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Yeah, my post was directed at STOCKBROKER, not you. :) I just chuckled a little when STOCKBROKER said he had a bad day but ended up winners, only because I know the feeling all to well myself. I used to play poker for a living and then realized the same discipline and techniques apply to...

Your rules look well thought out. The important think as we all know is to have a plan that works for you and stick to it. Optimal F is the quickest way mathematically to increase your account balance by betting an "optimal fixed fraction" of your account equity on each trade. This is an...

Silk, what kind of commissions would you pay if you were doing ~20k shares per day?

Maybe if you lost $1000 to start the day, then made a roaring comeback to close up $200 you'd think it was the best day ever! Kinda like going to Vegas. If you're up $5k and end the trip with only $1k you feel terrible. But if you down $5k and end the trip winning $1k you feel like a champion!

The geeks shall inherit the earth I'm telling you! First it was Bill Gates with software, then it was dotcom kids who cashed out while the cashing was good. But soon it will be the master traders of the world, hopefully a geek like me. :D Heck, according to my backtesting, with...

Keep in mind that optimal f is an extremely aggressive strategy that is a product more of academia than it is of real-life trading. The drawdowns will either kill you or require margin calls if you are leveraged. Still, there are traders who use (optimal f / X) where X is their comfort...

Yup, exactly. That's why I recommend that for various different stop sizes (based on % volatility) you need to run separate simulations to determine what the % loss will be for that specific stop loss amount. The % wins and risk factors on a very wide stop are very different than the % wins...

If you are talking about a very complex analysis, such as "discretionary trading," then you are correct. However, if you are saying that automated trading is not possible that is not correct. If you wanted to trade a simple crossover system, a turtle 20-bar channel breakout, an aberration...

Sure have, I only trade mechanical systems, no discretion involved. I actually use two systems to trade the eminis. I have a longer term system that buys on stops on 60m bars. Then I have a short-term system that I use on 3m bars. It enters on limit and takes profit target at limit. It uses...

Privateer, I think producers enjoy a huge advantage in that they have fixed costs to produce the product and also have a much larger bankroll to withstand minor swings in the commodities. Life is always good for producers with skyrocketting prices, even if you don't sell anywhere close to...

It would be an interesting experiment to gather a bunch of newbie traders and let them trade in real-time. For every trade that they make you take the opposite trade, so if they do worse than 50/50 and lose more than they win, you win by doing the exact opposite. Of course as these traders...

If the acquiring company paid cash, then your calls would have a new expiration date effective the same ex date as the shares (unless they expired earlier, of course). This means if you have long-term options that expire later than the ex date you're screwed the time premium you paid. If you...

This sounds very discretionary to me, but that also seems to be your (successful) method of trading. If this is such the case, and you utilize information that cannot be programmed into a system, such as the feel of the squawk box, how your brain interprets many related variables (general...

Don, you keep mentioning that stops are foolish (I realize you are using mental stops), however, unless you are trading in lower vol underlyings or do enough size to stand out, placing a stop order vs. using a mental one (assuming you could instantaneously execute) will yield the same or better...

Yes. To be accurate I would change "making money" to "successful way of trading" which would involve all of the above. "TA" is a very general umbrella. But even those traders with the best systems may find that that system/approach no longer work as the markets change. Also, those traders...

Discipline & risk management are the most important, but you still need a solid methodology. Everything you read touts discipline & risk management. I think any newbie will think that if that's all he needs, no problem. But the thing that so many of these books do not go into detail on is a...

I don't know, but I upgraded to the $10 emini option last night and now I'm real-time again. It's only $10 and I didn't want to be caught off guard whenever the free quotes expired.

cool thanks. my qcharts says {Delay10} on all my ES and NQ charts, and my qfeed has the same delay. Maybe something's screwy with my account.

If you vary your position size based on your stop (i.e. the same dollar risk per trade if you get stopped out), I can see what you're getting at, but you are assuming that your model accurately predicts % profit based on your variable stop. E.g. if you are using the lowest-low of the past 10...

Is anyone else getting only 10min delayed quotes using qfeed? I'm a QCharts basic subscriber- am hoping not to pay the additional $60 CME fee but don't know how long the free ES/NQ will last.