JOURNALING

Make sure you get 2 notebooks for taking notes to get to quickly. 1 is for
observations and 1 is for action-item journal.

DAILY ROUTINE
Make sure to watch the 4-minute prep routine. This is an oldy but goldy.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmEHpz6NXHo
Vinny's 4 Minute Day Trading Preparation Routine - Learn How Day Trading can change your life

WHAT IS IN IT?
▪ Take a peek at the VIX
▪ Personal assessment. Are you 1. tired, 2. hungry, or 3. angry? Can’t trade if any apply.
▪ Make sure you have an Alexa or alarm device to make sure you keep track of trade
periods.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE VIX

▪ You can type !vix in the discord room and it will give you a current reading.
▪ Consider the VIX reading as a speedometer.
▪ 13-14 is considered the sweet spot.
ROOM EXAMPLE
▪ This cursory review will let you know what you may be up against.

Vinny Advice: Treat trading as a business. Invest your time and

money wisely. You must execute well, or you will lose.
WHAT HAPPENS AT THE 4:00 CLOSE
MARGIN INFORMATION
https://ninjatrader.com/PDF/ninjatrader_futures_contract_details.pdf
!margins in the discord room

▪ There is a market halt at 4:15

that runs through 4:30.
▪ 5:00 is the hard close. You
don’t want to get caught here.
▪ 5 minutes until 5, your broker
may close you out if you do
not have a sizeable account.
▪ Between 5:00 to 6:00 you go
into maintenance margin.
▪ How long is overnight? It lasts
for 1 hour.
▪ Don’t play the maintenance
margin game.

KNOW HOW THE

INSTRUMENTS WORK
BEFORE TRADING THEM
https://ninjatrader.com/Margins-Position-Management
Additional video with Vinny going into more detail concerning contract rollover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXhC-MOQmc
▪ Know what day of the week you are trading.

▪ Pay attention to the news.

▪ Don’t get caught off-guard with earnings.

▪ Think about buckets when it comes to rollovers.

▪ Be careful of quad witching weeks.

▪ Understand seasonality of crude.

▪ FOMC is a big day.

▪ Unscheduled news can be dangerous. Have your tweet deck up.

▪ Be aware of CME closings.

▪ Best day to trade natural gas is Thursday. Just the way the commodity moves.

▪ Also trade FX on Thursdays.

This can be a problem in thin markets, so you should be aware of what you are trading.
1. The Major US tax advantage keeps a LOT of profits in your pocket
2. No PDT Rules.... ever
3. Discount Broker Commissions
4. Leverage built into the instruments
5. Automatic limiting of trading Universe (not chasing filtering thousands of stocks, names, etc.)
6. Time efficiency - Never building bull/bear/gap watchlists
7. Movement - like gears on a car each instrument has a unique speed and characteristic that can be easily learned with the shortest amount of time
8. No position size calculations or errors
9. Ticks - Frankly, trading in ticks is simpler in many ways for short term or long term targets
10. Tick Values - are always set : 5$, 10$, 12.50$, etc.
11. Overnight is only 1 hour / Market open 23/5
12. News Event Management - simplicity - No individual stock news, earnings reports, CEO news, patent, lawsuit, individual instrument risk ... Mostly
scheduled News events with limited events to be looking to for major movers or upsets / RISK
13. Coding in Ticks is MUCH simpler
14. Thinking in terms of contract counts is simple math a 7-year-old can do... 1 contract, 2 contract, 10 contracts, etc.... Also, a Coding plus here for
looping and size management... Putting on size and taking off size is +1 -1 style management
15. Foreign currency pairs can be accessed via a simple contract count in the same way as other commodities and indexes
16. Data Feed prices - so low it's ridiculous
17. Centralized exchanges - no dark pools, no bad actor brokerage tricks, no HFT arbitrage, see everyone who's in play, spoofing and tracking rule
protections, etc.
18. Small Account sizes - SOOO many advantages here I could go on for hours. If you view trading as a business model as I do and teach... the lowest cost
of entry, overhead costs, personnel costs, equipment, building, etc. and with no PDT account size limits.... with great Tools and Strategies, you can do a
LOT with a little. Very good place for a trader to make a living if choosing trading as a career path... This instrument class is #1 for a reason
19. No Time Decay - Options also has leverage advantage and small account size but other major disadvantages with time decay being a major
20. Short Anything - never worry about whether you can borrow shares with your broker or having shares available. You can ALWAYS short a future with
no hassle. This is inherent to the instruments themselves. Making money in both directions daily has many advantages in and of itself. Literally can make
money in any market condition
21. Halts - are EXTREMELY rare. In my 10-year career, I've literally never had one affect my trading (knocking on wood and now that I've said it... it will
likely happen tomorrow)
FUTURES 60/40 U.S. TAX ADVANTAGE DETAILS: While stocks are taxed at the 35% short-term capital gains
rate for positions held less than a year, futures are taxed 60/40. This means that while 40% of your gains in
futures trading is taxed at the same 35% rate as short-term stock trading, 60% of your gains are taxed at
the long-term capital gains rate of 15%!
BONUS WITH VINNY: He quickly discusses stalking trades. There is a recent video that touches on this topic
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmIwpfBLwUQ&t=879s
ALGOBOX METHOD 🔴 How to Stalk Your Trades without Reacting