I got it!.....I lost it...The search for consistency.

[dbphoenix]

DB and ND,

My focus, as indicated by the tabs on my browser.....

OTOH, I have three during the session: WQXR, the NQ chart, and chat.

Incidentally, when you post images of this size, one can't see them without scrolling back and forth. Ditto for subsequent posts. I suggest leaving them as thumbnails that those who are interested can open in a separate tab.

 

[ammo]

Oh my God ammo, if there were just an easy way to dispense with 'me'.

apparently you can't see either,staring you in the face, your ego of course filtered it out
forgive my tresspasses ,forgive everone elses trespasses
make this a 3 or 4 times a day mantra, tie it to something like the bathroom so it becomes a habit, every time you pull the handle on your bodily waste, say this to get rid of your mental waste

 

[cipherscribe]

apparently you can't see either,staring you in the face, your ego of course filtered it out
forgive my tresspasses ,forgive everone elses trespasses
make this a 3 or 4 times a day mantra, tie it to something like the bathroom so it becomes a habit, every time you pull the handle on your bodily waste, say this to get rid of your mental waste

Nice mantra. I will give it a try. I have read, and re-read alot of authors such as Adyashanti, De Mello, Tolle, and others. They help, but they don't stay with me.

 

[dom993]

Once again I am searching for what works, even though I know that its me that needs to change, and not the chart. I think my primary problem can be stated: I do not feel I have any edge in the market. If I knew I had an edge, and by 'knowing' one is confident, then I would avoid trading hunches, and just trade my edge.

No edge = no confidence, no discipline, and no profits.

I was exactly in the same place 5 years ago ... I had wasted 3 years discretionary trading several "trading plans" w/o success.

I decided to backtest my trading ideas using the computer. I took me several years to get to my first mildly profitable system, BUT I had enough faith in it that I could let the computer trade without too many interferences (I did track those, and their cost, it helped me become a really disciplined trader).

You have to go back to the drawing board, study quantitatively price-action, get good stats, figure-out from those stats one setup with a positive expectancy, and build a plan around it.

I believe it is a waste of your time to look at this chart, or that chart, or a dozen of them, even a hundred of them, and just try to see a recurring pattern. You need to create a model of price-action, process 5 to 10 years of market data into that model, then research *in the model* patterns with a statistically profitable outcome.

This isn't as much work as it sounds (at least, if you are any good at programming). The key is to have a mechanic way (software) to process the historical data into your model, so that it is 100% consistent and you can use that part later in an automated system.

 

[NoDoji]

Nice mantra. I will give it a try. I have read, and re-read alot of authors such as Adyashanti, De Mello, Tolle, and others. They help, but they don't stay with me.

What I found is that nothing stays with me unless I make it part of my daily routine. The way to do that is to act, not read.

 

[dbphoenix]

Let me try this again:

I have followed Spydertrader since he started his stock journal, spent many hours listening to FuturesTrader71, and many months in a chat room with Anekdoten. Yet I still can't manage to make a buck!

Did you spend all this time following these people because you wanted to copy them? If so, what evidence did you have that any of them were consistently profitable?

A typical response for me is to cease trading if the first trade is a winner. That response comes from fear - fear of being wrong.

And why are you afraid of being wrong?

Unstructured trades based on trying to earn back yesterdays losses.

Why do they have no structure?

let me loose in an undisciplined way, and it all goes awry.

And why are you undisciplined?

I cannot believe I can make such ridiculous mistakes such as trading without a plan after 20 years of searching for something that works for me.

And why after 20 years do you not have a plan, i.e., a thoroughly-tested and consistently-profitable plan?

I know that its me that needs to change, and not the chart.

And what do you plan to do to accomplish this? What is the first step you will (not plan to nor intend to) take?

I think the problem is not what I see, but the way in which I am looking.

And what are the specifics of the way in which you are looking?

My best trades have always been at that point where I have had so many losers, and lost so much self control that I really don't care anymore.

And what does this tell you about how caring affects your performance?

This isn't about putting new curtains in the windows because the foundation of your house is cracked and subsiding. The problems you're having with trading go far beyond trading itself.

 

[green.green]

The way you do anything is the way you do everything.

This is one of my favorites. As is "Two kinds of wisdom, — to persist in things worth doing; to abandon things not worth doing."

What habits should be cultivated and which should be culled?

 

[achilles28]

I was exactly in the same place 5 years ago ... I had wasted 3 years discretionary trading several "trading plans" w/o success.

I decided to backtest my trading ideas using the computer. I took me several years to get to my first mildly profitable system, BUT I had enough faith in it that I could let the computer trade without too many interferences (I did track those, and their cost, it helped me become a really disciplined trader).

You have to go back to the drawing board, study quantitatively price-action, get good stats, figure-out from those stats one setup with a positive expectancy, and build a plan around it.

I believe it is a waste of your time to look at this chart, or that chart, or a dozen of them, even a hundred of them, and just try to see a recurring pattern. You need to create a model of price-action, process 5 to 10 years of market data into that model, then research *in the model* patterns with a statistically profitable outcome.

This isn't as much work as it sounds (at least, if you are any good at programming). The key is to have a mechanic way (software) to process the historical data into your model, so that it is 100% consistent and you can use that part later in an automated system.

I have no programming experience and would like to backtest several ideas using an automated strategy. Which platform/language would be best for me?

 

[dom993]

I have no programming experience and would like to backtest several ideas using an automated strategy. Which platform/language would be best for me?

"Build or buy" type decision. Or, rather, "in-house vs contracted". Without programming experience, contracted would be your best bet, IMO.

 

[achilles28]

"Build or buy" type decision. Or, rather, "in-house vs contracted". Without programming experience, contracted would be your best bet, IMO.

For me, it's enough to backtest myself. If I ever ran it, then yes, outside help would be required.

Possible for a neophyte programmer to learn Ninjascript and backtest their own strategies? Learning curve high?