Quote from Simba:
Just wondering!
If any of these "Gurus", or whatever you want to call them, have such great trading methodologies,
then shouldn't it be possible to plug their strategies into EasyLanguage code and trade them with automatic execution on Tradestation?
If yes, do we really need to be in a real-time chatroom?
Simba,
Your suggestion may work for those trading via mechanical systems.
Thus, you could take their system and convert it into TradeStation EasyLanguage codes.
However, if they are discretionary traders...
traders that are rule-based...criteria orientated...but knows when to ignore the signal or actually take the signal...
trying to code or backtest such trade methodologies can often be very difficult or impossible.
For example...lets say your trading methodology as a discretionary trader keeps you on the sidelines on days with no Key Economic Reports (such as yesterday March 24th Monday) and/or keeps you on the sidelines whenever a parabolic trend is caused by an obvious geopolitical rumor...
these are things that Easylanguage nor backtesting are able to anticipate (code) if such is part of your trading methodology.
Then again...if a trader starts making decisions when to use and when to not use his/her mechanical system...
Would he/her in essence be a discretionary trader?
With that said...it is possible to code or backtest very simple trade methodologies...
for example...going Long whenever the MACD Histogram is negative with higher lows along with price having lower lows...
simple Bullish Divergence without any additional filters (criterias).
Note: The simple Bullish Divergence analogy above would produce poor trading results in a bear market without additional filters (criterias).
Also...most of the good chat rooms resident gurus will share with you their trade methodologies that's behind their calls via having basic or in-depth education info about their trade signals.
Most good chat rooms resident gurus are discretionary traders.
Here's another example of a discretionary trading style...
on a Monday they make take 2 trades via a particular trade setup and then on a Wednesday that exact trade setup appears again but this time he/she either ignores the trade signals or takes a position with a reduced size...
(notifying you of such prior to the trade signal call)
simply because it just doesn't feel right or because the trade setup internals (what's moving the markets up or down) is via the wrong reasons.
Hence...discretionary trading.
In fact...most of the good traders I know that hate chat rooms...are discretionary traders themselves.
With all that I said above...
without starting a debate about Discretionary versus Mechanical...
if your a trader that tends to have discipline problems, emotional trader that causes trading problems, doesn't have a good feel for the internals of the market, unable to adapt to the constant changing market environments...
spending time to find a simple mechanical system that can produce profits may well be worth it to invest time and energy in finding such.
Realtime chat rooms with resident gurus that don't reveal their trade methodology behind their trade signals or posted trades (especially the fee-based rooms)...
are designed to keep you dependent upon them (if the signals are good). In such situations...you are not an independent trader.
If your going to explore realtime chat rooms...find one that actually tries to teach you how to trade instead of just posting trade signals...
or you can do it alone on your own...via trial-n-error...while figuring out what works and what doesn't work...then if you do find something that works...
most likely there's some resident guru out there that's already using it
Interesting situation from the above...what if you had first met the resident guru prior to the trial-n-error?
Something to think about.
All the above is based on feedback from dozens of traders I personally know and hundreds of traders I've met online in chat rooms.
P.S. If you or anybody can figure out a way to code in Easylanguage or backtest the
subjectivity (as mentioned above) in the trading methodology of discretionary traders...
I'm open ears.
NihabaAshi
