diablo272

Thanks for the info, can you tell me which platform you use? I just finished speaking with an E-signal rep for about the fifth time today, and he told me that I can't view the historical contracts because Ninja doesn't support E-signals expired contracts, nor does it support E-signal's continuous contract for non-US exchanges. I'm pretty sure both of those statements are completely wrong, and I'm just wondering if you by chance use Ninja. Also, as Tams mentioned, the only other data feed that carries HKFE besides E-signal and CQG that I know of is IB. Can you not use that for T&S work because of the way it aggregates data? Luckily I don't use T&S, so I'm hoping that I can get by with the IB feed if I need to. Thanks Tams, I haven't tried the demo yet, but I will try IB next if E-signal doesn't work out for me.

I'm not sure if this is a known issue or not, but I just noticed that at the top of each forum page that I load on TL, there is some kind of error message being displayed. I attached a screenshot of what I'm talking about, but the error is: "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '}' in /home/trade/public_html/forums/showthread.php(2157) : eval()'d code on line 83" Screenshot: This is in Firefox 3.5.2

You should post this question on the Ninja forums at the link below and a CS rep will most likely answer your question during the week. NinjaTrader Support Forum

One important thing I forgot to mention regarding the E-signal data. I am having a problem where I can view front month data just fine, but I can't view past month contracts at all. Basically I only seem to have access to front month contracts and beyond, so my ability to backtest at this point is severely limited. I spoke with Ninja about this, and they logged into my account, couldn't get it to work either, and told me to ask E-signal about it. I just finished working with an E-signal rep trying to fix the problem, and in the end she told me that it must be a problem with Ninja. :doh: This is not so problematic for me right now since I'm in the trial period, and I've only had the feed for two days now, but without access to past month contracts, I don't think I would subscribe to this data feed. However, I'm hoping that I can get this problem fixed, and I can keep you updated if you'd like.

I'm getting my data through E-signal. If you're interested in their data but don't use their platform (I use Ninja), you have to call or use their live chat service to subscribe to their data feed, because apparently you can't do it on their website. For just the HKFE, the fee is $89+tax per month, but some US exchanges are quite a bit more expensive I think. The fee structure is something like, $85 base rate depending on whether you want stock or futures data, and then the exchange fees are added to that (the HKFE fee is only $4/mo, and I also subscribed to the OSE, which is only $2/mo). I like the data so far and the customer service I received has been great, but I've only had the feed for 2 days now and I haven't placed a live trade through it (and probably won't for some time yet), so I'm really in no place to judge. It was easy to set up, that's about all I can tell you for sure. As for MHI vs HSI, I haven't been watching closely or looking at back data for MHI, but I have to say regarding HSI: wow. I wasn't able to watch live tonight since I had dinner plans, but wow is about all I can say once I got back tonight and looked at the charts. Part of me wishes that HSI was thicker, but then I don't think the swings would be so wild. I will also take time to look at both MHI and HSI more closely this weekend. Thanks both of you for sharing your experience and tips. ALSO, I almost forgot to ask, looking at the chart for HSI tonight, was there some kind of news release that took place around 3:00-3:05PM Hong Kong time? Or is that kind of price action somewhat normal for this market? Coming from US markets such as ES, YM, or NQ, I'm only used to seeing price action like that during news events.

Unless the long and short positions are both on the same instrument, you would be 2:1 invested in your example. You have $100k in cash, and you're using full (I think that's full in equities retail) buying power to short the extra $100k. You've used 2x the capital you actually own, so 2:1. For reference, if you were long and short the SAME instrument the same amount, you would have a net neutral position. This is because as the value of one position goes down, the value of the other would go up the same amount.

I have the MHI open as well, thanks. I'm drawn to the HSI because it's more liquid, but it will take more time for me to work out the more subtle differences between the two.

Yes, thanks for that tip. Just from looking at the small amount of back data that I have today, I've noticed I'll definitely have to adjust my initial stop at the very least, not sure by how much yet...Small tick size, but a lot of movement.

Thanks Tams, useful information. Do you know of any news calendars for the Asia/Pacific region, such as the Econoday ones found on many US sites (ex: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/ecalendar/index.html)?

I finally got a hold of an HKFE feed, and wow, you guys aren't kidding about the HSI. I like it. Looking forward to watching it tonight.

