Algorithmic trading: Semiautomated to save you screen time

Any futures trader will tell you that a fundamental obstacle to successful trading is being able to monitor all the markets to identify fruitful opportunities throughout the trading day. Having your eyes everywhere at all times when trading can be tedious, bordering on impossible. MBoxWave has a solution, as presented by Mike Sokolik in the recent NinjaTrader Ecosystem webinar “Semiautomated Algorithmic Trading.”

Sokolik, a trader, programmer, and the founder of MBoxWave, believes in the power of algorithms when trading. He recently released a new feature for the NinjaTrader platform, semiautomated trading, which allows traders to:

• Set up alerts so you don’t have to monitor the markets constantly
• Get notified of potential good trading setups
• Check the chart for further analysis once you receive the notification

The goal is to limit your screen time so you don’t have to stare at the computer all day, identifying trading opportunities manually. This can also help take the emotion out of trading, which Sokolik describes as “killer.” Emotional trading can be highly disruptive, and traders should be as objective as possible when trading.

If you’re swing trading, you can set up alerts to notify you of potential setups as frequently or infrequently as you’d like. Note that this system is semiautomated, not fully automated, as you still need to check your alerts and the corresponding charts to make your decision manually.

Algorithmic trading in singles, doubles and triples

Sokolik outlined the algorithms available and dug deeper with specific chart examples. The algorithms include:

• Buy/sell imbalance
• Effort/result pullbacks
• Spring/upthrusts

The concept of combining algorithms in MBoxWave’s latest offering is newsworthy. Traders can now set up alerts on one or multiple algorithms, using a combination of algorithms to get even more nuances with automations and alerts.

Sokolik goes in-depth on algorithmic trading in the full presentation.

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