Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum and would like to journal my journey for a new trading quest I have been thinking about for a long time.

I have been trading on and off for over 20 years and I have many scars to prove it. Recently, I became a funded trader with Topstep Trader using my own scalping system on US 30 Year Bonds. In the past I have traded Futures and Forex manually and with my own coded systems.

I have completed many trading courses and seminars. Most of the time I could not replicate their results! They often promise the world but most do not deliver.

Like most of us, I have been burned by these trading companies.

It is time to test these trading companies and see who can deliver.

My journal will track my progression:

• I will explain why I chose the courses on the short list and why I chose the first one to test.

• Right through to setup, back-testing, live trading and hopefully to profitability

• I will explain what works and what doesn't

• I will not be sharing anything that is proprietary to the company

My goal is to see if I can become profitable in 90 days.

If I fail, then I will start again with another 90-day challenge ... until I find a profitable course.

I would love it if people have questions or can suggest things along the way.

If anyone would like to suggest a trading course to add to my list, I would appreciate it.

I am NOT associated with any Trading Company.

I am excited to share my journey and my results with you.

Come along with me on My Trading Quest!

Cheers
Garry

DAY 29 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is the third day of Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 180 mins of the US Open

• The third day of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Wednesday for ES and NQ

The Third day of Sim Trading – Losing Day

I had a busy day so could not focus on my trading. (Lesson 1)

Lesson 1 – I missed several trades because I was not focussed – I need to remember to walk away and come back when I can focus.

The market had some big moves and was very fast most of the US Day. (Lesson 2)

Lesson 2 – The markets were so quick that I didn’t have time to ensure they were valid. There will always be another trade so I don’t have to take the potential trade in front of me.

What I did right, was not to take revenge trades or trades that I was not sure were valid or didn’t have time to validate.


Today, I live sim traded 2 trades, 1 ES (Loss), and 1 NQ (Win). Total Loss – $190.

The running P/L for 3 days trading 1 contract on Sim Live is $122.50


Trade 1 Review – ES Short OD Divergence

Let me first explain how to tell OD Divergence.

If you look at the chart below you will see the bar on the left has a black number above it (13K). On the fourth bar from the right, you will see a white number above it (18K). As per the normal rules of divergence it requires for a short to have made a Higher High and the indicator makes a LL.

I find that the OD divergence is very accurate. It would require for this example, that the second OD number be at least 80% of the first but preferably 50%.

At the time I took the trade (Arrow marked OD Short), The bar had an OD number of approx 60% of the 13K. I took the trade, was stopped out and when the price went higher, the OD moved to the HH. I know that the OD number is dynamic but I have never been caught out by this before. At the time I entered it was a valid trade.

The trade became a valid trade where the second arrow (marked Missed Valid). I missed this trade as I was still reviewing the loss (Lesson 3). This trade was two types. First a DR Divergence trade and secondly an Enhanced trade.

Lesson 3 – Be in the NOW and focus on the chart

DR Divergence

Below the chart, you can see the red and green histogram. This is the trend direction indicator. Note below the first OD Short arrow compared to below the Missed Valid Arrow, this indicator has two hills. Price made Higher Highs and the DR Indicator made Lower Lows … therefore DR Divergence.

Enhanced Trade

There are a couple of different forms of enhanced trades but this one is identified by:

• Reversal Bar

• Red Box at top of the bar

• New White Line (MM) from the bar

• An existing line (orange PP)

The first Chart is the ES Trade




Trade 2 Review – NQ Short OD + DR Divergence

This was a simple trade and the reasons I took it is explained above.



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel




Potential trades for Tuesday for ES and NQ

Today, especially during the US daytime was very fast on both markets. NQ was quicker then ES.

In my list of potential trades for the day, I have not listed a number of trades as I would consider them not to be realistic trades.

Apex Investing does have a Semi-Automated program that would have helped to get into quick trades. I believe that this program is for more experienced traders who already know the rules and can make super quick decisions on the validity of the trade. I have heard only good things about the program but have not yet used it.






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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 30 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is day four of the Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 90 mins of the US Open

• Day four of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Thursday for ES and NQ

Day Four of Sim Trading

NQ was still a fast market today so I only traded the ES.

