Sharky's Trading Diary

New Release: v2.0.8 - FXCM Historical Prices II

Sharky — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:30:00 GMT

FXCM either stopped offering USDSGD prices, or only offer it to accounts in certain denominations (e.g. USD). 'Coz trying to subscribe to that currency now fails, and that in turn prevents anybody from downloading price history from FXCM.

Anyway, fixed now. Go grab v2.0.8, and go watch the video tutorial on downloading historical price data from FXCM. Also:

Opening an FXCM account
Extra Steps For FXCM Users Only (for installation help)
the FXCM sections on the Troubleshooting page

This is the first release to be done using Visual Studio 2008. So, in case any problems arise, I've left v2.0.7 available for download.

Anyhoo, here is the full list of changes:

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.8

No longer cancels login to FXCM accounts if a subscription to a particular currency fails upon login.

Version 3.0.0

Sharky — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:46:00 GMT

A quick summary before I get into the explanation: TS v3.0.0 will be a complete re-write. We threw just about everything out and started again. If you have any suggestions for new features; if there's anything in the current version of TS that's annoys you, that hampers your efforts, that prevented you from installing it or understanding how it works; please tell us. Either through the Contact Us page, or via the comments below.

If you, personally, wanted automated trading software designed just for you, what features would be in it?

We've completely re-designed TS. Nothing has been spared. If you have any suggestions, anything at all, now is the time to come forward.

To the explanation...

About 4 to 4.5 years ago, in my room near Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan, I started making some software to help me out with my currency trading. It was just for backtesting at first, but things progressed, knowledge expanded, plans became grander.

Now I have a company with a few staff based around that software, and our goal here at Thinking Stuff Pty Ltd, printed and stuck up on the wall, is to bring automated trading to the masses. Regardless of how good you are with computers, we think you should have all the advantages that automated trading provides at your fingertips.

Just about every manual on how to create a successful business says to find a niche. Ours' is the niche of people who want to get into automated trading but don't have the computer skills. And even if you have computer skills, it doesn't necessarily mean you want to learn computer programming. And even if you know computer programming, I'm guessing you mostly prefer to just click buttons than write code. I know I certainly enjoy downloading something and using it a few second later. So really, our niche are people who want to get into automated trading quickly and easily. (TradeStation, MQL, etc, will always have their niches, and we don't pretend we are direct competitors of theirs' other than a small subset of potential customers).

Over the years though, we've run into speed bumps. People would ask "can it do this?", and we'd have to say "no, in trying to make TS as simple as possible to use, we had to make some design decisions that cut off certain types of trading".

And there was the legacy code. "Legacy code" means old code, that's been around forever, that nobody wants to touch because it looks really scary and would probably break everything.

Actually my buddy came around the other week and asked why some things were like there were, and I had to reply a few times "historical reasons".

From comments and emails we get, and me saying to my buddy "historical reasons" more than a few times, it was clear that things had to change. People both want to be able to do more complicated trading systems, and they want the software to be easier to use.

The legacy code was holding us back. PostgreSQL was holding us back. The version check and subscription system were holding us back. The lack of supported brokers was holding us back. The lack of custom indicators was holding us back. This website and the lack of forums were holding us back.

So I thought to myself "Sharky, if you were going to design this from scratch, how would you do it?" And because I now have 4.5 years experience in writing this kind of software, along with 4.5 years' worth of comments and emails from customers, I made a lot of different decisions to 4.5 years ago. A lot of problems solved. A lot of niggly little things solved. A lot of big annoying things solved. And some prettier code too :-)

The drawback to all this of course, is that the monthly release had to be abandoned for a couple of months. And the next release, being a complete re-write, will need very thorough testing from us *and you* before it's ready for use. But let me guarantee to you, that this is entirely worth the trouble, and the few steps back will be followed by about 100 steps forward.

So as I said in the opening, if you have anything you want changed; anything you think needs to be changed; any reason at all that prevented you from signing up (and by the way - there probably won't be a subscription fee from v3 onwards), now is the time to come forward. Don't assume anything. The more people request a feature, the more likely it is to get done. Thanks.

New Video Tutorial

Sharky — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:31:00 GMT

Backtesting using FXCM historical price data demonstrates these things:

where to go to set up a demo FXCM account
how to enter that account's details into TS
how to download the historical price data from FXCM
how to create a simple trading system
how to backtest that trading system over the historical price data
viewing the backtesting results

Steps 4 to 6 should make this video useful viewing even if you aren't going to use FXCM.

