jba1962 

I should clarify this a little. I don't mean that you can't learn anything from other traders. I'm sure you can. I know I have and that I will continue to do so. Whenever I see a trading approach outlined I read it and see if there is anything I can steal. I love learning, it is exciting. The problem is there is SO much information out there that no human could possibly learn it all. So I focus on what might help me, and for me that's not staring at a chart waiting for the angle of the dangle to descend past the moon in Aquarius. I'm just a numbers guy. I guess my pattern recognition is non-existent. But I would never believe that stuff couldn't work for someone else. I believe it does. Check that, I know it does. What I meant to say is that, if you have identified your strengths, focus on those aspects of trading, and don't let somebody tell you you're wrong.

Yeah, it's information overload. Not to mention, how I get sidetracked sometimes. I start looking at one thing and then something else pops up in the suggestions and I click on that. I just have to really focus to get the job done.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Non Day Trade: Nothing Done

Day Trade: A pretty uneventful day Continued with doing 3 units. Best p/l was +600, worst was -1765. I added and subtracted throughout the day providing only minor help. In fact ten minutes before exit I was still down and was certain I was headed for a losing day. But out of nowhere the trade started working, and it went well enough that I let it carry on a few minutes after normal exit time. Finished +511 for the day, which is quite a bonus considering where I was all day.

NINJA: Did not do anything automated programmatically. I did play with ATM strategies using NQ. Got lucky and was up 1100+ for the day. Yes, I know it was luck. No rhyme or reason to trade selection other than watching the ebb and flow of NQ and fortunately not a trendy day.

Exact numbers in the morning.

Non Day-Trade P/L: 0.00 Month: +167.06 *Total: +3747.29
DayTrade P/L: +510.58 Month: +15,082.52 *Total: +51,787.72
Ninja P/L: Day: +1109.16 Month: +1594.68 Total: +1594.68 Ninja Balance: 6183.10


* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion. Ninja total is from September 13 when I started trying to automate the day-trade portion

Non Day Trade: Nothing done

Day Trade: Trade started off beautifully, and I had visions of another fantastic Tuesday. The last 2 have been great. I did 3 units again today. As I was putting on my 3rd leg I was up about 2200, on my way to +3100. And then, it quit working. In fact, I got all the way down to even, which was extremely frustrating. I then slowly tilted the bias of the trade to the short side. In hindsight, I could have done it sooner and much more aggressively, as it surely was a trend day, but I didn't. Still, I did enough to get the trade working for me again and it pretty much worked right up until my normal exit time. Finished +1369 for the day.

NINJA: I did the first two legs of the trade today. But I entered them manually. And when I got four figures positive, I pulled the plug. Didn't want to give much back with this tiny account. Finished about 1100 positive for the day.

Exact numbers tomorrow morning.

Non Day-Trade P/L: 0.00 Month: +167.06 *Total: +3747.29
DayTrade P/L: +1369.81 Month: +16,452.33 *Total: +53,157.53
Ninja P/L: Day: +1104.40 Month: +2699.08 Total: +2699.08 Ninja Balance: 7287.50


* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion. Ninja total is from September 13 when I started trying to automate the day-trade portion

Non Day Trade: Nothing Done

Day Trade: Just one of those days. Trade didn't work from the first minute to the last. I don't think I was ever positive. I made a few adjustments, but everything I did just made things worse. It happens. Down 3800 for 3 units.

NINJA: Abandoned hope for Ninja. I did the SIM trade and again it did a phantom trade on a negated trade. I have checked the code a hundred times. I had a friend, a well-paid developer, check the code. He saw no problems. It works perfect in backtesting. But in real time, Ninja cannot handle it. It's just not robust. I did a few real money NQ trades. Lost those too. Not my best day. But this is it for me for Ninja. Hate that I wasted the 1099 on the lifetime license, but such is life. Onward we go.

Exact Numbers:

Non Day-Trade P/L: 0.00 Month: +167.06 *Total: +3747.29
DayTrade P/L: -3865.57 Month: +12,586.76 *Total: +49,291.96



* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion.

jba1962 

Non Day Trade: Nothing Done Day Trade: Just one of those days. Trade didn't work from the first minute to the last. I don't think I was ever positive. I made a few adjustments, but everything I did just made things worse. It happens. Down 3800 for 3 units. NINJA: Abandoned hope for Ninja. I did the SIM trade and again it did a phantom trade on a negated trade. I have checked the code a hundred times. I had a friend, a well-paid developer, check the code. He saw no problems. It works perfect in backtesting. But in real time, Ninja cannot handle it. It's just not robust. I did a few real money NQ trades. Lost those too. Not my best day. But this is it for me for Ninja. Hate that I wasted the 1099 on the lifetime license, but such is life. Onward we go. Exact Numbers: Non Day-Trade P/L: 0.00 Month: +167.06 *Total: +3747.29 DayTrade P/L: -3865.57 Month: +12,586.76 *Total: +49,291.96 * Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion.

It's sad that Ninja is still like that. I had 2 phantom live trades back in 2008, and got off the platform quickly to Sierra, despite how annoying it is to add yet another monthly sub to the list. I remember talking to Ninja support who couldn't quite figure it out, and figured it was best to move. Just felt like they were a 2-person operation.

karentrader 

It's sad that Ninja is still like that. I had 2 phantom live trades back in 2008, and got off the platform quickly to Sierra, despite how annoying it is to add yet another monthly sub to the list. I remember talking to Ninja support who couldn't quite figure it out, and figured it was best to move. Just felt like they were a 2-person operation.

Thanks for that input. Helpful. What has been your experience with Sierra?

jba1962 

Thanks for that input. Helpful. What has been your experience with Sierra?

It's been mostly positive. Easy for things like excel hookups, and easy to organize charting. Takes a little bit to get everything setup as it has just about every option out there, so you have to know what works for you. Support was good to me in the past, and I had some suggestions make it into the platform. To me the current issues is that it is unacceptable to not have android/iphone support in 2019, and some little things that don't affect my trading too much. Not a huge fan of paying $30/month either, without the option to buy. But other than that, it's ugly but i've never had it crash or place phantom orders; simply works going on 10 years.

jba1962 

Thanks for that input. Helpful. What has been your experience with Sierra?

karentrader 

It's been mostly positive. Easy for things like excel hookups, and easy to organize charting. Takes a little bit to get everything setup as it has just about every option out there, so you have to know what works for you. Support was good to me in the past, and I had some suggestions make it into the platform. To me the current issues is that it is unacceptable to not have android/iphone support in 2019, and some little things that don't affect my trading too much. Not a huge fan of paying $30/month either, without the option to buy. But other than that, it's ugly but i've never had it crash or place phantom orders; simply works going on 10 years.

To add to this, although not from any experience in automated trading, just manual, it is solid and fast (way faster than NT, probably because it is written is C++ and compiles down to native code, rather than in C#). As @karentrader said, it has about any feature you have heard of, but it is also (a) pretty ugly, (b) initially fairly confusing, (c) has extremely difficult documentation (difficult to use, but very complete), and we'll throw in (d) support that often has an attitude. However, with respect to support, every time I have had a business-related issue they were on it immediately, and every time I made a bug or issue report they were on it just as fast. My experience with them has been uniformly good.

Be prepared to work some in the beginning, however, as you go up the learning curve. It is notorious about that. But it is what I use now, too.

Bob.