People, what an excitement!
I�m �up to the page� (finally!!!) with the thread, and I managed today to �get the first glance� with the Delta platform (demo). Although I have not yet understood where the hell windows are placed when you minimize them :mad:, I managed to put Dale�s sysdicators on, and even make a bit of �cracking� (actually is just changing the color of bars to blue, given that I am a bit color blind, and blue looks to me much better than green LOL, LOL!).
Now, my aim in writing the following is by no means to �teach anything to anybody�. Rather is to learn a lot, putting myself in a trial and asking you all to verify whether I have got something out of all the work made till now with particularly the DMS. So, please, tell me all the mistakes I�m making in interpreting the system.
What anyway I did, given that this is of much concern for all at the moment, is taking out the graph that J kindly provided us in post #1703, with a lot of bad DSM trades, and see what I probably had done at that time (around Feb 08 on GBPUSD) given my understanding and interpretation of the DMS. J, if you can, please verify I�m not saying sh*t! LOL!
I know J was applying the �modified and formalized� rules for his automatic trading device, so, probably (sorry for not going through them very analytically, now, J) they are a bit different from �standard� DMS. What I�m making is applying the �standard� (besides the �blue�) Dale�s DSM Oscillator, plus a couple of �rules� I add up from Boca�s/Elder suggestions, namely: do not trade the directional system when ADX is going down; second (as also per �the old man�) take profits when ADX changes direction. I�m using the �standard� (till very recently) period of 14 days. I�m also including the �Dale�s-correct� pSAR, and I�ll comment.
So: in the first page of the included pdf there is again J�s picture. In the second page there is a screenshot of �my� Delta, GBP/USD daily, in the time period indicated by J, with the 15 trades shown by J (hopefully correct!) and an arrow indicating long (bottom up) or short (top down) positions.
Analitically:
A. Well, I would NOT have opened this positions because (i) there is no signal in my hands (no change of color of the sysdicator: no -/+DI crossing) AND (ii) ADX<20 (thick bars).
B. Again nothing. There is a signal, indeed, but ADX<20; Notice, anyway, how here, a bar before arrow �C�, there could have been a quite nice PTP short entry. And this would have been NOT whipsawed by the SAR near letter �D�, due to the extreme point rule. It could have been quite profitably closed at the SAR near �F�.
C. Again nothing for the same reason: ADX<20
D. Well: I have no �positive signal� here. BUT. Assuming I was �skipping� the first blue-to-red switch several bars before due to low ADX (and also skipping the previous PTP signal), I could have decided to enter as soon as the ADX, continuing to grow, passed the �20 threshold�. In this case, given the Extreme Point, I would probably have entered short one bar AFTER J�s D, although I would have been VERY scared by the fact that pSAR is indicating exactly the opposite. Probably I would have waited still another bar. Just some few pips until ADX changing direction would have suggested taking profits and going out the market. Anyway: few �trend� to see in this little region!
E. Really can�t understand J�s rules here. I cannot see any signal at all.
F. Also on F I have no signal. But I would have had a signal the day after. BUT: ADX is falling down! So: no trade! (not a directional one). In this region, I would recognize, also pSAR would have caused problems. The �falling ADX rule� can probably be a good filter for PTP too.
G: this could have been taken by me. Well: it�s not a wonderful one, because ADX is not very high, but also not falling. Well: let�s put like that. With �my� psychology, if I would have had nothing better to trade, that day, I would have probably tried it. A bit scared by pSAR: but this is without question ANOTHER Trading system. Again: if there was nothing better on the marketplace�
H. Again cannot see signals here. Probably J�s system has �other additional switches�.
I. Well: here I would have missed a nice trade, with my rules, because ADX is < 20, and I would have at least expected that it turned over it. There could have been a nice PTP signal, there, and, as per Extr. Pt., I would have entered long 6 bars afterwards (one bar before J�s �J�), that is one bar before �my ADX criterion� would have also allowed entering the DMS signal.
J&K: well, about entry on J see above. The thing I find quite �strange� in J’s chart, is the close of his �J" long trade. Would I have entered in J, I saw no reason for closing it up three bars later. Rather, I would have followed it also �over� K, and be stopped one bar later than K by the �ADX changes direction� rule. Or eventually two bars later by PTP SAR. Anyway: some good pips in the bag!
L, M, N, O: for all of them: ADX too low. I also note that even the PTP would have been bad in this period. Although, per Extr Pt. I would have entered short only on bar N, limiting therefore the losses.
So, actually, if I am not completely mistaken here (it might well be the case!), this �terrible period� of J�s backtesting would have not looked so bad by the �conventional� DSM rules (even without changing the �standards� too much). “Not so bad” means not painful for your pockets! Surely not one where you would have filled them too! Maybe this rule of �ADX pointing upwards�, �taking profits when it turns down�, and strictly restrain from trading when ADX<20 would have saved my skin there.
Another though: it�s too early for saying that, but, you know, indicators (and sysdict�s as well) are at the bottom line instruments for better �grasping� price action. I must say that the combined visualization of DMS AND pSAR gives me quite a sort of �sixth sense� for it, at least in this situation.
A final thought: if we want to be �surer� that DSM is not going to put us in trouble, could not it be simply the case for increasing the �20 threshold�? The old man says that �as a rule of thumb� ADX value is above 20 to 25 for indicating a good trend. Instead of changing ADX periods, wouldn�t it be nice just increasing the threshold e.g. to 22 or 23? Dale, if you don�t mind I will crack again your scripts (if I MANAGE! LOL) and give it a trial.
The last question is: well, probably I would have skipped quite a lot of trades in that period on this instrument. Now: what the hell would I have traded then? (In other words: are these criteria �too restrictive� so that I would have being around idle for that period). This of course implies looking at the behavior of other instruments for that period (or other markets, or other �strange things� like OPTIONS? Maybe�).
This will be my next �exercise�.
Hopefully you did not fall asleep while reading: I know it�s by far TOO long, here! Sorry! And please: if I made �all wrong�, please, please: kick me in the a*** and tell me I must study the lesson better before speaking!!! LOL
Bye
Fabio
J&MeGBPUSD.pdf (79.7 KB)