Registered User
Joined: 9/2/2007
Posts: 12
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Hi,
Diceman & Hohandy recommended I join in - Tks Folks.
This 1½ week old Novice with a whole lot to learn, aptly described in this quote "Drowning with information and starving for knowledge" I was delighted to see (Scott's) response to Ƈbtrader' as EXCEL is the only thing I'm familiar with when it comes to computers. Even the Internet is foreign ground.
I'm going to Paper Trade in the coming weeks, regardless of my limited knowledge. My plan is to utilise XL to monitor my progress (not from a monetary but knowledge pt. of view). So I've been trying to decide what column "Headings" and possible formulae would create a decent Spreadsheet to monitor my progress.
Whilst I have created Scott's Spreadsheet on XL it's too advanced for me at the moment. However, it's made me rethink about the my own "little creation". I rather not re-invent the wheel so, I was wondering can any of you knowledgeable people advise me on creating the Spreadsheet.
Many thanks.
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Registered User
Joined: 1/28/2005
Posts: 6,049
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Basics would be:
Date bought
Date Sold
Price (each)
Method
Comments
Profit/Loss
Ratio of profit/loss
(at 1 you are equal, below 1 you are at a
loss, greater than 1 you are profitable.)
Length
Average winning trade
Average losing trade
Average trade length
Total equity
Realize that it is always your trading that counts. The best
spreadsheet in the world wont make your trading a success.
Thanks
diceman
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Registered User
Joined: 10/26/2005
Posts: 238
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INVESTOPEDIA AND OTHERS HAVE FREE LIVE SIMULADED TRADING it is good to do this and track it on excel so you get use to placing orders. AB
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Registered User
Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
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Another thing I do often ... particularily when I have taken a few losses in a row or have the time desire to play with a new signals or strategy is to "Back Trade". This is nothing more than a game I play with my self where i set my charts the way I intend to use them and roll back the charts to some random point and then change ticker... From there I start flipping through till I see something I like Then "watch it for an entry" by scrolling fwd one day at a time.
When I see an entry I like I draw trendlines at the buy and stop loss points and record those in Excell then keep scrolling fwd one day at a time and "manage the trade" by moving those trendlines. If you don't cheat it can actually become exciting and aside from being up 1/2 the night thinking about what to do the following morning you can get allot of trading experience in that way... I guess it would be closer to day trding in concept becasue you'r gong candle by candle and don't have to wait for thenext day for the next candle to form ... BUT this is a good exercise.
by almeans this is not papertrading... that you must do as well.
but if you are good with excell Interactive Brokers has an Excell interface. Actually their main trading screen is in spread sheet format. BUT they have an optino where you can transmit your order straight from your excel spread sheet.
So rather than going through entering the high low close info, or what ever, in Excell then copying your oders manualy into their order system they'll give you a way to link directly from you excell sheet. So you get a little "transmit order" button with in YOUR spread sheet.... after calculating you order you just send the order in straight from your spreadsheet.
I don't use this function .... probably should investigate it as it would save me time in order entry in the mornings... but USUALLY i'm entering order the night before any way and not usually rushed.
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Registered User
Joined: 9/2/2007
Posts: 12
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I’m very grateful to each of you and I will take your comments on board.
AB
I accidentally came across INVESTOPEDIA only to lose it due to my lack of Internet skills. So I won’t lose it again. TKS
Scott
I haven’t followed everything you said, being a novice - the only thing I know about candles at this pt. is I’ve a box of them in my freezer – They burn slower and the flame flickers less, for those romantic evenings!!!! I do know there’s a book on Japanese Candles. However, I will take a look at Interactive Brokers and continue with the ideas your previous XL response gave me. TKS
Diceman
I have a request, can you PLEASE write explanations (IN LAYMAN’S LANGUAGE – not Stock Mkt Jargon) for the following if my understanding is incorrect
METHOD Do you mean Indicators used
COMMENT Do you mean my reasons for selecting the stock
LENGTH Is this the period btwn Bought Date and Sold Date
AVG WINNING TRADE Do you mean the Amount won or No. of Trades won
AVG LOSING TRADE Opposite to above
AVG TRADE LENGTH Don’t know what you mean
There’s no hurry whenever you have time. TYVM
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Registered User
Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
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I can't speak for diceman but this is how mine is organized
METHOD is strategy used to find enter or manage the trade. Some traders use several .. i suggest only a few... don't confuse your self.
