There has been one non-profitable day, 9/23. I suspect it is a combination of the two - or as others have alluded - the fact that I'm just forcing myself to make a trade and make a choice. The way I'm choosing long/short has been discussed throughout most of the thread.
One losing day out of a dozen -- don't beat yourself up over it. I'm sure there will be more in the future. What matters most is the big picture. So far, it seems like you're doing great.
Outstanding work Quah! I do have one question though... why is everyone clamoring over automated order entry? I use IB and isn't it simple enuf to keep a close eye on the futures movement and then enter the appropriate buy/sell when the price gets close? Why even bother with automated entry? Thanks for your gracious contribution and selfless effort here Mr Quah! You are a beautiful human being.
Ask Zorak Seriously this is why. If you trading both contracts this means you have to transmit six orders, with the exit orders offset from the entry price, which is not known until the opening of the bar. This system is very mechanical. The chances for a human to screw up is very high compared to an automated system.
I still don't understand. Why not buy/short then watch price direction. Enter your sell/cover whichever direction the price edges toward. I have a fear of adding additional problems/bugs etc with these third party "unknown" add-ons. Is my fear unjustified here? Thanks fellow traders.
Had another lousy day, my own fault. Attached is a results spreadsheet. Started on the ES, happy that I had remembered to set the #contracts to 2, allowing me to SAR with one line. Promptly read the stoch backwards on 9:33, resulting in a b/e that Quah had as a win. Celebrated mistake #1 by making another one on 9:35... damn the ES's move fast! Got my fill, and in the 3-5seconds it took me to enter my stop, the price had already passed it. Gave it up for a 2point loss...would have been a double whammy, so my slowness saved a half point. The double loser at 9:43 put me below margin, so I switched over to the NQ. I haven't been watching this one during the open, so I don't know if it moved so slowly because of the time, or if its just less violent than the ES's...but it was almost refreshing. One double-loser at 10:25, a missed trade at 10:59. On the 1:23, Quah went short, I went long...the lines were just coming together, so I lucked out on that one. I think I'll try starting with the NQ's tomorrow. zorak
I thought it would be simple to keep track of also...and I've used IB for 2years now. So far the only reason I'm in the red is because of my various errors...I've thrown in the towel, and am going to use an auto-entry program. zorak
The whole point of coding Jasper for me is to simplify the process of trading once I start some time this week with ES. It will be simple at first with just one contract. I press one button (or even have the program press it for me) and instantly it puts in my order, checks for the fill, then puts in my stop and target when I get the fill. Then it will automatically cancel my target and move my stop up if I want -- or scale positions if I want. If I got up to trading 5 contracts, why would I want to put in 15+ orders when I can just press one button and have the computer never screw up and do it all in a fraction of a second? Seems like removing human error gives the trader yet another edge.
I can see how it could be hard to keep up with all the order entry - especially if you are not used to scalping seriously. If you are using IB TWS, you should consider one of the automated entry packages - or if you have excel, just try the DDE spreadsheet I posted above - it should work fine for simply getting all of the orders entered - then you can manage them from that point on with a few mouse clicks. The excel spreadsheet is by not means comparable to the other packages out there - I just did it specifically to hammer the orders into TWS all at once.