Today is E-mini roll overday. This means that the official time has come to switch over from the December, 2018 contract (ES 12-18 in NinjaTrader) to the March, 2019 contract (ES 03-19). Some traders prefer to wait until the majority of the volume transitions into the new contract period. At the time of posting this, this has not yet occurred (it can take a couple of days). As you can see in the screenshot, the March contract still has less than half the volume of the expiring December contract.
So how does one roll over? NinjaTrader 8 makes it easy:
Go to the NinjaTrader Control Center > Tools > Database Management.
Providing you are rolling over on or after the market’s rollover date, the market should appear in the “rollover futures instruments” list. The list shows all markets that will be rolled over along with the current and new contract periods. Click the Rollover button. Click Yes if a message appears.
Go back to your charts. They should now be rolled over, where applicable. Verify this by looking at the top of the chart. For example, if you have an E-mini (ES) chart, it should no longer be ES 12-18. Instead, you should see ES 03-19.
Note that when you open up a new chart, you probably won’t see the ES 03-19 at the top of the selection list (among recent instruments). You’ll need to go to Futures > ES 03-19. In comparison, any existing charts that you had open at the time of the rollover should now reflect the new contract period.
Other platforms may roll over automatically, so keep that in mind.
Now, what about those upcoming holiday hours? Yes, CME equity products )(like the E-mini) will close early for the Christmas and New Year holidays. See the official CME calendars. To spare you the trouble of using Microsoft Excel to open the calendar files, here’s what you should know (all times are US/Eastern, GMT-5, EST, New York time):
December 24, 2018 (Christmas Eve): markets close @ 1:15 p.m.
December 25, 2018 (Christmas Day): markets remain closed until 6:00 p.m.
December 31, 2018 (New Year’s Eve): markets close regularly at 5:00 p.m.
January 1, 2019 (New Year’s Day): markets remain closed until 6:00 p.m.
The next upcoming holiday mentioned on the CME is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which occurs later in January.
A new Group Private Mentorship class begins Jan. 3, 2019. Eight weeks of live training will teach you everything you need to know to successfully trade futures and currencies. All courses and software are included with full, non-expiring licenses. This new session has classes twice each week.
We expect this new session to fill up quickly. It’s a good idea to reserve your seat as soon as possible.
Click here to submit your $500 deposit. This deposit secures your seat and provides you with the first week’s materials ahead of time. You’ll be able to receive the ATO 2 course and software for NinjaTrader right away!
What’s included?
• Live coaching
• Atlas Line® software
• Roadmap method
• Blueprint method (as taught in Power Price Action)
• X-5 method (as taught in the Floor Trader Secrets Manual)
• At the Open 2 (ATO 2) Course
• Trade Scalper Course
• Price Action Scalping Course
• ABC Pattern
• How to Filter Trades
• How to Trade the News
• How to Set Up Your Charts
• How Manipulation Works
You’ve probably heard about how 90% of traders lose money. The actual statistical range is anyone’s guess. To know with some certainty, a study would need to be carried out. It’s doubtful that a broker or other type of firm would want to go on the record admitting that their customers are unsuccessful with the markets. Further, there is little motivation for someone to voluntarily complete a survey about personal financial matters.
E-mini S&P 500 (ES) 5-Min Chart
Some traders like to use multiple strategies together to “confirm” the direction of the market. The idea is that multiple systems that say the same thing may indicate a greater chance the market will move in the anticipated direction. Here is a screenshot of an E-mini S&P 500 chart that illustrates this idea. The trade that was “confirmed” by two nearby signals (Atlas Line and ATO 2 long signals) was good. The Atlas Line short trade earlier in the day was good. The market soon turned against the ATO 2 trade that occurred in the middle. See our products page to learn more about trading strategies that may compliment your existing approach.
Are we in the dark in terms of understanding how many people are truly successful? Considering the following. From the various day trading courses and software out there, we can see there is definitely interest (and business) in fulfilling a need to help people trade better. We can reasonably conclude that day trading must involve some level of difficulty that exceeds the skill of most people. Otherwise, most day traders would, in short order, figure out how the markets work and trade them profitably. There would likely be far fewer trading businesses, as self-taught traders would have little need to look elsewhere. If trading was easy, we would see it become a much more popular career or income option. Obviously, this is not the case.
Therefore, trading is not easy and education should be sought. Aside from the problem of maintaining profitability, aspiring traders must climb a rather steep learning curve.
