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  1. 59 points
    Updated: 8/8/2019 @ 12:44pm (PST) Finally out of the alpha stage and releasing this to the community, I've been using it with success. Because I had to do some musical chairs with memory I made a configuration utility as the script itself is very ugly. This is more of a BETA release for this, so if anyone wants to try this out in SIM and let me know if you have any issues with the configuration sheet or the hotkeys themselves. It's based on the work started by @fjmocke here: https://forums.bearbulltraders.com/topic/469-das-calculate-shares-based-on-account-risk/ . What it is: It's a hotkey command script that can be used to dynamically alter the share total based on: Available Buying Power (capital) Stop Location (Risk) % Account Risk OR Fixed Dollar Amount The script includes purchase power protection and won't send an order that you can not afford, it does this by calculating two factors: A - Shares You Can Afford B - Shares at Risk Parameter (e.g. $25,000 account equity, 1% risk = $250 risk, $250 * a stop distance of .10 = 2500 shares) min{A,B} = 0.5(A + B - | A - B | ) But, why male models? I just told you. /Zoolander reference You'd use this to calculate your share total based on what you're willing to risk. So instead of blindly throwing 500 shares at every setup, you can dynamically alter risked amount based on the per-trade setup. I use it on my StreamDeck (will also release the icon packs soon) with modifiers of 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25%. 100% is the A-Plus setups I see, those I have HIGH confidence in. Alternatively, if a stock has a large spread or is low-float, I may only use the 25% modifier key for those. Instructions for Configuration: Go to this link: V2.1: DOWNLOAD ^^ Recommend latest DAS version of 5.4.3.0. Requires DAS version 5.2.0.34 or above (current BETA branch as of 11/19/2018) for the physical stop portion to work. If you don't use the physical stop, you don't have to worry about it. NOTE: Thoroughly test in SIM to make sure it's doing what you expect it to do. Choose: Download the ZIP file and unzip to where you want. On "Setup & Instructions" configure your settings. Account Leverage (default for DAS is 4), this is the margin your broker gives you. Some off-shores give 6. It needs to match what is configured in DAS for proper calculations. Max Account Risk %. This is the maximum percent of equity you're willing to risk on every trade (default is 1%). You can always risk lower (more on that later). % of Total Buying Power. If you don't want to calculate based on the total buying power of 100%, you can set this to a lower percentage (example: 100,000 buying power with 60% here equals $60,000 maximum position size) Route. LIMIT, MARKET, SMRTL. Default is LIMIT. Order Bid/Ask Offset. This is the offset you use when you send the price for order, e.g. "Ask + 0.05" (meaning fill me up to 5 cents above ask) Time in Force. Default: Day+ Default Shares. This is the amount of shares you want to set as the DEFAULT SHARES for all trades (e.g. when you click a Symbol and it loads, this is the share total). You can see why this is here in the technical breakdown section below. Minimum Stop Buffer. This is an offset to the stop distance. If you set this to 0.05, it'll add 5 cents to the stop distance calculation (so if your stop distance is 0.05, it'll be calculated on 0.10). Switch to the "Hotkeys" tab. Choose your preferred style. % Risk of Equity (Dynamic) or Fixed Price (e.g. $150 risk). %Equity Risk: Use the drop down to select what you want the value to be % equity. NOTE: This is a modifier AFTER your account risk maximum %. So if you have 1% account risk, and set this to 50%, your effective account risk is 0.005 --> 0.5%. $ Fixed: Use the drop down to select what you want the value to be for dollar risk. Select "long" or "short" to flip the script's direction. Click the cell that contains the start of the command (E column) and Ctrl + C (copy). Paste it into DAS. It should look like a sample command below. Instructions for Usage: First, you must have "Double Click to Trade" turned on in Chart, Right-Click --> Configure --> Settings --> Double-click to trade. Double click the chart where you want to set a mental stop (it does not place a stop order, you can always put one in after). Hit your configured hotkey. Sample Scripts: LONG: DefShare=BP*0.98; Share=DefShare*0.25* Price * 0.01; Price = Ask - Price + 0.02;SShare = Share / Price; Share = DefShare - SShare; DefShare = DefShare + SShare; SShare = Share; SShare = DefShare - SShare; Share = 0.5 * SShare; TogSShare; ROUTE =LIMIT; Price = Ask + 0.05; TIF=DAY+; BUY=Send; DefShare = 500; SHORT: DefShare=BP*0.98; Share=DefShare*0.25* Price * 0.01; Price = Price - Bid + 0.02;SShare = Share / Price; Share = DefShare - SShare; DefShare = DefShare + SShare; SShare = Share; SShare = DefShare - SShare; Share = 0.5 * SShare; TogSShare; ROUTE =LIMIT; Price = Bid - 0.05; TIF=DAY+; SELL=Send; DefShare = 500; Technical Breakdown: DAS has basic scripting. Montage commands have access to very few read/write variables, basic operations, and only operators of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. To do this calculation we need additional operators (min function, and absolute function) and more memory for storage of variables. This command gets around these limitations by using user-writeable areas of memory in the program. Since DAS is written in the C++ language (from what I can tell), it's strict on what can be done in these existing memory locations. The hotkey uses the following items (plus the usual Price -- FLOAT): (Assumptions on Datatypes) DefShare -- INT (Used as a temporary variable for storage) SShare -- Unsigned INT (Behaves like an Unsigned INT in certain situations. Used as a temporary variable for storage) Share -- INT (Used as a temporary variable for storage) With the 3 INT variables, objects are moved around in memory so that we can calculate and compare with our variable limitation (be much easier if we could assign our own). To facilitate the ABS() function, we use a trick --> When a negative value is placed into an Unsigned INT it loses it's sign (thus, it becomes a POSITIVE value in memory). A more detailed technical breakdown (step by step) is located in the Configuration spreadsheet up above. Future Enhancements: If need be, I can make a step-by-step video of this entire process. I have a version that uses an AutoHotKey macro to drop a line at the stop location, I can upload that as well if people want it. ^^ Update, I discontinued this as it was too cumbersome. You had to have two sets of hotkeys for each command. I may someday revisit it if I can build out a configuration tool for it. TLDR: It does the math for you so you can risk a known amount (% or $) based on your per-trade risk position (stop distance). And yes, I'm a bit of a tech nerd. Also, longest post .. ever. Would not read again, 0/5 stars. --- KNOWN ISSUES: %Account Risk gets smaller and smaller when subsequent open positions Reason: No Equity variable, we reverse calculate equity using Buying Power. On subsequent positions, the % (e.g. 1%) calculation will be based on the available buying power and NOT the account equity. Workaround: Precalculate the %risk and use it for the $risk versions. So 1% of $25,000 equity equals $250. SSR rejection on LONG position when scaling out; rejection message (e.g. "Short marketable limit order disable due to SSR!") if using the automatic STOP trigger. Reason: DAS calculates that the position will drop below the open stop order position and reject as this can cause the position to "flip" if it was triggered. Workaround: Have a hotkey to clear the open orders (CXL ALLSYMB), clear it, scale the position (e.g. 25%). Either replace the stop or switch to a mental stop. Alternatively, you can add "CXL ALLSYMB;" to the front of the scale-out hotkeys. You just have to be cognizant to replace the stop order. Equated position size if very small (e.g. 4 or 5 shares when expected is hundreds). Reason: Wrong side was used for the order. E.g. a long hotkey is used when trying to go short. -or- Stop Distance was calculated to be a negative value (clicked too close to current price). Workaround: Be cognizant of the hotkeys used and the stop distance clicked. Clicking too close (a really tight stop) can be very dangerous if you do it inadvertently. TriggerOrder for automatic STOP placement not being sent (no stop order placed). Reason: Montage is not set to a style that doesn't allow TriggerOrder input. Styles not compatible are: Default [DAS's, if you changed it], Basic, OCO, Option, Full Fix: Use a style that is compatible, they are: Stop Order, Detail, Trigger -- I recommended using the "Stop Order" montage style. To change this, right click the montage area around where you'd enter a price and select Style --> Your Choice. --- UPDATES: 10/17/2018 - Added v.1.1 link, you'd need to use the new version to change anything. - General cleanup of the script. Added instructions for the IB issue (discussed in this thread) - NEW FEATURE: Added a new section to the Hotkeys sheet, it will now create a set up for Dynamic Scale-In hotkey commands. You'd use these by setting a scale value (say you want an additional 50% of your current position size). The hotkey will calculate the maximum share you can afford (how much you can afford at the moment) and the scale value, choosing to take the least amount. So if your current position is 1500 shares (@ $50.00) and you want to scale in at 50% your current position, it'd check if you can afford an additional 750 shares, if you can't, it'll buy the maximum you can afford. For this example, you can't afford it (if Buying Power is 100k), so it'd buy roughly $25k worth (500 shares). - CLEANUP: Cleaned up the $Dollar Risk version and removed unnecessary steps. Don't really need to replace yours if they exist, but worth noting. 10/30/2018 - Added @Michael P's suggested fixes for Excel. Configuration tool should now work in both Sheets and Excel. - NOTICE: This was a configuration tool change, no changes were made to the hotkey scripts, so no need to change any existing hotkeys. 11/19/2018 - Shortened some of the commands so we don't hit any hotkey character limit, makes them less readable, but shorter. Couldn't get them low enough to fit the montage buttons though (although removing the portions for the buying power rejection protection would likely do it). - Added a section for SELL/COVER buttons for people who just need to create those. E.g. "Sell 25% position" or "Sell 33% position". - Added @Robert H's stop suggestion. New fields on the setup page for enabling physical stops. If enabled, it'll place a MARKET or LIMIT (settings included) trigger order to go into the market once the initial order is fulfilled, these are placed at the location you double-clicked on the chart. 11/20/2018 - Added a stop-order setting to set an additional buffer for the stop price (for those that want to include or exclude the double-clicked price). - Added conditional formatting to subdue the stop settings that aren't required if you disable sending a physical stop into the market. 12/10/2018 - Added a known issues section to this post and the spreadsheet (for when a new version goes up). 12/12/2018 - Updated known issues section to include the "Montage Style" issue for TriggerOrders. 12/13/2018 - Updated to new version 1.46. Fixed a bug in the Trigger Order script which could cause it to not be interpreted by DAS's command parser on certain user settings. - Added "modifier" extra hotkeys. See instructions next to these on how to use them. - - - Set Stop to Breakeven - Long or Short - Stop Limit or Stop Market (cancels any pending orders for SYMB) - - - Set Stop to Breakeven - Bidirectional - Stop Market (cancels any pending orders for SYMB) - - - Stop - Update Price - Long or Short - Stop Limit or Stop Market (cancels pending orders, double click chart where you want stop before firing hotkey) - - - Stop - Update Price - Bidirectional - Stop Market (cancels pending orders, double click chart where you want stop before firing hotkey) - - - Stop - Update Position - Long or Short - Stop Limit or Stop Market - Replace (requires you double-click the original stop in the Orders window) - - - Stop - Update Position - Bidirectional - Stop Market Orders Only - Replace (requires you double-click the original stop in the Orders window). 