I live sim traded 6 trades, 1 ES (Loss) and 5 ES (winners). Total Profit $245.

The running P/L for 4 days of Sim is $367.50

Trade 1 ES Short NTX – Trend trade (Loss – $230)




Trade 2 ES Long Enhanced and DTX Trade (Profit + $95)

The DTX trade is simply:

• Reversal Bar

• Box with blue square in it. On top of bar if short and bottom of bar for long (TX)

• With another box and blue square within 5 ticks and up to 30 bars from the most recent (double)

Trade 3 ES Long OD Divergence Trade (Profit + $95)



Trade 4 Long ES OD Divergence Trade (Profit + $95)



Trade 5 OD Divergence Long Trade (Profit + $95)



Trade 6 Enhanced Long Trade (Profit + $95)



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Thursday – ES and NQ

The markets were moving very quick again. I did not trade NQ.

In my list of potential trades for the day, I have not listed a number of trades as I would consider them not to be realistic trades.





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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

Hi Everyone,

I have had a couple of people say that the stats are a little confusing.

Sorry if I have confused anyone. Thanks for letting me know.

To compare any stats with the Sim Trading is too soon.


My Results for the four Sim Trading days:



I will post later today the results from Friday.


Spreadsheets Explained



The first data is for ES

Section 1: Section for the possible trades identified on a static chart but not taken

Section 2: Results of ES Possible trades split into General Setups. Sometimes when a trade is identified in can fall into 2 groups and these numbers count each individual setup.

Section 3: This lists the actual Sim Trades in line with the appropriate potential trade. If the sim trade does not line up with a trade in section 1, then it is added to section 1 but not counted in that section.

Section 4: This section shows the start and stop time for potential trades. Also, any comments are added here



The second data is for NQ

Section 5: Section for the possible trades identified on a static chart but not taken

Section 6: Results of NQ Possible trades split into General Setups. Sometimes when a trade is identified in can fall into 2 groups and these numbers count each individual setup.

Section 7: This lists the actual Sim Trades in line with the appropriate potential trade. If the sim trade does not line up with a trade in section 1, then it is added to section 1 but not counted in that section.

Section 8: This section shows the start and stop time for potential trades. Also, any comments are added here

Section 9: This section shows the Daily and To-Date Summary for ONLY Sim Trades




Section 10: This section is a copy of the sim trades from the Ninja Trader platform.
I post this for two reasons.

First I want to show some proof that I took the trades at the times I took them. I wanted to post as I enter trades but that is not always practical.

Secondly, if anyone wanted to check their charts then Section 10 fives you better information for that. My trade times are entered at the bar time where as in Section 10, it will show the exact time I enter.

I do keep other stats on my spreadsheets but it would only be more confusing if I included them at this point.

I hope this helps and if you have any ideas about how I can present it better then please let me know.

Cheers
Garry

DAY 31 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is day five of the Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 120 mins of the US Open

• Day four of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Friday for ES and NQ

Day Five of Sim Trading – Options Expiration created some fast markets

NQ was still a fast market today so I only traded the ES.

I live sim traded 8 trades, 2 ES (Loss), and 6 ES (winners). Total Profit $97.50.

Lessons

Both of the losses were mistakes by me. And I took a profit early on 1 trade.

The mistakes were caused by me not reading the chart properly!!!

Actions to help:

I will practice more with speed so I train my mind to identify the patterns quicker.

What I am happy with:

The reason I took profit early as the market looked like it was going into chop so I took profit at the top of the chop. After reviewing the trade, I am happy with the action I took.

I was very happy that when I had a loss, I was quick to take the next trade. I took a loss, entry at 9:41, and then entered a winning trade at 9:41:58 followed my another profitable trade at 9:43.

At about 10:00 I decided that as I was now back in profit for the day and I had made 2 mistakes then I would stop trading for the day. I wanted to make sure that I reviewed the trades I had made a mistake with before risking anything else. Get my head right for nest week.

I consider my first week of sim trading to be a reasonable week.

Trade 1 – ES Long NTX – OD (Profit $145)




Trade 2 – ES Long Enhanced Long (Profit + $20)

You can see how the market went sideways.



