After a years long love/hate relationship with online poker I have decided to put down the cards and pick up business section the newspaper well click the online version, anyway) and try my hand at forex.
One of the most helpful tools available at minimal cost to online poker players was/is a tracking & analysis software program called PokerTracker. This program linked with the website where one was playing and kept stats of each player. e.g. cards played, bets made, etc. and gave a technical analysis horn-dog like me really more detail than I could ever digest.
After searching through the forums here and cruising the search engines I haven’t had any luck finding any available software that could do something similar with forex data. I’m in the 6 month+ demo trading stage and am trading with Interbank FX which uses an MT4 platform if I’m not mistaken. All the info I need may be right there and I just can’t see it. MT4 seems to have all the bells and whistles for backtesting but I want the ability to manipulate accumulated information I produce over time in any way I choose.
I’m looking for software that allows me to input each trade with all the details and break down by pairs, size of position, average S/L & T/P figures, days of the week, time of day, etc, etc. Information that I can use not only to perfect a trading system but to be able to see, over time, what habits & tendencies seem to work in my favor and which ones need to be avoided.
I’m sure that I could probably figure all this out with some type of spread sheet program but I am lazy and willing to pay someone else (albeit not much) for their expertise in such things.
Here are some features you should look for when purchasing a forex trading software.
Your Forex trading software should be able to provide you what are called trading signals. These trading signals are primarily indications provided to you by a third party that recommend whether you should buy or sell. Therefore, your best Forex trading software is going to have this particular function built into it as part of the service. The second thing placing a stop loss order does is that it negates any psychological factors that may actually help cause extreme losses. More importantly forex trading software has to determine the right market condition for you before placing a trade.
Stub, ignore the tosh above. I know what you’re asking and I don’t know of anything that does this - personally I use Excel. If such a program does exist though, I’d look further afield than Forex because trading of any instrument is going to generate these figures, so there might be something in the world of stocks and shares.
Lots of similarities to poker and trading in my opinion too. Don’t get bogged down with bogus advice is my advice
Thanks Triphop. I, too, see a fair number of similarities between the two. Most glaringly and interestingly is money management and psychological factors. It seems every poker book you ever read usually devotes half of its content to teaching one how to deal with bad swings. Everybody gets cold-decked, sometimes for months and months at a time, and I don’t have any reason to believe that forex would be any different.
Personally, I lost my tasted for poker after I tried to approach it as a business. I didn’t have the bankroll to play with the big boys and when your playing with folks there for fun who don’t otherwise care if they lose $50-$100 a session it makes it tough to make the right calls. All this paired with the fact that I just wasn’t that good made for a frustrating and miserable time. Approaching it as a business converted it from a stress-releasing hobby to a stress-inducing worry.
Thanks James, I appreciate your input. It doesn’t sound like what I’m looking for exists in the forex community. I may have to expand my search but, again, I really do appreciate you taking the time to give me your two cents.
Stub, what you are looking for sounds interesting. I have played some online poker too. If you find the kind of software you describe how about posting here to let us know. I would be interested in something like that also. Anything to give an edge would be nice to have.
Hi there
i just wonder if you re a poker player and didnt do well with big boys why do you think you could do well in forex specially that you re looking for the same tools what you used in poker and didnt do well . isnt time to realise that you need to change your views about some tool what will make you a winner.
Nawafasad1, if you build a house that falls down because it was poorly constructed you don’t throw away the hammer. I don’t blame the tools for my lack of skill in poker.
I appreciate you taking the time to provide input, but the tools I seek would help to offer me perspective on my own actions and not just provide one more jackleg indicator to follow and not even come close to understanding. Nor do I seek a lesson in psychology to find my center.
I see this is your first post and this thread is my first as well. I’ll try to keep up with you. If you’re new like me maybe we’ll learn together and you’ll be the tool I’m looking for to help me find success in this new and exciting endeavor.
