I wouldn't say 'useless'. They're good for spotting who are the good traders and who you should pay attention too. Calls in advance are fine, too (but you need to actually say ''Will go LONG at xxxx''. Some people seem to want to claim credit for a 'call' when there didn't seem to actually be one)
That's why I liked to watch the ESJournal when saliva and volente were posting. Great traders. Transparent, realtime calls were fun to watch. Startraitor was great too for a while, but he became a 'stubborn bear' and started getting killed all of the time.
Perhaps they don't trade at all. What matters is whether or not the plan, if shared, is thoroughly tested and consistently profitable. If the plan is not shared, and whatever "calls" are made are "good", then those who follow those calls will never become independent traders.
Trade or don't trade, who cares? Message boards are for sharing info, if you find it of interest you read & debate it. Too many folks around with some sort of psychological issues.
I don't give details because than people can reverse engineer my returns. I don't want that. On top of that bashers will say that it is impossible to make these returns, so not publishing avoids all these problems. If I have >80% profitable trades and give back on average 5% you can calculate already a bit to know more. I think most traders give back much more. I have no statistics about how long I stay in a trade. I checked some trades now. Results are in attached file. Some additional information: 1. green times: trades that I closed because it was clear that the trade was not going to make money. So in fact a losing trade that is closed with profit. 2. red times: trades that were stopped out at 3 points 3. close: trade closed because market was closing 4. 15 pts: sometimes markets move very fast. Then I take profit because the profit is to big in a too short time to let it run. 5. 10.25 pts: sometimes markets move very fast. Then I take profit because the profit is to big in a too short time to let it run. All times are in hours:minutes:seconds format. So 05:42:00 is 5 hours and 42 minutes.
CORRECTION: 1 parameter from my setup was ALMOST 100%. My setup has a lot of different things. Bashers even put things in my mouth that I never said. This is what I wrote exactly: I use more than 1 condition, kept it simple in my example. But I have 1 condition that has a more than 80% succes ratio. And another one with an almost 100% succes ratio. And there were already bashers long before that statement.
IAN, I have my own indicator that I have developed over the years and I call it a Bullshitometer, when I hear things like some condition within a random order flow is 100% my indicator goes well into red. Just because something gave you 100% probability based on back testing will NEVER mean same certainty in events that haven't taken place yet. I have heard a lot of bullshit on ET, this one is right at the top. Order flow in markets is totally random, so no condition can possibly be 100%. Carry on.
I think it is very clearly proven now that bashers like you constantly manipulate what others say. You manipulate statements till they are changed in a manipulated statement that you use than to proof you are right and I am BS. It is thanks to people like you that other people don't post here anymore. Maybe a pity for those who have an open mind and enough intelligence to know that they don't know everything. Even now you continue to twist words. Again you speak about 100%, what I NEVER wrote. 100% is not almost 100%. And for you it was not 1 condition, you manipulated it into a complete system. You change my statements at your own convenience. I can understand that you get frustated that there are people who know things, or can do things that you cannot understand with your limited brains. I can accept that you have no clue how I trade. But a minimum of honesty would be appreciated. Even the most stupid people in the world understand this, why don't you? You have no clue about my system, nor about the condition that you reject. You wrote:Trade or don't trade, who cares? Message boards are for sharing info, if you find it of interest you read & debate it. Too many folks around with some sort of psychological issues. You apparently don't read (or can't). You apparently don't debate, you manipulate what others say. You apparently have indeed psychological issues.