Another solid day today. +23 ticks (average ticks per contract).

It felt like an absolute battle today though. I struggled for the first part of the day, then found the rhythm. Kept losers small, and allowed winners to run. I'm at another computer right now, so I don't have my charts, but I'll post them later (will probably be tonight as I'm going for a dinner 2 hours away this evening).

Raising assets is tough. I look forward to the day where we have "enough" assets, our track record speaks for itself, and we're able to attract institutional capital. Right now, we're not using proprietary track records, so it's a difficult conversation to dance around. It's also a tough game trying to explain futures trading to most people. We are having great success though. Should have over $1m under management by the end of the first month here. That's not a bad start, especially in Alabama.

Having the nice office has brought a "pop" in interest to us though. For some reason it's brought massive credibility. Not a thing has changed with my trading or anything else, other than where I am when I do it.

Right now I'm looking into which CTA/hedge fund performance databases we'll be signing up with. Barclayhedge will be one for sure, as I see the most exposure from it.

Having fun.

indextrader7 

Another solid day today. +23 ticks (average ticks per contract). It felt like an absolute battle today though. I struggled for the first part of the day, then found the rhythm. Kept losers small, and allowed winners to run. I'm at another computer right now, so I don't have my charts, but I'll post them later (will probably be tonight as I'm going for a dinner 2 hours away this evening). Raising assets is tough. I look forward to the day where we have "enough" assets, our track record speaks for itself, and we're able to attract institutional capital. Right now, we're not using proprietary track records, so it's a difficult conversation to dance around. It's also a tough game trying to explain futures trading to most people. We are having great success though. Should have over $1m under management by the end of the first month here. That's not a bad start, especially in Alabama. Having the nice office has brought a "pop" in interest to us though. For some reason it's brought massive credibility. Not a thing has changed with my trading or anything else, other than where I am when I do it. Right now I'm looking into which CTA/hedge fund performance databases we'll be signing up with. Barclayhedge will be one for sure, as I see the most exposure from it. Having fun.

Congrats on the CTA. I assume you are already registered with the NFA/CFTC and have DD docs approved? I have a question on how scalable your strategy is: Are you going to stick to day-trading the TF, CL and maybe others? It's not like you can swing around 100 lots of TF or CL....in ES yes and ZN I guess you could. Or do you have longer swing trading strategies that allow for scalability?

stok 

Congrats on the CTA. I assume you are already registered with the NFA/CFTC and have DD docs approved? I have a question on how scalable your strategy is: Are you going to stick to day-trading the TF, CL and maybe others? It's not like you can swing around 100 lots of TF or CL....in ES yes and ZN I guess you could. Or do you have longer swing trading strategies that allow for scalability?

Yes, we're all approved with ddocs and trading client funds.

Scaleability is a valid question. Here are a few things we consider:

1. Price action is price action. The setups I trade show up across all timeframes. I can lengthen timeframes/holding periods.

2. I plan on adding traders to the firm at certain growth points. Thus spreading contracts traded across multiple markets.

3. I can close off the fund at x $million. I'm not concerned about making tens of millions per year.

4. I can reduce my risk per trade (currently 0.5% per trade), I can half that easily (which halves my contracts).

etc. There are many ways that what I do is scaleable.

indextrader7 

Yes, we're all approved with ddocs and trading client funds. Scaleability is a valid question. Here are a few things we consider: 1. Price action is price action. The setups I trade show up across all timeframes. I can lengthen timeframes/holding periods. 2. I plan on adding traders to the firm at certain growth points. Thus spreading contracts traded across multiple markets. 3. I can close off the fund at x $million. I'm not concerned about making tens of millions per year. 4. I can reduce my risk per trade (currently 0.5% per trade), I can half that easily (which halves my contracts). etc. There are many ways that what I do is scaleable.

How do you think would it be harder for you to trade longer time frames?I heard that people who were scalpers in the past found it really difficult to WAIT.They were following their system as they did in the past,but necessity to wait longer seriously injured their performance.

Where did you get information about starting CTA?Is there anything I might read?

Damn,there are actually so many question I want to ask,but I think you're too busy to answer them all.

iamcereal 

How do you think would it be harder for you to trade longer time frames?I heard that people who were scalpers in the past found it really difficult to WAIT.They were following their system as they did in the past,but necessity to wait longer seriously injured their performance.

I traded currencies back in the day on 4hr charts. No problems there.

When you say you risk 0.50% per trade, after following this log, sometimes you go in trades with more contracts than normal and also seen you let trades go against you more than trades before, and add to them. How are you able to keep risk at 0.50% all the time? Again, thanks for the answers and been a great log!

stok 

When you say you risk 0.50% per trade, after following this log, sometimes you go in trades with more contracts than normal and also seen you let trades go against you more than trades before, and add to them. How are you able to keep risk at 0.50% all the time? Again, thanks for the answers and been a great log!

Since I've started the official CTA, I have not let trades go more than 0.5% against me. You may be referring to when I was just trading my personal account. I used to do all sorts of crazy things, especially early in this thread.

It's simple to allow for wider or closer stops and maintain the exact same risk. Just adjust your position size to reflect the stop loss location.

I will most likely be leaving Ninjatrader today based on what has happened. I can't have that kind of instability. Ridiculous. Will tell more later when I'm done putting out fires.

indextrader7 

I will most likely be leaving Ninjatrader today based on what has happened. I can't have that kind of instability. Ridiculous. Will tell more later when I'm done putting out fires.

Try Sierra Chart, join the club of former NT users who found something much better.

I am sorry to hear about what happened. That sucks.

Nothing drastic today guys, my previous post may have been misleading. We still made money today (miraculously despite the conditions).

I had NT mess up with an ATM. I was in a trade, and up considerably. I tried to drag an order on the chart to take some profits. Things went haywire. Nt tried to send 1300 orders in a matter of minutes. My broker saw this happening, and as I was scrambling to get the software to respond, they closed out my order (a few minutes cost me nearly 1% of p/l) for a small loss instead of a considerable gain. A horrendous fill at that.

I won't tolerate that kind of instability. NT is taking this to the development team as they haven't seen this issue before. My ATM is super simple, 1 stop and 2 targets, no trails or moves to BE. I do it manually.

I may be done with them regardless of their reason for the mishap.

My broker is setting me up with Rithmic this afternoon. I'll check into it, and others. What a day. At least we had a massive winner late morning that made up for it.