BlowFish

Funnily enough it's almost identical to the first strategy I ever traded. In those days (pre first big drawdown) I traded without emotional clutter and with a great deal of simplicity. Funnily enough in many ways I think my trading was at its best then. The results where pretty damn good too. I am not sure exactly went wrong partly 'grailittis' partly lack of discipline. Certainly wasn't anything wrong with the method though being a newb at the time that was the first thing that was messed with.

You might want to have a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_algorithm I am not aware of any references or I would have offered them. My own knowledge was picked up many many many years ago when I worked in R&D as a software engineer. Most people that where there where far far smarter than me. Over time I was exposed to some clever stuff, lucky to work with a bunch of geniuses. Every now and then I like to diddle with indicators and stuff to keep my hand in. I was rather pleased with myself (actually delighted) in coding Jerry Perls stuff without any loops. Normally as total volume changes you would re weigh everything with this new volume. It took a while but was quite satisfying, the VWAP was straight forward the standard deviations tricky, 3rd and 4th order moments so far beyond me. Luckily they where not part of his original work. There are algorithms for variance in the public domain but adding the volume weighted stuff was tricky and need the help of a mathematician. I'm kind of rambling a bit here but it's an interesting topic.

Hi Why, certainly no criticism meant of Taylor. The original post was quite clear in what his objectives where (a lot further than many ever get with there trading). I could not see (and still can't tbh) how Taylor wil help him a) Learn more about futures b) Learn MP or c) Run a business. Kind of like recommending a book on Obstetrics for someone wanting to learn about Cardiovascular surgery. Again no criticism of Taylor.

Take a look at spread betting. (if it is allowed where you reside).

Indeed, they are from those two Brokers.

How would this help someone wanting to learn market profile, or how to run a trading business (with all the cash flow and management issues to sort out) or the trading psychology? I am sure its a great book but will it help the guy set up and run a trading business? Incidentally if I had to pick one book it would be Reminiscences. Not read it 100 times but probably 20. Funnily enough the majority of the Market Wizards (in Shwagers book) made the same recommendation, not that I am putting myself in the same category of course

Mirus & Amp. Mirus are meant to be very good from what I have heard. Amp I believe are a 'white box' company selling OEC?

I haven't for a long time, it was recommended years ago by a trader I respected. A good 'everything you wanted to know but where scared to ask' type thing. The most important section is about money mangement, trade management, risk of ruin and all the stuff Van Tharp covers which is a corner piece of the whole trading jigsaw.

I am rying to make sure I understand this correctly. At the bottom page 1 column 2, he talks about upside and downside days (no mention of volume). A 90% day is a day when the points gained vs the points lost is 90%. So I am reading it as open to close is 90% of the days range. Does this sound correct? Then how does one get from an upside/downside day to upside/downside volume day? Multiply total volume by the % as you would with an OBV calculation? For the remaining discussion he talks about upside days (not upside volume days). The way I am reading this article, from the point of view of the analysis presented volume data is not actually required? Incidentally the candlestick boys have a similar pattern 'three white soldiers" and its companion 'three black crows'. I'm probably being dense here, but like to make sure I have clarity on the basics.

Do you know I can't remember to be honest Last I looked it was better than I could get in a 'regular' bank deposit account. Again I would imagine it is based on account size, as I too don't have that much in the account I never pay it too much attention. I have only hit margin troubles on the DAX where they used to switch to full overnight margin at 4.30 European time (even though the DAX is still open then). Good to hear that OEC give interest - more brokers should imo it might not amount to much but beer and burgers one a month is better than nothing!

Whilst I agree price action is king and complimentary to may other approaches (as a trigger for example), I would never presume to tell him how he should trade. He has already decided to go down the market profile road, at a later stage the material you mention might be useful however whilst studying MP as a beginner it is likely to add confusion rather than clarity. I do agree its all good stuff of course. btw the futures book I mentioned is called "THE FUTURES GAME. Who Wins, Who Loses & Why." It's a pretty good all round book about futures and you could dispense with van Tharp if you read it as it covers the same money management principles.