8/8/2019 - New version 2.0, download the .zip file and unzip it. - Fixed an issue with some hotkey configurations that may have caused them to be inaccurate in vary rare situations. Recommend recreating your hotkeys in this new version, just to be sure. - Added Profit Target hotkeys. - Added % Scale-In Hotkeys - Added $ Risk Scale-In Hotkeys - Added Short-SSR to Long/Short dropdown for SSR hotkeys (DAS Simulator) - Added Range Order hotkeys - Added Y-Margin Scale Increase hotkey, Y-Margin Decrease, and Y-Margin Reset - Added new sheet "Example - Equity%" and "Example - $Risk" to give a more workflow outlook on what is happening. - Included a ScaleOut worksheet to manually simulate what different scale percentages / scenarios look like (instructions will be in the video). ALSO: Video is done and rendering, I think it comes in at 45minutes with 3.4gigs (4k), so it'll need to be optimized before I upload it to YouTube. Will try to do it today and will update this when done. 9/10/2019 - New version 2.1 released. Just general clean up (UI) and bug fixes. - FIXED: Issue with the Scale-In $Risk hotkeys. - FIXED: Issue with the Stop Update Price long and short hotkeys> ^^ If you use either of those, please regenerate them and replace in your DAS to avoid issues. UPDATES: The majority of this side project is completed and besides a few requests I have in with DAS developers to optimize a few things, out of any major bugs or improved scripting features, I'd say this is about done. I'll provide any edge-case support as need, but I want to move on to other BBT-community projects. So what do I have cookin' for you guys, gals, and cat? You'll see a glimpse in the video of an early prototype (buggy! I programmed that in a few hours, so bugs are expected) of a DAS calculator side program. The newer version (need to finish the UI) will incorporate a lot more in ways of tools for you, including automatically calculating changes without a hotkey intervention. It also allows you to mass-process trade log .csv files you may have exported and compile it into Excel or .CSV for import into other programs. Configuration is drag/drop friendly, so rearranging your columns is as easy as click and holding. I'm also going to shift my attention to finishing my ORB-strategy research. Right now, my datapool encompasses 15000 news article, gaplists for 2011-2019, and 1second data for stocks in that range. It's a data store of roughly 80 gigs. The idea is to test for hidden signals we may not see that can indicate a potential direction of an ORB strategy (if no rare outside influence occurs, like a terrorist attack) by leveraging a consortium of machine learning algorithms to give us a higher probability of success for each day. Depending how the research works out, the end product would likely be a probability predictor for each day. I'll share the research results with the community and may incorporate some other tests as well. VIDEO: Ok, so I may have gone down an editing rabbit hole and that took longer than expected. The videos are up, came in quite long so I chunked it down. Sorry it's a tad scattered and not one-linear cohesive unit, but I tried to mark it up as best as possible. Part 1 - Config / Math - https://youtu.be/YrRrydwGyRY Part 2 - Setup, Quick Examples, Tips - https://youtu.be/pXLlWF7T6hw Part 3 - Sim Trade Example - https://youtu.be/SO9UhJh4dTc Bonus 1 - Scale/Price Excel Calc - https://youtu.be/KTr_iJ2p0TU Bonus Tips - https://youtu.be/sNHXFMoia7A
  2. 23 points
    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
  3. 23 points
    I read "How to Day Trade for a Living" over a year and a half ago, I join the chatroom while I was still reading the book. The chatroom has been an invaluable resource for learning not only good trading habits, but the psychology of trading as well. After a year of trading my husband joined me and now we trade together everyday. Thanks to the BBT community!! Michelle and Nathan
  4. 22 points
    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. 20 points
    My elaborate setup with my new favorite movie .. based on a true story. No that's not my real setup, I use three watches. But seriously, I can't share my setup (currently building a new desk), so I thought I'd have some fun with this. I'll show myself out.
  6. 20 points
    Since everybody has different levels of experience with the stock market, it is difficult to have a one-size-fits all objective list. I am going to try to cover all the areas that you should have a firm grasp of by the end of the 3-months. It is a rough outline of what I have learned after 4 months of paper/real trading. This post will be a work in progress, but here goes. ~IN PROGRESS~ Day Trading is probably the most deceiving profession on the planet. On the surface the concept seems very simple: buy low and sell high. Then why is it that 90% of traders fail at his endeavour? Surely they aren't trying to do the exact opposite of what is profitable. Even flipping a coin has better odds at 50%. Let's take a look under the hood to see what is required to be a successful trader. CLASSES There are four classes in total. Each one runs about 1 hour, except for class 4 which is almost 2 hours. It is recommended that you attend the classes multiple times to reinforce your knowledge, refresh the concepts, as well as stay updated on any new material. It is your responsibility to go over the slides and understand what is being taught. If you have any questions, please ask them during class, in the forums, or in the chat. The community is always here to lend a hand. You should also bookmark the Bear Bull Traders FAQ and DAS Trader Pro FAQ. Some members choose to read additional day trading books, as well as practice trading replayed market data. What you get out of the course is directly related to how much effort you put in. In a sense, the entire 3-months is more of a self-paced learning program than a structured course. There are no quizzes, no tests, no projects and no scoring. It is up to you to wake up every morning and spend time in the chair mastering the trade. Nobody will hold your hand, watch over your shoulder, or monitor your performance in any way. That is how day trading is in real life: absolute freedom to stake your fortune or self-destruct and implode. STOCK MARKET BASICS -Warren Buffet once said 'The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.' This is true for long term investing and for day trading. Remember that for each transaction you see in the Time/Sales window, there is a buyer and seller. When a stock is down 20% on the day and you short it, somebody is on the other side of that transaction buying. You don't know their hand though. They could be covering their short from earlier, it could be institutions loading up for long term investment, somebody hedging an options contract, etc. Beginners often gloss over this point. Volume represents transactions being filled; a transaction always involves two parties. You are trading against other people, not the market itself. -Exchanges: NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX -Market Makers -Pre-market and after-hours -High Frequency Trading (HFT), algorithms -Bid, Ask, Spreads -Short-selling. What does it mean. -Short inventory. Why are some stocks shortable and others not -Short Sale Restriction (SSR) -Short interest, or Short Ratio -Share float -5-cent tick programs -Circuit Breaker Halts -News, earnings, and catalysts -Buyouts -Pattern Day Trade Rule >>> Make sure you understand the above prerequisites before proceeding any further. Investopedia is a great resource. CHARTS -Candle Sticks. How to read them. -Understanding Price Action. Bearish vs bullish candles. Indecision candles. -Higher highs and higher lows / Lower highs and lowers lows -1-minute vs 5-minute chart -Moving averages and how they are calculated in different timeframes -VWAP. Why it's an important intraday indicator >>> The above concepts are not tool-specific and apply to all trading platforms MECHANICAL ASPECTS -Knowing your tools (DAS) -Platform, Hotkeys, Scanners, Journaling -Order entry. Limit, market, marketable limit, stops -Level 2 -Calculating commissions and tickets >>> The goal is to familiarize yourself with DAS and be comfortable using it. For some this could take days. For others this requires weeks. TECHNICAL AND STRATEGIES -Finding Stocks in Play -Good vs. bad pre-market price action -Finding Support/Resistance Levels -Day trading Strategies. Master recognizing the patterns, entries, stops, targets. -ABCD / Reverse ABCD -Bull Flag Momentum / Bear Flag -Fallen Angel -VWAP False Break Out -VWAP Reversal -VWAP Trend Trade -Opening Range Breakup / Opening Range Breakdown -Red-to-Green / Green-to-Red -Moving Average Trend Trade -Top Reversal / Bottom Reversal -Time of Day: Open, Late Morning, Midday to Close >>> Everybody will pick this up at a different pace--learning to recognize different strategies, figuring out which one works best for you (at what time of day), etc. MANAGING YOUR ACCOUNT -Risk Management -Position Sizing -Money Management PRACTICE THE PROCESS OF EXECUTING A GOOD TRADE Putting on a trade is more than buying at point A and selling at point B. You need to combine everything you learned to get in and out of a single trade properly: 1) finding good stocks in play 2) identifying chop and staying away 3) identifying the strategy or setup 4) quickly calculating risk-to-reward 5) getting a good entry and avoid chasing/jumping the gun 6) managing the trade based on live price action and new information which the market is providing you 7) taking profit (often overlooked, yet it involves half of the entire trade) 8) you need to do all of the above while keeping your emotions in check and fighting your psychological demons >>> Over the 3-month period, you will repeat this process hundreds of times. This is where the bulk of your time will be spent. Learning to take good trades and improving on your mistakes. This is the only path to consistency. Don't waste time trading unrealistic sizes on low-float stocks because you won't learn a thing. >>>Some of your trades will turn out to be winners, some will turn out to be losers. Most likely you will have a few trades that blow up your practice account (but don't worry, you weren't taking things seriously and would never do it live, right?). GOING LIVE -Choosing a broker -Starting small and gradual position sizing -Returning to Simulator -Peer-to-peer support PSYCHOLOGY OF TRADING -Why do most traders fail here -I'm highly intelligent, analytical and very disciplined. Why this will ruin your trading. -I'm a good poker player. Good--you will be playing against yourself -Revenge -Overtrading -Fear of missing out (FOMO) -Fear of pulling the trigger -Trading scared -Averaging down -Turning a day trade into a swing trade ~IN PROGRESS~
  7. 19 points
    TL;DR: Here are some sheets with concise information about strategies members of BBT use. Shoutout to the mods and contributors for the information for these strategies. After watching Peter's amazing presentation about his 'Mountain Pass' strategy a couple nights ago, I put together an information sheet with the setup details similar to ones I had already created for a few other strategies. After putting together the Mountain Pass sheet, I decided it, among the others could be useful for my fellow BBT community members for any of the following reasons: You could use them for your playbook. If you like the layout, you could use them as a template to make your own information sheets/playbook. They could serve as a tangible, concise, introductory resource for beginner traders, who are new to these strategies. The strategy information has all been taken from the education center, success webinars and Andrew's books. I take no credit for any of the theory behind the strategies or any of the images. All credit goes to Andrew, Carlos, Peter and Hiltzy for laying out the strategies so well. I plan on doing more of these as I expand my playbook to include strategies such as Rising Devil, Fallen Angel, 1-Minute ORB, etc. So I will share those in this thread as they are made. If you have any comments, criticisms, or if I have information wrong about any of the strategies, let me know and I can make some adjustments to the sheets. Also, if you have your own playbooks / strategy resources you'd like to share, you can do so in this thread, I'd love to see what you've done. Note: Some of the information, particularly the rules such as "Place stop losses at technical levels." are notes I've made to myself based on results I have found. Some of these may not apply to you individually. Here is what they look like: The files for each strategy will be posted below.
