Robert H

I was able to replicate the issue. It seems that Loading from Default causes the new Montage to be forever linked with the first Montage. I tried all sorts of clicking/dragging/keystrokes to no avail; gave up after half an hour.

MARA Fake Fallen Angel - January 12, 2018 Today I tried out Andrew's Fallen Angel Strategy for the first time. You can read about it in detail here. MARA was on our gappers watch list and was a Nasdaq top gainer--up 40% in the pre-market. It is low float with only 10M shares. The open saw about 1M share volume, but it didn't really pop up like an Angel should. First mistake! Nonetheless, I watched it sell off below VWAP and hold some sort of level at the 50 SMA. So far, so good right? It bounced along the moving average for about 15 minutes and I waited for an entry when the volume spiked. The high of the day was $5.07, and high of pre-market at $5.40. With an entry around $4.70, the risk to reward was 2.5 at high of the day, and 4.5 at the high of pre-market. My stop loss was somewhere around $4.55 at the break of consolidation and moving average. Here is the setup on a 5 minute chart: At 9:55 AM, I saw a slight increase in volume and I went long at $4.73. The price popped up a few pennies, but it failed to pick up any steam on the 1 minute chart (below). The volume was above average for that time frame as well, but nothing spectacular--about 80k per minute. When it failed to make a new 1 minute high at 9:57, I grew concerned. By 9:58 my gut told me that the momentum wasn't coming. I quickly exited the trade at $4.71, for a 0.02 loss per share. Here is how it panned out on the 1 minute chart: Immediately afterward, the price tanked to $4.50. Within 15 minutes, it had hit $4.25; I had averted disaster. This Fake Fallen Angel turned out to be a reverse ABCD! I am so glad to have gotten out with a tiny loss. Looking back during the trade, I remembered from Class 4's Fallen Angel slides that if the volume doesn't come in, don't trade it. It was Andrew's voice inside my head that saved me!

Yup, the hotkey seems to be broken when using multiple Montages, both Windows and Mac. Thanks for confirming.

Wesley, I mean try putting two stations inside the main DAS window. Does the hotkey respect which Montage you are actually trying to select? For me it's fundamentally broken. 1. With two “stations” (i,e, Montage+Charts+Time/Sales) open inside the main DAS window. If I hit the hotkey, it always jumps to the first station. So if I select a chart in the 2nd station and hit END, it jumps to the first station’s montage. Not what is expected or desired.

The main DAS window can expand across multiple monitors on PC. Even if it did work on Mac, the hotkey seems to be broken since it doesn't respect which montage is linked to the chart. It keeps jumping to the same montage regardless. Can you test out what I did in #1 above and see if it's the same for you?

This appears to be a limitation with DAS. Here are my observations with the SwitchTWnd hotkey: 1. With two "stations" (i,e, Montage+Charts+Time/Sales) open inside the main DAS window. If I hit the hotkey, it always jumps to the first station. So if I select a chart in the 2nd station and hit END, it jumps to the first station's montage. Not what is expected or desired. 2. Station on another monitor or floating outside of DAS main window, i.e. Pop Out. The hotkey doesn't do anything at all. This is the same behaviour that you are observing. What I've done in my DAS Layout is enabled the setting so that the Montage is automatically selected when I switch or select a symbol in the Market Viewer. Do this by right-clicking the Market Viewer (Watch List), Config, and check off these two boxes. So almost always, the relevant Montage is pre-selected.

Hotkeys are global--they work the same for every montage. You have to click the other montage for the hotkey to execute on that specific stock. Do you mean buy/sell buttons?

XNET ABCD On Second Attempt - January 11, 2018 This was me trying to be a hero and trading XNET using the 1 minute chart. I've drawn boxes on the 1 minute chart around my entry points. Essentially, the box shows what's happening inside the 5 minute candle. First Trade: Entered on a new 1 min high after consolidation period. Volume was slightly above average, but not that much more. Price failed to make a new 1 minute high and began trending down. I got stopped out right before the drop to 23.35. Phew! Looking at the 5 minute chart (below), you can see that we were still in consolidation period. The stock actually made a lower high during the candle I entered. The following candle--where I was stopped out--was even lower high and lower lows. This was clear after the fact and looking at the 5 minute chart. Definitely not a good time to be going long! Also, the volume was well below the moving average. Second trade: I wasn't discouraged and kept watching XNET. At around 11:10 AM, I saw a mini Bull Flag on the 1 minute chart (above). The 5 minute chart confirmed that a new high was being made. I went long. The stock popped up with good volume and I sold on the momentum up. I managed to exit a good chunk near the new high of the day (24.20), and made back the loss from the first trade. Although XNET is choppy, it isn't low float by any means (65M shares). I should have been looking primarily at the 5 min chart for the ABCD setup, and the 1 min chart for entry--not vice versa. The 5 minute chart was just way more clean.

