"I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people." - Isaac Newton

A jump to the beginning - chaos and market forces

I recommend reading the interviews of Ed Seykota, Larry Hite, Billl Eckhardt and Tom Basso in the Market Wizards series. You might not only be convinced of the systematic approach, you may even come to believe its the best way to trade.

A year and a half experience and still facing difficulties

The random entry system used by Dr Tharp is a version of Welles Wilder's Volatility System. Concepts like this are more than 3 decades old and are still a lot more robust than what most people come up with today.

A year and a half experience and still facing difficulties

If you are referring to a mechanical trading system then I don't see why a retail trader couldn't create a profitable one and stick with it into perpetuity.

A year and a half experience and still facing difficulties

The reasoning that dominates this thread is faulty. The goals and targets specified have no relevance because the first step of defining a technical system and collecting a win-loss distribution is not done. If you don't know the chance of getting a ...

Rags to Riches in 10 or 20 Trades - Simplicity at its finest

Assuming a one-size-fits-all approach in risk amount across different technical systems is flawed. If you take a long-term technical system and scale down all the parameters to create a short-term system, you now have a completely new system with a ...

Isn't 2% per trade massively flawed?

How you go about designing such a system is important. Most people end up with bad systems either due to poor research methodology or an inability to accept that even good systems have ups and downs.

My Outline for Trading Success - Any opinions or thoughts?

Holding a currency that is gaining in value against one that is losing value is mumbo jumbo? Oh brother, this forum never ceases to amaze.

Forex and value investing

Its also worth noting that there are several great traders and hedge fund managers who got their start in professional gambling. Edward Thorp comes to mind, he started off playing Blackjack and Roulette professionally.

Forex Trading Philosophy

Scary at best.

Rags to Riches in 10 or 20 Trades - Simplicity at its finest

You've probably had it with people who say that everything is entirely up to you to decide, but its literally entirely up to you to decide. That includes how you want to manage risk. 'R' multiples are only useful if you have a fixed amount that ...

(binned per thread starter’s request) Times Two Challenge

Buy strong currency, short weak currency. Ta-da! Value.

Forex and value investing

I could say that its more logical to set weekly targets based on multiples of initial risk per trade ('R') but I guess you can do whatever suits you.

(binned per thread starter’s request) Times Two Challenge

Your post made me smile. I understood you the first time and its illogical, but please, dont take it from me. Great scalpers and short-term traders like Jesse Livermore and Linda Raschke never operated with these "X pips per week" mentalities. In ...

(binned per thread starter’s request) Times Two Challenge

Inelegant but I love it. You may also be interested in George Soros' theory of reflexivity and the human uncertainty principle.

Forex Trading Philosophy

Wow... Forex Factory... Just wow... The outcome of your trading is determined by what the market does. Having an arbitrary goal like "50pips/week" is illogical.

(binned per thread starter’s request) Times Two Challenge

Do you mind sharing your strategy? Our critique of your strategy might be more useful than statistics from a limited data set.

Trading EUR/USD Recent Equity Curves

I dont disagree with that. My response was more motivated by my observations around FF forums. People seem to think trading is a long journey of bumping your head against things. Success is achieved when you win the war before it even starts.

A year and a half experience and still facing difficulties

Its a good learning experience but its not relevant professional experience. When someone says hes been trading with X years of experience the latter is assumed.

A year and a half experience and still facing difficulties

Experience is only relevant if you attain it from performing at a peak level. Spending any amount of time making mistakes and lacking focus is not helpful experience.

A year and a half experience and still facing difficulties