Dont listen to steve46. He complained about good people disappearing in the beginning then encouraged the use of PM. If you good ppl use PM, where else can loser trader like me can learn? Good journal fletch2. Even if your journal dont disclose any information, it inspires us about your success, keep us dreaming. Good day.
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poker player tries his hand at futures trading
- Thread starter fletch2
- Start date
fletch2,
What's your opinion about Tradestation 8.1 after using it for one month?
Thanks
What's your opinion about Tradestation 8.1 after using it for one month?
Thanks
Quote from fletch2:
I got Tradestation 8.1 a couple of days ago, expecting it to make my backtesting life a lot easier.
Well, it kind of sucks. It's slow, the UI is pretty awful, and EasyLanguage is pretty rigid and not very expressive or general.
I'm doing some simple testing of back data right now, and it's taking 10-15 minutes to process a year's 5min ticks.
I coded up the same thing in C++ and it took 15 secs to process the same amount of data. Very disappointing.
This would be more acceptable if the UI gave me all sorts of power to process results, but it doesn't. I go to the trade list, ok "that trade looks interesting, how do I go there in the chart?" Well, you can't, other than going blind manually scrolling to it. You should be able to double click on the trade and have it jump you to that place in the chart. That seems so obvious and basic to me, that it's clear that these guys aren't actually using their own software.
Overall I give it a C so far.
Quote from Sanjuro:
Someone should pass this onto TS. This sounds like a really great idea that should've been implemented many versions ago.
I made that suggestion and countless others to them 5-9 years ago numerous times, repetitively. They do not listen. I suggest not wasting time providing feedback. Why no one has ever came into this space with a superior product and service is a riddle to me.
I'm back!
I haven't been trading since about the time of my last post (mostly due to adjusting to new baby, partly due to other ventures). I did a little system research in the meantime, and still haven't found anything that beats the pants off my original system, so I started it up again a couple of weeks ago. I'm up about $2k trading one ER2 contract in that time, with 100% winning trades. Pure luck! Honest! My system has less than 50% winners in backtests.
I had a goal of $15k profit trading 1 ER2 contract in '06. Given that I didn't trade since January, I will scale that back to $4k more, or $8k on the year. Of course, these goals are kind of meaningless, but what the hey. They're fun.
My account currently sits at $9267.
I'll be jotting down some thoughts here from time to time again, hopefully, as I get back in the game. Stay tuned.
Fletch
I haven't been trading since about the time of my last post (mostly due to adjusting to new baby, partly due to other ventures). I did a little system research in the meantime, and still haven't found anything that beats the pants off my original system, so I started it up again a couple of weeks ago. I'm up about $2k trading one ER2 contract in that time, with 100% winning trades. Pure luck! Honest! My system has less than 50% winners in backtests.
I had a goal of $15k profit trading 1 ER2 contract in '06. Given that I didn't trade since January, I will scale that back to $4k more, or $8k on the year. Of course, these goals are kind of meaningless, but what the hey. They're fun.
My account currently sits at $9267.
I'll be jotting down some thoughts here from time to time again, hopefully, as I get back in the game. Stay tuned.
Fletch
Just some P/L to keep things current:
Since 9/6:
-$210 over 6 trades
I made a really dumb Tradestation error and ate an $800 loss for no good reason. Things got out of sync with my historical orders and all hell broke loose with trade confirmation off.
At least I learned that lesson for less than $1k. :eek:
I will leak a little secret:
The strategy I am running right now is four lines of EL. No tricks to make it shorter, either. It's that simple.
Can something that simple be profitable? I guess we will see.
Fletch
Since 9/6:
-$210 over 6 trades
I made a really dumb Tradestation error and ate an $800 loss for no good reason. Things got out of sync with my historical orders and all hell broke loose with trade confirmation off.
At least I learned that lesson for less than $1k. :eek:
I will leak a little secret:
The strategy I am running right now is four lines of EL. No tricks to make it shorter, either. It's that simple.
Can something that simple be profitable? I guess we will see.
Fletch
Quote from fletch2:
I acknowledge your market experience. I just think you are dismissive of things which ought not to be dismissed,
Fletch
Fletch,
I have been reading this thread with interest, once again marveling at all the BS and naysaying provided by other posters to what could otherwise be a fascinating discussion.
However, as a winning poker player and trader, I can tell you emphatically that there are some things you are also "dismissing" as well that others have tried to clue you in on. Due to your inexperience with actual trading.
1) Math skills are not trading skills - this is evidenced by the fact that 80% of mutual fund managers can't even outperform the SP500, even though they have every conceivable resource for math, engineering, statistics - many of them have more degrees and skill than either of us, all to no avail. But I still outperform most all of them with my discretionary trading due to experience, not smarts. It took me about 5 years to master.
2) Before you tell me that discipline, self-control and dealing with fear/greed are going to be eliminated by mechanical trading, I'll just let you know that is wrong. Overoptimization, curve-fitting, inability to stick with a system during drawdowns and chronic re-engineering are the mechanical trader's Grail Hunts to deal with these very emotions - and it is actually very hard to create a robust mechanical system that forward-tests well under all market conditions and that won't get crushed by all of the other systems it is aligned against.
You could spend a year designing the perfect mechanical system for your little 2 or 10 contract trades and some hedge fund that trades 500 or 1000 at a shot has a system that by accidental design usually takes the other side of your trades, hence negating that same edge you thought you had. And they may only trade it in certain markets along with their 14 other black box systems, so it is very hard for you to adapt to it. (now multiply this phenomenon by 50 or 150 or 500 systems in play, depending which second in time we are speaking about) it makes trading very hard to quantify mathematically. The only math needed to trade well is good risk/reward ratio - 6th grade math.
3) When you play poker, you can read the whole table, there are not several hundred thousand other players waiting to impact "the hand" with 1 contract or 1000 in the next 2 seconds and with cards you have a finite combination of hands and odds. In the markets, the combos are exponentially limitless. Therefore "odds" by necessity becomes a more fluid term.
I hope you know I am trying to be part of the solution and not the problem.
Respectfully,
Paul