Algo Futures Trader

Free NinjaTrader Automated futures day trading system

AlgoFuturesTrader 8 Beta update released v20220825

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AFT8 is our very best trading systems made for NinjaTrader – made by maybe the best in the business MicroTrends Ltd

AFT8 Turnkey workspace trade flow manual entry and auto exits

  • AFT8 Trade workflow for hybrid manual trade entry with automatic trade management
  • 1) signal arrives sounds and alert in Alerts Window
  • 2) click the signal row – charts switch to signal instrument
  • 3) check and decide to trade using chart trader
  • 4) Automatic trade management places the exits
  • 5) manage the trade with the visual orders with chart trader

Turnkey Workspaces Info – Multi-time Frame

  • Spoiler Alert – This displayed workspace of 4 charts with tabs, to one that shows an instrument in multiple timeframes.
  • Note: Workspace was made for a monitor size of 1920 X 1080 should in theory then fit 80% of screens.
  • This is a quite a bit different to what you have seen before but has advanced navigation features to allow you to flick around the charts at speed to a single view of instrument – with the others in view via the trendometer/ trading info and signals

Pending Turnkey Workspaces for AFT8

  • Session Breakout 4 Charts view Emini micro indices side by side view
  • Trend Scalper
  • more such as Mean Reversion and others

NEW Trading Group AFT8 Forum has the answers

Join us in the trading group and get the inside track on updates and discounts for elite members

Automation – hybrid and fully automatic trade management

  • 100% fully automated Algo Trade Entry is enabled but turnkey workspace settings not yet released
  • Fully automatic Advanced trade Management is provided by the turnkey workspace

AFT8 is our best automated trading system for NinjaTrader

Why exactly is AFT8 is the best algorithmic trading system for NinjaTrader developed by MicroTrends Ltd?

AFT8 is a constant evolving product which will become AFT9 and grow with the times to stay ahead of the curve..

AFT8 server edition is some 5 years old first created to power a hedge fund system built by MicroTrends Ltd in 2017 and evolved all the way to 2021 where it was decided to splice off a subset of this fully automated swing trading cloud technology to deliver a lightweight retail AFT8 desktop version and merge in the concepts of AFT8 hybrid trading . Battle tested live on mini futures on commercial size account sizes and shrunk down to retail trading weight today for accounts from 20K up for auto and less so for hybrid pilot and machine.

AFT8 provides the best automated trading systems for retail day trading and swing trading Emini Micro and popular Futures ever developed by MicroTrends as of 2022.

AFT8 versus AFT7

AFT7 which is now just a classic minnow and fond memory for those who have taken the plunge and changed to AFT8.

  • AFT8 is an evolved system containing a superset of AFT7 and a hedge fund system trading engine
  • AFT8 has more algorithmic trading systems and more multiple timeframes
    • Session Breakout/ Gap Trader
    • Swing Trend Trader
    • Day trader Trend Scalper
    • Mean Reversion
    • Pending
      • News Trader
      • Cloud Trading
      • AI
      • and more…
  • AFT8 also integrates with AlphaWebTrader API link for realtime trade filters.
  • AFT8 is a true automated technology day and swing fault tolerant -the most advanced available for NinjaTrader
  • Desktop Hybrid controls for desktop trading
  • Web Remote Controls for fully automated trading

Compare AFT8 versus AFT7 and other vendor products view the developer details of Algorithmic Trading systems to understand why this is the very best trading system brought to you 100% free for sim…

AFT8 trading systems stats

AFT8 server edition has been providing baseline trading system stats since the trading group was stated in 2021 – so the same systems are available int the AFT8 retail system

AFT8 Roadmap

1) AFT8 is a Beta available to traders who can self support – so we focus on delivery.
2) AFT8 will be released as a series of ongoing updates over 2022 – notifications will be made
3) Turnkey workspaces and examples will be provided
4) System optimization from the baseline will take place and more stats/systems provided.
5) Guidance and articles will be provided after AFT8 is ready for public release

What about AFT7?

  • Existing lifetime members will be able to use it for as long as NinjaTrader 7 platform is supported and available by NinjaTrader LLC.
  • AFT7 will be maintained for Lifetime purchasers and in 2023 will taken down as purchasable on lease and no longer supported or maintained.

Connect to AFT for updates and info

Secret to Day trading futures success

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Our goal is very simple, buck the trend and disrupt the trading retail ecosystem with disruptive pricing,  ethics, real deal tools and to create as many winners as possible and do it for free until they are live trading and that is our mission!! 

