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MadMarketScientist

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Everything posted by MadMarketScientist

  1. MadMarketScientist
    Hello and welcome to TL! This is a great place to learn and share. I know you have your blog, and after participating for a while we are o.k. with you giving that out but first things first - you have to participate in the community for a while here on TL. Hope that makes sense. Congrats to you though for getting involved in this profession at a young age and committing to the education of it. Don't approach it as get rich quick but instead as a real profession which takes hard work and determination -- the payoff in the end will be there. Welcome aboard. MMS
  2. MadMarketScientist
    Hello and welcome to TL. You've come to a great place to get answers and share your experiences with trading. Sometimes just sharing your story or posting a question and getting answers is all it takes to start taking your trading up a few notches. There are many very experienced people on these forums who have seen it all. I would suggest a Mark Douglas book on trading psychology/discipline. That's probably the hardest part to trading - having to be wrong so often and dealing with it. Even when you've got a good strategy/system it's going to fall apart at times. Very frustrating no matter how experienced or even profitable you become. The other thing I suggest is really and truly figuring out what type of trader you are. People many times try and force themselves to be day traders, or to trade S&P emini futures, or forex, etc... because they hear that's what everyone else is doing. However, it might not fit your personality, time available, account size, etc.... it's really important you focus on fit for you - not what the crowd appears to be doing - remember the crowd tends to lose. Welcome aboard! MMS
  3. MadMarketScientist
    I'm one of those people who absolutely loves the Tradestation platform -- but actually trade somewhere else. I think that's probably why some trade there even if maybe the speed/executions are marginally better perhaps elsewhere -- to get the platform for no charge since TS charges quite a bit on subscription only. That's my guess anyway. The good news is you've got some really great alternatives mentioned here for Ninja which would give you the charting, data and trade management features they have. MMS
  4. MadMarketScientist
    I'd have to agree with what Kiwi describes. As much as we all hate it, because it makes trading much more difficult - there are many behaviors that are particular to a given market. And it takes time to discover these nuances. I do think it makes sense to start with some base rules. For example the points on forex are very valid and will help you narrow down. However, after that you really do need to start observing then trading a market before you really start to pick up on its behavior. And, surprisingly sometimes it's very different even between very similar markets. It's worth it in the end if you can invest that effort but it does mean you cannot constantly change to the flavor of the day/week and instead should look to try and master a small handful of markets first before expanding your horizons.
  5. MadMarketScientist
    Solid catch on the short.
  6. MadMarketScientist
    BlowFish, Good question. What's interesting is a few years ago I was convinced that the volume/share bars were smoother -- just slightly but I felt it was giving me a small, measurable edge. As to why I gravitated back to tick - good question (!) -- I think some of it is because it's easier to move between markets and pick a good time interval for tick charts. For volume, it always seems a little trickier since there is major variance - for example a 377 tick on several markets is ideal for what I do -- but when I try to match with volumes the numbers vary greatly. So maybe laziness on my part to do more work on it. Do think they can be a great way to add some smoothness to tick charts. MMS
  7. MadMarketScientist
    Yeah, it was a good threat, I'm guilty as well with having forgotten about it - thanks for the reminder. I'll post below my most recent two sessions - they are respectable. My trading hasn't changed much in the last few months since last update -- still I'd say Crude Oil/CL is a focus and trade that daily. Which accounted for the bulk of what I did Friday & Monday per attached. I also like the Dax futures and in forex I'll swing trade the EURJPY right now. I've started/stopped a bit of other markets in recent months after experimenting some in British Pound/BP futures, Wheat Futures as well -- though currently those are not in my mix. I felt I was doing better in these other markets so better to keep focused. I'd still like to add something else to my mix so experimenting.
  8. MadMarketScientist
    What you describe to me sounds like swing trading for sure. Not daytrading. With $5K you are looking at either trading call or put options on stocks -- looking for swing moves on those stocks. Or, you can trade forex on a swing basis. That's the two I would look at -- and only swing trading. I would definitely follow a technical approach not try to fundamentally predict either a stocks movement or a forex market - in my opinion anyway way too complicated. You'll likely want to look for something that gives you the odds in your favor maybe 65% - 75% of the time though in the 60s on a percentage basis is fine as long as you can maintain above 1:1 on the reward to risk. That's at least a starting point in your investigation. MMS
  9. MadMarketScientist
    Perfect! Well said.
  10. MadMarketScientist
    I still feel you can just as easily see points of resistance/support on tick charts as time charts - to me possible even better since you may see more attacks of those levels inside of a time interval bar that you'd normally be waiting on to close. However, it is definitely true when it comes to renko - you will not see the extremes of moves that occur inside the value you are using for the renko bar -- it does not plot all price point moves. MMS
  11. MadMarketScientist
    You want to day trade. Forex? Futures? Stocks? How much time a day do you have? What's your starting account size?