  8. 17 points
    Converted a typical closet into a trade station. I added a 'peel n stick' wood wall paneling and installed a 3 pot-light lamp above with dimmer switch.
  9. 15 points
    Since this subforum is by far the most active, we've stickied this FAQ which contains links to individual posts. This post will be updated regularly. [Last updated: May 17, 2021] DAS Trader Downloads DAS Trader Pro Production Releases for Interactive Brokers DAS Trader Pro Production Releases for CMEG BBT DAS Simulator Production Release (ONLY IF YOU GOT DAS SIM THOUGH BBT) When doing an install of a new version, it is always a good idea to back up your settings! DAS Trader Pro references, education and support OFFICIAL: DAS INC DAS TRADER PRO - DEMO Tutorial - How to Correctly Use DAS Trader Pro User Guide and Manuals DAS Trader Official YouTube Channel DAS Weekly Free Q&A Webinar DAS Trader Pro Knowledge Base DAS Trader Pro Risk Control explained in Knowledge Base. Common DAS Trader errors No More Order Server to Connect’ error message ‘Wrong Trader’ error message “Lost Connection to Quote Server” error message General Where can I subscribe for DAS Trader Pro live account for Interactive Brokers? How to Change Your Equity and Buying Power in Simulator How to Switch Between Live and Demo Accounts Update/Upgrade DAS To Latest Version Understanding the DAS Account Report DAS Deluxe Package - Switching Options L2 for ARCA Book DAS Trader on MAC OS also see DAS Trader FAQ > 5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS How to link symbol selection in Trade Ideas to DAS How to set a price alert in DAS How to add Audio Alerts in DAS How to Configure DAS Mobile for Android or iPhone Definition of Time and Sales Flags How to use the DAS Risk Control Page List of Index tickers (SPY, DJIA, NASDAQ, RUSSELL, etc.) How to Make a Pre-Market Scanner in DAS DAS Trader Videos Playlists in YouTube DAS Trader Tutorials (basic DAS Trader configuration) DAS Trader Pro Instructional Videos (Advanced DAS Trader Features) Market Replay Mode How to use new DAS Trader Market replay feature Montage, Windows, and Layouts How to Make Your Custom Layout Load as Default on Startup How to link Montage to Time&Sales and Charts? How To Setup Multiple Monitors in DAS How to Duplicate a Montage, Chart or Other Window Montage / Level 2 color and shade settings How to Quickly Add Rows to Watchlist (Market Viewer) How to Change Order Button Colours (BUY, SELL, SHRT, CXL, RPL) Select Active Montage to Trade Definition for each of the Level 1 (L1) fields at top of Montage How to select the montage before placing a trade How to use the New L2 Highlight Feature in DAS Trader (YouTube video) Charts [VIDEO] How to configure charts in DAS Trader Pro: Education Center How to Add Index Tickers for SPY, DOW, NASDAQ DAS Trader Tutorial – Make Your Chart Look Like Andrew's How to Add Average Line to Volume Study How to Drag and Drop Horizontal Lines How to Transfer Price Levels to Another Chart Drawing Support and Resistance Lines in DAS How to add previous day close (PCL), high of day (HOD) & low of day (LOD) How to Prevent Chart from Zooming out When Switching Symbols How to Add/Remove Trade Icons on the Chart Show trade info on chart (triangle click) How to Increase Y-Axis Scale to See More Price Levels / This can now be done with the newer versions (5.4.0.0+) of DAS using hotkeys Change Default Number of Candles How to add Relative Strength Index (RSI) to Chart How to Draw a Diagonal or Sloping Line How to Change font size in Chart How to add separator line for Pre-Market (Open) and After-Hours (Close) How to correct short/small candlesticks by excluding Studies from Y-Axis Scale (Y LOW, YY HIGH, etc). How to Zoom in on Specific Area of Chart Why is VWAP sometimes different between 1-minute chart, 5-minute chart, and/or Montage? How to add vertical lines on 1-minute chart to show each 5-minute period How to add Average True Range (ATR) to DAS Daily Chart How to add and use Volume by Price study How to add bid & ask to your charts How to add RVOL in DAS? Exceeded max number of global trend lines Order Entry Placing Orders in DAS Trader Pro Trailing Stops How to Lock Your Montage How to set a Bracket aka Range aka OCO order (includes hotkeys) Hotkeys and Hotkey Buttons - Always test your Hotkeys in simulator Most frequently used hotkeys Terminology Clarification: Hotkeys vs Hotkey Buttons Programming hot key for stop loss Buy/Sell Hotkeys for Automatic Stop Loss How to Create HotKey Buttons on the DAS Montage Level 2 Window Hotkeys for Flipping Position Hotkey for buying based on a percentage of Buying Power How to Adjust Montage Hotkeys Button Size What does the Panic hot key do? How to set up hotkeys for trailing stops Hotkeys for adjusting share size How to create hotkey which launches Finviz page for a selected stock Hotkey for automatic share size based on max dollar loss Hotkey for automatic share size based on % loss of account How to short stocks in SSR: see here and here Thor´s Freeroll Hotkey DAS Trader Pro Support Live Chat Support Das Trader contact page to send messages DAs Trader Support Email DAS Hotkey Line Style Configuration tool.
  10. 15 points
    I shared my thoughts on the classic ABCD/Flag strategy. This pattern presents itself in virtually every move, across multiple timeframes. The formation consists of: 1. Run-up/sell-off 2. Profit taking/consolidation 3. Continuation Let me know your thoughts!
  11. 14 points
  12. 13 points
    Ever wanted to swap line styles on the fly and make a rainbow on your chart? You can do that in 5.5.0.0+. The hotkey isn't the easiest to understand, so I very quickly made a web utility for you (link below). How to Use: Go to URL: http://kaelmedia.com/projects/das-line-config/ Select a Line Type, default is HorzLine Select a Line Style, default is SolidLine Select a Color, default is Barney Select a Width, default is 1 Hit "Generate" Glance at the preview window and see if it is what you wanted. If it is, hit the "Copy" button and it'll be placed in your computers Clipboard. If you wish to share you creation, press the "Share" button and a special link will be placed on your clipboard to post in the forums. Example: http://kaelmedia.com/projects/das-line-config/?hotkey=ConfigTrendLine horzline dotline:035aab:1; Paste the copied hotkey (looks like: ConfigTrendLine horzline dotline:035aab:1; ) into your DAS Hotkey Configuration. Optionally, bookmark or save the line so you can edit it in the future (it adds the settings to the browsers URI/URL). How the Hotkey Works: The hotkey as designed will swap the DEFAULT config for the Line Type chosen, each type has one default stored for the user. So if trigger a hotkey with a horizontal line with a blue color, your very next (and all following lines) horizontal line you trigger on the chart will be that configuration (blue). Because of this, I have a "default line" hotkey and a series of colored hotkeys, this allows me to toggle back and fourth. Advanced Uses: Go HERE.
  13. 13 points
    Traders from Venus: Loses are fact with no escape. One said " When you know what not to do in order to not to lose money then you will begin what to do in order to win" so trade smart with no fear! Money will follow you Above is my laptop work desk converted into trade station. Had it setup this week! Went with basics what was recommended in the BBT community site which is good enough to get the job done:)
  14. 13 points
  15. 11 points
    In this video AdventureDogLA shows us how to set up Risk Controls in DAS Trader Pro. Risk Controls enforce limitations such as maximum daily loss, maximum shares traded per day, etc. Risk Control Page is a safety net to keep in control our loses, either to have an external control over our behavior as traders or due to a contingency such as failures in the internet connection, electric power outages, broker failures, etc. You can find "Open Risk Control Page" in DAS Trader Pro Account window, just right-click in any row of that window and Risk Control Page will open as a popup browser window to let you update your risk control settings. Some considerations: 1. This configuration works with real accounts and simulator 2. You can deactivate settings "Risk Control Page" anytime by leaving all in blanks and clicking SUBMIT 3. When you are using DAS linked to IB, or simulator, the Risk Control settings are handled by DAS. DAS staff updates your settings manually (the form is emailed to them) anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes during business hours. 4. In LOSS fields, enter a positive number. 5. “No new order” avoids orders for the current day 6. “Pos Loss” = Position loss. 7. “Enable Auto Stop” will automatically close your positions when you hit the Max Loss / Total Loss. 8. “Max Share - Max auto stop execution share per day” = How many shares can be sold / bought by the Auto Stop mechanism. 9. “Max Auto Stop Order Size” = Maximum size per order made by the Auto Stop mechanism. 10.“Delay for next order if exceed max order size (sec)” = Time between orders if the Auto Stop needs to place multiple orders to close your positions. 11. “Stop Gain Account Net Realized PL Thresh“, “Drawdown Percent of Max Net PL“ , “Pos Stop Gain Thresh “ and “Drawdown” - Like Auto Stop but for gains. The threshold is the profit the Stop Gain is looking to hit, the Drawdown is how much it can drop from that target before your positions are closed. Example, you set a threshold of 2000 and drawdown of 20(%). When you make 2000 in P/L, the Stop Gain will trigger, and will close your positions if you drop 20% ($400) from that value, closing you out at $1600 Net P/L.