I actually recommend saving your layout right after building the watchlist and setting up all charts during pre-market. This way if DAS crashes after the open, you aren't wasting valuable time rebuilding the layout.

STX Opening Range Breakdown - January 8, 2018 This was a great Opening Range Breakout (ORB) trade that I wanted to share. I'm still in simulator but it was a nice setup either way. STX gapped up big in the pre-market, but began trending down at around 9:20 AM. I noted that the first 5 min candle had a pretty small body and could potentially be a good ORB to the downside. On the open of the 9:35 candle, I went short. My entry was great at 48.38, just below VWAP. My stop was 0.10 above VWAP, at about 48.70. The profit target was the 9 EMA down at 47.60. So the risk-to-reward on this trade was 2.4 (0.78/0.32). It quickly sold off and I began covering in thirds on the way down. The price actually tanked through the 9 EMA on extreme weakness. I kept a very small portion through the pullback and it eventually hit my 46.85 price-level (and even lower). This one single trade exceeded my daily profit target and I was done for the day at 10:10 AM! ORBs are one of my favourite setups, as long as it isn't too extended from VWAP and the opening range isn't too large. This one traded just like an example from Andrew's book.

Nice trade, Andrew. Truly a Kodak moment!

That's the default colour background for HorizontalLines in DAS (price levels you add manually). If yours is a different colour, you can change this by: Add a HorizontalLine (if none exist on the chart) Right-click the line, select Config Choose Background color

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Aznariy, I think you are confusing bid/ask (Level 2) with actual executions (Time/Sales). Bid/Ask doesn't show up in the candlestick; only transactions where shares were exchanged at a specific price do. Let me try to answer all of your questions with a simple example. Say you and I are trying to buy stock ABC. Brian and Andrew have shares to sell. Us four are the only participants in the market. The bell rings at 9:30:00. A candle is about to be born. You bid $8 for one share and I bid $9. These will show up on the bid of L2. On the other side of the book, Andrew wants $11 for his share. Brian however, only wants $10. So their orders show up on the ask. Note that all of these orders are LIMIT orders, and since nobody has agreed on a price, no shares have changed hands. Let's say I change my mind and convert my limit order (for $9) to a market order. Since Brian has the lowest ask at $10, I buy that share from him for $10. This marks the first exchange of shares for the 1 minute period. For simplicity sake, say that the transaction went through at 9:30:01. That is point A. Now the only bid left is yours for $8, and the only ask left is Andrew's at $11. Say Andrew decides to come down with his price to $10--and at the same time--you decide to bid lower at $7. Since nobody has agreed on a price--and no shares have changed hands--nothing happens. The candle is unchanged. It is a horizontal line at $10 (where mine and Brian's transaction occured). The time is now 9:30:30. Out of desperation, Andrew decides to sell at market. Since your bid of $7 is all that is left, the transaction clears at that price. The time is now 9:30:45 and point B marks your transaction. Now as the 1 minute mark comes to an end, you and I hold shares of ABC. Brian sees that the price has tanked to $7 and wants to hold some for a swing trade. At the same time, I decide to sell with a limit price of $8. Brian scoops up my shares with a market order for $8. The time is now 9:30:55. The price is at point C. Finally, as a few seconds remain until the candle closes, you decide to sell your share at $9. Nobody else in the market wants to buy. So the candle closes at the last price of $8, where Brian bought my share (point C). There is no top wick since the highest price paid was also the open price ($10). The bottom wick is where you bought from Andrew at point B. The candle is red because it opened at $10 and closed at $8. Now the time progresses to 9:31:00. Whatever price transactions occur at will be logged on the Time/Sales and start forming a new candlestick. Without listing specifics, say the first transaction occurred at $8. There were multiple transactions at $8, and this was the lowest anybody paid during that 1 minute. In this case, there is no bottom wick. This is because the open equals the lowest price paid. The last transaction to occur before the end of the candle (9:31:59) was $11. That was the close. At sometime between 9:31:00 and 9:31:59, somebody paid $12. That is the top wick. Here is an Investopedia article on candlesticks. If anyone sees any errors above, or has a better way of explaining, please let me know. Thanks.

