The Asirikuy Forum Making Asirikuy a True Community

If you have read my blog frequently then you are aware of the fact that I have never liked the way in which automated trading forums work. I have outlined their problems several times in the past which are mainly summarized as a "cyclic development syndrome" in which systems are developed without any significant evolution towards long term profitability. This problem has many causes which range from the lack of knowledge about the requirements for a system to be likely long term profitable to the inherent difficulty in the development of sound trading strategies. The over-development of entry criteria and the use of unsound trading tactics are amongst the main consequences of the traditional "automated trading forum" approach.

However after several Asirikuy members suggested the creation of a forum to me (and after I refused several times) I decied to ask myself a simple question. Can the asirikuy community do any better ? Can you create a forum in which the possibility to develop long term profitable systems in a community environment becomes real ? The creation of such a forum demands the overcoming of all the problems which have been evident on automated trading forums in the past.

How could you overcome all these issues ? My first thought has always been that the lack of direction and knowledge is the main reason why forums fail to develop sound trading systems. The problems that arise from these two are almost endless. You always have the use of backtests with limited quality or with the obvious exploitation of backtesting faults coupled with the suggestion of unsound trading techniques - such as Martingales - to improve trading systems which have exit-related problems (which are never addressed due to the over development of entries found in forums). There is a lack of systematic evaluation and the lack of any judgement over the quality of the trading system ideas proposed.

I plan to solve all these problems on the Asirikuy community forum. How ? We will have very directed and efficient development. I will receive all system ideas and I will strongly moderate the development forum so that asirikuy members are able to learn and development can stay away from trading ideas which wont work and implementations which are detrimental to long term profitability. This does not mean that we will only develop "what I want" but we will develop what "can work". I am convinced that if development is centered around systems which can be backtested reliably, which use adaptive techniques and which use sound money management it will only be a matter of time before we get our first community developed long term profitable systems.

On top of serving as a center for development, the asirikuy forum will also deal with questions people have about the material available on the website, backtesting, programming, system design, etc. The Asirikuy forum will become another key knowledge base so that people can exchange ideas and grow their knowledge about automated trading system development.

One of the main objectives of the Asirikuy Forum will be to make Asirikuy a lot more like an online community. Having the ability to know and interact with the different members will help us create that community-feeling which I have always wanted Asirikuy to have. By working together and building content in a community type environment I am hopeful that we will be able to make Asirikuy much more than what it already is today. We will have a community with a high knowledge-standard in automated trading which will be committed to the development of trading systems, not be sold, but to be traded for our long term capitalization.

If you would like to learn more about the forum or about the trading systems we are currently trading at Asirikuy please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Diposting oleh Unknown 19.00 0 komentar

Defining Support Resistance Levels Mathematically A True Challenge for Automated Systems

I have always said that there is a lot of importance and potential in the trading of support and resistance levels in trading in general, and particuarly in forex trading. However it is true that the creation of long term profitable systems for automated trading based on the definition of S&R (support and resistance) levels has been difficult up until now due to the inherent problems of defining these levels mathematically. On todays post I want to talk about some of the approaches used to define these levels and the short commings each one of them has. On tomorrows post I will talk about what I think is the solution to the problem, a concept which may lead to the development of an automated system based on S&R levels which is able to gauge S&R level importance and trade the many techniques which can be derived from these levels in a profitable fashion.

So what is so difficult about the definition of support and resistance levels ? Theoretically a support or resistance level is an area (not a specific price value !) in which price finds a natural difficulty to continue to move in its previously acquired direction. So for example, if the EUR/USD is in an uptrend and there is a resistance level at the 1.3500 zone, price will get to this level and then it will bounce from it or consolidate around it until it either continues its previous trend or tests a lower support level.

Notice how many of the definitions of support and resistance are vague. What is a zone exactly ? how large must these zone be ? What parameters determine its size ? How could we know this level exists before price reaches it ?

The fact is that these questions have no straightforward answer. There is no rules for the size of the S&R zone, nor is there a way to accurately determine the levels before they happen. The previous attempts at coding automated trading system using S&R levels have tried to infere future S&R levels by taking information about previous levels in the past. The reality seems to be that a previously found support or resistance level will behave as either support or resistance in the future depending on from where it is attacked by price.