New Release: v2.0.7 - FXCM Historical Prices

Sharky — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:42:00 GMT

Getting back to FXCM, I have updated the FXCM API and incorporated some of their new features into TS. The most exciting feature is the ability to download FXCM historical prices with a few clicks (i.e. no downloading files and then importing them into TS).

I'll have a video tutorial up soon, but I'm sure you'll figure it out :-) On the Command Centre > FXCM > Price Downloads > Historical.

In the user manual you'll find:

Opening an FXCM account
Extra Steps For FXCM Users Only (for installation help)
the FXCM sections on the Troubleshooting page

Here is the full list of changes:

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.7

New version of the FXCM API. Historical price downloads.
For non-subscribed users, dummy price data should be used so they can get a feel of what it would be like if they did subscribe. But an error prevented them from seeing the dummy results. Now fixed.
Upgraded to a new version of npgsql (the thing which lets TS connect to PostgreSQL).

New Release: v2.0.6 - Multiple Windows

Sharky — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:21:00 GMT

Most windows in TS allow only one 'instance' of them to be open at any time. Back in v2.0.0 I made it so you could have multiple Chart windows open at once, but that was it. Now that has been expanded to include the Trading Systems, Alerts, and Backtest Results windows. This makes it easier to compare - edit two or three, and line them up side-by-side.

Here is the full list of changes:

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.6

Allow multiple instances for Backtest Results window, Trading Systems windows, and Alerts windows.
Auto-login causes an error on upgrade, if you click the "Login" button instead of waiting for the auto-login to happen. What happens then is, the "do you want to upgrade" message appears twice. Clicking "Yes" on both results in the first time through working fine, but an error the second time.
Help file updated to match v2.0.5 (changes to Backtest Results window made in this release are not reflected in the help file yet).

New Release: v2.0.5 - No Longer Just USD

Sharky — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:30:00 GMT

TS used to have the limitation of only working in trading accounts denominated in USD. There were some workarounds to get it working for other currencies, but now you don't have to bother with workarounds because TS does it properly by itself.

Fixed a few other things as well, and one in particular means you have some work to do yourself after upgrading. While TS was working only with Gain Capital and Oanda, it was easy to know how many units could be purchased - Oanda allows any number of units, while Gain Capital makes you buy them in multiples of 10K.

However, now that we're moving towards FXCM as well, FXCM have 3 different kinds of accounts, and you can buy different numbers of units in each one - multiples of 1K in their micro accounts; multiples of 10K in their mini accounts; and multiples of 100K in the 'real' accounts. So it's not possible anymore to just go by the company name. And so, each account has a new field where you tell TS how many units it can buy in that account - multiples of 1, 1K, 10K, or 100K. After upgrading, please check each of your accounts and make sure the setting is correct.

Similarly, backtesting has the same new feature. So please also check each backtesting configuration entry and make sure the setting is correct.

Here is the full list of changes:

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.5

Remove limitation of TS only working in trading accounts denominated in USD.
New setting on backtesting configurations and accounts - allow purchases in multiples of 1, 1K, 10K, 100K.
Some of the indicators cannot be added to the chart... coz when I try to add the indicator, I get a message box which says... 'could not find config type' ... see attached screen capture attachment. It seems that indicators with TS after the name are loadable but ones...without TS.... are not...
Double-clicking on the Chart window now makes it fill the available area on the screen. (There's also the "Actions..." > "Make maximum size" menu item, which does the same thing).
I discovered that I only need to click 'OK' once... and then wait... or go and make a coffee... to 'add' the m/a ... (of period 2880 over 50K bars) but when performing this operation there is no egg-timer telling me that the software is thinking... If I get impatient and click more than once I get an exception error and have to close the program.
Data Manager, File Loader, and Price History windows need to disable Close button when doing their respective functions.
When I start TS V_2, on the trading system 'other' tab, the last gasp filter does not remember the setting, I have to re select my choice every time.
FXCM account numbers are too big for the account number field.
Number fields now have little up-down spinners (click the up button to increase the value, the down button to decrease it).
I don't want TS to _create_ any messages, because with 1 min Systems it creates a lot. Like Activity Logging I want to turn it off.
Oanda now allows trading in these currencies: AUD/CAD, EUR/NZD, GBP/CAD, NZD/CAD, NZD/JPY, USD/CZK, USD/HUF, USD/SEK.
Is there a way to set the stop loss at the Minimum close of last x intervals for Long trades, vice versa for Short trades, Maximum close of last x intervals?
Row Count menu item on Data Manager is now called "Table information", and shows row count, earliest date of price data, and latest date of price data in that table.
Backtesting, when no USD in the currency pair being tested, and the trading system's money management says to use % of balance or VFP, then TS always 'buys' 1 contract. It was originally done this way because all calculations were converted back to USD, and if there is no USD in the currency pair, then % of balance cannot be calculated in USD. However, with TS not exclusive to USD accounts anymore, this restriction has also been removed.
"Unexpected error" when click "Prices" link in toolbar (or probably any web link).
Update web addresses to reflect new website structure.
When an account was being used by an active trading system, and try to edit that account, a message would appear saying that the account cannot be edited, but it would appear to edit it anyway.
When close Command Centre abruptly without switching off auto-trading/alerting, then open Command Centre again and download prices, auto-trading/alerting starts again even though the window shows them as being switched off.
User Wizard doesn't ask for a server type (i.e. demo/live) when FXCM is selected for the company.
Directional Movement System is not being calculated correctly.

