laurus12

Good start on a thread with a most important topic. I can relate to what both Lucius and Steve wrote. I've had to recognize which market situations my ego comes into play and what the specific ego-topic was in these situations. I say this because there are situations where I feel completely confident and there is no stress to mention of. In the ego reaction situations I liken them to how the shark research guys on National Geographic have learned to behave when they are in the water with the sharks. Meaning my ego is the shark or a wild animal where I have learned how to handle it in different situations. So when I now see a market situation which relate to this, which can be about both entering or exiting a trade, I am prepared with certain procedures. Laurus

I just tell her (my risk manager) how sexy she is and then she leaves content for the rest of the day watching Days of Our Lives

Totally agree. The thought is good, but sorry enough they do not know the history behind it. They see Socialism or Communism as some kind of utopia, but if they knew they would have known that western corporations owned the big factories in the Soviet and western taxpayers money was used to keep it alive (Professor A*n*t*h*o*n*y S*u*t*t*o*n - T*h*e B*e*s*t E*n*e*m*y M*o*n*e*y C*a*n B*u*y)

Yes, unless one think about it the "big money" is politically actually socialists. Paves the way for discriminating monopoly and keeps away new competition. One can see it in Europe also where government is making it more difficult to impossible for new businesses. It has made me even more anti Socialist. And yes, centralizing shit makes it even easier to control the whole lot.

Hello Shooly, Many good traders have been where you are now, and it can take a long time before it will be any different. Note that I said "can". Maybe you should just open a spot forex micro account? I started with this and to me this was a good way to go. Regarding demo trading or not and small position sizing, you must put yourself in a position where you have the feeling of that it counts. For this reason demo trading never worked out for me, because it was not real money. It did not sharpen my senses and thus a waste of time. But if one can take demo trading seriously it will probably be the best. Regarding position sizing in a live account, this goes for the same. It must put you in a position where you have a feeling that it really counts. If you take too small positions there is a chance that you will become sloppy just as with a demo account. The important part here is that you have to learn how you react when something is on the line. You have to learn what your ego triggers are and how you react under pressure. Dependent of how well you know yourself in advance this can take a long time to master. If you are serious about all this you should purchase Van Tharps newest book Super Trader - Expanded Edition. It is a very good book which will put things in the right perspective for you. I started with the old one and it helped me a lot. Regarding trading itself you should know that even simple tools can make you profitable. My advice is that you must give the market you analyse a framework which contains the simplest things as Support and Resistance and understanding of price behavior on a larger time frame. I emphasize this, because on smaller timeframes you will have a lot of buy signals in a down trend and sell signals on a up trend, but if you don't have a frame work and sense of larger direction you will loose money. Study price behavior and how Support and Resistance really work, which is different on different markets. You do not have to take any courses for this, you just have to study your charts. It might sound old fashioned, but it really works. Next you have to understand the principle of action and reaction, meaning the dynamics between retracement and trend continuation and how it looks like when there is a failure of so. When this makes sense to you, you can act on your indicators. It is common for beginners to have no sense or understanding of larger context and just trying to find some kind of "holy grail" with indicators which will take care of everything. This one is simple, just forget it. Last, in the beginning just trade on one market. Many markets might be appealing regarding many trades and a lot of profits, but in the beginning it most likely equals chaos. One have to first master the psychology and trade itself in one market. Adding more than one market to this and focus is disturbed. The brain develops best with one thing at the time. Hope this will help. Best wishes, Laurus

I liked this one. Moore: The Rich Are Out Of Control, Kleptomaniacs, Sociopaths | RealClearPolitics

Yes, please file this thread under propaganda. The "who's" who did all the poo-poo'ing ought to be pretty clear by all this time. Very sadly they are still allowed to spread their droppings all over the place.

