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When I first found Futures.io I was looking for indicators to use so i could get my NT up and running quickly. I wanted to learn to write my own strategies too. There are some webinars here that helped me to do just that. You said you weren't interested in indicators but you want to learn C#. There are a lot of NT8 script so you could use that to further your understanding of C#. I learned enough to write some simple code, I'm still learning.
Actually the first time I found futures.io I paid for membership right away. I never looked back. How I thought about it was. Is my education worth this $100? It is a Lifetime member.
As for value, value is very abstract and two people could be reading the same thing and one can find value while the other did not. Just like in trading. But I think you would find value here at futures.io.
Option Side: I did sign up for the Elite membership. I did go down a couple rabbit holes, but not too long. Made a little bit better use of my time today. I haven't found anything actionable just yet, but there is so much stuff. I have no doubt that I will find enough value to justify the very modest cost. So thanks to all for the recommendation. I should clarify one thing I said about indicators. I like indicators. I really do. And I am in awe of people who can look at a chart with all kinds of lines, and graphs and circles and squares and various colors and know exactly what they are looking at, and most importantly, act on it. I would get paralysis by analysis and be useless. So a big tip of the cap to those who can do it, and do it profitably. I'm more of a "hey let's jump in and see what happens" kind of guy. And I do use a form of indicator in my day trading to choose the markets I trade. It's just math, and it's in a spreadsheet as opposed to a chart. So I do intend to take a look at a few indicators and see what catches my interest. I just know that I'll never have a chart with 23 indicators waiting for them all to align before pulling the trigger.
Day Trade Side: This may sound strange (probably is) but I tend to personify the market, and today was no exception. I knew I was going to lose today. I knew I had not yet paid the price for yesterday's unprofessional behavior. I thought about doing just 1 unit since it was a guaranteed loss, but I figured the market might see that as me trying to avoid my punishment. Just do the time. So I put on 2 units, the trade was -60 on the fill, and that was the high water mark of the day. Never even a chance to scratch the trade. I started out short the Russell - that was soon enough negated and reversed, but I never really made any headway. And then the 2nd leg got negated too, and I ended up with not too much on for most of the day. All in all, it wasn't a terrible day. I didn't even look at the numbers before I shut down TWS. I think I lost about 700. Hopefully that's enough penance and we get back on the positive side Monday.
Yes, I believe this is an excellent point as well. I am sure I can hasten my C# education by dissecting a few indicators and strategies, even if I have no intent to use them. Thanks.
Option Side: Not a real productive day today. Spent a little time trying to write A HistVol indicator in C#. It seems to be working but isn't giving me the same numbers I get when I pull up TWS's Historic Volatility. Still working on it. Spent a fair amount of time in the yard as it actually wasn't raining today (yet).
Day Trade Side: I guess I still haven't paid my penance. No, I'm kidding about that. I think I have - just a run of the mill losing day. After the methodology was on such a higher than normal run of success, a drawdown isn't too big of a shock. I did 1 unit, and it was incredibly dead today. I don't think I was ever up more than 200 or down more than 400. In fact, I think I finished at about the lowest point of the day. Down about 390. Not sure if it was just a case of most of the move having been made overnight, or the first trade getting negated, or the much smaller position size (# of contracts is determined dynamically and is volatility based), or something else, but today's trade didn't move around much at all.
Option Side: Some preliminary research on a covered Call/covered Put strategy. That would be something new for me, and would require more patience (not my strongest trait) than my day trade strategy, but also not as hands-off as my straight premium selling strategy (when it's actually working well). Is there profit to be found? I think so. Is it worth the risk, and is it suited to my personality? To be determined. I'm going to continue to research the idea.
Day Trade Side: A day much like yesterday. Never really hurt me. Never really went in my favor. Unlike yesterday, I had the chance to scratch the trade and I did so, finishing up about 53 for the day. The trade, left to its own devices, would have lost about 600. so I need to remember the days when my intervention is helpful. It's the times that it's not that tend to stick fast in my mind. And truthfully, I'm usually OK if I leave a little on the table on the good days. Just as long as a) It's not a crazy high amount and b) I stay disciplined and exit for the right reasons instead of letting the trade get out of whack and doing stupid stuff. Today was very calm for my trade, and I made the right decision.
Option Side: No trading yesterday or today. I wanted to research covered Calls and covered Puts and I seem to not be disciplined enough to not constantly check up on my trade when I'm in one, which is very distracting to my research train of thought, so I decided to commit a couple of days to just research. That's also why I try to research mostly on weekends, but the weekends have been quite busy lately. In the end though, I still did not come up with a strategy I am comfortable with. It is hard to know where option pricing will be at any given time. I have been doing this for a long time, and I do have a real good idea, but close isn't always close enough in determining the viability of a methodology. I also was unable to determine a consistent exit plan that would let the trade work when things were going well yet not get killed when a trade goes bad. That is an issue with the competitor in me. If I let a trade get away I am inclined to try to "fix it" as opposed to taking the hit and moving on. I don't want any strategy that makes it easy for me to do so with vague exit rules. So the search goes on, and hopefully doesn't end up fruitless.
Day Trading: If I had traded, and assuming 2 units and no intervention from me whatsoever, I would have lost about 1400 yesterday and made about 600 today. I am going to trade tomorrow, perhaps just 1 unit. Definitely 1 unit if the markets have a broad overnight range.
Option Side: Started to toy with the idea of, instead of specifically an option strategy, using a similar approach to what I do with the day trading, but with equities. I have very little experience with equities, and what I do have is mostly buy and hold. So this would be new, but might give me the diversity I need. I don't like having a single strategy because nothing works all the time, and I can deal with drawdowns in one part of my trading, if something else is working. Of course, you can have multiple models all going through drawdowns at the same time, but that's pretty rare. So, how to start? I looked up stocks by sector, picked a few at random, and then tried to determine the 4-5 leading stocks in each sector. Could it work? Is it viable? I would absolutely love any input anyone reading this might have. I was making some progress when BOOM, Trump started doing Trumpy things, and I was forced to give 100% focus to...
Day Trading Side: Not much movement overnight, so I decided to go with 2 units. Trade was doing OK, up about 200 per unit when the Trump Dump happened. In a flash, I was down 1800 and, as I expected, my 3rd leg was going to negate not only the 1st leg, but the 2nd as well. Usually when there's a double negation it's trade 2 negates trade 1 and then trade 3 negates trade 2, but today both of the 1st two legs were short the Russell and it was holding up well enough that it became the Buy for leg 3 (forcing the 1st two trades to be closed). I made an executive decision to close the longs from trade 1 and trade 2, but not the short Russells. Obviously that also meant I wasn't buying the Russell for leg 3. I did do the sell of MNQ. So now I'm all in on one side, something I absolutely hate. I do not consider myself a trend follower, and I'm not very good at it. I always stay in too long, or get too jumpy and get out. I also have to monitor the trade constantly. It can always go right back up. When you are in a spread you can walk away from time to time. The trade might go against you, but it's unlikely to do irreparable harm. When you are one sided, no such luxury. When the dump continued, and I got back to even, I closed some of my position. It kept going. When it got up 2K (I am talking total P/L now since I was off book), I closed some more. And still it kept going. At 3K I closed more, and at 4K I was almost flat. Had I held on to everything my profit would have been higher, but I never feel bad about taking risk off, especially as I am not desirous of being all long or all short. Not opposed to having a slight bias from time to time, but not all-in. So did I leave some on the table? Sure. But it was a great day, and I believe I made the right decisions. Plus 4176 for the day. And a new high for the month.
