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$5DAW
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Everything posted by $5DAW
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All of the following is my opinion from my experience. I've used these studies to trade the 6E for many years, and I believe you're setting yourself up for a lot of frustrations for a variety of reasons. It seems like a good idea but as Blowfish stated, "They (spot and futures) are highly correlated" but not exactly. His (Blowfish's) posts hold many of the concerns that will (again, imo) lead to frustration, and there is more! I also chart a vwap on the cash market using tick data, prices respond well to these levels, however your statement, "I want to risk 10 to make 30 or more.." is about the wiggle room needed for the correlation, mainly the 10 point risk side. Another issue is your data feed, IB (Interactive Brokers) for instance processes their data in "snap shots" or "packets" .... Say a bar closes and gives you a sell signal, while the next bar is building and more "packets" are processed as they arrive (to your computer) that previous signal can "disappear" entirely or change significantly. I've found all the volume studies wiggle/change/move when using IB data, this isn't a major issue for most traders but it was for me when trying to trade with the precision offered by the vwap bands and maintaining tight stops (10 pts). Also as BF (Blowfish) stated, "Not only that they are setting the price that you bet on (as there is no centralized exchange and lax reporting requirements there is a degree of flexibility in the price they set)" this "degree of flexibility" will raise havoc with your (a) 10 point stop. Furthermore, when watching price action or "reading the tape" at significant price levels it's often hard to differentiate between the "tail and the dog." Another fact is these studies e.g. vwap are cpu intensive and can bring a run-of-the-mill processor to it's knees (depending on market volatility and the number of charts). The studies you describe are fluid and next to (if not) impossible to code (on most retail platforms), this leaves traders with a lot of discretionary decisions to make during the most volatile (profitable) times in the market, knowing your market can be very helpful. These studies on stagnant EOD charts is absolutely nothing like what you'll experience during the heat of battle. To end on a positive note, I'll make two suggestions. Chart the futures with your studies and trade the mini futures contract. Or, if you must follow the path you described, expand your stops at least x2 as you begin to collect R/R data. Stops are imo market/movement specific and must be adjusted according to conditions throughout the day. Good luck
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Thanks for posting that link ammo, I took many of the suggestions from Ruth's book, even the office set-up section made a lot of sense to me. Does it work? Well, I'm not complaining
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We all bring our baggage to the markets. I believe how I compartmentalize these thoughts (positive and negative) has a major effect on my trading success or failure. Over the last 2-3 years my wife and I spent well over $60,000 unraveling two (2) daughters from the grip of prescription drugs. These young women had no prior history of drug abuse. While under a "doctors" care (for different illnesses) their lives were totally changed for the worst within 1 year. Believe me, you don't want to put your family (loved ones) through that. If you choose to proceed with medication of any kind, listen to the opinions of those around you as to the medication's effect on you, because I assure you, you will be the LAST to realize those effects. I had to post this, please be careful, it can happen to you. I sure don't have the time to explain all that's going on at market tops, but I will say this: The top of a trend (large or small) is just that, the top of the trend, nothing more. Most times the top of a trend IS NOT a great place to immediately enter a short position, sure AFTER the fact it most certainly does look like the logical place to enter. Most often when the top of a nice up trend is identified prices will rotate around (consolidate) a bit BEFORE deciding to continue or reverse direction. I'm sure many will disagree and offer examples of price spikes where highs were made and prices fell like rocks. This is not what I'm speaking of, your chart shows a nice uptrend with a nice group of trending bars (the spike on the bottom "could" make the above argument). If/when you entered short on the up candle or the next couple thereafter you had no confirmation the trend was about to reverse (according to the chart), your risk "should" be ABOVE your entry, or at lest the high. As ammo stated, "if your acct is so small that a loss will kill you,wait til you have more to trade with." Another issue I noticed by watching your clip was you threw in a market order to dump the trade (I think). As I said no one (based on your chart) knew if the trend would continue or reverse, and during the first real test to confirm the reversal you dump the trade with a market order and take max slippage, I assume. Your short at the top was in fact a risky trade that eventually proved to be profitable at the moment you bailed out (within the time frame of the screen shot). Your fear of loss is obviously extreme and intense, and is a total delusion. No one is coming for your first born child if you get taken out of a short trade 1 tick above the high!! If your entry is any indication of your skill (I'll assume it is) your doing many things right. This trade (according to the screen shot) was a counter trend trade, where was your target, where was your stop, when you initiated the position? IMO, only when you can comfortably accept the maximum risk of each and every position you enter can you succeed. Furthermore, IMO, the only way to fully accept that risk is to take the risk, over and over again. FYI, I had two (2) trades this week that went against me right out of the gate. One trade traded 1 tick below my stop (a short trade) for over 20min, then turned profitable and tripped my target. The other trade actually traded ON MY STOP during a spike and fell away, turning that trade profitable as well. My point is, if I was not comfortable taking my full loss on either of these two trades, both "would" have been losers. Was I excited and anxious, was my heart rate up a bit, sure I hate losing money as much as the next guy, but I held my ground and let the market decide if I was wrong or not. I have to go back and say, If your under so much stress you feel you need medication STOP TRADING, the market will always be here, you're not going to miss anything THAT important. Take a break, spend a few weeks doing chores around the house, spend some time AWAY from the markets, don't look at charts, quotes or read any books, TAKE A BREAK. I did it, I wrote a post that includes, could, would and should.
