Hey everybody, Today is quite an important day for me. I've finally managed to get back to break even after being in the red for 4 and a half years since I started day trading. I'll be honest, I was starting to doubt my ability to ever become a profitable trader at the end of 2020, and I thought about quitting. Investing so much time and effort for years, only to see money disappearing from your account is very hard on morale, of course. One thing that kept me going was the fact that, even though my account wasn't getting better, I felt like I was always making a little progress on both the technical side and the psychological side. I figured if I kept going, one day, I would finally turn the corner. Well, I turned that corner at the end of 2020, when I changed my approach, strategy and tools all at the same time. It took me 4 years to lose 25000$, and only 6 months to make it back. And frankly, I'm pretty excited to see what the next couple of years will look like as I'm only starting to ramp up my size. I wanted to share this with you guys because this chatroom is one of the reasons why I was able to make it work for me, and I figured it could help motivate and inspire anyone that is still struggling to find their marks and make it work for themselves. As you can see from my total realized P&L of the last 4.5 years, I had a pretty long and difficult journey. I just wanted to say this: As long as you feel that you're progressing at least a little, and if you like what you are doing, make sure that you give yourself the time and the tools to keep going because you never know when you'll be turning that corner. I surely didn't expect it, not more than a year ago I was about to call it quit, and it would have been a monumental mistake. Let this be an inspiration for those still struggling.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for one or two people to voice chat with while trading for mutual accountability and support. I don't have anyone to discuss trading with in my personal life and really don't get a lot out of online discussions through text. Having a couple of people to trade and talk with while trading like the moderators do in the chatroom would be awesome. I've been swapping back and forth between Live and Sim for about a year and a half now. I am still working on being consistantly profitable. I'm in a boom/bust cycle and am about -7k down overall in my trading. My strategies aren't really the problem, it's my behavior. I can pin all those losses on about 10 trading days out of the last year and a half. It doesn't matter if you have a really high win rate if you don't stop out every time on your losing trades. Having a person or two to keep me accountable to my risk would be a great help. Obviously, I would do the same in return. I was thinking of using Zoom chat, but if someone else has a better idea, I'm open to it. I am generally at the computer every day the market is open between 8 am to 11:30 am EST. My strategies don't usually come up till about 20 minutes into the market, so I really don't trade the open much. That's why I'm at the computer till 11:30 or so. I look forward to hearing from y'all. I hope we can start doing this next Monday. Thanks, TJ