In no particular order, a successful trader needs:
1. Basic computer and operating system proficiency
2. A basic understanding of trading terminology
3. An understanding of how to use a trading platform
4. A way to practice trading (including time set aside to learn)
5. An effective trading strategy (or strategies) to use
At DayTradeToWin.com, we service all five components. From what we have seen over the years, most other day trading companies focus mainly on the fifth. Yes, we do answer basic computer questions that we get from our clients. Many of our clients from a Mac background and need some help getting familiar with Windows. Yes, it is up to you to make sure you have enough time in your life/schedule to practice. However, we help provide you with the tools you need to practice with real-time market conditions. Our free educational videos cover terminology, free methods, and general platform use. Our products are designed to help you get to the ultimate goal of finding consistent success. Remember that we cannot provide guarantees. We do not have a crystal ball. The markets can and will do the exact opposite of what is expected. As such, people who try to sell you trading methods with guarantees may not have your best interests in mind.
To help you further, based on a bit of research and our own experiences, we’ve assembled a top 5 list of considerations to improve your trading (in no particular order):
1. Successful trading = proper money management and proper risk management. Don’t trade with rent or food money. Trade based on what real-time market conditions can reasonably provide. If the market is slow, do not expect that big winning trade. Similarly, if the market is fast, that small (lower risk) stop loss may get you out prematurely when staying in for a few more minutes may have produced a profit.
2. Does your trading strategy fit your personality? When people ask us to recommend the Atlas Line, ATO 2, Trade Scalper, or Mentorship, we tend to describe how each one behaves. Some people would rather go for fewer, larger trades than watch a 1-min chart for many trades. In that case, the Atlas Line may be a better fit than the Trade Scalper. Other people like the control the Trade Scalper provides for each trade because of the smaller profit targets and stop losses.
3. Psychology is a real factor. Do not let your ego or feelings dictate your trading. Trying to win back losses can put you in an even worse situation. Instead, it may be better to stop trading for the day and continue the next with a clearer head. Had a bunch of success in the markets today? Congratulations, but don’t get greedy. You can lose it all and more if you don’t know when to call it quits. Follow the rules of the trading strategy, not your impulses. Approach each new potential trade with the same amount of discretion. Have realistic goals and define your limits. Be rational.
4. Markets are unpredictable. If they were predictable, you would probably not be the first to figure it all out. Expect losses to occur, no matter how good you think your strategy is. Always have a reasonable profit target and stop loss ready to go. Be patient. Just because you missed an opportunity does not mean you should jump
5. Practice, practice, practice. You need to practice with real-time market conditions. NinjaTrader makes this type of practice really accessible, which is one of the reasons we like the platform. Avoid referencing historical data to say, “Yeah, I would have done that. I’ve got a winning approach here.” Use your platform’s performance record tools and/or keep a trading journal. Write what works for you and what doesn’t. Develop your own sense of judgement to complement the strategy that you are using.
Have questions about anything in this article or trading in general? Email us at [email protected] for assistance.
Did you take this Atlas Line trade today? What about the follow-up Strength (S) and Pullback (P) trades? If not, consider purchasing the Atlas Line to receive the same automated trading signals.
If you’re new to the Atlas Line, let’s break down what we’re looking at on the chart. Firstly, the Atlas Line plugs into NinjaTrader as an indicator. Once added to the chart, it will plot signals depending on price’s behavior in relationship with the plotted line. When two signals occur above the line, a Long signal will appear. When two signals appear below, a Short signal appears, as is the case here. Today’s short signal for the E-mini S& 500 (ES 12-18 in NinjaTrader) appeared around 10:00 a.m. EDT (GMT-4, New York time). This allowed plenty of room to get in on a winning short trade. According to the rules, you use the ATR (Average True Range) to determine the profit target and stop loss. This Short trade looks like it would have been worth well over three points. The reason for using the ATR is to allow a flexible profit and loss goal that’s based on recent price activity.
If price does not intersect and close twice on the opposing side of the line, you can still look for additional signals. These are the Strength and Pullback signals mentioned earlier. The rules for trading these are taught in the included training video and live training.
Many traders tell us they like the Atlas Line because of its mechanical nature. When a system takes the guesswork out of trading, there can be less stress and tendency to second-guess.
We offer two different license options: a 6-Month or Lifetime. If you want to upgrade to the Lifetime License, let us know within the first 30 days of your 6-Month purchase. We’ll gladly apply your 6-Month purchase credit towards your Lifetime upgrade.
