I just watched the video. It was good. I really like your method. It's simple and easy to follow. Would it be possible to post your chart template for the renko and the tick charts please? I tried downloading it from Post #2 but it didn't …
I believe I did get the indicators in the download sections in big mikes, if you cant find them, try to pm me the names that you need and I can get them to you......on my phone now but will be at a computer by morning.
The way I was trading before did not use the current indicator you see me using now, if you need one of the other indicators I will send it to you....I have just been on the quest to make things simpler and this is just what I have come up with....I am also going for 4-6 ticks if I can just for a paycheck
Thursdays trades, ended up down 1 tick plus commissions.....My first trade was a mistake, I did not wait for the back ground color to plot showing it meet my trading rules and ended in a loss. The rest of the trades are shown and some reasons behind my thinking. I should not have been trading today...A younger brother was in an accident sunday, got word last night that today we as a family have to decide on pulling life support....one of the hardest choices you can make, but its the best for his kids and family.....He will be missed!
Thanks for the nice thoughts on my brother at this trying time.....good news late yesterday, some improvement so we are again in a holding pattern for a few days...still praying.....thanks again
I know it might seem weird I'm trading with all this going on, truth is this is taking my mind off things if only for a little while each day and giving me some normalcy...I only traded 1 contract today because of the situation but I was able to focus and not make any mistakes today....I ended up +9 ticks and I showed a few more things I'm watching on the price action.....
I also took screen shots to show I was trading real cash today, some of the fills would look like I was in simm. I don,t know if trading only 1 helped in this or not, that being said I'm still not a big fish by any means....6 is currently big for me....lol...someday I will get larger trades, consistency means more to me now than more money, trading my plan will get me to where I want to be.
Thanks Again and enjoy life and your weekend!
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Trying to keep my mind off things....If you have been following this....I am working on the next major up grade...I need to find the will power and ability to land larger profit targets when warranted. I have been watching the ATR at the time of entry and seeing that a majority of the time they can be hit. I am thinking about splitting my PT's and going back to what I did in the past....2/3 at 3-4 ticks and remainder at larger PT. If you study the charts and entries along with how fast the maximum risk/stop trails I think I am almost always 1/1 or better, and with a little "Chart Motivation" by the new plot I might be able to do a lot better.....
If you would, vote (thanks button) for the option you like the best. Option 1 this post or Option2 on next post....I am assuming the programmer can get close with each one...I cant decide which one I like BEST...
Thanks
The following 2 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Love your accountability to the forum and love your thread. My system is very similar to yours. I also trade the ES off the 2 tick Renko with EMA vs. your Donchian. Following your system, I've found our entries are very close to the same. One of the things I've done to stay in the those "runners" is setting up an ATM strategy in the Ninjatrader Dom. Split your contracts with equal stops and push out your second target a little further. When your first target is hit, set the stop to break even on the remaining contracts. Move your target 2 further out as the trend continues to run. As the trend progresses, I move my remaining stop to just the other side of my EMA (your Donchian Channel). This locks in your profits and allows you to follow a runner all the way to the end.
Hope this helps lock in some extra ticks!
FD
btw, I used to be in the recycled oil business too! Used to go to all the NORA events. Chances are, we've run into each other.. small world.
The following user says Thank You to FatDemon for this post:
Hello,
Sorry I have been gone for awhile.....its always tough dealing with the early loss of a family member....
Something we were all able to take from this was, he passed on his own on a Saturday, we kept life support on until sunday when they would be able to harvest any usable organs..... we were told they hoped they could get 1-2 usable, we thought that would be great. Turns out that Sunday they were able to use 7 of his and he was even able to save an older man in the ICU across the hall from were he was, with our loss he was able to save the loss of 7 other people we hope....
On top of all that I have been on a mission to get more ticks out of this market....and its working! I will go into more detail over the holiday as I will have time to show charts and rules....cant stand to just sit around....
The following 3 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Ok, here is something for you to consider...I am currently trading this new setup, last week when I was watching and trading I was having a hard time. As Mark Douglas talks about in "Trading in the Zone", as soon as you start looking to other indicators for confirmation "for" or "against" the trade, your mind becomes conflicted, then FEAR sets in and you don't or can't do anything....that was me for a few days until I got my rules and got used to seeing everything real time.
I am able to see everything real time now, and trading with these additions has once again become natural to me....also catching a few great runners. For the last few months I was "Fine" with 4-6 ticks a day for a paycheck....then I started marking my charts and posting them for me as a journal and others to perhaps learn from, after looking at my entries and my exits I began to see how bad I was on my exits. In my quest to get better without adding too much to watch real time, this is what I have come up with.
Now I don't think sharing this can cause a problem with people trying to get into the trades at the same time, I don't plan on sharing My Exact Settings, and when you look at the 2 HA indicators there are so many options we can all be trading something slightly different....
You will also see that I like entries off of several different charts. What I hope to do is give you some options and then YOU can find settings that work for you and your trading style. If I post a "Template" it will be the standard settings for the two indicators then from there you can study and find your own settings....I will also down load another version of my DC channel indicator to the Elite Section when I get my laptop back, this will be the one you see me using with the swing move numbers and the back ground color plots, etc...
I hope to continue posting charts and showing you what I am doing with my current rules, I am always looking to improve my set-ups, as a scalper I have to have good entries with as little risk as possible, and then trade management becomes the most important! I have "Trading in the Zone" as an audio book, I listen to it at least 1 time a week, so much good information and this is probably the one thing that keeps me consistent in my trade execution....
Any comments or questions feel free to ask, and over the next few days I will post more...
