Technical and system traders in the capitol region
9 Dec
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm
Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions to the group for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm – “The Grail” Genetic Optimizer / Walk-Forward Optimization
Bruce DeVault
Several years ago, “The Grail” genetic optimizer and the walk forward analysis software was abruptly pulled from the market after an exclusive deal with a South African hedge fund. Now, it’s back in the game and available to the public with new improvements and compatibility with several platforms including the latest releases of TradeStation.
“The Grail” methodology includes genetic optimizer, walk-forward analysis similar to that advocated by trading author Robert Pardo, as well as a computer-assisted strategy builder which allows new strategies to be determined through the optimization process itself, in cases where the user doesn’t really know what kind of strategy might work in advance.
In this session, we’ll take a look at the “grail process”, including walking a simple test strategy through the procedure, as well as examining the results of a computer assisted strategy builder (“CASB”) run, to see how they perform and how the process works. We’ll also compare and contrast the new features with some other approaches, and with TradeStation’s recently added inbuilt genetic optimization option.
Finally, we’ll try to put the strategy design process in perspective, using the Grail product as an example for how to go about a methodical test of a strategy trading idea.
18 Nov
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm
Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions to the group for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm –
Bob G. (“Goose” on TS Forums)
TradeStation expert and longtime WTSUG member Bob G. will discuss the considerations of building strategies to auto-trade on the TradeStation platform in this follow-up to the popular 101 presentation October 2008. This is one of the most requested subjects in each year’s topic survey, so be sure not to miss this one!
21 Oct
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm
Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions to the group for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm –
Guest Speaker: World Cup Advisor John Holsinger
After his first four years of trading, after purchasing “every mechanical system out there,” after countless frustrations, John Holsinger had simply had enough.
“I decided to take six months off to analyze what I had been doing, and I realized at the end of that examination that I was at fault, not the systems,” says Holsinger. “I hadn’t stayed sufficiently committed to any one of them. I laid out the trade-by-trade data for 15 systems on spreadsheets and bundled four or five systems together. I got a $40,000 stake together to try again.”
The market quickly confronted Holsinger with the same challenge that had thwarted him so many times previously. “I started on a Monday and by Friday I was in a draw down with three losing trades,” he recalls. “And I was holding another losing trade over the weekend.”
But his newfound commitment enabled him to stay with the position, and it quickly turned around. “Within three years I ran that $40,000 to a million bucks,” says John, a CPA who became intrigued by the potential of futures trading in 1992. “You have to plan the trade and trade the plan. If you can stay out of the way of your own work, you’ll be fine.”
After trading systems developed by others, Holsinger began collaborating with the late Mike Dietch, whose sketches of S&P daytrading concepts had consistently been showcased in Futures Truth magazine. Acquaintances since 1993, John and Mike teamed up and refined several models designed to trade this volatile market.
Utilizing a combination of systems, Holsinger won the 2002 World Cup Championship of Futures Trading with a 608%* return. Remarkably, he and Dietch captured second place with Hodi LLC partnership account that appreciated 304%*. Both accounts day-traded the S&P, as does John’s Live Update account.
The hard knocks Holsinger endured have paid dividends. “I’ve been through ups and downs, but I’m in it for the long-term and I know I’m always going to come back,” he says. Spoken like a true survivor.
16 Sep
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions to the group for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm – TradeStation Strategies for Beginners, Session IV
Bruce DeVault
In the last session, took a look at some TradeStation techniques to visualize our momentum / breakout strategy “working example” trades, and explored how to make it better in a live review of the strategy, the code we used to build and test it, and walked through the process of figuring out what needs to be made better and how to get there. A copy of the code was sent out to all participants. We also took a look at some code examples of using arrays to calculate indicators on different bar sizes with only one high frequency data series on the chart, and answered questions from the group about TradeStation development.
In this month’s follow up session, we’ll continue with the working example strategy to discuss what types of approaches can make the strategy better, and how to take the next steps in refining the approach. We’ve asked group members to take a look at the strategy in the mean time and suggest possible improvements which we’ll take a look at in this session.
We’ll also answer any questions you may have about TradeStation trading, strategy design, testing, and other topics of interest to the group, so come prepared to discuss and bring your questions for the group!
17 Aug
The WTSUG on Monday, August 17, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions to the group for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm – Easy E-mini Trade
Guest / remote presenter: Trisha Ogilvie w/ easyeminitrade.com
Trisha will present on how she uses a couple of high probability setups to trade the ES intraday, using 3 charts with a limited number of indicators for confirmation before entry.
From her website http://www.easyeminitrade.com:
The key to being a successful trader is to have a solid trading plan and a set up that you are confident in taking knowing you have high odds of it being successful and that you can repeat over and over again.
How to make money trading the S&P 500 online. 2 easy ES set ups for day trading the eminis. How to use 3 charts with indicators for confirmation of taking the entry giving you the confidence to make the trade and improve your profits. We only ever risk a 2 pt. stop and we move our stops quickly to capture gains.
In my years of trading I have spent thousands of dollars on services, programs and systems that never delivered or did what they promised they would. I know you have too. You start to feel like something is wrong with you and that everyone is making money except you. You are not alone. I am making no guarantees but here are 2 set ups that can make you money in an up, down or sideways market.
