1. What to do if an error has been reported and you want us to investigate? New!
2. Overnight Open Positions (What to do? Do not miss this)
3. Newer Contracts (Do not miss this either!!!)
4. When to BUY or SELL?
5. What value to set for "Limit" and "Stop Loss"? in Bracket or Scale Out (New example added!)
6. Cautious Items to use on StrategyBot Menu
7. Draw lines on your Market window
8. Upon placing a Buy or a Sell order
9. Contract behavior (personal tip of a trader)
10. Use MIT (Market if Touch) for both Buy and Sell on each Contract
11. How to screen capture and archive your chartings?
12. How to know if the Contract may or may not be traded due to time?
    or how to know if the Exchange is closed? New!
13. What can you do after reaching a Maximum Limit as set in "Account Limits?" New!
14. Caution to Singaporean users of both POEMs Professional and StrategyBot New!
15. Example of Market If Touch (MIT) New!

If the error is;

	-	not obvious and clearly explained in the table "Messages"
	-	not due to margins exceeded, or lack of funds,
	-	not due to the exchange closed at the time you did place your order,
	-	not a PATS error for which our software has not much to deal with.

Provide to support@strategyland.com.sg  the following information :

	-	Your Account number :
	-	Type of account : Real or Paper
	-	Order ID :
	-	Strategy name

The best would be for you to capture the image of the Message table on the screen and send it to us as file attachment. To capture the screen, follow the procedure in Tip11

Tip2: Overnight Open Positions (What to do? Do not miss this)

StrategyBot will not maintain your Exit parameters when your trades going overnight. Your Limit, Stop Loss, Auto Trailing Stop parameters have to be set up again the next day as soon as possible by using "Detach from Entry Order on left" and "Cover".
You first need to ensure at which market value you did the BUY or SELL the day(s) before.

• Do you really have Open positions? Check the "Pos" column (standing for Positions) in the Contracts table (the Top display on your screen). This is also assuming that "Pos" has been selected in the menu "Settings", "System Options", "Tables", "Contract". A "1" in that column would mean you have a Buy position Open for that corresponding Contract, a "-1" means you have a Sell Position Open. If the values are more than 1, it then reports the number of lots still open. Ensure that all the Contracts for which you may have Open positions are visible on your screen.
  
• To know at which market values the Open Positions were made, you have 2 choices.
  • Either you search the previous trading day(s) by clicking on the menu "Account", then "Account Report" and click on the left arrow to scroll down to the "Orders Summary" the previous days for those particular Contracts where "Pos" indicated to you.
  • Or you consult the daily reports that you receive from your Broker which list the "Open Positions" remaining with the market value at which they were made.
    
• Upon knowing where the initial position(s) were made, now you can Click on Buy or Sell (whatever is the opposite of the Open position) and set again your Exit Style by defining new "Limit" and "Stop" values or you select "Exit Style" in the "Market Pane" and set up either a "Bracket" or "Scale Out(s)".
  
• It is advisable to set up a bracket in advance for each Contract such that you only need to click once for further orders.
  Since StrategyBot does not memorize your overnight positions, be aware that the "Open P&L" and "P&L" displays on your screen do not reflect the real P&L. The values listed there per Contract are relative to the "Avg" column which is the Open day market value of that Contract. You have to compute by yourself.

• Account Report (As available in the menu). Be aware that when you have overnight positions, the daily "Account Status in US dollars" is not valid. The value listed there does not calculate the real P&L of the overnight open position(s). It only lists the daily open positions.

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Futures Contracts are seasonal. Example: XEurex:DAX:JUN05,eCBOT:30Y TB:SEP05

June & September are the Contract Dates. Some contracts change every 3 months, some change monthly, all change at specific dates/times as set by each Exchange. Whenever you see newer Contracts showing up on your screen with new Dates, no longer initiate new trades on the older Contracts, and better to close positions ASAP on the older Contracts. Otherwise the Clearing House/Broker will do it for you without any warnings!! Go trade on the newer Contracts only.

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Placing new order(s) shall depend on information such as :

1. "Open, High, Low, Close, Volume" values of the previous days
2. Both Historical and Intraday, technical analysis indicators like "MACD, MACD Osc., RSI, CCI, Stochastic, Bollinger, Volume" and more.
3. a BUY is best taken near the support level (low of the day) and a SELL next to the resistance level (high of the day).