The following 2 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Hi Dixon, I am unable to find the 2 new indicators you added to your charts. anaHeikinAshiPaintBars and RwbHA. I searched through the elite download section but cant seem to find it. When you get a change, can you provide the links to those indicators pls?
Thanks
The following 2 users say Thank You to bmt2 for this post:
I sent you a PM....but I did find them.... "HeikenAshi v4" is on page 3 in the normal down load section under NT 7 indicators.... "Heiken Ashi with colored tails" is in the elite section on page 23..... this might change as new indicators are added but you may be able to search by that exact name....THANKS again goes to those people you put these great things for all to use...THANKS!!!!
For those that can get both indicators here is a template that will put both indicators on top of one another as you see in my charts....it get tricky to build the chat on your own. The one thing you do need to do after you open that template is single click on the candle bars...then hold the shift key as you scroll your mouse wheel...do this until the candles are under any other indicators you add and until its under the price bars....This is how you change the "Level" of the indicators on your chart so you can make what you want to see stand out (on top)....
The following 2 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Last post tonight just in case some of you start playing and watching this real time...here is what I look for when finding the settings I will use on any one of my charts....focus on the bad times to trade, the easy wins stand out and everyone wants those, the problem is, when you decide its time to trade that is always when the market starts to "stink"...at least for me, the first trade is almost always a loser....LOL
So this happens to me enough to know I want my entries to always limit my risk, so I try and focus on the losers, just to make sure that I wont lose the farm if I take a few losses in a row before the real winners come, and if you look at enough charts you know they will come, but when...so you better be able to still trade when they do!
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
JW, thanks for sharing your template with us. If I may ask how would I change the horizontal grid lines you have. I mean for example you have 20 ticks on CL and you wanted to move them to 30 ticks how would I do that.
Here are tuesdays trades, market seemed slow today....my programmer was working on getting things installed for me at the open so I got a little late start. It still worked out fine, as you can see I did exit a couple of trades early, in weeks past I would have stopped after the first win, so once I was in the money I still get to where all I want is "Out" with the $$$.
I dont plan on trading live on wednesday but may trade in simm and with the new automation...will try and post those results if it works out..
I used your thread and combined strategies for a nice little profitable scalping process. Thought you might be interested. Live tested for 2 weeks and up $4,312 trading 2 contracts. Thanks for the ideas and happy trading!
I'm trying to use the Strategy Wizard to make this work, but it seems to be too limited to do.
What I am trying to accomplish is placing an order to buy (or sell in a reverse scenario) when my 2 tick Renko chart crosses the DonchianChannel Mean …
The following user says Thank You to FatDemon for this post:
Hope your Thanksgiving Holiday was nice, I enjoyed the food along with Family!
I did get my laptop back, my first encounter with the automation locked up NT on my desktop and I still havent figured out how to fix it all correctly so I could not trade the strategy in simm until I was able to get it on the laptop.
Here is a screen shot of the trades that it took and I managed once entered, I think I could have entered the trades myself from chart trader if I was focused and ready for the possible up coming trades, but I am working on getting the automated entry so I can relax a little and focus on the risk and best possible profit targets. With the slow markets wednesday and friday I did not trade and just focused on food, Kids and Shopping....
I hope to run Market Replay on my BetterRenko chart along with the 578 tick charts this weekend and could post results form those later. Good trading and I hope you can find the charts that might work for you!
The following 3 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
If you don't know how to or if you are interested in how to modify standard indicators to "do" different things, here is how I go about doing that...
First find the indicator you like working with,then to get it to do different things I change the "input series" so that it calculates off of something different than the price bars..... so for this example, I am considering using the DC indicator as a trailing stop....if I use the price bars it seems too far away and I give back too much profit on the runner, so I changed the input series to base it on the HA candles I watch behind the price bars. The picture will show the setting I used in the market replay I just posted. There are so many different ways to modify the current indicators you already watch to make them smoother, faster or whatever you want....another one I like to change is the ADXVMA indicator you see me use, I like to change that based off the HA candles also, it becomes smoother and closer to price action.
Any comments or additions to this idea please feel free to post so we can all learn...
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
This will be the last post this morning, the girls are going to let me go shopping with them again today...its fun watching them shop, amazing how good they can get at finding the "deals"
With the nature of Renko charts I find I need additional filters to limit trade entries, so one thing I am considering on this chart is the use of my ABXVMA line that I like. A great thing with Renko charts is once you get in a good trade it stays good for a while and you can catch some great runners usually the move of the morning....just look at what FatDemon is doing in his thread he posted, catching some great runners!
The following 3 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I just posted in the Elite downloads area a much more involved version of the Donchian Channel Indicator you see me use that also has the quick order entry boxes in the Chart Trader area....
You can search by name " jdDonchianTraderV101 "
There are several inputs that have been added, you will just need to play with it a llitle to see what works for you...My next post I will post a Template with the Plots and Settings you see me using on several of my charts.
Again please use in simm mode until you understand how it places the orders...
Questions please ask....enjoy
The following 2 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Here is a sample template for you to start with, this might get things started on other charts for you until you get used to the different settings that you can change.....
Before you trade live with the boxes....PLEASE use in simm or in Market replay until you are comfortable with how they will work....
The following 7 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Thank you very much for posting all this stuff. I just downloaded both of them and I look forward to trying them out. And I hope you had a good holiday weekend.
Thanks again,
rptrader
The following user says Thank You to rptrader for this post:
Here are the 2 trades for monday, after a long weekend and also "cyber monday".....started out OK, then went to chop while I was taking the kids to school......
