Actually I’ve used different ladders … On TWS, Xtrader, CQG, Sierra Chart and Tradovate. Never had any issue because the ladder is static. The dynamic version isn’t intuitive … The last price stays in the center and its tough to tell if the market is moving up or down … NT ladder isn’t for point and click traders.
The chart trader looks really nice, But it’s not within the free version. Got to be either leased or pursued All the nice features such as Backtesting, Automating, Chart trader or multiple orders strategy aren’t available on the free version.
And what is remarkable, is the fact that almost nobody can make 3.5 points net a day. Even not most of the "elite traders".
I've crunched some numbers and it reveals that in order to make $393,300 with $2,123,731, as shown in the month of 01/2003 below, you clearly need to trade more than 100 lots. For example, if you make 3.5 points with 100 lots, that's 17,500 (50x3.5x100) per day. Multiplying that by 21 trading days in a month, you end up with $367,500 average per day, which is less than $393,300. Not that it's not impossible, but I've yet to see any retail trader trading such a large size, day in and day out. Also trading a large block of that size (unless you scale in and out) will usually get noticed and impact your trading. Frankly, I don't think this is doable. Wishful thinking is allowed however.
There are a number of settings that have an impact on the results. So if you change these settings the results change too. In the model that I posted, I omitted every saturday and every sunday, but no special days that the markets can be closed too. That was too much work for me. In january 2024 this results in 23 trading days. So 17,500x23=$395,002. My aim was to see how the evolution of the account would be, just an indication that would be close to correct. I should probably have deleted still more or less 10 days. The model NEVER went over 100 contracts ES. 100 contracts is nothing that will be noticed if the daily volume is 2-3 million contracts. On ET was already posted that even 1,000 contracts seems to be no problem. So the argument that 100 contracts is too much, is wrong. AS a daytrader trades several times a day, he does not have to take 100 contracts at a time. He can do 4 trades of each 25 contracts. The excel that I posted started with $10,000. With the applied settings you see that we start with only 1 contract. So not 100. When the account grows, the size grows also accordingly to the margin (risk). I added a table with the maximum size traded per month where you see the evolution. Only from september the size of 100 contracts is reached. The last 4 trading days the average volume per MINUTE was 2,700 contracts in the MES, and 3,238 contracts in the ES. So on average the 100 contracts can be filled 32 times within 1 minute. 100 contracts represent 3.125% of the average volume of ONE minute. Download the excel below and you will see how it works. And take the numbers on the number of days that you think you will trade, and forget the date that is mentioned. They are in column G. So for 21 days a month, watch day 252 ( 21 x 12) for the exact numbers.
It doesn't work in real life trading. If it did, you would be doing it. One losing trade wipes out the entire account. Backtesting models do not take this into account.
I daytrade already for over 2 decades. And I am still alive. Can you proof me that I don't do what I post? If not you are just BS. Like you do most of the time, as you pretend to be an expert in any subject that is mentioned on ET. That's how you get to ten thousands of posts. I use this strategy in my trading system. The only tghing that is differnt is the numbers.I took the numbers from someone onET who mentuioned them. My numbers are higher or lower, but I am not going to post them. Tell me how I can wipe out my entire account in one losing trade. Without any hard proof that is again one of the thousands of idiot replies from you. I posted already in past on ET why I can never get broke anymore. And I cannot wipe out my account. With the applied risk management and the very profitable expectancy a wipe out is impossible. I always have a 5 point stop in the market. Tell me how I can lose my entire account in one trade with a 5 point stop. I need a 50point loss in one trade to get wiped out. LOL. And even then, there is no problem, because past profits were withdrawn, so I can start again without any problem 10 times in a row. This is about you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect If you watch attentive the excel that I posted then you see that at day 176 I reacghed the 100 contracts size. So I need 700K to trade 100 contracts. All the amounts above 700K can be withdrawn. So at the end of year one, there is already a financial buffer of $1.8MM that can be used to start again after a wipe out. So a wipe out is not a real issue.