Naked political power. Plain and simple. My Baby Boomer generation went into the press to be advocates for their worldview, not to report. They're now in the controlling positions of most news organizations and are so convinced of the veracity of their beliefs that it isn't even overt bias anymore. Liberalism simply exudes from their pores. Many have probably never had their views challenged in any serious way. At this point it's just part of the cultural landscape and probably won't change until we start to die off.

One approach would be to multiply your maximum postion risk (say, 1%) by your account balance (say, $100K) and then divide the product by the largest historical system loss (say 11%). This would yield a maximum position size of $9,091. To adjust to account book changes, Richard Dennis had the Turtles reduce their trading size by 20% if their account balance lost 10% until the account recovered. Others believe you should also reduce your position size after particularly successful periods as well to avoid the temptations of hubris.

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/22320

Great call on getting back in in March, c. Our 401k's have been in cash since Jan 3, 2008 and I'm starting to feel like they're wearing cement galloshes. I totally buy in to Matt/Steve's SPX 1000+: I've just had trouble getting out of the blocks. Probably got too influenced by the idea of not "chasing the rally higher." In retrospect it's probably been foolish waiting for a pullback to go long for the B wave trade given that it's likely to be a multi-month phenomenon.

I'm trying to be patient in putting our 401ks back to work long. We've missed 27% from the low, but you can't beat yourself up against that metric: it wasn't until more like 730 that the downtrend was broken. Still, 16% from there is not chump change. It's hard to believe that earnings are going pass without a pullback, but then chopping and grinding to 1000+ would be exactly what the market WOULD do to fulfill its charter to create maximum frustration.

Any Fidelity Wealth Lab Pro users out there who would care to comment on their experiences?

Matt/Steve,

I've been following with interest the various discussions about trading platforms and mechanical systesms. As a working stiff who would like to automate some mechanical systems so as not to have to monitor the market all day long (it's a bit embarassing to be hosting a Webex software demo meeting only to have a trade alert pop up).

I have been wandering from broker to broker looking for the real deal and know that there is a ton of expertise, experience and insight here on BPT. Any chance of you guys starting a Trading Platform thread--or even better--posting the conclusions that you guys have arrived at based on cost/benefits and capabilities? I know that individual needs vary, but it would be great not to have to rediscover the New World.

Just to be clear, gaps don't affect the mechanical system approach, right?

Even on a gap, you still have to wait for the fast EMA to cross the slower EMA, yes? For the SRS 15 min (9/39) in today's gap, the short signal short came at the close of bar #7, right?