What systems actually work?

[chip_rivers]

Every newbie should ask themselves..

Why is everyone re-inventing the wheel? Isn't there already a system that works? Even the Bunny Cross seems to change with every page of the thread and then the final strategy backtested looks terrible. Is that why bunny left in the end because she ended up as rabbit stew?

If you look back at past threads in Moneytec you will see that every new strategy gathers momentum and everyone gets involved and they praise it and backtest it and it works great and then you discover it sometime later and it ends up everyone left the thread. It started giving terrible results. The only ones left are 2 peolpe talking about something completely off the subject like two cleaners chatting in a wharehouse that used to be full of excellent cars.

Then on it goes and the next thread starts. Someone yells "1000 pips a month!" and everyone rushes to have a look. Before you place much importance in any of the threads here. Read the past ones and ask what happened to Daimyo? Where is Maco? Whatever happened to the Japanese twist? No that's not a cocktail that was actually a name for another system cone and forgotten. Why is everyone now talking about tema and dema etc.

..and finally Does anyone still look at the chart and just trade it? I do and I make money too. If you'd like to too. Click here and read what old buggers have known forever. No re-invention needed

http://www.trading-naked.com/

[leonardb]

nice post .. very much and the same reactions you do get on the board when someone introduces a new system ..

EDIT: i live on that nqoos site

[MickMason]

Ema crosses.....hmmm

[Gamma_Jammer]

Is that a sceptical 'hmmmm' Mick, or more akin to Homer Simpson fantasising about his beloved donuts. I can't shake this image of you sitting at your desk, eyes glazed over in front of your screens muttering 'Mmmmmm, EMA Crosses' ;-)

GJ

[q827]

There's no primordial wheel in Forex to reinvent, there never was.

In this game it's all relative to what works for you.

[MickMason]

Originally Posted by Gamma_Jammer

Is that a sceptical 'hmmmm' Mick, or more akin to Homer Simpson fantasising about his beloved donuts. I can't shake this image of you sitting at your desk, eyes glazed over in front of your screens muttering 'Mmmmmm, EMA Crosses' ;-)

GJ

LOL!

[leonardb]

should have figured this one out.. but he did tap on a common happening when new systems are introduced..

http://www.visualtradingcharts.com/f...er=asc&start=0

[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.