Hi, I've been using thinkorswim for charts for my trading and I found it incredibly frustrating that the Camarilla Pivot Points in ToS is just wrong and weird. So I fixed it. The issues with the original ToS Camarilla Pivot Points Doesnt use After Market data - for closing value and High and Low Doesnt show R1 and S1 natively Without these, well it's pretty useless. So here is my script, I hope this helps everyone trade better on ToS. To use this ThinkScript follow the directions Open up Studies in ToS chart Create a new Script (Click on the big "Create" button) Write in Title for Script, I suggest Kevin'sCamPivots Remove the default code, something to do with plot Copy and Paste my code in. Press 'Ok' button now add it to your chart This script also allows you to manually overide the Close High and Low values in the settings. This is because the values may still differ from DAS and you can have the flexibility to manually change the values. # # Kevin Gong - Camarilla Pivot Points # Email me for support - [email protected] # Copy Right - Do not distribute this code without my consent. # input aggregationPeriod = {default "DAY", "WEEK", "MONTH"}; input length = 1; input SetClose = 0.00; input PreMaketHigh = 0.00; input PreMaketLow = 0.00; Assert(length > 0, "'length' should be positive: " + length); def yyyymmdd = GetYYYYMMDD(); def month = GetYear() * 12 + GetMonth(); def day_number = DaysFromDate(First(yyyymmdd)) + GetDayOfWeek(First(yyyymmdd)); def Today = GetDay() == GetLastDay(); def Yesterday = GetDay() == GetLastDay() - 1; def period; switch (aggregationPeriod) { case DAY: period = CountTradingDays(Min(First(yyyymmdd), yyyymmdd), yyyymmdd) - 1; case WEEK: period = Floor(day_number / 7); case MONTH: period = Floor(month - First(month)); } def prevHigh = if YesterDay and !YesterDay[1] then high else if Yesterday and high > prevHigh[1] then high else prevHigh[1]; def prevLow = if Yesterday and !Yesterday[1] then low else if Yesterday and low < prevLow[1] then low else prevLow[1]; def camhighValue = if PreMaketHigh == 0 then prevHigh else PreMaketHigh; def camlowValue = if PreMaketLow == 0 then prevLow else PreMaketLow; def last = if Today and !Today[1] then close[1] else last[1]; def camClose = if SetClose == 0 then last else SetClose; def range = camhighValue - camlowValue; plot R5 = (camhighValue / camlowValue) * camClose; plot R4 = camClose + range * (1.1) / 2; plot R3 = camClose + range * (1.1) / 4; plot R2 = camClose + range * (1.1) / 6; plot R1 = camClose + range * (1.1) / 12; plot S1 = camClose - range * (1.1) / 12; plot S2 = camClose - range * (1.1) / 6; plot S3 = camClose - range * (1.1) / 4; plot S4 = camClose - range * (1.1) / 2; plot S5 = (camClose - (R5 - camClose)); R5.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); R4.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); R3.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); R2.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); R1.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); S1.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); S2.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); S3.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); S4.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); S5.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); def paintingStrategy = if aggregationPeriod == aggregationPeriod.DAY then PaintingStrategy.POINTS else if aggregationPeriod == aggregationPeriod.WEEK then PaintingStrategy.TRIANGLES else PaintingStrategy.SQUARES; R5.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R4.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R3.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R2.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R1.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S1.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S2.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S3.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S4.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S5.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy);

Hey @CaressaS I'm glad this thread could help in any way. Yes, I'm still using the same platform and tools. The recent market state has been quite challenging for my trading style/strategy but I'm confident things will be back to normal at some point. I'm trying to stay patient and not risk too much when things are this choppy. Big fake outs are extremely dangerous when scalping options at the open. I've picked up on a new "mentor" that I like. He's trading mostly options using the break and retest strategy. I've been trading live with him (audio only) for 2 months now and I like his style and find that his live commentary is on track with what I want to hear when I trade. He's cool, calm and collected, while focused on the action. You can find him on YouTube, his name is Vincent Desiano.

