In my 20 or so years of trading, one of the most common questions I receive is, “How can I trade successfully?” There are many products and services out there. Trading can be confusing as it is. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to trade at a well-respected U.S. firm where I learned from the best and was in a position to be at the forefront of developing techniques I still use to this day. Keep reading and I’ll let you in on some advice. Here’s an early hint: finding a day trading coach is the best way.

In reality, there are about two main ways to become a trader.

One method is to do everything yourself. Spend countless hours, days, weeks, and even years trying to figure out what the market is doing and how you can consistently find winning trades. This is a long, expensive road. Do you have the free time to dedicate to learning properly? What about the “10,000 hour rule” for becoming an expert? Do you have endless supplies of cash for trial and error in live markets? Even if you stick to simulated trading entirely, you will need to put yourself into simulated positions on an almost daily basis in order to learn all the ways the market can move (and how you can best counter that movement). There are a ton of books and learning resources out there. Do those strategies still work? Were they tested? Are today’s markets different?

The day trading coachj way is better. Consider a capable mentor who has already put in the time and money, and has refined his approach based on trading his and other peoples’ money, plus the added benefit of feedback from his students. Decades of trading wisdom is priceless. Also, a good teacher knows how to break down information into understandable portions. Sometimes, trading instruction can be way too technical. A slow, steady, cumulative approach tends to work best.

Ready for a Day Trading Coach?

For over a decade, DayTradeToWin has lessened the learning curve and cost associated with becoming a trader. We have designed a number of products for this purpose. In fact, we offer an eight-week Mentorship Program specifically designed from turning both inexperienced and experienced traders into capable market strategists who can tackle the highs and lows every day. All training is conducted live by a day trading coach in a webinar format. No filler content is added – it’s all based on tried and true methods.

To learn more, visit the official Mentorship page. Group Mentorship classes begin about every month. The one-on-one program can almost begin at any time.

A new Group Mentorship class is set to begin June 18, 2018. What is Mentorship? It’s an eight-week trading school where you can learn about 10 different ways to trade popular markets, including futures markets like the E-mini S&P. John Paul, the founder of DayTradeToWin.com personally teaches each of the classes. The live training sessions are conducted in an online webinar room. In the room, you can see John Paul’s trading charts as he teaches each of the strategies. By the end of the eight weeks, the goal is to have a complete understanding of all the strategies and how they work together to form one complete trading plan.

Mentorship takes a different approach compared to other online trading schools. For starters, it’s an all-inclusive program. There are no hidden charges. Typically, you pay for the course via three payments and that provides access to all of the training and downloads. If you want to use the NinjaTrader platform and trade with real money, you will need to have to buy a license from NinjaTrader and fund an account with a broker that is compatible with NinjaTrader. DayTradeToWin.com can assist in providing a complete practice environment in which you can simulate the live trading experience.

Although the course downloads are provided for NinjaTrader only, many of the methods will work with other platforms. For most strategies, the rules are fully explained. You learn how to find the trades according to price patterns, what profit target and stop loss values to use, and how to manage trades. By using an understanding of price action, you can manually trade on other platforms without the aid of signal software.

This Trading School Offers:

• ATO 2 course and software
• Price Action Scalping course and software
• Trade Scalper course and software
• Atlas Line software
• Roadmap software
• Blueprint method
• ABC software
• Trading the news method and news event software
• X-5 method
• Yo-Yo method, Stair Step Method, Trailing Stops, Filtering Trades, and much more
• All classes are recorded and posted online in your private account for future playback
• Email support
• Optional remote support for installation and configuration of course materials

The testimonials page has dozens of written statements from traders who have used DayTradeToWin.com products over the years. DayTradeToWin.com has stood the test of time as a reliable trading school / online educator. If you have already purchased the Atlas Line, Trade Scalper, ATO 2 or another product, you are entitled to a discount for your prior purchases.

On Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day), expect the E-mini S&P and other CME products to halt early at 1 p.m. ET and reopen at 6 p.m. ET. This five-hour closure is detailed on CME’s page here. Expect an early trading halt for the CME’s equity, interest rate, FX, NYMEX & COMEX products. Note that the CME often uses CT (Central Time), so keep this in mind when thinking about your time zone.

Beyond Memorial Day

What’s the next trading holiday? July 4, 2018 (Independence Day). We will post more about this holiday soon. Beyond that, we have Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Friday, May 25 may be a slow trading day, as can happen the Friday before a three-day weekend. With the market moving fast lately, maybe this will be a nice break.

Every three months, futures traders need to perform a contract rollover. CME futures trading is structured in such a way that contracts expire on a quarterly cycle. In the months of March, June, September, and December, you will need to perform roll over steps to ensure that you’re trading an up to date contract. If not, your chart’s price activity will be inaccurate (among other problems).

Some trading platforms automatically roll over your contracts. Others specific a “continuous contract” where you simply don’t need to worry about doing anything – the contract is just always up to date. With NinjaTrader 8, the process has been made simpler, but a couple of steps are still involved.

Rollover Steps for NinjaTrader

1. In NinjaTrader’s Control Center, go to Tools > Database Management
2. The Database Management window should appear. Providing you are following these steps on or after the rollover date (see the list of dates here), the contracts needing a roll over should be listed. Click the Rollover button.
3. Go back to your chart(s) and you should see the new contract periods. For example, your ES 03-18 chart should now appear as ES 06-18. Keep in mind that markets like the CL roll over more frequently, so it’s good to visit the Database Management window on a monthly basis just to roll over anything that may need it.

