Real-Time Atlas Line Trade: A Quick +2 Points

Aug. 1, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Want the ATO 2? Click here

Want the Atlas Line? Click here

Interested in getting a deal on both? We have a special sale going on right now for the ATO 2 and Atlas Line when purchased together. Contact us at [email protected] for details. The Mentorship is also a great way to get all of our courses and software (see below).

The ATO 2 and Atlas Line produced a long (buy) trade signal that matched up really well. When multiple strategies confirm the same direction, we tend to feel more confident. In this video, the E-mini S&P is being trading with NinjaTrader 8. Look at the Long signal generated by the Atlas Line at 10:20 a.m. EDT when the bar closed at 2822.75. We placed a buy market order soon after the signal appeared.

By the way, you can set up these signals to play a sound file in case you’re away or doing other things on your computer.

Take a look at the profit target and stop loss in play. See how they automatically appeared with a green line on the chart? That’s because prior to this trade, an ATM Strategy was set up. ATM Strategies let you predefine profit targets and stop losses. The ATM Strategy in use here uses a profit target of 2 points and a stop loss of 4 points. If the profit target is hit when trading with one contract, that’s a profit of $100 on the E-mini S&P. Of course, you can trade with more contracts (providing you have enough funds in your broker account). For example, 2 contract would produce $200 in this example, before any broker commissions are applied. Remember that you can fully practice sim trading the Atlas Line and ATO 2 with NinjaTrader. If you need help with this, let us know. NinjaTrader is free to use for sim trading (as well as MetaTrader).

Yes, you can change your profit target and stop loss while in a trade in order to adapt to real-time conditions. However, doing so places you “at the back of the line” so only do this when it’s necessary. If the trade is going against you (according to the rules of the strategy), then it may be best to simply close the position via the DOM.

In case you’re new to trading, a profit target is your “goal” for how much you want to make (always keep it within reason) on a trade. The stop loss is how much you are willing to lose (keep this within reason as well). Too small of a stop loss can result in an early loss that may have turned into a profit had the stop been larger. A stop that is too large simply opens you up to too much risk if the trade goes against you.

With both the ATO 2 and Atlas Line strategies, we use the ATR (Average True Range) to first determine whether the market is good to trade (a good amount of volatility). Next, we use the ATR to determine our profit target and stop loss for each strategy.  As mentioned, we like to keep the profit target and stop loss within reason. There’s a quick mental math formula for this that is explained in the training materials provided with the purchase of both strategies. In short, the market can possibly produce a bigger profit in faster conditions, so we use a larger profit target when the market is more volatile. The inverse of this is true, where slow conditions require a smaller profit target. The same idea is used for stop losses. For the Atlas Line, we actually have three different stop strategies we teach for various conditions. It sounds advanced, but most people get the hang of it rather quickly.

The light gold market in the price axis of the chart indicates the entry position. Price movement relative to the entry position dictates the profit or loss. The DOM shows profit and loss in real-time, as does the text (green in this case because of the profit) that’s “connected” to the entry position on the chart.

Overall, the main idea of our strategies is to let price “show us what it wants to do.” We follow price action. Get in and get out with the least amount of risk and using confirmation as much as possible. We want to keep it simple and realistic. No need to stay in trades for longer than we have to.

The next Group Mentorship class that begins on Aug. 14, 2018 is the best way to get all of our courses and software with live training. Training occurs over eight weeks. We teach you all the strategies. Every class is recorded for later playback/review. We can also provide remote support to help with installation and configuration of your trading platform. The live training room allows you to ask questions. We also provide email support for your trading questions.

July 4 Trading Holiday Reminder

Jun. 29, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Day Trading CoachHi traders! In the U.S., we will be celebrating the July 4 federal holiday (Independence Day) next week. As a little history lesson, Independence Day recognizes the anniversary of the U.S.’s independence (from Great Britian), as per the Declaration of Independence from way back on July 4, 1776. Because it’s a fairly major holiday, the markets will observe different open hours. All futures traders should make a mental note. Sometimes, markets can be a little slow around a holiday, or even the same day up until the early close. Be prepared for some wonky activity. Also, it’s not a good idea to place a trade and then have the market close. If that happens, you should probably call your broker right away.

