Yes, on the close ones it seems to almost always get a fill unless three is some really big size ahead of you - if I remember correctly that happened a couple of times the first week. Today was the tightest I've seen since I started this 9/11 though.
I don't know. Hard to tell without more history behind it. Otherwise I'd have to say it is just "normal". There were an above average number of reversals today on both NQ and ES. Honestly, I like to see this sort of stuff. If every trade was a winner, I'd tend to have less faith that it is a workable system.
You may be right. This was a great week for doing analysis since we had a good representation of chop and of trend. Plus there were important events to roil things up, such as Consumer Confidence, the Fed meeting, etc. Otherwise, I might be faced with doing next week what I've been doing this week. As it is, I can move on. --Db
Hey guys. All looks well with the Quahtrade I see. Still generating profits. Quah I am happy to see you use Qcharts,and RoadRunner. That is what I use also. I had heard Qcharts was slow because of the Comstock data feed, but I see that it hasn't hurt your performance any.
I think Quah uses Esign as first chart software and Qchart as backup, so his system signals are likely based on Esignal data feed. I'd like to say something about data providers: Now, I use Esign too and my 1 min chart sometimes gives slightly different entry points (usually 1 tick). As a result ,"stoch" reading is a bit different too. If the market is volatile enough No Problem When the market is so tight ,this can make quite a difference on the daily score. Anyway if the system is robust enough, the equity curve shouldn't be affected in the long run. I don't know why even the same data feed gives different readings, I heard this seems to be a recurring issue with futures , not to mention tick charts. Good trading from Italy Marco
I attached today's spreadsheet. As you can see, heh, I had some problems. The first 2 lulled me into a false sense of my abilities with IB (I didn't realize until later that I put my exit on 9:35 in the wrong place...turned out good, but it is a tad depressing). The 9:43, 9:51, and 10:25 times all had mistakes I should have avoided. I realized too late that I was unable to enter a trade for more than 1 position...so on my reversals, it got pretty hectic and confusing, on IB. Add to that mis-set stops, and multiple lines that needed to be cancelled and sent at various times during the SARs, and it is a wonder I only dumped $150. I finally got myself organized by the 11:54 trade. If I have to, I am confident I can do things correctly just using manual IB entries, but I'm going to look at using one of the brackettrader/ autotrader/tradeexecutor programs. Not happy with the results, but I am happy that I got everything figured out finally, and can start (nearly) emulating Quah exactly. zorak
I had the same problems with IB. I have blown a stop by not being organized. You have to be quick and organized. If I miss the entry I do not trade that time. I also find the first few trades a little hectic since they are close together. The other trades you have time to watch the Sto to see which way it is go to plan your trade. On I side not, I do not know how Quah can trade both the ES and NQ. I would like to hear from people trading with IB (TWS) to see if they are traiding both, or if Pat is a better interface to trade both ES / NQ. Jim
I think there are many ways to set all this up - everyone has their ways I'm sure - and there is good and bad about both TSW and PATS. For PATS, it is pretty simple to do this, even on both ES and NQ, if you use DOME to enter the orders. You can set up you entries to be "single click" - not require confirmation. Bring up a DOME screen for ES, set the lot size to one. When the one min bar hits and you know your limit entry - all you have to do is click on the correct side of the price once (one side for long, other for short) - beep - beep - filled - then click on the opposite side +1 for the limit exit - beep - submitted. Now, you could have some dummy stop orders set up already in the regular "trade" entry part of PATS, now you just change the price and release it and wait. When the limit exit or the stop fills you just click on the "pull all" button on the DOME screen and get rid of the remaining order that is not needed anymore. OR - if you trust yourself to do it, you really don't need to have the stop order submitted - you can just sit there watching DOME - an if your stop price trades, just click the correct side somewhere below the stop price (if you are long), or above it (if you are short). Click twice to reverse or use a separate DOME screen that has the lot size set to 2. Once you are filled, click on "PULL ALL" to get rid of the old exit order. The click on the correct side of your reversal fill +1.25 to set up your exit on the reversal. Sounds like a lot of compication but it really isn't in practice. Especially if you end up not being out of a previous position - DOME shows you all of the working orders still going. Having some specific automation for this is certainly better. But I find that something like DOME make it a bit easier to trade something like this. click, beep, beep, click, click - with a little calculation in your head to determine the correct prices. One thing I like about PATS, and DOME - the little "PULL ALL" button on just about every screen. You make a mistake, or you can't remember if you entered this order or that order or just what working orders you have going - just click "PULL ALL" and you can regroup with a clean slate in about 2 seconds.