New Trader/Web Developer

[investingphil 10]

Hi all,

 

Well I decided I would finally introduce myself. I just started actively trading about a month or so ago. I'm loving it. Even though I've already had some hard lessons, I have also had some good ones too. :-)

 

I am still trying to settle on a broker. I am only starting with about $5k and right now I have it split between Tradestation and fidelity. I love the Tradestation platform, especially the direct access trading, but disappointed you have to trade OTC by phone. As a web developer, the thought of programming my own strategies is also exciting as well.

 

I will tell you that I am shocked at the number of websites out there trying to sell traders SOMETHING. There are alot of sites selling the same stuff. As a former .com entrepreneur inntgeblate 90's, I'm hoping to start my own site at some point, but I still need to learn the industry first. I AM looking for any ideas anyone has for some service that isn't currently offered. I can make a website do just about anything and I would only pursue something like that if I thought it would really help traders like myself.

 

Well, thanks for the 'space' to introduce myself. Ill probably be lurking for awhile before I start posting. I don't want to look stupid!

 

Dave

 

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Hi all,

Well, thanks for the 'space' to introduce myself. Ill probably be lurking for awhile before I start posting. I don't want to look stupid!

 

Nice to meet you Dave and thanks for lurking! Don't ever be afraid to ask a question or two to the membership, no question is too stupid - we were all beginner traders like yourself at one point.

 

As far as the web tool question, I would say a chart pattern recognition that then aggregate articles\content\etc related to the chart. But that's easy to wish for but extremely difficult to build.

 

Glad to have you on board and best of luck with your tool (whatever it may turn out to be!)

 

On another note, how do you find Tapatalk?

 

MMS

[SIUYA 11]

Welcome -

i second mms - there are not many great scanning systems out there.

they do exist - but often in the format that is either too limiting in what you can scan for, or too expansive in terms of you cant manage enough instruments and the scans are too generalised eg; highest volume.

The issue is largely in stocks as potentially there are 10,000 of them around the world.

eg; i might wish to test a certain pattern (not the regular stuff), but only on my own large list of stocks.

Once this scan goes off, i can then quickly (and not spend hours data managing every day) nail down to a smaller sector of stocks.

my two cents

[investingphil 10]

Nice to meet you Dave and thanks for lurking! Don't ever be afraid to ask a question or two to the membership, no question is too stupid - we were all beginner traders like yourself at one point.

 

As far as the web tool question, I would say a chart pattern recognition that then aggregate articles\content\etc related to the chart. But that's easy to wish for but extremely difficult to build.

 

Glad to have you on board and best of luck with your tool (whatever it may turn out to be!)

 

On another note, how do you find Tapatalk?

 

MMS

 

Thanks! Tapatalk is in the android market.

 

So for the idea, you're saying, a user should be able to specify an certain chart pattern and the system would run that sca n automticaly for you at a time you specify and then alert you when it is ready and present the chart with any relate news items, blog content,RSS feeds, that mention the company. Does that sound about right?

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Sorry I meant do you like TL on Tapatalk? I've never tried it and we are looking at implementing the new vBulletin Mobile.

 

Back to the charts, yes imagine this scenario:

- I want to look for the X pattern on a set of stocks

- when the pattern is found on stock A

- the shows all related content about A (so I can start my research and analysis)

- it shows other historical times stock A had this pattern (so I can study what happened)

- it also shows other similiar stocks that had this pattern in the past (so I can study what happened)

 

I suppose this doesn't have to be just stocks, any tradeable instrument (futures, forex pairs, etc) would work.

 

Is this available with Metatrader? Any MT experts out there?

 

MMS

[investingphil 10]

Sorry I meant do you like TL on Tapatalk? I've never tried it and we are looking at implementing the new vBulletin Mobile.

 

Back to the charts, yes imagine this scenario:

- I want to look for the X pattern on a set of stocks

- when the pattern is found on stock A

- the shows all related content about A (so I can start my research and analysis)

- it shows other historical times stock A had this pattern (so I can study what happened)

- it also shows other similiar stocks that had this pattern in the past (so I can study what happened)

 

I suppose this doesn't have to be just stocks, any tradeable instrument (futures, forex pairs, etc) would work.

