zdo

DB, raphx appreciates your very prompt reply

davewolfs, If you go the TS / MC route, PM me and I can give you template code for outputting 'count' statistics for various ways your test condition turns out (sans actual system backtesting). From there you could kick the stats out to .csv , etc. if needed... zdo

Does Brooks use SR? If Yes, then how? If No, then we'd probably be better off not trying to integrate it in this thread (it's like if I started posting about Brooks, RSI, or whatever over in a PriceVolume thread. Most likely it would be removed...)

Here's BF in 90 [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeiwLLZjDo]YouTube - Damien Walters Showreel 2009[/ame] PS Imorgan, you're right though. Nothing beats lifting heavy .

BF, Congrats on getting started. P90x is great. ... when you're ready for the next level, check out Scott Sonnon, The Flow Coach All the best, zdo

One alternative is Ninja trial, free Gain data feed and a very small, real FX account* - which you trade and manage and protect as if it had 3 or 4 more zeroes on it. Become so proficient at losing and sizing your losses that a loss at any scale just doesn't matter anymore - ie apply discipline here. Optimize to the smallest time frames possible so that you're screen time is busy, productive and you get high a quality and quanitity of effective practice. If you don't have an edge be like a kid in a toy store for a while - try everything... you'll later be naturally guided back to the ways, methods, techniques that are true to your nature - ie don't apply discipline here for now. Instead apply reckless curiosity. Keep in mind that others may tell you to do the exact opposite of all these recommendations above. The industry and most of the players won't tell you that small real trumps big sim in the long run, etc. Ultimately only you can really discover what is true for you. * Oanda is as good as any for this

check out the 'pivot' function and derived SwingHigh and SwingLow Also there is an indicator called ZigZag that may have been ported over from TS to MC which will do your %'s hth

re What Do You Do when You 'miss' a Trade? No good general answer! Depends on 1. what kind of system you’re trading and 2. why you’re missing trades. if you’re scalping and/or trading high frequency setups then take a fly fishing attitude - wait / reel it in and cast again if it’s a system that requires nimbleness, consider moving your time frame around by little bits until you dial it in for yourself. if it’s a breakout system then maybe create a contingency entry plan (like on 1st retracement – btw being aware that this is a wholly separate new system with different stops and targets and statistics, etc.) if it’s a trend system, just get in as soon as possible / give up a few ticks. with trend systems you have to be in every single time to make sure you’re on board for the outliers. if the system is missing too many limit order entries – give up some precision and get a little fuzzy with it. Consider placing an array of orders to fill the position - with only a small number of cars at your ideal entry point, etc re #2 why. Do some digging around with your trading fears and biases… Somewhere you may not be willing to pay either or both the explicit stop size and/or the implicit composiite risks of unlucky, deserted, wrong, loss pains to find out if a trade is good or not… Mark Douglas talks in terms of thinking in probabilities. You may have to take it way beyond that and totally freakin completely surrender to probabilities…

"No big, continuous trading success that I have ever seen has come from ANYTHING I have ever seen posted on this or any other board " Well DUH! Have a great weekend.

Here is the same basic code as daedalus posted. ( I re-wrote it only to get my head around it) Vars: iVolume(0), UPColor(green), DOWNColor(red), NOColor(black); If bartype < 2 then iVolume = Ticks else iVolume = volume; noplot(1); if iVolume[1] > highest(iVolume,5)[2] then begin // HIGH VOLUME SPIKE if absvalue(O-C)<(H-L)then begin // o and c not at h and l's ?? see below if L <= L[2] and C >= C[1] and C >= O then Plot1(1,"Spike", UPColor); if H >= H[2] and C <= C[1] and C <= O then Plot1(-1,"Spike", DOWNColor); end; // if absvalue(O-C)<(H-L) end; // if iVolume[1] > highest(iVolume,5)[2] The questions that arose are: Why is this testing last bar instead of current bar for the volume condition? And what is the purpose of absvalue(O-C)<(H-L) ? o and c not at h and l's ?? (sevensa asked the same thing a few posts back) Thanks.

"difficulty comes with idenntifying the Legs" szubaark anyone got time to give us a Leg lesson that's not just a re-gurg of the original text and covers some of those gotchas ? thx

waveslider, re: "I also use a short term JMA to help identify waves" a fast noLagMA or jtHMA might work slightly better for identifying waves than JMA - mostly a matter of taste though...

1 Can anyone provide the code and/or logic for the Gann Trend? 2 Can anyone provide the code and/or logic for a modification of the Gann Trend by Mark Boucher and his researchers circa 1995 ? Many thanks. zdo

Trader273 It's not the money. It's the time. He reads too much already... re: "if your friend can get even on little thing from the book its worth it" is an argument to build a HUGE trading library - which is what he has done. Just a couple of months ago he sent me a whole box of great trading books that I hadn't read. I'm scared to read them. re: Steenbarger (and this is not criticism btw) It seems that, although he mass markets (relatively speaking), his audience is really a certain type of thinker... that's as much a question as it is a statement. When he asked about it, the lack of subsequent 'reviews' and commentary about this book kinda got me wondering. Comments all? Have a great weekend.

For $97 you can get the other 11 Laws btw Tingull has left the building (and Bramble has ascended) both, long ago ...

