For those that have any interest, here are my trades for this week.
And this is what I use to trade
And here is the coupon. Expires this weekend or Monday. Good for a month free.
UGHU75623
Thanks,
Henry a.k.a. Mega Man
Is that ninja trader back testing? Are you running an algo?
It is NinjaTrader but it’s my actual trades not back test for the first two pics. The last pic is not an algo just the chart I use to trade.
You had a margin call!
It doesn’t seem to me that you have the risk-management under control,
but I like the fact that you are already TOS.
Let’s see how you will do in the next few months.
OK thank you @aum108
I checked on the coupon expiration. It’s this Monday June 11th. Gives you a free month to join.
Thanks
MM
UGHU75623
I subscribed and chose to paper trade. I want wait and see for one moth before switch to cash account.
Thanks @JeyC for subscribing
Henry a.k.a. Mega Man
You traded 5c, were you adding to a losing position?
When I trade 5 contracts or when a setup calls for 5 contracts, I trade it two different ways. Some setups call for 5 contracts and to get in all 5 right away. Other setups call for 5 contracts but to stack the book. All the entry orders are submitted at the same time for a setup like this. If i get a setup like that in the S&P, I’ll put in orders something like this if I wanted to short. 1 @ 2780, 1 @ 2783,25, 1 @ 2786,75, 1 @ 2789, 1 @ 2789.50. All the entry orders are submitted at the same time. Contract 1 I just want to participate but know they may push it up to known resistance. All the contracts have stops with the later contracts having the tighter stops. I’m happy getting all 5 contracts but realistically know there’s a chance I may get only partial position and I’m happy getting at least that. A trade like the above is predetermined. The entries and stops are entered at the same time. It’s a stacker setup. The book is getting stacked with these orders. A trade like this is predetermined from the start.
Hi @aum108
Let me try to be precise in my explanation to help you understand. If I’m still not clear, please let me know and I’ll try to word it a different way.
I have my NinjaTrader real balance and my Collective 2 balance. My Ninja balance is around $82,000. My Collective 2 balance at the time was around $27,000. I have a rough rule of thumb to trade around $5,000 for every one contract. I hardly go over five contracts so when I set my Collective 2 account up, I got to choose what I wanted as a balance. I chose $25,000 to start the account. The CME also has an overnight margin of $5,600 so I felt this would be a good balance to start with. I could have chosen $50,000 or $250,000 but I chose $25,000. It was just a choice in setting up the Collective 2 account. The rule of thumb of $5,000 is a rough estimate because when the VIX is above 20, I allow more money per contract. I may go to $10,000 per contract with a high VIX.
There was a margin call issued on my Collective 2 balance. I had $27,000 or so. I had five contracts where you need $28,000 to hold overnight according to the CME. I don’t hold overnight but this may have triggered a margin call on one contract of the 5 as I held past the 4:00 close. Only on my Collective 2 balance because my NinjaTrader balance had enough to support this trade.
I also found out later that I had a message from Collective 2. Below is what it said and I noticed this much later.
"URGENT ALERT!! - YourCollective2 Model Account for 50 on 8 has had a Margin Call. BrokerTransmit has been suspended. Please do the following:
- Go to 50 on 8 and close positions to restore excess liquidity.
- Re-Engage BrokerTransmit for 50 on 8 when you are ready.
Remember: BrokerTransmit is now shut off, so trades you make in your broker account WILL NOT automatically be reflected in your strategy until yourestore BrokerTransmit. However, you can consider reducing positions in your Broker Account so that, when you turn on BrokerTransmit again, your Model Account will have sufficient liquidity to hold the newly-reduced positions in your broker account."
As you can see, my TOS was disconnected due to this margin call.
All this was my fault as I was looking at my real NinjaTrader Brokerage balance solely as the base of what I need. I never assumed if I was TOS that I had to also be concerned with the Collective 2 balance.
No harm no foul. I didn’t have subscribers at the time that were trading along therefore nobody was negatively impacted. This has since been rectified. I took a withdrawal out of my NinjaTrader balance to match my Collective 2 balance. Setting up a new account, there are a lot of little nuances that aren’t apparent issues that may arise. This happened to be the case. That’s the reason I reduced my NinjaTrader Brokerage balance to match Collective 2 balance to prevent any future issues.
Again, this was my fault for not paying attention to my Collective 2 balance. Maybe it was also my fault for setting up the Collective 2 balance that low initially. Either way, I have not had any issues since. I also had some trade alongside without any issues either.
This was also not the fault of Collective 2. They were working just fine. They issued the call off the balance I set up. Since I’ve figured out how everything works now, trades have been working flawlessly. I enter or exit a trade and immediately see it on the Collective 2 website.
I hope I was crystal clear in my explanation. If I wasn’t, I’d be happy to explain it a different way if needed.
Thanks,
Henry
One last final reminder. This coupon expires tonight. Few minutes before midnight EST. It’s good for a free month.
UGHU75623
The VIX doesn’t let you know when its going to go over 20. You could be caught holding alot of ES contracts at your “low” VIX setup when things move against you.
That being said I commend you for being TOS.
