Mindsets, etc.

[autofx]

I sincerely appreciate MoneyTec letting me describe my service on their web page.

My real interest is zeroing in on some who have discovered the razor's edge of automatic trading, and are willing to share what they have learned.

My service is almost an incidental thing. I'm proud of it but it is NOT my livelihood and I'm not here to force it down anyone's throat. I'm working hard to be careful NOT to take money from novice traders who are desperate to make a quick buck.

On these threads I have encountered both skeptics and those with a genuine interest in what I am doing, and others who are doing similar things. More interesting, I have seen people describe approaches to trading that are amazingly complex and must require a lot of mental energy. I find the attitudes and mindsets of other traders to be fascinating. The more different they are from me, the more interesting.

[fflaque]

autofx i'm also into automated trading soon, we will be starting soon as soon as we tie up some loose ends with our brokers, which broker do you automate trade through now. also how are your returns on a weekly basis on avg? our system (been trading it live in a demo acct) returned 176 pips the wk before(thats when we started) and 149 pips last wk, nothing stellar...was expecting more, gotta retool it to filter out some quick whipsaws, does yours run during major mkt announcements? ours doesn't and it closes all trades before the wkend too(as there is uncertainty that can change the direction of the trend). another thing is i may try your trailing stop system to see how it does, ours is %'based so the higher the return the higher the % stop, also do you have a system in place to counter choppy trading?

[autofx]

Weekly returns can vary from hundreds of pips of profits to losses up to a couple hundred pips. It's the long run that counts.

I use FXCM, but I don't use their DDE. I have a unique way of interacting with their trading software that I don't like to discuss -- but one hint: any text that can be made to appear on a computer screen can be captured by software like Unisysn's Automate very reliably

Mine runs non-stop, from the market open on Sunday until the market close on Friday. When I was prototyping a couple of years ago in shorter timeframes, I would limit the trading hours to early European/UK until mid New York trading hours.

My system to counter choppy trading is to use reasonably tight stops. Also, I stretch out and smooth my basic entry indicator, though choppiness will still cause a little drawdown. June was a tough month for that.

If you're getting pip profits in the ranges you say, and can keep losses low, you are on your way!

My trailing stop system is not too complicated, but I think it is elegant and effective. It doesn't use the SAR formula, but it behaves similar to it.

Hope this helps.