Video tutorial - importing data into TradeLogger

Hello everyone. I have started creating some useful, narrated video tutorials about using TradeLogger. My hope is that these videos will help explain things about using this software in a much more clear way for those just getting started.

To check out all the video tutorials as they are uploaded, you can find them posted in the TUTORIALS section of TradeLogger's site.

I'm also posting them on YouTube for added convenience, but the ones posted on the TradeLogger site are much higher in resolution.

The first video is a two part look at Importing Data Into TradeLogger.
PART 1
PART 2

Please post your comments about how you like them, if they are helpful and what other topics would you like me to cover. Thanks for your support and good trading everyone.

Whippy Russell today made for a tough day

The Russell 2000 futures were pretty whippy today, taking out my stops on over half my trades leaving me with a down day. No big deal, but just didn't see that nice get-up-go follow through that I've been used to the last few days.

On another note, after meeting with several key people in Las Vegas, it looks very likely that TradeLogger may form a partnership with a few other charting packages such as TradeNavigator. This will allow charting packages with built-in front ends to talk directly to TradeLogger and automatically import trade data as it occurs in real time while you trade. It may also be possible to have TradeLogger control the switching of the front end between "sim" and "live" mode as the equity curve dictates. Details are still developing but it looks likely that TradeLogger will become even easier to use for traders.

Fantastic trading today using Range Bars

Today was simply a banner day trading using Woodies' CCI set against range bars instead of price bars. 3 winning trades on the YM. 16 trades overall and 15 winners. Not too bad. The way that the range bars smooth out the moves of the CCI and get you into trades much earlier have made this a fantastic method for trading. Woodie tested this setup for 9 months and finally revealed it to me in Las Vegas and I have to say that I think it beyond fantastic. Thanks Woodie and good trading.

Back from Vegas and ready to trade

Hi everyone, I just got back from a week in Las Vegas as a presenter at a Woodies CCI Seminar and had a simply fantastic time. I received a lot of great feedback for future enhancements for TradeLogger and met some of the nicest people in the world. Now that I'm back I'll be busy implementing some of these ideas for TradeLogger to make the program even better for traders to use in order to keep more money in their trading account. If you have any suggestions or comments please let me know by visiting www.tradelogger.net and contacting me. What a blast Vegas was, especially getting the chance to watch the Frontier Hotel implode...very cool. OK, we'll be talking with you all this week, take care and good trading.

Fixed a bug in TradeLogger version 2.3R

Hello all, a recent self-update to TradeLogger to version 2.3R fixed a bug which occurred when clicking on the SHOW# button. It used to draw both the "before" and "after" curve on the graph when it should only draw the "before". This glitch was remedied in this latest update. Good trading everyone!

Fed lowers rate and good trading on market today

As usual on FOMC announcement days, I make sure to assume a flat position about 30 minutes prior to the actual news. This is because I have no interest in getting caught up in the whippiness that usually occurs after such a significant announcement. The problem with that is just because you have a stop set on a trade, doesn't mean you are protected in case of extreme volatility. The market price can easily jump right over your stop triggering it, but you might get filled 20, 30 or 50 tics beyond that once the order is executed. But prior to the announcement, we had some good trades on Russell, Gold and mini-Dow. I went flat before the announcement and after that there were no valid patterns to take. So overall, good trading today.

Reported white screen problem with TradeLogger

Hi there traders. Some people have reported that they get a white screen appearing after the welcome screen appears in TradeLogger and they cannot make it go away. This seems to be an issue which is remedied by performing a Windows Update to make sure you are running the latest Internet Explorer and ActiveX on your computer. The users that reported this problem have said that it went away when they checked these two things and updated them. If the problem persists, please let me know. Other than that, let's have a great trading week! Good trading everyone.

Another positive day trading the mini DOW

Today provided a couple of winning trades on the YM (mini DOW). Quick ones too, which are the kind I like the best. I've been finding more and more than lately the 3 minute chart of the YM seems to get me into a move in a little bit better position than the 5 minute charts have. Not that the 5 minute charts are bad charts to trade, it's just in the last 5 or 6 months I've found that I've noticed the 3 minute charts getting in early on the move, whereas the 5 minute charts get me at the peak of the move.

Excellent trading on the DOW today

What a beautiful day trading on the mini-DOW today. 2 big trades yielding over 150 tics, just trading basic CCI patterns at bar close. Some people ask how is it possible to really get a 2:1 win to loss ratio and this is one of the ways. By having a running contract on that catch these long, extended moves makes up, in the long run, for small losses or BE+1's.

Way to go everyone that caught a piece of today's action. Good trading!

Bull Call Spreads working so far

As I continue to delve into the world of options I have been carefully putting on a few simple trades based on signals generated using the CCI indicator on daily charts. So far, all of these spreads are working and showing moderate profits. My main goal in doing this is to become more familiar with managing the options trades using the ThinkorSwim platform. Managing swing option trades is definitely a different animal than day trading futures and I am really enjoying it as each day goes by I learn more and more about the different strategies for doing option plays.

