How late in the day will you take a signal. I am struggling with this a little. I have not been taking any trades past 3:45 EST in my backtesting. I just got out of the last trade, because I saw a warning on the first down candle and it was late. ?????
5 Postions Taken 3 Sucessful 2 Failed 60% Daily P/L = +4.5 Points 1 contract = $225 5 contracts = $1,135 10 contracts = $2,250 Thanks once again Breakout. Enjoyed your company. Hope to be back tommorrow. Till then....
Same as you...about 3:45 EST. Because, I definitely don't want to have a position after 4:00, but if I get a signal before 3:45, that gives it 15 minutes to work. But, I'm definitly flat at 4:00. I've seen to many freaky occurrences over the years, in the last 15 minutes of trading.
One more thing I would suggest. It appears you are just saying: okay, I went long here and I got out here. You might want to find a trading simulator to make your paper trades. I don't know if tradestation has one or not. If you have an account with IB, there are free API programs that you can use. It's one thing to write it down, and another to have it carved in stone, so to speak. Had fun today...see ya
I hear what your saying. I am not just entering and exiting based on random statements. Unfortunately TradeStation does not have a "Simulator" for realtime paper trading. I have something called the "Order Bar" that sits on top of my charts. This is where my real brokerage account resides. I have the Bid and Ask Buttons, Park, Buy, Sell, etc ticking in realtime. I have the buttons locked so I don't accidentally place a real trade. When I say that I am long or short, I actually am clicking the Bid or Ask Buttons and that is the price I am referencing. I log the entry and Stop Loss in an excel worksheet and then post it. I set the Profit Target, Move Stops etc within the spreadsheet. When the Bid or Ask button hits my stop, target, etc. I consider the order filled. This is all I can do. I think it is pretty accurate though. I have actually been clicking on the buttons when I do it. I tried using the simulator from PFG Best and it was just too much of a pain to switch around my platform just for this. I do not need the practice of learning how to actually place trades. I have been doing this for some time. I wish TS would incorporate this only because it would keep my records automatically and I would not have to record them in a spreadsheet. Sometimes I feel like an idiot with all this. Watching Charts, Clicking Buttons, Logging in a Sreadsheet, Rushing to get the post in so it is close to realtime. [img]"C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\visiontrade\My Simulator.PNG"[/img]