Trade 3 and Trade 4

Trade 3 – ES Long – I don’t know what I was thinking!! (Loss -$217)

Trade 4 – ES Long – Enhanced and DR Divergence Trade (Profit $95)

It was a quick trade and I remained focused.



Trade 5, 6 and 7

Trade 5 – Enhanced short trade but it followed a long smooth trend – NOT VALID (Loss -$230)

Trade 6 – DTX short Trade (Profit + $95)

If you look at the image below then you will see in the panel 2nd from the bottom, a green line. This shows when the DTX is valid.

Trade 7 – NTX long Trend Trade (Profit + $95)



Trade 8 – OD Divergence short Trade (Profit + $95)



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Friday – ES and NQ

The markets were moving very quickly again. I did not trade NQ and looking at the NQ chart most trade setups would have been too quick to enter.

In my list of potential trades for the day, I have not listed a number of trades as I would consider them not to be realistic trades.

The ES session did provide a number of trades that could be entered and you could have profited from them.











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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 32 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is day six of Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 120 mins of the US Open

• Day Six of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Friday for ES and NQ

Comments:

I have had a few questions asked so I thought I would touch on them first today.

• I am not affiliated with any company that I mention or don’t mention.

• If at the end of the 90 days I am not profitable then I will start the 90-day process with another company.

• If I like or don’t like something about a company then I will post about it. No Company is perfect!

• I am doing this challenge so I can learn, experience, and challenge myself. Hopefully, others will learn along the way and we can help each other to become better.

• The Daily Potential Trades are exactly that … potential. I do this to learn the setups, benchmark against my sim/live trades, and to gather information to validate the setups. This includes the best time of day to trade, Optimum targets and stops, and a heap of other useful information.

• My Sim Trading results will be different from yours. It is a learning tool.

• When I am happy with my sim trading I will put the setups and myself to the test by participating in a Funded Trader Test.

• I post my experience as I see it.

• I welcome feedback, questions, and suggestions on how I can improve the challenge and posts.

Day Six of Sim Trading – NQ still fast at times

NQ was still a fast market today so I only traded the ES.

I live sim traded 4 trades, 1 ES (Loss), and 3 ES (winners). Total Profit $230.

Trade 1 – ES Short NTX – OD (Profit $70)

The divergence can be seen from the left side number (22K) to the right side number (8983). Price went higher but the OD number went lower.




Trade 2 – ES Long Enhanced Long (Profit + $82.50)



Trade 3 – ES Long – This was a TX – Trend trade but it was invalid due to it being against the 60K – 25K Divergence short. No short signal was given but the divergence was still valid. Stop was moved to Breakeven as soon as I noticed it was not valid. (Loss -$5)



Trade 4 – Enhanced Trade Long Trade (Profit + $85.50)



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Monday- ES and NQ

NQ was very quick at times and had 14 valid trades but they were spread out.

In my list of potential trades for the day, I have not listed a number of trades as I would consider them not to be realistic trades.

The ES session did provide 8 valid trades that could be entered and you could have profited from them.

There were a number of setups that were not valid and you could have been caught out due to the speed of the market or boredom. At times ES was very slow!









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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 33 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is Day Seven of Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 120 mins of the US Open

• Day Seven of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Friday for ES and NQ.

Day Six of Sim Trading – Markets a mixture of fast and slow

Both markets presented good opportunities

I live sim traded 9 trades:

1 ES (Loss), and 6 ES (winners)
No NQ(Loss), and 2 NQ(winners)
Total Profit $262.50.

Trade 1 – ES Long DTX (Loss $230)

Target was hit but not filled and then the market came down and hit my stop.

I have noticed that I am better off overall if I don’t move my stop unless there is a valid reason. A bounce off of the target price is not a valid reason.




Trade 2 – ES Long Enhanced Long (Profit + $82.50)



Trade 3 – ES Long Enhanced Long (Profit + $95.00)



Trade 4 – Trend Trade Long (Profit + $20.00)

The Yellow cluster bars represent possible chop. Price was moving very slow and with the clusters, I moved the exit to just above BE.



