my journal 2

[Yamato]

lol i'll have to wait until i get a dma brokerin this case

Well, I advise you to simply open an account with Interactive Brokers and focus on futures. On the other hand, this did not make me profitable, whereas you're profitable without it. I would say that I have a better weapon but you shoot better, so you hit more targets. But IB is definitely the best weapon there is as far as I know.

 

[Adamus]

mechanical system

Sounds like a great offer, except that we'd have to figure out a way so that I don't have to hand over to you all my systems just like that, because I'd like to keep them for myself after all the work I've done on them. Let's discuss about it further, even here on the forum.

It's obvious you don't want to hand over your systems and to be brutally honest I don't actually want to wade through a heap of excel code for a system that a user on an internet forum claims 'works'. Not that you haven't built up a bit more credibility than that with your journal but I just wanted to illustrate the point.

What I would have to do to satisfy myself that something is worth trading is:

(a) comprehend the actions of the system and why its signals should have an edge
(b) code up the system in TradeStation Easy Language to look at the signals and the equity curve in different markets and market conditions
(c) run the system against all the data I've got using IB commissions, 1 tick for slippage and a tick for the spread for every trade
(d) look at what markets it works on and what markets it doesn't work on and may be optimise any parameters for different markets
(e) examine the stats - avg win, avg loss, % winning trades, drawdowns, biggest losses, geometric average trade, etc
(e) do some walk-forwards
(f) do some simulated trading

So it's probably easiest if I just ask you loads of questions.

Yet, another thing to consider is that (with a complex set of functions) I'd be trading more the systems with a low drawdown and a high return than the others, so I might end up not trading about 10 of the 40 systems, and trading 2 contracts of the best 10 systems. I am sure you know what I mean. I've got a whole sheet on my excel workbook dedicated to these money management and risk management formulas.

I really don't know what to think about that kind of approach because it strikes me as inherently dangerous when you chop and change the markets you trade like that.

I have a basic fear that if you have a system that works on one market but not on another market, and you start trading the market that works, aren't you effectively running the risk that the market you trade might start behaving like the market that doesn't work? Perhaps a stupid thing to believe, a bit irrational maybe but I never found anything to allay that fear.

For example, one column of formulas makes sure that all systems that are trading have not lost over 5% of present capital in their worst trade. Say I got an awesome CL (oil) system which has a worst loss of 2000 dollars (which could be the case). Even if it had the greatest profit (Return On Account), I will not allow that system to trade until I'll have 40k (the worst loss of 2k has to be only 5% of the account). Then I have other systems with a biggest loss of 200 dollars, and those will be able to trade up to 10 contracts with the same margin. But then I've got another set of formulas that keep the maximum capital per system to a maximum of 33% or so. Then there's another set of formulas that decide the amount invested based on ROA (return on account, which is the profit in forward testing, divided by the biggest drawdown in back-testing, or forward testing if higher). The objective would be to use all capital at all times, but respecting these rules at the same time.

That sounds pretty much standard practice from my POV as well. However I don't trust the biggest loss to be simply the biggest loss that occurred in back-testing. I have a look over the whole history of the future (is that an oxymoron?) for the biggest gap and generally take that as my largest daily loss, and then multiply it by the average number of days for losing trades. Kind of random but I like it.

What the systems trade is these 9 futures (one contract per system, as you guessed):
EUR
GBP
ES
YM
GBL
CL
GC
JPY
ZN

I monitor 25 markets or so:

Currencies: Aussie $, Can$, Euro/$, BP/$, Yen/$, Euro/Yen, BP/Euro
Indices: SNP, FTSE, DAX, Nikkei, Hang Seng
Bonds: US TBonds, Gilts, Bunds
STIRs: Eurodollar, Short £, Euribor
Ags: Cotton, Wheat
Softs: Cocoa, Coffee, Sugar
Metals: Gold, Copper
Energy: Crude, NG

Your advice and ideas are welcome. I've heard similar offers from a couple of other people, but until now I haven't found any way to make this work. Years ago on elitetrader another user asked me for my systems and told me he'd share the profits with me. I was in a similar mental and financial state as now (desperate) and I stupidly sent them to him (LOL). He disappeared and I never heard from him ever since. Not that he disappeared. He said they weren't good enough, and I haven't heard from him since. I don't know if he's using them right now or not, but luckily over a year ago the systems weren't as good nor as many as now.

