my journal 3

FURTHER COMMENTS:

7. you don't need to pay for any more feed

8. margin: there's no distinction between initial and manteinance margin. If you get below initial margin, IB will liquidate your position, one "full lot" at a time, so make sure you have some money in excess when you start a trade/scale your position.
 
travis said:
Let me see if I can remember my easylanguage from the office. I would simply say:

if close > x and close < y

Here's a typical system, actually twice as complex as those I kept (this one I didn't keep):

Inputs: test(0), test2(0), test3(0);
vars: sample(0),pre_SR_bars(0),post_SR_bars(0),entry_aft er(0);
sample = xx;
pre_SR_bars = xxx;
post_SR_bars = xxxx;
entry_after = xxxx;

If marketposition = 0
and low<=lowest(low,sample)[1]
and lowestBar(low,sample)[1] < pre_SR_bars
and lowestBar(low,sample)[1] > post_SR_bars
and time >= entry_after and time <= 1500 Then buy This Bar;
If marketposition <> 0 and time >= 1600 Then Exitlong This Bar;

If marketposition = 0
and high>=Highest(high,sample)[1]
and highestBar(high,sample)[1] < pre_SR_bars
and highestBar(high,sample)[1] > post_SR_bars
and time >= entry_after and time <= 1500 Then sell This Bar;
If marketposition <> 0 and time >= 1600 Then Exitshort This Bar;
Click to expand...

Hi Travis,

> and < wont work in this case because sometimes x > y and other times y > x.
I need 'if price is between x and y'.

I'll keep pondering it. I'm pretty sure there is a simple solution.
 
Hmm, I think we can solve it, too.

Let's make a practical example:

If close > 9 and close < 10

should mean the same as: if close (same as "price") is between 9 and 10. Doesn't it work?
 
Damn. My stoploss on JPY got taken. Of course I should feel proud of it, because there was a stoploss instead of nothing. But as usual, instead of feeling good about acting wisely and prudently, I feel bad because I lost 400 dollars. But right now I would be losing more had I not placed it.

The problem is that I think it will bounce. But the answer can't be to say "let us not use stoplosses". Maybe the answer could be placing them better, or if they cannot be placed better (today it could have been, by placing the LMT entry order lower and the stoploss lower, too) the answer is not placing a trade at all. The solution should never be to trade without stoplosses.

You know, i can't really think an activity where doing the right thing is so unpleasant as trading. I mean, by being orderly I am doing the right thing and things get easier and it feels good. But... cutting a loss... is not pleasant. And it doesn't feel right either. What is pleasant and feels right is doubling up and doing martingale. But we now clearly know that it is the wrong thing to do.

I tell you a field where things are similar: nutrition. Sugar tastes good, and yet it hurts you, both in terms of fat and health (it causes tumors). Bitter almonds don't taste good, and yet (cfr. B17 theory) they save your life. Using martingale is like eating sugar and sweets. It feels great, but there is a big bill to pay at the end.

...

Dude, that money is gone. Stop thinking about it. Learn what you can from it, but you've got what you've got. JPY doesn't have a debt with you.

Yeah, I know... two hours to go. Once I get home, I'll buy it even lower. WITH another stoploss. I'll make it back.

Dude, stop thinking about it in terms of "making it back". Forget that loss.

... I'll make it back.

Dude, I give up. You have to choose between pride and profit. You can't have both.

...

idea2develop

...

I want revenge... I want revenge...

Shame on you! How did you end up losing those 400 dollars to begin with? Because you wanted revenge for yesterday, when you exited JPY, and, unavoidably, missed some profit. Now, why aren't you celebrating the fact that had you stayed with the trade, as you initially were planning, right now you'd be down 6000 dollars? Celebrate that, you mother ****er.
 
Last edited:
Back home.

JPY and GBL long. They're very very cheap right now.

AND now I have to play this song, because yesterday I found out that this song makes the JPY and GBL rise (but then they fall in the morning the next day, so careful how you use this song):

I Got A Name (Jim Croce) - YouTube

...

Damn. How stupid. I stopped playing the song, and, after a bit, JPY and GBL started to fall.

...

Seriously though, this is unbelievable. It still won't rise. 13 weeks of falling in a row, and it still won't show me a decent bounce!

Ok, I am just about ready to give up, so this means it will bounce now.