In any case, here are the details. Remember, these are market hours according to the CME. Click here to view the official CME information. The Excel spreadsheets can be a bit confusing, so we summarized the most important information for most traders below. Commodity markets (wheat, dairy, etc.) are not noted below, so if you trade those, check out the CME information.

• Tuesday, July 3, 2018: Equity and Bitcoin markets close early at 1:15 p.m. EDT (UTC-4). Note that forex, interest rate, energy, metal, and DME markets will be open normal hours.

• Wednesday, July 4, 2018: Equity, forex, bitcoin, interest rate, energy, metals, and DME markets halt at 1:00 p.m. EDT (UTC-4) and reopen at 6:00 p.m. EDT (UTC-4).

Expect normal market hours the rest of the week.

The next holiday to watch for is Labor Day in early September.

As a reminder, July 2 is the start of our Group Mentorship. If you want to gain your independence from less than stellar trading techniques and learn something new, consider enrolling!

How to Become a Day Trader

Jun. 22, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Day Trading Coach“Carl, how do I become a day trader?” That is a question that many aspiring day traders have asked me during my 20-year trading career. As a professional trader at a renowned U.S. firm, I was regularly approached by people who were interested learning how to trade, but did not know where to start. If this also sounds like you, you’ve come to the right place.

Essentially, there are two main routes to become a day trader.

One way is by learning everything yourself from scratch. This is often the most time-consuming and expensive path. You’ll need to find the right books to read and spend long hours going through them. You’ll need to be confident the information you read is actually true and still applicable to today’s markets.

In addition to reading and learning, practice is required – much practice, in fact. You’ll need to put the knowledge to the test over days, weeks, and even months and hope that the strategies work. You’ll need to devote a lot of time into trial and error as well as logging your performance (what works, what doesn’t). Very few of us have such free time to properly test and get a feel for how day trading strategies work. You may have heard that being an expert in any area requires at least 10,000 hours of practice. This is often referred to as the “10,0000 hour rule.” This equates to 20 hours of work per week for 10 years. Do you have that much time? When trading, your hard-earned money is on the line. Would you want to risk thousands of dollars with a basic understanding of how the markets work? I do not recommend placing trades without being an expert. There’s just no point in risking and losing your hard-earned money.

Fortunately, there is a much better way to go about learning to trade successfully. From my experience, the best way to become a successful trader is via training from a capable mentor who will share one or many day trading strategies that have been used in the markets for a long time. This mentor can share wisdom learned through decades of experience in trading and break it down into digestible portions for you to learn easily.

For more than a decade, we at Day Trade to Win have offered our services to new and experienced traders. Our strategies are not based on fads or luck; they’re based purely on the market’s price action. They’ve been successfully used by traders like you for 10+ years.

We are not aware of any similar programs offered by day trading educators.

We have strategies intended for scalping quick profits throughout the day. We have strategies that only take a few hours to trade each day, or even less. There are various options for all types of traders. You can learn them all and can decide what you enjoy using the most.

The absolute best way to learn how to become a day trader is to enroll in our eight-week coaching program called Mentorship.

In the Mentorship program, you will be directly trained in a live environment by an experienced trader. You also get all of our day trading courses and software with lifetime licenses. Our premium technical support services are also at your disposal for assistance with things like installation and configuration. We teach you how to trade through a series of online webinars. We never add any “fluff” that is often found in books and other programs. By far, our Mentorship program is the easiest and fastest way to become a day trader.

Secure your spot in the next Mentorship class. A $500 deposit secures your enrollment and provides access to the first week’s materials. Secure your spot in the next Mentorship class.

Coming Soon: New Day Trading Strategy

Jun. 5, 2018 Trading Coach 1 Comment

New Day Trading SystemWe’re very excited to let you know that we have a new day trading strategy that will soon be available. Once the indicator’s development is complete, the indicator will be available for NinjaTrader. Later, we will make it available for MetaTrader.

