for those that have tried and failed with trading rooms that make live calls or signal services, what would be some qualities that you'd look for in the ideal room or service? I am CONSIDERING starting a service. Yes, I know many here will blast me, laugh, and be skeptical which is all fine and good. This would be for ES e-mini only. Here is what I have so far: 1. Makes money. Duh !! More specifically, would have money back guarantee good forever. If service or calls don't make money in any particular month, all subscribers are refunded their money for that month or given the option of next month free. Doesn't seem right to charge people to lose their money. 2. Clear cut entry and exit prices. Nothing bothers me more than seeing an area given and then the official results being based on best outcome from the area. 3. Must get filled !!! This is my # 2 most annoying thing that I've seen. Price will touch the entry (or exit) price and trade a handful of contracts before reversing and the service will count it has a win when in reality it was a loss for anyone trying to follow. I'm thinking that for a trade to go in the official results and be subject to the guarantee price would have to trade through to ensure everyone filled. 4. Free trial lasting more than a couple days. How can you judge anything on a 3 day free trial? I'm thinking 2 weeks at the minimum. 5. Capped number of subscribers. Even though this would be for ES and likely not a problem I still believe there should be a limited amount of subscribers. what else would you like to see? and may the stone throwing commence Rick Dawkins
forgot one other thing.....I believe commissions should always be accounted for in any results. Who cares if something made 2 pts in a day if it took 18 trades to do so?
remind of a chat room that tried to meet all of requirements above. He waited all day for that perfect set up so that everybody can participated. So people waited all day for a perfect set up some day there was none. All it took were couple of bad calls and room was closed for lack of interests.
Less and longer (subscribers have more time to get in even at a better price than you) trades are better than a bunch of scalping ones.
You may want to deal with the market a little bit. From my point of view, trades happen rarely during the day (20 to 40 times, for example). The time between actions is what happens most of the day. Therefore, you may wish to be helpful about the next trade coming up and explain the "countdown" to the trade. This allows people to be watching the screens (that you provide to them) in a productive manner. One way that I have found valuable is the actually point to the place on the screens where the next action will be taking place. This allows the trader who is working with you to focus on what is important (and why) and he can be in the right place at the right time before the event and then just see it come to pass when the time suggested arrives. As an example, on a five minute chart or a two minute chart, you get to see that most profits accumulate in a trade over several bars. Some bars just go along as money is being made. Having this understood goes a long way towards taking the "freak out", that most people write about in ET, out of the picture. Another thing that will be nice to have is your log of the day being filled in. I do most of mine in advance and that is helpful to those looking at it. It answers the question that many traders may have: "What am I supposed to be looking for, anyway?" That answer, of course, is always available and it may be helpful for people to be thinking about the corresponding answer which is also available before hand. My log is an answer sheet with these answers written in in advance. It is very informative to point out on a screen, in advance, just what is going to be happening, the values involved and the time that the upcoming event is going to transpire. The object is to remove fear, anxiety and potential anger from the emotional aspects of trading and, then, replace these things with support, comfort and confidence. I use only binary data sets and that is an additional comfort since there is no question at any time which of the two possible answers is in play.
My personal style is to trade anywhere from 2-10 trades per day depending on market conditions and setups of what I look for so I don't think this would be an issue but it is a good point regardless. Thanks.
if your trades come thru but nobody else can get the same entry then you are just a paper trader. You best bet is having free room and do private training for those who are eager for more than just room calls.
"Therefore, you may wish to be helpful about the next trade coming up and explain the "countdown" to the trade. This allows people to be watching the screens (that you provide to them) in a productive manner." this is a great suggestion, thanks. Some sort of advance warning as to when a trade might be issued so those following can be ready. as for the teaching part.....IF I do start a service or room (and this is a huge if right now, not sure if I want the hassle) it probably would NOT be a teaching room to start. It would probably only be signals and then down the road evolve into teaching. I think I'd like to tackle one objective at a time and the first would be....... can I issue trades to a group of people that can follow them, execute them , and profit from them? frankly, I'm flabbergasted at some of the services I've seen. They are downright criminal. For example...... "go long at or near 1502.25" If price goes anywhere within 3 ticks they'll act as if they got in the trade. If it then goes down to 1502.25, they will take it from there as it's more advantageous. If a loss, it will be calculated from lowest possible entry in their range.
yes, exactly. This is what I explained in # 3 of my original post. All entries would have to trade through the limit order to ensure that every single person got filled. This way the official results on which I would base the guarantee would be the worst case results and people would actually do slightly better on times they did get filled without price moving through. very surprised that nobody has blasted me yet on this idea, all very good suggestions. I thought I would get some "go away" type of negativity since I am brand new poster to ET. Have read for some time just never posted.
all your suggestions sound good. just curious, how long have you been trading and for how long have you been profitable?