Pick any two: a) Black boxes are cooler than gray boxes b) Black boxes cost more c) Gray boxes are old Black boxes d) Mix both and you get a non-correlated watchamacallit. Also called a white box and even more expensive.
Well, I see this thread has brought out the comedians. At least if the trading thing doesn't work out for you guys you'll have had some practice with your comedy routines. I AM
No, frequency does not neccessarily correlate to theoretical higher profits or less risk for that matter but nor does low frequency. I structured the intro to get as much contribution as possible but I will be more specific for those of you who require more detail. I am not interested in swing trading systems that generate 2 or 3 trades a month. Such systems may be fine but they are not what I am looking for. Trade size can vary and if the system proves reliable enough we will crank up the volume as much as our risk parameters will tolerate. Equities and futures markets. NO overnights! Of course all of the questions you posed are important. I am concerned with all of these things but regardless of whether I put in the specific of these things or not, those who actually who have legit systems are not going to outline all the stats of their system here anyways. Hence the reason for the PM request where respondents can, and are, more likely to elaborate on the performance of their particular box. I AM
Automate, Your "Question" has received the wisecracking it deserved. As with many such threads on ET, discussions will go on for a while as this kind of stuff attracts lots of empty headed adepts who love to juggle all kind of mathematical sounding terminology around a vaporous ill, defined subject. May you find the boxie with the right color, nononsense
imo, theoretically (logically, mathematically and naturally) Yes (i.e. higher frequency and shorter timeframe Could produce higher profits and lesser risk - requiring smaller capital to trade). Probably, this kind of boxes (whatever colour) would be much harder to design/ produce/ get
I have a few lines of script that works in short term trading. I guard it with my life. Because it works. And, because it works, I don't need anyone. I started out black, then grey, now bald. I run my bald box on NeoTicker which I find to be a fine program. At my age I can't be hitting those damn keys and clicking the mouse all the time, so these automated programs are just the thing for the elderly.
Blackbox LLC does something like this. But it seems shady because of the laws regarding intellectual property. This is how it was explained to me: the trading system a trader has is his IP. If he gives it to a person like automate or blackbox llc, and they alter it slightly, that now becomes their property. And an non disclosure agreement doesn't help. Just my .002 for FWIW.
There is no basis on which to believe that (to use your words), logically, mathematically and naturally, higher freqencies and shorter timeframes produce higher profits and less risk. That's the sales pitch of the prop shops and others who pay their rent by convincing you that high volume, quick turnover and large size will get you to nirvana faster than exercising a little patience. And that's total crap. Don't buy it. From the shop owners who I know, I can tell you that they do NOT trade in a manner they promote. They're aren't stupid. Does anyone really expect a broker, or anyone associated with a broker, or in fact any service business in this industry to promote longer timeframes and more patience? Of course not. It isn't in their interest. What IS in their interest of course, is commissions, fees, and more commissions.
This is so true folks. Automate it yourself. I can't program. But I can automate. I wouldn't know C++ code from fortran, or visual basic or whatever else but increasingly tools for "the rest of us" are filtering down. Easy languange isn't "easy" but its nothing like the real stuff. Half a dozen programs let non-programmers code up some pretty good ideas. Yes its not as fast as it would be if a pro did it and yes if you your coding up some scap thing where milliseconds are the difference betwen sucess and failure, you probably can't do that with something off the shelf, but most of us aren't doing that. There are plenty of time frames to work on, and the further out you can go the easier it is. Personally I think the most focus has gone into the millisecond black box scalp stuff and the EOD has been around forever so I like to focus on the stuff in the middle of that, plenty of tradeable time frames there. 1 min - hourly, etc. And if you have an idea that works on the few stocks that you can monitor at once and would like to have a program do the same thing on 50-100-500, etc.....don't give away the idea without being 100% certain that its not gonna be lifted from you, because it happens all the time. You give someone an idea, they code it up and it spits out a couple of grand a day, you think someone isn't gonna take your idea, tweak it out, rename it, and trade infront of you. You wonder why it worked great the first 6 weeks then didn't work as well. The guy coding it tells you volatility cooled off or its summer time, yeah maybe, maybe things changed, maybe some else figured out the same inefficieny you did, but maybe your idea has found its way into something else so similar you'd swear all they did was rename it and slap 2-3 additional rules onto it. Don't be a fool. Proceed with extreme caution. Not saying don't do it, just do it right. (Not refering to any firm in particular so don't PM, am refering to all firms/programmers in general that promise to automate your idea for a split).