  12. MadMarketScientist
    Have to respectfully disagree on buy and hold -- for now it is dead. At least in the classic sense of what people used to think/trade/do with it. Which was just buy almost any solid company and hold for the long-term. Considering indices like the Nasdaq have spent the better part of the last 10 years just rallying back to half of their peak - you can imagine how many companies - hundreds? thousands? will never return to their peak. There's clearly a place though for long term holdings -- but, it has been different the last 10 years than when you could just plow your money into some top companies and just rely on the momentum of the markets over the years to send them higher. We haven't had that luxury in a long time. MMS
  13. MadMarketScientist
    Welcome to the board Bradan.....probably need a lot more specifics to help give you a direction in trading. You'll need to share more about you, what you want to trade, possible account size, time of day you have to trade, etc... At any rate, welcome to TL! MMS
  14. MadMarketScientist
    I tried to find something for you around the internet and came up empty as far as someone providing that data. MMS
  15. MadMarketScientist
    That's incredibly fascinating. Didn't realize these numbers were on the way --- with the new regs it's actually very interesting. I think you make a good point with Oanda and their restriction of margin - probably reduced the number of blowouts substantially and attracted a higher level trader perhaps. Also, from feedback I've heard there are less games with the executions and truer fills. I do think it might even be encouraging to see in the 25% level as profitable -- I actually would have guessed it was a bit lower overall - of course these stats don't include all the accounts that have come and gone - I assume it's just active accounts now. Thanks for sharing that. MMS
  16. MadMarketScientist
    It's a stop/start sort of thing. Some people get in there, chat and then tend come and go. We've talked before about doing something to make it more consistent or having someone in there moderating a group chat. Still looking for volunteers and an idea for a chat. There was one scheduled a few weeks ago for beginner traders, but the person who came up with the idea never showed up for the chat -- oops. Anyway, I'm all ears. MMS
  17. MadMarketScientist
    I always had a problem connecting these type of things/astrology, etc... to trading. However, I did follow someones commentary years ago who used all things astral and they actually did a pretty decent job predicting the macro markets. I just had a hard time following the correlation. MMS
  18. MadMarketScientist
    I'm onboard what cuttshot states. I have a rule. If I'm daytrading it has to be tick, range or renko bars. If I'm swing trading, time interval bars are perfectly fine. I've tried to vary that over the years and my results are always better if I don't. MMS
  19. MadMarketScientist
    I'm sure there will be a lot better replies than mine since I'm not an expert in options but...when you buy an option with that much time value you are going to pay a heft premium due to the extended time value. If that stock marches higher you'll do fine, though over time you will have that time value come out regardless of the advance of the stock. On the flipside, if the stock goes sideways or even slightly higher it may not be enough to even maintain value and you do have the chance of losing 100% of your investment, whereas with the stock you may have only lost 5% if it declined slightly. That being said, you can clearly control a lot more of the stock for less with the options, and you will know your max risk/loss going in -- just the options premium. MMS
  20. MadMarketScientist
    I can't tell you how often my "hope" has just ended up losing me even more money. Seems when you really are looking to "just get even" or "bailed out" the opposite will happen..... MMS
  21. MadMarketScientist
    Welcome to TL Snowbear. Good to have you here. A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away I also dabbled in the sports betting arts. So, the fact that you've done that, and can take the frequent losses that goes with it is probably better training than most have in that side of the equation. Most people come to trading always wanting to be right, or certainly not used to being proven wrong on such a regular basis. You are going about the right way -- learning the markets, trading some ETFs, not looking to get in and out in rapid fire succession. Good for you on that. As for the $5K there's a lot of ways to get an education in trading, and usually that education does come with some losses. It's hard to make a perfect recommendation since I don't know if you want to just spend 5-10 minutes a night, or even once per week, or if you're looking to trade an hour per day on a day trade. So much of that depends on what you would more specifically be looking for. Keep sharing your experiences, ask questions and stay involved here on TL. Those that do learn a ton about trading, and sometimes even themselves. MMS
  22. MadMarketScientist
    Without question Win 7 will blow away Vista for trading. So that's a definite. My preference of XP over Win 7 isn't anything major -- if you have a fairly current and powerful computer Win 7 is clearly very capable. However, when I ran a newer laptop with Win 7 and all my trading software it was frequently bogged down -- a weaker laptop in XP, same software and no issues. I think XP is still less of a drain overall and that's why I still have a preference for it. It's just so stable and less of a drain. However, I'm sure for most, Win 7 on a current computer is going to be fine. MMS
  23. MadMarketScientist
    Thanks. I'll put it on the action list for sure. MMS
  24. MadMarketScientist
    Right, you'll be fine on the pattern day trader situation since you're not talking stocks. You'll just need to meet margin requirements for forex and/or futures as you go. They are strict about that but it allows plenty (too much) leverage. As for the trade management using Ninja as your front end it's good -- like anything you need to learn it but they seem to run weekly webinars every week that covers all aspects of using it -- and you'll find it tends to be far better than what most (not all) brokers provide. MMS
  25. MadMarketScientist
    Ever wonder what everyone is doing on Traders Labratory? What searches happen the most? What threads or forums are the most popular? Here's some insight what your peers are doing on TL in the month of October.... Top Forums 1. Technical Analysis 2. Beginners Forum 3. Trading and the Markets 4. Coding Forum 5. Forex Trading Laboratory 6. Automated Trading 7. Market Profile 8. E-Mini Futures Tradidng Laboratory 9. Day Trading and Scalping 10. Futures Trading Laboratory To Searches 1. Market Profile 2. Al Brooks 3. Ninjatrader 4. Tradestation 5. VSA 6. Scalping 7. ttm wave 8. vwap 9. tape reading 10. price action 11. Wyckoff Our busiest day on the forums this month? October 14th. Why? Good question! And, just for fun, here's the Most Viewed Threads as of Today when I'm posting: 1. Wolfe (was featured in our bi-weekly email which explains that) - Market Analysis 2. The Price/Volume Relationship (always amongst the most popular thread we have) - Technical Analysis 3. Limited Time, Simple System - Forex Trading Laboratory 4. Kase Strategies - Automated Trading 5. Trading Momentum Moves Intraday - Day Trading and Scalping I'll update these on occasion since it always fascinates me what the big picture is -- what a large number of traders are looking for and searching. Also, I'll share some top level demographics about who visits the website in the days ahead so you get a better and more personal feel who your fellow TL members are and who you are discussing with each and every day. MMS
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