  16. 11 points
    I was getting burnt while taking the conventional ORBs at the open. It affected my pshychology when my first trade of the morning fails, even when I think the setup was perfect. For e.g, A beautiful strong 1min open candle on $TIGR below, with no wicks, I went Long and got stopped out. If my first trade fails then it becomes a catchup to overcome the losses and then achieve the daily goal, and my pshychology gets messedup. I found some ways to narrow the ORB setup down to a level which offers high accuracy and would like to share this strategy "Pullback ORB with Breakout Entry"|. I have tried this out for the last couple of months and it has worked very well so far. The reason for this setup: I wanted a high accuracy setup at the open. I don't like overtrading, I prefer one and done, if possible. I am time constrained during the day. I can trade only at the open for 30-40 mins. And I am not good at Trading reversals. About the setup: This Pullback ORB-Breakout Entry works very well with @WilliamH Harmonious Charts. Step 1: At the premarket, find a Harmonious setup, where the price action is above (or below) all the MAs on multiple timeframes 1, 2, 5, 15, 30, 60min and Daily (most of them, if not all). I prefer when the Harmonious chart is also ATH/ATL (All time High or Alltime Low) Step 2. Pullback candle: At the open, Watch the 1min chart for the first 2 mins. Check if the 2nd candle is a Pullback Candle. Then it is an Alert. E.g Below. Step 3: Breakout Entry: Wait for the 3rd candle to break the previous 2 candles high (only bodies, no wicks) and take an entry. E.g Below. Step 4. Profit Targets: This is usually high RR setups, some times as high as 3-4 RR and a good candidate for riding till close. Step 5. This pattern/Setup works as good when it occurs on 2min or 5min timeframes too. If step 2 doesn't occur on 1 min chart, switch to 2min chart and watch for the pullback candle on 2nd 2min candle. Continue Steps 2-4. If it doesn't occur on 2 min, switch to 5min chart and continue steps 2-4. P.S: Harmonious charts - Sometimes you may find higher timeframes as Harmonious and smaller timeframes not harmonious, Wait for the open to see if the price action becomes Harmonious on these smaller timeframes too. Contrary to other setups, this setup works well when it appears on smaller timeframes. Eventhough it may appear on 15 or 30 mins, the setup may not provide high RRs. These are not rare setups, they occur almost everyday on common stocks like $FB, $AMD, $MU, $UBER, $TSLA etc., At the open, I watch 6-7 stocks for this setup and switch from 1min to 2min and then to 5min. Please let me know if there are any questions.
  17. 11 points
    This is a very common question, so hopefully this post can be a good reference. There is a new hotkey command called DuplicateWindow which lets you 'clone' an existing Montage, Time/Sales, or Chart window. All settings like hotkey buttons, colors, fonts, etc. will be copied over. How to: -Go to menu Setup > Hot key -Add New Item -Enter a Name and Hot Key. In the Script Field, enter DuplicateWindow -Press Commit Now you can simply select the window you wish to duplicate, then press the hotkey (CTRL+D in the above example). And voila, attack of the clones!
  18. 11 points
    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?
  19. 11 points
    The Day Trading Plan discussed in this YouTube video is now available for download here. Supplementary resources: Sample Playbook Template.
  20. 11 points
    Hi All, my name is Carlos M. I am 32 and live in Northern Jersey, few minutes from the NYC. After 12 years of working as a Senior Operations Manager, I was laid off this past December. My company purchased GE Appliances and moved to their headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. I thought I would be more upset about the layoff but I had 12 amazing years, and I was ready to move on and try something new. The company gave us almost a year and a half notice, that was more than enough time to prepare. (Plus a nice $$$ for years of service and sticking around until the end :) ) As my work started to transition to the new company, I found myself having a lot of free time during the day. I always had an interest in trading stocks and this was the perfect time to start practicing and getting ready. I did another online course and trading that did not work out (that’s a story for another time), and then I found Andrew’s Book and Chatroom community. Signed up for the Platinum package, I did the simulator for about 4 months and when live this month (January 2018). Looking forward to possibly meeting up in the near future with others traders and continuing being part of this amazing trading community. Carlos M.
  21. 10 points
    I am asked a lot how to buy and send an automatic STOP Loss order all in one hotkey. Try this: ROUTE=SMRTL;Share=BP*0.25;TIF=DAY+;Price=ASK+0.10;BUY=Send;ROUTE=STOP;StopType=Market;StopPrice=AvgCost-0.30;Share=Pos;TIF=DAY+;SELL=Send; What it does? It buys at 25% of your buying power, and then automatically send a stop loss order at AvgCost -30 cent. You can change it anyway you want!
  22. 10 points
    Hello Everyone, I just finished three months of live trading this past Friday, and about two weeks before finishing I came to the realization that something had to change if I was going to make it through the learning curve. After reading “Trading in Zone” and watching Mark Douglas’s “How to Think Like a Professional Trader” on YouTube, I decided I would create a 20-trade sample set to work on three areas of my trading. (1) Thinking in probabilities (2) Discipline to not give into FOMO (3) Holding my winners longer I figured since this is basically testing out a theory presented in one of the recommended Psychology books, I would make the results public so everyone in the community can see it. The desired outcomes I am looking for at the end of the sample set are: (1) Getting away from thinking trade to trade, and start thinking in a series of trades (2) Taming FOMO, so I do not get over excited and enter a trade too early (3) Confirm my profit taking plan is profitable over a series of trades. All of my indicators, confirmations, and risk analysis that defines my edge is based on information obtained in Andrew’s book and the lifetime Webinars. Edge Defined Strategy: 15 Min ORB – I chose this strategy specifically to force myself to deal with FOMO each and every day. I will caution that my edge does not appear every day, so there will be days that I do not take a trade. While tracking 5 Min ORBs and 15 Min ORBs for the last three months (total of 165 Stocks), I was surprised to see that 15 Min ORBs that meet my criteria appear more frequently than 5 Min ORBs. The percentage of them working is almost the same. 5 Minute ORB Pullback Met Parameters - 52 of 164 Total trades within parameters that have worked - 41 of 52 (78%) 15 Minute ORB Pullback Met Parameters - 55 of 165 Total trades within parameters that have worked - 41 of 55 (74%) Stocks for Watchlist: I select up to three stocks to watch based on the following criteria % Change – Gapped at least 2% but not more than 10% Catalyst – Needs to have fundamental news of sort. Vol – >100,000 Float – High or Medium float (> 50 m) ATR - .50 to 2.00 Trading – Must be trading higher than normal volume Exchange – I prefer Nasdaq over NYSE Edge Criteria: I have three parts risk analysis, indicators, and confirmations Risk Analysis: 1:2 or Greater Indicators: Must meet 2 of 3 Trades within the ATR Small share size with high volume Has a direction upward or downward (higher highs, higher lows, lower highs, lower lows) Confirmations: Must meet 3 of 4 ORBO closes above VWAP/ORBD closes below VWAP No large wicks/candles (wick cannot be larger than body, candles body not larger than ½ ATR) Closes near VWAP (needs to be within $.30) Has a pullback prior to breaking the opening range (cannot go past planned stop) Profit Taking Plan: As I am with CMEG, I have found you have to be very selective on when to take profits otherwise you are giving the money you make back in commissions, so I developed strict criteria for taking profits. Plan A – 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1 (this allows me to be at break-even if the stock moves back to my entry point), all out at profit target (+/- $.03) Plan B – 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1, 1/2 at profit target, all out at technical level or my first out Plan C – 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1, 1/2 out near the profit target if stock stalls near it, all out at the profit target or my first out. Share Size: I am taking share size based on a fixed dollar amount. Thanks to KyleK29 & fjmocke for the hotkey setup. Daily Trading Goal: My daily trading goal is to trade only within my edge, stick to my profit taking plan, control my emotions, and be disciplined. If I meet these then it is a green day regardless of what my P/L says.
  23. 10 points
    I created this Google Spreadsheet to help myself with position sizing, and I thought I would share it with you guys. I always have this printed out and laying on my desk while I am trading. I did take this a step further and created a custom keyboard with hotkeys, but I will share that info at the end. With this spreadsheet you are able to calculate your position size on the fly, just by knowing the distance to your stop loss. By default, the risk is set to 100. This means every single trade that you take, you should lose no more than $100. An example would be, if my stop loss is 0.30 away, my position size for that trade would be 334 shares. You are able to change the default risk to what ever you are willing to risk, and your share sizes will automatically be calculated. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iD0qiPLulbYSFri9r38SG1Ke7eNiZdFHNg8MldGwSng/edit?usp=sharing To use this Spreadsheet: make sure you are logged in to your Google account, so you are able to copy the spreadsheet to your Google Drive go to File -> Make a copy... -> Then save it to your Google Drive Once you have copied the spreadsheet, you can now edit the default risk of 100, and your share sizes will be calculated accordingly A step further... The Keyboard Having this printed on your desk does help you easily calculate your position size, but it does have one drawback. You have to enter your position size in manually, which does eat up precious time. I wanted the idea of the chart used as hotkeys, so my solution was a custom keyboard. I have attached the proof I got back from http://www.wasdkeyboards.com, as well as a photo of the physical keyboard. How it works As you can see from the images, the distance to stop loss is printed on the alpha keys. If I have my hotkeys set up to risk 100 per trade, Short+Modifier+E would short the stock with 667 shares: Risk: 100 Distance to stop loss: 0.15 100 / .15 = 666.6 (667 rounded up) Conclusion Having the spreadsheet printed in front of me while I trade really helped with my position size. The keyboard really helped me execute my trades faster.