I remember this happened to Andrew once during a trade, so I set out to find a solution! I hope that these tips and tricks are helping other members. Thanks for reading!

Have you ever exited a trade too early because you didn't see a price level just beyond the horizon? Do you find yourself zooming out constantly, or switching to hourly/daily charts to identify upcoming price levels? Well, you can increase the Y-axis margins to allow for a larger vertical range to fit on the chart. Here's an example. The default margin setting in DAS is 10%. This gives a pretty good scale in most cases. Here the price of GCAP is hitting 8.94, with the bottom margin at 8.85. This is the same chart with the margin set to 40%. Another price level down at 8.65 becomes visible! Also note that you can now see VWAP at the top, which was out of view in the above chart. To adjust the margin: Right click the chart area Click Configure In the Margins settings on the right hand side, change the value for Price axis top bottom margin Please note that your candlesticks will become slightly shorter to fit the new y-axis scaling. I've tested different values and found 30% to be a good setting for me. Play around and see what works best in your DAS layout.

Definitely. Since they are geared towards gaming, mechanical keyboards can offer more customization options such as macros, extra keys, lighting, etc. If you don't care much for the "bling factor" of mechanicals, Ryan W posted a great Macro solution here. If you will be using the keyboard for a lot of typing (word processing, e-mails, etc.), I suggest you test out the different switches before buying. Cherry makes green, red, black, brown, and blue switches just to name a few. Each color has a different feel and noise based on the key travel and actuation characteristics. If you are unable to test at a retail store, this little Cherry MX Switch Tester sells for $16 and can help you decide before buying.

Are you clicking the little line icon in toolbar? There should be a hotkey to select the line tool faster (Page Down). I changed my hotkey to SPACEBAR so I can press it with my left hand while operating the mouse with my right.

Great setups, everyone. Keep them coming! Funny how this is the most active post in the forum. Andrew should rename this place to Bear Bull Gamers lol

Personally I prefer a mechanical keyboard for all my computing--including trading. There's nothing like the feedback and clack of pressing a key. They have made a comeback recently and are popular among gamers. For some, customizing and collecting mechanical keyboards has become an addiction (really). For good info on different brands, layouts, and switches check out r/mechanicalkeyboards on Reddit.

Andrew recently added a moving average line to the volume bars. A lot of users have been asking how to get the line, so here's how: Double-click the Volume Bar area With Volume (BAR) selected, click Config Check Display Average Line Note at the time of this post, Andrew has been using a period value of 3.

The latest version of DAS now does this automatically. ===== A lot of traders build their Watchlist every morning in a "main" chart. This is where price levels (HoriztonalLine) are added based on support/resistance levels from the pre-market, daily chart, etc. After the Watchlist is built, you can "transfer" the user-added price levels to other charts by doing the following: Add your manual price levels Right-click chart Click Save Settings Click Save Click Yes when asked to replace Add symbol to the other chart Right-click new chart Click Load Settings Select the .cst file you saved earlier Click Open Price levels are now added to the new chart Though a very manual process, it only needs to be done once every morning. The good news is that price levels for ALL symbols are saved in the file, so you can load the same settings file to all your other stations.

I also vouch for Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas. It was a wake up call for me. The book completely changed my perspective on the psychology of trading and revealed how little I knew about my own emotions. After reading it, I am less hesitant to enter trades and willing to let go of losses much sooner. It all boils down to training your mind to believe in (with absolute die-hard conviction) the Five Fundamental Truths of Trading and Seven Principles of Consistency: The 5 Fundamental Truths of Trading: 1. Anything can happen. 2. You don’t need to know what is going to happen next to make money. 3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. 4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another. 5. Every moment in the market is unique. The 7 Principles of Consistency: 1. I objectively identify my edges. 2. I predefine the risk of every trade. 3. I completely accept the risk or I am willing to let go of the trade. 4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation. 5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me. 6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors. 7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them. Despite being very repetitive and dry in certain sections, I would highly recommend it.

CNET Bull Flag Momentum - January 5, 2018 CNET was on our watchlist, but it didn't look tradeable all morning (to the long side, at least). Then at around 10:30AM, I saw a Bull Flag form. There was a huge pole and then consolidation flag. After a new 5 minute high was made, I went long at around 7.80 and rode the momentum up to 8.25. Note the surge in volume on the move up. I was lucky to have taken profit as the move was very short lived. The stock tanked afterward and plunged below VWAP for the rest of the day.

They haven't added a video since March, 2017 but might as well link it here. DAS Trader PRO YouTube Channel This 67 minute demo tutorial is a good resource for beginners: