NinjaTrader Automated Trading by Algo Futures Trader

From the pioneer of hybrid algorithmic automated futures trading for prop firm traders, day & swing traders

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Why Don’t You Just Trade Fully Automated Trading Systems?

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In the modern trading landscape, the allure of fully automated trading systems is strong. With promises of hands-free profits and sophisticated algorithms, it’s easy to understand why traders might gravitate toward this approach. However, the reality of fully automated trading systems (ATS) is more complex. Let’s explore why traders often favor hybrid automated trading systems, such as those leveraging AFT (Algo Futures Trading) and AWT (AlphaWebTrader), for a more robust, adaptable trading strategy.

The Reality of Fully Automated Trading Systems

Lack of Market Adaptability

Fully automated systems rely on preprogrammed rules and historical data. While these rules can be effective in specific market conditions, they often fail to adapt to unforeseen changes, such as major economic events, news catalysts, or shifts in market sentiment. Markets are dynamic, and rigid systems can struggle to keep up.

Prop Firm Constraints

Prop firms, which offer traders access to funded accounts, typically prohibit 100% automated trading. This restriction exists because fully automated systems can quickly breach drawdown limits due to their inability to pause or recalibrate during volatile phases. Hybrid systems provide a manual override capability, aligning better with these rules.

The Drawback of Black Box Systems

Many fully automated systems are “black boxes,” offering no transparency into their logic. Traders using these systems are left to trust algorithms they don’t understand, making it challenging to diagnose issues or improve performance during losing streaks.

Risk of Over-Optimization

Fully automated systems often fall victim to over-optimization, tailoring their strategies to fit historical data too precisely. This can lead to poor performance in live markets where conditions deviate from the backtested scenarios.

Why Hybrid Automated Trading Systems Are Superior

Dynamic Decision-Making

Hybrid systems empower traders to leverage automated signals for consistency while retaining the ability to intervene based on market context. For instance, with AFT and AWT, traders can follow algo signals while using their judgment to adjust trades during pivotal moments.

Enhanced Control

Hybrid trading blends the precision of automation with the control of manual trading. Systems like AFT + AWT allow traders to configure algo signals, filters, and exits or even inject their own logic into the framework. This flexibility makes hybrid systems adaptable to diverse trading styles and market conditions.

Compliance with Prop Firm Rules

Hybrid trading aligns well with prop firm guidelines. A trader can combine systematic signals with manual execution, reducing the risk of breaching drawdown limits and ensuring compliance with firm regulations.

Improved Risk Management

Hybrid systems enable traders to manage risks more effectively by manually overriding or modifying trades in response to unforeseen events. Automation handles repetitive tasks, while traders focus on high-level decision-making.

Scalability and Growth

Hybrid systems, like those powered by AFT and AWT, provide a pathway for traders to evolve. Beginners can start with semi-automated setups, manually taking systematic signals, and progressively transition to fully automated strategies for specific markets or sessions.

How AFT + AWT Combine the Best of Both Worlds

  • Algo Signals + Human Insight: AFT provides systematic trading signals, while AWT offers tools like TradeViewPoint and Trendo to monitor market conditions and correlations.
  • Customizable Automation: Traders can build and refine their strategies by adding filters, adjusting parameters, or incorporating custom logic into the baseline settings.
  • Learning Through Execution: Hybrid trading encourages traders to learn market behavior through hands-on experience, fostering a deeper understanding of when to trade and when to step aside.

Conclusion

While fully automated trading systems may seem like the ultimate solution, their limitations in adaptability, transparency, and risk management often make them unsuitable for long-term success. 80% of traders lose at day trading manually, and up to 95% of day traders lose at fully automated trading!

Hybrid automated trading systems, such as those utilizing AFT + AWT, provide the perfect balance of automation and human intelligence, offering flexibility, control, and scalability. Our VIP Trading group can surpass 66% winners versus losers, compared to the standard retail world of 20% wins. Need we say more? AFT + AWT were purpose-built for hybrid trading specifically as we want the maximum profit with the least drawdown systems.

By combining the best of both worlds, traders can harness the power of automation while retaining the discretion to navigate the complexities of modern markets. Whether you’re seeking consistency, compliance, or growth, a hybrid approach paves the way for sustainable trading success.

