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Ensuring the horse is before the cart:
Before doing anything, watch the webinar at C8 below.
Determine if the computer system you are planning to use is suitable for trading with Apex tools. If it is not, your primary objective before doing anything else should be acquiring access to a system that can handle everything you need it to do to be able to trade successfully. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Many new traders have caused themselves many unnecessary headaches, setbacks, and failures by simply not having the right tools for the job before embarking on this journey. Don’t cut corners to save pennies that will end up costing you dollars.
Once you have a suitable system, continue with The Way…
Ben’s "The Way"
This is the path that I would do if I was to “start over”:
- Go. through. bootcamp. - at least twice, taking it slow and trying to learn the “basics”.
- Keep in mind: your first 30 days are free, and you can get a second 30 days for $1.
- It’s recommended to submit a ticket so that you can pay the $1 right away instead of waiting until your first 30 days is over. Having paid the $1, you are eligible to join a Skype mentor group (see: Sniper bootcamp, Section 10)
- The mentor group is truly the way to supercharge your progress, if you are as active as possible. Post your charts, ask questions. (Paid mentor groups available here.)
- Focus on these setups and these only: ETX, HD, and ODD (on /RTY and /YM)
- For /ES, you will want to be more cautious/strict. See section C1 below.
-
/NQ is generally no longer recommended for Sniper. It often is too fast/volatile. It can be tradable during slower times, especially during Summer months.
- NOTE: Even during that season, there are many times throughout the day that would be considered too fast. Understand: If you trade, you must expect and accept the risk of slippage and skipped/late entries & exits! (And that is more common when a market moves fast like /NQ does.)
- I would purchase Apex Chart Trader (E7) at this time.
- Establish a trade plan consisting of:
- Max # of trades per day
- How many contracts you will use per trade (max contracts size should be based on your account size and risk tolerance.)
- Max loss limit
- Profit goals
- What setups you will take
- Penalties for: revenge trading - increasing contract size - taking trades not within your trade plan - taking invalid trades
- Through the mentor groups find an “accountability partner”, someone who you can be 100% honest with and will keep you honest and hold you accountable to your rules.
- Get Mind Mastery! (E2)
- Once you have learned to anticipate the setups, you can consider purchasing the TA for semi-automated order entry (E6).
- Purchase Thrive (E4) and pay special attention to Lori’s presentation on the 30 tick charts.
- Once you understand those setups, purchase the Wealth Summit (E5) so that you have access to the “Lorex” setup.
- Applying what you have learned - Limit your trades to Lane 3 and Lane 4 setups only. (see C3a for Lanes explanation.)
- Then start to learn LRE’s and Simplicity. (In Sniper bootcamp, Step 5i)
- Once you have learned the Simplicity setup, focus on building your own rules around when you are going to take Simplicity/LRE trades.
“This is the way”
A. Trade Room
A0.) How do I connect/log in to the Elite Trade Room?
A1.) Fix missing nickname in Elite Trade Room
A2.) Glossary of terms used in the Elite Trade Room
A3.) Screenshots How to capture and share
A3a.) Techsmith Capture software
– NOTE: When capturing a screenshot of a chart to share, be sure to include the entire chart window —including the X button in the top right, down to the chart tab in the bottom left—so that anyone offering feedback can see what market–contract–bar size you’re using, the time and price axes, and surrounding context. A proper analysis cannot be done without this.
A4.) How do I type “lol” or “mm” without hotComm expanding it to things like “Somebody made some money!”?
--In the main hotComm chat window, click “Preferences”, click “Auto-typer (AE)” to uncheck it.
B. On your chart
B1.) Apex Order Prints Terms and Definitions
B2.) Legend for Lori’s Walls (walls won’t always match this, but it is generally how they are defined)
B3.) Early Detection Hidden Divergence Indicator (What are those weird smiley face/skull balls on my chart?)
B4.) Chart bar sizes/settings (For contract specification details, see: C11)
B5.) OP Copier & Order Hot Keys setup instructions (Order Key setup begins at 6:02)
B6.) What exactly are Settlement and Deviation Levels?
B7.) What exactly are ICE levels?
C. Info resources
C1.) Sniper System
C1a) Sniper chart cheat sheet (Donley alternate version)
C1b Sniper course slide deck
C1c) Tips for trading Sniper on /ES
C1d) Using /NQ walls to trade /ES
C1e) Apex Sniper Trading Workbook (To be used in conjunction with the videos in bootcamp)
C1f) HD/ODD illustration
C2.) Webinars
NOTE: Some of these webinars are years old, and some aspects have been updated.