As you can see on the chart I chose to trade today, the bars started getting real big, not normal for this chart, so I just started watching and waiting for a breakout in any direction to get the chart to start looking normal again, then I would have jumped on the next reversal....
One thing I really like about this chart is the fact that my risk is generally so low, and when it starts trending in a direction I can stay in it and catch a good runner, as you can see also it keeps me from over trading in the choppy big bars where the risk is too high for my 3-6 ticks I usually go for..
Also posted is the 578 chart I like to trade, I might have been able to catch some of the trades later as shown (I did not mark, but you shoude be able to see them)....who knows....
The Time of Day....I use this mostly to help me remember when its getting close to the "News" window, even if there is no news that day the markets still can act differently, so I try and avoid trades at that time.....ALSO perhaps the bigger reason I try and put it in most of my templates is for my visual back testing....By having the colors at the bottom as I scroll back through the days faster, it helps me find the open, news, early morning and late morning....as the day goes on I tend to see the same things happening day to day around the same time, or in the same color zone.....
I started to watch the ATR when I was trying to find a way to get better/larger profit targets...what I may get programmed into the indicator is an automatic PT plot, (as shown a few pages back) so what I do is take the ATR of the bar that I get filled on, then just round it to the nearest tick....so .678 I would use 6 or 7 ticks as my possible profit target from my entry, say a 1.45 I would try and get 10 or 11 ticks. Of course use a little judgment with say trying to break double tops or bottoms...etc. This is just a way I am thinking about taking the volatility of the market at the time of entry to get a possible profit target larger than the comfortable 3-6 ticks I tend to take.
Now for the vertical ADX lines.....I think you are talking about the vertical back ground color plots.....the color of those plots are taken from the color of the ADXVMA line at the time a price BO happens, the color of that plot line is based on a trend direction or a neutral trend ADXVMA color. IF the line is trend color Up at time of qualifying bar then it plots the Early Entry color BGC, if it is Neutral at the time of the qualifying bar then it will plot the Normal Entry color BGC plot and opposit for shorts..... If you make the ADXVMA input a larger number, smoothing the line, then you tend to get more "Normal" entry BGC plots, if you make it a smaller number then you tend to get more "Early Entry" BGC plots.....Depending on your chart and where you tend to "see" the majority of the trades getting a good fill at (from the "Entry Plots"), this is how I can get the BGC plots to show me what box to click on to place my order at the location I want. Now you can change the offset ticks in the input section to be what ever you want, so depending on the market you are trading the the chart, you should be able to get something to work. Once I find the settings I am comfortable with I tend to make the ADXVMA line "transparent" in the settings so it doesn't distract me, but for visually back testing the chart it comes in handy.
I hope this helps, anything else just ask!
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
This is my chart for the the rest of the day....looks like I gave up on the market too early. I might have to get the idea out of my head that I can't trade after @9-10am my time.... In my visual back testing of this line break chart, I think I could trade anytime of the day or night if a signal presents itself. This will take some getting used too, but I do like how this chart looks....
The circles are possible entries, not everyone retraced back to an entry dot, but a market order, or limit at the close of the qualifying bar should get you into every one of these trades....
Hi,
I'm trying to import rwbHA but get an error, "Import Failed. The NinjaScript Archive File may contain duplicate method names that already exist on your PC or there is a required file missing on either your PC or in the import archive".
I then unzipped the file and copied the individual .cs files into ninja and tried to compile. I then get this error for the RwbHA, "DisplayLocation does not contain a definition for "Chart_Panel"". I have no idea what this means or how to fix it. Can anyone help? Thanks
As you can see I am really kicking myself right now for now sticking with my trade! I know better, I am still a trader that thinks I have accepted the Risk, but sometimes I REALLY dont, and I exit early. The only thing I can say is, I started to see a few larger bars again, again it started around the 1400 area and I started "thinking" again, and exited early. Other than the larger bars, visually and the colors were not showing a reversal, that is really the reason I am mad at myself today.
My wife has the day off so we are going out before I leave on Wednesday....
Good trading and I should be able to post again on Thursday...
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I emailed the programmer that jw put me in contact with but haven't heard from him yet. If I can get it fixed I'll definitely let you know the solution.
On my computer it runs fine, the files under....Documents, NinjaTrader7, bin, Custom, Indicator.....scroll down and make sure you only have "RwbHA.cs" and "RwbIndicators.cs" (at least thats all I have in that file location). Anything extra under the "Rwb..." move into the Recycle bin, you can always bring them back later if this doesnt help.
Next under Tools, Edit Ninja script, Indicator... I only have "RwbHA" and "RwbIndicator" anything else there under the Rwb... move to the recycle bin....
I had a "RwbLibrary.cs" in one of those locations that is now in my recycle bin...????
Hope that helps, the other option might be to put all those files in the trash and then import the indicator again???
I can't even import the zip file because I get errors. That's why I opened up the zip file, copied the individual .cs files and tried to compile them individually. I got errors doing that as well. Most likely there is a conflict with something else that I have installed but haven't been able to figure it out yet. Thanks.
@hector24,
Spoke with the programmer and here is his suggestion - Browse to your ‘My Documents/NinjaTrader 7/bin/Custom/Indicator’ directory and perform a search for ‘DisplayLocation’, it should display the offending indicator.
This worked for me and it turned out that "Tickcounter2.cs" was creating my issue so I just deleted it and then imported rwbHA without any problems.
No real trades for me, this was my travel day so I could not watch the markets...
