brownsfan019

You are right dinero - just b/c the end result looks good, it could be difficult to replicate depending on you and your risk tolerance. This is why I think it's hard to trade other's systems (assuming they make money) - what I consider a reasonable risk you might consider too risky. For purposes here, I'm just trying to make myself a better and more profitable trader and so far, it has helped.

Gabe - I didn't track the exact amount of trades per day but it's in the ballpark of 5-10 on average. Some days could be more or less, but that's a rough estimate.

Excel question - is there another way to take a screenshot of a chart other than right in the worksheet itself and still get good quality? When I take the screenshot while in print preview, the quality drops significantly. So I just took the screenshot while in the worksheet but I hate seeing the gridlines behind the screenshot. I zoomed in on Snagit to get rid of those but I don't like seeing those. I guess I could just turn gridlines off, take the screenshot and then turn back on but is there another way that I don't see here? Using Office 2007.

As we get close to the end of the year, I finally updated my Excel sheet to track the results on here for me. 12-13-09 Running P/L Tracker From Start of Thread The overall result is not bad, but as you can see, I am below my target of $500/day. It seems like such an easy target to hit but to do it consistently is not so easy for me at least. There were plenty of days looking back that if I just did what I set out do, the cumulative would be quite a bit higher. You guys have gotten a sampling of this recently. So that's where I stand so far. Assuming there isn't a major blowup here before the end of the year, should be around $50k in trading profits shown since the the start of the thread which was March 2nd, 2009 and I took a break over the summer. It's all relative and some will be impressed and others will think it's a poor performance. Personally I am in the middle - it has not been phenomenal but it hasn't been terrible either. Keep in mind that the majority of trades have been 1 contract with a few multi-contracts scattered throughout. I set out to show if you had a $10,000 futures account what you could do with that b/c of the leverage afforded in these markets.

Like I said, when it's your livelihood on the line, things tend to be treated differently. While just playing around with charts in college as a hobby, then it's easy to talk like that. If you don't believe me, join us over in the p/l thread and show us how it's done day in and day out.

I think that time you spent to find this out will pay you many times over.

Bruce - excellent question and one that I'm not sure I can quickly sum up as I am out the door. I think it can be summed up with a quote that we used when I was a trainer @ the brokerage firm that we would tell rooks - the biggest and most wealthy brokers were just too dumb to quit... I guess you could say that I was too dumb to quit trading. If that's not clear to anyone reading this, it basically means that most quit after a couple weeks or months of trying this. Why? B/c normal rationale says to quit something that seems impossible to beat. Take the path of least resistance. We also know that in order to become an 'expert' at something you really need to perform this job for YEARS and YEARS. And that is assuming FULL-TIME. Therefore... if one wants to become a successful trader (and I define success purely in monetary fashion) you simply can't stop after a few months. You have to be in it for the long haul. Many will not get here b/c there is not guarantee if you do that you'll be successful; it's just more likely that you will be.

If you don't document anything, how do you know if you are progressing?

In order to execute w/o emotions requires discipline. You'll find that out when you trade for a living.

12-11-09: +$87.50 This is what a scared day of trading will get you. I started strong, lost a few and then went into 'I don't want to lose' mode. So I didn't lose... but I missed some very easy setups later, esp on the ES afternoon. I literally stared at 2 of them going - easy buys here - and I passed. Oh well, not the greatest Friday but live to fight another day. As I've said all along, if you can keep your losses small/manageable then you can keep going the next day.

Good point. I don't trade FX so not sure.

Most brokers will close you out before, at or just after the RTH close. Check with your broker. First step in your plan is to make sure you have the $$$ to cover the overnight margins if you are holding overnight.

OEC trader by default has quite a bit built in but there are plug-ins for the software. To access these, log into your account online and then click Software Download on the right. From there you will see a screen like this: Thought I'd put that on the forum in case anyone wasn't aware of it.

This might be too unsophisticated for the likes of Tams, but for everyone else, OEC has a market replay function that is good. It's part of the software package but you do have to download an plug-in first.

In essence you are sending a market order but with a restriction. That's it. If you got filled away from the market, it was still a good order although it may have looked like a crap fill. If you want to get in right away w/o hitting the market button or sending a limit above/below, you can submit a limit order AT the current price and usually get filled. Example - price is sitting on the ES @ 1103.00 on the bid side. You can send a limit order to sell @ 1103.00 or buy at 1103.25 and both will fill almost instantly most of the time. You are sending a limit order, just at the current bid/ask difference.

What do you know? The Browns won. :rofl: It's official - the Steelers are horrendous. They are done this year. All b/c of no Troy P??? Amazing how different a team is w/o 1 player. And to think I was willing to post a chart to get this win. That was unnecessary.

While both are grains, the ZS has movements that I prefer for my style of trading. Best way to see what may work for you is to check it out yourself.

Here's what I am talking about:

If you sent a LIMIT order above for a buy or below for a sell, it fills right away on OEC. Did you turn something else on? Are you sure you aren't sending a BUY STOP or SELL STOP order? B/c a buy limit order sent above will fill right away; vice versa for a sell. That's how the orders work. Take a screenshot so I can see what you did b/c based on what you said so far, it doesn't make sense at all.

I disagree 100%. Their software is reliable and if the demo suffers at times, so be it. When there is issues they are usually worked on within reason. So while you try to imply things with 'hook line sinker' coming from someone that does not trade (with them) and is making an opinion from forums doesn't mean much. It's very similar to those that offer trading advice around here yet are 'unable' to post any proof of actually trading. It's one thing for someone that uses a software to make comments on the product or someone offering advice that has shown the ability to trade vs the pretenders.

Meaning what Tams? It's the demo.

12-10-09 Update: A fix is scheduled to go into the test (api.openecry.com) environment tomorrow evening. If all goes well then next Friday this fix will roll to SIM. Then one week after this it will go to PROD. That's the most recent info I was able to obtain.

A few have mentioned that the OEC demo environment lately has been hit and miss with it working. I emailed a contact over there and was basically told that there has been a big surge in demo requests recently and it was overloading the servers. Starting tomorrow, it should be more reliable as more resources are being put here.

Really? Euro is a good currency future. ZB, ZN or ZF for bond futures. CL or QM for oil futures. ZS or ZC for grain futures. Still need more?