- NQ is not generally recommended for Sniper. (See: “The Way” above for details.) Use YM and/or RTY instead.
- Do not worry if your chart looks different than what you see in these videos.
- Always follow the current steps in Sniper Bootcamp. If you see anything here that contradicts what is in the bootcamp, ignore the older information.
- The value in these presentations is in the general guidance offered, NOT the specific setups or way the chart looks.
C2a.) STOP Taking Bad Setups - Learn Trading Setup Enhanced XBox (NOTE: Swap NQ for YM/RTY)
C2b.) Bad Trading Day (Lessons Learned and Mistakes to Avoid)
C2c.) Mental Capital and Trading Psychology to Greatly Increase Account Performance
C2d.) Mental Capital for Trading Part 2: Overcoming Self Sabotage in Trading
C2e.) Learn How To Trail Your Futures Trades With Simplicty
C2f.) Simplicity Trading in Range Bound Markets Review (Institutional Zones)
C2g.) What To Do and Not Do On A Bad Trade A Simplicity Review
C2h.) Mastering Sniper Trading With Simplicity and Mind Mastery
C3.) Visuals
C3a.) Trading lanes (What kind of trades do you take?)
C3b.) Why we respect the Dark Zone and stay flat during news
C3c.) Market phases
C3d.) World stock market overlaps
C3e.) World forex market overlaps
C4.) Ron’s YouTube channel for Elite Trade Room recordings and roundtable podcasts
C4a.) Intra-bar scalping (IBS) Power Hour (no official training yet)
C4b.) ATM setup roundtable podcast
C4c.) OP charts roundtable podcast
C4d.) Simplicity hook explanation
C4e.) Trailing masterclass
C4f.) Hole Patch lesson
C4g.) Squirrel masterclass
C5.) Trading Hours and Calendars
C5a.) When are the best times to trade? (Can I trade at night? What should I trade?)
C5b.) Forex & stock market hours: map view – matrix view (What time can I trade?)
C5c.) “Futures Market Hours: Can I Trade Futures 24 Hours A Day?”
C5d.) Apex market news and earnings calendars (What times should I not trade?)
C5e.) Forex Factory news calendar
C5f.) Investing. com economic news calendar, earnings calendar, holiday calendar
C5g.) Intraday US market movement timeline
C5h.) CME Group trading hours – Holiday calendar (Is my market open on the holiday?)
C5i.) Time zone converter
C6.) Money management
C6a.) 6/3 Money Management Plan (adjustments for evaluation accounts)
C6b.) 6/3 Rule Calculator
C6c.) Trade fees and minis vs. micros (Why should I not trade micros on small-scalp systems like Sniper?)
C6d.) 90-90-90 Day Trading Challenge worksheet (video in bootcamp Section 10, Step 4)
C7.) Apex Trader Funding FAQs
C7a.) Rithmic connection guide for NT 8.0.x.x
C7b.) Rithmic connection guide for NT 8.1.x.x
C7c.) Setup and Connection Guide for NinjaTrader/Tradovate and Rithmic
C7d.) Setup and Connection Guide for Tradovate
C7e.) Rithmic vs. Tradovate…What’s the Difference?
C7f.) ATF status updates for known issues
C7g.) Available instruments on Rithmic (For contract specification details, see: C11)
C7h.) Available instruments on Tradovate (For contract specification details, see: C11)
C8.) Trading Computers (Is my hardware powerful enough?)
NOTE: The above webinar aired in March 2020. What was a “minimum requirement” 4 years ago is likely not a suitable minimum today. Be sure to ask for current recommendations.
C8a.) CPU Benchmark (Current recommendation is at least 20k, preferrably at least 30k.)
C8b.) User Benchmark (benchmark your system… are you flying a UFO, or stuck with a tree trunk?)
C8c.) EZ Trading Computers (recommended vendor, be sure to mention Apex Investing for free upgrade)
– EZ’s Apex Radical X14 (desktop)
– EZ’s Apex Odyssey (laptop)
C8d.) NinjaMobile VPS (not affiliated with NinjaTrader) (10% off with coupon APEX)
C9.) Taxes
(Informational only. Always consult a tax professional)
C9a.) Learn the top tax breaks for traders from trading tax expert Robert Green of Green Trader Tax
C9b.) Apex Specialist - Wealth Foundations
C9c.) Funded Trading Taxes | Prop Firm Taxes | LLC - Proprietor
C9d.) Funded Trader Tax Tips
C10.) What’s the deal with time zones?