NetTecture, to address all of your posts in this thread, the OP never mentioned that there was anything else on his computer besides trading software or other tools used for trading. It is obvious that his purpose in creating this thread was to give people advance warning of instability with a new version of TS. For you to say that the OP "obviously does not care about his money" and to insinuate that he is whining is baseless and immature at best. This isn't ET where an acceptable post is made by taking your dick out slapping it on your keyboard a few times. Please take your own advice and use your brain next time you decide to make a post here.

I agree with Thales. I freely admit that I have reported many posts, but most of them are blatant advertising. The only one that I can remember that was not blatant advertising that I reported, well, while I still have the same opinion of the person whose post I reported, I think that it was a mistake to report that person's post, because I think I probably did it for the wrong reasons. But regarding this thread, the discussion recently here has been stimulating to say the least, and I can't think of a post that would have merited deletion on either "side" of the discussion.

To clarify, Zen does not provide historical data, but NT itself does. Also, you can use other data services with NT, not just Zen Fire.

This is a gigantic topic that can be addressed by reading through many of the threads that are here already. You should spend some time learning about each of those broad subjects individually and come to your own conclusion.

You obviously have not spent very much time here looking through threads then. If you're looking for someone to magically make you a profitable trader, that isn't going to happen. What I have taken from your posts is something like this: "People give me a lot of potentially useful information, but I'm too lazy to put it to use. Tell me how to become successful immediately, or I will continue to complain. By the way, if you post a response to any of my posts with anything other than the holy grail, I will ignore what you have posted and instead simply rephrase my last post in the thread." Honestly there is plenty of useful, practical information on these forums. If you can't take the next step in utilizing it, no one can help you with that even if they wanted to. Edit: Of course, I could very well be wrong about you. And if I am, you should prove it, because I bet you would benefit from it, and I know I would.

Ah, I've always heard that kind of setup referred to as a "DOM" (depth of market) or "ladder". Off the top of my head, Tradestation, Ninja, X Trader, Buttontrader, Sierra (only attached to charts though), and CQG have something similar to that. Edit: Think or Swim also has a feature like this.

A screenshot of what you're looking for would help.

My mistake, I assumed you were talking about PROFITABLE traders in your post, not ALL traders. That clears it up, thanks.

What is the basis of that statement?

Yes, those charts Gabe posted are pretty blurry. Gabe, try compressing with higher quality JPEG or PNG instead.

There is some good advice there, but a lot of those numbers seem rather arbitrary to me. Not everyone risks 3 pts/trade on the ES, and the 350-650/month, well, I can't really refute this since I don't trade the ES, but to limit yourself to $350-$650/contract/month seems like a bad idea. I mean, $350/contract/month is just over 1 ES tick/contract/day.

I used to constantly cut my profits short doing what you've described, but now, to be completely honest, it's just kind of irritating to do anything other than follow my initial stop and trailing stop plan...Too much brain work involved in doing anything else, I guess. I know that some here only trade a certain section of the day (usually the NY morning session), but I trade all day, and it is very taxing mentally to have to stay totally focused all day. If I actually had to "figure out" each trade as it was in progress instead of simply sticking to a preset plan, I don't think I would be able to do it. It would be too draining. As it is I often have a hard time staying focused all day and end up missing trades because I'm browsing the internet or going to the bathroom or something. As an aside, I would say at this point, my biggest problem is focus. In the morning, I am usually still groggy from waking up, and eventually I get really hungry around lunch time, but I don't want to leave to get food because I don't want to miss a setup. One of two things will happen: I'll give in and leave to get something to eat, thinking, "I won't be able to concentrate otherwise." When I come back, I'll find that I missed a setup. OR, I'll say, "Too bad, be tough and wait until later to get food." Then I end up zoning out and missing a setup. My sleep cycle is also very "out of alignment" shall we say. Oh well, it could be much worse. That just made me think of a question for you Thales: As a prop trader, do you have a secretary or something who'll leave the floor to get everyone lunch (or do you trade remote)?

I noticed that yesterday morning, but then when I visited later, it had changed back to normal...I was sure I wasn't imagining the change before.

Just an observation, but Tams asked what you would like to learn FROM Shadow Traders, not what you would like to learn ABOUT Shadow Traders.

I understand the need to curb naked short selling, but this last line of the article is a bit concerning: "In a related move, the SEC says it is working on new approaches to reining in rushes of short-selling that can cause dramatic plunges in stock prices." Soo...Will the SEC be doing the same for rushes of buying, as well, to limit dramatic increases in stock prices??