Traders' Roundtable

damian wrote: Franks comment is one that has been on my mind of late and has been the cause of me doing dome double rethinks about my true motivations

Hmm, after Gordon's post I will be doing some quadruple rethinks just to make sure. Gordon, thanks for the great post.

These are good responses. I certainly do not think that one means needs to defended over the other. Just like water finding its own level, I think that a serious mature trader will find their own speculative means, and for the right reasons. Once that state has been researched I do not think there i...

What makes a trader take a mechanical route rather than discretionary? It appeas that there are traders in both camps that make money. If both work, why use one over the other? I recently read Alaxander Elder's Come Into My Trading Room A system trader develops a mechanical set of rules for entering...

Hi Forum Mgmnt, Regarding the 12 month re-assessment of rules and parameters: I do not mean to sound possibly impertinent, but is the above what you would ideally aim to do, or what you have actually done over the years? To me it seems like a rational approach and am interested if it has also proven...

thanks john.

this goes to show that I should read that stuff they send me in the mail rather than complaining on an internet forum

All of this is said assuming that your rules are valid and riobust in the first place: My dad (one of the people who's money I trade) is in constant agony trying to get me to change my system rules. I can understand why the system characteristics cause him so much discomfort... but I will not be cha...

The CSI back adjusting options annoy me. If you stipulate roll on OI, it will do so... and then jump between contracts depending on OI. Say you roll from June03 to Dec03 on OI and then come August the Oct03 contract is trading at higher OI. In this case the continous contract will stop using Dec03 d...

I also found that any value in KAMA came from using it in a different manner than a normal MA. Infact, many traditional MA applications of KAMA gave more whipsaw trades due to its 'in the middle of the data' quality during some sideways periods.

Ken, I had a think about it and I came to the conclusion that that these books are not actually self help in the sense that I and perhaps yourself would mean it. What the book does is quite simple: it plonks you into a likely personality type based on answers to questions. It then explains that pers...

Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types (Keirsey,Bates). A while ago someone mentioned the above book. I bought it and found excellent worth within. My partner also has valued it greatly and we have both held long discussions about our findings. More than confirming what I felt, it als...

Good stuff Jake. I finished a system design phase the other day. It had a MAR of 3.6, win % of 48%, profit factor of 2.9. At least these were the results when I tested on a portfolio with no dynamic position sizing, just position sizing wrt each individual markets returns. I do this to get a feel fo...

5. You can't trade every commodity as Eck already mentioned. Good info there, thanks guys. as for market access... huh? Silly me just assumed that they would certainly cover everything that my current (small) broker covers.... not so it appears. In fact, in terms of the old fashioned markets, my br...

Hi, does anyone care to share an opinion with me? I am shopping for a new broker. My needs are pretty basic, end of day trading only. I was attracted to them by the ability to trade options on shares from the same account that I trade futures. Feel free to email if you: a) do not want to sound like ...

Jason Czech wrote:....get a bank loan or a bunch of credit cards & use that for your trading money ........ it could ruin your life if things go badly

Indeed.

Here is what I am researching. So far I have only been able to work with single file tests: If month end equity is below 2 month ECMA then close the position if it is a loser. If the trade is a winner, keep it open. This month is now flagged. If the trade is closed naturally by the trailing stop the...

Hi Jim, (I am not an FX expert) You can just use $equity converted (not literally, just on paper) to the terms currency of the currency pair that you are trading. In this case you take your USD $equity and find the JPY equivalent then use that in your position sizing formula. You would then have you...

I don't think that this site is really geared towards "mundane" decision making processes. My instinct leads me to believe, that this site is dedicated to scientific and rigorous, testing and decision making, processes. No offence intended. Yeah mark, it is about time you started research...

Hi Vince, I asked: >>why.......did trend followers add EUR FX Because their systems have positive expectation. I am not at all having a go at you (big smile to prove it: :D) but I think you may have missed my point. Their systems may well have had a positive expectation, but they didn't know if it w...

Hi Vince, thanks for you response. Point noted on expectation, but give me any system and I will find a market on which it does not have a positive expectation. Besides, I measure expectation on a system like this over a portfolio rather than instrument. Essentially, I trade one 'market' that is mad...

I have added gold to my long term trend portfolio. New money to the account now permits one or two extra commodities. On my system, gold's performance is not fantastic, but the last year or so has produced better trades than some of the markets which I have actually been trading. Backtest metrics ar...