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Where to now?

  • #1
  • First Post: Jul 30, 2006 5:00pm Jul 30, 2006 5:00pm
Hello. This is my first post so please let me introduce myself.

I'm in a converstion stage of my outside of 9 to 5 income making. For a little over a year now I have been making outside income from playing cards for money. Basically the whole idea with cards is to play your edges well when you have the advantage in your favor. The problem is that this is time consuming and I am bored with it. There is also pending legisation to put an end to the kind of card playing that I do. So.......... I'm looking for something more legit, and something I can grow with better as my income and assets grow. Thus my search has put me here.

For now I have read the three books listed in the stickied posts: "Trading in the Zone", "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom", and "High Probability Trading".

I do have a few questions right now though. What platform should I look at. Link in his book likes Tradestation however it looks like Metatrader 4 is popular here. What I would like in a platform is the ability to write code so the platform tells me when I have reached an entery and exit signal. I would like to program any system I use into the platform so that I can possibly move to a computer based system one day what will do trading for me while I'm at work.

Second: What trading system should I use to reach my goal stated above? Any suggestion?

For now though I think I'm going to have to start going through and writing a Trading Plan Template. I plan on using the one published in the stikies since it seemed to work so well for Isotonic (thanks Isotonic)

Ok a little long winded here. If anybody has any advice or suggestion to get me up and running, or to point me in the right direction then please share. I would appreciate all comments.

Matt
  • #2
  • Jul 30, 2006 6:15pm Jul 30, 2006 6:15pm
Matt welcome to the forums. Metatrader 4 is popular with traders because its pretty versatily...plus it has great charting tooks built in. The other platform that some traders like is VTTrader.
  • #3
  • Jul 30, 2006 7:26pm Jul 30, 2006 7:26pm
Quoting Matthew
Hello. This is my first post so please let me introduce myself.
Hi Matthew and welcome to the forum!
Quoting Matthew
I'm in a converstion stage of my outside of 9 to 5 income making.
Me too.. It may be a long conversion for me, but we'll just see how it goes. :-)
Quoting Matthew
For a little over a year now I have been making outside income from playing cards for money. Basically the whole idea with cards is to play your edges well when you have the advantage in your favor.
Your experience here will prove to be useful to trading. You may even be more knowledgeable than you may know. But of course, this may also be just me. :-)
Quoting Matthew
The problem is that this is time consuming and I am bored with it.
Hmmmmm... Sorry to hear this, but you may also be bored trading when the time comes. And when it does, what do you plan to do?
Are you going into trading for the excitement? You may want to rethink how you approach trading though (just a reminder or thought though)..
Quoting Matthew
There is also pending legisation to put an end to the kind of card playing that I do. So.......... I'm looking for something more legit, and something I can grow with better as my income and assets grow. Thus my search has put me here.
Aren't we all? hehe.. Start searching from inside (sounds abstract though... sorry).. Well, that's where I started mostly. :-)
Quoting Matthew
For now I have read the three books listed in the stickied posts: "Trading in the Zone", "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom", and "High Probability Trading".
Great books in my opinion!
Good step too to proceed with the trading template.
Quoting Matthew
I do have a few questions right now though. What platform should I look at. Link in his book likes Tradestation however it looks like Metatrader 4 is popular here. What I would like in a platform is the ability to write code so the platform tells me when I have reached an entery and exit signal. I would like to program any system I use into the platform so that I can possibly move to a computer based system one day what will do trading for me while I'm at work.
I really can't comment enough here because I haven't done any programming that much with platforms. But it's in my plans.
But for a suggestion, I'll go first with the freely available platforms.
MT4 or VTTrader.

I am currently using MT4 but have not yet programmed too much with it.
Quoting Matthew
Second: What trading system should I use to reach my goal stated above? Any suggestion?
This my friend, I cannot answer for you.
Either borrow one of the available systems here:
http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=4365

OR here:
http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=3689

Or you can start creating/designing your own.

For me, I started with the freely available systems because I had no idea with what system trading meant. What do people put into systems development, etc.

If ever you plan on going with your own system, you may want to refer to:
1) "Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom" by Van Tharp (you already have this)
2) "The System Behind the System" by our very own host Merlin Jeffries here:
http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=4446

Again, this is my path. It may not be your path, but like you asked, it's only a suggestion. :-)
Quoting Matthew
For now though I think I'm going to have to start going through and writing a Trading Plan Template. I plan on using the one published in the stikies since it seemed to work so well for Isotonic (thanks Isotonic)
As I've mentioned above. A very good next step in my opinion. Go with it. :-)
Quoting Matthew
Ok a little long winded here. If anybody has any advice or suggestion to get me up and running, or to point me in the right direction then please share. I would appreciate all comments.

Matt
That's what you asked, that's what I gave.. :-)

Hopefully it helps.

Regards,
East
  • #4
  • Jul 30, 2006 7:50pm Jul 30, 2006 7:50pm
between tradestation and MT4, tradestation wins by a mile. There are 2 problems with it though, 1) its $100 a month and 2) they dont offer micro accounts. If you have more then $10k to invest then you can get away with just a mni. Also if you make 10 full lot round trips a month tradestation is free. So if you have more then 10k to invest get tradestation if not get MT4 with a micro


after you pick your platform the next step is to start learning how to program it and testing systems. If you do not learn how to program and backtest systems it could take you up to a year to get a decent profitable trade plan going (assuming you want to use technical indicators).

As far as trading systems go, there are lots of good ones posted on this board. The biggest secret to making profits is time. Most these system on here will make you money, some just take longer then others. Also manual system tend to be alot more profitable then mechanical systems.

One trap to watch out for is the "must try even system" trap. You try a new system and it doesnt seem to work the first day so you try another system and so on. Find a system you are interested in and back test it. If it seems to give you the results you want forward test it for at least 30 trades before you give up on it. Not only will this give the system a fair shake but it will teach you about the market. People who have good experience have had bad experiences
  • #5
  • Jul 30, 2006 7:55pm Jul 30, 2006 7:55pm
Welcome Matt! In terms of programming, there is no better free platform than MT4 in my opinion, VT Trader also is not too bad but not quite as well supported in terms of independant programming help as MT4.

In terms of trading systems, I cannot recommend one in particular, we all have our own (I have documented one of mine here: http://www.forexfactory.com/forexforum/showthread.php?t=6233), and really you will not trade a system successfully, consistently, in my opinion until you feel you have ownership of that system, whether that is creating your own from scratch or modifying someone elses.

My recommendation always is to learn about the fundemental component that makes a up any market, that is people. Oh and learn to trade, not to just trade forex, as if the bug bites you as it has many others here, then you will not want to just stick with the currency markets but move onto other instruments.

Last thing, if you get bored trading, it will mean one of two things, either you are just not cut out to trade, or you are about to buy your first yaught as you have mastered a system, and the discipline to stick with it.

Best of luck!
You can quit and they won't care, but you will always know.
  • #6
  • Last Post: Jul 31, 2006 3:33am Jul 31, 2006 3:33am
Quoting Akuma99
Welcome Matt! In terms of programming, there is no better free platform than MT4 in my opinion, VT Trader also is not too bad but not quite as well supported in terms of independant programming help as MT4.
Sure MT4 it's the best FREE platform. But it is nothing compared with some non free platforms (even cheap ones). The lack of flexibility in time frames makes MT4 not usable at all... well, at least for me, since i rely on arbitrary ticks and volume bars.
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