Some traders prefer to roll over later than the rollover date. This is because it can take a couple of days for the volume to transition to the new contract. If you want to try this approach, you can monitor the volume on this page.

These pictures will help guide you further:

 

 

 

In late January, many media outlets said that the U.S. stock market was strong and resilient. Record highs were hit. Within a couple of weeks, the Dow experienced one of its largest losses ever. Many consider this to be a stock market crash. What happened?

Well, here are some of the possible explanations:

• Investors were worried high interest rates, bond yields, and inflation, so a sell-off occurred
• High frequency trading algorithms somehow caused the activity, perhaps by playing off one another or analyzing the markets and deciding that selling was the best option (a bug, development oversight, or maybe intentionally designed)
• After the market rose to new levels since the 2016 election, it was simply time for the market to regulate and come back down to “normal” levels

We retail traders have been dealing with increased volatility during this time period, even through today. Much of the time, the E-mini’s ATR (Average True Range) has exceeded levels safe levels for day trading (based on our assessment rules). For example, when the ATR is between one and four points, trading conditions are acceptable. During this highly volatile time, we have seen the ATR push 20.

Stock Market Crash: What You Can Do

What can you do? Sit on your hands, experiment, or engage in higher-risk trading. You can’t control the market or the conditions that may have caused the volatility. Yes, our methods have found many excellent trades, but if you decide to jump in on one of our signals, be very careful. A fast-moving market can easily flip direction and tag you out. If you’re going to trade, jump into simulation mode for a while first and get a feel for what it would be like trading with a live account.

Interestingly, the 2018 January Effect seems to indicate that 2018 will be an up year. If that’s true (and there is basis for historical accuracy), then what does that mean for this period of bearish activity? Well, by watching the video above, the markets may now be on the rise. If that’s the case, you can use the January Effect method to get in before the market reaches new highs.

 

Were you successful with any trades yesterday? The Atlas Line called out a clear winner, totaling about +2.5 points or +10 ticks. This short trade occurred in the E-mini S&P market at about 10 a.m. EST. The signal was generated at the close of the candle at about 2869. At that time, the Average True Range (ATR) was about 2.56. This is where we get the +2.5 profit target (round down to the nearest whole-point). While the maximum profit target may have been double that, once you’re in a trade, the rules say to closely monitor real-time conditions and adjust the profit and stop loss as you go. In some instances, an unexpected news event can dramatically increase volatility. If that happens, you may want to cut your losses and get out sooner than later. Fortunately, this trade was a winner with good volatility.

When trading, getting in as close as possible to the signal price is recommended. In this trade, John Paul got in within a tick or so. If you were trading with five contracts, the profit would have been over $600. Of course, the amount of contracts one can trade with is impacting by one’s ability to properly fund a trading account. Practice is encouraged, then after exploring the risks of trading and consulting with a financial professional, starting off with one contract is probably the best option.

Performance, Risk, and Approach

Students who are new to the price action approach taught by DayTradeToWin may consider the following:

• Reduce risk exposure by staying in a trade as little time as possible. Get in and hopefully get out with profit. The Atlas Line’s rules limit each trade to about 20 min. Often times, you’ll get out sooner.
• Before the trading day begins, check the financial news schedule. Market-impacting events are published ahead of time. You may want to stay out until the volatility subsides.
• Measure your trading success by looking at long-term performance. Look at each month and objectively compare the performance. NinjaTrader has an account performance feature that is useful in this regard. If you are unsatisfied, consider a new approach.

Traders have said how much they have enjoyed seeing videos of the ATO 2 and Atlas Line in use on one chart. Here is another recent video showing just that. The E-mini S&P is the market being traded here. The first signal that appears is an ATO 2 short. As John Paul has said previously, you take the first signal that appears. If you were in this trade and held onto it by the time the Atlas Line signal came, you could have placed another short or potentially increased your profit target. What’s interesting about this particular day is that many traders believed it was a bull market. Both of the DayTradeToWin.com indicators believed otherwise. When one trading system confirms another, John Paul believes there may be a better chance for profit. That said, no strategy or signal can guarantee profits. Trading is risky.

Don’t Be Baffled by Bull Markets

See the green line at the bottom of the chart? That’s the ATR (average true range). It’s what John Paul is using to calculate his profit target and stop loss. It’s also what he uses to measure volatility. When the ATR is between two and four points, the conditions are ideal for trading. Above or below that, it’s either too volatile (likely due to a news event) or too slow (perhaps no big market movers are trading, it’s after-hours, or the date is near a holiday). Look to the right of the ATR and you’ll see the current value in the price axis. With a period value of four for the indicator, the ATR says the profit target should be about two points. The rules for determining the profit target and stop loss are taught in the included live training.

Remember, a bullish market is expected if the January Effect applies. We will only know whether 2018 is a January Effect year by market close on January 31. In any case, you can always look for long and short trades using any of the trading methods taught in the eight-week Mentorship Program. All courses and software are included with lifetime licenses. Instead of having to travel to an office, DayTradeToWin.com brings the classroom to you. All lessons are live and are provided through an online trading room. Although John Paul is not calling out trades for you to take, he is teaching you how to be a trader first and foremost. If you want more time to review a particular topic, no worries. Because each class is recorded, you can always log in and watch a recording.