In this video, we’ll dive into two Nasdaq futures strategies that have earned almost $45,000 since January 2023, all by trading just one contract!

The first is an intraday strategy that uses the opening price plus or minus the 200-period Average True Range as entry points.

The second is a multiday strategy that enters on breakouts of the previous session's highs and lows, adjusted by a set number of ticks.

What's truly fascinating is that both strategies have consistently performed well over the years, both on the long side (as you'd expect in a market with an underlying bullish trend) and on the short side.

Watch the video now to learn more about them!

Enjoy :-)

Transcription

Introduction: Exploring Nasdaq Strategies

Welcome to this brand-new video! As usual, we'll dive into the ideas behind some of our best-performing trading systems and check out their performance.

Today, we're focusing on the Nasdaq futures. As many of you know, it's the most important US stock index after the S&P 500.

For systematic traders, it's a fascinating instrument because it offers various advantages and includes both micro and large contracts, making it accessible even to those with smaller capital.

I'm one of the coaches at the Unger Academy, and let's jump into the first of the two strategies we’re going to see today.

Analyzing the Intraday Strategy with ATR

This is an intraday strategy, meaning we'll be in the market only until the session ends, just like in this example.

For entry rules, we calculate a 200-period Average True Range and then add and subtract it from the opening price to find trigger levels.

For exits, besides being an intraday strategy, we have a stop loss of $600, a take profit of $2000, and, as shown in this trade, a break-even stop.

Simply put, if the price crosses a certain threshold, we move the stop loss to the entry price.

Let's evaluate the performance, starting with the equity line. As you can see, it's very consistent.

But what's really interesting is the short side, which we'll look at in a moment.

Here, the long side is consistent, which isn't surprising for this instrument. The short side shows this equity line, which isn't as nice as the long side but, considering the behavior of the underlying asset, it's a very satisfactory result.

However, this strategy does have a small flaw.

By analyzing the Total Trade Analysis, we see that around 1100 trades have been made over the years.

There are many more trades on the long side and fewer on the short side, which is normal for this instrument.

But the flaw, if we can call it that, is the average trade, which isn't very large.
It's big enough to operate, but not ideal.

This is partly because it's an intraday strategy, and as you know, the less time the trades are kept open, the harder it is to have large average trades.

Now, let's look at the yearly returns of the strategy.

Here, we see a very consistent trend, as shown by the equity line.

Even in years that were quite negative for the stock markets, like 2008 and 2022, this strategy performed well, with 2022 even showing a profit of $25,000.

In 2024, we see that the strategy is performing quite well in the first months of the year.

Breaking Down the Multiday Strategy on Highs and Lows

Now let's move on to the second strategy.

This is a multiday strategy, unlike the previous one.

For the entry trigger, we use the high and low of the previous session.

We won't enter exactly at those levels but will move the entry by a certain number of ticks.

For exits, we have a stop loss of $1300 and a take profit of $3000, as shown by these two excellent trades.

Let's look at the performance of this strategy, starting with the equity line.

This equity line is much less consistent than the previous strategy but still good overall.

We see that 2023 was a tough year, but recently the strategy has performed well, reaching new equity peaks.

The long side is very similar to the total equity.

And the short side also shows a consistent trend, which isn't guaranteed for this instrument.

Let's analyze the average trade.

First, we notice that the strategy makes fewer trades, but the average trade is much larger than the previous one.

This is partly because it's a multiday strategy, so spending more time in the market makes it easier to have a larger average trade.

Let's look at the yearly returns of this strategy, and we see that all the years have been positive, except for 2008 and 2009.

From 2016 onwards, excellent performances have been achieved, as shown by the total profit.

Since the beginning of 2024, this strategy has been performing much better than the previous one, but it's still too early to draw conclusions.

Let's wait and see how it performs in the second half of 2024.

Conclusion

Today, we've seen two different strategies, one intraday and one multiday, and how it's possible to profit consistently even on the short side when trading Nasdaq.

If you're interested in these topics, there's a link in the description from which you can book a free strategic consultation with one of our tutors.

And that's all for today. I'll see you in the next video!

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