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Unless you're talking about this mouse :rofl: Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and take a look, it's safe. Sorry about that, I'm having technical difficulties again
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Unless you're talking about this mouse :rofl: Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and take a look, it's safe
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Great topic TW Even though the whole idea is to increase the equity in our trading accounts, I find myself walking a fine line between, trading to make money and trading my plan/system well. If I stay focused on trading my system and adhering to my rules, profits always accumulate and my account equity is higher on Friday than it was on Monday. Your statements (bullets) IMO, are dead on. When I first started using a trading platform with a simulation option I was in heaven, but soon I learned the lesson you're describing. All my trades were being recorded under the same pre-programed strategy, and I was unable to decipher any meaningful data as to the profitability of my system. I had to separate my system strategy from my "seat of the pants" trades, only then could I tell if the (two) systems really worked. This may sound like common sense, but give a child a new toy and they'll run the batteries dead in one day, that's me. :doh: If I'm trading my system and I hook in to my anticipated string of losing trades, I'm tempted to step over to "the dark side" and do a little revenge trading. At this point, I'm "Trying to Make Money" and find myself doing undisciplined and reckless things. This almost always has a negative effect on my equity curve. I say, "almost always" because sometimes "I get lucky" and pull my account back up. This, "getting lucky" creates a positive outcome to a negative, reckless behavior and (IMO) does much more harm than good. Now, not all of my trades are system trades. If I ready myself for a day's trading and my "system's" signals just don't come, I often sharpen my knife and take a few scalps. But nowadays these scalp trades are recorded as another strategy and the data can be reviewed and utilized to assess my methods profitability, separate from my main trading system(s).
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Mr. T Lets just call it the 6E, I'm cool with that. I'm wondering about time, You said, "I use a 233 tick chart alongside a 15-min." So I'm assuming you're measuring the "peaks & valleys" on the 15m chart, and then transferring those Fib levels to your 233 tick chart. Then, focusing in on the scalp trade signals generated on the tick chart,,,, meanwhile looking over your shoulder on occasion to the 15m chart to keep an eye on the "long(er) term trend/action." My question of time is this, when do you start? Does it matter? Do you begin a session in sync with the Frankfurt, London or US open? Or can you just jump in and GO? This seems a bit intense for me, but on average, how many trades might you enter in a day? Sorry for all the questions, but you did "stick it out there."