The day trading strategy is based on a more than a century-old method that seems to have been forgotten in the modern world of computer software and online trading. The strategy was used and refined by floor traders and stock brokers during a time when they didn’t have trading platforms and real-time stock charts.

Yes, the strategy will be compatible with futures, stocks and forex.

Interestingly, this method is not in widespread use today, despite its effectiveness. It is still just as good as it was back then. I know for a fact that it is still used by professional day traders and day trading firms. Most of the world’s largest Wall Street firms, investment banks, and hedge funds (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bridge Water, Black Rock, Renaissance Technologies, KKR, etc.) use the Bloomberg Terminal (which costs about $25,000 per year!). And guess what? This method is available for the Bloomberg Terminal.

Sign Up for Details

So, this strategy we will soon introduce appears to be a well-kept secret that only professional day traders know. But why is it not available to individual day traders like you?

Could it be that it is deliberately withheld from the public? Maybe “they” don’t want to have us use it in our own day trading for a reason? Is it because it works so well? Could it be “they” don’t want the average day trader to know about this method?

Well, that’s about to change! 😀

This day trading method has been proven to consistently beat the market. I learned it from a veteran trader about ten or fifteen years ago. I have used it successfully in my own trading on a regular basis since. But what does it do? Well, think of it as a perfect way to day trade along with the waves of supply and demand in the market.

As we all know, the irrefutable laws of supply and demand are driving futures and stocks prices. It makes sense – when there is huge demand for a stock or a futures contract, the prices will rise. There is more demand than there is supply. For more supply to become available, prices must rise.

And when there is too much supply (too much selling), prices fall. There are more sellers than buyers. So until the prices have fallen, to make the price low enough, nobody will buy.

Normally, day traders like you and me will look at a chart and see that prices are currently moving up or down. But there is currently no good way to know if the trend is going to continue. We don’t know if the current pullback is just a pause in the uptrend, or if it is the beginning of a new downtrend.

Quite often, chart price movement can trick us into believing one thing, yet the very opposite happens soon after. That’s why prices seem to fall when you have just bought a stock. That’s also why prices always tend to reverse and start rising again, right after you sold your position. That’s one of the reasons why you’re struggling with making money consistently in your day trading!

With our new day trading strategy, we have a method of “pinpointing” exact turns in the waves of supply and demand. We know the exact moments when uptrends are ending and changing to down trends. We also know when new uptrends are formed.

That’s all I can tell you at the moment. We have a number of things to finalize, including the name of this new product as well as pricing. I don’t want the wrong people to learn about our new product before we have released it. Please make sure you subscribe (see form above) to learn more details as they become available.

How to Roll Over Your Futures Contracts

Jun. 4, 2018 Trading Coach 2 Comments

It’s just about roll over time! The official roll date for E-mini futures is June 7, 2018. This means that the E-mini and other popular index futures will switch to a new contract period. In this case, the E-mini will use the September contract. In NinjaTrader, this means that you’re switching from ES 06-18 to ES 09-18. Fortunately, rolling over contracts is a straightforward process.

Be sure to follow these instructions on June 7, 2018 or soon after. The market volume is in the process of shifting to this new contract. Some traders prefer to wait until the majority of the volume is in the new contract before trading it. You can compare the volumes on this page. As of writing this on June 6, 2018, the volume of “JUN 18” is 993,196 compared to “SEP 18” at 62,254.

How to roll over:

1. Firstly, go to NinjaTrader’s Control Center > Tools > Database Management.

E-mini Roll Over 1

2. Next, if you are following these steps on June 7, 2018 or after, you should see the ES in the futures instruments list. Click the Rollover button and NinjaTrader will magically roll over your contracts.

E-mini Roll Over 2

3. Close out of the Database Management window and go to your charts. You should see that your E-mini chart is now ES 09-18. If not, you should be able to select it from the drop-down.

E-mini Roll Over 3

Remember that futures contracts expire on a quarterly cycle. The next time you’ll need to roll over is September 13, 2018. Click here for future dates. At that time, you’ll roll over to ES 12-18. What happens if you trade a contract after the roll over? Well, eventually, you’re going to see many dojis and erratic looking price activity. This is a sign you need to roll over as soon as possible. It’s best to check with your broker if you placed trades after having missed the rollover date by a few days.