I am only posting this for those who might want to see what the charts did, also this will leave a record for me on how the morning panned out. It looks like it was a great morning if you had the ability to stay out of the chop until 7:50.....by following the BGC this was possible. ON the better lline chart, I probable would have taken the long for a loss as shown, but its hard for me to tell how fast the move down would have felt...I just know my first trade is usually a loss...lol
The following 2 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Here I missed that open long waiting for the opening "range", that didnt happen just shot up. I was not real sure of the short but I tried not to think too much and just trade what I see.....got 3 ticks short, then went long, got 3 ticks before I could even raise my PT.... Good morning, I did not have to recover a loss for the first trade, I guess it can happen
The following 2 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I am starting to feel the heat with so many people viewing my makeshift trading journal; I noticed that 1000 views had been posted in just 36 hours. I do think it’s cool, there are people interested in what I’m doing, that being said I don’t want a bunch of new traders or those just looking to think that scalping the ES is the only way to make money or that it is always easy. The market has a way of trapping traders in bad positions and taking your money. If you don’t have rules and a trading plan of some sort to MAKE you react in YOUR best interest then you could lose a lot of money before you learn that lesson.
I know people are pulled towards scalping, I didn’t listen to others back in the day to trade longer term so I don’t expect anyone to listen to me now….just please consider spending AS MUCH time on the psychology part of trading as you do in finding your Holy Grail…..that Holy Grail can only be you! It took me years of losses and looking for the “System” before I finally “GOT IT”. I am by no means a great trader, you see me fighting myself and the markets all the time, I let fear set in and I either don’t trade, exit winners for a loss or won’t get out of a bad trades soon enough. Other days I seem to be fine with myself and can read what I am thinking and the market in real time, those days are always my best days. I know everyone has heard it before, from lots of people and webinars….but it is true, spend the time learning how to act in your best interest, and you can take a marginal system and do ok, without it….the best chart and entry signal in the world you will lose money with. Just ask any trader that’s been around awhile.
I am getting lots of PM messages asking for the “Rules”, that is hard for me to do. If you have been reading all the posts you will find I am always changing the rules I trade by just a little, the market is not the same from week to week or even day to day. You will see me pick the “wrong” chart to trade some days, that is the life of a scalper. I have spent way too much money trying to have a black box systems programmed, by the time I got it finished, the market either changed to where it wouldn’t make money or all I would do is back test it to the point where I never did trade it. Now I try and spend my time having things programmed that make it easier for me to get into a trade. Then I am an active trader rather than a sit and watch trader. I know when I was learning I didn’t even know where to start, so I would be more than happy to tell you “how I use” or “what I am thinking about”, it’s just hard for me to give someone exact rules that might change a little down the road. I will even send you the template for some chart if you ask to help get you going. My hope is that I can give you ideas and perhaps a direction to head in, then as you watch, study and learn you will be able to “see” what works for you and not just my stuff, anything that works for you is good. I would rather you learn to trade your set-ups then make you a robot that cant adapt to changing markets if futures.io (formerly BMT) or I weren’t around…..You are the only one that can be responsible for your trades.
The ES can change weekly, so I don’t think back testing something 6 months back is a valid way to go about finding your setup, at least with the time frames most scalping has to be done on. But I do believe anything you decide to trade rule wise should be valid for the last few weeks, and you must always be studying your charts so you will be changing as the market you trade changes. I also think a scalper needs to be familiar enough with his rules and charts that he trades with, so that if the market is changing some, you are able to modify or change the rules a little without having to relearn everything. Every time I add some line or indicator it takes me awhile to be able to make decisions fast enough to scalp. That is probably the one reason I try and color code everything I watch, the colors make my decisions for me, then all I have to do is react to them for the entry and manage the trade from there.
Again thanks for the questions and I hope I might be able to help a few traders out there!
Good Trading!
The following 8 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
As a fellow scalper (and new to the forum) I agree 100% about rules changing, back testing my way out of trading, etc... Look forward to see how your journal progresses.
-Steven
The following user says Thank You to WaveRiderTrader for this post:
As you see my trades, I am again fighting myself....I tried to force a signal and took a 4 tick loss on a mistake. Then I took a 6 tick hit on a re-entry, not the smartest but it happened....then I took a 2 tick hit on the long looking for a larger move up....the trail was hit then I reversed short.....missed a few trades, etc....
Another typical friday for me, end of month, friday, full moon....whatever excuse you use I was not on my game this morning, but I'll take BE on a friday if I have to....better than letting a few losses get to me amd end up down 12 ticks!
Have a good weekend
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
My problem today was pure distraction. Everything is setting up for a nice long, I'm focused, then wife and kids walk in and start asking for a million things to be done, trying to ignore them I take the trade, then I realized I forgot to look at the one thing that tells me this could be chop (and it's trying to tell me there's chop) but it's too late. I shored up my stop and sat there watching as it got hit for a small loss. Frustrated, so I missed the next trade/winner and decided to call it a day.
The problem is my wife has no idea what I'm doing nor cares to know. So, I truly think she thinks I'm playing some sort of video game.
The following user says Thank You to WaveRiderTrader for this post:
I'm with you 110%.....self distruction....not staying focused. I'm just glad for me most of the time I can pull the trigger on the next trade, I just tend to get more jumpy when I start getting back to BE, and instead of trading for profit I end up stopping.....like today, I'm a work in progress....lol
My wife, kids and neighbors all think I play video games, all day and night....you just have to be a trader to get it!