Trades 5, 6 and 7

Trade 5 – Trend Trade Short (Profit + $95.00)

Trade 6 – Divergence Trade Long (Profit + $95.00)

Trade 7 – DTX Trade Short (Profit + $20.00)

Trade 7 was very slow so I moved the target just below BE



NQ Trades 1 and 2

Trade 1 – Divergence Trade ($40.00)

Trade 2 – Divergence and Double TX Trade ($45.00)

I did take one other trade in NQ and it went to profit but after reviewing it I found that it wasn’t valid. So I left it out of the results.



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Tuesday - ES and NQ





Sim Trade Results Overview




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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 34 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is Day Eight of Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 120 mins of the US Open

• Day Eight of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Friday for ES and NQ.

• Reviewed the next step to this challenge

The Next Step in the Challenge – Evaluation for Funding

The sim trading has been going well, and if the next couple of days continue to be good then it might be time to put it to the test. I will review it again this weekend. Note next Monday is a US Holiday.

The next step will be to choose and participate in an evaluation with a company that funds traders.

At this time, I intend to start an evaluation either next Tuesday (Monday being a holiday) or the following Monday.

Day Eight of Sim Trading – I only traded NQ

What an interesting day! I decided to trade NQ as it was moving better then ES and I would watch a new setup on ES. That really didn’t work out as ES had a limited number of trades for the setup evaluation.

On the overhand, NQ gave plenty of trades to take.

You may have noticed that some of my trades have different profit and loss values. I have been getting slippage, both positive and negative even in sim!!! So I record whatever the Sim Live results are.

I live sim traded 3 trades:

3 NQ (winners)

Total Profit $155.00.

Trade 1 – NQ Short DR Divergence Profit +$45.00




Trade 2 – NQ Short Double TX Profit +$50.00

I missed this trade and when I noticed I waited to see if the price action would go to my entry price. When it started heading back down I placed my order at the original price and it took off down.



Trade 3 – NQ Long TX Trend Profit + $60.00



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Wednesday- ES and NQ





Sim Trade Results Overview




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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 35 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is Day Nine of Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 120 mins of the US Open

• Listened to the live webinar

• Day Nine of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Thursday on ES and NQ.

• Started looking at funding companies

Day Nine of Sim Trading – I traded both NQ and ES. Heaps of news around the Open.

I live sim traded 5 trades:

2 NQ winners
2 ES winners and 1 BE (-$5.00 commission)
Total Profit $275.00.

Trade 1 – NQ Short TX Range Trade Profit +$45.00

I don’t normally trade this setup, but it was so obvious that I took it.

The trade was bouncing in a nice range and the entry was a TX entry and because it was short from the top of the range it didn’t need DR (trend) with it.




Trade 2 – NQ Short OD + DR Divergence Trade Profit +$45.00



Trade 1 – ES Long OD Divergence Profit + $95.00

I didn’t include the first Low with an OD of 17K. Price went up and then made a lower low with an OD of 9334. The bar setup with a TX entry.



Trade 2 – ES Long Enhanced Trade Profit + $95.00



Trade 3 – ES Long Enhanced Trade Loss – $5.00

I broke my rules!!

The trade hit the target and then quickly started to move back to the entry price. I moved my stop to the entry price and was filled. Price then continued up above my target.

I understand why I moved it but it was more to do with the recency effect caused by being fully stopped out in a similar trade.

I will review and see if I need to change my trading plan or look at ways to prevent myself from breaking the rules.



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Thursday- ES, and NQ






Sim Trade Results Overview




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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 36 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Daily Sim Review …

Today is Day Ten of Sim Trading …

Actions I took:

• Listened to the trading room for the first 120 mins of the US Open

• Listened to the second live webinar for the week

• Day Ten of Sim Trading

• Reviewed the potential trades for Friday on ES and NQ

Day Nine of Sim Trading – I traded both NQ and ES. Heaps of news around the Open.

I live sim traded 10 trades:
3 NQ trades – 2 winners and 1 loss (-$30.00)
7 ES trades – 6 winners and 1 loss (+315.00)
Total Profit $285.00.

Trade 1 – NQ Long DTX Trade Loss -$120.00

Looking back I can see a couple of reasons not to take this trade – hindsight is wonderful.

The trade was valid.




