You have to develop the system first, taking into consideration the system
issues, such as delays. If you are trading as a scalper, forget automation. If
you are trading the longer cycles and larger price move then automation can be
practical.
I think you need to go in phases:
1. Decide that your trading is reasonable for automation
- Trade delays are incosequential (longer cycles)
- You trade relatively liquid issues
- Trade with limit order, as market order are a problem when delays are
present.
- Stop loss orders should be at market
2. Create trade alerts and trade manually, so you can evaluate system
performance in a qualitative way. Is it doing what you want it to do
3. Write to disk all trades and trade parameters (time, quantity, price etc. to
have a record of performance. This is what auto trading would see.
4. Compare this performance to actual auto trade results (paper trade at first
... even though the paper trading platform is not as good as the real trading
platform)
5. Trading indeces (ETFs, Sectors, Industries, etc) may work better than stocks
as they are smoother and indicators typically work better
----- Original Message -----
From: Louis P.
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 10:50 AM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Re: Anyone actually making money?
Thomas: Maybe if I can find a sound money management system then I'd be more
than happy to play it discretionary, but so far I think I would be wise to
concentrate on building a system that work and rely on it!
Ara: This is interesting, but again this is automated system; I'd have to
learn how to use it.. But if that's what I need, then I will do it. Would you
recommand first finding a system that work and then making it better with
automated trading, or building the system considering that there will be no
delay for the trades because it will be automated?
Thanks,
Louis
2008/7/31 Ara Kaloustian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Herman has done a bunch of work in this area and his conclusion was (and I
paraphrase) that the delays in autotrade become negligable if you trade with 3
min bar charts (or longer).
----- Original Message -----
From: Louis P.
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Re: Anyone actually making money?
To Tom: Do you use IB automatic trading? Is it possible to test such
feature? I find that intraday trade delay is a major reason why I don't make
any money. If I was faster I could do better.
Thanks,
Louis
2008/7/31 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Is it not obvious to you that some people�s personality calls for a
trading system, while others personality calls for a discretionary
approach.
I think that is the best thing that I've read on this thread!
I agree. I have found that I am too emotional to try day trading
because I make emotional decisions. That is why I developed an EOD program to
trade. When that was very profitable, I had my EOD program converted to a real
time program and auto trade. I use a dat/night chart and only trade 3 times a
day. Now I just watch to make sure the auto trade is working correctly.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: tuzo_wilson
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 7:31 AM
Subject: SV: [amibroker] Re: Anyone actually making money?
--- In [email protected], "Jan Malmberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> Is it not obvious to you that some people�s personality calls for a
trading system, while others personality calls for a discretionary
approach.
I think that is the best thing that I've read on this thread!
Tuzo
