sevensa

You are right. Entering "spread trading" in google, returned only about 200,000 hits.

Uhm... ok, thanks for sharing, but how does this addresses daedalus' question?

I added all the forums in the Business sections under ignore, but they are still included in the count for unread posts. Right now, it is saying that I have 29 unread posts, but when I click on the unread posts link, it says that I have no unread messages, which is right since I ignored all the Business forums. Can you fix that ignored forums are not included in the unread posts count?

What is your definition of "most people". Most to me would mean more than 50%. Are you saying that more than 50% people there lost their jobs? That sounds like a stretch to me.

I thought Eiger already pushed you in the right direction by telling you to read the book? Your questions are answered there. Do you really expect people here to give you answers because you are too lazy to read the book? You said you have spent some hours over the past few days, did not finish the book and appears to think that this should be enough to be successful now. How many professions do you know where you can be successful after a few days and by asking your coworkers to help you with things covered during orientation because you walked out halfway?

And that is why most people give up. Very few is willing to put in the hours and most is looking to plug an indicator on a chart and mindlessly buy when it turns green and sell when it turn red. I'm too embarrassed to say how much time I have wasted looking for an indicator like that before I realized I am not going to find it.

What about my EOD trading where I don't read price nor the tape? Are you saying that I am doing it wrong, since I am not doing it like you? To be frank, your advise is a useful as saying all you need to know to make money is to buy low/sell high and short high/cover low.

http://www.google.com and try "spread trading" as search criteria.

I got one from karktymarkar.

Hi ephi144 How will this help you if you have answers to the questions? If I tell you that I trade NQ on a 5 minute time frame with a 21 period moving average, how will this help you? There are so many different ways to trade, that if you ask 10 people, you will get 10 different answers. If you google it, you will find 1000's more. You will need to find something which suits you and this would not be necessarily something which "works" for another person. There are many different ways to trade, but unfortunately some people have a very narrow viewpoint and believe their method is the only way to trade and dismiss anything else which dare to be different than theirs. Be careful with advise like that and keep an open mind. You need to find something which fits you. This is overwhelming to start, but read as much as you can. On this forum is a wealth of information. Read everything and you will find that here and there pieces will make sense to you or just feel right. Note it down and after a while you will have pieces you can put together together and come up with something unique to you which you feel comfortable with. If this sound hard and difficult and like it will take a long time, this is because it is and it will. You can't expect to be an expert in any field without spending much effort and time and trading is no different.

WOW, really? You feel all the trillions traded on a daily basis in spot are done by amateurs? Any particular basis for this feeling of yours? Have you found that insulting the people you want answers from is generally a good way of getting answers?

Just checking that you realize you are on the thread you have concluded is all BS on the "crock or not" thread? You probably meant to post this in the indicators forum.

Hi firewalker I can see your point and I also see brownsfan's point. For me, my trading plan is to allow me to be as profitable as possible based on my edge defined over many, many years of testing and looking at charts. If my trading plan say not to trade before or after a certain time, then any setups during that time is low probability by definition because they go against my plan. If I do start to notice that I am starting to get high probablity trades against my plan, then I will go back to charts, test this "new" pattern and see if this is consistent and if it is, then I will update my plan. Only then will I start trading this setup. Unless my plan is updated, I do not take this setup, no matter how much it is screaming at me. Trading this, will be against my plan and defeat the purpose of having a plan to begin with. If I have to keep overriding my plan and break the rules to take high probability setups, then clearly there is an issue with my plan.

You can sign up through http://www.zen-fire.com for the demo. The broker used with NT is Mirus (http://www.mirusfutures.com), but if you are using NT in pure sim mode, then you do not interact with Mirus at all. I tried it for a few weeks to see if this give me any real advantage over IB and I didn't see any. The bids/asks are definitely coming in fast and furious through it and if you are using tick charts, it probably will make a big difference, but since I am using plain old time charts, IB works well enough for my needs. I just checked and I can still connect in Sim mode, so I am not sure if there is a limit. I'm surprised there isn't a limit and although I am not complaining, I also find it odd that no one from Mirus has attempted to contact me to try and convince me to open an account with them.

This has nothing to do with beating the odds and everything to do with how you approach it. The part in bold is exactly why 90% "traders" failed. If you treat something like a hobby, then you should expect that your hobby, like all other hobbies, will cost money. This is why it is called a hobby and not a business and blowing out your account doesn't mean you failed since being a hobby, losing money was expected from the beginning. If you approach it like a business, take the time to prepare, create a business plan, allow yourself enough time to learn like you would do with any other career, then you have a much better chance to be successful. The 90% failure rate is very misleading. If 100 people, without any experience at all, decide to be pilots and start flying solo immediately, I bet 90% of them crashed within 6 months. On the other hand, if that 100 people take the time to prepare, get familiar with all the controls, understand the dynamics, practise in the flight simulator and then start flying a real plane, I would bet that almost all of them will still be flying after 6 months. Would you consider flying as impossible to learn and against the odds because 90% of untrained, inexperienced people cannot fly a plane? Another reason succesful traders are consistently profitable is because they know they are accountable and don't blame the odds being against them as an excuse not to look at themselves to determine why he/she is not profitable. This always much easier to throw your hands up and blame the odds and statistics or anything else than it is to take responsibility and admit the only reason you are not profitable is because of you.