So how do traders become so successful with AFT? By taking advantage of our holistic approach to day trading we provide a 360 degree approach with systems tools and coaching for FREE! We provide the tools and the tuition in our free trading room to optimize results with the hybrid interactive semi automatic approach whereby trades are filtered to a long or short bias for automated entry in AFT7 or manual entry in AFT8 Beta pending the automation.

The trading system entry filters we can teach and provide are used as external rules to guide trading on the systems, these can consist of gaps and other technical higher time frame price analysis, market news cycle, market price cycle, levels and seasonal to name just a few. some of these are discussed with chart screenshots some of these are provided by other web trading tools provided.

So we are delighted since the June 2021 we started our new free futures day trading group Many traders got started trading 100% free and got funded by passing a trading capital provider evaluation using our systems or simply made profits on their own trading account risk capital. All of these people focused and were driven, did a lot of learning and got involved asked questions and deserver their success – we salute you, you make it all worth while.

So the secret to successful day trading for these traders was based on these list of trading systems and tools which are available for you right now -there is no catch, no obligation, no time limits, no money or details needed there is no risk and no harm in trying the following to learn on sim trading to become consistent and successful at trading:

The 5 step Basic Day Trading Approach for NYSE Session Breakout

1) Get to the desk before the open… 9am EST or so  – check news
2) Check the 4 main indices and see what happened prior… look to see what gaps are forming
3) Armed with that if the gaps are all different or all the same for example… GapBias
4)Look at the alphabias… etc  understand the strength of the instruments going into the open to make a selection of what to trade
5) Trading  9.30EST to around 11.30EST 1 to 3 signals per day – Signal + filters

Alpha Web Trader
Alpha Web Trader Realtime Day Trading Tools for Futures, ETFs and FAANG
Algo futures trading us equity indices signals
Algo futures trading us equity indices signals with gap filter system

Trading & Risk 101

Trading is simple but not easy, please do it safely and don't rush, it takes a lot of practice & stoicism, wining and losing cycles are expected!  5 quick tips to consider! 

    1. Impatience: FOMO - Fear of missing out, never rush to live money trade! Get consistent success sim trading 1 to 3 months then decide.
    2. Trade Capital: Get funded to day trade futures with a trading capital provider, no need to use your funds learning to trade.
    3. Micro Futures: Start with the smallest futures instruments such as Micro lots 1 to 3 lots to scale out
    4. Risk: Always use the smallest risk position sizing possible for example 1% or less of trade capital per trade
    5. Trade a plan: Don't chase the market or over-trade, focus on a systematic approach get consistent, trade the plan &  keep stats.
  • Learn & Trade risk free on the sim, demo account in NinjaTrader for free forever - AFT has no time limit, when you are ready and have proven to yourself that you are able to be successful at your own pace, you can consider live trading futures with AFT and NinjaTrader at your own discretion. Accelerate learning with a 1 to 1 day trading futures coaching but even then don't rush to live trade, put the learning into practice attend our  Free Futures Day Trading Group  for live market coaching voice and streaming at 9AM EST to 11.30 EST Mon to Fri.
  • Winning & Losing Cycles. You need to experience at least 1 to  3 months to see the typical cycles of the market and news cycles weeks of the months. You might start on a winning cycle on sim and suffer from recency bias, thinking its always easy to trade and rush to go live only to get hit by a losing cycle in live money trading and then pull the plug and freak out then you will miss the next winning cycle taking all the losers and missing all the winners the double whammy of trading! 
  • There is No short cut,  it takes time,  get a routine, practice and wait  until you are consistent month to month on the sim at your discretion and then consider live money,  or if you are certain sure you got the ability at the start, at the very least get funded to trade with a 3rd party trading capital so they take the risk...!  You may well catch a longer term easy phase of trading from the get go, and make good but eventually it will happen you will get a drawdown and a string of loses...losing days and even weeks may occur but if you the trader are consistent over the long term month to month you can succeed.

What’s next with the AFT8 update?

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With regret as the sole creator and developer of AFT8 i have to inform you that I was out for the count for 2 weeks with a fever and throaty cough and i’m not sure if it was COVID or flu so I made no progress at all on the AFT8 update sine the last version mid March – however i am glad to say i am pretty much recovered except for lingering lethargy and have been coding again.

AFT8 is still in a beta and has a long way to go before all the planned features are released.
It will be worth the wait, it needs to be its going to be my main retail account trader.

Ok so there will be updates of the AFT8 system from next week –
fixing of bug to save settings on the main signals indicator, ease of use feature for configuration
and some inclusions of swing trading/ weekly fib grid trading features in the turnkey workspaces. Here’s why.

