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I'm a pretty heavy user of trading sim, and there only seems to be a bit of scattered info on it in the forums so I thought I'd post a detailed thread here along with some recent improvements they've done. For those who don't know, TradingSim (www.tradingsim.com) is a dedicated replay paper trading platform that runs in the browser. One can choose any date, setup a watchlist and playback stock data. There are buttons for play, pause, step to next candle, speed up, slow down etc. You can set your account size, buy, sell, short, limit and stop orders are all there. The advantages of using such a platform: Trade outside of market hours Drastically increase the amount of practice trading for a given time of day (for instance the open) Trade in different market conditions Use it as a research tool to study historical data, refine patterns and strategies, etc. One of the main drawbacks that people have commented here on the forums here is that it does not have pre-market and post market. They have since added this a little while ago. I'd say the only key thing that's still missing is level 2, although they do have order flow; and that also shows the current spread. There is obviously no premarket gapper scanner or anything like that. For trading practice I simply look up the respective recap from Andrew on youtube in order to get a watchlist. I spent quite some effort getting this das-like, and I'm relatively happy with the result. Take a look for yourself, and note that my DAS setup is slightly different than Andrews (I use green candles, different thickness MAs). Like DAS, there are a lot of options, it takes a little while to find everything you need. One rather critical option that vastly improved it for me was the 'Scale series only' under the 'Scale' of the chart settings. This stops the chart zooming out to fit the 50 and 200 SMA when they are out of screen. Just like DAS you can mark your charts with relevant levels from the premaket or daily, levels can be moved across charts via one by one via a copy-paste type functionality, but given the amount of clicking involved it's just as fast to draw them again. Some of the drawbacks the platform still has: Calculation of the VWAP in the pre-market is incorrect (I am currently in contact with them about this) No level 2 Hotkey functionality is a bit weak compared to DAS For active trades, it shows your average price on the chart, as well as relevant limit/stop orders, which is pretty cool, however once a trade is closed, there are no triangles to show you your orders. This makes it difficult for reviewing trades. This also facilitates overtrading or scaling out too quickly in my mind as you can't see the array of triangles you are leaving behind. During my usage of the platform I have found some bugs or oddities and sent them feedback. They have been fairly responsive about addressing all the feedback I have sent them, and a number of things have been fixed thus far. A word to pricing and competition. I tried both NinjaTrader and ThinkorSwin in the beginning, both of which are free. Ninja trader didn't work at all, replay only seemed to work for futures and forex. ThinkorSwim is also free but requires an ameritrade TD account. Based on feedback I heard from others from the community that it was rather clunky and not really usable, I didn't bother trying it out. TradingSim is $300 a year, and they offer a 10 day trial. Compared to the cost of DAS I personally think this is totally reasonable, particularly for people with jobs, or in other time zones who need to practice out of market hours. To conclude I want to emphasize that whilst I am happy with using this software, it is clearly no replacement for the DAS trader simulator with real time data and participating in the chat. Personally, I find I take tradingsim less seriously than the DAS sim, something about the fact the things are not happening real time really takes the pressure off. Therefore it is essential to participate in the market daily to practice in realtime market conditions, and on the platform you will go live with. I'd be interested to here from other members using tradingsim and what they think. Anything to add or any questions?

Hello everyone, Just wanted to start a place to journal and show my trades for accountability for myself and for any advice and teaching moments for other people. My results have been very very very negative but hopefully thoughout this process I will see an increase and success and maybe someone can learn from the mistakes that I made.