Thanks for this share @Kevin Gong! If you are interested in ever using Cams without premarket data (for example, per Thor, when today's premarket range falls within yesterday's daily range), the script below is much better than the standard one in TOS. Just be sure to change aggregation period to "1". I've checked between TOS and DAS and the values mirror very closely the cams provided when using "without premarket data." input aggregationPeriod = {default "DAY", "WEEK", "MONTH"}; input length = 25; input hide_s1_r1 = yes; input lines = {default dashes, points, triangles, horizontal, squares}; input showbubbles_description = yes; input showpricebubble = yes; Assert(length > 0, "'length' should be positive: " + length); def yyyymmdd = GetYYYYMMDD(); def month = GetYear() * 12 + GetMonth(); def day_number = DaysFromDate(First(yyyymmdd)) + GetDayOfWeek(First(yyyymmdd)); def period; switch (aggregationPeriod) { case DAY: period = CountTradingDays(Min(First(yyyymmdd), yyyymmdd), yyyymmdd) - 1; case WEEK: period = Floor(day_number / 7); case MONTH: period = Floor(month - First(month)); } def count = CompoundValue(1, if period != period[1] then (count[1] + period - period[1]) % length else count[1], 0); def start = CompoundValue(1, count < count[1] + period - period[1], yes); def highValue = if start then Highest(high(period = aggregationPeriod), length)[1] else if highValue[1] != 0 then highValue[1] else Double.NaN; def lowValue = if start then Lowest(low(period = aggregationPeriod), length)[1] else if lowValue[1] != 0 then lowValue[1] else Double.NaN; def closeValue = if start then close(period = aggregationPeriod)[1] else closeValue[1]; def range = highValue - lowValue; def PH = high(period = aggregationPeriod)[1]; def PL = low(period = aggregationPeriod)[1]; def PC = close(period = aggregationPeriod)[1]; plot HH; plot PP; plot LL; HH = PH; LL = PL; PP = (PH + PL + PC) / 3; HH.SetStyle(Curve.MEDIUM_DASH); LL.SetStyle(Curve.MEDIUM_DASH); plot R6 = (highValue / lowValue) * closeValue; plot R4 = closeValue + range * (1.1) / 2; plot R3 = closeValue + range * (1.1) / 4; plot R5 = r4 + 1.168 * (R4 – R3); plot R2 = closeValue + range * (1.1) / 6; plot R1 = closeValue + range * (1.1) / 12; plot S1 = closeValue - range * (1.1) / 12; plot S2 = closeValue - range * (1.1) / 6; plot S3 = closeValue - range * (1.1) / 4; plot S4 = closeValue - range * (1.1) / 2; plot S5 = S4-1.168 * (s3 - s4); plot S6 = (closeValue - (R6 - closeValue)); R1.SetHiding(hide_s1_r1); S1.SetHiding(hide_s1_r1); R6.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); R5.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); R4.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); R3.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); R2.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); R1.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(6)); S1.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); S2.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); S3.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); S4.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); S5.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); S6.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(5)); def paintingStrategy = if lines == lines.points then PaintingStrategy.POINTS else if lines == lines.triangles then PaintingStrategy.TRIANGLES else if lines == lines.dashes then PaintingStrategy.DASHES else if lines == lines.horizontal then PaintingStrategy.HORIZONTAL else PaintingStrategy.SQUARES; R6.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R5.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R4.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R3.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R2.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); R1.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S1.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S2.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S3.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S4.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S5.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); S6.SetPaintingStrategy(paintingStrategy); #Bubbles to describe Pivot Levels input bubblemover = 8; def n = bubblemover; def n1 = n + 1; def StartPlot = if showbubbles_description == yes then (IsNaN(close[n]) and !IsNaN(close[n1])) else Double.NaN; AddChartBubble(StartPlot, R6[n1], "R6 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(R6[n1]) else ""), Color.GREEN, if close[n1] > R6[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, R5[n1], "R5 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(R5[n1]) else ""), Color.GREEN, if close[n1] > R5[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, R4[n1], "R4 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(R4[n1]) else ""), Color.GREEN, if close[n1] > R4[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, R3[n1], "R3 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(R3[n1]) else ""), Color.GREEN, if close[n1] > R3[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, R2[n1], "R2 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(R2[n1]) else ""), Color.GREEN, if close[n1] > R2[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot and hide_s1_r1 == no, R1[n1], "R1 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(R1[n1]) else ""), Color.GREEN, if close[n1] > R1[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, S6[n1], "S6 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(S6[n1]) else ""), Color.RED, if close[n1] > S6[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, S5[n1], "S5 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(S5[n1]) else ""), Color.RED, if close[n1] > S5[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, S4[n1], "S4 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(S4[n1]) else ""), Color.RED, if close[n1] > S4[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, S3[n1], "S3 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(S3[n1]) else ""), Color.RED, if close[n1] > S3[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot, S2[n1], "S2 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(S2[n1]) else ""), Color.RED, if close[n1] > S2[n1] then no else yes); AddChartBubble(StartPlot and hide_s1_r1 == no, S1[n1], "S1 " + (if showpricebubble then AsText(S1[n1]) else ""), Color.RED, if close[n1] > S1[n1] then no else yes); R1.HideBubble(); R2.HideBubble(); R3.HideBubble(); R4.HideBubble(); R5.HideBubble(); R6.HideBubble(); S1.HideBubble(); S2.HideBubble(); S3.HideBubble(); S4.HideBubble(); S5.HideBubble(); S6.HideBubble();

I didn't find them pre built in DAS as outlined here. But I did find some good info on my own. For anyone interested, here are some helpful, straightforward resources to configure hotkeys. https://dastrader.com/documents/HotkeyCommandList.pdf Using the order script wizard: https://dastrader.com/docs/how-do-i-use-hotkeys/

So true. I don't know if Andrew ask Ed to join for this reason but Ed is like a new fresh wind in the BBT approach.

