SIUYA

like some traders the bulk of the range can be completed in the first 5 mins, other times it takes the full 4 hours. sounds like you might be more interested in looking at range bars?

i dont have an issue with you being a vendor....though I do understand the issue regardless of how aggressive you want to be, and how small or large a stop you want to use, your method IMHO is likely to cause issues with blowups, due to sequencing of events/stops/trades/ While it might be used to help modify to try and get an optimal stop level for future trades that give you your desired trade off between win/loss ratios and the like. however, I look forward to seeing other more detailed ideas. when it comes to options - if they are different why bring them up? Plus they are exactly the same in the way you describe them.....they might expire and then become profitable, or the decay might not be enough to cover the gain over the time period, even though the direction is right.....same end result, you loose but then you are right. Options I assume you mean are sensitive to THEIR end point, if you buy them in that they both have an expiry and set amount that can be lost (with no slippage)

I think you miss the point of options and letting things run. They do have unlimited upside. There is not a cap on the upside, and so they are just like a stop when buying them...limited downside, unlimited upside. If you want to put caps on with taking profits then you change the situation. Personally.....the last things has me scratching my head.....how do you re-enter, after a stop out if using tight stops when you dont use stops, or what if the stop is large, is the next stop tighter or larger. The major problem with what I think you are saying (and while there may be some interesting ideas for thought) is that while you might have a 90% win rate, it is the 10% of the losers that will wipe you out. It is one of the major flaws (recently discovered by many risk managers even though it seemed obvious at the time) with Value at risk models. You have a 99% chance of loosing $x dollars as a maximum today......however what they dont tell you is that they have no idea of how much you will loose in that 1% when its bigger. There are some models that work aggressively, work fantastically for a while, but ultimately are impossible for the average person to trade over the long run....and you do so at your own peril.

I assume you mean a good entry pattern/reason. ?

i was wondering -a month into it - time to reflect over Christmas/NY - any further thoughts on the process???

thanks zdo - but i still wonder how do i make money out of all these predictions - apart from becoming a broker/analyst/predictor/salesman. The best laugh is always the emails that tell you where they got it right for 2011.

fine......as wrb says. The percentages are irrelevant your job is to avoid being a loser. period. But as a suggestion.....an attitude/viewpoint like this - "I will not accept it" means come on in. the industry needs people who wont accept things for others that do to suceeed.

bear grylls the trader....you should make a set of videos.

i came across a new saying which might just take off....and can be applied to debt. while everyone is aware of the black swan event, what about the platypus event This is the one despite all the evidence, despite the fact that its plain as day and obvious that it is real, there is a refusal to believe that what is happening is real. (for those that dont know what a platypus is its a fascinating creature that when first discovered was for a long time assumed to be a hoax)

i thought depending on how/where you draw your trend line a move of the price through the said line is the reason for the trend break.....not because of some major event.

personal opinion - go finance for a hedge fund. it will likely be more practical that straight economics. Study econometrics (statistics), derivatives and credit as a course. Forget things such as "Issues of unemployment and women in 3rd world countries" you can always do extra courses....and remember a degree might get you knocking on the door and any education is never a waste of time but it wont get you in, nor make you successful.

more of a set routine to have more focus "when" required (this helps with toilet issues as well)

good self analysis, and thoughts on why this is so hard. I thought the two parts I dragged out where interesting. 1....that your mindset changed when open profits evaporated 2....sitting on your hands is important, but so is then knowing that at some stage you have to raise your butt off the hands. I would venture to say that sitting on you hands is a great way to make money, but knowing when to get off them is a great way to keep it. It the trade off, and often re-entry into a trend is a tough one v sitting it out and riding it out even when you "know" a reversal is occuring. I would say that the biggest mistake was probably trying to short more into the first reversal when you are on the one hand saying you should cut your current short. This conflict is the mind f...k. If you had sat and rode it out, had a trail stop or used TP on certain events then you have the other issue of trying to re-enter......you have to work out which you are most comfortable with and can best live with.....good luck with 2012.

saw it many times before. the joke was always if you go down at least go down swinging. Some idiot will think you are a big swinger and figure they are smart enough to employ you and then stop you before you next blowup. In the meantime they are thinking - hell it's not my money and in a lot of this game you dont get paid to make money you get paid to move large amounts of it around and hope you are not found out before the musical chairs stop. I think this is also one reason why many supposed successful firm traders dont do that well if they venture out on their own, and why you have to trade to who you are. ( I am more in the trader b category - hence I sometimes have the regrets, but am also completely happy with how things are and not a coke abuser. )

just throwing it out there for the New year cheer.... trader a - the boss blew up, but he went out swinging, moved on to bigger and better things, it was possibly Jon Corzine trader b - consistently made small money, ended up being a customer of MFGlobal and now despite doing everything right (occasionally) wishes/wonders if he would do it differently The broking/finance world is littered with very few traders.....but seems to have many mangers, many swingers and financial terrorists (in that they often blow up but at the time seem to be inspirational but are in fact frauds and cheats). The great advantage of using OPM - blowups often dont factor into the equation

errrrr.....why not just use interactive brokers?