...

I am speechless. I am now losing thousands with my currency futures trades of today.

Needless to say I am doing the martingale again!

Because I was positive... that today... today it would definitely go my way! So, of course I could allow myself to break the rules. Wrong again, as usual.
 
Last edited:
pecas said:
3. you can buy/sell as low as 1 unit of each currency, but IB considers as "full lots" the following quantities:
GBP: 17K
EUR 20K
NZD 35K
all the other ones: 25K
I suggest to use these lots or multiples of them. If you don't, you risk to pay a lot more commissions, because in this case IB is free to satisfy your trade with multiple trades (example, you want to buy 5000, they sell you 1000+1000+1000+1000+1000 with 5x the commission)

4. the commission plan is not friendly. Basically you pay $0.50 for each "full lot", but with a minimum of $2.50. In the end, if you buy/sell 5 lots or more all is ok, but 5 lots is the same as one futures contract, so there goes the main advantage of FX (granularity)
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much the reason that made me go with MBT.
MB comms have no minimums or steps, choose any size down to microlot resolution.
MB Trading - Commissions
MB Trading - Pricing
Even the comms have improved to 2.50/100000 base per side.
Good summary btw :)
 
I am lost. Unbelievable - i am lost. Not even worth writing about it. I got addicted to going long on JPY. I'll just keep doing it and doing it, until I'll either blow out my account or until it'll bounce. The longer it goes on, the less I can quit. It's like trading. I've been at it for so long, that I can't quit now.
 
This is it! It's bouncing like crazy.

It's going up and down, a really decisive moment I think.

Snap1.jpg

Like the pine trees lining the winding road
I've got a name
I've got a name
Like the singing bird and the croaking toad
I've got a name
I've got a name
And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I'm living the dream that he kept hid
Moving me down the highway
Rolling me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won't pass me by

I Got A Name (Jim Croce) - YouTube

Like the North wind whistling down the sky
I've got a song
I've got a song
Like the whip-poor-will and the babies crying
I've got a song
I've got a song
And I carry it with me and I sing it proud
If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud
Moving me down the highway
Rolling me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won't pass me by
And I'm gonna go there free

Like the fool I am and I'll always be
I've got a dream
I've got a dream
They can change their minds but they can't change me
I've got a dream
I've got a dream
 
Last edited:
An idea about stop-losses. You set an alert at the price you usually set a stop loss at. When alert is hit, enter trailing stop loss half the initial stop loss distance away. This way you will try to minimize the loss amount.

This approach works if you set the correct initial stop loss price. It should be close to a normal price swing distance away from your entry price. If so, you will minimize the loss by using half-distance trailing stop. If the initial stop loss wasn't right, you might loose 1.5x the initial loss amount.

There are variations on how you use this approach. For example you might decide that the swing to the initial stop price was a false one and remove the trailing stop loss or change it to a fixed stop loss (although higher than the initial stop loss).

You can also use the inverted approach for your regular entries/exits. This way you wouldn't blame yourself for not exiting at a daily extreme (like you did yesterday).
 
D70 said:
Hi Liquid validity,

Do you run systems with MB Trading?
Thanks for all your input.
Click to expand...

Yes, not systems plural, just the one so far.
Still pretty new to this - 18 months in so far, thats research, dev, testing etc.
 
D70 said:
You run it on MB Trading? Using their API ?
Click to expand...

No Ninja handles that side of things.
That is a good point though, any changes in the MB API and Ninja
deal with any update issues, or you find a workaround until they do.
So I don't have to work it out.

TBH if you are used to excel and VBA stick with it, no sense
changing if you have experience with excel already.
 
jazeonli said:
An idea about stop-losses. You set an alert at the price you usually set a stop loss at. When alert is hit, enter trailing stop loss half the initial stop loss distance away. This way you will try to minimize the loss amount.

This approach works if you set the correct initial stop loss price. It should be close to a normal price swing distance away from your entry price. If so, you will minimize the loss by using half-distance trailing stop. If the initial stop loss wasn't right, you might loose 1.5x the initial loss amount.

There are variations on how you use this approach. For example you might decide that the swing to the initial stop price was a false one and remove the trailing stop loss or change it to a fixed stop loss (although higher than the initial stop loss).

