Deadline June

Who are you trading with to get those spreads? What size do you need to trade at to get those?

Do you have the data for the average spreads for those pairs?

Those are IB spreads. So they vary. These are just snapshots. Look for instance at the AUDNZD spread first and then again.

You don't need size, just the IB minimum. I think it has to be >$25000.

I don't have averages for them. Don't have time to do what I really wanted - chart them thro the day - but I could easily implement a moving average. What length do you think would be most useful - timeframe + periods?

Trying to work out what to do next. Got a couple of things to choose from.

(1) Carry on hassling NinjaTrader support to try to get some kind of resolution for the 5 bugs I'm currently working around all the time at the cost of most of my time (and yes, it's worth it, at least while the system's making money)

(2) Backtest a few cross-currencies to add into the mix to reduce my exposure to the dollar. My account equity looks more like a non-linear equation than a decent trading system.

(3) Fix up and implement the next system on the front burner, in the hope that it takes some of the heat off the Three Mad Ducks system. The next system is currently named after its inventor, who said he doesn't want public exposure so I've got to come up with a new name for it. It's based around 'turning points' or a kind of 'pivot point' but not the daily pivot points loved by TA. When the market turns around, if the MAs were down before and up after, and everything looks cool, then it trades, with a stop just below the extreme, and a target equally far away on the other side.

(4) Might be able to incorporate this into (2), but I want to optimise long trading and short trading on the Three Ducketeers seperately.

(5) Again perhaps part of another, item (1) - should I be seriously looking into ditching NT after having a little tete-a-tete with them this morning over the biggest baddest issue I'm suffering from, i.e. Interactive Brokers say it's NinjaTrader, NinjaTrader say its IB

Have you used TradeStataion in the past? If so why did you stop using them?

Yes, I have v4. When I started playing around with tickdata, TS4 couldn't handle it. I mean, it was only barely Y2K compliant. Anyway it was a direct choice between NinjaTrader & IB or TradeStation and I heard that NinjaScript was more powerful than TS EasyLanguage and that IB was way better a broker than TS8.

I'm getting the run-around from NinjaTrader and InteractiveBrokers.

I was looking at the alternatives and it seems MB Trading have got a good reputation. Top broker rating from Barron's.

www.mbtrading.com

Anyone else using them?

Backtests on the 3 Ducks system over 2 years on my first chosen new cross-currency proved terrible. Just a steady decline.

The 3 Ducks are 5mins, 1 hour and 4 hour MAs, in original form 60 bars, although optimising the length used gives much better results for all the currencies so far. Not so AUD-CAD.

Nothing between 10 and 95 bars for the MA period was any good.

Now I really have to look at the results and work out why. I think the issue might be that the AUD-CAD just doesn't trend as much as the other currency pairs. From a quick look at the results, all I could tell is that every trade rode the market a short way up but then it turned around, and the 3 Ducks gets cut to shreds like that because the trailing stop is very slow to move.

I spent the rest of the day trying to work out if I had a network error which NinjaTrader support staff say I have. The IB support staff say I have a NinjaTrader issue which is causing IB TWS to disconnect. I feel tied to NinjaTrader just because if it worked it would be so so good. The alternative is probably TradeStation and I would hate to have to go back to writing EasyLanguage. But at the moment I'm stuck between IB and NinjaTrader while they sit happily in stalemate. We'll see.