STP Algo Trader - User Blog

Welcome to STP Algo Trader User Blog!

Each week, we'll bring you a unique perspective from a team member or STP user, detailing how they use the platform to power their trading.

We aim to demonstrate Signal Trader Pro's many use cases for everyday investors.

If you’d like to contribute a piece, please email us at [email protected] or just let us know in the WhatsApp! group.

Even if you just have an idea for a blog, we’d love to hear it.

Now, let’s dive into our fourth issue, which was brought to you by superuser James Welch.

Hi all! James here again.

Another week has passed, yet the volatility remains. As a trader, it's common to feel many things during these periods. Anger, fear, sadness, and more are common emotions in times like these.

• Why not be angry when you lose money on a trade?

• Why not be afraid when you watch the Dow drop 1,000 points in a day multiple times?

• Why not be sad when you feel like no matter what you do, you can’t make money in this market?

I don’t know if it was just me, but Monday through Wednesday last week, I experienced many emotions, including those mentioned above. After all, we are living through an extremely erratic phase in stock market history.

Then Thursday arrived, and I felt another emotion: happiness.

I felt happy because I was able to communicate with members of the Signal Trader Pro community in our WhatsApp group.

Coming into that morning, I'd made a few bucks trading the volatility by following the 3.5% rule that we've written about often recently. But honestly, I was feeling down when I woke up—kind of a "another day of this BS…" type vibe.

That said, I got my wife and kids out the door, turned on CNBC, got some coffee, and logged into STP, ready to face the day's challenges.

Now, in case you weren’t paying attention on Thursday morning, things were deep red out of the starting blocks.

The day started terribly when UnitedHealth Group announced a highly reduced profit forecast before the bell, and their shares declined a massive 22% after the market opened.

This dragged down not only the DJIA but the entire market.

And Thursday was only adding to the pain. The previous day, the NASDAQ dropped over -3.1%, the S&P -2.2%, and the Dow – 1.7%.

Here’s an April 17th chart for the Dow:

As you can see, the day started badly and only got worse into the close. Ultimately, the Dow lost fell another -1.3% on the day.

Now, I don't know what it was. Maybe a lot of you were feeling as fed up with the market as I was?

But from the time I logged in, it seemed the STP community was dead set on making the best out of a bad situation.

After some initial chat about Netflix and TSMC’s earnings, talk quickly turned to trading TQQQ.

For those unfamiliar with that ticker, ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) is an ETF that provides 3x leveraged exposure to the NASDAQ-100 Index. Please note that this is not investment advice, and STP has not recommended TQQQ.

As the morning and day went on, members checked in with each other to see who had purchased some TQQQ. Others just cheered on those who had.

As I write this on Tuesday, the NASDAQ is up over 2%, and some STP chat members are checking in to brag about the quick $ they made. Others are lamenting not getting in on the action.

Perhaps we all thought it was crazy that the NASDAQ was down so much. Maybe some of us just wanted to make a quick buck.

Still, last Thursday, our community pulled together on an otherwise crappy day in the market to try and help each other out.

To me, though, the key takeaway is that our STP community educated each other, supported one another, and had fun doing it. Some of us even made some money.

By now, you've probably read that Signal Trader Pro has made significant adjustments to its algorithm to adjust to the new market environment. We call this flipping the “Bull Switch”.

This process was outlined in Issue 17 of Algo Trader, which you can read here.

As outlined in that post, STP is taking the following steps:

1. All signals require an RSI of 25

2. All “Bullseye” signals will be only 14 & 15 scores

3. Resetting open “Bullseye” signals

By implementing the steps above, STP cuts out noisy data and refocuses the platform to provide you with only the highest-quality signals to trade.

I look forward to discussing these new “Bullseye Signals” with members of the STP community. It will feel good to get back to investing fundamentals and buying shares of the highest quality companies.

In the meantime, as this volatility continues, I'm happy to know the STP chat community will be there on good and bad days. It's reassuring to know that I'm not in this alone.

So, that’s my plan. What about you?

I’m just one guy in an ocean of investors. Now that you’ve heard how I’ve been using Signal Trader Pro, we’d love to hear how you use it.

If you’d like to tell your story, please email us at [email protected] or hit us up in the WhatsApp! group.

Yours truly,

James

Click here for more information and to sign up for the market’s best algorithmic trading platform, Signal Trader Pro.