Case#1: This above information would help you place an order or define a "MIT" (Buy or Sell upon the market reaching a defined value). While trading Futures, the historical data of the previous days or months would give you the average range within which each Contract moves. Consider the index Futures of DAX experiencing daily in July 04 an average of 75 to 80 points between high and low. At 25 Euros per point, that meant a "minimum" potential daily gain of a single Lot of about €1,750 or US$2,135 or S$3,630 per day. I repeat "minimum" since DAX had moved up and down before reaching either high or low. No wonder trading Futures is gaining so much more momentum as opposed to trading Stocks!! No wonder our Strategy land Research automated trategies on the Dax index do return more profit than fully automated strategies on other contracts.

Case#2: The best possible decision to Buy or Sell shall be with the MACD indicator used with 5 min interval, with the settings "13, 30, 4". A Buy should be placed upon crossing up and a Sell should be placed upon crossing down. Ensure you do not do this with an interval of 1 min or else since the settings above are defined for 5 min.

Note:
The MACD crossing sometimes happens a few mintues after the trend had started. A trader could anticipate the crossing with the following tip. If 3 consecutive lines of the oscillator move in the same direction with an angle of at least 45 degrees, a Buy or Sell can be placed prior to the MACD crossing.

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Tip5: What value to set for "Limit" and "Stop Loss"? in Bracket or Scale Out

Defining your Profit "Limit"? Up to your greediness !!
Realistically, for intraday orders, your "Limit" (how much money you wish to earn with that trade ) would be set within the range of the past statistical data of whatever  Contract you wish to trade. So please consult the "Open, High, Low and Close" of the previous days if you have nothing else better to consider. Your "Limit" would be based on the "High" and "Low" values and depending on where your order would be placed.

Defining your  "Stop Loss"?  How much shall "Stop Loss" be?
Your choices are ;

1. Drawing lines should also help you set up the value of your Stop Loss. The difference in points between the upper and the lower lines of a trend determines within which limit your Stop Loss shall be. Add a few points to it. Consider the last 2 hours for the value of Stop Loss.
2. if your position has been taken close to the Support or Resistance levels then the "Stop Loss" can be shortened, if taken in between both levels then it shall be larger. How much depends how far you place your order from either level.
3. A percentage of your "Limit"? (only with automation not in manual mode)
4. An extrapolation of the movements of the previous days? (but to be calculated). Your "Stop Loss" value shall depend on how volatile the market had previously moved. If too volatile, like swinging several times daily, better to increase the value of "Stop Loss". Some Contracts or Stocks, every day, take a trend either up or down, so for those trends , as long as you know the direction using technical analysis then a low value for "Stop Loss" can be defined.

Stop Loss example

In this example above, 3 trends developed that day.

Case 1 :
The user sold upon the Contract reaching 1.3320 at A bubble . The user then waited to see how the market is moving before covering up with a Bracket including a Stop Loss and Auto Trailing Stop values. The user draws 2 lines following the max and min of the market movements, then set up the Stop Loss up to the difference between these 2 lines adding 10% which is about 13 points. The user then sets Auto Trailing Stop "price" and "stop" to 1 point each. The orange bubbles above the upper line are the Trailing Stop moves. The intent is that as soon as the market moves out of the upper line, then a BUY will be automatically triggered. In this case the market went down to 1.3296 so an overall of 24 points at B Bubble . The Stop Loss moved also from 1.3333 (=1.3296+0.0013) to 1.3309. The profit became 1.3320 - 1.3309 = 11 points.

Case 2 :
The user sold again at 1.3310 at C Bubble . The difference between the 2 lines adding 10% is this time equal 12 points. The market went down to 1.3276 with an overall of 34 points at D Bubble . The Stop Loss moved to 1.3288 (1.3276+0.0012). So the profit was 1.3310 - 1.3288 = 22 points.

Case 3 :
The user bought at 1.3290 at E Bubble . The difference between the 2 lines adding 10% is this time 16 points. The market went up to 1.3317 with an overall of 27 points at F Bubble . The Stop Loss moved to 1.3301 (1.3317-0.0016). The user closed the position at 1.3315. So the profit was 1.3315 - 1.3290 = 25 points.