10 Best Reasons to Quit While Ahead The discussions is whether it is best to stop trading, even very early in the day, if you have made “your money” (whatever that is for you). For me, a relative newbie (just went live 2 weeks ago after 8 months in Sim) the answer is YES - better to stop. Here are my reasons why: Part of Risk Management - right there with setting stops (hard or mental) and putting controls on your account. Don’t let “trading” become an “addiction.” Keep it in moderation in your overall lifestyle. 8. The mathematical laws of probability - even though every trade is independent, odds favor a neutral outcome over a lot of events. Even if the mathematical odds mentioned in 8 are not activated, the psychological knowledge of this likelihood may play on you in the background of your mind. Time of Day - If you have made some money, some time has passed, and the longer you stay in, the more conditions change. So, whatever type of trade you like best will wane as time goes on and you will need to be thinking about a different strategy, which can be challenging and add to likelihood of diminishing returns. 5. If you do stay…. - It is very natural to want to have another good trade, and there is nothing wrong with staying, but if you do, make a change to your rules. For example, only take the very best setups, or for experimenting switch to simulator, or do NOT let yourself give back more than X percent of your gains (I suggest 10%). Then you can still walk away proud and yet have tried to improve on the already good situation. Helps you stay with A+ trades - If you adopt the suggestions in #5, then you only allow yourself to take A+ trades if you do stay because Who wants to give back money? This general concept of cautious selection of trades will spread naturally into the times before you “make your money” - not just after you do it. 3. Minimize self-loathing - If you have not felt this after giving back what you worked so hard to earn, then you are not yet trading - even in Sim. It is universal. But, it does not have to continue to happen. This mistake does not have to be repeated. Try waling away a couple of times with some good early profits and notice how good it feels for the rest of the day. More time to learn - If you love trading, you probably also love reading about trading, watching videos about trading, thinking about trading strategies, etc. So, just because you have stopped trading for the day, does not mean you can not be engaged in other exciting trading activities. Have time and better energy for your journal and other trader improvement activities. AND, the number 1 reason to stop trading after making money is: RESPECT and PROTECT your account and live to trade many more days. Now, if I can only listen to myself….. Regards, Emily

The terminology is not consistent in DAS, and this leads to confusion. What Lee and I are referring to as Hotkeys: -Ability to program executions, chart switching, zoom, etc. via keyboard commands -Andrew provides a hotkey file for onboarders (Hotkey.htk) -Configured by menu path: Setup > Hot Key -These commands are global and work across all Montages, as well as charts and within DAS generally What Lee and I are referring to as Hot Buttons: -The execution buttons located in the Montage window -Andrew demonstrates how to create the buttons here -Configured by right-clicking Montage > Layout Config > adding Hotkey to Window > Adding rows and buttons -Montage-specific. Can create different buttons for each Montage -When loading a new Montage from default, the hot buttons are loaded as well. However, new Montage becomes forever linked to first Montage (the bug being discussed in this post) -Seems you have to create the hot buttons manually in each additional Montage (to avoid the "linked" issue) I hope that clears things up.

Hi all, Having a journal is a must. I feel like I have learned so much about my trading in just the 2 weeks trading live because of this journal. For anyone starting out like me, if you are serious about this business, take the time to have a detailed journal. How else can we improve something we are not tracking? I focus more on the details of the trade and what I was thinking at the time, IB has tons of report performance reports that I can pull later if I want to see the numbers crunched. Here is a screenshot and detail of my journal, I have 3 main sections on my recap: Screenshot Link: Click Here Section 1: In this section I record how I feel Physically and Mentally in the morning before I start my trading day. Comment if I was able to get my morning routine done as planned. (My mourning routine is gym, sauna, get to my station and write my Journal Intro, review previous day recap, then build watchlist) Section 2: Here I add a screenshot of my Das Trader Account Report, with the me a summary of what I traded for the day. At the bottom of the page I also have additional screenshots of the detail transactions. Section 3: In this section I track some information of the stock like float size and how I found the stock. I also note down details of the trade like the strategy, position size and details of the price action shown on the screenshot. The best part about this section is the “Well Done" and "Improvement Notes”. I read on “The Daily Trading Coach: 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist” how important it is to track what you did well on a trade. This way your recap is not all negative but also highlighting the good things that you should continue to do. Software: Just some information on the software I use, I track my Journal on Microsoft OneNote. As you can see on the pages tab I track all my Trading stuff like highlights of the book I am reading and any training course notes. If you have not try this software please give it a shot. It has a lot of great features, syncs with all devices and is completely free. Thanks. Carlos M.