I guess that person probably just couldn't do much with your system. Although he might have stolen half of your ideas. It sucks that you didn't get continuous dialog to satisfy yourself about the trader's actual situation re your system.

So basically what I'd like to know is more about your system's back-testing results. Or in fact forward-test results. Have you got any forward test results? Or simulations?

And btw, what time frame does the system work on?

 

[Yamato]

I'll reply as I read, in order not to forget anything.

By what I am reading you're not asking for my code, but you are nonetheless asking to know exactly how my systems work (so you can back-test them), and to me that represents exactly the same problem. I don't mean to be rude or offend you. I am giving you the same answer I gave to other people before.

You're right about that idea that I should not stop trading the systems that don't work or increase the capital allocated to those that work best, if I did that with a short forward-testing period. But it makes sense to do so if they don't work for a period of 7 months of forward testing (dozens of trades per system). After all, that's the principle by which we discard systems that don't work in back-testing. We don't keep them and say "they didn't work but they might start working", just as we don't discard those that worked expecting them to stop working. We assume that what worked will continue to work and viceversa (given a reasonable test period).

Here's the equity line of all my systems put together, with 1 contract traded per system, regardless of how good that system is. You'd need about 20k to trade all systems together, but then again you could incur its worst drawdown (cfr. fall from 31k to 17k) and lose all 20k immediately, so it's best to start with 40k.



To trade the systems with 1 contract per system, you'd need the capital needed to trade them all (20k) plus the capital you can lose at their worst drawdown (14k), so you'd need about 40k. Unless of course you're counting on getting lucky and not incur the worst drawdown immediately.

A more likely picture is weighing the contracts according to each systems' maximum loss. I used this formula to adapt my equity line to a number of contracts allocated according to the each system's maximum loss:

=ROUND(MIN(5,MIN($K$2:$K$41)/K2/2),0)

where the K column is the column of the maximum losses for each of the 40 systems, and an arbitrary 5 is the highest number of contracts that a system can trade (to avoid problems due to lack of forward testing data).



The systems this way have a highest drawdown of 15k, which is close to the other way, but which happens when they're at 46k already. This 15k drawdown means 15% if you start with 100k, and 25% if you start with 60k (which is roughly what you'd need to trade all the contracts needed). That's still almost 100% per month, if you can stomach a potential minus 25% in your capital. If you can't, then we need 100k, and the system will be much less performing.


I don't remember what an oxymoron is, but I remember a movie that talked about it (last part of this video):

Interesting: the markets you monitor practically include all the markets I monitor and that my automated systems trade.

As far as the forward tests results (unlike the systems), I can send them to you, because they're not telling you exactly what my systems do. Please send me your email address via a private message in order to send you that file (also, I'd like to continue this discussion via email). I'd have a problem with sending you the back-testing results, because then we'd be only a small step away from giving you the formulas. Besides, in most of my tradestation reports (exported in excel format), I included my code, so I'd have to open dozens of such reports and get rid of the easylanguage code.

In fact, I realize you can't do much without the formulas, and yet you'll agree that you'd get the same answer, were you to ask anyone else for their systems. So I guess this explains why this thing cannot work, as I said from the start. I said I was skeptical, because I haven't found a way to make it work before, except by getting ripped off, giving my systems and getting nothing in return.

Sure, if anyone offered to send me money, I'd accept it, but it wouldn't be convenient for them - so I wouldn't accept it, and I actually refused it several times before. I'd accept it if it were a (non-refundable) gift, most likely coming from my father. Sure, if I offered to send my systems, anyone would accept them, but it wouldn't be convenient for me. The signals would be something in between, but it is not practical, because I don't have the software infrastructure for sending them, and I don't want to have to build the reputation nor go through the paper-work needed to sell signals. So, nothing seems to work. I could even take a loan and do this myself, but I don't want to take that risk, and as a consequence I couldn't even accept capital from anyone else (since I don't even want to risk the money from a loan). I guess I'll have to keep doing this all by myself, while at the same time answering questions from users like you, who help me simply by asking me questions, because they make me think about things. For example, many posts ago, Weighbridge helped me solve a problem in calculating the maximum drawdown via an excel formula, as opposed to computing it manually each weekend. It was a great improvement, which wouldn't have happened without this forum. So, thanks to all of you for writing on my journal.

Your last question: the systems trade for several hours: from a minimum of 3 hours to a maximum of 3 days.

