I would hope that would be the case. All things would work better and smoother. If everyone shorts when I short then that only helps my case. If everyone goes long when I go long then that helps my long case. What I fear is if everyone trades against me. Then I got to exit with a loss ..double up or triple up and go In the direction where the pressure is, getting back my loss and then some. Remember, I am a scalper not an investor.
That is fine with me I’ll jump in with them and then average down when they jump out and then I jump out on restest of the low or high depending on whether the trend is up or down. So, they are happy following my strategy and front running me and I am happier cause they pushed the market for me and I added on to my position (by scaling in or even averaging down) during their profit taking (pause or pb) and I get out with more profit than they once the retest even though they front runned me. They thought they was out smarting me but I out gunned them! Just as they think they know what I am doing I know better yet what they are doing. But generally, all this said, I just don’t worry about it, because even if I tell people how I trade they ain’t gonna want to copy me, because I tend to break most all the guru’s rules. And those rules have been cemented in their minds. The guru’s with all their nonsense have educated and trained us to lose. e.g. take my journal. How many folks are gonna try what I say? Even on a sim? Practically none that read it. Because the rules I break are too much. They cannot find it within themselves to make the leap into another world. They cannot make the paradigm shift. So, they will argue why it won’t work. And the gurus applaud. Just look at what I do. Ranges - short BO Attempts at the top. Long BO attempts at the bottom. Unless, there is follow-thru on the BO then do the opposite. I define follow-thru in my journal. Why do I do this when novices tend to go long at the top of range BO attempts? I do it because 80% of BO attempts out of a range top or bottom fail and price goes right back into the channel within 5 bars. Also in ranges one can go long or short in the middle of the range if the range is broad enough and certain patterns are present. These I don’t think I have discussed in my journal. 2) Channels - basically same tactics as ranges because that is all they really are - tilted ranges. There is a slight difference in probabilities though. A bull channel has a slightly higher probability in terms of a successful trade by going long at the bottom. Simply because the buying pressure is greater and for that reason the channel was formed in the first place. Shorting at the top of a bull channel can also be done but you may have to take more “heat” on the trade. And there is about a 75% to 80% chance that a BO attempt out of the bottom will fail within 3 to 5 bars And 70% to 75% a BO out of the top will fail and price will go back into the channel. Fading the outer edges of channels make for great for opportunities for averaging down long in the bottom 1/3. And averaging down short in the top 1/4. And keep in mind that bull channels are basically bear flags on a higher TF and the successful BO, when it does in fact happen has a higher chance of being out of the bottom of the channel. If it has a successful BO (successful as with FT) out of the top then that is the unlikely event happening and means bulls are quite a bit stronger therefore I looked for a measured move up for PT. Conversely, for all the concepts, in bear channels. 3) BO’s ..spikes...etc I trade different ways. Sometimes holding for a run. Sometimes averaging down. Sometimes multiple entries and exits as the BO progresses. Much depends on the dynamics as the bars are formed as to what tactics I employ. 4) I generally cut profits short and lock them in. 5) I like averaging down as price moves against my position. 6) when my premise is wrong I take the loss then like doubling up or tripling up in the right direction. I get my loss back quickly and soon in the money again. 7) I don’t fret about R:R If I play the trade right that part generally works out. 8) I do pay attention to actual risk vs initial risk 9) I like adjusting my SL and PT depending on the dynamics as the bars are forming. A few other things too but these are enough to make the gurus choke on their spittle.
Doesn't really work because you still should be profitable at most brokerages. So some of those brokers still going to get the good trades...
I made that reflection already a long time ago while setting up multi accounts. The fact that nobody ever made this remarks confirms that on ET nobody is really profitable and tried multi brokers. He would immediately notice that a very profitable system cannot hide their profits. In best case you can split the profits between several accounts, but you will need much more capital to trade as each account needs trading capital. If you use four accounts you need roughly 8 times more capital (depending on the number and size of the fake trades) then if you trade with only 1 account as you have to create artificial huge drawdowns to freighten people. Drawdowns are the only thing you can try as you cannot hide the profits, they will be on the four accounts. By trying to make an account look ugly, you have to transfer their profits to the other accounts, which makes them more attractive to be copied. Works like communicating vessels; lowering 1 or 2 accounts will increase the profits on account 3 and 4. Maybe add options to the game and transfer the profits there with some construction...
A related question: are most strategies, saved charts, screen shots, etc in retail charting programs viewable by the software companies and their employees? I have not read whether this info. in encrypted in any way, which suggests to me that it is probably not and stored as plain text. Thanks for any knowledgeable responses.
If you are referring purely to trading platform companies then I would say that it is a possibility. They might take a log of your trades and analyze it for the profitability and maybe even strategy. It is never wise to go for third party platforms if you can afford it. There is a post of a backtesting software company that uploaded the strategies back to their server when doing a crash diagnostic test. I believe it is here at ET. The manager claims they do not do that but the forummer has the proof in the log. Who knows if the programmers are doing something behind their employer's back or if they are all in cahoots.