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Trading Not to Lose: A Disguised Fear of Loss and the Future
$5DAW replied to Rande Howell's topic in Trading Psychology
Wow,,,,, jaysmith124,, you sure have a lot going on in your head when you enter a trade. K.I.S.S. keep it simple silly It's only a trade ! -
Trading Not to Lose: A Disguised Fear of Loss and the Future
$5DAW replied to Rande Howell's topic in Trading Psychology
There's your problem :haha:, sounds absolutely normal for a Bean Counter! How many times have I spent hours sifting through my bank statement, trying to find that missing penny to balance my checkbook, a few. It just doesn't work that way in the market. If Steve needs to be filled, "at a rock bottom price," to "managing any potential for loss," then he has a flawed Trading Plan, get real fellas. But maybe not. Steve's plan is making money, but not enough money to sustain a certain desired lifestyle, ("make his financial dreams come true"). Something has to change, the trader, or the plan? I don't think you can separate the two. If the trader decides to widen his entry level of his plan, even by a few ticks, then he has to change to accept the added risk. If he can't totally, completely, comfortably accept the added risk, then he must remain content with the returns his plan/system generate. The trader is the plan, there's no other way. So the title of this thread could have been, How do we, totally, completely, comfortably accept the added risk to increase our profits. As Steve stated, "if he had acted within the price range that his trading plan had called for, he would have been able to profitably enter the trade with plenty of room to spare," this is, IMO the key. This tells me he has tested, tested and tested his plan and has hard, solid facts to prove to himself, (and anyone else) he can expect X% of winning trades from his set-ups if he takes the signals, "within the price range that his trading plan had called for." Trading is a numbers game, and we can test, test and test till the cows come home, and if we do we may find the answers we seek. Within Steve's price range for entries is a hidden percentage. Let's say he has a 10 tick range for entries. The percentage of entries filled in the uppermost 50% of that range may be 50/70% as apposed to 10/20% of entries filled in the lowest 25% of the 10 tick range. All things being equal (sticking to the plan) the risk of losing remains the same (assuming a long position as outlined in the opening statement). So I'll argue that Steve is, without a doubt, totally, completely, comfortably with the risk of his plan. Knowing a few bean counters and many more traders, I would suggest opening the issue of greed. Greed lurks on both ends of any price bar. -
I finally figured out how to post a chart! I wanted to post this chart in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. First, it is a mechanical system, it has set parameters for entries, HARD STOPS and HARD TARGETS. Second, up-thread the topic of entering positions on pull-backs was raised, ALL my systems use pull-backs to trigger entries. This chart is the 6E not FX cash market. Euro traders will be quick to recognize the price action of 4-01-11. Both positions (short & long) were triggered, and both hard targets were filled.
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Thanks for the reply iwshares, please consider my posts suggestions, my intention is not to offer trading advise. I now understand your comment on slippage, it makes perfect sense in that context. I have to get behind Tim on his opinion that, "If you're trading Forex Futures slippage isn't as big of an issue," especially if you're considering swing and or position trading, IMO. I believe you're on the right track looking at the 4hr time frame, if your intention is to unchain yourself from your computer screen. You brought a smile to my face when you said, "dip in and out of trading a short time period e.g. 4 hour charts," as I seldom hold positions for more than 15min. Obviously, due to my much shorter view of the markets, I consider myself unqualified to comment on position, swing trading. I will say this, on occasion (rarely) I'll allow my short term trade entry to turn into a swing trade, only if my analysis (or my system's indicators) signal a continuation to a higher/lower S/R level than I originally anticipated. That said, I believe while designing or testing a method/system it is extremely pertinent to "stay on the reservation" and not mix methods/signals, (e.g. position/swing/scalp). Keeping your analysis separated while testing, and then reviewing both systems independently prior to and during optimization, may reveal hidden unexpected gems. Examples may be, longer/shorter time frames, hard targets, trailing stops, wider/tighter hard stops or scaling in/out of positions. Good luck in your endeavor, and good trading.
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Firm Biz I trade currencies, mostly the mighty Euro. Why, like you it's all I've ever done. I saw an interview in the early 80s with Jim Rogers talking about how the currencies were going to be, "the markets of the future." Of course I had no idea what he was talking about (enter FX), but I started looking into it and never looked back :crap: I trade them for several reasons Time, I can trade different time segments within a day, depending on other obligations life may throw at me (e.g. Asian, Europe or US sessions). Style / Method, Most times (not always) I can find liquidity sufficient to trade any/all sessions. Each session holds it's own characteristics and nuances (IMO) and offers traders an opportunity to use every tool in the box (e.g. position, swing or scalp trading). Analysis I believe the currency markets respond well to technical and price action trading. This gives a trader a clue as to what tool to pull out of the box, whether it's a simple support & resistance trade, a Fibonacci retrace or extension move, or maybe prices are ranging around and bouncing off deviations of some mean average. I hope this is along the lines of what you're searching for.
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Tim, I like the way you think, but we (traders) have to start somewhere. I'll bet there are more "lookers" here in the Trader's Lab with 10k accounts than 100k accounts. I started trading the Deutsche Mark on the CME with a 5k account (the times have changed)! I pulled some money out on occasion, whenever "I got lucky," and started buying generic 1oz silver rounds, for $6 or $7.00 ea. I've had a stack of them on my desk for many many years, as a reminder of why I'm sitting here, little did I know.