 

[Adamus]

I know where you're coming from but I guess I expressed myself badly. I don't actually want your raw backtesting results or your forward test results, especially not in a format I'm unfamiliar with. I was just asking what you had.

I just want to find out what sort of results you've got. The interpretation of backtesting stats is totally affected by your/my perception of risk. You might have results that convince me to get together with you to trade, but I think you're more likely to have results that I won't like and it'd be interesting to find out why you like them when I don't.

How someone else interprets a set of trade result statistics is interesting. I often suspect I'm falling into the trap of searching for the Holy Grail and rejecting trading systems I should be taking risks with.

I also didn't realise you had TradeStation and IB TWS running! And you're still using that chart game. You could be doing simulated trading on TWS! Man oh man.

 

[Yamato]

chart game vs. IB paper trading

Well, as I wrote before, TWS paper trading might be better than the chart game, in that it's much closer to my real trading, but it's so boring that I won't practice with it. So, since I want to practice but find TWS paper trading too boring, I do it on the chart game, where speeding up time makes it acceptable for me (but i still have a hard time learning to use the stoploss and patiently waiting for the right opportunity, even when "patiently waiting" only means I have to click a few weeks ahead). It's like for weight-lifting. If you won't go to the gym because it's too boring, you might as well look for another activity which is not as good but which you will do for sure. As we say in Italy, "il meglio è nemico del bene", "doing things better is the enemy of doing things well", which means that you shouldn't be such a perfectionist as to not do something at all. Each time I set out to practice on IB TWS paper trading account, I quit almost immediately because of how boring it is. Whereas the chart game (despite having similar problems as I do in real trading: impatience and not cutting losses), I can play for hours per week. So, it's better than nothing.

I guess what makes it impossible for me to practice on IB paper trading is that each time I really think a trade is good (with fake money but prices in real time), I feel like doing it with real money. So on that paper trading platform, I just screw around (and lose), or if I see good trades, I immediately move to the real platform and place them with real money. So I basically can't practice. I guess this is why Splitlink said here that paper trading doesn't work for him (instead it works for me, but only on the chart game, because it's not in real time, and also because you can speed it up).

Anyway, it's better to move ahead by one small step (chart game) but nonetheless move forward, than to stall because you want to make a huge step (TWS paper trading) but can't. I got into trading only because I want to make money, and not because I have to practice some virtues and do thing perfectly. And, accordingly, I am trying to get that money in the fastest possible way.

I applied this same principle in my trading systems. If I wanted to do them perfectly, I never would have started, but I've always followed the principle of taking one step at a time, one little improvement, as long as I kept going, never undertaking efforts too big to finish, because then I might have quit.

Of course, if I was in a good trading school (I don't know if there are any), and if I trusted the teachers, I'd follow everything they told me (even things that don't make sense to me), and then I might do things your way. If you told me there's a guarantee of success by doing IB's paper trading... and followed my progress step by step until I reach success, I'd do what you're telling me and use IB paper trading. But everyone on forums tells you "do this" and "do that", and then they disappear. So I might as well do things my way, as long as I'm seeing even the smallest improvements, which I am. By teaching myself things, I am like an ignorant professor teaching a student, but we've got continuity: the professor and the student will always be there. I don't trust trading schools, at least not those available online. And mentors, I have never met any. I might be teaching myself nonsense, but I'll be here tomorrow. These people on forums telling you "you should do it this way" will not be here tomorrow to tell you what the next step is.

 

[Adamus]

Re: chart game vs. IB paper trading

I am slowly beginning to see the method in your madness. :jester:

Your lack of self-control when you make a good trade on the TWS simulated trading platform is quite surprising really. You must be the polar opposite character type from myself. I'm going back to read your previous post because I see you put some graphs in there since I replied to it!

 

[Adamus]

I see that intraday trading could be the answer to my problem. I put together different stats about drawdown and losses so my results look something like the attachment. Look at the longest drawdown and the % losing weeks and the largest drawdown

It means that I can happily expect to make no money for a year and I need to make money by June.

This is all with EOD data - but if the units of time were hours or even minutes instead of days, then I'd be made.

The problem then arises that the avg trade would make less money if it was run on hour bars. And then after slippage and commission it probably wouldn't be profitable. Plus it would cost thousands to buy decent intraday data.

So I'm still searching for that Holy Grail.

