reading the MACD line

[systematictrader]

So did any number of other oscillator/ma type indicators. They also gave just as many false signals. Play with the parameters and you can find what you believe to be true....

there are many number of oscillators that work, they key and the work that involved though is of course endless to find where it best works and when and on what? the KEY POINTS iam trying to get across with MACD are two, first one is easy to understand and that is you need to PLAY every hand to get the results that are extracted from back testing when you have found where and when it has worked recently (which could change), the second and the MOST IMPORTANT is the fact MAAANY traders including my past self and even very profitable ones trade instruments without really knowing why,,, even most profitable traders sometimes do that, the question to be posed to any one is why do you trade what you trade??? why do u trade forex? or why do u trade futures?


why is it that you trade whatever you trade, that question is usually met with an arbitrary answer such as, well I know stocks better, or I understand forex better,,,, or iam familiar with or ive been making money in this,,, etc the point is if your purely technical and systematic you shouldn't really care what's being traded what you should be after is what best to trade based on back tested results whether that being commodities or currencies or stocks it doesn't matter cuz the end result is that you want to extract profit... this is most difficult to see for those who have been in the business long and profitable than those that are new because the profitable ones are usually content and overlook " where can I be MORE profitable"



As Richard Dennis said, " I can trade without knowing the name of the market" and that's how it should be

 

[systematictrader]

The vast majority of retail "traders" use indicators like the MACD as if they were primitive sculptors, and had just come across a Phillips-head screwdriver.

"It works great," they exclaim, "to create bas-relief channels by just giving it a little twist" and they bang out a raised little ridge caused by two of the tip's four facets gouging out parallel grooves, with the other two facets slicing uselessly through the air.

"See? Isn't that neat??"

Clueless.

...Like Rufus Mrehin, who has no idea about why a MACD calculation might be different between MACD on GM, and MACD on TSLA, or for that matter, MACD on GM on 5min set-up versus 1week set-up. Dude, before you cost *others* their fortune, too, LEARN. PROMISE yourself that you ascribe *real*meaning* to every number a MACD study puts out. (You'll know you're ready to speak out loud, when you figure out that "26,12,3" or whatever, is an absolutely arbitrary set-up, and is only *accidentally* commonplace.)

Tomm, no need to be arrogant and disrespectfully, lets maintain our professionalism and productivity,


Yes exactly actually as you say the MACD is the Phillips-head screwdriver, and the key is to find which screws it works on (instruments and sub instruments)

it DOES work great even without the twist only if you know where and when which isn't mission impossible to find, and even if wrong wont cause drastic results (at least with MACD)

let your big head not forget trading is much like losing weight, discipline and simplicity alone is enough to get there, for me I never made money till I unwinded all the knowledge and complexity I learned and downsized to simply one indicator

even if your system or style or knowledge is much more sophisticated on what ever instrument you traded I can argue and prove that it was all summarized within the simple crossovers of the MACD that even if you outperformed it, you wouldn't have done by much and if so it taken so much more efforts and psyche that could've been deployed elsewhere to generate the same profit percentage.


to clarify on your top point, iam referring to macd on same settings same time frames and saying it works good on some instruments (CTL) and bad (GM) on some others during certain times, thus it is the Screwdriver to use but only on the right screws, which is constantly changing

 

[systematictrader]

The vast majority of retail "traders" use indicators like the MACD as if they were primitive sculptors, and had just come across a Phillips-head screwdriver.

"It works great," they exclaim, "to create bas-relief channels by just giving it a little twist" and they bang out a raised little ridge caused by two of the tip's four facets gouging out parallel grooves, with the other two facets slicing uselessly through the air.

"See? Isn't that neat??"

Clueless.

...Like Rufus Mrehin, who has no idea about why a MACD calculation might be different between MACD on GM, and MACD on TSLA, or for that matter, MACD on GM on 5min set-up versus 1week set-up. Dude, before you cost *others* their fortune, too, LEARN. PROMISE yourself that you ascribe *real*meaning* to every number a MACD study puts out. (You'll know you're ready to speak out loud, when you figure out that "26,12,3" or whatever, is an absolutely arbitrary set-up, and is only *accidentally* commonplace.)

I dont know on what basis your debating your point, but on my end iam from the basis on my end its coming from true trading of that methedology sevral years in a row on a 6 figure account

 

[Handle123]

MACD works all the time for being an indicator, up/down, whether your abilities to not take trades is based on your skills and risk management works is another topic. I don't use crossovers of one line crossing the other, nor do I use lines to show strength of trend, I do use slow line for longer term divergences. I like the histogram, shows retracements easier than price, I like deep retracements, so deep, histogram on wrong side of zero, I have found going against what the books say to work best for me.

I been using MACD since 1985, I changed how I used it in early 1990s and been using same way since.

Let's not get into pissing match, it is a beautiful day outside today and hope all of you not having to shovel the white stuff, does anyone still shovel it?