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I have another angle on removing money from your trading account. If you're a new or struggling trader and you have a successful day and make even a small profit, take it! I don't care if your account is in negative territory, if you made even a few hundred dollars and feel really good about your efforts, take a hundred dollars out of your account. This is a tough business, and it's not about points or pips, it's about money. Traders can lose focus on that, and it all seems like just numbers on a screen. Taking even a hundred dollars out of your account after your first good day can provide lasting positive psychological/emotional support. Many traders know how to put money in their accounts, but several have never attempted to take money out! Have a plan, for your hundred bucks. Buy something for your desk/office, something you can see, feel and touch everyday, this will be a reminder for years to come of your beginning efforts as a trader. Don't wait for your 10k account to be 15 or 20k (it may never happen) just take a token withdraw to put yourself through the motions and buy that tangible object (no meals/drinks) that you can always say, "This is my FIRST reward from investing my time, my effort and my skill trading the (ES, 6E or CL) market." This works. The big withdraws will come later.
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Absolutely, I had no idea what I was getting into. I was not prepared for the mountains of data I was about to uncover and had no idea how to categorize the data so it could be recalled and used in a useful manner. If I had to boil down all the unexpected occurrences and list them in their order of significance, developing my computer skills would without a doubt top the list.
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Thanks for the intelligent questions, MM Yes, I have an absolute "pull the plug" system stop. My system stop is 2x the maximum run of losing trades revealed in testing. To answer the next logical question, no, I haven't had to "pull the plug." The deepest DD to date (after 32 months) went 36.6% beyond the maximum run of losses.
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Mechanical Trading Systems My main trading method is a mechanical trading system, however, it is not automated. My intention in building this system was/is to automate in the future so all the buy/sell parameters are (I think) code-able. I'm not here to create a shit storm of controversy as to the meaning of a "true" mechanical system or a debate over PA (price action) trading vs the use of Technical Indicators or TA (technical analysis). They are two different styles of trading that attract legions of followers, I say, "to each their own." A basic mechanical system could be as simple as when, moving average#1 crosses up thru moving average#2 I buy. When ma#1 crosses down thru ma#2 I sell. Albeit a crude example, that's the theory, no user discretion is involved and all signals are taken. For me to consistently extract money from the market, I found (for myself anyway) I needed to devise a way to replicate my entries and exits. To achieve this goal of replication, I constructed a totally mechanical method of trading. A mechanical system of trading involves no user discretion, and thus (if traded properly) relieves traders from the grip of emotional trading. Most importantly (imo), a mechanical system creates a model that can be tested and evaluated with precision over different markets and time frames. However, if the entries and exits of this system are not automated the user may be tempted to pick and choose (discretion) entries and exits and find him/herself back in the grip of emotional trading and the proven back and forward test results will not be achieved. This is a style of trading. Every position begins with at a hard entry price, a hard target price and a hard stop. When using a mechanical system, some entries will not be filled, maybe by a tick or two, or maybe there was insufficient volume at the price where the order was resting. The same can be said at the hard target, these are some of the unavoidable negatives of automation. This style of trading is not for everyone (for obvious reasons), just as price action trading is not for everyone. This method is nothing new and the nuts and bolts of this type of trading are well defined in Mark Douglas's book, Trading in the Zone. Traders with a deeper, more serious interest, may find Robert Pardo's book, Design, Testing and Optimization of Trading Systems, a good source of guidance or inspiration. I spent hours, over a period of months, sifting thru data trying to find that sweet spot where, Risk, Capital, Profit, Drawdown and Consistency came together to fit my psychology and personality as a trader. Then, forward tested the system on a simulation platform for another period of months, constantly evaluating the extremes of the results. Only after rigorous testing proved, I had a system that could; A. Be traded with my meager account B. Be traded with an acceptable/comfortable amount of risk, per trade C. Be traded if the deepest documented drawdown occurred immediately after I started trading the system, my account would survive D. Show a consistent profit great enough to meet my financial objectives did I start trading it. The journey above was mine alone, and it was not a walk in the park, hours of frustration and days of depression paved my way. I came to believe that this is/was the true, hard work of trading, and anyone who's willing to invest the time and effort can indeed build a mechanical system and find success in the markets. I sure don't fit in with the Soros, Jones and Rogers crowd, but I do have total confidence in my system and I keep its workings to myself, as many do. I proved to myself (you can believe me or not) a trader can enter the market, knowing, he/she is going to win before they begin.
