Trading Simulators and Trading Games - Practice Trading Online

A long time ago I stumbled onto a nice little stock trading simulator, played online using a chart, any indicators you choose, and buy/sell buttons.  I went searching for this today and stumbled onto another game.

Try it out, it takes about 3 minutes to play it Futures trading simulator

The better game is called "Chart Game", written by a guy with all kinds of other interesting blog posts such as woodworking projects he has done, and trips he's been on.  This is the game I was looking for... Chart Game.  Maybe a good tool to warm up for a few minutes before you place your first trade of the day.  I played it for an hour today and beat the buy and hold.  I remember playing it a couple of years ago and losing.... consistently.  What a change!!

Chart Game

If you know any other site that offer something online (no need for a download) feel free to add a comment or email the link to me.

Here what this game looks like.

Bracket Trader Stats

Here is a handy tool if you use Bracket Trader (BT). This excel file will extract information from your BT log files to give you trading stats. Take a look at thew different stats it tracks.

Bracket Trader Spreadsheet

The instructions are good, so no need for me to explain how to use it.

VWAP

Definition


"Volume Weighted Average Price. A measure of the price at which the majority of a given day's trading in a given security took place. Calculated by taking the weighted average of the prices of each trade. The method is used by institutional traders, who often break a given trade into multiple transactions."

Another definition

The VWAP for a stock is calculated by adding the dollars traded for every transaction in that stock ("price" x "number of shares traded") and dividing the total shares traded. A VWAP is computed from the Open of the market to the market Close, AND is calculated by Volume weighting all transactions during this time period.

VWAP, or Volume Weighted Average Price is a tool used by some traders, I first learned of it from Brian Shannon who trades stocks. This won't work for forex since there is no volume.

There are a few different ways of displaying this in Amibroker. It can be a simple line like a moving average, this is the most common way pro's use it. Amibroker has a function to display it behind price, look in the help for these two functions with examples;

• PlotVAPOverlayA
• PlotVAPOverlay

Here are a few ways tp lot it and some code to try out.

eTokes Blog post on VWAP
I suggest reading his post, as well as Brian's post on VWAP, links below. eToke used a vertical "study" line drawn on the chart. This might give you an error on your chart if there is no line drawn. Here is his code with a little fix for this problem (adding "Nz");

Plot VWAP starting at a horizontal study line (Study ID set to ST)

//VWAP since last change in sentiment
TurningPoint = IIf(Nz(Study(“ST”,GetChartID())==0,1,0));
BarsSinceLastTurn = 1 + BarsSince(TurningPoint==1);
StartBar = ValueWhen(TurningPoint==1, BarIndex());
RunVolume = Sum(V,BarsSinceLastTurn);
IIf (BarIndex() >= StartBar, MTVWAP = Sum (C * V, BarsSinceLastTurn ) / RunVolume,0);
Plot (MTVWAP,”MTVWAP”,colorPink, styleLine);

Other ways to plot VWAP

Plot VWAP starting at selector line

This is another way, it will display the VWAP starting from where your selector line is placed. I use it for short term trading to see where all the volume is, makes finding support / resistance a bit easier when working with breakout.

_SECTION_BEGIN("Selector Line VAP");
segments = IIf(SelectedValue(BarIndex()) == BarIndex(), 1, 0);
PlotVAPOverlayA( segments , 300, 50, ParamColor("Color", colorDarkGrey ), 6 );
_SECTION_END();

Plotted like a moving average

_SECTION_BEGIN("VWAP");
Bars_so_far_today = 1 + BarsSince( Day() != Ref(Day(), -1));
StartBar = ValueWhen(TimeNum() == 093000, BarIndex());
TodayVolume = Sum(V,Bars_so_far_today);
IIf (BarIndex() >= StartBar, VWAP = Sum (C * V, Bars_so_far_today ) / TodayVolume,0);
Plot (VWAP,"VWAP",colorOrange, styleThick);
_SECTION_END();

Other links on VWAP
VWAP link 1
VWAP link 2

Forex Volume

If you have traded forex for more than a day you will now that there is no volume data since there is no central exchange. There are ways to guess at volume, which by the way will help you even though its an approximation. Since trading isn't an exact science, any data for volume is better than no data. When volume is read on a chart, say for stocks, we look for increasing or decreasing levels, or a spike on a breakout, and not a particular number.... only comparisons.

Forex data can be derived from tick data. I use this right now, the number of price changes from the IB data stream is counted and added until the bar closes, the afl uses the ibc.getrealtimedata function.

You could also use forex futures volume data, Amibroker will let you do this easily, but the market hours aren't the same from what I understand. I've never looked into this, so don't consider this as fact.

I ran across a site where forex futures data is taken from the CME website reports that are posted and available via ftp. The website is call evolution. I read some post at forex factory and it seems the site has been up for a couple of years. There doesn't seem to be a huge following, (which is good if you ask me).

I'll be taking a closer look at the max volume levels for the past week and keep an eye on them. Use this with your support and resistance and we will probably find more clues to where the next bounce will happen.

Take a look and leave a comment here on the site, as well as your thoughts on forex volume.

Other blogs worthy of mention

I find it takes so much time to read and digest information available on the net to find the sites that are actually worth while to visit on a regular basis. Here are some sites that I visit that offer more than just hype.

MACD High Probability Trades - I noticed that MACD High Probability Trades has taken to forex. He has switched his trading from stocks to forex, stating that forex is the new thing. I look forward to reading his blog posts related to forex.

DailyFX - FXCM's news, analysis and signals web site. Pretty good but I prefer the forexfactory calendar for news releases. It's on the sidebar of the blog.