Unveiling the Path to Success hybrid automated day trading

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Key Questions Every Trader Should Ask

  1. What is your capital size? Your starting capital plays a crucial role in determining position sizing, risk management, and overall strategy feasibility.
  2. What is your risk percentage? Define a clear risk percentage per trade or portfolio, e.g., 1-2%. This ensures you survive losing streaks and avoid catastrophic drawdowns.
  3. What system and rules are you using?
    • Trade Frequency: Are you taking 1-2 trades a week or several trades daily?
    • Win Rate: What percentage of your trades are winners?
    • Risk-Reward Ratio: How much are you risking for every unit of potential profit?
    • Risk of Ruin: Have you assessed the likelihood of blowing up your account?
    • Drawdown vs. Net Profit: Can you stomach the drawdowns required to achieve your profit goals?
  4. What are your commission fees? Costs, including commissions and slippage, significantly impact profitability, especially for high-frequency traders.
  5. Are you trading with prop firm capital or personal funds? Prop trading comes with constraints like daily loss limits and stricter risk rules. Real-money trading requires a cushion for slippage and psychological endurance.

Hybrid vs. Fully Automated Trading

Hybrid trading, a blend of automation and manual oversight, adapts to market conditions in ways machines cannot replicate. While fully automated systems can deliver results like 100% in 3 months or 250% annually, they come with high drawdowns and emotional detachment.

In contrast, hybrid trading offers:

  • Personalized decision-making.
  • Enhanced control over drawdowns.
  • A balance between consistency and adaptability.

Results from Our VIP Group

Real traders, real stats—our community showcases diverse outcomes:

  • $15,000 in a single day.
  • $1,000 consistently per week and more.
  • Mixed days/weeks/months of wins and losses.

The key takeaway? Focus on your journey rather than comparing yourself to others. The real question is: Can you master the method and technology to fit your trading style?

Winning Mindset: A Structured Path

  1. Commitment to Learning: Traders in our VIP group prioritize education over quick wins.
  2. Process Over Stats: Focusing on improving your execution and decision-making ultimately leads to consistent results.
  3. Quality Over Quantity: Only 20% of retail traders succeed, but our structured approach filters for the top winning mindset committed traders.
  4. High Trading IQ Community: Low attrition rates, no noise or nonsense, no one-eye kings in the valley of the blind, trader group success peaks over 66% per month.

Performance Expectations

  • Gold Standard: >25% monthly returns (akin to Goldman Sachs-level trading).
  • Great Returns: 5-10% per month for a retail trader.
  • Good Performance: Breaking even with <10% monthly drawdown.

Cutting-edge Technology and AI

We pioneered Hybrid Automated Trading with tools that maximize control and minimize drawdowns.

  • Remove emotional bias.
  • Improve decision-making in live markets.
  • Focus entirely on market dynamics rather than ego-driven trading.
  • Minimize over-trading and drawdown to maximize results.

Now, We Integrate AI Copilots in the Discord Trading Group to Provide:

  • Fundamentals
  • Econews
  • Earnings
  • Signals
  • Higher Time Frame Price Analysis
  • Pre-session and session analysis of ATS tools
  • Providing trading context and education on the systems
  • This means you get it all in one place – all you need.

Deep Learning AI

  • Cloud Data Lake for training
  • AI predictive real-time probability
  • Pending release 2025… Q1 we hope to work alongside the AFT and AWT

The Trading Journey

Think of trading like mastering a Formula 1 car. The Ferrari’s lap time is irrelevant if you’re not trained to handle its power. Consistent success requires thousands of hours of chart time, trade plan rules, stats, and a diary, learning from every step of the journey.

We provide the tools and framework to build winners, but the final results depend on your dedication.

Why Choose Us?

  • Real Trading, No Gimmicks: No retail tricks or stat manipulation.
  • High IQ Community: Learn alongside serious traders focused on growth.
  • Proven Technology: Leverage cutting-edge tools for real deal traders.
  • Realtime Live Market: Signals, technicals, news, and commentary!

Try our system for free and decide if it fits your style and goals. Focus on the process—the profits will follow. Join the revolution.

NinjaTrader fully automated futures trading or hybrid algo trading?

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Hybrid AFT Trading or Pure AFT Fully Automated?

How to decide which model to choose for your trading success?

Hybrid Futures Trading: Man + Machine

Session breakout workspace

The fastest and easiest way to get funded and start trading with the best profits and least drawdown. Achieve the best control and hit a small target! Traders learn the level of automation to suit their plan, typically 50% to 80% automated. Smallest risk capital of 25K is acceptable. AFT Workspaces 1 to 4 guide you from zero to hero in Discord.

