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Thank you for your words of wisdom, Gwenn...
So what's your system and at what % rate is the money you're risking in
your system growing? :) -uf
At 06:32 PM 9/8/99 +0100, you wrote:
>To all those who inquired what I am using now that I threw out TradeStation,
>here is what I did. This does not mean anyone should do or think the same,
>nor
>should anyone drop TS because I did. It is up to everyone to figure that one
>out for himself.
>
>Long before TradeStation or Systemwriter existed there were traders. Some
>made
>money, most lost money. What's the picture today: Some make money, most lose
>money.
>
>Before, indicators and systems were difficult to manipulate let alone
>test. So
>people used other techniques which made money for some and lost money for
>most.
>Today, it is very easy to test something, although the TS results are only a
>very approximate picture of the reality, due to data errors, time errors, bar
>errors (tests on Eod data are useless if you use stops and reentries),
>rollover
>errors, portfolio allocation errors, number of contracts errors etc... So
>everyone and his neighbour is out there testing, testing, buying systems,
>books, seminars, testing and usually still losing money.
>
>Contradict me, but as far as I can perceive, and judging from the many
>thousands of posts read on tens of lists over the last 3 years, people have
>exactly the same problems they had before. The cars have changed, but they
>are
>not better at car racing, and it is still as difficult to become a world
>class
>driver.
>
>So I am asking: if things are the same they were before, doesn't it mean
>nothing has changed except for the details? PCs or not, TradeStation or not,
>therein does not lie the problem. It is not the hammer that hurts you, it is
>the hand that holds the hammer that is hurting you when you miss the nail. In
>this case, with or without TS, results would be the same for anyone trying
>his
>luck at trading.
>
>Once came out a book "Market Wizards". The system craze started
>thereafter, as
>the secret was out: "You gotta have is system babe if ya wanna make it, or ya
>dead". From then on, you had to be in the soft and systems business to
>make big
>money. Demand surged. Did we see more profitable traders???
>
>Let me be clear, yes you need a "system", but this does not mean you need TS
>and indicators and what have you. You need to know what you are doing, and
>why
>you are doing it. You need to know how to enter, how to size, how to exit,
>how
>to come back, how to remain "systematic". This has nothing to do with TS. All
>this can be done and has been done for decades without TS. It doesn't mean
>you
>should not use TS, it means TS is just one tool, not a way to win.
>
>So I used TS, tested thousands of things and found NOTHING that works. OK I
>know people who found things they feel comfortable enough with. But really,
>they found a way to trade around some setup, and frankly, my belief is they
>would have found it anyway even without TS.
>
>OK now, what else can be used then? For research on market behavior, I use
>...
>Excell. What??? Yes, it is cumbersome, unsexy, and all but I trust my results
>100%. I know exactly what i am doing, because I have to program the functions
>myself, so I know exactly why this bar has been bought, why this one has not.
>
>So that was it? NO. Where there is the most to be learned is by keeping all
>sorts of trade statistics, time of entries, successive stop levels,
>maximum win
>or loss intratrade, time of max loss compared to entrytime, you name it, you
>can easily fill 20 columns of data like this. Next you analyse trends,
>patterns
>etc that appear from these series, and believe me, these are real numbers you
>can relate to, and anyway you trade, you'll be able to extract at least 25%
>more profits by operating small changes. Not by changing the "system"
>which is
>usually the entry and is rather irrelevant, but by changing your position
>management.
>
>Is that it now? NO. Next you need to trade properly. You need the best PC,
>the
>best feed, the best broker, the best setup (office, desk, chair, recreation).
>That's where it is the most important to spend one's money. I dumped TS,
>because I no longer used it for trading, nor for research. Not for trading,
>because troubles with feeds, bugs, and various glitches are just too
>numerous.
>I want to race in the car, not to be a mechanic. With TS, you spend a lot of
>time becoming a mechanic. So you need a platform that takes away all data
>worries: I use CQG for futures data and various others for stocks, but I know
>others use other feeds and platforms successfully as well. The key here is to
>put yourself in a position not to have to spend one sec on those issues EVER.
>
>In addition there will be more and more programs emulating TS available over
>the net. The trend of e-brokerage just points that way. It is bound to happen
>that one offers a safe, fast and convenient platform soon. But even without,
>as all old traders did, the yet most effective way is to learn to read the
>bars
>without the need of indicators or TS or else. At a time when everyone is
>concerned about speed, that is the ultimate weapon: a direct bar picture to
>hand conncetion, short circuiting the tools, brain etc, which are only
>delaying
>things...
>
>Now I got you confused here, never mind. Just remember trading is not TS,
>it is
>using yourself for optimal market efficiency. Just as combat is not using the
>latest weapon but knowing yourself and your enemy to the perfection, so as to
>outwit and beat him flat without even having to fight... If TS is not
>satisfactory for your needs, find another way. If it is, keep using it, until
>it no longer is. Don't try to change the environment, change yourself. I
>mailed
>Omega, because I find their claims outrageous and properly misleading, so I
>said so, but frankly I don't care. It is not my problem, it is theirs.
>
>Cheers to all, and good night...
>
>Gwenn
>
>
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