OrderFlowTrading.com - Become a Market Predator

Hi Darkstar, a FF user told me about you and I lurked a bit around... since I think your trading method is the only one that makes sense...
I check out your site and I'm not getting why you are selling your system if it's working. Don't get me wrong, plz. I'm just trying to understand why successful traders (if any) give away their secrets for a little price.
Personally I think none of the commercial threads were started by succesfull traders, I mean, if a trader is so succesful he wouldn't bother to take a few bucks... he's already rich.
So what's the point in teaching? What are you gaining ?

(I hope I didn't sound like an ass, btw, since you are the only one that I think he's on the right track, I'd like to know more about you)

Hello everyone,

I've got some questions regarding Darkstar's education program at the OFT website. Maybe you, darkstar, or some members who have read your book or taken the course can help me with that.

1. I've been trading Forex for about 4-5 years but my understanding of market microstructure, options etc. is limited. I just read D's Ohh Sweet Liquidity posts but, to be honest, didn't understand very much. Would that be a hindrance or will I be able to understand the course anyway? Will the basic concepts be explained in any detail?

2. Do members of the program even benefit when they don't apply the exact methods but rather trade their own methods. What I mean is this: I've been trading more or less successful in the last few weeks and my first and foremost goal is to deepen my understanding of the market and get better at interpreting charts. Is that what I can achieve with the program?

3. What material comes with the program? Is it just videos or is there also an ebook. Once paid will I have lifetime access to the material?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my questions.

Best regards,
Hans

up

darkstar isnt selling a system yes there are strategies in the book, but what the book teaches you is a mindset. way way more than a system


regards damien

hi there darkstar do you delete any threads you have started except ohh sweet liquidity?something like orderflow trading thread which you discuss about orderflow trading there?

I haven't deleted any threads, although I can't say if FF has deleted any. Being a commercial member, I cannot create new threads except here in the commercial section. Additionally, I cannot post or comment on any threads except here in the commercial section. There is much discussion about order flow, just type it in the search bar, or come on over to our site and join the chat room! Thanks for the question, -DS

thanks for the reply darkstar.I have a Q.
the liquidity distribution model which you have introduced does still works or in the other word is this model constant or it changes during the period of time which make the previous model useless. at this point we need to change our model constantly.

Just wanted to drop a quick line about Daemons new program. Ok, maybe not quick but hopefully helpful. I’m not much for forums but I was asked to give my thoughts on this new program, so here goes.

Epic. Mkay, bye.

No, no, I will elaborate a bit. A little about me: I am a part time trader and was selected to participate in his beta program. My trader education level is undeniably: NOOB. I have worked in a customer service capacity for the past 15 years and specifically real estate the past 5. I decided to check out Forex as a possible supplement to my income. I happen to know Daemon and I think I heard him laugh via email when I approached him about learning Forex. He instructed me to check out babypips to get a base line. He said, “Don’t get sucked into tech analysis and come to me when you have finished babypips.”

I did that and got access to his trading floor chat room. I set up a demo with Oanda account and waited and listened for things to start making sense. Finally, he was ready to help me (I didn't mind waiting around seeing as how I was asking for free help which he doesn't normally hand out but we are personal friends). He said I was the perfect candidate to participate in his new prop trader training program (<- mouthful). Apparently he wanted to know how good he could make someone who knew so little.

On to the program! I think the working title during the beta test sums up this program perfectly: The Immersion Program.

Day one: we set up accounts with Interactive Brokers and he took us on a tour of how to use it. We also set up Eikon accounts (professional data, yo!) and again another tour of how to use it. Already, I was feeling a little less like a fish out of water. Our goal was to learn YM… Greaaaat, a contract for future delivery and I barely grasp currency pairs.

Anyway, the days that followed were jam packed with learning. We had to start each day with reading news of the day, figuring out which articles were relevant and which were not, report on sentiment and our bias for the day. Then we had a lesson or two. It was quite elegant really, some lessons were premeditated and others where a result of what the markets handed us for the day, but he always brought it back around to tie in to how & why we care about such events with regard to what we were trading and how it affected our position.

The learning built on itself and culminated in handing us the system we were to use, including theory and rules. Slowly, Daemon gave us the reins as we gained confidence. The last two weeks of class I made ~9.5% on my demo account! Not earth shattering but I was pretty damn proud. I really think I was the least experienced in the class and I started out with zero confidence. When we would report our analysis of sentiment at the start of each day, before the cash market opened, I always wanted to go last. At first I was really just repeating back the headlines I made note of with no real opinion on why I thought they were important or what they meant to the asset I was trading. Towards the end of class I started to notice my sentiment & bias beat was on target with the other students. Woo-hoo!

So what am I doing now? Well, I’m itching to test out my new skills, that’s for sure. Class just ended and it’s an American holiday so I will be waiting until next week to get rolling. I am seriously considering getting an Eikon terminal (which OFT can help me with) but I have been assured that even without one, the OFT news feed will give me what I need. I’ll be setting myself up with a TWS account with $3000 in it to start. I plan to update either this post or the tread with my progress.

