Recent content by damonjanis

There is no extra charge for using bracket orders. My only gripe with them is they don't yet support a bracket order based on a stop-limit order, only stop orders.

You have to be careful doing this. When the order changes from a limit to a stop, the outside stop and limit orders become active. If the market hits one of the outside orders before hitting the 'trigger' order, the outside order will be filled, and the other outside order cancelled, with the...

If: - you can page your cell phone by sending an email (Sprint, for example) and - your charting program/quotes program can send emails for alerts then - around the market close (4:00 PM Eastern), set an alert to trigger on your trade entry point, and keep your cell phone near...

Tradestation doesn't yet support automatic trading with futures (they will in version 7), so their estimates don't really apply in this context, since it only includes equities. Also, there are so many ways to approach mechanical trading that broad numbers are meaningless. I think to be...

My max drawdown was $2,884. It was less than the backtested max drawdown of around $4,500.

I'm using a 100% automated and mechanical system on ES and NQ. On an initial account balance starting last July of $10,000, and a closing balance Dec 31 of $11,729.94, I had $175.90 difference between actual results and backtesting results. I'm happy with that. This system is a swing trading...

Brazil is a great country. I'm an American, but lived there for 2 years in several different places (Sete Lagoas, Manaus, Belem). You will not find a friendlier people anywhere.

I agree with you on the filters. You do have to be careful, though, as a filter that elimates catching the few bigs profitable trades will cause the system to lose. This rough system is profitable, but it does have big drawdowns. As others have mentioned, a trader really needs to stick with...

I use TradeStation for backtesting and charts/quotes. They don't support automated trading with futures yet, so I write my own systems in C# and use Interactive Brokers to automate. I've used RealTick in the past. TradeStation is all I use now for charts/quotes.

The attached spreadsheet was generated from TradeStation. It goes back to 2/12/2001. I've backtested the 40/10 ma xover to 1997 and it has been profitable over the entire range. (Be sure to look at the tabbed pages in the spreadsheet to get more details.) I had to remove some of the data (like...

For an MA xover system, you really have to stick with it. You have to take every trade, since these types of systems (without filters) get about 30-35% profitability. So you can't miss a good one or it really sets you back. And it's those few really large profitable 'homerun' trades that make it...

I neglected to mention that the 10/40 MA crossover is on a 5 minute chart. It won't wipe out your account (via drawdown) if you have about $15,000 per contract on the ES.

aphexcoil, It's always in the market. Each time the 10 period crosses the 40 period, reverse the current position from long to short or short to long.

bungrider, Exactly what I was trying to say, but much more concise. Thanks.

My experience is that simpler is better. For every complex system I've seen, I can achieve equal or better results with simple systems that are more robust over time and varying conditions. Even complex systems fall into basic trend, momentum, and support/resisitence categories. Take a...