My Trading Quest - Can I be Profitable in 90 Days?

Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 12 Days to go …

Thursday, and 12 days to go…

Actions I took since the last post:
  • Continued watching for potential Simplicity Chart trades
  • Reviewed the market to identify trades I thought were valid trades on ES and NQ
Simplicity Trades

People in the room continue to make good money with simplicity.

The problem I have is that the entry is so simple that I don’t yet have faith in the success rate. It is hard when you cannot backtest the chart. I will continue to live test the chart and decide after the challenge is over if I think it has sufficient potential to pay for the extra feed and then be able to backtest it.

Todays Trading (Thursday)

I found one valid trade in ES today.

I traded in Sim, 2 trades (2 NQ).

Trade 1 NQ – 6:08 am

The Long Entry was an ETX with the trend and an Elevator trade.

This trade was successful for full profit.

2020-08-20_23-52-14.png


Trade 2 NQ – 9:11 am

The Short Entry was a DTX trade with Trend

This trade was successful for full profit.

2020-08-19_20-04-10.png


Potential Trades

Only one Valid trade found on ES.

NQ had 11 valid trades with only 1 loser. I did not include a few setups as the speed of the market would have prevented entry from occurring.



2020-08-20_23-59-35.png


Resources:

Another podcast that I regularly listen to is the Better System Trader Podcast.

Andrew Swanscott hosts the show and has some great guests including:

  • Steve Ward
  • Linda Raschke
  • Kevin Davey
  • Larry Conners
  • David Bean
  • John Ehlers
  • and many more
http://bettersystemtrader.com/

*********************************​

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 11 Days to go …

Friday, and 11 days to go…

Actions I took since the last post:
  • Continued watching for potential Simplicity Chart trades
  • Reviewed the market to identify trades I thought were valid trades on ES and NQ
Simplicity Trades

After watching all the Simplicity videos and the live application, I am still having trouble trusting the overall strategy. It feels like a good way to increase trade profit but has the potential of blowing up accounts. I think I will need to subscribe to the extra data feed so I can backtest it. Trust is so important when trading a setup.

Quick Review

The markets have changed in the last 60 days and trades are becoming less frequent and the markets are moving much quicker at times.

So far in this Challenge, I can see that the Apex setups work but other things need to be taken into account when choosing a trading system for my ongoing focus. Over the next 10 days I will be reviewing the validity of the Apex Investing systems to see if they can help me achieve my goals and if not, why not?

In the trading room, I can see that other people are taking trades that I don’t recognize as valid and they profit. I am trying to only trade valid trades as per the training and also the rules that I have backtested.

There are a number of reasons for this variation, including rules being changed, people not knowing the rules, and people trading other setups then the ones I am.

Todays Trading (Friday)

Another quiet day for both markets. I only found 2 valid trades in ES and 5 with NQ.

It is interesting that the five NQ trades all happened before the open.

I traded in Sim, 1 trade

Trade 1 NQ – 8:46 am

The Short Entry was a ODD (Divergence) trade.

This trade was successful for full profit.

2020-08-22_00-16-54.png


Potential Trades

Only two Valid trades found on ES.

NQ had 5 valid trades with only 1 loser. I did not include a few setups as the speed of the market would have prevented entry from occurring.


2020-08-22_21-25-37.png


Resources:

Another podcast that I regularly listen to is the SMB Capital Podcast with Mike Bellafiore and Brett Steenbarger.

Mike had an interesting topic that I think we can all learn from:

How to Become a Consistently Profitable Trader (like you deserve to be)


*********************************​

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …the



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
I have been trading a robot system for 10 months; with no real clever maneuvers or trading magic acts, it averages $2108/d for the last 115 days; check out this video and decide for yourself:
 
Hi Overnight, There are other factors to take into account when deciding to trade live or even to trade in a funding assessment.

I will discuss them in future posts
Cheers
 
Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 10 Days to go …

I have missed a week of trading due to windows 10 update issues … I still haven’t solved all the issues yet!

So, I have decided to continue from my last post … today has 10 days to go.

Actions I took since the last post:
  • Computer issues so no trading until today Monday 31st August.
  • Reviewed the market to identify trades I thought were valid trades on ES and NQ
  • Sim traded a setup that I have been backtesting which has good results

Update

Do we want to be a trader or a money manager?

This is a question that comes out in a book that I have been reading.

After reading the book it is obvious that we really need to be money managers.

I keep getting people suggesting that I should be trading live with my own money and other suggestions that come from a trader's perspective, not a money manager's perspective.

After reading this book, I suggest that every trader should read it. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting or an experienced trader. I will share tomorrow, the details on the book and where you can get it if you are interested.

