Ryan L Johnson
- Futures & FX Strategist at Silk Road Trading LLC
- United States
- 4471
Futures & FX Strategist
at
Silk Road Trading LLC
As announced in my blog, I am NOW PROGRAMMING MQL5 INDICATORS, EA's, AND SCRIPTS FOR FREE!
I started out in the afterschool of hard knocks as a kid... Hog farm, trailer park, firewood, etc. but I got my hands on an Apple IIe computer early too. I ended up with more degrees than a thermometer later in life and began trading in 1999. My most valuable bits of education helpful to trading were probably Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Math I and II, Statistics, and Computer Math. That's Computer Science for the younger generation, or hey... just Programming for the next younger.
The retail trading industry is comprised of a multitude of central exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, CME, etc.), captive off-exchange markets (forex, CFD's, etc.), broker-dealers, hedge funds, investment banks, pension funds, software providers, and data providers which take profits whether retail traders win or lose. The level of conflicting interests of commercial participants versus retail traders varies widely from one market to another. Step number 1 of becoming a successful trader is choosing the best market(s) to trade.
Having traded so many markets and instruments over the years, I now help beginning or struggling traders for free when they contact me. I have helped many other traders select a market, instrument, chart type, and strategy components without pushing my own products on anyone... no strings attached. The one thing that we the retail traders can do, that commercial traders will not, is help each other for free. (I must admit... I have given free help to beginning fund managers).
And by the way, other people have identified me as a part-time comedian... which I also admit.
Happy trading!🙂
I started out in the afterschool of hard knocks as a kid... Hog farm, trailer park, firewood, etc. but I got my hands on an Apple IIe computer early too. I ended up with more degrees than a thermometer later in life and began trading in 1999. My most valuable bits of education helpful to trading were probably Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Math I and II, Statistics, and Computer Math. That's Computer Science for the younger generation, or hey... just Programming for the next younger.
The retail trading industry is comprised of a multitude of central exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, CME, etc.), captive off-exchange markets (forex, CFD's, etc.), broker-dealers, hedge funds, investment banks, pension funds, software providers, and data providers which take profits whether retail traders win or lose. The level of conflicting interests of commercial participants versus retail traders varies widely from one market to another. Step number 1 of becoming a successful trader is choosing the best market(s) to trade.
Having traded so many markets and instruments over the years, I now help beginning or struggling traders for free when they contact me. I have helped many other traders select a market, instrument, chart type, and strategy components without pushing my own products on anyone... no strings attached. The one thing that we the retail traders can do, that commercial traders will not, is help each other for free. (I must admit... I have given free help to beginning fund managers).
And by the way, other people have identified me as a part-time comedian... which I also admit.
Happy trading!🙂
Ryan L Johnson
Here's a global map of where traders are using my software. It really is a small world.😊
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Ryan L Johnson
I've seen quite a few posts about hardware selection, so I'm sharing my experience on that subject here...
The MT4/MT5 mobile phone/tablet apps are mainly for monitoring current price and open trades, and receiving alerts--not for chart analysis nor placing trades. The mobile apps have fewer built-in indicators than the desktop platforms, and the mobile apps cannot run custom indicators. Also, mobile wireless devices inherently have slower and less reliable connections to data and trade servers. For example, my desktop's hardwired Ethernet has a 1000 Mbps connection while my 5G wireless devices have a 433 Mbps connection on the same modem-router. Keep in mind that cheaper internet service subscriptions are proportionally slower.
And if my wireless device and I go outside of my router's wireless broadcast range, wireless internet service is lost and then I'm totally reliant on my device carrier's mobile data service. My mobile data connection is never as fast as my home network connection. Therefore, I never use MT5 mobile for trading analysis nor placing trades. I only use it for receiving push notifications of disconnections between desktop MT5 and my broker-dealer's trade server, and notifications of trade executions (sent from my desktop platform).
