Strategy Summary:
This tool can be used to help identify breakouts from a range during a time-zone of your choosing. It plots a pre-market range, an opening range, it also includes moving average levels that can be used as confluence, as well as plotting previous day SESSION highs and lows.
There are several options on how you wish to close out the trades, all described in more detail below.
Back-testing Inputs:
You define your timezone.
You define how many trades to open on any given day.
You decide to go: long only, short only, or long & short (CAREFUL: "Long & Short" can open trades that effectively closes-out existing ones, for better AND worse!)
You define between which times the strategy will open trades.
You define when it closes any open trades (preventing overnight trades, or leaving trades open into US data times!!).
This hopefully helps make back-testing reflect YOUR trading hours.
NOTE: Renko or Heikin-Ashi charts
For ALL strategies, don’t use Renko or Heikin-Ashi charts unless you know EXACTLY the implications.
Specific to my strategy, using a renko chart can make this 85-90% profitable (I wish it was!!) Although they can be useful, renko charts don’t always capture real wicks, so the renko chart may show your trade up-only but your broker (who is not using renko!!) will have likely stopped you out on a wick somewhere along the line.
NOTE: TradingView ‘Deep backtesting’
For ALL strategies, be cynical of all backtesting (e.g. repainting issues etc) as well as ‘Deep backtesting’ results.
Specific to this strategy, the default settings here SHOULD BE OK, but unfortunately at the time of writing, we can’t see on the chart what exactly ‘deep backtesting’ is calculating. In the past I have noted a number of trades that were not closed at the end of the day, despite my ‘end of day’ trade closing being enabled, so there were big winners and losers that would not have materialized otherwise. As I say, this seems ok at these settings but just always be cynical!!
Opening Range Inputs
You define a pre-market range (example: 08:00 - 09:00).
You define an opening range (example: 09:00 - 09:30).
The strategy will give an update at the close of the opening range to let you know if the opening range has broken out the pre-market range (OR Breakout), or if it has remained inside (OR Inside). The label appears at the end of the opening range NOT at the bar that ‘broke-out’.
This is just a visual cue for you, it has no bearing on what the strategy will do.
The strategy default will trade off the pre-market range, but you can untick this if you prefer to trade off the opening range.
Opening Trades:
Strategy goes long when the bar (CLOSE) crosses-over the ‘pre-market’ high (not the ‘opening range’ high); and the time is within your trading session, and you have not maxed out your number of trades for the day!
Strategy goes short when the bar (CLOSE) crosses-under the ‘pre-market’ low (not the ‘opening range low); and the time is within your trading session, and you have not maxed out your number of trades for the day!
Remember, you can untick this if you prefer to trade off the opening range instead.
NOTES:
Using momentum indicators can help (RSI and MACD): especially to trade range plays in failed breakouts, when momentum shifts… but the strategy won’t do this for you!
Using an anchored vwap at the session open can also provide nice confluence, as well as take-profit levels at the upper/lower of 3x standard deviation.
CLOSING TRADES:
You have 6 take-profit (TP) options:
1) Full TP: uses ATR Multiplier - Full TP at the ATR parameters as defined in inputs.
2) Take Partial profits: ATR Multiplier - Takes partial profits based on parameters as defined in inputs (i.e close 40% of original trade at TP1, close another 40% of original trade at TP2, then the remainder at Full TP as set in option 1.).
3) Full TP: Trailing Stop - Applies a Trailing Stop at the number of points, as defined in inputs.
4) Full TP: MA cross - Takes profit when price crosses ‘Trend MA’ as defined in inputs.
5) Scalp: Points - closes at a set number of points, as defined in inputs.
6) Full TP: PMKT Multiplier - places a SL at opposite pre-market Hi/Low (we go long at a break-out of the pre-market high, 50% would place a SL at the pre-market range mid-point; 100% would place a SL at the pre-market low)'. This takes profit at the input set in option 1).