AFT retail day trading version of software came from a much larger swing trading multi server, client/server n tier, SOA, cloud based system with NT8 at its core providing the awesome technicals, execution and trade management. AFT as such contains a small subset of the functionality but exactly enough for the algo premise and capability for day trading and some swing trading but with user interactivity for many of the tasks. The hedge funds system will cost you 50KUSD plus fees and data server overheads per annum to use. AFT retail starts at free…. The following will give you some idea about the 2 versions.

So during that time of my absentee the CPC/AFT Hedge fund systems continued to work even though the developer algo trader was not in attendance. The servers restarted each weekend via windows task scheduler and update themselves, NT8 is then started and historical data is downloaded each for the last week and replicated out from a main server to other servers to negate the need to download again.

With the full hedge fund version – there is no need for a user at all -except for rollovers and in emergencies or system selection – it is 100% fully automated trading in the real sense and i am not allowed even if i want to intervene. Not allowed to enter or close a trade, move a target, trail a stop… so we get a pure dataset of stats. Sometimes it means there were trades i would not have done but some it does incredible trades that were far better than me, over time it works and that is the goal.

A hedge fund performance has to be measurable to something tangible and risk control also so removing all humans is the way to do it ideally as a human is hard to backtest and benchmark. They get sick too or move jobs… so when i’m talking fully automated its big trade accounts and no fiddling or making it up as you go.. all the systems that make it to live from the 1000s that don’t go through system selection, board approval and compliance for annual auditing – no pressure 🙂

AFT retail traders benefits from a hybrid feature set to allow fully as well as manual/semi automated trading which is really very important for retail day trading as it is less forgiving than swing trading. AFT benefits from many years and many 100KS USD of research and development and real trading of the systems professionally in automated swing trading and they end up as much as possible as turnkey for day trading with minimal tweaking required.

CPC /AFT algos  for the hedge fund start on a Sunday, the week begins, the windows task scheduler process with start NT8 in time to trade the CME open for indices, connecting to various datafeeds in turn for each exchange and feed -then loads the workspaces and loads the algos and starts them a mix of sim and live. For each system each algo will inspects orders and removes any anomalies within NinjaTrader and then processes the positions and orders, risk and technical context and continues trading where it left off adapting to any changes and implement fault tolerance and safety.

Technically the CPC /AFT algos are part of a a greater system – a signals framework, execution management system (EMS), order management system (OMS), position and trade management, rollover liquidation, data acquisition , automated web stats collation and reporting system and automatic trade safety system and more besides- evolved in NinjaTrader and .net, .net core, asp.net core, MSSQL and Azure service bus, created over a 4 year period.

It is quite incredible what we have achieved with the technology directly due to the amazing work of the NinjaTrader development team to allow us access to all areas to create what we want limited by imagination and skill only. So in short even though the developer was away and useless the system continued onwards fully automated regardless so no trades were missed an no one goofed things up with under par irrational decision making.

In my absence then here is a pretty good trade example of the CPC/AFT Weekly Swing trading algo took up to the high last week 2021-April-16. Now reversed and closed into a small short this week- 10K per lot was the MFE trading Emini S&P – just with a 4 lot trade of about 5K to $7500 Risk on that volatility. It could have been a lot more based on the past and recent times but its still a respect worthty demonstration of what we can achieve with the tool set.
USAR WSFG swing trade fully automated no manual trading interaction ES
We will provide this WSFG weekly setup as part of AFT8 turnkey settings for micro indices and Emini so that traders can use it as a guide for intraday or indeed take the weekly SFG Signals.

As you can see yes this is a live trade note that chart trader is black and the account does not being with Sim…we really do trade and we really do use these tools – The AFT day trading system is a version built for small account trading based on the professional hedge fund trading for which it was originally created. So the day trading version is basically a daily session breakout instead of weekly for swing trading. You can also see the power of the risk reward in action on this type of system and the staying in trend following method.

AFT8 is available in the shop as free product AFT8 Free Trading System or available from the AFT download page
Articles and videos will follow on installation but should be very simple if you can use a mouse and pc and get around any AV warnings etc. – please visit the support and help desk

Plug and Trade – Turnkey Trading Systems for day trading futures

Simply Install, Connect. Learn and practice with ready to use turnkey settings and workspaces for Session Open Breakout trading and Trend Trading reversal and pullback continuation trading. Start NinjaTrader, connect to a futures data feed & open an AFT Turnkey workspace, the trading systems will appear on chart and are ready for simulator trading micro equity Index futures.
  1. Get NinjaTrader & a datafeed
  2. Download & install AFT
  3. Get started day trading with AFT
 

how to place stop loss and targets for day trading futures with NinjaTrader 8 and AFT8

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There are 2 main methods for the placement of stop loss stop orders and profit limit orders:
“Static” using a fixed distance and “Adaptive” using a non fixed amount in this case at a Technical stop/target placement setting stop and target orders to various technical levels on the chart.

