I started using Tradestation to trade British Pound futures just two months ago.  The power and flexibility of Tradestation has really impressed me and allowed me to improve my trading model.

Today, I begin trading the 3rd generation of the Cable Glider system.  A summary of changes follows.

1) I will be trading British Pound futures at the CME alongside British Pound spot.  I started this side by side testing in August with the idea that I would like to have the systems synchronized and measure the relative costs of slippage and commission in each market.  One of the main things that drove me to the futures market in the first place was the idea that my trading costs might be reduced.  My current opinion is that this seems to be true at my current trading size, which to date has not exceeded 20 contracts on any single trade.

2) I will be using a different parameter set for each market, as determined by the ongoing optimization in both markets.  I’m currently using a genetic optimizer to periodically re-optimize the systems with a fitness function that uses net profit, gross profit, gross loss, and maximum intraday drawdown. 

3) Entry signals for both markets will be driven from the futures price chart.  Since the futures market is a true transparent market, I believe it gives me a cleaner picture to set up entries.  I never liked the fact that in the cash market, I’m getting a stream of bid prices rather than a stream of actual transaction prices.

4) Cross-market MACD confirmation will be used in both markets.  That is, I will require that a price breakout be confirmed by MACD in both markets.  This little tweak has already saved me from entering what would have been a losing trade in the futures market on the very first day of trading.

5) Exits will be managed by the optimized exit parameters in each respective market.  Once I’m in a trade, I don’t want to fool around with setting exits that rely on more than one data stream.

6) I will not attempt to synchronize trades in both markets.  The expectation of synchronized trades drove me crazy in the month of September.  By trading two different parameter sets, I gain a measure of diversification that is not possible otherwise.  This system diversification gives me a second level of equity curve buffering in addition to the smoothing effect of keeping a living expense capital reserve account.

Cable Glider II had a lifespan of only 4 months.  All months showed a profit, and the total compounded return on risk capital was just above 125%.  No, that is not an annualized figure.  It is a 125% return in four months.  I’m much happier putting CG II to rest this way;  the first Cable Glider system was suspended at the end of May after a large drawdown.

I’m still on the lookout for improved execution and reduced trading costs.  My next move on that front will be to investigate API trading with Interactive Brokers.  Their commissions appear to be identical to Tradestation, but the cash forex spreads look tighter, they pay interest on cash balances, and their unique umbrella account allows for cash balances to be SIPC insured.  The programming involved to trade at IB is a whole new ballgame, so I don’t expect I’ll be making the move anytime soon.

I will enter long or short in the direction of the breakout when price closes outside of the channel and when such a price break is confirmed by MACD. Additionally, I will not trade prior to certain preset economic events such as the monthly unemployment figures. This last piece is very important. I’ve seen some suggestions that “trading the news” is where the money is made in the forex market. I can’t say whether or not that’s true, but I can certainly say that my experience trading around economic releases is that it costs me more (wider spread) and I’m more likely to encounter increased slippage, or even worse, my trading platform may be locked. I’m sure lots of traders feel a rush trading around news events, but for my purposes, it adds unnecessary risk and complication.

If it sounds like fairly simple criteria to you, you are correct! Dr. Van Tharp, among others, consider entry to be one of the least important components of a trading system. I’ve seen more than one source where traders or firms claim to profitably trade when entering their chosen markets randomly. This implies that all of these traders’ profitability is driven by their choice of market, their choice of exit, and their choice of position size.