Gidday all, I am an Aussie, I have traded a 'live' mini & micro for a while (3 years), thought I was good at scalping (but not). I 'overtrade' and although sometimes I can trade a minuscule amounts to over 2500% gains it always heads south to empty my account, making FXCM a small fortune in spreads though.
I first started trading futures contracts over a decade ago using the days prices solely from the tv 'news' and phoning orders in no charts at all. Wow hasn't it all changed with this Internet revolution. Would I trade futures again, no way, you just cannot sleep at night, always wondering if the house will be repossessed the next day cause the markets gone 'limit up'. This FOREX is definitely the way to go, everything instantly at your fingertips trading 24 hours a day almost 6 full days a week. (that is what needs to happen next - Forex to trade 24 hours-7days a week-365 days a year)
I have done countless years, months and hours in Excel Spreadsheet using past data on several different currencies, trying to come up with some indicator or system that works all the time,
ie; more wins than losses or bigger wins than losers to be statistically better off. That gives a definate BUY or SELL signal, not a maybe if this or a maybe if that. Using only technical (past data).
Heres what I can tell you, nothing works all the time, you can think you have something using your data sample, ie; reversed engineered signals-system but apply that to current or different data sample and it falls apart, sometimes it works for a while then crashes or it just crashes almost immediately. Regardless of what signal, indicator, candles or oscillator you use, or combination of them.
What signals, indicators, or system may appear to work on one currency pair (using past data) usually does not work on any other currency (using data from same time period) or results are very much reduce or different.
So here I am trying to learn how to use this Lua SDK programming to help visualise my ideas onto the charts in real time with what I hope is my ‘New Indicator’ that will give me the retirement I deserve (not having to worry where the next loaf of bread is coming from)
My conclusion for all of you programmers & traders is;
Design or modify a signal or indicator for only one particular currency pair (ie; will only work for that pair) if you cannot make enough money from one pair then you are not focussed enough
The signal or Indicator has to manually or automatically change or modify or update with the current feeling of the whole world, and this could be as small a timeframe as a day (ie; 9-11) or several months (ie; GFC). The change could be temporary, short or long term, or permanent
Any signal or indicator that requires huge stops to work is probably not a good one (can you really afford a 600 pip stop?? What was your intended profit?? What if you were up 300 pips trade reverses and stops you out at 600 pips (loss 900 pips). Same if you have a signal you are up 400 pips but your signal allows it to come back 50% (200 pips) before it realises that the trade-trend is over, (lose 50% or 200 pips). Think about it, how many more pips was the market going to move, was this 50% loss worth it to gain maybe an extra possible 50 (12.5%) or 100 (25%) or 200 (50%) pips???
Probably be plenty of disagreements here, but you can always post 'live' trading details that traders can verify using same Signal/Indicator only for past 2, or 5 years. But do not post DEMO trading results, as price certainty is not guaranteed to place a trade, and there is no Trader psychology involved. Also If the estimated 20 million DEMO accounts worldwide were trading ‘live’, again that would differ all the results.
Ideally that is what this forum/section is about, creating the 'Holy Grail Indicator' good luck everyone.
Regards
LordTwig