So far in this Challenge, I can see that the Apex setups work but other things need to be taken into account when choosing a trading system for my ongoing focus. Over the next 10 days I will be reviewing the validity of the Apex Investing systems to see if they can help me achieve my goals and if not, why not?

In the trading room, I can see that other people are taking trades that I don’t recognize as valid and they profit. I am trying to only trade valid trades as per the training and also the rules that I have backtested.

There are a number of reasons for this variation, including rules being changed, people not knowing the rules, and people trading other setups then the ones I am.

Todays Trading (Monday)

I only found 1 valid trade in ES and 6 with NQ.

As I often say, I did not record a number of possible trades due to the speed of the market making it improbable for an entry to occur.

I traded in Sim and was finished before the US market opened.

Trade 1 NQ – 20:09 am (Sunday)

The Long Entry was an HD (Hidden Divergence) and an NTX trend trade.

This trade was successful for full profit.

2020-08-31_18-01-48.png


Potential Trades

Only one Valid trade found on ES.

NQ had 6 valid trades with only 1 loser. I did not include a few setups as the speed of the market would have prevented entry from occurring.

2020-08-31_20-45-36.png



All Sim Trades (+$463.75 Net Profit)

You can see below all my Sim trades. A total of 10 trades.

1 trade setup was with the normal Apex Setups and 9 were with the new (AR1) setup.

3 trades were taken on ZB (30-year bonds) and 7 trades on NQ.

Trade number 9 was the only losing trade. The trade actually went to target after I moved the stop! This mistake was purely a mental moment on my behalf. It was interesting watching myself getting mentally stressed due the price movement at the time.

The advantage of the new AR1 setup is that it occurs more frequently in the current market.

2020-08-31_20-48-00.png


Resources:

Tomorrow I will give you the details of the book I am currently reading and why I recommend it to all traders. “The Truth about Trading” by Judy Van Niekerk.

*********************************

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
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Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 9 Days to go …

Today is Tuesday and only 9 days to go …

Actions I took since the last post:
  • Reviewed the market to identify trades I thought were valid trades on ES and NQ
Review of where I am currently at:

As I have said previously, the markets have changed since I started this challenge. And they will continue to change.

My initial process to the challenge is one of:

  • Study the course and setups and ask heaps of questions
  • Create a trading Plan which includes detailed information on the setups
  • Backtest the setups on a static chart until I am confident that they work and I know the rules
  • Run the Market Replay to test the setups and the execution of the trade
  • Sim Test to ensure the setups work in real time
  • Identify all potential trades for each instrument each day. Noting why to take the trade and more importantly why NOT to take the trade
  • When I have the confidence in the setups and the system then move to the assessment for the funded account
  • Note: Along the way reviewing myself and the suitability of the strategy.
. So, how does this relate to this Challenge?

Due to external factors, I have a couple of breaks in the challenge. Yes, life can get in the road of any journey. I believe that the important thing is to have the persistence to keep going and achieve my goal and keep learning.

Backtesting the Apex Setups

There are a number of ways to backtest a setup and most people don’t do any backtesting!

  • The quickest and my preferred way is to code the setup and then run the setup over a number of in and out of samples. This would take too long to explain this process in this post. If you would like more information on this method then read Kevin Davey’s book. If you would like me to explain it more here then if there is enough interest I will.
As Apex uses Proprietary indicators, I could not use this method.

  • Manually backtest bar by bar. This has many problems and they vary with each individual person and software. Some software allows you to cheat. Ninjatrader is good for manually backtesting and also with market replay process in built so you can vary the speed and pause it when you wan to.
  • When backtesting it is important to test in all market conditions
  • This is very time consuming but is critical to success.
The challenge with doing all the hard work with manual testing is that when the rules change or the market changes such that the results don’t work as expected. “As expected” not only means win/loss, but also frequency and time of day.

In this case the profitability of the Apex Setups are still very good but the frequency of the trades are reduced. Most days I can only find 1 or 2 valid trades in ES and around 5 with NQ.

Some people say that the number of trades. the MAE and MFE look great so therefore I should be trading live money. The reason this doesn’t make sense is in the further analysis of the time of day for the trades which currently occurs in pre market. The second problem arises when you look at the gap between the trades and factor in losing focus. If the time you have available to trade only has 4 trades and you miss 1 and make a mistake with another then the results doesn’t look so good.

Win 2 ( 2 x $50 = $100) – Commission

Lose 1 ( 1 x $105) – Commission

You do not have the opportunity to become profitable.

Remember to dig deep into the analysis and not just look at the win/loss stats.

This has been the biggest issue with the Apex Bootcamp Setups. The good thing about Apex Investing is they continue to improve and help people overcome the changing markets. That is why they have introduced the Simplicity Charts and some other setups.

