The Nth Degree

[rsmereka]

Merrygoround referred (if this post) to a trading system called The Nth Degree. I gather this is a manual system. Anybody have experience with this system and can tell us about it?

Rick

[Merrygoround]

Reference

[Merrygoround]

In one of my attempts to make an EA based on Nth Degree, the EA sent the demo account from 40k to 250k in a matter of hours. Unfortunately it was based on a faulty programming loop, that kept on opening new orders. I had to use a script to close all open orders (more than a thousand). Nevertheless the EA made the right decision to open orders. I am not sure if I will ever run my concoction on a live account, because up til now it acts on too many fake-outs (false break-outs).

Despite of this, I think that this manual Nth Degree system is very promising. It catches only a portion of a trend , but once it had identified a trend and it runs a profit, it wins big time.

I don't understand why there are so few trendfollowing commercial EA's out there, FGB is the only one that comes to mind. IMHO they involve the least risk when trading on the volatile FX market.

[rsmereka]

Originally Posted by Merrygoround

In one of my attempts to make an EA based on Nth Degree, the EA sent the demo account from 40k to 250k in a matter of hours. Unfortunately it was based on a faulty programming loop, that kept on opening new orders. I had to use a script to close all open orders (more than a thousand). Nevertheless the EA made the right decision to open orders. I am not sure if I will ever run my concoction on a live account, because up til now it acts on too many fake-outs (false break-outs).

Despite of this, I think that this manual Nth Degree system is very promising. It catches only a portion of a trend , but once it had identified a trend and it runs a profit, it wins big time.

I don't understand why there are so few trendfollowing commercial EA's out there, FGB is the only one that comes to mind. IMHO they involve the least risk when trading on the volatile FX market.

Making an EA out of this strategy sounds like a good idea.

One theory why there are not that many trend -following EA's around is that they don't appeal to human nature's desire for instant gratification. When you start trading an EA, you want instant results. That is why scalpers are so popular. They have a high win rate and chances are good that the EA will make money right away. With a trend -following EA, you could start at a stale or DD period. Besides Forex Growth Bot I can also name Forex Combo System (which I bought in August and has been in a stale period all this time) and most of the EA's from Asirikuy (which can go into DD for years).

BTW, next time you have to do an emergency bulk close, use my Avoid Swap EA I built it to manage Robominer's mess and used it the day I had to close about 200 positions or loose my entire account.

Anyway Forex Strategy Secrets looks interesting. I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the info.

Rick

[Merrygoround]

If you want to have a quick first impression about them, just google this: "youtube ForexStrategySecrets". They have some vids there that give a good picture of their approach.
Now I am gonna quit promoting it. It should speak for itself.

[rsmereka]

Originally Posted by Merrygoround

If you want to have a quick first impression about them, just google this: "youtube ForexStrategySecrets". They have some vids there that give a good picture of their approach.
Now I am gonna quit promoting it. It should speak for itself.

I saw those video's,

They just glossed over the strategy IMHO. I did not get a good impression from the videos.

Anyway, I signed up. More later.

Rick

[rsmereka]

I spent the last couple of days digesting the material (when I was not having technical problems) and I have given up on this strategy for the following reasons:

1. The entire method is mostly video based on the Internet which makes it bandwidth intensive.

2. The entire website is not built using industry standard methods and, as a result, is incompatible with many browser/computer combinations. Specifically, the website videos will not function using a Mac with either Firefox or Safari. I tested both an older iMac running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) with Firefox and Safari. I also tested a brand new iMac running Mac OS X 10.7.2 (Lion) with Firefox 8, Aurora 7.0.1 and Safari 5.1.1.

In addition, I encountered multiple issues with the website where an HTML form would present the wrong result.

3. More importantly than the previous two reasons, this strategy is what I call attention intensive. The Launch Pad strategy has you watching the M15 chart. This is day trading people. You know... bleary eyed, Jolt cola kinda stuff. Very emotional, very stressful.

I cannot enter into a trading system that is attention intensive because I have a career that prevents me from watching currency charts. That's why I am involved with automated trading. You may have noticed that all the manual systems I trade are low attention.

Rick

[Merrygoround]

I can see that you are not a fan of Microsoft.

Nth Degree is indeed a manual system. But it is easy to use, so maybe some are interested.
I have no intention of sitting in front of my computer either. The signals they provide are meant to cut your screen time. Most have a busy life to live, and try to pick a few grains off of the currency market. That is why I am trying to make an automated version of this system. You can learn a few things there, that can be easily programmed. Some things are harder.
Most EA's I know concentrate on the lower timeframes to gain a few pips. The most pips are to be made at the higher timeframes. So that is why I believe in this system (automated or not).

[rsmereka]

Originally Posted by Merrygoround

I can see that you are not a fan of Microsoft.

Nth Degree is indeed a manual system. But it is easy to use, so maybe some are interested.
I have no intention of sitting in front of my computer either. The signals they provide are meant to cut your screen time. Most have a busy life to live, and try to pick a few grains off of the currency market. That is why I am trying to make an automated version of this system. You can learn a few things there, that can be easily programmed. Some things are harder.
Most EA's I know concentrate on the lower timeframes to gain a few pips. The most pips are to be made at the higher timeframes. So that is why I believe in this system (automated or not).

I am not a fan of any company that does not abide by Internet standards, and yes, this includes: Microsoft, Intel, Adobe and others.

One theory that I have read about time frames and EA's suggests that any EA that operates in a time frame of less than H1 will not be profitable long term. The reason given is that the lower time frames are subject to much noise that should be irrelevant to but will not be if the EA operates in a lower time frame.

I understand this but do not completely agree with it. You are right to say that the higher time frames produce the most pips but also demand the highest risk in the form of negative pips. Your SL has to be much wider because of the noise and the threat of being taken out simply by noise.

Rick

[Merrygoround]

Basically what they teach is that you look at higher timeframes to see in which direction the trend is going, and act accordingly on the lower timeframes. The lower timeframes are meant to time your entry and exit. They teach you some very neat tricks. But it is indeed a manual system, so not suited for most of us with daytime jobs. Nevertheless I will try an experiment using this system to do one trade only per day. Low maintenance, as you suggested.
Bots do not necessarily have to look at higher timeframes to be succesful. What about Megadroid? I am amazed by its results, and even more by the poor marketing of the company selling it.

I have given up on making an EA out of this system. I have built like 50 different versions, with different approaches, but all according to the rules of Nth Degree. They are all picking up way too many false signals, making it impossible to turn a decent profit. I even built in an indicator preventing to trade in flat or sideways markets, but to no avail. Most of them I ran through backtests were losing or break-even at best . I had no idea it is so hard to make a profitable EA.