My Trading Quest

[Garry MTQ]

Second Live Sim Trade - 1 contract +$95 Net

The following image shows my 2nd live sim trade.

As you can see It was A ETX (Red Box and Blue inside) and had a new Paw on an Existing Paw (within 2 ticks).

So it was a valid Long.

I had left my target at 8 ticks and the target was hit.

 

[Garry MTQ]

Third Live Sim Trade - 1 contract +$95 Net

The following image shows my 3rd live sim trade.

As you can see It was A ETX (Red Box and Blue inside) and had a new Paw on an MM (within 2 ticks).

So it was a valid Short.

I had left my target at 8 ticks and the target was hit.

 

[Joe Blow]

Hi Garry, I need you to post your entries within five minutes of entering the trade. It appears that you are posting both your entries and exits after you exit the trade.

You can post your analysis and charts when you post your exits (or in a subsequent post after posting your exits) but you need to post both entries and exits in separate posts so your trades can be verified.

When you post your entries you need only post the time of the trade, the position taken and the entry price.

 

[Garry MTQ]

Ok, I was rushing to post everything within 5 mins of exit. That makes it easier for me just posting the entry even though I have to focus on the trade. I am in and out quickly.

Sorry about that.
Cheers
Garry

 

[Joe Blow]

Ok, I was rushing to post everything within 5 mins of exit. That makes it easier for me just posting the entry even though I have to focus on the trade. I am in and out quickly.

I understand that you are in an out quickly but it won't take more than 20 or 30 seconds (most likely less) to post your entries if you leave this thread open in a tab in your browser.

All you have to post is the trade entry time, the position taken and the entry price. (e.g. 5:50pm AUDUSD long 0.63550)

Thanks for your co-operation.

 

[Garry MTQ]

It was my misunderstanding … I am happy to do it

 

[Joe Blow]

It was my misunderstanding … I am happy to do it

Thanks.

 

[investtrader]

Won't hear from him again ...

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 7 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Plan, Do, Review & Improve …

Today, is a review today to ensure that I am on my path to profitability within 90 days.

I believe, I have started well, but after reviewing a few things I need to make a couple of changes.

Actions I took:

• 
  
  
  • Yesterday, I tested sim trading by entering 3 trades
  • Reviewed another traders record of trades
  • Reviewed the effectiveness of the ETX trade to meet my goal
  • Studied some extra setups
  • Reviewed the valid trades for the day

Sim Trading:
It is one thing to identify a trade, but it is important to ensure that the trade flows from entry to exit. The three trades performed as expected.

Valid Trades Review

I was testing outside of the US open and the trades were few and far between them. I know each day is different, so I asked another trade if I could look at his record of valid trades for the last few weeks.

The results identified that the ETX trades currently have reduced in frequency. So it supported my decision to include a couple of other setups from the TX series. The results showed that the TX trend and Divergence setups achieved great results and occurred frequently.

Naked TX Trend Trade

This is a very simple trade to identify.

The first 2 rules are as per all TX trades

• 
  
  
  • Setup must be a Reversal bar
  • An exhaustion box with a trapped order must appear on the end of the bar

The additional rules are:

• 
  
  
  • That the current bar DR (trend indicator) and the prior bar DR must be the same color

The next important rules are based on Reasons Not to Enter:

• 
  
  
  • Not within 5 minutes of Market Open, Close or Government News
  • Not directly into a stack of 3 or more OP Levels
  • Not enter when 2 clusters appear within 3 bars of the and including the entry bar
  • Not against a strong trend or into strong levels
  • Not into chop

Stop and Target

• 
  
  
  • The initial Stop is 1 tick above/below the setup bar (17 ticks)
  • The Target is 7 ticks

The following image will give you an idea of how simple it is to identify the trade.

​

Naked TX OD Divergence Trade

This is a very simple trade to identify.

The first 2 rules are as per all TX trades

• 
  
  
  • Setup must be a Reversal bar
  • An exhaustion box with a trapped order must appear on the end of the bar

The additional rules are:

• 
  
  
  • Long Example– When Price makes a HH with the OD Divergence number making a substantially reduced number then we have OD Divergence

​

The image below, shows my results identifying all 3 setups for the Sun- – Mon ES trading session :

Comments on Results:

The results look positive and justify’s further backtesting.

It is interesting that for the day:

• 
  
  
  • ETX – 13 trades, 1 maybe 2 lost, Total Gross $537.50
  • NTX (trend) – 3 trades, Nil Lost, Total Gross $262.50
  • NTX – OD -2 trades, Nil Lost, Total Gross $175.00

This did not match the frequency ratio of the trades from the sample I looked at.
I need to do more daily recording and analyze the trades to see how they fit my requirements.








