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Software for commodity/futures traders.
Position Analyst is used for calculating:
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Trade entry, stop-loss and target values.
If after you've read the overview below (and perhaps the help pages too), you're not convinced that Position Analyst will make your trade
analysis a lot easier, please send me an e-mail and tell me how I can improve Position Analyst for you. Believe me, as the business
owner (and creator of Position Analyst), I take your comments seriously! Please click here to send me an e-mail. (Thank you.)
You can use Position Analyst regardless of your trading methodology, as well as, with or without charting software.
For complete information on the capabilities of Position Analyst, please review the screen shots. (The screen shots are actually the help pages.)
Although Position Analyst has many features, this overview deals with the trade analysis relating to the "Entry/Stop" tab.
When it comes to having your entry, stop-loss and target values calculated, you need a starting point. In other words, you need
to start with
one of those values: so that the other two values can get calculated. The value that you decide to start with can be tentative...
everything
can be fine-tuned as you'll soon see. (All software algorithms need a starting point.)
First, enter the funds that you have available to trade with, in the Account-Equity field.
Tentatively select the number of contracts that you'd like to use in your trade analysis.
Enter your entry-price value, and have your stop-loss value automatically calculated.
- or -
Enter your stop-loss value, and have your entry-price value automatically calculated.
Note: The above calculated values are based on your desired-account risk for the trade.
If you're a trader than uses target values to exit a trade, then:
Enter your entry-price value, and have your target-price value automatically calculated.
- or -
Enter your target-price value, and have your entry-price value automatically calculated.
Note: The above calculated values are based on your desired profit/risk ratio for the trade.
When the above steps have been completed, the following is also automatically calculated for you:
Your risk expressed in ticks, and also in the market's basic-price unit like: cents, points, basis points etc.
Your risk expressed as a percentage of your total margin.
Your dollar risk per contract, as well as your total-dollar risk.
If you're using a target value, then the following also gets calculated for you:
Your profit expressed in ticks, and also in the market's basic-price unit like: cents, points, basis points etc.
Your profit/risk ratio.
Your dollar profit per contract, as well as your total-dollar profit.
At this point, you can fine-tune your trade analysis to exactly what you want, by doing any of the following:
Adjust your target price by pressing the arrow buttons on the Target-Price field. (If you use target values.)
Adjust your entry price by pressing the arrow buttons on the Entry-Price field.
Adjust your stop-loss price by pressing the arrow buttons on the Stop-Loss field.
Change the value in the Total-Contracts field.
Here's a demonstration that shows you how Position Analyst can make your analysis a lot easier. (It's using the picture above.)
Looking at the T-Note market, I see what could be a possible trading opportunity...
Currently I have $18,500 to trade with, so I'll enter that value in the Account-Equity field.
I'll start my analysis with 3 contracts, so I'll enter 3 in the Total-Contracts field.
I see 83-23.5 as good place to hide, so I'll enter that value in the Stop-Loss field.
I want Position Analyst to calculate my entry-price value, so to provide an initial value, I'll just copy the price in the Stop-Loss field and paste it
in the Entry-Price field. Now I'll press the up-arrow button on the Entry-Price field and watch the Account-Risk value.
When the Account-Risk value gets to 4.31% I'll release the up-arrow button: initially I want to risk less than 5% on this trade.
Now I know that my needed entry price is 84 (if I trade 3 contracts, using a stop-loss at 83-23.5, and want to limit my risk to 4.31%), that was easy...
OK, now I want Position Analyst to calculate my target price (based on my desired profit/risk ratio of 4.35:1). To provide an initial value, I'll just copy
the price in the Entry-Price field and paste it in the Target-Price field. Now I'll press the up-arrow button on the Target-Price field and watch the
Profit/Risk-ratio value. When the Profit/Risk-ratio value gets to 4.35:1, I'll release the up-arrow button.
Now I know that my needed target price is 85-5 (when my entry price is at 84, and I'm looking for a 4.35:1 profit/risk ratio), that was just as easy...
As I look at my initial trade risk of 4.31%, I realize that it's really too high. Simple enough, if I change the total contracts to 2, I see that the Account-Risk
value changes to 2.87%...if I change the total contracts to 1, I see that the Account-Risk value changes to 1.44%. I believe it would be in my best
interest to trade just 1 contract and risk only 1.44%.
In this example, I changed the number of contracts to reduce my risk, but I could have just as easily changed my entry and/or stop-loss values instead.
Or if I preferred, I could have reduced the number of contracts to 2, as well as change my entry and/or stop-loss values to reduce my risk. In other words,
you can use any combination of value change to produce your desired outcome.
Position Analyst is totally flexible...you can start your analysis from any direction: start from a target price and work down to your stop-loss if you'd like.
The above scenario uses the T-Note market as an example, but remember Position Analyst can be used for any market. By that we mean, any market
that's currently offered by the various exchanges, as well as markets that haven't yet been created - you're fully covered.
Position Analyst is very easy to use (you don't need to be a computer geek), all you need is an understanding of commodity/futures trading.
It's really that simple!
If you're using charting software, you'll draw lines that represent your entry, stop-loss and target values, then you're going to have the following questions:
Do these lines actually represent a correct-price value?
If the lines do represent a correct-price value, what are their financial-format values? (Like 67-13.5 for the T-Note 5yr. market.)
Position Analyst will solve these issues for you.
What about transferring a financial-format value like 67-13.5 to my charting software? Position Analyst will solve that as well...
If you'd like to see an example of these features, please Click Here.
What else does Position Analyst have to offer?
Charting-software line value to actual-price value conversion.
Actual-price value to charting-software line value conversion.
Price level information.
Pyramid Analysis I.
Pyramid Analysis II.
Contract specifications.
Market notes.
Saved market-analysis sessions.
An easy-to-use-database form for adding, updating and removing commodity markets.
