New book on how traders are beating the HFT guys

[ashantt]

Well, you heard the man, just transfer a hundred grand from your savings account to your trading account and start trading ANYTHING that moves. If Intel or Google or Horse Shit futures are moving just buy. Do NOT think, just BUY, BUY, BUY, whatever is moving.

And of course do NOT (I repeat, do NOT) backtest anything under any circumstances, risk your hard-earned money on un-tested, un-proven systems right away, that's the only way to beat the market! Remember that only total losers backtest their system first. I am dead serious, if anyone tells that you need to test your system first, don't listen to him, he is a total moron and/or probably just escaped from a psychiatric hospital.

Well, there you go, the secret of successful trading right here!

PS: What, you are still here? Start trading anything that moves I tell you. NOW!

XELITE, you dumbass!

Dustin is one of the most well respected traders on this board. Read his posts going back 14 years.

If he says something I would listen.

 

[xelite777]

XELITE, you dumbass!

Dustin is one of the most well respected traders on this board. Read his posts going back 14 years.

If he says something I would listen.

Oh, sorry, I didn't know that if you post for 14 years you automatically become an expert.

Dustin may be a good trader but he is dead wrong on this particular issue. Risking real cash on untested systems is insane, period!

And please watch your language, there is no need to be vulgar.

 

[stock777]

I backtested this code and it worked very well for me.

Dim Low as Double, High as Double, Price as WhoCares

If Price=Low then BUY
If Price=High then SELL


Was anything like that in the book?

 

[stock777]

Author another guy says made a living off poker.

So far I've counted 387,697 people making that claim. And not ONE who said they lost playing poker.

 

[Grandluxe]

I backtested this code and it worked very well for me.

Dim Low as Double, High as Double, Price as WhoCares

If Price=Low then BUY
If Price=High then SELL


Was anything like that in the book?

Haha funny.

 

[Dustin]

That's good to know but how did you survive the barren years?

In 2010 I could have made more working at McDonalds. Otherwise, every year has paid the bills plus some.

 

[Soon2Bgreat]

And again, there is no way of knowing if a system is profitable unless we test it with at least 10 or 15 years of historical data and under all kinds of market conditions (bear, bull, sideways).

Generally P/L is a pretty good indicator of whether a system is profitable or not. I don't think people are saying backtesting is bad, but it's equally closed minded to think it's the only way to go.

IMO, backtesting is great for understanding market dynamics and what may have worked in the past but relied upon in isolation is just as silly as dismissing it completely.

...read a few chapters of the book and it seems interesting. Good entertainment and a testament to the variety of approaches people can use to make money. m2c.

 

[xelite777]

Generally P/L is a pretty good indicator of whether a system is profitable or not.

Oh no, far from it.

Here is an example: a backtest reveals that Forex system A makes 10% a year on average, while Forex system B makes 20% a year. Upon close examination I choose to trade system A and end up making more money than system B, with the same trading capital.

Can you guess why?

I don't think people are saying backtesting is bad, but it's equally closed minded to think it's the only way to go.

I did not say it's the only way to go but without the backtest the trader is simply gambling with this money, simple as that. Unless he is doing arbitrage trading for example.

In fact ask the average trader about the maximum drawdown of his system or his average profit (loss?) per trade and most of the time you will simply get answers like :"Gee, I really don't know, but I made $270 yesterday, not bad, eh?"

 

[textrader4]

This is honestly the dumbest debate ever. For system traders you need to backtest. To run a system without backtesting is foolish. For discretionary traders backtesting isn't necessarily needed and in many cases impossible.

Can we end this debate and not hijack this thread anymore.

 

[Pjort]

This is honestly the dumbest debate ever. For system traders you need to backtest. To run a system without backtesting is foolish. For discretionary traders backtesting isn't necessarily needed and in many cases impossible.

Can we end this debate and not hijack this thread anymore.

You are so right, this is only a book, a good one..,
And I apoliguise for bringong up the backtesting discussion as a matter of subject connected to this book.

The book really deserves more than that.
It is a truly interesting inside look in the succesfull medium / small sized traders workshop. Normally we dont get the chance to learn about that.

The book tells the story about who and how is the succesfull traders around the big "trading poker table" acting and thinking.

Sommething which trader forum not allways is able to tell without a lott of noise from a lot of peoples guessing, thinking, knowing and meaning...