I’ve tried a few trading system over the years, some moderately sucessful, some not so good. I’ve always thought it would be a great idea for somone to test trading systems with real-time data and was pleased to stumble on the Collective2 site. I’ve been trading with Collective2 for about three weeks with a balance of 25K (margined to 50K) using AutoTrade and MB Trading. Initially I was suscribed to Dave’s Goofiz ATM. I took a big hit on one of Dave’s trades, but it was due to my inexperience using the Trade Bullet software (I.E. WARNING!!! DUE TO THE SPEED OF MANY DAYTRADING SYSTEMS, YOU MUST CHANGE THE SETTING ON YOUR SOFTWARE TO CONVERT A LIMIT ORDER TO A MARKET ORDER, OR YOU WILL EVENTUALLY TAKE A BIG HIT — THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME). Since this hit, and chaging the setting on my software to convert limit orders to market orders, I’ve recouped about 33% of my losses. Without this one loss, I’d be doing very well. From my experience, I think automated trading will work. But, you must review the trading systems very carefully. I do not like volitility, and don’t have the nerve for options, so I chose two systems with a high Sharpe Ratio: Extreme-OS and Coin Collector. I’m splitting my cash 50/50 between these two systems. Each month, I’ll send a message letting anyone who cares know how I’m doing.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I was wondering whether you considered any other metric like W:L ratio to evaluate systems.
Here is some info on Sharpe Ratio which you may find interesting:
Alex Matulich says: "Expectancy score is a better, more objective measure than the Sharpe Ratio for evaluating the relative performance of different trading strategies."
http://unicorn.us.com/trading/expectancy.html
All the best. I am sure that many of us appreciate your input and very much expect to be kept informed about your trading performance in the future.
I am learning about TradeBullet. Is this setting that you are talking about a global setting that would convert ALL limit orders to market orders? Or are you using the timing feature that I think I read about?
Thanks,
Greg
Hello, Greg. Once inside the TradeBullet software, if you select Tools/Options from the menu, a tabbed form will appear. After selecting the Collective2 tab, you will see a checkbox with the phrase, “Convert Limits into Market orders once C2 reports a Fill”, to the immediate right. If you check this box, any individual limit order not filled within the time you enter in the box labeled “seconds”, will be converted to a market order.
I hope this helps.
P.S. To whom it may concern. Please forgive the inappropriate grammar and punctuation of my initial posting titled “My Experience”, it was composed without the knowledge “Big Brother” was watching. From reading most of the postings on this site, any reasonable person would assume grammar and punctuation are not of primary importance. The last thing I want to do is offend the grammatical sensitivities of message board viewers with my postings, so from now on Ill be a message board spectator. Good grief!
Mike:
I’m interested in being kept apprised of your progress.
I’m brand new at this and I’m trying to decide how to get engaged.
I’ve got a few thousand to start with, but unsure whether the services of this site, or a trade system software app (like Metastock or Tradestation) running on my pc (or both) is the right way to begin. I know I don’t trust the claims of many of the advertisements I see. This site seems to have a unique approach. But am too much of a lightweight to try it… I’m unsure.
Your sucesses may give me the courage to try it, but given my small nest egg, it may not be appropriate.
Keep me posted and any startup advice would be appreciated.
Regards,
Russell Cox
russellmcox@comcast.net
YOU MAY WONDER WHY I ASK PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SPEAK ENGLISH!!! (americiINS AND USTRALIANS AND englISH PEOPLE) to MAKE an effirt TO CAPITLIZE AND spill PROPERLY. IT is BECUZ i LIKE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND HATE TO SEE IT BUTCHERED BY NATIVE SPEAKERS. NO ONE WHO USES THIS WEB SITE AND who gruw up speaking ENGLISH IS INCAPABLE !!! OF WRITING PRuPERLY. i’M NOT ASKING FOR YOU TO WRITE FINE LITaRTURE – JUST TO SHOW A small amount of RESPECT FOR YOUR READERS AND FELLOW MEMBERS BY writing a proper sentence or two. - Matthew
P.S. As usual, the standard caveat applies: If you are not a native English speaker or writer, please ignore my request. Your participation here is welcome and incredibly impressive (I shamefully admit to being unable to participate in an online forum in any language other than English, so you have earned my respect).
Russell,
The best thing to do, is spend some months learning how to REALLY trade. Do a lot of paper trading. The markets aren’t going anywhere. The reason 95% of leveraged traders lose money is more due to knowledge and experience, than to a bad system. (And, most of the 5% who DO make money are affiliated with various trading companies. Every system developer will tell you they are different, but they are not. There is a LOT of bull out there
Do you use proper stops? All the time? Do you diversify your portfolio, or risk losing everything with these ridiculous brokers offering “$500” day trading margin on S&P futures? Learn. Read. Ask lots of questions
As someone who once lost $9,000 at Xpresstrade in 30 minutes, due to a flaw in their in-house One-Cancels-Other, I can tell you it is not enough to just find a profitable system. They triggered my profit target and stop loss, instead of cancelling the other side. The money management and proper trading methods is even more important - that will kill you, too!
Patience is better than eagerness, with leveraged trading…