You can also use the inverted approach for your regular entries/exits. This way you wouldn't blame yourself for not exiting at a daily extreme (like you did yesterday).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the detailed and precious advice.

I don't know how capable I am of doing this anymore. The loss is now gigantic. As I said before, this is a choice between pride/revenge and profit. Again, I turned a desire to "make it back" into another loss. Yesterday's loss on JPY amounts now to 3000 dollars. And 500 dollars from my desire to "make it back" on GBP.

If they don't bounce today, it's all over for me. I know I won't close them and I'll blow out my account, again. I really picked the wrong two markets for top/bottom picking.

It's 3 am, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I am staring at it:

Snap1.jpg

With my face, like the face of those they show at the casino, in the movies.

A lot of irrational thoughts in my mind and subconscious, such as that if I stare at it, it won't go against me, and if I go to sleep, it will.

Another thing i noticed is that it's been stuck at 0.010666 for half an hour, and this, to my delusional mind, reminds the devil (it's called "666" in some symbolic math language), and this in turn suggests that if I make a deal with the devil, JPY will finally bounce. The fact that it's been there for so long means the devil is sending me a message and waiting for me to make a deal with him. I've though to myself that I am agnostic about the devil, and if he exists, he might not be powerful enough to make the YEN bounce for me, especially considering all the simultaneous deals he's making with other traders.

Indeed, it's still stuck at 0.010666

Now i can no longer laugh at people believing in horoscopes, given my irrational behavior and magical thinking of these days.
 
Last edited:
It would seem to hold, for the way that it bounced a few hours ago, for the way that it's lasting and for the way that today we are only down a few ticks:

Snap1.jpg

If I were you, I would get long now on JPY.
 
It's been holding. I've been away for 4 hours (medical exam).

The JPY has risen a little bit, from its low of midnight (US CT). It's been holding for 8 hours already.

Will it bounce for real now? I wonder.

GBP is bouncing, too. It's the only currency future that's positive right now.

Now's the time when I have to leave the house, because otherwise, as soon as I see some green, I will close all trades. And, again, will see no real profit for risking my entire account.

GBL bounced as well, but of course I have closed it too soon. It doesn't take much to be right on markets if you can hold them indefinitely.
 
Ok, my loss is now down to 300 and the JPY bounce seems to be happening.

Also, what's most important, I didn't make a deal with the devil when price being stuck for hours at 0.010666 seemed to suggest the devil was trying to communicate with me that price would move from 666 only if i agreed to a deal with him.

To the contrary, I am starting to believe that if I give money to those asking for it, I will be rewarded by the markets. Or maybe just by my conscience.

Or maybe by God, if he exists. And maybe, if I do enough good, he'll reward me with the death of the neighboring possessed child.

I Got A Name (Jim Croce) - YouTube

Like the fool I am and I'll always be
I've got a dream
I've got a dream
They can change their minds but they can't change me
I've got a dream
I've got a dream
 
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I've switched on the strategy in my sim account.
Let's see what happens......
 
Wow, that was fast. Let me know more about it (settings, parameters), if and when you feel like it.

About me, I went down to the Castel Sant'Angelo, to drink a beer, Corona, while looking at tourists and birds. I hoped that by postponing my sitting here at the pc, I'd give the JPY more time to rise.

Now, hopefully, it didn't let me down again, with its renowned aborted bounces and, for once, it kept rising - about time after 13 straight weeks of falling.

Now of course, if it did rise, I won't be able to hold myself, and I'll close all positions pretty quickly (both JPY and GBP), because I'm scared stiff that it might go back down.

If it didn't rise and fell back, I'll keep them open.

Basically, I will keep my losses running, and cut my profits short. Yep.

That's how I am, that's the natural tendency in us all, but I don't have the gift for being a trader as I can't control mine, nor learn to exploit the statistics and counter-intuitive facts I do know.

Ok. Let's check the JPY.

...

Holy ****!

Nope. Once again, it changed its mind and it went back down!

So now I am losing thousands again.

And of course now I'll keep my positions open. That's how my mind works.

I Got A Name (Jim Croce) - YouTube

Like the North wind whistling down the sky
I've got a song
I've got a song
Like the whip-poor-will and the babies crying
I've got a song
I've got a song
And I carry it with me and I sing it proud
If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud

...

Four hours to go, four more hours of hoping and waiting.
 
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