COMMENT is any thoughts you may have going into the trade and any plan "B" thoughts. Thoughts on the overal market condition and it's possible affect on this trade.
Length... I don't have this one.. but it could be good to know. Id be interested if there is a formula to count the difference of days between dates ... other wise I wond do it. many of my trades are one day anyway.
Average loosing trade is the average of all my loosing trades. I made a few seperate cells for this. One that counts the losses COUNTIF (AB:AB,"<0") AB is the cell value I used, if youre good with excel it's obvious to you, but that could be any cell actually the sum of the column. One that counts the winning trades COUNTIF (AB:AB,">0")
you'll need a cell that Summs your gains and one for the losses.
gains is SUMIF(AB:AB,">0")
losses is SUMIF(AB:AB,"<0")
then to get the average obviously divide the total loss cell by the number of loosing trades cell.
I also like to track how i'm doing by shares. I created 2 columns with the formulas
and headings
WINNING SHARES IF(AB3>0,AD3) AB3 is my Proffit Loss column yours is likely to be different,AD column is my number of sharesI set untrue values to "false" do the same for loosing shares but reverse the ">" and copy those formulas down the page.
Then you can create cells for the Average shares size using the auto average function as well as average winning shares and average loosing shares a sum of winning shares and loosing shares etc etc.
I find it all useful information to track. Eventually i'll have charts for how the ratio of trades that I have prematurely exited to the ones I got out by the skin of my teeth, of my winning trades how many had a Stochastics 10,8,6 crossover as a signal in addition to other signals. How many were in what portion of a macd cycle etc etc.
It's almost endless
Reguarding not following that is fine.. it can all seem a bit over whelming. but the point is eventually you'll want to create a systematic method for calculating your entry points.... which ever you use. Excel can do this for you...IB will read you positions right of you calculation sheet if you want it to rather than retyping them in their software.
Hope this helps.
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Registered User
Joined: 1/28/2005
Posts: 6,049
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Scott is correct about Method and Comments.
Length is the amount of days you were in the
trade. (there is a function in excel to do that from
dates but I don't remember it off the top of my
head)
Lets say this was my trading:
Wins:
$100 (length 11 days)
$300 (length 20 days)
$500 (length 8 days)
$400 (length 30 days)
Losses:
-$100 (length 40 days)
-$50(length 21 days)
-$100 (length 22 days)
-$310 (length 16 days)
Average win would be:
(100+300+500+400)/4=325
Average loss would be:
(-100+-50+-100+-310)/4=-140
Average length would be:
(11+20+8+30+40+21+22+16)/8=21
--------------------------------------------------------
As Scott stated: " It's almost endless"
This will give you some basic benchmarks
to rate systems.
How much am I winning?
How much am I risking?
Over what timeframe?
Obviously you only need as much as you need.
You don't have to use everything just because it
is there.
Thanks
diceman
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Registered User
Joined: 9/2/2007
Posts: 12
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MANY THANKS FOLKS - I HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH TO GET STARTED ON. APPRECIATE YOUR TIME.
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Registered User
Joined: 10/26/2005
Posts: 238
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"I will take a look at Interactive Brokers "
Interactive Brokers by their own admission is not for beginners I think TD Ameritrade is a better choice for beginners it is an easier platform to learn (less mistakes to make, we have all made them). AB
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Registered User
Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
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i opened my first live account at Interactive. yea is intimidating at first and they give you this little exam to test your knowledge before you can open it... then if youwant to expand to Options they make you take another test and get "approved" but it's wasn't that bad. If you call them for a Broker asisted trade you'll pay through the nose. But beginners should probably papertrade any way for a while to get a sense of the order entry system etc etc. Interactive offers a free paper account when you open a real account and Id' suggest palying withthe software first there and making mistakes and alterations to the screen setup and then clone those settign into you live account interface. Pluss they mail yo uthese cool little security keys to get in and out of your account... kinda neat.
