firewalker99
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Yes barjon, Your post is helpful. And although some posts are more abstract and theoretical, perhaps some of them are - believe it or not - helpful.
You say it's not possible to answer that kind of questions without a clearly defined and outlined setup/plan, but if you've seen dbphoenix's task, that's exactly what he wants newbies to do now: identifying stops given only that you're trading S/R breakouts.barjon said:Similarly, it's not possible to answer questions such as what expectancy, what stop, what "target" etc in a general sense since the answers are all specific to the particular method and set-up employed.
Correct, I'm looking for a trading system which allows me to do 3-5 trades a day, no overnights, holding positions on average 15 minutes to an hour, although I have no restrictions on this.barjon said:You seem to have chosen DAX as your trading instrument and you have printed off many charts and examined them and I'm assuming you have already determined your preferred style in terms of long term, medium, term, short term etc.
Agreed, the problem is I find myself unable to take a trade because most of the time the signals are appearing in real time, but to take profit of them I would need to "predict" the signals themselves. Suppose I want to trade breakouts from the moment price moved through R for 5 points. Enter long at the point. I've found through backtesting that chasing a breakout causes me to lose more than to win. I agree it's up to me to find the right way to take the breakout, therefore I was looking for signals BEFORE that to enter and because I was looking to price (and initially also volume) to give me that hint, I started reading up on the PV thread and posting questions there.barjon said:eg: what is a "break" of s/r - one tick, a close, x%, or what - what is "significant" - what degree of adverse move will invalidate the trade etc, etc.
Ok, but put yourself in my place, or anybody else out there who's looking for something which produces consistent profits. Would you not be asking yourself in the backtesting what you want to see? Is it therefore that far fetched that an unexperienced trader wants to learn from others by asking them questions like "what would be a comfortable W/R, P/L ratio for you", "what kind of means are there to determine your target", "how much backtesting did you do"? No, these questions aren't meant to be parasitical. No, this doesn't imlpy the trader would just copy this information. In fact, having had the discussing about expectancy my arguments would only show that I'm not taking what others say for granted and I am indeed finding out for myself by thinking about it. So we are left out with two options. The first is to follow the minimalistic guidelines which basically come down to figuring it all out for themselves. The second is going against the flow, argumenting and discussing what others take for granted only to try and comprehend what for them is evident (perhaps even trivial) but what for the newbie at first seems an impossible task. By argumenting and publicly displaying their lack of understanding they risk being ridiculed, laughed at but they don't care. They have nothing to lose. On the other hand, it seems as if the ones who are trying to help others choose direction and a possible path to success, seem to have a lot to lose by sharing some practical, concrete information that could lift off the newbie into new and possible beneficial ventures. Yes, “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts." as someone once said, but for the moment I'm only seeing fata morganas.barjon said:That back testing will then answer questions about expectancy, stop loss, "target" etc.