All-in-all, I believe this course is seriously revolutionary. You get to work daily, everyday, side-by-side with an instructor and get real-time feedback.. When I first started the learning process, the amount of info out there on the web was mind boggling, and intimidating to be quite honest. I don’t think I ever would have sorted it all out nor had the confidence to make a go of trading. This approach is so frickin powerful, Daemon really has something here. The price tag isn’t for pikers who want shit for free (<-talking like a trader and all J) but well worth it if you are serious.

That’s all I got, feel free to PM me if you have questions.

UPDATE: Sorry, got this posted late, life takes over sometimes… Summer is busy in real estate and dealing with a dying dear friend. But, I promised I would post a review of the program for Daemon. I WILL be pursuing a trading account; stay tuned if you wish to follow my progress.

Darkstar,

Hope all is well. Do you ever get over to Palm Beach?

Mike

New Article -- Price Action Patterns (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/14142/Price-Action-Patterns.aspx)

Price patterns are visual representations of human behavior and occur often and in similar form because human psychology doesn’t change. Every price print, bar, or candlestick is formed because of decisions that have been made by active participants in the market at that point in time. As traders studied charts over time, they noticed certain patterns repeating and have developed strategies to make their own trades based on these patterns. In today’s markets, many traders use price patterns as entry signals and thus create strong order flow that we, as order flow traders, can use to our advantage. Because our goal is to metagame the participants that use this style of trading, it’s important that we stick to the most popular and widely used patterns. We’ll be looking at the 5 major price action patterns that have found their way into current market lore. 1. Rectangle A rectangle formation is about as simple as its name implies: it’s defined by an upper horizontal l ...

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New Article - Business Cycle Basics (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/14264/Indicator-Approach-to-Asset-Selection.aspx)

How to Tie Together the Business Cycle and Asset Allocation - In the last article, we explored a basic way of finding the optimal portfolio composition, given certain constraints and certain assets. In this article, we shall explore a simple way to understand which group of assets might be better suited to enter into the optimization process. We will do this asset selection process based on our beliefs of the current state of the business cycle. Investing and the Business Cycle Stated simply, the business cycle (which is also often referred to as the economic cycle or stock market cycle) simply refers to alternating periods of simultaneous expansion in economic activities, followed by a similar contraction in the same activities. This sequence is repetitive, but is not periodic, meaning that a business cycle can last from a few years to more than a decade. The business cycle approach offers potential to take advantage of relative sector performance opportunities. As the probability of a ...

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New Article - How to Create a Portfolio in Excel (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/14585/How-to-Create-a-Portfolio-in-Excel.aspx)

Spreadsheet basics for efficient portfolio construction by JupaFX In the last article, we introduced the concept of portfolio trading as a way to diversify your funds away from the day to day noise and stress of active trading. We also covered the basics on how to formulate your objectives and your initial asset allocation. In this article, we will take the discussion a step further and illustrate how to create an efficient portfolio using Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice. Darkstar and Efficacy have both created and shared examples on the OFT forum. This article is for those (like me) that are less acquainted with matrix algebra and want to see a step-by-step process in writing. Asset Selection Just a quick reminder on this whole process of Portfolio Optimization. One of the main problems of the whole sub-prime crisis was the faith put in mathematical models. In the large investment banks, complacency took over and everyone forgot what the word “risk” really meant. Also, the Optimizer is ...

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New Article - The Edge – A Trader's Frontier (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/14693/The-Edge-A-Traders-Frontier.aspx)

Being better than a “professional coin flipper” by JupaFX What is an Edge? How can you find one? Where do you start in your search for one? Shall you stop once you found one? How can you readily quantify your edge? And how many edges can the marketplace host at any one time? A trader's edge is what defines his style and ultimately what differentiates his decision-making process from a coin toss. It's his material advantage. What is an Edge? An edge is a combination of elements that you have studied that gives you a higher probability of a certain outcome. Essentially, you are making decisions based on something that is better than flipping a coin. The popular belief about edges is that there is something that a trader knows or uses that gives him or her an advantage over the entire marketplace. Some retail traders believe that using a particular indicator (e.g. the RSI or Bollinger Bands) in a specific manner (e.g. shorting when the RSI is above 80 and/or shorting when price ...

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New Article - A View From the Trenches (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/15881/A-View-From-the-Trenches.aspx)

Folklore and reality of market dynamics. Trading is not an easy endeavor. However, it can be done if you have the correct mental and practical approach. There have been many rumors and folklore doing the rounds lately and in this article we are going to address some of these myths and sayings, in order to keep new and experienced traders on the right course. Accountability is key in trading, so you need to keep it real and know what falls under your responsibilities and what does not. Sometimes it can be too easy to point your finger at your broker, at the market, at HFT, or at the weather. Selected Topics Many new traders, and even many that transition from equities, seem to have some difficulty adapting to the forex market. While having a deep understanding of market dynamics "should" allow a trader to face any situation on any market, let me try to address the issues surrounding FX in particular and explain some of the bits & pieces that have contributed to my own understanding of the oldest a ...

