Shawna McDermott, The reality is a lot of people that say trading live is different aren't being honest with their performance when they trade. When they go live, sure enough, they can't 'scrub' that really bad day or say, "Well I would have profited if I had followed XYZ rule, I'll just act like I threw a couple partials up there before it came back down to breakeven". The market is no longer a silent participant. It is now the judge. Whenever people are trying to pursue any life goal it is the same way. Everyone that goes to the gym regularly thinks they have put in enough work to have that 'beach body'. But the mirror and the Law of Conservation of Mass are keeping tabs on what is ACTUALLY happening. When I went live with real money, the only significant thing that changed is there wasn't a reset button when everything blew up. That's it. My trading habits were the same, my hotkey errors were the same, and my performance was the same. After a live trading day that was horrendous, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I never experience this with the sim, sure. What was I not honest about during my sim trading? My trading habits sucked, my hotkey errors were plenty, and my performance was subpar. If your simulator performance and live performance are significantly different, odds are, no, they aren't.

Hi guys, I've been working on a nice dark setup that works for me on InteractiveBrokers TWS platform including : 3 monitors for active trading ( screenshot and XML attached below ) 1 monitor for watchlist + spy + scanner + portfolio Tons of Hotkeys ! And I 've been working heavily to setup hotkeys using Andrews' methodology : Buy long at the Ask + 0.03 Sell short at the Bid - 0.03 I implemented this on IB TWS using a similar approach but using : Buy long at the Ask with limit buy + 0.03 Sell short at the Bid with limit sell - 0.03 (check the screenshots below ) Here are the main hotkeys : (screenshot and XML attached below) New orders generators : Ctrl + [ 1 .... 0 ] : LMT buy at ask limit + 0.03 >> from 100 shares to 1.000 shares Shift + [ 1 .... 0 ] : LMT sell at bid limit - 0.03 >> from 100 shares to 1.000 shares Orders general management : Ctrl + Q : cancel all orders and close full position at market price but you can exit position using the opposite order ( Buy for Shorting and Sell for Longing ) Ctrl + C : cancel all active or pending orders for active chart Ctrl + U : partial placement every X cents with Y exits Ctrl + Enter : submit / transmit / update changes Tab : Select next order (inside chart) Order price changes : Ctrl + Home : move 0.02 up the limit price of the selected order Ctrl + End :move 0.02 down the limit price of the selected order Order size changes : Ctrl + RePag : add 100 shares to the current selected order size Shift + RePag : add 20 shares to the current selected order size Ctrl + AvPag : substract 100 shares to current selected order size Shift + AvPag : substract 20 shares to current selected order size If you have NO position opened yet Right clic on chart + Buy : enter long with $11.000 (default position) at the price selected on the chart after second clic (LMT order) Right clic on chart + Sell : enter short with $11.000 (default position) at the price selected on the chart after second clic (LMT order) Ctrl + S : Stop sell with $11.000 position for a short position at the selected price below current price (if placed above current price will sell inmediately) Ctrl + B : Stop buy with $11.000 position for a long position at the selected price above current price (if placed below current price will sell inmediately) If you have a position already opened Right clic on chart + Buy : close short position with LMT order at the selected price on chart Right clic on chart + Sell : close long position with LMT order at the selected price on chart Ctrl + S : Stop Loss to close a long position at the selected price on chart (whole position) Shift + S : Stop Loss Limit ($0.10 range) to close a long position at the selected price on chart during premarket (whole position) Ctrl + B : Stop Loss to close a short position at the selected price on chart (whole position) Shift + B : Stop Loss Limit ($0.10 range) to close a short position at the selected price on chart during premarket (whole position) New AutoHotKeys Script : ** F4 : Histogram / Volume by price indicator F5 : Refresh chart information F6 : Draw an horizontal line F7 : Remove all the drawings and personal annotation from the chart F8 : Draw fibonacci lines F9 : (De)activate Chart Trader F10 : (De)activate Chart Trader on smaller charts (yes menús are different) F11 : (Un)show completed trades marks F12 : Show window name Youtube video (7m) with fast explanation and examples (spanish with subtitles) : https://youtu.be/1gflAufNMxI Youtube video (1h20m) for the spanish community in BBT (with subtitles) : https://youtu.be/DOSHys3WoRk To access chart hotkey setup : File menu > Global configuration > Charts > ChartTrader > Hotkeys To download this hotkeys and layout : Download the text file attached : tws.txt Change the extension to XML File menu > Layout / Settings Recovery > Custom > Select file Do not forget to save your current setup before for roll back if needed ** AutoHotKey is a Windows Software that provide a simple macro script language to write down any kind of macro process that can be done over and over again. This software is 100% free and independent from TWS, however I managed a way to use a script that will only activate the above function keys on TWS windows. The function will be launched in the window which is inmediately under the mouse pointer, so be sure that the mouse is where it should be if you don't want any other function on TWS to be launched. This Script is very straight foreward and it has some comments inside to let you know what can be done with the keys and menu functions. I personally hated using the context menu or the main manu of the chart and click 3 times just to draw a simple horizontal line, but TWS has no support to many many basic commonly used tasks AND I DECIDED TO WRITE MY OWN 😉 To add on top of it the new AutoHotKey Script : Download and install AutoHotKey 1.33 software from : https://www.autohotkey.com/ Download the Custom Script file for TWS at the end of this post : TWS-AutoHotKeys.txt Open it with some text editor like WordPad, Notepad or SublimeText and check line 30 to add you own TWS Account Number Change the extension to AHK After launching TWS on your Windows PC, double click on the Script icon (which I personally store in the desktop). Last updates : Oct, 25th 2024 - Added two YouTube videos with examples (in Spanish with subtitles) Aug, 29th 2020 - Fixed AutoHotKey macro script to avoid using the macros outside TWS Aug, 28th 2020 - Added base subscriptions screenshot for L1 or SIM Aug, 27th 2020 - Added new Setup file with hotkeys fix If you wanna add option chanin information activate this options detailed here : tws_2020ago.txt TWS-AutoHotKeyScript.txt

