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you have successful trades .. seems to me you need to determine what you are thinking // doing AND what the market is doing when you have successful trades and do more of that ..
just my 2¢
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
have shown my pre-market analysis so won't share that today ..
here is NQ 2-minute chart .. on the right we see trend lines suggesting the market is getting tighter .. we have news at 6:45 AM && 7:00 AM .. so probably not much trending till after the news .. drew my low-side target zone at one of the overnight low points.. or about 14930 .. no real up-side target zone .. maybe 15100 but not convinced that is achievable .. most important .. wait on the news .. EMA[14] (2-minute .. 5-minute .. 15-minute) all in uptrend .. so not thinking of a short trade till structure changes and indicators are tested .. GAP is to the downside about 140 points (560 ticks)
23 09 29d NQ.fw
here is NQ 2-minute chart 3+ hours later .. price chopped around till the first news then rose about 50 points and then reversed .. and then fell about 130 points to the low-side target zone drawn before the market opened .. at 9:15 AM AZ time the price has not closed the GAP but is headed in that direction ..
23 09 29e NQ.fw
waited to post this .. about 10 AM AZ time the GAP WAS FILLED .. NQ price rose to above 15050 after the news and then started falling .. from today's high .. NQ fell 200+ points (800 ticks) to fill the GAP and looks like it will go another 40+ points to reach the PivotPoint ..
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
Treat this last round of reset as the last account you get, with your drawdown being your account balance. What will you do differently, how will you leverage differently, when will you leave it alone?
Smarter and more capable traders than me say "if they give you leverage for five minis, use two micros." They're right. I used 5 minis on Monday and lost $3K. Used 2 micros Tuesday through Friday and got $1400 back. Less stress that way, too. This is for cash in a funded Topstep account now. I've kept it alive for 3 weeks and aiming for longer than that. $200-$300 a day on micros, won't scale up until I've "earned" that right.
completely agree with @OttoBlink .. gotta give the trade room to move (ATR/volatility) without reaching account loss limits .. and that is a factor of the number of contracts .. tick value .. and ATR
when I added @bcomas' AccountEquityGuard code to my button strategy I added a loss per trade limit .. my losses this week happened when I increased the number of contracts (without increasing the loss per trade amount) and NQ jumped around even more than normal .. so I watched as my trade(s) were closed for a loss and then they both came right back and reached my profit target .. ARGHH!! .. my losing trades would have been profitable if I had traded 2 mini-contracts instead of 3 mini-contracts .. and my stress level would have been much less if I had traded 1 mini instead of 3 minis
the other thing I do .. using the ATR dashboard I created .. it defaults to a stop-loss of 2X ATR .. adjust that as you see fit .. but I use 60% of 1-ATR as my profit target ..
for example .. looking at ES tonight .. the ATR Dashboard says 2XATR = 31 ticks .. so 1XATR = 15 ticks .. 15 ticks X 60% suggests a reasonable profit target is 9 ticks .. OK, the data comes from the end of the day .. so maybe a few more ticks during EURO./.US overlap would be OK .. but certainly not 10 points (40 ticks) ..
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
the calculations for the latest version of the ATR Dashboard that I created haven't changed .. just what is displayed .. and how much control the user has over the appearance
the latest version displays
.. ATR (in Points)
.. ATR (in Ticks)
.. ATR Stop ( ATR Ticks multiplied by the value you set in properties)
.. ATR Profit ( ATR Ticks multiplied by the value you set in properties)
you can set the
.. corner to be displayed in
.. font .. font size .. font-weight .. font color
.. border-color
.. background color and opacity
.. panel to be displayed on
special note .. one property .. OnPricePanel .. if this is checked the dashboard can only be displayed on the main panel (price chart) .. unchecked and the ATR Dashboard can be placed on the main panel or any other panel you choose
DM me if you want the updated version .. ATRDashboard
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
converted one of the strategies to just a trade planner .. click a button and lines will be drawn on the chart for entry .. stop loss && profit target ..
the stop loss is determined by looking back over the previous number of bars and seeing what the swing low (for long) or swing high (for short) is and then applying the appropriate offset .. the number of lookback bars and the offset are user definable
the profit target is determined by applying the user-definable risk-reward ratio
in the attached image .. the silver line is the entry .. the red line is the stop loss and the gold line is the profit target ..
this DOES NOT place live trades but someone with reasonable programming skills could make it do so ..
DM me if interested ..
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
NQ likes to go 75-100 points .. so drew my target zones above/below the opening price at pre-open high/low .. 2- minute EMA[14] turned upward at about 6:15 .. 5- minute EMA[14] turned upward at about 6:25 .. 15- minute EMA[14] turned upward at about 6:45 .. so my bias is long until price action indicates a downward trend ..
keeping with my previous posts .. risking only 1% of my account .. and seeing the ATR Dashboard suggest the 2XATR range of 100 ticks .. I traded 1 contract at a time .. that would be $500 which would be roughly 1% of EA or PA ..
to be honest .. I was up 48 ticks but got greedy and wasn't paying attention .. ended up going down 120 ticks .. in theory, I should have stopped there and come back another day .. but got my head back in the game .. adjusted my profit target .. and worked my way back to almost 80 tick profit at the end of the day .. losses and scalping caused commission percentage to be higher than I would have liked .. but hey .. at the end of the day the $$ profit was OK ..
23 10 02 NQ.fw
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
NQ was in a downtrend most of the night .. but started showing signs of a double bottom at about 5:30 AM AZ time .. was able to get a couple of smaller trades in by 6:38 AM .. up about 48 ticks .. but then got faked out and lost about 100 ticks .. ARGHH!! .. got my head back in the game and was almost break even when NQ peaked just short of a GAP FILL .. GAP FILL was oh so close .. then rode the waterfall down .. should have larger profit targets .. but hey .. ended the day green with 112 ticks profit (one more trade after this image was captured) .. only traded 1 contract so pretty happy with $$ results .. thanks @OttoBlink for reminding me of the basics ..
notice the ATR Dashboard indicates ATR was 103 ticks .. and 2XATR is over 200 ticks .. OM .. that is volatile .. not risking $1000 // 2% of the account
have a thought that NQ may continue down to S2 (14730) but don't want to risk it .. so I am done for the day ..
23 10 03 NQ.fw
HAHA .. checked the NQ chart after writing this .. NQ reached S2 (14730) 20-30 minutes after I wrote this .. or about 8:06 AM .. again, the market has memory .. do you?? pivot levels can act as magnets and walls
.. you don't have to be the first one at the party .. just be part of the party ..
Hit my goal of 200 ticks per contract (50 points MNQ) and called it a day; finally took my own advice and went to ridiculously low leverage. I suppose 1 MNQ per $2K of "equity" is a safe play.
