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FT71 runs a client-only chat room as part of his brokerage. He’s there all the time participating in the discussions about market auction, strategy and tactics, trading psychology and, most important, risk management. He’s a skillful, nuanced teacher.
All of my past brokers have cautioned generically to manage your risk. I now recognize it’s been a legal CYA. FT71 teaches his clients to use risk management as a primary tool to becoming profitable. This is so fundamental I can’t believe none of my prior brokers do it. I’ll say it again, his view of risk management is a key part of the pathway to becoming profitable. It’s also an essential element informing the nuances of trade entries, lot size, etc.
Their VK Lite platform contains a capable, extremely reliable DOM. I have not seen a single glitch whatsoever in the past 3-4 months. Charting is included but you’ll probably want to use a package you’ve customized to your needs. Many of his clients use Investor RT (I do) as it lends itself to his volume based approach to the auction and linnsoft is highly responsive to the needs of users.
But FT71 actively encourages and explores any other market view, charting, and technique on which live trades are based. VK’s data feed is fast and reliable but is limited to the basics for futures. If your trading includes market internals, for instance, you’ll need an additional data feed.
Back to the primary reason I chose VanKar: Education. The high quality of dialog in VK’s highly focused, professional environment chat room is how we discuss one another’s ongoing trades, emotion management, etc. in addition to the decisions leading to those entries and exits, economic news, and everything else relating to trading. ES minis are the most commonly discussed contract, but others get attention as well. In fact, there was a recent webinar where the guest was a professional cotton trader who recently made the turn.
Being a full time professional trader, FT71 is a straight talker and a straight shooter who knows his stuff and is bold in exploring the ideas of others in searching for an edge in an ever changing market process.
I was going to ask about mkt internals. That said, I believe I have what I need already from my OEC equity account, which I can pump into MC. VP is what I need and I prefer to not get / use yet another platform. Drat.
lessfilling, let me ask this... What resolutions for VP are you using? Are we talking at the tick level, minute charts, or simply daily ones?
For context I use a composite chart based on several years of 1 minute data and, within that, volume profile overlays ranging from a couple of days to a month or more, again based on 1 min data.
My primary chart is easily switched between RTH, overnight, Globex. I use 3 min and 15 minute bars, as well as 2500v. With IRT it is very easy to keep yesterday's profile in view, or to scroll back several sessions for a template. I also have charts easily accessible for tracking daily POCs and Market Profiles. One of the charts in my internals strip is the S&P TICK which updates every second.
This comes largely from FT71's definitions which he has published and I'm working it and other pieces into what I need as I find my voice in trading.
Thanks for your kind words. I was waiting to post until I thought I could be accretive.
Hopefully you will not wait another 6 months! Us TOS guys need to stick together...
So, are you actually trading off these live, updating VP charts? I'm guessing that you are watching them, noting the live auction areas of interest, but trading off a different chart or screen...
Second / last question... Are the FT71 chat rooms / sessions recorded and made available to watch later? I'm unable to be a full-time trader at this stage of my life...
You can't yet enter trades from IRT charts. Linnsoft and VanKar are working on integration at this time and it'll be available soon. I execute on the VK Lite DOM. It's very fast and can be configured for various strategies if that's how you trade. And, as I mentioned, it is extremely reliable.
The chat room logs are always available to clients. The planned webinars are recorded. There are also impromptu gotowebinars, some of which are recorded, and some are not (because they're day specific and/or broad topic).
It occurs to me you could use the Volume Profile study in ThinkOrSwim as a no-cost alternative to IRT charting. ToS's data is aggregated so it might not be as exact as, say, a DTN IQ feed, but you would have a workable partial solution. I know of a VanKar client who does just that.
Still, I would advise you to execute on the VanKar platform, not ToS. FT71 monitors clients' risk and gives guidance when we go far enough astray. It's quite a unique service but you won't be able to take advantage of it if your trades execute through ToS. If, for some reason, you don't like VK Trader Lite, you can use alternatives such as MarketDelta Trader for entry or strategy at VanKar.
This thread I think IS exactly in that "vendor section": *Brokers and Data Feeds*
Commercial - what else? **
You may just ignore if you don't like to read trader opinions on other brokers than yours?
Those are some strong words from someone who doesn't have a clue what he is talking about.
Lessfilling was sharing his experience with people who ask if anyone had used VanKar, I guess you think forums work better when no one answers questions?
As far as the random person who must have total control of your account comment...
First off you are disregarding the truth. He doesn't have total control over your account, he is willing to help you control your risk. If you are already consistently profitable and need no help then you can opt out, but for those who are not this is a huge plus. He is not just some random individual, he is a guy who has consistently proven himself as a trader, educator, and broker who teamed up with the top talent from Infinity to create something better. I'm willing to bet at least 95% of their clients would agree they've done that. I personally have accounts at 4 different brokerages and I have gotten more out of the 5 months I've been with VanKar than the years at each of the others combined.
The post from Traderji has been removed as possible libel.
Everyone is free to share their direct experiences as personal reviews. If you are speaking only from opinion, and not from experience, then you need to make your post extremely clear -- in that you are only speaking from opinion, and not experience.
Remarks considered libel are not welcome and will be removed. If you have something accusatory to post, you need to include proof.
Hampton, I appreciate the follow-up. I must admit that I was pretty turned-off by the subsequent post. Glad it was addressed... One of the many good things about the futures.io (formerly BMT) forum.
I can't imagine not being with TOS. It has done all that I've needed, very well, except with respect to futures. That is why I asked you about the types or resolution of VP charts you use, or are encouraged to use by FT71. Have you tried to replicate those charts on the TOS platform? If you tried trading with those charts, even on TOS Paper, do share your experiences.
I PM'd FT71 here last week asking about my predicament, but have not heard back. It's likely that he's not aware of my inquiry though...