Wanr, if you take a combination of news and/or the activity in a given market as a basis for market manipulation you have a starting point. For example if the "Smart Money" perceive the market as ready to turn from bull to bear they would need a lot of buying to close their positions and open new. For this they need positive news. And strangely the news they need always comes exactly when they need it.... Further with news, when you for example see distribution or accumulation in a chart (for example as a range in top or bottom of your chart), it is very convenient for the "Smart Money" that the important news always comes exactly when they are done and are ready for the the big moves... Very strange right? Especially when we also know that some of the largest "Smart Money" guys also owns the big news networks. When you understand this, you know how the markets work. In a more general way from day to day they check the activity of both directions. When they are done accumulating or distributing they look for low activity in opposite direction of their interest. To much activity in opposite direction of their interest could mean too high a cost or risk in moving the market. From a retail traders perspective one can see market manipulation as positive thing if one learn to read the signs. Meaning, it is because of the markups or markdowns of the "Smart Money" we can earn the big money. If all of this is good for economy, that's another discussion. Laurus

Well said to you too JEHs :thumbs up:

Instead of having this "90% Ghost" hanging in front of us it is better to be realistic about it. Personally I do not pay any attention to it, because I know it is completely up to me and what I do with my homework and challenges. If one take that "90%" failure number one will see that this is about the same with other businesses too. The advantage with trading is that it is only you and the markets. Which is in my opinion actually a big advantage. Just as with other businesses we as traders need a business plan, maybe several strategies for different markets and when markets behave differently, done enough research and homework, and the most important which I have seen a lot of times lacking with other businesses too, which is psychology and the necessity to grow personally. Smart people in successful businesses know this and invest time and resources in all of these fields, both with themselves and their employees. Do the opposite of this and we have a high chance of failure. Personally I hate stuff that can be seen as obstacles and expressions that says that it can't be done. What one should do in this matter is to forget about that 90% number and take the full responsibility and ownership for ones own destiny and do what is required. That's it. Sincerely best wishes, Laurus

You are quite right Zdo. The trading type of fear is of ego and the two can therefore not be separated. Trading fear is ego in action. To be psychologically correct and if we discard the tiny part of our ego which we need, which is reality based in the sense of running when getting chased by a lion, the "false self" delusional kind of ego which the majority of us is struggling with is born out of fear to cope with misconceptions about life and our selves that is in fact simply put not true. Fear in trading is basically founded on the fear of not getting the basic things we need in life. And to my point with this one, the same with hope. The hope of getting what one long for with the underlying function behind it which is the fear of never getting it. Pretty many ticks that is being lost in both actual profits and losses every year on that one. And seriously, to my opinion the same goes with discipline. Many of us have the impression that disciplined people are some kind of tough "hot shots", but to my opinion discipline is based on trust. Meaning the ego have come to trusting. In trading this would mean being confident in your own ability to execute things according to your plan, knowing that your trading plan or strategy is good, and knowing or trusting that what you do will actually give you what you need. Take this trust away from the disciplined trader and you'll see the ego making a full monkey wreckage of the whole system. But off course all not true if the person would be some kind of ego transcended Taoist or Zen guru trader . Laurus

Agree. The IQ of Mr. Bernanke is irrelevant. He is just doing what he is being told to do by the European low breed psychopath bankers who owns the Fed. Generally the same people who funded Hitler. So one should not expect any utopia in near future.

ADE (All Data Everywhere) (along with EL Collections) is software written by a third party that enables Tradestation capabilities that would not normally be possible. For example one of these capabilities is the ability to transfer data from one chart to another.

I fully agree with you Intel55. Though to me the time told to me for evolving in VSA did not seem appealing when starting out, I know today that one have to do some serious work to develop the "VSA-muscle" in the brain. It is another way of perceiving things and it takes time to get the brain to make those connections and ability to perceive the pictures given to you in the markets. And yes, VSA absolutely works with FOREX. I use it too, but I would recommend to get a eSignal GTIS subscription to get the best and most trustworthy picture for us retailers. The latter my opinion off course. Laurus

No, if one changes to other numbers it will still not be good.

Thank you guys for the follow up, and Tams please have some patience with me. It is my first steps into the coding sphere. The "_MOMENTU MSmo" was a typo, but thank you EasyTrader. The idea is to use the classical Momentum indicator as foundation to produce two different values from two different functions which I then would like to come out as a delta value on the charts. My goal is to make it have more sensitive and larger oscillations to see if it can be better in showing divergences than the classical one. The first function is thought as a 8 period momentum study of the Momentum indicator, and the second as a 5 period smoothed short 5 period Momentum. Hence the _MOMENTUMMom+_MOMENTUMSmo, where the "Mom" is momentum study and the "Smo" the short period smoothed study. I have experimentet some more and came up with these wrong studies, but it now plots. For my learning and illustration they might be useful anyhows: _MOMENTUMMom: Variable: MOM(0) ; MOM = (Momentum(CLOSE,12)8 Bars Ago) ; _MOMENTUMMom = MOM ; _MOMENTUMSmo: Variable: SMO(0) ; SMO = (Momentum(CLOSE,5)5 Bars Ago) ; _MOMENTUMSmo = SMO ; As you see in the picture the timings are awful where tops in the oscillator corresponds with lows in price. In addition the oscillations are too small, very much the same as the original. Thanks, Laurus