How is your trading lately? Hopefully, your winners have been more sizable than the losing trades. Before checking out those feedback emails, take a look at this video that discusses ways to potentially avoid trading risk…
Also, here’s a number of screenshots of recent emails we received from our clients. It’s a good sign when someone continues to our methods long after the original purchase! Did you know that we offer discounts towards Mentorship based on past purchases? That’s right – if you purchased one or more of our trading methods in the past (Atlas Line, Trade Scalper, ATO 2, etc.), we can provide a discount towards our eight-week Mentorship Program. Our next class begins tomorrow, Oct. 9, 2018. It’s not too late to register. Click here for details.
Do you trade CME U.S. futures/indexes like the E-mini S&P 500? Well, it’s time to roll over your contracts again! The official rollover date is Sep. 13, 2018. You may have seen the reminder when starting up NinjaTrader earlier today. The NinjaTrader platform requires that you manually roll over your contracts. Fortunately, the steps are rather straightforward. We will be using thhe E-mini (ES in NinjaTrader) as an example).
Before we continue, just an update from one of our Mentorship students who found success when she traded using real money…
Want to learn the same strategies and get all of our courses and software, too? The next class starts Sep. 18, 2018. Click here for more details.
Back to the rollover…
Firstly, this rollover from ES 09-18 to ES 12-18 occurs on Sep. 13, 2018. If you try to roll over on Sep. 12, 2018, you probably won’t be able to select ES 12-18 as an option. On Sep. 13, 2018, before you start trading the ES, it may be wise to roll over your contracts. Some traders wait even longer, preferring to switch once the volatility has “transferred” to the new contract period. This usually occurs within a few days after the official rollover date. These traders prefer to trade whatever contract period has the most liquidity. We’ll leave it up to you. If you want to monitor ES volume, here’s the CME page to do it. Don’t wait until the actual ES expiration date, which is Sep. 21, 2018. See all future roll and expiration dates on this CME page. The next time you’ll need to roll over is Dec. 21, 2018.
How to Roll Over Contracts in NinjaTrader
1. In NinjaTrader’s Control Center, go to Tools > Database Management. The Database window should appear.
2. Providing you are following these steps on or after Sep., 13, 2018, you should see row for the ES and possibily other markets. NinjaTrader automatically detects which markets (aka instruments) need to be rolled over and lists them here. All you need to do is click the Rollover button and close the window. NinjaTrader will roll over everything listed.
3. Your ES chart(s) may automatically switch over to the ES 12-18. Check the top-left area of the chart window and see if ES 12-18 is displayed rather than the old ES 09-18.
Are you still not signed up for our eight-week training program? Our Mentorship Program teaches all of our trading methods in one comprehensive package. Training is twice a week. The next Group Mentorship class begins Sep. 18, 2018.Click here to enroll or find out more
In Group Mentorship, you can type your questions and get instant answers. One of our students completed the eight-week class and said some nice things about her experiences. See the screenshot below.
In case you’re wondering, we use Adobe Connect to conduct the training sessions. Adobe Connect is a webinar platform. We forwarded the chat log of this session to ourselves to take the screenshot.
In Mentorship, you can learn all of the same strategies she learned. All courses and software are included. The goal is for you to become a pro trader by the end of eight weeks. Aside from the live training aspect, you can log in and watch the recorded videos at your leisure long after the program is over. Of course, we offer continued email support for trading questions.
Also, we have a new trading video (see below) posted that shows the very popular Trade Scalper strategy. In case you’re new to trading, scalping is an approach that focuses on quick trades with the goal of making many small profits. The presenter here goes through a number of recent signals, showing both winning and losing trades. Click here to see the Trade Scalper or click here to see all of our offerings compared.
Want to learn how to day trade? There are three popular ways. Before we get into that, let’s reflect a little bit about day trading as a career – Labor Day is approaching, after all!
Day trading is appealing because retail traders (people who trade from home) often have no collegiate training. It’s considered a career option that requires no formal education, yet has the potential to produce income exceeding that of physicians and sports stars. We get it – you probably became interested in trading because of one or more of these ideas. Like any profession, learning to trade properly does require time and dedication. However, at DayTradeToWin, our goal is to shorten your learning curve and get you out there without wasting extra time or money.
Trial and error: unfortunately, this is a common route for many because we have a tendency to overestimate our abilities and refrain from taking others’ advice, including those who are more experienced. Have you ever started a home construction project to later regret that you did not get professional help from the start? Trial and error is great for learning, but you can easily find yourself in over your head quickly. When it comes to the markets, no one wants to be financially buried. Also, who has the time these days to try hundreds of trading strategies? And who has that kind of budget?
Reading books: thousands of books exist about the subject of trading. You can read recommendations and reviews, but the theories and approaches may not approach your particular style of trading. Is the person who wrote the book actually a trader or just an author? How abstract are these books – do the methods still work? Are the books interactive enough to be worth your time and money? Our students have told us that our videos and live training have been much more effective than traditional reading material.