Happy New Year's Blog Purge

Sharky — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:41:00 GMT

Well, Happy New Year!

I've spent the last few weeks making changes to my website. A lot of changes. If you're reading this through a feed, you should come and have a look. Though I'm not really convinced that I'll be keeping this new colour scheme...

The biggest addition would have to be the online version of the TS help manual. Here's the link:
http://www.thinkingstuff.com/atm/online-help-manual.aspx

While I was making the changes to my website, I realised that my blog was extremely boring :-) Actually, there should not be a smiley face there. I'm serious. So I went through and purged all the dead-weight posts.

After that I went and moved anything useful to its own page in an appropriate part of the website. My sitemap gives the full picture. Anyway, except for the posts where I outline what changed in each new version of my software, there's not many posts that remain in the blog.

All that's left is to not fall into the same pattern of tedium... :-)

This blog used to be educational. People used to write to me and thank me. That was back when I was writing the Systems Trading Theory series and the Problems With Backtesting series.

I want to get back to that type of thing. I'm also going to loosen up a bit about what I post. Maoxian and Eyal mix in personal stuff and reviews with their trading posts, and I enjoy both of those blogs immensely.

About TS - I saw a post more than a year ago saying that the main problem with TS was that it didn't support enough brokers. Since then I've added precisely zero extra brokers.

This is me telling you that I'm getting back on track. Right now. Step 1 - "purge the blog" is done :-)

Forums, I guess, will be the next big upgrade to this site, just as soon as I decide which forum software to go with.

Support Availability

Sharky — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:26:00 GMT

Support is as normal - within 24 hours of receiving your request.

New Release: v2.0.4 - 'CloseOrder'

Sharky — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:45:00 GMT

Oanda snuck another transaction type in there - 'CloseOrder'.

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.4

New Oanda transaction type: 'CloseOrder'
"Change to Short" (or Long, depending on what's selected) button next to Rule Type.
Need "saving backtest results" status, otherwise it looks like backtesting stops at calculating entries/exits.
Should now see less "cannot find trade", "cannot find order" messages. These would happen when the order would be entered / trade would be exited, just before TS tries to update it. They'll still show up sometimes, but less frequently.
Info added to TS help file regarding the "protected memory" error.

New Release: v2.0.3 - Chart Indicators Options

Sharky — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:43:00 GMT

On the Backtesting Results Window, there are now options you can choose from when you go to chart all the indicators and trade entries/exits, etc. I wouldn't normally put out a release just for that, but I also fixed a couple of things for some customers.

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.3

Backtest Results window now has options to choose from when charting indicators.
"X Completed Bars After Entry Bar" rule was waiting 1 bar too many. Can now also use 0 (zero) to indicate the rule should be true at the end of the entry bar.
Change "Overbought setting" to "Value To Be Above", and "Oversold setting" to "Value To Be Below". Makes it a little easier to understand.
More info added to TS help file.

New Release: v2.0.2 - Conversion Error

Sharky — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:42:00 GMT

Quick release to fix a conversion error when upgrading from v1.0.3 to v2.0.1, directly, and have Oanda users (the conversion of trading systems from the old to new format, that is).

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.2

As mentioned, an "object not set to an instance" error during conversion of trading systems, if upgrading from v1.0.3 to v2.0.1 and have Oanda users.
Changed error message to give more details if such an error occurs.
Some explanatory text on the Account Information download tabs on the Command Centre.
Price Downloads tabs on Command Centre now has its own set of tabs - Ticks, Intervals, Special.