  24. 10 points
    The Day Trading Reality Checklist discussed in this YouTube video. Download link: Checklist.pdf
  25. 10 points
    Two computers with eight monitors. My primary unit has six monitors and the laptop has two screens. I usually watch 8 stocks that are in play and six secondary possible continuation stocks on the overhead 2K 37" screen. I have three montages. One screen for watching the $SPY, market clock, and network connectivity to DAS. The outermost right Dell monitor is for the chat room. The laptop is my hot backup with CNBC and other news feeds. I have a Bluetooth headset and a wireless mouse. I custom built this workstation. It is basically a gaming machine. Here are the hardware spec: Intel i-7 6700K @ 4.00Ghz 64 GB of DDR4 3200 RAM 500 GB SSD NVIDIA GTX 970 with two additional USB to VGA ASUS Maximus VIII Hero ATX motherboard Intel 10/100 NIC TV stand:: Amazon ASIN: B07581Z9SM Two monitor stand:: Amazon ASIN: B07MC9YX63 I believe Andrew Aziz is a very rare person because at his core he is a teacher first, daytrader second. He is passionate about changing people's lives for those who would apply his knowledge and instructions. He is the second person I have met in person that operates his business at an incredible level of integrity. The other person with strong integrity is Dave Ramsey. Every morning, when Andrew is not summiting a mountain, he shares transparently over 15 years of knowledge only gained from an unforgiving market that does not hesitate to trap money from an unsuspecting new trader. I have watched for over two years, an excess of 500 videos of Andrew and his team's trade recaps. Andrew and his team's success is that they trade the same set of strategies that are described clearly in his book. You can be suspicious of a strategy if only one person is successful at it. You could still be suspicious of his team that trades the same strategy. If you want, you still can be suspicious when members are successful using Andrew's strategy. However, when you combine the number of trades taken by all the traders over time, the evidence is demonstrating counter to your belief. Bruce Lee said, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
  26. 10 points
  27. 10 points
    Robert is correct. Jason, here's what you do. Log in to the IB Acct Management page. Go to Statements. To the right, you'll see Create Custom Statement. Click that. On the next page, give the statement a name (maybe Commissions and Fees). Under "period," choose Daily. Then, in the "sections" at the bottom, click Commission Details. A check will appear showing you've selected that one. It is the only one you need to select. Next, mark any of the "Section Configurations" you want. You don't have to choose any. Click "continue" at the bottom right. You'll then get to review you choices. Click "create" at the bottom right. Next page, click OK. Next you'll be taken back to the Statements page. You'll see the custom statement off to the right. Click the little arrow to the right of the statement name. It will run the statement for whatever date is in the field (in the list of fields). This report will show you the total commission as well as the breakdown of broker charges and third party charges. Hope that helps!
  28. 10 points
    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.
  29. 9 points
    Purpose: Provide a overview of the markets by using different instruments and evaluating prior activity. Use overview to understand market directionality, strength/weakness, and driving factors. Focus on areas with most potential. Outline: My process involves reviewing what the markets did last week using the Index ETFs, Index, and Futures in order to understand the day structure and market profile from the prior session. I will often mark areas of consolidation and volume acceptance as levels of interest to carry forward outside of daily levels and trends. Once an overview of the market products is assessed, I like to quickly scan the SPDR Sector ETFs for any obvious standouts relative to the current SPY Percentage Change. This is normally done close to Market Open around 9:00 - 9:15 ET. I like to have a list of candidate stocks that are good representative names for any sectors that are 'in play' relative to the markets. For example, if Energy stocks are moving independent of the markets, I would want to find a good Energy stock that has high Relative Volume and Percentage Change to trade 'the best of the best'. Instruments: Index Products: $SPY/SPX/ES Futures $QQQ/NDX/NQ Futures $IWM/RUT Index/RTY Futures Sector Products: $XBI - BioTech $XHB - Home Builders $XLB - Materials $XLC - Communications $XLE - Energy $XLF - Financials $XLI - Industrials $XLK - Technology $XLP - Consumer Staples $XLRE - Real Estate $XLU - Utilities $XLV -Health Care $XLY - Consumer Discretionary $XME - Metals Other Products: Bonds: $TLT & /ZB and /ZN Futures Oil: /CL Futures Natural Gas: /NG Futures Gold: $GLD & /GC Futures Silver: /SI Futures Volatility: VIX Index & /VX Futures Dollar: $DXY US Dollar Index
  30. 9 points
    My Plan to Trading Success: Background: One of my friends from German language class recommended Andrew’s book on ‘How to Day Trade for a Living’. After reading the book, I joined the BBT community in Oct’2018. I was on SIM for 3 months, completed the first BBT challenge. And finally I went live on 8thApr’19. I am new to Trading and hoping my journaling and feedback from fellow members will help me improve. My preparation before going Live: These are the books I read before going Live, apart from the BBT classes. It was very important for me to learn as much before going Live. Also, I read these books in the order mentioned below. I also listened to the Youtube audio version of Trading in the zone, the week before going Live and I must say that it helped calm my nerves a bit during the Live week. -How to Day Trade for a Living by Andrew Aziz - A Complete Guide to Volume Price Analysis by Anna Coulling - Advanced Techniques in Day Trading by Andrew Aziz -Trading in the zone by Mark Douglas -The 1 Hour Trade by Brian Anderson Strategy & Goal: During the first year(or 9 months) in 2019, I don’t have any target to make. My primary goal is to gain experience Live trading, to be emotionally stable when things don’t go my way and manage positions to my plan. And achieve all this limiting my loss. Good thing, I have control over how much I can lose, so I have decided to keep 100$ per week that I can lose (ie. 4000$ till end of the year). This is the max amount I will lose to the market, nothing more. This is not ‘Scarred Money’. It is something that I am paying for my experience. If I make any money along the way, then it’s good. It doesn't mean I dont want to make money, it just means, I am not in a hurry to make money. But I do plan to make a lot of money from trading may be a million $ some day. I also have the following measures to limit myself at the beginning of my Trading. Funding Account: I am not funding my IB account fully. I am doing it in 5 small transfers (roughly one each month). This limits my buying power during the initial months. Even if I make a DAS mistake I can’t buy more shares. As I improve my trading I start funding more. Under PDT rule: This also means, I am under PDT rule, and can make only 3 trades/5 days. This prevents me from overtrading. I am also extremely picky as my trades are limited. I think being picky is a very good habit in Trading. Stocks to trade: I don’t trade $TSLA, $NFLX which are very volatile. I trade $AMD, $MU and other Stocks in Play on a particular day within my price range ($15-$30) and not very volatile. I trade high priced, volatile stocks in DAS simulator or TradingSIM to feed my FOMO. Share size: I trade 50-100 shares per trade, depending on the Stoploss and volatility of the stock. I am not using my Margin from IB, but only Cash that I have funded. As I improve my trading skills, I will slowly increase the share size. Risk Control: Within my 3 Trades a week, first one I give it $50 Loss, 2nd and 3rd one $25 each. But because of my small share size and stoploss, I am well within my allowable losses during initial months. This is second level risk control. Rules: Only one trade at a time. This was my main issue in SIM. I get into multiple trades in SIM and end up in huge losses. Even if the action goes my way, I am unable to exploit it to my advantage as I am unable to follow my profit plan. Stick to my StopLoss: Many days in SIM, I had ignored my Stoploss and ended up in huge losses. Then I make some good trades and reduce my losses. End of the day, It gives me a feeling ‘If only I had respected my StopLoss I would have been green’ Don’t trade within 3 mins: My rule is not to trade within first 3 mins. But if the setup doesn’t exist, then I must wait till 5, 10 or even 15 mins from the open. Trading Style: I prefer VWAP trading (VWAP pullback during ORB, Reversal & False breakout after 10AM). I also like to trade 50/200 MA bounces especially on higher timeframes. I am not good at MA cross reversals. Quote I need to remember while Trading: "You will regret more about the STOP you didn't take than the one you took early"
  31. 9 points
    Just started to day trade in January this year. Got to say, Andrew’s books are like a torch that clarifies the world of daytrading for me. Along with all the videos made by members and contributors of BBT. Thank you so much for being so open about sharing your knowledge! God bless! Here is my VERY humble trade station. There isn’t enough time to juggle a day job, trading and workout when US market opens at 830pm local time. Hopefully the only thing I’ll be losing is the extra pounds.
  32. 9 points
    I've been a member of Bearbulltraders since October 2018. I read Andrews first and second books in September along with a few other ones and I am really glad I did, his books are well written and well thought out and really gives you the tools and basics and most importantly rules and setups. I then wanted to join the community and see what real trading was like, I didn't even have a platform or setup yet, it took me about a week to realize this was not fake or a money making scheme. I then knew it was going to be something for the long haul and so it made sense to get the lifetime membership and so I did and I have not regretted it since. This is definitely not a get rich quick type of deal, it takes hard work day in and day out, but the people in this community are there to help and make it easier and they have! There is so many people I want to thank from Norm, William H, Robert H, Carlos, Brian, Abiel, I'm sure I'm forgetting people and of course Andrew who of course without him, none of this would be possible. Thank you guys so much! -Seth Aldrich
  33. 9 points
    Joined BBT community in September 2017 after day trading 9 months on my own. Wish I had found Andrew’s book and the community earlier, but since then the knowledge gained and support of BBT has been amazing!
  34. 9 points
  35. 8 points
    Hello everyone! Me and the team usually get a lot of e-mails asking for the hotkeys we're using or for some simple hotkeys; Therefore, we created a list of the most frequently used/asked for hotkeys. This is just a beta and short version, and we will keep adding to it depending on your request. This list will be worked on not only by us moderators, but by you as well if you wish! Please share in the comments some of the hotkeys you use a lot which aren't in the list and we will definitely update it, you can also ask for any hotkey you think you miss, and if any member replies with it in the comment it'll be also added to the list https://bearbulltraders.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DAS-Video-Series-Hotkey-Scripts.pdf The hotkeys have been tested in DAS trader DEMO account and DAS/IB, still make sure to test them in simulator before trying them live! Thanks all.
