Ingot54

Just for this month CC. Not enough participants this time. We need to be registered a few days before the end of the month - I recommend a week - to ensure our entry is validated. So OptionTimer has kindly offered to help us build and operate a strategy and trading plan in this time, so that we can all benefit from his knowledge. That is kind of why the other thread is being developed.

Oanda Singapore: FXTrade - OANDA Asia Pacific

I am with you on the Donchian Channel, Siuya. It is a little-understood indicator, developed by a man who is widely regarded as the "father of trend following", Richard Donchian: Richard Donchian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .

Hi Maxr Normally what you are saying would be a valid, and nobody would argue with that. But it may be off the mark here today. And that may be because you have missed the point of this thread, and its predecessor here: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f34/trend-momentum-indicators-choice-9893.html Hopefully after reading the first thread you will understand what Optiontimer is constructing as a project. He is doing this freely, and is simply asking members for their choice of long term and short term indicators, via a poll, from which he will build a strategy shortly, and from there a trading plan. Your statement is understandable, in the absence of the full context. You seem to have a bit of knowledge and interest, so you are welcome to work within the intent of the project I am sure. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to participate here, because I am not a profitable trader over a longer term. My trading is like a Leopard - it looks good in spots! By the way - Optiontimer was able to grow an a/c by nearly 50% under competition conditions during the month of May: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/24/traders-laboratory-forex-trading-contest-9303-3.html See post #87. I look forward to what he has to say, much as a student would. Also, if you go here: https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=contestDetails&contestId=1855 and select "Membership" it is easy to see Optiontimer had 29.1% profit for the first 2 trading days in June, before the comp folded. I only mention this to establish that Optiontimer knows what he is doing, and has the credentials to accomplish something here, if we are patient and give him room to develop his threads. I am sure you are already aware of much of that, but I think it needed to be said to prevent further off-topic discussion.

Welcome umfan92 I have summarised the key parts of your introductory post. It is good that you have experienced losing ... so you will already be realistic about what markets can do. Basically it is about transferring money ... to those who understand trading and market activity / behaviour, from those that don't. My advice to you initially, is to take your time ... be patient ... learn to trade one thing, but trade it well. And don't forget to have fun, remember to appreciate and be grateful, and aim to get rich slowly. You can see I love giving out free advice, but that's the nature of forums. Your task is to find out if I'm full of fluff ... or if the next person is. You will find what you look for here, but be prepared to work at it - over many hours. Define your expectations, and learn to set goals and keep records. The other 999 pieces of advice will come to you in time!

October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February. ~ Mark Twain.

... Says Buffet who made $2 billion profit on a $5.5 billion loan to Goldman Sachs! News Headlines A man of his word! Keeps to his rules! If you’re going to panic, panic early.

Don't know if this qualifies as a one-hit-winder, but when I heard "Bertie Higgins" I said: "Bertie Who?" But when I heard the song "Key Largo" it brought back a rush of sentimental memories that tugged at the heart strings all over again! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru2tsT32pHA]YouTube - ‪Bertie Higgins - Key Largo‬‏[/ame] I then went looking for anything else that Bertie sang well, and came up with this one - and that was about all: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40613SHHW2c]YouTube - ‪Bertie Higgins - Just Another Day In Paradise‬‏[/ame] Anyway - smooth music, and nicely presented to the ears.

Yeah ... I feel better already! :rofl:

Hi Optiontimer On the registration form I think there is a place where trading contestants have an option to resign from the competition. I saw this previously, but can not find it today. In any case there were two contestants (Mysticforex and Optiontimer) validated on 30th May, and now there is only one (you) according to the Oanda contest information site. https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=listContests https://fx2.oanda.com/mod_perl/fxcontest/fxcontest.pl?rm=contestDetails&contestId=1855 I am 100% certain Mysticforex would not resign from either the forum or the thread - but I think he may have removed his name from the comp by simply checking the "Resign" box in the results section or wherever it is. Look, I am disappointed I missed the entry time - but these things happen. So instead of just waiting out the month uselesly, why don't we continue with something worthwhile? I know you are trading very well, and wonder if you would post your trades here (without giving away your methodology). You can still do the Oanda trading as a record and as a discipline for yourself - your choice, but I think there may be other traders who would like to post trades here for the month too. I would be interested to see just how much you could grow an account - I notice you are already ahead by 29% and we are only 2 days into the comp. That's incredible. I will also post my trades here (with charts to verify or clip2net links for brevity). It is no big deal for me to win or lose - I am simply interested in the experience, and having a goal of sorts is good for our trading. Thoughts? Anyone else wanna show their trades for a month?