New Release: v2.0.1 - Start of FXCM

Sharky — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:07:00 GMT

September 2008's release, hopefully going a long way towards being able to call the v2.0.x series "not-beta-anymore".

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.1

FXCM! Partially. At the moment it only downloads Account information and price data. So you can use it for Alerts, but not auto-trading just yet.
Searches for Oanda API / FXCM API before trying to use them. Prevents sudden crashes :-)
Help file now completely up-to-date.
Old icon still being used in the system tray when there are unread messages.
"Object not set to an instance" error when save Oanda user and Oanda DLLs aren't there.
Bulk Data Manager update window - the "Select All" drop-downs need an initial value set.
ERROR: 22001: value too long for type character varying(5) - happens when using some of the No Trading options and try a backtest.
Close button for Command Centre, Exit button for opening window, connect the Escape key to all Close buttons.
Show TSID (unique identifier internal to TS) for Backtest Config entries, because it can be used as search criteria on the Backtest Results window.
Backtesting exited with error: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
Shouldn't be able to delete a Trading System or Alert that's currently auto-trading/alerting.
Problem encountered while downloading Tick prices from Oanda: ERROR: 23505: duplicate key value violates unique constraint "pk_zoanda_audjpy_tk"
On Accounts Wizard - if you choose "Other" in the margin rate field, crashes.
Change all rule descriptions from "In Overbought" to "Is Above X", and "In Oversold" to "Is Below X".
New Oanda transaction description: Order Cancelled (BV:SL) - used to be just one L.

New Release: v2.0.0 - New Everything

Sharky — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:37:00 GMT

Major changes to just about all parts of TS. Instead of reading below, maybe you should just think of it as a brand new bit of software.

Fixed Or Added In v2.0.0

Wizards - to help you out with Getting Started, Trading Systems, Alerts, Accounts, Users, Data Manager entries, Backtest config entries, Outgoing email, Receiving email, SMS, Holidays.
Can now import and export Trading Systems and Alerts. Useful for backing up, restoring, moving between your own computers, or sharing with others. You have the option to encrypt them so nobody else can import them without the password you set. When imported, encrypted Trading Systems and Alerts will not show their inner workings. They will still backtest/auto-trade/alert though. So you can sell your systems but keep your secrets.
Backtesting no longer relies on Microsoft Excel. All results are now stored in the TS database. You can search on past results. You can also view a result, and you will be shown an equity curve and some other charts of the results. Click a button, and the Chart window will open, be filled with the price data you just backtested with, the indicators used in your Trading System will be added to the chart, as will the entry and exit points.
All search field values, window sizes and positions, are now stored and re-entered automatically next time you open a window.
Now have the ability to decide if you want a message created to remind you to connect to the Internet X minutes before the subscription check is done. You decide if the message is created, and if so then how many minutes before.
The "Trade Mgmt Only" setting no longer resets a trading system to "Disabled" after all of its open trades are closed. Instead the status will remain at "Trade Mgmt Only". Which means you can continually open trades manually and have TS take care of the trade management part for you.
New colour scheme and icons.
Subscriptions window has changed a bit. No longer big and ugly.
Default Chart colours now prettier.
Can now have multiple Chart windows open at once.
Now has a confirmation message before closing TS.
Trading Systems and Alerts no longer started by a countdown. They are started when new price data comes in.
Close button put on all windows.
Outlook-style toolbar to assist with navigation.
Gain Capital now offers CADJPY, EURCAD. Oanda offers EURTRY, USDTRY, USDCNY, USDINR and USDTWD.
New Oanda transaction description - Order Expired. Set order status to cancelled.
Put "View Data" & "View Charts" menu items on Data Manager. They open those windows and set the search criteria to match the highlighted Data Manager entry (user then clicks Search button themselves).
"Table Name and Row count" menu item on the Data Manager. Shows how many bars of price data currently stored for the highlighted Data Manager entry.
All passwords now encrypted.
Add more detail to long and short icons (green and red arrows) so that when hovering the mouse, the date and price is also shown.
Have user option for which trading system to set when unknown. Default to "Unknown".
Overbought and oversold settings for Detrended Price Oscillator are now to 5 decimal places instead of 1.
Can now display all rows instead of maximum 500,000. Be careful with that though.
Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE) value not correct when the initial stop loss is taken out. It's fine if the stop loss has moved and is then taken out.
MB Trading and EFX Group now allows multiples of 1000, not 10,000.
[OHLC] Minus X Average True Range(s) and [OHLC] Plus X Average True Range(s) would add the ATR in terms of pips. E.g. for EURUSD, instead of 1.2345, the end result would be like 75.2345.
RSI Signal Line Is Falling and RSI Signal Line Is Rising rules need "Signal period" parameter.
And various other little bug fixes, tidy ups, and miscellaneous changes.