You on the other hand have a Holy Grail already but are content to sip your tea out of it rather than trade it. I'm kidding - so how much did you pay for your data? I can't see the x axis on those charts, so it's not clear how long the period is. My guess is that it's just the freely available history from IB?

 

[Yamato]

Thanks for the feedback as usual. You're right: I've got quite a few psychological problems, and they show in my trading. Or... let's not say that I am "sick": let's just say that the way my mind is set me up for unprofitable trading in a very big way. As I said several times (in half of my posts on my previous journal), my dad really ****ed me up. He was definitely a control freak, and that says it all.

For my data, I've grown to trust these guys:
http://disktrading.is99.com/disktrading/

I've mostly bought my data from them. They'll give you all the data they have for just 120 dollars. If you want a specific future or similar, it's just 20 dollars per symbol. I think Weighbridge bought that cd (or several cds): maybe you could get in touch with him and split expenses, and get for 60 dollars all the data in the world: he was satisfied as well. I am not talking about just intraday data, but even tick data. I'd trust them if I were you. It's not like they will screw data up just to spite you and cause your systems to fail. Most likely you can trust their data. I also compared it to other data (from other vendors) and it's pretty much the same.

On the other hand, all I needed was 15 minute candles, because that's the timeframe I test my systems on (too heavy on my pc otherwise).

As I said in my previous post, if you send me via a private message your email address, I'll send you my excel forward-testing workbook, so you don't have to take guesses about the charts I post here, which are all taken from that file. The timeframe of those charts is daily: those little undecypherable characters you see on the x axis are days.

 

[Adamus]

Thanks for the feedback as usual. You're right: I've got quite a few psychological problems, and they show in my trading. Or... let's not say that I am "sick": let's just say that the way my mind is set me up for unprofitable trading in a very big way. As I said several times (in half of my posts on my previous journal), my dad really ****ed me up. He was definitely a control freak, and that says it all.

Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse

They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were ****ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

 

[Adamus]

As I said in my previous post, if you send me via a private message your email address, I'll send you my excel forward-testing workbook, so you don't have to take guesses about the charts I post here, which are all taken from that file. The timeframe of those charts is daily: those little undecypherable characters you see on the x axis are days.

don't worry about it, I can well imagine the forward test results. what would be interesting - and what I'm hoping to produce now i've researched it a little more - is the stats for the comparison of your optimisations to the walk-forwards.

i.e. for all the walk-forwards you did:

% walk-forward profit / optimisation profit
% $ drawdown / optimisation drawdown
% time in drawdown / optimisation time in drawdown

etc

Then you've got something real to cling to when you go live.

 

[Yamato]

Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse

They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were ****ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

Wow, this time I read a little bit about the author, because it's the third time that someone quotes this poem to me, after I tell them the usual stuff about my dad.

 

[Yamato]

That seems quite complicated, because I'd have to look at both back-testing results and forward-testing results multiplied by 40 systems. I'd have to open 40 tradestation reports, and look at my 40 forwarded-tested systems as well, one by one... once again "the better is enemy of the good". In this case you're asking me for something that takes too long. Yes, it would be interesting and it would be better to do it, but I have to discard it, for lack of time, for a bad cost/benefit ratio.

Something I can tell you is that the systems are back-tested for 10 years and forward-tested for 7 months.

Another good thing to tell you is this. I've noticed, and wrote it by editing an earlier post, that the systems, by each trading 1 contract, lose at their worst 15k. On the other hand, if you weigh the contracts according to the drawdown, and allow more contracts for the systems with the smaller drawdown, you don't make 135k in 7 months, but twice as much, and yet the drawdown stays the same. And by the way that is something I was already planning to do.

Overall I am prepared to face a drawdown of as much as 30k, considering the worst-case scenario. So, since I'd need 20k to still be trading my systems after that drawdown, I'd say I need a capital of at least 50k, in order to start, assuming I want to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. But in this situation, I'd be making about... 250k divided by 7 = 36k per month. So let's make it a round number and say that if I started with 70k, I'd make 50% each month, but I'd have to be ready to have a month with a loss of about 50%. Anyway, this is just useless because right now I am years away from having the capital needed to start. So I should instead devote my energies to planning how to rob a bank.

And by the way, as I write all this stuff, I am again losing hundreds in an impulse trade, that I did in spite of all the rules I've been writing everywhere, here on my computer. E.g.: one trade per day, no impulse trades, be patient, use a stoploss...

