Between the trading and working (at my job which is slowly being shipped off to India where they pay them 8% of what I make) I'm pretty busy now. Wait until I have something to show before thinking that people will care about what I say. austinp on the other hand, has a a lot to show, a lot to say, and I'm sure would be very interested in giving you an interview, in parts 1, 2 and 3. JJ
Well, this interview is a success so far in that Rcanfiel gave answers about as candid as one can expect given that he has found things that work for him. Also in that some posters I respect added their views and asked good questions. But it is a also a failure so far in that the issue in question is so charged that it generated more heat than light. So C.P. Snow-like, I am going to attempt to bridge the two cultures and explain why you disagree about TA, using my own experience of TA trading NQ intraday. Then I am going to get the fuck out of here and let you all hock phlegm at each other. TA works when it works. When it doesn't, it doesn't. It's that simple. On a day when NQ wants to price progress using Darvas boxes, I TRADE DARVAS BOXES. On a day when NQ rat-shits (a Joe Doaks neo-TA term meaning "ratchet"), retracing back two BO's, I SCOOP UP RAT TURDS. On a day when NQ suckers everybody repeatedly with rising M's or falling W's (if you don't know, don't ask), I GO ALONG WITH THE GAG. NOTHING FUCKING WORKS ALL THE TIME. WHEN IT WORKS, YOU USE IT. WHEN IT DOESN'T, YOU LOOK FOR WHAT IS WORKING. Rcanfiel, thank you for being so patient and for replying so thoughtfully. Some of us (at least five so far) appreciate your "engineering mentality", haha! My privates secretary Hypostomus would be pleased to forward to me any requests to return the favor of this interview. May you eventually make so much money you HAVE to quit working, if only to retire! This thread is now open to be trashed. Have at it with gutso gusto!
You can ask the moderators or Baron to close the thread after you want nothing else to do with it. This prevents another eye sore thread from developing and helps prevent future problems with other interviews you may have in the pipeline. Just keep in mind that if you interview ET members that are controversial mainly due to their lack of professionalism in how they debate with others... Future conversations with them will always be tainted regardless if they have something of value to say or not. Simply, leaving this thread open will only make many of us say where's the visine. Mark
Mark, thanks for the advice. You are one of my favorite posters. But a funny thing happens when poor Duref prescribes the symptom. It disappears! I personally don't care what the aftermath is, because ET is ephemeral to the point of evanescence anyway. What sticks is what sticks in my own mind, and there have been MANY subtle jewels in these interviews so far. And some delightful follow-up PMs. Trade well, but not against me!
<i>"Funny, I didn't see you offering a valid book. And you still did not understand. I offered Amazon as a place where people can find good prices and customer reviews of books they might be interested in. "</i> I didn't offer a valid book suggestion on teaching someone the inner workings, guts & bolts of trading successfully because there isn't one. In other words, none exist. The only books in print teach (at best) tiny snippets of value amidst volumes of irrelevant stuff. Doesn't matter how cheap the books are... that is still learning this profession trial by error. <i>"And that pretty much sums it up for you - when you can go onto collective2.com or Timertrac.com or StrategyRunner.com and demonstrate that YOU can do this, then I will take you seriously. Otherwise, you are just venting."</i> Well, I'm only venting because it's 56F and rainy outside. Otherwise I wouldn't be here in the first place. While I am, my time was spent redirecting the misdirected that tech analysis does work. If it doesn't work, what the hell may I ask does? First of all, definition of tech analysis that works profitably is subjective. Here's my definition: using ANY type of price action OR indicator derived from price movement(action) to determine buy, sell and trade management decisions. Fair enough? If that means buying pullbacks to a trendline when the fast moving-average value is above slower moving average, it is a trade decision based on TA. If that means taking trades at Fib values when CCI or MACD are above/below certain marks, that is TA. * When in Rome, speak Latin. Below is a screen shot of a 100% mechanical system built squarely on TA. You computer engineers can appreciate the fact that such systems are relatively stupid, they only do what has been enslaved to them. There is no intuitiveness here, no fudge factor, no varience of results between operators. As many people running this system would be the exact-same number being issued identical buy/sell signals. Clear enough? These are the core cumulative results based on a combination of real-time trading AND walk-forward running with zero changes, tweaks or curves. Remember, this system is based on TA. The computer reads a chart, makes emotionless trade decisions and acts on them accordingly. Here are 4 years and 10 months worth of black & white, quantifiable, purely objective data. Y'all let me know if this example of TA works or not. If this one example works, innumerable others are probable. Four-minute miles are run by 1,000s of common people these days. (edit: data below reflects -$40 per trade turn slippage on bid/ask subtracted from results)
And there's the rub. For those who do not espouse it, technical analysis does not work for them. For everyone else, it works clear as the light of day, point-in-fact, how could it not? BTW, these threads are not crap, as some would allude to, rather they are very intelligent discussions amongst linked people (is that a freudian slip, I think I'll leave it as is) who trade (however that may be defined). As Hypostemus has inferred, it is the interactive process which allows for the iteration of knowledge. Good trading, JJ
<i>"Quote from Duref Mudgins: ...This thread is now open to be trashed. Have at it with gutso gusto!"</i> No disrespect meant or caused. You are one of my favorite (cast of) characters here in ET. If I had your gift of prose, it'd long ago be my choice of profession, rather than slugging it out for ES points intraday. I thought this was an interview that accepts call-in questions and comments. My bad... I'm signed out. Please, continue as you were
No! No! AustinP! That's the rubric. We pretend to be civilized for a time, then revert to our true carnivorean (carnivallian?) colors. I WANT the thread to be trashed!