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
The psychology part of futures trading is what caught me off guard. I didn't know it would be half the battle. I'm very confident and comfortable with my style/setup/system/etc... but my brain keeps interfering with the trades. It's the last part of the equation and something I'm working on every day. Though I do believe I'm getting a little better every day.
I don't know any friends/family that understand what I'm doing. Only a bunch of random screen names in a few forums and chat rooms.
The following 2 users say Thank You to WaveRiderTrader for this post:
I have been almost too busy to trade, also I was turned onto a new UniRenko bar that has a thread on futures.io (formerly BMT)....I love this bar and the way it works with what I have already been doing....THANKS MONPERE....awesome stuff! I have been in a state of confusion all week as to what chart I liked the best and found myself "watching too much" to react fast enough to scalp just a few ticks and ended up not hitting DG most days. Thats OK, I was real busy and I learned a lot watching this bar type all week.
I am just posting pictures of the chart I think I am going to be watching/trading with along with the 40t better line break chart I like... I also watch a chart 2 times this size as a trend reference.....no indicators on it just bar structure....
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
This friday ended up being a good friday for me, I think I have narrowed my charts down so I can start trading again. Today I missed several great trades by not taking the early entry location like I know I should, still a little fear in order placement and the additional risk I might have to take with that entry. I plan on a lot of market replay this weekend to get better at my order placement, only problem I have with that is when I go back to real "time", it seems like some trades can take forever.....
Have a good weekend and Good Trading!
The following 3 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Today I ran my automation strategy for the first time live, as you can see from the charts I posted I am basically watching the exact same things just on different chart types, each chart gives me a different view of what the market is telling me. Having the same colors and indicators on each chart keeps it simple for me to keep my trading entry rules the same over all the different chart types.
Each chart has its good and bad points so I still dont know what chart I favor, I think manually entered trades the 578 tick chart still rules, I know when the bar will close so that helps in knowing when to place the order but sometimes the extra bars it plots can look like chop and get confusing, the BetterLineBreak chart is a little smother and shows chop well, but can get you into a trade late sometimes giving you more risk. The UniRenko is a smooth looking, easy to watch chart, but I cant always get a fill by the nature of how the bars print.
So now I am just watching each chart for something a little different, trying to put into perspective the good points each chart has to offer...but they all sorta look the same so I can still see my setup and react in a timely manor. Mondays and Fridays seem to be my harder days to show a profit, I am happy with todays results and also in the performance of the strategy, I know if I had taken that short trade manually I would have gotten stopped out for my standard 6 ticks, with the strategy running on the smoother UniRenko chart it did its job and found the next setup faster than I could have and reacted MUCH fasert than I could have with that break up move in regards to exiting the prior short trade!
Today I only got 2 trades placed/entered in the market for a +1 tick to cover costs...BE, better than a few losses. Overall I'm not happy with my performance today, I turned off the auto entry that would have gotten me into that great long trade, again I guess I was trying to predict what might happen today instead of reacting to what is happening.... This might be part of trying to read price action at the moment and combine that with pretty well defined entry rules, it can bite me some days.
For some reason the market seemed real slow to me, I got up about 3 min before the open so I wasnt really with it 100% while trading. By looking back at the charts I have a different view of what I shoulda/coulda done.....and I did go back to sleep to soon...
Thursday was contract roll over)) and was also my travel day back home so no trades for me, I did have some on wednesday, I will try and post them this weekend, if I can find the time.
Today I ran the strategy on the better line break chart, to see if the fills would be better than the Unirenko, as you can see from the chart it was 3-0 for the trades I caught and would have been 6-0 if I was able to stick around and did not turn it off. Finished +9 ticks today another good friday for me.
I will try and get the little logic error fixed from having to take a trade in each direction when set to 1, to having a valid setup in the opposite direction (even if not filled, for when I turn it off and on and missed limit fills) before taking another trade in the same direction....should be easy fix.
Have a good weekend, I get to see my college girl this weekend and for the holidays....she might get board at home but we will enjoy having her here! I hope to get the time to teach her to trade, at least a start....
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I thought I might post the UniRenko chart real quick for a comparison... It looks like I could have had the same results just a bar or two later....limit fills I have not checked yet, I will have to go back to a tick chart to try and find out...
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Monday morning trades....as you can see I turned on the auto trader right at the open and it sold the low tick....mistake on my part some what...then when I got long I moved PT to 6 ticks to get to BE +1....then it was a long wait for the short but got +3 there....done trading for the morning, with what seems to be real low volume. I might not trade after tuesday if it feels the same.
As you can see I was trading the BLB chart today. The first trade was going real good, I set PT at 10 ticks thinking we could get a better break lower, it turned and hit my 6 tick trail stop so BE on that trade. Next was a long that I wanted to get 6 ticks out of, I dropped it back to 3 after I saw only a 1 tick break up of the high, of course I did that just a moment to soon and should have had 6 ticks. Next trade was the short and ended up only +1, after hitting +3 ticks and and then the trail stop almost being hit I moved the PT to +1 to cover costs, I also had to run the kids to school....again just a moment to soon.
I finished only +4 today in this 4 point range...not bad I guess but I should/could be up +6,+6,+3....so not great trade management on my part, but real time trading is what it is....You can see if I had been trading the 578 today performance could have been a little better.
If I trade real money between now and new years I will post but I will probably just watch a little each day and not trade....enjoy the Holidays and New year!
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I wrote my version, I believe this is exactly what you want. Maybe we can compare results with Mike.
