Alright, I don't want this to turn into a discussion about the book. The thread subject it out of the box trading ideas and I think we should stick to that. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss something else.

Thinking Outside the Box!?!

Yeah, the book I'm writing is basically an expanded treatise on the subject of metagaming and out of the box thinking in trading... which is why I have so much to say on the subject. Whether it winds up being insightful or not remains to be seen, ...

Thinking Outside the Box!?!

No, I think you nailed it brother. I agree on all counts. The reason I wanted to weigh in on the subject wasn't to start a debate about the zero sum aspect of markets. Clearly, they are zero sum, but that isn't the point. My point was to get people ...

Thinking Outside the Box!?!

Futures are easy to understand as zero sum because every contract has both a long and short position holder, but that is by no means a requirement for a market to be zero sum. On a price basis ALL financial markets are zero sum, including stocks, ...

Thinking Outside the Box!?!

None of these ideas are outside the box. Financial markets are little more then a game with a defined set of rules. The suggestions thus far are simple different strategies for playing the game given the rule set. What your looking for is called the ...

Thinking Outside the Box!?!

Any time brother. Luck be with you.

Margin - How is it calculated?

Damn confusing subject I tell you. I had to plot it out on the whiteboard to be sure. It would be calculated on the ask for a short.

Margin - How is it calculated?

Damn it your right... I had it that way and changed it because it didnt seem right. Its fixed... Yes... you have it correct. The margin on a short will increase as price rises.

Margin - How is it calculated?

It depends which brker your using. Most retail shops will base it off the immediate closing value of your position. If your long, your position value will be determined by the current bid. The ask if you were short. All of which assumes that your ...

Margin - How is it calculated?

Back in the day I had this recurring dream about a DOM screen of U/J. I would enter a short ahead of some stops and then all the liquidity would vanish. Price would fall tens of thousands of pips in a few seconds and I'd wake up. Now that I think ...

I had a wet trading dream last night

Over a long enough timeline, it can definitly be done. After all, currencies in general are quite susceptable to mean reversion. This doesn't mean, however, that you can just run wild when it gets to the top or bottom of the range. Things can and do ...

Synthetic hedges, cointegration, mean reversion and similar stuff

I've followed the Oanda position ratios and open orders stuff for a long time now and I can say with confidence that there is very little predictive value in knowing what retail traders are doing. Having said that, there is one nugget of value to be ...

Oanda Open Position Ratios conundrum

Well friend, thats your problem right there. If you were bigger you could open an offshore trust/fund/corp, invest your money with it, then trade under the rules and regs of that jurisdiction. Everything in life can be gamed. You just have to have ...

Politics of a US FX trader

Now that the end of August came and went, I think it's time we compare notes. Spiderforex said: After posting his charts and telling us that the end is neigh... I called him an idiot. Some back and forth ensued and we finally decided to just wait ...

Perfect Head&Shoulder in Dow >> Massive Crash Again

Its easy enough for your employer (through their regulators) to determine if you have a hidden brokerage account or not. More likely then not they need to know for compliance reasons (WITH their regulators) and your failure to disclose the account ...

having your account and disclosure to employer

Actually I don't come here much anymore because the quality of FF participants is on a downward spiral. This entire thread is a testament to that fact. As far as the book. I am writing one. Never said I was selling it. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. ...

Perfect Head&Shoulder in Dow >> Massive Crash Again

You guys crack me up. Lets compare notes at the end of the month.

Perfect Head&Shoulder in Dow >> Massive Crash Again

BTW, you pay half the spread twice, not 2X the spread. Current price is bid + offer /2. As a side note, if you ever want to become a full member, you might want to tone down the "million dollar secret" talk. The advertorial style of your post won't ...

Once you can trade profitably are you rich?

Chaos theory utilizes a probabilistic model to define "potential" outcomes, but thats not the same as a consistently repeatable event. In any event, I agree it's debating semantics. The point I wanted to make was that (as you have proven) the market ...

Breakout & RETURN: 97.5% accuracy

The very definition of chaos is "a state lacking order or predictability". If you have found something that always repeats itself, then you have proven that the market is predictable. Think on that for awhile.

Breakout & RETURN: 97.5% accuracy