What is your trading system.....

why did you use it, and how did you arrive at the decision to use it?

another newbie question - i'm looking through different trading systems. systems which use, MAs, Fibonacci line, elliot wave theory, etc, etc. in the markets its pretty rare for someone to build an entirely new product as most new products tend to be based on existing products but with some fine tuning (eg, CDS is just an insurance policy etc).

so what i'd like to know is what system are your succesful trading strategies based upon, and what adjustments have you don to make them work.

i dont expect minute detail if you're trying to keep them to yourself, just an understanding of the basics.

thanks in advance

Very overused, however, the Turtle system is a great BUILDING BLOCK/TEMPLATE to use as a system. Notice the key words were "Building Block/Template." You can learn the system easily, just google it and you'll find the rules out there somewhere for free. It is not based on indicators (MACD, fibonacci, elliot, stochastics etc), just price action only.

I like to use the methodology as a place to start, although I don't agree with the philosophy behind the Turtle system. The Turtles did not do much analysis, they simply bought/sold short 20 or 55 day breakouts, regardless of what was going on. I like to do the analysis, find my own entry points (you can use it with just about any time frame), and then use the trading methodology to execute and manage the the trade.

The Turtle system teaches all the essentials, (risk management, scaling, trailing stops) that you need to build an effective methodology. As with any overdone method or piece of advice: take the best and leave the rest.

Just my two cents.

Bowball said:

why did you use it, and how did you arrive at the decision to use it?

another newbie question - i'm looking through different trading systems. systems which use, MAs, Fibonacci line, elliot wave theory, etc, etc. in the markets its pretty rare for someone to build an entirely new product as most new products tend to be based on existing products but with some fine tuning (eg, CDS is just an insurance policy etc).

so what i'd like to know is what system are your succesful trading strategies based upon, and what adjustments have you don to make them work.

i dont expect minute detail if you're trying to keep them to yourself, just an understanding of the basics.

thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Like you when I started trading I had the arduous task of reading up on various systems and looking for the magic numbers that make the MACD a holy grail.

What I have found in my experience that it is not a case of one cap fits all. I know about 20 traders from this site, 10 of them I would say I know well and not ONE of them uses the same strat. There are plenty of strats (THAT WORK!!) at TradingNaked - "The interpretation and application of price action concepts" an excellent resource. However, to make them work for YOU there are always tweaks YOU are going to need to make.

I found that I have actually done a complete 360. When I first started out I just looked at the price on Euro Dollar, lost a load of dough and then went down the indicator path. Now I am back where I started really just looking at price, but the journey of adding indicators, burning the midnight oil looking for patterns or a better "ma" or messing around running TEMA's over CCI's have all paid their dividends.

I now look at nothing complicated at all.

2 Time Frames (1 min, 5 min)

MACD on 5 min TIME FRAME ONLY (for showing divergence only)

Entry based on price action on 5 minute, taking entries from 1 minute.

Rather than follow a strict SET OF RULES I try and be as flexible as possible.

An excellent thread I would recommend for new traders and the more experience is MR GECKO'S BRIEFCASE.....Can't believe I missed this one, but was pointed in it's direction by Brutusdog...cheers mate.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/first-steps/30825-mrgecko-s-briefcase.html

I will also say I have had a few pints with Mr Gecko and actually know the guy so can say hand on heart he is a profitable full time trader. Trust me he knows his onions. This is not some hot air written by a guy who couldn't trade his way out of a paper bag this is written by someone walking the walk rather than talking the talk.

I would also recommend maybe finding a trading buddy. That's not someone who is going to teach you ! That's someone who is at a similar level and then you can learn together. Since I managed to find a trading buddy (by pure fluke from this website) about 18 months ago my trading ability multiplied exponentially. The advantage of a buddy at a similar level is you can bounce ideas off each other, you also have an outlet for the frustrating moments with another trader. You will learn together as well. Highly recommend this !

Front run paper
Make a market when volatility is appropriate (you should always have a view on volatility) - yes you can still do this using a spread betting account on most instruments (reversion to the mean basically)
Trade news

That's all you have to do, leave the complicated stuff to hedge funds.

arabianights said:

Front run paper
Make a market when volatility is appropriate (you should always have a view on volatility) - yes you can still do this using a spread betting account on most instruments (reversion to the mean basically)
Trade news

That's all you have to do, leave the complicated stuff to hedge funds.

Click to expand...

Sounds complicated to me big man :cheesy:

nile_croc said:

Very overused, however, the Turtle system is a great BUILDING BLOCK/TEMPLATE to use as a system. Notice the key words were "Building Block/Template." You can learn the system easily, just google it and you'll find the rules out there somewhere for free. It is not based on indicators (MACD, fibonacci, elliot, stochastics etc), just price action only.

I like to use the methodology as a place to start, although I don't agree with the philosophy behind the Turtle system. The Turtles did not do much analysis, they simply bought/sold short 20 or 55 day breakouts, regardless of what was going on. I like to do the analysis, find my own entry points (you can use it with just about any time frame), and then use the trading methodology to execute and manage the the trade.

The Turtle system teaches all the essentials, (risk management, scaling, trailing stops) that you need to build an effective methodology. As with any overdone method or piece of advice: take the best and leave the rest.

Just my two cents.

Click to expand...

I'm with the turtles. I don't trade intraday, but for medium/long term technical trading a simple trend following approach has been proven to work over many years and many different economic cycles ( as long as you can afford the drawdowns.)

2008 was a great example where trend following was the shining beacon of hedge fund strategies as they were the only sector apart from dedicated short sellers to return a profit. Over the last 15 years the CTA industry (admittedly not all trend followers) has consistently returned excess value to investors