Help With ATM Strategy

[maxreturn]

Hello. I have put together an ATM which trades two contracts and hopefully will accomplish the following. I want to take a profit of 4 ticks on the 1st contract at which time a breakeven stop would be placed on the 2nd contract. I want the 2nd contract to be a runner. When the 2nd contract hits 10 ticks in profit a 10 tick trailing stop would kick in. I have attached my ATM and Stop strategy JPEG's. Would you please take a look and let me know how it looks? Thanks a lot.

Best Regards
Chuck

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi Chuck,

Thank you for your post.

Your strategy screenshots appear correct for what you would like save for the Auto-Breakeven applied to the second target.

With that Auto-Breakeven what would happen is that at 4 ticks in profit your stop loss order for the second target would be moved to the breakeven value prior to the first target being exited. Then when 10 ticks in profit is achieved the stop loss order would become an active Auto-Trail stop strategy and the first movement you would see is at 11 ticks in profit to move the stop loss order to 10 ticks behind the last traded price.

For your strategy to function as expected you can remove the Auto-Breakeven by setting each value to '0' and then leave your Auto-Trail in place.

[maxreturn]

Hi Chuck,

Thank you for your post.

Your strategy screenshots appear correct for what you would like save for the Auto-Breakeven applied to the second target.

With that Auto-Breakeven what would happen is that at 4 ticks in profit your stop loss order for the second target would be moved to the breakeven value prior to the first target being exited. Then when 10 ticks in profit is achieved the stop loss order would become an active Auto-Trail stop strategy and the first movement you would see is at 11 ticks in profit to move the stop loss order to 10 ticks behind the last traded price.

For your strategy to function as expected you can remove the Auto-Breakeven by setting each value to '0' and then leave your Auto-Trail in place.

Hello Ryan. I'm not clear. Would you mind posting a screen shot of the correct ATM and Stop strategy so I can better understand? Thanks a bunch.

Regards
Chuck

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi Chuck,

I have attached screenshots of the suggestions I made to your ATM strategy as I understand your aims. The only difference is that the Stop Strategy applied to target 2 does not have an Auto-Breakeven applied so that the stop loss order will not be modified until 10 ticks in profit have been achieved.

[maxreturn]

Hi Chuck,

I have attached screenshots of the suggestions I made to your ATM strategy as I understand your aims. The only difference is that the Stop Strategy applied to target 2 does not have an Auto-Breakeven applied so that the stop loss order will not be modified until 10 ticks in profit have been achieved.

Hello Ryan. I blew it when I set up the strategy. I should have specified 4 ticks for the profit target for the 1st contract and 5 ticks for the stop loss. I'm assuming that my stop strategy for the 2nd contract would have worked if I would have done the ATM strategy correctly. Please confirm.

Best Regards
Chuck

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi Chuck,

Yes, if you have the Auto-Breakeven is to move at 4 ticks in profit then that would occur when the first target is filled. Since that does modify the strategy I would recommend the following stop strategy in the screenshot.

The reason for the -6 in the Auto-Breakeven 'Plus' field is so that the stop loss order is moved to 10 ticks behind the last traded price, but since that is larger than the initial stop-loss you will probably want to remove the Auto-Breakeven and then use just Auto-Trail at 10 ticks in profit.

[maxreturn]

Hi Chuck,

Yes, if you have the Auto-Breakeven is to move at 4 ticks in profit then that would occur when the first target is filled. Since that does modify the strategy I would recommend the following stop strategy in the screenshot.

The reason for the -6 in the Auto-Breakeven 'Plus' field is so that the stop loss order is moved to 10 ticks behind the last traded price, but since that is larger than the initial stop-loss you will probably want to remove the Auto-Breakeven and then use just Auto-Trail at 10 ticks in profit.

Thanks for your patience with me Ryan. I must admit, I'm just not wrapping my brain about how this works. What I want to have happen is have the 1st contract exited at 4 ticks of profit. When that happens I want the stop on the 2nd contract moved to the entry price. I then don't want the trailing stop to kick in on the 2nd contract until there's 10 ticks of profit. I'm just not understanding why my stop strategy wouldn't work. I'm also not understanding what you mean by "remove the Auto-Breakeven and then use just "Auto-Trail at 10 ticks in profit". Can you please clarify with a more detailed explanation and screen shots of the ATM and Stop strategies? Once again, thanks for your patience.

Best Regards
Chuck

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Chuck,

If you like your stop loss to adjust to breakeven when you have 4 ticks in profit, you would use the following Auto Breakeven strategy.

Profit trigger: 4
Plus: 0

Please note that the stop loss will adjust as soon as you have 4 ticks in profit, not when your 1st contract exited - this is not supported.

Subsequently you will use a profit trigger of 10 for your AutoTrail. However if you leave 'Stop loss' to 10 as well, the stop loss will not adjust. Because at 10 ticks in profit, the stop loss is adjusted to 10 ticks behind the market price, which is breakeven as well. However you already adjusted the stop loss to breakeven at 4 ticks in profit using the Auto Breakeven.

[maxreturn]

Hello Chuck,

If you like your stop loss to adjust to breakeven when you have 4 ticks in profit, you would use the following Auto Breakeven strategy.

Profit trigger: 4
Plus: 0

Please note that the stop loss will adjust as soon as you have 4 ticks in profit, not when your 1st contract exited - this is not supported.

Subsequently you will use a profit trigger of 10 for your AutoTrail. However if you leave 'Stop loss' to 10 as well, the stop loss will not adjust. Because at 10 ticks in profit, the stop loss is adjusted to 10 ticks behind the market price, which is breakeven as well. However you already adjusted the stop loss to breakeven at 4 ticks in profit using the Auto Breakeven.

Hello Jason. Ok, thanks for bearing with me. If I understand you correctly I would have the settings for the ATM and Stop strategies as follows in the attached JPEG's. Would you please take a look? Thanks and

Best Regards
Chuck

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi Chuck,

Can you clarify for me how many ticks behind the current market price you wish for the stop loss to be trailing?

[maxreturn]

Hi Chuck,

Can you clarify for me how many ticks behind the current market price you wish for the stop loss to be trailing?

Hello Kyle. I'm good to go. Most of this was my fault because I probably didn't communicate clearly enough what I wanted to do. Basically on the 2nd contract I wanted to move the stop to breakeven at a profit of 4 ticks. Then, as the market moved in my favor I wanted to trail a 10 tick stop WITHOUT going lower than the breakeven stop. I figured out I could do this by auto breakeven settings of 4 for the profit trigger and 0 for plus. Then for auto trail set 10 for the stop loss, 1 for the frequency and 11 for the profit trigger. It took me a while to understand how the auto breakeven and auto trail work together. Thanks for your patience with me and send my warmest regards to Jason and Ryan. I'm sure by now they cringe when they see a post coming in from me.

Best Regards
Chuck

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi Chuck,

Glad to hear to that the configuration has been setup as you desire, and if you have any additional questions can you please send them to support[at]ninjatrader[dot]com, and put ATTN Ryan O in the subject.

In addition to support on the forum we offer email and phone support, and so if you include a phone number in any follow-up we can schedule a call and work remotely to answer any questions.

I would be glad to offer support in that capacity, as well.