Hi there howâs it going everybody...
My name is Sam and I am a long time listener , first time caller!
Perhaps it is best if I begin by introducing myself. While my profile may show 0 posts "noob", I have been lurking and reading hundreds of interesting (and sometimes inspirational posts) on ET for the past two and a half years. I have never made a post as I have never deemed myself successful enough to have an opinion - but have recently found myself quite depressed as a result of what appears to be a failed project and have decided to come forth and ask for some help or advice. I would like to genuinely thank all of those contributing members that have made this such a successful and engaging community. I know I have learnt an incredible amount from it, and would like to think that one day I will be able to give something back.
I have been involved in trading stocks for about 4 years now, albeit rather infrequently. I have had success scalping the Nasdaq by tape reading - however that is unsustainable as I live in New Zealand and have to get up in the middle of the night to trade the US market. The NZ and AUS market are not suitable to trade in this manner.
I am currently employed as a Software Engineer (contractor) and an Emergency Services Worker ( fulltime) and that is why an automated system really appealed to me. I could put my skills to good use as well as being able to trade a market that was open in the middle of the night). As a result I have spent many months writing an automated trading system. The system currently lets me back/forward test a variety of strategies as well as placing and managing orders e.t.c (that is all old hat suck-eggs stuff for you guys so I wont go into it in detail other than to say it is written in Delphi and uses TWS API).
All of the strategies I have developed have been purely around price action (as that suits the way I see the world!) and usually works by trying to identify trends and run with them. Over the years I have built up a solid understanding of money management and most other fundamental aspects of trading. The problem is......
I do not seem to be able to get consistent results from any of my tested strategies........ So in essence none of my strategies work.
An example strategy that I have tested would be:
1. Find a stock that has good volume, good historical trending tendencies and that has gapped up or down the previous night
2. Start tracking the stock in 5 and 15 minute bars.
3. Look for a time when we are getting three 15 minute bars trending (i.e. all green HH,HL's).
4. Switch to 5 minute bars and wait for a two (red) bar retracement followed by a green bar closing above the previous red closing.
5. Enter the trade with say a 10cent (or proportional stop). When the trade has moved in my direction say 20c, put a trailing 5c stop in place and ride until it is closed out.
Basically after hundreds of hours of coding and several years of education I feel I have nothing and need to evaluate my position and perhaps walk away.
I feel I have kind of done my apprenticeship in terms of the hard yards, but even after a phenomenal amount of work, I really have nothing that is useful to me. The software itself is fine, it is finding a consistent strategy that is the trick (as you all know!).
So why am I here emailing in this forum now?
Well firstly, I am not after a hand out, a holy grail or to take something that others have worked so hard for.
I guess I would just like to appeal some advice from anyone who may have been in a similar position or be able to relate to what I am talking about?
It seems a real shame (eats me up actually) to throw away a dream I have work sooo hard to achieve, but hey sometimes things just donât work out no matter how hard you work at them huh. Maybe its just time. Anyways, thatâs my problem (not yours!).
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rambling. Any advice, feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Sam
(KiwiAutoTrader)
My name is Sam and I am a long time listener , first time caller!
Perhaps it is best if I begin by introducing myself. While my profile may show 0 posts "noob", I have been lurking and reading hundreds of interesting (and sometimes inspirational posts) on ET for the past two and a half years. I have never made a post as I have never deemed myself successful enough to have an opinion - but have recently found myself quite depressed as a result of what appears to be a failed project and have decided to come forth and ask for some help or advice. I would like to genuinely thank all of those contributing members that have made this such a successful and engaging community. I know I have learnt an incredible amount from it, and would like to think that one day I will be able to give something back.
I have been involved in trading stocks for about 4 years now, albeit rather infrequently. I have had success scalping the Nasdaq by tape reading - however that is unsustainable as I live in New Zealand and have to get up in the middle of the night to trade the US market. The NZ and AUS market are not suitable to trade in this manner.
I am currently employed as a Software Engineer (contractor) and an Emergency Services Worker ( fulltime) and that is why an automated system really appealed to me. I could put my skills to good use as well as being able to trade a market that was open in the middle of the night). As a result I have spent many months writing an automated trading system. The system currently lets me back/forward test a variety of strategies as well as placing and managing orders e.t.c (that is all old hat suck-eggs stuff for you guys so I wont go into it in detail other than to say it is written in Delphi and uses TWS API).
All of the strategies I have developed have been purely around price action (as that suits the way I see the world!) and usually works by trying to identify trends and run with them. Over the years I have built up a solid understanding of money management and most other fundamental aspects of trading. The problem is......
I do not seem to be able to get consistent results from any of my tested strategies........ So in essence none of my strategies work.
An example strategy that I have tested would be:
1. Find a stock that has good volume, good historical trending tendencies and that has gapped up or down the previous night
2. Start tracking the stock in 5 and 15 minute bars.
3. Look for a time when we are getting three 15 minute bars trending (i.e. all green HH,HL's).
4. Switch to 5 minute bars and wait for a two (red) bar retracement followed by a green bar closing above the previous red closing.
5. Enter the trade with say a 10cent (or proportional stop). When the trade has moved in my direction say 20c, put a trailing 5c stop in place and ride until it is closed out.
Basically after hundreds of hours of coding and several years of education I feel I have nothing and need to evaluate my position and perhaps walk away.
I feel I have kind of done my apprenticeship in terms of the hard yards, but even after a phenomenal amount of work, I really have nothing that is useful to me. The software itself is fine, it is finding a consistent strategy that is the trick (as you all know!).
So why am I here emailing in this forum now?
Well firstly, I am not after a hand out, a holy grail or to take something that others have worked so hard for.
I guess I would just like to appeal some advice from anyone who may have been in a similar position or be able to relate to what I am talking about?
It seems a real shame (eats me up actually) to throw away a dream I have work sooo hard to achieve, but hey sometimes things just donât work out no matter how hard you work at them huh. Maybe its just time. Anyways, thatâs my problem (not yours!).
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rambling. Any advice, feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Sam
(KiwiAutoTrader)