You know what to do with ET then ... :rofl:

Probability of yours and my viewpoints being correct ~ unknown. CMC in early 2003 - 2005 were proven to be spiking out stop-loss positions in CFD accounts in Australia. When called out on it and the information posted on Incrediblecharts and other forums, (T2W I recall also posted on it) CMC reversed those losses. It was not good for business ... for traders, brokers or the industry generally. So the mindset to actually do these things is out there, and imho has simply become more sophisticated. Bottom line - it's all about the money, and if they can take it from you they will. In the FSG fine print, or their PDS - forget which - IGM (and I suspect CMC as well) say that they "act as principle in the matter" meaning they take the opposite side of your trade. They have an unfair advantage in that they are also allowed to make the market. The fine print also says that they are allowed to move the market any direction they choose, "if it is in the best interests of the company." They also have the right to close positions "if they so choose" ... "without giving explanation for so doing." That does not represent a fair and level playing field ... hell ... they can even move the goal posts after the ball has been kicked, and they actually warn you - and you agree to it - that they can do it. But that is the "market maker" model. These days IGM "guarantee to match exactly" the underlying market from which their prices are derived. It does not mean they are not allowed to widen the spread "in times of low liquidity" (whatever "low liquidity" means is at their discretion, and is not clear.) Like you, I tend to not become too distracted by conspiracy ideas, but the memories of it linger when such things did occur. I didn't say CMC acted illegally ... just unethically; and as we know, ethics has nothing to do with financial transactions. Their reversals of the spiked-out trades were more an act of sheepish goodwill at that time ... a form of discounted advertising for what good fellows they are. An acquaintance of mine had an extremely profitable short position with IGM, and that was at the beginning of the downturn March 2007. IGM contacted him and asked him to close the position. Their excuse? "The client wants to buy his shares back." Total fabricated rubbish. The "client" did not exist, because IGM do not deal in real equities. They are a market maker who mirrors the true market. IGM simply saw like I did and many others, that the dreaded correction was upon us, and that this leveraged short was likely to cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars - if not a million dollars or more. The bloke already had $80,000 profit. I advised him to seek professional advice on whether he actually was obliged to close the position - my feeling at the time was the same as it is now - no. It was simply IGM covering their bases ... and trying to shake him down. He didn't do that - he just acquiesced meekly ... a bit dumb imho. Coulda beena millionaire ... :doh: What happens today? Algorithms? Dunno ... no one can get inside of one to know what makes them chime. But if someone is using one, then they are using it to make money in a market where every advantage counts. And if an algo is an advantage, then shouldn't everyone be using one?

lol ... life are great indeed!

And the moral to the story? Of course - you were MEANT to be stopped out. The flash crash of May 6th 2010 still has not been officially explained, but whatever caused that even seems to be at play again ... 13 month later. Back then the DOW dropped about 900 points in a few seconds, and then recovered "in a few minutes." According to Wikipedia: "It was the second largest point swing -1010.14 points - and the biggest one-day point decline - 998.5 points - on an intraday basis in Dow Jones Industrial Average history" It proved fairly lucrative then, for those with the "right" kind of contingent orders, or the fastest brains ( think the former) and as making money the easy way can be addictive, methinks the money-makers are again flexing their electronic muscles. "They" are just smarter now ... the flash crash caused a lot of bad press for people like Goldman Sachs, so it makes sense now to do the same thing on a smaller scale, and less frequently. The easiest way to find out what happened would be to find out who stood to gain from it (or who actually gained from it.) .

I registered on 30th May, but missed the cut somehow Optiontimer, and MysticForex has resigned I think - so that only leaves you unfortunately. Congrats though on a great win in May, mate - almost 50% a/c increase in 30 days ... well done.

Thanks BlowFish Sledge was online at about 7.30am Tuesday morning my time (GMT +10) I hope Sledge continues to post - there is always something learn, something to share.

I am wondering how the story ends ... the transition has been made ... Has volume picked up in the FX mini's/micro's? Tell me: how is the journey is going? What useful things have been picked up with experience? Do you still trade good setups, or occasionally scalp the tick? This is a good topic ... thank you for the thread.

