yea I also use oneNote but run into issues where sometimes pasting screenshots don't work using default windows clip tool until I reset oneNote, do you also run into tho issues?
How do you organize your trading notes and material?
- Thread starter Howard
- Start date
Any news? How do you export your trades to Tradervue?
I have a trading log which works fine for my daily market studies/statistics.
But logging my trades is still painful.
I have two main problems:
1) I'm an all in/all out trader and trade anything from 3-10 lots at the time being. Ninjatrader splits trades.
Yesterday, I had 9 trades, but 2 of the trades were split (I assume the order was split) in 2 such that Ninjatrader reports this as 11 trades. Although they were at the exact same price/time.
In my mind, this is not correct and these trades should be aggregated.
How does Tradervue or other platforms/solutions deal with this issue?
I can manually aggregate in Excel, but that's obviously a pain. There are day where my trades are split much more than above.
2) Annotating charts with trade executions.
In NT, this is a mess if you have a day with frequent entries/exits in the same area.
It can work on a day where you execute <5 trades. But beyond that, it's usually a pain.
I'm curious how Tradervue or other software deals with this issue. Maybe this is simply how it is?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some insight or advice on this.
Howard
Please explain what you mean by Ninjatrader split your trades ?
For example, if you take two trades...the 1st trade with 5 contracts in and then 5 contracts out...the 2nd trade with 2 contracts in and then 2 contracts out...
What will Ninjatrader show via spliting the trades ?
I ask because it seems like you're talking about trade annotations on a chart versus trade executions in the trade window.
wrbtrader
Hi, wrbtrader
Yesterday, I traded 3 lots on all my trades. Here's a picture of the trade report in Ninja.
As you can see, the 1st trade is shown as 1 trade (3 contracts).
However, the next 2 trades are split up. Trade 2 and 3 should be trade 2; Trade 3 and 4 should be trade 3. The red numbers are made by me of course.
Comments?
Maybe this is the norm for other software as well?
Well, that's a different question, although it's related also. When Ninja splits up trades as can be seen above, the resulting text on the charts gets increasingly messy (although the arrows/markers are at the same place).
Hi,
Thanks...Emini ES futures is a highly liquid trading instrument...rarely should you see split fills like that.
Yet, I see them often even the times & sales window of different charting vendors, different brokers and I'll compare my numbers sometimes with other traders in real time just to see what they have...split data for them too and sometimes different types of split fills from a group traders when comparing times & sales (not your trade executions).
Thus, I'm always perplexed by that when I see it occur in the trade execution windows and just have excepted it as the norm after many years of wondering about it from various brokers and various charting vendors.
We aren't talking like 100 - 500 contract trade that gets split. We're talking about a small 2 - 5 contract trade that get split but they all have the exact same entry/exit price and exact same times...
Its not just Ninjatrader...many others do it too. Than strangely, there will be days when you will not see it and then it shows up again for a few days...disappears again just as fast.
It gets more confusing...using your example involving trade #2 (red)...you have a 1+2 split.
Pretend it was a 4 contract trade...if you compare the trade execution time with the times & sales window to locate your trade...one charting broker may show 4 in and 4 out, times & sales window in a charting vendor not with the broker will show 4 in and 1+2+1 out, a different charting vendor will show 4 in and 1+1+2 out...all with the exact times on the exit.
You'll only know this if you're using different brokers and different charting vendors to compare them side by side in real time while deciding which one to continue using and which ones to stop using...you can do the same comparison with other traders via screen sharing when comparing the trade data and times & sales data.
I've done the latter above. On Thursday I had a trade 3 in and 1+1+1 out. My friend in the screen sharing and using a different broker...his times & sales window showed that exact same time of the trade as 3 in and 1+2 out.
Anyways, I stopped scratching my head about this issue many years ago and think its just the norm.
wrbtrader
Thanks...Emini ES futures is a highly liquid trading instrument...rarely should you see split fills like that.
Yet, I see them often even the times & sales window of different charting vendors, different brokers and I'll compare my numbers sometimes with other traders in real time just to see what they have...split data for them too and sometimes different types of split fills from a group traders when comparing times & sales (not your trade executions).
Thus, I'm always perplexed by that when I see it occur in the trade execution windows and just have excepted it as the norm after many years of wondering about it from various brokers and various charting vendors.
We aren't talking like 100 - 500 contract trade that gets split. We're talking about a small 2 - 5 contract trade that get split but they all have the exact same entry/exit price and exact same times...
Its not just Ninjatrader...many others do it too. Than strangely, there will be days when you will not see it and then it shows up again for a few days...disappears again just as fast.