Hybrid Trading Time to Market

  • This is the fast track to success with day trading! It can be done in 1 week to 1 month, though most take 1 to 3 months, and some take 1 year or more. That’s okay; it’s 100% free, and you can go at your own pace!

Pure 100% Fully Automated Trading

NinjaTrader fully automated trading with advanced hybrid controls for algo entry and exit execution

Yes, it can be done, but note that this is the hardest and longest way to trade. Generally, it is not viable or permitted for prop firm trading, offering the least control over profits and drawdown. It takes 3 months for a veteran already successful, to 1 year or more for a new trader still on the success quest. Medium to long-term goals are essential. Hit very large, easy targets far off; asset stream diversification is key. Swing trading is really the only way to start, with large risk capital of 100 to 250K being acceptable. AFT Workspaces 5: put workspace 1 on a server and leave it for 1 month. Practice how to stop and start, and go from there. Create variants of the baselines and test and compare back.

Pure Algo Trading Time to Market

  • There are no shortcuts when done right!
  • 1 to 3 years is a realistic time to focus on mastering and tweaking a system that suits a trader.

For Both Traders’ Journeys: Hybrid or Pure Algo Trading

30-day Free Trial with Full Feature Access! Self-assisted and interactive support is provided when required. Free forever Freemium for sim/demo trading! Go at your own pace! For the fastest learning, traders begin with our “Zero to Hero” program to methodically navigate through the control set stages. This can be leveraged for hybrid and pure fully automated trading.

Alternate Routes for Traders Who Want Fully Automated Trading

Some links here for you to consider for your trading journey decisions. We do not earn from these links or endorse them; this is for informational purposes to see what is out there, the cost, and so on. Check out the stats and costs of these parties and analyze the pros and cons.

The Advantage Here:

Your stats and settings are your own. There is no sales gimmick here; no leap of faith required. Skill, commitment, and time are the costs. You have control of your trading destiny. As a self-directed trader using AFT, it’s 100% free forever on sim, as it really takes a whole lot of time. There is no shortcut; time and learning to be a pro are required! Some of our traders do it and are in years 1 and 3, being patient and working towards the end goal of a small fund of their own with transparent systems—no smoke and mirrors! Do they have drawdowns? Yes, and they have a plan in place and use diversified asset streams to minimize risk and drawdowns.

21 Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Futures Traders

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  1. I want a trading system that performs well in all market cycles. (Holy Grail unicorn hunter – learn when to trade with a system and when not to, or implement diversified asset streams.)
  2. A fully automated robot can trade my prop firm account to get funded and stay funded. (BS alert! Prop firms mostly do not allow robots, and their rules are so tight this is 99% likely to fail.)
  3. The system stats look great; I will buy it as I have found the best system and will be a winner. (Victim of your financial aspirations – only believe the facts and evidence firsthand of what it does with you as the driver.)
  4. I want money, and trading is the best way to get it. If I buy a robot to do it for me, I can be rich. (Get a job; you are a loser already – do not trade for money, trade with a passion for the love of trading!)
  5. I need to trade all day; more is more. (We are taught at school and work to do more – in trading, less is more – FOMO, Fear, and Greed.)
  6. I will watch the market all day and all night if I have to learn an edge. (Just watch and learn the hours you are going to trade – focus on your trade session and trade plan rules.)
  7. If I trade more instruments, I will do better and make more money. (Better to focus on one or at most a few, two to three to start.)
  8. I am a bad discretionary trader, so a robot will cure my problem. (No, cure your problem first as it will still manifest in auto trading. 99% fail at auto trading who rush it.)
  9. I have a dream; I want this more than anything, so that means I will be successful. (Then it means too much – stop caring about money and honey – focus on getting good and enjoying the game; the rest will follow.)
  10. I will trade the market economic news announcement; results in a good means buy and bad means sell. (No, it doesn’t – market catalysts can be a boost to trading; your systematic rules will enter long or short.)
  11. The market sees me and knows where my stops are; it makes me lose; this is a war; I am cannon fodder. (This is trader vanity – focus on the system and take care not to leave stops around obvious levels.)
  12. I don’t need to understand the system in automated trading. (If you learn the game of golf and then use a golf robot, you will do far better.)
  13. I don’t need to take stats or keep a diary in automated trading. (You need to know when it is winning and why and when it’s losing and why – you can adjust your trade plan settings based on this info.)
  14. I should attend a large group in Discord to learn from people. (In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king! 99% is the blind leading the blind over the cliff or to a peak with each market phase.)
  15. I can leave a system on forever and not monitor, attend, or pause it. (Market price news shocks, internet & PC faults occur! Monitor it!)
  16. The system started to lose; the vendor is a fraud, or the system is broken. (Systems all will have a drawdown period; you should know this inside out before trying on live.)
  17. Fully automated means no work and no interaction, just set-and-forget trading and go play golf. (Around about 90% fully auto with 10% manual interaction due to news, rollovers, and price exposure, etc., is about the right level for pro mode auto for full automation – there is a lot of ongoing work for auto trading – performance monitoring, optimization, preparation, or R&D.)
  18. These system stats are great; I can be confident of winning in the future as it has proven in the past. (Luck, curve fitting, data sample, market shifts, slippage, errors, human interaction – there is NO guarantee.)
  19. I am a prop firm trader; I mirror 20 accounts; I made 100K on NQ in the last month; now I am ready for live cash trading. (Slippage, broker limits, real cash margin, and real pressure, real risk are very different; you will probably blow up in a day.)
  20. I trade manually and win, so I know if I automate my trading, it will be a winner. (No, in most cases, this is not the result at all; you would need to trade like a robot, then automate it.)
  21. The best trading software, settings, and trade plan are the ones I see others doing well with. (No, the best system and best stats are what you do with a system over time via direct hands-on experience.)