  36. 8 points
    I have been working today on 2 hotkeys for myself. The script(s) uses the defined R/R script from previous Kyles hotkeys. It performs the following: Cancels any previous orders for the symbol Enters the trade, ensuring total shares bought is equally divisible by 4 (rounded down); this prevents having extra shares hanging around after the range trades complete or stop out. Creates a range order at your stop level for 1/4 of your initial shares bought with a profit level of 2R Creates a range order at your stop level for 1/4 of your initial shares bought with a profit level of 3R Creates a range order at your stop level for 1/4 of your initial shares bought with a profit level of 4R Creates a single order at your stop for the remaining 1/4 shares; This allows you to ride the last 1/4 to whatever level you want before exiting As with Kyles hot key scripts, you double click your chart at the level you want to place your stop then press your button or hot key The Script for the long entry CXL ALLSYMB; StopPrice=Price-0.01;DefShare=BP*0.5;Share=DefShare*0.333*Price*0.01;Price=Ask-Price+0.01;SShare=Share/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;Share=Share/4;Share=Share*4;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price= Ask+0.05;TIF=DAY+;BUY=Send;DefShare=1000;Price=Ask-StopPrice*2+Ask;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:StopPrice HighPrice:Price ACT:SELL QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=Ask-StopPrice*3+Ask;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:StopPrice HighPrice:Price ACT:SELL QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=Ask-StopPrice*4+Ask;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:StopPrice HighPrice:Price ACT:SELL QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice-0.3 ACT:SELL STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos*.25 TIF:DAY+; and the Short CXL ALLSYMB; StopPrice=Price+0.01;DefShare=BP*0.5;Share=DefShare*0.333*Price*0.01;Price=Price-Bid+0.01;SShare=Share/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;Share=Share/4;Share=Share*4;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price= bid-0.05;TIF=DAY+;SELL=Send;DefShare=1000;Price=StopPrice-Bid*2;Price=Bid-Price;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:Price HighPrice:StopPrice ACT:BUY QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=StopPrice-Bid*3;Price=Bid-Price;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:Price HighPrice:StopPrice ACT:BUY QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=StopPrice-Bid*4;Price=Bid-Price;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:Price HighPrice:StopPrice ACT:BUY QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice+0.3 ACT:BUY STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos*.25 TIF:DAY+; Long $50 Risk CXL ALLSYMB; StopPrice=Price-0.01;DefShare=BP*0.5;Price=Ask-Price+0.01;SShare=50/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;Share=Share/4;Share=Share*4;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price= Ask+0.05;TIF=DAY+;BUY=Send;DefShare=1000;Price=Ask-StopPrice*2+Ask;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:StopPrice HighPrice:Price ACT:SELL QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=Ask-StopPrice*3+Ask;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:StopPrice HighPrice:Price ACT:SELL QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=Ask-StopPrice*4+Ask;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:StopPrice HighPrice:Price ACT:SELL QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice-0.3 ACT:SELL STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos*.25 TIF:DAY+; Short $50 Risk CXL ALLSYMB; StopPrice=Price+0.01;DefShare=BP*0.5;Price=Price-Bid+0.01;SShare=50/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;Share=Share/4;Share=Share*4;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price= bid-0.05;TIF=DAY+;SELL=Send;DefShare=1000;Price=StopPrice-Bid*2;Price=Bid-Price;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:Price HighPrice:StopPrice ACT:BUY QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=StopPrice-Bid*3;Price=Bid-Price;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:Price HighPrice:StopPrice ACT:BUY QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;Price=StopPrice-Bid*4;Price=Bid-Price;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:RANGE LowPrice:Price HighPrice:StopPrice ACT:BUY QTY:POS*.25 TIF:DAY+;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice+0.3 ACT:BUY STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos*.25 TIF:DAY+; Everything prior to defshare=1000 in each script is completely from the original Risk/Reward Hotkeys except the bit of code that ensures the number of shares is equally divisible by 4. Feel free to give them a try and let me know if there are any issues.
  37. 8 points
    Hello Bear Bull Traders, This TradeBook is a collection of trading strategies that the moderators within our community trade throughout the day. It is designed to assist you in understanding the setups that our moderators discuss in the chatroom. The information contained within each of these strategies can also be used as a starting point in your own journey to create a personalized strategy. It is highly recommended that you begin testing any strategy in your simulator before attempting to trade with real money. Sincerely, Bear Bull Traders Team SEE BELOW THE UPDATED VERSION..... BBT TradeBook.pdf
  38. 8 points
    Hey everyone, Below is the video on how to use the DAS Replay feature. Currently this feature is available on the BBT Simulation Version 5.4.6.0. Which can be downloaded at https://www.dastrader.com/download/fixes/DEMO.5.4.6.0.exe (When the feature is ready for production it will be release to other platform versions like IB, Centerpoint and CMEG.) Thank you
  39. 8 points
    Monday - June 29th, 2020 Markets closed weak last Friday, June 26th with major index products closing near the lows after a roughly 2% decline throughout the day. Notably Technology and major names like Facebook and Amazon were sold off heavily and led the entire markets. Sunday Night /ES Futures opened lower at 2986.25 with low at 2983.5 before coming back above 3000s. Getting above 3025 area would be of interest as that brings us into the major breakdown area from last week. /NQ Futures opened lower 9785.5 with low at 9780.25 before coming slightly higher. Overall below areas of consolidation from last Friday and still showing weakness. /RTY Futures opened lower 1362.2 with low of 1359.6 before coming much higher to test 1400. Showing relative strength given already recovered the breakdown area from last week. Monday Premarket at 9:00 ET $SPY - Trending higher from Friday low, holding at roughly 0.5% higher near Thursday's low. $QQQ - Range bound between Friday's low and Thursday's low, roughly flat 0.0% $IWM - Trending higher off Friday's low attempting to test Friday high, up as much as 1.5%. Bonds are slightly lower from last week, I expect a small pullback as bonds have had a nice run from the recent lows. $TLT recovered from recent lows at 153.00 area up to 166.5 in after market last Friday, a roughly 8.5% gain in roughly two weeks. Oil Futures pulling away from 41 Gap Fill Highs, up slightly today. Natural Gas Futures very strong up 6.25% from recent selloff last week, I expect a strong bounce from these extended yearly lows. Gold Futures flat from last week, extended at 1800 resistance on /GC. I expect $GLD to have a pullback this week before attempting a breakout. Silver Futures down slightly after a major run over the past months, consolidating in 18 - 19 range. I expect silver to underperform gold in the coming months, but still remain bullish. Volatility Futures down 2.4%, with 23/51 day contracts roughly same price (slight contango). Sectors Premarket at 9:15 ET Strong Sectors: Industrials with $BA up 6%. Financials with most large bank names up close to 1%. Weak Sectors: Communications down with $FB down 4%. Things to Watch: Since major Tech was down heavily last week, watching $XLK and MAGAF names closely. If selloff continues, other potentially 'risk-off' sectors may get bought at these lows like $XLU (been weak for a while).
  40. 8 points
    CMEG 3 month Review I wanted to wait a few months before giving my opinion on CMEG. I have been using them since late February 2018 and am one of their initial client accounts. Let me preface this review by saying no broker is perfect but if you are using SureTrader...CMEG is far better overall and a solid choice for small accounts learning to trade with no PDT rule. Their client service is more than happy to talk/email you on any concerns. Who is to say other brokers do not experience the same issues from time to time? I will begin with some issues over the months I have experienced: 1. Orders getting executed (I have experienced times where I could not close out of a position and had to call/email them to manually do it). This lasted for a few hours, sometimes until the next day but usually was fixed overnight. ~2-3 times since February. I was not given a reason why this occurred. Also they do not reimburse any losses incurred for being unable to close out. 2. Changes to their margin policy (without email notification or a phone call on updates to their trading rules). For example, some of my hotkey scrips use % of Buying Power. On a few mornings CMEG had updated their margin allowed and the requirements behind usage. As a result my orders were not getting filled and I had no idea why! Rule parameters could vary from how much margin is allowed with long/short positions/per stock price/maintenance requirement per share...etc. I had to troubleshoot scripts with a real/demo account to understand what exactly was going on...alongside email/phone calls to the broker. A good habit was to test orders in pre-market with the provided demo account. Just because you were able to swing with 4:1 margin without liquidation or use full margin short at the open on XYZ stock priced at X dollars does not mean you can the next day. It's best to check their policy regularly or even better just call to see if there was an update. There was no mass email to clients for rule changes. However, I believe they now inform clients by email for most updates. Excellent! 4. This broker is overseas so be prepared to face international calling charges. However CMEG did help and credit my account for me unknowingly incurring international phone charges. They are not toll-free. They also credited back some of their platform fees that I incurred for the inconvenience of any changes that affected my trading which was very nice. A sign of goodwill and respect to clients. SureTrader refused to credit me back their withdrawal fee $40 after having me wait 3 weeks due to an error on their end to receive my money...I will never go back. 3. Platform software updates - they should inform clients of all manual changes, i.e the Mobile DAS App Order Route had to be manually changed to be able to login on your phone. This had to be changed to route 5016 from 5010 when they released an updated desktop client. Probably just an oversight but I had to take hours out of my day to figure this out, work with DAS tech support, and groupthink with BB members. Also it is best to talk to DAS tech support for any issues related to all licensed DAS platforms, both mobile and desktop. I did not expect CMEG to know everything about DAS as they are a broker and license the platform. 4. Email responses can vary, sometimes less than an hour, sometimes more than a day depending on the situation. Sometimes their phone number doesn't connect through, and I need to call a few times, and I think some of the email signatures use an outdated phone number? Something I'm not sure about that Lee W brought to my attention. I think IB can set up or the direct platform license from DAS has a risk feature you can right click on your account and set up risk parameters, i.e Max Loss, Max Loss Per trade. Not sure on this but CMEG does not offer that feature with their DAS license. Would be a nice feature for new traders to use though. I listed these concerns so CMEG can eliminate them. I am not criticizing their services and am 99% of the time pleased and comfortable using them as my broker. I often email them with suggestions on improvements and compliments. If I am able to work with these issues as a new trader you can as well and should use CMEG. Overall The $2.95 per trade promo that Andrew got us is probably the best you can get out there, unless you scale out 10 times, then IB may be the better choice if you have the account balance, or perhaps Speedtrader. This makes new traders less worried about commissions and breaking even and more focused on trading the setup. SureTrader charges $5 per trade in the U.S. and this makes it very stressful to manage, trust me. Performance has been getting steadily better (orders have been getting filled without issues for well over a month now). Closing positions has not been an issue for over a month as well. Excellent so far. FREE SIMULATOR, when you open an account! SureTrader does NOT offer that. The executions are very fast. Short inventory is excellent (they route through IB and seem to have even more available sometimes) I have not had any crashes of the platform. Windows 10 Pro. They do not restrict margin with many stocks, only in very very rare cases is margin restricted. I think in 3 months I've only seen 1 stock restricted and that was LFIN lol R.I.P. This is a huge advantage to build up small accounts over other brokers like SureTrader and IB. You need at least 5K buying power to make profits over these $2.95 commission fees on most stocks we trade. With 4:1 margin for <2.5K balance and 6:1 for >2.5K that's not hard to maintain and slowly grow on 1-2 trades daily A+ setups. The growing pains of their risk/margin policy changes has settled down. I think they compromised what they can manage and what traders feel comfortable using. It has been over a month I think, since the last big change, and I like what their rules offer! Makes new traders at ease. Rules are available on their website to view. I can pretty much use margin on almost all stocks I trade without issue. I don't trade stocks less than $10 too much and their rules tend to be for very low priced penny stocks. So if you trade from Fernando's watch list you may not be able to use too much margin. Also be aware that in the past you may have been able to swing positions using full margin, that has since been reduced to 2:1 margin, you get an email warning around ~3:48PM and ~3:53PM their system automatically brings you within that limit. When I asked, forced liquidation was not a part of their procedures but came into effect without me being made aware...so it's best to double check their rules weekly or you can learn the hard way. Remember they sometimes update their rules without emailing clients. If you were able to swing with margin in the past, give them a call to make sure you stay within guidelines come market close...if you're caught in a bad trade but like the daily swing. This really doesn't matter because you shouldn't be swinging with much margin anyway right? All in all, I would continue to use this broker and recommend them to new traders wanting to build up their accounts, learn to trade, practice in a sim for free, and use an excellent and tested platform. They are constantly improving and love to receive constructive feedback. It can only get better from here as they develop. Oh yeah wait times on the phone are usually pretty low, couple minutes at most, unlike some other brokers and their service team remembers you! Thanks Andrew for working with CMEG to help us small account holders be able to day trade along side the big boys.