It gets more confusing...using your example involving trade #2 (red)...you have a 1+2 split.
Pretend it was a 4 contract trade...if you compare the trade execution time with the times & sales window to locate your trade...one charting broker may show 4 in and 4 out, times & sales window in a charting vendor not with the broker will show 4 in and 1+2+1 out, a different charting vendor will show 4 in and 1+1+2 out...all with the exact times on the exit.
You'll only know this if you're using different brokers and different charting vendors to compare them side by side in real time while deciding which one to continue using and which ones to stop using...you can do the same comparison with other traders via screen sharing when comparing the trade data and times & sales data.
I've done the latter above. On Thursday I had a trade 3 in and 1+1+1 out. My friend in the screen sharing and using a different broker...his times & sales window showed that exact same time of the trade as 3 in and 1+2 out.
Anyways, I stopped scratching my head about this issue many years ago and think its just the norm.
wrbtrader
Thank you for your informative comment, wrbtrader. Maybe this is how it is then?
I've had days far worse than this though. There have been days where I had < 20 trades, but Ninja reported 30 trades.
It does skew win % statistics also. Haven't looked very much into it, but my % yesterday was 1 % better than reported by NT (11 vs 9 trades).
For now, and unless someone comments on a software which takes care of this problem, I will manually aggregate these trades in my Excel sheets.
PS: Do you log your visual entries as well? I find that painful as well. At least when I trade frequently. I do try to minimize trade frequency, but I won't use that in itself as a solution.
Using a second chart or tick charts seems to help 'spread things out' a bit.
Best,
Howard
Howard,
I forgot to mention something else that's important.
Using your trade as an example...the one you highlighted in the red...you show the time on the entry as 15:41:52 and the exit as 15:53:12
Some brokers in comparison will show 15:53:12:260 (to represent the milliseconds)
Thus, I sometimes suspect there's "other trades" in milliseconds that would explain the different splits from trader to trader especially if one trader shows 15:53:12 and another trader shows 15:53:12:260 while another trader shows 15:53:12:450
All the above times showing different split times.
wrbtrader
I forgot to mention something else that's important.
Using your trade as an example...the one you highlighted in the red...you show the time on the entry as 15:41:52 and the exit as 15:53:12
Some brokers in comparison will show 15:53:12:260 (to represent the milliseconds)
Thus, I sometimes suspect there's "other trades" in milliseconds that would explain the different splits from trader to trader especially if one trader shows 15:53:12 and another trader shows 15:53:12:260 while another trader shows 15:53:12:450
All the above times showing different split times.
wrbtrader
I make screenshots of the timestamp trade fills in the broker trade execution platform, audit trail and trade execution window only because the nightly broker statements do not show the timestamp of the trade fills...some brokers show it while others do not.
Yeah, its a pain to do the screenshots but I do it out of fear just in case I have a problematic trade and I'm afraid of the data being deleted or wiped clean in the trade execution platform at a later date. If I didn't do the screenshots during the trading day, the only verification I have is a broker statement that only show transaction IDs, trades, fees, profit/loss...while not showing the timestamps of the entry/exit.
Also, I do the screenshots of the configuration on my monitors because I want a documentation of the visual image of what my trading screens during the trading day with the trades shown in either the audit trail window, trade execution window, trade fills window or whatever along with what charts I was using at/near the times of the trades. This is important to me because I'm a strong believer that the configuration of the charts with trade execution platform on our monitors...
That visual data and how its shown on our monitors (location on the monitors) impacts our trade decisions especially via the fact that some traders are more efficient at reading top to down, others from right to left and others from left to right, others from bottom to top and others begin in the center and then randomly scan outwards to other areas of the monitor. This visual documentation becomes more important for those that use multiple monitors for their trading.
Now imagine the psychological impact...emotional trading, early entries, early exits, stressed and many other things that occurs while trading just because the visual info on our screens is not configure to be efficient for us but may be great for someone else.
As stated earlier...its all a pain in the ass and some days you just get tired and do not care to document anything.
Therefore, if you only have one chart up on your monitor and nothing else when you made those trade decisions...your documentation will be very easy (not a pain in the ass).
wrbtrader
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Yes, that. I believe this has to do with order book matching. One order ticket was looking for one contract, so they took the one from you. The next layer of the order book was looking for two or more contracts at your level, and they grabbed your remaining two to complete what would be a second ticket on your end. Thus they show as 1, 2 or 3 separate "trades".
I may not be wording that right, but I can see it in my head. But hey, be glad you were not using FAK/FOK order types, or you may not have been filled at all.