Mac desktops are better than mobile devices but not best for running MT4/MT5. These trading platforms have been designed around the Windows pc operating system for decades. Metaquotes eventually created Mac "versions" so that more people can use the platforms without having to buy a new pc. However, Mac users generally must install and run virtual machine software and even so, the Mac functionality is never 100% on par with the pc functionality. Although Mac's are the gold standard for graphic design and desktop publishing, they are less than ideal for desktop trading.
Windows pc's have been the standard computers for both retail traders and commercial traders for decades. As retail traders, we have quite enough disadvantages to overcome. Commercial traders set up shop right next to exchange/market data centers, and they use pc's and/or field-programmable-gateway-array (FPGA) chipped computers. These folks are not using wireless devices (unless maybe, they're right on the floor of an exchange). Given the army that we're trading against, it makes no sense to disadvantage ourselves further by using workaround devices and slow/unreliable connections.
The MT4/MT5 mobile phone/tablet apps are mainly for monitoring current price and open trades, and receiving alerts--not for chart analysis nor placing trades. The mobile apps have fewer built-in indicators than the desktop platforms, and the mobile apps cannot run custom indicators. Also, mobile wireless devices inherently have slower and less reliable connections to data and trade servers. For example, my desktop's hardwired Ethernet has a 1000 Mbps connection while my 5G wireless devices have a 433 Mbps connection on the same modem-router. Keep in mind that cheaper internet service subscriptions are proportionally slower.
And if my wireless device and I go outside of my router's wireless broadcast range, wireless internet service is lost and then I'm totally reliant on my device carrier's mobile data service. My mobile data connection is never as fast as my home network connection. Therefore, I never use MT5 mobile for trading analysis nor placing trades. I only use it for receiving push notifications of disconnections between desktop MT5 and my broker-dealer's trade server, and notifications of trade executions (sent from my desktop platform).
Mac desktops are better than mobile devices but not best for running MT4/MT5. These trading platforms have been designed around the Windows pc operating system for decades. Metaquotes eventually created Mac "versions" so that more people can use the platforms without having to buy a new pc. However, Mac users generally must install and run virtual machine software and even so, the Mac functionality is never 100% on par with the pc functionality. Although Mac's are the gold standard for graphic design and desktop publishing, they are less than ideal for desktop trading.
Windows pc's have been the standard computers for both retail traders and commercial traders for decades. As retail traders, we have quite enough disadvantages to overcome. Commercial traders set up shop right next to exchange/market data centers, and they use pc's and/or field-programmable-gateway-array (FPGA) chipped computers. These folks are not using wireless devices (unless maybe, they're right on the floor of an exchange). Given the army that we're trading against, it makes no sense to disadvantage ourselves further by using workaround devices and slow/unreliable connections.
Ryan L Johnson
Published post The Biggest Reason Why 90% of Retail Traders Lose Money
This is not endorsement of any educational course, but there is truth in this guy's words...
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Ryan L Johnson
Added topic MT5 Beta Demo platform - switch from Netting mode to Hedging mode
When I first registered my MQ Demo account in the MT5 Beta platform, it was set to Hedging mode. Shortly after registering, MQ switched it to Netting mode likely because I'm in the U.S. where live hedging is prohibited. Obviously, I'm only using the
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Ryan L Johnson
Many U.S. retail traders wonder where to turn when they discover that they have been cheated by a broker-dealer. (Information for U.K., E.U., and Canadian traders also appears below). If you have been trading for a while, this has likely happened to you at least once...
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Ryan L Johnson
Introduction In this blog post, I will share general principles which I learned over the course of 25 years of trading stocks, futures, and forex. Learning these principles gradually enabled me to succeed in the markets...
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Ryan L Johnson
A more legible example file has been attached to the U.S. Income Tax Strategies for Forex and Futures Traders article at https://www.mql5.com/en/blogs/post/756757
Ryan L Johnson
Upon becoming profitable, traders should begin to think about the most advantageous income tax strategy to use. The written and signed statement in the attached file at the bottom of this post is a redacted copy of my actual U.S. IRS Code Section 1256 Election. For income tax purposes in the U.S...
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