TradeLogger

Relay For Life Cancer Fundraiser

2008-07-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hi there folks...some of you who might remember me from my days back in WCCI might remember my wife Catwoman Shay who was also a trader. Some of you may recall that one of her passions, and mine too for that matter, revolves around the Relay For Life Cancer Fundraiser which is an annual event held all over the United States and Europe to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

Shay is a cancer survivor herself. Almost 7 years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and today she is doing very well with no evidence of disease. Although she knows that all of her tests are clean, she is acutely aware that she has the potential of battling this again in some form, although her statistical odds are excellent that she won't. This has given us both a real heart and desire to raise all the money we can each to go towards all the research it takes to conquer the disease of cancer.

The American Cancer Society is a fantastic and worthwhile cause and so I encourage you, that if your trading has done well this year, or if you have found some usefulness using my free TradeLogger program, then consider making a donation to Relay For Life. Simply go to my wife's donation page here, and click the "Donate" link found at the bottom. Thanks for your support!

The best trading system in the world

2008-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

The Best Trading System In The World: That's what I was told when I first came through the doors at Woodies CCI Club. Of course everyone says they have the best trading system in the world but mostly those are people who are selling it too. Funny for obvious reasons. No, Woodies system wasn't being sold per se, just how you needed to use it and what broker you needed to trade it with is all. Which is fine with me I guess, promotion is promotion and business is business and if you can market your brokerage in the guise of a free trading system, then that's their prerogative. That's not what I wanted to mention however. I was going to talk about the Best Trading System In The World (spoken with stadium-sized echo).

When I started trading WCCI a couple years ago one of the big things that was taught was keeping statistics about the markets you trade. How far they move in your favor based upon your patterns, how much on average they move against you before it's a winning trade. This is in fact a wise thing. It's never a bad idea to keep your finger on the pulse of the market, the ones that you trade, to always know how its heart is beating. Combined with money management (that's code for making sure your losses are smaller than your wins), statistics will give you some idea of what to expect and give you an edge, and in trading you don't need much of an edge as long as your wins are bigger than your losses. The problem with the WCCI system is it teaches you to keep your losses bigger than your wins, always. 15 tic stop loss and 10 tic targets on the ER, 25 tic stops and 10 tic target on the YM and so on. No matter how long you trade that way, even if you can win 75% of the time, you're equity curve is going to be heading south. Yet people still trade it believing that the "runner" contract will be the holy grail and make up all the difference when you hit the big 100 tic run occasionally.

As a bit of a math head I'm here to tell you that I have traded it that way, I have written programs to crunch the numbers and I have analyzed it from every angle. The reality is, the big runners AT BEST will get you back close to break even at the end of the month because all along you've been taking larger losses then your wins over and over and over. But here is the true story, the most interesting bit of information:

When I was trading in WCCI, once or twice a month we'd do a little game to demonstrate how effective money management in trading can really help you. He called it the Coin Flip. It was a trading method based on a complete random flip of the coin, but employed money management. At the flip of a coin, we would go long or short into the market (usually the Russell), and not exit our trade until we got stopped out or reached our target. No runners, all in/all out. Our stop was 10 tics, our targets were 20 tics or sometimes more. Once we were out of the market, we'd flip the coin again and re-enter long or short based upon heads or tails. We'd be in the market all the time and then evaluate how well we did by simply keeping our losses to half the size of our wins. We rarely had a losing day, seriously.

Since those days I've written a simulator that does the same thing with various markets. Just a random flip of the coin to enter the market, keep your losses to half of your wins and keep trading. Here's the reality, the Coin Flip system hands down beats WCCI as a trading system, consistently out-winning all the fancy signals with the Sidewinder, Chop Zone Indicator and so on. It's funny because when we would do the Coin Flip in the room and always do well, people would comment "why don't we just trade the coin flip with money management?" and our leader would usually laugh or growl about how absurd that would be, that this is just a demonstration. It demonstrated something all right, that no matter how good your system supposedly is, if you have it in your system to take 15-25 tic losses and only take 10 tic targets, you are going to LOSE in the long run. If you have a crappy or mediocre system and take losses that are half the size of your targets, you are going to do fair to well. These days WCCI doesn't perform the coin flip in the room anymore...I wonder why? Because it clearly shows that it does better in the market than all the fancy WCCI panels and code and surely it became clear that it was embarrassing as a comparison to His own system. It was a good demonstration though and at least got people to think in the most simplest of ways.

So, if you want the secret to the Best Trading System In the World, just look no farther than the coin flip with a 2:1 or 3:1 money management ratio. You can't get any simpler than that and if you don't believe me, paper trade it for a week and you'll soon see the reality.