Every community needs a memes thread. I'll start.

Amazing materials Matthew! It definitely help newbie to put things into perspective, perfect for revision.

I concur 100%. Great analysis!

@Eric Dubs, some interesting thoughts from @Bailey Nevener on this trade by @Thor. 👆

Thank you very much Bailey! And thank you for pointing out about the mistake about the linked video (Oops, it must have confused other members) and also thank you for putting the right one here. I really appreciate it. Just wanted to say quickly thank you now - I just found this post and went over it but not in detail yet. I will read in detail after today's market. (I may have more questions then, haha). Thank you again and I will post something again later.

It seems like live trading is harder for almost everyone. The reasons for that will be revealed when you start and will be a little different for everyone depending on a number of factors ranging from psychological things, relationship with money, to the technicals and the fills. Some things you can do to make the transition easier are to make sim harder for yourself by making it as realistic as possible. Figure out what size you will be trading live and then trade that exact size in sim. You might be doing that already and you may want to consider reducing that size further. Also, be mindful of when to call it a day. In live trading, when you're down after a couple of trades it can be really hard to continue trading (with a clear head). You might want to be harder on yourself in sim and cut yourself off after a couple of losing trades after you imagine what that would be like with real dough on the line. That would probably mean taking more red days. Another thing is most people tend to trade too big when they start live, but there is also such a thing as trading too small where you end up trying too hard to milk every trade because the positions are so small, so there is a balance to be struck. A lot of people end up back on sim after a while to try to sort out new issues they didn't know they had. Best of luck!

Hi folks, here is a copy of the playbook template I discussed in the Feb 14 recap. The file is obviously a sample meant for each individual trader to complete with their own strategies, patterns, and setups. https://drive.google.com/a/bearbulltraders.com/file/d/1bmu3XzT_KtzTfya2Fo7Uqc7DZG_N7q-B/view?usp=sharing Please download a local copy as .xlsx

5-Minute Opening Range Breakout (ORB) 5_MIN_ORB.pdf High of Day Break / Low of Day Break HOD_LOD_Breaks.pdf VWAP Reversal VWAP_Reversal.pdf Mountain Pass Mountain_Pass.pdf 1-Minute Opening Range Breakout (ORB) 1_MIN_ORB.pdf Rising Devil Rising_Devil.pdf Falling Angel Falling_Angel.pdf Parabolic Reversal Parabolic_Reversal.pdf

(Cleared this one with Norm before posting)

I love the idea! Lets do it!