Traders' Roundtable

Hi oem,

It's hard to say, but this link is probably correct: https://www.google.com/search?q=nasdaq+100&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I would take the yahoo value over the other one, which did not work well here.

If you really want to trade the ND I would suggest that you buy data - http://www.pinnacledata ...

Hello OEM my friend,

You have found an indisputable truth of trading, as many of us have, and it is this: it is easy to be right but it is hard to sit tight (with apologies to Larry Livermore, whose quote I think this is). I think that I speak for many of my trading brothers and sisters when I say ...

This probably won't help but let me say it anyway: I have been using Pinnacle Data since the turn of the century (damn, now I really feel old...) and I have never once had a data issue. Not one. In that time I have seen a lot of posts about CSI data problems. Data reliability has to be one of the ...

Just because I am paranoid doesn't mean that they are not out to get me.....

Ah, so current margin only. Thank you for that.

I report margin requirements as part of my daily order sheet, but the thought did occur that it would be interesting to chart the relation of margin requirements to open equity over time as a means of selecting a suitable percentage buffer to keep in ...

Thanks Arthur, much appreciated. One final question if I may: is the Margin variable linked to the historical data series in any way? I.E. is the Margin value from, say, 10 years back the actual Margin at that date, or is the reported value just the current Margin value? TIA.

Good Morning Arthur!

I'm back and your post and associated video reminded me of your excellent product, about which I will email you shortly. In the meantime I do have a question:

In the video I see the option to add a Margin field to the data stream (I assume that this can be output to .csv flat ...

Hello Arthur. I am interested in the product and I have just downloaded the 14 day demo. At this point I have a few questions regarding the rollover options, specifically: for BP I want to roll on the 8th day of the delivery month and I want to do a ratio adjust rather than just a plain back adjust ...

H Mark. Nothing to date from PFG, the wholesale transfer of all PFG accounts to Vision Financial happened over a month ago and I still can't get any response from anyone at Vision, although to be fair I am sure they are very busy. A friend received his Vision statement a month ago but I have seen ...

Glad to hear that you are getting something back. I wish there was a PFG version of James Koutoulas! I don't think that anybody is leading anything there. Wassendorf seems to have assets stashed offshore but he is not being particularly helpful to the liquidator about them, guess he is planning ...

Hi Chuck. Well put! If my understanding is correct, MFG customers now have something like 90+% of their money back, while PFG customers are not likely to ever get more than ~50% back. I can't speak for the MFG case, but with the PFG case the NFA and CFTC were asleep at the wheel for 20 years and yet ...

Hey Cymond. Agree, the markets have changed but what has changed more is the notion of trust - used to be that you could trust your broker and their FCM, in fact the whole business was essentially founded on trust. Corzine and Wassendorf have done all they can to destroy that concept. I guess that ...

I am beginning to see how much luck/timing also plays a part in all this!
Agree totally, the starting point seems to me to be all about luck. I figured that after 3 years and 30+ trades had passed I might have had at least the basis to consider using statistical measures of performance from there ...

Hey Mark, sorry to hear your story but thanks for telling it, it is instructive as have been the many great responses and Chuck has described the overall situation very eloquently, thanks gentlemen.

My story is slightly different: I started trading my current portfolio in August 2010 (after my ...

Pinnacle have adjusted data back to 1969 in some cases (beans, wheat). Good company, good data: http://www.pinnacledata.com/clc.html#includes

For the purposes of comparison with the Knight letter, here is the PFG client letter of last year, just after MFG tanked:

November 18, 2011

To our valued PFGBEST customers, affiliates, and partners:

Many futures and forex clients who had their accounts at MF Global have asked for PFGBEST ...

Anyone using this? http://www.fssdev.com/ - it looks like it does what System Guardian used to do.

My $0.02 worth: the use or otherwise of chemical aids-to-trading would seem to relate very directly to the personality type or physiological makeup of the individual, and would seem (assuming that a choice to take anything has been made) to further fall into one of two areas: drugs that are taken to ...

...and never ever forget #7.

8) watch the news or read any newspaper (comics are OK).
9) think too much.
10) give or take tips.

Agree with all others, particularly #7.