Any more questions are welcome, as they make me think about the systems in new ways.

 

[Adamus]

I quoted Philip Larkin because poetry says it better than any psychiatric claptrap. Your problem is not an isolated instance... it happens to most.

You're right about the cost/benefit analysis on this tradestation report stuff. comparing so many tradestation systems would be a pain in the neck. I figure I really should do it though since it's good to have it on record - that kind of information only stays in your head for so long.

What are you trading? You mean the chart game, right, or were you unable to stop yourself opening up TWS and putting on a meaty position?

 

[Yamato]

No, seriously: I ****ed up with real money, as usual. My rule of one trade per day had worked so well, that I got confident and brought it up to 2 trades per day, which worked, and I brought it to 3 trades per day... and today I've lost everything I made in the past week.

Anyway, here I had made a summary and written these good principles which I need to follow for profitable trading (taking for granted that I have an edge):

1) elimination of fixed costs by increasing timeframe and profit target
2) limited loss per trade (stoploss which is made possible by a limited leverage)
3) lower frequency of trading to avoid irrational decisions
4) longer monitoring of markets to pick only the best opportunities

Number one is taken care of by my edge, since my trades last hours.

Number two means stoploss, and that's my biggest problem.

Number three is another problem I have. I can't solve it by saying over and over again "one trade per day". It's just too little, and I can't handle it mentally, and I feel compelled to do more, and seize at least 2 opportunities.

Number four comes naturally by getting used to trading only twice a day.

So basically I simply have to get used to these rules and I'll be profitable:

Two trades per day with a stoploss (one at 3 PM CST according to my system, and one any time during the day).

It'll work if I follow the above sentence. I am sure about it. But the big problem is that I've not followed that rule until now. If I succeed, I feel compelled to trade more (out of euforia) until I lose. And when I lose I feel compelled to trade more (out of revenge) until I ultimately blow out my account.

Just one sentence is between me and profit: two trades per day with a stoploss. Will I ever do it?

 

[Yamato]

we engage in irrational behaviours... because we want to break the rules

I was watching the news on tv, and I saw something about these kids getting their piercings. And I was thinking... how many irrational people hurting themselves for no apparent reason there are: all these people with piercings plus all those with tattoos. To me that's totally irrational.

But then I thought: what else do I do by making those two extra trades per day that cause me to be unprofitable? I do exactly the same as people who smoke, get pierced, get tattooed. I can't believe I so meticulously avoided getting hurt all my life physically (I even skipped school and now work sometimes when I didn't sleep properly), and have been hurting myself financially for so many years, even after finding out how to avoid it.

So maybe the answer to why I am hurting myself financially could be the same that these people would give you if you asked them: why are you getting your body pierced?

So I am going to look at those reasons and see if they apply to my financial piercing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_piercing#Reasons_for_piercing

Reasons for piercing vary greatly. Some people pierce for religious or spiritual reasons, while others pierce for self-expression, for aesthetic value, for sexual pleasure, to conform to their culture or to rebel against it.

1. religious: not applicable because I am atheist
2. spiritual: no idea what that means.
3. self-expression: getting closer, in that I enjoy trading.
4. aesthetic value: unlikely because I'd lose even if there was no one to tell.
5. sexual pleasure: not applicable.
6. conform to my culture: nope, because it's against it (my parents believe it's immoral).
7. rebel against it: it could be, because I always wanted to rebel against my parents and society, but maybe I'd rebel better by making money rather than by losing so this doesn't seem an explanation. But this could be an explanation for breaking my rules, rules that I create to be profitable. But I break them because I don't like rules.

Number seven seems to be an important point. I have experienced too many rules and restrictions by my parents as I was growning up, and now I can't ever say "no" to myself: as I mentioned earlier, I can't keep myself from smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, eating chocolates, if these things are within my reach. That's why I usually keep my refrigerator empty.

So maybe we've nailed it: my big problem in reaching profitability is that doing so requires discipline and rules, and I am allergic to rules, because I've been given too many rules as I was growing up.

Can we solve this allergy to rules? I'll think about it.

So basically, with this post, I've realized that I am similar to those "irrational" people getting pierced as a way to rebel and break the rules. I do the same when I don't follow the rules that lead to profitability, and it's because I share with them this dislike for rules. It's not irrational to want to break the rules. I have to abide by rules in every area of my life, and maybe trading is the only place where I can really do what I want, but if I do that, I lose money. I need to find other activities where to look for freedom.