You can't. .ELD are for Tradestation. Ninja Trader use a completely different format and language (C#).

No discretionary methodology can be proved/disproved. To demand such thing shows a general lack of understanding about discretionary systems. This doesn't matter if this is VSA, Wyckoff, or Candle Patterns. All that can be proven is that some people are more successfull at interpreting a specific method than others. This is why a request like this is pointless. Like any pattern, whether it is hammers, springs, or no supply, you cannot blindly act on each pattern and it is the trader's ability to interpret the context which make the method profitable or not. Even if someone here is able to post a series of profitable recommendations, this will not mean that someone else will also be profitable with the method. Unless you have a 100% mechanical system, you cannot prove/disprove that it works. Even the Wyckoff disciples cannot provide clear rules that everyone looking at the same chart will make them come to the same conclusion. Does this mean that Wyckoff doesn't work either? Actually, since BearBull pointed out that VSA is nothing but borrowed concepts from Wyckoff and is just new jargon, this implies that Wyckoff is crock too if VSA is. I mean, how can Wyckoff "works" and VSA not if they really are the same thing with different names? And that implication is even nominated for the topic of the month by our own Wyckoff expert!

Oh, I see... Just because someone started a thread, this means that someone has to prove it now. Using your logic, if I started a thread and call it: "Tasuki: Crock or Not", the onus will be on you to prove that you are not? Give me a break. Anyone can start a thread. This does not mean that anyone have to prove anything. Not even to you, regardless of what you think of yourself.

Why do you think anyone owe it to you to prove it works? If they do, are they allowed to market it then as "Approved by Tasuki"? As you said, there is a long discussion about it. Read it; if it makes sense to you, use it. If it doesn't, ignore it. Demanding prove serves no purpose and is just silly, unless someone is trying to sell you something, which no one is. I really don't understand the hatred against VSA here. I personally think some of the vendor's claims are a little out there and is borderline propaganda which is unfortunate, since VSA the methodology, does have good concepts and I use the parts that make sense to me. I think the time spent to find what make sense to me and "works" for me with VSA was much more worthwhile than to spend time demanding prove that it works. That goes for any system/methodology. I am "putting it to the test" on a daily basis and it works for me. No, I have no interest to prove to you that it works for me. Why should I? My account will still grow regardless if you believe me or not and frankly, I don't care if you believe me and I don't know why you think anyone should care to have your stamp of approval on their method.

Are you still in high school? Why should anyone prove anything to you? No one is trying to sell you anything and if you think something is worthless, then for heavens sake just ignore it, move on and concentrate on your profitable methodology. Why would you spend time and energy on something you don't believe in? Do you really have nothing more worthwhile to do with your time? Do you make a habbit of walking into a store demanding that they prove a product provides value even though you have no intention and no need to purchase it? Can we just grow up and accept that different people trade with different ways and just because you don't and/or is not able to trade another method, does not makes it wrong?

This IS the compiled pla. Rename the .txt extension to .pla and import into PowerEditor.

Couple of questions: Are you sure you have a futures account and not a stock only account? Are you sure you weren't looking at ES the stock symbol for EnergySolutions, Inc, instead of ESZ8, the futures contract?

Couple of comments with regard to the code/logic. I am only going to comment on the long signal. Obviously reverse for the short side. The only difference between Volspike and Volspike2 conditions are the portions in bold: Since one of Low<=Low[1] or Low>=Low[1] will always true, they do not contribute anything to the if statement of: IF VolSpike OR VolSpike2 THEN and as such is redundant. You can obtain the same result with one line of code by removing these two checks, as follows: Also with regard to the logic of: The check does not do what your logic wants it to do. (Close-Open)<(High-Low), will almost always be true unless the bar opens at the low and closes at the high, at which case you filter out the exact thing you are looking for, i.e. a close off the lows. Also, you can have an instance where the open = close = low in which case the statement will also be true (assuming the high is higher) and you will have a bar which closes at the very low of the bar, which is also exactly the opposite of what you are looking for. I think this will make more sense to remove this check completely and change the check in front of it from (Close>=Open) to (Close>Open), or alternatively replace (Close-Open)<(High-Low) with (Close > Low). For clarity, here are the two complete alternative lines:

Well, how much does the put cost? No one can tell you if this is a good purchase without knowing how much it cost. This is like me telling you that I purchased a boat today and ask if you think this was a good buy without telling you how much I paid for it. A put option give you the option to sell the stock to someone at the strike price. 730 in this case. This means that you either have to own the stock or buy it so that you can sell it. If you don't own it, then you can go and buy it now for 425 and then sell it for 730. A good deal and quick $305 profit, right? Well not so fast. If it cost you more than $305 to purchase the put, say 310, then it means you are paying $310 for the option to make $305 profit, so you will lose $5. The only way to be profitable is if the difference between what you can buy the stock and the strike price of the option, is larger than what you pay for it. So, if the stock goes down more, then the difference will become larger than your put purchase price and you will make money. If the stock goes up, the difference will become smaller and you will lose money. There are 1000's of websites explaining how options work. You will get much better explanations there. I am curious though on how can you know 100% that the price will not go above $500 by December?

I'd like to see anyone take a negative expectancy system and make it profitable with money management. This is like during the internet bubble where companies' business plans pretty much were saying "yes, we are losing money per unit and are not profitable, but we will make it up by selling a lot of it".