Video Tutorial On How To Copy Your TS Database

Sharky — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:49:00 GMT

Thanks to some freeware called Wink, there is now the first of probably many video tutorials on how to use TS. Except that this first one has nothing to do with how to use TS :-) It guides you through making a backup, then restoring, your TS database.

The reason I made this one first is precisely because I made sooooo many changes to TS that there's a high chance I broke something. And that's why I'm calling v2.0 "beta" to start off with. And that's why you should make a copy of your TS database, and test v2.0 on that copy. When you're happy that TS is working just fine for your purposes, then you upgrade your original database (or just keeping using the copy. But in either case, making the copy is important).

The backup file is a plain text file, which you can copy somewhere safe in case the computer running TS dies, is stolen, catches on fire, etc.

This procedure is useful for:

Taking a simple backup for safe-keeping.
Copying your live database so you can test a new version of TS.
Copying a TS database from your local computer to a different computer (e.g. a dedicated server you just started renting).
Moving your TS database to a new version of PostgreSQL, when you upgrade that. (Necessary when moving between major revision numbers, e.g. 8.1 to 8.2, but not when upgrading from 8.1.3 to 8.1.4).

So take a look. At the moment I've just uploaded the direct output from Wink, which is a very plain webpage with an embedded flash video. Click your browser's "back" button to return to the TS website proper.

Backup, Restore, Copy, Move Your TS Database

Suggestions welcomed.

Still Alive And Kicking

Sharky — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:34:00 GMT

Hi. It's been a while. In fact I was actually trying to make this website look dead. I'll explain why...

TS is being held back by the brokers it currently connects with. Not the number (two), but by the brokers themselves. Gain Capital and Oanda.

I allow auto trading only in Gain Capital demo accounts, because there was no way I could test trading in live accounts without risking real money. Testing is normally what demo accounts are for, but talk in their forums made it out that there are differences between the demo and live accounts. Not good.

One of the chiefs at Gain Capital has told me this is untrue, and asked that I reconsider. And I might in the future.

Oanda has the obvious stumbling block of needing to pay $600 per month for their API. Which is fine if you already have the trading system and the volume. But not good for starting out. Or if you want to take a holiday or something.

So I was looking at Interactive Brokers (IB), EFX Group, and/or MB Trading. Their APIs are free, and apparently good. (BTW, if you didn't know, recently EFX Group and MB Trading became one and the same).

As a side note, in the not-too-distant future I'd like TS to work with shares as well.

As it happens, Medved Quotetracker allows connections to IB, MB, and a bunch of share-trading places. Yay. All I have to do is hook into Quotetracker and a lot of problems are solved at once.

And I was all ready to do that. But then...

I've been approached many times by people who want to go into partnerships. Generally people who want to market my software. Nothing ever got past a couple of emails back and forth.

Until... a bigwig at a forex brokerage stumbled across my site. This time things got serious. A lot of effort was put into the wording of a contract. I signed the contract. I was given a contract-signing fee. Instead of doing the Quotetracker stuff, I was spending all my free time putting in the features that this forex brokerage requested. (Did I say all of my free time? I meant ALL of my free time! :-). And then... it all fell apart.

The deal was that the company would pay me, and then provide the software for free to all of their customers. But exclusively, meaning I could no longer make it available for other forex companies (which at that time and still now is Gain Capital and Oanda). Existing customers could continue to use the old version, but were not going to be given upgrades. So they'd still be able to use what they'd paid for, but that would be that. At least that's how I remember the deal.

So... my integrity told me that I should not try to get new customers. Because it would not be good, in my way of thinking at least, to espouse a product, get people to sign up (which for some entails buying the $600 Oanda API), and then a month later say "oh yeah, you're on your own". BTW, back then I was under strict instruction not to make any of this public, so the option of just telling people what was going on was not available.

And that is why I have not posted for a long time, and tried to make this site look dead, and removed the 12 month plans from the purchase page. Yeah, it was a crazy situation to be in.

But you still came and signed up! Didn't you! DIDN'T YOU! :-) Every couple of weeks or so, someone would write a forum entry somewhere with a link here which would bring a bunch of new members and new sign-ups.