--We want to be on New York City time because that’s what the NY Stock Exchange uses. New York observes Daylight Saving Time (DST) (and has done so for over 100 years, since 1918.)
During Spring/Summer, NYC is on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), which is UTC -4.
During Autumn/Winter, NYC is on Eastern Standard Time (EST), which is UTC -5.
When dealing with anyone outside of the US, if you tell them a time and say “EST,” they will likely read that as what it is: UTC -5. During Daylight Saving Time, this will lead to them being an hour off when they convert to their local time or otherwise try to deal with anything in EST (UTC -5).
(For time zone converter tool, See: C5i)
(IMPORTANT NOTE: NinjaTrader currently labels “Eastern Time” as UTC-5 year-round, which is incorrect. Do not trust NinjaTrader UTC labels. Just go by the name of the time zone.)
Best practice is to just use the generalized time shorthand of two letters:
- PT (Pacific Time)
- MT (Mountain)
- CT (Central)
- ET (Eastern)
This way it is understood that if DST is being observed, it should be accounted for.
C11.) Contract Specifications (symbol, exchange, tick size, tick value, point value)
C11a.) Contract info for Rithmic/NinjaTrader instruments
C11b.) Contract info for Tradovate/NinjaTrader instruments
C11c.) Trade fee comparison
C12.) How do I get live market data?
D. Educational resources
D1.) Futures
D1a.) What is a futures contract?
D1b.) Mechanics of futures contracts
D1c.) What is rollover? (video) (How do I roll a futures contract? See: G19)
D1d.) What is a contract worth? (notional value)
D2.) Price movement
D2a.) Tick Movements: Understanding How They Work
D2b.) Pips vs. Points vs. Ticks: What’s the Difference?
D2c.) What is a tick worth? (See full lists at C11)
D2d.) What are the contract month codes for futures?
D3.) Order Types
D3a.) Limit Order vs. Stop Order: What’s the Difference?
D3b.) Limit Order vs. Market Order: What’s the Difference?
D3c.) Stop-Loss vs. Stop-Limit Order: What’s the Difference?
D4.) Psychology
D4a.) Eliminating The Emotional Risk (How do I not chicken out?)
D4b.) “If I can do that, anyone can.” (A trading story with a lesson)
D5.) Market info
D5a.) What is FOMC?
D5b.) What is witching?
E. Tools and Apex Courses
E0.) Where can I make a purchase and see any current discounts?
E1.) Elite membership comparison (all plans, what’s included)
E2.) Mind Mastery (Apex Live Event 2019)
E3.) Sharpshooter (Apex Live Event 2020)
E4.) Thrive (Apex Live Event 2021)
E5.) Wealth Summit (Apex Live Event 2022)
E6.) Markers Plus Trade Assistant (automation)
E7.) Apex Chart Trader Plugin (with Order Keys)
E8.) Apex Trade Copier for NT8 (details webinar)
E9.) TickStrike by FinancialJuice (hear and see order flow activity) (details webinar)
E10.) Ninja Mobile VPS (not affiliated with NinjaTrader) (10% off with coupon APEX)
F. Technology tips
F1.) How do I mute NinjaTrader to temporarily turn off the alerts?
--The link above will show how to mute only NinjaTrader entirely (or decrease the volume) through the system sound mixer. Alternatively, to just mute Sniper alerts (but retain other NT sounds), you can either load a “No Alerts” template, or untick “Voice Alerts” on the Apex Order Prints indicator settings.
F2.) Alternate direct link for Desktop Assistant installation file
F3.) My machine ID changed and Markers Plus is saying the Trade Assistant expired, what do I do?
F4.) How do I get technical support for the Markers Plus Trade Assistant?
--Use the link located on the Markers Plus Apex page to join the MP Support Room on Skype
F5.) Rithmic RTrader Pro
F5a.) How To Use Rithmic Trader Pro Buttons
F5b.) How To Close A Postion In RithmicTrader Pro
F5c.) How To Use Order Book & 2nd Login Session for Depth of Market in Rithmic Trader Pro
F5d.) How to setup a max daily loss, min account balance, & auto-liquidation in RTraderPro (video)
F6.) Tradovate
F6a.) CAUTION NOTICE when using NinjaTrader and Tradovate
F6b.) How to track your drawdown/ threshold in Tradovate
F6c.) How to group Tradovate accounts for copy trading
F7.) The Apex Toolkit is not connecting and/or I’m getting an error and no deviation levels on my charts! (e.g. “The remote server returned an error (503) Server Unavailable”)
–Try the options suggested here.
