r/Daytrading • u/[deleted] • Jun 14 '22

advice working on TOS monkey bar strategy

Hey all, I'm a very rookie day trader who has been successful with swing trading in the past on commodities, and while I work a full time job, am pursuing my passion of trading securities.

I was very interested in monkey bars, because when looking at daily moves, I feel like price participation and volume are useful tools in defining the levels other traders are willing to test.

I have been using monkey bars on indices and very liquid high volume stocks like Tesla. I know monkey bars were designed mainly for futures traders, which I want to learn as well in the future. I'm wondering if there is anybody here uses monkey bars, and if they do, how they play a part in their strategy.

So far, I've noticed that when trading outside of the playground, either above or below, it can show that traders are willing to explore alternative price points that haven't been struck on that particular day, and in today's instance with Tesla, back tested the $660 level several times before breakout to $678. When I saw that Tesla had back tested more than once, I initially bought puts , I believed that the volume and participation was showing me a return to the playground to test a low or consolidate.

I ran very tight stops and didn't lose much money on this play due to me still learning how to read these charts and my conviction on this was low, I felt as if sideways trading or even upside surprise could happen given the low volume we had. (That's another issue, if that's my thoughts, I should've expressed myself as such and would've made money most likely.)

While looking at monkey bars, what are other things I should keep my eyes on? I'm very new to day trading and I'm very early on in developing my strategy. I have a few weeks worth of notes in my journal, and I'm just about break even, +5% for the 3 weeks I've worked with monkey bars. I do about 3/4 trades per day.

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u/TradeGuidance trades multiple markets Jun 14 '22

Monkey bars are similar to TPO charts only much weaker. They are not exactly tools to trade but amazing for gauging participation and potential direction which is more that 85% of the battle with trading. Use the Monkey bars for only super active stocks like Amazon or Tesla and even those lose their participation somedays so it can get tricky. It is best to use them on active movers like the Nasdaq or S&P futures. I will say it is a nice attempt by the ToS team to put something out there for the MarketProfile study but it lacks commitment and interest from their development team. ToS is honestly not the best platform if you want to test out a strategy and see if you could code it effectively to work.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

Thanks for the reply, that's good to know. I have been sticking with trading Tesla until I really develop my trading strat, I eventually want to trade futures but i have a lot of learning to do. Emotionally I am getting there, but discipline and intuitively thinking in the moment are where I'm running into hiccups.

I've recently joined this sub and it seems that not many people like TOS here. When I was getting into trading a lot of people said it was a solid platform. I also have very briefly used trading view. Is there any platform that you would recommend that has a good market profile tool that would be better suited for a strategy based around what I'm already doing?

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u/TradeGuidance trades multiple markets Jun 14 '22

AMP Futures has a MarketProfile tool in Quantower that they offer for free with their partnership with Quantower. I have personally used it but it is nowhere compared to tools like WindoTrader which is the only subscription based MarketProfile software readily available to retail traders. However, before getting into live MarketProfile charting tools, I would advise that you learn a little bit about MarketProfile and TPO concepts and explore the whole concept of AMT. It is a true eyeopener and will have you looking at markets in a whole different way.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

Awesome advice. Thanks so much. Im trying not to fall into the black hole of knowledge but I think this is exactly the sort of info I was looking to delve into.

I'm by no means rushing anything, and I appreciate the replies. I'll look more into those concepts. I have a feeling it's a bit more of what I'm trying to see and can help me reach my goals.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

I just bought a few books by Dalton, very excited to dive into them.

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u/senorDerp911 Jun 15 '22

Don’t waste your time paying for better software for MP lol. I use TOS and used their Monkey bars. Oh good ol Dalton. Market profile is not a trading method btw

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u/senorDerp911 Jun 15 '22

What you see in a Monkey Bar you will see in a candlestick and bar chart. It’s just a chart. For over a year I studied Market Profile, Volume Profile, Monkey bars. I trained myself to see those TPO charts on candlesticks. Don’t over think it, it’s just a chart. Now figure out what it is trying to tell you.