The main reason I have not embraced the Simplicity charts is that it hard to backtest the methodology unless you purchase an extra data feed.


I have chosen to use the current setups and a couple of new ones.

If I had not done the hard work with backtesting and the daily review of potential trades, then I would not understand the issues that I am currently observing.

Today is another Sim day and after reviewing my trades, tomorrow I will move to take trades in the Leeloo evaluation Account.


Todays Trading (Tuesday)

I did not record a number of possible trades due to the speed of the market making it improbable for entry to occur.

Potential ES Trades

Five Valid trades (Old Setups) found on ES . Only 1 losing trade.

Seven Valid trades were identified with the new setup.

I sim traded 2 ES trades resulting in 1 win and 1 loss.

2020-09-02_09-09-23.png



Potential NQ Trades

Twelve Valid trades (Old Setups) found on NQ. No 1 losing trades.

Twenty-Two Valid trades were identified with the new setup. 2 losing trades.

I sim traded 6 NQ trades resulting in all winners.

2020-09-02_09-10-53.png



All Sim Trades (+$388.75 Net Profit)

You can see below all my Sim trades. A total of 10 trades.

3 trade setups were with the normal Apex Setups and 7 were with the new (AR1) setup.

1 trade were taken on ZB (30 year bonds), 6 trades on NQ and 2 trades on ES.

The advantage with the new AR1 setup is that it occurs more frequently in the current market.

2020-09-02_09-12-07.png


Resources:

Tomorrow I will give you the details on the book I am currently reading and why I recommend it to all traders. “The Truth about Trading” by Judy Van Niekerk.

*********************************

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 8 Days to go …

Wednesday and only 8 days to go.

Actions I took since the last post:

  • Reviewed the new trade setups and the results they appear to be getting.
  • Reviewed the market to identify trades I thought were valid trades on ES and NQ
  • Sim traded
Some of the new setups look really good:

I wrote yesterday that the frequency of trades is important in your evaluations. You need a sufficient number of valid trades to allow you to recover from any loses.

The AR1 setup is providing plenty of valid setups to allow you to recover from any trades and also allow you to be very selective in which trade you actually take.

Between 8:00 pm Tuesday and 8:30 am Wednesday, NQ had 35 valid AR1 trades. When the market opened the speed of the market was so fast it would have made it improbable for an entry to occur.

The following chart shows a number of valid and invalid AR1 setups. The software plots an arrow ( Yellow – Long and Magenta – Short) on the setup bar.

2020-09-03_00-15-21.png


Potential Trades

The following list is of Potential trades for NQ between 8:00 pm Tuesday and 8:30 am Wednesday. Plenty of opportunities.

2020-09-03_00-05-19.png


All Sim Trades (+$88.75 Net Profit)

You can see below all my Sim trades. A total of 4 trades using the AR1 Setup.

I made a mistake on the last trade due to being disturbed just before I noticed the setup. I lost my focus when I entered the trade and entered short instead of long!! The trade immediately went to profit leaving me with a loss.

My Sim results for this week (3 days) a Net profit of +$941.25.

I mentioned yesterday that I would be trading the Leeloo funded evaluation account but I did not as I was going to use that account from 9 am. The markets were very fast so I did not trade.

2020-09-03_00-07-15.png


Resources:

The book I suggested that everyone reads is called “The Truth about Trading” by Judy Van Niekerk.

The book approaches trading from a different approach to most other books. It approaches Trading from the point that trading is a tool to help you achieve your goals.

It takes you through the process form having the right mindset to developing your trading plan and much more.

The book is written by Judy Van Niekerk who, with her husband created the Tribe of Traders. They teach their trades everything in the book and also how to trade with their systems. They are forex trades and use their processes to show the practical application of what is in the book. This book is not just for Forex traders.

If you are interested in reading this book then it is only available from Judy and it is free if you pay the postage.

I am looking for the website address for the book and will post it tomorrow.

*********************************

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 7 Days to go …

Thursday and only 7 days to go.

Actions I took since the last post:
  • Continued reviewing the setups with a focus on when Not to enter
  • Reviewed my trading plan
  • Traded premarket Sim and 1 trade in the Leeloo account.
Trading Plan:

Is your Trading Plan a working document?

Having a Trading Plan is important but most trading courses don’t teach how to make a trading plan into a working document. I regularly review and update my trading plan.

Some people consider just having your rules for the setups to be a trading plan. It is much more than that … it is your business plan which does include your Playbook for trade selection and execution.

I made a mistake yesterday where I entered a trade in the wrong direction. Does your trading plan have an action you would be required to do if you behaved the same as I did?

One trader I know, when he makes a mistake, he stops trading for the day. No live and No sim!

