Guys (or should I say ‘just Dale and Akram’ :p),
“I’m so excited I could”… well, you know the rest.
Phew! Finally! After spending hours a day reading this thread for the past week, I’ve finally caught up with you guys. And wouldn’t you know, I can’t start trying anything till Monday (we all know trading between Thanksgiving and the weekend probably isn’t smart, right?). Anyways, let me get some things out of the way, and hopefully I can start contributing along with you guys.
Dale: You just string me along, dontcha?! First you’re an SIS purist, then for about 30 pages, you’ve switched to VS? Then, a couple days ago you tell me you’re back on a modified SIS(which I have somethings to say about, but more on that later), and now, just a few days ago, you jump on the DMS train! But Dale, that’s part of the reason I love ya, man. You just tell it like it is. The FSS(and most trading systems, I’m sure) just can’t handle these economic conditions, and if you’ve found one that might be able to weather the storm, then rock on! Though since I’ve been trying to learn the SIS first, I now have to go back to ‘the book’ and study up on DMS. But hey, I’ve got some time to fiddle this weekend.
Akram: Hey man, glad to see you’ve finally ‘gotten’ your book and officially joined the club. Good to know that at least someone was keeping Dale company over the past few weeks.
By the way, where did everyone go? On the other hand, I can’t really blame them for jumping ship while things settle down (though who knows how long that could take). And as far as the economy goes, I’m just as puzzled as everyone else in the world. Hell, I am (technically) and economist, and I couldn’t tell you what’s happened except that too many people in the financial sector have had their heads too far up their a**es for too long! Greed has distorted the business practices of banks and other financials far beyond what should have ever be allowed, and the world is suffering because of it. Hell, when I decided to change my major from physics to economics, it was because “the job prospects are better”. Screw that! Right after I graduate, this whole crap heap fall over, and jobs that I’m qualified for have all but dried up (especially here in Michigan, the state with the highest unemployment in the whole flipping country, whoopee!). So here I am trying to start making a living doing this, just like Dale. Hope it works out. But hey, as Dale always says, if we live through this, oh the stories we’ll have to tell to our grandchildren!
As for my situation, and how it relates to our ongoing quest: I, unlike many others who have inhabited this thread, am not a programmer by any extent of the imagination. Thus, I won’t be helping you write indicators, backtest, or automate anything. However, I do have a BS (thats about all its worth now, Bull****) in economics from a highly respected University, and I’ve always been an outside the box kind of thinker. Hopefully this will be enough to advance our cause. Unfortunately, as of yet, I don’t have excel on my computer, nor do I have the indicators from Dale yet, so until I can get an account going at Delta, I may be of limited use (which, I have to do testing before I start a live account, which prevents me from getting the indicators, which prevents me from testing effectively… sigh, its a vicious cycle 
). Now I’ve just got to study up on these systems some more and see if I can be of some limited assistance.
As for the systems themselves… Remember a few weeks ago, Dale, when you discovered that the ASI was ultimately unnecessary? I have come to the conclusion as to why these things keep coming up (and why we constantly strive to discover new aspects of the systems, even when Dale keeps saying that they’re probably fine the way they are). Wilder, while a genius and a hojillionaire, is ultimately not much of an academic (notice he’s not, Professor Wilder). Hence, instead of rigorously deriving the SI equation for the benefit of all his readers, he simply states that he has ‘derived the equation for the SI with such and such criteria in mind, and you’ll just have to trust him’. Unfortunately, I believe that given a full derivation of his formula, Dale (or I, had I been here at the beginning) could have easily proven that the limit and the consideration for daily price gaps was superfluous in forex in about 10 minutes. Instead, it took Dale over a year and a half of fiddling to finally understand this. Not griping at Wilder, since he gave us these systems, but lets face it, the guy has made a bazillion dollars already, and he doesn’t need to follow standard academic procedures in his books if he doesn’t want to.
Finally, I hope to use this space to discuss the Delta Phenomenon (from now on, I will write Delta P., cause I hate typing it out). However, since no one else has the book (that we know of), it’ll probably just be Dale and me. However, one thing from the Delta P. that is applicable… the Delta solutions are by definition slightly off in a “strong or week” market. This is something we all must remember. “Even the best system can be thrown off by trying times such as ours.” Just hang in there.
Well, alrighty, I think thats about everything. I’ll step down off my soapbox now. Have a great Thanksgiving (even though you guys don’t celebrate it, I’m sure), and, as always…
Happy Pips,
Son of Sweden