I've decided to drop the SPDT7 midcap system from my portfolio. It hasn't been profitable over the last 6 months. This will leave me trading GrindES, ESDT1, and DT8. The first two systems are the ones that comprise DDT_ES, which is why I consider it a good portfolio to be in.
Okay, so now I'm laughing my ass off (at myself). I had recently posted about BWT on a friend's bulletin board. He took one look at the BWT screen and said "my head just hurts looking at all the stuff on the chart hehehe for me it's still a simple pair of WMA's and that's that". This is coming from a guy that use to sell a trading system, run a trading room, etc.
Being a new(ish) trader, I sometimes look for complicated solutions just because MORE or more expensive must be better...right?
I threw one of the simplest indicators on Earth on my BWT chart just a minute ago -- a 20 period EMA. Guess what the $3500 BWT software uses to trigger their automated entries? It looks *awful* similar to an EMA cross. I bet the 'sensitivity' setting just adjusts how many bars back it looks at. ;)
Update: I see this is only the case on my 6 range bar chart. On 5min charts the EMA appears to provide better entries than BWT!
I spent a few hours experimenting with BWT chart styles, sensitivity settings on the main Precision Trend indicator (plots the entries), and ran through all of the indicators to ponder what I'd like to have on my chart.
I discovered that 6 range bars with a BWT sensitivity of 2.2 looks really good. One bad trade over the course of three days but the others were big winners.
Since the range bars are all about price action, I thought it might be useful to have some volume information. I looked at a variety of indicators and decided to go with Emini-Watch's Better Volume.
One of the posters on Yelnick's blog called today's bottom and got it right. I'd run across his subscription service, Elliot Fractals, once before but it sounded a little silly.
The premise behind it is that Elliot wave patterns repeat themselves in proportion. For example, a triangle pattern will trace out on a 15 minute chart and then a day later a triangle of the same pattern will form on a higher timeframe. He spots these and expands the pattern proportionately to calculate where the larger pattern will end.
Apparently it works at least once in a while! It's $30/month with the first month free so I have nothing to lose.
I left a lot of money on the table today. It's a tough balance--some days you "get greedy" and give all of your gains back by not getting out and other days the market just keeps going and you miss out on a bunch of money. Today I left half of the possible profits on the table but it was a good day, anyway.
