Having fixed ideas and rules about what should and shouldn't work in the markets is something I have been getting away from. It sounds nice because you think have a refuge to hang onto. I just think it is not so cut and dried. It depends on market too. On the ES what you say is pretty much right. Here is a chart I posted on the hang seng seng thread today. It is of the last 12 minutes before I posted it. . Say you took that initial short with a trailing stop. You would have lost half your profits because of the speed in which it moves. It isn't anything like the ES where the volume guarantees a stop at price or 1 tick under. The hang seng can whipsaw 25 ticks in a minute on some days- so your trailing stop has to about 40 ticks. That's a lot of ticks to give up.
For implementing a trailing stop you need the wiggle room first (especially on the DAX!) and still confidence the market's going further your way. If you have neither you are far better of taking your few ticks of the table (and maybe just do it again ).
A very good frontend plug-in that kind of models itself on x-trader (but nothing approaches x-tarder as I understand it) See gif for picture of BT platform
Were I handing out homework assignments, I would suggest that the last several pages could be used by everyone to do some thinking on how each of the contributors could be helped to marginally improve their current lot. Several passes could be made. Draw a diagram and place each contributor in a circle putting each in a proximity that demonstrates commonality. Draw lines and label them with whatever needs to be passed to another. Use four colors: data, analysis, beliefs, action. for first pass of line drawing, restrict yourself to adjacent passes. for second pass, only pass to non adjacent persons. Next aspect: Set up a one day conference aboard ship among participants. Make an agenda for speakers and have a Q&A between speakers. List your personal Q's were you in attendance. Revise the agenda to include three invited guests and insert them. Revise you personal Q's. Last aspect: Show how each person can use the most important thing he has adopted to improve. Estimate the % improvement in a way to apply it to the compound interest formula and rank the relative success of each person. This is posted in the interest of promoting thinking and helping people realise their potential. The effort should take about a couple of hours, mostly because of the mistakes that will need to be corrected as the process deepens for you. To the posters the last few pages, I personally appreciate your willingness to reveal yourselves through your comments.
Thanks Grob, very interesting. While I have mostly relied on my own reflections I am finding it very helpful to consider and reply to the posts on this board . It somehow distills the ideas that have been forming when I have to express them.
Hey Steve.. Personally I do have reservations, not necessarily because of support but that could be an issue with some brokers. Both of the firms I clear thru seem to be pretty consistent on their support. I haven't really traded since the 23rd and haven't been tempted to do so until we get past the New Year for a variety of reasons, for me low volume characteristics just don't present high odds trading, I'm sure there are opportunities but IMO it's not an efficient use of my time. I think we all need time to recharge and give our mind some room to breath. Many times that's when good ideas present themselves. I know you're a musician, maybe you can relate, I recall when I was playing guitar regularly I found that all my playing breakthru's really came after a break not after intense sessions of practice. I find it much the same with trading, over the past few days I was leisurely thinking and suddenly an idea which I'd had in the past but couldn't make work began to made sense to me and I think I figured out the missing component to a nice setup, backtesting looks encouraging and I'm looking forward to trading it on the DAX next week. Meanwhile I'm spending time getting my garden ready for spring Happy New Year..
LOL just restarted my llama compost. Moved about 20 wheelbarow loads to growing areas. Finished placing bout 400 CMU's ( 4 pallets plus) to raise a few beds about 24" to minimize bending over. LOL. This two weeks is a nice slo mo time on markets. i put RL04H up for first time in my life as well. I am afraid to look up the DAX symbols and allied stuff.
No. I hope I didn't offend you in any way. I like your posts and I personally believe that the data you feel you need to know is out there in spades. I think scientist really has made several uncomplex but nicely interrelated info relationships work quite well for him. Everyone ramps up to speed and and capital asset levels at differing rates; this thread is particularly pertinent as a reprise of how any person can approach something new and then work hard to optimize it. What is expecially nice is that for many people here, by just adding a couple of items presented by someone else who is capable too, can works magic in their style of making money. This all is a terrific example of how iterative refinement could work for most people. I hope that soon, when people integrate something new to them, thhat they will comment on the way it all happened. Once AMT commented on DOM and T&S and how long the synthsis took for it to become second nature. here you see that scientist does a similar thing with the timing pieces he monitors. The movement to and from scalping during the day is a wonderful technique to acquire. And most of the time all trading comes down to the combinations and permutations of very few variables. Since these (C and P's) are usually sequential a person simply migrates from one set to another as the market pace and volatility shift through the day. Unlike the hold 'em or fold 'em switching in cards, the market tools being so various, one is allowed to use segways continually to exact the market potential. Scalping is a noisey thing that passes the time when nothing else will do. It's like reading music as the score is presented to you.
It's a very funny coincidence you mention llama compost. That's exactly what I'm doing. I have some friends who have 6 llama and 6 minature donkeys. I made a deal with them, I lend them the use of my front end loader to move the compost piles in exchange for a years supply of llama compost. Very good stuff, lots of hay and llama stuff mixed together yield some awesome vegetables come spring.