Just read the entire thread. Three positive comments and three negative ones: POSITIVE: 1. Great to see someone share a method and take the time to explain it fully. Thank you Trader28. 2. Once upon a time, traders were taught that the relationship of the 12-26-9 MACD to the Zero Line was THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. That bit of wisdom has been forgotten. 3. The guy who developed the 12-26-9 MACD did extensive research on other number combinations and never found anything better. Quit tinkering. This is it. State of the art. Even Advanced GET's 5-35 Oscillator is essentially replicating the 12-26-9. The 5-34 in the book TRADING CHAOS . . . same thing. Kwikpop's whatchamacallit . . . same thing. It's all basically the same thing. By the way . . . the 12-26-9 MACD does a good job of showing you the Elliott Waves. NEGATIVE: 1. It is obvious from many of the questions that the questioners ARE NOT MENTALLY READY TO TRADE REAL MONEY. You can paper trade this thing to death and still lose everything the first time out. Trading well requires a lot of patience . . . "stick time" as described earlier. You either come onboard this business as a professional and get taught a method (rare) or you experiment and tinker for 3-4 years . . . let me repeat THREE OR FOUR YEARS . . . before you can train your brain. The key is self-discipline. If you can hold your hand over an open flame for 2 minutes . . . you can trade. (That's a joke of course.) But look in the mirror: Are you soft, pudgy, a heavy drinker, heavy smoker, eat a crappy diet, stay up late . . . are your life habits lousy or disciplined? Do you jump from method to method? Does everything seem like bullshit? Whatever you do in real life, you'll do in trading . . . only the stress will widen your character flaws tremendously. Don't risk your money until you conquer yourself. Then find an easy system with a proven record. By the way, some of you are rude, obnoxious and childish. Not only do you have no business trading, but . . . wait . . . let me rethink that . . . uh . . . please, go right ahead and trade. We need losers. 2. A lot of things in this system are not well explained. Don't assume that you "got it." As extensive as this thread is, it only scratched the surface. One trader (Crankshaft, Gearcase . . . I forget . . . some mechanical name) asked about the failed trades on 18 September and basically got nuked. Wrong. You can't keep saying "it's all in the nuances" and then blow somebody off when he asks about nuances. The key to learning this thing is not to look at multiple examples of what worked. LOOK AT THE FAILED TRADES. Ask yourself: Why did they fail? It's the failures that really teach you. 3. 9 SMA . . . 25 SMA . . . 3(+2) SMA . . . why do you need a 3+2 if the 9 works? Why do you need a 25 if the MACD is already telling you trend and momentum and you have a 10 min to light the way? Do you trade when the MACD Line crosses its 9 pd Average or when price crosses the 9 SMA? Oh . . . wait . . . it's both. I'm not trying to poke fun. But there are a lot of unsettled issues here. You have to figure them out (for yourself) then strip away the dead meat. I would toss the 25 SMA out and look at 100 examples of the MACD Line crossing its average versus Price crossing the 9 SMA versus Price crossing the 3(+2) SMA Pick one. Toss out the other two. Settle on one entry method. Work with it and make it your own. About the best advice I can give is to USE WHAT EVERYONE ELSE USES. It's good to know what the herd does. That's why so many claim that the 34 EMA is almost magic. "The Wave" as Raghee Hormer calls it owes much of its effectiveness to the number that follow it as much as some (SUPPOSED) magical quality of the number 34.
<b>wint</b>, your post hits more nails squarely on the head than any I've read in a long, long time. Weeks, months or years from now, many people reading your words here will understand them much more clearly than they are capable of right now. Some things in our profession can be readily taught, while other aspects simply must be learned on one's own. Best Trading Wishes Austin
Personally I feel the best information in this thread can be found in the first few pages. The waters became predictably muddier the longer the discussion and questions went on, as always happens. I believe Trader28 said something to the effect of "it's as complicated as you want to make it" very early on. In my humble opinion, those are mighty wise words.