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Trader's Tip

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Software that costs you 99 dollars and loses you 100,000 in the market is expensive. Software that is expensive that can make you millions is priceless!
- John Novak |
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Today's Featured Article

With thousands of software programs to choose from ranging from 99 dollars to upwards of 30,000 dollars how can you as a trader know for sure your making the best purchasing decision possible? We are going to cover some key areas you must address and have satisfied prior to purchase.
Here is a list of questions that you should ask yourself and your potential software vendor prior to purchase.
- Do they offer a complimentary demo? Any software program that you are serious about trading with your own hard earned money you should be able to put your hands on and actually use for a week minimum.
- Do they have clients that you can talk to in a live chat room or on the phone? Most software vendors have 2 or 3 clients that are great referrals. If you are serious about buying and trading software talking to at least 10-20 active traders to satisfy the question, "does it work?"
- Can they show you live that the software works? It is a well-known fact that anyone can show you what could have happened in the past. The trick for most live trading is to be able to have an experienced user tell you IN ADVANCE what is going to happen next. After all, that is the only way you can make money trading the market. Most of the time these days, this is accomplished by participating in a live Hotcomm chat room environment.
- What type of education do they offer? A tool is only as good as the user’s ability to make that tool work properly. A chainsaw in untrained hands can be a dangerous thing. A trading program without the proper training can cut your trading account very quickly. The best education along with a great tool is the winning combination. Education must also be broken down into levels. Let’s face it, most of us need very slow introductory education first then carefully working your way up to more advanced trading with the programs.
- If the software program is an automated trading system, as most of them fail over time, you must have a minimum of 2 years worth of account statements to back up their, usually hypothetical, over inflated results. 99% of vendors cannot and will never provide you with this.
- You must then take the time to back-test the program. This is where most traders fail to do the required work needed to be successful. Below I will outline a VERY SUCCESSFUL plan for back-testing a software program.
- Do they have a set of VERY SIMPLE easy to follow rules? If there are more than a few rules you must follow you will have a hard time learning them and sticking to them.
When doing a demo of Nexgen Software Services Inc. T-3 Fibs ProTrader or any trading software program if you’re a newer user that is working on perfecting your reading of the indicators you need to have these invaluable resources that will help you through the educational path.
The most important thing you can do as a client and student is to make sure that you’re using these resources correctly.
I am going to detail exactly what you should be doing during your demo process to ensure maximum gains in the least amount of time possible. |
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Once your charts are loaded and your demo software is loaded you should do several things.
- Attend all intro classes 101/202 one or two times. If your vendor does not offer these intro classes…think about another vendor.
- Most great programs have a video library that will make sure you understand what you’re learning and give you an opportunity to learn at your own pace. Review all video content more than once (typically 3-4 times is best initially).
- Read through the user guide for the software and learn it.
- Once your comfortable with indicators and setups spend a day or two in the advanced room going over setups in a slower (non-live) environment. This type of room is a SLOW MOTION learning environment to make sure that your introductory education can be applied as live trade setups.
- Move your way to the pro’s room. Most great software programs have a room that will have 100 or more traders in it, using the software and trading the software. This is going to be your most valuable resource for education and for talking with real clients that are using the software.
- Participation on your part is key. This is done by ASKING QUESTIONS and marking up your charts so that you can see what you know and do not know.
- Private sessions you do with the education dept. will fine-tune your knowledge in a one on one setting. Again, if the vendor does not have professional educators to make your learning easy, think about another vendor.
- POST CHARTS in the chat room- #1 way to get instant feedback on your perception of the software and to make sure your really have the opportunity to make money with the software.
Now we are going to review HOW to properly and efficiently mark your charts for review. If you have another program outside of Tradestation such as ESignal this process may vary slightly but the end result are the same.
The first thing you will want to do is to make sure you have your drawing toolbars in Tradestation. To do this click View >Toolbars >then check Drawing (go here for an example).
Then you want to remain in drawing mode. Click Drawing >Remain in Drawing Mode (go here for an example).
Once you have done this you want to take a few of the drawing objects and customize them so you can have good-looking charts. Select the Trendline tool and left click to start your trend line then drag and drop to the end of where you want it to plot.
Once you do that right click on it to format it and make it like the pictures below:

If you cannot view the Trendline tools picture, go here.
Make sure you set defaults on those so you will not have to change them.
Remember you will remain in drawing mode and continue to have the Trendline tool until you click the small pointer icon again. This is the same for all drawing objects.

