Live Signal Service Frequently Asked Questions
Scroll through our FAQ Guide to get your questions answered about NetPicks Live Signal Service. You can click the question shortcuts to see specific answers, or just scroll through to see all the information.
How much will I have to learn to get started?
Other Skills You Will Need to Learn
What are the Broker Requirements to Get Started?
What are my Computer System Requirements?
What Markets are Traded?
What is the Traderoom Schedule?
How do I know when to take a trade?
Is there a Minimum Account Requirement to Start Trading?
What results can I expect?
What is the pricing of the Service?
How much will I have to learn to get started?
There are different aspects to trading that everyone has to learn, so to answer this question, it is necessary to determine an individual’s skill level. We assume that you know basic trade concepts and terminology like: going long, selling short, stops, limit orders, etc.
Every trader needs to learn how to properly execute their trades, from placing entries, stops, and targets. We recommend using stop limit orders and placing what are called ‘bracket orders’ with every trade. A bracket order attaches a target and a stop once you enter a trade. When either the target or stop gets hit, the other automatically cancels.
Once your skill level increases along with the capital in your trade account, you can begin to trade a 2nd position using our trailing stop techniques. This is another level of trade execution that you will need to learn, along with the ability to scale in and out of positions when the opportunity presents itself.
The good news is that you can practice ALL these techniques in a live SIM account at no risk to you. We recommend that you are able to flawlessly execute 25 trades in a row without a single mistake. In so doing, you will achieve the level of skill and confidence that we believe is necessary. Take your time! This is a skill that is worth working hard at and will benefit you throughout your trading career.
Other Skills You Will Need to Learn
Disciplined Focus
The success of our trading depends on staying with the tradeplan and taking the next trade. Distractions can kill a trader’s performance. Therefore, we always recommend that you turn off your phone, don’t answer emails, and trade in an environment that affords you the ability to remain 100% focused. This is an acquired skill. Markets can move quickly and/or slowly and both require the same degree of disciplined focus.
Confidence
This is one of the critical elements to successful trading. Don’t expect to have the necessary level of confidence when you start. You have to give yourself enough practice time and allow yourself to acquire the level of confidence you will need as you continue to see how the trades unfold. Repetition is key. We sometimes have to trade through losses to get to our winners and ultimately grow our accounts. This is normal in trading yet so many traders fail to develop their confidence level to the point where they can surrender to this fact. They end up cherry picking trades and NOT trading the tradeplan that is growing our equity.
The remedy of course, is a lot of practice trades AND tracking the results in a spreadsheet. We recommend NetPicks’ UTA trade tracking tool but regardless of what you use, it is important to do this work so you can see how the trades produce growth in the bottom line – our equity.
Understand that healthy tradeplans produce equity curves with a two step forward / one step backwards rhythm. When you finally surrender to this concept, you will be on the road to succeeding as a trader. This level of understanding and confidence comes with time and practice. Our LIVE Traderoom is designed to help you acquire this critical skill.
The ability to STOP trading at the right moment:
Understanding the fine balance between the correct amount of risk exposure to the market vs. too much vs. not enough is the difference between success and failure. Our tradeplans provide for dynamic goals and stopping points.
We call our technique the “Power of Quitting” or poq, for short. This is a dynamic technique that adjusts each session to market conditions and is a strange concept for those starting with our service.
In short, the power of quitting allows us to ‘take what the market wants to give us’ while also, allowing us to quit positive on MOST sessions.
Markets trend and markets consolidate. Poq allows us to move our accounts forward, steadily, while balancing on the fine line between too much risk exposure and not enough.
What are the Broker Requirements to Get Started?
Your broker should allow you to trade in a live simulation (sim) account so that you can practice your executions and build your confidence.
Forex traders should choose a broker with the most competitive spread costs.
Futures traders should choose a broker with the lowest commissions. We use Tradestation and pay less than $2.50 per round turn.
We currently use a specific trade strategy called the Seven Summits Trader (SST). As an active member of the LIVE Traderoom, you will have the ability to invest in this system and own if for yourself if you so choose. It is not mandatory to succeed with our service but if you do choose to go that route, you will need to use one of the following trade platforms: Tradestation, Ninja Trader, eSignal or MT4 (for forex only).
