But of course, this is what it comes down to, and if I would have been ChatGPT I would have said the same – assuming I was given too few data points. But a. I am not ChatGPT, b. I already said the same and c. I left out those additional data points, hoping that it would not confuse GraHal too much. Haha.
(but it did anyway, sorry about that, GraHal)
So what I scratched from my original post was a plethora of hoopla around reset times and settling, ending with “let’s not start with the DAX”. I won’t inject that hoopla after all, but below (1st screenshot) you see the same for the DAX which starts the day at 02:15 (during daylight savings time). At least this proves it is unrelated to Settling (then 17:30 would have shown) and further ? … I still don’t see the logic in it all. Or maybe I should say : the useful logic. … Not even an American can utilize a Chicago time as his/her New Day (with the additional notice that when you cross a State’s border chances are more than 50% that you need to change your watch – ChatGPT may come up with another percentage ;-)). Thus what I mean : there is no useful logic in this all. And I could add : the only useful logic I could see – would I be set to the task to make something out of this – would be the Settling time (thus, 22:00 for CME based futures, 17:30 for EUREX based Futures and probably an other time for e.g. FTSE – UK based futures (PRT-IB does not offer those, unless something changed the last few years).
Part of the plethora of misery is the fact that PRT itself does not know how to deal with “Daily Profit”, which again shows best with the DAX, but applies to CME futures just the same. So for DAX : The P&L I would make after 17:30 until 22:00 (closing time) is calculated for “yesterday”, but is incorporated for today just the same. Never noticed that ? Thus, if I made EUR 250 from 17:30 to 22:00, then this 250 is in my daily profit for the next day just the same. This does not add up really … and can only be avoided if PRT would be able to “reset” this at Settling time. And in case you did not know : for IBKR Mobile, this is a parameter setting. But assumed you know it already and use your phone, set that parameter to “Settling = reset” (similar) and find yourself to be lost in everything, because the profit of 3000 you made on the DAX throughout the day, is suddenly omitted from the daily P&L and after 17:30 you gained 3000 less than you saw the past hours. So for me this does not work, and I switch off that parameter. Now the same as with PRT occurs, and the 250 profit past 17:30 will be there instantly at 02:15 again. And oh, you wouldn’t even be able to trade with the PRT chart, because at 02:14 it would reflect the profit from yesterday past 17:30 (impossible for me to explain), which is not there in reality at all (because it is reset at 02:15, similar to what you see below in the first screenshot).
I said “plethora”. And that is what it is.
The only meaningful thing IMHO, is work with your own local day change – and then settable. I would choose our local 00:00 but it would be coincidence that this works well. Better could be 22:00 (Amst) because that is where the important “new day’ stuff will happen. This is personal of course. But the DAY as how it is now ? functionally it does totally nothing, especially not across the two brokers.
The whole point is : once in a while I am traying to make something out of the market changes in this Trumpy era and therefore I need to compare days and their “behaviour”. You see this happening in the 2nd screenshot where I compare the number of trades occurring (green) against the days (when green resets to zero), which I indeed and obviously arranged for with my own coding logic (thus, now the Days are reset at 00:00, which is for me the logical point of reset – not because it is midnight but because CME futures restart). Anyway, you could focus on 12th to 16th of May where you see a clear flattening of the number of trades each day, caused by “nothing much is happening”, which we may recognize as well from the last week (starting at June 16). The 3rd screenshot shows that indeed – and how it is more “nothing much happens” than the other days. And in the very end : would a new day be presented at 7am then this would not make any sense at all.
So what I am trying to do it let adapt an autotrading system to volatility – and trade well with both more and less volatility (the less is the most difficult, as I see it). That starts with references …