plus often going back to books for ideas, or reinforcement of crap (or good stuff ) is often worthwhile in itself. Sometimes its just the one or two things a book resonates with you that is all it needs. Look at market wizards.....a great book, and yet full of DIFFERENT styles, ideas and personalities and yet we can all learn a little bit from each of them.

Try this....its well worth learning the system you are going to use......you might find something new and exciting. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=orderTypes

it made me laugh, which is always helpful for me, whereas your first post did nothing for me.

no problems.....when I initially read it I thought salesman....that's my own blinkered glasses. sorry. You will always get criticism.....especially from your self when it comes to trading, and definitely exposing yourself to criticism to idiots is often not helpful.....but that life. I used to work on a floor and every trade you did was exposed to others and you had to learn to have a thick skin....when you see grown men break down and cry and then 500 others start laughing at them...its not for the feint hearted. More than anything criticism and advice from some anonymous posters on a website should provide nothing more than a sounding board for your own thoughts. Often people are saying the same things and yet violently disagree, or everything is full of opinion with little real substance.....take it for what it is. There are a lot of people who know a lot of stuff, but are either terrible at explaining themselves, full of crap or are using threads for their own thought organisation and ideas. Looking at what you are trading check out Option timers thread....given you are running a few things you might find it of interest. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/trading-psychology/10158-optiontimers-project.html

another thing to check on TWS. If submitting some orders and they are filled, the reported price they are filled at can easily be confused with the limit price sent In this example below, I sent a LMT order to buy at 1.302...the actual trades were done at 1.3018 in two tranches. - BOT 50K EUR EUR.USD Cash 1.302 USD IDEALPRO 15:27:29 BOT 20K EUR EUR.USD Cash 1.30180 USD IDEALPRO 15:27:29 BOT 30K EUR EUR.USD Cash 1.30180 USD IDEALPRO 15:27:29

JTurner "Since I last posted, by account has grown considerably. Frankly, I am hesitant to share specific details about it." when I read this I thought - another promoter of sorts. But in giving you the benefit of the doubt, if your trading is very discretionary then revealing secrets will mean nothing. Showing a few charts with where and why you bought might provide more insight for others to help with potential pitfalls you might run into. Rather than just providing a bunch of trade stats. If you wanted to provide trade stats on a discretionary system they are largely irrelevant except to show that you may or may not hit trouble in the future. However showing trades with times, dates, prices, entry and exits will help others decipher your potential issues...if thats what you want. I have seen some horrible trading stats but some how the person pulls it out of the bag every year as they manage to really nail it when needed - as they are discretionary. Some days they have it other days they dont. (this may not apply so much to day traders) All most people here will be able to point out is potential pitfalls you should be aware of and may run into. If it works for you , you are aware of these and can circumnavigate them without letting them screw you up, then it can be successful. Comments such as "It felt good. I have been trying to keep an even level when I trade, but I also feel that one should be able to be proud of themselves or enjoy the moment at times, too. Do you think I am looking at this from an unhealthy perspective?" are good, but how do you know when it goes too far, what happens when you have a string of losses, what happens when you become complacent, what happens when you dont get that buzz..... Again only you can answer these and a lot may depend on your style and personal ideas....but as you are here asking then people may be able to offer perspectives (rightly or wrongly) as ideas of what you will face and possible solutions as to how to help. OR at least get you thinking about them. Otherwise like most you will suddenly blow your account faster than say.....sh't I should have been a promoter and kept those winning ways. alternatively you will be become a self made guru and say - see all those other idiots out there with their books and experiences mean nothing......this in probability terms is possible and yet extremely unlikely.

that i would like to see ...someone in the media calling another persons work a ZIBSO article.

if you are getting good entries, then as a suggestion let it ride more. If you are trading with the trend then the EURUSD has fallen from anywhere in the mid 1.40s that you could have got on.....letting a few ride might make all the difference. If your entries are so shit that this does not make a difference well then there is your answer. You can go broke taking a profit.

safety awards for the year.....I am sure the MFGlobal accountants helped design some of these guys.... SafetyAwards.pdf