Disliked{quote} I am 100% in the harvesting. If my system does not work consistently beyond 3 yrs or if it fails, I am done with trading for good. No more wasting my time. I have done everything in my power and ability to try and create a winning system. There is nothing else left for me to explore (besides tick/volume based which I have neglected by design). I have ruled out everything that does not work and this thread is simply going to validate all my theories and findings. I shall rest in peace :-) EDIT: By breakouts, I meant trade in both directions...Ignored
On top of that, there are periods when Market Makers (or most of them) are not trading. It's the second part of August and beginning of September and from around Christmas time 20th December until first few weeks of January. They are on Holidays (Aruba, Fiji, Hawaii or whatever) spending their bonuses. That time "the inmates are running the asylum". Junior members which don't have full authority to move significantly the market have their opportunity run the show. At that time you can see almost no regular patterns and seemingly crazy behavior. It is best to refrain from trading at that time... or, at least reduce the size of your positions.
I spent many, many months on my system (which is not complete yet) on demo. Now, I am testing it on small live account. Although, it takes into consideration their manipulation there are some losing trades. There are times when it works like a charm. You keep making money like crazy. And then, all of a sudden there are only a handful of opportunities. That's when you have to be selective and wait for your patterns. If they don't appear - you simply don't trade.... even if it means trading only once or twice a week. After that period is gone, you will be swamped with opportunities again...
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