Doesn't look profitable. I don't use multiple targets. If it doesn't work trying each target individually, then it won't work when …
His entry rules were that if in a downtrend (price below 21 DC) and it reverse (price travels 8 ticks above the DC mean), send a buy limit order 1 tick above the DC mean and wait for a fill. Update the limit order price as the DC mean changes, keeping it 1 tick above the DC mean. Vice versa for short entries.
Hello, hope all had a great Christmas break and a good new year....I enjoyed the time off. It sure looks like I missed some good trading even if on low volume.
I have had time to think about what I wanted to do this year as far as my trading goes, I have also been watching Fat Demons thread and I like how he is posting his results, I hope to head in that direction again soon as far as the videos go, for now I will have to just post charts.
Next I find posting my trades helps me to be more accountable, if even just to myself. I find myself thinking before almost every trade....Is this really a trade according to my current rules, and can I justify my reasons for early exits or extended profit targets....so with that in mind and with my goal of again trading enough size that I can once again be a full time trader only, I will do my best to be consistent in trading my charts and in my adding of contracts as the balance increases. In order to do that I have only put $1000 in an account and I hope to trade that money and show the balance good or bad every week. If I take a trade it will be live and I will try and post the charts on a daily basis. My goal will be to trade for only 4-6 ticks a day, if the day starts off bad I may decide to stop at BE if I can recover. At first I will only be trading 1 contract so I will only be able to have 1 PT, that will range from 2-6 ticks, until I get to at least 3 contracts, then I will try and come up with a new plan for the a second PT as I have never been great at that in the past.
At times I may have the auto entry get me into the trades when volatility picks up, I will for the most part try to place the trades myself with the chart trader buttons, I will probably also change the charts I trade from day to day but they are all using basically the same template so they will look the same but I will try and determine the chart to used based on the volatility of the market at that time. Also I don't want to trade 1 contract forever so I will use my spreadsheet to determine when to add a contract, at first it will be for every $650 in the account, I will change that as I get to more contracts, but if I start with $1000 I will need to have an ending balance of $1300 before I start trading 2. I will attempt to use the ending balance to determine how many contracts to trade, from past experience my hardest battle will be to break into 3 contracts.....we will see, worst case I lose a little money. I just hope having the low starting balance will force me to trade my plan and not trade just to trade. I also hope this does not put additional stress on my trading but I think this will be fine...
Next I wont be able to trade every day, I currently work in North Dakota on an oil rig and during my 2 weeks there trading could be a little spotty...also when I am home my trading could be spotty as I spend time with my family, so if you want to "tear me a new one" because the spreadsheet says on week 7 I should be trading 10 contracts and I don't make it....Oh well, that is in a perfect world and I know I wont hit that, it might be the goal but if I'm heading in that direction and I am consistent in my trades.... I'm happy. I am hoping this might even make me more accountable to myself and I might be able to start treating this as a business once again. I am feeling the need to start from scratch and prove to myself once again I can do it, so if I cant trade 1 contract, I can't and shouldn't trade 4-6 or even 10 contracts. I hope to become a more consistent trader again, one that can trade a plan (even if it changes as I go).
Good Luck in your trading this year!
Jeff
The following 4 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
Did we talk before jwdixon, or was it someone else? I lose track with so many people posting these types of spreadsheets. First of all, happy new year. Now, I will be Mr. Poo Poo Head and say the obvious, that your spreadsheet is insane (rather, you are insane, and the spreadsheet is the result of the insanity ). Trading 3 contracts with $2K and entering a trade with a 4 tick stop which is hit loses 7.5% of your account in 1 day trade (and will probably take about 30 seconds to do so). The best hedge funds don't lose that percentage of their account in a single year with thousands of trades. Mathematically and practically speaking, only a stroke of luck that keeps on streaking could make this even fathomable, and good traders are not gamblers who rely on luck. I do not get where these people say to risk 2% on every trade. Something like 0.3% to 0.5% is much more sensible, but you are risking about 5-10% at minimum. Have three losers and you have the equivalent of your own personal equity curve flash crash. The thing is this: even if you were to succeed in turning $1K into $50K in 6 months (which you can't), you would be trading with such ridiculous leverage and oversized risk that it would only take one bad day to wipe you out completely; the habits learned from such reckless risk-taking are not helpful habits to learn, they are harmful and poisonous. I'm sorry for being Mr. Poo Poo Head, but I just needed to say it so my conscience is clear, because I would want someone to tell me if my plan was so insane.
The essential problem is this: your chart does not contain the words "risk" or "loss," but it does contain these two words which are much more shiny and glittery: "gain" and "profit."
The following 6 users say Thank You to josh for this post:
I hear everything you are saying, I don't think anyone can trade for any length of time with those sort of numbers....also I did not say I was going to do what the spreadsheet shows....I just want to head in that direction.....The only line that really means anything to me is the first line that tells me where I am right now. I also said as I get to trading additional contracts I would change the leverage (closer to the $1000/1500 per contract that I normally trade at).
The point is I am going to force myself to start from 0 and build the account.....I might not be able to do it, so if for some reason my stop gets run over and I cant win a trade in the first 50 tries, I will just add another $1000....this is more for me than anything. I also said I don't want to trade 1 contract for months to years as you might suggest by risking only .3 percent of ones account, if I cant make 4 ticks at a time over time then I guess I wont be adding contracts..... believe me $50 a day is not going to get me excited either, its the exercise of building by being consistent in my trades, not with what my starting balance is....If I end up needing to add to the account I will, Im not going to stop trading just because I may lose a little money trying this out. So don't take this, my personal experiment in re-learning to follow my rules as the way anyone else should go about learning to trade, this is more to make me being accountable for my losses and winnings.....in the past I might trade 2 one day and 4 the next, I would pass on trades and and then take trades just because I could....I hope to put an end to some of those bad habits with this. I know 4 ticks is possible and I also know if I trade more than 6 contracts then fear sets in and I dont trade how I should, so I will see if if I can even get past one contract......
