Agreed. Start your own fucking thread telling everyone here how great you are and leave neke's thread to neke.
Isnt this the equivalent of Guitar Hero, or Rock Star for wannabe rockers? No matter what your system results are in a simulated environment, they are not real results until they are utilized with actual cash. Then it becomes a whole other situation, that has numerous other variables that come into play. Slippage, partial order fills, broken trades, halted stock trading, hardware or software issues, etc. that play a part when one is in the game so to speak. While I dont necessarily agree with Nekes approach in its entirety, and his appetite for large risk. I believe there are some psychological hurdles that need be overcome, which would elevate his ability to another level. He does leave us with a wide open view into his weekly results positive or negative. For that one could respect the efforts while not agreeing with the path. It is his path to chose, which ultimately leads to the results he wants, whether consciously or subconciously. That is the wonderful thing about the markets and trading, as well as life. It allows us to find out so much about ourselves, if we're willing to put forth the effort and listen. If not it may turn out to be a very time and monetary consuming endeavor. With not much semblance of fruition or any for the effort. Good Luck to all and Thanks for sharing Neke! Kelly
Hey Neke, Haven't posted for a while and it was a bit sad to see the averaging issue pop up once again. I just wanted to comment on one of your goals, being getting to break even. I know you must have given it some thought but it seems that this year the money, the levels and little goals are playing a bigger part in your trading than in previous times. What I am meaning to question is why should a level such as 0 +/- PNL play any role in your trading? For me trading is the act of searching for oppertunities, analysing them and taking advantage of them, how you approach these oppertunities should in my opinion never be affected by your PNL. I understand that the 3.2 mil is a goal but not one that you would change your trading to achieve it is solely one that highlights the level of risk you are willing to take and a level which if oppertunities appear (and the stars align ) you will be able to achieve. Once again thanks for keeping us posted in both the good weeks and the bad, it says volumes about how far you have come as a trader. Gluck FGBS
What I outlined is the order I will try and get to my ultimate goal (3.5m) by year end. The start is of course to break-even (since I am currently underwater), after that build some buffer (of profit), and then proceed to accelerate the returns through supersize positions (not more than optimal fraction). Like I stated earlier, the risk taken will be proportional to the buffer in place (once the buffer has built up to a certain level). One of the keys to any trader's performance is preservation of capital (I know I have been bad on this in time past). My approach is to decelerate, and hence avoid possibility of big drawdown from my seed capital (starting balance), and accelerate when the buffer increases. I know it does not sound very logical, but a 40% drawdown when the balance is 320K (128K loss) would be more devastating than a 40% loss if and when the account has grown to say 2mill on the year (800K loss).
The approach is sound, especialyl if you go into a growing buffer area. Example: You ahve 100.000. Return planned: 10.000 per month. Anything above is play money. Make it. Loose it. Try to explode pofit. But the buffer slowly grows. Get conservative if you ever hit it Good approach, I like it Did the same in the past and on a demo account short while ago (I prepare reentering the market, so some demo training is needed, to sharpen my old edge from years ago). You can even move the surplus out to a separate account And go risky there
I hope this is my first and last post to pollute this one of the most supported thread aiming to achieve outstanding performance. Mr. Bwolinsky has been continuing to deny the fact that trading is all about psychology and a system without psychology get involved is inconclusive (worthless). The only way to get psychology involved is to trade with real hard-earned money. For some people who autotrade with real money, please don't get me wrong, your psychology is getting involved despite you say that you use 100% automate program. One thing I'm sure is that you will find way to interfere your system several times in the day depending on your stress level.
Personally, trading fully automated is much more challenging. I traded for years using purely discretion and my results were average and less volatile. As I moved into full automation I found more volatile results + higher returns as well as greater psychological challenges. I think the main benefit of full automation is the growth one will experience as a trader. An automated system uses hard facts to make what could potentially be a very uncomfortable decision. As a system trader, one is forced to accept all outcomes from all trades regardless of personal bias. It becomes a number game... Anyhow, Neke, you've made good progress and I remember a while back you toyed with automation. Has that gone anywhere or are you still experimenting with it? It would be an interesting exercise if you could validate your strategy via back-testing and go forward using what you've created as a template. Regards, Mike