You can trade with a loose approach or a tighter approach when using exits to control risk/stop loss and profit points..  Trading with closer targets provides a higher win ratio  and a far target approach will result in a smaller win ratio  but a greater risk reward average.   By using multiple targets it is possible to scale out and implement sophisticated trade management techniques to take profit and trap in profit with stop loss trails as well as run for trend breakout days.
A tighter stop loss will cause a lower win ratio but a larger risk reward however if its too tight you system expectancy will be negative. What we aim to do is keep trading frequency lower – 1 to 3 trades per session is a good amount if required – the first might be the only one you need. So we have a wide stop loss and let the system breathe and run -this actually increases the risk but also increases the win ratio and probability of the system.

Much of that choice is down to the preference of the trader however the usage of can be governed by inside and outside gap days and range/trend price cycles and market structure and order flow on the day, to decide to have a nearer tighter game or more loose game or use a hybrid combination good in all weather to take profit off the table as soon as possible and still allow a good run to capture as much as possible as 100% of the daily move.

For proven and advanced traders, a quick note about variable position sizing based on High probability conditional trade setup versus a more arbitrary entry etc. In addition to target and stop loss arrangement – You can also consider half clip and full clip trades for example you might want to trade with 8 lots on a micro futures but if you are not sure on a trade but you might miss a runner if you stay out ok then, you can go half clip 4 lots and when the market is clearer, less mixed, more directional across all indices and the conditional setup pattern and time you might go full clip 8 lots which would need to be within your max % per trade up to1% is way enough for a beginner – you could conceivably add to a half clip position also in a pullback for example but this is not recommended for beginners as it can lead to doubling down and a random off the hip trading style abandoning the systematic approach and ultimate failure.

Static ATM defined Stop Loss and Profit Target Orders

Pending the AFT8 Easy Trader/NinjaBuddy GUI you can use the NinjaTrader Chart Trader and ATM to automatically place exit stop loss and profit targets and interact with them on a chart in realtime.

The following can easily be created in the NinjaTrader ATM, additionally you can add break even stop loss strategies such as at T1 move to breakeven or move in by 50% of the risk for example.

  • Static Stop loss and Targets examples for educational use
    • ES/MES
      • Stop Loss: 28 tick
      • Target 1: 10 tick
      • Target 2: 16 tick,
      • Target 3: 100 tick
    • NQ/MNQ
      • Stop Loss: 35 tick
      • Target 1: 20 tick
      • Target 2: 30 tick,
      • Target 3: 100 tick

Technical Stop Loss and Targets using the Fib Grid levels

Stop loss and profit targets are placed at Fib Grid Levels – and are therefore adaptive advanced intelligent trade management which can be applied to any market/instrument.

I preferer this method always, imagine that I have to sometimes test and elect to trade on a universe of some 65 futures markets, trying to find out what static ticks would be best would taking up 1,000s of hours of ongoing testing to re-optimize and guide as the market phases and ranges change making life unbearably hard work. So in fact that’s not required at all or best, instead simply use my Fib gird levels adapt to the market and range as it changes and save all that brain ache. Ofcourse with the correct pending AFT8 technology you can couple that with a volatility adjusted stop loss fixed fractional position size and add in scaling out and now you are professional setup, meantime with manual adjustment as long as your stoploss risk is within acceptable parameters and a sensible price you are good to go.

Loose setup – low win ratio high risk reward

  • Stop Loss Technical position is behind the No Trade Zone (NTZ) yellow Rectangle
  • Target 1 – 2 lots at the 50% regions on the grid
  • Target 2 – 1 Lot  76% region
  • Target 3 is a runner or 100% grid line

AFT8 Day trading futures stops and targets with chart trader position and order visualization
AFT8 Day trading futures stops and targets with chart trader position and order visualization

Technical Stop Loss Trail

Example Stepping Fib Grid Trail, when price moves and closed above the 50% blue line move the stoploss to the  far side of  fib grid price grid line -25% grid trail   or alternatively follow the USAR…look for the trailing triangles.