  41. 8 points
    This topic gives an opportunity to share our experiences or may be even expectations for any new additions to be considered for trade room. Waiting to read more on this! As I have not been with any other trading communities before, so I can't compare. Can share my experience with BBT Trade Room, though it’s been only 2 months with BBT-Lifetime in my 3 months of day trading experience which started by reading Andrew's both the books(these are not just words in the air as we hear it a lot) I started trading LIVE directly by just reading those books alone, applying the strategies explained and observing the patterns. Not going for any other day trading books till I expertise in those strategies and techniques explained in those books. Consistency is very important for me as I am planning to extend day trading for living. Andrew always say- you don’t need to know each and every strategy, where there are hundreds or thousands of those (which may take full life time to experiment and gain expertise in all those, so no more time left for living lol). Once you find the strategies you understand well (as it differs from person to person, depending on their analytical background) and feel comfortable applying those successfully on a smaller share size and later increase as you build your psychology. Later you may try new strategies or trading approaches etc… Trade Room- I feel it is in a very structured manner based on how the day trading flows in a day and meet everyone’s trading related needs and support. I personally felt overwhelming the first month after joining BBT with all the information, different trading styles etc….Just finding your spot is all needed. Below is how I look at the structure which starts with: Carlo's Pre-Market Show- Finding range of stocks that are gaped up/down and are in play for that day and setting up support/resistance levels and quick news highlights. With the range of stocks starting from low, mid to higher price range to support all different levels of groups in the community. Andrew’s Golden Hour Show- With all his positive energy and his quick trades sharing live and being open to share his P/L(result of the process he goes thru), wakes up everyone in the AM.( Caffeine free lol..) Norm's Golf Trading Show- With his high price stock trading style, supporting those groups is amazing. Peter's Mid-Day Show- As he balances between mid to higher price range with mid-day reversal strategies till closing of the market, which supports those groups is fascinating. Brian's Swing Trades Discussion on Mondays- With his great knowledge and experience on trading, It not only supports ST group, also gives others a perspective of general understanding on stocks from different sectors play with variations and etc… William's Trade reviews (everyone’s favorite) and Robert’s outstanding support with his type of trends/wedges strategies and his support on DAS platform thru the forums is amazing. Besides all those the member’s sharing trade reviews on YouTube are great learning. Outside of the day trading there could be more to explore/expand on Swing, Options puts/calls etc…which is beyond the scope of my knowledge.
  42. 8 points
    After much experimentation (still ongoing!), I've settled on one main 32" monitor for scans, internet, and admin, with three 27" monitors above for charts and level 2. The hotkey pad orientation is also still evolving. A view can also add to one's composure during the trading day Andrew's book was the first piece of trading literature I read and helped me tremendously in getting through the difficult, and often painful, learning curve this pursuit requires. Besides focusing on the clear and simple strategies that many in this community share, I've benefited most from watching Andrew and the other moderators show up each day with a consistent, balanced, long-term approach to trading. Simply being reminded each day by example of how to avoid FOMO, take profits, cut losses early, and come back again tomorrow has done for my growth more than hundreds of hours of studying charts, patterns, indicators, techniques, etc.
  43. 8 points
    Hi Andrew, I am really benefiting from the community you and your team have established. I like the morning chat room and the educational videos. Keep up the excellent work. -Devin
  44. 8 points
    This is my humble set up as of now. Currently trading on Simulator. Very grateful to have come across Andrew's Book and the BBT Community. I am a lifetime member, so it'll be my pleasure working with you all during this lifetime! Andrew's book is important but so is that Coffee Maker!
  45. 8 points
    I have been following Andrews daily recaps for a long time, read his books and finally ended up joining his community ... I am a the newbie around here and feel that this is where I belong. Trading is much much more than the P&L at the end of the day !
  46. 8 points
    Greg, I know exactly how you are going thru. I was in SIM for over a year before going live, yet I lost $8K in the first week. Went back to SIM after a month, came back lost $10K more. This is called "addicted to action". My suggestion to you is to read and put to practise Mark Douglas principle in "Trading in the zone"if you haven't read it yet. It is not completely a discipline problem because I considered myself to be very disciplined person. I played very advance electric guitar and bass. I trained many year in free style kick boxing. The kind that your couch pushed the sand bag at your face until your nose broken. You just wiped the blood and continued. I could lock myself up in a room for 4 hours straight to read technical books like Cisco or Juniper. Those books are like eating cardboard. Those skills take serious discipline. But you can see that I am not better than you when it comes to trading because of the instant gratification. However, I realized that trading is psychological in nature. How we trade is a reflection of who we are. If you're frustrated, the stock will creates event that caused you more frustrated. I am stable now for a few months. This morning I trades 2 stocks only and made $800. Most of the time, I trade just one stock and make average $500. Here my suggestions to you. 1. Don't come to the market to try to get something or to fight. Come to the market to look for opportunity. Tell yourself, I don't have to trade today if nothing good. 2. Plan your own trade by join Carlos in pre-market. FYI: Talking about lack of sleep. I left work and got home at 1am PST every day just to wake up at 5:15 to plan my trade and go back to sleep around 9:30am and again wake up at noon to go to work. So I am with you regarding lack of sleep. I've done this 1 1/2 year now. 3. Before market open, do deep breathing exercise by closing your eyes and visualize something fun and happy while taking multiple long deep breath. I ALWAYS nervous before market open. So this will help me relax and not too jumpy or anxious (FOMO). Remember, how we feel will attract the same result to us. 4. I choose "CONSISTENT" over making money. The moment I got my first win, even if it's $50, I shut DAS and my PC down and go to sleep. I don't care how many good stocks are in play. This will reinforce your inner strength because you do what you said you're going to do. It's not easy. But after 2 weeks, it becomes natural. We make habits then habits make us who we are. Be strict with your rule but flexible with you outcome. Everything else you seem to get them in control there. Hope these help. I will add more when I can recall what I did back then to stop this kind of compulsive aka addicted to action. I can tell you this, when your mind is calm and you don't try or struggle to win, the setup will come to you. For me the winning trades are obvious and easy. I see what I need to see and get in right on the money and ride it all the way. In the past I would flip my position 10 times on the same stock without even knowing that it's consilating or being choppy. I just know one thing "I got to win". That's how bad or stupid it was. Looking back I can only laugh at my dump behaviors. I wanted to win at all cost. The market thought otherwise. To me because I did so well in the SIM and when it comes to live trade it did not work, I could not let that happen. I am no where near perfect yet but I am on my way. I wish you the best !!! Johnny
  47. 8 points
    I expanded on The Process of Executing a Good Trade in this post. it takes a lot of practice to plan a trade in real-time (especially in the first 30 minutes of the market). At least a month and hundreds of attempts until you develop a process that works for you. Once you get good at planning and managing the trade, you will be able to do it faster and faster each time. Like muscle memory of sorts. Here is what works for me: Prerequisites 1. Stock is in play 2. Support and resistance identified in pre-market 3. Pre-market volume and price action is tradable 4. Know the float category (low, mid, high) and how many shares you plan to take While watching the stock 1. Spread is manageable 2. ATR/price swings accounted for (i.e, see how much the stock ticks. Is it going up/down in 0.01 to 0.05 increments, or 0.50 to $1) 3. Price action is clean and not choppy; related to above 4. Volume is good and not dying 5. Who is control: buyers or sellers? 6. What is the strategy/pattern that is setting up here? 7. Is the price getting extended? Finding an entry 1. Is the entry favourable (new 1-min or 5-min high), or will it be a chase 2. Did the stock pullback yet? If not, to which level will it test and will I survive that? 3. What's the target? Is it realistic? 4. Finding a reasonable stop at a technical level 5. Calculating the risk-to-reward 6. Executing the order; with conviction--no hesitation Managing the Trade 1. Is the live price action still clean? 2. Are we making higher-highs and higher-lows, or vice versa? 3. Are there are levels or tops/bottoms that I missed before entering that have now become a factor (i.e, a moving average on the 1-minute chart) 4. Is the market providing new information that validates or invalidates my original criteria? Is the Level 2 bullish, bearish or neutral? 5. Is it a good time to add more (if you scaled in initially), or should you take some profit off the table? 6. If scaling out, how much and at what levels? 7. Is the price action conducive to my original stop/target? 8. Is control between buyers and selling shifting? 9. Given the above, does it make sense to stay in the trade or exit at break-even, before stop, or before target? I know that is a lot to process in a short amount of time, but those thoughts go through my head during a trade. For others, it may be much simpler or even more complex.