Trading Holiday Reminder: May 28 is Memorial Day

May. 23, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Day Trading CoachMonday, May 28 is Memorial Day. Markets like the E-mini S&P 500 will observe different hours, so be sure to check the official CME calendar. On Memorial Day, the E-mini will halt at 1 p.m. ET and reopen the same day at 6 p.m. ET. Essentially, the E-mini shuts down for about five hours. The market halt also applies to the CME’s equity, interest rate, FX, NYMEX & COMEX products (markets). If you’re not in US/Eastern time, remember to convert these US/Eastern time hours to your time zone’s equivalent.

After Memorial Day, the next major trading holiday is Independence Day (July 4, 2018). We will post those details closer to that date.

Watch out for potentially slower than usual markets on Friday, May 25. Often times, we see slower activity on the Friday before three day weekends. And yes, you should still be trading the ES 06-18 contract until the rollover date in June 2018.

Is Good Friday (Mar. 30) a Trading Holiday?

Mar. 28, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Day Trading CoachWill the markets be closed for Good Friday, March 30? Yes, the CME calendar indicates the E-mini S&P and other popular equity products will be closed in observance.

Here’s how it will work:

• Markets close at the regular time on Thursday, March 29

• Markets remain closed for March 30 (Good Friday)

• Markets re-open at the regular time on Sunday, April 1

Aside from equity products, FX, Bitcoin, Energy, Metals, and other markets are also closed on March 30. Again, check the link to the CME calendar above.

Be more careful trading on March 29, as the day before a three-day weekend can have slower activity. However, with the fast E-mini S&P market lately, that may be a good thing!

Our support team is still encountering a number of traders who are still using the old ES 03-18 contract. Please roll your contracts over to ES 06-18. The 03-18 expired earlier in March and you may no longer see live price activity in NinjaTrader.

Did the Stock Market Crash in Early 2018?

Feb. 14, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Here’s our latest video for the January Effect in 2018. Markets are down, but will they recover? Watch the video to see a prediction.

On January 22, 2018, CNN Money published a story about the big S&P, basically remarking how calm the market has been. The article states, “Whether it’s the brief government shutdown, turmoil in the White House or North Korea nuclear jitters, nothing seems to faze this stock market.”

Boy, were they wrong!

Furthermore, CNN posted this graphic on January 29:

2018 Market Crash

Within about two weeks, the market radically changed. January 29, 2018 was a unique day. As confirmed using an E-mini S&P 500 chart, it was both the highest point the market reached (2877) as well as the start of one of the biggest price falls in recent history. Just eight days later on February 6, price had reached to 2529. This was a 348-point drop in nearly one week. For the Dow, in terms of points, February 5 was the biggest intraday drop in history.

Look what happened soon after (E-mini S&P daily chart):

E-mini S&P 2018 Market Crash

…The market was fazed. What happened?

Firstly, there’s a reason why we look at the E-mini as an indicator of U.S. economic health. Remember, the E-mini S&P is a miniaturized futures version of the big S&P 500 stock market index. The big S&P is composed of 500+ U.S. stocks traded on American stock exchanges. In terms of capital, the big S&P covers about 80% of the American equity market. The E-mini’s daily average implied of over $100 billion exceeds the combined traded dollar volume of the big S&P’s 500+ stocks. The E-mini is the most popular equity index futures contract in the world. Therefore, the E-mini’s significant “losses” as of late are indicative of overall U.S. economic performance.

Let’s get back to what caused the collapse. According to reports, there was no smoking gun event that caused the markets to capsize.

There are competing causation theories:

• Worries about inflation, high interest rates, and rising bond yields (causing a selling/climate mentality, with the Fed largely blamed)

• High-frequency trading algorithms were somehow responsible

• The market was on the rise since election time in November 2016. The market was due to come back down or regulate itself at some point, and this was it.

Taking these points into consideration as a whole, we can now determine the cause with some confidence. As a small, retail trader, there is not much you can do. Understand that your position is reactive – you can only control your own money – where it is placed and how it is traded with the best information that is available to you at a given time. That said, if you lost money due to the recent crash, do not be too hard on yourself. Trading involves great risk and dealing with the unforeseeable.