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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

​

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 7 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Testing and Learning …

Today, I continued to review the trades for the last 24 hours and learn more about the new setups.

Actions I took:

• Clarified the rules for entering and not entering with the new setups
• Reviewed the valid trades for the day on a static chart
• Daily Valid Trade Review

The following, shows all the trades I identified for the Tuesday ES trading session. The session starts at 18:05 Monday and ends for me at 15:50 Tuesday.

Please note, this is a deliberate learning process for me to learn to identify the trade setups, when to enter and when not to enter. I have a trader review my spreadsheet and we discuss the validity of both the entries I took and didn’t take.

The process takes a fair amount of time but helps me learn much quicker.

The following is the legend for the trades sheet:



Comments on Results:

The results look positive.






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


Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 7 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Studying the Setups …

Today, I continued to study the setups and review the trades for the last 24 hours.

Actions I took:

• Listened to 2 new webinars on how to be successful on the Sniper Bootcamp
• Clarified the setups in my trading plan
• Watched the live market and the commentary during the first 90 mins of the market open
• Reviewed the potential trades for Wednesday

New Webinars

This week Apex held a number of excellent webinars to help with my understanding of the setups. Learning when not to take a setup has been the most difficult part of learning to be successful.

Live Trade Room and Commentary

I found the moderators very helpful in clarifying the market during the US Open.

For a new person, the learnings were excellent but I still would recommend, first having a reasonable understanding of the rules before attending the sessions.

Live calls were made with explanations when possible. Some of these calls matched the Sniper Bootcamp setups and others were based on the experience of the moderators. Most of the calls would have allowed a trader to enter in time for the trade.

Wednesdays Potential Trades

Wednesday was an interesting day. I saw more chop in the market around setup bars. Chop is one of the reasons not to enter. The market chop kept me out of a lot of trades and if I had not have studied the Reasons Not to Trade, I am sure I would have had a number of losses.

Instead, I only identified winners, from the small number of trades.

Please consider this is on a static chart where I am moving it bar by bar to make my decision. So when in Sim or Live where the decision is needed quicker, I may have a completely different result.

That is why doing this Deliberate Practice is critical to my success.

Practice doesn’t make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.

The other important process is having someone else check your practice of identifying valid trades. Feedback is critical to my growth.

The following is the legend for the trades sheet:

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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 10 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – More Testing and Learning …

Another day in a market that didn’t give many valid trades. But still a good day!

Actions I took:

• Listened to more training webinars and refined my notes
• Watched the live market and the commentary during the first 60 mins of the market open
• Reviewed the potential trades for Thursday

Live Trade Room and Commentary

I find that listening to the Live Room when the two moderators are in the room highlight and reinforce the trading nuances necessary to be successful.

Thursday Potential Trades

Thursday was another slow day but full of lessons.

After I went through the daily process of bar by bar static chart review, I looked at the trades I didn’t take and asked myself what would have happened in the live market. There was one trade I am sure I would have taken and lost. This one was not on my sheet as I had sufficient time to analyze it on the static chart. This part of deliberate practice is proving to be critical for building my skills.

The major lessons are around … When not to take a trade.

The other important process is having someone else check your practice of identifying valid trades. Feedback is critical to my growth.

I added a second setup column so I could record if there were 2 setups on the same signal

The following is the legend for the trades sheet:

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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 11 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – More Testing and Learning …

Another day in a market that was slow and didn’t give many setups … but still enough!

Actions I took:

• Watched another live webinar
• Watched the live market and the commentary during the first 150 mins of the market open
• Reviewed the potential trades for Friday

Live Trade Room and Commentary

With the speed of the market being slower, more time was spent on questions, reinforcing lessons form the market and the webinars along with trade calls.

Friday Potential Trades

Friday was another slow day but full of lessons. The slow days test your discipline.

Again, on review on the day’s trades I identified some trades that I may have taken live which were not valid. This highlights that I need more practice on both a static chart and with Market Replay using a fast speed to help my decision making reflections.

Identifying the trade is easy but seeing the reasons not to enter can sometimes be harder.

The following is the legend for the trades sheet:





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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 12 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Review Day …

Time to review where I am currently at, in the challenge.

Actions I took:

• Reviewed my current status with the course to see if I am on track to meeting my goals
• Reviewed the 6:3 Apex Rule

Current Status

I am happy with my progress, having gone through:

• all the online videos
• updating with the weekly webinars
• learning the setups and rules around entering and not entering
• daily review of possible trades
• peer to peer review of my daily review
• sim trading for 1 day to check that the process works

Apex Investing

Generally, I am very happy with the course and Apex Investing.