Some benefits to our high gas prices

2008-07-03T17:05:00.001-07:00

As I feel the pinch at the pump as everybody, I've wondered over the last year what benefits, if any, could come from higher gas prices. For years I always thought that the technology surrounding our standard combustion engine vehicles was stagnant. More effort was being put into marketing vehicles with iPod adapters than new fuel efficiencies it seemed. But since high gas prices are here and is creating an enormous ripple effect through our economy, all of a sudden, car manufacturers can't come out with new technologies fast enough. You have Honda now introducing a test vehicle in southern California that is a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle with zero emissions and runs on hydrogen which is the most plentiful fuel source in the universe.

At some point in the future, gasoline will be extinct. Will vehicles disappear too? No, vehicle manufacturers will miraculously roll out vehicles that work just as well if not better on many other sources of fuel. Of course they could have been rolling them out years ago but the need just wasn't there as it is today. Personally, I'm delighted to see the new alternative fuel based vehicles being pressured to emerge and as long as gas prices remain high and going higher, there's no doubt we'll see more of these vehicles appear with greater frequency. Necessity is the mother of invention and works well in lighting a fire under the butts of those that need a kick start. I just hope, that the manufacturers make these vehicles affordable enough to be feasible to switch over. Right now hybrid vehicles are the rage for people to buy, but they still don't make financial sense until gas prices reach $10/gallon. The average person is not making a hybrid pay for itself just yet by in large. But as we make our way to $10 gas, I'm sure the auto makers will give us even more creative options for pushing the wheels faster than ever.

Here's an interesting link I found about converting your car to burn water & gasoline...click here.

Auto Trading Systems

2008-05-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted a little help growing your portfolio? Maybe you don't have the time to devote to full time trading.

TradeLogger has partnered with Collective2 to bring you the largest variety of auto-trading systems found anywhere, each independently monitored and ranked without bias, purely based upon results.

Many of these trading systems can be automated right from your own broker and/or using your own order entry software. Some systems have a monthly fee, many forex systems are completely free and many systems only charge you a fee IF they have been profitable for the last 30 days. Not too bad. I'm not big on "gurus" that sell their systems and then pat you on the back. I like the idea of not being charged UNLESS the system is indeed profitable and I also like the fact that the performance of all of our systems are completely monitored daily with no bias or favoritism.

When you have found the right trading system for you, then use TradeLogger to help ensure you have only absolute minimal drawdowns.

For more detailed information about how to find just the right auto trading system for you, check out us out at TradeLogger Automated Trading Systems.

Housing marketing continues to slide southward

2008-05-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Well, a matter that is definitely on the forefront of most people's minds is the housing market. Along with part time trading of futures and running my 3D animation business, my wife and I have been involved in flipping homes the past few years. Fortunately we sold our last property just before the credit crunch hit and we have been on the sidelines just watching the market for signs of an upturn. We'll continue to watch.

Making this the best year of my life

2008-05-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, after 2 years I have put my day trading activities on the back burner, or at least 2nd priority. I still keep an eye on the markets and put on some short to medium term option trades, but I don't devote my full 8 hours a day to trading. I look forward to being able to do that again in the future though and I have every intention of doing so.

In the meantime, I am very busy with my revived 3D animation company. We bought RenderFriend server farm for other 3D animators to use on a lease basis. What I'm focusing on right now is the lessons learned from a book I just finished reading called "The Best Year Of Your Life" by Debbie Ford. It's actually my wife's book but I picked it up and started reading it too. There are no new life lessons to be learned here, but sometimes it's nice reading someone else's perspective on things we already understand. It gives us a a different slant on things sometimes. Making this year the best year of my life doesn't equate to finances necessarily, it's the steps involved in moving forward, being better, becoming better by taking an active role in the things that you do, not a passive role. Of course it's so much easier to take the passive role and let life happen to you. I've certainly done that.

But in rebuilding my company, the important thing is to take an active role DOING something every day. Make the day count. Put out the effort by making a new contact, enhancing your advertising, even take time out 3 to 4 times a week to exercise. I need to do that because what good is any future success if I can't enjoy it in a worn out body that I haven't taken care of? Taking active steps on your list to do something every day that moves you closer to your goal is what makes the difference. So, I'm keeping very busy with these things, even when I don't feel like doing them... I always feel better afterwards.

How are YOU making money trading the markets?

2008-05-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

OK, time to open up the forum for discussion about how you are trading the markets these days. We all know there is no such thing as a holy grail indicator that works all the time, it's a matter of finding your own suite of indicators and refining how you like to interpret them.