Thanks for the input, I just thought by putting this out there I might be able to follow my rules easier......
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
josh has some good points. Like you i comtemplated this same idea of yours at one point (pun intended) in my trading quest, ie, making one point a day but scaling appropriately as my account would grow.
Here is a little system or idea you might want to explore a bit further on the ES. It seems to work better on the ES as it has a tendency to create a lot of overlapping bars or moving back and forth while discovering new territory.
Given this fact my idea was to exploit this behavior and enter a new position when price would move at least 7 ticks without retracing by more than 2 ticks. To this end, i used a point and figure bar type with a defined 2 tick reversal.
Here are some setups for Yesterday and Today:
The following 2 users say Thank You to trendisyourfriend for this post:
Enjoyed reading your thread jwdixon. Thank you for taking time to continue updating it, I look forward to seeing how this new chapter unfolds for you.
It took me a little effort to decode your charts, but think I have done so to a point where I can see what your trading method is. I do have a couple of thoughts upon consideration of the basic strategy.
One thing I wonder, have you studied or researched the concept of perhaps a larger profit target combined with a trailing stop ? Perhaps a fixed 4 tick target for the first contract and then allowing a 2nd contract to run, either to a larger fixed target or to a natural reversal candle/signal. In studying the signals, I can certainly see why 4 ticks works, in counting the ticks after the prescribed entry price often the buying or selling wave runs at least 5 more ticks before stalling or reversing. But as you have noted, some of the basic entry signals initiate a significant price move of several points (of 8, 12 or more ticks). My thought is, by truncating all trades / contracts at the fixed 4 tick PT, the method is never open to the occasional windfall profit which the basic entry signals can produce.
My second thought, which dovetails into the first. In studying the method's entry signals, I notice often the entry signals are ideally positioned at the start of high quality price moves. The problem that jumps out at me is the discretionary exit's you have shown in this thread are essentially random and unfortunately often are not close to what one would consider good exit points in the price trend that forms. Thus, I am not clear on the choice to automate the entry but to leave the exit as discretionary. You did state in several posts, one issue you struggle with is staying in a trade, and having trouble leaving the original PT order alone until filled by the market. You mentioned your tendency to react to market noise and short circuit a trade prematurely. Given this weakness, clearly automation of the exit very well could be the most beneficial improvement to the integrity of the method's long term profitability. Ninja ATM Strategy handles this task quite nicely. The trick in this approach being to keep your hand off the mouse and allowing the market to fill your orders naturally. You are allowing the market to initiate the trade entry, why not give control of the trade outcome to the market as well ?
The following 2 users say Thank You to trendwaves for this post:
Wanted to thank trendisyourfriend and trendwaves for your posts.....I love P&F charts but hate looking at those X-O's...I need to get that bar type and that range indicator from you your chart is easy to look at and follow....that really looks like a great possibility to catch the extreme of a fast move in a direction. Also in regards to automating the exit strategies I have tried that in the past with no real good results, it seems there were to many things to take into account as far as programming goes, so I am trying to use the ATM templates as you suggest....its just I always seem to change things at the worst times, My bad habits showing up once again. I am trying to change that, by posting all my bad habits I am hoping it will reinforce it to me again and again as I look back at all my bad decisions....
I did not trade tuesday because we took the kids skiing at Copper Mt the last day before school started, we had great weather and a fun time as out first time out this year....
As you look at my posted charts you will see I turned on the auto entry, thinking it might get me back into the swing of trading again after what seemed like forever as a holiday break away from it. Im sure some of you can laugh at me for my idea of trading such a small account with the losses from today, thats fine, I will will just have to try and make it back over the next few days. I hope volatility and volume come back into the market soon, so until the vix comes up a little I will try and just trade the tick chart manually and pass on the auto entry (I guess I should have followed my own advice and just done that from the start).
If I had just manually entered the trades from the start off the 578t the day would have turned out much different, thats hindsight, I tried to stick to my plan until it was clear that chart was not working. I am trying to post the charts I was looking at so you can see the same trades on the different charts.....I hope I can get back into the swing of things again soon, funny I felt myself wanting to do all kinds of different things when things were going against me, when I noticed this I tried to just stick with the plan and it did not pay off today but in the long run I believe it will, just a hard/bad day for my chart with the low volatility and volume...
The following 3 users say Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I've been trading full time (on and off) since 2006. I've recently started trading the ES mini and thought I'd share the journey with the forum. I trade off the 5 min chart and use the 1 min & 2 tick Renko to help determine entry and …
I have been trading much longer than that, prob 15 years, and in that time many bad habits formed, much money lost and made....I just need to get me right by force....hehe
Also with my auto entry using the ATM for the order placement ninja trader will not let you back test or show the trades on the chart the the strategy is running on, that is why you only only see the arrows on the bar that a trade was placed, and then I showe the boxes...the trades show up on all the other charts.
hope that answers some of the questions
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
I don't understand your entry based off of the charts, but if it's the same entry as the one you described in the OP, how is it different than the entry here:
I wrote my version, I believe this is exactly what you want. Maybe we can compare results with Mike.
Doesn't look profitable. I don't use multiple targets. If it doesn't work trying each target individually, then it won't work when …
Basically, enter long as follows: If price is below the 21 DC mean and crosses above by 8 ticks, trail a buy limit order one tick above the 21 DC mean.