On the positive side, financial analysts are basically saying that these things happen. Buying when price is low and holding for some time until price is high is still considered to be one of the best ways to make money over the long haul, even with the market the way it is. Analysts are also saying this is not a recession and the market is just recalibrating itself, like a temporary pullback.

As for our DayTradeToWin.com trading methods, our indicators have provided many good signals despite the wild activity. As you may know, we use the ATR (Average True Range) to assess volatility. If the ATR is within one to four points, the volatility is considered normal. When the ATR is outside these values, the market is too slow or too volatile. You may want to stay out of the market until the ATR reaches normal levels.

If you’re new to our approach, you will need to set your ATR period to a value of four in order to see the ATR the same way. Many trading platforms include an ATR tool or indicator. By default, NinjaTrader uses a period value of 14, which may be too large to get an accurate picture of what’s happened in the last 20 minutes or so. By using a period of 4, the last 4 bars (20 minutes on a five-minute chart) are used, giving us a more recent picture of volatility, and in effect, tradability. Learn more about our unique trading methods here.

NinjaTrader ATR Indicator

How to Day Trade in 2018

Jan. 30, 2018 Trading Coach Comment

Here’s the E-mini S&P 03-18 (March contract) being traded with the Atlas Line software. Monday, January 29, 2018 – the market has been all over the place recently, but the Atlas Line and our other tools have been finding some great entry opportunities. Here’s a short signal. This video shows an Atlas Line short signal at about 10:00 a.m. EST. The short signal was produced at the close of the candle with a price of 2869. When placing orders, don’t chase the market! Each order type has its place. This order was close to the entry price (within a tick). Notice how the ATR was at 2.56. This indicates a potential profit of about +10 ticks (+2.5 points). That’s a healthy amount without being too volatile. The profit targets and stop losses we use are generally respective to current market conditions.

• Staying in a trade for multiple hours is a bad idea. It’s usually best to exit and wait for another opportunity. With the Atlas Line, the maximum amount to hold onto a trade is 20 minutes. This is taught in the live training.

• Before placing a trade, it’s a good idea to look for upcoming news events. Staying out is often a good idea during these planned events.

• Use multiple stop strategies and stick to the rules. If your profit target is not hit, get out at the next best opportunity, which can be a smaller profit, breakeven, or smaller loss than the maximum stop you should have in place.

• Towards the end of the video, you can see how trading with 5 contracts may have netted over $600 in just a few minutes. This is not always the case. Remember to trade with money set aside for high-risk investments (not your rent or food money).

Remember that the next Mentorship class begins January 31, 2018. We want to help traders who are really interested in seeing a difference in their performance every day. For details, click here for the Mentorship page. Alternatively, you can email us via the contact page or phone us at 1-888-607-0008.

ATO 2 and Atlas Line Short Signals in Bull Market

Jan. 9, 2018 Trading Coach Comment


Click here to see the ATO 2, Atlas Line, Trade Scalper, and More

Today, January 9, 2018, the ATO 2 software produced a short signal at 9:55 a.m. EST (New York time, GMT-5) when the market was at 2750.50. All of our ATO 2 clients should have received the exact same signal. With every trade, John Paul uses a profit target and stop loss. If you trade without them, you’re subjecting yourself to increased risk. In the included training, he will teach you the recommended values for this strategy. For this particular trade, current market conditions (as assessed by the ATR) determined a profit target of two points. Slower markets = smaller target, smaller stop. Faster, volatile markets = larger target, larger stop. If the market is simply too fast or too slow, stay out.

John Paul believes it’s a good thing when multiple unrelated ideas (indicators or strategies) confirm the direction you should be trading. The Atlas Line short signal at 10:00 a.m. confirms the ATO 2 signal. If the Atlas Line produced a long signal, the ATO 2 trade would have less confidence.

If you like to learn how to trade at your own pace, remember each live Mentorship lesson is recorded. After each class, you can log in and play back the video recordings.

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.