Anyway, now that TS is no longer under contract, please keep writing forum entries and signing up :-)

Where to from here?

Well, the coding for v2.0.0 is almost finished. Then comes testing. And then comes release. And v2.0.0 contains most of the things that the forex brokerage requested. There's a whole bucket load of stuff, but the major points are:

Wizards. A lot of people had trouble getting set up initially, and it's hoped these Wizards will now make everything much easier.
Backtesting results no longer print out to Excel files. In fact there is no reliance on Excel nor CSV files at all. The results are instead saved to the database, and you get a pretty equity curve chart.
After backtesting, you can click a button and TS will fill in a chart with all the indicators that you used in the trading system, and show you where all the entries and exits were.
You can have more than one chart window open.
You can import/export trading systems and alerts. For backup and sharing. And if you want to sell your system but don't want others to know how it works, you can encrypt it if you want. Encrypted systems will still backtest/auto-trade on other peoples' machines, but they won't be able to see or change any of the rules. Not even if they peek in the database.
Auto-trading is now kicked off by new prices coming in, not from a timer.
Removed the Help sections from individual windows, and the separate PDF document, and now use a standard Windows help file.
It looks a cooler than before :-)

Pretty much all I have left to code is repeat everything for the Indicator-based Alerts that I've already done for Trading Systems.

Then once v2.0.0 is out, v2.0.1 is going to be a bug-fix and documentation release (because with all the changes now the documentation is a lot different in some places to how the program works). And then I go back to Medved Quotetracker.

So yeah, I'm still around, TS is still being worked on (feverishly), and that's why stuff happened like it did.

New Release: v1.0.3 - Quick Wins

Sharky — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:00:00 GMT

Got some small stuff done to clear up the ol' TODO list a little.

Fixed Or Added In v1.0.3

Error when entering a mobile/cell phone number of 10 digits or more.
Double-click a row opens the corresponding detail window in edit mode.
Forex Factory calendar changed again.
User setting that let's the user decide how to be notified of messages.
New Oanda transaction descriptions - BuyBox and BoxClose.
"Save and Stay" buttons should be "Apply". "Close" becomes "OK" (but save as well as close).
Help menu item for "Documentation".
Click to send order to broker, but cancel. Status has changed to "Open" even though it should still be "New".
Bulk add of Data Manager entries - choose Weekly or Monthly as the Base, and it shows too many entries.
Change "X-over" to "Comparison". E.g. "SMA Comparisons" instead of "SMA X-Over".
Activity window "Add" button doesn't work.

Update From A Customer Who Trades Live With TS

Sharky — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:04:00 GMT

Unfortunately I rarely hear from customers once they are up and running. So I have no idea if they are using TS in live accounts, and if so if they are profitable or not. So I took the opportunity to ask a customer the other day how he was going. Here's the reply:

It is all going well. I am trading live and it's running on the server with no intervention at all. Spent some time in Turkey and didn't have to check anything.

I do the maintenance manually once a month or so and give it all a restart.

The combined systems are profitable. The live results mirror the backtest so far - so I am happy.

It's possible folks.

New Release: v1.0.2 - Back Into It

Sharky — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Long time no release :-)

Fixed Or Added In v1.0.2

All windows will now show scroll bars if they are too big for the computer screen.
Now allowing up to 999 hours between database maintenance tasks (was 99 hours, but to kick it off weekly needs 168 hours).
Hopefully fixed "date/time field value out of range" error when loading price data from files, which might have occurred on machines where the locale is not US or Japan.
Added EFX Group, MB Trading, and Interactive Brokers as companies you can select from the pull-down lists, as well as the currencies each of those brokers provides. This is in preparation for the connection to those brokers through Medved Quotetracker coming soon.

Why Wouldn't I Sell It?

Sharky — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:20:00 GMT

I was going through my website logs the other day. Anyone with a website can see "referrals" - the addresses of other websites which have a link to their own (assuming somebody has clicked that link).

So I sometimes go to those other websites and see what's written. (Interestingly there are a lot of sites in Spanish and German linking to my theory articles).

Anyway, one guy has some automated trading software for sale. Someone asked him "if it works, why would you sell it?". In the course of answering that guy, he linked to me.

But isn't it funny that that kind of question prevails? I've touched on this a couple of times before, but why are traders the only ones who aren't allowed to want to make more money? Aren't we exactly the type of person who is inclined to make money any way we can?

