Hello Laissez Faire, What do you mean? Just going back over charts and eyeballing them? Could you describe the process maybe please? I have the ability to replay data using NinjaTrader I think, should I use this? I want to make this a success so would appreciate all of your input
You actually "trade" the historical chart and "enter" trades when you get a signal according to your method including a stop loss. Load your historical data and scroll the screen so that only the first 5-minute bar (or whatever time frame you will be using) is showing. Then scroll to the right, one bar at a time, at your own pace. Try to understand what is happening and predict the next bar. Support and resistance levels and all that should be plotted in advance, so that you "trade" your method like you would live. Take notes, see what works, what don`t works, compile statistics, etc. Since you seem to have no trading experience, you may want to play around a little in the simulator first and get a feel for how it is and test some ideas in a live environment. The obvious advantage of backtesting historical data manually is that you do it at your own pace, which is very important for the neophyte who will get hypnotized by the ticks on the fast-moving screen. It is a much better environment for learning. Also, if you step away from simulator trading after a while and focus on this, you will find that you can backtest perhaps one complete trading week in one day instead of one day of learning in the simulator. That is why it can really accelerate your learning. Another thing is that you learn to wait for the bars to close. Generally, you are always better off doing that. Many 5-minute bars looks extremely bullish or bearish at a point, only to reverse in the final seconds and completely negate the signal. A nice trap for impatient traders
If you go through the 5 minute charts 1 bar at a time, every move to the right is 5 minutes so you can go through a day pretty fast. When analysing and figuring out strategies, I like this approach. It's methodical, gives you time to think and absorb. The NT replay function is great and I use it for practice. You can speed up the replay so that pressures you to decide quickly, and gets you through the 'trading day' faster. With replay and real-time every day, you get 2 days experience for 1 days work. Use older replay data so that you do not have bias (because you remember what the market did yesterday). I also use it to test ATM Strategies once I have these worked out. Set the super DOM to display selected ATM Strategies only and you can test 2 or 3 strategies at the same time by pausing the replay and entering all the orders before resuming.
Hi, I am new as well. Which platform do you use that has the $TICK indicator? I'm using Interactive Brokers and it doesn't seem like they have it. Thanks
Hello Laissez Faire, Thank you for the information. I will try and do that this morning to see if I am reading price action well enough or not. I will then invest alot of time over the coming weeks trading my system like this. How did yesterday go for you? It was a day of missed opportunity for me... I will explain in the next posts... MissTick
Hello JustTrading, Thank you for your input, I am going to spend the weekend going through all of this. MissTick
Hello Knnman, I use Ninja Trader with a KineTick data feed. I think you need the NYSE exchange for the Tick. KR MissTick
So yesterdays trading... or lack there of... It seemed I missed every opportunity that presented itself yesterday, if I wasn't doing some research I was making a cup of tea, but one way or another I have to make sure I am looking at the charts for every second of the trading day from now else I will continue to miss opportunities. Does anyone else ever face this... what is your remedy... is it just a question of focus?