  48. 7 points
    I just started the Van Tharp Institute Peak Performance Course for traders (home study edition). I really need to improve issues with my trading (fear, self-sabotage, over-trading, etc.). I think this course could really help. To place some accountability on myself to finish the course I plan to post my reading notes and assignments online. Hopefully, the info provided will help others as well. Van Tharp Institute Peak Performance Course Vol 1: How to use Risk Preface: The three stages of growth for a trader. 1) They think they can make easy money from trading. They think the most important thing to investing/trading is picking the right stock. 2) A substantial change has to occur where the trader begins to asks, “how should I trade to make money.” Thus, they start looking for a trading system that fits them. 3) The trader realizes that trading success does not come from external control, but from internal control. Controlling risk, profit/loss>1 and position sizing all comes from internal control. Chapter 1 Commitment means congruency. It means the whole person is working together for a common purpose. No internal conflicts. When committed, trading is no longer just a hobby. The moment one definitely commits one’s self, then Providence moves too. I translate that as: when you are committed to work hard, luck will be on your side. To develop commitment first you must determine your obstacles. Second, and more difficult, you need to determine how those obstacles reflect what is going on within you. The last step is deal with them. Make peace with the obstacles by making them unimportant. Below I created my personal obstacle table: Obstacle Internal reflection Make them unimportant Fear 1) Fear of being wrong 2) Fear of missing my stop 3) Fear the loss will affect my trading and mood. 4) Fear the little success I’ve had is due to an accommodating market. Once the market changes I will fail and quit. 1) Your supposed to be wrong at least 50% of the time. If you are wrong less than 50% you are scalping too much. 2) You are working the mental muscle, it will get easier. I do have risk controls, if I miss my stop I can’t lose too much. 3) If you learn something from the trade, it was still worth while taking it. 4) Have faith in yourself that you will learn and adapt. Self sabotage 1) Every streak of good trading is ended with catastrophic failure. 2) I take way too many partials hurting my win/loss ratio. 1) You will wind down your streaks with smaller share size and SIM trading. So it will end with a whimper not a roar. 2) With more trades, more data will be available for analysis to determine proper partialing. Data is stronger than my nerves. The math will prevail. Over trading 1) If you only take one trade the whole day, but it had a poor setup, you already overtraded. 1) I am having slow progress, but I do see progress. My trades are slowly getting better. I have the time to learn. I am in no hurry. As long as I have progress there is no issue. Health 1) Not enough sleep and exercise 1) My family is slowly becoming more accommodating. It is taking time but they will come through for me. In the last 6 months my average sleep has increased from 4.8 hrs to 5.7 hours a night. Still a far cry from 8 hours but again as long as there is improvement.
  49. 7 points
    Family that trade together stays together. First day trade for the pups. Whatever it takes start 'em young.
  50. 7 points
    Hi Mario, Falcon builds really quality systems, but they do come with a pretty high price tag. I am an IT consultant so naturally, I have the skills for this lol. I built my own machine with parts from my local computer store (Microcenter) for around $2,500. Mind you, I went completely overkill because my trading platform (Tradestation) is a real resource monster and you need to have some heavy processing power in order for it to run properly. DAS isn't as nearly intensive as TradeStation, but you do want to ensure you build something that won't become obsolete in the next 2 years. Especially with how frequently Microsoft is updating Windows 10, each update comes with a bit of a hit on certain areas of performance. Also just be mindful that the more monitors you wish to add, the more power you will need. Here's my system: 1x Intel i7 6800K CPU (processor) that is water-cooled and overclocked to 4.2 GHz. 32 GB's of high performance RAM 1x Samsung EVO 950 Pro (NVMe), 256B SSD (Solid State) - For Windows and applications 1x Crucial 525MX, 525GB SSD - For profile data and basic user data 1x Western Digital 3 TB 7200RPM Mechanical drive - for bulk data like image files 2x nVidia GTX 970 video cards 1x Corsair H110ti water cooler (for CPU) 1x Asus STRIX X99 Gaming motherboard 1x Corsair 750 Watt power supply 6x Acer 24" LED LCD monitors mounted on a HEX stand that is mounted to my desk 1x NEC monitor that is rotated for portrait mode and has the chatroom, Outlook and other apps on it 2x Dell keyboards. 1 keyboard is used for normal input, the second keyboard I used a free program called HIDMacros that allowed me to program any key to executed a macro or command. So the number pad on my second keyboard handles all of the order entry commands for my platform. Windows 7 Pro Remember, I went overboard because of my platform and since I am an IT guy, I figured "why the hell not?". Plus, it was a business write-off :) You will often find that "gaming" computers are best suited for day trading, but they sometimes have video cards that are complete overkill. As I mentioned above the specs of my machine, the more monitors you wish to have, the more video processing and hardware power you will need. MOST video cards can support up to 4 monitors on 1 card. If you want more than 1 monitor, than you will likely need 2 video cards. On-board video may be an option, but some manufactures will disable the on-board video if an add-on video card is detected. However, here's a breakdown of the BARE MINIMUM you need for a decent trading workstation: Processor (CPU): Minimum of an Intel Core i7 series processor. Most of these processors are fine and the latest generation (7th generation) is sufficient to handle the load. Ideally you want a processor with a higher clock speed (measured in GHz) as this will crunch numbers and data faster. Memory (RAM): NO less than 16GB's (Gigabytes) of memory. 32 is perfect, but 16 will do the job as well. The more memory you have, the more responsive programs are and the more space a program is given to store instructions that it needs quickly. Storage (Hard Drive Space): Hard Drive capacity is measured in Gigabytes and sometimes Terabytes depending on the type of drive. This isn't super important to your trading computer unless you plan on using your trading computer for other tasks, at which point, you will likely need more space. However, the most important take-away here is you want your primary hard drive (the "C-Drive" where Windows and your programs live) to be a Solid State Drive (SSD). These come in many forms, but the BEST option here is what is called an NVME drive. This type of drive plugs DIRECTLY into the motherboard. These are the fastest drives available now. The other type of solid state drive which is still a good option and good enough for trading is a regular 2.5" solid state drive that connects via a SATA data cable to a SATA port on your motherboard. This isn't as fast as the NVME drive you plug directly into your motherboard, but if you are on a budget it will suffice. The third and final type of drive to avoid unless you need a buttload of space is a standard 7200 RPM mechanical drive. These are the drives that have been around forever and the drives that moving parts (they have discs in them that spin around). These drives are slower and have a higher failure rate. Motherboard: The motherboard is the most important piece to the puzzle here since it connects all of the components and makes them "Talk" to each other. Naturally, you want a board that is compatible with your processor but also powerful enough and offers enough expansive capacity to ensure you will be able to add more memory (RAM), additional hard drives, and most importantly, additional video cards if needed. Once again, most of the gaming motherboards will fit the bill here. If you plan to have more than 3-4 monitors then you will need to ensure the motherboard you get has the ability to add another video card. You will want a board with at least 2x PCIe (PCI Express) x8 slots. Newer boards have x16 slots which is even better (the x8 or x16 signifies the speed at which the port can operate. Newer cards need the higher speed to operate more effectively, but this is more for gaming than trading). Also ensure the board offers gigabit LAN. This is a default on almost all boards nowadays, but I have seen a few lower-end boards that only offer 10/100 speed for the LAN (rather than 10/100/1000 or 'Gigabit'). Video Cards (GPU): I discussed this above with how many monitors you plan to add to your system. I prefer the NVidia cards as they are reasonably priced and they offer lots of power. You do not need the absolute latest $700 video card that has 5 GB's of RAM. This is total overkill (unless you plan to game). Any of the lower-end 10x series or even the higher numbered 9x series cards will do the job. Each of the video cards will be independent. Gamers tend to use what is called 'SLI' to make 2 cards act like one, but that is not the case here since we just need extra monitor space. Just be sure if you want more than one video card you see my notes on the motherboard above. Case: The case is something that you can have a little fun with. This is where all of the pieces of the computer live. People tend to get creative with these and get cases with windows and lights and all sorts of fancy stuff. This is entirely up to you. The most important take-away on the case is that it MUST support proper cooling. Most cases have 2x 80mm or 120mm fans in them. The more fans the more air is moving through the case to keep the internal components cool. If your goods overheat, then your machine will shut down and could potentially fry. So make sure you find a case with decent cooling capacity. Power Supply (PSU): The power supply or PSU is what provides power to all of the components. There are calculators out there that can help you determine based on what you plan to buy how large of a PSU you will need. My rule of thumb is do not go for anything less than 500 Watts. If you plan to have additional hard drives and video cards, then you will likely need a 750-1000 Watt PSU. Also, do not buy a cheap unit here. You want something that is robust and ideally, a modular power supply. These units provide the power to all of the components. If the PSU is providing crappy quality power, then you can expect crappy performance or fried components. Do not skimp on the power supply! Cooling: One final piece I am going to add here and it relates to everything else is that you need to ensure your system is properly cooled. A computer that is improperly cooled will perform poorly and you will end up replacing parts far sooner than you should. Proper cooling primarily comes from the case (discussed above), but other environmental factors such as location of the computer (is it near a heat vent, placed in a hot room, etc) will also affect the cooling. The processor is the most important component that needs to be cooled. Depending on which CPU you get, it will either come with a factory CPU cooler, or it won't come with anything. You DO NOT need to get a water-cooled system. This is ONLY for people like me who are a bit crazy and like to push their hardware to the absolute extreme. For day trading, a simple air cooler is more than enough for the processor. "Tower Coolers" as they are known do an incredible job of keeping the CPU nice and cool even under a heavy load. If you plan to go all out with high-end cards, a high-end CPU and you plan to game, day trade, edit videos and all sorts of stuff, then you will need liquid cooling. But the point of this thread is for a DAY TRADING system. so no overkill needed! I believe I about covered everything here. I probably made your head explode with even more questions, but that's what we are here for! I also apologize for the mess in my office in the pictures above. I need to re-organize my office at some point, but I had back surgery a few months ago, so moving anything is off the table for now. Although they do so that a disorganized desk is the sign of an intelligent mind.... Please feel free to ask any follow up questions. I didn't post links to specific hardware or websites since you can get this stuff from pretty much anywhere for very close to price. I have found that Microcenter is a lot cheaper than NewEgg and Amazon are. But if you don't have a Microcenter near you, you will have to order from elsewhere.
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