For me AB is an environment (software, forum, developer, associates)..... since trading today is synonomous with computer trading the combination keeps me in touch with, and gives me insight into, trading and the trading community.
IMO, while all of the best traders in the world aren't necessarily in the forum, AB owners are a cross section of the cream of the trading crop ..... however, based on the number of users == approx 9000 (Tomasz has confirmed that forum members approximtes the no. of users) the majority of them are silent (there is rumoured to be a large contingent of fund managers/institutional traders but Tomasz hasn't confirmed that in the forum to my knowledge).... so by inference I consider 'I have a line' to stay in touch with what is going on in the world of trading. By it's nature AB attracts algorithmic traders and people with an IT background or interest. Judging by the discussions, between those AB'ers who do talk, mechanical system trading is a common interest .... almost a 'rite of passage' in fact ....even 'discretionary traders' are measured by their rejection of, or juxtaposition to MST. I think you can also draw a line through the AB trading community by referencing the three main areas of specialization, and the AB mentors associated with them: Howard Bandy - Quantitative Analysis ... walk forward backtesting. Herman van den Bergen - autotrading. Fred Tonetti - Intelligent Optimization. The following site is substantially built on Herman's, and his partner Al Venosa's, contributions and also includes an intro to Fred's work (see item 12 in the Contents list ... Fred also has downloadable files in the file section of this board). http://www.amibroker.org/userkb/ Howard has his own site: http://www.quantitativetradingsystems.com/book.html My approach isn't that relevant to many since it is based on my temperament, skill set, objectives, capital and where I live etc: - I am a small capital freelance trader (semi-retired at 52 but not on trading money). - I have used AB primarily to develop my trading philosophies and strategies. - I have my own unique style. - I am not an algorithmic trader. - I use a set of mental rules so I am not a discretionary trader but I would look like one to any trader looking over my shoulder when I trade. - I have stock selection criteria .. for some strategies I scan EOD data afterhours to chose a stock or watchlist for the next days intraday trading..... I can just as easily trade an index or a commodity as a spot price 'index' (don't like futures with expiry dates etc). - I mainly trade intraday or short term (I believe in high frequency trading for statistical smoothing of equity). - I can trade without AB, or any indicators on the chart if I want to, in fact I think it is better not to use any..... this is very handy because I can trade with any broker who provides an online RT chart (I don't need to apply indicators in the brokers platform so I can select my broker for 'business' reasons and not software needs). - If I do use an 'indicator' they are more of a visual cue than a true indicator. - I believe in mental training (training the trading mind) and I like to use AB for that ... consistent hours per week looking at charts and practising ... especially the stocks that I didn't follow that day OR other instruments to get some variety into my training - I prefer to trade stocks, or stock derivatives (Australia or Europe), but I can trade anything (however I don't need to or want to trade other instruments/markets) e.g the US is the best market to trade but I live in Australia and don't want to work after approx midnight (my time). - I use my own wave 'theory' (if it could be called that) and view the markets as being almost random. - My overall style is simplistic but what went into is complex in that it encompasses a lot of subtle ideas developed over a long period of time and combined into a single method. - I have spent most of my time in AB looking at charts (80%) and the rest testing strategies. - I seldom run the backtester although I did a lot of BT in Metastock before moving to AB (I do most of my strategy testing using indicators and Exporations with occassional use of Excel for record keeping and charting). - If I use AB live at all it is only to run charts that correspond to my brokers charts (cross checking or different timeframes etc for visual cues that I can't get on my brokers Java platform). - I have no interface from AB to my broker at all. - My Aus based broker is the one who most meets my needs (no foreign bank exposure, no interest charge on same day trades, high leverage, trade with a palm device if needed, multi-national and multi-instruments on one platform with the main ones in Aussie dollars == no forex exposure or management).... can't have all of that and use AB! - I don't have a need to learn most of the things that I take an interest in via this forum ... I continue to learn to keep my options open and keep me flexible and alert. - I don't have much need for further development of systems etc. - AB is my last stockmarket program ... I will retire from here. - I am interested in the R project because I like open source and it has a very good basis to develop trading applications on ... I might do some hobby development over there in the future.... AB has an R plugin too (donated by Patrick). - IMO looking for successful trading systems or strategies is like looking for a needle in a haystack .... I can count the strategies that work, that I know of, on one hand. - I am out of step with the trading status quo .... most of it is smoke and mirrors and very seductive at that. - I have a free website that offers a small sampler of my trading flavour (it is new site and only a part time hobby) http://zboard.wordpress.com/ Thought for the day: "In Japan all English research is translated into Japanese. In the US only 5% of Japanese research is translated into English." Sang Wang. --- In [email protected], "Conrad Joach" <consolejo...@...> wrote: > > Do most AB users actually trade with AB or is it used mostly for research? > And do most users focus on equities or are there a fair number of FX, futures > and commodities traders who use AB? > > Are people using AB in concert with some other platform or application or do > most AB users rely on AB solely for their research and trading needs? > > Are most users individual/active traders or are there any institutional firms > that are using it in their research or trading pipeline? > > It would be interesting to get a feel for what the userland is like for AB. > It seems like a very diverse and wide audience from some of the posts on this > forum. >
