As many will know: I’m a firm believer in mechanical trading systems (and I don’t mean EA’s by the way).
Here is a link that I was sent this morning that I found interesting (and actually has just served to reinforce by belief that when trading mechanically ALL signals MUST be taken and this was also noted by the Turtles):
Interesting article… thanks for sharing. I too saw alot of my (mechanical) trading described. I use a rigid set of entry/ exit rules. ‘Hairs on the back of my neck’ or second thoughts only serve the purpose of keeping me OUT of a trade rather than entering!
I too am a firm believer in mechanical systems and I would go so far as to say mechanical trading systems are the only serious way to trade, if only for the fact they can be written into a trading EA, I have spent most of this year working solely on mechanical systems and EA/Indicator programming my current EA is running at 300+ pips per day, per trading chart.
I dont believe there is any other way of trading that can even come close to the level of profit acheivable by a mechanical system.
I admire those that are able to ‘feel’ or ‘call’ the market or understand the fundamentals. I really do. I am now of the belief, however, that unless this is something that you’ve been doing ‘from the get go’, you stand NO chance trading that way (at least not for a LONG while and at 45-years old I don’t think I’ve got the time left to develop that type of ‘understanding’)!!! LOL!!!
As noted in the article: the one BIG plus of mechanical trading is the SUPPOSED removal of emotion and failure to do this results in the failure of mechanical trading. That’s why I myself always ‘bang on’ about this thing called ‘trading psychology’ i.e. I’ve got loads of mechanical (technical) trading systems that didn’t work for me a long while ago but work now. Why??? Simply because I am now able to (for the most part anyway) take ALL signals from these trading systems regardless of my ‘opinion’ or ‘gut feel’ or ‘bias’. Honestly: it’s an ‘either or’ situation is it not??? Either you trade mechanically or you try to digest, understand, and filter, this total GLUT of information that is ‘thrown’ at you on a minute-by-minute basis!!! I have to say that nowadays I’m able to have a good ‘smirk’ when I get some of these daily e-mails from analysts. LAST WEEK (just an example): there was NO stopping the Dow ‘for these reasons’. ‘But now this week, for THESE reasons, …’!!! Blah, blah, blah!!! Just follow the signals!!! Just follow the signals!!! That’s all you have to do!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
Edit:
By the way: if you have an EA that’s ‘good’ for +300 pips per day then why don’t you SELL IT!!! LOL!!! Everybody ELSE does and at least yours WORKS!!! LOL!!! Nothing wrong with making an extra bit of cash to bolster your trading capital!!! LOL!!! Hell: I spend my LIFE trying to do this!!! LOL!!!
Well FIRST of all: you’re not (nor do I consider you to be) a ‘troll’!!! LOL!!! A ‘troll’ is one of those people who ‘troll’ the forums trying to ‘hook’ people into buying something which you’re certainly not doing!!! I find your posts insightful to say the least.
SECOND: take no notice of me and my ‘quirkiness’ about posting images in the main body of the messages i.e. I’m just a ‘tidiness freak’ I guess and sometimes an image in the main body of the message looks ‘messy’. But as I said: that’s just me and I’m certainly in no position to ‘dictate’ to others how they should post so KEEP POSTING ANYWAY YOU SEE FIT!!! LOL!!!
NOW: you and I are actually IN AGREEMENT on everything I think. ‘Keep it simple’ is the way to go there is no doubt. I allowed myself to get ‘caught up in the hype’ of all of this and tried to process every bit of information that I could find. The end result was absolute disaster. It would be a different story if all information pointed in the same direction but that’s never going to happen and all this information did for me was make me ‘second guess’ some very robust trading systems and ignore good signals. The scary part: most times the mechanical (technical) trading systems were EVENTUALLY proved to be correct and the analysts, at around the same time, were ‘changing their tunes’!!!
The word troll has been so heavily misused on this forum it has become tiresome to see it so often used to describe someone who holds a different opionion or disagrees, one of the most outragous offenders for this was banned a few months ago in how shall i put it, a most timely fashion ? lol
It surely did not hurt my feelings any to see the back of him and his BS. As DPaterso said you are not a troll CubanPip you have your opinions you should be at liberty to share tham as you wish, I for one would certainly not have a problem if you disagree with something I say, that this the whole purpose of discussion forum, to share opinions and views which do not neccessarily all need to be in agreement.
Just to clarify for everyone, a troll is someone who posts an inflammatory or disagreeable opinion for the SOLE PURPOSE of causing disruption, this is very different from someone who posts an opionion which disagrees with someone elses for the purpose of getting to the truth, or to extend the discussion.
I know exactly what you mean when you say that sometimes you cannot understand somebody else’s reaction to a post. There have been times on this site where I’ve found myself reading and RE-READING a thread JUST to see exactly what it was that upset ‘somebody’ and needless to say most times I’ve never found what it was that upset ‘somebody’ i.e. there have been some irrational ‘outbursts’ OF NOTE on these forums let me tell you (which most time are indeed amusing and entertaining if nothing else)!!! LOL!!!
But anyway and as I said: I find your posts insightful and appreciate them.
Im a big fan mechanical systems. I use one too.
Some aspects to consider:
Be prepared for drawdowns. If you are going to use a mechanical system then you need to be emotional prepared to take the next trade after 5 or 6 losses in a row.
-Also, keep improving your system as the market changes. Historical data will help you on this.
Mechanical systems are great once you trust 100% on it
I can understand why people gather in forums and try to help each other sharing their viewpoints, simply it is very nice just the idea that you could be useful for someone else somehow. But there are SO MANY ways to approach and deal with any situation (and Forex is not SO different) that I simply get shocked when some people react the way they do, as if there is ONLY ONE WAY to success. I think is sad and not helpful at all.
Let me first say that [B]I agree with you[/B] about different approaches and yes there are different ways in which traders become successful but to my understanding these ways are not that diverse and tend to stay within boundaries that have been put in place by years of knowledge and experience of stuff that works.
I guess some people tend to get overly defensive about certain ideas that they have personalised, but you get that in all walks of life.
I too saw alot of my (mechanical) trading described. I use a rigid set of entry/ exit rules. ‘Hairs on the back of my neck’ or second thoughts only serve the purpose of keeping me OUT of a trade rather than entering! 