What are my Computer System Requirements?
We recommend the most powerful computer you can afford but for sure you need a dual core at the very least. A quad core is preferred.
Two monitors is highly recommended (or more).
You should have the maximum amount of RAM
You should have the fastest internet connection possible
Always have a backup battery in case you lose power. Also, have your broker’s tradedesk phone number handy at all times in case you lose power or internet connection.
Currently, we are calling trades in two forex markets and three futures markets. This may
change from time to time as market conditions change.
We trade Forex; EURUSD and EURJPY; Futures; Russell eMini, Crude Oil Futures, Wheat Futures. We also will call Stock, ETF and Option Swingtrades as the
opportunities present themselves.
What is the Traderoom Schedule?
Traders should log into the traderoom by 8:15 est
The traderoom closes at approximately 11:00 am est
We begin trading the forex markets at 8:30 est
We begin trading Crude Oil Futures at 8:50 est
We begin trading the Russell eMini at 9:30 est
We begin trading Wheat Futures at 10:32 est
Power of Quitting: We try to get two winners and a positive result on each session but may stop trading sooner at the discretion of the traderoom moderator.
How do I know when to take a trade?
All trades are called out loud with clear entries, targets and stops.
You will be able to see the charts and see the trades as well.
When a trade is called, orders should be immediately placed.
Some trades are called and then cancelled if and when conditions change. The moderator will tell you when to cancel a trade as well.
Is there a Minimum Account Requirement to Start Trading?
Each broker is different and the sad truth is that brokers allow traders to ‘over leverage’ their positions.
We recommend that a trader be adequately capitalized to trade. Here are some basic guidelines:
Forex traders need a broker that will allow maximum flexibility in position size.
Never trade more than 2% of your account on any trade.
You can trade micro size lots with as little as $500. This is a great way to learn after you’ve completed your 25 mistake free sim trades.
You can trade mini size lots with as little as $1500 for one position; $2500 for 2 positions (to utilize the trailing stop part of our strategy).
You can trade full size lots with $15,000 for one position; $25,000 for two positions.
If you have less than $15,000, you can customize your position size with multiple mini lots using the levels shown above.
You can learn to trade in a SIM account, which is what we recommend prior to risking real money.
We recommend the following account size for our various futures
strategies:
Russell eMini and Wheat Futures:
$10,000 minimum for a single position to our fixed target. We prefer $15,000 though.
2 position traders should have a minimum account of $20,000 with $30,000 being preferred.
Those starting with $5000 for example, could run into confidence problems and would need to exceed our 2% avg risk per trade level and therefore, we can not recommend traders to trade the Russell eMini with less than $10k.
Crude Oil Futures:
Double the numbers shown above for the Russell eMini
Stock Swingtrades:
$30,000 – this is due to the Pattern Daytrader Rule imposed by the SEC. For all practical purposes you could trade with much less but you could get your account frozen by your broker if you exceed 3 daytrades in any 5 day period with less than $25k, and although rare, it is possible that a trade can enter and exit during the same session.
Of course there can never be a way of knowing what will happen next in the live markets. That being said, we are trading with tradeplans and trade methods that have stood the test of time through all kinds of market conditions.
We believe the sweet spot to long term successful trading is a healthly two steps forward / one step back approach. We aim win 60% or better. Many of our tradeplans are winning much more than that.
On a session to session basis, we hope to be winning over 70% of the time; per market
On a weekly basis, we aim for winning over 75% of the time
For ongoing trade results and general information regarding the daily happenings in the traderoom, please visit our LIVE Traderoom blog at http://netpicks.com/signal-service/.
What is the pricing of the Service?
After your FREE two week trial, your credit card will be billed at the ongoing rate of just $197 per month.
This billing will be automatic and ongoing until you decide to cancel.
Months that have started will be billed for the entire month. We feel the LIVE Traderoom is already so cheap, literally needing only one winning trade per month to cover the cost, that we do not prorate. Often, an entire year’s worth of subcription costs can be made in just one session! We’ve done it many times already.
Feel free to cancel at anytime.