This post also made me realize again (I had noticed it before) that it's because I want to break the rules that I go to work a few minutes late, that I like to leave a few minutes early, that I don't like to fall asleep exactly when I should (I enjoy going to bed "late")... all things against what I was taught insistently, relentlessly, by my harassing parents.

 

[Yamato]

2 daily trades with stoploss (one any time and one at 3 PM CST)

2 daily trades with stoploss (one any time and one at 3 PM CST)
2 daily trades with stoploss (one any time and one at 3 PM CST)
2 daily trades with stoploss (one any time and one at 3 PM CST)
2 daily trades with stoploss (one any time and one at 3 PM CST)
...

Will i follow these healthy principles? There's no way around it. If I follow them I make money, and if I don't, I will lose money. It's ok to rebel against rules, but let's do it somewhere else. It's not like I get run over by cars just because my mom and dad always told me to be careful when I crossed the street.

It's not like I rebel against every single rule my parents taught me. I am not completely an anti-conformist. I dress normally for example. There's no point why I should hurt myself by breaking these trading rules. I am sick and tired of losing. These rules are just like saying "don't drive while you're drunk". After a couple of trades I get drunk, and I shouldn't trade any longer. Yes, I won't die, but my account will die as a consequence. Do I want that? Do I want to make money more than I want to break rules?

The automated systems keep getting better and better but I have no money to trade them.

Yes, I could take a loan and forget about discretionary trading, but my capital is not safe until I will learn to control myself. Because it's happened before that I blew out my 30k capital via discretionary trading. I must ensure that I am not out of control by the time I somehow get ahold of a big capital (whether I made it or it was a loan).

 

[Yamato]

Even the chart game has taught me - if nothing else - this one thing: that I have a low trading tolerance, even when money is not on the line. I can pick good trades, but after about 20 trades I am like drunk and unable to trade properly any more. I can't trade discretionary and apply a set of rules or rather principles, because such rules are not univocal and my emotions keep getting in the way. I can keep them under control for the first 20 paper trades, and the first one real money trade. As a consequence I could make two sets of 20 paper trades per day, and I'd be profitable, and two (far apart) real trades per day. Anything more than that, and I lose control - regardless of whether it went well or bad. Actually if it goes badly I have an even lower tolerance.

By the way, as i write these deep thoughts, I still have fresh memories of blowing out my account again, which happened today. One trade wasn't well planned, it didn't go well, revenge trading with an even worse trade... lost all margin needed to trade. I already wired more money to my account. I must have blown out my account over 30 times by now, in these last 13 years (trading with real money since december 1997).

 

[FXTrend240]

you're just dying to go fully automated aren't you !

keep the learning with discretion, takes a while but soon your entries get better.
after that let the algorithm do the magic

 

[Yamato]

I agree because, as i said, I can't go automated unless I first have full control of my actions. Even if I were fully automated, as happened before, I'd feel the temptation to interfere with my systems, and I would act on that temptation.

Secondly, I can't go automated anyway, since I have no capital. So, either way, I shouldn't and I can't go automated, unless I first manage to be profitable with discretionary trading. I still have months and months ahead of me of just discretionary trading, and unless I want that to be an endless nightmare (it's been lasting long enough already), i better start following my own rules: no more than two trades per day and always using a stoploss.

In the past 2 years, my systems made money each time and each time I wasted that money with my discretionary trading. Now I need my discretionary trading to return all the money it stole from my systems. It will be one side of my personality (compulsive) returning the money it stole from the other side (rational me). Hopefully it will be possible and I'll make it happen. Otherwise I will just keep on writing journals in here for the next few years.

 

[FXTrend240]

I agree because, as i said, I can't go automated unless I first have full control of my actions. Even if I were fully automated, as happened before, I'd feel the temptation to interfere with my systems, and I would act on that temptation.

Secondly, I can't go automated anyway, since I have no capital. So, either way, I shouldn't and I can't go automated, unless I first manage to be profitable with discretionary trading. I still have months and months ahead of me of just discretionary trading, and unless I want that to be an endless nightmare (it's been lasting long enough already), i better start following my own rules: no more than two trades per day and always using a stoploss.

In the past 2 years, my systems made money each time and each time I blew it with my discretionary trading. Now is the time I need my discretionary trading to return all the money it stole from my systems.

ok, what is the method of your discretionary trading?