Grinding it out, day after day
- Thread starter lescor
- Start date
hi lescor,
How do you combine Excel with trading? Could you provide us with a bit of detail?
Thanks!
PA
How do you combine Excel with trading? Could you provide us with a bit of detail?
Thanks!
PA
Haha pity you Lescor--so many questions since Lescor's last post on 15th --just doing a little homework to make it easy for you when and if you decide to reply
Arnie's one question
One question. You mentioned you don't really use stops. But you must have an "uncle" point. Can you shed some light on that aspect?
================
ytr30's many questions
Do you use tick, volume or time charts. If time charts, what time frame if it's ok to ask.
Also I have a question about position sizing. I risk the same $ amount on each trade and what I found that it slows me down to calculate how many shares I need to buy/sell based on my entry and stop point. How do you decide how many shares to trade?
Do you go with bigger size when odds are getting better?
===============
From turbodog
What software do you use for backtesting or is it mostly done manual. When you develop your strategies how far back do you look when testing?
=========================
From Lotus11
I'm not sure if this is appropriate question to ask, but I'll try anyway. You ave. 0.05/share. I never even looked at this stat. Does it fare to say that you in and out quickly and you make .05-.10/share? Or do you try to capture bigger moves?
===========
Would you say your losses are or could be bigger than your winners ?
At the same time if you could please elaborate a bit on risk usage I would appreciate it.
Thank you
No Heat
==============================
Keyser
Do you use any indicators?
Thank you
==============
Shortie
lescor, have you looked back to correlate your monthly profits with the average VIX at the time? is there a simple relation, e.g. VIX=10, 0.5c/shr, VIX=15 1c/shr, VIX=20 2c/shr? is there level of VIX that makes mean-reversion unprofitable for you?
=======================
From Pension_Admin
hi lescor,
How do you combine Excel with trading? Could you provide us with a bit of detail?
Thanks!
PA
======================
I think thats enough guys
hopefully he replies to you guys. I am enjoying Neke and his journal very much
Arnie's one question
One question. You mentioned you don't really use stops. But you must have an "uncle" point. Can you shed some light on that aspect?
================
ytr30's many questions
Do you use tick, volume or time charts. If time charts, what time frame if it's ok to ask.
Also I have a question about position sizing. I risk the same $ amount on each trade and what I found that it slows me down to calculate how many shares I need to buy/sell based on my entry and stop point. How do you decide how many shares to trade?
Do you go with bigger size when odds are getting better?
===============
From turbodog
What software do you use for backtesting or is it mostly done manual. When you develop your strategies how far back do you look when testing?
=========================
From Lotus11
I'm not sure if this is appropriate question to ask, but I'll try anyway. You ave. 0.05/share. I never even looked at this stat. Does it fare to say that you in and out quickly and you make .05-.10/share? Or do you try to capture bigger moves?
===========
Would you say your losses are or could be bigger than your winners ?
At the same time if you could please elaborate a bit on risk usage I would appreciate it.
Thank you
No Heat
==============================
Keyser
Do you use any indicators?
Thank you
==============
Shortie
lescor, have you looked back to correlate your monthly profits with the average VIX at the time? is there a simple relation, e.g. VIX=10, 0.5c/shr, VIX=15 1c/shr, VIX=20 2c/shr? is there level of VIX that makes mean-reversion unprofitable for you?
=======================
From Pension_Admin
hi lescor,
How do you combine Excel with trading? Could you provide us with a bit of detail?
Thanks!
PA
======================
I think thats enough guys
hopefully he replies to you guys. I am enjoying Neke and his journal very muchDon't know why newbies confuse "I am going to post a journal, and will update weekly" with "I will take any and all questions, en masse, to be your personal trading advisor and mentor."
Small wonder some of the more experienced people stop journals.
Seriously...
I am just making conversation here.
So lescor, how was the weekend? Good weather?
PA
So lescor, how was the weekend? Good weather?
PA
I'm not going to write a book on how I trade, or make this a question and answer thread. I'll try to shed some light on these, but please don't be offended if I don't answer your questions.
Thanks GG for organizing them.
One question. You mentioned you don't really use stops. But you must have an "uncle" point. Can you shed some light on that aspect?
"uncle" is when protecting my capital overrides all other opinions, stats or gut feel. If I think the situation is still within my rules but the losses are just getting too great, I will scale out of stuff and try to give a bit more time, if things don't improve I will get flat and start with a blank slate the next day.
Do you use tick, volume or time charts. If time charts, what time frame if it's ok to ask.
I look at whatever time frame chart will fit in the chart window and show the whole day. For the first 30 minutes of the day that's a 1 minute, until noon a 2 minute, then a 5 minute. In other words, it's not all that important to me.
Also I have a question about position sizing. I risk the same $ amount on each trade and what I found that it slows me down to calculate how many shares I need to buy/sell based on my entry and stop point. How do you decide how many shares to trade?
Same way. I don't find the math that hard, but it doesn't have to be exact, just estimate
Do you go with bigger size when odds are getting better? yes
What software do you use for backtesting or is it mostly done manual. When you develop your strategies how far back do you look when testing?
If I backtest, it's usually manually, looking at a lot of charts, or I download data into excel and try to write formulas to break things down. Pretty crude methods actually. I would want to look back far enough to cover more than one market condition.
I'm not sure if this is appropriate question to ask, but I'll try anyway. You ave. 0.05/share. I never even looked at this stat. Does it fare to say that you in and out quickly and you make .05-.10/share? Or do you try to capture bigger moves?
.05 was my avg for last week, but over a longer period I'd be quite happy with one to one and a half cents per share. Different strategies will have different averages though. The rest of your question doesn't really apply to how I trade.