A few new TradeLogger features

Over the last few days I have added a couple of features that people have requested. Our new Live Messages panel has been very popular because it displays immediate information about what is going on with TradeLogger, but some people have requested that can be hidden to save screen real estate. Version 2.3m now has the ability to minimize the Live Messages panel. Also another user-requested feature is to make the Journal Entry field movable by clicking and dragging on the title of the window. You can now move it anywhere on the TradeLogger screen. More updates are being worked on as I type this. Good trading all.

Busy studying my options

For the past 3 weeks I have been tunnel visioned. Turning my attention to really understanding options and option strategies, I have come to realize that utilizing this powerful investment vehicle is another strong cog in the wheel of regular monthly income. I have been spending countless hours listening to lectures on Woodies' site, reading several books on the basics and wrapping my brain around all there is to know to begin to put on option trades AND understand what I'm doing at the same time, hehe. So, one reason TradeLogger hasn't seen any updates this week is because of my focus on that topic. I have added some useful educational option links in the Investor Resources section of my site.

Ready for a good week of trading

OK, we have options expiration and quadruple witching behind us. Any gains you had last week, or any losses are all in the past. A new week of trading is before us and what happened last week as no bearing on what will happen this week. So let's stay focused on our trading plan and be ready to react to the signals that we get according to that plan and not make up anything. A positive attitude without any biases about what will happen will put us in a successful mind frame to do what we need to do to be successful as traders.

On another note, I've begun digging in this weekend to spend the next 6 months to really understand options and how to use them in my swing trading. I've spent the last 18 months really focusing on learning the disciplines for my day trading and now I'm moving on in my education to options. I look forward to any advice, tips and instruction regarding options that you may have. Good trading everybody.

How is your discipline doing?

One of the biggest challenges of new traders is that they have an itchy trade-trigger finger. They have a hard time sitting still and waiting just for the setups that offer them the highest probabilities. Instead, they feel that because they are in front of their screen and their account is funded, the need to trade is very strong. I've heard it said that sometimes the need to trade is stronger than the need to trade well. I used to be like that but as I've progressed in my trading career I've come to realize that I get paid to wait, wait for MY setups that follow MY rules. Developing trading discipline is certainly not done overnight and requires practice and patience, but pin up a reminder next to your monitor that says, "I get paid to wait." You'll find that the less you trade, the more profitable you tend to become. Good trading everyone.

Nice move by the Fed today

Well, the market certainly approved of the 50 basis point rate reduction. Prior to the announcement though trading was very subdued and there was only one trade I took today which was on crude oil and it was a small winner. My trading plan didn't initiate any other trades for me today. Being a day trader is hard to explain to other people. Friends of mine today assumed that I made a million dollars because of the federal reserve rate cut and the large surge in the market. It doesn't always work out like that and people outside of trading don't really understand that. When people ask what I do for a living anymore, I simply tell them that I manage my own investments...that seems to sound better to them.

2 winners, 1 loser -- no problems

Another decent trading day, just trading the patterns according to my plan. 2 winners taken on the 3 minute YM scalping chart and 1 loser on the CL. I'm up slightly for the day though so no problems here. I continue to work on updated features for TradeLogger and welcome your suggestions.

Still working on linking to chart photos feature

A great new feature of TradeLogger is still under construction. The ability to link to a screen capture of your chart to attach it to a trade logged in TradeLogger will augment the Journal feature. This will let you remind yourself what your chart looked like for that particular trade that you logged, helping you to later study and analyze what you were seeing and why you took the trade.

Began training for my first 5K run

My trading discipline requires a good, clear mind free of clutter. One of the ways that I have found to improve my mental attitude greatly, plus lower my blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol has been to get back into running. I can't tell you what an enormous difference regular aerobic exercise has been to my physical and mental health. Been running again for 4 months on a very regular schedule and my attitude has improved 100% all through the day. I highly recommend any kind of good aerobic exercise 3 times a week to help improve your mental clarity, the physical side effects are excellent as well in oh so many ways!

Quiet trading day today, no trades but stuck to my plan

Today was one of those days where the markets that I trade were in a sideways mode for a good part of the day. My plan calls for me to take only a select few patterns and today none of those appeared on my markets and so I took no trades today. That's OK, tomorrow is a new day and I don't feel the need to have to trade all the time. If my patterns don't show up, then I'm content to sit and wait, after all, that's what I get paid to do is to wait for my entries.

Tuesday was good

One thing I've been watching for about 2 months is both the 3 minute and 5 minute YM chart side by side. I have been practicing taking scalp trades off the 3 minute chart and finding decent success with that. Today I took 2 YM 3' scalps, 1 5' CL trade and 1 5' YM trade, all winners. We'll see how well that continues to go but it's an interesting thing to watch. Sometimes I can get into moves with valid patterns on the 3', whereas the 5' doesn't provide a valid entry.

