Extracted Thread (per thread starter's request)

Guys, I closed this position on BE. There is not much volatility anymore, probably due to the USA bank holiday. That is my oppinion.

Hi guys

Thanks to forexhard and team members for this profitable breakout system. I have gone through the entire thread for a couple of weeks and have a good profit percentage in demo accounts. Today I started trade live accounts, but the PA was very slow and bumpy and this is due to US bank holiday.
Expecting a big move tomorrow.

Wish green pips to all

best regards

Gotta love this! My daily setups are really working out nicely!

Been away from FF for a while as I found that looking at the latest trading system threads were constantly distracting and consuming time. I needed to focus on my own time and ideas. So, was just checking on news last week and, reluctantly, took a peak at the Trading Systems pages and this little baby popped up in the top 4. I had never seen it before.

Browsed, out of curiosity, and then started digging more and found that it combined a number of flavours that I've tinkered with - breakouts, support/resistance, supply/demand, range bars, as you like. It struck a particular chord as, while I had tested various breakouts over specific time periods, and previous Strategy Testing of an EA had often suggested best results at what appeared odd extended hours beyond my specified times, it hadn't quite clicked that simply price, no matter over how long, is king. Thank you, FXH, and other contributors. The indicator is a super visual tool; great coding. As others have said, the more you play, the more you learn of other opportunities and possibilities.

My immediate questions relate to the indicator coding as I looked at the arrows and entry and exit prices more closely given that tiny tweaks of input values can change the stats big time. Please correct me and/or hit me with a stick if my interpretations are wrong or someone else pointed this out and I missed it in the blurry-eyed hours of viewing.

Let's assume entering on break of box and no buffer pips. The BUY arrow and swing value for BUY signals on the chart don't take account of the spread. So, actual buy price should be the ASK rather than the BID price, and exit price displayed needs to be amended (higher) as entry is at a higher price. The arrow for the SELL is one pip above the box, instead of one below, while the SELL swing price starts at that correct value 1 pip below. The exit price arrow and swing price should be lower, as you exit on the ask and the price displayed is the bid. Having said all this, while the arrows and exits are kind of right, but not strictly, does the coding for the displayed statistics take account of all of this and overall profitability for the defined lookback period? Make sense?

LOL i thought i had it.

Ive read the first 15 pages a couple of times.

That is interesting. I have it on my back burner to do some work on longer time frames. My 15m charts are using the normal 100 day lookback and currently have about 14 months of history.

What look back period are you using on the daily ?

Watching this atm. thoughts...?

400 days - trading started Oct 2011.

Hi there folks,

Thought I would check in and say Hi as its been months since I last posted in here. I haven't been trading much due to changes with work and whatnot but when I do it's with stairstep and it still works. Will hopefully be getting more screentime in the coming months and will hopefully be contributing to the thread again on an occassional basis.

Hope everyone is making pips and enjoying the ride.

HXT

I hope no one considers this off topic but I think it is very relevant. I was trading when Refco went bust, fortunately I had no account at Refco. I did have 10k in FXLQ when they went down and thought "bummer" but I had a friend who had 570k in FXLQ and he was unhappy. Happily, GFT took over the FXLQ client base and we got our funds back maybe a year or more later, I don't remember. I had an account at PFG but closed it when all the crap about no hedging and 50:1 started to materialize. So I was lucky to avoid that collapse. The PFG futures and P Metals people were OK but the FX traders lost all. My normal trading method therefore had already evolved into a different approach. I seed an account with , let's say just 1000 $. Then trade it to 2000 $. At this point, withdraw your seed 1k and now we are playing with house money. You now cannot lose anything.

With SSBO we have a system which is more predictable than most and have a pretty good idea of where risk levels top out. ie. our box size SL pips.
We can see that recovery from losses are in fact inevitable. What a position to be in. If you followed the above method and are playing with house money only, we can happily trade (IMHO) at say 3 % risk or even 4 % if you really want to move things. That is going to pile up $ rather quickly. Just compounding at 2 % per day takes a 1k account to about 127 k in a year.

I pondered why FXH had included a Martingale method in the indicator for some time and played around with that initially but I would not use that in my base account. So why is it there ? Well, I don't know FXH's thinking but mine is this. If we can establish one account and withdraw our seed capital then we could also establish a second account in the same way. Since it cost us nothing we could now cut loose with the Martingale side which is inherently more risky - but hey, the account was free ! I have not pushed the Martingale side setups fully but I do have GNZ sitting at 1634 pips for the 100 days and it is likely it can be pushed higher. But, enough of that for the moment. FXH has already said there is an aspect of the next evolution which will allow to catch a spike. We know nothing of this as yet, there may be other factors, but it is likely there will be a few mods to make in our approach to trading it.

