The online ramblings of a young dinosaur
No Trading again today. I have been very actively working on an Auto Trading System, and spent this morning refining my historical data. I realize I owe everyone an updated C# IBAPI release, as I have found numerous bugs.
I also hate the way IB’s historical data works, and have spent a lot of time working out the details on how it should be parsed. I think I have the time zone stuff worked out well, but I can’t decide what the best way to call historical data is.
No trades today, I am working on a software model to auto trade. I will keep my charts open the next several mornings and sock away anything I see and post. My desktop and main trading computer’s power supply is also on the fritz, so I spent this morning jury rigging a fan to my pc to keep it going. Keep on chugging!
This was too perfect picture to not post about – the macd cross at 12:30, the stochastics at 12:35, and that was the sell signal. Lead to 4 pt profit!
| Gross: | $ (14.38) |
| Fees: | $ (61.07) |
| Net: | $ (75.44) |
| Contracts: | 26 |
| Ratio: | $ (2.90) |
Not the best way to kick off September, but given how many contracts I traded, I guess I can be grateful I didn’t lose more. Again my problem is that my average loss is much larger than my average win. This is because of my trading style, and needs to be evaluated. I have been scalping a few ticks each time, and when I brought my stop in to two ticks, I got stopped out very frequently (hence the last hour of my trading were all small losses). I need to mechanize this strategy if it will ever work. I am working now on how to download historical data. It appears I have a bug in my implementation, and will likely have to spend some time going over it. I will keep you posted!
I made up to $50 today! Then it was all gone in a single bad quick move trade…
![ButtonTrader - [WSP default-1024] ButtonGrid_CONT0003 Future ER2_Russell2000 eMini_F207-09 on GLOBEX in USD (18)](http://www.dinosaurtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/buttontrader-wsp-default-1024-buttongrid-cont0003-future-er2-russell2000-emini-f207-09-on-globex-in-usd-18.png)
For the fastest way to save some cash every month – turn over every one of your credit cards, dial the customer support number. Answer all their questions – but follow the online menu to talk to someone. Ask them to lower your interest rate – when they offer you a pidley 10.99% (Prime + 3.99%) ask for the "manager" sometimes refered to as a "specialist" and demand politely request a lower rate, stating that this card is your highest rate, and that you would transfer your balance elsewhere. Press them for their lowest long term rate – then here is the trick. Ask for a promotional short term rate – often 2.99% for six months. We just did this on all of our cards, and two of them offered the short term rate, and one offered a very low balance transfer rate of 1.9%, so I am transferring the balance from one card to another to keep the rates low.
So call your card companies and push down your rates – easiest $150/month I have ever made!