Now I know what you are talking about, I followed that for awhile, it come down to all the things you cant program...... That system is what FD came up with, from what I was trading over a year ago. Its not exactly what I was doing but using basically the same indicators in a different way. I understand some peoples need to get things programmed, I went through that phase years ago, all I did was waste time and money, never got any trading done because I was always trying t get bugs worked out and better results with the profit curve. Another problem with so many of the programs is you cant take into account news, slow days that you can only feel real time, and prob the most important is the time of day its trading, and having it stop after some amount of profit.
You can try programming all that into your system just in time to have things change on these short time frames that we scalp from....good luck, and if you get it done don't share it... I think my time has been better spent trying to learn how to see the market, I am by no means perfect or even great all the time, but I think I am better than anything I have had programmed in the past
Just my 2 cents
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
WOW another bad day for me, I think I stuck to my plan of trading the tick chart with manual entries....that's what I did. I got a few bad breaks, went for more profit on a winner that did go in my favor and ended with BE. The school run and news kept me out for a little while and then again a few chops.
With this vary low VIX and real choppy market, it is not acting like I am used to and I am having a hard time, at this point I am down about $400 this week, and with this price action as it is, I don't think I will trade on Friday, it is probably a mind thing I have but I would like to see the ES get back to "normal" for me if there is such a thing before I trade too much more.
Perhaps having the bare minimum in the account to trade is causing me to exit early sometimes....not sure, but for the most part I have taken the signals as they come and of course I get filled on the losers and not on the winners as they seemed to move to fast in the direction I wanted to go so I canceled instead of chasing the market too far. I am not sure what to do at this point other than maybe watch for a few days and see what comes...I hate to walk away as 2 bad days shouldn't make a trading system invalid...the market is just changing or waiting for something to happen to get the volume back..... I guess and I might need to let it do its thing....
I tried to mark the chart so you can see what trades I did take and where I tried to get in but it did not happen, now that I need to leave the house the market will probably be great the rest of the day....
I hope others had better results than I did today
The following user says Thank You to jwdixon for this post:
JW, you said you stuck to your plan. What was your plan this morning? I see you went long 2 or 3 times, then short, then long, then short after the move down. You also said in your chart "I can't get a break" -- I don't know what type of break you expect to get. Your trades seem pretty random and do not seem to consider the context of the day.
JW, this is to be expected. Ever heard "good fill, bad trade"? It is very logical--when there has been an established demand for prices (i.e., the market is moving directionally), it does not give much opportunity to re-enter at those prices. You either get in earlier, with less demonstrated market conviction, or you must pay for the privilege to be part of the market. This is not personal, it does not care about your feelings, it's just how supply and demand work.
Honestly, today was the best day IMO this year, in terms of market movement. Not MY best day, but the market moved quite cleanly. It was "normal" ... quite predictable though I must confess that I had a losing trade that still was a pretty good trade that did not work out as I expected it to. In other words, we all have times where we trade better in market conditions that suit our style. Perhaps these conditions do not suit your style as well, but having seen and traded ES more than a few days, this one was not far off what I would call normal.
Self-pity feels good, but it saps our energy and ability to perform well. This morning the market provided a beautiful short opportunity that I took advantage of. This afternoon I had my losing trade, and did not buy on the way up, but many who did had a wonderful afternoon. Am I to conclude that the market had a great morning and a crappy afternoon, while you conclude that the morning was terrible and the afternoon was great? The market is just the market, and it is neither great nor terrible. Sometimes a larger range or more tradable conditions allow us more opportunity, but we choose when to trade and when to stay out, we choose our risk, and we are responsible for whether the day is great or not. Everybody says this, but it's one of the few oft-repeated ideas among the plethora of useless ideas in trading that is actually helpful and true--in short, why blame the market for your losses, your bad fills, or anything else? I would love to have a "feel good" party and tell you how right you are, but that will only prolong your pain and confirm your attitudes which very clearly are contributing to your struggling. We all have poor attitudes from time to time, and the sooner we get out of them the better chance we stand to trade well.
The following 3 users say Thank You to josh for this post:
Using a baseball analogy, choke up on the bat and try to hit some singles. In your case, try for 3 tick targets to get some win's under your belt. You could go into sim mode to stay in practice or work on your ATM strategy until the VIX turns back up. One way or another your going to have to hunker down and ride through this low volatility phase, it will end and the sun will break through the clouds, it always does.
I think it depends on the programmers' experience.
Actually, these are all very easy to program. You could even backtest using NT's built backtester. And slow days means different things to different people, but in short, I could "identify" my type of slow days. Also, if you have a profitable strategy under certain conditions, there should be no reason to not continue trading as long as the favorable conditions exist in the market, but even then, it's very easy to program profit exits.
As for me, its difficult to use for scalping indicators like ma... becasue often you will get late signals.. for every 10 trades, how many losers do you have and which is rr ratio?
i have a question for you. For long does dc 21 mean line has to be below dc 10 mean line and for short does dc 21 mean line has to be above dc 10 mean line? I just got confused when I was looking at your screenshots and videos where you would trade even though bar does not cross dc 21 mean. Thank you in advance.
The following user says Thank You to skfutures for this post:
jwdixon hi!
I am learning to trade the ES. Want to try on your strategy. Please tell me you are still working? Or she began to bear the losses and you trade a different strategy? Thank you.
is there anyone out there that made his system work for you , do you take 2 points a day out of the ES and green by the end of the week i am not pouring cold water on the concepts. i just want to know if anyone else could do it.
). Trading 3 
