Activity
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
What is this?
Less
More

Memberships

5-Minute Futures

7.4k members • Paid

G
gwt

157 members • Free

Trading Boss VIP

74 members • Free

14 contributions to 5-Minute Futures
@MES and @ES.D Timezone Issues
There is an issue with Alpha_L_Tiger where with the updated MESZ25, it conflicts with the @ES.D data. It is stating that "you may not mix symbols with different time zones in a window". While all the data series are tied to "exchange" this is failing but if switched to "local", it does allow them to be together. Is anyone else hitting this? I tested on a clean chart also on a other box to mimic it and was able to see what algo was failing by removing the data so it would load. You an load @MESZ25 in exhange zone and then add data2 as @ES.D to hit the failure.
@MES  and @ES.D Timezone Issues
1 like • 7d
@Kevin Gong - going to test in a little but should be resolved on restart - not tied to update
1 like • 7d
it is confirmed as fixed on my side - may need to restart workspace but should work after that if its not already working
1 like • 8d
@MCL/@CL is now ready to update also (to X25) It expires tomorrow so everyone should update asap
1 like • 8d
@Kevin Gong - ...I could have just done that in the first place to save you time. :) I'll do that next time so everyone actually see that
If i had to start over from scratch in futures trading, i’d do this
Pick 1 of each - Broker: Tradestation - Market: ES - Direction: Long - Timeframe: 1440min - Indicator: ATR Back test across 10+ years of data. Make sure avg trade w/ fees > $100 Entry: 2-5 indicators Exit: Stop Loss, Profit Target, Hold Time 1. Tradestation because it comes with decades of free, accurate time bar data. 2. ES because its the most liquid market, and least punishing from a slippage perspective 3. Direction long because this has been the macro trend of ES 4. Timeframe 1440min because this basically daily bars, which will provide a large enough sample size for statistical significance (667+). And less competitive than lower timeframes. 5. Indicator ATR because volatility is inversely correlated to trend.
1 like • 18d
This also brings up a point that is you are serious about algo trading (and creating your own), start small with one algo. Get comfortable with it and then build upon it to add in the different types of market you need to trade in (ranging, trending, counter trend). The higher timeframes are def a great starting point b/c decisions are really only made once a day so you have plenty of time to check things once a day to make sure things line up with the expectation. But backtest everything...without data, you are just blindly trading something. (or just use @Kevin Gong algos, he's done a good job with creating a balanced non-corelated portfolio and trust me...it takes a lot of time to do this). 😀
1 like • 18d
@Kevin Gong - I can def agree with this so and as someone who does create algos, I know how much time you have spent on this. For everyone else who has not created algos...its a very time consuming process and most of what you will create will end up failing during live runs. The beauty about TS is that you can still review the backtests yourself b/c its built in so at the very least, you should review that b/c that will help give you confidence that X algo works (or did work based on history).
The biggest mistake i see futures traders making
When I first started algotrading futures I'd watch my algos And I noticed that they'd trade about 5 times a week But sometimes algos would buy at the top, and go short at the bottom. I'd think to myself: "Man, these algos get in at the EXACT wrong time. I can trade better than THAT." So I'd load up a chart on the side, and when I saw an algo take a bad trade... I'd reverse the position. "wow I just avoided a -$1k loss by overriding the algos." I kept at it, glued to the screen for hours every day. Scalping little wins here and there. +$50, +$100 per win I kept my losses small, and as soon as I saw money on the table...I'd take it. "I'll never go broke by taking profits" I'd say to myself. This scalping style of trading was so time consuming though. I'd be out and about, and instead of being present with my friends and family...I'd be checking the markets on my phone. But by the end of the week, my 20+ hours of work had paid off. I had out performed the algos by +$2k! At 40 hours a week, thats $16k/mo! I can be a full time trader! I continued at this for months, but after 6 months of grinding away...I noticed that for some reason My account wasn't growing as fast as if I had just left the algos alone. But then I looked at the commissions & fees... My trade count: 6677 Algos trade count: 50 At $3 commission per trade, I had lost -$20k in FEES ALONE. My stomach dropped like a stone. All that hard work, 1000s of hours I sacrificed. All to just break even. No, actually I lost money because the algos were up on the year had I left them alone. I was kicking myself. How could I be so stupid. You see, scalping made sense to me when I was working as an employee in corporate America. I was used to a steady paycheck biweekly. But trading doesn't work this way. Its simple statistics. Most of the returns come from outlier days. I was seduced by the high win rates of scalping. But in reality, scalping strategies cost 100x more in fees. The win rate was a vanity metric, I didn't care about have a high win rate anymore..
1 like • 18d
ah yes - the old "I know better than my backtested data algo" so I will manually override its decisions. It really is not a good idea - either trust the data or do not at which point, do not take a dependency on it. I have done this before where I overrode my algos b/c I "knew better"...it never ends well. If you are using an algo, it should be b/c you trust the data which shows that if you take every trade, over the long term, it will be profitable.
Perfect entry on NQ +$7240
Entry Price: 23072 Current Price: 23434 What an entry by Grizzly V4 bot!
Perfect entry on NQ +$7240
1 like • Aug 7
Your algo was about 200 points off the low....do better! :) good setup though on the algo - and even better on the fact that you did not have to think about it or manually do anything.
1-10 of 14
James Borowiec
3
32points to level up
@james-borowiec-3041
I enjoy coding and testing algos on the side.

Active 4h ago
Joined Jun 24, 2025
USA
Powered by