Mystery Software Journal

C

chanelops

I've been trading futures with some software that has been working pretty well for me, but is not widely known. I thought it might be useful to talk about it some, but first I need to establish to the ET community that this stuff works. If not, it's a waste of everyone's time.

So my plan is to post roughly the next 30 trades or so, and see if I can build a strong winning record online. If that works out, we can then talk about the software and this kind of trading. But the first order of business is to establish some credibility for it. If I can't do that in the next 30 days, then this project will have failed and I'll just wind the thread down. And that's why I'm not naming the software now -- I think that if I fail it will likely be my fault, not the software, so I don't want to sully the developer's reputation in that case.

I'll be trading futures, holding overnight, with trade lengths typically running anywhere from one to several days.

For our purposes here, I'll just post the results of trading one contract per commodity. Currently, the commodities being traded are gold, the S&P mini, the Naz mini, the pound, the yen, and the 30-yr bond. I might drop or add to this list as we go along.

Umm, what am I forgetting? Probably a bunch of stuff, but we can deal with that as we proceed. Oh yeah, some nights there won't be any trades, that's normal, I only trade when the systems say to do so. Also, I have no affiliation whatsoever with the developer of the software, other than being a customer.

OK, let's get going. Tonight I've got signals to take positions in three contracts, and I did so at the following prices:

Gold (GCU8) - LONG @ 951.70

Pound (BPU8) - LONG @ 1.9836

30-yr Bond (USU8) - SHORT @ 114 -2

That last one is $114 and 2/32's. I know different brokers display it various ways. IB would show 114'020.

OK, that's what I've got for tonight. I'll post tomorrow if there's anything to say. No post means no signals, so in that case I'll still be holding the previous positions.
 
It's been longer than I expected, but I got the next signal tonight: exit the gold trade, which I did at $934.80. So we are starting off with a loss of $951.70 -$934.80, or -16.9 points, which for this contract means a loss of $1,690.

Not the way you'd like to start off, but that's the way things often go.

I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but I'll be ignoring commissions for this journal. The reason is because I'm only trying to show what the software can do in terms of generating trades. In real life, (or even in 'journal life' if you have a dollar target), commissions cannot be ignored. (duh!)

The pound trade is currently profitable, while the long bond trade is back underwater, after being profitable yesterday.

No new trades have been signalled, so that's it for now. I hope the pace will pick up, or it's gonna take forever to reach 30 trades.
 
Got a sell signal tonight for the British Pound contract. I sold at 1.9729, and since I went long @ 1.9836, the loss was $668.75.

I also got a signal tonight to go short on the yen, which executed at .9277.

Current status is as follows:

Open positions

30-yr Bond (USU8) - SHORT @ 114 -2
Japanese Yen (JYU8) - SHORT @ .9277

Closed equity: - $2,358.75

We're off to a rocky start, but let's see where it leads. 2 down, 28 to go!
 
Three signals tonight, one to close an open trade, and two to open new trades.

First, got a buy signal to close the outstanding short position on the 30-year bond. I bought it back at 114 - 25.5, for a loss of 23.5 32nds, or -.734375 pts, which comes to a loss of $734.38.

I then had a new short signal on the ES mini, which I sold at 1,284.

Finally, I had a new short signal on the Naz 100 mini, which executed at 1,856.50.

So the current status is as follows:

Open positions

Japanese Yen (JYU8) - SHORT @ .9277
S&P mini (ESU8) - SHORT @1,284
NASDAQ 100 mini (NQU8) - SHORT @ 1,856.50

Closed equity: - $3,093.13

At this point I'm batting 100% - wrong!

If things don't change, this will make an excellent contrary indicator. :(
 
I'm happy to be able to break my record of 100% consistency tonight. I got a signal to cover the ES short position, which I did at $1,266.50. Since I went short at 1,284, that's a gain of 17.5 points, or $875.

So the current status is as follows:

Open positions

Japanese Yen (JYU8) - SHORT @ .9277
NASDAQ 100 mini (NQU8) - SHORT @ 1,856.50

Closed equity: - $2,218.13

4 down, 26 to go!
 
Two new signals were issued after market close on Friday, so I executed them today as the markets opened:

LONG the S&P mini - executed @ 1,260.75

SHORT the 30-yr bond - executed @ 115 - 31

The current status is as follows:

Open positions

Japanese Yen (JYU8) - SHORT @ .9277
NASDAQ 100 mini (NQU8) - SHORT @ 1,856.50
S&P mini (ESU8) - LONG @ 1,260.75
30-yr bond (USU8) - SHORT @115 - 31

Closed equity: - $2,218.13
 
Your software seems to be end of day -
1) Is it EOD?
2) When do you run it to get your buy/sell/get out signals?
3) Do you have specific times that you act on the signals?- i.e, open of regular trading (9:30 AM ET) or whenever you get your signal if the overnight market is open

Thanks for the Journal.
 
Quote from Whimsy:

Your software seems to be end of day -
1) Is it EOD?
2) When do you run it to get your buy/sell/get out signals?
3) Do you have specific times that you act on the signals?- i.e, open of regular trading (9:30 AM ET) or whenever you get your signal if the overnight market is open

Thanks for the Journal.
More...
Yes, the software is EOD.

I run it as soon as the data is available from the supplier, Pinnacle Data Systems. That time used to be around 6:30pm EST, but since the exchanges consolidated, it now comes out later, usually between 7pm and 8pm. I'm not real happy about that, but on the whole I don't think it affects the results much.

I act on the signals ASAP, so usually by 8:30 pm EST all my trades are done. The obvious exception is Friday evening, since the futures markets are closed then. I execute those trades on Sunday evening when the market opens.
 
I'm gonna guess trendchanell. I haven't recieved any spam from them in a while, but my 30 second review of your thread reminded me of their pitch. do I win the cookie?
 
Quote from C99:

I'm gonna guess trendchanell. I haven't recieved any spam from them in a while, but my 30 second review of your thread reminded me of their pitch. do I win the cookie?
More...
Well, as I said at the start, I think this company makes a nice product, and I've been trading it successfully for a while. If after 30 trades I've got some good results here, I'll disclose who they are and be happy to talk more about them. But this software is just a tool, like a hammer. And just like a hammer can be used to build a house or wreck it, this software can do the same with your trading account. If all I manage to show here is how to cause a financial wreck, I think that's a reflection on the guy wielding the hammer (me), not the hammer manufacturer. In that case, I don't want to taint them with a bum wrap, so I'll keep quiet about their identity until we have the final results.

Right now I'm definitely doing more wrecking than building -- but I'm cautiously optimistic this will turn around. I'm saying this based on experience (not hope), but you never know.
 
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