Conclusion :
The intent about defining the Stop Loss value is to close the Open position whenever with a ;

• Buy the lower line
• Sell the upper line
  of the trend gets crossed , meaning the trend is getting into the reverse mode, so better to get out.

The 3rd item on the main Menu is “Strategy”. Upon clicking on it are 2 selections “Liquidate Strategy” and “Close All Positions Pull All Orders”. The consequence of clicking on either one of these 2 selections could have dramatic effects on your trades.
“Liquidate Strategy” applies;

• for a Manual Trader to all the present Open positions in the selected Contract
• for a user of fully automated Strategies it only applies to the selected Strategy in the selected Contract.

“Close All Positions Pull All Orders”

• for a Manual Trader to all the present Open positions in all Contracts
• for a user of fully automated Strategies it applies to all fully automated Strategies in all Contracts.

Tip7: Draw lines on your Market window :

Available above "Style ".
Lines will help you place your trades wisely and determine when to close orders. Place a line joining all upper market movements within a trend and another line for the same trend joining all lower market movements. You may create lines for as many trends as you wish. Lines will also help you learn about the behavior of a Contract. You will easily realize that many Contracts move in the same direction every day at the same time, while other contracts move in the opposite direction.
Lines should also help you set up the value of your Stop Loss. The difference in points between the upper and the lower lines of a trend as drawn previously determines within which limits your Stop Loss shall be. Add a few points to it.

 

Tip8: Upon placing a Buy or a Sell order :

Without having prepared your Exit along (no Bracket or no Scale Out), then set up your Stop Loss before you set up your Limit. Limits can wait to be set up, Stop Loss may not if the market moves fast !!!

When not to Buy :
On your StategyBot screen, you have "Time" selected as "24 hours" meaning you can see the whole window of the market movements since the exchange opened today. Unless the market is in a raise recovering from a major fall the previous day(s), it is not wise, unless you are desperate, to Buy within the upper 25% of the screen, even if the MACD crossed.

When to Buy :
Considering the same situation as above, it is mostly recommended to Buy within the lowest 25% portion of your screen and upon the MACD crossing or not.

Additional comments on the above: Avoid Buying within the last hour of the exchange, mostly if you are not going for sure to watch what is going on for that remaining hour. Unless you do not care to get into an overnight position. This suggestion only applies if the market does not move much at that time. If the market is into heavy swings, then you may discard the suggestion and take advantage.

When not to Sell :
same principles as "When not to Buy" above. On your StategyBot screen, you have "Time" selected as "24 hours" meaning you can see the whole window of the market movements since the exchange opened today. Unless the market is in a fall recovering from a major fall the previous day(s), it is not wise, unless you are desperate, to Sell within the lower 25% of the screen, even if the MACD crossed.

When to Sell :
Considering the same situation as above, it is mostly recommended to Sell within the upper 25% portion of your screen and upon the MACD crossing or not.

Additional comments on the above:
Avoid Selling within the last hour of the exchange, mostly if you are not going for sure to watch what is going on for that remaining hour. Unless you do not care to get into an overnight position. This suggestion only applies if the market does not move much at that time. If the market is into heavy swings, then you may discard the suggestion and take advantage.

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Tip9: Contract behavior :

The DJIA5 industrial Index might be your leading indicator of S&P then Russell moves. A slight move in any direction of  DJIA sometimes generates a much larger move on Russell. The NSDQ index might follow but a bit more independently than the 3 previous ones. Dax, EuroStoxx and CAC 40 move somehow in the same direction. These 3 European Indices move quite similarly to the DJIA moves once the US market is active daily.

A lot of movements may happen at the close of the US market daily (which unfortunately happen at a very early time in Singapore). The trends generated at the close of the US market do affect the start of the Asian and the European markets the next day. So analysing all contract behaviours on a daily basis registering how each Contract moves in response to the moves of the others, would be a rewarding task to any trader.

Many Contracts experience similar moves day after day at the same hours for a few days in a row. So taking a snap shot of all 24 hours charts daily from each Contract and superposing them, might indicate potential manual trading strategies. But these moves break upon a few days so relying blindly on them remains risky. Buy or Sell or both Buy and Sell MIT orders are wise to use for such potential repetitive moves.

