robertm

Obviously. Otherwise it would not be economically viable.

Dude, have you tried living and trading in Florida? By the time you spend all that money on UPS's, Geni's, security, fireproofing your (what, basement?), hosting is by far the cheaper option. Especially since you'll be moving around a lot spending your hard earned money. It's just not required by most people, those who need it know the costs pay for themselves.

everybody with a phone has a dual pipe these days lol. I wouldn't imagine latency is an issue for 13 round trips a day on equities, it all depends on what you are doing.

A hosted service has a higher uptime than your clunky home PC and internet connection. The have redundant pipes, power, etc.

You can host your own server in a brokers back office as another solution (most of them support Strategy Runner or have a solution for you). Only for speed execution freaks usually. You'd have to check with them about server access etc. If you are technical enough you could monitor the logs yourself and put a remote management card in it (it'll even do hard reboots for you). Ask around with brokers that you are using and they should have more info, finding the right person to talk to is sometimes an issue (they put you to the tech team, then they put you to the sales team, who tell you the don't do it, then you eventually find the guy who works in a dark room without a nametag and only a stapler that can do it for you). Just have a robust well tested system first before you bother burning through hardware/hosting cash, they aren't going to make an unprofitable system profitable.

Stockcharts.com & Bigcharts.com are old reliable sources when you need to cross check something (like your CFD provider stuffing up a stock split). Also some nice index & market data there, A/D lines, Dollar indexes etc. Also metaquotes.net for a non broker tied metatrader to play with.

It's actually far simpler than I imagined when I finally went down this path. There are plenty of people here to help out, just make it a side project. It'll make you think about how you trade also which may lead you to some new interesting ideas based on old themes.

You really notice this when you try to hard code a system. You are right, there is a lot of discretion in my system. I ignore a lot of stuff. I have forced myself to create rules as to why I do this. Coding a system up for automation or experts requires you to look at the screen and say "Ok, I wouldn't take this signal because of X,Y and Z, now how do I code that..." A few things require so many lines of code to filter right, or are so complex, that I've just shelved the idea of the "perfectly coded" system for now. I continue to think it over and make notes though. I think in time I will answer all those questions as well. Part of it is simply cutting a lot of "fat" out of the system that I think is important, but probably isn't over the longer term.

This is an interesting area, and one where trading rooms have some odd views. Some have the view of trying to get enough people doing the same thing to be able to collectively move a market (although collectively moving it towards their stops is the only result I've ever seen). Surely if you are selling your strategy and telling people when to hit the buy/sell button a pile of money will come along and crush it eventually you would think, but I haven't seen it happen yet. The big hedge funds sort of suffered this problem as more of their traders and researchers broke away to start up in competition with their own version of the same theme. In many ways they point to this being the reason for the massive leverage that was employed when the CDO markets started to implode, resulting in magnified losses. The leverage was used to try and squeeze more out of a declining revenue source. The strategies they were using tend to be more complex than that of the standard trader though, so how much does this really effect your ability to pick a good stock on a good trend? I've watched my mentors give the same basic construct to people for 7 years now. Not many of those who received that information understood how to use it properly and survived over the longer term. Others turned it into tidy profits. At times we do all trip over each other when piling into the same stock at the same time with the same broker without any collaboration other than having the same basic idea, but we work around these things, and others getting onboard are creating this issue as well who may have different trading ideas. In a bull market everybody wants in. At the end of the day it's not a game changer though. Given the decades it took for the returns to start to slim down in the massive world of hedge funds, you will be making a tidy sum as a private trader before you get anywhere near those sorts of trading volumes (and in reality you just never would, you'd stop growing to start spending/enjoying at some stage). I think it comes down to your other point more - we don't want to hand over our years of blood sweat and tears to some slob to exploit without paying their dues to the market. Typically they don't understand the message anyway. Interpretation is in our experience. "trade with the trend", "but I am, my one minute chart has been trending for nearly an hour now....." :crap:

I guess I'm sort of replying to all of that. I reached a point where I shut off all forums, seminars, expos etc a while back. I'm involved in some exclusive forums where ideas are discussed bluntly by experienced traders, and have access to pick some very experienced brains. Most participants I hang out with are successful in at least one market/instrument. Around the same time I was invited to participate in trading rooms etc, and again turned all that down to simply shut out new inputs and deal with the knowledge I had. I'd been to seminars all over the world by that stage. Upon pointing out how sad the state of an expo I'd just attended was, my Mentor suggested I probably didn't need to bother attending them anymore (which I take as his cryptic way of saying "you already know enough, just sort it all out"). At that point I sat down and started collecting up and sorting through all the information I had on trading. If you don't already have it get a piece of software called Mindjet Mind Manager, it is a brilliant way to start sifting through all your knowledge and storing ideas - mindjet.com . I also asked myself some big questions that I thought had simple answers. Stuff like "What is Trend?". You'd be surprised how many red flags that thew up. Solving those questions was what nailed it all down for me (I was already making money in several markets for many years at this point, but a few had eluded my attempts to tame them). One of the big realizations was the below video at TED.com (do spend time on TED while waiting for trades to setup, it's brilliant, and it's free). Make of this what you will. For me it solved the riddle. I had all the information I needed. I just had to sort out the answers. Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from | Video on TED.com FYI forums are great for finding things or prompting you to think about something in more detail. In writing down a question to expose to the world, you will find it may lead you to the answers even if nobody replies to it (and ignore any replies from sub 5yr experience traders anyway, it's not long enough to experience enough market conditions). Trading is also very boring so forums are good entertainment. A theme that goes well beyond trading is "teach others in order to master your skill" or some such thing. Open powerpoint and start laying out a slide show on how you would teach yourself how to trade. Maybe try it out on somebody you know who wants to learn. See how far you get before you start making a list of holes you need to fill. Finding answers to your own problems by doing this will earn you far more than becoming the next internet trading guru selling your ebook for $195 with a free set of steak knives. Trader Vic was right, the failure rate is high. Didn't he blow up his own account at some point? Then again so did Livermore on three occasions.