You are correct that the VIX doesn’t broadcast that it will be going above 20. Did you trade the day the market crashed in early February? The VIX closed a little above 17 the Friday before. That Monday it had a gap open a little around 18.5. It’s been trending up with a gap open higher. Just like order flow, you take it in context of what it’s been doing. The VIX started to drop that morning but stopped and reversed. The location it stopped is important because it was a pullback late Friday and it stopped there on Friday. Same location that Monday. That low on Monday was set around 10:45. Since that low that day, the VIX was in a clear up move. It didn’t hit 20 until around 1PM. The VIX closed shy of 40 that day.
My point to all this? You had enough time if you are watching the VIX to see a move coming. I trade order flow and was also able to see the aggressive selling coming into the market. Friday was an important day. Big down day and the market closed at the value area low. What am I looking for that Monday? I want to see a move take out the POC from Friday and get in to the value area. POC from Friday was 2760.50. As soon as the market took it out, sellers came in aggressively hitting the bid. ES made it up another 2 handles to 63. The next target was to see how buyers react at the Sunday night POC of 45. Not only did they not defend, sellers became more aggressive.
If you’re not watching the flow, you wouldn’t have seen that. But a simple bar chart of the VIX would have provided the information you needed. The VIX hit 20 and an hour later was only at 21. Plenty of time to figure out something is going on.
I guess the simple answer to your comment that the VIX won’t tell you it’s going to 20 is sure it will. You just need to pay attention to it. You don’t blink your eye and the VIX goes from 12 to 20. It takes time for the VIX to make a move like that. You have to take it all in context with everything else going on at the time.
Here’s a more recent example. VIX on May 29th opened gap up from 13 to the mid 15s. Couldn’t hold the higher levels and has drifted down since. Peaked a few times around 13.35. So that becomes a level to watch now. Friday May 28th it topped out around there. The gap up should hold but didn’t and the market rallied. Similar to early February, the market had a big down day May 29th. The difference is it came back up from the lows and closed in value above the POC of 2688.50. The next day you have to watch that level. It gets down there and no sellers in sight. On May 30th, it closed above the high from the 29th. It also closed near the top of value and above POC. That’s not supposed to happen if the VIX is spiking. Two weeks later we’re 100 handles higher in the ES. Everyone thought the market should push down on the 30th. They became overly short and trapped. Trapped sellers become buyers. I’m sure the smart institutions or smart money figured out what was going on and helped push everything higher squeezing the shorts.
Sorry bro didn’t mean to write a book lol. I started typing away and you know how that goes. You just keep talking and look back and say I better end this book here.
MM
There’s a couple thousand traders around the world who would like to talk to you then.
With that kind of knowledge why not just trade VIX Futures and make your millions?
Sorry for my skepticism, since you are TOS I give you credit, but I am compiling a list of people who came on the forum offering coupons/talking up their “systems” from 2017 alone and the results are not pretty. Let’s see if you buck the trend in 2018.
If you indeed perform well you won’t need coupons. The money will find you, trust me.
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I don’t trade the VIX too risky for me. Why not give a coupon? If you wanted to buy something and had a chance to try it out for free first, wouldn’t you?
You ever bought an indicator for trading? All the good ones give you a trial. 14 days or 30 days. The ones that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on know they can’t do that. They hope people just buy them. If you had a 30 day trial of a trash indicator that never worked, you’re not buying that right? If you tried something for free and were able to make it work with your trading, you’re buying it.
You know how much headache it is to run money? Huge. I don’t want to deal with all that. I want to sit home and trade. Running a hedge fund and making millions has zero interest for me. Some are cool with that over complicated life. Just not for me. I’m just a trader. If I can make some money trading and also pick up a few dollars from people that follow me, that’s all I need. I’m not buying a Ferrari from Collective 2 or my trading. I’m just paying my bills and living a somewhat comfortable life. I don’t need that bling bling it would look ridiculous on me.
As for results, no one is going to make a million dollars off my trading. I’m not sure what you would define as pretty but if that’s the definition then I’m an ugly MoFo. You’ll make a few dollars but I’ll tell you now you’re not getting rich off the way I trade. Maybe if you’re a super baller and trade 10X my size but how many people are doing that?
Anyway good talk @DogZebra_Investing. It’s 5:00 somewhere. You know what that means.
For something tangible, yes, of course.
But an investor on C2 could also just sit and watch your trades, look at your record after the fact and see if they are comfortable, without risking any capital. To me that makes the most sense.
And yes, I know what a headache it is to run money, I do it for a living. Compliance, filings, investor inquiries, it’s a pain. But it also becomes fairly routine once you have it down.
Bottoms up. 
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As an aside, I find most of your comments helpful, but what do have against free trials? Can somebody explain to me why some people choose to simulate a system rather than take advantage of a free trial when it is available? With a free trial you can watch the trading in real time and in addition developers often send out special messages or offer special deals only available to subscribers. Nobody forces you to actually trade it in your account but it certainly gives you more confidence since the developer is indicating that he has some value to offer and will be still around beyond the free trial period. I strongly encourage developers to offer free trials.
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I was not aware of this. Thought when you subscribed you were in and trading.
Is there also a warning when you are up for the next months subscription? Just so you don’t forget and suddenly automatically give $$ to a system you were simply tracking.
The normal C2 warning, as for all your subscriptions, applies: A couple of days before renewal C2 sends out a message alerting you that renewal time is around the corner.
