Thanks for your kind words Samson, and most importantly, would like to re-emphasize your words here on actually IMPROVING it, and posting the results of your efforts on this thread - like I already said in the post where I attached the file. This seems to have escaped some. To those who replied, I appreciate that you think it's the greatest thing on this forum or that you've given every single trader you know a copy of it. But actually, I expected you to work on it in return, and improve what can be improved. There are many, many ways to potentially improve on it. Also, it's obviously specifically by the mind of a futures trader, and more specifically, scalper. Other people (stock traders, swing traders, system traders etc) obviously have other types of more typical errors. As such, I would love to see your own versions / edits of this sheet, posted on this thread, so that I (and all of us) can get something back for what we put in. It will also improve your own game thinking about it actively, rather than just taking something and using it. Enjoy your quest, and I'm looking forward to the results... Warmest Regards, S
Personnaly, I've never experienced such a problem with TWS, and this is something I'm doing every day, a minimum of 20 times a day. Perhaps the concern isn't a TWS problem, but something else. The OS for example. I hope you don't trust windows for your trading operations.
Read the thread it is clear as day... I tried to place the trade after the account dropped under 25k and no one at IB could figure out why my attempts to place the trade where being rejected. I made 6 phone calls over the course of 12hrs to try and figure out the problem and correct it but it took IB 48 hours to figure out such a stupid thing. I don't even daytrade with that account so why was it classified Daytrader status in the first place? I have had NOTHING but one problem after another with IB and the support staff in there Canadian offices are arrogant and rude 75% of the time. The truth of the matter is that I should have known better and this is my account and this is my BUSINESS as a professional trader. BUT I find that brokerages houses do nothing but make it harder on us with all their little individual rules and regs. IB is a joke, just try and figure out how to do a Condor or a Combo trade with the platform on your own, not to mention the freezes and 15 min waits to speak with a person. Cheap commissions at the cost of trading errors and inferior service and technology is stupid and I just learned a $10,000 lesson.
when i make an error or a crap trade (or missed trade or opportunity) i play 2 special trading soudbytes: http://www.wavsource.com/movie_stars/schwarzenegger.htm 1. you lack discipline and.. 2. stop whining.. always good for business..
Since most business programs are written for a windows based system, I am using windows XP. Are you suggesting I switch to a MAC ? If not what are you suggesting.
i once combined all systems into one mother of a state machine. it all looked good in testing, but there was a corner case that had all the systems taking positions in the same direction at the same time. naturally, within a week of going live, the market triggered the corner case. the result was a too-big wrong-way position that caused a nasty cut.
sorry - dont mean that in a perverse way - just thanks!! i have found that making a mistake (different from a misjudgement) p!sses me off. making that same error twice in the same week and i get mad and have to shut off for the day. if it happens a 3rd time then i know something is seriously wrong and i need to find out what. i rarely make the same mistake 3 times. i have also found that times of making errors comes in waves. i may go for weeks being error free, but when my account gets to new highs, i start making errors. i think i become too laid back. most interestingly though i have analysed all the money made and lost from my errors and believe it or not they seem to cancel eachother out over time. i hope that may give some thought if youre like me and really lose it when you make a dumb error. an example of what i am talking about is as follows.... i often scale out of my winning positions. a few weeks ago i found my self entering limit orders to add instead of offset part of my position - so i was trading a higher number of lots than my plan dictates. once the market carried on so i was making a load more, the next time i wasnt so lucky, and i added at the peak of the move - where i should have offset - only to see the price come charging back. by the time i had got out of the whole mess i had lost 50% of the money made on the previous error. such is life. neat thread.