Would you say your losses are or could be bigger than your winners ?
They could be anything. At the end of the year if I added up my 10 worst losses and 10 best wins, they'd probably be pretty close. I would have more winners than losers though.
At the same time if you could please elaborate a bit on risk usage I would appreciate it.
Not sure what you mean by that.
Do you use any indicators?
Not really. I have a 200 day ma on my daily charts. I will also draw trend lines and support and resistance lines. KISS
lescor, have you looked back to correlate your monthly profits with the average VIX at the time? is there a simple relation, e.g. VIX=10, 0.5c/shr, VIX=15 1c/shr, VIX=20 2c/shr? is there level of VIX that makes mean-reversion unprofitable for you?
Good question. I haven't done a specific study on that but it's on my near term to do list. I'd like to try to find a definable correlation that I could work into my system. My trading tends to be fairly consistent, even when vol is low, just with fewer opportunities. I might tighten up my entry criteria or up share size to try to compensate for that. Equity curve gets choppier, but definitely make more money when vol really spikes.
How do you combine Excel with trading? Could you provide us with a bit of detail?
I use excel to calculate a lot of my entry points, exit targets if I'm using them and I stream real time quotes to track pl. Not something I do but an example would be: I want to enter a stock when it has moved two standard deviations from a 20 bar moving average. I'd stream in data and record it to calculate the average. I'd write formulas to calculate the deviation from the mean. I'd use a conditional format to flash a color when a target is hit. And I'd probably have a formula to calculate share size and track pl and profit targets once I'm in. Again, pretty basic stuff .
Thanks GG for organizing them.
One question. You mentioned you don't really use stops. But you must have an "uncle" point. Can you shed some light on that aspect?
"uncle" is when protecting my capital overrides all other opinions, stats or gut feel. If I think the situation is still within my rules but the losses are just getting too great, I will scale out of stuff and try to give a bit more time, if things don't improve I will get flat and start with a blank slate the next day.
Do you use tick, volume or time charts. If time charts, what time frame if it's ok to ask.
I look at whatever time frame chart will fit in the chart window and show the whole day. For the first 30 minutes of the day that's a 1 minute, until noon a 2 minute, then a 5 minute. In other words, it's not all that important to me.
Also I have a question about position sizing. I risk the same $ amount on each trade and what I found that it slows me down to calculate how many shares I need to buy/sell based on my entry and stop point. How do you decide how many shares to trade?
Same way. I don't find the math that hard, but it doesn't have to be exact, just estimate
Do you go with bigger size when odds are getting better? yes
What software do you use for backtesting or is it mostly done manual. When you develop your strategies how far back do you look when testing?
If I backtest, it's usually manually, looking at a lot of charts, or I download data into excel and try to write formulas to break things down. Pretty crude methods actually. I would want to look back far enough to cover more than one market condition.
I'm not sure if this is appropriate question to ask, but I'll try anyway. You ave. 0.05/share. I never even looked at this stat. Does it fare to say that you in and out quickly and you make .05-.10/share? Or do you try to capture bigger moves?
.05 was my avg for last week, but over a longer period I'd be quite happy with one to one and a half cents per share. Different strategies will have different averages though. The rest of your question doesn't really apply to how I trade.
Would you say your losses are or could be bigger than your winners ?
They could be anything. At the end of the year if I added up my 10 worst losses and 10 best wins, they'd probably be pretty close. I would have more winners than losers though.
At the same time if you could please elaborate a bit on risk usage I would appreciate it.
Not sure what you mean by that.
Do you use any indicators?
Not really. I have a 200 day ma on my daily charts. I will also draw trend lines and support and resistance lines. KISS
lescor, have you looked back to correlate your monthly profits with the average VIX at the time? is there a simple relation, e.g. VIX=10, 0.5c/shr, VIX=15 1c/shr, VIX=20 2c/shr? is there level of VIX that makes mean-reversion unprofitable for you?
Good question. I haven't done a specific study on that but it's on my near term to do list. I'd like to try to find a definable correlation that I could work into my system. My trading tends to be fairly consistent, even when vol is low, just with fewer opportunities. I might tighten up my entry criteria or up share size to try to compensate for that. Equity curve gets choppier, but definitely make more money when vol really spikes.
How do you combine Excel with trading? Could you provide us with a bit of detail?
I use excel to calculate a lot of my entry points, exit targets if I'm using them and I stream real time quotes to track pl. Not something I do but an example would be: I want to enter a stock when it has moved two standard deviations from a 20 bar moving average. I'd stream in data and record it to calculate the average. I'd write formulas to calculate the deviation from the mean. I'd use a conditional format to flash a color when a target is hit. And I'd probably have a formula to calculate share size and track pl and profit targets once I'm in. Again, pretty basic stuff .
I have another questions:
What softwares do you use and how do they help you in your search for the next strategy?
Thanks!
PA
What softwares do you use and how do they help you in your search for the next strategy?
Thanks!
PA
Lescor,
While I am only a spectator in your thread, I would like to say that you are the "genuine article" and very gracious to respond to the various questions submitted.
To the questionnaires....surely there has to be a point where you ,collectively, need to do some home study and apply your own research to develop a similar method of trading if that is your interest....
Some great questions,but we don't need to know when Lescor last "sneezed"..if you get my jist
NiN
While I am only a spectator in your thread, I would like to say that you are the "genuine article" and very gracious to respond to the various questions submitted.
To the questionnaires....surely there has to be a point where you ,collectively, need to do some home study and apply your own research to develop a similar method of trading if that is your interest....
Some great questions,but we don't need to know when Lescor last "sneezed"..if you get my jist
NiN