of points. If it is so, You should test Your system the same way for another 400 trades. If the curve of total points keeps going up all the way up to 500 trades, do not waste Your time anymore!!!! START TRADING THIS SYSTEM!!!!! If not, You must change/modify the system and start testing again. From my experience, It is possible to test from 5-30 trades in an hour, so it would probably take a whole week to fully test a difficult system for 500 trades. After such an amount of work (very very hard work!!!) spent on testing, You would not like to change ANYTHING during real trading, unless You test it again for 500 trades. That will keep You disciplined. NEVER START TRADING WITHOUT MAKING THIS EFFORT AND SCRUPULOUSLY TESTING YOUR SYSTEM ON AT LEAST 500 TRADES, IF YOU WILL, YOU WON'T BELIEVE IN YOUR SYSTEM AND WON'T PULL THE TRIGGER IN MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS! GOOD LUCK! P.S. With pairs like eur/usd watch out for bars of price with "long tails" and enormous range - most probably they are at 12:30... 14:30... and so on - INFO HOURS. You wouldn't enter any trade before such bar and would close every trade before a info so, close every trade when You see a "INFO BAR" in a preceding bar at the bar closing price. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, WHAT IS WRITTEN DOWN IN THIS POST, YOU ARE PROBABLY NOT SUITABLE FOR TRADING. AGAIN: GOOD LUCK!!!