 

[bmwhendrix]

I dont know on what basis your debating your point, but on my end iam from the basis on my end its coming from true trading of that methedology sevral years in a row on a 6 figure account

Rufus, it seems to me that you are just looking for newbies, as you have given your contact information and social media information in your first post. Why not just post some charts showing how and when and on what instruments your methodology works. All indicators are proxies for price, all are crutches, even for people who claim they find them useful as a filter or whatever. Show me I am wrong. I am not a newbie and trade a sizable account also, and am always open to learning. I agree with Handle, it is a beautiful day, let's all enjoy.

 

[systematictrader]

MACD works all the time for being an indicator, up/down, whether your abilities to not take trades is based on your skills and risk management works is another topic. I don't use crossovers of one line crossing the other, nor do I use lines to show strength of trend, I do use slow line for longer term divergences. I like the histogram, shows retracements easier than price, I like deep retracements, so deep, histogram on wrong side of zero, I have found going against what the books say to work best for me.

I been using MACD since 1985, I changed how I used it in early 1990s and been using same way since.

Let's not get into pissing match, it is a beautiful day outside today and hope all of you not having to shovel the white stuff, does anyone still shovel it?

Handle, u summarized it better than all of us for sure, "indicator, up/down," and agreed whether u take or NOT take trades is abilities and skills,, this reminds me of William Eckhardt who argues even random entries (MACD CROSS OVER) can make money as long as you develop some system for exiting,

iam going to study a bit on the deep retracements portion, my only concern with my trading style is whether I can quantify it or not,,,

also a beautiful sunny day here as well

 

[systematictrader]

Rufus, it seems to me that you are just looking for newbies, as you have given your contact information and social media information in your first post. Why not just post some charts showing how and when and on what instruments your methodology works. All indicators are proxies for price, all are crutches, even for people who claim they find them useful as a filter or whatever. Show me I am wrong. I am not a newbie and trade a sizable account also, and am always open to learning. I agree with Handle, it is a beautiful day, let's all enjoy.

bmw,,, looking for newbies and professionals alike,,, newbies can accelerate their learning by helping me backtest various exits on the MACD which is what iam always after on many different time frames, instruments, and sometimes even settings, so perhaps you can imagine the infinite possibilities involved ,,,

I provide my contact info and social media cuz quite frankly it doesn't make a difference knowing or not knowing where iam

I will be more than happy to post charts and how and when all that is shown once I get to my office,,

I told you above why it helps to connect with newbies and here is why it helps connect with professionals, perhaps it had to do with my trading RESULTS that caused me to do so,,, since 2008 when I was trading I never made a dime all the way till 2016, 2016 was such a turn around year for me both in terms of dollars as well as percentage to the point I couldn't believe it, and I wanted to connect with professionals to make sure iam not overlooking anything or its not a short term flare, I kept retesting and retesting and back testing to see where I COULD FAIL and disproving the system that I couldn't find any, the worse case scenario the systems produced was that I could suffer losses but not catastrophic in terms of percentage, and if iam diversified across several instruments then even a drastic event (Brexit for example which I was LONG) wouldn't shake the entire performance.

so once again it might have to do with he fact I went from deeeeep loser in terms of trading to a deeeeep winner that's got me questioning even my own sustainability or its something else,,, idk,,, all I can tell Is I didn't go through the normal trend of traders evolutions of losing lot, losing less, losing less, breaking even, making a little, making a lot,,, will it continue? all I can say is only time will tell

 

[systematictrader]

I wanted to add one thing, I have a friend who is been trading successfully since the 70s, his account size is about 10M usd,, he is obviously been trading long before I was born and made most of his money from trading, we met in 2015, which was the year I was STILL losing money since 2008, the iconic thing is 2016 was my turn around year, he trades strictly one uinsturment and that's the Australian dollar, I trade whatever top 5 instrument my systems (MACD) rate it to be the best indicate, whenever we crossed paths and I was trading the aussie we found our selves with almost identical results in terms of percentage, YET he was doing waaaaay more work, analysis (technical and fundamental), thinking and stress than iam, and our positions were relatively similar over the entire period, the point here iam getting at is,,, as the argument goes with fundamental and technical analysis, people say that fundamentals has ALL fundamentals priced in technical which I believe, and I go even a step further to say that the MACD indicator summarizes and embeds all rules, intelligence and setups many other strategies have embedded into them.

 

[Handle123]

Handle, u summarized it better than all of us for sure, "indicator, up/down," and agreed whether u take or NOT take trades is abilities and skills,, this reminds me of William Eckhardt who argues even random entries (MACD CROSS OVER) can make money as long as you develop some system for exiting,

iam going to study a bit on the deep retracements portion, my only concern with my trading style is whether I can quantify it or not,,,

also a beautiful sunny day here as well

I use MACD as it should, it indicates and nothing else, does not foretell the future, I have done my homework by testing price when it gives what I am looking and between these stats and I hedge, I am most happy with the results. I use a variety of patterns of price and indicators for entries, but price leads the way and the indicator shows refection. My days of 100% plus are gone, that is fine when you don't mind risking more, but as you get older, you get more conservative. So long as I make more than last year, am content.

 

[systematictrader]

I forgot to add, he never knew what macd was or even used it, and still doesnt