Errm actualy I am not sure I do tbh. Off the top of my head something like this should be close to working (I typed it straight into the message so may not be quite right) inputs: period(20); var: FMA(0); if barnum > period then begin FMA= FMA + Close/period; FMA= FMA - Close[period]/period; end; plot(FMA);

Well IB give pretty good interest on funds you have deposited so it's less of a big deal (do OEC just out of curiosity?). Of course they have all the real time controls in place too. I do understand why an experienced trader might want to use high leverage if their capital was working elsewhere.

<doh> Slaps head. Of course you do!! Senility is a terrible thing, worse if I haven't had coffee yet!

You could message hime an ask, he dosen't post here but is active on the ole interweb. Try ellite trader, don't stay as prolonged exposure is likely to corrupt your mind

Head2k, that looks remarkably like an implementation of Midas. Do you have the indicator? What platform is it? Something I have been trying to locate for a while.

Welcome to TL. This topic has cropped up a couple of times here before you might want to have a rummage around. There are books that are considered 'classics' (Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Douglas' stuff spring to mind) and people will offer books that cover there particular area of interest. If you have decided on MP as your main tool try not to get too distracted. I would recommend taking a look at the trade/money management side of things Van Tharp is OK ish for a grounding, I quite liked Tewles. Psychology and mindset are important (hence people recommending Douglas). Ypu might want to get a basic 'dummys guide to starting a business' type book.

In my way there is an addition and a subtraction. The other way you have to maintain a loop (which means an extra variable that you decrement and compare to zero) (you do do loops from n-1 to zero rather than from 1 to n right?). You also have to do 10 summations within the loop and a division outside the loop. The saving is vast. For a 200 period MA my way will be at the very very least 600 times quicker! Edit its not 'my' way its the....errr.....efficient way.

Good for you (getting the thread going)! I was late to it, but it became a firm favourite. Mind you it was the personalities as much as anything that made it for me!

Unless scalping of course (by your definition of scalping) In which case you might want to know the present hours trend and present hours volatility. Edit: One of the things I played with was having two sets of bands that reset every hour, one set starting on the hour one on the half hour. You use the 'mature' set to trade from. This has the advantage of having some statistical significance (the set you trade have had at least 30 minutes to form) plus having 'scalp' characteristics. A 'continuous' set might be better but never got round to programming them.

I didn't get the impression he was "mad and upset" I am not sure how you did. The figures for success, failure and scraping by, are much the same as for any other business. In that regard there is nothing 'special' about trading. I wonder if a steady stream of small retail traders are needed to provide us with counter parties? For example when a hedge fund runs its self from many billions into liquidation that provides lots of food for many us? Just a thought that occurred to me whilst typing this. Mind you I don't buy into this 'the big guys win and the small guys lose' idea. The commitment of traders report would suggest otherwise. This is the opposite side of the that particular coin and is also hyperbole. I am surprised DB nominated it when he usually takes a hard line against hyperbole and rhetoric.

If memory serves correctly (and things haven't changed) TS does not code moving averages efficiently. For example the common way to do a 10 period simple moving average is in a loop adding each of the 10 closes and then dividing by 10. The efficient way is to add 1/10th of the new close and subtract 1/10th of the close 10 bars ago. There are many examples of this sort of optimisation that will yield significant speed improvements.

'Lazy downtrend' I immediately think corrective action especially on diminishing volume. I would see the whole days action of the chart you posted range bound. Edit: that was in response to Tasuki

I would agree Head. This is further evidenced by Williams obvious interest in computerisation.

What is the study you want to speed up? The chances are that you will be able to, often significantly. Some of the inbuilt TS functions are pretty in efficient for a kick off. The big savings are if you can avoid loops and to shorten the stuff that's done on every tick.