Is Trading a Perfect or Imperfect Information Game?

Pinozi · Mar 20, 2011

I think it all comes down to battles and wars. The bigger war is the big boys playing their HFT game. The retailer with their one lots can win but they have to choose their battles carefully

marketsurfer · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from Pinozi:

I think it all comes down to battles and wars. The bigger war is the big boys playing their HFT game. The retailer with their one lots can win but they have to choose their battles carefully

Yes. Good perspective.

Redneck · Mar 20, 2011

A chart always contains all the information required to trade it â so it is perfect

Does not mean it contains 100% of the information available â but that is totally immaterial â if youâre of the necessary mind set

As for the big bad hft boogie man - pffffttttt

RN

NoDoji · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from marketsurfer:

Truth is I use charts--- but Just to illustrate. Not for real time trading decisions. I'm still waiting for real time trade calls from the TA gurus like I have been demonstrating in the surf report 2.

I've made many real time calls on ET. I also was in a Skype group for 7 months where I called many, many of my trades as I was in the process of honing my price action tactics.

I've used basic price action setups successfully with CL, 6E, ES, AAPL, AMZN and POT, as well as for swing trading stocks in my IRA accounts, so it's worked well for both futures and stocks.

I never average down, I never trade without a fixed stop loss set in advance. I never move stops except in my favor.

This is technical price action trading, using only support and resistance levels. No indicators are necessary, though I keep a 20-bar EMA on my chart as a mobile support/resistance zone because it's so strongly honored by trend followers.

Here's a day when I called several live trades to demonstrate precision price action trading with tight stops (my stop loss on breakout trades is .10 if not explicitly stated otherwise, my max stop is .20):

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178741&perpage=10&pagenumber=1457

Here's a trade I called and managed live in real time to demonstrate how I trail a stop to let a winner run:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3109464

Here's a live ES trade I posted recently when I returned home one night to see the market selling off significantly:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64965&perpage=10&pagenumber=9873

All basic price action stuff, no indicators or averaging down necessary.

NoDoji · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from Redneck:

As for the big bad hft boogie man - pffffttttt

RN

I second that intellectual assessment, RN

What do I care about speed machines programmed to scalp fractions of cents? I'm looking to capture moves large enough to cover my commission, possible slippage, grocery & utility costs, mortgage payment, health insurance, taxes, and my desired vacation in Fiji

psytrade · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from NoDoji:

I second that intellectual assessment, RN

What do I care about speed machines programmed to scalp fractions of cents? I'm looking to capture moves large enough to cover my commission, possible slippage, grocery & utility costs, mortgage payment, health insurance, taxes, and my desired vacation in Fiji

Let us know how that vacation goes....

piezoe · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from marketsurfer:

... Daytraders are getting ripped to shreds at their own game [by HFT].

I just don't see that happening frankly, not in my case anyway. HFT folks don't seem to have much negative effect. I do see robot footprints sometimes, and if that is all i see, I may decide not to participate. They can play by themselves.

One has to adapt ones trading to current market conditions, but that's always been true.

marketsurfer · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from piezoe:

One has to adapt ones trading to current market conditions, but that's always been true.

No doubt.

stock777 · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from piezoe:

I just don't see that happening frankly, not in my case anyway. HFT folks don't seem to have much negative effect. I do see robot footprints sometimes, and if that is all i see, I may decide not to participate. They can play by themselves.

One has to adapt ones trading to current market conditions, but that's always been true.

so the billions the hft players make, this comes out of what, Uranus?

RL8093 · Mar 20, 2011

Quote from marketsurfer:

Truth is I use charts--- but Just to illustrate. Not for real time trading decisions. I'm still waiting for real time trade calls from the TA gurus like I have been demonstrating in the surf report 2.

It would appear that while you were 'waiting', you never checked the ES or CL threads as Ms NoDoji illustrates with some examples....

Quote from NoDoji:

((snip-snip))

Here's a day when I called several live trades to demonstrate precision price action trading with tight stops (my stop loss on breakout trades is .10 if not explicitly stated otherwise, my max stop is .20):

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178741&perpage=10&pagenumber=1457

Here's a trade I called and managed live in real time to demonstrate how I trail a stop to let a winner run:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3109464

Here's a live ES trade I posted recently when I returned home one night to see the market selling off significantly:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64965&perpage=10&pagenumber=9873

All basic price action stuff, no indicators or averaging down necessary.

Quote from marketsurfer:

No doubt.

MS - Is this the ET version of 'crickets'?

There are many ways to harvest profits from the various instruments. It seems to be a trait of many ET participants to deny the possibility of others successfully exploiting a specific niche.