4 trades, 2 winners today on Dow

Today showed 4 trades on the DOW (YM), 2 were winners, 2 losers stopped out. Ended the day slightly down but still TradeLogger has me in sim mode on the YM so no actual losses to my equity in that account. Currently I'm using a 20 MA setting and a "Cross" type for my settings. I continue to trade 2 contracts, taking a T1 at 10 tics and taking the runner off on the first CCI hook back or a cross of the 100 line.

New upcoming feature for TradeLogger

Hi there, just a quick post about a new feature I'm working on for TradeLogger. Soon it will have the ability to link directly to any saved snapshot of a chart so that it can be linked and associated with a trade and viewed again later. The ability to possibly mark up the chart within TradeLogger might be made available as well. Hopefully this will help people when they review their trades and be able to review the chart that contains the trade.

Working on math for trade dependency

Trade dependency is the characteristic in which one trade depends on the previous trade. For example, in some trading systems or methods, winning trades tend to follow other winning trades, and losses tend to follow losses. This is known as positive dependency: wins follow wins and losses follow losses. In negative dependency, wins tend to follow losses, and losses tend to follow wins.
This concept can be valuable to know when using an equity curve manager like TradeLogger and so I'm working on implementing the math involved in identifying these trends. This will help TradeLogger become more profitable for the end user if the signals can reflect trade dependency. For more information about trade dependency check here.

Quiet trading day on Friday

Due to Labor Day in the United States, we have a 3 day weekend and so the trading volume and follow through was weak on Friday, probably because many traders were starting their weekend early. That's OK, I didn't have any CCI signals to trade anyway so I didn't get involved in any trades. I'll be working on TradeLogger features and tweaks this weekend though. Everybody have a great weekend!

version 2.3c

Fixed a problem where the FILTER GRAPH button which stopped working after entering a Journal Entry. Also corrected the way the journal field displays the text in the Trade Log window.

New update 2.3 released

Today my internet connection was down in my neighborhood so instead of trading it gave me a chance to finish up a few new feature updates. Version 2.3 now includes a CREATE JOURNAL ENTRY button which allows you to enter your personal thoughts about the trade you are recording. Many traders find this helpful to make a note of what they were thinking about when they entered or exited a trade. Also a new "Sticky Date" checkbox was added to let the date box remain unchanged when entering in lots of records. You can download the newest version automatically if you already have the FREE TradeLogger. It will self-update if connected to the internet. You can download TradeLogger for the first time HERE.

TradeLogger saved me from losses today

This month overall has reaped little profits in my trading, even though my trading plan has been adhered to tightly. Fortunately my TradeLogger program has saved me again. It kept me in simulation mode today trading the mini Dow. I took 4 trades, 3 were losers, of those 2 were stop outs but since TradeLogger advised me to stay in simulation mode today I didn't actually lose any money from my account so the program did it's job. I just wish we could see more follow through in the markets and less whippiness. But tomorrow is a new day. Stay with the plan.

So far so good, sticking to my plan

The month of July trading the ER was brutal. However, using TradeLogger kept me away from over a $2,000 loss that month. I had loss of about $450 that month, but it certainly could have been a lot worse. In August I switched over to trading the mini Dow and because of the whippiness of the market I experienced a lot of stop outs, but again, TradeLogger has had me sim trading many of those losing trades. So far, the mini Dow I would have been down -$2,177, but instead I'm only down -$418 which is a nice savings. The import thing for me though is that I am sticking to my trading plan, only trading the signals that are valid, not deviating from my rules about trade management and using TradeLogger and obeying it's signals. So for that, it has been a successful August, even though I'm down a bit. More to come.

Update version 2.2o

I fixed a small prolem when using the LOG TRADE button which caused the "after" (or "live") equity curve to be drawn over the full "before" graph. This won't happen anymore to clutter things up.

Updated version 2.2l

This button now adds the ability to show the “before” and “after” equity curves by clicking the new button located in the lower left corner of the window. This new feature shows what your live equity curve looks like after following the advice that TradeLogger gives you about when to be in SIM mode and when to be in LIVE mode.

Update version 2.2i

This version corrected a math issue when compiling the Equity Comparison information. The equity comparison figures should now accurately reflect the “before” and “after” totals for all the trades taken compared to only the live trades taken as advised by TradeLogger.

Update version 2.2h

I Added a new feature. Now, all trades taken in LIVE mode are hilited in bold blue in the Trade Log Window. This way you can easily scroll through and find which trades were to have been taken live.

Update version 2.2g

I added the ability to change the TITLE of your TradeLogger window. This is helpful if you like to run multiple copies of TradeLogger and want to have each window identified with a different title. You can change the title by going into the PREFs panel and typing in the name you want to show in the “Default Window Name” field. Clicking the red X to close the PREFs panel will save the change.