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One of my hobbies is Formula 1 Racing. Formula 1 Yes it's true, there are a few (very few) Yanks, that are not into NASCAR. Since the resent political unrest in the Kingdom of Bahrain caused a F1 race schedule change, the honors of hosting the opening round was returned to Melbourne, Australia. Mark Weber, team mate of 2010 World Champion Sebastian Vettel is the lone Aussie on the grid and he always draws quite a crowd on his home track. The first race always seems to offer plenty of excitement as teams reveal their "hardware" publicly for the first time. This should be another great F1 season. Look, over there, is that Ingot54 & SIUYA standing by that Fosters sign ? :beer:
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Agreed, I would suggest take the time to learn the ins and outs from the safety of the sidelines, maybe build a mechanical system before putting money, any money at risk. I think of it like trying to build a boat, while swimming in the water. If you have build it in the water, then yes, find shallow water (mini contracts).
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Is this a trick question, it's like suggesting the best brand of beer to drink. We could debate dozens of different labels, Fosters, Bud, Dos Equis and Kingfisher, and when all is said and done, we might overwhelmingly agree, cold beer is best, no matter the Brewmaster. Liquidity and volatility are, IMO, the most important elements of a good trade-able market. Depending on a traders style or method of trading, liquidity and volatility can effect one's results to a greater or lesser degree.
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To all newcomers to the Laboratory, welcome :ciao: I'm not trying to single you out iwshares, but I did wonder what you meant by your slippage statement above. Also, your statement, "I'm not always staring at a screen," triggered my interest. Mostly in regards to the time frame you may choose. Seems like a lot of new traders are attracted to the FX markets, maybe it's the advertising or the notion of a 24 hour market. Whatever it is that draws people to the FX markets, it works. I just wanted to wave a flag of caution to the newcomers. These are tough markets and the moves can be violent, and they can come at any moment, with little or no warning. Most traders know this, and IMO, protecting your capital at all times with stops is highly recommended. I trade FX, and if I was to enlighten a newcomer, I would say, "do your homework." These are global markets, they follow the sun around the Earth, so to speak. As an example of homework, knowing when the opening and closing bell rings on each major trading floor around the world is good information to know. As a matter of fact, knowing when different countries reset their clocks for, Summer Time / Daylight Saving Time is also important (this weekend?). The currency markets can make huge moves on news, it's your job to be aware (as best you can) of all these global release dates/times, and as I said, always have your capital protected from breaking news/rumors when you have an open position. I can only post my opinion, but I've found that arming myself with information, knowledge and an understanding of the under currents of the FX market as a whole, and most importantly the currencies I trade allows me to be a better trader. Furthermore, my best intra-day system fails dreadfully if left (turned on) in the market 24 hours. But, if I turn it on and turn it off at specific times within that 24 hr period the results are a bit more rewarding. Willie Sutton (bank robber) is famous for his answer to the question why he robbed banks by saying, "because that's where the money is." To close I'll paraphrase and say, If you want to make money trading FX, "trade when the money is."
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Ingot54 Great idea for a thread, I hope it catches on. The first thing that jumped out at me was, all your indicators are basically indicating the same thing, momentum. This tells me you are risk adverse and want to be absolutely sure, without any doubt, that when you enter a trade, the market, is trending in the time frame you're trading. We all have different ways of keeping our finger on the pulse of the market, but I'd bet if you only used 2 of the 3 EMAs you have plotted on your chart you'd get damn near the same results over a sample of 100 trades. A MACD is just that, "a moving average" and why ten stochastics (10 lines), isn't the spread between a fast and a slow enough? But wait there's more, the RSI another momentum indicator. It's like looking at six different size wind socks to come to an agreement the wind is blowing out of the East @ 25mph. I'm not sure what you're asking, you must be trading this method (with some discretion) and it appears to work for you. If it works you have two choices, you can not fix it, or, you can fix it until it is broken. If you can identify support and resistance on longer and shorter time frames, and you are absolutely comfortable with the amount of risk needed behind your trade, and you're making money, go for it.
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Is Trading a Perfect or Imperfect Information Game?