Two great points. I gave the Emini's a good crack a few times, it just wasn't the market for how I like to trade. I took that experience and applied it to something else, and found it worked very well with a few minor adjustments for the different market. If nothing else short term trading will give you a massive pile of data to sift through to look for answers, rather than waiting for events to occur one day at a time. If you aren't getting anywhere, just sit back and watch the market for a while. Strip all the indicators off your charts and watch price. If you have a favorite indicator just observe how that interacts with price on several markets/time frames. Maybe there is a sweet spot out there waiting just for your trading style.

Looks like another vote for HK/China (given ASX/SGX deal not moving yet). Hong Kong Brokers First to Get Direct Access to Tokyo Exchange - Bloomberg

There are plenty of good accessible mentors that don't overcharge. Finding them is the hard part. Finding one that suits you is harder again (one persons mentor is another persons waste of money). Rocket science is actually pretty straight forward also ironically. Anybody can build a backyard rocket, many people try, but how many people really master it? If you persist long enough eventually you overcome all obstacles no matter what you do.

Sure. How about we both build a rocket tomorrow. I'll hire a rocket scientist to pick his brain on how to do it. You can go start working on the discovery of the atom. What we need is a set of rules and framework to work within. From this framework we can build our system, like using lego, rather than inventing the chemical compound for plastics. (that's two metaphors now). Avoid - somebody teaching you "their system" as you won't have ownership and belief in it. Do - seek out the building blocks you need to build a system. If somebody can give you those, all the better, why reinvent the wheel when you know working wheels exist (the issue is knowing if the wheel you buy works, or is just a replica of one that worked for somebody else). I'll steal a quote to finish from John Carlton's blog : "And a little mentoring can trigger massive leaps in figuring sh*t out." Having somebody to ask when you hit the wall is all it takes. At times the process of writing the question alone, and not sending it, provides the answer. Accountability is key.

It depends how you view the world. If I put up daily and weekly equities charts, and FX charts of any liquid timeframe, only the gaps between the week/day would give you any idea which was which. Same patterns, same price moves, but each has it's own approach to how we manage the trade. If I tried to compare intraday equities to FX, then no, the considerations of where the "real" market open is (where we as traders can engage it) on any given session means the range of the day probably isn't fully tradable. The fact people would pay more for an equity if they have a certain view of that company is a good thing. Currencies range, Equities can head for the moon (and sometimes back :rofl:)

They are big on pushing this course in Asia & Aus as well as his name carries well everywhere. But when I guy puts in print "If I need a little extra cash I just go into the market and take it out when I want to", then I'd say they are full of sh*t. He makes some goods points, but I don't see trading the markets being a "specialty" area for them. There are far better mentors for less money who are true professionals with real track records. Beware of those who "specialize" - Options, FX, Futures, daytrading etc. While there are differences between markets and instruments, these are addressed AFTER you understand how to trade. Price first, instruments and markets later.

ISE (being an exchange) seems to be providing this service to a range of brokers, thus giving accurate info would be important to them (or they would have no clients). I'm doing some comparisons to other sources of FX options and so far they are in the ball park.

It depends on what your interpretation of "day trading" is. This is different for everybody. I think you'd be nutz to ignore something like AUD/USD when it's in the mother of all trends and at all time highs, just because of a pip or two (well, unless you are trying to pick tops & failures in trends, good luck with that). Some brokers are worse than others though. I accidentally clicked on the wrong area of my Forex Factory calendar today and they have some "Market" tab that lets you pull up the spreads from various brokers to compare them (see lower RHS table). The ones with the WORST spreads on a given pair seem to have N/A next to them. Some brokers play you low on the majors, then hit you on the crosses. My broker gives me a great all around balance. Thanks to competition most of the ones worth using are pretty tight now. More than one good FX educator has stated that if your spreads are what you are worried about, then your system probably isn't all that good. At one point I was so close to price with an arb scalp system (long since abandoned) that getting an extra half pip was going to be a big deal. Then I grew up :rofl:

Ok found this today, nice effort by some enterprising spark (the ISE marketing department by the look of it). FX Options- Options Quotes & Calculator, charting, candlestick indicators, options skew The core provider they are using for the data looks interesting as well. Stock Options Analysis & Options Trading Tools

Hi Guys, I'm testing options as a strategy solution for certain FX trades. Can anybody suggest platforms they are trading these on or Options solutoins for FX in general?? More importantly where can I find the greeks listed? IG have FX options (of sorts) ranging from daily to 2 weeks, but they are pretty raw (no greeks, basic order types). My time horizon is short, probably 48hrs max hold, so how big an influence are they going to be anyway? I guess options on futures is one solution, I'm not sure how the spot options compare??

I have observed from my own journey that our astuteness at decoding trader talk increases exponentially according to our experience over time though

I've often wondered if some of those massively long threads on certain topics mean that whatever they are trying to do is far too complex, and so "open for interpretation", that by the time it works for them, they are actually doing something else anyway which is the real reason they are making money. "You know that indicator only ever works if you do X & Y first, then it's brilliant" :rofl:

Weekly is very cool. Minimal effort, absorbs most of the noise. Great returns if you ride the trend all the way. CFD's or LEAPS keep your capital free to trade your futures etc on the side.

My check list is pretty short.

Volume has it's place, and I agree it is probably most useful in Equities trading, but it's well down the check list of what makes a system a winner.