Thanks, trade-samarai From the general feedback I've gotten (lack of it too), I plan to tell my friend not to bother with the book for now

Joe Ross also has a pretty good definition of price pattern congestions (ie it's codable) in The Law of Charts 'book' and it's companion article. Also has some techniques for RossHooking out of congestions - although, in-situ and pure / alone, those don't test out well. Now if I had to choose just one desert isle indicator for identifying congestion for automated systems work, I would go with a 4 period JMA (using (H+L+C+C+C) * .2) for price input parameter) as the JMA tends to get flat quicker than any of the other adaptive central tendencies (like HMA etc.). If slope / angle goes flat two bars in a row, then in congestion. hth

Bump (to at least twenty charaters) :missy: Thanks.

Hi all, A friend of mine just emailed and asked if he should read BS's new book. I haven't read it. What are people's impressions? Is it a compilation of existing blog content or does it break new ground? Thanks. zdo

Soultrader, Just curious - why did you take down the Kreslik link when so many other (shyster) links are left up? I have no affilitation with them, know very little about the site, and only recommended it because I thought he might be from the same area geographically as VTK? Is there something we should know? Thanks.

VTC Maybe ask Michal Kreslik about some options. FXDD is popular right now (and I don't have a clue why? ) - but may or may not be accessible where you are. If nothing else, go with Oanda until you find something that fits your situation and needs. ... not much help but hth...

gifropan, Until you can really accept that the trend that you just entered may fizzle, and the low you just bought may fail, (etc.) it really doesn’t matter how well you understand auctions (even though it is ultimately critical that you do understand this type of auctions) Your learning and progress will be delayed, impaired, discouraging and you will rarely experience the flow that will tune you into long runs of winners instead of a miserable mess of losers. Check to see if you just didn’t list your own version of Douglas four trading fears. I forgot them, but what I didn’t forget from Mark is that I had to keep going in self work and edge work until I had absolutely no fears or regrets left - regardless of how any individual trade turns out. Spend as much time processing at this level as you do processing your actual trades and results. Read back through 86834’s posts – paying particular attention to the balance of objective and subjective, technique and attitude, etc. he is bringing to it and attempting to share with you. For a while, spend nearly as much time observing your perceiving itself (seeing the seeing) as you do observing ‘charts’ and trying to figure out markets and/or what rules, idioms, axioms, principles will work for you(seeing the seen). The list you presented - Those are system specific axioms and in the systems to which they apply, they are statistically sound. I applaud you for questioning them. Make them and a whole additional list of stuff you encounter false for a very long time… later their slivers of truth will be much different slivers of truth than they could be to you now. re “Trend is your friend”. To you, is trend a loyal, faithful friend or is it a fickle, weak friend? Are you sufficiently tolerant and forgiving in your makeup to be a lasting friend to trend also, regardless of how it treats you? Capitalizing only on the ‘good’ trends will not sufficiently offset the whippings. Trend systems actually require that every runner be fully exploited – especially the extreme outliers. They also require that every single every single every single loss be taken on time. With pure trend trading, you only get to be right in the middle and you/system will be wrong at the ends and the beginnings. Is all that you? re: “buy low and sell high” This old saw may or may not apply to your ‘styles’ of awareness and trading. If you have a proclivity for breakouts then, as others have mentioned, your truism is “buy high, sell higher”. See? Every construct we accept / create is system specific and needs to be seen as such. re “cutting losses” and “running winners” Again – very system specific! Check your system. You may be developing a system in which your need for expertise at loss exits and profit exits per trade instance dwarfs your required skills at making great trade entries. You may need to develop expertise at attuning to and following the moments’ path of least resistance instead of the trend – and yes, there is a huge difference. Basically create your own repository and lexicon of trading systems and then master knowing how you act and react to each of them. Persistently practice matching every looking outward for technique, tips, help, etc. with a serious 'meditation' of how that really fits with you at your core. Create what is a fit with your true nature AND aligns with your market(s). Then build on your strengths… Things started clicking for me when I got tired of compromising/searching and got back true to my original visions and passions of trading. Turns out they weren’t too idealistic or fantastic at all… they had to be grounded in reality of course, but they were what was right for me all along... yada yada … hth

Kumbaya is a victim song and I pray, posted evidence to the contrary, that this tone does not the demonstrate the extent of your understanding of the balance required between these two ‘works’. Your consistent partiality for edge work and discounting of strengths work is duly noted. Have you ever questioned if you are unintentionally hurting as many as you are helping with this imbalance? I trust you will transform on time (and not transmogrify )

I found this post on "Re: How Long Does It Take to Become a Profitable Trader?" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month June, 2009"

The further you look outward for answers, the more likely you are to end up in that great 78% that just doesn’t make it. Any mentor or (online) helper who is suggesting or teaching you technique and or 'market principles' instead of asking you the correct, difficult questions is ultimately putting you on (unnecessary) life support and crutches. Remember this - even if he is a master at trading AND a wonderful teacher, he knows what he is doing and you will ALWAYS only think you know what he is doing. “That difference is worth maybe millions” (PointGuard) Find your own way! Stop listening to any of us – both the gurus who violate the inner game and the ones that validate it. Find your own way! Tear through as much trading information as you can as quickly as you can, but periodically stop and highlight those parts that resonate with your true self and build on those and discard the rest... assimilate, accommodate, repeat. You can shorten the quantity of the “10,000 hours”, but you can not dodge the minimum quality summing up to your own version and realization of the “10,000 hours”. Each trader must identify his own set of challenges and meet them as they arise. Certain issues / challenges may not be in the area of ‘thinking’ (or common sense or analysis or however one may want to describe it) at all. Thinking is required for many issues, but for a huge percentage of the ‘trading traps’, thinking is a total waste of time. Each trader needs to understand what he or she specifically needs to know and apply. Hal in a recent poster said it best "As long, as it takes! Period" Now that I think about it why that is not the post of the month I’ll never know. I’m going to go try nominating it now.