What are your favorite markets to trade these days? Futures, options, forex, stocks? What are the timeframes do you like to look at when trading? 5-minute chart, tick chart, hour or day? And best of all, what are the indicators you like to use, whether it be CCI, whether it be stochastics, MACD or any combination.

For me I have been looking closely at a variety of stochastic settings along with some moving averages for medium term stock trading. Holding for 1-3 weeks. I also utilize options in my retirement portfolio use the ThinkOrSwim tools to help screen through various option possibilities.

So, what works for you? All topics and methods are always welcome for discussion here without fear of being thumped on the head ;)

My daughter is in the "Twilight Movie"

2008-04-15T15:18:00.001-07:00

OK, this may not totally be on topic with trading and money management and all of that, but hey, blogs can deviate right? Sure. And what dad wouldn't want to brag on his daughter when exciting stuff is happening in their lives. Well, first off, my daughter Bri is getting ready to graduate from college soon. She has applied to graduate study for a Master's degree at Portland State University and hopefully she will be accepted to get a Master's degree in Sociology. But as big as that is, the news of the month for her for sure has to be the fact that she got a part in the movie "Twilight" that they are filming near here. She has been working as an extra in the school scenes and doing lots of walk ons and stuff. This is being hyped as a pretty big movie like Harry Potter and there is already a ton of buzz about it. Anyway, she's had the time to hang with a couple of the main stars and see what it's like to sit around for hours upon hours waiting for a scene to get set. She has been filming it for the last couple of weeks and yesterday she had to show up on the set at 9:45 a.m., and didn't get a break until 1:30 a.m. the next morning. She got a few hours of sleep and then was back on the set again today and I probably won't see her until late late in the morning yet again. It's pretty fun and exciting stuff for her and she is jazzed beyond belief to have gotten the chance to be in it. Hopefully all of her scenes won't end up on the cutting room floor ;)

Is this REALLY front page news?

2008-04-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Everyday I peruse my morning news for issues and stories that impact my daily life. So I turn to trusted news sources such as CNN and MarketWatch. This morning I noticed that CNN had a story so important, that it HAD to be on the front page of their news site...no, I'm not talking about the war in Iraq or the recession (or possible recession), but the vitally important story about the actress Mary-Louise Parker breaking her engagement with actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Yes I know, I had to take a deep breath, take a shot of whiskey and sit back and ponder how my life will change with this bit of news. I know! They just got engaged earlier this year! Maybe I'm being too much of a stick in the mud, but it seems to me that front page news means something with some substance to it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for celebrity gossip occasionally, but that's why I go to TMZ.com, not CNN front page news....sheesh.

Update on my involvement with Woodies CCI Club

2008-03-26T10:22:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've posted here and a lot of things changed in my life, but for the good I'm pleased to report. For the last 2 years I have been a moderator and full time trader within the Woodies CCI Club group. I have made the decision to leave that group 2 months ago after a number of revelations and truths have come to light about the system and about the leadership.

First of all, after 2 years of full time trading with WCCI, I simply could not make the system work for me. I felt bad that I just wasn't good enough, etc. But as I spoke with many many former moderators and some long time supporters who were among Woodies' inside circle, they all confided that nobody that they have ever met could actually make money with Woodies CCI system. Now, of course in the club they'll just talk about me as another loser who quit and gave up. They say that about everybody who leaves, even high leadership. But one clear fact remains, I have yet to talk to anybody in leadership or former leadership there that has ever made any money with it. Fortunately TradeLogger indeed help me mitigate many thousands of dollars of losses, but despite it, the WCCI just doesn't work, even in auto-trading. For 2 years I was blinded to this because the mantra being taught in the group is always based on the principle of "Do not doubt", "Do not ask questions" and most importantly "Do Not Think"...just react. So you are taught to keeping on trading, even though you are losing...if you question it then it's just YOUR doubts that are betraying you keeping you from being a winner. It's a very typical brainwash methodology I've seen in religion and in Amway.

Anyway, I couldn't continue to try to moderate and mentor people and contribute to providing false hope for those sincerely seeking a way. Every person that I was taught by in the club and respected have all left and have all confided in me that none of them every made any money. I also felt duped that I was promoting the Make-A-Wish charity so heavily, only to find out that no money for the last 3-4 years ever was donated. Profits from the seminars and tools that were so publicly touted as being slated for this charity never went. This information was verified by a former moderator hired by the group to write a book about WCCI to show them in a favorable light. After doing first hand investigations, he discovered that nothing was true that he had been told for many years. The group over there is really nothing more than a giant feeder site for the PFG Brokerage to sign up new accounts and start trading. Of course they make money if the trades are winners or losers so it works for them.

