Slow is SMOOTH. Smooth is FAST.

Frequency. Intensity. Purpose.

The past year or so of this trading and coding journey has been the epitome of Frequency, Intensity and Purpose.  With the “Purpose” starting to finally reveal itself.

The past week I’ve spent coding and backtesting a couple of strategies, mostly entry strategies, I use to trade. Again, I trade mostly Gold Futures, so these are mostly optimized for Gold.

As the “purpose” in all this is revealing itself, I went ahead and took a bunch of time, to code in Pine Script for the TradingView platform, being that it’s more popular and universal than using the Think or Swim platform.

This will hopefully be more helpful for more people to follow along and perhaps even use some of these tools I’m building for myself.

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Scanner wise, I Think or Swim is where it’s at for me. 

Here is a snapshot of my “Fantastic 4” Watchlist. 

It consists of:

• $DXY [US Dollar Index]

• GC [Gold Futures]

• ES [S&P 500 Futures]

• NQ [Nasdaq Futures]

I have my Indicator in the first 4 columns in the respective timeframes that I watch:

• 1-Minute

• 5-Minute

• 15-Minute

• 30-Minute

I’m strictly day trading, and admittedly, I’m a scalper at heart, so I rely on 1M and 5M mostly.

I love VWAP [Volume Weighted Average Price] so I am also looking at VWAP and how far off we are from VWAP.

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I will continue to use Think or Swim for the Scanner.

Visually, I just can’t beat it.

[If you have a better scanner with custom coded columns, that’s also visually appealing, let me know.]

But I will chart exclusively in TradingView moving forward.

Which leads me to the exciting part!

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Here is a screenshot of the first version of the Days Pay Indicator.

All that is displayed here are:

• Days Pay Indicator

• Market Sessions [Tokyo, London, NY]

• VWAP [Blue line]

So basically, I’ve coded my entry style into this indicator.

And I’m looking for:

• LONGS - ABOVE VWAP

• SHORTS - BELOW VWAP

For exits, I’m usually taking profits

• at a specific level

• watching volume/price

• a cross and close of the 9 EMA

It all depends on what’s going on at the time.

My entry strategies are typically built into this indicator or I’m using simple VWAP breaks or Opening Range Breaks as other entry strategies.

I do take into account some other criteria.

I don’t just YOLO into a position once this indicator goes off.

Depending on what’s going on, I will look at Volume, Market Structure, overall Trend and Levels of Interest, etc.

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Here is a zoomed in view of today’s NY Session:

• 2 Minute Chart

• VWAP [Blue]

• 9 EMA [White]

I’m “tinkering” with a Trend Indicator that I can use when we’re within a trend.

Sometimes a VWAP break happens in the Tokyo/London session.

So finding an entry needed to be easier to spot if a “Long” or “Short” isn’t re-triggered.

I’m happy with this past week’s progress.  

I have a good handle on the next round of changes/edits to the indicator.

And I’ll be fine tuning some parameters for the ES and NQ.

Slow is SMOOTH. Smooth is FAST. 

One of my favorite Nic-isms is and always probably will be, “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

This will hopefully prove to be one of my best reminders to stay this course. 

It hasn’t felt smooth, it hasn’t been “fast” … but once I’m where I want to be, looking back it probably will feel as such.

The frequency and intensity I’ve dedicated and put in to this process is revealing a purpose that will hopefully be something helpful not only for myself but others.

As I learned and began to engage I was able to evaluate the data and experience, and that led to greater and greater frequency and intensity, and it’s evolved, to today, and here we are!

Funded, taking on another challenge, with a coded indicator!

Exciting times ahead! I can feel it! … We haven’t even really started!

Educe. Engage. Evaluate. Evolve.

Escape.

Let’s go!

Make sure to subscribe. And share this with an aspiring trader or Family CEO [nerd] that would enjoy this!

Happy Trading!

- V