[Clueless]

Originally Posted by chip_rivers

Every newbie should ask themselves..

Why is everyone re-inventing the wheel?

That's probably because wheels that are constructed due to a plan with static parameters sooner or later all have a flat. No surprise, when one takes a little time to think about it.

... and then the final strategy backtested looks terrible.

That'd be a good title for the soundtrack of my life for the past year.

I don't know who came up with all this "backtesting" stuff. Maybe everyone has to go through backtesting purgatory at some point - or maybe it's just me because I'm dumb enough to occasionally believe what I read on the internet. Anyway, it's nice when it's over. Kind of like passing an exam, when you realize it doesn't make much of a difference (or much sense) either way.

Someone yells "1000 pips a month!" and everyone rushes to have a look.

Don't forget the "XX$ into YYYYYYYYYYY$ in z days". They make a great reading at breakfast.

..and finally Does anyone still look at the chart and just trade it?

There's one thing I'm still very curious about: how would someone with absolutely no concept of markets, the value of money, fear of losing and anxiousness to be on the right side fare? I think a four-year-old child or a pygmy from the south-american rainforests could clean our clock pretty good. Someone's got a child or a pygmy to spare for testing?

Seriously, I'd really like to be in a position to find out. Next life, maybe

I do and I make money too.

Know what? I believe it. Yet, 8 or 9 out of 10 people, including me, will blow out when trying to apply what's described in the link you posted. Just like with every other system, methodology, religion or whatever you want to call it.

You make money with that because you perceive the market to be trending and you enter on pullbacks. I wouldn't, because I don't see trends (I don't want to get into a discussion about whether trends exist or how they behave or the metaphysical implications of trends or whatever), when I look at currencies, I see a series of surges and consolidations. That's why "systems" don't work, That's why everybody absolutely needs to reinvent the wheel (and then, reinvent it once again for real when they realize that square, octagonal and dodecanogal wheels just don't cut it).

I'd like to ask you a question: do you consider the setups in your link to be objective? Do you think the performance you achieve with this concept could be reproduced by anybody? If I wanted to start to trade them, do you think the information given on this site is sufficient?


Clueless


Edit: Sorry, I didn't mean to be harsh. In fact, I see your point very well and I agree. But I don't agree with the implication that overcoming the "systems & other bs" stage is easy. After all, our cultural conditioning very much forces us in this direction - logic, Descartes, rationality, linearity, cause and effect, proper effort will yield proper results, yadda yadda yadda - and this can be, depending on our individual upbringing, quite an obstacle.