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Registered User
Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
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Bigblock.... it's a shame the site was removed. I have goten used to my excel sheet for entry calculations but I use trade log and IMP they are terribly over priced so I began looking into other products. Quicken looked interesting but it was mostl developed for investors and I couldnt tour the product beyond the cheezy little comercial. Their solution was to down load it and try it for 30 days... but for me that is YET ANOTHER download... and discussion with the wife as why i'm paying for again more software etc etc... and I've not had the greates luck ending those "free trial periods...they all take the $ info up front. Besides i've spend weeks inventing the wheel here and it almost rolls  so why not use it.
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Registered User
Joined: 5/2/2007
Posts: 59
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This is my experience with paper trading accounts,
Investopedia has no Stop limit orders, either market, stop or limit, look for Some thing that would simulate the exact order you would place in the real account.
OptionsXpress all orders are GTC ,no Day orders which is ok( most Day orders are Buys anyway and at the end of the day you can go in and cancel it if you don't like it unless you are on evening flight to the moon) BUT their worst setback is that you can't "manage" your trader (e.g adjust prices,stop losses)once you are in a trade in a simulator, if you want to, you have to cancel the whole order and place a new one the following day,(commissions adding up, confussion) when asked i got, "thats how our software works" but they are very quick in answering all your other questions.
Interactive Brokers (IB) not for newbies(other than trading screen everything else looks like you are writing a computer program) but the beauty with their system is that its exactly the same like the real account, but that too has its cons, customer service =0,so you've got to learn from someone using it or you read pages and pages of the mannual just to know how it works,they also have their own language like a (one trigger other order with them is Basket),webinars are by people advertising their products, not helping with the software. So for in my view its the best once you get familiar with it,plus the prices on there are ticking by the second aka live.
Get a simulated account that lets you do everything you would do in a real account.
Scottnlena, IB didn't have me take tests when i openned up the account,and im good for whatever is tradable, no limit.
As for Worden Software(nothing to do above) i was suprised they even have trainers,no only that but forums like this, you can ask your heart away .
I can run my own scans too, not get my results else where to come analyse the charts here. I haven't shopped around alot but with this PCF capability, i think one can't ask for more.
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Registered User
Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
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"customer service =0,so you've got to learn from someone using it or you read pages and pages of the mannual just to know how it works"
That hasn't been my experience. Most of the informaion I needed to get my interface up and running was on the web site and they have several videos as well. Any order types I was unfamiliar with, such as OCA (order cancells all)they have definitions and expamples on how to submit that order on the web site.... I've even called them and asked about the OCA because I was considering using it in a strategy I was considering, in a way different from their definition. I got fine customer service... the only thing I didn't get the greatest was when their software was goofing up with not letting modiify SOME stop los orders after submitting.. but that is fixed now and it was mostly that the customer suport knew about the problem and the the programers were working on it but had no time line as to when it might be fixed.
IF you ask customer suport to help you with an order and submit it for you, then you pay for broker assisted... BUT If you ask them "how do I submit this sort of order" and then they say you need such and such Column, or box on screen and tell you where to find it or whatever then hang up and submit the order then it's regular fees.
Ive called over silly things like I accedintally detached pages and couldent find a function... they just told me. Problem fixed in seconds.
Hope that helps.
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Registered User
Joined: 10/7/2004
Posts: 426
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Scot have you ever considered a 3rd party front end for IB? I have been using Bracket Trader for years and it makes trading a whole lot easier and if you intraday trade, the dom is a godsend and it even will let you simulate trades. I have also heard good thinks about Button Trader and ZeronLine. If the Worden Bros ever include IB into the Blocks program, I believe that I would seriously consider using that as a front end.
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Registered User
Joined: 4/18/2005
Posts: 4,090
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I'm not shure what you are talking about? third party Front end?
I now that IB has an EXCEL interface so that I could ad a transmit button to my entry calculation worksheet and simply enter the order right from there but i'm not comfortable with this.
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