Anyway, I wanted to clarify that I no longer have an affiliation with them and feel tremendously bad that I may have helped to perpetuate the illusion that the system worked and that charities that were promoted as a means to entice people to buy, but in fact were not beneficiaries. I didn't know about this at the time until after I left, but I wanted to apologize to anyone that may have listened to me and lost money in the club. You can find other information from many many other former leaders there posted at: Trader's Paradise.

I do continue to use TradeLogger in my part time trading and find that I really do yield a benefit from drawdowns with it, and it will continue to always be free for all to use and benefit from.

Video tutorial - importing data into TradeLogger

2007-12-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I have started creating some useful, narrated video tutorials about using TradeLogger. My hope is that these videos will help explain things about using this software in a much more clear way for those just getting started.

To check out all the video tutorials as they are uploaded, you can find them posted in the TUTORIALS section of TradeLogger's site.

I'm also posting them on YouTube for added convenience, but the ones posted on the TradeLogger site are much higher in resolution.

The first video is a two part look at Importing Data Into TradeLogger.
PART 1
PART 2

Please post your comments about how you like them, if they are helpful and what other topics would you like me to cover. Thanks for your support and good trading everyone.

Whippy Russell today made for a tough day

2007-11-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

The Russell 2000 futures were pretty whippy today, taking out my stops on over half my trades leaving me with a down day. No big deal, but just didn't see that nice get-up-go follow through that I've been used to the last few days.

On another note, after meeting with several key people in Las Vegas, it looks very likely that TradeLogger may form a partnership with a few other charting packages such as TradeNavigator. This will allow charting packages with built-in front ends to talk directly to TradeLogger and automatically import trade data as it occurs in real time while you trade. It may also be possible to have TradeLogger control the switching of the front end between "sim" and "live" mode as the equity curve dictates. Details are still developing but it looks likely that TradeLogger will become even easier to use for traders.

Fantastic trading today using Range Bars

2007-11-19T17:33:00.001-08:00

Today was simply a banner day trading using Woodies' CCI set against range bars instead of price bars. 3 winning trades on the YM. 16 trades overall and 15 winners. Not too bad. The way that the range bars smooth out the moves of the CCI and get you into trades much earlier have made this a fantastic method for trading. Woodie tested this setup for 9 months and finally revealed it to me in Las Vegas and I have to say that I think it beyond fantastic. Thanks Woodie and good trading.

Back from Vegas and ready to trade

2007-11-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I just got back from a week in Las Vegas as a presenter at a Woodies CCI Seminar and had a simply fantastic time. I received a lot of great feedback for future enhancements for TradeLogger and met some of the nicest people in the world. Now that I'm back I'll be busy implementing some of these ideas for TradeLogger to make the program even better for traders to use in order to keep more money in their trading account. If you have any suggestions or comments please let me know by visiting www.tradelogger.net and contacting me. What a blast Vegas was, especially getting the chance to watch the Frontier Hotel implode...very cool. OK, we'll be talking with you all this week, take care and good trading.

Fixed a bug in TradeLogger version 2.3R

2007-11-07T08:04:00.001-08:00

Hello all, a recent self-update to TradeLogger to version 2.3R fixed a bug which occurred when clicking on the SHOW# button. It used to draw both the "before" and "after" curve on the graph when it should only draw the "before". This glitch was remedied in this latest update. Good trading everyone!

Fed lowers rate and good trading on market today

2007-10-31T19:24:00.000-07:00

As usual on FOMC announcement days, I make sure to assume a flat position about 30 minutes prior to the actual news. This is because I have no interest in getting caught up in the whippiness that usually occurs after such a significant announcement. The problem with that is just because you have a stop set on a trade, doesn't mean you are protected in case of extreme volatility. The market price can easily jump right over your stop triggering it, but you might get filled 20, 30 or 50 tics beyond that once the order is executed. But prior to the announcement, we had some good trades on Russell, Gold and mini-Dow. I went flat before the announcement and after that there were no valid patterns to take. So overall, good trading today.

Reported white screen problem with TradeLogger

2007-10-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

Hi there traders. Some people have reported that they get a white screen appearing after the welcome screen appears in TradeLogger and they cannot make it go away. This seems to be an issue which is remedied by performing a Windows Update to make sure you are running the latest Internet Explorer and ActiveX on your computer. The users that reported this problem have said that it went away when they checked these two things and updated them. If the problem persists, please let me know. Other than that, let's have a great trading week! Good trading everyone.