Day trading coach that teaches his or her strategies: why try to reinvent the wheel? If you wanted to play the piano at a young age, you could mash the keys for a years hoping to hear something resembling Prelude No. 6, or your parents could have hired a coach (someone who knows how to play and knows how to teach) to put you on the fast track to success. Now that you are an adult, the reasoning here makes sense – it’s time to approach trading seriously. We have about 10 different trading strategies taught in our eight-week coaching program. Training is twice a week for about an hour each time. The goal is to learn all the methods so that you can tackle whatever the market throws your way. Click here to read more about Mentorship. Enroll today because the next Group class starts Sep. 3, 2018. We’ll send over the first week’s course and software so you can get started!
From all of us at DayTradeToWin.com, we hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend! Remember that on Labor Day (Sep. 3), CME equities like the E-mini S&P 500 will halt early at 1 p.m. EDT and will reopen at 6 p.m. EDT. The EDT time zone is UTC-4 (New York time).
We’ve been seeing many people ordering the Trade Scalper lately, so we though it would be a good idea to share with you a couple of recent trades from today, Aug. 17, 2018.
The market being traded is the German DAX (FDAX in NinjaTrader). In case you’re unfamiliar with the DAX, it’s kind of like the German equivalent of the E-mini S&P. Wikipedia defines the DAX as “…consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.” The European session is being traded, which opens at 3:00 a.m. US/Eastern time. Don’t worry – the Trade Scalper produces many opportunities throughout the day in many markets.
The first thing you’ll probably notice is all the Long and Short signals. You’re looking at the Trade Scalper indicator for NinjaTrader. This is not the same version that you will get. In fact, the version you will get is better because it draws a number of lines that guide your trading. We can’t show the customer version because it would be giving away too much. The Trade Scalper signal software looks for trades automatically and places signals. The signals let you know the direction price is expected to head. For those of you new to trading, Long means price is expected to rise. Likewise, Short means price is expected to fall. With trading, it’s possible to make and lose money trading in both directions.
The boxes that you see are simply measurements of distances between high and low price points so that you can get a better idea of potential profit or loss.
Check out that first losing trade! Yes, not every trade is going to be a winner. The goal is more winning than losing trades, or at minimum, the overall gains must outweight the losses. The Trade Scalper uses a maximum stop loss of six ticks to control loss on each trade.
The second signal looks like it would have been worth +3 ticks. With scalping, the concept is getting in and getting out quickly while stacking profits. With the Trade Scalper software, you can use an audio alert. This is helpful if you’re using your computer to work on other things (multitasking) and need to jump into NinjaTrader to place a scalping trade. Following signals makes it pretty easy. Of course, you will learn the method behind the signals. If you wanted to manually trade on a different platform using your understanding of the strategy, you have that option, too.
Here’s another example of how the ATO 2 and Atlas Line work well together. They both agreed the E-mini’s price would rise. The long signals occurred around 10 a.m. EDT. The prediction was correct. The online training video and live training explain how to interpret the signals and time your trades correctly. Remember that the ATO 2 and Atlas Line are normally sold separately. Our eight-week Mentorship Program (next class begins Aug. 14) includes all courses and software. Mentorhip is the best way to get everything in one complete package.
This video also covers indicator installation. We’ve discussed this in previous videos. By the way, we provide our clients with remote support to help with such installation. It’s a good idea to keep the indicator .zip files around after they’re installed. If you get a new computer or need to restore your current one, using existing files is faster than our (already fast) customer support.
Have you been following the January Effect in 2018? We posted a video earlier in the year. Since April, we’ve seen E-mini price rise overall. This has provided swing trading opportunities. Most of the time, we focus on intraday trading. If your trading account can handle positions held through multiple days, review the strategy. Note that price needs to surpass the 50% level to prove the market is ready. The Fibonacci tool in NinjaTrader (and possibly other platforms) can be configured to only draw 0%, 50%, and 100% levels. We use the tool to determine the halfway point between two price values. If your platform has a measure or line tool, that may work, too. Once you get in above the 50% level, the idea is to ride the price up and get out with profit. In some cases, we’ve seen how the January Effect, especially using a daily chart, may give us an indication of the day is expected to trend or not. Of course, nothing is guaranteed.
All trades should be considered hypothetical. No guarantees or claims of performance are offered. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Day trading is risky and may cause substantial financial loss. Individual performance may vary, as trading subjects your finances to new, unexpected market conditions. You are responsible for executing trades. Before trading, consult with a licensed broker and a financial expert see if day trading is suitable for you.