So the problem seems to be to find S&R levels in the past somehow and then use them in the future. If price faulters around a support or resistance level, then an intuitive way to define them is through the high/low criteria. A resistance is reached on the high of a candle followed by a candle of opposite direction and a support level is reached on the opposite situation. Another way to define these levels would be to use the fractal indicator. Since fractals determine patterns which signal reversals then the high or low of a fractal may indicate a resistance or support level.

The problems inherent to these very common approaches and other similar approaches is evident. All Support and Resistance levels are given and absolutely no importance is given to some over others. Another problem is that several fractals or high/lows may happen on similar levels but interpreted as different S&R levels when in reality they represent the same support or resistance zone. Since there is no discriminations between the S&R levels defined, these techniques of defining S&R almost always fail since they trigger trades on "not so important" price levels which make the strategies lack a positive mathematical expectancy.

So the steps to define S&R levels in a reliable fashion seem to be the following :

• Define all S&R levels
• Discriminate important from unimportant levels
• Define Zones of S&R
  

On tomorrows post I will talk about how I intend to tackle each one of these problems and how I believe this will lead to the definition of reliable automated trading techniques based on S&R trading. If you would like to learn more about what I have done with automated trading and how you too can learn how to design and trade autoamted trading systems profitably please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Diposting oleh Unknown 20.16 0 komentar

Too Good to Be True Why it is Never True

Yesterday while I was searching some forums and reading the comments of the posters I came across a conversation about the very traditional saying "if it is too good to be true, it probably is". As I read more I saw some very interesting aspects about the way in which the conversation was being carried out, specially the opinion of one of the debaters who was against the hypothesis claiming that is was nothing but mediocre and destructive to a person with an "achieving" personality. Today I want to write a post about my opinion about this "too good to be true" issue and how I feel it is a very valuable piece of common knowledge based on hundreds - or even thousands - of years of human experience. In particular I will discuss its relationship with automated trading and why it is extremely importance in this field
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First of all, we need to understand the nature of this timeless phrase. Why does it exactly mean and what is the power behind it ? What do people mean by "too good to be true" ? Generally this sentence speaks about the overall human experience in the sense that it reflects the expectations of the general public. When someone tells you that a certain endevour sounds "too good to be true" it means that you may be drastically underestimating the efforts or the actual real possibilities of doing what you are intending to do.

As a clear example, imagine that you lived in the 19th century and you told someone "I will be building a machine to fly in one week". They would tell you that it sounds too good to be true and the actual truth is that you would have found the endevour much more time consuming and difficult than what you originally thought. It is worth noting that the saying does not necessarily limit the possibilities of what can be done but generally the manner in which things can be carried out meaning that if something that was "too good to be true" could be done in that way, you wouldnt be the first person doing it and it wouldnt be too good to be true after all, because it would be true.

So how does this all apply to automated trading ? It applies in a very simple way. If it was possible and so simple to turn 500 USD into 1 million in 5 years, then it would have already been done and it wouldnt be considered too good to be true. However, since achieving this extremely high capital returns isnt something which is being done by the worlds top traders or trading organizations (or anybody else for that matter... if you have an example in automated trading I would absolutely love to hear it) then it simply falls within this category with very good reason.
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Is living from automated trading too good to be true ? The fact is that if you are thinking about placing a robot on a trading platform and letting it to work like an ATM for you then it certainly is too good to be true. Othewise dont you think that the thousands of people who have learned about automated trading would be living from it right now? The reality is that most of these people are actually not making any income from automate trading but they are losing money trying to achieve the situation which is just "too good". However - as I implied before - this does not mean that living from automated trading is impossible, it merely signals that the way most people are following is just wrong. Living from automated trading is possible but the truth is that it will require a LOT of study, a LOT of work and MUCH more capital that what you have been told and - not surprisingly - it is not something everybody can do; it is a long journey filled with frustration and hard work which - alike most non-luck based roads towards wealth- is simply not travelled by the vast majority of people.

In my mind, I dont think that the "too good to be true" saying is intended to be discouraging, mediocre or destructive - on the contrary - I think that it is meant to be protective as it certainly points out that the roads towards wealth exist but they are not short and they are not easily travelled. In the end there is nothing special about you or about me and if the easy ways to achieve massive riches in automated trading were really a reality, we would have both achieved that goal without any effort a long time ago (and therefore it wouldnt be too good to be true either !). In reality the best thing you can do for yourself is to find out what can be realistically achieved and put all your hard work into. Forex automated trading - as I have said several times - is not a gold mine for you to avoid work and sit on a beach to drink Margaritas all day. The journey is far harsher and demanding than your average 9 to 5 job, but so is the end much more rewarding.

If you would like to learn more about my perspective in automated trading and how you too can build systems with realistic profit and risk targets which use sound trading tactics to profit from the market please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Diposting oleh Unknown 03.46 0 komentar

Broker Conspiracy Theories Are they True

If people new to forex trading have anything in common it is the overwhelming belief in the broker conspiracy theories. Ask ten people on their road to become successful traders about what they think regarding forex brokers and they will tell you that the main reason (or one of the main reasons) why they cannot profit as much as they want is because their brokers "play with them" in such a way that trading profitably becomes impossible (or much harder at least). The reasons why there is such a widespread belief in the broker conspiracy are many but the real question to ask is, is this conspiracy real ? Do brokers willingly play with their customers and mess with their execution and accounts in such a way that profitability is removed ? On todays post I will talk about these issues, giving you my opinion about the broker conspiracy theory and the consequence this has on your trading.

You have just bought your first extremely profitable scalping system, simulations show great results (although they are unreliable for this type of systems), your demo account shows great results and you are ready to jump into a live account with your first forex broker. You open up the account, fund it, get your VPS and start to trade your EA only to notice that your demo and live accounts almost never agree and your demo account is taking almost twice as many positions as your live trading account. Upon checking your live account you see a lot of spread widening, re-quotes and slippage that makes you think : the rumors were true, my broker is messing up my execution.

To tell you the truth, I do not believe in broker conspiracy theories because it is not in the main interest of a broker to harm their customers performance due to the fact that they make money from the spreads and this means that the longer it takes for a customer to lose their account, the more money they make. Generally what people perceive as their broker "messing with them" is nothing but the harsh reality of trading in the real market. Sometimes if the broker is a "market maker" this may become a little bit shady since the broker may make some decisions to protect itself from quick positioning or scalping, which they do not like due to the fact that they cannot properly hedge their exposure when such small and fast positions are opened. Such decisions may include spread widening, re-quotes, etc.

I have had my fair deal of experience with people in the broker industry (well known brokers at least) reason why I can tell you that most of the things you hear about are nothing but myths. Brokers are not "evil market makers" making money when you lose money, that to me seems like a childish way of putting things such as the brokers are "the bad guys" and you become the poor good guy/gal who could only make it if he or she wasnt screwed as much by the big guys. The first thing you need to do here is to take responsibility for your profits and your losses. Forex brokers are not responsible for your opening and closing of positions and therefore the fact that you attempt to use systems that simply dont work under real market conditions is not their fault.

However I always believe that you should always work with the worst possible case available such that your trading and decisions are as robust as possible. If there is a broker conspiracy and brokers will relentlessly prosecute and make certain systems (like scalpers) totally nonviable then you should focus on trading a system that is shielded from the power your broker has over your trading. Certainly it would not be very intelligent to trade a given system that you know depends greatly on execution variables your broker controls. If brokers do seek to make traders lose, then why in the world would you want to make it easier for them ?

In the end, if you profit or if you dont depends entirely on the decisions you make. If you trade systems that are very vulnerable to your brokers bidding then you will fall prey to the problems of real market execution and - if existent - to your brokers endless hunger for new traders flesh. As I said before the key here is to take responsibility for your trading and find systems that will allow you to trade with the smallest degree of dependency on live execution variables. Systems that trade in the medium or long term which do not have small take profit and stop loss targets will make you "immune" to any conspiracy since your broker will not be able to control your trading through the manipulation of execution variables.

However it is interesting here to note that I have never heard a profitable trader complain about execution related problems as a "broker conspiracy" since experienced traders know that this is a characteristic of the real market and that being successful despite their existence is one of the jobs YOU have as a profitable trader. It is irrelevant if these problems are or arent caused by your broker, if they are there and you want to be profitable then make your trading style such that these problems will have a small effect on your account balance. If you are suffering because of execution issues you should know that your trading style is what gives them the room to harm your wallet.

If you would like to know more about automated trading system development and how you too can design likely profitable trading systems please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Diposting oleh Unknown 18.01 0 komentar