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New Article - Reflexivity vs. Orderflow Mindset (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/16081/Reflexivity-vs-Orderflow-Mindset.aspx)

Was George Soros an Orderflow Trader? by JupaFX After a few very pragmatic articles, we are going to face a more theoretical question this time. In particular, we are going to attempt to understand more about the Orderflow Mindset by comparing it to another very interesting mindset and theory: Reflexivity. Why is this important to the common trader? Every trader/investor must have a “world view”, a philosophy of why things work the way they work, and therefore a way of discerning exuberance and/or wishful thinking. If you can think objectively and be a keen observer of what happens in the markets, you will gain an edge over those who get so caught up in their thinking that they start to draw conclusions out of thin air. Having a mindset, and understanding that mindset, gives you an edge. My Understanding of Reflexivity Much of what George Soros has written and spoken about has somewhat of a philosophical imprint to it. This is fitting because Soros himself didn’t know for a ...

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New Article - Why Traders Fail (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/16328/Why-Traders-Fail.aspx)

It's not what you're expecting! There have been literally thousands of articles written on this subject with thousands of different answers. Why do newcomers fail at trading? In this article, I'll give my own answer which is primarily based on the sheer volume of learning required. Put simply, that learning comes from surviving and becoming educated over a very long time. All of this leads us to a bigger question: How can you survive long enough to prosper? What Business Are We In? It's been said before in a past article, but as the Romans used to say, “repetita iuvant.” We are in the realm of proprietary trading. That means that we risk our own capital in order to come out with more than we went in with. This is totally different from the Sales Trading or Market Making positions that big Investment Banks host. Sales Trading and Dealing are commission-based activities that are meant to create liquidity for market participants (their clients & counterparties) while taking on as ...

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New Article - The Perfect Trade (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/16735/The-Perfect-Trade.aspx)

What's behind the need for perfection? Are you trying to become the perfect trader and trade anything and everything? Are you trying to get that “perfect entry” ? Are you trying to dream up the “perfect strategy”? Are you constantly waiting for the “Perfect Trade” that will solve all your financial problems? Look around you: are you in the perfect house? Do you drive the perfect car? Do you eat perfectly cooked meals? Know this: your quest for perfection is a mental trap. It can be detrimental to your health and your wealth, so pull up the perfect chair and read through. Perfection is a Mental Trap Just imagine the situation: you're working on your perfect system. You spend all your free time working on this perfect system that generates only profits and no losses. You study, study, study, and study again! Then at a certain point, you trade it live. For a while things go well...then you lose! And again you stop trading, go back to studying ...

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New Article - The Endless Edge (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/16882/The-Endless-Edge.aspx)

At Orderflowtrading we proudly profess the use of “sentiment” as a strong tool to possess and use. In this article we are going to explore another use of sentiment on a much longer time horizon and applied to another asset class. We are going to attempt to identify sentiment-based stock investments. Not trades; investments. So for a moment let's step outside our circle of comfort and leave the exciting world of short-term trading to explore a longer term application of sentiment in stocks. A Definition of Sentiment Market sentiment is a sort of latent process that describes the overall emotional state of the market or of the investors. We're really talking about the realm of “feelings”. Feelings about something or another always represent expectations, although not necessarily rational expectations like Modern Portfolio Theory would have you believe. Market participants build an emotional connection similar to a marriage to an investment. You project love and hate on t ...

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New Article - How to Specialize (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/18410/How-to-Specialize.aspx)

Matching personality with strategy by JupaFX When subscribers ask in our Live Trader Chatroom, “What's the best way to use the order flow and sentiment concepts?” they usually get hit with an answer that they do not expect. The answer goes something like this: “It depends on your personal way of approaching the market.” In this article we shall try to explain better what exactly we mean. The fact is that everyone tries to play the trading game “correctly,” either from buying on strong sentiment, buying pullbacks or shorting the rallies, fading the gaps, or whatever it may be. That’s all fine and good, but the real question that needs to be asked is, “Do we play the right game for ourselves?" Does the style we use in our trading really fit our particular profile or personality?” Getting to the top Many traders believe the key to achieving the top level of success in the markets involves mastering technical indicators and important fundamental rep ...

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New Article - Trading Through Anxiety (http://www.orderflowtrading.com/Articles/tabid/392/entryid/18562/Trading-through-Anxiety.aspx)

The Mind-Body Response by JupaFX Trading is a very difficult job, not only because of the technical requirements but also because of the mental toughness and discipline it requires. As traders we are constantly making decisions and we hope for the best outcome knowing that the worst outcome might materialize instead. In a decision context, such unpredictability or uncertainty can evoke threat-related information processing biases and emotional responses in our body, which systematically alter decision making. In behavioral economics, two forms of uncertainty are distinguished that influence human decision making in a suboptimal manner. The first form, risk, refers to a choice in which there are multiple potential outcomes with known or calculable probabilities. A second form of uncertainty, ambiguity, refers to a decision context in which there are multiple possible outcomes with unknown probabilities. In trading, we confront both of these situations and in this article we shall explore ways to cope ...

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