So, MAIN POINT here guys, seed your account, withdraw your own funds and play on the house money. The brokers are going to do everything possible to take it off you. Get your own funds out, be safe, and relax. If you are in a position to do so, get yourself free of taxes. The Brits have it good with Spread Betting being tax free but there are ways to minimize or eliminate tax, legally, for near everyone.
Cheers.
Altos

Altos, though I have just finished the thread and am working on doing 40 trades to evaluate my performance, I read your post with misgivings. Basically, in my world, there is no free money or house money, I worked hard to gain every dollar in my account. I have found through the years this type of thinking leads me to ruin. A few bad trade then I am convinced I can win it back because I lost the house money. When I changed my thinking to Its my money, then I really became a better trader. Just something to ponder.

Of course it is your money. My method means you loose nothing from where you started. Jeeez some people just will not think outside their tiny box.

If you cannot see that trading with money that has been isolated from your personal situation is way safer than losing your hard earned money and risking running yourself broke then go it your way. At the end of the day I will still have all my resources intact and my source of income is entirely seperate. If your account had been with PFG just a few months ago you would have lost the lot. Can't you see that ???? Brokers are going bust all the time. Who is next ??

I would also suggest that once you start to make some money you diversify it across several brokers. Very easy to do with a trade copier but I think I might be years ahead of you on this.

The most basic precept is to safeguard your wealth. Account protection is PARAMOUNT. Traders go broke because they use their own hard earned money and their emotions get them all tangled up. They do not THINK.

Please go and Google : Refco and PFG and FXLQ and COES and . . . . ad infinitum

Totally off base, I have several accounts for the very reason you described - and I take money out of my account as well to preserve my capital, I just became a better trader when I took the mind set "its my money and I earned it." I just expressed my misgivings about "Its the house money idea" which had nothing to do with the comments on the problems with different brokers and their business practices that end up tying up innocent peoples capital.

My experience of using the house money to play big was a failure. I wasn't saying your thinking is wrong as much as I was sharing my experience and my misgivings so others might at least stop and think about their relationship with the money they earn in the market. It was not my intention to challenge you or say you are wrong. My way of thinking is if I start with a $1,000 and earn a thousand, and I then give that thousand back to the market by playing the game differently, the market has me instead of me being disciplined with my trading. That $1,000 that I gave back to the market compounded over time is quite substantial and I have a higher probability of reaching my goals because I didn't change what is working for bigger short term gains. The psychological effects of playing the game differently are worth looking into.

OK. It seems like a semantic or vernacular mis-understanding. I withdraw the "house money". I was just proffering something to think about as there are a lot of young people in FF who just don't think ahead. My point was not to put ones money at any greater risk than needed. Get your savings back. The effect on compounding may only be weeks. I think the point will now be obvious to readers.

Maybe best we drop this subject in here as though it is very, very relevant it maybe can be viewed as off topic.
Regards,
Altos.

As long as you guys speak to each other instead of at each other, I'll always welcome your passionate exchanges. You won't see me interfering unless wrong information is being presented, or disrespectful language is being used. We won't always agree on every detail; friendships are not so much formed on how alike we are, but more on how we react to our differences.

Just one last point I would like to reiterate for readers as it might have been overlooked.

My proposal was not to stop the base account and go crazy with Martingale but rather to play Martingale on the side. The main focus is the base account, the Martingale is the secondary issue on the side and if traded from money that did not come out of your bank account COULD be interesting.

Sorry I was a little short. I should have looked to the right and realized you have been here for some years.
Cheers,
Altos

I do this right?

Good to see some ideas and opinions being discussed. All very interesting and thought provoking!

So far a quiet week for me with the CZ on GU from Monday still in play, now on trade 2 looking to recoup trade 1. For the newcomers amongst us, this week should be a good test of one's patience and discipline. The market isn't "firing" per se but as SSBO traders this doesn't bother us. We're a patient breed. Eventually the market does what it does and we can take advantage.

Patience and discipline.......

Lack of volatility like this week is our killer...

Let's be patient !

Yes, this week is slow going, but it's all just part of the game.

First pos closed; 3 pos still open, but are guaranteed to close in profit even on retrace. TP1 (QTP) is the key. Once TP1 is hit the basket is riding free. Now it's just a game to see what will be hit next, TP2 or SL1...