There are many others, but you get the gist…!

Trading is an art and skill, not an exact science. Anyone who sells you the easy dream or this BS above is either delusional, chasing a pipe dream, or a malign Machiavellian. Sadly, most vendors, brokers, coaches, and influencers are the latter, knowingly taking advantage of your financial aspirations and desperations! Statistically, the facts are no secret; day trading is, for 80% of people, the worst way to make money compared to getting a proper job and career. You never know if the market will be in a winning phase and what you will win or lose from week to month. It takes a whole lot of money and time to reach this pinnacle of trading for a living. Yes, you can be a winner, but you have to be in the correct winning mindset and environment to do it, alongside an income, something that provides stability and risk capital, or get funded to trade via a prop firm, or you are guaranteed to lose and burn! No matter how good the system is, due to psychology!

Credit for the article title:
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

tip for the best results ninjatrader automated trading futures

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What can set you apart and put you in the top 20% of traders – the winners?

Get a routine and make it a habit; it will make you or break you! So make sure it is a good habit!

Have a Trade Plan:

  1. Define capital and risk per trade.
  2. Set trading goals and loss limits for the day and week.
  3. Select the system and instruments.
  4. Prepare system templates and workspaces.
  5. Schedule when to be at the trading desk, set the system in action, and know when to pause.

Pre-Session

  • Check the prior session and view a higher time frame analysis to get the bigger picture of the market.
  • Set a bias for the session, long or short.
  • Prepare the system with lots, risk, and limits for one trade or multiple trades.
  • Get the trade controllers ready for action with the controls you use at the ready.
  • Assess if the open is a high probability setup and entry.
  • Decide to go in with half clip or full risk according to your plan.
  • Decide whether to wait for the first 30 minutes, 5 minutes, or 1 minute of the open.

Tactics

  • Let trades run to the close – scale out.
  • Increase accuracy and limit drawdowns.
  • Use AlphaWebTrader for correlations and technicals.
  • Trade less, not more – trade smarter!

Trade Diary Stats and Notes

  • For each trade, make a screenshot of the entry and any other timeframes.
  • Note the levels, trends, and correlations of technicals, price cycles, and market news cycles.
  • Do this for the exits too, and note whether it was a winner or loser, mistake or fair trade.

Maintenance Routine
View help desk article on NinjaTrader Bars and Data

  1. Futures contract rollover.
  2. Instrument data
    1. Each day pre-session, download and get fresh data.
    2. Use the instrument manager and a list.
    3. Or refresh the data on the charts!

AFT Session Breakout needs 15 days of data downloaded to get the best consistent results of signals, range, and bars. To stay in sync across multiple desktop PCs, this task needs to be performed each day pre-session. Typically, download the last 2 days, and on weekends, download the last 7 to 15 days to get the corrections and backfills.

Where is the information on how to change account for AFT8

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FAQ: Finding Information to Change the Account for AFT8

A very common question for all traders getting started with AFT8.

How to find the answers? Full details are provided in:

Help Desk Help Center Articles

Browse the Help Center AFT8 Articles

Search the Help Center
Help Center Search

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  • Self Assist or Get Assisted download & installation
  • Turnkey workspaces setup ready to trade
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  • VIP Trading Groups with AI Co-Pilot
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