Search found 35 matches

by Dean Hoffman
Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:25 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: Margin To Equity Ratio - useful or not!???
Replies: 29
Views: 30067

Sluggo, this is my point precisely. I agree that Sharpe is not a measure of risk itself however it is what is provided to us by CTA’s to make a decision about them. What measures of risk does the typical Barclays CTA report actually provide us with? Once again I argue that drawdowns and standard d...
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:49 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: Margin To Equity Ratio - useful or not!???
Replies: 29
Views: 30067

Yes LeapFrog, my point is more directed towards evaluating CTA’s. Indeed I have all sorts of additional measuring tools available to me in my own systems trading than I do if I’m selecting a CTA. And by no means did I ever imply that MTE was the ONLY tool one would use. To me it’s just a “qu...
by Dean Hoffman
Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:02 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: Margin To Equity Ratio - useful or not!???
Replies: 29
Views: 30067

Where the margin to equity ratio is particularly useful is when evaluating CTA’s. The reason for this is because most CTA’s don’t report their portfolio heat; however they do report their MTE ratios. I know in my own trading my portfolio heat and margin-to-equity ratio come pretty close to bei...
by Dean Hoffman
Sun Jul 06, 2008 1:40 pm
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: Most liquid futures contracts
Replies: 5
Views: 9494

Chelonia

If you sign up for CSI data you get access to their data table which gives you the “Average Total Volume (1 year)â€
by Dean Hoffman
Wed May 07, 2008 8:52 pm
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: How to SPEED UP simulations by 2 to 50 times (or more)!
Replies: 12
Views: 10009

The guys over at Tick Quest (Neo-Ticker) are already offering it. I hope this trend continues. As you can see, Neo-Ticker has made this a profit model for their firm. http://www.tickquest.com/go_firsttimebuy.html Any other developer ought to see this as a potential way to increase sales and business...
by Dean Hoffman
Wed May 07, 2008 7:15 pm
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: How to SPEED UP simulations by 2 to 50 times (or more)!
Replies: 12
Views: 10009

How to SPEED UP simulations by 2 to 50 times (or more)!

For many years high end fund managers have been using computing grids to link up computers for parallel processing and supercomputer type performance. It now seems as though this is available to the average Windows user with a few computers (or more) and this very interesting product. www.digipede.c...
by Dean Hoffman
Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:39 pm
Forum: Testing Software
Topic: Logical Information Machines
Replies: 2
Views: 12997

Logical Information Machines

Has anyone here ever used the “Logical Information Machinesâ€
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:11 am
Forum: Money Management
Topic: Dynamic Portfolio Selection
Replies: 28
Views: 39163

Sluggo, That’s not really it. The way I am doing things is quite a bit more involved than that (not that complicated is better!). However, thanks for taking the time to read it and comment. My goal was simply to stimulate thinking on the subject and it seems as though it did that. I know personall...
by Dean Hoffman
Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:30 pm
Forum: Money Management
Topic: Dynamic Portfolio Selection
Replies: 28
Views: 39163

I wrote an article that talks about the concept (as I use it) in a bit more detail here:

http://www.traderstech.net/The%20Small% ... undrum.pdf

Regards,
Dean Hoffman
by Dean Hoffman
Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:06 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

Leapfrog, These are precisely the kinds of scenarios that MC simulations do a great job with. Assume that on average your daily percentage fluctuations are plus or minus .75%. Lets then assume you were in OJ the wrong way today and this caused you to have a -3% day. What the Monte Carlo will do is r...
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:15 pm
Forum: Futures Markets
Topic: Coffee table discussion -what contracts is everyone holding?
Replies: 44
Views: 40262

Coming into today

Long KC Wheat
Long MW Wheat

Short Cotton

Long Euro Stox 50 Index
Long IBEX 35 mini Index
Long Hang Seng mini Index

Still holding all on the close but all stops pretty tight.
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:00 pm
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

I can’t help but being left with a lingering feeling about this whole discussion. Trading futures is not a place to try and figure out how to have certainty. It is where RISK TAKERS exchange UNCERTAINTY and potential losses for the chance of a profit. If you’re not walking into this knowing full...
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:49 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

Bari, No question scenarios like those happen all the time. I have probably run tens of thousands of hours of analysis over that very data and I would assume any serious traders here have done the same thing. In my case what I need are specific tools . At this point in my trading having the obvious ...
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:23 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

FYI In an effort to keep this topic on subject I have removed the brief segment of my presentation that discussed an aggressive leveraging strategy. If you still want to see it in its entirety feel free to email me. Otherwise the new presentation (the old one with about a minute edited out) link is ...
by Dean Hoffman
Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:37 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

Forum Mgmnt, We are not in disagreement. I did not say, "This is the way to determine account size"." What I said was (paraphrasing) "If you're aggressive and you're looking for a strategy to maximize returns by using a tool to attempt to measure a maximum drawdown then here is a...
by Dean Hoffman
Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:44 pm
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

Tushar S. Chande has also created a formula that attempts to predict maximum future drawdowns (1). It is primarily derived from average daily volatility. Personally I think the formula is too conservative, however, I think the real value here is the understanding of how critical daily volatility is ...
by Dean Hoffman
Sun Oct 08, 2006 4:58 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

Forum Mgmnt, Quick couple comments.. I will agree that the idea at the end of my presentation about determining a possible account size was very aggressive. Furthermore, I made that rather clear . However, I think it is you who has crossed the line to the absurd to compare a thought out statisticall...
by Dean Hoffman
Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:14 am
Forum: Testing and Simulation
Topic: When To Stop Trading
Replies: 43
Views: 44424

I recently created a presentation that touches on this issue of when to stop trading, and how to try and predict maximum future drawdown. (The first part of the preseation talks about a typical investor blunder) You can open it here: http://www.traderstech.net/Flash50/Flash50.html (this is a big fil...
by Dean Hoffman
Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:00 pm
Forum: Futures Markets
Topic: Orange Juice Liquidity
Replies: 10
Views: 9180

Orange Juice Liquidity

I’ve been passively watching the bull market in Orange Juice for some time. Unfortunately, the liquidity of that market is notoriously bad (which is why I’ve only watched vs. traded it). I’m just curious if anybody has actually been trading the OJ move and can share what kind of slippage they ...
by Dean Hoffman
Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:46 pm
Forum: Brokers
Topic: Costly Robobroker Errors
Replies: 21
Views: 28157

Keep in mind that when using CSI data you can send your broker your file called portfile.adm This file is located in c:\ua\archives and when imported by your broker will exactly replicate your CSI environment on his computer. This eliminates symbol and or roll over differences etc. Sharing this file...