Splint

Thanks, That was very helpful. I couldn't seem to get it to work with the exponential ma (didn't recognize the function) but I used the adaptive ma as shown and it seems to work. From what I understand the ama is a built-in function but the ema is not? I'd prefer to use an ema or even an sma. I assume there is a way of doing that? Inputs: Price( Close ), EffRatioLength( 100 ), FastAvgLength( 15 ), SlowAvgLength(30); Variables: Gradient(0), AMA(0); AMA=AdaptiveMovAvg(Price,EffRatioLength,FastAvgLength,SlowAvgLength); Gradient=(AMA-AMA[1])/2; Plot1(Gradient); Print(Gradient); Thanks

I'm trying to code an EMA gradient indicator but it wont compile. Multicharts doesn't like the semicolon at the end of line 7 but I think that it should be there. Also, I don't know how to plot the gradient in a subgraph. Is this the correct way to do it? Inputs:Price( Close ), Length( 100 ), Displace( 0 ) ; Variables: Gradient(0); Gradient=((MovAvgExponential(Price,Length,Displace)-(MovAvgExponential(Price,Length,Displace)[1])/2; Plot1(Gradient); Print(Gradient); End; Thanks Splint

Bomber1, Watch this video for an introduction to creating a system using easy language. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmMoQsd_ZgI]MultiCharts EasyLanguage Strategy How-to - YouTube[/ame] Also, look at the source code of the trading systems which come with Multicharts and also any source code you can find on the web. Search for the book Tams mentioned and try and learn how to make your own systems. Asking for peoples help is ok to get started but you must eventually learn for yourself so you are not too reliant on others. There is a lot of information freely available on the web, but you must search for it. Good luck.

People can be categorized into one of two groups, those who understand or are in the learning phase of trading and those who are not. It amazes me how many people cannot understand the concept of getting out of a loosing position at a small loss to try and get your cash into a gaining position, the standard response is "Can't you just hold on until it gets back to break even?". The next stumbling block is convincing people that you can be loosing money when the market is rising and making a profit when the market is falling, people just tend to nod and smile when I try and explain that one. Although I tend to be fairly reserved and elusive in telling people if I'm making or loosing money at any given point, they seem to have trouble grasping the concept of draw downs being statistically inevitable, and that I'm not going too well if I'm not constantly turning a profit. People also don't understand that trading results of less than say, a two year period are not overly representative of the systems performance or traders ability as even the best systems can have bad years. I think that to understand trading, you actually have to open an account and actually do some trading, and when discussing trading win non-traders you just need to keep that in mind and give appropriate responses to questions. In the near future I'll be making my first attempt at creating a trading system. Currently using some commercially available systems through a system assist broker and also using a system running in Multicharts with IB. Welcome to the forum marktheshark. Cheers Splint

4EverMaAT, thanks for the info on the VPNs, I shall investigate further. i-tom, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a professional trader, but your comments regarding forex and options has sparked my interest. I know that there is an exceedingly high failure rate of commodities traders in their first year of trading. I've heard the attrition rate of newbies runs at around 80 to 90% in commodities. Is forex and options higher again? Is it the level of leverage/under capitalization which causes traders to fail in forex? What about the options, is it the decay factor which kills off the profits? Just curious to hear the thoughts of someone who really knows the score. There is a huge amount of forex marketing, often promising "too good to be true" results. Very little hard facts and reality.

After 15 years of discretionary stock trading, time constraints have forced me down the automated trading path. I now exclusively trade commodities. So far this has proven to be a good move. My time requirements to trade are now quiet insignificant, I just check my iphone (remotely viewing and controlling my computer located at my home) whenever I feel like it to make sure everything is doing what it is supposed to be doing, which it almost always is. I could trade and travel, but the biggest issue for me is if my computer at home crashes or does something which I can't resolve remotely. I could possibly switch over to my laptop and work from that, but that is not an ideal situation either. I am trying to find out more about cloud computing. If I could run windows on a cloud server, I should at least be able to call someone to help me sort out any issues which I cant sort myself. The concept of being a perpetual tourist, not staying in any country long enough to incur an income tax obligation is in some what appealing, not sure if I would really actually do that though. Automated trading is something which lends itself very well to such a lyfestyle.

A very useful resource is Welcome To Futures Truth Magazine also well worth a look is Striker - System Performance Ranking as is Trade Center Systems Also see the top ten table at The ATS-3200: Best Commodity Futures Trading System for T-Bonds Futures. quiet interesting and a good starting point for further investigation.

Hello fellow traders, I'm just setting up Tradestation 9 using 3rd party data. When I get to the part of formatting the symbol there is an option for price scale. If I understand correctly, 1/100 should be used if the tick size is 1 cent. I'm a little unsure about what to do with the CRB Index which according to some info my data provider gave me the tick size is 0.05, because the options are 1/10 and 1/100. Ideally I would use 1/20 but there is no option for that. Should I just set it at 1/100? Thanks Splint