 

Is this available with Metatrader? Any MT experts out there?

 

MMS

 

Yes, I'm loving tapatalk...way better than the laggy browser. :-)

 

OK, let me try your idea. Can you give me a specific pattern to start with...something not too complex.

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Yes, I'm loving tapatalk...way better than the laggy browser. :-)

 

OK, let me try your idea. Can you give me a specific pattern to start with...something not too complex.

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

 

Glad you like tapatalk ... hopefully we will get to implementing the vBulletin mobile app after they fix all the first release bugs! For the pattern, how about something as simple as "X stock crossed the 20 day MA from below"

 

MMS

[Tradewinds 12]

As a former .com entrepreneur inntgeblate 90's, I'm hoping to start my own site at some point, but I still need to learn the industry first. I AM looking for any ideas anyone has for some service that isn't currently offered. I can make a website do just about anything and I would only pursue something like that if I thought it would really help traders like myself.

 

What's the point in helping people? Are you going to profit from it? Are you doing it for the satisfaction of helping others? Why do you want to help others? To make the world a better place? Do you think that the people you help will appreciate your help? Do you think that the people you help will "give back", and then help other people?

 

I think it's natural to want to be helpful, and share what we learn. But I also think that most well intentioned plans die very quickly. It doesn't take long to realize how much work is involved, and that very few people share your same ideas, and that you aren't going to get much cooperation or help, and that it's difficult to find a good working relationship with someone.

 

The reality is, that in order to make any endeavor successful, you must be providing something of value that people want, and there needs to be a well thought out compensation system for everyone involved in the business. The key is motivating the people who are providing the goods and/or services, and giving the customer good value.

 

I would use a web site as a means of filtering people who I would want to hire, or partner with, or to attract investors. And I would be very "Up Front" about that. I would provide something of interest and value to anyone who wanted to use the site, but I would make it clear what the reason for the site is. I think people value and appreciate honesty. Long term business and customer relations are built on trust.

[Tradewinds 12]

. . . .

i second mms - there are not many great scanning systems out there. . . . . .

The issue is largely in stocks as potentially there are 10,000 of them around the world. . . .

 

Let's say you want to scan for something that needed a months worth of data. Where would the data come from to get a months worth of data for 10,000 stocks from different exchanges all over the world? I don't know. Maybe it's easier than I think, but I'm wondering how difficult or costly that would be?

 

A scan of historical data is basically a query in a database. If a user interface could be developed that could translate simple conditions at different levels into a multi-tiered query, that would probably be unique. For example, have two sections for user input, and allow the user to link a subquery to the main query. I've seen a scan that allows the user to define the main set of data, and then have the filters work on only that main data set, but the main data set is very generic, like "All NYSE" stocks.

 

Another problem with scans is that a lot of users trying to filter massive amounts of data requires a lot of computing power on the server side. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I'm guessing.

 

I would think that a scan of price data is very different than looking up something like a customers address in a database. There could be hundreds or thousands of price bars depending upon the aggregation period. If a business is looking up a customers payment history in a database, the computer finds a match for a phone number, or an account number, then retrieves the data. With a scan of price data, you could be applying a moving average that first needs to make many, many calculations. I would think it's a different level of computing power. But I don't know.

[SIUYA 11]

as i am not a developer, I dont know exactly how these would work, but I would imagine that first yes you have to have the data. It is available...Esignal is a data provider that comes to mind.

then you would need to be able to first filter out the instruments into sub sectors first....then ideally you would run the scan over less instruments.... Bloomberg has a sorting process like this.

Or alternatively you might have to run a long and slow scan initially to be able to work out your subsectors then build from there.

You could theoretically do this in excel - but doing it over many many instruments is not what excel is built for.

[Tradewinds 12]

I'm wondering if it might be better if the user had all the data right on their computer. Then the website filtered the data, but it accessed the data from the users computer. That could be problematic I guess. The user would need to be constantly downloading data, and have enough room to store it. It would be interesting to test how that worked though. That would avoid the problem of having the server on the website do all the filtering work. I don't know if it would be easier to provide downloading of data or filtering of data. I have no idea.

 

I'm thinking there would need to be a free and a premium service. The people who make money trading would gladly pay a fee that improved their profitability.