ForexProject - Not sure what happened to Rich. Last word he got a new job. I think he should spend less time making websites and more time trading. His web sites are great though!

Alphatrends - Eben though this is related to forex, I watch his daily videos and I've read his book. Price action is all you need. Watch a (single) tick chart when price is near support/resistance and you'll see what I mean.

TradeTheMarkets - The free videos are helpfull. Although I have never paid these guys anything, there site is worth a mention. I signed up for the free videos. Here is a nice one - the them is - when daytraing, only take trades in the direction of the trend (60 min trend in this case).

Ryan has been helpful - If you cant daytrade forex, then swing trade it. Read this guys blogs to figure it out. He has two blogs, his own and one on fxstreet

Who is TMK?

Quite a bit of testosterone stirred up over at The Market Kid (TMK) blog. If your not familiar with this blog, it's written by someone, nobody really knows who, that claims to be a kid. Some speculate that he or she is a high school student. "Kid" probably refers to a kid of the market, a child, a constant learner, anybody follow me here with this?

What's he do?
TMK posts penny stock picks, basically following the Timothy Sykes program. Look for shitty stocks that move up quickly on no news or bullcrap from the forums and look to short when they fizzle out. Sure, pennies can be a bit risky, and that's why you should have your money management system in place and following it. Pennies can be fun to play and profitable but you need to set up your rules and play the game to the rules or your going to get hammered like a hockey player with his head down crossing the blue line. ... game over, lights out.

Educational?
Is there anything to learn from this "TMK" blog? Sure there is. Look up some of TMK's past picks and judge for yourself. Even better, use the past picks and make some rules up, then simulate the trades. ya ya, no shares available, whatever... the point here is you can use the blog to grease your wheels.... do your own work... but it sure is easier having someone narrow down the thousands of stocks to sift through.

Is he a fraud?
You might care, I don't. We all trade differently, we all judge people differently. If someone were to take the posts, which are apparently the result of scans and preliminary manual chart scans by eye, and put their own trading strategy to work on them, and found some they could actually trade, and make a profit from the posts, who gives a rats ass who the hell TMK is? Not sure about you, but I'm in this for the money, and to learn about myself and how i react to in different market conditions (think trade journal)

What the point?
I want to make money trading, not friends, not enemies, not contacts, just cash. Who is MKT? Who gives a crap, but whoever writes the post isn't a teenage high school nerd. This person has some market insight and has either taken a course or two, spent hours reading through all the bull on the Internet, or is old enough to have been in the game for a while. TMK has probably watched the Sykes videos a few times, and read his books. There are legitimate blogs on the net by people that makes money day in and day out, and I ask you, do you trade their picks ? and make money from them? do you lose money also?

You are the master of your account. You are the master of your mouse. You are the master of your mouth. Do whatever you want. Blow up your account. Read blogs repeadadliy that you dont like. Blast your mouth off like anyone else values your opinion, to make sure everyone knows that YOU are RIGHT!! We all crave to be right, and isn't that why most people do terrible in the market?


I'm too busy trying to take some coin out of the market to give a rats ass about MKT's personal life or the comments some of his reader leave. When I sift through the comments, I simply look for MKT and read that part.... but sometimes the filth gets interesting, and we all like to read that crap sometimes, don't we?

Remember this
When the bell rings, your not my friend, I'm trying to take your money.

Are you ready to quite?

There is a forex trader named Ryan O'Keefe. You may have visited his blog. He has a post up about traders who have started out with great intentions and have almost blown up their account. If this is you, your might be asking yourself is "Are you ready to quit?".

Even if you're not ready to quite, this is worth a read. The theme is simple but not stated. When your having a rough go at it, make your trading plan simple, dumb it down. Trade only one pair, use only one system, trade a demo for a bit, talk to someone about your trading if there is anyone available.

The biggest problem you'll have with this is patience and waiting. If your trading only one pair and one system, you may go quite some time, days or weeks before you get a signal. This is part of the training. Wait for the right time. If you miss it, wait for the next one.

I use a trading journal, it is a royal pain in the ass.... but I fill it out as soon as I enter an order, when the order triggers (now I'm in the market), as the trade progresses (still in the market, recording my thoughts as well as target and stop adjustments and why I made them), and when the trade exits. Once I'm out I look at the chart, using hindsight since it is 20/20, to see if I read the situation correctly, and managed risk effectively. I have noticed that the losses that hurt the most were the ones that I had placed the stops at a point to far away for my comfort zone.

Where to place the stop and target? This pretty much defines if I get decide to enter or not. I identify the target and initial stop first, if the risk/reward ratio is less than 2 I don't consider it. If it is greater than 2, I now look at the position size. Here is the problem I had with this.... IB has a minimum order size that I'm not comfortable with for some trades, the stop placement would be too much of a $$ loss. So I opened an account at MBtrading, they allow smaller lot sizes. I haven't placed any trades on their system yet. One I start it up I'll post some trades and ideas.

So the whole point to the post is to "get back to basics" and follow the rules you made up in your trade plan. That is why I am reading my trade plan tonight, and every other night, until it is burnt into my brain.

Good trading!

Stockalicious

Stockalicious allows you to enter your trades and monitor your portfolio on the web as well as some other nice features. They do not currently support options or Canadian markets. I emailed them asking if and when they plan on supporting the TSX. The end of August is their target. When they provide this service, I'll put the link up for my portfolio, much like Woodshedder has done on his TradeWhileWorking blog.

They say options support is on the "to do" list but no date for implementation at this time.