$5DAW replied to tacdog's topic in General Trading
I'm in the imperfect camp on this issue, for a host of reasons. I was watching one of the "news" channels the other day and saw a report on how McDonalds was using satellite imagery to see the increase/decrease of parking lot (drive thru) traffic at different locations/times and thus project sales of "featured items" offered at those locations. Now that is information! I guess if I was the largest consumer of potatoes (and most everything else on the menu) in the world I'd want to know if they were selling or not too. I don't have one of those (satellite), I have a PC with a cable connection. I accept the fact I'll never get the news, I get history. If I want to set up a HFT computer and I'm more than 100 miles from the exchange/co-location server, I cannot compete due to latency, that's the fact. Sure they'll lease me slot or two in their server, if I'm willing to pay up. Speed in the markets is no longer measured in seconds but fractions of a second. When I started trading I called in my orders on a phone, and often waited for a call back to verify my fill. The switch to electronic trading was brutal for me. As the speed of execution increased, I always found myself lagging behind the crowd. Even today, since FIOS is not available on my street, I consider the guy trading against me in the "next neighborhood" to have a speed of execution advantage over me. The notion of market internals has it's own quirks and limitations. Take volume for instance, do you really know what your looking at? Is it tick data or is it a snap shot of a 25 millisecond time span of tick data, or is it the actual number of trades traded at that price? This may seem like splitting hairs but the title of the thread mentioned, "Perfect or Imperfect Information." So if you see 100 contracts traded @ 2236 on that last trade, and I see only a single tick of movement who has the "most perfect" information? Furthermore, if I'm using this volume data to chart a VWAP or build a price histogram study, how perfect or Imperfect are they? My conclusion: When I realized and accepted the fact that the information I receive is in fact what the "heavy hitters" already know, the best I can do is follow along with them and not attempt to lead the way. For me, this meant expand my time frame, I cannot compete on a sub second level on my PC from my home, period, end of subject. During the "brutal" period of adapting to the new speed of trading I described above I found my niche not in narrowing my time frame but expanding it! By stepping back and letting the fast and furious players do their thing and giving the scalpers room to do their thing, I found a time frame where I could comfortably do my thing. Support and Resistance have always existed in the markets and I assume always will, trading between those two levels on a time horizon that fit my style of trading, my tolerance for risk and my personality proved to be the key for me to remain consistently profitable in the markets. It seemed ironic at first, that in the era of high speed trading my answer was found in slowing down. -
My Incredible Shrinking Hard Drive (but no more) Recently I built a new trading computer and installed a 64GB solid state hard drive as a system drive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357 Since my previous computer had a 70GB drive and I only used 9GB total over the period of almost seven years I felt confident the 64GB drive would satisfy my needs. As I said, this is a trading computer, I don't store movies, pictures, watch videos or play games on it, just trading related software and a few accounting programs. I upgraded (you decide) from XP pro (32) to Win 7 pro (64) and installed the maximum 16 GB of RAM my motherboard allowed. After the fresh installation of Win 7 pro I noticed it (win 7) took up 43.2 GB of my 64 GB SSD I went ahead and loaded all my other programs and got things working quite well, in fact the new box exceeds my expectations and I'm very pleased. Except for that HUGE amount of hard drive space occupied by Win 7. I did some investigating on the web and found some interesting facts. First I ran this Free Disk Space Analyzer: http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/index.html This analyzer provided me with a visual picture of the SIZE of every folder and file on my hard drive. Two files inside Win 7 were HUGE, the pagefile.sys and the hiberfil.sys. These two files took up almost two thirds of the 43.2 GB Win 7 was using on my SSD. After further investigation I learned that Win 7 allocates an equivalent amount of HD space to the pagefile.sys in proportion to the amount of RAM installed on your computer, 16 GB in my case. A similar amount is allocated to the HIBERNATION MODE or hilerfil.sys. The amount of HD space these files use can be manually set OR turned off completely (e.g. if you never use hibernation mode it can be disabled) if you want to reclaim precious HD space from Windows. I recovered 27.8 GB in about 15 minutes following the steps within the links below. Win 7 pro NOW occupies only 16.3 GB of my SSD. HIBERNATION MODE http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/29161-pagefile-sys-hiberfil-sys.html HUGE PAGEFILE http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/15568-huge-pagefile-sys-file.html