Discretionary Trading - Random Thoughts

[⭐ rcarlos1947]

I've seen many Bots being shared and have tested a bunch using Strategy Analyzer, Playback, and Sim-real-time,but I've yet to find one that I feel I can throw real many at. Most of them have drawdowns that I can't survive, or the win/loss ratio is less than 1:1, or consecutive winners/losers is upside down. With today's volatility, any BOT or Indicator that depends on ATR, momentum, or volatility is quickly thrown into "your guess is as good as mine" mode.

Volume, Delta, Buyers/Sellers, Bid/Ask etc We all know can/are be(ing) manipulated so that WE, the retail trader is usually late to the party.

So with that in mind, the only recourse is to learn discretionary trading. Not an easy task since there hundreds of thousands of indicators of any flavor you want. So the challenge is decide what financial you wish to trade, start with a simple price chart  or Renko chart and start adding one indicator that you feel may add clarity. Here comes the hard part, take the time required to study the behavior of the Price/indicator while in Sim mode. Keep it simple, do not add more indicators until you feel that the first one adds value after watching it for at least a week. Document what you see, where it adds value and where it fails. If it speaks to you, than go for a 2nd week but this time take Sim trades where you feel it adds value. At the end of the week, assess the metrics that are important to you. Repeat by adding another indicator until you feel that it is something you can trade.

To make it more challenging for myself, I set the SIM accounts to $500, and use MES/MNQ futures. My theory is that if I can't steadily grow a small account than I revise my entry/Stops and try again until I'm convinced that the method works for Me or if not, its back to the drawing board. So now you know that I am not a successful trader and will not raise my SIM account money, because its too easy to overtrade, jump in on FOMO, trade by the seat of my pants instead of sticking to the plan. You probably guessed that I do not trade any funded accounts for the same reasons.

I appreciate the tips, apps, and insights provide by the more experienced traders on this forum, but also those that have provided Bots/indicators to be educated, since many work on cracked NT8 without any tweaking. Especially to our friend @apmoo who has constantly provided packages to expand my arsenal. Thank you all for indulging my ramblings.

So, to add some clarity to my ramblings, here is one example of putting together something that speaks to you. But please don't ask me for settings, templates, or whatever, because this is just one of several methods that I've looked at. The package provide by @apmoo here:

https://indo-investasi.com/topic/93625-snowflaketradercom/?_rid=66590