The number of times that MACD crosses every day shall to you be an indication if a Contract is Trendy or Swinging. You may wish to record the high and low of each Contract between these MACD crosses. That would indicate to you the value to set for your Limit and Stop Loss as well as determine what values to set for your Auto Trailing Stop.

Setting a too low Stop Loss could be detrimental in any Contract and could generate more frequent losses. As indicated in another tip, draw lines in a Contract on the last 5 days Historical data, then the difference between the high and low over each trend for the last 5 days, should give you an indication of the amount of Stop Loss to set.

If your Stop Loss is too low, Auto Trailing Stop would not be able to compensate nor act efficiently. Be aware that you may always modify at any time whichever value has been set in the working table (Limit and Stop) upon the Contract's behaviour changing. just click on "price" in the working table to modify this value.

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Tip10: Use MIT (Market if Touch) for both Buy and Sell on each Contract

Use MIT on each Contract that you can afford. MIT or "Market if Touch", means that your order will be automatically placed upon the market reaching the value you set. Be realistic with these MIT values, such that you have at least 75% chances to reach those targets. It is better to set MIT's at the start of the day but it can be done anytime. Place an order for MIT Buy at a low value that you may determine from the low of the previous day(s) or from the low of the present day. Then place an order for MIT Sell at a high value that you determine from the High of the previous day(s) or from the High of the present day. You may modify these MIT Values anytime during the day. Reason of this Tip : The best location to Buy is close to or at the Resistance level. The best location to Sell is close to or at the Support level. Use "Time" "24 hours" to ensure you can check what are the High and Low of the day. If you cannot afford to place 2 MIT's on each Contract, your MIT order(s) will be rejected due to margin call anyway.  

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Tip11: How to screen capture and archive your chartings?

1. Press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard to capture the entire screen. However, if you just want to capture just a window, simply select window you want to capture. Press "Alt" + "Print Screen".

2. Open the program called "Paint". Then press "Ctrl" + "V"(Paste). The picture which you just captured will appear.

3. Then save the image as jpeg(.jpg).

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If the time is fixed in the column of the Contract display, then the exchange is closed. The value displayed is the time at which it last closed or if set to zero it did not yet start trading.

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Upon reaching any Limit defined, the system will trade out all of your positions in all Contracts (manual trades as well as strategies). There are 3 Limits, "Max.Daily Profit", "Max. Daily Loss", "Min P&L".
But if you increase the Limit which triggered the trade out, you may continue to trade .

Example 1 : The Max Daily Profit was set to US$5,000. Upon the cumulated P&L reaching this amount all positions will be traded out. But if you increase this amount to higher such as US$6,000, you may continue to trade.

Example 2 : The Max Daily Loss  was set to US$250. Upon the cumulated P&L reaching this amount all positions will be traded out. But if you increase this amount to higher such as US$500, you may continue to trade.

Example 3 : In the Profit Management you had set "Min P&L" to US$2,950. Upon reaching this value and no "Trailing" set, and if the P&L goes down even US$1 from this US$2,950 all positions will be traded out. But if you set this value to higher, then you can continue to trade.

If in addition you had set a "Trailing" profit,  the system will still allow you to trade as long as you win and may continue up to your "Max.Daily Profit" but anytime you lose even $1 it will trade out all open positions again and secure you the last reached value of the "Min P&L". However if you raise the "Min P&L" value you may continue to trade up to the "Maximum Daily Profit".

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If you have remaining open orders on POEMs, do not click nor set any value in any field of the "Account Limits" feature of StrategyBot, leave them all blank. The reason is, both programs are connected to Patsystem and Patsystem is not smart enough to differentiate orders and settings from both systems. It is better to only use StrategyBot which offers so much more anyway.

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Consecutive Swings changing direction at about the same values "high and low" are being experienced. A conservative trader would place an order in the middle and try to get the next rise or fall for half of the size of the swing. An aggressive trader would place two MIT orders, an MIT Buy at the same value as the previous low reached and a MIT Sell at the previous high reached. Then set the Limit of the Bracket order up to the number of points of the previous swings, with a Stop and Trailing Stop as proportional as what is advisable for the particular Contract.
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