13 Jul
The WTSUG meeting on Monday, July 13, 2009 was held from 7:30pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:45pm – TradeStation Strategies for Beginners, Session III
Bruce DeVault
In the last session, we followed up on our previous strategy which explored an ORB idea, and went back to the drawing board to come up with something new and better to trade eMini futures short term.
In this session, we’ll take a look at some TradeStation techniques to visualize that strategy’s trades, and explore how to make it better in a live review of the strategy, the code we used to build and test it, and we’ll walk through the process of figuring out what needs to be made better and how to get there.
We’ll also take a look at some code examples of using arrays to calculate indicators on different bar sizes with only one high frequency data series on the chart, and answer any TradeStation questions you may have – so bring all of your latest TradeStation conundrums to discuss!
17 Jun
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:15pm – Key Turning Dates
Guest Presenter: Steve Carpenter of KeyTurningDates.com
In this session, guest presenter Steve Carpenter of KeyTurningDates.com will focus on four key questions:
1. The long-term significance of 2007
2. Will we experience inflation or deflation?
3. Mass psychology and how to read it for profit
4. Using market geometry to time the markets
From the website: KeyTurningDates.com is a monthly e-mail letter with interim e-mail updates that focuses on timing the U. S. stock market. It is intended to act as a trading tool, complementing other analytical tools at a trader’s disposal. The letters and interim updates are intended to be educational in nature, alerting the trader to the quiet undertow of the market, allowing the trader the opportunity to use this to his or her advantage by placing profitable trades.
KeyTurningDates.com is all about helping the trader make money. As the legendary trader Jesse Livermore once said, “The big money is made by sitting, not thinking. Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon.” Livermore was right: most people trade too frequently. They want to show how right they can be. It is much more profitable to wait for just the right time, to trade less frequently and, therefore, more profitably.
20 May
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions of the organizers for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
$20 Annual membership dues will be collected for the year.
7:15pm – 8:15pm TradeStation Strategies for Beginners, Session II
Bruce DeVault
In the last session, we covered some of the fundamentals of strategy design in TradeStation, discussed the basic types of strategies, took ideas from the group and built an example, “starter” strategy to trade an opening range breakout on ES. We distributed a copy of the ELD to everyone in attendance, and gave a homework assignment to take a look at it and see what you could come up with to improve performance, as well as make notes of what improvement ideas those in the group would like to see, but aren’t sure how to code.
In the first half of this follow up session, we’ll take a look at these follow up ideas based on feedback from the group, and also discuss how to assess the strategy’s performance with and without some of these changes. We’ll also put an emphasis on how to visualize the effect of these changes, including using indicators to demonstrate strategy operation.
8:15pm – 8:30pm Break
8:30pm – 9:30pm TradeStation Strategies for Beginners, Session II
Bruce DeVault
After the break, we’ll “go back to the drawing board” and build a new “starter” strategy based on an entirely different style of trading – again, we’ll distribute the ELD to everyone in attendance who is interested, and show how we can compare and contrast this different trading style with our improved results from the opening range breakout example from May.
A group discussion will follow the break on strategy development topics of interest to those present, and plenty of time will be made available for questions as well as discussion of topics to be covered in upcoming meetings for 2009.
15 Apr
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions of the organizers for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm – 8:15pm TradeStation Strategies for Beginners
Bruce DeVault
In this session, we’ll cover live the basic elements of strategy design in TradeStation, starting with a blank slate and working live through the creation of a complete, functioning strategy based on the interests of those present. We’ll build it, test it, and at the end of the session, everyone present will get a copy to take home – who knows, we might even be onto something!
No previous EasyLanguage knowledge will be assumed, but we’ll move quickly to keep the discussion focused on how to build and make the strategy better. Based on feedback from this session, we may do additional sessions in the future on EasyLanguage development, or carry this over as an ongoing project into future sessions.
8:15pm – 8:30pm Break
8:30pm – Group Discussion
A group discussion will follow the break on strategy development topics of interest to those present, and plenty of time will be made available for questions as well as discussion of topics to be covered in upcoming meetings for 2009.
18 Mar
The WTSUG meeting on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 was held from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Potomac Library of Montgomery County, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac, MD 20854.
Agenda:
7:00pm – 7:15pm Introductions and Opening
The group will give brief introductions of the organizers for any new attendees. Time will be made available for dealing with membership dues and any other minor administration items, but not to exceed 15 minutes in total.
7:15pm – 8:15pm Technical Analysis Using Multiple Time Frames
Guest Speaker: Brian Shannon
Brian Shannon of the popular blog site alphatrends.net will present remotely on his observations about technical analysis, including material from his book Technical Analysis Using Multiple Timeframes.
From a recent Market Technicans Association review:
Many books on technical analysis rehash the same ideas that have been presented for more than seventy years. Shannon does something different. He presents a comprehensive explanation of market psychology and uses this as the basis to understand the reasons behind market action. From that starting point, he presents a complete methodology to profit from this knowledge.
Trading tactics and risk management make up the bulk of the book. As the title suggests, the importance of viewing the market from different time frames is emphasized and amply illustrated. Besides presenting the basics of technical analysis within a usable framework, Shannon offers valuable original insights into trading.
Overall, Shannon has authored a readable and valuable book. The novice technician can benefit from his step-by-step approach while the more experienced technician will gain insights from his perspectives that should allow for testing some new trading strategies.
Technical Analysis Using Multiple Time Frames is available at http://www.technicalanalysisbook.com/.
8:15pm – 8:30pm Break
8:30pm – Group Discussion