Tams, seriously. I am trying to learn something here if someone would please help me. Except from the "MOMENTU MSmo" typo I expect the indicator line to be correct. The way I see it, there is something missing or wrong with the coding in the functions. I have tried to find the solution myself, but I do not get it.

I am trying to code a variation of the classical Momentum indicator by adding more parameters with a couple of functions. I've called it Momentum Delta. Both the indicator and functions compiles, but it will not plot in the charts. Could someone please take a look at the code and tell me what I am doing wrong. The lines is exactly as in the indicator and functions when trying to attach. The coding is: Indicator: Plot1(MOMENTUMMom+MOMENTUMSmo,"Momentum Delta") ; Function 1, meant to be a 8 period momentum study of the Momentum indicator: (Momentum(CLOSE,12)8 Bars Ago) ; Function 2, meant to be a smoothed short period Momentum: (Momentum(CLOSE,5)5 Bars Ago) ; The numbers are just some thought parameters to start with. Thanks, Laurus

Thank you Jolee, I'll try to find it with the info you provided.

Yepp. Better to buy it. Barry is a cool guy that cares.

Funny title of the thread :o One thing I would really underline in addition to the detailed practical why's is that I strongly believe the main reason for that beginners fail is because of lack of knowledge on how the markets really work. Giving people risk rules and so on without giving them the knowledge of how things acctually work is like telling kids what they should do without telling them why. I then mean like principles of life (markets) and not just telling them that they will get hurt (blow up your account). The trouble is all the overload of crap on the internet where people do not know what they need to know in the first place. It's like finding a needle in a haystack that you do not even know that is there or looks like. Lucky for the beginner if she or he finds Traders Laboratory. Except from some serious Gann and Fibonacci, it's all here :thumbs up: Laurus

Hello jolee. It's known that spot forex is not centralized, because it goes over the interbank market. So regarding accurate volume you should definitely trade the futures. The downside of it is the lack of good liquidity in many currency futures products. My personal question is if the "composite operator(s)" in the fx market have made it so that they are able so to see volume information that the rest of the market is cut off from. I suspect so. That is, since all markets works after the same principles. For example when Soros back in 1994 saw weakness in the Pound before his team crashed it, did they see it because of the "RSI overbought over 70" joke where it crossed down under it again, or through the news? Do not think so. The closest thing I know of for "top money" is ICAP EBS. If there is additional information that "top money" get from ICAP I do not know, but I know they use tick count volume from ICAP EBS which is highly correlated with acctual volume. You can open an account with brokers like London Capital Group and trade positions of minimum 1 million with ICAP EBS. Minimum account opening is $50,000. In addition there is probably solutions from Reuters and Bloomberg which the "top money" are also using. The next best thing I know of regarding tick volume for us retailers is eSignals GTIS which is unfiltered, but for the sake of information not very good to trade from, because of the volatile price fluctuations. On the other side good to have for tick count volume and if you want to check out if your fx broker are giving you some fake price moves, and/or for better stop loss management. Could you please give us a link to "courts stated that their bid/ask prices are "pretend" or make believe"? Thanks, Laurus

Three informative and interesting replies in a row ScottB, Deanz, and Rickey, so I have to thank all three of you. Laurus

Hello Hayoob. Sounds interesting. Have previously read about RSI volatility bands, but have never had the chance to acctually check it out. Would you care share som code with us? Laurus

I think you have nicely presented a valid picture here. If I should comment something, it would be the use of the term "markup". Quinn, strictly speaking regarding terminology a Markup or Markdown is the effort to break out of a trading range on high volume making sure that everybody is scared off taking positions in opposite direction and keeping people with open positions in the "right" direction from exiting theirs. Thus Markup or Markdown is used when testing for supply or demand have already been done. If they did not do it in this order they would risk risking too much capital trying to make price going higher or lower. Unlucky they could get the opposite of what they intended. Larurs