Another positive day trading the mini DOW

2007-10-22T18:38:00.001-07:00

Today provided a couple of winning trades on the YM (mini DOW). Quick ones too, which are the kind I like the best. I've been finding more and more than lately the 3 minute chart of the YM seems to get me into a move in a little bit better position than the 5 minute charts have. Not that the 5 minute charts are bad charts to trade, it's just in the last 5 or 6 months I've found that I've noticed the 3 minute charts getting in early on the move, whereas the 5 minute charts get me at the peak of the move.

Excellent trading on the DOW today

2007-10-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day trading on the mini-DOW today. 2 big trades yielding over 150 tics, just trading basic CCI patterns at bar close. Some people ask how is it possible to really get a 2:1 win to loss ratio and this is one of the ways. By having a running contract on that catch these long, extended moves makes up, in the long run, for small losses or BE+1's.

Way to go everyone that caught a piece of today's action. Good trading!

Bull Call Spreads working so far

2007-10-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

As I continue to delve into the world of options I have been carefully putting on a few simple trades based on signals generated using the CCI indicator on daily charts. So far, all of these spreads are working and showing moderate profits. My main goal in doing this is to become more familiar with managing the options trades using the ThinkorSwim platform. Managing swing option trades is definitely a different animal than day trading futures and I am really enjoying it as each day goes by I learn more and more about the different strategies for doing option plays.

A few new TradeLogger features

2007-10-08T11:10:00.001-07:00

Over the last few days I have added a couple of features that people have requested. Our new Live Messages panel has been very popular because it displays immediate information about what is going on with TradeLogger, but some people have requested that can be hidden to save screen real estate. Version 2.3m now has the ability to minimize the Live Messages panel. Also another user-requested feature is to make the Journal Entry field movable by clicking and dragging on the title of the window. You can now move it anywhere on the TradeLogger screen. More updates are being worked on as I type this. Good trading all.

Busy studying my options

2007-09-30T10:41:00.001-07:00

For the past 3 weeks I have been tunnel visioned. Turning my attention to really understanding options and option strategies, I have come to realize that utilizing this powerful investment vehicle is another strong cog in the wheel of regular monthly income. I have been spending countless hours listening to lectures on Woodies' site, reading several books on the basics and wrapping my brain around all there is to know to begin to put on option trades AND understand what I'm doing at the same time, hehe. So, one reason TradeLogger hasn't seen any updates this week is because of my focus on that topic. I have added some useful educational option links in the Investor Resources section of my site.

Ready for a good week of trading

2007-09-23T11:02:00.001-07:00

OK, we have options expiration and quadruple witching behind us. Any gains you had last week, or any losses are all in the past. A new week of trading is before us and what happened last week as no bearing on what will happen this week. So let's stay focused on our trading plan and be ready to react to the signals that we get according to that plan and not make up anything. A positive attitude without any biases about what will happen will put us in a successful mind frame to do what we need to do to be successful as traders.

On another note, I've begun digging in this weekend to spend the next 6 months to really understand options and how to use them in my swing trading. I've spent the last 18 months really focusing on learning the disciplines for my day trading and now I'm moving on in my education to options. I look forward to any advice, tips and instruction regarding options that you may have. Good trading everybody.

How is your discipline doing?

2007-09-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest challenges of new traders is that they have an itchy trade-trigger finger. They have a hard time sitting still and waiting just for the setups that offer them the highest probabilities. Instead, they feel that because they are in front of their screen and their account is funded, the need to trade is very strong. I've heard it said that sometimes the need to trade is stronger than the need to trade well. I used to be like that but as I've progressed in my trading career I've come to realize that I get paid to wait, wait for MY setups that follow MY rules. Developing trading discipline is certainly not done overnight and requires practice and patience, but pin up a reminder next to your monitor that says, "I get paid to wait." You'll find that the less you trade, the more profitable you tend to become. Good trading everyone.

Nice move by the Fed today

2007-09-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well, the market certainly approved of the 50 basis point rate reduction. Prior to the announcement though trading was very subdued and there was only one trade I took today which was on crude oil and it was a small winner. My trading plan didn't initiate any other trades for me today. Being a day trader is hard to explain to other people. Friends of mine today assumed that I made a million dollars because of the federal reserve rate cut and the large surge in the market. It doesn't always work out like that and people outside of trading don't really understand that. When people ask what I do for a living anymore, I simply tell them that I manage my own investments...that seems to sound better to them.