Calling all swing/position/trend traders

[Rugby Trader]

thanks mean,
i'll have a look into that!

 

[meanreversion]

They do a free 1 week trial, direct from the ProRealTime website.

If, further down the line, you find yourself moving towards a fully rules based trading system, I'd suggest you check out Amibroker as backtesting software. It has the ability to handle portfolios, which most packages cannot do.

Anyway, best of luck and remember, some effort will be required!

 

[Black Swan]

Sorry, I should mention that if you open an account with IG, you get access to the ProRealTime package. If you trade a certain number of times a month it's free, otherwise I think they charge you £30 or so. However, the version that IG offer is nowhere near as comprehensive as that which you get directly from the vendor.

For swinging it's perfect, in fact it's got all the bells/whistles/features you need for any trading. You have to take 2 trades/month with ig to have it for free, so it should cost you no more than the price of a pint in Londonium every month and tbh for that cost it rocks..

Just make sure you log out of the ig platform once your charts are live/set up each day though...

 

[Black Swan]

They do a free 1 week trial, direct from the ProRealTime website.

If, further down the line, you find yourself moving towards a fully rules based trading system, I'd suggest you check out Amibroker as backtesting software. It has the ability to handle portfolios, which most packages cannot do.

Anyway, best of luck and remember, some effort will be required!

iirc it's only EOD on the trial

 

[meanreversion]

For swinging it's perfect, in fact it's got all the bells/whistles/features you need for any trading. You have to take 2 trades/month with ig to have it for free, so it should cost you no more than the price of a pint in Londonium every month and tbh for that cost it rocks..

Just make sure you log out of the ig platform once your charts are live/set up each day though...

IG are probably the most professional spreadbet firm out there. Their market cap is close to £2bn and they've been around 30+ years, so you could do worse than start with them.

(Do I get money for all these recommendations???)

 

[HowardCohodas]

yes i've been demo trading for 14 weeks.
i do have a rule set but whether the answer to each rule is yes or no is discretionary so couldn't be programmed unfortunately.

Sounds like a suggestion set not a rule set.

Given the flexibility of your decision making, your results when money is involved and stress is involved, may be considerably different.

 

[Rugby Trader]

yeah maybe, the rules aren't strict. they certainly aren't if x=y then take the trade.
My trend trading method is based on captain currency's 3 ducks but i've adapted it to myself, my interpretation and what i'm comfortable with.

I know what i'm looking for but it's not something i can program.
Nor is it something that if i explained it to someone else they could use as they will never have the same exact interpretation as me. My interpretations do diverge from captain currency's.

It is very discretionary but i know what i'm looking for and try to stick to the rules (although they may look wooly) that I have for myself.

but you're right, things could be very different when i'm staking real money and experiencing the highs and lows for real.

I just have to hope that with sound money-management, I will act rationally.

With regards to psychology, the reason I have chosen to work on a trend trading system is for two reasons, 1: time, 2: i only have to look at the screen once a day, anything that involves more than that I'm likely to meddle and start gambling and I know myself I would start punting if i was in a losing trade. I will never be a day-trader.

So i'm hoping that all of this works in my favour!

 

[meanreversion]

Have a look in the Trading journals section on t2w, Adamus has been running a thread on his system, also based on 3 Ducks (must be a popular system).

 

[Rugby Trader]

I'll have a look at that.

Well Captain Currency is a very good promoter.

What he offers isn't a holy grail and he doesn't promise it to be either. It's a way of identifying trending markets using 1 moving average and you are shown possibilities of how to trade it but he leaves all decisions upto you.
It's very discretionary and I can imagine it doesn't work for a lot of people because they can't adapt it to themselves and it doesn't say x=y now SELL.

 

[HowardCohodas]

but you're right, things could be very different when i'm staking real money and experiencing the highs and lows for real.

I just have to hope that with sound money-management, I will act rationally.

You have been disciplined so far, so that is in your favor.

You have backtested and you are now paper trading. Paper trading should incorporate money management as well. If things still look promising, then you now have one more step before you put your strategy into full production (trading with serious money). I call it pre-production, i.e. trading with small money. Pre-production gets you to see the limitations of paper trading, for example in terms of order fills. This can sometimes make or break a strategy. Currency pairs are the least effected by this difference. More importantly it engages all the psychological elements.

Now you can have confidence in your trading system, not just your trading strategy. The trading system, of course includes the strategy, money management and the trader. The hardest to gage is the trader.