That kind of question also shows a misunderstanding of how trading works. It's not a fixed income. There are good times. And then there are lean times. Traders are people, believe it or not, and tend have things like families, rent to pay, food to buy. If done well, trading can bring in a fantastic income. But the need for security, the need to be a good *consistent* provider for your family (or just for yourself), doesn't go away.

And then, there is the fact that we live in a capitalistic society. Consider a movie star who spends a couple of months doing some 'acting', and gets a $20 million payment. Why is it, that the actor then goes on to make another movie? Why is it, that the actor then goes on to make a car commercial? Don't they have "enough" money? In capitalism, there is not such a concept.

Even if we don't use the money for ourselves, we can always use the extra for the benefit of others. Ala Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and a list of other millionaire/billionaire philanthropists. How are they best to serve humanity - by volunteering their time at a soup kitchen for the homeless for 365 days a year? Or instead earning a stack of money, building a number of soup kitchens, and employing people to run all those soup kitchens?

And so, just like any other normal person, traders want to make more money. Selling their trading knowledge, or trading tools they've made along the way, seems a good way to me to pick up some extra cash. It's a completely normal thing to do, but yet people still have it in their head that once you've got a killer trading system, you are then no longer allowed to want to make money through alternate means.

Further, you're probably aware of the saying "it takes money to make money". Let's say you found a trading system which brings in 100% per year. Now let's say you have only $2000 to trade with. $2000 x 100% equals another $2000. You can't live on $2000.

Year 1: $2000 x 100% = $4000.
Year 2: $4000 x 100% = $8000.
Year 3: $8000 x 100% = $16000.
Year 4: $16000 x 100% = $32000.
Year 5: $32000 x 100% = $64000.
Year 6: $64000 x 100% = $128000.

You could probably live on $32000 per year. So if you start with $2000, and you consistently make 100% return per year, it's going to be about 5 years before you can quit your day job.

Two problems come to mind: (1) you need to consistently earn 100% p.a. for this plan to work; and (2) once you've quit your day job, you now have to consistently earn 100% p.a. until you die. Because all of your winnings would be taken up by buying daily essentials. You wouldn't be saving any money - you'd be treading water for the rest of your life.

What I'm trying to say is, you need a decent bank balance before you can consider trading for a living. The more you have, the less return per annum you need to pay for daily essentials.

So, I sell my freaking software! :-)

The other fundamental misunderstanding of how trading works, shown by the question of "if it works, why would you sell it?" is this theory of "the more people know the system, the less well it works". Now in my particular software, you create your own trading system. So you won't be trading the same as me - I'm just providing you a way to automate your own system. However, even if I was selling trading systems, theoretically the more people that know the system - the better the results should be for everybody. No?

Because, the more people buying at a particular time, the more demand there is. And the more demand there is, the higher the price goes. Isn't that how the supply-demand thing works??

So to me, the question should not be "if it works, why would you sell it?". The question should be "if it works, why wouldn't you sell it?".

Good Luck To Trader Eyal

Sharky — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:48:00 GMT

A good friend of mine whom I've never met - Trader Eyal - has quit what most would consider quite a "good" job in Singapore, and is on his way to live in Thailand and trade stocks for a living.

Trading for a living, and the freedom that entails, is the ultimate goal for me, and I'm sure just about anyone reading this blog.

The problem is that too many of us attempt it with too little experience, and too little funds. Our returns then have to be ridiculously high just to pay for the daily essentials, which can't last. The money runs out, and we head back to work feeling miserable at the old constraints of working for a company, and perhaps never attempt to live the dream again.

But Trader Eyal has some years of experience. Moreover some years of profitable experience. And I'm sure he has the funds behind him to make a go of it. Moving to Thailand will also surely reduce the costs, assuming he doesn't go crazy in the way some foreigners do when they live in Thailand. Hear that Eyal? Stay clear of the man-girls :-) Good luck!

Big News - TS Family Gets Bigger

Sharky — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:34:00 GMT

Whoa, one month since I posted anything. Time flies. I moved house. Bought a car. Stopped drinking alcohol and properly started losing weight.

But the big news is, there is an addition to the Thinking Stuff family. Most likely. In terms of it's not just a one-man-band anymore.

One of my co-workers from where I work as a contractor is going to help me out with some of the coding. We're still in the process of working out the specifics. But here's hoping.

Transformers and Oceans 13

Sharky — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:00:00 GMT

Been to the movies a couple of times recently. Note that this post does contain spoilers.

