I recently posted in our forums a Dakota trading bot we created during the LA workshop that uses the VIX to trade S&P500 and NASDAQ based securities.  Yes, the End-of-Day Dakota can do "cross-market" work (using security A to trade security B) if your trading bots are coded to use the information.  Normally, I recommend you use the traded security's data to create your signals, but I thought this VIX bot interesting.

Every seasoned trader knows that the VIX is inversely correlated with the S&P500.  Volatility goes up when the SP500 falls and vise versa.  What surprised me is that a rather simple moving average crossover system on the VIX is a decent trading signal for the S&P.  Ok, not perfect, but a decent starting point, as shown below in a Dakota out-of-sample equity curve:

The top chart is the OHLC chart of the S&P500 futures, the middle red line are the trading signals and the bottom upward trending line is the equity curve (expressed in points profit).  Now, granted, this isn't the best S&P500-based equity curve we've made, there are better bots, but it is yet another alternative that clearly makes money.  In case you are wondering, it does turn a profit trading short-only during this run-up.  It works on NASDAQ-based securities, too.  But to use it, you have to trade quickly, taking after-market positions or perhaps the next morning's open because the VIX's predictive power is short-lived.

New Jersey Location Set!
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We have a few seats left for our New Jersey BioComp Dakota Workshop.  It's not too late to get good airfares.  If you would like to join us time is running out!  Or perhaps another location and time works better for you...

This is a brain-filling 2.5 day workshop led by Carl Cook, Dakota's creator.  Make the most of your Dakota investment, including how to create your own ScriptBots and ScriptStops.  Meet other users and share ideas!  We keep these workshops small and personal, so seats are limited.  This will get you up and humming with Dakota!

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Prospective User or Want to Upgrade?  Take 50% from any Dakota order or upgrade when placed with your workshop reservation!  Get the product, get the knowledge.
 

• Ticker-Bot Explorer - Enables you to see the fruitful parameter ranges for adaptive trading systems so you can stay flexible and profitable!  Works with any number of trading system parameters!
   
• Auto-Complete ScriptBot editor with function tool-tips to help you find and use those handy Dakota API functions, keywords and more.
   
• Added "Tale of the Peacock".  Yes, "tale", as it tells you a "story" about the robustness of your systems by re-running them N times with noise injection into the trading system parameters.  Weak systems clearly fall apart, strong systems have tight reproducible equity curves.

These are just a few of the new features and enhancements made.  These features will also be released in Dakota R/T next week.

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Take advantage of these great features today!