ATM order on stocks or options? Any experience?

[gaz0001]

Hi NinjaTraders,

Has anyone ever tried to trade Equities or Equity options using NT Chart Trader and ATM?

Since the platform is geared up for ticks and points how does it handle currency entries?
Can't work it out.


I usually have my ATM do an AutoBreakeven.... I noticed the AutoBreakeven doesn't support decimal places... So how does thst work exactly?

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Melissa]

Hello gaz0001,

Thanks for the post.

I will leave other traders to answer with their personal experiences using ATM Strategies when trading stocks, but I wanted to address your question about the Auto Breakeven. Currency is the only parameter type that does not also work with the Auto Breakeven and Auto Trail features.

You'll note when you configure your Stop Strategy that there is a (t) next to the Auto Breakeven and Auto Trail titles. This is to signify that ticks are being used as the parameter type for these features, because it is unfortunately not possible to use Currency at this time. Most stocks have a default tick size of .01 and a point size of 1, so you could do the math based on these values to convert this parameter to work for your strategy.

For example, let's say I am trading AAPL and have an ATM Strategy with 100 contracts, a Stop Loss $25 away from entry, and a Profit Target $50 away from entry. $50 of profit for 100 contracts would equal 5 points, which in turn would equal 50 ticks. This gives me a starting off point for seeing where I may want to place my breakeven. Since I will be taken out of the trade if the market moves $50 in my favor, I can put my auto breakeven trigger at 10 ticks, or in other words, my auto breakeven would trigger once the market moved $10 in my favor.

The calculation from currency to ticks is essentially $1 = 1 tick if you're trading 100 contracts, because 100 (contracts) x .01 (tick size) =1. We can scale this up or down with this math in mind. If I am trading 50 contracts instead, I could put my auto breakeven at 20 ticks, which would kick in when the market has moved $10 in my favor, for example.

If you are trying to put a strategy together and are having trouble accomplishing your specific parameters, please just let us know what you have configured so far and we would be more than happy to assist further.

Please also feel free to reach out with any further NinjaTrader inquiries you may have.