This has been a great thread, and I would like to bring it back to life. It's three-and-a-half years since the last entry here, and in Internet and Trading Technology terms, that is a significant leap back in time. I live in Australia and straight away that limits what is available locally. In order for me to take advantage of futures data and trading platforms, I would need to sign with an overseas company, and that is not totally kocher for me. Today with sovereign defaults and overnight bankruptcies, I don't need the risk associated with trying to repatriate my trading funds if there is a crisis or a broker collapse. The Aussie government can not help me if an overseas broker decides to ignore my requests to send me my money. I like the Ensign Windows charting package - currently USD$49.95/month with an initial free trial before committing. I am wanting to access futures instruments with volume data available, and this is not available (reliably) with Retail Forex. I believe Esignal is supposed to have some kind of reflective volume data for spot forex, but nothing as reliable as forex futures data. Has anyone tried the T4 platform? This does not fit my "deal locally" ideal, but I am searching for an Aussie broker who offers it ... fruitlessly so far. My alternatives are to find a broker off-shore who meets my needs, and has a degree of security a bit separated from the bucket shops model. I am sure others have faced this kind of dilemma ... as per the above posts ... but with the passage of time, there are bound to be improvements and economies associated with the better setups. Thoughts?

It may show up on the next update ... no probs ... My $50,000 demo a/c shows I received 60 cents interest in the past 24 hrs. http://clip2net.com/s/Ya60 http://clip2net.com/s/Ya7j

I just attempted to re-join the contest, and a message came up: Error: A request to join this contest already exists. Any thoughts on this?

I registered about 24 hrs ago. I'll have to check and maybe re-register if it hasn't been picked up.

What's happening to the numbers? Yesterday when I logged in the greeting said: " more than 98,000 active members" and today we have "83,717 active members." I'll have to try to be more active ... I didn't know the software could tell if I was sitting back staring at the screen ... or making posts! :rofl: Looks like that gremlin is back in the system! The popup box again shows about 20,000 fewer members than the landing page, but nowhere near the 100K + members we have.

Maybe so, Tradewinds. But FINDING the way to compete becomes the issue ... as it did for those traders. Most failed. Are we all (as traders ... or wannabees) destined to end up just like them? Are we going to be able to compete on level footing ... high-frequency trading ... front-running ... insider information covertly disguised as market data ... and so on? Are we fooled by the term "level footing?" Are we victims of the hype ... that "we" CAN trade like the professionals? Will "success" rely on the ability to afford the latest hardware/software/data/gimmicks? On the other hand ... can retail traders continue to pick up the crumbs that fall from the table as they do today, regardless of where the "floor" is today, and regardless of what it has become? How is that working out? Of course, mate. But the traders in the movie knew that better than we. How did that work out for them? The ability to achieve "success" in trading seems to rely on a matching ability ot stay ahead of the technology ... or does it? Is there a "bread-and-butter" way to trade that does not depend on trying to out manoeuvre the algorithms ... software ... hardware ... data ... braniacs etc? I think there is ... and while the "failed" traders in the movie (those who could not adapt) were trying to compete on superceded terms, they did in fact miss the point. Maybe I am missing "the point" but I think that trying to compete against such tech is foolish ... you can not. You just become someone else's liquidity ... fodder. If you aren't profitable now ... how are you going to be profitable tomorrow? I think the solution to the "march of technology" issue is to approach trading from a longer term perspective. The marketers want us to buy their gear, but it won't help us in the future ... it didn't help us in the past. The issue is one of "adapt-or-perish" ... but how to adapt? Isn't that the real issue? Isn't that the issue the floor traders faced? Adaptation? Adapt from what ... to what ... ?

I suppose about now would be a good time to put my cap in hand and apologise to Tams and TradeRunner for being such a grump! Sorry guys - a bit frustrated that work commitments are eating up my trading time ... nothing to do with you at all. Thanks for bothering to straighten out that point though - appreciated your input, though it certainly didn't come across like that. Trade well Ivan

Understood Siuya - thanks. The responses reminded me instantly of T2W and I was surprised. I guess I wasted a bit of time on the idea. I'll have to try harder to stimulate thinking ... even if it's just my own! :crap: Cheers