Trade 2 – Valid NQ Long DTX Trade Profit +$45.00



Trade 3 – NQ Long OD + DR Divergence Trade Profit +$45.00



Trade 1 – Valid ES Short Enhanced + Trend Trade Loss -$192.50



ES Trades 2, 3 and 4

Trade 2 Valid Enhanced Short Trade Profit + $95.00

Trade 3 Valid OD Divergence Long Trade Profit + $95.00

Trade 4 Valid Enhanced Long Trade Profit + $95.00



Trade 5 Valid OD Divergence Short Trade Profit + $95.00



Trade 6 Valid Enhanced Long Trade Profit + $32.50

The trade was so slow and bounced backwards and forwards from positive to negative so I moved the target to 32.50. Today was the day before a long weekend and was performing a bit erratic.

Trade 7 Valid Double TX and Trend Short Trade Profit + $95.00



The following is the trades from the NT7 Summary Panel



Potential trades for Friday – ES and NQ






Sim Trade Results Overview




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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

DAY 37 + 38 – Apex Sniper Trading Bootcamp – Funded Trading Companies Review …

This weekend is a long weekend in the US …

Actions I took:

• Reviewed by 10 days of Sim Trading

• Reviewed a number of Trading Companies who offer funding

• Continued Market Replay practice

Sim Trade Results Overview



10 days of Sim Trading is really not long enough to test and prove much. But I consider the results to be good enough for me to move to the next stage of the challenge.


As readers may know from my early post, I am already funded by Topstep Trader. I used my own scalping system to trade the 30 Year Bonds.

This challenge is totally separate from what I do in the TST Funded account.


I reviewed a number of Trading Companies who offer funding if you can pass their testing.

A lot of these companies have so many rules that it seems they really don’t want you to pass. Since the last time I looked at these companies I have noticed a number of the prices and rules have changed.

Some of the Companies I have heard complaints about the traders not getting paid or paid slowly. So I avoided them. I have no proof of any of the stories but have chosen to play safe and avoid.

I am very happy with Topstep Trader but wanted to try another company.


The Company I chose is Leeloo Trading [url]https://www.leelootrading.com/[/url]

Basically they only have 3 Rules:

Don’t exceed your daily Loss Limit
Don’t reach your max drawdown
Reach your profit target while illustrating consistency
They base the funding on the number of contracts you can trade. Other companies have a dollar amount you choose to test for.

An example would be TST who have a $50,000 Test option which costs $165 per month

Profit Target $3,000 per stage (2 stages)
Maximum contract size = 5
Daily Loss Limit = $1,000
Weekly Loss Limit = $1,000
Trailing Max DD = $2,000
Other rules including time of day you can trade, etc
If you are funded then the split is 80:20
And you keep 100% of the first $5,000
You can take as long as you want to reach the target as long as you don’t break any of the rules.
The minimum time to pass would be 5 days for stage 1 and 10 days for stage 2

This would compare to the Leeloo Account Cost $170 per month
Profit Target $3,000
Up to 8 contracts
$2,500 Max Drawdown based from the High Water Mark
No Daily Loss Limit
No other rules
If you are funded then the split is 80:20
And you keep 100% of the first $8,000
You can take as long as you want to reach the target as long as you don’t break the DD rule.
The minimum time to pass would be 10 days

Apex Investing has chosen Leeloo Trading as a recommended company and currently offer a 15% discount for the first month

So, you can see from the points above, there are a number of good reasons to try Leeloo Trading.

I will explain the $2,500 Max Drawdown in a coming post.


Over the next couple of days I will decide when I will start the Leeloo Test. At this time I believe Tuesday will be start day. I don’t want to start on a slow or low volume day (Day after a long weekend)!



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

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with any of these companies.

Bro you did a great job! I'm honestly amazed at your efforts and patience. I analyzed your screenshots, it's really cool. I have been trading since the beginning of autumn ( somewhere in the middle of September ) And so far, I only fill the cones and do not trade. Of course, I can sometimes go into the plus, but I'm still new to big deals. People I met on the stock exchange showed me the macd histogram and I learned about it from them, as I learn a lot of new and useful things for myself . How did you learn to trade ? I don't understand how you can start trading yourself without any help ,I've seen a couple of such people, but I've always been amazed by them.