torero

Sorry to hear that, Don, was this a trade from the system? These things happen something. I got my case of the blues from these types of stops. Looks like I got stopped out too. At least I know it's a bear flag forming, so I'll be aiming for another entry soon.

Just went short on this GBPUSD after this triangle breakdown, after the rally. We'll see how it pans out. Been waiting for it for a while.

Amen to that PP! I know that there are some legit businesses out there but seems each trader has to find his own way to gain knowledge and experience. Post well said.

It happens every once in a while, Don. Check with James.

Did this trade take place before the Bernanke speech? Or after?

Not sure what trading platform you're using to automate your trading, but in Tradestation, there is a minimum floor amount gained before the trailing percent kicks in. This is only way I do this with automation, bag in a required amount then leave the trailing percent wider than usual. That way, even if you get stopped out, you already have a certain gain bagged in already. The thing about stops we set never coincides with the dynamics of the markets. The only way to adjust this is do analysis on the market measure the pivots or ranges, use that to adjust your trailing stops accordingly. Even then, it's no guarantee the stops will not get hit. I've used stop loss at specific dollar amount and use trailing stop when it's already in the money. Of course, this is static but like all system traders recommend you have to optimize your systems from time to time to the changing market conditions.

I'm not an expert in this area, but wiki is a way where certain members collaborate in certain areas of their expertise. If they want to contribute, they have to be approved to be added. This is how Wikipedia works. This keeps the content clean, relevant and orderly and of course, truthful knowledge. There is linking mechanism between forum and wiki, I'm sure. Check Wikipedia's parent company who distributes this app for free.

I agree with Bramble in that we may start to seeing "we v. they" attitude. But I also agree with PP that in trading, sharing ideas is not a common, if not, the opposite, which I agree should be up to the person who's willing to share by adding a circle of friends or similar. James, that might be something you want to add I think they call it social network thingy where you add your groups of people you want to get involved in etc. This way, I agree this would exclude the 1st-class, 2nd-class problem, rather, it's a circle of friends. The other I wanted to add in to somehow reduce the repetitive questions/threads is start a wikipedia-style format. I think TS is doing it after horrible complaints about not being able to find things when newbies come in. Might want to research this and pick a circle of experts to focus on their areas of expertise. I think this way, once newbies understand it and still have questions, at least they'll have a level of knowledge enough to ask more good questions.

This is almost the middle of the week and seems a bit quiet around here so I'll start. I plan to take 1-2 trades a week which is being optimistic as I'm trying to move to swing trading tactics. I'm waiting for the top of the trendline to touch (near 78.6%). We'll how it goes from there.

The option is to install a clock widget from google Google Desktop Gadgets or gadget from yahoo Yahoo! Widgets - 1,000s of Widgets for your Mac or Windows Desktop. Pretty lightweight devices.

Hi Thunder, Mark Douglas book is a great education, well worth the money. The book gives you steps to test the profitability of the system tying with your psychological conflict, in addition to understanding and dealing with the mental aspects of trading. MACD is a trend-following indicators. It's usually recommended to use with an oscillator indicators such as RSI, Stochastics, and Momentum and among others. Test them out thoroughly. As for timeframes, verify how much risk you're taking each trade (loss in $), then measure that with the range of the size of range from high to low (from pivot high to pivots low). Say if you're trading 60 min, the bar is 1.3300 low to 1.3400 high, your risk is 100 pips. If you can afford to lose that per trade, then that timeframe might be it. But this is an example. I use several bars combine to make the high/low range to measure my risk and timeframe. Remember that the higher the timeframe, the more reliable the signals and less likely for you to overtrade. Good luck. Ask away if you have more questions.

This steps I advised others to use were so the users can see the entire chart without the small thumbnail or attachments. Personally, I'd rather see a chart accompanied by the post than having to click on the chart to open a new windows, etc. I do this to save time for others who read the post.

No idea. I never have 2 accounts with the same broker so I'm not sure about this problem you're having. Reason why I don't go with same broker is when the order server goes down, both accounts are screwed. So might want to think about this. Better to hedge your original at another broker to be really diversified. Hope that helps.

I agree. Some are ambitious in making more money while others seeing it a growth as a trader -> money manager (most celebrity traders went from lone traders to money managers). I think it's a path some seek while others are content being their best managing and growing their own money without the extra pressure from outside (you are your own boss... boy, is my boss an a--hole or what! LOL). The fact that financial planners managing accounts, not sure since I don't know any financial planner that are good traders unless they work through a trading system vendor.

Great job, Don! Thanks for keeping this thread, I'm reading with keen interest to see your progress. Excellent so far. Don't think that we don't respond doesn't mean we're not reading it. Kee it up!

So any specific examples how these rules applies to charts, trends, entries, exits?

Regarding the repetitiveness of the questions, I think this is inevitable, unless we have the search engine is sophisticated enough to find what the new users are looking for. This is one of first features I use when going to a new forum, looking for content that does not exist in other sites. If the search fails, they will ask over and over. So might want to spend time (and maybe a bit of money) on getting search and categorization tidied.

Excellent! This will come very handy for Excel work! Thanks, Don!

I'd like to get involved and participate, but due to my limited knowledge, I'll just post my interpretation with expectation to be corrected by experts. Ok with everyone?

As long as the content of the link is useful and relevant, then it shouldn't be a problem. I think we can trust your judgment, Don! Lol.

What makes you say that, walter?

Main Entry: trepidacious Part of Speech: adj Definition: afraid, fearful Etymology: from trepidation 'fear, anxiety'

In the final analysis, you CANNOT predict what price will do, no one can. We have to calculate scenarios in probabilities, experience, etc. What happens after the FOMC report is unpredictable, it could have gone the other way. If you want to predict, sports betting might be a better option, not stock markets. Best is to use stops and targets to find your edge (increase your risk/reward), that's the best weapon. If you think you spot a trend, go with it, and set your targets and stops.

Very nice, Don! Looks good to me, I can't see the drawdowns so not sure what's the percentage of drawdown to equity. What criteria/formulas do you use to filter out good from bad strategies? Does EFX have connection to metatrader? Or you have to enter the orders in manually? I've been testing out some strategies on metatrader but stopped when I found out neither EFX or MBTrading have direct automatic routing to orders. If you do have that, I may just start again.

Yes, I had to reboot and disable the indicator before market hours.