If you cannot view the Pointer Tool example, go here.
Then you will want to repeat process for the ellipse and the boxes so you can set them to a nice color that will provide contrast and any color you choose for these is fine (go here for an example). Once this is done you are ready to draw on your charts. |
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Again you will want to make sure that you have a simple set of rules for when to get in and out of the market. At Nexgen Software Services Inc. we provide a client with simple and easy to follow rules, you have to ask any vendor for these so you can back-test and run the software live to make sure you have a program worth buying.
When marking up a chart what is our objective?
- To give ourselves study material for when we are done with trading.
- To give the education dept. that does private sessions material to work with.
- To give you the opportunity to post your thought live as they happen in the pro’s room so you can get immediate feedback on your learning.
YOU MUST POST CHARTS and make sure you’re reading it right so you can take full advantage of what the T-3 Fibs ProTrader or any software can do. The traders that have done the best in the past are the ones who have posted all charts, GOOD AND BAD. If we never see your failures we cannot help you to correct your reading of the software.
Here is what a properly marked up chart looks like. All thoughts are accounted for from multiple charts on a single chart. Macd bb lines are marked up. Trade setups are marked with multiple arrows for entries and a single arrow for exit.

If you cannot view the example chart, go here.
You must mark your chart up consistently with the rules of the trade setups.
It is imperative that you do this on your charts every single day and more importantly you allow someone to see what you have done so that we can make sure your education on how to read the software is correct.
The process that it takes for you to become proficient will be fastest if your follow these simple guidelines.
- Learn the indicators intimately. Know what the market should do every time you see a divergence or when you reach and area. Know your advantage when you glance at the indicators.
- Once you have the basics down you must then spend time learning the setups. MEMORIZE the rules. Know them like the back of your hand.
- Once you have rules down your ready to show what you know. This is where you spend time all day every day marking up charts and posting them in the rooms for feedback. Also your marking of the charts will be invaluable when you schedule private sessions with our educators.
- BACK- TEST the software. Take what you know and go back months on higher timeframe charts and find "AREAS EXPECTED TO HOLD" then go to your smaller timeframe charts and find the trade setups. This is a great way to add MONTHS of education experience in a very short amount of time.
- Once you have confidence that you understand the setup and have proven it by marking them on your charts, you are ready to get a simulator running and execute what you have spent weeks writing on your charts and learning.
- Do at least 1-2 private sessions a week after you start simulation to make sure your doing everything properly.
- Only after you have done hundreds of simulation trades will you have enough of a base line performance that you can compare your real time trading to.
- You must know what your win-loss % is. You must also know your average winners to losers over the course of 100-200 trades. Keep track of this during your first few months.
- Once you trade live, if you deviate from your number by more than a little you can spend time doing private sessions and posting in the room to fine-tune your skills.
- ALWAYS ask for help. Make sure you have everything you need for educational success, make sure you use it to its fullest.
Bottom line, you are working at a job that has unlimited earning potential. If you do it right the first time and truly take the time to learn the software and work your way through the educational steps you will have the best chances of reaching your financial dreams. |
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About the Author

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John Novak is President of Nexgen Software Services Inc. John is the developer of the T-3 Fibs ProTrader indicator package. He has been involved in the marketing and distribution of Technical analysis software for the last 9 years. He has devoted the last 6 years to the automation of a popular discretionary methodology that he taught in seminars for over 2 years to many successful traders that was centered on Fibonacci analysis of both time and price. With the help of his software programmers they have automated this entire Fibonacci process into a fully automatic program. He spends his day's educational work on analysis in predictive indicators for traders.
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