We made a fundamental error in calculating the returns in our last article, and many thanks to one of our readers who was on his toes and caught it. Some of our calculations were based on dollars per trade and others on dollars per share—clearly a case of pineapples and pomegranates, along with doing the calculations much too late at … Read More
Great Expectations
The next step in building our casino so that we have the house odds in our favor is to look at the edge, or in system trading terms, expectancy. Let’s take a look at the house edge in a few casino games: Game House Edge Baccarat 1.2% Blackjack 0.8% Craps 1.6% Roulette 5.3% So exactly what does this mean? Let’s … Read More
Less Is More–Usually
Less is more—most of the time. In my early days, I started out with almost twenty different indicators in a single system—and why not; the computer was going to do all the work. I figured that if I combined enough techniques, I could find the perfect entry signals—I hadn’t even thought about the importance of exits back then. Well, needless … Read More
Blackboxes/Algorithms Nothing to Fear
I received a GChat message from a future trader, Carter, who was interested in the impact of blackboxes or algorithms on intraday trading. I have heard Carter’s concerns from other future traders. Some believe that blackboxes will rule trading and eliminate the intraday trader. A few thoughts: 1) I have heard this argument for the past 5 years and I … Read More