Great system but no b*lls
- Thread starter michael21
- Start date
You can write a program that will interpret the indicators any way you want -- going up, down or sideways. That's easy. Lay out all your logic in steps, then program each step .
If you want the RSI to be 25 and rising, then the logic is: RSI = 25 AND RSI[this bar] > RSI[previous bar]
Some elements are more difficult to program. For example, I don't have a definitive set of rules that I can program for all exit scenarios because they're based on years of interpretive experience. However, my trade entries can be coded with hard-and-fast rules so that's what I do. It makes trading so much more relaxed because I don't have to worry about missing a trade.
If you want the RSI to be 25 and rising, then the logic is: RSI = 25 AND RSI[this bar] > RSI[previous bar]
Some elements are more difficult to program. For example, I don't have a definitive set of rules that I can program for all exit scenarios because they're based on years of interpretive experience. However, my trade entries can be coded with hard-and-fast rules so that's what I do. It makes trading so much more relaxed because I don't have to worry about missing a trade.
I solved this problem by placing my orders in advance. I want to go long if price rises above X, so I place my buy stop order a tick above X. Or I want to short when price reaches that trend line, so just before price gets there I place a limit order to sell at a price in that range.
By placing your order in advance you avoid "thinking while trading" at the time you need to be getting the position on. You also stand a better chance of a fill (with limit orders) and of reducing slippage (with stop orders) by having the order placed ahead of time.
Then all you have to do is step 2: Follow your rules for trade management
I don't use RSI so I'm not sure how that would work.
It sounds like you had an excellent run of demo trading. Did you ever "cheat" while demo trading? By that I mean did you trade by the seat of your pants instead of with a plan? Such as not using a stop loss, moving a stop loss, averaging down, etc? If your sim results were the result of tactics like this, then your hesitation in the live account is well-founded, IMHO.
If not, then best to do visualization exercises several times a day where you close your eyes, visualize yourself at your desk, ready to trade, stand behind yourself and watch as you see your setup, pull the trigger at the exact right moment and let the trade play out to stop or target, or however you managed trades in demo mode that worked so well.
I'm assuming by "paper traded" you mean you practiced in a real-time demo trading account. However, if you literally paper traded, then live trading is going to be different and that's probably what's scaring you.
The biggest difference is price moves around when trading live. This seems like a silly comment, but if you've looked at static charts and taken trades that way, or if you've look at live charts, chosen entries (noted on paper), and waited to see if price gets to your target or not without staring at every little price wiggle, you're experiencing trading the way it should be, but rarely is, experienced.
Once a live trade is on, inexperienced traders tend to watch the immediate price action and unrealized P/L instead of simply letting the trade play out. This generally leads to cutting winners short. You see some profit and lock it in, afraid to give it back. By studying charts after hours, I found that the vast majority of my preferred setups that eventually hit profit target went from green to red, sometimes several times before reaching target.
I had to learn to accept that and leave the trade alone because I had too many instances where I'd move my stop to b/e, get stopped out, get back in at a worse price, stop to b/e, stopped out, back in at a worse price, until my eventual profit target was reached (or exceeded) and all I had to show for it was 3 or 4 break even trades.