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It's tough to "prove" or "disprove" a system in such a short time. I'm not saying it shouldn't be tweaked, but if you are constantly fiddling with it, how will you ever know? Maybe the concept is valid but the parameters need to be pegged to current market conditions (ATR multiple instead of...

Since you know that the buy and hold method doesn't work on this product, I would venture that a reasonable benchmark might just be buy and hold on the SP500 index over that time frame since it is highly efficient and has lots of available historical data. Assuming you can exceed the returns...

Assume you purchased the entity in question at the open on the initial date of your system test and sold at the close of the last day. Since no dividends are involved it's pretty straight-forward. Apply the same metrics that you use to evaluate your system (volatility, MFE/MAE, max draw-down...

I think it does when you consider how Forex is typically marketed: 1) Leverage is huge. 2) Account minimums are ridiculously low. 3) Availability of a platform which caters to auto-trading (Metatrader). Think of your typically stock brokerages (Fidelity, etc). Those aren't really set up...

I would seriously, seriously re-consider this approach for many reasons: 1) They have "ZERO" skin in the game when trading your account. This method basically just gives them an option on your account. Heads, they win and get some money. Tails, they lose nothing. Win-Win (for them). 2) Many...

I'm assuming that you have this IRA through Vanguard itself rather than self-directed at a brokerage? You may want to see how their ETF compare to the mutual funds. For example, the one you show lists an expense ratio of 0.27%, but if you examine the top 10 holdings, it's basically the big...

Excellent advice, especially on the mutual funds. For dividend stocks, I suggest you use Dividata.com as an easy way to research dividend paying stocks (nice free site). This will uncover a lot of companies that typically fly under your radar which have been paying and increasing dividends for...

You may also want to check out Trade-Log for help in generation of your tax returns.

There are a bunch of ETF at TDA that trade commission free, so you can be 1 share at a time.

I'm not sure what strike I would have used. Long a 560 or long a 600 would each have given about a 100% return, but obviously the capital outlay was different...just depends on what size of move you expect, how much you have, and how much you want to risk. At this point, I would almost...

This is arm-chair quarterbacking on my part, but aren't both of you giving up a lot of upside potential when you play the spread vs. the straight call in an earnings play? For example, on the 560/600 vertical, for an additional risk of about $300 (downside buffer of about 20% on your long...

I assume you mean off-planet?

Since you've been trading futures, why not stick with index ETF, and more specifically, the leveraged (and inverse leveraged) SSO, SDS, TZA, etc? They have high volume, give you leverage, and most importantly, you can start small and develop your strategy and scale up without a problem. Also...

What is a pozzie scam?

Come on guys, we're almost to 10 pages! You can do it, you've just got to want it! [EDIT: Woo-hoo, Pushed over the edge!]

Also, if open source is more your thing, you may want to check out TradeLink (I'm surprised he hasn't chimed in yet). It looks fairly flexible and might be easier for your programmer to get you exactly what you want rather than trying to extend Ninja for some feature it doesn't currently have...

IB won't accept my order because it is saying my stop/limt is more than 3% away from the current price. I'm assuming this is IB and not an exchange thing (SMART routing), but I'm using WebTrader at work (I normally use TWS at home) and don't see anywhere to set this parameter. A little help...

A few observations: 1) I would start first with C# and see if you can get what you need with NinjaTrader. It's free until you trade live, and if you want to trade on your IB paper account, it's still pretty cheap. 2) I think you may be underestimating the complexity of having a programmer...

I'm sure the tech boom of the late 90's capped a few wallets before it popped, but I'm guessing that you are talking about more unexpected events over a short time period. Here's a list of all large up/down days...not too many in recent years outside of one in 1987...

What source are you quoting to make this estimate?