Best Features:

• The sniper setups appear to work (still to test in the live market)
• There are plenty of people in the community who will answer any questions or give you advice or how to find out the answer
• Apex team are very knowledgeable and want to help and make the information more understandable

Possible Improvements:

• The Bootcamp Sniper Training page has all the information and links for the course. It could be simplified and reordered to make it easier to follow.
• The course is evolving due to the market and Apex trying to simplify it for new people. This comes across as Apex changing things too often. They are only small changes but it can put you off. I find that they are just clarifying things to help the students
• When the moderators are in the trade room it can get confusing for the new people, as some of the trades are not sniper trades.
• If you miss the moderated room time then you will often miss great nuances to help you trade. I record the sessions so I don’t miss these gold nuggets.

What has held my progress up?

The biggest area that I have been slow to learn has been around when not to enter a trade especially around some types of chop. I have completed several other courses, but I find that in this course it is more important than in the others.

Am I on Track to my Goal?

At this time I see that I am on track to profitability within 90 days.

Review of the 6:3 Money Management Rule

The 6:3 ratio means that on any given day you can only lose 6 net trades and win 3 net trades before you stop trading. Apex state that is highly improbable to lose 6 net trades.

Too many people keep trading and don’t know when to stop.

Net 3 winners

This idea is based on wanting you to be profitable for 3 months before you start increasing your contracts. They also suggest that you withdraw 50% of your profit weekly.

If you trade ES with an 8 tick target the that means:

3 net winners = $12.50 x 8 = $100 x 3 trades = $300 per day minus commission.

Weekly = $300 x 5 = $1,500 – commission

Monthly = $1,500 x 4 = $6,000 – commission

Net 6 Losers

Again, If you trade ES with an 8 tick target the that means:

6 net losers= $12.50 x 8 = -$100 x 6 trades = -$600 per day plus commission.

Comment based on my Backtesting Results:

I like the idea of having the rule to stop trading. I have not seen any loss of 3 trades which resulted in 3 net losses. The only time this would occur would be if mistakes were made. So based on these results I will stop trading if 3 net trades occur on any 1 day. This will then allow me to identify and fix any problem before I lose too much financial or mental capital.

The idea of stopping when I make 3 net winners means that I will achieve my original goal and limit the risk of overtrading.

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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 13 + 14 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Testing and Focus …

Time to test my skills and focus to improve.

Actions I took:

• Market Replay Testing to observe where I need to improve my skills
• Daily Practice of identifying the trades for the day

Market Replay Testing

The purpose of the Market Replay testing is to identify if I currently have the skills to trade profitably at the speed of the market.

The results identified one main area that I need improvement:

• The main skill is identifying a certain type of chop. I will create an indicator to flag the chop and that should help a lot

Sunday + Monday Potential Trades

I identified 11 valid trades of which 10 were winners.

Of the three types of trades (Enhanced, Trend, and Divergence), Five trades were Divergence trades.




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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[peter2]

Apologies for my interruption, but I think you may need to rethink the 6:3 rule as posted.

I see your wins are +7 ticks and your losers are -17 (not -8 as posted).
Allowing six losers /day while stopping at 3 winners is not going to end profitably.

 

[Garry MTQ]

Apologies for my interruption, but I think you may need to rethink the 6:3 rule as posted.

I see your wins are +7 ticks and your losers are -17 (not -8 as posted).
Allowing six losers /day while stopping at 3 winners is not going to end profitably.

Hi Peter,

The whole idea of stopping at 6 net losers is about protecting you from losing more but giving you room to gain back any losses before stopping.

As stated in the post … from backtesting if you are losing 6 net then something is wrong with how I am trading it so I have set my own personal rule of stopping if I lose 3 net trades. Then I review what I am doing wrong or if the market has change etc … so I can make the necessary changes before I lose an excessive amount.

As far as the +7. You will see that I have been using that in the Daily Potential Trades which are identified on a static chart. The live sim trades were taken with a profit target of 8 ticks.

Sorry for any confusion.

Cheers
Garry

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 15 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Review …

ES had a good day and NQ starting to deliver good signals!

Actions I took:

• Good learning in the live trading room at US Open
• Created and tested chop indicator – still some mods to do
• Reviewed the potential trades for Tuesday

Live Trade Room and Commentary

Darrell was late to the room and Lori shared her experience with the room.

Tuesday Potential Trades

The ES had some slow periods bit still would be a profitable day..

The following is the legend for the trades sheet:





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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

 

[Garry MTQ]

DAY 16- Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Review …

ES had another good day!

Actions I took:

• Good learning in the live trading room at US Open
• Reviewed the potential trades for Wednesday
• Continued using Market Replay to improve my live market decision making for the live market

Live Trade Room and Commentary

The US open started slow but some good trades could be made. Avoiding News was critical.

Wednesday Potential Trades

The ES could have been a profitable day as long as you followed the rules.

The following is the legend for the trades sheet:





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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.