In my trading plan, I am required to review why I did what I did and develop a strategy to prevent that from occurring again. Also I must trade in sim for 3 trades before I am allowed to trade live.

Part of my review solution included not trading live if I have interruptions during that time.

Todays Trading

I initially traded in Sim as per my Trading Plan and then placed 1 trade in the Leeloo Evaluation account when I was interruption free. The market then went crazy and I did not trade again.

I am not posting the list of potential trades today as the list is getting large and my trust factor in the ability to enter the trades due to the speed of the market is questionable.

Sim Trades

I traded 7 sim trades with 6 winners. Total of +$260

ES Trade 1 – AR1 Win

2020-09-03_21-42-47.png


NQ Trade 2 and 3 – AR1 Win

2020-09-03_21-51-46.png


ZB (30 year Bonds) Trade 4 and 5 – AR1 Win

2020-09-03_21-26-52.png


NQ Trade 6 – AR1 Loss

Stop hit!!!

2020-09-03_21-57-55.png


NQ Trade 7 – AR1 Win


2020-09-03_22-02-33.png


My Sim results for this week (4 days) a Net profit of +$1,201.25.

2020-09-03_22-27-45.png


Leeloo Evaluation Trade

Only one trade was entered and it was profitable +$50 – commission

2020-09-03_22-07-29.png


Resources: I have added the link (I do not have an affiliation with this company)

The book I suggested that everyone reads is called “The Truth about Trading” by Judy Van Niekerk.

The book approaches trading from a different approach to most other books. It approaches Trading from the point that trading is a tool to help you achieve your goals.

It takes you through the process form having the right mindset to developing your trading plan and much more.

The book is written by Judy Van Niekerk who, with her husband created the Tribe of Traders. They teach their trades everything in the book and also how to trade with their systems. They are forex trades and use their processes to show the practical application of what is in the book. This book is not just for Forex traders.

If you are interested in reading this book then it is only available from Judy and it is free if you pay the postage. Click on the following link:

https://trading.tribeoftraders.com/tat-free-book-main



*********************************​

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Challenge Countdown – 6 Days to go …

Friday and only 6 days to go.

Actions I took since the last post:

  • Traded 3 trades in the Leeloo Evaluation Account
  • Reviewed a number of videos on the Simplicity Chart
  • Sim traded Simplicity to see how it would work.
Todays Trading

The charts were crazy again today so my plan was to take 3 trades in the Leeloo Account and then do some testing in Sim.

I had watched a few of the Simplicity videos that Darrell had made and I wanted to see how practical it was to trade with the Simplicity methodology.

Again, I am not posting the list of potential trades today as the list is getting large and my trust factor in the ability to enter the trades due to the speed of the market is questionable.

Leeloo Evaluation Account Trades

I traded 3 trades with 3 winners. Total of +$150 – commission

All 3 trades went to profit very fast.

NQ Trade 1 – AR1 Win

2020-09-07_01-37-30.png


NQ Trade 2 – AR1 Win

2020-09-07_01-41-19.png


NQ Trade 3 – AR1 Win

2020-09-07_01-26-53.png



Overview of Leeloo Trades Today:

2020-09-07_01-13-37.png


Simplicity Testing Sim Trades:

As I am using the Trading Room Simplicity Chart, I didn’t have time to grab the image of the chart entries.

The following image is from my charts which don’t have the 2 indicators that the Simplicity chart is based on. My chart will give you an idea of the action of the 30-sec chart.

The chart shows my 3rd trade.

2020-09-07_01-48-18.png


My results for my 4 trades can be seen below. I was trading the NQ and the risk was higher then I would normally use.

Best trade was a profit of $440 and the worst was -$330. Ended up 4 trades with +$385 profit.

It sure looks like it is worth exploring further.

2020-09-07_01-54-44.png



Resources: I have added the link (I do not have an affiliation with this company)

The book I suggested that everyone reads is called “The Truth about Trading” by Judy Van Niekerk.

The book approaches trading from a different approach to most other books. It approaches Trading from the point that trading is a tool to help you achieve your goals.

It takes you through the process form having the right mindset to developing your trading plan and much more.

The book is written by Judy Van Niekerk who, with her husband created the Tribe of Traders. They teach their trades everything in the book and also how to trade with their systems. They are forex trades and use their processes to show the practical application of what is in the book. This book is not just for Forex traders.

If you are interested in reading this book then it is only available from Judy and it is free if you pay the postage. Click on the following link:

https://trading.tribeoftraders.com/tat-free-book-main



*********************************

Watch this space for more resources that I find useful.

I will include books, articles, podcasts, interviews, videos, hypnosis/meditation audios, mental exercises, and more …



I will report back tomorrow on my progress and any lessons I learn

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.
 
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