Transformers

Transformers is an excellent 90 minute movie. Unfortunately it goes for 2.5 hours. There's a lot of dead time in it.

When they do transform, you can't make out any detail - you can just see a big blur of movement. Similarly with the action scenes - they've got the whole shake-the-camera thing going which I've always found annoying. The second Bourne movie was the same.

There was, however, one scene where I thought "ok, now that's cool". I can't remember what happens in that scene, but it was a 5-second experience. Out of 2.5 hours.

Yes I had the toys when I was a kid :-)

Oceans 13

I really liked Oceans 11. They told you all the problems they had to overcome, and we were left hanging as to how they would overcome them. Then the SWAT team came, and it all looked like it was going badly. Ok, we all knew they would intercept the call to the SWAT team, but there was some suspense there. Then they revealed how they did it, and it was all good.

Oceans 12 sucked. At the end they spring the train sequence on you, and you're left thinking "When did they ever mention anything about a train?". The only scene was them standing on a platform at a train station. And the "oh, Julia Roberts' character looks a lot like Julia Roberts" scheme, was poor. The only good thing was that the cop at the end was Matt Damon's mother.

So off I went to Oceans 13. In this one, (and here's the spoiler in case you don't want to read any further), they tell you what they are going to do... and then they do it. It's better than 12, but not as good as 11. The cool part was that the outside of the casino itself, which you see fairly often, looks very real but is actually all computer wizardry.

New Release: v1.0.1 - The Customary Bug

Sharky — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:14:00 GMT

There's always a bug in v1.0 :-) In our case it was emails.

Fixed Or Added In v1.0.1

Can send test email message, but "Everything's Fine" email gives an error.
3, 4, 6, 12, 20-minute, 6-hour bars.

New Release: v1.0.0

Sharky — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:02:00 GMT

Well, it's finally here :-)

Fixed Or Added In v1.0.0

Finished putting shortcut keys on menu items, buttons.
Have user enter their own GMail account for the sending of emails.
Bulk delete button on Messages window.
Use the timeout setting on TS Activity & Messages windows, search & bulk delete buttons.
Option to ignore weekend data, and set the GMT times that the weekend starts/ends.
Using 3-Hour bars for entry and stop loss mgmt, and trade entered. Change stop loss to Hourly bars (and keep everything else using 3-Hourly), and no entry.
Different logging levels.
Fixed RSI Signal indicator on charts.
TS must do the subscription check properly at startup. However, once running, allow 2 subscription check failures. On the 3rd failure in a row, reset to Trial-Version mode. This lets the website be down for about 3 days before it affects anybody already running the program.

The $7 Mistake

Sharky — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:24:00 GMT

There is probably only one thing in existence that's more expensive in Australia than it is in Japan. Why did it have to be one of my favourite foods??

I'm talking about sushi. The trick is to get enough wasabi for the buzz, but not so much wasabi that you get the wasabi-headache. That balancing act is also part of the fun of eating sushi. Actually my sharemate in Osaka didn't have that problem - he always gave himself a big wasabi-headache on purpose.

Anyway, so I'm looking around the Gold Coast for a fairly cheap sushi place. Seems like the plates start at $2.50, and that's just for the egg ones - for the tuna and salmon they are $3.50.

Walking around one day I came across a narrow arcade, with small shops, that actually reminded me of Japan. Except for the surfboard store. And in the middle of that arcade there was a Japanese restaurant. I looked through the prices. It said egg sushi was $2, tuna and salmon were $2.50. "Wow" I thought. I expected that the portion size would be smaller, but surely it was a good deal nonetheless.

So tonight I went there. And the lady came over and I gave my order - "tuna" I said.

As soon as she said "1?" I realised my mistake. Normally a plate of sushi has 2 pieces of sushi on it. When she said "1?" I realised that these were the prices for just 1 piece. And therefore the prices would need to be doubled to compare them with other restaurants. So I wasn't going to be paying $2.50 for the tuna, I was going to be paying $5. And I wasn't going to be paying $2 for the egg, I was going to be paying $4.

As you can see, those prices are well above the normal $2.50 for a plate of egg, and $3.50 for a plate of tuna.

In Japanese I thought to myself "maitta", which has the dictionary meaning of: "I'm beaten".

Still, good quality. But maitta.

I think Friday nights will become "search for a good and cheap Japanese restaurant" night. Until now I had always been going to the same place. Then I found out the pretty waitress there was my boss's girlfriend. It's a small world. Or at least the Gold Coast is a small city.