So how did that trade pan out?
T1 and T2 acquired – 3rd bracket was trailed down and taken out at -f61%

Tighter setup high win ratio  &  medium risk reward

  • Stop Loss Technical position is behind the No Trade Zone (NTZ) yellow Rectangle
  • Target 1 – 2 lots at the 23% regions on the grid  (could also be 33%)
  • Target 2 – 1 Lot  50% region
  • Target 3 is a runner or 100% grid line

AFT8 Near Targets Semi trend scalping trading Approach to take profit early but still allow a runner and positive risk reward

ATM automatic stoploss and Target placement with manual adjustment
You can configure and use the ATM to place the stops and targets and then simply use the mouse on the chart to move the orders to the various fib grid positions. Please visit the AFT help guides also for articles on day trading futures stop loss and targets

Please note this article is for educational use only this is not investment or trading advice -you need to test out and make your own decision based on statistical evidence

Plug and Trade – Turnkey Trading Systems for day trading futures

Simply Install, Connect. Learn and practice with ready to use turnkey settings and workspaces for Session Open Breakout trading and Trend Trading reversal and pullback continuation trading. Start NinjaTrader, connect to a futures data feed & open an AFT Turnkey workspace, the trading systems will appear on chart and are ready for simulator trading micro equity Index futures.

  1. Get NinjaTrader & a datafeed
  2. Download & install AFT
  3. Get started day trading with AFT

 

NinjaTrader 8 AFT version status as of Feb 2021

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The long awaited NT8 version is still a work in progress.

There are many challenges and work around with migrating from NT7 to NT8 – the “WPF” technology is a very big hurdle and offers in some ways less capability but in most ways far better than its predecessor “Windows Forms” winforms was lightening quick to use and develop in but was discontinued, hence NinjaTrader had no alternative to switch to WPF, which is very slow ponderous and laborious to develop applications with in comparison.

The Good news is that NT8 is light years ahead of NT7 and allows us to create unimaginable features and methods compared to prior – the trading is faster and the data is faster – the presentation is even better and all in all the wait will be very worth it, so the only downside is really development time.

NT8 does allow the up to date .Net Microsoft framework 4.8 but – but the caveat is the WPF layer it uses are older versions, this means we are limited and restricted and not able to use the full gamut of tools and components from our development kits. It means there is a lot of re-work and dead ends and a lot of time consuming effort weeks and months spent, until we find a work around to resolve the hurdles. That is the norm in development – nothin worth doing is easy and then we have to do it all again for NinjaTrader 9 down the road but it will far easier -we expect 😉

Due to delays and developer obligations to hedge fund algo trading, the only way we are going to get a release out is to do it in stages.
So in February the indicators will be rolled out and released followed by the Trading System automated Easy Trader and NinjaTrader 8 strategy back-tester etc.

The Alpha Bias and Trendometer maybe also be complimented with or replaced with a remote API version due to the performance overhead this has on some machines, but time will tell.

There will be ongoing updates and releases over time. The project will easily continue over a 6months period as new features are released also.

Please help us to use our time wisely, and do not weigh down resources asking the help desk for support for when is the AFT8 going to arrive. Please keep a check out in the social media and newsletter. February we will see the first indicators as the plan goes.

Plug and Trade – Turnkey Trading Systems for day trading futures

Simply Install, Connect. Learn and practice with ready to use turnkey settings and workspaces for Session Open Breakout trading and Trend Trading reversal and pullback continuation trading. Start NinjaTrader, connect to a futures data feed & open an AFT Turnkey workspace, the trading systems will appear on chart and are ready for simulator trading micro equity Index futures.

  1. Get NinjaTrader & a datafeed
  2. Download & install AFT
  3. Get started day trading with AFT

 

Day trading NASDAQ futures with AFT semi autonomous trade management trading system

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Super nice NQ trade set up using our exclusive Algo Hybrid NinjaTrader Automated day trading system with semi/fully-autonomous trade entry and adaptive fully automatic trade management Algo Futures Trader .

AFT provides the best in class and the best of both worlds of automated and systematic trading for beginners and veterans- high probability entry trading for the session open, 1 to 3 hours per day is all you need.

Plug and Trade – Turnkey Trading Systems for day trading futures

Simply Install, Connect. Learn and practice with ready to use turnkey settings and workspaces for Session Open Breakout trading and Trend Trading reversal and pullback continuation trading. Start NinjaTrader, connect to a futures data feed & open an AFT Turnkey workspace, the trading systems will appear on chart and are ready for simulator trading micro equity Index futures.

  1. Get NinjaTrader & a datafeed
  2. Download & install AFT
  3. Get started day trading with AFT

 

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