Thanks!! Sure, here we go: 1. the large drops in acct was "hulk" days ? Yes, some hulk days and some "deer in the headlights" days. 😄 2. Which tools u changed ? I went from DAS to TWS+TradingView for 2 reasons: 1- I wanted to trade options instead of shares, and TWS is much better than DAS for trading options 2- DAS is pretty expensive and I felt the monthly cost was pushing me to take trades to "make use of what I was paying for" and I wanted to remove that pressure. TWS is free, and TradingView is pretty cheap (around 300$/yr) compared to DAS, and I was already using TradingView for technical analysis anyways., I just love those charts and I find they are less taxing on my computer when calculating indicators in real time. 3. General or detailed info on strategy/setups and or risk reward as u profits are also very dramatic ? I used to scalp shares of stocks in play at the open using momentum, ORBs, engulfings, etc... kinda like what Andrew is doing. I was watching at least 4 to 6 different stocks every morning. I was also watching the level2 and Times and Sales for my active stock. I was using the automatic share size calculator by Kyle. It's complicated to explain exactly why it wasn't working for me but anyways... When I almost gave up in December of 2020, I decided to give myself only 5k$ for the whole year of 2021, and if I lost it all in the first week, just too bad, no trading for the rest of the year. And so, with such a little account, I had no choice to try options trading. I figured I would try to do the same thing as before, but scalping options instead of shares, and watching only 1 stock instead of 4 or 6. Since TSLA was and is still my favorite stock to trade, I decided to only look at TSLA every morning for a while and try to scalp options on it. It took a couple of months of setting up my new tools and adapting to this new strategy, and I almost blew up in the process (see the big drop to -27000 in early 2021, my account was less than 3k$ at that point), but I was able to recover and it finally started paying off. I also bought a macro keyboard to give me better control of my keyboard shortcuts and I feel like it made a big positive impact. I couldn't see myself trading without it now. So basically, I simplified my trading in many ways. I ditched the Level2 and Times and Sales windows, those were just too much information for my brain to process at the same time. I also went from watching multiple stocks to only one, which allowed me to really connect with the price action on the stock and feel what it wants to do a lot better. And I switched from shares to options and futures (I watch TSLA and MNQ for the market, so I will sometimes take trades on MNQ when I don't see anything on TSLA that I like), using only 1 contract on any normal day. Sometimes I will take more contracts when I'm absolutely certain of a move (I know there's no such thing as 100% probability but some moves can get pretty close to that) and I'll go up to 5 or 10 contracts which allows me to have those bigger green days. I also reduced my trading time to only the first 15 to 30 minutes most days, on rare occasions I will trade for the entire first hour but I try to avoid that as much as I can. Once I'll have a little green cushion (let's not forget I only reached break even yesterday), I will slowly increase my standard position size to 2 contracts instead of 1, then 3, 4, 5 etc. I'm hoping I can get to 5 contracts standard for the end of 2022, but we'll see. Right now I'm aiming for between 200 and 1000$ per day, and my max loss is around 500$ but its all good as long as I keep it under 1000$. I usually have 3 or 4 red days per month at most and they are usually more between 200-300 than 500-1000. Part of the simplification was also letting go of the chatroom, so I don't come in anymore, I trade alone, in silence. I can focus better and read the price action more accurately without the distraction. I hope that answers your questions, if you would like any other info, let me know! 🙂

I would be interested in this as well. Just started live trading after being in Sim for a year.