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If you would like to end up with a small fortune from trading, start out with a large one. :sneaky:

You're correct about the size limit. I like Access for the rapid development.

I have a Microsoft Access database with 4+ million quotes. It's very easy to use and its inexpensive, especially compared to SQL Server.

Agree. "As I explain in Modeling Trading System Performance, the sweet spot for a trading system has these characteristics: - Trading frequently. 20 to 30 times per year. - Holding a short period. 1 to 3 days. - Winning a high percentage of trades. At least 65%. - Limiting the size of losses...

Make sure you do out-of-sample testing.

IMHO, the shorter the timeframe, the harder it is to be profitable. I believe there are more successful swing traders than daytraders. Trends need time to develop. I'm not saying that are not successful daytraders, just that I think it's more difficult.

Losing money is always hard and doubly hard when you start worrying about whether the loss is normal or the automated system is broken.

I agree and cope with this through back-testing which gives a history of losing trades and drawdown periods. For example, if I have a 20 year backtest history and never had more than 3 consecutive losing trades and now I have 4 or 5 consecutive losing trades, this would be a cause for concern...

I'd have concerns with one or both systems if 100% of the historical data was used to optimize the input parameters and no historical data was set aside for out of sample testing.

Selling naked puts (without the protective leg) can lead to catastrophic losses. But you're right that a decent spread width is needed to make it worthwhile. 10 points doesn't do it, in my experience. Call options just don't have the "juice" that put options do. And that's related to the...

I trade every week, dip or no dip. I've traded ICs in the past. After trading them and backtesting ICs vs. put credit spreads, I found that the call component of the IC was not worthwhile. Maybe other traders have a different view/opinion.

I think I agree with ElOchoCinco. I used to do ICs but found the call side didn't pay much, especially considering the risk. So now I trade put credit spreads. I do them week in and week out and it does work (for me) over the long haul. But, your mileage may vary ...

I do index option trading with price targets and "stops" sort of. My profit price targets are hard contingent orders. My max loss stops started out as hard, but wacky things happen with option prices around news and calendar events causing stops to get hit in an unfavorable way. Now I use...

You need to decide on what your entry and exit rules (or tentative) rules are for your IC trading and then backtest them with historical data, either with a backtesting product like Optionvue or www.optionstack.com or with software from your broker if they supply it. A bare minimum of 30 trades...

This system does look like it has potential. The code appears to be in Amibroker. But, if you've optimized over all the data, then these trades are in-sample and the result is curve fitted. Not trying to be critical, just saying ... Brooks

I would check out www.optionstack.com/learn/. It has an excellent interface. There is a free trial with a limited amount of data, but enough to decide if you like the product/service. Brooks

This does seem like a good system. One poster wrote that the trades may have been in a fortunate sequence. If you can export the trades into a CSV format file, you could import them into a product like Market System Analyzer (MSA) and perform Monte Carlo analysis and see if re-ordering the...

The section 1256 has 2 tax advantages: taxed paid and ease of reporting. A large portion of your SPX short term gains are taxed as long term. And, at tax you do not have to report every transaction. Your broker will give you one YTD P/L amount that you plug into your return. This is because...

You're welcome. If you want to look into it more, Adaptrade does a free, 30 day, full functional trial of their products. I can relate to your backtesting work. I trade options and couldn't find a product that would backtest options the way I needed and wrote my own options backtester.

Along these lines, you might want to look at the Adaptrade Builder (http://www.adaptrade.com/Builder/index.htm) It's under $1000 and the latest version has features to "periodically build new trading strategies to replace the existing ones". I have no financial relationship with the company, am...