I wish you well.

 

[meanreversion]

I'll have a look at that.

Well Captain Currency is a very good promoter.

What he offers isn't a holy grail and he doesn't promise it to be either. It's a way of identifying trending markets using 1 moving average and you are shown possibilities of how to trade it but he leaves all decisions upto you.
It's very discretionary and I can imagine it doesn't work for a lot of people because they can't adapt it to themselves and it doesn't say x=y now SELL.

Oh dear, please ignore 3 Ducks and Captain Currency and devise your own system. Try reading "Trade your way to financial freedom" by Van Tharp - it contains detailed analyses of various trading strategies.

 

[meanreversion]

As I mentioned earlier, you MUST have confidence in your system (whether mechanical or discretionary) and if you are trading someone else's system, you'll lack confidence to continue trading it through drawdown.

 

[Rugby Trader]

i'll have a look at that book.

I know what you're saying but i'm not trading Captain Currency's system, it is my trend trading system that i have changed and adapted to suit me and is the one i've been testing.

I'm confident at the moment but i've only been paper-trading for three months. Next up is some serious back testing the way Shanghai mentioned and also live-money-trading with Smart Live Markets for 10p a point for another 3 months.

That way i'm not risking too much money and I should hopefully have built the confidence i need in my method by that stage to invest some serious money (serious to me anyway)

 

[meanreversion]

The trading system, of course includes the strategy, money management and the trader. The hardest to gage is the trader.

Yup, the 3 M's as I have seen it called (was that Van Tharp or Elder?). Method, money and mind.

 

[HowardCohodas]

Yup, the 3 M's as I have seen it called (was that Van Tharp or Elder?). Method, money and mind.

Thanks. I had forgotten that term. It's now back in my repertoire.

 

[SanMiguel]

As Black Swan says, patience is required. Also fortitude, in order to withstand those big swings in equity.

Not to put your system down or anything, but the last quarter has been a good one for trend systems in general (i.e. USD lower).. have you backtested your strategy over a decent length of time?

Trend systems should essentially be buying the dips and selling the rallies, not too complicated if you really are in a trend...

 

[meanreversion]

Trend systems should essentially be buying the dips and selling the rallies, not too complicated if you really are in a trend...

? Buying dips and selling rallies is a range trading strategy. Trend systems buy strength/sell weakness.

 

[SanMiguel]

? Buying dips and selling rallies is a range trading strategy. Trend systems buy strength/sell weakness.

Not really. For example, in an uptrend you buy everytime there is a retrace and it looks like turning up again. So, buy, take some profit, leave a little to run, retrace, buy more, take profit, leave a little to run, etc. Avoiding being whipped it of course is tricky.

I suppose it depends how you look at it, a range trading strategy to me would be shorting res and buying support of the range.

 

[Rugby Trader]

As an aside from what we've talking about, those of you who do trend trade, could you point me in the direction of useful threads, books, resources, anything else.
I believe trend trading is the right kind of trading for my personality and am keen to learn as much as i can.

thanks

 

[Black Swan]

As an aside from what we've talking about, those of you who do trend trade, could you point me in the direction of useful threads, books, resources, anything else.
I believe trend trading is the right kind of trading for my personality and am keen to learn as much as i can.

thanks

DYOR and Google, see where it takes you...

As an aside I just wanted to mention "drawdown" given that MR brought it up. Look, here's the thing, at the stage you're at it's (drawdown) an irrelevance if you're trading with 200/500 dollars. You lose 25%? So what. You lose it all, but know it was there to burn whilst you learn? So what..

Do not, repeat do not get hung up about losing 25% of a 500 dollar account, you've only lost 125 dollars FFS...comprende?

You might have to burn through 2 small accounts to get the hang of swinging and what your tolerance to risk is. Plenty of my swings can go 150 pips+ offside before coming back, plenty can go that much offside to alert a swing in the other direction and I'll be *relieved* that my stop of 250+ hasn't been taken out...Some stops get taken out at that level then I swing the other (if all conditions are met etc.) way to catch a bigger ride...

So, you place your first 2 swing/position bets on 2 pairs next week, let's say its Euro and Swissy, (one long one short), how you gonna feel when they're a combined 400 pips offside inside 4-12 hours...? That's your first and biggest test right there and sods law it'll happen in the first week..there isn't a book that's gonna tell you how you feel at that moment if its a new expreience, whatever size you've got on