F8.) Where can I get status updates for any global issues with Apex Trader Funding?
F9.) How can I get my computer clock to display the seconds?
F10.) How do I make sure computer clock stays correct?
–Dimension 4 is an Apex-recommended software to keep your clock synced to various official time servers. You can check your clock accuracy at Time.gov and Time.is.
F11.) How can I measure data lag?
F12.) How can I ping to test latency of my trading orders?
F13.) How can I test my Internet speed?
G. NinjaTrader platform
G0.) Which version of NinjaTrader should I use?
--Apex tools require NinjaTrader 8. There are currently two branches: 8.0 and 8.1. Click the link above to learn which is right for you.
G1.) How do I get technical support for NinjaTrader?
--Use the link located in Step 3 of Sniper Bootcamp to join the NT8 Support Room on Skype
G2.) I can’t see the Tick Replay checkbox!
--To get the tick replay box to show in Data Series, go to Tools>Options>Market data> under properties, historical, enable “Show Tick Replay”
G3.) How do I get my funding company commissions / trade fees to show in NinjaTrader?
G4.) Using NinjaTrader
G4a.) NinjaTrader Performance Tips
G4b.) NinjaTrader Video Guides (YouTube playlists)
– Understanding the NT Control Center
– NinjaTrader usage tips playlist
G4c.) Create & Manage NinjaTrader Workspaces
– Managing Workspaces with NinjaTrader
– NT guide: Workspaces menu
G4d.) Advanced Trade Management (ATM) Overview (How to Place Bracket Orders)
–ATM examples
–ATM video playlist
– Roundtable podcast video
– NT guide: ATM
G4e.) Market Replay (Paper Trading Previous Days with Playback)
– NT guide: Playback Connection
G4f.) NinjaTrader sim accounts (For resetting, see: G17)
– NT guide: Market Simulation
G4g.) NinjaTrader Trade Performance data
– NT guide: Trade Performance
G5.) How do I set up the 30 tick chart?
G6.) How do I load the chart showing the OP (footprint) numbers in the bars?
G7.) How do I get my charts to load faster?
a.) Recommended: See C8 to check how your computer measures up (most likely need something stronger)
b.) Alternatively, (until you get a better computer), after loading a template, right-click→indicators, remove _APEX ICE Volume Zones.
Save as new template with a name that includes something like “No ICE”. Load that one in the future.
G8.) How do I safely reset my database?
G9.) How do I safely create a new database?
G10.) My Simplicity chart isn’t showing both lines!
G11.) Connecting to IQFeed causes NinjaTrader to freeze!
G12.) What is the CBOE volatility index symbol for the instrument I want to trade?
G13.) NinjaTrader is showing completed trade execution markers on my chart…How do I remove them?
G14.) How do I remove Dynamic Magnets or Flux levels from a specific chart?
--Open the Data Series window for that chart (Ctrl+F). In the “Visual” section, untick “Show global draw objects”
G15.) Price keeps moving outside of my chart window! How do I keep it fixed on the chart?
--Click the “F” in the top right of the chart. For details on this see the section “Fixed vs. Automatic Scaling,” as well as the others for further aspects of chart navigation/manipulation, here.
–Scaling and Scrolling NinjaTrader 8 Charts (video)
–Scroll Zoom & Navigate Charts (video)
G16.) I can’t get the NinjaTrader free data trial to work!
G17.) How do I reset my NT sim account?
G18.) How do I remove pending orange flag “phantom orders” from my chart?
G19.) How Do I Roll Over a Futures Contract? (What is “rollover?” See: D1c)
G20.) When Do I Roll Over a Futures Contract?
--Not all instruments have the same schedule. For quarterly equity index futures, see here.
G21.) NT error: “Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name:index”
--This usually indicates a problem during data load. Close NT, use the Apex Desktop Assistant to clear historical data, and relaunch NT.
G22.) My dynamic magnets and/or flux levels don’t always show up!
--When you launch NT, always click on each 10,60,240 chart individually and tap the F5 key to refresh ninjascript.
H. NinjaTrader links
H1.) Open brokerage account
H1a.) Download NT desktop versions
H1b.) Direct link for 8.0.x.x (Tradovate funding accounts can be used with this version)
H1c.) Direct link for 8.1.1.7
H2.) NT8 Release notes (version history change log)
H3.) NT Support Center
H3a.) NT Support Help Guide
H3b.) NT Video Guides
H4.) NT Brokerage administrative fees
H5.) NT supported brokers and data providers
H6.) NT data providers
H6a.) NT data by provider
H7.) NT Brokerage emergency contact phone number